Friday, February 6, 2015

DR. JAMES M. MILNE RESIGNS FROM CORTLAND NORMAL SCHOOL




The Cortland Democrat, Friday, May 10, 1889.

Dr. Milne Resigns.
   At a meeting of the Local Board of the Cortland Normal school on Saturday afternoon last the following letter of resignation from Dr. J. M. Milne was read by the President:
To the Local Board of the State Normal School, Cortland, N. Y.
   GENTLEMEN: I hereby submit my resignation from the chair of Latin and Greek in the Cortland Normal school and ask that such resignation take effect at end of present school year. I would at the same time express my hearty appreciation of the many kindnesses, both official and otherwise, which I have received at all times from every member of your body, and would hope that in the future, even more than in the past, the school under your immediate direction may take the high rank to which it is entitled.
   Very cordially and respectfully,
   JAS. M. MILNE.
   The resignation was duly accepted, and on motion of Mr. Hugh Duffy the following resolutions were unanimously adopted:
   Resolved, That this Board accepts with deep regret the resignation of Dr. Jas. M. Milne, who has filled the chair of Latin and Greek in the Cortland Normal school for the past twelve years, and that we feel it due both to Dr. Milne and ourselves that we should place upon the records of the Board an expression of our appreciation of the faithful and valuable work which he has done, and of his high qualities as a teacher and as a man.
   During his long service in the position which he is soon to leave, Dr. Milne has manifested a thorough loyalty to the best interests of the school, as well as deep devotion and ardent enthusiasm for his special department. He has been a source of inspiration to the pupils who have come under his influence, not only in the study of the classics, but in inciting them to thoroughness and accuracy in general scholarship, and in fostering an earnest desire for higher education. No student has ever asked him for help, in school or out of it, without meeting with a cordial response, and no teacher has impressed himself more deeply upon the school or the community.
   His wide and accurate information, his habits of critical and comprehensive study and his facility and success in imparting knowledge and awakening interest, have made him one of the most valuable instructors our school has ever had. His students have ranked high after graduating from this school, both in college, as teachers and as men and women of character, and to them has been due no small part of the reputation which the Cortland Normal school has enjoyed.
   While parting with Dr. Milne with genuine regret, we cannot forbear to congratulate him upon the broad and promising field which opens before him in the principalship of the new Normal school at Oneonta, and to express the confidence, as well as the wish, that he may there meet with the most abundant success.
   Resolved, That the Secretary of the Board transmit copies of these resolutions to our village newspapers and also to the President of the Local Board of the Oneonta Normal school.

PAGE TWO/EDITORIALS.
   Incompetent men are being rapidly appointed to fill the places of competent railway mail clerks. No matter how competent the democratic clerk may be, the fact that he is a democrat, is sufficient cause for his removal.
   Civil service reform, as it is served out by the present administration, seems to meet with much favor among Republican politicians.
   The President has appointed his brother, Carter Harrison, to be Marshal of the middle district of Tennessee. If Cleveland had appointed his brother to a lucrative position under the government what a howl the republican papers throughout the land would have sent up.
   The Standard accuses the DEMOCRAT with the crime of making postmasters for the Harrison Administration. Two weeks ago, just as the DEMOCRAT was going to press, we saw an announcement in the Syracuse Daily Standard, a republican paper, that C. A. Howe had been appointed postmaster at Virgil. Supposing that the Standard knew what it was talking about, we made the same statement as a matter of news. It turned out that the Syracuse Standard was mistaken and that its news is no more reliable than that contained in its Cortland namesake. We beg leave to assure our neighbor, that we will not attempt to do under a republican administration, what we failed to accomplish under a democratic administration.
   Farmers are now looking for their potato quotations to the editorial columns of the Cortland Democrat. Jones has forced the "bulbous roots" down to 10 cents a bushel, and is still jumping on them. If he keeps on at his present rate, they will soon be worth nothing at all, and a fine will be affixed to having them in one’s possession.—Cortland Standard.
   When potatoes reach the latter figure, farmers will undoubtedly be willing to exchange their surplus for copies of the Cortland Standard, bushel for bushel. Even then the farmer would have no reason to feel proud over his bargain. The editor of the Standard will eventually learn, that farmers and all others who are seeking facts, look for and find them in the editorial columns of the DEMOCRAT.
   It hardly becomes a Democratic newspaper to sneer or kick at Republican appointees under circumstances such as the above, especially as the general management of the postal service under Cleveland was the worst that this country has ever known—careless, inefficient and incompetent, as business men everywhere know to their sorrow.—Cortland Standard.
   We had supposed that the mail service under the last administration was satisfactory to the country and the Standard's charge that it was "careless, inefficient and incompetent" is news to us. It is barely possible that our neighbor may be correct however, and it is not very surprising that it should be so, when one calls to mind the fact that almost all the heads of departments in the mail service were republican hold-overs. The superintendents of the railway mail service were nearly all republicans, who were in office when Cleveland took his seat and were not removed until last fall.
   The postmaster at New York was a republican and died in the harness only a few days ago. The post office at Syracuse was in charge of a republican until last July, and in many large towns of the several states, republican postmasters were allowed to remain in office throughout the term of President Cleveland in deference to the civil service rules. In this county several republican postmasters held office throughout the term and are still hanging on. A republican held the office in Homer until last July. A majority of the railway mail clerks in actual service when President Cleveland's term expired were republicans. Is it any wonder that the management of the postal service under Cleveland was "careless, inefficient and incompetent?"

