Читать книгу The Goslings: A Study of the American Schools онлайн

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Mr. Herbert Clark, recently promoted by Mrs. Dorsey, came to Mr. Bettinger with a proposition: they had “got the goods” on Lickley; they wanted to take him out and put in one of their own gang; they would let him stay as an assistant, but with minor duties; and if Mr. Bettinger would consent to this program, they would make him the next superintendent of schools in Los Angeles. Mr. Bettinger refused, and then the gang took the charges before the Municipal League, which asked to have them in writing, and to have them sworn to; but instead of doing this, the gang induced a poor old lady to bring the charges before the county board of education, asking that Dr. Lickley’s license as a teacher be revoked. The old lady had understood that the charges would be secret—but whiff! they were spread out in the “Times”!

This county board was a gang affair—two of them members of the “Owls,” one of them the brother of an old Southern Pacific Railroad henchman, who ran the recent Water Power campaign for the Black Hand. A third member was the father of Lacy, one of Dr. Lickley’s accusers! In the course of the election campaign, this accuser went to a meeting of the Los Angeles City Teachers’ Club, and started to speak. His right to speak was challenged, because he was not a member; whereupon he paid his fee, received his membership card, and made his speech. It proved to be a series of false statements concerning Dr. Oxnam—that Oxnam had been in jail recently, and that he had been barred from speaking in the city of Long Beach. Some of the teachers objected, and succeeded in silencing Lacy, until Oxnam could appear to answer the charges. Oxnam wrote, demanding that Lacy produce his evidence, and challenging Lacy to appear at the next meeting of the teachers. Lacy declined to appear, whereupon the Teachers’ Club expelled him.