The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-05-26
Adopted by the School Text Book
Convention.
VERY sLIPSH0D METHODS
OF DOING BUSINESS APPEAR tt
BE PERMITTED.
Agents Allowed to do Great Deal of
Lobbying Even While the Bal
loting is Going on and in Several
Cases Bidders Are Allowed to
Change Their Bids.

Frye's Biographies will be the tex
book in this particular branch of stud.
in the public schools of the state 70
the next five years. This was the de
cision of the state text book convention
yesterday and the result was largel.
due to the agents of the PUBLISHING
house upon the floor of the convention
In some respects the text book con
vention yesterday would not impress
one very favorably. For example, TIT
body carried a motion to exclude al
book agents. while the merits of TIT
books were being discussed. This wa:
entirely disregarded and the agents o
the different houses were present al
the time. More than that, the agen
of CHM & Co, which made proposal:
to furnish F'rye's Biographies, was seer
! lobbying among the members during
| the interim between ballots and thi:
without any restrictions from the chair
In fact the assemblage might have re-
senbled more a political ward conven-
| ton than a. deliberative body of men
had not Superintendent Oldham drawn
/ the attention of the chair TO the fact
that lobbying was going on while the
ballots were being taken.
|
| tional features. In the morning it was
discovered that the bids of Rand, Nc
Nally & Co. had been changed, though
this was allowed to pass as the cor
rection of an error made by the clerk
who prepared the proposals. The fig
ures on the blackboard, where all bids
had been tabulated Systematically, had
been changed without the tabulating
committees sanction, however.
Then uyho
| between Werners and Frye's geogra-
| phies during the balloting and the
| agents of the latter was seen whisper
| ing to delegates on the floor, Professor
/ Christensen gave notice that if the fol-
lowing ballot developed any addition of
strength to the Frye forces ne would
order an investigation.
1t was at the appointed hour, 10
o'clock, when Chairman Park raped
to order and the regular order of bust
ness resumed A roll call showed an
attendance as large as on the opening
day, with the addition of Superintend-
ent N. G. Stewards of Uintah county.
The members of the city board of
education and others not agents of
I book publishers were granted the priyi-
leges of the floor.
GEOGRAPHY BOOKS.
After a motion to advance physical
geography so as to be considered to-
gether with the general subject of geog-
raphy had been voted down, the agents
of the different book publishers were
invited to address the convention on
biographies. and did so in the follow
ing order:
George Wedge of the American Book
company Of Chicago advanced the
merits of Appleton's geography.
o. p. Barnes, repre- sentative Of CHM
Co, of Chicago, spoke in behalf of
Frye's geography.
L. j. Phebus, representing Werner &
Co., of Akron. o., presented the merits
Of Werners Introductory grammar
school Biographies.
During tine course of his speech, Mr..
Barnes made the sensational declara
tion that certain bids on geograp plies
as ta'bulated on the blackboard had
been changed since they were put there
in the morning. In one case a bid
had been lowered 4 cents, and another
5 cents.
MI Barnes was asked whose figures
had been changed, and he replied Rand,
McNaily's. These We're represented at
the convention by the u. c. NJ. I. of
this city, while Captain Bowen of Chi
cago was the spokesman of the firm.
The latter asserted that there was
a combine among the other publishers
10 down the Rand, McNally books. He
admitted the figures had been changed,
but insisted that the clerk in making
out the bids had made an error. AS
soon as this was noticed permission had
been asked, and the figures changed.
Superintendent Miller at this point,
however declared that as chairman of
the committee on tabulature he knew
nothing about the change, and that
the same had been made without his
sanction.
After the matter had been discussed
at some length the u. c. N. /. was al
lowed the privilege Of changing its bid.
This concluded the morning session.
and an adjournment was taken until
2 O'Clock.
AFTERNOON SESSION.
When the convention reconvened
some time was taken Up in discussing
Tho question yybatfla1- m allow IOolx