New-York tribune., 1921-10-28
Hylan Juggling
School Figures,
Nudd Declares
Innuendo and Misstatement
Called Mayors Devices
to Divert Public Wrath
From His Administration
Rockefeller Gifts Small
One of Many Supporters of
Association; Democrats
Brought Gary Plan Here

Howard W. Nudd, director Of the
Public Education Association, yester-
day denied the truth of campaign state
ments by Mayor Hylan. Mr.. Nudd
charges the Mayor with juggling with
the part-time figures in the public
schools for campaign purposes, and
charges him further with undertaking
the number of children who are not re-
ceiving full time instruction. Mr..
Nudd also shows that prominent Demo
Gratis, among others. in this city were
responsible for the introduction of the
Gary plan into the public schools.
The statement says, in part:
I'm an effort to divert public indigna-
ton from the tragic plight of the
schools he (the Mayor is resorting to
his favorite device of talking about the
'Rockefellers,' the Gary ring, the mill
and the factory and similar innuendos
which appeal to blind prejudice alone.
"He has repeatedly said in his public
utterances and mere recently in let
ter. to The World that the figures on
part time and congestion which have
appeared in the press are false and
have been supplied By the director of
the Public Education Association, who
is an employee of the Rockefellers,
who. furnished the largest share of
funds to that organization, their public
contributions totaling $17,5O0,'
"The part-time and congestion fig
ures which have been quoted by this
association are from the official statis-
tics of the Department Of Education
which have been released to the public
and not through this association. In
order to camoutlage his failure Mr..
Hylan has cited part-time figures in
the elementary schools only, and has
understated even those. He thus ip
nrores not only the appalling part-time
in the high schools, which totaled
36,695 on September 80, or nearly ten
times as much as year ago, owing to
his failure to provide single new high
school building, but also the 1902 on
various forms of makeshift double-ses-
sions, which make 317,377 pupils in all
who are not on regular full time. Fig
ures do not lie, but sometimes they are
sadly misfgured.
1.-The statement that Mr.. Rockefeller
furnishes the largest share of the
funds of this association is equally
false. The $17,500 his honor mentions
represent Mr.. Rockefeller's total con-
tributions to US for four years, during
which our income from our hundreds
of members and contributors was over
$l4O,O00 We are sorry that Mr.. Rookie
teller and others have not given us
more; we need every dollar we can get
from publc-s spiritede citizens in our
fight for the schools. But Mr.. Rookie
feller's gifts have never had strings to
them, and the director has in no wav
been his employee.
"The Gary plan, as every informed
citizen knows, was brought to New
York City bv a committee of school
and city officials, including, among
others, Thomas W. Churchill, then
president of the Board of Education
and a Tammany adherent, DR.. William
l.. Ettinger, who has since been made
Superintendent of Schools by Mr.. Hy-
lan's Board of Education, and George
G. Gillespie, who has long been promi-
nent in Democratic circles. This plan
mad been in operation in New York City
Tor several months before this associ-
atlon was won over to its support by
the enthusiasm of the principals of the
two original Gary schools in this city,
who believed that it would give the
vast army of boys and girls in our
public schools advantages which only
the children of the rich receive in
the better private schools"