McAndrew Walks Out

Superintendent William McAndrew last week tried to persuade the Chicago Board of Education, "trying" him for insubordination and conduct incompatible with and in violation of his duty (TIME, Sept. 12 et seq.), to read a statement of his position. A summary of the entire Chicago affair, it read in part:

"It is now nearly three months since your president and five members voted to charge me with insubordination and improper conduct in having entered into an unlawful confederacy with certain employes of the board, designated as extra teachers.

"It is now seven months since the new Mayor, in his official inaugural address, declared his intention, though he has no proper jurisdiction over the schools, to proceed to oust the superintendent.

"I have, week after week, presented myself for a trial upon the above charges, which has been denied me. "The repeated, published assertion of your president that he will put the superintendent out; the degradation of your school system in the eyes of the entire country by editorial condemnation of this trial as a farce and vaudeville; the cloud of aspersion you permit to remain on your best teachers that they recommended to the superintendent the adoption of poisoned books; the effect on your school children of the "continued newspaper characterization of your proceedings as a travesty on justice; the repeated and uncontradicted editorial designation of this trial as before a packed jury and an admittedly prejudiced judge, all lead me to desire to escape being a party to the continuance of what is almost universally regarded as burlesque."

The Board of Education, a partial set of false teeth in Mayor William Hale Thompson's capable mouth, has orders to chew up Superintendent McAndrew. It refused to receive his statement. Whereupon Superintendent McAndrew silently collected his papers on his desk in the "trial" room, turned his back on the board and began to walk out.

Frank Righeimer, board "prosecutor" screamed: "This is a four-flushing retreat. He is hurling defiance at the board. He is deciding for himself."

Superintendent McAndrew reached the door. The voice of the board's president, J. Lewis Coath, reached him: "Will the superintendent please remain?" Superintendent McAndrew's short, broad-shouldered form passed the door jam. Mayor Thompson's figurative teeth gnashed. One of them broke from the denture. It was Walter J. Raymer, Chicago banker, theretofore docile member of the board. He cried:

"I have tried, to analyze the proceedings as they have been presented. We have heard individuals from the Pacific coast and we have heard individuals from the Atlantic coast express their opinions on the writings of other individuals. But I can't understand why real evidence upon the charges is not presented. I am willing to listen to the long-haired patriot from the Pacific coast. I am willing to listen to the witnesses from the Atlantic coast but [his voice rose with anger] I am not willing to listen to Mr. Russell, a Socialist ['prosecution' witness testifying of pro-British propaganda in the U. S.], whose greatest ambition is realized when you pit nation against nation." The Chicago affair may become Cadmean* for Mayor Thompson.

*Cadmus, in mythology, planted dragon's teeth in the ground. They sprouted into soldiers, who soon fought with each other, killed all but five of themselves.