The Russellville Democrat., 1893-03-23
SPEECH OF HON. LAWRENCE
 RUSSELL.
On House Bill 242, Providing for Uni form and Cheap School Books.

I MR. SpEAKER--Eariy in this session Of the general assembly introduced a bill ] having for it's purpose the securing of cheaper school books for the people Uf our state. The committee on education have seen proper to offer the pending 1 bill as substitute for my bill, and as q l true friend of the object in view, name- l ", the obtaining of uniform and cheap
 school books. am ready to lay aslde all selfishness, join hands with said com
 mittee and assist them in enacting into
 law the pending bill. This bill has two admirable features. In the first place it provides for county uniformity in school books. Such uniformity will
 do away with the necessity Of parents buying new books every time they move from one district to another. It will prevent the likelihood of change in books with each change of teachers. Under the existing law teachers have often required new books, and this has entailed much expense upon the parent. The proposed bill will prevent this
 wrong. It will also enable merchants
 to sell books much cheaper, for they
 will know just what books to order, and will not have large stacks of unsold
 books left upon their shelves.
 But by far the most important feature
 of the bill Is the financial feature. It
 will enable our people, through the
 county board, to procure books at
 greatly reduced rates. The bill does
 away with the numerous agents who
 have heretofore gone through our coun-
 ties selling school books at fifty per
 cent. more than they could be purchased
 direct from the wholesale firm. We
 are reliably informed that some of these
 agents have sold thlrd part arithmetics
 for 95 cents which could have been got
 ten at from 40 to 90 cents. These agents
 were making profit as well as living
 this bill, by doing away with the neces-
 sity for these agents, will save to the
 people the cost of supporting them.
 Under the pending bill we can pro- cure McGuffey's Revised First Reader
 for 14 cents, we now pay 20 to p cents;
 his second reader for "A cents, we now pay 35 to 40 cents; his third reader for 34 cents, we now pay 45 to 90 cents; his fourth reader for 40 cents, we now pay 65 to 75 cents; his fifth reader for 5S
 New Practical Arithmetic for 40 cents, we now pay 70 to 95 cents; Harvey's Revised Elementary Grammar for 34 ttuto, Wc iioW pay w " eLo eSheSf @tNf VI Electric Elementary Geography for A cents, we now pay D cents to $l, Rid- paths History for 64 cents, we now pay $1. to $1.25. From the above showing it will be seen that we would save from 50 to 100 per cent in the purchase of the books wanted. The people in the coun- try would, under this bill, get their books at the same price for which they sell in the city. Arkansas would get her books as cheap as other states Why should the people of Arkansas go on year after year and decade after decade paying almost twice as much for her school books as the people of some of her sister states pay for theirs2
 The opposition tell us that the pro posed bill will oppress the poor, if they were not blind and leaders of the blind they would certainly see that the bill is to lift burden from and protect the poor. If letting the poor have their books for one-half the price at which they are now getting them; if protect- ing them from the extravagant demands 1 of unnecessary agents; if saving the people of Arkansas $75, 900 to $l00,000 in the purchase of their school books every 1 year be oppression. then 1 say let us have more of such oppression.