LB ™ am 18x33 swSS Class__y^-j2JLi Book ' - -— REPORT Joint Legislative Committee )pointed Pursuant to Assembly Concurrent Resolution No, 26, 1915 California State Printing Office Sacramento. 19 17 REPORT Joint Legislative Committee Appointed Pursuant to Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 26, 1915 California State Printing Office Sacramento. 19 17 27503 ^ CONTENTS. Pack LETTER OF TRANSMITTAI 3 REPORT r, INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT 5 AUTHORSHIP OF TEXTS 9 PRINTING IN SECTIONS 11 FREE TEXTBOOKS 12 California Illustrations 13 Committee Recommendations 15 PRINTING BY THE STATE 16 STATE UNIFORMITY OF TEXTBOOKS 10 EXHIBITS 34 D. of D.- KB 23 1917 - LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL To the members of the Senate and Assembly of the Legislature of Cali- fornia at its forty-second session. In conformity with the provision of Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 26, adopted at the session of 1915, there is herewith transmitted to you for your consideration the report of the committee appointed under the terms of such resolution, together with its findings and recommendations as to the matters included in the investigation. NEWTON W. THOMPSON. EDW. K. STROBRIDGE. HOWARD J. FISH. B. B. MEEK. W. W. HARRIS. REPORT. The legislature of 1915 adopted a resolution (Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 26), the text of which is as follows: Whereas, The purchase of textbook plates and the annual pay- ment of royalties amounts to a sum greater than would necessarily be expended if this work was compiled by California authors ; and Whereas, There is^ a sentiment among the school faculties and parents of school children, that the books should be issued in sec- tions to cover a term instead of several years, and used by but one pupil; and Whereas, The issuance of free textbooks to the students of the elementary schools has proved a success, both in educational advantages and economy; therefore, be it Resolved by the assembly, the senate concurring, That the speaker of the assembly shall appoint three members, and the president of the senate shall appoint three members, who shall act as a com- mittee of the legislature to investigate the matters contained in this resolution and the advisability and means of furnishing textbooks free to the students of the secondary schools of the state, and all matters relating thereto, and to report their findings in full to the forty-second session of the legislature ; and be it further Resolved, That the committee shall have power to employ a secretary and such other assistants as it may deem necessary, and that the expenses incurred in such investigation, not to exceed the sum of two thousand dollars, shall be paid equally by the assembly and the senate out of their respective contingent funds. Pursuant to the direction of this resolution, the following were named to act : Senators Newton W. Thompson, Edw. K. Strobridge, D. J. Beban. Assemblymen Howard J. Fish, B. B. Meek, W. W. Harris. The members met informally in the State Capitol on May 12, 1915, and requested Arthur P. Will, Chief of the Legislative Counsel Bureau, to correspond with the proper officials in various states and to gather such available information as would throw light on the subject before the committee. Your committee desires- to express its hearty appreciation of the effi- cient assistance rendered by the Legislative .Counsel Bureau and the cordial cooperation of the chief of that bureau, Mr. Arthur P. Will, who, at the request of the committee, has acted as secretary for . the b KEi'ORT OP TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. entire period without compensation, The arrangement thus outlined has enabled the committee to secure efficient assistance and to carry on its work at a minimum expenditure. Any other plan would have required the employment of a permanent secretary for a considerable period of time, and a considerable outlay for clerical assistance. In conformity with this direction, an identical letter and list of ques- tions was sent to the Superintendent of Public Instruction or equivalent officer in every state and territory under the jurisdiction of the federal government. This letter and questionnaire are printed in the appendix herein as Exhibit "A" and Exhibit "B" respectively. The responses were prompt and courteous and much information was obtained that has been of value to the committee. In the latter part of 1915 the United States Bureau of Education published a pamphlet containing the result of an investigation con- ducted by it which throws considerable light on some of the questions under examination. Copies of this pamphlet (Bulletin, 1915, No. 36 — Whole No. 663) were courteously furnished the Legislative Counsel Bureau for the use of your committee. A call having been issued for a second meeting, four members of the committee met in the State Capitol on November 3, 1915. Two of the senate members were unable to be present at this meeting, one on account of illness and the other by reason of engagement in public work elsewhere. The members present, however, received and discussed the information then on hand and directed that the investigations be pursued. Before the members came together again, one of their number, Senator D. J. Beban, was removed by death. Senator Beban was an active and loyal public servant. He was deeply interested in the work of the committee, and during their subsequent deliberations the remaining members have realized that they and the public have suffered an appre- ciable loss. The next meeting of the committee was held in the State Offices in Los Angeles on March 20, 1916. The committee convened at 10.30 a.m. on that date and continued in session for three days. At this meeting the committee organized by the election of Senator Newton W. Thomp- son as chairman. Arthur P. Will, Chief of the Legislative Counsel Bureau, was requested to act as secretary of the committee. The first two days of this session were given over to public hearings. Formal addresses were made by Messrs. Will C. Wood, Commissioner of Secondary Schools; Noel II. Garrison, principal of the Stockton High School, representing the California Slate Convention of High School Principals, and George Tracy of San Francisco, on behalf of the California Typographical Conference. These addresses are repre- REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 7 sentative of the different viewpoints of various portions of the com- munity, and therefore are reproduced in full in the appendix as Exhibits "C," "D" and "E" respectively. After each address the meeting was thrown open for discussion, and advantage was taken of the opportunity by teachers and by others present to ask for information and to present their views. Among others, the committee heard at this time Messrs. H. W. Dennett, representing the members of the Allied Printing Trades of Los Angeles; W. L. Glascock, representing the Cali- fornia Teachers ' Association ; Mark Keppel, Los Angeles County Super- intendent of Schools; E. H. McMath, principal of the Santa Ana High School; W. H. Snyder, principal of the Hollywood High School, repre- senting the State Council of Education ; T. E. Hughes, representing the high school teachers of Los Angeles, and Charles T. Scott, represent- ing the International Typographical Union. On the third day of this meeting, the members, on the invitation of the Los Angeles teachers, visited the Los Angeles High School, Lincoln High School, Hollywood High School, Los Angeles Polytechnic High School and Gardena High School. The second public hearing, and the fourth meeting of the committee, was in the rooms of the State Harbor Commission in San Francisco on May 15 to 17, 1916. At the invitation of local committees, your committee inspected, during this meeting, the following schools: Oakland Polytechnic High School, Oakland Vocational High School, Oakland High School, Fre- mont High School and the Evening Polytechnic High School in San Francisco. At the hearing Mr. George Tracy again addressed the committee on points not fully covered by him in his previous address. His remarks on this occasion are substantially embodied in his paper printed herein as Exhibit "E." At this meeting, Mr. Robert L. Telfer, Superintendent of State Printing, also presented a printed brief on behalf of the various interests supporting the proposal for free high school textbooks and in advocacy of the printing of such books by the state, which may be found in the appendix as Exhibit "P." Among others who addressed the committee at this meeting was Mr. E. M. Cox, principal of the Fremont High School in Oakland. He was followed by Mr. L. B. Avery, who argued in favor of permissive textbooks, and by Mr. G. W. Wright of Modoc, who spoke against uniformity and against printing by the state. Mr. W. H. Tenney of Oakland also opposed the proposition. Mr. Heaton of San Francisco and Mr. Drackert of Typographical Union No. 46 of Sacramento, and others participated in an informal discussion. Mr. G. M. Fischer, 8 REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. principal of the Oakland Polytechnic High School, advocated furnishing texthooks free and adopting a standard of uniformity in the more general subjects. He declared that this would not be practicable for modern industrial subjects and proposed a conference of a committee of the legislature and the State Board of Education, at which a uniform list of textbooks could be prescribed. Others who addressed the com- mittee on various phases of the subject were Mr. Thompson of Alameda, Mr. Sutton of Oakland, Mr. Lee of Oakland, Mr. Smith, representing Ginn & Company, publishers of school books, and Mr. Page of Berkeley. Mr. Will C. Wood, Commissioner of Secondary Schools, asked and obtained leave of the committee to file a brief in reply to the brief sub- mitted by Mr. Telfer. This reply brief is printed herein as Exhibit "G." Thus your committee has afforded opportunity to all interested in the subjects within the scope of its examination to appear and be heard. Prior to each public hearing appropriate notice was given by mail to individuals who had expressed a desire to be heard, and through the press a general invitation to be present was issued to all those having information that would be of value to the committee. As appears from the above recital, many have availed themselves of the invitation. And in addition to the information furnished by those interested on one side or another in various phases of the subject, the committee has gathered from independent sources much interesting and valuable data. This data has been considered carefully by the members individually and when meeting together for the purpose. The largest single item of expense in California is for education. It appears from the annual report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction that, for the fiscal year 1915-16, the entire expenditure of public funds devoted to that purpose exceeded $36,000,000, or more than $12 per capita. Of this enormous total, nearly $10,000,000 was expended for secondary schools. This report also shows that the value of high school property within the state is in excess of $26,500,000, while the outstanding bonded debt of high school districts is nearly $13,500,000. The total bonded debt of school districts in the state as shown by this report is about $42. <)()(). OOO. an increase of nearly $6,000,000 over the preceding year. These figures eloquently testify to the generous provision made from public funds for the support of education. In this connection, attention is directed to the opinion expressed to your committee by the Superin- tendent of Public Instruction thai a substantial saving could be effected by a change of methods without at all impairing educational facilities. Various suggestions and recommendations for substantial saving in school expenditures may he found in this report. REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 9 Your committee reassembled in the rooms of the Legislative Counsel Bureau on October 11, 12 and 13, on December 7, 8 and 9, and again on December 18 and 19, 1916, examined the information before it and dis- cussed at length the bearing of such information upon the points at issue. The result of these deliberations is herewith submitted. I. Authorship of Texts. The members of your committee are agreed that it has not been demonstrated that, in the words of the first recital of Assembly Con- current Resolution No. 26, 1915, "the purchase of textbook plates and the annual payment of royalties amounts to a sum greater than would necessarily be expended if this work was compiled by California authors. ' ' In an effort to obtain light on this matter, the secretary was instructed to send to the State Superintendent of Public Instruction the following letter : "I have been instructed by the legislative committee appointed pursuant to Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 26 to ask if you will kindly furnish information on the following points: 1. What elementary textbooks compiled or prepared by Cali- fornia authors under authority of the State Board of Education have been used in the schools of this state ? In addition to naming the books and the authors, please give (a) the cost of each book, (b) the number of each used, (c) the period and length of time during which each was used, (d) the cost to the state of each com- pilation, specifying separately the copyright or royalty cost. 2. Please give a list of the books by California authors which have proven successful and state the period of their use in the schools. 3. Are any copyrights of school books now controlled by this state ? If any, please give the name of the work and of the author thereof. (Please note that this query is not limited to California authors.) 4. Please give a list of the books and of the authors thereof now in use upon which the state is paying a royalty or the copyright to which the state has purchased or leased, and state the amount of the royalty or the cost of the copyright, as the case may be, in each instance. 5. Please give the particulars of each instance in which the state has sought to obtain control of textbook copyrights but has been deterred because of prohibitive cost or other reasons. Information on the above points at your earliest convenience will be greatly appreciated by the Legislative Committee." To this Mr. Hyatt replied as follows : "Answering your letter of December 11th, I assure you that I 10 REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. shall be very glad to cooperate with you and give you all the infor- mation that is within my power. I shall answer your questions seriatim, as follows : 1. I enclose herewith a brief history of the. California textbook plan, which contains a good deal of the information requested in this paragraph. You will find the time divided into three periods, first, second and third. Up until 1903 all the books issued by the state were by California authors, as explained in the text of the circular. The circular also gives the cost of each book and the period during which it was used. 2. It would not be possible to pick out which of these books were successful and which were unsuccessful. That is purely a matter of personal opinion. In the minds of those who issued the books they were very successful. In the minds of all book publishers they were very unsuccessful. The rest of the world was divided in its opinion. 