Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1895-02-15

studied outside the schOOl-rOOm, and one
of the very best purposes which they
serve would be lost. Every boy and
girl should look upon a school book
as private property, to be taken care
of carefully and referred to with salts.
faction in after years, but where books
are paid for out of the district treasury
and owned by the dis trict the sense of
personal interest and ownership is lost,
and pupils come to feel that if they lose
or destroy one book another may be
easily obtained. Free text books, like
free trade, may do in theory, but in prac-
tice it has not been found to be a sue.
cess.
Under a tive-year contract, the pub
fishing companies having an absolute
monopoly, and the county board of edu-
cation authorized to fix the price of text
books to consumers, it the taxpayers ara
not handsomely heeced it will not be- the
fault Of the Logan bill.
The people of this state are not ready
to turn over the expenditure of tens of
thousands of dollars annually to any
small coterie of individuals recognized
as county or district boards without pro-
viding the most ample safeguards for
their money.
This great reform does nor seem to
come direct from the people. The
county superintendent and the educator
are pushing it, and the book trusts can
not help but be pleased with this pro-
gressive movement, for in twenty-four
hours they could fix a uniform price for
the state and there would not be power
enough in the state to break it.
Religious bodies might wrangle over
the cast Of mind liable to be absorbed by
pupils from readers, or political parties
from the teaching of text books on the
science of government or political
economy, as we'll as sectional ideas
formed from books on United States his
tory.
Mandan recently had that experience
with a text book on the history of our
country that exuded a strong bias
toward the "lost cause,"a and it had to be
discarded Immediately.
It must be remembered that publish
ing houses are located in every section
of the Union, and liable to be influenced
by sectional bias.
School books also often become the
vehicles of disease. When the books
that have been in use during the term
are stored away at the close of school,
should they be infected with the germs
of diphtheria, scarlet fever or other con-
tagious diseases, they retain these germs
during their period of disuse, only to set
them free again when the school is
opened up for another term.
One of the most startling facts con-
nected with the practice of medicine in
| Nebraska is the rapid increase of dlph-
liberia in that state, and physicians after
long investigation have finally decided
that this unusual increase has been the
result of the indiscriminate use of school
books which are furnished free to pupils.
| So thoroughly frightened have the PEG.
pie become that many-indeed all who
are able-are furnishing their own books,
or demanding a complete change of the
old supply.
l. The history of states that have some
form of text book legislation is that none
have been more than a partial success,
while most have been complete failures.
California tried state publication and
ownership with the result that the
schools are supplied with poorer, and at
the same time ~costlier books than any
state in the union. The law has been in
operation for seven or eight years and
the list has only just been COM
pleted. The teachers of the state
rise en- masse to declare it a failure, and
State Superintendent Anderson has gone
so far as to issue a circular warning all
states against the plan.
Indiana adopted state uniformity, and
already those most interested from one
end of the state to the other are demand
ing a complete change.
Minnesota had fifteen years Of state
uniformity, and when but recently re-
leased from the odious contract, adopted
optional free books instead.
State uniformity takes the selection of
books away from the people, where it
belongs, and places it in the hands of a
few, thus giving opportunity for jobbery
and corruption.
County uniformity furnishes the same
opportunity, only in a more limited
measure.
Probably no state in the Union 80 little
needs, or can 30 poorly afford, the species
Of book legislation proposed in the
Logan bill as North Dakota.
The cost to the state to put it into
effect in this year Of retrenchment and
economy would be clear beyond any ben
eft to be gained, and as to the question
"a ..-:e..k- ILL., oe.. =