Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1895-08-07
A Few Lines on the Book Question
Again.


appears in the Chattanooga Times OF
last Sunday. There is alse plan on
foot to adopt school books in that
county so as to have uniformity for
the next five years and thus put stop
to the everlasting changes made at the
instance of new teachers and new su.
perntendents. But in the course of
the letter to the Times referred to we
find the following:
Much has been said about the price
OF school books here of late, but judg.
ing from some of the wild shots made
on the subject it would seem that those
who knew the least have said the most.
and those knowing the most have said
the least. But after summing it all up,
however, it will be found to be nothing
more or less than plain business ques.
tion-one of dollars and cents-and
one that can not be reached or affected
by legislation; for until the State goes
into the business of publishing or fur
nishlng the money and buying all the
school books needed in the State, it
can have no voice in fixing the price at
which publishers of school books in
Cincinnati, Boston Philadelphia, or
any other city, shall sell their books,
nor can even so great thing as the
State of Tennessee fix the basis of per-
cent at which the retail merchant shall
conduct his private business, which he
runs with his own labor and capital.
Suppose the Legislature were to pass
law requiring the Century Magazine
for instance, to be sold to the people of
Tennessee at fifteen cents a copy, or
the Chattanooga Times to be sold at
one cent a copy, does any sane man
suppose for an instant that such law
could be enforcedY"
One Of two things is very evident.
Either the writer of the above is an
agent of some book house, directly, or
indirectly, or is an interested party in
the book business. Otherwise he does
not know what he is talking about.
The comparison he makes between a
la" regulating the price of magazine
and school book is silly. There is no
system established by law of reading in
any State which calls for magazines
to be supplied to the people or to their
children, but every State in the Union
hasa law which calls for certain classes
and grades of school books, and pub
fishers of such books have reaped i'm
mense fortunes in the sale of the same.
so much SO that a gigantic monopoly
has grown up with a capital of $10,-
OOO,OOO, known as the American School
Book Trust. This concern has sys.
tenn of agencies that reach into every
county, and into almost every school
board in the entire country. Men are
detailed whose especial duty it is to
watch legislation that might in any
way affect the interest of this concern.
In short there is no means left untried
to prevent the people from interfering
with their monopoly, both of books
and prices So bold and persistent has
this monopoly become that competition
in some whole States, but in many To-
callties, particularly, has become prac-
tically out of the question, and rather
than be defeated they will sometimes
give their books away as a starter,
when it is necessary to do so in order to
prevent some other house from getting
their books introduced. This is done
only in special instances, of course,
and when an adoption is guaranteed
for several years, usually for five years.
This monopoly has Tennessee and Ala
bama, particularly by the throat, but
these are about the only States in the
Union which do not have laws regu-
lating price beyond which school
books shall not be sold.
When the Jonesboro correspondent
says the price, or the uniformity of
school books can not be regulated by
laws he either does not comprehend the
character of such legislature or he is
mistaken.
The act passed by both branches of
the last legislature of Tennessee by such
a overwhelming majority, but which
the trust prevented from being signed,
did not dictate prices of books in gen
eral, this the Legislature might not be
able to do, but it did invite all com.
peting school book publishers who were
ready and willing to enter this field on
the basis of thirty per cent. discount
from their wholesale prices, to say so,
and then it left the representative
counties through the superintendent
and district school directors to say
which books they pre- erred on the basis
of an adoption for five years. The act
left it optional whether the school
boards should handle the books when
adopted, or let some dealer or individ-
ual handle them, butin the latter event
not more than twenty per cent. was to
have been added to the cost. The re
suit would have been that books which
now sell for 81 80 could have been had
for ninety or ninety five cents; first
readers and spelling books which sell
for seventeen to twenty five cents could
have been had for thirteen to fifteen
cents; readers that sell for eighty to
eighty five cents would have sold for