3. All the copyrights up to 1903 belonged to the state and are controlled by the state absolutely. There is one small exception to this, in that a small royalty was paid to the Houghton, Mifflin Company for a portion of the matter used in one of the readers. This was so small as to be negligible. 4. On page 11 of the circular above referred to you will find a list of the books in use at the present time with the royalty on each, the cost price, and the trade name of each book. Only two of these are by a California author, namely, the two arithmetics. All of the books are published on a royalty basis, and the state does not own the copyright to any of them. 5. I do not recall any specific instances of the state seeking to obtain control of textbook copyrights. In all adoptions the state has advertised for competitive bids for furnishing textbooks, and it has always found the royalty basis to be the most advantageous so far as could be ascertained. All proposals that they have made to publishers for the purchase of the copyright of a popular book have been met by refusals or the naming of impossible figures. I enclose with the above our latest report showing some more textbook figures which may be of interest. When you have looked over all of these, if there still remain any doubtful points in your mind, or if you desire any further information, I shall be glad to serve you to the best of my ability." The history of the California textbook plan referred to in Mr. Hyatt's letter is reprinted herein as Exhibit "IT." This problem has been the subject of careful investigation elsewhere. In their report made after a thorough research, the Textbook Com- mission of the Province of Ontario used the following language which is peculiarly applicable to our situation: "The department may select an author to prepare a textbook. then engage a publisher and fix the price at which the text shall be sold to the public. This is the method which, speaking generally, was adopled under the two previous Ministers of Education. The author selected was not necessarily the one who could produce the REPORT OP TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 11 best text ; the publisher had the price fixed for him and he imme- diately set to work to make the most money he could out of his contract. Consequently the present textbooks are unsatisfactory. A second method may be considered. The Department might have all its texts prepared under its authority, make its own plates, own all the rights in the texts and then have them printed by tender. If the Department represented the whole of Canada instead of one province this system might be expedient. For a single province to adopt such a plan would be expensive and cumbersome. ' ' Your committee is therefore of the opinion that the present policy of the state, in this regard, should be pursued. It is too late to nurse California authors at the expense of the educational system. "While, other things being equal, California authors should have the preference, yet your committee believes it is the part of wisdom and in accord with the almost universal sentiment of the people that the best available book for our high school pupils should be procured without regard to its source. II. Printing in Sections. The members of the committee are agreed that there is very little evidence in conformity with the second recital of the above-named resolution, to the effect that "there is a sentiment among the school faculties and parents of school children, that the books should be issued in sections to cover a term instead of several years, and used by but one pupil." There have been some such statements made to the committee in a more or less cursory manner and it is reported that in one or two dis- tricts a movement of the sort is on foot. The principal argument in favor of furnishing texts to pupils in sections is that such a plan lessens the chance of transmitting disease. It may be observed, however, that all the danger of this kind that exists in connection with the use of school books is attendant in a much greater degree upon the use of library books. No positive evidence has been presented on the subject, and certainly it does not appear that there is any general public demand for the issuance of books in sections. III. Free Textbooks. The members of the committee agree that, undoubtedly, the third recital of the resolution is in accordance with the fact and that the L2 REPORT OP TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. issuance of free textbooks to the students of the elementary schools of California has proven a very marked success. A report presented to the legislature in 1915 by the New York state department of efficiency and economy estimates the cost of supplying free textbooks in both the elementary and secondary schools. New- York City has furnished free books for many years. The experience of seventeen cities furnishing secondary school books is presented, and the conclusion is that the cost of the installation of a system of free textbooks in the high schools would average .+4.8487 for each pupil "if purchased from private publishers at prices paid by the city of New York." This figure represents the cost of new books; in other words, the initial cost of the new system. "The cost of renewal, or the annual cost of a free textbook system for New York State, is estimated from the annual cost in free textbook cities of the state as follows : In elemen- tary schools, $0.6456 ; in secondary schools, $1.5833." Investigation discloses that — ■ (a) Textbooks are furnished free to pupils of the high schools in Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts. Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Panama, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wyoming. (b) They are furnished by the state in Maryland and Panama Canal Zone; by the town or city in Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont; by the local school committee or board of education (except in the city of Wilmington) in Delaware; by the district in Nebraska. Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Wyoming. In Nebraska, approximately $200,000 was spent for free high school books in 1914-15. In New Jersey, where the enrollment is 38,099, for textbooks and supplies there was expended $111,421.11, or an average of $2.92 per pupil. In Porto Rico, for an enrollment of 2,960, there was expended for textbooks $4,972.22, or an average of $1.68 per pupil. In West Virginia, less than $5,000 (estimated) was spent for text- books. In Wyoming, the total enrollment in grades and high schools was 27,536; in high schools, 2,533. Expended for free books of all kinds, $33,000. In Veniionl the total enrollment in high schools was 5,975; expended for free textbooks in high and elementary schools, $50,016.61. Fur- nishing to high schools is permissive, but is almost universal. In Maryland, where textbooks are purchased by the county school boards with state appropriation, and in Baltimore City, by the Board of Commissioners, textbooks are bought by competitive bidding. One REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 13 hundred fifty thousand dollars is appropriated annually for this pur- pose. The enrollment in high schools last year was 5,550 and the cost of high school textbooks was not segregated. (c) Textbooks are furnished free in some localities in Colorado, Connecticut, Florida (four counties), Iowa, Ohio and West Virginia. In Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vir- ginia and perhaps some other states, books are furnished free to indigent pupils. In Idaho, the State Board of Education has the power to determine whether textbooks shall be free. (d) In states where it is optional with districts to furnish free text- books, the following has been the result: Districts using free books Percentage of pupils Colorado Connecticut _ Idaho Iowa Kansas Michigan Minnesota Missouri Montana New York North Dakota Ohio South Dakota Texas Washington __ West Virginia Wisconsin 20 per cent. 133 out of 168 towns. 75 per cent 70 out of 5,000. Very few. 1,177 6,599 out of 9,763 323 613 out of 1,369. 3,679 out of 6,614. 20 cities Practice too recent for figures. 1,437 50 out of 342 37 cities out of 78; 2,836 others out of 7,000. 85 per cent Over 75 per cent Nearly 20 per cent 90 per cent 30 per cent 57 per cent 65 per cent 50 per cent 16 per cent 5 per cent 70 per cent 20 per cent 66 per cent California Illustrations. Three high school districts in California, San Mateo, Conley and Clovis, have of their own volition provided free textbooks for their pupils. In these districts the plan has worked satisfactorily. The superintendent of San Mateo says : "The San Mateo High School in this county, which has an enrollment of 290 pupils, furnishes all of the books for the students. They commenced the system this year and pay for them from the district tax. Whereas the books cost the students nearly $2,000 they cost the trustees in the neighborhood of $1,000. The books are loaned to the students as library books and are charged to them. When returned in fairly good condition the charge tag will be destroyed. The pupils like the idea. The parents are glad to be relieved of the burden and the tax is less than one cent. 14 REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. "I think the law should be so amended as to force the district to furnish the books. The books to be purchased, however, should be on the approved list of the State Board of Education." The following is the Clovis plan, as described by Mr. P. H. Benson, the district superintendent: "The Clovis Union High School buys all the books used in the school, puts them in the school library, and loans them to the stu- dents as they need them. A few of the interesting points in this regard follow : "1. The cost to the pupil: The pupil pays nothing for books, therefore no hardship is placed on poor pupils or parents. I believe books would cost pupils about $5 per year at least. For 150 pupils this is a total of $750 per year if all are new, for com- munity. "2. Cost to community less: Last year when we had a large increase of 33 per cent and many new books, they cost us only about $300 for all. This, if it were divided, would be $1.50 per pupil, and if this book is used by four pupils, then the individual cost would be 62 cents per pupil. This does not include books on hand before, but each dollar spent will work out this way. Last year I bought English texts at $1.35. Already two classes have used this book and it is in fine shape. Probably more than two more will use the identical books. Therefore, if four pupils use one book the cost to each would be only 34 cents per pupil as against $1.35 for a new book. You see the saving. Moreover, the commu- nity at large pays for the books and thus the man who is able to pay foots the bill instead of the poorer man. "3. Convenience: The convenience of having the books at any minute one needs them for study, reference or reading, and of having every pupil equipped with a book on time is worth consid- erable. "There are only two valid objections in my mind at this time. First, the liability of spreading disease. Answer, fumigate books. Second, carelessness with books. I do not know whether they would take any better care of their own books or not, since father, not they, pays for them." The supervising principal of Conley schools writes: "Replying to your favor of the twentieth instant in regard to Conley High School having furnished free textbooks to its stu- dents, will say that this was begun some four years ago, when the school was small and there were no dealers who made a specialty of handling such books here. "The plan worked so well for us that we have continued it to the present time. While we have no separate account of the exact cost of these textbooks, as we were paying for library and supplementary books at the same time we were furnishing texts, this fact is true: We dealt directly with the wholesale houses, thus getting dealers' rates; in addition to this, we have received REPORT OP TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 15 liberal discounts for meeting our bills within thirty days, of which we have always taken advantage, thus bringing the cost to the lowest possible figure. "The books have received excellent care and we have had very few losses, all of which means a great saving to the community. Moreover, going into open market, we have bought the very best texts the market afforded in each subject, thus doing away with the necessity for a multitude of supplementary books. "Whether the state or the district furnishes the books, we favor the plan of free textbooks; but we believe these should be bought on contract from the publishers, since whenever a better textbook in any given subject is put upon the market, these could be contracted for when the old contract expires." Committee Recommendations. After an investigation of all the evidence before it, including the facts herein set out, and especially in view of the lack of any prescribed uniformity of textbooks, your committee feels that it is not expedient at this time that the state should furnish textbooks free to pupils of high schools. It is the opinion of your committee that, after the substantial uniformity recommended herein shall have been accomplished, it may be feasible for the state to furnish textbooks free to the pupils of sec- ondary schools. It is possible also that, when the time necessary for the preliminary steps has elapsed, the prices of ink, paper, etc., will have sunk once more to a normal plane. By that time more data, the product of experience in various districts, will be available to guide the authorities in the final determination of the question. In the mean- time the system now in vogue in some school districts, under permission of law, of furnishing textbooks by the district, should be encouraged, and the legislature should enact whatever laws may prove to be necessary to enable districts more readily and conveniently to take such action. in their discretion. On the petition of, say fifty heads of families in a district, filed ninety days before election, the proposition for free text- books should be submitted to the voters of the district at the next suc- ceeding election. It will be seen from the data heretofore set out in this division that, in a number of states, books are so purchased and furnished by districts. In all of these states the law has thrown protective provisions around the whole system so that both quality and the lowest possible price are secured. A good example of such statutory provisions is the law enacted by the legislature of North Dakota in 1915. This statute is reprinted in the, appendix as Exhibit "I." In this connection the committee discussed various methods of pur- chasing textbooks. The members are agreed that probably the most 16 REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. satisfactory method would be a system by which the present State Pur- chasing Agent would purchase in quantities the books, called for and establish depots in, say, three convenient centers of population from which such books could be distributed through county purchasing agents or other appropriate officials. This plan could be put into effect whether the books are paid for by the pupils themselves or are furnished free by some public agency. It is the opinion of the committee that general supplies for the use of the schools, as well as the books, should be purchased and distributed in this manner. For this purpose the legislature could appropriate a revolving fund. The supplies, as well as the textbooks, could be sold at a price representing the cost to the state plus a reasonable