New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-02-17
WECHSLER FREED ERASMUS ALUMNI
AT MURDER TRIAL FOR WOMAN HEAD
500 Urge That Miss Turner
Be Named Principal
Of School

About 500 graduates of Erasmus Hall
High School met in the school last
night and adopted resolutions urging
Miss Kate f. Turner, who has been as
sistant principal for eighteen years, as
the logical successor to the late Dr..
Walter B. Gunnison, principal. 1t was
said that the only opposition to Miss
Turner was based on the premise that
no New York high school should have
a woman principal.
The Board of Superintendents has
been considering the appointment OF
DR.. Gunnison's successor since early IN
January, and its nomination, which
must be confirmed by the Board of
Education, is expected within a lew
days.
Resolutions were adopted last night
declaring that, in the opinion of the
graduates of the school, Miss Turner
was best fitted to uphold the ideals es-
tablished by DR.. Gunnison. She had
worked so long side by side with the
late principal, it was said, that she was
thoroughly in accord with his point OF
view and could carry out his ideas and
adapt them TO changing circumstances
better than any one who had not had her
opportunities for observation.
1t was resolved that among the elghtJ
candidates for the position the graou
ates of the school and the residents OF
Flatbush were unanimous in express
ing preference Tor Miss Turner.
"If for no other reason" said DR..
Henry Neumann, head of the Brooklyn
Ethical Culture Society, 1--WE want her
TO have the position, because places OF
authority should be open TO women Of
ability"
Statements that Erasmus had fallen
behind other high schools of the city
in scholarship under the regime of DR..
Gunnison were characterized as Sian
ders, and the assertion that man was
needed to control the boys in the school
as a libel upon the students.
Walter Measday, jr., who presided,
asserted that the issue was not per-
sonal, it was not Miss Turner or any
one else; it was the tradition Of the
school.
"The choice of any other candidate
would be unfair to Miss Turner" said
James S. Graham, president of the
Flatbush Taxpayers Association, ito
the school, to the students and to the
people Of Brooklyn"
Other speakers were Charles Ham
merstrom, James P. Heaton and Miss
/ Iddelle Scott. Jane Cowl sent this
! telegram to the chairman:
Would it be possible for you to con-
vey to the meeting my sincere appeal
as a one-time Erasmian that the mag
Lifcent work OF our own DR.. Gunnison
be carried on by his logical successor,
Miss Turner? Il seems TO me that il
the people who have the deciding of
the matter in hand knew the effect
on our after lives and thoughts of the
DR.. Gunnison regime, they could not
hesitate.
Speaking Tor myself. | know that if
the influence of the old school under
DR.. Gunnison and Miss Turner has not
made me better citizen, It would
have been the fault of my own lack OF
sensibility. ! am most earnest in the
hope that the old, true, tried and
proven spirit of Erasmus may be
maintained forever"
Borough President Pounds wrote
that he had not made up his mind on
the subject, but that he was convinced
that if a woman was to be principal
of a high school in New York none
better fitted could be found than Miss
Turner