Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-07-10
DR.. oRUENBERo's VIEWS
Delayed Action on Teachers Sal.
aries Bad for the MoraIe--col
Pusey and the North Penn.
Commissioner Holmes on
Suffrage Problems
BY GEORGE NOx MCCAIN


feet upon the entire personnel of tn,
teaching staff the men teachers par
ticularly. ....
He looks for number of the latteI
to resign and seek other occupations.
The resolution passed by the boart
at its last meeting, on the subject o
increased pay, he regards as a crypt,
utterance that is capable-of several in
terpretations.
The shutting, lodging, hesitant
evasive and procrastinating action o
the Board of Education has been pro
ductive of a sense of discouragemen
and tendency to disqualification among
the body of the teachers.
1t is a menace to the integrity Of the
school system of Philadelphia.
s0T,HERE are three classes into which
l. all of the public school teachers
can be divided" said Doctor Gruen
berg.
"In the first class there is the great
body of those who are disinclined tC
throw aside their profession or occupa
tion for the sake Of a few dollars in
crease which they might obtain in some
other line Of work. / call this eco
nomic inertia.
"Another class is governed by sense
of conservation to their profession. This
conservation and sacrifice hold them
to their work year after year.
"The third class is made up of those
of Indifferent ability, who remain in
the profession because they have no
place else to go or could not get situa-
tion anywhere else that would pay them
as well.
1.-THE Board Of Education by the
power it possesses is really taking ad-
vantage of the first two classes. II
seems to me very much as though the
members of the board who oppose the
advance or are Indifferent to the sub
ject have arrived at the conclusion that
there will be general reduction pretty
soon in the high cost of living, and that
an advance will not then be necessary.
1T is a dangerous attitude to as
sumo, If the assumption is true! Above
all else we must guard the integrity OF
the public school system, for our public
schools are the bulwark of the nation. -
COUNTY COMMISSIO IONER
~ GEORGE +. HOLMES saw the
advent of equal suffrage from new
angle yesterday.
OF course, the necessity of being fore
handed in the matter of providing ia :
cilities for women voters, should suf-
frage be ratified, is already being dis.
cussed by everybody interested, from
the Governor, Attorney General Schaf-
fer and the county commissioners down
to the precinct election officers.
And right in the precinct is where
the real, hard, difficult part of this new
element in our American life will ap-
pear.
The change, or enlargement, of pres
ent facilities to accommodate a voting
population that will be just about dou :
bled is huge task.
A leading member of the equal suf :
frage organization has proposed to
Commissioner Holmes a plan to solve
the problem of the increased number of
election officers, viz:
Utilize select corps of women
chosen from among the public school
of the city,
THERE is large element Of common
L sense in the suggestion.
The women school teachers did splen
did work when the sugar rationing
crisis arose in the food administration
during the war. They were apt pupils
in quickly learning the intricacies of
government applications, certificates
and affidavits.
Besides, it will give the women voters
recognition in the election
of the city. They would
full panopled, into the fight.
Commissioner Holmes and his asso =
ciates will take the suggestion under
careful consideration.
1t would be necessary, for weeks be-
fore the election doubtless, to establish
a school Of instruction for these women
to be drilled in their duties as election
officials.
No one with a grain of sense will
doubt that with such apt pupils the
school would be success.
COLONEL FRED TAYLOR PUSEY,
" special deputy attorney general in
charge of the wrecked North Penn
Bank case, is preparing to pay the de-
pOsitors of that shattered concern q %
per cent dividend on its available assets,
he tells me.
He expects in the future to pay other
but just how much or within
what period of time he cannot say.
There are something like $4,000 de =
positors to whom this will be joyful
The work of getting the assets to =
gether, sitting them out patiently from
the mass of fraud and forgery, is a
tedious and difficult task. OF necessity
it must progress very slowly.
AS for the unfortunates whose Lib
erty Bonds were intrusted to the bank
wreckers, there is little or no hope of
except through an appeal
to Congress. They are not regarded as
creditors IN the same sense as de-
positors.
COLONEL PUSEY, whose familiarity
- with the affairs of the North Penn
Is very intimate as a result of the
months of study he has given the mat
ter, is of the opinion that the origin
of the whole disastrous chain of events
was not, in the beginning at least, de
liberate criminality.
1T began in loose, careless and un
systematic methods of conducting bust
ness" he said.
bad bookkeeping was, possibly, its
origin. There were gaps and assures
in the accounts that could not be closed
small at the beginning
SO juggling of figures began. AS time
went on the bank officials, those di
rectly in charge of the work, discovered
how easy it was to falsify balances, and
from this grew the vaster evil which
led to the wreck of the institution and
the criminal downfall of those respon
sible."
The statement of Colonel Pusey il
exceedingly interesting from the purely
side. Literally inter
preted, it will no doubt account fol
n,nnu hnnE failures, MI a.. ...:I-..- -