The Colfax gazette. [volume] (Colfax, Wash.) 1893-1932, 1900-09-28
BIG SCHOOL BOOK JOB
Hands of Fusion Combination
In Parents Pockets.
New Text Books Are a Sore and
costly Disappointment - Ex-
change Scheme a Fraud.

Every parent OF child of school ape
III the state OF Washington now knows
something OF the Infamous school book
trust foisted upon them by the fusion
state board of education of the Rogers
administration and the fusion state
superintendent OF public instruction.
Frank j. Browne. The books are shillv-
shally, Wishy-washy prints hastily com
piled by cheap and unknown authors for
sale by force OF law to every parent OF n
school child. They are burdened With
errors. The arithmetics carry neither
explanations nor answers to the
bungled-upIcollection of problems. This
probably accounts for the teachers send.
ing home with the children the aritb-
metlcal work which they are paid salar-
les to instruct the children in.
Each family has been literally held up
for school book money by this fusion
aggregation of blOodauckers.
Bold, Bare Faced Robbery.
The Oregonian, which has fully in
Vestlgated this gigantic scheme, says:
The Rogers administration in the
state OF Washington is not going to
pass through the campaign without
serious and systematic effort on the part
OF It's republican opponents to impeach
its efficiency. There are signs that the
great home industry schOOl-boOk scheme
OF Professor Browne, the silver republi-
can superintendent Of public instruction,
will be prominent ISSUE The books
have appeared, and they are not all thew
should be. The prOdigal promises as to
price and chat acter are not, it is said
being satisfactorily fulfilled. The ex.
change system looks we'll in theory. but
in practice everything depends on the
conscience of the publisher, working
through the retailer. If a book brought
to him by a child does not suit his fancy
as to perfection OF condition, he is quite
likely to reject it, Add to this the fact
that the apparently liberal terms of ex.
change expire January l, 1901, and the
fuil list price ls then to be enforced for
four and One-half years, and it is appar-
ent that the generous project of the pub
fishing concern in giving new books for
old" is not without it's full cOmpensa-
ton.
The Westland Publishing Company is
the name of the ambitious CORPORATION
organized to knock out the so-called
monopoly, and substitute
sort OF bone made octopus. It's incOr-
pOratOrs are Ethan Allen, Jr., of Ia
coma; h. O. Hollenbeck of Seattle and
George +. Bankenship. OF Olympia. It
is not known that any OF these gentle
men ever haG any large capital or ex-
perience invested in the schOol-book pub
llshing industry, nor any experience at
all. But, all the same, they embarked
upon an elaborate scheme to supply the
many thousand children of Washington
with textbooks of learning. The cor
pOratlOn had the undOubted favor of
superintendent Browne, who had long
and carefully been laying his plans to
drive the book trust from business in
Washington. When the time came for
awarding the five-year contract last
May, it was found that various authors.
hitherto to fame unknown, had prepared
for spoilers, readers, ge-
Ographies, and most of the standard
works IN school use. 1t was generally
tha1 Professor Browne had
been in correspondence With these edu-
Gators, and they seem to have proceeded
in their labOrs of authorship with
somewhat definite idea that thev would
not be unreWarded But whatever their
expectations and whatever the promises
made to them, they did not work in
vain, though the plans OF the local COM
blnatlOn as to the school readers had to
be modified. Mrs. Carrie Shaw Rice. de-
scribed as the "wellknOWn Washington
poet" prepared q series 0f readers, but
the contract went to an eastern house.
All that the Old-line establishments got
out OF the awards were the primary
school grammar; language
books and readers, primary history and
primary writing-boOks The Westland
Company, which up to this
time had never published anything, was
to furnish the remainder of
the primary and grammar schoOl-books.
including the grammar, school history,
civics, spelling, the st. John writing tab
les, physiology and geography. These
include considerably the largest part of
the books used in the state. But the
contracts that did go to outside publish
ers were let to them with the consent of
the Westland outfit. In other words. all
the awards were the result of combina-
ton in which the Westland Company
and certain eastern concerns we're mutu-
ally and harmoniously the beneticiaries.
An Array of Talent.
Here is the Foster of talent that was
already made up by the Westland COM
pany on books that last May we're most
ly in manuscript, and, so far as known
to the outside world, had not been ap-
provedsby anybody but the members of
the combination:
Professor W. T. Hughes, principal OF
the Fairhaven public schools, author of
the speller.
Professor St. John, of the State Uni