Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-12-27
An Organ Out of Tune.

The Washington Times, hitherto blind or
Indifferent to the facts, yesterday opened
Its eyes. discovered and announced that
Superintendent Chancellor has endangered
1.-THE welfare of the whole school SYSTEM
by "eXasperated OUTBREAKS" slurring I'M
fairly the Commissioners and the District
Supreme Court: that he has talked i'm
pulsjvely. ill-advlsedly and inconsistently"
that he has assumed apparently that ev-
cry official who disagreed with him was
either ignorant or unfair, and that 1.-THE
petulance and intemperance of LIS Ian
guage" We're not to be condoned. The
Times does not, however, make its belated
confession of mistake with good grace. In
Joining at the eleventh hour the ranks of
DR.. Chancellor's critics it slurs the motives
and beittles the effectiveness of those who
have preceded it in procaiming in the
public interest the truth concerning DIR.
Chancellor. BY unmistakable inference it
accuses The Star of condemning DR.. Chan
cellor unheard before he had arrived in
Washington. of attacking him almost ma
llciously on trivial or baseless pretexts
and OF conducting against him an unsuc-
cessful because unworthy campaign of mis-
representation. ....t
While The Star warmly resents these con-
glad that they have at last found their
way into print. that they may be pub
licly branded. Heretofore they have been
confined to the cowardly and irresponsible
whisperings of certain SANDER peddlers with
whom this community is cursed
There is not a particle of truth in the
charge that The Star has been ruled by
malice or any unworthy motive in its crti-
Cisms of Dr. Chancellor. While II thought
that the local educational problem with all
its peculiarities could be worked out with
better results by a local superintendent
than by any outsider land recent experience
has only strengthened and confirmed this
BELIEF it did not condemn DR.. Chancellor
before he came to Washington. but was
prepared TO give him the fair play that is
due to every man. Every word of criticism
which it has printed has been in the public
interest. with good motives, as legitimate
comment upon the public acts and words of
public officer.
1t is ridiculous for the Times to suggest
that Dr. Chancellor has not been guilty of
impulsive and ill-advised action and petu-
liant and Incorporate language, showing
tactlessness and general unfitness to be
superintendent. until his public outbreak
against the Commissioners and the court
Within three days after his arrival he had
impulsively and ill-advisedly taken sides
in fractional disputes. misnterpreted the
law to give him dictatorial control over
every local leadership. and alarmed and
unnerved the whole teaching force. Before
he had even thought of southern trip he
had demonstrated his view that any one
teacher. parent, editor. member of Board
of Education-who disagreed with him was
"either ignorant or unfair" either a fool
or q knaye; and he had displayed not once,
but many times in discussing the fool or
knave aforesaid 1.-THE petulance and intemp-
erance of language with which the Times
now tardiy credits him. He has been the
same man from the beginning that he was
yesterday and is today.
II may be admitted however, that SO in
conceivably tactless and unwise have been
tn, superintendent's utterances that the
public would have found difficulty in be-
heving that he had not been misrepre-
scented in respect to them IL he had not
been quoted verbatim in his own news