charge for administration, and the receipts would reimburse the revolving fund. No sufficient reason is perceived why the supplies for the elementary schools also could not be bought in this way. The experience of other states which have purchased books by con- tract in substantially this way has been very satisfactory. The state, by purchasing in large quantities, could procure books at the lowest possible price, and the public could be protected by bonds furnished as in other states, in sufficient amount to insure the furnishing of books as good in quality as samples submitted and at the prices quoted. Other methods of distribution have been adopted in different states and are pointed out in an extract from the United States Bureau of Education Bulletin, 1915, No. 36. This may be found in the appendix as Exhibit " J. " In view, however, of all the considerations that present themselves, and especially in view of the fact that this state already has a purchasing agent whose department is in successful operation, your committee is of the opinion that the plan outlined above would be the most satisfactory to everybody concerned. It is the opinion of your committee, and it has been stated to your committee by persons com- petent to judge, that such a system would probably save to the people of the state from 20 to 25 per cent of the present cost of the books. A saving equally great would undoubtedly be effected if the school supplies were handled in the same way. IV. Printing by the State. Granting the success of the system of free textbooks in the elementary schools as declared in the recital of the resolution, it does not follow that it is economically advisable for the state to print textbooks for free distribution to pupils of high schools. The reasons why the same argu- ments do not apply to the two classes readily present themselves and are based chiefly on the limited number of the books that could be used REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 17 in any one year in most of the subjects taught in the high schools. There are in California 266 high schools, in attendance at which in 1915-16 there were about 76,000 pupils (of whom about 15,000 were enrolled in night schools) taking instruction in a great variety of courses. (It is to be noted in passing that the high schools show a most notable increase in attendance this year, the enrollment being, in round numbers, 95,000, of whom about 27,000 are in night schools.) In the elementary schools of the state there are about 400,000 children. Books can not be profitably printed except in large quantities. The 400,000 students in the elementary grades in 1915-16 used 23 books, including five copy books, representing eight subjects besides writing. Most of these are of an inexpensive kind and offer themselves readily to cheap production. They can, moreover, be produced in large quantities. On the other hand, many of the books necessarily used in the high schools are large and, from the nature of the subject and character, expensive. As against the 23 books used by over 400,000 children in the elementary schools, there were upwards of 100 subjects taught in the high schools to less than 80,000 pupils. First Algebra, the onty subject taught in every one of the 266 high schools in the state, was studied last year by only 17,208 pupils. Plane Geometry was taught last year in all the high schools but one, to 10,724 pupils. In the brief submitted on behalf of various interests, and which is printed herein as Exhibit "W," it is said that ' ' textbooks can profitably be printed in the State Printing Office in editions of 10,000 and possibly less." In only five of the courses offered in the high schools last year were there more than 10,000 pupils enrolled. In 75 of the courses there were less than 5,000 enrolled. In 53 courses less than 2,000 were enrolled. There were 17 courses in no one of which was a subject taught to more than 100 pupils in the whole state. The table printed in the appendix as Exhibit " K " shows the number of schools and pupils therein respectively, in which the subjects specified are taught. Again, the cost of printing high school books would be increased by the fact that, owing to the different character of the subjects and the greater difficulty of finding satisfactory texts, the royalty on high school books would be greater than the royalty on elementary books. While the royalty on elementary books in California is about 15 per cent, experience has demonstrated that the royalty on books in the secondary schools would average in the neighborhood of 30 per cent. The element, however, that most seriously complicates this problem is the matter of uniformity, or rather, lack of uniformity in the books in use in our high schools. In the figures given herein showing the number of pupils in certain named courses, we have assumed, to give 2—27503 18 REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. for a moment the benefit of the argument to those advocating printing of these books by the state, that all the pupils in a specified course use the same book. This is far from being the case. By reference to the table printed below it will be seen that, in the 266 high schools of the state, the 17,208 pupils taking First Year Algebra use 12 different texts ; that in the 198 schools in which Advanced Algebra is taught, the 2,738 pupils use 12 different texts; that in the 265 schools in which Plane Geometry is taught, 13 different texts are distributed among the 10,721 pupils studying the subject; that in the 245 schools where Ancient History is taught, 10 different texts are divided up among 8,886 pupils; that in the 256 schools teaching Civics, 5,250 pupils use 13 different texts; that in the 145 schools teaching German Grammar, 21 texts are distributed among 3,478 students; that in the 34 schools in which English Grammar is taught, 15 different textbooks are used by 4,111 pupils. And yet, even those who advocate state printing of textbooks admit that, unless the edition is at least 10,000, the printing would be done at a cost that would be prohibitive. The table, referred to in the above paragraph, shows the number of different texts that are used in each of the more common subjects, and the total number of pupils studying that subject, and appears on page 30 in the next division of this report. It is perfectly clear, therefore, that the printing of high school text- books by the state is absolutely out of the question so long as the present methods of adoption exist. To make state printing at all practicable it would be necessary to prescribe that, in almost every subject taught in the high schools of the state, only one textbook could be used. Even though one textbook should be adopted for a four-year period, the sub- jects that would be open for state printing would be comparatively few, for it must be remembered that in many instances one book could be used by two or three students in successive years. Take, for example, the subject of Solid Geometry. This subject, it appears from the table above referred to, is studied by 1,545 pupils scattered over the state in 189 high schools. In four years, if there were no increase, this subject would be studied by 6,180 pupils. Allowing for a natural increase, say that 6,500 pupils would take Solid Geometry in a four-year period. Then, if not a single textbook in this subject were used by more than one pupil, that is to say, if every pupil had a perfectly new book, only 6,500 books would need to be printed in this subject in the whole period of four years. Under any circumstances, to make state printing profitable, one book must be used in several successive years. Applying the same methods of computation to the various subjects designated in the table above referred to, it will be seen that, even with absolute uni- formity of textbooks, the subjects in which books could be profitably printed by the state are very few. REPORT OP TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 19 V. ' State Uniformity of Textbooks. This brings us naturally to a consideration of the advisability of adopting a uniform standard for the textbooks used in the high schools of the state. Should it be provided that the same book must be used in every school in which a course is given in the subject of which that book treats? Should this uniform standard be prescribed in every subject taught in the high schools, or should a greater latitude be allowed in some subjects? The proposal for uniformity is the one that is fought most earnestly by the teachers of the state. The greater part of the briefs submitted on behalf of the high school teachers and teachers' associations is made up of arguments directed against the proposal for uniformity. And generally speaking, the adoption of a uniform text is most objectionable in those courses taken by a comparatively small number of pupils. The provisions of the present law relating to the adoption and print- ing of books for use in the elementary schools are found in section 1519 of the Political Code. Recent amendments to our school laws, it may be said, have for the first time made the high schools really a part of the educational system of the state. The provisions governing the use and adoption of textbooks in the high schools are found in section 1750 of the Political Code. That section provides, among other things, that "the high school board of each district which has not already done so, shall adopt textbooks for use in such high school district, from a list prescribed by the state board of education, and the clerk or secretary of said board shall, annually, during the month of October, certify to the state board of education a list of all textbooks so adopted by said board during the previous year. The order of adoption shall be entered on the minutes of the board, and no textbook so adopted shall be changed for the term of four years after adoption; provided, that a high school board may continue the use of a textbook after the expira- tion of such term of four years until such time as it sees fit to change such textbook, or until such time as said textbook shall be stricken from the list of textbooks prescribed by the state board of education. This section shall not be construed to forbid the adoption of an additional textbook in any subject when the textbook in such subject has been completed." It is clear that the powers conferred upon the State Board of Educa- tion in this respect have been ample enough to make it possible for that Board, by restrictive selection to remove much of the objection that can be justly made at this time to the adoption of textbooks used in the high schools. Tour committee is of the opinion that the pupils 20 REPORT OP TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. of the state and their parents are saddled unnecessarily with a heavy burden of expense which even, in some cases, denies to children the chance to obtain the full benefits which the high schools are intended to bestow, by the failure of the properly constituted authorities to assume the responsibility of exercising the powers conferred upon them relating to the selection of books. It should be remarked here that the table above referred to and other tables of similar nature printed herein have been made up from the lists certified to the State Board of Education in October, 1915. For many years the liberty of selection of high school textbooks was virtu- ally unrestricted. The present State Board of Education, however, has been gradually restricting the list from which selections may be made and, since the members took office, has reduced the list of approved books from 1,196 to about 369. In April last your committee waited upon the State Board of Education in open meeting, explained the pur- poses of this investigation and requested from the state board a state- ment of its attitude on the subjects interesting the committee. The request was repeated from time to time and, during the progress of its last meeting, the committee received from the Superintendent of Public Instruction a copy of resolutions adopted by the State Board of Educa- tion at its December meeting, in the words following, to wit : "First — The State Board of Education is of the opinion that it would be inadvisable to prescribe a series of textbooks for uniform use in the high schools of California. The high school situation is changing so rapidly that rigid standardization of textbooks and courses of study may seriously hamper the development of high school education in the state. "Second — It is the opinion of this board that it would be unwise at this time to require the board to limit the number of textbooks from which local high school boards must make adoptions to two or three books in each subject. If the list is so limited the board would be compelled to make a very careful investigation of the merits of each textbook. In fact, the investigation would have to be almost as carefully made as the investigation now made by the board in adopting textbooks for elementary schools. This investi- gation would require practically all of the time of an additional commissioner, the services of many expert readers in the various subjects, and extra assistants to handle the reports and correspond- ence, and would not benefit financially or educationally, but would reduce to rigid limits the textbook lists regardless of their applica- bility to local needs or conditions. The cost of making such inves- tigations would amount to possibly $25,000 each year and would not, in our judgment, result in a corresponding gain to the high schools of California. If the board were allowed latitude in the matter to the extent of five textbooks in each year course in a subject offered in the high school, the investigation need not go so much into detail nor be so exhaustive. That the state board would carefully administer the law in the interest of the pupils KEPORT OP TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 21 and parents is indicated by the policy it has adopted in reducing materially the list of textbooks prescribed for the high schools of the state. ' ' We earnestly recommend that sufficient latitude in the selection of textbooks be allowed in any law that may be suggested to the Legislature." The above resolution suggests its own commentary, and the limited space of this report will not be taken up in dwelling upon it. It is obvious that the members of the State Board of Education must have adopted this resolution so hurriedly that its outstanding inferences escaped their attention. In the first paragraph of the resolution as set out above and in the first sentence of the second paragraph thereof, the State Board of Education expresses its opinion that it should not be required "to limit the number of textbooks * * * to two or three books in each subject." The information contained in Exhibit "M" hereof and in the documents from which this information was collected and which have been for some time on file in the office of the State Board of Education, must have escaped the attention of the Board. Careful consideration of this information offers food for serious .reflection and from it no conclusion can be drawn except the one directly opposed to that stated in the above resolution. The exhibit shows as clearly as could possibly be shiown by a mathematical demonstration that the authorities of the 266 high schools in this state voluntarily, independently and without concerted action and, in most instances, by an overwhelming majority, have expressed themselves as being in favor of the adoption of one or two or, at