The Iola register., 1891-01-30
THE lola REGISTER.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 80, 1891.
THE SCHOOL BOOK PROBLEM

Il
resembles bottle of soda pop. Leav'
it to itself it is as placid as a summe
sea, but the more vigorouslyit is shak
en- the louder it pops and the farther /
squirts when the cork is drawn out.
"What is the school book problem?'
is a question that very naturally occur
to one appointed to discuss it. VIII!
should the matter of the purchase o
a few books for the school be any NOR,
of a problem than the purchase o
blackboards, crayon, furniture, or ever
the clothing of the pupils? Surely ont
is of as much Importance as the other
As far as 1 am able to discover. the
difference is simply this. School books
are talked about more by the politi
clans, and other public speakers, than
are the other necessaries of school life
The manufacturers and dealers In
school books are, by these parties
characterized as swindlers and monop.
olists and by reason of this unnatural
prominence thus given to the subject
1 am called upon to discuss the book
problem rather than the problem OF
crayons, coal or blackbcards.
Let us see what the question is. II
is claimed by many that school books
cost too much money; that there is
such great diversity of books as to
place an unnecessary burden OH the
parties who are compelled by circum.
stances to move from district to dis.
trict, and purchase a new outfit of
books at each move. I believe this
sums up the objections TO the present
system of supplying school books, or
forms the negative side ofthe so-called
"Problem." The popular remedy now
being prescribed by these evils is that
the State should publish our text
books and supply them to the pupils
at cost. This is the other side of the
great "school book problem" In or
der that a correct Judgment may be
formed in regard to any proposition it
is necessary that the proposition be in
vestigated from all sides and all of the
evidence from both sides carefully
weighed.
We shall first investigate the mega
tive side of this question.
Do school books cost too much mon.
ey? Or are the prices extortionate as
compared with the prices of other
books? In replying to this we must
bear in mind the fact that text books
of the present time are of recent auth
orship. Owing to the forward march
of all lines of human industry during
the last quarter of a century, and to
the sharp lines of competition in the
school book trade our publishers have
been compelled to revise and improve
their publications until they stand to-
day at the head of the text books of
the world. In order to accomplish
these results there has been expended
vast sums of money, and large num-
bers of the best teachers, men and
women of large experience and great
learning, have been employed, and
surely if the laborer is ever worthy of
his hire the authors of our present text
books are.
This fact must be considered in
comparing the prices of other books.
The old standard works of. literature,
OH which the copyright expired years
ago, and which cost the publishers lit
tie more than the paper, printing and
binding, can as a matter of conrse be
placed on the market at a less cost than
copyrighted works, SO that when we
are comparing prices it is but fair that
we compare. with other copyrighted
books.
With this object in view 1 have Wis.,
tied the book stores and made few
comparisons which desire to submit
to you. The prices quoted are the reg
ular retail prices of the books named
and are not selected with the view of
making ihe comparison favorable to
the text books. have selected stand
ard text books, and the ones used al
most entirely in the schools of ALEU-
In this table we give the number of
pages and the prices at which the
books retail.
McGuffy's Fourth Reader, 256 pages
price 80 cents; Fifth Reader, 352 pages,
price % cents. The corresponding
Readers of Appleton's series contain
24S and Al pages respectively, and re-
tail at so cents and 80 cents, of Barnes
Readers, the same grades contain SS4
and $50 pages respectively, and sell at
30 and 80 cents; Barnes U. S. History,
S62 pages, 81; Eclectic U. S. History,
39l pages, 81; Harvey's Grammar. 2T2
pages, price 65cents; Swinton's Gram
mar, 256 pages, 60 cents, Reed & Kel-
logg's, sl6 pages, price 60 cents.
Amongst the most popular and well
known works of modern literature are:
Boots and Saddles" by Mrs. Custer,
3I2 pages, price. 81. so; "Ben Hur," $50
pages, price 81 80; six of the works of
f. p. Roe sell at Sl.5e each and aver
age 452 pages each; four of Edward
Eggleston's popular works average S75
pages and sell at Sl.50 each; the pOpu-
lar "Rollo Books for children of about
the same age as Fourth Reader pupils,
average about 175 pages each and sell
af the ,l,iforro ,,riea of Il 15 each