The colored population, or some of them are making an effort to get the law in regard to schools in cities of  the first class changed so as to admit colored children to the white schools.  It is a very foolish move on their part and we hope they will fail in the effort.  It would practically ruin both the white and the colored schools in this district.

    On Tuesday afternoon between three and four o'clock while a number of high school boys were engaged in preparing the ground at Kerr's Park for a game of baseball scheduled for the day following, Roy Martin, a member of the freshman class, 17 years old, was shot and almost instantly killed by Louis Gregory, a negro about 20 years old.  So far as we have been able to learn, it was a clear case of unjustifiable and deliberate murder.

    As soon as the fatal shot was fired, Gregory fled from the scene of the crime pursued by a number of Martin's companions, when he turned and fired another shot at one of his pursuers, which failed to hit anyone.  Gregory made his escape, but police were notified and began as search for him at once.  His father, Emanuel Gregory, turned him over to the authorities later in the evening under the promise  that he would be protected from violence.  In justice to his father it is proper to say that he is peaceable, industrious, hard working man.

    Young Martin was the only son of Mrs. Eppa Martin, proprietress of the Home Hotel at 953 Minnesota Avenue who has been striving hard to educate him.  He had the reputation of being a good boy, devoted to his mother and very popular with his school mates.  His sudden and uncalled for death was a great shock to his widowed mother who evidently hoped to lean on him in her declining years.

    Great excitement prevailed and lynching was talked openly by a number of persons.  A mob of armed negroes gathered on Seventh street near the jail and a number of whites assembled near the corner of Seventh and Minnesota, and it looked very much as if a race war was imminent.  Fortunately better consel prevailed and the crowds thinned out and dispersed without blood-shed.

    Louis Gregory, the negro who shot and killed  Roy Martin a pupil in the High School at Kerr's Park  on the afternoon of  April 12,  had his trial in the District Court last week.  He was ably defended by I. F. Bradley, but the testimony against him was too strong to be overcome and  a jury, after deliberating  two or three hours returned a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree.

    Separate schools and higher taxes was the slogan of the Kansas Association of School Boards of cities of the first and second class  to maintain separate schools for negro pupils; also for a law granting powers of levying a tax of 20 mills instead of 15, when necessary for general purposes.

    About 200 people convened at the High School building on Monday night for the purpose of discussing the matter of having separate high schools for the white and negro races.  No doubt the small number in attendance had to do with the fact that the temperature hovered near the zero mark.  The meeting was called to order by the superintendent of schools, Professor Pearson, and George Strump, ex-president of the mercantile club, presided.   A large delegation of negroes were in attendance.  Speeches in favor of separate high schools for the white and negro race were made by  W. F. Barnhart who was a member of the board of education for a period of nine years;  Kenneth D. Browne, cashier at the Mercantile Bank;  Dr.  E. L. Harrison, T. C. Russell and J. H. Judy.  Separate high schools were opposed by in talks by the negroes who had as spokesmen B. S. Smith, deputy county attorney, Rev. Jackson, Attorney I. F. Bradley, and other members of their race.  A motion was adopted in favor of  separate high schools for the two races.  Petitions asking the legislature to amend the law so that the board of education may have authority to carry out the provisions of  motion adopted will be circulated and forwarded to our senator and representatives  in the legislature.  There is no disguising the fact that an overwhelming majority of citizens are opposed to the co-education of the races.  It is also a fact that many excellent citizens have moved across the state line rather than remain here where their children must either go to the high school with negroes or be deprived of an education and others who desire to settle here have declined to do so for this very reason.  The idea of mixing the two races in the school where the children are compelled to meet on the grounds of equality to a certain extent is repugnant to the mind of many persons.  Personally it makes no difference to us whether we have mixed or separate schools as we have no children to educate but we believe in the good of the public that separate schools should be maintained and we are willing to pay our portion of the tax to carry out the view of the case.  It will be better for both races and insure a marked improvement in our schools.
 