most, three textbooks in the principal subjects taught in the high schools. The committee feels that the local boards and principals, for educa- tional reasons, and acting without concert, have themselves demon- strated their preference for what is virtually a very complete system of uniformity. For confirmation of this, let us refer to a few of the figures of Exhibit "M." Of the 17,208 pupils studying algebra in the high schools, 10,543 use one book, 2,836 use another book, and 2,192 use a' third book. Of the 10,575 pupils studying geometry, 6,655 use one book and 1,039 use another book. Of the 8,507 studying American history, 5,928 have adopted one book. Of the 8,886 pupils studying ancient history, 4,276 use one book, 1,507 a second book and 1,466 a third book. Of the 2,254 studying English history, 1,995 use one book. Of the 5,464 studying English literature, one book has been adopted for 3,962. Of the 15,034 studying English poetry, the adoption of one book for 14,505 expresses an almost unanimous consensus of opinion. And so the figures run right down the list. What more convincing argument for the feasibility and desirability of 22 REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. some system approaching uniformity could be made than is thus offered by the action of the local high school authorities themselves? If further arguments and considerations were entirely lacking, these figures alone would compel the committee to adopt the conclusion which is presented herein. The state board further says that, if the list is limited, ''the board would be compelled to make a very careful investigation of the merits of each textbook; in fact, the investigation would have to be almost as carefully made as the investigation now made by the board in adopting textbooks for elementary schools." Does the board wish it to be under- stood that the books now in the approved list have been selected by it without "a very careful investigation?" If so, this is astonishing and unexpected information. This committee is unable to perceive why the importance of the studies in the high schools does not demand as careful an investigation of the books used in these schools as is made in the adoption of textbooks for elementary schools. A clear, general statement of the cause and effect of legislation pro- viding for state uniformity is found in the United States Department of Education Bulletin heretofore quoted. "Laws for state uniformity have been enacted for many reasons. Probably the reason which has carried the greatest weight in caus- ing the passage of legislation has been the question of cost. State adoption of uniform books has been taken as a means of regulating prices to prevent sales at exorbitant prices or at prices greater than the same books are sold in other places. In this the plan on the whole has been successful. State adoptions are made under regu- lations requiring contract prices with deposits of bonds to be forfeited in case of any violations of the terms of the contracts. It is undoubtedly true that lower prices prevailed after state uni- formity had been established and adoptions made. Textbook publishers could afford to make lower prices when all the schools in the state were required to use their books, as the cost of selling was then made comparatively small. The high prices formerly paid were often the work of the local dealers rather than of the publishers. The legislation providing state adoptions has in all cases set the price to be paid by the users and has therefore pre- vented local dealers from overcharging." The state of Kansas has recently given this whole question a very thorough examination and has provided that the State Schoolbook Commission shall, when practicable, print, publish, or provide for the publication of a complete series of school textbooks named in the statute for use in the public schools, including the high schools. The full text of the relevant provisions of this statute is given in the appendix as Exhibit "L." The Kansas Schoolbook Commission, says W. D. Ross, State Super- intendent of Public Instruction, "has just completed the adoption or REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 23 approval of a complete list of high school texts for the five-year period beginning May 1, 1915. The prices at which these books are to be furnished to dealers by the various publishers are uniformly 75 per cent of the publishers' list price f.o.b. Chicago, with the privilege on the part of the state of immediate publication of the Geometry from plates furnished by its publisher at a royalty of 28 per cent on the list price, and a similar privilege as to the Composition and Rhetoric, Physics, and Latin Prose Composition at the end of three years." (See U. S. Bureau of Education Bulletin, 1915, No. 36.) The enrollment in the high schools of Kansas in the year 1914 was 42,831. Mr. Ross has kindly furnished us Math a list of the books adopted by the Schoolbook Commission and the contract price arranged for, which is illuminating and which is here reproduced. UNIFORM TEXT AND PRICE, HIGH SCHOOLS OF KANSAS. Name of book Contract price, per book Elements of Composition English Literature American Literature Story of Ancient Nations Outlines of European History New Medieval and Modern History Outlines of European History, Part 2. American History History of England Government and Politics Shorter French Course Elementarbuch der Deutscher Sprache. Latin Lessons Csesar's Gallic War Cicero Virgil's iEneid Elementary Algebra Plane and Solid Geometry Practical Physics Elementary Chemistry Canby & Opdycke Halleck Halleck Westerman Robinson & Breasted Robinson & Beard.. James & Sanford... Larned Gitteau Fraser & Squair Spankvofd Smith Walker D'Ooge Harper & Miller March Ford & Ammerman. Black & Davis __ Smith Giving his opinion on uniformity of high school textbooks, Mr. Ross says : ' ' Secures greater cooperation in regard to course of study. A great help to pupils changing districts. Reduces cost to pupils." The experience of Indiana is also very instructive. In that state, we are informed by Charles A. G-reathouse, Superintendent of Public Instruction, there is uniformity in the following branches: Algebra; Geometry ; Commercial Arithmetic ; History — United States, Ancient, Medieval and Modern ; Civil Government ; Physical Geography ; Com- mercial Geography; History of English Literature; History of Ameri- can Literature ; English Composition and Rhetoric ; Latin — Beginning Latin, Latin Grammar, Prose Composition, Ca?sar, Cicero, Virgil ; 24 REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. German Conversational Method Grammar and Grammatical Method Grammar; four elective textbooks in each of the following subjects: Botany ; Zoology ; Physics ; Chemistry. The law prescribing uniformity for high schools in Indiana, we are informed by the State Superin- tendent, was passed in 1913 as a result of the favorable experience of the uniform textbook law for furnishing books to pupils in the elemen- tary schools. The following table shows the adopted textbooks for Indiana high schools, together with the contract price and the exchange price : UNIFORM TEXT AND PRICE, HIGH SCHOOLS OF INDIANA. New High School Algebra (Wells & Hart) Plane and Solid Geometry (Wentworth & Smith) Ancient History (Webster) New Medieval and Modern History (Harding) American History (James & Sanford) Government in the United States (Garner) Composition and Rhetoric (Thomas, Howe & O'Hair) First View of English Literature and First View of American Literature (Moody, Lovett & Boynton) Latin for Beginners (D'Ooge) Caesar, 4-book edition (Walker) Caesar, 7-book edition (Walker) Cicero, 6 orations (Johnston & Kingery) Cicero, 10 orations (Johnston & Kingery) Virgil (Knapp) Latin Grammar (Bennett) New Latin Composition, Complete (Bennett) Essentials in German (Voss) Beginners' German (Walter & Krause) High School Geography Complete (Dryer) Commercial Geography (Adama) Modern Commercial Arithmetic Practical Botany (Bergen & Caldwell) Text Book of Botany (Coulter) Plant Life and Plant Uses (Coulter) Practical Course in Botany (Andrews) Practical Course in Botany with Flora (Andrews) General Zoology (Linville & Kelly) Elements of Zoology (Davenport) Descriptive and Practical Zoology (Coltnn) Animal Studies (Jordan-Kellogg & Heath) High School Course in Physics (Gorton) Physics (Black & Davis) Elements of Physics (Hoadley) A First Course in Physics, Revised (Milliken & Gale) I aductive Chemist ry I Bradbury) First Principles of Chemistry (Brownlee) An Elementary Study of Chemistry (McPherson & Henderson) Chemistry (Hcssler & Smith) Contract price Exchange price 1.08 $0.72 1.17 .78 1.35 .90 1.35 .90 1.25 .70 .90 .60 .90 .45 .90 .60 .90 .60 .90 .45 1.13 .75 .90 .45 1.13 .75 1.26 .84 .72 .40 .90 .60 .80 .54 .90 .60 1.17 .78 1.07 .53 .75 .42 1.22 .78 1.03 .51 1.08 .72 1.12 .75 1.35 .90 1.41 .90 .97 .66 1.35 .90 1.03 .51 1.03 .51 1.10 .75 1.08 .72 1.18 .75 1.03 .51 1.13 .75 1.18 1.13 .75 The Department of Education of Porto Rico informs us that text- books are adopted by the Commissioner of Education and that the REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 25 following books, purchased at the prices named, are used in the sub- jects set out: UNIFORM TEXT AND PRICE, HIGH SCHOOLS OF PORTO RICO. Name of book Composition and Rhetoric Two Tear Course in English Composition American History English History General History Civics (Louisiana Edition) French Grammar Beginners' Latin _ Csesar Cicero Virgil Elementary Algebra Plane and Solid Geometry First Course in Physics First Principles of Chemistry . Contract price, per book Lockwood & Emerson Hanson McLaughlin Montgomery Myers Boynton Fraser & Squair Smiley & Storke Harper-Tolman Harper-Gallup Harper-Miller Hawkes-Luby-Touton. Wentworth Milliken & Gale Brownley and others. .674 1.23 .93 1.121 .75 .95 .83 1.04 1.12 1.04 .80 .62 .93| 1.00 The Department of Education of the Province of Ontario has furnished us with a copy of the textbook regulations, from which we learn that the following textbooks, sold at the prices named, have been authorized : UNIFORM TEXT AND PRICE, HIGH SCHOOLS OF ONTARIO. Schedule "C." High School Reader English Grammar (High School) English Composition (High School) Physical Geography (High School) Ancient History (High School) History of England (High School) History of Canada (High School) Arithmetic (High School) Algebra (High School) Geometry (High School) Latin Book First Greek Book French Grammar (High School) French Reader (High School) German Grammar (High School) German Reader (High School) Physics (High School) Laboratory Manual in Physics (High School)... Chemistry (High School) Laboratory Manual in Chemistry (High School) Bookkeeping — First Course Bookkeeping— Second Course ].40 .45 .18 .60 .75 .65 .19 .40 .42 .40 .60 L.25 .60 .11 .70 .13 .90 .35 .45 .25 .30 LOO 26 REPORT OP TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. Attention is called in this connection to the following regulation prescribed by the Ontario Department of Education: "The publishers shall sell direct, in any quantity, to any purchaser for use in Ontario, the books listed in Schedules * * C and * below, at 20 per cent less than the maximum prices named in the aforesaid schedules." We have received expressions from the Superintendents of Instruc- tion of some of the states, which we here reproduce. In Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Kansas, Porto Rico, South Carolina, Texas and West Virginia, the conclusion is in favor of uniformity. The State Superintendent in Alabama says that it would promote "economy, a uniformly high standard and an easier transference of pupils." The Superintendent in Florida says: "It is too important a matter to be left to the idiosyncrasies of indi- vidual high school principals." The Kansas official says that the adoption of uniform books "secures greater cooperation in regard to the course of study. A great help to pupils changing districts. Reduces cost to pupils." The South Carolina official says: "Cheaper to patrons and pupils. Beneficial to class-room instructors and school organiza- tions. Prevents exploitation by commercial educators. Helps to estab- lish and maintain desirable standards." The Texas official says: "It saves money to the purchaser and makes it possible for the children of poor parents to procure second-hand books. Uniform adoptions insure a standard textbook for each child." On the other hand, the Illinois Superintendent seems not to favor uniformity, basing his opinion on the general belief that "state uni- formity is likely to work hardship and to interfere with successful results," though he says that "it is possible that an open list of approved books might be adopted with fairly good results." The Massachusetts official says that, in that state, the want of uni- formity often results in the selection of books that are not the best, "owing to the insufficiency of expert advice and of experience." He confesses to not having reached a decision as to which method is preferable. In Michigan, Montana, Nevada, and Texas, it is said that conditions in different parts of the states are so varied that uniformity is not desirable — just why is not pointed out. As Nevada is now a free text- book state, it is expected that uniformity will come. In South Dakota, on the other hand, the Superintendent does not favor state uniformity, while they have free textbooks. The New Hampshire official says that the disadvantage of uniformity is "the wild scramble of book-makers for state adoptions, with all the trimmings that go with such contests." REPORT OP TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 27 In New Jersey, it is said that state uniformity "reduces each district to a dead level" and that "persons who teach should, have some chance to express a preference for a particular text. Destroys local initiative." We learn that, in New York, "opinions differ." From an examination of the statutes of the states, from various reports and from correspondence, it appears that there is state uni- formity of high school textbooks — (a) In all the subjects taught in Kansas, Oklahoma, Panama Canal Zone, Porto Rico, Utah (with few exceptions in industrial subjects), and Tennessee. (&) In all the subjects in the regular course of study in the high schools in Alabama. (c) In Algebra, Geometry, History and Civics in Delaware, Indiana, Oregon, Texas and West Virginia. (d) In Botany in Delaware, Oregon and West Virginia. (e) In German in Delaware, Indiana and Oregon. (/) In Latin in Delaware, Indiana, Oregon and West Virginia. (g) In Physics in Delaware, Oregon, Texas and West Virginia. (h) In Zoology and Rhetoric in Delaware and West Virginia. (i) In English in Oregon and Texas. (j) In Bookkeeping, Arithmetic and Chemistry in Delaware and Oregon. (k) In Biology in Oregon and West Virginia. (I) In Geography in Delaware, Indiana, Oregon (Physical) and West Virginia (Physical) . In addition, there is uniformity in the subjects named below accord- ing to states : Indiana — -Commercial Arithmetic, History of English Literature, History of American Literature, English Composition and Rhetoric, German Grammar; four elective textbooks each in Botany, Zoology, Physics and Chemistry. Delaware — French, English Grammar, Physics, Drawing, English. Oregon — Agriculture and Physiology. West Virginia — Art, Home Economics, English Literature and American Literature. In West Virginia, however, the uniform law does not apply to municipalities having a population over 3,500. The body vested with authority to adopt uniform books is a state body in — Alabama (State High School Commission). Delaware (State Board of Education). Florida (State Book Commission on recommendation of sub- committee of nine educators). Hawaii (Department of Public Instruction). 