Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1909-09-10
WINDY CITY HAS HER TROUBLES
New Illinois Law Has Put Board of
Education at its Wits
End.


Taft Chicago speech will be deliver
ed to a small and select gathering in
Orchestra hall unless a prevailing
howl of protest secures an auditorium
big enough. Some one has bundered
and the preparations made are for an
audience that would disappoint an OBJ
explorers. The city and state polled
az: enormous Taft vote. What the re-
suit may be when 80 per cent OF the
crowd assembled in Michigan avenue
because it cannot get into the halD
sees President Taft disappear within
is subject for imaginative conjecture.
Orchestra hall is an attractive and
Justly celebrated temple of harmony,
erected for the purpose of enabling a
specific number of enthusiastic per-
sons of musical temperament to pay
weekly homage to the no less cele-
brated Thomas orchestra. But it is
too small for the Taft demonstration.
There will be much distinction and no
little class. But is this hardly fair
to certain other hundreds and thou
sands who admire President Taft, who
are deeply interested in the problems
of the tariff. and who, above all other
things, would like to hear those prob
lens eloquently discussed by the man
who was so distinguished factor in
the preparation and passage Of the
late tariff bill" This is the wall
Parental ignorance of the text books
which now are needed by millions for
the opening of schools the country
over is blamed for money menace of
American education, a sample of
which is a new Illinois law which has
put the Chicago board of education to
its wits ends to supply in time the
books needed. Suddenly the board has
realized that here, as practically the
country over, the books which child
rem study are given no serious thought
by parents except in respect to price;
the cost of research and preparation
and of binding that is stout enough
to stand inevitable misuse have been
lost sight of as result of the lessened
responsibility of parents for the text
books, cleanliness, feeding and health
of their offspring, school boards hav-
ing stepped in With no support from
their constituents but with loud howls
fro mvarious quarters about prices,
the board is having a serious time to
let any consideration but prices be de-
cisive. That one book is far more eff
fective instruction than another is not
a consideration that the new law ad-
mits. The result probably will be
that the Chicago board of education
will go into the buying at wholesale
and reselling Cat cost at retail Of all
the books needed. To do this and not
clash with the new law Trustee Spieg-
ell has recommended that 10000 geo.
graphies be purchased-one item of
$4,000 for books-and send the books
to school buildings to be resold to the
pupils. Nearly dozen firms had
books to offer but because of the fail
ure Of the school board to advertise
for bids-merit of books not a consid-
Grafton if price was not the lowest
they were given no opportunity to do
so. AS result the cheap book con-
Germs are threating lawsuits and in
functions. Parents have so few pre-
negatives, now that responsibility for
books, pupils health, teeth and trans.
portation have been taken over by the
school teacher that American school
education is seriously menaced by a
mere difference of few cents in the
cost of one book over another" said
cne educator. "The ultimate result
is plain and it is time taxpayers woke
UP to realize that school text books
amt quite as much alike. even in dur
ability, as paving bricks"
Train safety as a railway asset,
which the Burlington's expenditures
of nearly $50,O0O,000 in preparation
for the reducing of its fast passenger
time from Chicago to Denver to 27
hours has put in a wholly new light,
has been commented upon by the
League of Public Safety in a rotable
bulletin. Reckless railway operation"
it says, with an eye single upon the
net earnings and low operating costs,
is given a very practical rebuke that
is likely to prove more effective than
public outcry in the policy adopted by
the directorate of the Burlington
which quietly appropriated tens of
millions of dollars in safeguarding it's
roadbed and bridges and improving
it's dispatching facilities. The work
has required years and the investment
is enormous and for a purpose which
all the railways have been charged
with disregarding, viz: The safety of
the public This is milestone in
railway financing that cannot be over
looked by other roads, and will not
be. 1t is a sound asset of a railroad
the safety of its trains and has not
been discovered any too soon. Train
accidents the country over showed
diminution last year, a distinct gain,
but it was due to the conspicuous rec
ordc pf favr tbat loWnrad fhQ avar-