The weekly chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Craig County, Okla.) 1905-1913, 1911-09-08

nearing OF the charges against the
state board of education yesterday
Governor Lee Cruce made a statement
in which he admitted that in selecting
the members of the board under the
recent statute he had carried out an
agreement made with Superintendent
Wilson of the board at the time the
fight for the reorganization of the edu-
cational department was waging be
fore the Legislature. He further ad
mitted that he made the agreement
with Wilson as the price of Wilson's
withdrawal of opposition to the plans
of the governor as expressed in bills
then pending in the legislature. This
statement was the climax of day of
rather strenuous testimony by several
members of the board in which the
factional fights that have led to the
charges were more or less acrimon-
iously aired before the commission.
The first witness to start some
thing" in this connection was w. e.
Rowsey, a member of both the old
board and the new. R0wsey, accord
ing to his testimony, is the only mem
Der of the board who was a member of
the old board of university regents and
who was thoroughly conversant with
former conditions.
Notwithstanding this fact, accord
ing to the witness, and in the fact of
the further fact that he was mem
Der of the teachers committee select
ed by the present board to investigate
conditions at the university, a major
ity of the board voted down all his
recommendations except two, Rowsey
stated that he thought at the time
that if he was going to be overruled
in this way he had better get off the
board
Rowsey testified that in all but two
instances he had opposed the whole
sale removals at the university four
years ago and that he opposed most
of the changes made by the present
board.
Scott Glenn of Shawnee, a member
of the board who has been made the
center of charges was placed on the
stand and admitted that charges were
on file with the board against Lynn
Glover when he supported him for
head of the Tonkawa preparatory
school, but stated that superintendent
Wilson, who was on Glovers bond,
stated that the alleged shortage of Mr..
Glover had been settled. Glenn stated
that he had heard the bad check ru-
mors and of his alleged slowness in
paying debts, but did not consider
these charges necessarily serious and
vote for Glover.
Glenn admitted that he used per-
sonal influence with the board and with
at least one president to secure GER
tain teachers positions.
81 am not the man who would sit
supinely by at time like that" said
Glenn. IF | was for man it was
my policy to do all | could to get the
other men to be for him" Mr. Glenn
stated that he went to President
Moore OF the industrial school at
Chickasha and asked him to nominate
a teacher because Superintendent Will
son asked him to do so.
In connection with the testimony of
Robert Dunlop, state treasurer and ap-
pointive member of the state board of
education. Governor Cruce made a
statement in which he told the inside
history of the legislation creating the
state board of education and of the
influences that led to the appointment
by him of certain members of the
board
The governor revealed the fact that
in order to gain support of Superin-
tendent Wilson for the educational bill
as finally passed he promised Wilson
to put Scott Glenn, Wilson's former
campaign manager, on the board and
to appoint Robert Dunlop, state treas
urer, as a member of the board if legal
objections did not interfere Wilson,
Glenn and Dunlop at that time were
members of the old board of normal
regents which was to be abolished un-
der the board of education bill favor
ed by the governor and afterward
adopted.
The governor stated that he sent for
superintendent Wilson and told him
that if he would stop fighting the Du-
rant bill, which more nearly suited the
governors idea than any other, and
favor it as basis of compromise,
there would bs better chance of leg
islation. He told Wilson that such
a board would give him a direct au-
thority over the schools and place him
in a stronger position. Wilson then
told the governor that he (Wilson)