28 REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. Indiana (State Board meeting as School Book Commissioners). Kansas (State Textbook Commission). Louisiana (State Board of Education). Nebraska (State Board of Education). Nevada (State Textbook Commission). North Carolina (Textbook Commission). Oklahoma (State Board of Education). Oregon (Textbook Commission). Porto Rico (Commissioner of Education). South Dakota (Textbook Commission). Tennessee (Textbook Commission). Texas (Board appointed by Governor). Utah (Textbook Commission). West Virginia (Textbook Commission). The course pursued in adopting books by the constituted authority in the various states may be judged from the following statement of the number of books adopted in the states named. Alabama — English Grammar 1 Composition and Rhetoric 1 History of American Literature 1 Algebra 1 Geometry 1 History Outlines 1 Short History of England 1 American History 1 Civics '. 1 Chemistry 1 Sanford & Brown.. Clippinger . Halleck Marsch Wells Renouf Coman & Kendall. James & Sanford-- James & Sanford-. Newell $0.63 .85 1.13 .55 1.15 1.20 .90 1.33 .84 1.12 It is to be noted that there are optional courses for larger schools. />' iatoare — In the subjects of Algebra, Arithmetic, Bookkeeping, Botany, Chem- istry, Civics, French, Geometry, German, Geography, Physiology, His- tory, Latin, Literature, Physics, Rhetoric, Zoology, Drawing and Music — 18 in all — 70 texts have been adopted altogether, including those for the different branches of the various subjects, as for example, English and American History, but exclusive of such texts as Cicero's ( ) rat ions. West Virginia — History, Ancient History, Mediaeval and Modern. History. English History, American Civics Physics Zoology Biology Algebra Geomet ry Morey's outlines . $1.33 Myers ___ 1.41 Walker's Essentials 1.33 Ashley . -. _ 1.26 I'ornian .. . . .83 Mann \ Twiss 1.08 Davenport's Elements ._. 1.12 Hunter's Essentials - 1.11 Young & Jackson . __ 1.00 Wells Plane and Solid . 1.25 Plane - .75 Solid .75 REPORT OP TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 29 Tennessee — Forty-seven books adopted for the entire course. Algebra 1 Geometry, Plane 1 Geometry, Solid " 1 Geometry, Combined 1 Physics 1 Chemistry 1 History, Ancient 1 History, Mediaeval and Modern 1 History, General 1 History, English 1 History, American 1 Stone & Miller $0.55 Wentworth .71 Wentworth .71 Wentworth 1.18 Headley 1.13 Hessller & Smith 1.25 Botsford 1.35 Myers 1.41. Myers 1.41 Niver .81 James & Sanford 1.31 Attention is called to the report relative to the adoption of text- books in Tennessee, from which the following is quoted: "The commission adopted the policy of having the publishers present their books through the expert agents regularly representing them, rather than through lawyers and lobbyists employed on account of some supposed influence with members of the commission. We earnestly endeavored to effect an adoption free from improper influence and based alone upon the merits and prices of the books. "There is no question but that we have saved the people of the state more than $100,000 on the elementary books alone, as compared with the last adoption, and a very considerable sum on the high school books. ' ' This reduction in the cost of the books has not been accomplished at the expense of merit in the' books. "We feel assured that the public will soon become convinced that we have secured better as well as cheaper books. "Even in the instances where books were readopted, the commission, as a rule, succeeded in getting a lower price. For example, the History of Tennessee was cut from 75^' to 60fS." In the New England states the town or the city is the unit, and pretty generally throughout the country local boards adopt books. The county is the unit in Maryland, Missouri (where there is no town of 1,000 population), and Washington. The condition existing in California in 1915-16 is shown in the next table, which gives a list of the principal subjects taught in our high schools, the number of schools in which each subject is taught, the number of pupils studying each subject and the number of textbooks in each subject that were in actual use last year in this state. 30 REPORT OP TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. TABLE SHOWING NUMBER OF SCHOOLS, NUMBER OF PUPILS AND NUMBER OF TEXTS IN EACH SUBJECT, HIGH SCHOOLS OF CALIFORNIA, 1915-1916. Number of high schools Number of pupils Number of texts Algebra Algebra, Advanced Higher Arithmetic Mechanics Geometry, Plane Geometry, Solid Trigonometry History, Ancient History, Mediaeval and Modern History, English History, American History, General History, Industrial Civics Economics Music Physics Chemistry Physical Geography Biology Botany Zoology Physiology Geology Domestic Science Agriculture Manual Training Science, General Mechanical Drawing History of Art Greek Composition Greek Iliad Greek Anabasis Greek Beginner's Greek Grammar Latin, First Book Latin Grammar Latin Caesar Latin, Beginner's Composition Latin, Cicero Latin, Virgil German Grammar German Composition French Composition French, Beginner's French, Grammar Spanish, Grammar Spanish Composition English Grammar English Literature American Literature 266 198 5 9 265 189 170 245 242 135 256 8 19 256 68 103 225 235 87 51 68 13 34 7 115 70 36 117 38 9 5 5 7 9 8 250 164 242 162 140 127 145 91 33 60 65 144 89 34 187 17,208 2,738 104 186 10,724 1,545 1,032 8,886 6,3.39 2,382 8,432 307 420 5,250 1,579 4,915 4,178 6,814 2,022 1,390 1,712 385 1,232 126 2,952 1,289 1,023 3,501 565 480 62 22 52 63 76 8,493 4,776 5,016 3,647 1,081 713 3,478 1,282 891 1,516 2,223 6,187 2,626 4,111 5,465 1,530 REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 31 In the appendix is printed as Exhibit "M" a table which has been prepared at the request of this committee from authentic data in the office of Mr. Will C. Wood, Commissioner of Secondary Schools, and which shows the number of pupils using each of the several textbooks in a number of the most common subjects. Nothing could show more clearly than do the above tables the unfor- tunate results of the methods of selection and adoption of high school textbooks which, in the past, have prevailed in California. Mr. Hyatt, Superintendent of Public Instruction, in his statement before your committee, declared that it would be advisable and on the whole very satisfactory to reduce the list of textbooks which high schools might use, three allowable books in each subject being ample in his opinion. Your committee is agreed, then, after a careful consideration of all the facts that have been gathered by it and of all the arguments that have been presented to it, that the best interest of the state requires that the axe be laid to the roots of the tree, and that at the earliest possible moment, in order to leave no room for misconception or confusion, the proper authority should cut out from the list of permissible high school texts everything that can be regarded as superfluous. Too tight a rein, perhaps, ought not to be drawn on certain subjects which are in the course of constant development, as, for example, certain branches of science. Moreover, in subjects like music and drawing, it is not so important that the list should be drawn down to the narrowest limit. Even as to these subjects, however, it must be remembered that it is the work of beginners that is chiefly concerned. While accuracy of information is always to be desired, yet the earlier work in these sub- jects does not demand the latitude that is required when the student reaches the wide field of university and postgraduate study. We believe, however, that much may be done to remedy present conditions by the efficient exercise by the State Board of Education of the wide powers in this regard conferred upon it by recent statutes, especially, if at the same time action be taken in conformity with another recommen- dation herein. The conclusions of the Ontario Textbook Commission of 1907, hereto- fore referred to, are interesting and valuable in this connection and so far as they are relevant, are reprinted in the appendix as Exhibit "N." Your committee is agreed that no reason is conceivable why the permissible list of books used in the high schools in this state should not be limited to a number not exceeding the number appearing on the next page after the subject named. 32 REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. HIGH SCHOOL SUBJECTS AND RECOMMENDED MAXIMUM NUMBER OF TEXTS, CALIFORNIA HIGH SCHOOLS. Number of texts from which adoption may be made Algebra I Algebra, Advanced Geometry, Plane _. Geometry, Solid ... Trigonometry Higher Arithmetic History 3 for each year of the course prescribed in American and Euro- pean history. 3 4 4 3 3 3 3 :: :; •3 4 4 3 3 History, Industrial Civics Economics Physics Chemistry Chemistry, Agricultural ( Ihemistry, Household Physical Geography Commercial Geography Biology Botany Sociology Physiology Geology Latin 2 for each year. French ] German \ 5 books for each of Spanish] these, exclusive of classics. English Grammar 3 English Literature, History of 3 American Literature, History of ! 3 English and American Poetry, Collections of 4 English and American Prose, Collections of 4 Music Such books as State Board shall see fit to adopt. Such books as State Board shall see lit to adopt. 3 3 4 5 4 4 5 2 2 2 2 o 2 2 2 Agriculture Mechanical Drawing General Science Manual Training Household Arts Zoology Spelling Shorthand Typewriting Commercial Law Correspondence Accounting Bookkeeping Business Practice ... Salesmanship Advertising REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 33 If any new subject shall be introduced into the curriculum, not more than three texts in each subject shall be permitted. As to books, how- ever, that have been already adopted, schools shall be allowed to carry out their contracts for the full term for which the adoption was made. The above provisions are thought to be liberal and probably a reduc- tion in the permissible number of books even under this list might be made profitably in many of the subjects named. Each publisher, when submitting to the State Board of Education a book which' he proposes for adoption, should be required to accom- pany it with a listing fee of $10.00. The State Board of Education should publish each year a list of the books approved by it for the following year, accompanied by a statement of the price for which the publishers agree to furnish each book approved. Your committee respectfully recommends that the legislature, by some appropriate action, call to the attention of the State Board of Education the conclusions embodied herein. 3—27503 EXHIBITS. Exhibit A. I Letter to Otiiei: States. 1 State of California. Legislative Counsel Bureau. Sacramento, July 28, .1915. Dear Sir: A committee of the legislature of this state is gathering information relative to the furnishing of textbooks free to pupils in high schools. You will put us under great obligation if you will kindly fill out as far as you can, the inclosed questionnaire and return at your earliest convenience to the undersigned. We shall be glad to reciprocate at any time in any way within our power. Very truly yours, Chief of Bureau. REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 35 Exhibit B. [ Question n aire. ] State of Information submitted by CONCERNING HIGH SCHOOL TEXTBOOKS. 1. Is there state uniformity of high school textbooks?--. 2. If so, in which branches'? 3. If textbooks are not uniform throughout the state, what is the political unit for the adoption of textbooks? 4. Are textbooks furnished free to students? 5. If so, are they furnished at the expense of the state, county or district? 6. By whom are textbooks adopted? 7. If figures are available, what was the total amount expended in the state last year for free textbooks in high schools? ' 8. What was the total enrollment in the high schools for the same year 9. If there is state uniformity, please give data as follows : Name of book Contract price (per book) First Year English Book Second Tear English Book Third Tear English Book Eourth Tear English Book Ancient History Medieval and Modern History- American History English History Civics First Tear French Book First Tear German Book First Tear Latin Book Osesar Cicero Virgil Elementary Algebra Plane and Solid Geometry Physics Chemistry 36 REFORT OP TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 10. Are present methods of adoption satisfactory? 11. Any suggestions with reference to state uniformity of high school textbooks? (Give your opinion of advantages and disadvantages) REPORT OP TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 37 Exhibit C. [Addkess of Me. Will C. Wood.] To the Honorable The Special Committee of Senate and Assembly, Appointed to Investigate Free Textbooks for High Schools. Gentlemen : I submit for your consideration certain facts concerning * the high school textbook situation in California, together with an analysis of these facts and a brief statement of the educational interests involved in the problem you have under investigation. Significance of the problem. I hope, gentlemen, that you realize the full significance of this investigation and the far-reaching effect of one possible conclusion which you may reach before you have completed your work. The problem you are considering is much larger than the mere problem of furnishing textbooks free to the pupils enrolled in the high schools of California. It is larger than the question of state uniformity of text- books; larger than the problem of state publication. This is not a problem of economics alone. It can not be solved by considering only the dollars and cents involved. Overshadowing the economic factor is the educational phase of the question which forces itself upon us at every stage. Burden of proof on the proponents. I hope, gentlemen, that my association with you in the last session of the legislature has served to convince you that I am not a mere theorist in educational matters. If I did not deem this question large in its significance and vital to the high school system which I am charged by law to supervise, I would not urge the facts nor make the arguments which I shall submit today. I realize that my judgment is not infallible. It may be that I have been blind to certain phases of the situation. I do not hesitate, however, to submit the reasons for my judgment, and a full statement of the facts as I see them to your candid consideration. If the facts can be refuted; if the arguments can be answered; if the proponents of state uniformity and state publication of high school textbooks can make a good case, I shall not stand obstinately by my present judgment. However, the burden of proof is on them. They must establish two things before your committee can recommend the adoption of the proposed plan. First, they must show that the adoption of the plan will not react to the disadvantage of the high school system ; second, that the plan is both economical and feasible. 