Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1902-10-23
CALIFORNIA; UNIQUE EXPERT
ENCE IN PRACTICE.
MUCH CRITICISM OFFERED
"Politics and Plumber" make Bad
Mess of 1t, According to Report
Books Cost More, Are Inferior
in Style and Matter Is OId-Ex-
traVagant State Printing.

piles and publishes, under state
auspices, the text books used in it's
public schools, says the Springfield,
Mass, Republican, one Of the most
conservative Of American journals.
The experiment has been a curious
example OF state activity in business
commonly controlled by private firms,
and the degree of success or failure
that has accompanied it challenges
scrutiny. Not only does the state
publish the text books; these books
; also have been exclusively written by
California teachers or educators, so
| that the text book business has been
! transformed into a ''home industry"
which mas now assumed all the pro-
, portions of a vested interest.
| One must go back nearly 20 years
to discover the origin of this system
1t is generally admitted, even among
the private publishers, that one i'm
| portant cause Of the state undertaking
was the corruption practiced by most
Of the publishing houses in securing
| the use of their text books in the Cali
| fOrnia schools. There were some very
unscrupulous houses, just as there
are today, that did not hesitate at the
| bribery of school authorities in ad-
vancing their business interests
| Changes were frequent, and the text
! books cost considerably more than
they do at the present time. Then
arose the idea that the state should
publish it's own school books and sell
them to the pupils at lower prices
than were charged by the private
| house. In their zeal to carry out the
idea the California people went so far
as to insert in their state constitu-
ton clause making state publication
obligatory, and, on this account, the
reaction against the scheme, as
worked out in practice, has been thus
far effectually blocked. The statute
law, moreover, permitted the use Of
supplementary" text books, and since
certain number of good standard
works from private publishers have
| been in use, although on a limited
scale, the evil effects arising from the
use of the local educators products
| were somewhat minimized. At the
present time, however, there is a grow
| ing agitation in favor of a constitu-
tional change, led by the more cour-
| ageous of the state teachers. This
was precipitated within the past year
! by the effoTs Of the so-called book
ring" to compel he disuse Of supple
| mentary text hooks in the public
schools Of Kern coUnty-a maneuver
which led to the publication Of a caus-
tic and effective criticism of the state
publications by w. G. Doub, the Kern
county superintendent of schools. He
has succeeded in exposing the utter
failure of the California system, as it
had been developed down to recent
time
While one Of the chief reasons for
the printing of text books by the state
was the desire to lessen their cost to
school children, just the contrary has
been the result. At the present time
the text books turned out at the Sacra-
mento state printing office are higher
IN price that the best text books on
the market Booksellers must pay
cash in Sacramento, being allowed on
the average about IS per cent dis
count, and must themselves pay the
cost Of transportation. Superinten-
dent Doub has proved that eight lead
ing text books in common use in the
Oregon schools, which are supplied by
contract with private houses, cost the
Oregon pupils less money than the
eight corresponding text books, pub
ished by the state of California, cost
the California pupil, and the Oregon
text books, in addition, contain 755
more pages of printed matter. Com
parsons between California and other
states reveal similar results. The
California school children are literally
being robbed, for besides the greater
cost Of the state text books they are
much inferior in mechanical get-up
and in durability to the publications
OF reputable and honorable publishing
houses. Superintendent Doub declares
that there are less than half dozen
text books in the market as poor as
the state DOCKS. The only |
way to sell them is to force their sale
by means of law" ,
In subject-matter, arrangement. ac- |
curacy, clearness-all those qualities. !
IN fact, which should distinguish a |
text book for school children-tbe |
California state publications are much |
inferior to the productions of the lead |
ing private houses. This could hardly
be avoided under a system which !
handed over to local talent sl1bstan-
tally the entire work of the writing
or compilation of the books. 1t is no
reflection on California to say that the
production Of frst-class text books
calls for the best educational talent in
the whole country. Then, too. the
state books have often gone out of
date, and have approached a condition
of dry rot before being revised. Manv
of the books now in use have been
published 10 or Is years and have
been printed from the original plates
without change. The state grammar
school history was published in 1883
and for II years has been printed
without the slightest alteration. and
it was not a good text book at the he
ginning. Even the state board of
education has lately admitted the in
feriority of the state publications. in
determining to secure the best text
books on various subjects by leasing
the stereotyped plates of standard
works from private publishing houses.
n n fro I