Detroit evening times., 1945-05-09


fame and fortune while a lot Of
liver-lip slobs hung over our
shoulders.
Whatever these people do
down here is sure to be fear
lessly denounced by one group
or another as q betrayal Of de-
mocracy which is a putty word,
that can be nodded into any
meaning you like and there has
been SO much preaching and
lecturing in print and on the aiR
that, no kidding, our punditry
are just making themselves
plum dam ridiculous.
This discussion has been more
over, the dullest, most tasteless
lot of ashes of old arguments
ever heard outside the College
of the City of New York so that
the effect is that OF q lot Of
grog-pots talking il out In q
( gritty tavern.
A ND so, today, ] am pleased
"A that John +. Delaney. who
seems TO be the press agent for
the Chicago school system.
wants me to express my senti-
ments regarding public school
education, the occasion being q
celebration commemorating the
opening of the first pub -
school there. 100 years ago.
Well. as TO that, when my FAM
lily landed in Chicago in the fall
of 1904. down from Minneapolis.
the Horace Greedy School TO
which we were sent was con-
sidered to be an old building.
The boys and girls were .
very decent lot and with the
exception of one who went TO
the reform school and was .
heroic figure among us. none OF
them turned out bad as far az
/ ever heard.
On the credit side, there was
Herb Crafts. a writer who has
distinguished his name in the
newspaper business in Chicago.
and fellow named Vargex.
whose old man was janitor Of
the school and who. in the first
big war. was one OF the pioneer
battle photographers.
Then there was noted
swimmer and Olympic cham
pion OF years and years ago
named Harry Hebner and. for
a time al least, I think. we had
as fellow student a boy named
Manton Eddy who turned up in
Normany last summer COM
mandino an American division
with skill and grace.
This group occurred in Pc
riod Of four or five years and
suggest that II isn't bad score.
and | hope the rate OF dlstinc-
ton has continued
I STARTED there only a
L years after the big fire which
isn't so terribly many years
when you have accumulated half
hundred and ! have lately
marveled that Chicago had
shaken of the ashes and ex.
panded and showed absolutely
no trace OF the fire except some
trash kept in a collection At
saloon called the Relic House -
In recent years, friends
mine in Chicago have told ~
that they wouldn't risk their
kids in the public schools and
therefore either send them 10
pay schools or move TO the
suburbs where the social class
is nicer.
Well. that is pretty generally
the case in big cities nowadays.
and il ] had children in New
York I would 90 to Jail rather
than expose them to the condi-
tons in the public schools.
Not all Of them are alike, but
in some New York schools kids
are actual little gunmen and
knife fighters who terrorize
teachers and other kids and put
on stickups before they are out
Of the eighth grade.
THE condition has grown
L worse in La Guardia's time
not only because Of the war but
because his crowd encourages
some Of the lowest riff raft from
other parts Of the country to
colonize there for the relief
benefits and unemployment pay
ments in return for which, Of
course. they voted for La G. and
the New Deal
Nowadays you have to stretch
an ear. too, TO what the kids
are saying 10 learn whether
some teacher is giving them
communism, and I may say that
in my time they were all lust
straight line Americans who
gave you the rs and no funny
business.
I guess they may not have
qualified many OF us for good
prep schools, but our people
didn't 60 to good prep schools,
anyway.
We went to public high
schools. and with most OF us
that was the end of all thst
for there were only few :.
dred thousand college studs ~
in the whole United States.
The best public schools now
adays are in the small citieo
and towns where the teachers
are known personally and So
cially TO the parents, but the
whole system suffered a knock
when it developed that for all
their talk about the dear old