Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-02-25
scHooI-BooK PUBLISHING REFORM.

ment and be adopted.
sCHoOL-B0oK PUBLISHING REFORM.
School-book publishing reform-already
successful in California-promises to pre-
vail in one form in Ohio. Here is the
Cleveland Leader and Herald saying:
The abortion of the Monnot school-book com
mission bill in the House Thursday by an almost
unanimous vote is a reflection OF popular resent
ment against the cor-untion and cxtortfons of
the school book rings. il Is notorious fact that
| sch0ol-boOks are seldom adopted with any ref
erence TO their merit. and that majOrties in
Boards of Education an bought up like
cattle for the service Of the book monoDoists
| Only recently in this city the majority of the
Board, after entering in'o a solemn contract in
writing for an excellent, low-priced series of
anti-syndicate t.booAs repudiated their
that had been thrown out. This was done I'M
der circumstances justifying the grayest suspi-
cions as to the integrity 81 the majority in the
| Board. II Is also true that the schoOl-books in
use are eXorbitantly high in price, although thew
should be the cheapest books published. The
latest novel or scientific work can be bought for
less money per page than school books that have
run through many editions. The book stores
are filled with works that in proportion TO atual
cost are not half as expensive as school books
The people are taxed enormously in these books
susde's" and corrupting members of School
| Boards.
But the Leader is in grave doubt con-
corning the wisdom of the policy of pub
LEGATION of the books by the State. 1t ev-
identity has not studied the California
system, for it declares that State publica-
ton should not be undertaken except as a
last resort. Let the Leader be informed
that had California made State publication
a first resort, the people of this State would
to-day be " i'll pocket several millions of
dollars, and free from the notifying re-
Election that the schools have been the in
nocent cause for thirty years of an intol-
cradle amount of corruption, political
chicane and barefaced bribery.
The Monnot bill referred to by our Ohio
contemporary provides for Commission
to receive proposals for furnishing books
to every school district, and to select
therefrom the cheapest and otherwise most
desirable. This is but partial remedy,
and we doubt if Ohio will find it to be
worth the trouble, thou h it indicates a
movement in right direction The
school book publishers are, mainly, bound
by solemn obligation in a compact that
prevents competition between them. 1t
binds the parties to the contract so string
emily that if one of them undersells he is
punished by a fine of so many dollars per
1000 Of population of the place into which,
by such undercut he introduces his books.
There is but one way to defeat the book
ring and eliminate the book agent from
politics, and that is for the State itself to
print the school textbooks and furnish
them to the people at cost. That is what
California does, and as result the parents
Of pupils pay now less than one-third the
amount they were formerly taxed for text
books, and are freed from the liability of
sudden changes, which formerly were
mostly made to enable the Eastern pub
fishers to make new roundup" of the
peoples dollars The fear Of State publ
cation entertained by our Ohio contem-
porary is possibly due to the industrious
circulation at the East of mass of litera-
tire directed against the California sys-
tenn, and basely disappearing it. Our
Eastern friends should reflect that where
there is such an onslaught made there
must be something to assail that is deemed
worthy of the steel drawn. TIE truth is,
California has clipped the wings of school
book extortion in California, and put the
book rings completely under her heel. She
has driven the book agent out of School
Boards and the Legislature she has Sc
cured uniform textbooks to all counties of
the State she has cut loose from an infiu-
ence that intermeddled with all State leg
islation, bribed right and left, al threat
ened, traded and browbeat until things
were at such pass that scarcely any legis-
lation could be undertaken that the book
ring did not develop in its midst 1t is no
wonder, therefore, that the publishers fear
the example of California will affect other
States, and hence their diligent efforts in
all the States manifesting restiveness under
ring rule, to educate the public thought
into the belief that State publication is |
political evil, and in California dismal
failure, instead of being, as it is, a COM
plete success.
1t may be admitted that the books cost
the State little more to produce than |
they would to private publishers, and the |
reasons are obvious, especially when it is
that the State office paws the |
highest wages, and works its men |
the minimum number of hours. |
But it remains, after all that
can be said by the opposition.
that the books are, as stated, |
supplied at less than third the former cost |
to the people. Moreover, we have as good |
books, and in some respects better. Com
letters are constantly arriving
at the Superintendent Office from dis
tinguished educators, school-book editors |
and educational institutions warmly APP
proving the California-prepared and
printed textbooks. If our Cleveland con- |
temporary cares to look into this matter in
he light of the experience of California,
t will find that its conclusion is erroneous
hat as low prices can be secured from pri-
7ate publishers as by system of State
publication. 1t is impossible that such
'ates can be had, unless the publishers
orego all their profits and print the books
or amusement.
AMERICAN ART TASTES.
\ writer under an assumed Eame in the