Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 June 1889 — BEYOND THEIR DEPTH. [ARTICLE]

BEYOND THEIR DEPTH.

INDIANA LEGISLATORS TACKLE THE SUBJECT OF SCHOOL BOOKS, And the Result is a Law Above Unman Comprehension. Some ol tbe Peculiartiea of Their Wonderful Work. Special to Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, Indianapol 8, May s.—When the last General Assembly could spare a few moments from its efforts to create places for needy Democrats, it occupied them in doing absurd and ioolish things. Two or three years ago the notion seized upon some of the mighty minds that grow and vegetate in this State, that tdere was some sort ol a school book trust by which the people were robbed of their money, and the school c hildr p ’’ of the fruits of the education for which their parents were taxed. This was a mighty crime in the eves of those bucolic statesmen. Some’of the brilliant editors who furnish ideas for the unenlightened, took up the cry and made the columns of their papers to fairly howl day after day. Nothing would appease them, mid they Airraid not be convinced that the people would not suffer great hardships from thiß monster school book combine, unless it was overthrown by State legislation. The good people in whose behalf all this turmoil was created, quietly laughed at the efforts of their self-appointed guardians.

There is something in the atmosphere in Indiana that operates upon the brains of a man as soon as he is elected to the Legislature, that drives him to act the fool as certainly as hunger drives the hog to the feed trough. This intangible something drove some members of the Legislature to conceive the idea that the State ought to set itself up for a school book publisher, and the youthful mind be educated upon a new and scientific schedule, patented and originated by the Hoosiers. Two yeani ago this idea was formulated into a bill and presented to the Legislature. From sundry causes, not necessary just now to state, the bill failed of meeting any great degree of favor. It was renewed, however, at the last session of the General Assembly. The original proposition was that the State should set up a book publishing house of its own; that the text of the various works should be prepared under the .supervision of a Democratic Commission appointed by the General Assembly. A series of text books thus pepared would be a curiosity,and would iurnish amusement for a generation or two to come. I remember that some three or four years ago it was discovered that all reference to the late war of the rebellion was ordered excluded from the teaching in the public schools of this city. U pon investigation it was found that this was done at the instigation of a member of the School Board who, in the days of the rebellion, had been prommentlv identified with the Knights of the Golden Circle, and who had at one time been on trial for treason against the Government. Upon further investigation it was found that the historical textbook need in the schools was prepared by a Virginia ex-Con-federate, and that its account of the wgr was altogether from a Southern standpoint. With these faets in mind it may readily be seen that a series of school books gotten up under Democratic inspiration would be rich meat public education. It ought also to be borne in mind that the Democrats of this city endeavored to have excluded from the schools all books which tanght the evil effects of alcohol on the human system, -and that nearly every Democratic member of the last General Assembly voted against a bill which provided that the schools of the State should have in their curriculum works which exemplify the fact that alcohol is not good either for the mind or body of man. It was first determined in the Democratic caucus that the bill should become a law as originallv introduced. By it places would be furnished for a very large number of Democratic heelers and strikers; but finally ttey were driven from that position, and the bill was so amended as to tnrow open the doors of competition to book publishers and would-be writers and compilers. In making these changes the work was done so bunglingly that the bill as it now stands is a monument to stupidity, ignorance and vicious law making. There is not power enough in the combined intellect of the world to know jnst what the legislators meant in some sections of the bill, if they meant anything, which is very doabtfnl The work of contracting for the school books was taken dnt of the hands of the proposed Democratic Commissioners

and placed in those of the Bute Board of Education. The State Board promptly met. and for several boars “rasseled” with tbe law, trying to bring order out of chaos and certainty out ofYagneneaa. By placing a forced constiaction on Beveral sections, so as to make them mean what they wonld have had them do if they had made the law originally, thev finally formulated a set of instractions to bidders. Tbe contractor is bonnd up to do a great many things, bat if anv one can find in the law among all its' multifarious provisions, any way by which he can get his money wtfh any kind of certainty it wonld be a gracious favor for them to point it out County Superintendents, Township Trustees and School Commissioners are made the agents for tbe sale of the books contracted for. They are to receive no compensation for their handling and care of tke books, and yet they are to be responsible for their value. It will take as Such red tape for a child to get a spellg book as it now does for a man to get- bis pay from the Government for famishing a bag of oata to any army Quartermaster, The child makes a requisition upon tbe Township Trustee, the Trustee upon the County Superintendent, tbe County Superintendent upon the State Superintendent, and the State Superintendent upon the contractor. Thus some time long after the child has passed the stage of needing a school book, and has entered upon the cares of maintaining a family of his own, the spelling book is likely to reach him. He will be very lucky if it gets to him in time for the use of hiagrandchild; and the contractor will be lucky to get bis pay bv the time the grandchild in turn is a grandfather. If, in the view of tke State Board of Education, no text book on any subject is eaual to the work of showing, the lioosier youthful idea how to shoot, the Board may contract with some author or compiler to get up one to suit the emergency. When the manuscript is ready, then the Board is required to go skirmishing over the countrv to hunt for a publisher. The law reqnires all bidders to give a bond that they will enter into a contract, if one should be awarded to them, but there is no provision that they shall ’ give bond for the faithful performance of their contract. Neither does the law make it obligatory upon any School Board to adopt or use the school books when so contracted for. and the publisher mußt run the risk of getting his books upon the market after he has printed them. The legislators were very careful to insert a provision that it shall be a part of the terms of the contract that the State shall in no case be liable to the contractor for any sum whatever. The only method by which the contractor can get any pay for his books is as roundabout as that by which his books are put upon the market. The Township Trustee, at stated intervals, reports to the County Superintendent the number and cost of books sold; then at certain other periods, the County Superintendent makes report to the State Superintendent, and, finally, that official reports to the contractor. If the contractor has any reason to believe that somewhere in the great State of Indiana some one has sold more books than he has reported, his only way of satisfying himself on that point is to send some one on a vovage of discovery. This agent will have to visit each of the twelve hundred Township Trustees, the two hundred special school boards, the ninety-two Countv Superintendents, and, finally, the State Superintendent, balancing the accounts of each of the sixteen persons visited and counting the books they each have on hand. When it is all done he may find that, some one owes him for a spelling book. This is legislation in modern Indiana nnder Democratic auspices. It seems that something I have said in my correspondece has awakened the wrath of the editor of the Sentinel, the Democratic State organ. I would not for anything in the world offend that angust individual. I have a tender mercy and a compassionate soul for him, that would make me rather injnre myself than do harm to him. He has let his wrath so take poeeession of Him i that he has applied to me in the columns of his paper such gentle and conciliatory titles as “pictnresqne liar,” Ac. It is claimed that the Sentinel is edited here in this city, and it is ostensibly so,but the real fact is that it is edited and managed from tho School for Feeble Minded and Idiotic Children, at For t Wayne. It is the knowledge of this fact that has given me the compassionate spirit I have entertained toward that sheet. The devil has long been supposed to be the boss liar known in history. If that is true, and the Sentinel should apply to his Satantic Majesty the epithet of liar, it wonld be another case of the pot calling the kettle black. — [Adv.