The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1911-07-06
THE TEXT BOOK SCANDAL.
Rev. J.. E. Nahaffey Writes Plain
ly About 1t to the Columbia State.
o the Editor of The State:-

The second installment of the pro-
test now being made by the State
Superintendent of Education against
the recent action of the State Board
of education ought to open the eyes
of the general public on this ques-
ton. regard this protest by MIR
Swearingen as perhaps the most
timely piece of work that has been
done by public official in many
years, and while he has not yet clear
ly pointed out just what is to be ac-
complished by this agitation. nor
how it is to be remedied, or whether
it is possible to accomplish anything
in the way Of undoing this great IN
Justice. 1t is certainly time for the
public to awake and endeavor To find
some plan of relief at as early a mo-
ment as possible.
Just why the State Board OF edu-
cation should agree 10 give one COM
pany a monopoly of furnishing the
school books to the children of South
Carolina, and at a price ranging
from 80 to 100 per cent. above the
high prices already charged, is a
mystery indeed. Anyone who is ac-
uuainted with the ever increasing
facilities for producing books of this
kind by the millions of copies must
know that the cost of production
has been reduced almost to a mini
mum, and that the publishers were
already, clearing a profit of from 400
to 600 per cent. on these books.
The main cost of handling books
is advertising and postage for deliv-
ery, but in this case the State Board
comes to the rescue of the publish
er and forces his books on the chill
dren of South Carolina without the
cost of a single line of advertising
by the publisher and with practically
no cost to him for delivery. and yet,
at prices ranging from 50 to 100
per cent. above the former high
prices, 1t is an outrage against the
public and should be resisted and
resented in the most immediate and
efectual manner possible.
But, as unjust, unreasonable and
outrageous as this feature of the
transaction may be, there is one
other feature that is even more serl-
Gus than that. 1t is the positive and
irreparable injustice that is being
done to our children by this ever
lasting piling on and multiplying of
books for them to lug up and down
the streets as they go back and forth
at school. 1t is a shameful mockery,
a gross violation of the essential prln-
ciples of education, yea. a positive
and irreparable injury to the minds
and even the moral sensibilities OF
our children. We can never hope to
have any more masters of any
thing so long as this skimming, stuff
ing and cramming policy is pursued.
Our children are forced to accustom
themselves to the always humiliating
and embarrassing feeling of superb
cialness and uncertainty about things
which there should be
the most positive and satisfactory
convictions.
The idea of a child trying to wade
through the mystic maze of four to
seven pages of six, eight or ten dlf-
ferent books at one sitting, some
times in a room uncomfortably cold
Or hot, and amid unavoidable inter-
ferences of ordinary family life, and
tban qo to school next day and reel
It off like a phonograph, is eXasper-
atinq But our State Board seems
70 think that education consists IN
a big sack of books around
on the backs of our children, whether
snv of it reaches the brain or not
land some of the books are filled
with such a conglomeration of TOM
foo;ery that they would be better Oft
if it didn't just pile it on their backs
and it is all right-especially if the
hooks are furnished by a monopoly
roSt to somebody of 500