Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1912-05-25
BOARD WINS WAR
FOR NEW SCHOOL
West Orange Educators Get
Authority at Polls to Dis
card ST. Marks.

Ending a long fight In which the citi-
zens of the town. women and men, had
four special elections on the question, the
West Orange Board of Education yester-
day won In its effort to get authority to
discard the ancient st. Marks school
building. in Valley road. which. In Its
twenty years. service. has outlived its
usefulness IN the school boards judg-
ment. By a vote of 321 for and 230
against a resolution authorizing the
board to spend $55, 900 for a new structure
in the rear of the present High school in
CASTOR street was adopted. the alterna-
i've resolution to allow the %soending of
$40, 900 on alterations on st. Marks School
going down to defeat by about the same
proportion of v~otes-217 in favor and 1876
against.
With the winning of the contest so
vigorously and d~eterminedly waged, the
school authorities will b. In a position
to comply with the mandates of the
county and State school authorities, who
condemned the old st. Marks building
as unsulted to the uses for which a
school Is intended, and 1t is expected
the task will be commenced at once of
getting money for the new structure.
F1fty-ive thousand dollars must cover
the cost of building and furnishings, and
with the return Of T. III. Powers Farr,
president of the board, from Rochester,
N. Y, where he went last night to visit
his daughter. the prsliminaries for start
ing the school will be taken In charge.
The opponents to the new school, who
were successful In three elections out of
four. are somewhat cha grined, but will
bow to the inevitable.
Due to the storm early in the evening
the number OF votes cast was far below
expectations. The majority of the bal
lots were cast by women in the after
noon. Hardly 200 men turned out and
1t is believed that IL the wives Of the
men had not induced them to vote even
tits number of the men folk vsild not
have cast ballots. Difficulty was ex-
perienced In securing tellers and 1t was
necessary to rave Mrs. Herman Freeman,
wife of a former school commissioner,
serve. Automobiles played a prominent
part In the election, as over twelve Of
the machines were kept busy carrying
voters to and from the polls. Often
while the votes were being counted.
frequent arguments occurred between
the tellers yer the scoring. Just pre-
vious to the close of the polls there was
a spirited argument between a number
Of men and women over the distributing
of ballots outside the voting place, and
1t was necessary for a police officer sta
toned at the polls to threaten the prin-
cipals with arrest before the argument
ceased.
Shouting they wanted q new school
to go into. a number of boys, pupils
of the st. Marks School, paraded up
and down in front OF the polls distri-
buting ballots favoring a new school
and, when automobiles carrying voters
arrived, the youths would give the bal
lots to the occupants. Seeing this being
done, four women who were against u
new school obtained tickets for repair.
ing st. Marks structure, and started
giving these out. The rivalry became so
intense between the women and boys
that a policeman was compelled to stop
the practise.
Directing to having the boys prevent
ed from distributing the ballots, Charles
Kocher. a w~ell-known contractor of the
town, interceded for the lads, and he
and DR.. James T. Moorehouse exchanged
much arepartee" until the police officer
stopped the discussion. DIR. ]. f.. Moon,
who recently attacked newspapermen of
West Orange. was active in securing
votes against a new school, and with
an automobile he conveyed many Ital-
ians to the polls, and after handing
them ballots to vote against a new
building instructed the men not to ac-
cept other ballots. His action in doing
this caused criticism against hin and.
precipitated arguments between workers.