And The Vote Stood 7 To 2

Section 14 of the rules of the board of educatton waa repealed last night and the twelve members of secret societjes suspended under its provieions returned to school this moriiing. The vote on the repeal stood 7 to 2, the yoa and nay vote bei.ng as follows : yeas- Mdnier, Mack, Seott, Jacobs, Wiiedon, Beal and Miise Bower . Nays- Gruner ,and Smifch. The fraternilties have won their poirnt. Olie eotieties raay go on unimpeded by the decisiojis of Principal Pattengill. And to all appearances Principal PattengiU Is glad that there is no longer any secret society rule to interpret. Last aiiglit's meeting of the Iward was Bi warm one. Tliere was not a rery ton-id display of calorie amone thie members of the board, but t.uie Tisitors kept down the necessity for tuniing on more heat from the steam pipes. Bupt. Ferry's office wae ..-vowded to doors. The liarents of t.he suspended chüdren were tliero to plead for the cause oí their ahilaren and the fraternities. The suispendied etudents were present and not iat all afrald of speaking out in meeting-. Tliere wasa't a bit of lagging betweeo speeclies, and sometimes tiree or tour persons were tryhig' to get in their argumente and gesticulations at the same time. The enthTisiasm lasted until the meeting etood odjourned, and it dijdn't stop even tlien, for the fraternlty boys consklerod the occasion worthy of a jolllfication and the high school veil echoed thixjughout the Btreets of the city nntil a late hour. rresidetnt Beal called the of the board to order at 7:30, all the members being present except J. T. Jacobs and lie came in later and made ■up for lost time. Pres. Beal , ed the pui-pose of the meeting and invited the epokesman for the suspendeiTboys it o i-pcak. Tlie ijivitation did not remnijii lont? unaccepted. Mr. H. P. Danforth arose, took off hls ovencoat and told why he was preeent. He unid that lie deenied the cause for suspension insufficient and he wantod the studente reinstated except more cause was showa for the i of Principal Pattengill. He asserted that the societies were not secret. The paréate liad watched theni closely. Tliey would rather that the societies exist than not. There was 110 harm in them and they dil not intcrfere wifch school work. He telt ouiraged at the manner of suspension. No notice had been given The párente. There had been no opportunity for explanation. The actixm' was at a critical time, just before examinations when the loss of tinne meant loss of credits. He demanded ünmediate re-instatement. Tlien Dr. S. A. Jones took the floor and waxed eloquent and wroth at the samo tune. He read the pledge of Zeta Kho and said that any society with the sentiment behind it that sucli a pledge eontained, was. worthy of support. The i-ignificanco of the Grreek ivords was mot open to the world, but they eontained a motto for which the members, if they were true to their Bociety, would shed their lieart's blood. It eontained the i!a'liings inculcated by Him of Nazareth. It was not for school ,but for life. He was glad that such a, spirit existed. He spoke of the tyranny of the school teacher as the worst tyranny in the world and roundly scored the teachers who would euspend a student without opportujiity íor a hearing. Dr. David Zimmermaai next spoke for the boys. He had watched the growth of the societies from infancy. In fact the om; most in question was formed in liis Hack yard with the consent of evcry fatlier and motlier conoerned. iHe maintained that the societies were all rSght He dems i'eiiistatcment at once. Mr. Minear hei-e offered a resolution tliat the suspended students be reinstated and tliat Bectio-n 1-í be repealed. He tivought thai the board was going fmiliur than it had a right to do in pTom'ulgating :my such rale. It liad as good a right to kuspend for membership to tin; Chrlstlan Emdeavor Society. His motion was ,ii(1im1 by Mr. Scott, but the audienoe was not talked out yet and the verbal display went on. Mr. Scott thooight such societies were all right, but they ought to bo restricted. In soine cases they detracted from the scliool work. If the board rules were thrown down entirely, bad societies would come in. Still üe supported the anotion to repeal the rule. Dr. W. 15. Smith, of the board, thought it was not time to vote yet. Tüuey Tvere sittingas a soa-t of board of arbitration and they ought to ten to all the re was. t-o be said. The resoliitíon was too previous in his opinión. They should first find out whether the students had really been suspended for bekmging to a secret society. What did they mean by a secret eocLety ? There was no secrecy abcmt one when its eessions were held when parents were passing through the room. (This point go tiokled one of the soiepended boys that he laxighed right out in meeting:-) "NTien Section 1-t ivas passed, a. secret society was one tliat held its meetings down town in a lia 11 and drank beer and smoked cigare aaid raised 'ed. He understood that the present societies were something different. Mi. Bach then spoke in behall of the boy.s, fceUlng what sort of initiations -ere Iield. ,She lcnew all about them íor they wei-e held in the store room of her hbusé, and the boys had to go home at eleven o'cloek evesry night. Mr. Jacobs wanted to hear what Principal Pattengill had to say, but Miss lïower interrupted to find out how long the obnoxious Sec. 14 had been ie existence. It was finally .ettled tliat the troublesome law had liTed anywhere from eix to eighteeu .Mars. Principal Pattengill and Superintendent Perry said it -as eig-hteen. In the meanwhile it had been torgotten that Mr. Pattengill was goiiii;- to speak and Mr. AVil.son, ■r í.