The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1889-08-03
THE VAN wINKLE sCHOOL-BOOKS.
The County Press Continues Its Denunciation
of the Missouri Indiana Series.

of the MiSsouri-Indiana Series.
Rockville American: A little experience
with the new school-boOk law will show
parents and guardians the necessity or
sending men to the Legislature who Will
not impair one of our dearest interests
while fighting Don Quixotean giants and
windmills.
Greencastle Times: The system which
has been adopted is without doubt the
rankest job lot of readers. arithmetics and
Biographies ever put in print. To change
es yssfes OF viii the
parents of Indiana school children 81 100000,
and will be a step backwards in the educa-
tional life of at least twenty-five years.
Princeton Clarion: The change in text
books will cost the people of the state
thousands of dollars this year that might
have been saved if the law enacted by the
late Legislature had provided for an equita-
Bile exchange. AS it is, the Board of Educa-
ton has, under the new law virtually con
hands of school children, and proposes to
compel them to buy new books because
they are cheaper than the ones in use here
tofOre.
Charlottesville Journal: The Indiana
SchoOl-book Company has filed it's bond in
his proclamation, and the machinery will
now be set in motion to enforce the law. 1t
will cost the people of this city about 1000
to make the change of books. And it Will
cost the people of the county at least $1,000
to $4,000. The effect of the law will be to
destroy the usefulness of the schools, and
squander the money of the people In
futile effort to accomplish the impossible.
Warren Republican,: The school books
of the Indiana School-book Company.
adopted by the State board in the early
part of last month. from all the indica-
lions are in every way. except cheapness.
very great fraud. and should not be adopted
by the trustees of the townships. The in
feriOrity of the books should at once con-
denim them. By the trustees adopting
them for their schools very superior class
of books will be cast aside. and the pupils
of our common schools will be compelled to
purchase. at additional expense, which no
persuasion could induce them to take.
Peru Republican: 1t is estimated that the
books in use in Indiana aggregate i'll value
a million dollars. The syndicate offers
cent for first reader and cents for q
furnish for Is cents. They expect TO sell
these books at secondhand bookstores for
half their original cost and thus make
princely fortune. Those who know William
Fleming. of Fort Wayne, are well aware
that he is a thrifty citizen who has accumu-
lated o fortune out of the pockets of the
people. He is one of this school-book
monopoly which has such compassion on
the dear people of Indiana that it offers
lambs, covering and devOuring them"
Rensselaer, Republican,: The biographies
which belong to the series of text books
just adopted by the State Board Of Educa-
ton do not give the location of the rail-
roads IN any of the State and national maps,
which purports to give all the railroads in
the United States. By looking at this map
it will be seen that of the some six hundred
miles of the Louisville, New Albany g. Chi
wS<x< ~. IL.
represented on the map. Yet it is an i'm
pOrtant system of railroad, and the main
line from Louisville to Michigan City is one
of the oldest roads in the State, while the
Chicago and Indianapolis division has been
built eight years. s.
found that the school children of the State
were being supplied with shoes for which
they are paying an exOrbitant price. Sup
pose that body of alleged statesmen
oily that was exacting these exorbitant
prices for children's shoes and should make
a law fixing the prices of shoes of various
sizes from 80 to 100 per cent. less than had
been charged; and suppose it should be re-
CURED of the children, under the provisions
of this law, and before they should be per-
mitted to start to school this fall. thew
must throw away all the shoes they had,
and buy new shoes from this new firm that
these alleged statesmen had set I'D in busi-
be established as to shoes, would there be
great rejoicing among the people because
this thing had been done under the name of
economy and reform! And yet this is very
much like what has been done in relation
school books.
Peru Republican: The editor of this pa-
per, like the prOverbial poor man. has what
is nowadays considered large family, eight
children, two of whom have graduated from
the high-schOOl. The others are scattered all
the way along from the nursery to the high
school In regular progression. The bow
that graduated this year used the books of
the one that graduated last year, and so on.
down to the smallest one in the primary
school. the younger children falling heir to
the books of the older ones. AS books are
made now. one well taken care of will last
a whole family, SO that very few new ones
are needed for even a large family. But
how is it under the new lawf An entire
outfit is needed of all the books adopted.
Fortunately, these comprise only readers.
aritnmetics. biographies and writing books.
Others will no doubt be adopted in dine
time. The actual cash outlay for books
will be five times the cost of the new books
needed on the first day of school under the
old law. Such destruction of values has
never been known in this country; for here
tOfOre in making changes a fair value has
been given to the old book in exchange for
the new one, which has always been SIM.
piled at reduced price, and sometimes al
an even exchange. $