38 REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. Educational question of first importance. I have placed the educational question first, because it is the more important. Tn considering educational questions, the people of Cali- fornia are not accustomed to regard dollars and cents as the prime consideration. The people of this state are ambitious in educational .matters to provide the best for their children, not the cheapest. The great question involved is "Can the people of the state of California adopt the plan proposed without affecting materially the efficiency and progressive development of the great high school system of this state?" Shall high school textbooks be free? The people of California are committed definitely, in both the consti- tution and the statutes, to the democratic policy of giving every child residing in the state, who has ambition coupled with capability, the broadest and fullest educational opportunity that the state can afford, and this at public expense. The state is quite as solicitous for the educational welfare of its humblest child as it is for that of the child of its wealthiest citizen. It is to realize this great purpose that it has established its system of public schools ranging from the kindergarten In the state university. I agree most heartily with the proponents of this plan, that education should be absolutely free. I agree with them that every child is the ward of the state, and the state can afford to supply not only tuition and comfortable school facilities, but also textbooks, free of cost to its half million school children. Recently the people of the state voted very wisely to furnish textbooks free to pupils of the elementary schools. The next step, logically, is to furnish textbooks free to the pupils of the high schools. The high school is a part of the public school system; it is within easy access for 95 per cent of the young people of California. It is the people's institution quite as truly as the elementary school is the people's institution. We may confidently look forward to the day when practically all the young people will be enrolled in the high school who ought to be there. The high school is growing by leaps and bounds. Statistics compiled in our office show that the enrollment in our high schools increased 32 per cent during the last two years, while that of the elementary schools increased only 10 per cent. The high school is becoming an institution for the children of the poor as well as the children of the people of means. The time has come when high school education should be made absolutely free. I hope, therefore, thai your honorable committee will recommend to the legislature a measure providing \'vrv textbooks for the high schools of this state. REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 39 How shall free textbooks be furnished? The question arises, how shall these textbooks be furnished ? I should estimate that the average amount expended by each pupil for high school textbooks each year is approximately $6.00. We have enrolled in the high schools of the state approximately 76,000 young people. The total amount paid annually by the pupils of California for high school textbooks is approximately $456,000. Assuming that the state can furnish these books at a net saving of 30 per cent, the burden assumed by the state would be approximately $320,000 for the first year and at least $120,000 for each succeeding year, except years when textbooks are changed. I am inclined to question, gentlemen, the advisability of the state assuming this burden. If the school district pays for its own textbooks, there will be greater economy in their use. If free textbooks are pro- vided for high schools, I believe that the cost thereof should be borne by the districts rather than the state as a whole. I might mention that some high school districts have already adopted this plan. San Mateo and Clovis are now providing free textbooks for high school pupils and the aggregate saving is considerable. Shall a uniform series be adopted? The question of state uniformity of high school textbooks should be considered as distinct from the question of free textbooks. Acceptance of the principle of free textbooks does not carry with it acceptance of the principle of state uniformity. I wish to emphasize the fact that the problem of high school textbooks is not analogous to the problem of elementary school books. The elementary school is an old institution and its course of study and organization are standardized. The course of study for elementary schools in New York State differs very little from the course of study in our own state. A sixth grade class in arithmetic, whether in California or Virginia, studies fractions ; a third grade studies addition and subtraction. We have had three centuries of experience in making a course of study for the elementary schools, so the course is standardized and fixed to a remarkable degree. Since there is uniformity in grading and in courses of study in the elementary schools throughout the state, it is comparatively easy to adopt a uniform series of textbooks for the elementary schools. The adoption of such a series in the grades does not force a radical reorganization of elementary school work. High school book problem differs from elementary school book problem. When we consider the public high school we face a situation utterly different. The high school is a new institution, comparatively speaking. 40 REPORT OP TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. There were only forty public high schools in the United States in 1860. In 1900 there were 6,000 and in 1915, there were 15,000. In 1900 there were only 500,000 pupils enrolled in the high schools of the United States. In 1915, there were 1.500,000. The growth of the high school since 1900 has been remarkable. Before that date, the high school was dominated very largely by the university; it was an institution whose prime purpose was the preparation of pupils for college. In the last fifteen years, the high school, in response to a popular demand, has broken the shackles which bound it to the college. The real life of the American high school began only a decade or so ago. The high school is now changing with remarkable rapidity to meet the demands of the people. The old courses of study are being modified; new courses, especially vocational courses, are being introduced. So great is the growth, so rapid are the changes, that it is absolutely impossible at this time to give an adequate definition of a high school. The high school of today would bulge the definition of a high school five years ago until it burst. I have had opportunity to visit more high schools in Cali- fornia than any other state official. I wish to say, gentlemen, that there is the widest divergence among the high schools of California. Take the city of Los Angeles, in which this meeting is held. If I could take your honorable committee to visit the high schools of this city for even one day, I could convince you that the high schools are so different that they can not be closely standardized without working a revolution in high school work. I can show you such excellent work in classroom and shop and laboratory and field — work so admirably linked up with life, so vital and inspiring — -that this committee would realize how harmful it would be to impose rigid uniformity upon the high schools of California. It is true that this city has a certain degree of uniformity in its textbooks, but this uniformity is so flexible that the growth and efficiency of the schools is not checked thereby. I want to say, gentle- men, that this vital, energizing high school work is possible only because we have construed the present textbook law liberally. Take the subject of mathematics, for example. All the high schools of the city offer the traditional course in algebra, plane geometry, advanced algebra, solid geometry and plane trigonometry. The great polytechnic and manual ails high schools wanted to offer a course in shop mathematics for the boys. I was asked if a textbook in shop mathematics could be adopted. I found that the entire course in mathematics was provided for; that a full series of textbooks in mathematics had been adopted. Could I permit the adoption of an additional textbook for those boys in the shops? I turned to the god of uniformity, and he shook his head. I turned to the god of common sense and he nodded. Censure me if you will, gentlemen, but I obeyed the god of common sense. The future REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 41 of twenty boys outweighs a thousand times all the arguments for uni- formity that man can offer. Again, I was confronted with the following situation : A school had adopted a complete system of textbooks in book- keeping and accounting. A class of girls wanted to study household accounting. The question arose whether a system of bookkeeping adapted to a wholesale house should be applied to the household. Could a system of accounts dealing with pig-iron and steel rails in ten thousand dollar lots, be made to serve the purposes of young women who in later life would buy beefsteak in twenty-five cent cuts, or new shirtwaists at ninety-eight cents ? You may censure me again, gentlemen, but I held that the law was not made to render education impractical; that wherever a class was organized for a special, practical purpose, another textbook could be used. A few days ago the principal of a small high school in this county wrote me stating that the new freshman class was decidedly weak in English. The school had adopted a complete series of English texts, which met the needs of the average class, but all of these textbooks were too advanced for this particular class. I had to choose between the principle of uniformity on the one hand and the good of those pupils on the other. I could stand here all day, gentlemen, and recite instance after instance similar to those I have given. In every instance the choice had to be made between uniformity on the one hand and practical education on the other. In deciding the problem which your honorable committee is investigating, the choice is between uni- formity on the one hand and practical, vital instruction on the other. If we adopt a uniform series, we must adopt textbooks that will contain bare, dry principles that may be applied anywhere. We shall rob our courses of the vital elements, for the vital thing in high school work is the linking up of the studies with life. Since life is not uniform throughout this great state, the ''linking up" can not be uniform; the textboks should not be uniform. The people have been demanding in loud tones that the high school shall fit young people for life. Will the people take away the link that is being forged! AVill they say to the high school people, "Make your schools practical; fit our children for life," and at the same time take away the very tools that are necessary to accomplish this great work ? I leave that question to your honorable committee, and to the people of California whom you represent, confi- dent that you will consider the interests of the young people paramount to any other issue. Why should we have uniformity? Turning from the educational phase of this question, let us consider for a few moments the practical side. Why should we have uniformity of high school textbooks in California? The argument that is advanced 42 REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. most frequently is that pupils who transfer from one high school to another must purchase new hooks in most branches. I wish to point out, however, that if high school textbooks are furnished free of cost by the district, the argument for uniformity loses all its force. The textbooks abandoned by the pupil when he leaves the district will be available for the pupil who takes his place, and the district into which the pupil moves will furnish him hooks from its shelves. Under a free textbook system, there can he no economic loss because of transfer of pupils from one district to another. The one argument for uniformity. There is only one other argument for state uniformity. State uni- formity is necessary if we are to have state publication of high school textbooks. Now, I shall not depend entirely upon the educational argument against state publication, although that, in my judgment, is sufficient. I shall meet the proponents of state publication on their own ground. I purpose proving that state publication of high school text- hooks is economically impossible. State publication of elementary textbooks economical because of size of output. It is an accepted principle of business, gentlemen, that it does not pay to manufacture goods in small quantities. There is a certain mini- mum of output, below which the manufacturer can not go without economic loss. Our plan of state publication of elementary school textbooks has been successful simply because there are enough pupils using each textbook to justify the printing of large editions. Under the law, no edition of less than 25.0(H) copies of each elementary school textbook" can be printed. There is no textbook in the state series for elementary schools that is used by less than 40,000 pupils. This large and uniform demand makes the printing of elementary school books economical. Why state publication of high school books is impractical. When we turn to the high school we find only 76,000 pupils enrolled, just 10.000 less than the number enrolled in the first grade of the elemen- tary schools. Each high school pupil will require about five textbooks of all kinds during the year. The total number of textbooks used in all classes by all high school pupils is about 380,000. In the high school, however, we have election of studies. There are over 100 branches in which textbooks are required. By dividing the total number of text- books required by the number of subjects, we hud that the average REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 43 number of pupils using a textbook is approximately 3,800. To find the number of textbooks required for a four-year period of adoption we must multiply this number by two. The average number of textbooks required for a given subject in the high school for the four-year period would be 7,600. If an edition of 25,000 books were published, the average time required to exhaust the edition would be more than twelve years. Think of the advances in chemistry and physics during the last twelve years ! If this system had been adopted in 1900 and an edition of American history had been printed, the latest event discussed in the textbook that would be in use now, would be the assassination of President McKinley. We should know nothing of Roosevelt, or Taft, or Woodrow Wilson ! If an edition of civics had been printed, our pupils would be in the dark so far as the great civic and political reforms since 1900 are concerned. When we speak in averages, the futility from the educational standpoint of state publication of all high school textbooks is apparent. The economic side. The amount invested in one edition of any high school textbook would be considerable. We may reckon the investment at 5 per cent. Assum- ing that the state printing office can produce a book at a cost 25 per cent less than the price at which the state may obtain the book from the publisher on competitive bid, let us determine whether state publication would be economical. The cost of the book during the twelve years, with interest added, would be as follows : First year $1 00 Seventh year $1 30 Second year 1 05 Eighth year 1 35 Third year 1 10 Ninth year 1 40 Fourth year 1 15 Tenth year 1 45 Fifth year 1 20 Eleventh year 1 50 Sixth year 1 25 Twelfth year 1 55 It will be noted that after the sixth year, the book would be carried at a loss, since we could obtain the book from the publisher for $1.25. The average cost for the twelve-year period would be $1.27^-. State publication under these conditions would involve actual