Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1901-12-13
GRAND ARMY A[ND|DN'
They Had Several Grievances
Against Van Houten and S
Supplantcd Him.
Barrett Will Give Some Maps and
Information on Normal
Schools.
yr..l. r. tho oNavtUnff;r;o1
Work Begun on the Next official
Register "--Eaton is in
Des Moines.

Special to meS-Republican.
Des Moines, Dec. 13.-The Grand
Army men did it. That is the Only ra-
tional explanation there is of the change
in the office of secretary of the depart
ment of agriculture. The board of di-
rectors at their meeting yesterday set
tied the matter and supplanted George
H. Van Houten, of Lenox, with John c..
Simpson, Of Knoxville. Mr.. Simpson is
one Of the bright and energetic young
men who have had to do with state fairs
for several years, and he Is thoroughly
familiar with the work Of the office. He
has paid special attention to speed
class and the racers. His familiarity
With horsemen is great and he knows
how to go after the best men in the
country and get them to the fairs. There
is not a doubt that he will fill the office
with satisfaction and make the fairs IN
the future still greater successes. But
aside from the wish to advance Mr..
Simpson there was the disposition of
the old soldiers to take revenge out OF
Van Houten. Last summer when 1t
came to the knowledge of the G. A. r.
department that old soldiers day had
been abolished there was great indigna-
tion as every one will recall, and the
department officers made an effort to
have the matter changed. The board Of
directors had simply cut off the free
passes to old soldiers and that was all
there was to It. There was another mat
ter In this connection, and 1t was stated
plainly by George C. Newman, assistant
adjutant general, yesterday, as follows:
II want 1t understood that the Grand
Army people have real grievance
against Secretary Van Houten aside
from the cutting off of soldiers day.
There was soldier employed as janitor
OF the rooms of the agricultural depart
ment and the board OF health. He fell
while engaged in wiping windows and
haat:is Ankles injured so that hc .tn:.
unable to work for more than year. A
FIVE days after his injury he sent his
son to do his work The son continued
for few days when son of Secretary
Van Houten was placed in the position
as ianitor We thought that it should
have been nothing more than right for
Mr.. Van Houten to have permitted the
janitor's son to do the work, so that the
family would not be entirely unsup-
ported. When the janitor was well
enough to come back to work he was not
reinstated. We believed that the secre-
tary, himself soldier, should have con-
sidered it his duty and his pleasure to
have kept the old soldier as jaintor and
not have supplanted him with a son of
the secretary"
This much can be said in justice to
Secretary Van Houten. that he has
made good business secretary, that he
has made of the fairs great success,
that he is a man of wide acquaintance
end great experience, and that he has
worked harmoniously with the entire
board AS far as cutting off the SOL
diers' day is concerned, it has been
stated many times, and correctly, that
this was the work of the board as a
whole. Neither the secretary nor the
board has ever seen fit to make any ex-
plantations or excuses for the same.
Accompanying the recommendations
Of the superintendent of public instruc-
ton in the matter of the establishment.
of more normal schools for Iowa there
will be published in the biennial report
a map showing the distribution of the
teachers engaged in public school work
who have not had special training for
teaching or have had the benefits of
college or high school education. This
will be an entirely new and very inter-
esting map. Some peculiar and uneX-
plainable things are to be noted. For in
stance, there is Crawford county which
reports 1873 teachers who have not even
gone to high schools. and next door to
Crawford is Shelby with only a few
such teachers. And Crawford has a
normal school. Some of the counties
with large numbers of teachers who
have not had high school or college
training are Polk 229, Jasper 167, Keo-
kuk 167, Sioux 137, Plymouth 127, Ma
rion 127, Fayette 131. Cherokee SO and
Story 60. The map shows that Marshall
has but twenty-five such teachers and
Tama fourteen. There are twenty-one
in Poweshiek, forty-two in Hardin and
thirty mine in Henry. The counties re-
PORTING none are Page, Fremont, Buena
Vista, Washington, Davis. Iowa and
Warren. Woodbury. made no report.
The map will show in general way
that counties near to normal schools
make use of a larger proportion of
trained teachers; but the important
thing about the map is that it shows the
great opportunity for normal school
work. In any half dozen counties of the
state grouped together there will be
found a sufficient number of teachers
actually engaged in work who, If they
would attend normal school, would
make large classes.
The work of preparing the Official
Register" has already been commenced
in the office of the secretary of state.
statistics are being gathered and names
of officials and other data of value in
preparing this little book which has
come to be standard reference work
in Iowa. In explanation of some of the
matter which goes into the book and
which is worse than useless for 1t is in
the way of better stuff, it can be said
that the law requires a good many
things to be put in the book, such as the
railway assessment by counties, the list
nf cnrnorations or0aniZed etc. But the