The Farmville herald. [volume] (Farmville, Va.) 1890-1934, 1905-04-28
Mr.. Eggleston's Position.

BicnS viii bc oi lhltltNl w tit lHbll'
y Prof. Eggleston says:
e My attention has been called &
e your editorial Of April 9th under th
d heading "AIr Eggleston's Charges.
Il In this editorial you say that "Mr
i Eggleston has made charges agains
the Stale Board, - and you then cit
c the matter Of the school registers. IN
! my announcement you will see that
| hold the Department Of Public In
struction, and not the State Board o
, Education, responsible forallowing the
. local district school tax To he charged
% cts. for Il register which can be, auC
is, printed for considerably less than
+ One-half Of this amount. II is true
that the State Board formally "adopt-
/ ed, " this school register; but do not
believe that the Board was aware Of
the true status of thi, matter be-
lieye that the people will place the re-
sponsibility for this thing where it be-
longs ON the Department. Certainly
somebody in that Department is re-
sponsible for allowing the school regis
ter TO be printed for less than one-half
Of - cents, and then sold TO the
school district, at - cents per copy.
Ii should be explained, i'm this con-
nection, that a register is blank book
and cannot be copyrighted. II is a
very easy matter to make a good school
register. The school law says that
the State Superintendent "shall pre-
pare suitable registers, blank forms
and regulations for making all necessa-
ry reports and conducting all necess-
AIRY business under the school law
/ My construction Of this law is as stat
ed in my announcement, that these
registers, blank forms and regula-
tons shall be prepared by the De
partment of Public instruction, and
printed for and furnished to the schools
at the lowest possible price. This is
not now done. If the j. l.. Hill Print
ing Company now prints this register
for less than One-half of 20 cents
as il does by what right should any
one be allowed to make a profit on it ? !
Every one Of the 5000 public-school
teachers must use these registers; every |
one Of these registers is paid for by the
district clerks out of the school-dis- |
trict tax; and this difference between
the cost of production and cost To the
districts is thereby lost to the school
funds.
Now, concerning the warrant-bOoks:
| claim that under the law quoted
above il is the duty Of the department
TO prepare these warrant-bOOks, To put
them out TO the lowest bidder, and
then TO furnish them 10 the districts at
the actual cost Of printing. Atpresent
the clerks order these warrant-bOOks
from wherever they can get them. I'll
is clear that no printer can print these
books in small quantities at small
price. The consequence is that the
printers charge a good stiff price for ,
these small orders. ] have secured
from various parts Of the State the
prices paid for these books; and the
price for a book Of 200 warrants runs
from one dollar to two dollars each If
were the State Superintendent,
should have these warrant books print .
ed in large quantities, and then fur /
lish them to the district clerks at ac- {
ual cost. q
If this were done, warrant-books /
low costing from one TO two dollars /
zach could be furnished at a price not D
exceeding twenty cents a book. :
1t is said in reply that the Depart
nent has never furnished these war $
and an attempt is made 10 {
lold the county superintendent re-
ponsible for these high prices. No ~
ne has said that the Department has I
yer furnished them. But is it not the
uty Of the Department to do so? Is
here not a lack Of proper oversight in
ailing TO save all this money? TO
lace the responsibility upon hecouu- Il
Y superintendent does them great in II
lstice. They get enough abuse and q
riticism without this additional charge -
here is certainly no law TO prevent m
ne Department from saving thi.
honey TO the schools; and, If ann 81
ected State Superintendent the
;hool districts willpay for their school
oysters a sum not exceeding p cents, r.
nd for their warrant books a sum not m
lceeding 70 cents each. I'll
a word about the school books: The
,ople Of Amherst county are now IA.
lying Sl.lG for geography that can IA
, bought in North Carolina, Alabama
nd Texas for SO cents. They are pay
& n cents for a first reader that can .
purchased in Texas and Tennessee ~
: 20 cents in cloth and for 10 cents Of
board backs. They are paying 30 M
nts for a primary arithmetic that ~, ,,u
II be bought in North Carolina for p mi
nts, and "a cents for an advanced -
thmetic that can be boughtm North n
rolina for 80 cents. am opposed
the people Of Virginia having to pay "
IRE for schoolbooks than these same
oks can be bought for in other States -
j. ID. EGGLESTON, JR.
'armville, Virginia,
April s. 1903. A
Letter to Baxter Davis. I
Iorso4t;IIe II,