The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-10-01
LETTERS TO EDITOR.
The School Book Dispensary.

Some of us were aroused from our slumber the other day to witness a radi- cal and revolutionary innovation in our body polite, Under the guise of select ing uniform text books. to be used in our public schools, we found that there had been created by law a monopoly privilege in the sale of these text books, and that the entire school service from state superintendent down had been made the agents to effect this monopoly and force the people to buy from it. And this | monopoly had then been sold to certain contractors
 We could hardly believe our eyes. so far reaching has this dispensary idea gone. Not only Is there created by law a monopoly in the sale of this comodlty, as in our liquor dispensaries but the monopoly privilege Is put up for sale to private parties and sold to the lowest bidder. The right of the people to buy text books where and at what price they please is taken away and their patronage sold to the lowest bidder under state con tract. If the principle under which this enactment is made holts in the courts,
 
 not by law take away the rights of trade fin any and every line of commodities, and displace the merchants of our state with dispensarles of shoes, hats. tooth picks and what not. So rapidly has the monopolistic principle advanced that a democratic legislature and governor in the democratic state of Alabama creates them by law and sells the monopoistic franchise to private parties, and uses the public service of the state to effect the monopolstic privileges thus convey ed. And this public service Is made to render this monopoly effective by each public servant In his own office, being put under a penalty of a severe fine for his refusal It was possible to have in- terpreted the provisions of this law other wise, but this the public school authori- ties echoing the desires of the commits sion in Montgomery even though that commission had no lawful jurisdiction over them, have positively refused to do So, If we get uniformity of text books in our schools under this law as con strued by the commission at the request of the contractors and teachers at the request of the commission, we do so at the expense of our rights of trade in such commodities This collision of the public school service and the contractors robbing the people not only of their prop erty, but their rights, no good citizen should tolerate for a moment if he values at all the rights of a freeman. For this reason, it becomes the duty of every one to stand mp for his rights and liberties which are thus sought to be restrained
 Under the Interpretation given by these contractors and their allies in the public service this law is doomed as l hope to show through the courts. And by over reaching to get all these contractors will lose all. If for the few cents gained in the reduction of price by this monopoly privilege our people sell their rights of trade they have indeed sold a birthright for mess of pottage. Of course | monop- oly can undersell a competitive trader as he needs no longer to incur the expense of advertising and soliciting agents which school officials; but in this case after de- ducting the expense of advertising for and soliciting business, the contractors have much larger profit left them on their goods than formerly myself and others have gone into the market and bought at much less than the depository prices. So this contract price fixed by law is much higher one than the publishers hitherto have received. What the state has saved to the people Is the amount gained by dispensing with the services of those between the manufacturer and con- sumer, and putting that duty on the teachers and superintendents Our law thus appears the principle of throwing the merchant out of job and using our teachers to effect for the manufacturer what his own paid agents once did It is well known that the older books become the cheaper they get in the open market because the copyright is nearer It's ex- piration; yet this law fixing a price on the books already above that which can be secured in the market will hold this price up for the next five years. I be- lieve the people can do their own trading to much better advantage than the state which now seeks to usurp that function by law.
 Being put in a position when I had to surrender my rights of trade or try to overthrow this law l would consider my self neglectful of a citizens duty if I did not bring the suit to restore to the people their rights and privileges of unre- strained trade in the text books used In our public schools. So hope in a few days that the rights of trade taken from us by the arbitrary hand of our school authorities in the pecunlary interest of the state contractors will be restored unto us and passed on involate to our chil- dren. and this selling of the trade rights of the people and a line of public service in the interest of a private monopoly will not be fixed as a precedent in our state.
 A. ]. DICKINSON. Birmingham, September 3O 1903