Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1895-02-22
FRIDAY MORNING. FEB. ~. 1895.
THE SCHOOL BOOK QUESTION.


cember against the Virginia Board of Ed
ucation, consisting of State Superinten
dent of Education John E. Massey. Gov.
C. T. O'Ferrall, and Attorney General
Taylor Scott-of corrupt practice against
the first named, and negligence against the
other two, we said at the time that the
: whole matter had the appearance Of being
the outcome of an attack by rival
book concern on the American Book
Company. We have seen, SO far, no
reason to change cur opinion. Mr.. Massey
very properly chose a law suit as his proper
mode of redress. Gov. O'Ferrall and At
torney General Scott issued statement
vindicating their own official conduct from
the charge of negligence. Last Monday
we received pamphlet of seventeen pages
issued by them as supplementary to their
former statement. They have gone to
great pains and great deal of trouble to
get these facts, and have written to States
all over the Union to get them in official
form. They go into the minutest details
in showing comparison between what
Virginia parents pay for school books for
their children, and what is paid by parents
in other States. They show that out of
fifty books used in nineteen States there
were but two books on the Missouri list
and one on the West Virginia list which
were purchased in that State at a lower
price than is paid for the same books in
Virg mia, and the reasons for this difference
'-are clearly and satisfactorily stated. The
discussion of this school book question
has gwen rise to an idea that the Virginia
State Board of Education purchases books.
1t does not and has no authority to do So
and the present system of procuring books
for the children of Virginia is as fair and
certainly as economical as any that can be
devised. The pamphlet concludes as fol
lows, and we think there are few unpre
JUDGED people whoread its statements who
will not agree with the conclusions of its
authors:
We have made to you full and complete
statement. Withholding nothing. The facts
demonstrate that it is not true that "Virginia
has been outrageously defrauded," and that
her contracts for school-books are $50 in
iquitous, and the determinations against
- her SO obvious, as to bear upon their faces the
badges of fraud and corruption" as has been
charged. In our investigation we have found
no discrimination against Virginia.
The patrons of our public schools would
have just cause of complaint had the Board
of Education listened to the clamOr of rival
publishing companies, whose paid agents
thronged the city Of Richmond last spring,
and discarded the books which their children
had used for many years-books which have
stood the test of the school-room and proved
satisfactory to superintendent and teachers
to introduce others at heavy COST
On our adopted list there are sixty five
oks-twenty-fve of them from the pen of
Virgtnians and one revised by Virginia edu-
Gator.
McGuffey's Primer, Speller, and readers,
Holmes Speller and readers, Holmes Histo-
ry, Venables arithmeties. Maurys geogra
phies, Harvey's Grammars, Davies arithme
tics, and Webster's dictionaries were first in
PRODUCED in 1871, and have been in continuous |
use to the present-ether old or revised edi
tions; in 1873 Whites Complete Arithmet
and Magills History were adopted, and il
1882 Appleton's Biographies were added to
the State list.
Maxwell's grammars and Shinn's and Han
sells histories were added to the list by the
present bOard-the histories in compliance
with a resolution Of the Grand Camp of Con-
federate Veterans Of the Department of Vir-
ginia. But these additions required no change
of textbooks.
Our duty to you and to the high trust re-
posed in US required that we should do as we
have done, uninhuenced by the clamor of
rival publishing companies. or the eloquence
of their counsel, and we submit to your judg-
ment all that has been done. satisfied that the /!
contracts made with the publishing compa
MES that furnish seh0Ol-boOks in this State
are, in all their parts, fair and just. We
know they have been honestly made. and we
believe they have been and will be honestly
kept.
Our sole purpose as members of the State
Board of Education has been to advance the
interests of the public schools and promote |
the welfare of the children of Virginia.
Very respectfully,
CHARLES T. O'FERRALL,
Governor of Virginia.
II. TAYLOR Sc6TT.
Attorney General of Virginia. |