New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-09-15
T ak of
City Hall

Day. Controversies which engender
so much heat before the primaries
have way of burning out quickly
like paper bonfres. But for the pres
ent it provides a merry little blaze at
which 20 warm the fast congcaliDg ex-
tremtes of Hylan supporters.
Judge Hylan himself applied the
match, and now william G. WILCOX,
president Of the Board Of Education, IN
an attempt 10 blow IL out, has simply
functioned as a bellows, Increasing TIE
flame. The question Of the merits o.
the Gary plan has given way TO That
Of who sponsored II, with dark refer
ences to the Rockefeller Foundation.
For political purposes, OF course, the
value Of the plan is Of little consc-
quence as compared with the auspices
attendant upon its introduction.
President Wilcox, in letter 10 the
newspapers. insists that the Rockc-
/ Teller Foundation had nothing TO do
with it. On the other hand, he points
! out that Thomas W. Churchill. his
/ predecessor and critic, who vas then
/ president of the Board Of Education,
made one Of the committee which VS.
tied Gary, Ind, in the spring Of lyl3,
and came back glowing with enthusl-
asm for the adoption OF its school sys-
! tenn in New York.
Nh. Wilcox was himself member
of this committee, as were the Mayor
! and other city officials. But 1t did not
| include either DR.. Abraham F!cXner
or Raymond Fosdck, the only TWO
/ Commissioners of Education VINO had
. Dn,l.c fa1lpr phlldntDlO-
| pies. "
And Mr.. Churchill. speaking from the
floor at a Board of Education meet
| ING. has replied TO President WILCOX,
! saying:
II do not deny the soft Impeachment
/ that ! helped to start the experiment
, with a plan long heralded as great
! idea. but | DO disclaim the monstroS-
( ity it has become. Its extension / re-
sisted"
Mr.. Churchill has persuaded the
/ Board of Education TO pass resolutloas
providing for a special committee ~nlch
/ shall prepare statement OF Ldct
! cleaned from official records regarding
/ the inception Of the Gary experiment
and its progress here. But, untort-
I unatelv. no such statement will reveal
| the extraordinary jealousy IN Mr..
! Churchill's attitude toward the IN
/ stallation Of the system, jealousy
which he began to display as soon as
/ he discovered that the Mitchell admin
/ istration was to reap the glory IN
/ volyed.
Mr.. Churchill was defeated for re-
+ election as president OF the Board OF
/ Education on February l, 1916. bu1
even before that he was being men
/ toned as a likely candidate Tor inc
nomination for Mayor at Iammahy
! hands. He is a lawyer. he has a ready
and witty tongue, and shrewd nead
on his shoulders, and, though an or
( canization Democrat, he has never oeen
/ identified with the inner ring OF 'ne
/ Wigwam. That, pathetical!y enough, IS
a great asset in Murphy's eyes, tending
to take the curse of Tammany, as 'he
saying goes. L
If only Mr.. Churchill might have
I fathered the educational revolution
which he admits he heralded; If only
he might have posed before the COM
munitv as the man who abolished part
: time i'm the public schools, who pro,
vided gymnasiums and Libraries ana
/ laboratories and Fairgrounds ana
music studios and gardens to keep the
! children of New York off the streets
and at a third the cost Of new school-
bonsesl Would Tammany have NOM
F, mated him for Mayor? thousand
times, yes, c,,l,;II
Il seems probable that Mr.. Churchill
! had some such vision in mind Wnen
! little while after his return from Gar'
he wrote for THE Journal OF hduca-
| ton" an article entitled II ne amazing
Schools | saw at Gary, from WlIcn
! Mr. Wilcox has quoted the ioAow Ins
"The more | think OF It, the hrnet
is the gertrude that the adoption u
the Gary idea anywhere IS pract!capic
and easy. That it is highly deS'Fa''e
almost goes without saying
William Writ, the Gary superlntend-
ent. was engaged, as every one KNOWS
| AT $4,000 year 70 supervise the IN
stallation of the Gary system, his own
creation. in certain New York schools,
and the "monstrosity" resulting, to re-
vert to ChurchlPs language, IS the
work of his hands.
/ II has been described by experts as
the closest sort of copy Of Gnat ne has
/ done in Gary. In other words, Mt
/ Churchill, with perfect consistency
might now, if he felt inclined, write an
other article entitled The Amazing
Schools | See in New York" Instead,
he prefers referring to them as the
"monstrosity" and as the present plan
called Gary and masquerading as such
/ that is now being smeared all over the
city"
The answer to the puzzle is found in
the fact that Mayor Mitchell, to whom
the credit for bringing Writ and his
} school system to the city has always
belonged. became from the beginning
/ the public champion of the measure.
And. politically. the only recourse left
to Mr.. Churchill was that OF painting
the experiment failure, If possible,
and Of deriving city-wide credit for his
fight against it.
He adopted this course. first, with
obstructionist tactics, which wasted the
: initial appropriation, brought him and
his friends into conflict with Writ and
delayed the adoption Of the Gary plan
even in the schools chosen by his ad-
ministraton for its installation.
The political capital &C. be derived
from hostility to the Gary experiment
has proved, in fact, as complete
myth as the pot Of gold at the end OF
the rainbow Palpably, il has failed
to recommend Churchill for the nomi-
nation with which, in the reverse sisu-
alton, he might have walked away. And
il will hardly elect Hylan.
Hylan Flees Movies
AS Reporter Arrives