An Unwarranted Perversion of Facts.
   The editor of the Cortland Standard has a peculiar faculty for misrepresentation of facts and seems to thrive, if, indeed, he does not subsist entirely upon falsehood. In an article in his last issue upon the subject of civil service reform, in which he attempts to answer what the DEMOCRAT had to say the week previous on the unwarranted removal of postal clerks Randall and Dunsmoor, he deliberately writes and publishes the following falsehood:
   Three years ago Mr. Randall, who "had never seen the inside of a postal car" and was as "green as any green man" thus far appointed by the Harrison administration, and utterly without experience in the mail service, was appointed under Grover Cleveland, a tried, faithful and honest Republican official having been"fired out'' to make room for him. The same was true of Mr. Dunsmoor, a little over a year ago.
   If our neighbor had taken the slightest pains to inform himself, he would have learned that Mr. Randall was appointed to fill a vacancy in the service, caused by the resignation of Mr. Geo. M. Foster of Binghamton, who was himself a democrat of the strictest sort. Mr. Dunsmoor was appointed an additional clerk, it having been satisfactorily shown to the department that the clerks on the D. L. & W. were handling nearly double the amount of mail matter that clerks on the other lines were required to handle.
   Republican clerks were not "fired out" to make room for either Mr. Randall or Mr. Dunsmoor. What particular object our neighbor could have in making the above false statements we are at a loss to know, unless he thinks that [these] are the best sort of fodder to serve up for the average republican reader.
   But the Standard entirely ignores one of the main points which the DEMOCRAT attempted to demonstrate. It has always claimed to be a great friend of the soldier, as it now claims to be a great friend of our Irish-American citizens. Mr. Dunsmoor was a worthy soldier and a good citizen, but Harrison had hardly commenced the process of warming his chair, when Mr. Dunsmoor was unceremoniously "fired out" to make room for a man who was not in the army at all and the Standard not only justifies but commends the act.
   And yet the party pretends great love for the boys in blue. After our neighbor has secured the votes of the few Irish-Americans he may be able to seduce into voting the republican ticket, they will meet the same fate that...[was] meted out to democratic soldiers. Very few, however, will be caught with the specious promises of the Standard. As a rule they are shrewd people and cannot be caught with the ordinary chaff served up to them by our neighbor.

FROM EVERYWHERE.
   The next centennial celebration is at Oswego, July 14, 1896, the anniversary of the hauling down of the last British flag.
   One of the largest fish ever pulled out of the Clyde river was caught at Lyons [N.Y.] on Wednesday of last week. It was a sucker weighing thirteen pounds and nine ounces, and was caught by a little boy not ten years of age. The little fisherman was completely exhausted in the struggle.
   Bonds and coupons amounting to about $100,000, issued by the town of Lansing, Tompkins county, in aid of the Cayuga Lake railroad, were cancelled and destroyed in the office of the United States court in Utica, Saturday, by order of Judge Wallace, who heard the case of the town of Lansing vs. John T. Lytle.
   The young Heitz boy of Newark [N. Y.], who was almost killed by the accidental discharge of a pistol, the ball entering his head, suffered excruciating pain for weeks and his recovery for a time was doubtful. He has seemingly fully recovered and he has returned to his work, although the bullet is still in his brain.
   The body of Lorenzo Bassett, a Hannibal farmer, who disappeared early in December, was found in the river at Oswego on Friday. Bassett had been about town drinking and made a disturbance in two or three stables on East Second street and was ejected. When last seen he was sitting on the stone coping near the city library in an intoxicated condition.
   The Ontario Paper mill, which is located about three miles from Watertown, and is one of the largest mills in northern New York, was set on fire in four different places at about 1 o'clock yesterday morning but was saved. The mill had only recently been completed at a cost of about $300,000. There is every reason to believe that the fires were kindled by James Warden, the night watchman. It is not yet known whether he was drunk or crazy He is now under arrest. He denies having fired the mill, and says two tramps came along in the night, induced him to take a drink and that is all he remembers. The loss will not exceed $7,000, and is amply covered by insurance.

Desks for Sale.
   The desks which were slightly injured in the fire at the Desk Co.'s works last week will he sold at very low prices. Call at the factory. Rare chances for bargains.

Electrical Execution.
   NEW YORK, May 7.—Contracts were signed to-day by which the State of New York purchased for the electrical execution of condemned criminals three Westinghouse alternating current electric light dynamos. The prisons at Sing Sing, Auburn and Clinton are each to have one of these machines which will be driven by an engine already in place. The current will be applied to the unfortunates at the same pressure as is used by this system for electric lighting, and the State's experiments have shown that death will ensue in less than 30 seconds.

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