The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1911-07-12
voted alike.
Change of Text Books.

books, 1t must be remembered that
the law itself anticipates che neces-
sity for change in providing for pc
riodic adoption. The object, moreover,
in inviting bids is to secure not the
cheapest books. but the best books at
the lowest prices. The Board showed
It's recognition of this principle as a
primary end In the fact that, at It's
first meeing and frequently in the
course OF the adoption, IL va. repeat
81 with en- J'.p: IL :nat t'iy first duty
'":,s so get the nnst book ire. ppctive
of reasonable differences i'm price Ore
of the most dangerous doctrines. i'm
piled in Mr.. Swearingen's protest is
that which tends to establish the
principle that books should act be
changed and that cheapness is the
chief object.
No mans child should be compelled
to use inferior text books even though
such books were furnished free OF
cost. Time once lost by the child
through poor books, is never recov-
cred and the damage done is irrepar-
able. People living i'm the country.
are, as a rule, not in position to keep
up with the advance in text books
improvements. These advances are
on par with, or ahead of, improve
mehts. along other lines; and books
that were relatively good four or five
years ago may be relatively poor to-
day. Surely the country children are
entitled to as good books as the town
children are. This advantage the
Board was fully determined they
should have, without regard to crit
iCiSm
Increase i'm Prices.
Most of those who have made com
parisons between particular books of
the old and the new adoption have
fallen into serious and misleading
error.
Saving to the State.
Those who have commented on the
cost of the adoption have overlooked
the positive fact that this Board has
secured what is confessedly the best
contract ever obtained from the pub
fishers in this country. For we main
tain that the credit for this contract
is due to no one man. but that the
contract was the product of the COM
bined Judgment of the whole Board
and was unanimously adopted by it,
by this contract. for the first time i'm
the history of book adoptions, any old
book in the hand OF the child has
been given definite money value and
will be taken in exchange for any
book OF lower or higher grade in
the same series. BY the same con
tract. too, the length of time allowed
:or exchange has been increased 25
per cent
Both the method and the saving in
this exchange provision may be illus
trated with the Readers. BY the con-
tract the old Johnson Primer. which,
when new, cost the children ~ cents,
has now an exchange value of 10
cents. That is to say, an old Johnson
Primer and 10 cents will buy a new
Wheeler Primer, the retail contract
price of which is 20 cents Or the
same Primer and 10 cents will buy a
new Wheeler First Reader. the con-
tract retail price Of which is 25 cents
In the same way. an old Primer may
be used at this valuation of Is cents
to help pay for any Reader--First
Second, Third. Fourth. or Fifth;
whereas. in the past Il Primer could
be exchanged only for a Primer. Fur
ther an old First Reader, which cost
20 cents when new. has by contract
been given money value of Is cents
and may be used to help pay for a
Primer or for and Reader
In the case of the Biographies, the
old Primary Geography. which was dis
carded by the Board and, which cost
when new 33 cents, has by contract
been given an exchange value of 23
cents, being only 10 cents less than it
cost when new That is to say. an
old Primary Geography and % cents
will pay for the new book adopted Or
the old Primary Geography and 60
cents Will pay for the new Advanced
Geography. So. too. the old Advanced
Geography and % cents will buy the
new Primary Geography. Could any
one deny that money has been saved
to the State
Cost to the State.
1t has been claimed that the Board
by its action wantonly destroyed prop
erty values estimated at $500. 900 This
sum is just q few thousand less than
the cost of all the school books bought
in South Carolina during the years
l906-19ll How preposterous this
claim is will appear from the follow
ing:
1t assumes that all these books, ev-
en- those bought five years ago, are
still in usable form in the hands of
the children and are now worth what
they cost when new. 1t assumes also
that If all the old books had been re-
adopted. the children of the State
would not have had to buy any new
books during the coming five years.
1t forgets that each book now in the
hands Of the child has not only paid
its price in use. but Is by contract
given an added definite value, APP
fifty per cent. of It's orig
inal cost
The following analysis will show
that the apparent loss to the state
would in reality he only about $4,000
a year for the fiye-year period, or only
about 42-3 cents per child. instead of
the alleged loss of 5000 600 Az IL IL