Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1915-08-12
CONWAY IS GIVEN
HIGH PRAISE BY
THE COAST PRESS
oH0nan Dynamo" School Su-
ped0tendent Gets Credit for
Entire Reformation of State
Public Schools,

...r~fst coRHEsPoNpHHcH TO MORNING JOURNAL
cart. Fee. Aug. 11.-County school
eunertptendent j. v. Conway with the
,oaahers excursion TO San Diego and
c5, Francisco. broke into the lime
ieht simultaneously in the san Diego
ona Los Angeles newspapers with the
follauIn4 interview and a tWo-column
picmre of himself:
aSarta Fee New Mexico, is the old
eet state capital i'm the United States,
for + was founded fifteen yeas before
he pUer.ms landed at Plymouth
pork hut MO one ever thought of
lacking I'm IFS direction for education
III fnepiration. until John " Conway
came upon the scene and as county
school Superintendent performed mir
ocles rieht in front of twentieth cen
fury skepucs.
Jurisdiction Is Immense.
"It was this way He had iurisdic-
,ion over a sparsely inhabited area Of
600 sluare miles, a poverty
snonish- speaking domain, with fifty
srbnnl districts, With practically no
taxable property and each with but
Jew hundred inhabitants. The
ecbooIhouses were ramshackle, un-
adobe structures Some We're without
benches some even without stoves.
Conway said this must be changed
and the county laughed. But Con
way was undsmayed.
an one year, fifty-three new, mod
ern school buildings have been built
and that without issuing cent s
worth of Indebtedness Each school
house has a manual training room
with work bench ana tools and do
nestle science room With sewing ma
chine range and tables Each school
house is heated with steel-iacketed
stoves. has large windows giving the
proper lighting and is well ventilated
and sanitary A beginning has been
made with school gardens and tree
planting. In each building a school
library Is being installed, in each dis
trict arrangements are under way for
night schools for the older inhabi-
tants. Illteracy is to be stamped out
in another year, and all that through
the efforts of an enthusiastic school
superintendent, who hardly measures
five feet four inches in his boots and
had no other means than his grit to
rey0mtionize the school conditions in
the oldest and principal county of a
great state In his early days he
would visit each district half a dozen
times year in all sorts of weather,
driving behind a pair of mules. Since
then, the better schools he has created
have resulted in better roads and he
now drives an automobile.
Work Has Wide Influence.
"Tho work that Conway is doing
has had IT'S wide influence. The other
twenty-five county superintendent
sat up ana took notice A new thirst
for education has seized New Mexico,
especially its large Spanish-speaking
population The state legislature has
made a permanent appropriation for
sucn things as q state museum, for
an art gallery, for a replica of the
Oldest mission, the Cathedral of the
Desert has doubled the appropria-
tons for the twenty-five state institu-
lions, trpled the money given TO the
public schools, is enforcing compul-
sorry education, has made seven
months the minimum term for the
poorest and remotest districts, giving
state aid to the smaller districts not
only toward a seven months minimum
term but also for new schoolhouses
ana equipment; has fixed the mini
mum salary of third grade teachers
at 500 a month and accomplished 9TH
pr feats that few years ago We're
deemed impossible The influences
which have brought all this about
may be traced back to modest, unob-
lwsiye John W Conway, who Is a
human dynamo if ever there was one.
ArOuses Interest Ia Work.
Not the least Of Conway's triumphs
has been the interest he has aroused
100 the public school work. The Wom-
ans club at Santa Fe has come to MS
aid and It's members are not only
helping to equip the schools, finding
clothes and food for the INDECENT
children but are establishing house
Industries, gardens and seeking ways
ana means to dispel extreme poverty
In The rural districts.
"lf these is any other county super
lntenGent who in one year has built
iiftY-three out of fifty-six school
houses without mourning a cent of in
debtedness, has equipped them for
manual training and domestic science,
mas established Libraries, evening
classes and study clubs in every
Schoolhouse and has transformed an
entire community Of 10000 people, in
lop space of only twelve months. now
is hts time to stand up and be
counted