Criticism Of Schools

One, F. G. Clark, who is advertised as a professor of something or other in a school down in Ohio, in responding to a toast at the banquet of the high school alumni, embraced the opportunity to condeinn The DeMOCRAT for daring to criticise the conduet of the public schools of this city. If the professor is to be judged by his utterances upon that occasion, he, like some of the fossils who nourish upon the LJniversity campus, has devoted so much time to the contemplation of the value of his own services to the public that he has forgotten that that public which foots the bilis and for whose benefit schools are instituted and supported, has anything to say in the matter. And this is where the professor made his mistake. It is the privilege of' the teacher to place as high an estímate upon the value of his services as he chooses. But when those services are placed in the market they must, like everything else, be sold at the market price. The school district is as much entitled to the benefit of competition in securing teachers as it is in contracting for the erection of a new building. Quallty rather than price determines the value of the services of the teacher. In the matter of public salaries it is a fact patent to all observers that the amount of the salary is not so often measured by the qualiflcations as it is by the " pull " of the recipiënt. No greater in jury could be done our public schools than to exempt them f rom eriticism. The public institutions that is placed without the pale of criticism is deprived of one of the most usef ui spurs to excellence and progressive work. Our schools are not, as some would have us think, a species of sacred cow which the common public must not profane with outspokeu opinions. They are just plain everyday institutions supported at public expense and should be conducted upon business principies, (ood business principies imply that the cost of conducting them shall be as low as good service can be obtained for. The Djemoorat opened the discussion of this quesliou of school ex penses because it believes it a proper matter for public discussion. It is too luleto do anything in the way of re trenchment this year, but it may as well be set down as a foregone conclusión that unless á business revival increases the resources of this cummunity in the next 11 months this discussion wil] bear fruit in a reduction of salaries to meet the condition of the times.