New-York tribune., 1921-09-13
Great Crowds
Hail Curran i'm
Two Boroughs
Experimentation Candi-
date Addresses Throngs in
Manhattan and BROOKLYN.
Assailing Lack of Schools
Pledges His Fullest Aid
Refuses To Be Drawn Into
Outside Issues and Sticks
to Little Old New York


tion candidate for Mayor Of New
York City, made two addresses last
night to large audiences at the 10th
Assembly District Republican Club,
73o Twentieth Avenue, Brooklyn, and
at the Goth Assembly District Repub-
lican Club, 1O7 East 125th Street.
Mr.. Curran was greeted by huge
crowds in the street outside both meet
ing places, and during the progress of
his address at the East 125th Street
meeting, hundreds struggled for ad-
mission to the hall.
Mr.. Curran said in part:
81 have spoken of the different cam
palgn cries of my opponents in the
primaries, and you and / know that
none of them has anything to do with
the city government, but, for my rart,
/ am going to stick to little old New
York. My opponents may wander away
as far as they like, but you and I have
some New York City matters to settle
| and we are going to settle them be-
fore this year is over.
Owe Them Full School Day
! Tonight 1 want to talk with you a
few minutes about our schools. There
are 100000 children in our city who go
| to the public schools and to-d&y they
left their vacation and went to school
We are the grown-ups Of this genera
every one of these little children
What are we giving them?
cover 100000 of them will be on part
time or double session; in other words,
one out of every nine children is hav-
ing his or her education crippled by
the neglect of their elders. The chill
dren have no vote and they do not go
to the Board of Estimate meetings, but
they have the same rights we had when
we were children ourselves. One of
these rights is the free education of
every child This has been guaranteed
by the constitution of the state for
nearly 100 years. Are we going to
stand by and see 100000 New York chill
dren denied the right that has been
theirs for 100 years?
"This morning a father of three chill
dren came in and asked me to visit the
school that his children go to on Wash
ington Heights, in Manhattan. I went
up there and found 2,200 children going
to a school that was built for 1,7O0
children. This means that 1000 chill
dren are on double session.
"They have to go in and out of
the five hours in school to which they
are entitled. Some of them have to
be in school at 8 o'clock in the morn
ing, others at 9, 80 and at 10 o'clock.
That means three or four different
breakfasts and three or four different
lunches that the mothers Of some fami-
lies must get in order to give their
children proper nourishment. That
means discomfort in the school and
discomfort in the home, and 1 say this
is wrong.
800 Sent Half-Mile Away
"More than that, there were 300
children in that district who could not
go into the school at all, and they
were shunted off to school half
mile away. When they got up there
they found that even in this other
school they would be on double ses-
sion.
"It is simple enough proposition.
around You and l will have more to
say about this as the year goes on,
and so will the fathers and mothers
of the 100000 children who are the
innocent victims of a neglect that dis
graces our city.
"Havc you heard anything from my
opponents about this? While they are
discussing their own pet political af-
fairs have they shown any interest in
our schools? Outside of my talks with
you, the only comment have heard is
Mayor Hylan's statement to-day after
visiting a few schools that this was
the happiest day of his life. Well,
it isn't the happiest day in the lives Of
the fathers and mothers of those 10O,-
900 children. Mayor Hylan may be
happy about it, but am not. and
don't think you are, either. That is
why tell you we have enough to talk
about this fall right in the City of
New York without going further afield.
IF Mayor Hylan's administration
could have stopped its political quar-
reling and back-biting and got to work
and built few schools instead we
might have got somewhere. We have
tried that administration for four
years and they have spent the time
lighting each other and with the Board
of Education instead of building
schools. We don't want four years
more of that and we won't have It'll"