The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-12-11

| President b. r. Jayne Thomas j.
Jennings, Jacob Schaefer and Solicitor
David ]. Reedy, of the special COM
| mittee of the board of control appoint
ed to look into the after of how
| the transition of Scranton into the
| second class will affect the school dis
trict. returned yesterday from their
trip to Pittsburg and Allegheny.
Being the servants, in a way, of the
school board and appointed to do IL
certain work, they judged that it
| would be impolitic to give out the re-
suits of their Investigations until they
| present them to the board and con-
seuuently agreed not to grant any IN
| terviews. but frame a complete re-
port and give it to the public through
| the proper channel
They permitted themselves to say.
however, that what has appeared in
| The Tribune covers the ground ac
| rately, and for all practical pur-
| poses, fully, and one Of the committee
| went SO far as to say that could they
have foreseen what The Tribune has
| done in the matter. it would have
been quite needless for the committee
| to have gone to Pittsburg.
While looking up the school qlles-
| tons, the committee incidentally eN-
amined into municipal affairs, and
again they do The Tribune the COM
| pliment OF saying that the conditions
rs they found them were exactly in
line with the statements contained in
The Tribune's articles.
NOT PLEASED WITH PROSPECT.
| 1t is hardly necessary to say that
| the members of the COMMITTEES are not
wildly delighted over the prospect of
| Scranton going into the second class
| So impressed was one of the commit
| tea by the dangers confronting
Scranton's treasury by reason Of the
log rolling" which a second class
| charter permits and nOulishes, that he
proposes to go before next Thursday
| nights public meeting on the West
| Side and ask that steps be taken to
| ina'lgurate movement to compel
every councilmanic candidate to not
only discourage. but actively fight
| against the creation of not altogether
necessary offices. especially during the
transitory period.
One of the main purposes of the
committees visit, it is understood,
was to secure the cooperation Of
Pittsburg and Allegheny in having
wiped from the statute books the
Kennedy act of 1896, which was de-
clared unconstitutional In its most es-
sential features in 1885, but which. as
explained at length in The Tribune's
special articles on second class city
affairs, is liable to be rehabilitated, If
| the Supreme court can be brought to
apply to it the same line of reason
| ing that led up to it's decision in the
Pittston school case last year.
| Until their attention was turned to
| the matter by The Tribune represen-
tative. the Pittsburg and Allegheny
achool authorities. it appears, did not
understand that the decision in the
pittston case was a practical reversal
Of the decision in the Kennedy case.
and that there was possibility of the
I Kennedy act being revived by some
one attacking the legality of the pres
ent board in Scranton When the
school hoard committee from Scranton
arrived in Pittsburg and proceeded 10
20 over the situation with the authori-
lies there, they found them alive 40
the threatened disturbance and anN-
ious, so ii is said, to cooperate with
Scranton in dealing With the matter
DON'T WANT 1T RESURRECTED
The school authorities of Pittsburg
and Allegheny, it would seem, do NOT
want the Kennedy act revived Some
of them claim that it was drafted
with the main purpose in mind Of
making the school district subservient
to a boss, as are municipal affairs.
81, A
have sub boards of six in each district.
which districts are, as q rule, coter-
minous with ward, and a central
board OF education, composed, in
Pittsburs, of one man from each sub
board, and in Allegheny of all Of the
eighty-four members of the fourteen
ub-bOards.
The Kennedy act provides for n
board of fifteen, elected from the city
at-large, no two from any one ward.
On the one hand, the system is too
cumbersome, especially in Allepheny;
on the other, it is combining the pow
ers within limits that are too con-
tracted. Pittsburg and Allegheny are
content to bear the evils that they
have rather than fly to those they
wot not of. The Scranton committee
congratuates this school district that
it does not have to choose between
evils, and 1t is not a wild guess TO
say that in its report 1t will advise
the board that the board of twenty
one is the best form OF school govern
ment available and with the liability
of the Kennedy act being revived
once removed, there is hardly any
question but that the Supreme court