The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-12-12
THE WEEKLY JOURNAL. Issued Thursday. one Dollar Year
Thursday, December 1s, 1aO7'
USE OF SCHOOL BUILDINGS.

-D Dr. Diamond, supervising principal of the Wooster street school, doubtless realizes that he has ahead of him in his fight for a more intelligent use of the school buildings of the city an inn mense amount of ground to cover, but being man of infinite faith in the justice of the cause he can be depend ed upon not to waver in the movement. It is a difficult thing to overcome habit especially when the habit is one com mon to community. It has been and is the habit of the city of New Haven not to use its school buildings for oth- er than school purposes and hence it is the conviction of the average citizen that any proposition which includes in it something that has never been done before is necessarily semi-sacrilegious in its character
 Dr. Diamond has, however, gone about the correction of this habit in the right way. He is yelling the busir ness men of the city who provide the revenues which keep the schools alive that they are using their school build- ings in an extravagant way when they could just as we'll use them in an economical way. He appeals to their selfishness, not in a sordid spirit but in an animated spirlr and undertakes to demonstrate to them that the in- troduction and enforcement of busi- ness principles in the control of the ohool property would pay them a lnarIs&ed dividend. Few have realized, we imagine, tkat the city has locked up fin school plants over two millions of dollars which do not begin to give an adequate return either to the chil- dren who attend them or the com munity which supports them. They lie absolutely idle seven nights in the week, are closed as tight as a drum two days in the week and for over three months of every year are used by no one. It is true that the same thing can relatively be said of the churches of the city, whose combined investment is greater, but they are pri- yate societies and come directly under the control of their members. The schools are the property of the people and are supported by them, which makes 1t possible to make such use of them as public needs dictate or fancies suggest so long as they do the work required of them originally.
 It is impossible not to follow Dr Diamonds logic with conviction. He is not theorist in any sense of the word He has worked his way from a teach er's desk to that of supervising princi- pal, which means that he has learned the school problems from the point oi view of the child and that of the par. ent and finally from that of the neigh. borhood in which the school is located As he told the members of the Cham. Der of Commerce the other evening school values cannot be determined a! business values are determined, bu that nevertheless there is a business side to the school undertaking whicl should no longer be ignored simpl. because it has been the habit of tn, people of New Haven to regard thei school buildings as tools to be strictl. and exclusively used for the instruc ton of children. There is an atmo sphere of novelty about the suggestion that the school buildings be freely uset for lecture purposes by the people o their neighborhoods. The city of Ney York has discovered the immense val US of this means of usefulness, whic at once removes the proposition fror the realm of experiment, just as it Ina discovered that the school propert increases in public value as it is devote more and more to the social needs c the people living near it. Sine there is practically no end to thes needs it may be seen that with proI CT oversight school buildings can | utilized in way to further develop
 community. There is no reason wha ever why the city of New Haven, fC example, should not use the scho buildings or such of them as are neeC ed for election purposes. It wouI surely be social if not political ul lift to have the electors cast their vot
 in clean school building instead of g emptied fish market. a bootmaker shop or a silenced saloon. In fact thel ls no good reason why the school buIll