The record-union., 1891-02-21
INSIDIOUS ASSAULTS UPON THE
STATE TEXT-BOOKS-SON FALSE
SHOWINGS EXPOSED.

We pointed out recently that eX-Super-
intendent of Public instruction Ira G.
Hoitt was actively and singularly en-
gagged in placing obstacles in the way of
the carrying on of the State school-book
system. Since his failure to secure the
office second term he appears to have
made it task to cultivate doubts and
fears concerning the system. In COL
umn communication to an evening jour-
nal he protests that he is not opposed to
the State publication, "but only to the
extravagant manner, for two years at
least, in which such publication has been
conducted"
If for two years past there has been
woeful extravaganza in the publication of
the State school-books, the Superin-
tendent of Public instruction should
ing. Itwas his duty to have so advised the
State Board of Education and the public,
that it might have united with him in Civ
ing that publicity to the facts that would
have operated as check upon extrav-
gance.
Now, however, the one-time ardent
friend ofthe system appears in print with
an array Of figures wholly misleading,
and that would warrant the assertion
that they have. been purposefully made
so, since they appear at a time when half
dozen bills to crush the State school
book system are upon the calendars of
the two houses of the Legislature. The
remarkable bookkeeping with which
the eX-official refreshes the public intel
ligence must therefore have some atten-
ton, that no one may be led by false pre-
misses to unsound conclusions. The fall
sity of the showing we discover upon the
face of the exhibit made in the commune
cation-doubtless close examination of
official records would disclose further
grave errors.
The eX-Superintendent makes the total
cost to the people of the textbooks to be
S742, ,l03 13. To reach that result he charges
the expenses of the State Printing Office,
S5oo,0OO, to the school-books, though the
fittings in the Office are to some degree
used upon other State work, and will be
hereafter to greater extent. Compilation
he charges at $4,000 correctly. Then
comes $4,000 charged against the books
for building store-house, though it is
used for other storage, and is perma-
nency. So. too, he charges the sl1, 900 for
enlargement of the State Printing Office
against the textbooks, though that en-
largement operates to the benefit of all
State printing work, and is also q perma-
nency.
The Legislature some years ago bought
the plates and copyright of Cookies Ento-
mology from the widow of that philan-
thropist, as much to pay tribute to his
services to horticulture and to relieve his
then penniless widow (and without any
relation whatever to the State school-book
system) as anything else. Yet Mr.. Hoitt
has the effrontery to charge that S15, 900
against the State textbooks account,
which charge is little less than an insult
to common intelligence.
Having by his remarkable bookkeep-
ing reached total of SAL 800, he next
adds $500, SOB 13 for the books already
sold, and thus achieves a grand total of
S742, 103 13. That is to say, he asks the
people to put on the debit side of the ac-
count the whole amount they have paid
to the State for their own textbooks. 1t
is simply idiotic to charge the business
with all the State has appropriated, and
then, instead of crediting it with proceeds
of sales, charge them also upon the debit
side. The ordinary business man sub
tracts his receipts from his expenditures
if the expenditures are in excess of his
receipts.
BY his misleading figuring the ex-Su-
perintendent wholly ignores the amount
that the people would have paid to out
side publishers had they not bought of
themselves. Now, that sum would have
been, as recently shown in these col
umns, $4,000 more than the people have
paid for the State textbooks. Mr. Hoitt
can only debit the $500, SOB 13 when he
credits the system with 1892, ,503 Is that
the school-books would have cost if pur-
chased from the book houses according to
the rates charged at the time the State
system throttled the book syndicates and
expelled the book corruptionists from
school boards and legislative lobbies.
The foregoing exposure of remarkable
and insidious bookkeeping might well
suffice to dispose of the ex-Superintend-
ent and uncover the motive of his assault.
But there is another deceptive claim
made that may mislead. He insists that
the revolving fund shall be used to pre-
pare plates of new books and print first
editions. That is a proposition that plays
directly into the hands of the book-ring.
The revolving fund must be used to re-
produce the books which bring it in. If
not, where is the printer to find money
for the issuance of new editions needed :?
fthe ex-Superintendent, or is he simply
trifiing with the intelligence of legisla-
tors?
Once more, he charges that bill is be-
fore the Legislature asking that Sl65, goo
more be given to the State school book
system. Mr.. Holt knows perfectly well
that this is untrue, and that a simple cler-