The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-07-28
FRAUD WAS
 WIDESPREAD Teachers Papers Reveal
 Wide Scope. MANY APPLICANTS REGISTER Questions Were Changed to Reveal
 Fraud. Some of The Negroes, Having Bought Answers to First set of auestioas Feoiishiy Applied Them ts
 second set.

Startling proof that the fraudulent use of questions in the July teachers examination was the most widespread in the history of the state Board has come to light with the grading of ap- plicants papers in Montgomery. Jeffer- son and Greene counties and the whole sale rejection of the applicants because of fraud on the face. These are the only counties whose applicants have been inspected by the State Board and assistants. An equal percentage of fraud in the papers of other counties Is expected to De developed.
 The announcement was made yester- day by Secretary H. J. wiliinSham. of the state Board of Examiners. that out of iso applicants in Jefferson County license; that out of a total of f70 teachers who took the examination in Montgomery County an even 100 fell by the ways!de, and of sixteen appli- eants whose papers have been graded only four will see the coveted certifi- eates
 These figures relate only to negroes So far the use of examination questions stolen from some source before legally opened and distributed by the county superintendents has been confined to negroes. Nor is there distinction Of sex. The women and girls have been as much incriminated as the men.
 Sd swift and systematic must have been the traffic in the questions and prepared answers that proof of fraud may be revealed in practically every one of the sixty-seven counties of the State. Dallas County. it is said. will not turn out a ccrporars guard of successful applicants, so evident, they say, are the papers of cheating and foreknowledge of the questions.
 There were several arrests of appli- cants in Montgomery and Dallas Cotn- ties during the course of examinations. On practically all these. 1t is said. in- eliminating evidence was found. such as answers prepared in advance and held in readiness to offer to the authorities.
 It is said the prevalence of fraud was So great that not all the suspect ed parties could be arrested convenient iy, But the most convincing circum- stantialY aevidsn6e has come to light with the, grading of the papers which nave poured into the hands of the Board from tho outlying counties. It should be recalled that the Depart meht of Education fully anticipated a leakage of the questions which they first sent out. So they adopted a ruse in the preparation of substitute ques- tlons whtch were printed Dy different establishment and hurried to the coun- ty superintendent
 The ease with which the negro men and women were entrapped by this de- vice reflects on the stupidity of some persons who applied for second and third grade certificates. Though the superintendentB of education spread be- fore the applicants the substituted questions, containing many changes. 1t might have surprised them but did not deter them from feigning several hours of writing and then handing in an- swers to the original batch of questions written out in advance of the examina- ton. Papers containing actual proof of such conduct knocked out the majority of those applicants which have been referred to as void. .rhe answers did not agree at all with the questions asked. Tn every respect in which the original questions were changed the answers did not comport with the questions
 The Department is still busy in It's efforts to ferret out the party guilty of the leak in questions officially printed, officially sent to the Depart ment and officially sent to the county Meantime further ar- rests are expected. But already enough has been disclosed to class the fraud as without a parallel in the edu- cational annals of the State.