The herald., 1894-03-16
AN INVESTIGATION WANTED.

The HERALD yesterday drew attention
to a very serious discrepancy in the
prices paid by the board of education
! for books and that which they can be,
and are, purchased for by the trus-
tees of the city public library. 1t was
shown that the payments made by the
board are in several instances exactly
double the prices paid by the library,
and all the others but little less than
double. The same discrepancy was
shown in the purchase of drawing
paper. Some time ago the library trus-
tees caused price list of books needed
| by the schools to be sent to the board.
This list was prepared on q basis OF 30
per cent discount, which is made TO all
large purchasers, and the trustees
offered to buy the books on this basis;
but the board refused to let the pur-
chasing power go out Of their hands.
When we find, however, that the board
is purchasing these same books at
double the rate the library is buying
them for, strong suspicion is raised
that there is something very rotten in
Denmark" and that searching in
vestigstion is in order.
The question naturally arises, Who is
pocketing this appalling difference We
are not disposed to believe that the pur-
chasing committee is so dull in business
matters that it allows itself to be tieeced
by the booksellers out of from 40 to so
and more per cent in its transactions
with these shrewd dealers, especially as
they had been provided with price lists
by the trustees of the library. What,
then, must be the conclusion? There
must be very large sized Senegamo oian
somewhere in the woodpile, and it is the
duty of the board of education as body
to smoke him out. Here lie a matter
that would be worthy of the attention of
the citizens' taxpayers league.
If there is no fair or reasonable ex-
planation to this astonishing disorepan-
cy, the want of confidence of the tax
payers in the business capacity of the
board will be confirmed, and we will
have at least some sort of an explana-
tion of the action OF the board in declin-
ing to move in the matter of asking the
people to vote for more bonds to build
more school houses to accommodate the
vast numbers of school children who are
attending on half time or are not able to
get into the schools at all. Conscious OF
their own business incspRcity, as shown
in making Wholesale purchases at retail
prices, they are convinced of the fact
that the taxpayers of this city would not
entrust the money realized from the
sale of large amount of bonds to the
handling OF men who pay twice ae much
for nearly everything they purchase as
it can be bought by private individuals
for. According to their method ten
thousand d-dol!ar school house would cost
100000; and in the end we would per-
haps find ourselves with insufficient sc
commodation for sll the school children,
no matter how large might be the
amount of bonds voted.
1t is therefore wiser for them to adopt
the method of renting extra school room
than to undertake to get the means of
building new school houses. They are
sure of their power of renting; they
know the people would never vote
them bonds to build. Now, if they
pursue their book policy in renting
they will pay twice as much rent for adj
ditional school rooms as any one else
could get them for, and that is some
thing to cling to. The renting is GER
tainty; the building immensely Chi
mericsl.
Every body was astonished at the fact
that the majority of the board 30 readily
voted for Director Willie motion TO rent
Instead OF TO build. 1t was the frat
time in the history of that body in
which the majority voted for any propo.
sition from DR.. Wills, and seems worthy
OF aome explanation. We have perhaps
struck the reason in the BULLS eye. A
bird in the hand Is worth several in the
bush.