The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1897-05-13
A Few Criticisms on the Presler
Text Book Bill.

Section of the bill provides that the
state board shall appoint commission
of five school teachers to examine INTO the
merits of the school books. l presume
If we are going to have state adoption that
this is about as good a thing as any, but
inasmuch as all the county and city
superintendents are on record as to their
choice of school books not on the market,
almost any well posted school book man
could make the list before they get here.
On page 3, lines 3, 4 and 5, the author
of the bill, in attempting to be very
specific in his directions to this commits
sion, has fixed up job that will be line
advertising scheme in other states.
Line IS, page g. the state board, not
withstanding the list made by the COM
mission may adopt the cheapest books.
Page 4, all that part of section | about
German, Spanish, Latin, French and
Greek is rot, inasmuch as the bill has al
ready prescribed that the books adopted
should be written or printed in English.
Section 2, line 16 and also line Il, the
author uses the word furnish" but
does not say to whom or where the books
are TO be furnished If they are to be
furnished f. o. b. cars in New York, there
will be one price, and if they are to be re-
tailed to the patrons there will be another
price.
Lines 1916, page 5, the author speaks
about exchanging of books, but nowhere
in the bill does he say how long contracts
shall continue for the exchange of books.
This is very important item in framing
bid. The value of the old books is left
with the school board, and consequently
a bidder can not take this into consdera-
ton, because he does not know what al
lOwance is going to be made.
,inac % ~ % poya & thora &c n mo
vision intended, we presume, to cover
the. revision of school books, when in
reality this provision gives the state
board the right to change the contract
books at any time they see fit. The pro-
visions, lines 3 to 8, page, Z, require the
publisher to retail his books as cheap in
Texas as he sells them in the largest
quantities outside of the state Any sane
man knows that the manufacturer can
not manufacture and retail his goods in
Texas as cheap as his lowest wholesale
price outside of Texas.
Section provides that the state may
cancel its contract Is it not fair,
equitable and just to bind both parties
alike?
Section 6, lines 81, 80 ct sequa requires
the contractor to establish and maintain
one or more agencies in any county in the
state having 500 scholastic population.
InlS provision, III enforced, VIII give a
monopoly to one or two large companies.
1t will require 81 100000 worth of books
for the first term of school. These
books will have to be consigned to the
agencies. There are about $50 school
book publishing houses in the United
States, the largest of which is the Ameri-
can Book company, with capital stock
of $4,000 900; the second largest is CHM
q Co., with capital of about 100000.
and the third largest is the University
Publishing company, with capital Of
$250,000. Now it is quite plain to any
business man that the third largest house
of the $50 in existence. with $250,00O
capital, can not carry on its business in
twenty-five or thirty other states and bid
for but a small share of the Texas con-
tract. The fact is that the American
Book company is the only company who
can bid on the whole contract.
Again, in lines and 8, page 8, he
speaks of retail contract price. You
may search the bill through and you can
never find where any such price is estab-
lished.
Please also note lines and 8 and tell
me what they mean.
Please also read the sentence beginning
in line with the words land such
agents" and read to the word Austin"
in line II and tell me what they mean.