Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1895-01-11

THE PEOPLE ARE RIDDEN BY
GIGANTIC TRUST.
" hat Text.lBOOk> I Sed I'm Our Com.
mon schools COSt-The Unrelta.
biiity "f somehow They Are
Made TO Order,

mon SCHOOLS sO$t-Ihe nrelta.
biiity "f somehow They Are
Made 10 order.
Ell. WASHINGTON STANDARD:
1t is a question susceptible of ex-
hauetiye discussion, whether Of the
two. the cxorbltant tax levy or the
school book burden is the greater
calamity to the people OF Washington.
There is some prospect that the peo-
pie will rise in their might and reduce
State, county and municipal taxes, to
the lowest reasonable minimum. This
! they have the power TO do through
and by virtue of that almost divine
inheritance, the sovereignty Of citizen
ship. Assuming, then, that the peo-
pie Of Washington can adjust or
wholly cure the tax intictiOn, let us
inquire into the details OF the text
book monstrosity.
This evil is widespread; it is bear
ing down and grinding the patrons OF
public schools in every city. town and
hamlet in our broad land. 1t costs
more to supply large family OF child
rem with school books as prescribed by
the iron rule OF school officers, than it
does to pay the aggregate costs OF
taxes. insurance and repairs on q res
pectable piece of property. But the
property may be productive and thus
assist to some extent in paying its
way, but this cannot be said of the
money once invested in school books.
Let us see if the school book issuance
system comes within the pale of the
legal definition of trust"
Our Federal and State laws define a
trust to be:
First, Power to control produc-
tion."
Second, "Power to establish arbi-
trary prices for all such productions"
Now are school book producing es-
adjustments not "trusts" within the
limits of the definitions just cited?
They certainly appear to be such.
BE this as it may, let us inquire and
see if haply we may discover, what is
the extent and magnitude OF this book
production power or monopoly, if such
it may be called.
According to q late number of The
Publishers Weekly, there are at the
present time, in the United States,
"more than hundred corporations,
firms, and houses issuing school publ
cations, and there are more than TO-.
600 different volumes in current circu-
lation," or use!
Now to meet the prospective de.
mands of these school books in city,
town and county, it is fair to assume
that a single edition of each volume
published, be it a grammar, arithme-
tic, geography, zoology, or any of the
other ologies, will comprise, At the
lowest estimate, 10000 copies. And
10000 times 10000 is 100, OOO, 900, the
number of copies of the various kinds
of textbooks or school literature
thrown upon the peoples markets
every year.
1t is certainly true that the people
buy these books, or they would not be
issued as they are, edition after edi-
ton and year after year. A little
study and investigation will be helpful
towards understanding the working of
this curious machinery and why it is
that such vast numbers of books are
made and sold. The various State
Boards of Education are clothed with
a kind of self.imposed authority to
regulate city and country school affairs
pretty much as they please; that is, SO
they will always please the princely
book publication firms.
For example, it is ordained that
school reading books shall be issued in
five or six different numbers. Thus
we hear it announced that the School
Board have adopted this or that series,
comprising Professor somebody's First,
Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth and per-
haps Sixth Reader. And then par.
ents are compelled to have their
children pursue all these graded VOL
umes in rotation, by high sounding
promotions" according to the within
of the city and county Superinten-
dents who, of course, are carrying out
the tail end of this miserable and
iniquitous system.
Then there are graded grammars,
graded arithmetics, graded biographies
graded spoilers, graded this and grad
ed that, adj infnitums, while all this
blessed time the publishers are laugh
ing in their sleeves and raking in the
coin wrung from people who mortgage
their property to educate their child.
rem.
In the good old days of our dads, q
spelling-book with reading selections
and these alone, brought out just as
good readers and eloquent orators in
our congressional and legislative halls
as are manufactured by the stuffing
processes in vogue to-day.
Similar remarks would apply Just
as truthfully to most il not all the
the other common school branches
and their textbooks.
Now if this is not all bosh and nom
sense, then truth is fiction and virtue
All empty name.
No wonder We hear of lean and
defective textbooks, incompetent
teachers, book bribery cases and
stubbornly contested litigations be-
tween book-publishing houses.
There are ship-loads of school
books, to-day, in the town and country
districts of our land that are the
veriest trash; not worth the paper
upon which they are printed. But
they have been rushed through the
press and, like Hodges razors, made
only for one purpose-to sell-and the
people, alas! have bought them.
10 the uninitiated, one or two facts
may serve to reveal to some extent
the true inwardness of the plans pur-
sued by book publishers.
A short term of years ago, Boston
firm employed a teacher of some re-
pute to prepare series of arithmetics
for publication. Of course, the books
were to supply "a long felt want" as
all new school books do. for there were
only several score of different arith.
metics then OH the market. The au-
thor had a fat job, and was to have
the manuscripts of the several grades
ready for the compositors at stipu-
lated time. The publishers had sent
out their circulars like autumn leaves
in a cyclone; their drummers had
gone forth from the Atlantic to the
Pacific to curry the favor of State Ed
ucational Boards if not to bribe them,
| Jr, v.,h yeoxa - Al