Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1892-02-18
Department OF Education.


JEFFERSON CITY, Mo-, Feb. 3, 1892.
Dear SIR: Kindly confer a special
favor upon the Departmental Education
by publishing the following circular of
information and sending me marked
copy Of the paper containing same.
By the terms of the original contract
entered into with Taintor Bros & Go.
through their agent, the time for ex-
change with pupils was to expire Jan
uary, l, 1892, and retail agency was
to be established in every county of
the state. But when this contract was
presented to Mr.. Taintor, he delayed
signing it and finally refused to sign it.
In view of the extreme cheapness of
these books, being cheaper than any
excellent series of readers had ever
before been offered in this country,
the Commission at an adjourned meet
ing finally agreed to strike from the
contract that portion providing for the
establishment of retail agencies in every
county of the state and to limit the
time for exchange with pupils to Sep
tember %, 1892. With these changes
the contract was signed and the bond
made.
But in the mean time, on the reas-
enable supposition that the company
would sign the contract entered into by
its agent, circulars in accordance with
the original contract had been printed
and sent out in answer to flood of in
quiries pouring in upon the state super
sion.
All readers should be exchanged
before September %, 1892. After this
date, the books cannot be had for less
than the retail price. In many cases,
it will be too late to exchange after
school begins in the fall of 1892. The
boards of directors should take hold of
the matter at once and make the
change for their districts either through
the local dealers or directly with the
ublishers-Taintor Bros. & Co., New
York
The matter OF exchange with pupils
is scarcely less urgent with regard to
the other books adopted by the Com
mission, for section II of the textbook
law prohibits, after September /, 1892,
the use Of any other textbook in the
same branches and of the same grade,
under a penalty upon the directors OF
not less than FIVE nor more than
twenty-five dollars for each offense.
In the contract with E. II. Butler &
Co., the publishers of Buffers Geogra-
phies, the following sentence occurs:
The said party of the second part
further agrees to relieve the dealers of
all merchantable stock held by them at
dollar for dollar" In a circular to
dealers sent out by E. H. Butler Il Co.
and dated January Z, 1892, find the
following: 1--WE would say that our
contract with your State Textbook
Commission requires US to exchange
Buffers Biographies for the merchant
able shelf stock biographies in the
hands of dealers. To be understandable
they should be in good condition, con-
tanning the census of 1890 and the new
states last admitted into the Union
North Dakota, South Dakota, etc"
This Interpretation is unwarrantable
and is a gross imposition upon the peo-
pie. If E. II. Butler & Co. do not re-
tract from this position, test case
should be taken up at once. This in
of the word s'merchant-
able would render at least nine-tenths
of all biographies on the shelves .of
the dealers worthless.
Very respectfully. L. E. WOLFE.