Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1905-11-20
REPORTS MUCH CURTAILED
Governor Uses Blue Pencil Before Matter
Gees to the State Printer.
SAVES STATE CONSIDERABLE MONEY
Statistics Of Attendance Upon school
show some Surprising Facts About
Attendance of the Little
Ones.
lFrom a star CorrcsnondentN


DIES MONIES. Nov Especial This
is the year for the issuing Of the biennial
reports Of state officials and nearly all
have now been published and distributed.
Heretofore state officials and commission
ers have Wed with each other in the size
Of the reports they have issued There
seems to have been n feeling that the is
suing OF the report was the opportunity
for tho department 10 make a showing and
everything possible was put into the re
port. II was learned today that Governor
Cummins this year took the matter sonle-
what in his own hands and as the repoEts
were delivered to him to be sent to the
state printer he took occasion to eliminate
a lot OF matter that he considered irrele-
want and of no particular interest to the
public and Of no value except to make the
report look big. II leaks out that a number
of state officials and appoiutees were shown
where they could save the state a good
many hundred dollars by eliminating whole
chapters
For this reason the reports as they APP
pear this year are considerably abridged,
but Il is limited that this is only the be-
ginning of the matter and that another
year the reports will have to be made
very much more condensed and boiled to
IL.
legislature viii be asked to look into the
matter and abolish the present system OF
publishing reports and publish but one
volume each year, giving in a condensed
form the information Of vital interest TO
the public Under the present system there
are 1900 copies OF each report delivered
to the state binder and when all reports
are in they are bound together. making
eight large volumes These are furnished
to state officials members Of the legisla-
ture and public libraries and It is claimed
that they are merely put away on shelves
and never looked at An inquiry into the
| cost Of the publication OF the reports shows
that It costs the state something like $3o,O
| year and then most OF the reports are
chaff. It costs S7,Ss63O during the last two
| years to bind 800 sets Of eight volumes
| each Of the Iowa documents. 1t is be-
lieved that $4,000 a year would more than
pay for the publication Of one volume that
would answer the purposes of the public
much better than the present ponderous
| volumes.
Children Do Not Attend School.
Prof. W. r. Patterson of the State uni
versity, who has done the expert work
| on the state census. has completed the
| statistics as to the attendance of children
! at the public schools of the state, which
| shows that of the age from 5 TO 10 years
| there were but "A per cent of the school
children OF the state in school nine months
\ Of the year. There were 37.9 per cent OF
| the same age who We're in school from
| six to nine months, 14.4 per cent In school
| from four to six months and II per cent
| less than four months. The figures were
/ a surprise to school men and to Prof Pat
terson. AT that age when the child IS
| supposed TO have little to do except &c
to school it was expected that much more
| than half would be In school the full nine
| months of the year For the ages be.
\ tween and 10 years there is little differ
| ence In the per cent of attendance OF the
girls and boys, but of the ages between
| Is and q, 5S1 per cent OF the girls attend
school nine months and only SS.2 per cent
| OF the boys. OF the ages between 10 and
! Is years there are $40 per cent of the
! girls in school nine months and only AL
per cent of the boys. OF the ages between
is and p there are % per cent of the boys
| In school less than four months and lOI
per cent of the girls in school less thar
/ -FOUR months. The total number of chill
dren in the state of school age is 629. 65s
between the ages OF and 10 years, 1S2,6l7
between 10 and Is years, Sl9354: between
Is and q years, 26.7SS. There are a few
| more boys than girls of each age. The
per cent of attendance on school for tn,
1 various periods was as foIIov,s.