    Elsewhere in the columns of the Herald will be found the vote by precincts on the proposition to vote $40,000 in bonds to be used by the Board of Education for the purchase of a site and the erection of a manual training school  for negro children.  The bonds carried in every precinct in the city save the fifth precinct of the First Ward, where there was only three majority against the bonds.

    In the sixteenth precinct of the third ward, at M & O.  Hall, the majority for the bonds was only seven; and in the eighth precinct of the Second ward, Alexander's Hall,  the majority was only one for the bonds.  These are the two largest negro precincts in the city.

    The fact that the mutilated ballots as prepared by City Clerk Foerschler did not comply with the law, and the further fact that  the ballots were not in the possession of that officer five days before the election, as provide by law, as published last week in the Herald,  undoubtedly lessened the opposition to the bonds on the grounds that the election was illegal in any event.

    It is to be regretted that through the blundering and incompetence of the city clerk, the validity of the boards will be bought into question and cause delay and probably a new election, on a proposition that should have been settled long ago.

    The public schools of the city opened Monday morning for the fall term.  The High School for white pupils will open at 8 o'clock a.m. and close at 1 o'clock p.m., and the High school for negroes will open at 1:15 o'clock p.m., while the ward schools for both white and colored, although held in different buildings, will open and close at the same hours,  9 o'clock a.m. being the opening hour and 4 o'clock p.m. for closing.

    The white and negro high school will meet in the same building and will continue to do so until the new High School for colored pupils is erected, the white pupils attending in the forenoon and the colored in the afternoon.  Over $100,000 is spent for the education of the children in this city annually to say nothing about the amount expended for the erection of new buildings and for the repair of old buildings.  This vast expenditure of money should  furnish exceptionally good advantages to every youth in the city for securing an education, if judiciously expended  but unfortunately much of it will be squandered in the employment of incompetent teachers and this will always be the case until such time as the people see fit to eliminate politics from the conduct of the schools.
 
 

    Topeka, Oct. 11 - The validity of the law enacted last winter segregating the races in Kansas City, Kansas High SChools is to be tested in the supreme court.  The question was bought before the supreme court  this morning in a mandamus proceeding bought by Mamie Richardson, a negro, against Thomas J. White, president and members of the Kansas City, Kansas school board.  It asked that the Richardson girl be admitted to the High School for white children.  The petition says:

    "That about September 12, 1905 she went to the High school at 9:00 in the morning and presented herself for admission; that she was informed that she could not be admitted into the school with the white children, who had exclusive use under the order of  the board of education, of the building  from 9:00 in the morning until 12:00 in the afternoon of each day and that colored children would be admitted to the school separately, and apart from the white children between the hours of 1 and 4 o'clock p.m. each day and that it is the intention of the superintendent under instructions from the board of education to prevent colored children from going to school with the white children."

    The Richardson girl contends in her petition that the High school is ample for the admission, instruction, and grading of all children of Kansas City, Kansas and that she should be admitted at that school without discrimination on account of her color.   She also says that the conveniences offered by the board of education for the instruction of the negro children separate from the whites  are not adequate and that the board is discriminating against negroes in favor of the white children, and that the board has not made proper provision for the education of the negro children in the same manner that is adopted for the education of white children.  She also says that the attempt to separate the colors so far as an educational institution is concerned is against the laws of  Kansas and the Constitution of the United States, and that it is an attempt to abridge the privileges and amenities of a citizen of the United States.

    The new colored manual training school seems to have struck a rocky road. On account of the stupidity  and blundering of George Foerschler, Jr., city clerk, in preparing  and having printed ballots  for the school bond election, it is said the board of education has been unable to dispose of those bonds.  And now comes this suit in the supreme court attacking the law on the ground that the conveniences offered by the board  of education for the education and instruction of colored children separate from the white children are not adequate and show and are a discrimination against the colored children.

    Had the ballots been properly printed, the validity of the school bond  election would not have been questioned, the bonds probably would have been sold, and the contract for the new building  let and by the time the above case comes on for hearing in the supreme court, the board could have answered that the colored children  had equal facilities with the white children.

    A competent man filling the position of city clerk would be of great benefit to this city.