Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-05-08
WOULD CLOSE SCHOOLS
SOME INTERESTING FACTS RELA-
TIVE TO EDUCATION LAW.
Britons Surprised Over Chicago Re
quest for Glasgow Instruction in
Municipal Car Line.



schools the newspapers have been chron-
telling daily the refusal of the passive re-
sisters to pay that part of the tax rate
levied to meet the new school charges. This
mode of procedure has been without effect,
for the local governing bodies have inva-
riably stepped in and sold at auction enough
of the household effects of the passive re-
sisters to satisfy the school tax.
The government could afford to laugh at
the impotence of the passive resisters,
but now new situation has arisen. and of
so serious a nature as to make it possible
that the long-surering resisters will at last
secure their revenge The borough council
of East Ham has given notice that in the
future 1t will refuse to administer the edu-
cation act in any way, and that rather than
submit any longer to the act 1t intends to
close all the public schools over which it
has Jurisdiction.
East Ham is a slum suburb of London,
its inhabitants almost entirely being poor
laborers, whose average wage probably does
not exceed $40 a week. The district is
thickiy populated, and the schools have
nearly $1,000 children on their rolls. The
education tax is three shillngs in the
pound, that Is in American money, for
every dollar of rent paid by householders
nearly seven cents is dema nded for the sup
port of schools.
The average rate throughout England Is
but one-third of this, and II is the demand
of East Ham that parliament should rem
edy the injustice of heavy a difference
by taking over itself the administration of
education. and instead of passing laws d.
recting local bodies how to manage and
pay for schools parliament should levy
national tax for educational purposes.
In the wealthy residential districts of the
big cities of England and in the manufac-
turing districts, where there are large
houses, with few tenants, the education
rates are naturally very low. while in the
poor overcrowded tenement districts the
gXOrDlfAnt AS against no three
shilling in a pound rate of East Ham, is
placed the rate of % pence in the pound of
MAYFAIR, Londons aristocratic settlement.
Such a discrepancy could exist only through
the system of compelling local borough
councils TO support each it's own set Of
schools. If the national government were
10 become the governing body there would
be a more even adjustment of the tax, and
East Ham, instead of paying 8 shiIlings in
the pound, and Mayfair. instead of paying
~ pence, would each pay one shilling.
The government, however is not consid-
erlng the introduction into parliament of a
national education law. but Is puzzling its
brains In an effort to discover a way to
clrcumvent the rebellion of the East Ham
borough council. On the 31st OF Nav East
Ham will close all its schools, and will dis
miss its corps of teachers and education
ofhcials. numbering 200. leaving the East
liam children without any educational IA
silties
Two methods are now open to the gov
hrhment 1t can take mandamus proceed
eellious councillors, or IL can send national
ofhclais TO East Ham to administer the ed
lcation act locally, and charge the expense
10 the East Ham taxpayers Were the first
Alternative to be adopted, there would GER
lalnly be other borough councils to follow
me example of East Ham, for the average
PASSIVE resister loves above everything
Else TO become martyr, and the local tails
would soon be filed with councillors while
local government would have to be sus-
pended If the government accepts the
= 1tArr ~ h.,
so large as to cause an outcry of such VOL
ume that the government would probably
be forced to desst
What the result will be no one can tell
NO third alternative has vet been sue-
gested and the government has itself re-
NAMED passive to this latest move Of the
passive res1sters." Perhaps by the time
the situation becomes acute the knot will
De cut by the dissolution of parliament and
a general election. Experienced politicians
peheVe the general election will come in
Suhe. ana II this be true. East Hams trou-
Dies VIII be brought to an end for there is
no expectation that the conservatives will
nave majority in the next parliament. and
me . LoeraIs nave promised educational re-
hei as soon as they come into power.
Britons Surprised.
The request of Mayor Dunno Of Chicago
TO the corporation OF Glasgow to send one
OF the street car directors of the Scotch
metropolis TO America to instruct Chicago
car lines has come a surprise Great
Britain has so long been accustomed 20
near Its industrial travellers assert the SUI
perlorlty OF American methods over British
that the average Briton has come TO the
conclusion that all his business methods
really are behind the American. and he is
therefore, puzzled at the suggestion of Mr..
dunno that Glasgow can teach Chicago
anything.
OF course, Chicago's request has been
granted, and Mr.. Dalrymple, the Glasgow
street car manager, leaves Scotland for
America next Month. but, nevertheless, a
suspicion has been reused in Glasgow that
there is a reason below the surface for
Mayor DUNES Invitation. Glasgow, after
bordering over the matter. has come to the
conclusion that Mr.. Dalrymple Will be
able to show Chicago anything with which
Chicago is unfamiliar, and 1t is now being
affirmed In Scotland that Mr.. Dunno is a
socialist and a Fabian. and is endeavorlng
10 capture the municipal machinery of Chi
cago for the labor interests. Mr.. Dunno. so
the report goes. believes that the presence
OF Mr.. Dalrymple in Chicago will mean that
Glasgow Endorses his alleged project.
This idea has grown entirely from the
initial belief of Great Britain that America
knows everything of industrial matters that
the British isles know. and something
more besides. and that therefore Chicago's
request for assistance must cover some kind
of secret attempt to do" Glasgow. So
far has this idea been accepted that a
prominent Scotch newspaper has ordered
it's correspondent IN Chicago TO investigate
the matter and discover whether ii is true
that Mayor Dunno is working in the inter-
ests of American socialists.
Notes.
Thursday was Primrose day. and the
statue of Lord Beaconsfield opposite parlia-
mcnt was covered with flowers, in remem-
brance of the fact that he was in reality
the founder of the Primrose League. One
contributor to the statue decorations sent
with rrfr hear
the words in which Beaconsfield summed
uP the present fiscal agitation by antici-
patton, Protection is not only dead. but
damned" This motto gave great offense
70 many of the visitors to the statue and
the protectionists in the house of commons
were extremely annoyed that the great con-
serVative statesman's words should be
called in such fashion. The London after
noon papers. particularly the free trade
ores in their early editions made feature
of the shield and it's motto and thousands
of people were attracted 10 the Parliament
square to see the offending words. Finally
ORDERS were given for the shield to be re-