Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1892-12-10
The SCHOOL BOOK TRUST
A Combine That Reaches Into
Every Hamlet.
Declared on the Octopus and a Sen.
sation Which VIII Startle tn, Ma.
ton Promised".Art in the
Clutch OF MonopclY !.

CHICAGo, Dee. 5.-War is to be de-
clared upon the school book trust. For
months past a large number of oppon-
ents of this great monopoly have been
engaged in gathering facts and figures
concerning its methods, and its hundred
past and at the present time. In this
task they have been aided by publish
erS who were frozen out when the trust
was brought into existence, and by
agents and travelling men who are per-
sonally familiar with the pernicious
schemes that have been employed to
control the school book field of
the country. The investigation is
not yet completed, in fact it is
not hardly half way through, but
sufficient has already been developed to
promise the expose OF II of the great
est national scandals OF modern times.
These developments promise to affect
two-thirds OF the states in the union,
and cities and towns, and townships
and school districts in those states until
the ramifications are SO extensive. 10
interviewer one with another, as TO
seem almost beyond unraveling. 1t has
been learned beyond pcradventure that
boards of education and Of school
trustees running up into the hundreds.
II not thousands, as well as prominent
politicians who are able to influence
such bodies. are rcckOned rs part and
parcel of the trust : machinery. and
that the amount expended annually to
ensure their fcalty reaches an enor-
nous total. In some towns where, in
consequence OF Il large number of
schools and scholars, the demand for
books Of instruction is So large as to be
in itself a highly lucrative business,
there are educators whose financial
transactions with the trust insure them
a good sized yearly income. Other eases
have developed where school trustees
have given orders for supplies heavy
enough TO last the year with the I'M
d~erstanding with the agent that the
goods should nevcr be delivered, but
that the bills should be presented and
paid in the regular order, the trustees
securing a liberal proportion of the
Swag. Those who are at the bottom of
the investigation will not say when
they propose Ia make "A move and
whether il will be through the courts
VI olIlcfNl Sc, Dut IneN declare mat
they are in the fight to stay. and insist
that the expose when it is ready for
publication will be one of the most re-
markable on record. One result of the
movement. it is expected. will he the
destruction of the present monopoly in
school books and by which the parents
of every child in the United States at
tending the public schools are taxed
three times the Legitimate price for the
necessary supplies.
II is well known that the art" de-
of the public schools are
virtually III the clutch of a few houses.
instructors in drawing get their
positions through the influence of these
houses and are expected to see that the
supplies are purchased from their pa
II is almost impossible for II
drawing teacher. no matter how capa-
bic, to secure a position unless backed
by the art trust. The result is that n
host of incapahlcs are directing the
drawing departments Of the public
schools. Their work is worse than
worthless and even the little children
see through the farce.