-itlu'i' oi suspended boy. "■ut the ílftor. He thought the wilde lot should be suspended or none at all. It ivas tinjust to select a few. The sald "Sec. 14 was, in his opinión, a lelie of bygone days, like the Blue X.aws of Connecticut. Finally Principal Pattengill took iho floor to defend hi.s action. In administering the rule he said that he had found considerable diEficulty. He liad tried to live lip to it. At the ame time he liad and would do no detective work. If the board would authO'ilze the employment of a detective he might enforce the rule to the letter. Things notorious to the toivn wcre not so notorious to tlie ieachere. He knew the fraternities were liere. "When the members wëre questioned by him they evaded the questio,ns. Things had gone on till now. Thi-ee or lour nien had acknowledjged to liim that the organizations wero secret soeieties. Others toM that they weren ot, and he was surprisied. The average pupil was not tibie to draw any dis-tinction. He liad been compelled to see every week the effecis upon the scholaxghip of the students, eometimes upon their moráis. He had been helpless. Noíw "when the case had been so he could, lie had acted. He supposed he had lóne so within the rule, the atteinpt to eaforce which had not been pleasant. i Then Supt. Ferry's opinión was called for. He arose to give it, but in the meantime Messrs. Miner and Scott got intü an animated discussion over soinething and the superintendent was forgotten and sat down. When the two board members werequieted, Mr. Perry, in reply to a request from the board, stated his opinión of the societies. He said that in his opinión they were injurious to the scholarship of the members, often to a serious extent. Often there was an inmoral effect. He often had to caution new students against the invitations. AVe knew of a number of cases of mural injury. The societies were not all alike. It was difficult to frame a rule covering all cases. As a rule the poorer classes of students joiued the sorirties, or else the societies made them poor students. He thought the societies had no place in the high school. They ought to be postponed until the üniversity. At this point, Dr. Jones' emotions overéame him again and he arose to ob ject to the arbitrary inanner in which the rule had been carried out. It was worthy, he said, of the Czar of Rnssia. -Mr. Pattengill said that Dr. Jones had been misinformed. He had inferred that the men carne to him as representatives of the societies and that they had talked the matter over and settled it among themselves. Mr. Tilton, one of the suspended students, related his experienco with Mr. Pattengill. Dr. Jones made the statement that he was prepared to prove that one of the teachers had said that no gmatter whether the fraternities beat or not, I they (the teachers) would have it in for thein aftcrward. Supt. Perry objected to such a statement being made. He didn't believe any teacher ever said it. To which Dr. Jones replied warmly that he desired it to be understood that when he said anything he could prove it and he could prove that statement to ;he dotting of an i. Mr. Denison, a student, was overeóme by the situation, and beating back his bashfulness he aróse to say that he had heard a teacher say that "as soon as we flnd out the menibers of the.[secret societies we will make it as hard for them as we can." J. V. Sheehan was called upon fora speech and he made a very sensible one. He thought the board had better heed the advice of the superintendent. There mist be authority somewhere. Thoy had better adjourn, go home and think the matter over calnily. In the meantime the superintendent or principal might give them ix hint abont the societics that would change their minds. Mr. Jacobs said that was what lie had been thinking about for the past ten minutes. He said : "Go slow." Mr. Francis Stofflet made a speech against the fraternities. Mr. Wilson wanted to know if Supt. Perry knew a single moral flaw in one of the suspended students. Supt. Perry replied that he knew no moral flaw. Mr. Miner said that he would like to see the students reinstated and the section arnended at the next meeting when he would be in Elorida, and they could blow their bugle. Miner's resolution was changed so that itincluded reinstatement, pending investigation. President Beal suggested that any motion providing for reinstatement before the repeal of section 14 would be declared out of order. Dr. Smith moved a substitute motion providing that the students be ordered to report to their classes in the morning to learn their fate and that in the meanwliile the board go into executive session with the superintendent and principal to settle the matter, The motion was lost. Then Mr. Miner's motion was changed to include the repeal of section 14 and het motion carried by the vote given above, The fraternities had won.