The New York herald., 1921-10-25

toilets, broken windows, drak class
rooms. r. 'sety ana dangerous stalrcases
dIapidatcd buildings and 50 on"
Referring to Mayor Hylan's promise
TO abolish the Gary system because It
was designed 'by the inoneybund" to fit
school children for nothing better than
the mills and factories the speaker added !:
If anybody is sending the children of
New York to the mills and factories it
Is Mayor Hylan. because he has not
given the children the ordinary educa-
ton they have right to expect"
What Is the testimony OF Aiming $.
Prall. president OF the Board OF Educa-
ton? When ne appeared last September
before the Meyer committee he said that
though the Gary plan, which Mayor
Hylan denounced as a "capitalistic de-
vice" had been totally eliminated from
the schools. there had been substituted
in its place what the witness called the
Ettfnger plan. This he admitted 20 b.
practically Identical with the other. Mr..
PraIl assentod when Senator Zion r.
Brown, counsel to tho coira'tiea. de-
fined the difference as about the same
as between twcedledee and tweediedum-"
II was further eiioited there had been
$40, ,000.0 900 available for specific school
improvements. including new buildings
and additions, when Hylan entered Of
flee. 1t had been left over from the
Mitchell administration. Contracts for
which it provided, however. were re-
scinded and the funds diverted by the
Hylan administration and in the process
years time was lost. Only half u
dozen new schools were opened In 1918.
1919 and 1890. These. with the twelve
new schools opened this fall. provide
only $4,000 seats Mr.. Prall admitted
that the system, as it now operates. Is
inadequate and inefficient The school
officials simply have to do the best they
can. he said. under existing handcaps.
Testimony showed further that school
violations OF Fire Department regula-
tions had been pn ing up year by year.
but that the first appropriation made
by the Hylan administration for THAR
correction was made on April q, 1921,
when $3.50 coo was sci aside for that
purpose. The estimated cost of safe
guarding stairways. providing extin-
guishers, ireproofng closets and tax
ing other necessary precautions against
fire disaster is placed at si.6ooWo.
Fifty fires traced directly 60 this
negligence were described in records
taken from the Department of Educa-
ton files and submitted to tho Meyer
committee. If there were to be fire
disaster III one OF the schools. 1t was
shown, responsibility would rest first
upon the Board of Estimate and APP
portionment for failing to provide funds
for safeguarding the schools, and, sec
ondly, upon the Board OF Education
for failing to use for that purpose the
money available. Mr., Prall said the
board had begged repeatedly but vainly
for appropriations for this purpose from
the Hyian Board of Estimate. OF the
sixteen votes which that body casts
when all its members are present Mayor
Hylan casts three and his associate.
Comptroller Charles L. Craig. three.
The other voting members are the
President Of the Board OF Aldermen and
the respective Borough Presidents
Testimony as to Fires.
Maurice Deutsch, architect and en-
gineer, who made q survey of the school
buildings in relation to fire prevcn-
ton, was another witness before the
Meyer committee II was he who placed
the cost OF making the structures COM
ply with the fire laws at about S4.5oo, 90.
Mr.. Deutsch testified:
There are about 100 schools in which
there are wooden stairways without en-
closures, as required by the Fire De-
partment. which is a distinct violation.
Then there are inside wooden stair
ways that must be replaced. The rules
calling for enclosed stairways on each
floor with fire and smoke proof partt-
tions are generally violated. Stairway
terminals are not clear; there are many
such violations. Closets are in open
corridors. Boiler rooms have o1ly one
exit. Coat rooms are in halls and pas
sageways. Children congregate IN cor
ridors, and there are fires OIL record
where boys have thrown matches in
these closets. causing fires.
Movable chairs are used in audito-
RUINS. There are wooden doors along
the limo OF exit stairways ceilings of
boiler rooms arc not freproof attics in
non -freproof buildings are not equipped
with frestops as the law distinctly re-
quircs."
Tho witness went into detail regarding
other violations of the fire rules. There
are at least 100 violations of the rules
regarding fire alarms. There is general
carelessness in the schools in flreproof-
ing Of storerooms and hanging clothing
in exposed closets. Mr.. Deutsch read
O. list OF about fifty fires which nave
occurred in the schools, all due to lack
OF proper freproofing. In each Of these
instances there had been from one TO
fourteen notices from the Fire Depart
ment demanding correction OF the condi-
tions which actually started the fires.
When Mr. Deutsch was asked, did
you ever discuss this with Mr.. Snyder.
of Buildingsw dhe replied
"Yes. he agrees with me-"
1t has been shown that even when
money was available there has been in
excusable delay in starting construction
upon new school structures. Mr.. Prall,
president of the Board of Education,
said this was due to delays in the
Board OF Estimate, delays in approving
sites, delays where estimates Of cost
have been lower than bids"
The history OF the new high school
now approaching completion in Elm
hurst, Queens, was cited as typical Of
what happens when the city starts to
build a school. That job was pending
356 days after everything had been set