Omaha daily bee., 1899-02-07
MEMBERS GET A CLEAN BILL
Board Of Education Committee Reports on
the Charges Of Corruption.
INVESTIGATION HITS VAN GLIDER HARD
Member who Instirnted the Exam
inatiOn Into the Book AFFAIR Is Ac-
cused OF Being In Conl Deal
with the Contractors.

cused OF Being in n Coal Deal
with the Contractors.
At the meeting OF the Board Of Educa
tton Monday night the investigating com
mittee which has been examining into the
charges Of corruption preferred against va
rious members of the board presented re-
port. finding each and every one of such
charges unfounded. 1t also presented a
supplemental report in which it charged
Member Van Glider with indirectly sup
plying the public schools with coal OF a
quality inferior to that called for by con-
tract, Both the reports were adopted and
the investigating committee, consisting OF
Members Hayward, Black and Cowie. was
instructed to examine further in public
hearing into the charges preferred against
Van Glider.
The main report Of the committee COW
cred two charges, one accusing Member
Sears of demanding Of Piano Dealer Mueller
piano as compensation for engineering a
contract for supplying kndergartens with
pianos; the other accusing DR.. Moore, B. F.
Thomas and other members of the board
with having been bribed in various ways to
grant the contract for supplying the schools
with Biographies to the American Book
company. Regarding the former charges
the committee report was as follows:
! The only evidence offered to support this
charge was the testimony of Mr.. Mueller.
/ His statement was denied by Sears, who
detailed the conversation between himself
and Mueller The testimony of another
witness hows that Mueller has a tendency
toward making reckless and extravagant
, statements with reference to the conduct
Of public officials, and the records of the
board show that Sears, as chairman of the
committee on supplies. recommended that
no pianos be either rented or purchased
during the year 1897 on account Of che
financial condition of the board at that
| time.
| Your committee therefore, finds that the
| charge against Sears is not supported by
the evidence and is without foundation.
Regarding the Book Matter.
The report Of the committee regarding the
| American Book company charges was very
voluminous, analyzing in detail the evidence
that had been given at the public hearing
| 1t recited in detail the proceedings that had
| led to the change in Biographies. 1t stated
that the matter of a change came up in the
spring OF 1897 through the efforts of Van
Glider and various other members, al
though the majority of the members were
opposed to the idea at the time. The change
was postponed for year for two reasons.
| One of these reasons was that the board
desired to adopt the best and newest geog-
raphy to the end that the most suitable
book might be selected. Additional reason
was furnished by the fact that in 1895 the
department of school superintendents of the
National Educationar association had de-
clared against Biographies as they were be-
ing written and had outlined a new method
OF dealing with the subject. Book COM
panies were engaged in compiling new
| t,, yyith t6a
mendations when the board first talked of
changing Biographies and therefore it de-
cided to wait until the new books were on
the market.
A second reason for the postpon ement was
the fact that the American Book company
had agreed 10 supply, free of charge. all
| Biographies needed in the schools during
the year of postponement it having the con-
tract for supplying Biographies. 1t was
expressly stated that this proposition did not
place the board under any obligations to ac-
cept the American Book company geography
when issued. During this year of postpone
ment of the change S1,1S0 worth of geog-
raphes was secured free of cost under this
proposition, which otherwise would have had
to be paid for.
| When the new Biographies were out 1t
was found that the only satisfactory ones
| were one published by the American Book
| company and the Frye geography. The former
cost "a cents and the latter 81. The
former was selected, because there was moth
ing to choose between the merits of the
two books. There were other books offered
at cheaper price, but of inferior quality
One was a book advocated by Van Glider,
which has no acknowledged author said
the report. THE maps and many OF the
illustrations are superior, but your commit
tee is of the opinion that the text OF the
book used for educating the youth OF the
school district is of The most important con-
| sideration The evidence shows that the
portion of this geography prepared especially
for Nebraska is largely copied from tht
Encyclopedias Britannica, which was orig
inalry published in Edinburgh, Scotland, anc
the parts not so copied contain many errors
and omissions of important facts. and while
IT is true that the book championed by Mr.
Van Glider could have been bought for Il
cents, the testimony of the agent OF this
book shows that it was not in shape for use
at the time it was offered the board
Penrse Gets n Clean Bill.
Regarding the charge that Superintendent
of Schools Pearse had been paid to write tn
Nebraska supplement- for the American BOO
| company geography, tne report sldtes lhh
} the fact had never been concealed and con
tlnues: "At the time the postponement wa
made in 1897 the work of Mr.. Pearse ha
, been completed and he had been paid 70
! the same and your committee does not con
. slider that there was anything improper i
, | Mr. Pearses connection with the work
There has never been any charge that tn
work was not well done nor is there an
. reason for supposing that in doing it and re
. ceivng the stipulated compensation there
, for he in any way impaired or compromise
his personal or professional judgment Sim
liar transactions are common" numbe
of instances were cited to show that tn
heads of large educational systems hay
written similar supplements in othe
Biographies.
In reference to the charge that the cit
will lose thousands of dollars by reason C
the contract, the report finds that upon III
books purchased each year the board wi
get them for from $75 to 800 less than If
had adopted the Frye geography and a littl
over 5000 more than If the Van Glide
geography had been adopted. 1t has sup
piled the entire school district with ne'
books at an actual cost of only S2,262, 70
while the bill of the books was s522l, ye
81, 1853 had been deducted on account of ol
books in use, many of which were worn ou