The Weekly orb., 1899-09-24
BENSON SCHOOL CONTROVERSY
BENSON, Sent. 14th. 1saa

BENSON, Sept. l4th, 1899. To THE BIsBrE ORB:
 Please permit us to correct A mis statement relative to our school which appeared in your paper of recent date. You say, "It appears from an editorial in the Breeze that the school trustees in our neighboring town have employed a gentleman to teach the school Tn that place who is afflicted with tuberculosis, at least one physician has SO certified, etc." All of which is not true, and does great injustice to our school, which we claim is equal to any in the county. Professor Kirsch was principal of our school last year and gave general satisfaction. No one denied but he taught the best school we have had for years. Last year the trustees did not require the teachers to file a certificate of health with their applications and there was no scarecrow "tuberculosis" made his appearance, notwithstanding we had the same teacher last year as this. This year the trustees did make an order that all applicants must file with them certificate of health from practising physician before their appli- cations would be considered. Professor Kirsch Underwent a thorough examina- tion by Dr. l. H. Watkins, practising  physician of this place and who is em- ployed by the Southern Pacific Railway company as their physician and surgeon. Dr. Watkins gave certificate that Professor Kirsch was in no way physi- cally incapicitted to perform the duties of a school teacher, which was filed with his application and we employed him as principal of our school. There has been no physician certified to the contrary; Professor Kirsch has not been examined by any other physician, which fact the editor of the Breeze is" we'll aware of, and If he wished to do justice by the school, as we'll as Professor Kirsch, he would have corrected your article in place of reprinting it in the Breeze. Every one Ill Benson knows there is no truth in the item, consequently it does no harm in our town; but we are sorry to say the papers from our neighboring towns copy from the Breeze, which has the support of very small portion of our town, and in towns whsre they do not know the facts, is where our school gets the black eye. Through the influ- encs cf the Breeze there was petition circulated in town asking that Professor Kirsch submit to another examination by what they termed reputable physi- elan. The town was thoroughly can vassed and they succeeded in getting four families who have school children to sign their petition, and one of the four has moved here from Kansas with in the last three weeks.
 We ask you to publish the abaYe in fairness to all, not that we have any fight to make on the Breeze, but simply to correct misstatement which ap- peared in your columns as coming from the Breeze. We,as trustees, claim to have done our whole duty in selecting teach CTS for our school, and we are encouraged to see that we have the support of the whole town, except perhaps the Breeze and one or two whom he influences. 
 school opened on Monday, September II, and all the pupils in Benson are attending except one boy, L. W. Cooley's son, who is taking private lessons from the editor of the Breeze.
 H. W. ETz, Tr,steos
 w. H. SKINNER,( 'os'ees'