The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1917-08-03
IS MIR. CAYWOOD COMPETENT?

the office of school superintendent
and discharge it's duties?
This question was raised at the be-
ginning of his candidacy and has
been discussed throughout the coun-
ty. There was way to settle it.
The State Board of Examiners held
one session in May and two in June
to enable candidates for that Office
to apply for certificates of qualifica-
ton and secure them if they could
pass the examination. Fifty-eight
candidates applied at the first exam
ination in May, and scores at the
other examinations. Mr.. Caywood
knew that his ability to get certi-
ficate was in question and that the
charge of incompetency was being
urged against him in his canvass, yet
he did not apply for certificate, but
chose to stand on the opinion of a
lawyer that he did not have to get
the certificate before the primary.
Undoubtedly that opinion is correct,
but is it likely in view of the charge
of incompetency, that he\would have
failed to secure the certificate if
he had thought he could pass the
examination? The certificate would
have been a complete answer to the
charge that he could not get one.
His failure to qualify has left the
question of incompetency to be set
tied by the voters themselves. For
tunately Mr.. Caywood has supplied
ample evidence written and signed by
himself to satisfy the most skeptical,
and we will prove the case by calling
no other witness than Mr.. Caywood.
At the beginning of the last school
teachers was formed with Mr..
Elicit as president and Mr.. Caywood
as secretary. Nine meetings were
held during the school year and Mr..
CaywOOd wrote the minutes of each
meeting. These minutes were writ
ten by him in book which is pre-
served in the Office of the school SUI
perintendent and has been inspected
by many persons and may be eXamin-
ed by anyone who desires to see it's
contents. This book is cited as proof
of what 1 am about to say as to those
minutes. In those minutes Mr.. Cay
wood spells the word minutes
twice as follows: "M-I-N-N-E-T-S.
The word adjourned" is written
eleven times and is spelled the same
way every time, as follows:
Adjourned" leaving out the ''d'
each time. Every time the word
seconded" (the motion was sec
onded), is written it is written
"s-e-c-o-n-e-d," making word of
two syllables instead of three.
Parliamentary" is used only once
and is written "p-a-r-l-i-m-e-nt-a-r-y,"
leaving out the "a"
The minutes of the sixth meeting
concluded with this sentences: after
Roll CALI a motion being made and
'seconed' the association was
'ajourned.'
This short sentence contains three
errors; one in writing roll call with a
capital CT" and the other two in
spelling seconded ard adjourned"
The following sentence is typical
of Mr. Caywood's style of writing.
1t is the first sentence in the minutes
of the meeting of December 8, 1916,
and reads:
"The Association was called to or
der by the president and after roll
call the 'minnets' of the last two
meetings were read.
The last of which a correction was
made before adoption.
This is written, as l quote 1T, in
two sentences, the former of which
is marred by the incorrect spelling of
minutes" and the latter by such an
utter grammatical inconsistency as
to make the sentence a real curiosity.
Here is another example of his
knowledge of how to write the Ian
guage, taken from the minutes of the
meeting of November 25, 1916:
miss Clark made a motion that
the Association meet on the second
Saturday of each month regardless
of the teachers money, but after dis
cussiOn was lost"
Of course Mr.. Caywood meant to
say her motion was lost and not Miss
Clark.
Leaving these minutes we will now
examine a little folder which Mr..
Caywood wrote and had printed and
many hundreds of which have been
handed by him to voters throughout
the county. This folder is, by actual
measurement, just seven inches of
print including the spaces between
the paragraphs. Of course it was
written with great care because he
knew his education was being seri-
ously questioned, and being so short
it might be inferred it is free from
b]emish. But look at these quota
tbs from it:
"A citizen of this grand old COun-
ty, which fact has always been and
always will be, a source of pride to
me, and / have the praiseworthy am
bition to serve her in this high
Office
Would an educated man have writ
ten such a sentence? 1t is incom-
plete; the first clause, ending with
''me," expresses no thought and
states no fact, and might as well
have been appended to any other set
Of words as to the set which follows
it. 1t was probably called to Mr..
Caywood's attenditon that this Sen
tence seemed to imply that he was a
native of Bourbon County instead of
being a newcomer here, and in a
subsequent edition" of this leaflet
he discarded the above sentence and
ipcorfod thic instead.