The advocate., 1897-09-29
STRYKER VS.. BOOK TRUST
The State Superintendent Implies Bribery
as One of the Means Used.


"SinCe the book trust have under
taken, through circulars which they are
scattering broadcast over the State and
in various other ways, to make per-
sOnal attack upon me, and since they
have employed attorneys to defend peO-
pie who may be induced to violate the
laws of the State, and since they are urg-
ing open defiance Of the laws Of the
State, am led in order to show up this
Infamous concern in its true light, to
give another chapter in the history of
their efforts to continue to levy tribute
upon the people of this State.
after failing in their efforts to buy
enough votes to defeat the text book law
in the Legislature, their next point Of
attack was the commission appointed to
select the books. Their agent for Kan
sas, Mr.. Burton, came to me with the
statement that they wanted the whole
adoption in Kansas, to which / replied:
Bring on your books and submit your
bid. Every one shall have an equal
chance A few days later the books were
brOught-an entirely new series-WhiCh
/ was told had been prepared for the es-
pecial benefit of States where State uni
formity had been and would be adopted;
and that their standard books in general
use would not be submitted. l was fur
ther told that unless they could know
beforehand that they would get the
whole adoption, they would not submit
a bid at ALL
when the agent was asked il that
was the way their company did business,
his reply was: My company tells me
that l must know before the bids are
opened what shall get out of book
fight
when attention was called to the
fact that sealed bids must be submitted
and that the books best in price and
quality must be adopted, and that no ar
rangement could possibly be made in
advance of the meeting Of the Commits
sioners, the reply was: we can arrange
this whole matter here and now. This
bill would never have become law If
you had not worked for it so determin-
edly. You are Superintendent Of Public
instruction and Chairman of the Text
Book Commissioners; if you will agree
to the terms shall propose, l will take
care Of the rest.
"My reply to this was, that two things
would prevent the consummatiOn of any
such plan. l would not agree to it, and
there were eight others who would not.
The reply was: If we can have your
support, we will attend to the rest of it.
We want the whole adoption and we
must know in advance just how it will
go or we make no bid
1T was about this time that Mr.. Bur-
ton and Mr.. Barnes, the millionaire
President Of the American Book Com !
pany, called me UP over the telephone |
twice in one day, urging me to go to the |
Coates House, in Kansas City, Mo-, where |
they were, for conference. This re-
fused to do, as l had refused to make |
any promises in advance about adop-
tiOns. The trust made no bid.
Il leave others to Judge of the mean
ing of their propositions. The villainy |
of the whole scheme will be apparent |
when tell you that with the exception
Of few books, the whole set was miser-
ably inferior in mechanical execution |
and in matter. 1t was prepared for the |
express purpose, If it's adoption could be
secured by any kind Of means, of giving
the State such series of books as would |
forever make State uniformity odiOus.
The welfare of 100000 and more school
children counts for naught. Dividends
ON the stock of this concern is of far
greater Importance. Certain papers
contain, and will contain, all kinds of
villainOus stuff, and no effort will be
spared to bring discredit on that law and
all those entrusted with its enforcement,
to the end that the tide toward State
uniformity and cheaper books may be
stopped.