Evening journal., 1904-05-23
SAYS RECORD
CONDEMNS THEM
Elwood Pays His Respects to
the Local Board of
Education
IN SERMON TO SCHOOL TEACHERS
Declares That the History of the
Members For the Past Year May
Be Summed Up in the One Word
-lncompetency.

The Rev. r.. A. Elwood. pastor of
OliNet Presbyterian Church, I'm his SER
mon last night expressed his opinion
OF the Board of Education in no uncer-
tain terms.
His text was taken from Gospel Of St
Peter, 8; 4: And when the Chief Shep-
herd shall appear We shall receive a
crown Of glory that fadeth not away"
The best institutions for the we'll
being of the people of this country"
said Mr.. Elwood. "are the church of
Jesus Christ and the public schools.
The corresponding dangers are corrupt
politics and the Roman Catholic
Church"
He continued:
"A study Of the public schools Of VIII
mington reveals the interesting fact
that there are in a population of about
$1,000 about thirty schools with about
1900 scholars and about 29O teachers.
with an annual cost Of over s21O. 900.
while the estimated value of the public
schools OF the, city is over one million
dollars. The control of the public
schools In this city is vested I'm a Board
Of Education composed OF twenty-four
members. two being elected from each
of the twelve wards Of the city.
THE most charitable thing that can
be said about the majority of the
present school board is the least said
the better Their record for the past
two years is enough to condemn them
and consign them to political oblivion
They allowed their charter to expire
either through Ignorance or cupidity
They lost thirty tons Of good coal and
no reward offered for the finding; they
pass resolutions at one meeting and a
year afterwards begin to discuss them;
/ they take a year to revise teachers
salaries and then come short OF ex.
pectations; in fact the history of theii
efforts the past year can be summed W
IN one charitable neutrality-suspicious.
Verify they shall have their rewar,
for the day Of the peoples reckoning
viii come and then their banishmen
win be their just deserts.
There are some needs Of the schoo
teachers Of this city that are more i'm
portant than Others" said the speaker
but only two OF them will 1 speal
about this evening and consider thes
the most important in justice to tn
teachers. First-rhey should all from
the superintendent down have an in
crease OF salaries. The years Of pre-
paration, the nervous strain Of III
work, the responsibilities Of their serv
ice, and the ability required deman,
that they should be we'll paid for thei
labors. II is a burning shame that tn
well organized. splendidly equipped ant
faithful school teachers of this cit,
are paid such paltry salaries, and ever,
oh
their splendid labors should demand al
increase for them.
Let me make a comparison betweei
the salaries paid here and those pai
by some other cities, and we will no
choose a larger city nor even one O
our own size, but a smaller one. Il
Atlantic City, n. j.. where the popula
tion is about one-half as large as her
the primary teachers are started on 81
per month, and increased each year 5
per month until they reach S55 pc
month, and each FIVE years thereafte
are increased again. Thus ability an
length of service are appreciated an
rewarded. There are teachers in thi
city who have been working faithful
for five, seven, ten, thirteen and eve
fifteen years who are receiving toda
the same paltry s44 per month tina
they began with"
Mr.. Elwood commended the commit
teeman of School No. 10, Thoma
n O'Donnell for his instituting an anti
cigarette crusade among the boys q
his school, which has been instruments
in causing many of them to cease thei
smoking. This crusade should be car
ried on in every school, he thought.