The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1899-07-12

How the Champion Of
Teachers Is Viewed IN
the State House,
Trenton.
PEDAGOGICAL JOAN OF ARC
School Authorities Reply to
the Allegations Made in
Her Open Letter.

Her Open Letter.
The opinion prevails in the State House
tina Miss Elizabeth A. Allen IS either q
pedagogical Joan of Arc or a gentle Don
Quixote, says the Trenton correspondent
Of the Newark Sunday Call" Miss
Allen Is known, either personally or by
reputation, by every school teacher n
New Jersey. She is known personally by
every legislator who has sat under the
gilded dome of the State House for the
past four years. In fact. there is no one
woman in New Jersey who is so generally
known as Miss Allen, @the teachers
friend and leader"
During the past week she caused to De
printed in many publications in New Jer-
sey, New York and Pennsylvania a
lengthy communication. setting forth the
trials and tribulations Of the teachers
throughout the State. The burden OF her
complaint is that the old teachers are be-
ing turned out like old horses to barren
pastures. Good teachers without political
influence back of them are being uncere-
moniously dropped. Comely teachers are
preferred to homely instructors, and she
actually intimates thai in some localities
teachers must have an actual value in
votes. She cites in her general bin of
Indictment a number of cases where hard
ships nave been imposed by the several
kind Of pernicious influences that have
been creeping into the school system.
Taking both her specific and general
statements. it leaves an impression that
she was mapping out considerable work
4ar Ans eaIr1avod naddacs ~ paforn, rrbo
unanimity with which the press gave ex-
large number of people to become alarmed
at the drift of school government.
Those who are Immediately concerned
in the management of the schools have
not turned a hair over the charges, as
contained in Miss Aliens manifesto, and
interviews that were had during the past
weke with officials and educators were
disappointing because the alarming cir
cular had failed to alarm.
Miss Allen in State circles is not with
out a reputation. The Governor. Superin-
tendent of Public Instruction Baxter,
State officials and legislators respect Miss
Allen for her enthusiasm, but not always
for Judgment, in the cause of the teach
ers, which was so deliberately manifested
during the long light to place on the
statute books the Teachers Pension Fund
law. Recently she espoused the cause Of
Miss Reed, of Orange, and saved that
teacher from unjustfied retirement. She
has long since become the mother confess
sor for every teacher in the State. So
many teachers la unbosomed them
selves that they nave melted Miss Aliens
sympathies to a point that she has be-
come emotional and she has gone into
type with the charge that a reign of ter
ror prevails in the pedagogical world as
1t Is found in New Jersey. She presents
ex-parte cases, and from her excited
standpoint makes out a terrible state of
affairs. She proposes a campaign of
publication. Public opinion is to be awak-
ened and changes secured. when public
opinion is sufficiently aroused to be ac-
tive.
State Superintendent of Public I~nstruc-
ton Charles J.. Baxter, who of all per-
sons is mostly concerned in the state
ments that are made by Miss Allen, has
not seen her long complaint. He is now
in California, having gone West to attend
the convention of school instructors. The
State Board of Education, who also
should be greatly interested, will not
meet until next October. SO that the per-
tinency of the assault will be dulled be-
fore official consideration is possible. The
Governor say he is only an interested
spectator, but he expresses the suspicion
that perhaps too much log rolling and
peanut politics are to be ound in some
Of the Boards Of Education.
Assistant State Superintendent Belts,
whose long service in connection witt the
State superintendent office makes him
competent to discuss it's affairs, was as
smooth as velvet when Miss Aliens YER
bose composition was shown him. He said:
There nave been no more changes this
year thar is usual. Each year There are
shifts and changes, and just as much
complaint as during this year. Those who
are the losers by these changes complain,
weep and scold. This year those tears
and murmurings came to a commor focus
in Miss Allen, and through her the pub
lie has heard them all. I do not th.nk
that any official notice will be taken of
her circular, because it is the policy of
the department and the State Board Of
Public Instruction to take action only
upon such matters that come to them off,
cially in the form of COMMUNICATIONS ands
charges. The various local troubles cited
in Mss Aliens circular are in most in
stances known to us. There are several
cases that are not. Miss Allen presents
only one view. We know some facts diff
ferent from those which she presents.
Those who have grievances should pre-