The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1899-10-06
The School Book SwindIe.


State Board OF Education 10 tia
townships of Indiana come to b,
examined, il is no wonder the Stat
I Board wants 10 shirk the resp0nsi
. bility OF introducing them from
+, their shoulders 10 that of the count'
T superintendents. The whole thin,
was one gigantic political swindi'
perpetrated upon the parents an,
children of Indiana. There are :,
many glarlng mistakes in the books
that in the cities where the member.
OF the State Board resii- they have
, not introduced them, but are using
and propose TO continue IL use. TIA,
books used ior the last five wears
But in the country the swindle ha-
worked beautifully. County Super
intendents were duped, bought o.
badgefed into forcing the new book.
into the schools, and il was pre-
lsumed township trustees would no'
know enough 10 discover that they
: had any power of their own in the
schools, excep. to employ teachers
and obey the county superinten-
dents Instructions. But there j.
now a complaint about it, and trus-
tees have tDuld they are not bsund
to take the superintendent die
tum as law, and in many townships
the books have been ord red re-
turned to the publishing houses. a.
not complying with the statutes.
A correspondent OF the Evansville
Courier from this coun y sends that
paper the folioying letter, showing
some OF the mistakes in the books
that are used 70 deceive pupils
JASPER, Ind, Sept. 21.-ro the
I Editor: rhe greatest dissatistac-
ton exists here relative to the re-
cent action OF the board of educa-
ton in changing the text books
No fault Is found with the arith-
metics except that its a need
less change, compelling parents
to pay for new text books when
their children were already pro.
v'ded with one Just a good.
The biographies while possessing
many valuable features, are gross
lg inaccurate and misleading. The
state map shows ST. Anthony three
miles south of the Air Line railroad
md Huntingburg about the same
distance south of the main line of
the Air Line, on the Evansville
)ranch, while in fact 81. Anthony
= about half a mile north OF the
railroad and Huntingburg at the
Intersection Of the main line and
Evansville branch.
The citizens Of West Baden and
French Lick, Paoli, Salem. Wash
lngton and Boonville certainly have
abel suit against the publishers.
ior they are represented "a inland
towns with no railroad connection
whatever, and from one TO three
miles distant from any railroad.
The people OF Crawford county
moved the county seat from Leaven-
worth to English a they thought 10
get it on a railroad, but if they will
ook on the map in these new .
biographies they will see that they /
nave woefully failed, as the town i
nearly two miles south Of any rail-
Dad. The proud denizens Of Bed :
ord need no longer, if this geogra- q
'hy Is any criterion, pride them [
elves upon the town being a rail c
Dad center, for it is not. The !
Nonon passes through the town d
'ut the others come in a consider L
Ibe distance north of Bedford. 4
On page 152 the statement j. I,
made that New Albany, on the y
)hio. has extensive glass works. :" \
While every school by knows the Il
lass WORKS were removed from n
here several years ago, yet tie 4
'ook is copyrighted 1899. h
The selections in the readers are II
as good, but yery much /.
he same as tn old ones with hi o
graphies of authors entirely elm b
lated, the excuse being that an
lese days every school room i
ipplIed with supplementary read al
lg, and there j. no dearth Of infor al
ration material. " All this j. well le
nd good for the city schools, but il j
ntirely ignores the needs of the la
Duntry schools where DO books ar Il
applied except the text books. vel q,
lese comprise more than half the lor
,hools of the state. All the book. !. ~
the cory books, with al Il.
ieir inaccuracies, are being intro =
uced all over the county, not IN
outstanding the bitter complaint 81
arents that they are not able 4
ford the change, the result bein i
lat many child past the requiiec
70 az 4 IL hainu kanf a. bn,,,a ~ a