The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1913-11-07
EDUCATORS DISCUSS
TEXTBOOK PRObI EN-
LED BY tNGl|SHNAN
CANADIAN EXPERT TELLS OF
THE CHEAP PRICES OBTAIN
ED IN ONTARIO.
DR.. D. ]. GOGGIN THE SPEAKER

Uhs ~ " uOuuHN bAk VI LnALb
Experiences as Told VIII Be of Value
to the Tennessee Text Book Com
mission When Next State Contract
Is to Be Made.
NASHVILLE, Nov. lone of the
most interesting subjects appearing
SO far before the convention of the
Southern Educational Association,
now in session in Nashville, was the
text book problem, successful phase
Of which was presented Friday night
in an address by DR.. d. j. Goggin,
general editor of text books for the
department of education in the pro-
vince of Ontario. The method of
dealing with the perplexing text book
problem by the Ontario government
has been mentioned to some extent
all over the world as it has led to
the publication and sale of standard
text books at nominal price. Special
efforts were taken by the Southern
Educational Association to bring DR..
Goggin here so that he might tell the
teachers of this method, and his talk
proved fully as interesting, instruc-
tive and valuable as. had been ex-
pected. The morning and afternoon
sessions were replete with interest,
and the day was very successful
one.
The fact that a series of four ex-
ceIlent readers for the grammar
grades had been procured at a netail
price of 40 cents for the series was
brought out by the speaker He gave
the history of the. text book aetivi
ties of the government educational
workers, and especially that part
which has been devoted to the pro-
curing good text books at a low cost.
The government, he said, has not en-
tered the publishing business to gain
their point, but has inaugurated a
system of close contracts and careful
supervision, which has brought about
the desired results admirably.
Briefly told DR.. Goggin's story of
the text book fight was about as fol-
lows:
From 1882 to 1906 a great NUMBER
of reader series were settled. upon by
the government as the official texts
for the grammar grades in the
schools of the Province. Several diff
ferent large publishing concerns re-
ceived the contracts for these books,
and the quality of text issued and
the high prices obtained for them
gave the publishers an exhorbitant
profit. In 1884 the government had
edited, through PITS educational de-
partment, two series of readers, and
had awarded the contracts for publ
ca to two firms, after setting up the
type and electrotyping the forms tt
was found that this insured a stand
ard set Of books. but the price still
was too high.
In 1906 committee was appointed
to look into the matter, and find out
| if the prices obtained for the books
was exhorbitant. This fact was found
only too true. 1t was announced
that a new series of books was to be
edited and electrotyped by the gov
eminent, and that in the meantime,
for period of one and a half years,
the old texts were to be continued in
use. Bids were declared open for the
publication of the old books for the
year and half, and ten companies
submitted bids. The contract was let
at the rate of 40 cents, whereas pre-
viously the publishers had been get
ting $1.15 for the set.
When the new series of readers
had been edited and electrotyped by
he government, bids opened again
flor their publication, there being at
the same time a promise that the
books would not be changed for a Pc
lriod of ten years, and that the con-
tracts would hold good for that length
|of time. The price obtained on this
series was also 40 cents, giving the
public the right to publish four large
books for that price. These readers
range in size from SO to over $50
Ipages each, and the average price is
ess than 12k cents each.