New Britain herald., 1917-12-04
IN TRIAL
DENY DISLOYALTY
Were Suspended Because Of Their
Attitude Against Good Citizenship

| were suspended two weeks ago on
| charges of holding views subversive
OF discipline and of undermining
good citizenship in the schools pre-
ferred by DR.. John l.. Tildsley, as
sociate superintendent of schools in
charge of High schools, were placed
on trial yesterday before the High
school committee, of which John
Whalen Is chairman. The teachers
are Thomas Mufson. Samuel Schmal-
hausen, and A. Henry Schneer.
The trial Of Schmalhausen, for
seven years an instructor in English
began at o'clock and lasted almost
hve hours. A recess was taken short
~ before 8 o'clock, and the trial Of
Mufson and Schneer was continued
until late hour. The High school
committee will make it's report on
the cases at a meeting of the Board
OF Education on Dec. ~.
The trial of Schmalhausen centred
around two points; the writing of an
essay by one of his pupils, Hyman
Herman. who criticised President Will
son and denounced him as ''mur-
derer," and set Of resolutions passed
at meeting Of 1O5O teachers Of De
Witt Clinton. The resolutions were
-SHO~OAAA
at the trial, who was denounced as
arrogant and undemocratio" in his
remarks made to High school students
and teachers following strike of
students in protest against the length
en1ng OF the High school day. He Is
said to have told the protestants that
neither the teachers nor the pupils
would run the schools"
Schmalhausen was accused of fail
ing to make such criticism of the
Herman boys letter as would lead the
boy to perceive the gross disloyalty
involved in his point of view" He
was further charged with saying he
would consider 1t proper to allow the
pupil Ito write and read aloud to
his classmates similar seditious letters
addressed to the president" and he
was also accused OF saying he would
not consider 1t to be his duty to de
velop in the students under his con-
troll instructive respect for the Presi-
dent of the United States as such,
Governor Of the State Of New York as
such. and other Federal state, and
officers as SUCH"
Most of the questions asked wit
nesses concerned two interviews that
Dr.. Tildsley held with Schmalhausen
in the presence of the principal of
his school. DIR. Francis J. Paul, and
the Assistant Principal, Dr. Oscar w.
Anthony. Representing the Board of |
Education were Assistant Corporation
Counsels William E. C. Meyer and
Charles Mcintyre. Herbert c. Smyth |
If Is Wall street was counsel for the |
accused. %+. i
During the testimony of DR.. An
hony he turned to Chairman Whalen |
and declared that young man seated
directly behind him had softly called |
'liar'' after he, Anthony, made a
statement. Mr.. Whalen ordered the
man to leave. He was led out OF
the room by DR.. Gustave Strauben-
muller, acting city superintendent, to
whom he gave the name of Benjamin
Marchand He said he was lawyer
from Cleveland. Half a dozen Fed
eral agents who were present led him
into the office Of President Wilcox OF
the Board Of Education, and after be-
ing questioned he was allowed to go.
1t appeared that Schmalhausen had
not known of the existence OF the
Herman boys letter until two weeks
after it was written. when he was
examined by DR.. Tildsley in a person
al interview Miss Ellen e. Garrigues
the school, testified that she heard
several essays on the subject assigned
read in the class room, and becoming
angry at the manner in which the
boys treated the subject she collected
all the compositions, including that
Of the Herman boy, and took them to
the principal, who turned them over
to DR.. TX1dsley. She said that the
same topic had been assigned by the
accused teacher to his other class, In
which the responses from the stu
dents was largely patriotic.
Mr. Smyth, endeavoring to show
that Principal Paul was anxious to
"get something" on Schmalhousen.
asked the witness If the principal said
tn her. when she handed him the
class essays written in the teachers
class, II think I have him now"
Miss sGarrigues' recollection was not
clear on that point.
"Did you know that DR.. Paul was
trying to get something on Mr..
Schmalhausen? asked the lawyer
Counsel for the prosecution objected
and Mr. Whalen sustained the ob1ec-
ton.
Both Dr. Tildsley and Principal
Paul testified that when Schmalhausen
was asked on being confronted with
the Herman boys letter whether he
would allow such a letter to be read
a second and third time in class he
declared he would. In his own be-
half Schmalhausen testified that no
remark that he made in the course of
the two Interviews with the Super
intendent could be construed as
meaning that he would allow the
writer to read such letter again.
When DR.. Tildsley asked me if I
would allow such a letter to be read
in class If it were written in reply
to an assigned theme, I said that was
an assumption contrary to reason
the accused teacher declared, ''as
assumed that the criticism of the