The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1911-09-27
AN ANSWER TO APPLEYARD

Mr.. Thomas J. Appleyard, the state
printer. has been writing series of
articles for the Times Union, with the
object OF proving that the people of
the state were losing money on the
uniform text book law passed by the
legislature last spring.
The Star hadn't time to go into the
merits and dement's of the law. but it
somewhat felt like that when Tom
Appleyard and the Times-Union col
laborated on any subject. the interests
of the people were carefully being not
served. Mr.. App1eyard is good man
and an old-fashioned printer, and the
Tfmes-Union Is a mighty fine paper.
but somehow or other this scribe can't
conceive of either Of them as going
very many miles out OF their way to,
a1literatively speaking. preserve the
privilege of the pro1etariat.
That very conservative, well-edited
and sufficiently outspoken paper. the
Tampa Times, In Its issue Of the 26th,
contains the following, which is very
good answer to Mr.. Appleyard's ar
guments.
State Uniformity Of Text Books
Mr. Thomas ]. Appleyard is devot-
ing a great deal of time which, IL he
has any remunerative business to at
tend to, is worth much to him, and is
expending much mental effort which
might well be employed more profita-
bly, to himself and perhaps to others,
in endeavoringg to make it appear that
the legislature in enacting the state
uniformity text book law inflicted
calamity upon the people Of the state
and placed In operation scheme
which would ruin the said people
financially and demoralize the public
school system generally.
Whatever may be Mr. Appleyard's
motives in so literally expanding his
time and his labor in this cause, he
certainly gives rise to the conjecture
that he is not giving his services with
kind; and. IL the compensation is to
be commensurate with the effort 1t
should be on liberal scale.
This volunteer opponent of state
uniformity in the series of articles he
is now publishing in the effort to show
that the books adopted by the state
commission under the uniformity law
will cost more than under the old sys-
tenn. or lack OF system, deals largely In
figures; and while it is said that
figures cannot lie, the use of them
made In this instance impresses upon
us that they may be used disingen-
uously and deeeptively and with in
tent to lead to In correct conclusions
II Mr.. Appleyard does not know
that his figures are deceptive he is toe
ignorant of his subject to assume te
elucidate 1t as he does, and IL he does
know that they are deceptive and still
uses them-well, the people can form
their own conclusions.
In his articles above alluded to he
has taken up the lists OF books FOL
several of the counties and attempted
to show that the books in said lists
were cheaper under county than under
state adoption. His figures are mis-.
leading in more ways than one. Fol
instance, in Suwannee county, he takes
only partial list of nineteen books
and compares it with the state adop-
ton composed of full course for any
school, of twenty-seven books, ant
also with the additional subject o.
drawing, which is not on the county
list at all. Comparing the state lis
with Suwannee county, there can b.
eliminated from the state adoption tn,