When Washington Hesing was a member of the Chicago School Board in 1873 he and John C. Richberg, the other leading member of the board, united in a report favoring the teaching of German in the grammar grades only, The language of the report was as follows: "We would therefore recommend that the study of German embrace four years in the grammar schools from the fourth grade upwards." Messrs. Hesing and Richberg united in deprecating the teaching of German in the sixth and seventh (the highest primary) grades, saying: "Experience has shown that the time spent in these grades can be far more profitably employed with the scholars in the other grades."

In an interview with the Evening Post, which has reproduced the report from which the above extracts are taken, Mr. Hesing says that he stands by the report of 1873. He thinks it is sound and applies to the circumstances of the present day.

Are we to infer that Mr. Hesing, if elected Mayor of Chicago will favor dispensing with the teaching of German in the primary grades? Everybody who 2understands the subject and who is honest and candid knows that the attempt to teach German in the primary grades is absurd, that it is a waste of time and a nuisance. It was introduced in the primary grades in the interest of jobbery. The purpose was to make way for teachers clamorous for positions, and to promote the interest of a German book publisher and a German compiler of the books issued by this publisher. The whole business is a fraud on the face of it. Mr. Hesing understands it to be such, and by indorsing his report of 1873 in effect has so declared.