The New York herald., 1921-12-26
CIVIL WAR OYER BUS
AROUSES OCEANSIDE
Parents Who Want Children
Transported to School Beaten
in Election.

Half the population of Oceanside. L l.,
refused yesterday to wish the other half
q merry Christmas. The chances are
that had the first half tried to be So
ciable the second half would have re-
fused to reply 1t may have been Christ
mas elsewhere. but 1t was just Sunday
IN Oceanside-a cold, unfriendly Sunday
with the tide high and all the cellar
doors locked.
Oceanside occupies a considerable
stretch of the South Shore just north of
Long Beach. The Board of Education
built the Oceanside school In what was
then the center of population. But there
was no rule about the growth Of Ocean
side. Folks went to live there and scat
tered themselves all over the landscape.
They didn't consider 1t necessary to con-
ccntrate around the schoolhouse. They
lived wherever they happened to own
property and the schoolhouse wasn't
portable.
Came cold weather and hard winter
going and the children in the outlying
part found travelling to and from school
serious problem They accumulated
Group. bronchitis. tonsllitis and what not
as children will. Their parents demanded
the public treasury and buy a bus or
something and go around collecting the
children every day. delivering them on
the schoolhouse steps and fetching them
home at the end of the session.
BUS Proposition Beaten.
| Last Friday night the village voted
on the bus proposition. 1t suffered a
fearful defeat. One hundred and seventy
three adults voted against the buses.
Seventy-four voted in favor. The de-
feated faction said they had been done
some way or other, and the victorious
faction said that the matter was settled,
and that the children in the outlying
sections would go to school or their
parents would go to jail. There were
charges Of ballot debauchery and repeat
ing. Folks got to daring each other to
| come out into the middle Of the street
| Even before the voting of Friday
night there had been something of a
school strike. The determined bus advo-
Gates said they'd let their children grow
UP plumb Ignorant rather than let them
walk two miles or so over roads that
would defy horses. James d. Sullivan,
! chief of the compulsory attendance d.
vision of the Department of Education
at Albany. was appealed to. Mr.. Sui
livan threw few quarts of kerosene on
the fire by writing a letter from which
the following Is quoted:
1T appears that children and par
| ents are on a strike to force the Board
| of Education and the community to
allow them to have their own way.
Strikes have come to be of common
occurrence in our times, and the chill
dren absent from school are apparently
being trained in the strike spirit and
may be expected to be shining lights in
the ranks of strikers out in adult life,
IL not actually walking delegates
Apparently there is peremptory
| demand made for such transportation
method of strike Is apparently on to
enforce such demand. The demand.
however. should not be recognized be-
cause of the strike"
| Eight Parents Arrested.
Thus far eight parents have been
arrested In Oceanside for not sending
their children to school. They say they
/ will not give In until the Atlantic Ocean
becomes drinkable. All eight are to be
arraigned before Justice ,Neu in Lyn-
/ brook on January 6. Eight new con-
stables have been sworn In. for emer-
| gencies.
The advocates of the BUS system OF
pupil transportation say that their plan
would cost the village $1,000 and save
ten times that much in doctor bills and
worry The victorious faction say they
can't afford the money because they
has 10 scrape together $4,000 for a
new athletic field for the high school,