The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-02-02

edition that if all previous meet
ings of the investigating commit
tee had been like the one on. Friday
4 night the investigation would have end
ed long before this and much more
profit would have been gained from it..
The success of the hearing on Friday
night was due to the fact that Messrs.
Chillingworth and Chase, the two men
who have tried to stifle the investiga-
ton, were absent. If at the beginning,
in place of the two members already
mentioned there had been put upon the
committee two men who, like the re-
naming four, were disposed to show
fair play to critics Of Mr.. Kendalps adj
ministration, I doubt if there would
have been any abuse Of honorable cit
liens, which has been so discreditable
to the city.
| Another cause of trouble was the as
tonishing and preposterous position
taken by Mr.. Moran, that no taxpayer
could question Superintendent Ken
dali directly. At the first or second
meeting, if 7 remember rightly, on the
motion Of Mr.. Conlan, the committee
voted that citizens might ask questions
directly Of superintendent Kendall
Yet at the first meeting which / at
tended I heard Mr.: Moran say that
there was to be no questioning of Su-
perintendent Kendall except through
the Committee on Of Schools.
| Could anything be more unjust?
Here was the superintendent, not a
( taxpayer himself and receiving the
largest salary Of any city official, and
determining very largely the method
Of expenditure Of nearly 100000 Of the
money of the taxpayer, yet according
to Mr.. Moran no taxpayer could ask
directly any question of the superin-
tendent about the methods Of the school
administration. Mr.. Moran soon found
out that such high-handed methods
would not be tolerated by taxpayers,
and henceforth after + began to ques-
ton Superintendent Kendall did not at
tend any session of the committee. The
last session of the committe was, as
your reporter said, chiefly a debate be-
tween Superintendent Kendall and my
self. The result attained made me re-
greet more than ever that he would not
accept my courteous challenge to de-
bate the question before the public last
November.
Several interesting facts were brought
out then which ! propose to recapitu-
late First, 1t was shown that early
in September recent graduate Of the
Willimantic Normal school, without ex-
perience. a friend of Mr.. Chase, had
been appointed at his request to po-
sition in the New Haven schools, and
that her appointment had not been re-
ported in the papers with others made
at the same time. This appointment
of an out Of town teacher was made
at time when less than half Of the
graduates of the New Haven Normal
school last year, who We're also grad
yates of the Hillhouse High school, had
been appointed to positions in the New
Haven schools.
But to me the most satisfactory
event of the evening was the fact that
/ extorted from Superintendent Ken
dali the acknowledgment that what
the Dwight school teachers and my
self had said about supervisor of
penmanship in the Dwight school was
absolutely true and that what he had
said upon the same point was absolute
ly erroneous, and without any founda-
ton. The teachers had naturally felt
indignant that they should be CONTRA
dicted in public on this point by SUI
perintendent Kendall. I firmly resolv-
ed that they should be vindicated, and
they now stand fully vindicated before
the public. Every one who can read
knows now that neither Miss Hart nor
any one else is supervisor of penman-
ship in the Dwight school. Penman-
ship is successfully taught there with
out a supervisor, thus proving that |the
position of supervisor of penmanship
for the New Haven schools is an un-
necessary expense.
There was absolutely no excuse for
Superintendent Kendall's making
mistake as my statement about the
Dwight school was first made by Coun-
Gilman Walsh in the presence of Super
intendent Kendall apd Principal Nor
rill, and was not contradicted by either
of them. 1t was Councilman Walsh's
statement which first called my atten-
ton to the fact that in the management
of the Dwight school the critics Of Su
Kendall and the advocates
of reform in the supervisor system
nave one OIL tnelr strongest anu iiloSt
effective arguments. The Dwight |
school has really been the, storm CEN
ter of discussion, on the question of !
of drawing and penman-
ship. 1t was the introduction of the |
Dwight school by me which brought |
out the filibustering tactics of Messrs. |
Chase and CAillinsworth, and led to +,
the breakup of that session of the |
Then when Chairman |
Staub ruled that superintendent Ken
dial must answer the question, he made |
the statement that Miss Hart was the
in that school, statement
which l at last forced him to acknowl- |
edge is erroneous.
Driven from that defense he resorted |
to another on Friday night, which can
just as easily be challenged and proved
to be erroneous. According to your re-
port: Mr. Kendall said that there was
no other school where there was so
much supervision as in the Dwight
school" There is no school in the city
where penmanship and drawing are so
supervised as in this school. ;"
Continued on Sixth Pagel