Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1895-03-01

HulGlllUAN DUN UUMl hN l
TO THE FALSE CHARGES OF
THE NORFOLK PILOT.
To the People of Virginia
JUSTICE to ourselves as Publising Com
pany, and to our friends the people of Virgin
ia, who are honoring us with their confidence
and patronage, as they honored our predeces-
sors, makes it our duty to notice in public
way the false and infamous attacks upon our
business lately spread abroad in the Norfoth
Pilot newspaper. We accept the challenge of
the Pilot and, without waiting for "the slow
and voluminous processes of libel suit as
it editorially taunts us with doing. we will
meet the issue and try it by the public, before
whom the methods of our business are ar
raigned.
The outrageous assault on the honor Of the
Virginia State Board of Education has al
ready been publicly repealed by the Governor
and Attorney General, with truthful detail
which leaves nothing omitted to convince the
fair-minded of the absolute integrity and dis
interestedness offs NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.. They
have shOwn,o to a complete demonstration,
that they could not have adopted other books
than those they did,. without going against
the united educational sentiment OF the State.
This sentiment was expressed by county
school Superintendent and leading teaching
| authorities, and was substantially unanimous
in favor of continuing the books which were
satisfactorily in use. In the face of such an
expression, the State Board could not have
justified their action to the public if they had
| interrupted and disorganized the schools by
compelling the introduction of new and I'M
| tried books. No more could they have justi-
| fed their action if they had burdened the peo
pie of Virginia, in the midst of unprecedent-
ed hard times, with the large expense which
| any change of school books involves.
| The answer of the State superintendent and
others, who by name have had their personal
honor assailed, will doubtless be made in the
courts. where the issue will be tried by their
peers, and face to face with their accusers;
| and we do not doubt their triumphant vjndi-
cation. ~
AN APOLOGY TO THE READER. ~
Before entering upon oGr answer to the
charges of the Pilot in detail, our self-respect
compels us to apologize to a sensible public
for bringing to their rotice the insane rawlings
of what charity might claim to be can ire
sponsible being" 1t sometimes becomes
necessary, according to the scriptural injunc-
tion to ''answer fool according to his
folly"
The charges against us are somonstrous and
foul, so vicious and violent, that in many
respects they become not only ridiculous, but
absolutely grOtesque, and in this way best
refute themselves. But amid the Pilots in
terminable mass of vaporings there are some
falsehoods stated as facts, which might mis-
lead the right-minded. These require correc
ton and exposure.
THE TRUE INWARDNEss OF THESE INFAMOUS
ATTACKS.
10 clear the vision at the outset, we will
expose the real source and true motives of
these assaults. They constitute q business
method By 0SllfcGtS0n, which has been adopted
by publishing house that was disappointed
and unsuccessful in the late Virginia State
adoption. Failing to get its publications Sc
1ected ON their merits, it has the hardwood to
charge everything that is corrupt and dishon-
orable upon the methods of their successful
rivals, and to insult the people of Virginia
by an attempt to impeach the Integrity OF its
State officials. 1t aims to open up market
for its own wares By attempting to destroy
the market of a competitor. Instead of press
ing the merit of its publications, or offer in &
lower prices for the same, it maligns the
character OF other publishers, and attacks the
character of Virginians. To add to the in
20, Of hac no I'd
ice and hypocrisy to mask itself for these at
tacks, under the cloak of political reform, in
the columns of public journal. Mr.. Small of
the Norfolk Pilot states editorially that he
did not dictete or write a single word or line
of the article; and it is known by us just
where it was written and prepared, and the
agencies and processes by which its publica-
ton was secured. We have in our poss session
letters written by the senior member of
publishing firm threatening to do precisely
what has been done in Virginia.
THE PILOT NEWSPAPERS RESPONSIBILITY.
But the Norfolk Pilot having adopted the
role provided for it, has brazenly assumed
all the responsibility, and has servilely con-
verified it's columns into common sewer,
through which all the filth of these falsehoods
is daily discharged.
1t would thus appear, from its course, that
it had established joint interest in the
school-book business. This is confirmed by
the Pilots editorial Of January 6, 1895, as
follows:
''The books would have been changed, as in
some other States, book for book, without the
expense CT a nickel on the part of the people.
We are prepared to show the truth of this
statement
Who is your silent partner, Mr.. Pilot?
Who is this business philanthropist, and what
States have been the scenes Of his benevo-
lence? And by the way, what are the every
day prices of his books by which he expects
to tax the people to make up for his 'gift
enterprise and add a profit to himself
besides?
THE ONE SIMPLE FACT OF THE SITUATION.
Let it be remembered that the American
Book Company, a little more than four years
ago, purchased from the leading firms of
Harper& Brothers, ID. Appleton & Company,
A. S. Barnes e. Company, Ivison, Brakeman
Il Company and Van Antwerp, Bragg,
& Company, all their standard
school ooks, the best fruits which all these
houses, with unlimited skill and resources,
had been able to produce in this line-the
Capitalization of the best educational thought
of two generations-and has been manufac-
turing these books and supplying them to the
public by the same means and agencies
through which they were provided and furn-
ished by their predecessors; that instead of
having increased prices. they have decreased
them; that they have removed all mailing
charges, and established many repositories.
making their books easily obtainable at first
cost at every post Office and crossroads store
throughout the country. In the light of all
these indisputable facts, the charges made