Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1913-11-21
opposition press says about the civil
service law, the better.

other day in Topeka, before the
State Teachers Association, and in
which he ably defended the Board
Of Educational Administration, Of
which be Is a member. He said:
ITO more clearly define the re-
spective spheres Of each Of our ed
ucattonal institutions, to give the
widest latitude for the exercise Of
their peculiar and respective fUmc--
tons, to prevent useless duplicRr
tons, to properly correlate them in
to a symmetrical educational family,
to mabe student transition from
one to the other, and from our high
schools to all OF them more naturHa
to check the growing antagonism be-
tween them, to make Of them one
great, loving educational family sit
ting around a common educational
table, to enlarge their extension
work and carry the schools more ex-
tensively to the people, to broad
en- their respective fields OF labor,
to minimize their cost to the peo-
pie by purchasing their common sup
plies by wholesale instead Of re-
tail, and to convince comdng legisla-
tors that money spent for educar
tional purposes is IAN investment
and not am expense. these are a few
Of the problems this Board hopes to
help solve.
"As am original advocate OF this
new idea, ask for it only fair treat
ment. have no axe to sharpen on
this grimdstOne. If this experiment
proves unwise, after a fair test, no
one will abandon it with les reluc'
lance than will your speaker. But
ask fair treatment for the expert
ment, which SO far it has not had
Like all other advance movements
in Kansas history, it has been sub
jected to Misrepresentation and rid
icule. From a Chicago professor in
travelling through the state, masquer'
aiding as "scientist:' but picking up
silly rumors as he went and u1--'
scientifically peddMug them like a
cheap street corner gossiper, fo1
facts, to nondescript scribblers and
anonymous exregents, so signed, moi
to mention the more or less dis
Itinguished guest from a sister
state who violated the ordinary
propreties Of our recent Jubilee
festival at Manhattan with a gratu.
itous and offensive criticism he could
not sustain in argument and to which
the courteSies OF the occasion for
babe adequate reply, this experiment
has been a target for all the poison
ed arrows the ambitious and adverse
could have had in their quivers
But in spite Of these petty annoy
ances, this Board has gone on with
its great work, making some mistak-
es doubtless, but with conscientious
desire and determination to do the
very best things possible for the
great educational institutions under
its charge, from one of which one
of them is a graduate, and to which
all of them have given a lifetime
devotion.
"And as an original advocate Of
this administrative experiment, and
as the minority member of this
Board, made bipartisan by law,
have a right to make this plea to
my fellow citizens of Kansas, irres-
pective of party, for fair play in this
experiment. We ask no favors. We
only ask a square deal.
will you permit a word purely PEI
Sonal? | owe nothing to Governor
Hodges, politically, just as Gov. Click
and Judge HUMPHREYS and Tom Nor
gan and Judge Glass and other excel
lent and eminent Democrats owed
me nothing, politically, when l honor
ed them as I have been hOnOred
All l ask and all / desired at THEN
hands was their best service to the
state, which they rendered in unhm
tied measure. More cannot be ask
ed Of me, and less i could not hon
orably render. l am the same az
gressive, progressive Republican tina
have always been, and as such
| shall protest with all possible pow
er, to any attempt by any and every
one, to make political capital out O
this experiment. And it is only fail
to Gov. Hodges and to my assOcia
ton on this Board to say that 81
far they have not done So"
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