The Washington herald., 1907-12-12

What would you do If you had a chance
to SIT at the head of a long, ,quartered oak
table in the Franklin School building, sur
rounded by the board of education and
few notebooks. with several witnesses
on one side and nice new sky-blue blot
ter in front Of you?
If somebody. maybe the counsel for
your own board of education. that was
trying DR.. William E. Chancellor, superin-
tendent Of schools. objected to something
Witness for the defense had said. and
you had beautifully polished mahogany
gavel In your hand. wouldn't you be
likely TO dent the surface Of that nice.
new sky-blue blotter with several con-
secutive hard raps?
That is what Capt. oyster head of the
District board of education. did yester-
day. The captain had many occasions TO
rap on that sky-blue piece Of furniture.
because Attorney Mcnamara. for the
prosecuuon-the defense had its innings
Tor the first time yesterday-obj a
number of times
May Have Been Piaued.
Perhaps. the captain felt little pIqued
about having 10 go below his Monday
record on using the gavel-he sustained
about fifty objections for his attorney on
that day, and he only had a chance to
sustain seven yesterday.
But there We're AIDED to these two
chances to rule testimony from the
records which everybody knows is as
good as an objection sustained" And
then, too. the head OF the board had n
small set-;o with Attorney Fulton. who
represents Or. Chancellor. not 10 sneaL
OF timely jests. which he let out upon tho
half daylight Of the room.
So. at the end Of the session. after q
number Of witnesses had testiaed-zvitb
painfully small number OF objections
stated-the captain jovially made II
known that the next hearing would be
held this afternoon at 3 o'clock and
likewise he cordially joked with the re-
porters ere they passed through the Dor
tails OF the trial room.
1t might be remotely possible. though
that even that gavei. the sky-blue bIot-
ter and the seven objections sustained
without further reference to the two mo-
tons to strike out portions of the min
utes' would not entirely make up for
the beautiful comments one of the wit
nesses for Dr. Chancellor made about
that board of which you might have baen
the head If those comments had been
made By Miss Reed. a teacher in the
Western High School. they would prob
ably sound something Ike this:
FOR one thing when I came here T
felt that among others the system was
two bureaucratic-it was too oficialized
1t was directly due TO its being the
capital City, that it was too much from
the top down. 1t was not democratic
enough The teachers had but little voice
There were too many official superiors
II was not discreet thing to say what
you thought, even upon educational mat
ters. There was no direct prohibition
II was in the air that il was discreet 70
De sHeht and TO pursue your routine"
The Line Of Testimony.
The whole line Of the testimony Of the
defense presented. yesterday was that
tending to prove that DR.. Chancellor has
made the most desirable impression upon
the teachers and principals under his
supervision. Among the spectators and
others present. possibly even the board
and the blue blotter were impressed that
Ii was entirely a day of the under dog.
With the exception of the objections sus-
tanned the evidence was all of the most
hattering kind. so far as the relations
Of the superintendent with his subordis
mates are concerned.
It would have done DR.. Chancellor great
good-for he was not able 10 be tbere-if
he could have stepped in while several
OF the witnesses, and two of the hest for
his side were women. were testifvinR
All Of them seemingly tried to be fair
IN spite Of one imputation-one of those
ordered stricken from the records. but
not from the reporters notebooks-nada
by the captain, that one Of the oldest
teachers who was on the stand was an
swering unfairly
The nrst witness was William T. Small,
principal Of the Eastern High School. He
was asked about the lectures DR.. Chan
cellor had given from time 20 time to
teachers in the schools of the psychological
effect Of psychology.
1 think these lectures have had an
undoubtedly good effect" he answered.
When asked about the system of pro
motions now in vogue in the Washington
schools. said to have been introduced bv
the present superintendent, DR.. Smith
said this system was a good one
There are few large cities in the conn
try" he added, lin which this system
is not used nowadays
He said that by this system the pro-
cess Of advancement for bright pupils
was retarded less than by the yearly
system
Change of Conditions.
Attorney Mcnamara. on cross-examlna-
ton, attempted to show that Mr.. Small
knew nothing about conditions. as they
may have changed since DR.. Chancellor
took charge He said the present school
law, and not the superintendent, is re-
sponsible for any good things that have
come out Of the Franklin building.
Miss Westcott, principal, who was call
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