loss to the state. Number of pupils using each book. Fortunately, we do not have to discuss this question only in averages. We have data compiled from the official annual reports of high school principals which are made under oath. I have not had opportunity to check the statistics carefully, so certain minor inaccuracies may appear. However, they are sufficiently accurate for all practical purposes. I 44 REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. submit herewith a statement showing the number of pupils taking each subject. TABLE SHOWING NUMBER OF STUDENTS USING TEXTBOOKS IN VARIOUS SUBJECTS. English- Grammar Composition— Rhetoric Myths English Literature (History).. American Literature (History). Heroic Ballads Oral English and Debate Oration and Argument Selections of Poetry Selections of Prose Journalism Latin- First Book Grammar Caesar Beginner's Composition Cicero Advanced Composition . Virgil Other texts Greek- Grammar Beginner's Greek Anabasis Iliad Composition French- Grammar Beginner's French Readers Composition German- Grammar Beginner's German Readers < '(imposition Spanish — Grammar Beginner's Spanish Readers Composition History- Ancient Medieval and Modern. English American _ General Industrial Civics History Note Books.. Economics Sociology 31 254 216 187 69 174 59 130 214 50 9 250 164 242 162 140 116 127 34 •a c S.tr 4,111 25,643 11,649 5,465 1,530 9,444 4,639 3,381 15,063 3,555 8,493 4,776 5,016 3,647 1,081 1,542 713 565 65 2,223 60 1,516 50 1,474 33 891 145 3,478 145 3,148 159 3,532 91 1,282 144 6,187 128 5,098 135 5,746 89 2,626 245 8,886 242 6,339 135 2,382 256 8,432 8 307 19 420 256 5,250 89 3,786 63 1,579 4 85 Commercial — Bookkeeping Shorthand Text Speller Law Geography Correspondence Arithmetic . Accounting Banking Business Practice Penmanship Typewriting Salesmanship Advertising Music Books History of Art Mechanical Drawing Mathematics- Algebra, First Year Algebra, Advanced Geometry (Plane) Geometry (Solid) Trigonometry Calculus Higher Arithmetic Mechanics Science — Physics Text Laboratory Manual Chemistry Text Laboratory Manual Physical Geography Text Laboratory Manual Biology Text Laboratory Manual Zoology Text Laboratory Manual Physiology Text Laboratory Manual Geology Text Laboratory Manual Domestic Science Texts Botany Text Laboratory Manual Household Arts Texts Agricultural Texts Manual Training Text General Science Other Subjects- Elocution Dramatics Psychology Astronomy Current History Assaying and Cyanide. Mineralogy 2 , 2 B-I gl 243 8,194 222 6,302 127 4,990 131 1,374 87 799 97 3,665 214 6,303 24 425 16 292 26 481 104 3,981 188 6,772 4 85 4 76 103 4,915 266 198 265 189 170 4 5 225 203 2.35 205 87 61 51 17 13 3 34 7 7 24 50 70 36 117 480 565 17,208 2,738 10,724 1,545 1,032 10 104 186 4,178 3,312 6,814 5,536 2,022 944 1,880 S54 385 47 1,232 366 126 2,952 1,712 350 1,588 1,289 1,023 3,501 271 15 52 85 22 10 11 REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 45 Deductions from table given above. I wish to point out, gentlemen, that we must have 12,500 pupils enrolled in order to use up one edition of a high school textbook in four years. On consulting the table, you will observe that there are only three subjects in which more than 12,500 pupils are enrolled. In more than half of the subjects, one edition would last twenty years or more. I do not wish to disturb the decorum of the occasion, but I can not resist the temptation to point out that one edition of Homer's Iliad would last just 568 years. Clearly, gentlemen, it would be impossible for the state of California to undertake the publication of so great a variety of textbooks in editions of 25,000. We are not facing a theory ; we are facing an inexorable law of economics. Can small editions be printed? The alternative of printing smaller editions may be suggested. Let us consider an edition of 10,000 copies. We shall be obliged to lease the plates from publishing companies. Assuming that these companies would be willing to lease the plates on a 20 per cent royalty basis, the royalty on a book listed at $1.25 would be 25 cents. The total royalty for one edition would be $2,500. Two weeks ago, the State Board of Education employed the Rand, McNally Company to make plates for a third reader of about 300 pages. The expense was $975. At this rate the plates for a high school textbook would amount to $1,500 or more. When the publisher has deducted the cost of making the plates from his royalty, he would have $1,000 left, out of which he would have to pay the author's royalty. It is manifest, I think, that no publisher would offer plates on such conditions. Shall we employ authors? We have the alternative of state authorship, of course. If the writing of a successful textbook were comparable to the making of a suit of clothes, this alternative might appeal. Thirty years ago, California tried that plan in compiling elementary textbooks and it failed. Good textbooks can not be made to order. But let us assume that we can have them made to order. How long would it take a university professor and a high school teacher, working together, to write a textbook in physics or ancient history? A year would not be too long. It would cost at least $5,000 to secure a manuscript for either book. Two university professors recently submitted a 10,000 word manuscript in California history to the State Board of Education and fixed the price at $2,500. The average high school textbook contains 150,000 words. If we could secure a manuscript for $5,000, the authorship cost on a 10,000 book edition would be 50 cents per volume. Manifestly state authorship is out of the question. 46 REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. I hope, gentlemen, thai I have made my position clear. J am in favor of free textbooks for high schools, furnished by the district and selected from a list approved by the State Board of Education. If we fear that the publishers will charge the districts too much, let the state board be authorized to advertise for bids, stating' prices at which books will be sold to the districts. If this plan is adopted, I am satisfied we can save at least 30 per cent over the present cost. I can see no objection to a law limiting the choice of the state board to five textbooks in each subject. This would provide a reasonable degree of standardization and would avoid the pitfall of uniformity. In conclusion, gentlemen, I wish to leave this thought with you : Let us have the best high school textbooks at the lowest price for which they may be obtained; let the books be furnished free to the high school pupils of California; but let us not sacrifice our high school system nor check its development along popular lines. REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 47 Exhibit D. STATE UNIFORMITY IN HIGH SCHOOL TEXT AND BOOKS. [A paper read by Mr. Noel H. Garrison at the California State Convention of High School Principals, Fresno, December 22, 1915, and re-read at the meeting of the Legislative Committee on Textbooks, at Los Angeles, March 20, 1916.] Mr. Chairman, and Members of the California Legislative Committee: Before entering- upon the discussion of the subject assigned me, I desire personally, and also in behalf of the state convention of high school principals, to thank the members of the California legislature who have honored us with this hearing. I would congratulate the school men present upon the opportunity thus afforded of discussing with our legislators this vital question, and I would congratulate our legislative friends upon the attitude which their presence here indicates. It augurs well for the schools, when our legislators are desirous of counseling with schools. This, however, is the natural and logical procedure, for the school men are or should be the most competent to judge as to the needs of the schools and it seems to me worthy of the most serious consideration of this committee and of the legislators to know that high school men are unanimous in their unqualified opposition to state uniformity. Gentlemen of the committee, this fact that high school men and women are from conviction and without collusion a unit in this question should command your attention and does demand some satisfactory explanation upon the part of those who differ with them. I would not stultify myself nor insult the intelligence of this committee by discussing the trumped-up excuse of the connection between the book companies and the school men. Let us dismiss entirely this "bogy" of a book trust and its fancied connection with the school people. I resent even the suggestion of it and am bitterly indignant when I think of any man of ordinary intelligence who would pretend to be honest in such a contention, who would thus impugn my motives in so vital a matter, to say nothing of impugning the motives of all the high school teachers of California. It is preposterous to think of it. I would dismiss the matter Math the emphatic statement that the Cali- fornia high school teachers are neither knaves nor fools, for they are certainly fools if they are in the power of a book trust without knowing it, and knaves they must be if they are knowingly acting under its influence. 48 REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. We are me1 to consider the question of the state publication of high school textbooks. There are three phases of the problem as usually considered : Shall high school textbooks lie made uniform? Shall high school textbooks be free? Shall high school textbooks be printed by the state printing office .' These ace three distincl questions, a fact which must be kept clearly in mind. Do not confn.se the issue. Textbooks can be furnished free by the si ale, by the county, or by the district without their being uniform throughout the state, and certainly without being printed at the state printing office. Erasers, chalk, pens, etc., are furnished free to the pupils but they are not manufactured in Sacramento. . I have no doubt that textbooks can be furnished free or at cost to the pupils through the board of education or the trustees at a saving of 30 per cent as was reported by Principal W. L. Glasscock of San Mateo to the California Council of Education. In fact, there are a number of high schools in California which are now furnishing books direct to the pupils at cost. There are, also, Eastern cities which are furnishing free textbooks to their pupils, but these are not uniform throughout the state. Saginaw, Michigan, is a good example of this. The pupils have the advantage of free textbooks but without the many disadvan- tages of state uniformity. I do not, however, desire to discuss the question of free textbooks per se, for which there may or may not be good and sufficient reasons, but only to consider the question of free textbooks in so far as this is related to the main issue, viz : the printing of uniform textbooks for the high schools by the state printing office. The question therefore, is this: "Shall uniform high school texts be printed by the state printing office?" In the consideration of this problem, I desire to eliminate entirely the question of whether the printing of free uniform textbooks for the elementary schools is or is not desirable. I know that there are those present who would maintain that state uniformity has given the Cali- fornia elementary schools very inferior textbooks, considered from any and every point of view; that the schools are seriously handicapped by not being able to secure an adequate supply of books on time; that the supposed saving, which is but slight, is a great economic loss to the state by reason of the lessened efficiency of the school ; that the saving is fancied rather than real, if all the overhead charges are added to the cost of manufacturing, such as : " interest on the investment, deprecia- tion of plates, depreciation of plant, salaries of office force, trans- portation, postage, royalties paid to the author, etc." I say REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 49 there are those present who would maintain this and I am frank to say I think their statements could be proven. I know that the elementary school men out of their own sad experience would testify to these facts. However, while they and we might main- tain this, and while the legislative committee of the state of Georgia after a thorough investigation with expert assistance came to this very conclusion with reference to our California publication of textbooks and therefore, recommended to the Georgia legislature against the state printing of textbooks, while all of these things could be successfully maintained, I prefer to leave them out of our argument and I trust they will be omitted entirely from the discussion which may follow, for the simple reason that our legislative friends here present perhaps hold different views as to the success of the state printing office and there would, therefore, be room for much argument. I propose to show you, gentlemen, regardless of what you may or may not think of the free publication of uniform textbooks for the grades, that the high school problem is entirely different, that there is practically no sound argument which can be advanced in favor of it, and that the arguments against it are themselves sufficient to convince you that the printing of uniform textbooks by the State Printer or anyone else, whether free or at cost, would so far lessen the school's efficiency and retard its progress as to be nothing short of a calamity. The high school and elementary school, while parts of one educational system, are separate and distinct in every phase of their educational work. The state law prescribes different recpiirements for the certifi- cate to teach ; provides differently for their maintenance ; prescribes a different length of school day, different hours of closing; establishes a different basis of marking attendance and fixes a different school year. There are different governing bodies in many high schools; the salary schedules differ in every district of the state from that of the elementary schools; there are different methods of administration, different methods and materials of teaching. Teachers are specialists teaching- one or two subjects, whereas, in most of the grades at least, they teach nearly all the subjects. The problem is different in its entirety. Since the law, as well as the public, already recognize that the high school and the elementary school are different in practically every relation, it need not be considered strange that the printing of free uniform text- books by the state, even if it were admitted to be a success in the grades, although I feel that it is not, might be very undesirable from every standpoint when applied to the high school. The high school, I say, is a different problem. The state printing of uniform textbooks for high schools is a very different problem. 