, 1962-02-07
WEDNESDAY
Continued from Page 8

LSLCS, p0,0IU per dnnuIH. epUeHlO y 0O0 postum WS ASCN0oi
fled as Supervisor Of Educational Statistics, at $578O, per annum
From 1855, Mrs. Caroline has been reaSigned progressively from
one lower position right after another. From the conversations she
had with me-, I sensed that she was painfully aware that while she
had gone down from her lofty position as Assistant Superintendent
other Virgin Islanders with less college and university training and
not anywhere near as many years of experience as she had have
moved up to occupy responsible positions in the Department
S. THE ARTICLE AND EDITORIAL ST. CRox NEWS
CURRENT DATED JANUARY IS, 1862: 1t was no surprise to me
that Mrs. Caroline o someone representing her went to the papers
with her story. She felt she was m1stroated again. In 1905, II WaS
ian active member" of NAACP. who CALAMITY came to her defense
tsee attachment No. 28). This time it was the NEWS CURRENT and
its editor. In both instances, it was Mrs. Juanita M. Gaddine, "a ma
tive of the Virgin Islands" against a 'non-Natve".
The NEWS CURRENTS account of the resignation of Mrs. Gar
dine and our January 4th meeting was obviously biased and was
presented in a manner. to prove a point Of view. and to show me +
the worst light Both the article and the editorial violated the basic
element of fair play, every rule of ethics and the traditional cour.
tesy of journalism l want to point out that neither Mr.. Roy Gottleb
the editor of the NEWS CURRENT, nor any of his representa- Vef
ever approached me o anyone close to my administration for my side
of the story. Up to now, 1 haven't seen a one of them This was most
unfortunate because onthebasis of Mrs. Gardine's story alone, the
paper editoriaized against me numerically and unjustly. The article
quoted me, literally, and of course, twisted things around. No one
was at the meeting with Mrs. Caroline, except Mrs. Caroline and me
Under the circumstances, a good newspaper would have questioned
the use of direct quotations.
Now let me refer to the NEWS CURRENT article and the elito,
rial of the 18th of January.
The first thing I want to clear up is the alleged insult. Let M
say uncategoricaly and without any mental reservations whatsoever
that l did not insult Mrs. Caroline. Let me say, toe. in the same wav
that | did not give Mrs. Caroline "a verbal dressing down" as the
NEWS CURRENT had it. I believe that my upbringing, my trainino,
my personality, my station in life and my position of trust and respon-
sibiity place me way above and beyond the class of people who in
u n DluII.
The article carried several statements attributed to me. Some
were never uttered by me, others were taken out of context and twist
ed. and in at least two instances, Mrs. Caroline herself put the words
in my mouth.
The NEWS CURRENT quoted me as saying to Mrs. Caroline
"Gn a harsh tone of voice." that l did not like the idea of your send
ing copies of the letter to the Board and the Governors Office" While
the idea of what I said is essentially correct, it left out a qualifying
clause and it was not said the way it wa quoted This had reference
to Mrs. Gardines letter to me Of. December Z 1861, concerning her
salary and other matters, copies of which Wcre sent to the Governor
and Board Chairman. I told her-not in a harsh voice as the NEWS
CURRENT had it-that since other officers of the Department Of Edu-
cation do not send copies of letters on official departmental matters
to the Governor and the Board Chairman, and since she herself does
not send copies of every letter of hers to them, / suspected that copies
of her letter of December Z, 1861, were sent with some Interior mo-
tives. I told her that while | have no particular objection to her send
ing COPIES of thisletter to the Governor and the Chairman of the
BoarG, 1 took a dim view of their being sent as an attempt to threaten
intimidate or pressure me. This same view was expressed in my let
ter to Mrs. Caroline dated December IA, 1861. (se attachment No 16)
She was apologize about it and I didn't give her a verbal dressing
down"
The NEWS CURRENT twisted the following statement attributed
to me: "The job you are doing is relatively unimportant, therefore
instead of seeking an increase in pay you should put in for a reduc.
ton" never made the statement. What happened was this: In a dis
cussion of her position aSEducational StatStician Mrs. Caroline said