New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-10-25
TAumAyrS CAMPAIGN OF MENDAcITY.

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Many days have passed since Mr.. Mcclellan
made his first untrue statement about eighty
seven thousand children denied the inherent
right of an elementary education, when there
is not one child deprived of that right, and then
followed it up with an equally untrue statement
blaming Mayor Low for such crowding as does
exist in the schools His error has been repeat
edly pointed out, but he persists i'm il until it is
no longer possible to attribute his miSstatementS
10 anything but deliberate mendacity. Yet Mr.
Mcclellan is the son of an officer and gentle
man.
When Mr. Mcclellan attributes the present
crowding TO Mayor Lows failure to anticipate
population be says what he knows to he false.
unless indeed. he is too utterly ignorant of the
business of the city 10 be n competent alder
man, much less Mayor Nothing that Mayor
Low has had il in his power to do could in
crease the number of completed schoolhouses
to-day. The schoolhouses of to-day are the
schoolhouses which were begun in Mayor Van
" yck's term. The sttings of to-day are the
measure of his foresight, as the sittings of the
next term win be the measure of Mayor Low
foresight in this. There is an old saying that
even omnipotence could not make n three
months-old calf in five minutes. No Mayor can
conjure schoohouses into being. 1t takes at
least year and half to build a schoolhouse
even when strikes cause no delay. Mayor Low
has been in office less than n year and ten
months. No school projected by him is yet fin
ished or could possibly have been finished. If
Mr. Mcclellan should be elected and keep his
promise TO do away with part time classes, he
would do il with the sittings provided 10y Mayor
Low. The present part time classes are the re
suit of the failure of Mayor Van Wyck to do his
duty Mayor Low, in 1902, the first year of his
administration. contracted for 1880 sittings in
Manhattan. as against 10000 sittings contracted
for by Mayor Van Wyck in 1900 and 1901. In
Brooklyn Mayor Low contracted for 19,G75 in
1902 while Mayor Van Wyck contracted for
-. Dos in two years. This year Mayor Low has
contracted for 400 more sittings. As Mayor
Van wyck did almost nothing for the schools
I'm the first half Of his term, it will be seen that
Mayor Low has done more in two years than
Tammany did in four.
Mr.. Mcclellan knows this ought to know
il. The false statements which he has put forth
have only served TO bring more clearly to public
attention the splendid work which the reform
administration has done for the schools. But
what shall be said OF a cause which finds itself
driven TO seek votes by such mendacity? Mr.
McClellan's school issue is on par with Muir
phys beet sugar dreams and BOurke COckran's
tax and fire insurance inventions. Possibly
they all think that even reckless canards which
are instantly refuted serve 10 draw attention
from their true character as the promoters of
red lights and graft" 1t will not however,
make the voters forget that Mr.. Mcclellan. with
full knowledge of all that had been revealed of
Tammany corruption. stood up in 1901 and pro-
claimed. We have no apologies to offer