The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-09-14

A Penalty Of Our Enormous Growth.
This letter raises . question which
has bssn discussed for many years past.
and the criticisms made in it have been
continually made against every munich
pal administration:
TO re EprroR o. TIE SuN-,st: THB SUNS
excuse for the Mcclellan administration not hav-
ine ensvgh schools for the children v about a.
food y its apology for the police and most people
know that there 10 a little reason for the rotten
ness Of the one ~ of the other system
"Ths Idea thss the population Of New York has
Increased TOO 1ass for the schools 10 keep up with
n IL TOO ridiculous for an Intelligent newspaper
70 print. Tue population docs not increase too
fast for every one to have some place to live.
Houses and apartments keep pace with It and even
keep little ahead sometimes. School buildings
can be put up Just a. fast F.
"Nnv YohE. Sept. H."
We have made no excuse" for Mayor
MCCLELLAN in this matter. for none is
needed. We have simply stated the
facts, and these offer reasonable ex-
PLANTATION Of the deficiency Of school
room in New York.
u0 Bv6tD9LlCB Va thO bChOOA ICSl6Il
ton this autumn are not complete, but
enough IL known az to them to indicate
that the enrolment will be extraordi-
narily large, and in total is likely to ex-
coed six hundred thousand. The in
crease for the year will probably be
Atty thousand or more, and it comes
at a time when already many thousands
Of the children were receiving only part
time instruction. In other words, be-
cause Of the inadequacy Of school room
accommodations some Of the great num-
Der must still receive their schooling by
being taught in shifts.
II 10 not true, however. that any
children eligible for admission to the
schools will be deprived OF the advan-
tages Of FREQ instruction. The suffering
caused to 80 many Of them by being
put on half time 10 greatly exaggerated.
It 10 rather an inconvenience than
positive deprivation. It is even ques-
tionable il the lessened time in school
may not be q profit to them. At any
rate, the competition to get into the
schools as a boon offered is in itself
valuable educationAlly.
The Board OF Education has not de-
served criticism in the matter of furnish
ing school room. It made extensive
plans for new schoolhouses and addi-
tions to the old, in anticipation of the
great demand which has now been dis
played. II all those had been carried
out in accordance with it, designs the
inadequacy Of school sittings would have
been greatly reduced, and before the
sohool year was far advanced more
than ono hundred thousand additional
sittings would have been supplied.
Strikes delayed building; and the neoes-
sarily slow proceedings under the law
In acquiring land always cause embar-
raising delay
Moreover, the directions in which new
population distributes itself cannot be
forsseen. In some districts Of the town
there 70 more school room than ia re-
Quired; others, into which the population
has rushed with unexpected rapidity,
have not school room enough. The
conditions In New York are different
from those in any other great city Of the
world. II has grown In population dur
ing the last Ave years at an extraordi-
narily high rate. As many inhabitants
- the entire population Of Boston, for
example, have been added in that time.
This new population. chiefly brought in
by immigration, has crowded still more
districts already densely inhabited. and