Waterbury evening Democrat., 1894-09-29
The Question of Free School Books

The Question of Free School Books.
 Editor of the DEMOCRAT:
 As the question of free text books in the schools will come up for public action this evening, beg leave to offer through your paper some considerations on the subject
 This proposed measure has acquired some popularity, because it is claimed on its be- half. that it is an enactment in favor of the toiling masses whose scant means will not permit them to purchase books for
 their children. The utter fallacy of this
 will be evident when We consider that our existing laws fully guarantee this right to these people. We have not seen in public
 nor heard in private that books have not been furnished to children whose parents could tnot provide them. The complaint lies not in that direction. but rather in this, that children receive them whose parents could afford to purchase them. This is indeed an abuse, but one which could and should be speedily remedied. Yet even though this abuse could not Tn practice be
 wholly eliminated. it is but drop Tn the bucket compared to the evils to which the new laws will open wide the gates. It will introduce an era of extravaganza in which the expense for school supplies will be in c ised 2O0 per cent
 Hitherto children have been compelled to ask their parents for money to purchase
 books; and very often this has been guaranteed only after rigid examination regarding the care bestowed upon the last ones. and repeated warnings to be more attentive for the future; and at times they received an absolute refusal. In this was found a wholesome and very reces- Sary check to all extrayaCapce and carelessness on the part of pupils, teachers and boards of education But this near law will take away from parents every incentive to watchfulness on this point. Henceforth books will be stained, torn and lost with all the thoughtlessness which characteriZes the young; teachers, who are generally as fond of new books as childr en are of new toys. will indulge in that propensity to their hearts content and boards of education, freed from the thousand emphatic protests which are now ready at every abuse to spring up on all sides. will yield themselves an easy and fat prey to the enterprising publishing houses. A law which will thus result in removing from public officers, and those seeking public aid, the salutary safeguards which come from the constant, active, per sonal supervision of the citizeas should never ind a place on our statute books. Its influence cannot be otherwise than peI- nicous. When we further consider that We must have in addition, increased cleri- cal force to attend to this department of school work. and perhaps increased store room for these books. thus taking from our taxpaying book sellers that which legiti- mately belongs to them, We can readily see that the sum of all is greatly increased taxation. Can Waterbury afford tins at the present day? She strenuously and de- cisevely answered no. when a few weeks ago she decided to permit her course of education to remain Tn its present crippled condition rather than incur the expense of new high school. With what iustice then can we now impose upon her an en- nual burden greater than which a high school would entail? It is high taxes and not personal expenditure that dissuade manufacturing enterprises from locating in our city; and what prompts some of those that are with us to locate outside our bor- ders.
 The free book system will moreover be necessarily an active ageut in propagating diseases among children. There IS no other act of the child more natural than to put to his mouth that which he holds in his hands. A moment in the school room will convince anyone that the books are frequently placed before the face. at the lips and in the mouths of the pupils. The germs of disease are for some days and ot.en weeks in the system before they be- come manifest. Yet the books which they have been using will go on for five years from pupil to pupil charged with these fatal diseases. All the conditions for the sure transmission of disease are found here, and if sad effects do not folioW' 1t must be the exception, and not the rule. The presence of this menace to the health of children is by our most intelligent phy- sicians. it is acknowledged by cities which require that books thus passing from pupil to pupil shall be disinfect. It were better that cities should go one step farther in this legislation and give the books alto gether instead of loaning them, as the present law contemplstes. Then at least one evil would be eliminated, even though others of minor importance would be aug mented. This law is moreover long stride in vicious. nti-4merican legisla- tion. The essential spirit of our consti- tuition is to do nothing for any man that he can do for himself. The existing laws provide for those who cannot help them selves. It is antagonistic to our consti- tuition and destructive of it to advance one step beyond this.
 The result of the principles which we advocate has been to form in our citizens those habits of self reliance and industry which have wrought the prosperity of this nstise. and won for it a most honored piassg among the peoples of the earth Fsf rthef lrssseps' here touched upon this lsslsistios E 2 .loig oatspI foENard in the
 from aSoss sz aafisssSas lsaS58 sa ese vating policy the R6rkingtnsn txvs hsenl fssipgnt nt8 thsse shores for. the past tiftyI years, Would these men iftrodhee ,herel thAt State Of things from .whicK they hsveI hed7h SIh r'9I"TtTa asit DsE Ci hIZod II ioiwhatsvst increases the taxation nesesj sarily renders .1essn fasosableI the positionl of the working fnah. He who labors is hs