The San Francisco call., 1906-10-23
BOARD CITES TOWN
PEDhGOGUES.
School Directors Demand
That They Prove Graft
Charges or Lose Places
DEFIANT
TEACHERS

seThe Board of Educstfou has violated
the law I'm cutting the saIaries of teach
erS. and under the charter IL IS the duty
Of the Mayor TO remove any member OF
the municipal board who violates the
law. No administration I'm, the School
Department which cut the salaries of
teachers has ever survived. This ad-
mfnfstrafi0n cannot survive if IL con-
tinues 10 carry out its policy toward
the ScbocI Observation-Disclosures of
r.. L. Mann.
ssXVe have been cited 10 appear 20 an
ssver for what transpired at the meet
IN of teachers hello Saturday. Does
not the constitution Of the United
states provide that tie right Of the peO-
ME peaceabIy to assemble and 10 peti-
4Fop for a redress Of grievances shall
not be abrEdEedf Wasn't cur assembly
peaceabIef I am ready 10 appear before
fhe board 10 stand by everything that
was done at the meeting."-Dr- Mar
caret Mahoney, chairman Of the com
mittee of teachers, who presided at the
meeting held Saturday.
on Wednesday afternoon at $3.50 the
teachers who led at the meeting held
saturday morning in Plymouth Congre-
gational Church viii have TO appear be-
fore the Board Of Education and show
cause why they should not be punished
for contempt because insinuations were
made al the meeting that there was
graft in the department. Dr. Margaret
Mahoney Of the Washington Evening
school: r. l. Mann, formerly of the
Horace Mann Evening School; Vice
PRINCIPAL c. w MOores OF the Han
cock School and Madison Babcock OF
the Fairmount are the pedagOgues to
be tried for lese majeste and the utter
ing Of grilling remarks.
DIR. HAHONEY PREsIDEs.
The onense of DR.. Mahoney appears
10 be that she had the temerity 10 pre-
side at the meeting The Board OF
Education had a stenographer reporter
present. but DR. Mahoney declares that
nothing she said could be construed
in any way as rejecting on the integ-
ritv of the board. The lady is ready
TO face the directors at any moment
they summon her, and quoted article 1
OF the amendments to the constitution
Of the United States to show that the
teachers had a right 10 consider their
troubles in s-meeting, even in the
face Of the reputed threat of the
Board Of Education that il would not
allow them to DO so.
Mann was one Of the prominent
speakers at the meeting and also took
part in drawing up the report of the
he said nothing on the floor of the
meeting that was not in good taste and
prudent.
with Moores and Babcock the situa-
tion is more serious. Moores declared
before the teachers that an applicant
for a position in the School Depart
ment would have 10 see politicians and
exercise a pull before he would have
a chance for a job. BabcOck asked
Ic-f1d~ar, "a n cfr hnXRE
when desks could be purchased and
wondered who was the contractor who
profted by that condition. He men
toned the name Of Francis J. Heney,
who was after a school director who
is alleged TO have manipulated the de-
partment so that the salaries We're
shorn. The school director was Hyde,
who was once on the board, and Heney
is now prosecuting him for land and
timber frauds. But the fact that 1t
was ANCIENT history in the School De-
partment did not make the name OF
Heney sound any less formidable. Bah
cock and Moores viii have much to
answer for before the board. il is be-
lieved, judging by conversation with
Director David Oliver and Secretary
Lefhngwen
DIRECTORS USE SLANG.
Since the members of the School
1BdL4 USE cANll "a PIE CoSAO44S dS AODolCA
and I'm from Missouri youu have to
show me-" it may be presumed that
they intend to make Babeock and
MOores the fall guys" Of the teachers.
When I said that a person desiring
2 place in the department would bet
ter see a politician I was merely eX-
pressing the popular sentiment and was
not avowedly criticising the board"
said Professor Moores last night. at
Hr I ha
pOintment of teachers was governed by
civil service rules"
Professor MOOres is a man who has
grown gray in the service of the School
Department and feels keenly the posi-
tion in which he is placed in having to
answer to the school directors for what
he said in moment Of excitement and
under the stress Of feeling caused by
the act Of the board in seeking to cur
tail his salary.
Professor Babcock was not disposed
last evening TO discuss the situation at
length. He said that his reference TO
graft was merely in the form Of an in
terrogation and was not a simple de-
clarative sentence as the grammar
would say. MY feeling on the sub
ject," be said. is that the direction OF
the public schools is a big job under
ordinary circumstances and at present
It is a tremendous task I will be
ready TO appear before the board when
I am cited to do So"
Mann, who is a lawyer, as well as 9
pedagogue, and who at present is or
leave Of absence from the department
and feels independent of the sensitive
ness Of the directors, spoke more freely
than did the others.
MANN TALKS FREELY.
"The committee which drew up the
report TO the teachers on the attitude
Of the directors and the other munici.
pal officers is ready to stand by it." ht
said. 1T was a conservative statement
and the committee found that the board
was ready TO treat 1t at least courte-
0usly. The whole trouble has ariser
in the board not fulfilling the law. i
appropriated a certain sum for the
teachers and then decided that ii would
not pay them for vacation time. The
latter ruling was illegal I do not
know who is responsible, The admin
istration may have figured out that il
had TO retrench and thought the teach
ers would be easier victims than the
Police or Fire Department members
But they are mistaken. No board ol
administration has ever survived an at
tack on the salaries Of teachers. The
Ragan-Waller board tried it in 1898