The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-01-30
Law Books and school Books.

When passing bill TO relieve the law
yers by providing for state publication OF
the supreme court reports the legislature
should not fail also to pass a bill to relieve
the working men and the farmers from
the oppressive burden of school book ex
tortion. Since the Office was created the
reporter OF the supreme court has had a
monopoly of the court reports, which he
Is allowed by law to sell for $50 per
volume. This has been a heavy burden
for the lawyers, and now they propose to
have the state publish the reports by con-
tract and sell them to lawyers at an adj
vance of twenty-five cents per volume
over the contract price. The secretary OF
state is TO be the stOrekeeper, and through
him the lawyers will be supplied. By
this system the state will gain instead OF
losing and the lawyers will save at least
g per volume. The books are to be
printed on as good paper and in the same
style of binding as at present, and not to
contain less than 700 pages.
The estimated cost of publishing these
reports, which are to be printed on heavy
paper and bound in leather, is Sl.25 per
volume and only 1900 copies of each edi-
ton are to be printed.
If a book of 700 pages for which the
reporter now gets $3.50 can be published
by the state for SIPS in editions of 1900,
for how much can the state publish an
edition OF 100000 Biographies containing
less than 200 pages bound in paper for
which the book firm of VAN ANTWERP.
BRAGG & Co. now tax the people Sl.l0? II
state publication is good for the lawyers
is it not good for the people at large?
A bill to give the lawyers cheap reports
should pass but the legislature should not
lose sight OF over hall million children,
the majority of whom belong to men who
earn less than Sl.50 day, who are more
in need of cheap school books than 1900
lawyers are of cheap court reports. If the
lawyers are justly relieved from the mo-
nopoly ofthe supreme courtreporter by the
present legislature, and the working men
and farmers are left to the mercy Of the
school book trust, then there can be but
one inference drawn-and that is, that
the school book lobby is more powerful
than the people.
Nor will the people approve OF sham
relief bill. Laws to empower the state
board of education to make contract with
publishers would be in the interest of the
combine. Even if the majority OF the
state board was not controlled by the
book trust, the trust would still regulate
the price, as the combine prevents COM
petition. This system has been tried and
proven to be failure in several states.
Suppose that the Cincinnati octopus should
get the contract TO supply every county for
ten years, what would be the result? The
people would be compelled to buy books
printed on inferior paper and so poorly
bound that they would fall to pieces be-
fore the end OF a school term. The books
would be revised for other states but those
supplied to Indiana under contract would
remain unrevised and out of date
We believe that the state can furnish
school-books to the people at cost just as
easily as it can furnish court reports to
the lawyers at cost, and that the people
need relief even more than the law
yers do.