7G2 



TEACHERS' ASSOCIATIONS. 



of the State to school-supplies. This subject, 

 during the past few years, has been exciting 

 considerable attention, and it was given a large 

 place in the discussions of the California meet- 

 ing. The question at issue was, Should the 

 State raise by taxation a fund sufficient to fur- 

 nish to all pupils in the public schools text- 

 books and other supplies free of cost? In 

 other words, should the State become a public 

 corporation, publishing text-books and manu- 

 facturing supplies for the schools under its 

 care? Superintendent R. W. Stevenson, of 

 Columbus, Ohio, in discussing this question, 

 said: "The principle underlying free text- 

 books is wrong, and must result in evil. That 

 government is the best which gives the people 

 the power and the opportunity to do the most 

 for themselves. There can be no co-operation 

 without interest. To be interested in anything, 

 the person must have a share in its use that 

 costs something to secure even in education. 

 There are, therefore, limitations beyond which 

 the State, for its own safety, should not go. 

 The State that supplies those wants of its peo- 

 ple which, by common industry and economy 

 they can supply for themselves, encourages 

 idleness and dependence. No good will come 

 from a system of free text-books, but, on the 

 contrary, great dangers. The taxation of the 

 Northern States for school purposes is now as 

 heavy as the people will bear. The plan of 

 free text-books means higher taxes, or the at- 

 traction of the money now raised from more 

 useful purposes." 



Hon. L. S. Cornell, of Denver, Col., in dis- 

 cussing this question, said: "The members of 

 the State board of education and text-book 

 commissions, however constituted, are usually 

 men whose time is fully occupied with official 

 and private duties. They are not, as a rule, 

 connected with the work of the common 

 schools, and are unable to make the best selec- 

 tions. Books that have been adopted by such 

 persons with the greatest confidence in their 

 merits, have frequently been found very de- 

 fective when practically tested in the school- 

 room. The power to decide what books 

 should be used by every child in the State, 

 and to give some publishing-house or dealer a 

 monopoly of the school-book trade, is too 

 great to place in the hands of any board or 

 commission. The record of the past in many 

 States will testify to great danger in this direc- 

 tion. It is not desirable for the State to enter 

 the field as a publisher or manufacturer on the 

 ground of economy. No one will claim that 

 the State will make better books than those 

 issued by some private houses, nor that it can 

 do the work more cheaply than they. A first- 

 class book is a thing of growth; it can not be 

 made to order in a few weeks or a month." 

 The testimony of the superintendent of a West- 

 ern State was given in the following words: 

 " It has been the misfortune of our common 

 schools that they have been forced to use 

 books, by authority of law, which none would 



prefer, while independent and special districts 

 have been at liberty to choose for their children 

 the best and freshest in the markets." 



It was urged during the discussion that the 

 tendency of our school systems is to make 

 them machines that grind out all the individu- 

 ality from children ; that the manufacture of 

 text-books by State authority, and the forcing 

 of these books upon the districts, is a species 

 of literary tyranny that is contrary to the free 

 character of our institutions, and would inten- 

 sify the "machine " in education ; that there is 

 no more sense in requiring all schools to use 

 the same geography or history or grammar 

 than there would be in requiring all farmers' 

 wives to use the same kind of flour or sugar or 

 potatoes. It was urged with great force that 

 States attempting to adopt the system of manu- 

 facturing school-books had failed to carry with 

 them the sympathy of the people, and thus the 

 plan had fallen into disrepute from the evident 

 unfairness of its requirements. It was also 

 said by the Hon. E. E. Iligbee, of Pennsylvania, 

 that a legalized State monopoly and a uniform 

 system of text-books by State authority would 

 create a tyranny ; that the large publishing- 

 houses command the best skill in workman- 

 ship and the best experience of learned men 

 and professional teachers, which the State 

 would fail to do; that the competition now 

 existing is itself a guarantee that prices will 

 not be excessive, and that also the highest de- 

 gree of perfection will be obtained. 



In opposition to these arguments it was 

 urged by Thomas Tash, of Portland, Maine, 

 that it is wise to furnish text-books at public 

 expense on account of convenience and econo- 

 my. Much confusion, especially in rural dis- 

 tricts, results from the ownership of wrong 

 and unsuitable books. In such schools pupils 

 do not pursue all the studies they should, or 

 such as they ought, on the plea that they have 

 not the books. With an ample supply of books 

 a school can be more easily and promptly 

 classified. There is no waiting for slow-mov- 

 ing fathers. Eeducing the grade of scholars 

 or loss of time or neglect of study vanish 

 when text-books are furnished by the State. 

 Parents criticise the classification of their chil- 

 dren far less than under the old voluntary sys- 

 tem. Where "text books are supplied by the 

 State, supplementary books may be furnished 

 in any study without increase of cost two 

 sets of readers lasting six years costing no 

 more than one set lasting three years. 



The picture of the State establishing its own 

 shops, gathering its material, constructing its 

 various machines, fixing prices, enforcing the 

 use of its books, establishing its depots of sup- 

 plies and its numerous agents of distribution, 

 its collectors, and accounts, were presented in 

 such a forcible manner as to lead to the gen- 

 eral verdict that such a course would be the 

 death-knell of our inventive genius in the 

 direction of text-book making; would cripple 

 all self-developing enterprise on the part of 



