New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-10-28
Mitchell Blames Tammany;
Tammany Blames Mitchell

WL-9
MAYOR Mitchell and his Fusicn sup
norters and adherents seeking MS re-
sIoction blame that altogether familiar
scaneooat. Tammany; Judge Hyian, the
Tsmmany Mayoralty candidate. as nat
TO accuses Fusion; Morris Hillquit, So
cisiist candidate for Mayor, blames no
ona in particular and absolves hlmsel'
-. declares the Gary school plan,
While meritorious In itself, has gone
wrong as applied to New York, what
these candidates say is quoted IN more
detail elsewhere on this page.
Rnt IL is patent that each OF tne
candidates. together with his support
ers must, in analyzing the STRIKE ioi-
low a line Of thought which, rreegaruless
Of Hs sincerity, has basis In the 800
If the campaign. To get at the hear'
% tbe trouble it was necessary, there
90 en- turn to another field. Inc
Tr;hune did this. II turned to, the
chjIdrsn themselves, to their mothers
80 their teachers and to the attendance
ofScers-the latter a group OF very
Snr,ar amnloyes Of the Bureau OF Az
tendance. feared by children under tne
now discarded name OF "truahcy OIL
GERS" uvid.,v vsri-
.nt ga we're some Of the statements,
these conclusions were reachea. ihey
snnear 10 be the pinnacles Of TACT IN a
very complex situation
THAT responsibility for the dem
constructions may be almost equally
Il divided between Tammsny ana
the Socialists.
~-That nineteenth Of the parents
y were not guilty Of wilfully Keep
ING their children from SCHOOL,
MANY charges to the contrary not
withstanding.
0-That nine-tenths, or, more a'ou
rately, perhaps. ninety-nlne-nuii5,
~ dredths, Of the children foli99w st u
mob law in striking. They enJoyeu 'h'
noveltv and excitement OF IT.
THAT there are hundreds OF moth
Il ers who find fault with the Gary
! system. but their criticism 70 q
so.. sxtent are the outgrowth OF
1ronaeanda with which their MONIES
ave been deluged. Some, however
have real grievances.
THAT hundreds Of teachers are
against the Gary system as ap'
~ piled here, but their ooyecuon'
fall mainly in a field OF academic con.
troyersy comparable to a disc9ssisH,n n,d !.
which the Supreme Court might oi''u'
five to four.
THAT nothing In the Gary system
II as applied in New York w9u, !,
~ c.nse children to strike Of thei'
own initiative.
THAT ~the strike, therefore, wa
4 not really against the Gary sys
tenn, but was due to variety o
causes and events arising priniar,..
hut not entirely from the Mayorait!
campaign. 80
To get a proper understanding OF IN
situation II will be necessary TO turf
from, the elementary schools where TN
strikes occurred to the high schools o
tbe city. When the high schools opene'
IN september they did so on schedule
of school day longer by one hour thar
theretofore. The last Legislature ha'
passed the so-called Welsh bill, war
bred measure, requiring military train
ing of high school boys, and TO carr.
out its provisions the extra sixty min
utes were tackled on the days session
Now, many high school boys work afte
School, and, in innumerable cases, Will
brothers gone with the colors or IN tn
great army Of the drafted, they wer
Acutely needed at this time OF higi
prices 10 do their bit after schoo
toward increasing the family income
The extra hour either stopped sucl
work entirely or seriously curtailed II
There were complaints. These wer'
followed by more organized protests
and finally, In mid-October, by mas
meetings and sporadic strikes. Mean
time, the elementary schools, which ha,
opened quietly enough on September lC
were running along as usual, with n,
hint of trouble. The thirty-three Gar.
schools, with nearly 10000 pupils, wer
no exception. II these pupils were OBJ
sessed with the idea that the work
study-play system, now in vogue in New
York for three years, had suddenly be
come something TO be fought, they di
not voice it by word or action.
But talk of the unrest in the higl
schools spread, especial y among the so
cialists. That extra hour for mill
tary training" smacked OF militarism
of the war party, OF capitalism, o
Rockefellerism, the Steel Trust. Op
viously conditions were prime Tor Doll
Hylan and Hillquit to go over the top
on the school question. Already Tam
many had maintained a pretty stead!
barrage fire Of snti-Gary pamphlets
while Judge Hylan in his canned
speeches had again and again attacked
the Mitchell school policy. Hihquit
sided with neither, but assailed both hi:
opponents, and in his spoken addresse:
was careful. even moderate, in stating
what he thought was wrong with the
Gary schools. AS has been indicated
above, he<held that the plan had many
excellent features, but that these feat