Evening star., 1929-12-19
The Unkindest Cut of All.

There have been some unkind cuts
in the exchange of compliments over
blame for failure of the f1ve-year build
ing program for the schools, but the
unkindest cut of all lies in these words
from Representative Simmons:
The schools have used portable build
ingS in Washington ever since I have
had anything to do with the Washing
ton schools. They are what one mem
ber of the committee termed "propa-
ganda buildings" They are held out
as an exemplifcation of the contention
that the District of Columbia is not
fully equipped with school buildings
under the present system.
Washington parents who have been
sending their children to unlighted and
fiimsy portable schools since the
crowded days of the war have thought
all along that the temporary buildings
were being used to accommodate the
overflow of pupils from the permanent
buildings and to serve for the time
being in sections where the num-
ber Of students did not warrant the
construction of permanent schools.
ONb 4O4 Vic 41IoC OG4I1C ILlSy LIOW 4CdIA
that the portables, as a matter of fact,
are propaganda buildings" They are
made to serve the purpose of the corpus
delicti whCn discussion arises as to
who killed tlS.1Ahool building program.
Such use of iSsa portable schools, If
one correctly interprets the spirit of Mr..
Simmons remarks, is unfair and mis-
leading.
Propaganda, according to the die
tionary, is an effort directed system
atically toward the gaining of support
for an opinion or course of action, and
the propaganda buildings, therefore,
are buildings which might be construed
as being used continuously since the
crowded days of the war for the pur-
pose Of gaining support for the con-
tention that Washington's school sys-
TEN is behind in meeting the demands
Of the city.
If this is so, has the propaganda
been good propaganda or bad propa-
ganda? If results are to Judge the
facts, they have not been particularly
good propaganda, because the number
Of portables is only eight less than
ten years ago. There are seventy
one Of them in use now, and in Febru-
ary the number will be reduced by
four or five, but, according to Mr..
Simmons, they will never be abandoned
altogether, as long as the city of Wash
tngton is a growing city.
If they are bad propaganda, against
whom has the propaganda been direct
ed? Has it been against the citizens
Of Washington, who have nothing to
say either as to how much money they
will pay in taxes or how their taxes will
be spent? Has it been against the
school children who sit and strain their
eyes in these propaganda buildings? Or
has it been against Congress, responsible
for the government of the District and
the provision Of an adequate school
system?
Regardless Of whether the propaganda
Is good or bad, how or against whom it
has been used, Washington parents will
be only too glad to cease the use of this
particularly obnoxious type OF propa-
ganda as soon as possible. If the port
able schools are being used to accommo-
date children who otherwise would have
no desk room in permanent school
buildings, Washington will endeavor to
prolong its patience, already sorely
stretched, until the happy day when the
school building program is an accom-
plished fact.
But If they are merely propaganda
buildings" let us abandon this form of
propaganda altogether and at once! No
one would be more happy to do so
than the parents Of children who are
unwilling victims Of this peculiarly
vicious system of propaganda"