4—27503 50 REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. Wherein is this problem of state printing different .' While the fun- damentals of an education as implied in the three Rs may be taught satisfactorily from uniform textbooks, it is radically wrong from an educational standpoint, a gross injustice to the citizenship of the state, to require all its young men and women to receive the same education from the same textbooks, to place all in a common mold. All boys. whether in the same school or in different schools or cities, need to be la nght to add, subtract, multiply and divide, and may. perhaps, be taught these elemental facts of number by the same methods, from the uniform text whether they reside in Eureka or San Diego. The same may be said as to the process of learning to write or to read and also of the fundamentals of grammar and of geography, in fact, of all those subjects which are the tools of knowledge. The high school, however, is preeminently the period of self-discovery for the boy or the girl. It is not only the adolescent period physiolog- ically when the boys and girls find first expression of their physical and mental powers and also of their spiritual aspirations, but it is a period of unrest in every way. It is a time when the youth tries out his powers, when he seeks to find himself so far as his vocational purpose and real life work are concerned. To limit the boys and girls of this state at this age, to restrict them to a circumscribed course of study, which, of necessity, must be presupposed under state uniformity because of economic reasons and which, I understand, is the State Printer's answer to the economic argument, would be to limit the possibilities of our California youth ; to handicap the future citizenship of this our glorious state ; indeed, it would be to rob our sons and daughters of their very birthright in this our great California which is preeminently the state of unlimited choices and boundless opportunities. It would do more than limit the youth, it would actually drive him out of school. This is not theory; this is experience. There is many a boy or girl who has left high school because of the strait-laced courses of some of our schools. They could not find that which answered to their life career demands, and they refused to be fed on the diet which was intended for another. Not only must our courses be elastic so as to meet the individual voca- tional needs of its pupils, but the varying interests of the several com- munities must also be met, which would be impossible at times under si ale uniformity. Our legislature will say, at once, that these needs would be met in the different courses, there being a uniform free text- book for each course, the agricultural community, for example, choos- ing a different group, perhaps, from an industrial community, but all agricultural communities using the uniform agricultural text. We would ask in reply. "Can the Lodi Bigh School, with equal profit, use REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 51 the same text in agriculture as the Oxnard High School?" Most cer- tainly not, The Lodi school will choose an agricultural text and give an agricultural course with some emphasis upon viticulture. Whereas, in Oxnard, the grape industry could not be studied with the same profit. The same would he true of other industries. State uniformity would not only work an injustice to the students and also to the community interests but it would be a gross insult to the intelligence of the teachers. Books are but tools. In the high school subjects, where the content, order of presentation and method of treatment differ so materially in the several texts it is as preposterous to demand that all carpenters use a Simonds or a Disston saw. Is there not the same reason for prescribing uniform apparatus in all the labora- tory sciences ; uniform tools in the industrial arts courses ; uniform equipment in all the commercial departments, and, indeed, uniform articles in all general school supplies? The same argument could be stated, although not proven, in favor of all. The courses and the textbooks for those courses must not only be chosen to suit the varying needs of the pupils and of the communities in which they live, and be adapted to the individuality of the teacher, if the highest efficiency is to be attained, but these textbooks must be selected in relation to the school equipment. This is true in all depart- ments, particularly in the cultural subjects of history, English, economics, to say nothing of the laboratory courses, whether in the sciences, commercial work or other branches. How could a small high school with few, if any books, use successfully a history text calling for a great deal of supplementary reading? Should the Los Angeles High School, on the other hand, with 8,100 volumes in its library, be compelled to use a text without such a rich fund of supplementary materials? There would be a gross injustice in compelling all schools to follow the same course and to use the same laboratory texts or manuals in the sciences. The small high school would find it utterly impossible to purchase the apparatus and supplies required by the science courses as given in the Oakland Technical High School. It would be a greater injustice to limit the efficiency of the larger high schools by expecting them to conform to the same course requirements as some of the meagerly equipped schools of the state. The high school is the people's college and must keep pace with the growth of its people. It is growing and must be permitted to grow, to change and develop. The state wide adoption of a textbook in some of the newer subjects where the subject itself and the textbooks are only in the process of making, would probably mean the saddling of a very poor book on all California schools for four years with great loss to the schools. It is a decided advantage that the different high schools 52 REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. can try out the different subjects and the different textbooks. The state thereby profits by the experiences of many rather than being compelled to have a uniform experience. If the several vocational interests of pupils, the varying needs of communities, the individual qualities of the teachers, and the growing demands of the schools and of the pupils demand local adoption rather than the printing office uniform textbooks by the state, what reasons then are there for state uniformity? Frankly, I should like very much to have one sound argument advanced. The only reasons I have ever heard are these : 1. State uniformity would mean a saving to the parents in that the changes in texts would be less frequent. 2. State uniformity would mean a saving to the parents of pupils moving from one school to the other since they would not be required to purchase new books. •">. State uniformity would mean a saving to the taxpayers in that the state printing office would furnish these at a lower cost. 1. State uniformity would make it possible to favor home authors and provide employment at Sacramento for home labor. I would submit, at the outset, that the premise is wrong, since it is assumed that the financial consideration is the first in importance. I maintain that boys and girls are more important than dollars and cents ; that the cheapest is not always the best even in other com- modities ; that the state would pay dearly for the supposed saving by reason of the greatly reduced efficiency of its schools ; that it is a supposed saving rather than a real saving considered from a straight dollar and cents standpoint; that, while we believe in supporting home industries and encouraging every movement looking to the employ- ment of honest labor, Ave are unalterably opposed to any plan giving a preference to California authors and employment to California labor at the expense of the boys and the girls and of the future citizenship of this state. There are some things which are worth more than money. Let us examine a few of these reasons for state uniformity more closely : 1. State uniformity would mean a saving to the parents in that the changes in texts would be less frequent. The present law guarantees all that could be desired and even more in some cases. The four years adoption rule mak&s it impossible to change a book within four years. If a four-year adopt ion can be compelled by law, then a longer period REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 53 could be required if it were advisable without recourse to state uni- formity. Four years is quite long enough, however, for even a good book, let alone a poor one, when better books are being brought out. Pupils do change classes through promotion at the end of each term or year and new courses require new books, but state uniformity would not alter this, as the student could not use a first history in a second year class. In the grades, however, a book can not always be completed in a year and sometimes lasts through two or three years. The English and history courses as well as the courses in the sciences, in fact in all departments, have seen a remarkable development within the past few years. It would block the progress of the high schools to compel a longer adoption than four years. This would certainly be necessi- tated by state uniformity and state printing as it would be considered a waste of public money to furnish books if they were not to be used longer than four years. 2. State uniformity would mean a saving to the parents of pupils moving from one school to the other since they would not be required to purchase new books. Society acts on the basis of the greatest good to the greatest number, even though a few individuals may be inconvenienced or even suffer thereby. The number of pupils moving from one school to another is very few indeed in comparison with the total number enrolled. Why should an injustice be done to the many for the convenience of the few who would thereby only be saved the price of purchasing a few extra books? Even in these few cases, the student might be saved on his second purchase by selling his books in his home school second hand. This argument, however, loses what little force it has when all the figures are presented. There were 76,429 enrolled in the high schools of California during the year 1914-15. How many of those do you think changed schools? It was impossible for me to secure data from all the schools, but I secured this information direct from fifteen schools representing an enrollment of 13,909. Requests were sent to all schools of 500 or over, according to last year's enrollment, but satisfactory replies were not received from the others. I found through reports from the principals of these schools that 396 pupils transferred to their school and 236 pupils transferred from their school during the year. The number of pupils changing is but 4^ per cent. This per cent is greater also in the larger or city schools, as the migration is toward the centers. I am satisfied that there is not over a 3 per cent change annually throughout the high schools of California. f>4 REPORT OP TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 3. State uniformity would save money to the taxpayers in that the state printing office could furnish these high school texts at a lower cost. May I ask our legislative friends at the outset, if they know of one state in the union which has done this successfully? I know of none. Would it he wise to try an experiment attended with such danger and injury to the schools without at least one precedent as a guide? So far as I know the only "four places in which the plan of state printing of any school textbooks has been either adopted wholly or in part or considered and rejected, are the Province of Ontario (Canada), Cali- fornia, Georgia and Kansas.'' and these are the elementary textbooks. Even in the printing of elementary school textbooks, the experience is not altogether encouraging. The lower price of some textbooks in Ontario is due "in part to different economic conditions, in part to th* fact that the government bears a considerable share of the expense of making them, in part to the fact that some of them are manufactured by department stores for advertising purposes and are sold at less than the cost of making them, in part to the government monopoly in their use, and in part to the relatively inferior character of the books." (Dr. John Franklin Brown, Cornell University.) The experience in California was not to be argued. We might say m passing, however, that Professor Brown pointed out the following serious error in estimating the cost of the California books. The cost of the state textbooks given merely as the manufacturer's cost plus the royalty is compared with the publisher's list price, whereas it should be compared with the cost price to the dealers, which is always at least a 20 per cent discount, and in some cases considerably more. This is a 20 per cenl error alone. In August, 1913. the state of Georgia appointed a joint committee of eight to investigate the question of state printing. After thorough investigation of the Ontario and California plan, they reported adversely and recommended that the state should not print uniform textbooks, basing their conclusions on pedagogical and economical grounds. Kansas had published only three books up to April 1, 1915. During the two years since the passage of the law, they succeeded in publishing these three books at a lower price than some of the publisher's books, but they were of a decidedly inferior quality, according to the press of Kansas, to say nothing of the school people. The Wichita Beacon, in speaking of the History of Kansas, one of the three books published, says in ils issue of January 23, 1915, "The book fell so far short of tin; educational standard which Kansas oiiuhl to set that it attracted REPORT OP TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 55 much unfavorable comment." Not only so, but the cost in the official estimate is given as contingent upon the sale of 100,000 histories and 60,000 classics. In view of Kansas' experience, two very important questions need to be answered : 1. How many courses are offered in the high school; how many textbooks are required for these courses ? 2. How many pupils are there registered in each course in Cali- fornia ? How many copies of each text will be required ? The first question can not be answered exactly. However, with four years each of English, mathematics, Latin, German, history and science, there would be twenty-four courses even in the smallest high schools, to which would be added for the larger high schools other courses in his- tory, languages, including Greek, French, Spanish and Italian, science and mathematics ; commercial courses such as commercial English, com- mercial arithmetic, commercial geography, commercial law, bookkeeping, stenography, typewriting, advertising, salesmanship, etc. ; agricultural courses such as general agriculture, horticulture, live stock, irrigation and drainage, soils and fertilizers, etc. ; applied courses in chemistry and other sciences ; music, drawing and the other arts ; besides industrial courses and the various branches of the household arts and sciences. The Stockton High School offers seventy different courses and plans to offer more — courses, mark you, not books. Some of these require one book, some, as for example, the first year of English require eight or ten inclusive of the small 15-cent and 25-cent classics studied. There are 116 texts used in the Stockton High School for the four different years in these seventy courses. Some schools have more; the total number for the state in the several subjects would reach two hun- dred. No one pupil, however, has more than four courses each year or sixteen in all out of the total seventy. The strength of the high schools lies in this very fact — that it seeks to give each student the subjects he most needs as a preparation for his life work. As a straight business proposition, gentlemen, independent of the more important pedagogical reasons previously presented which are so essential to the school's efficiency, as a straight business proposition, does it seem feasible for the state to undertake the publishing of 200 textbooks % Would it be a good business proposition for the taxpayers ? Since February 26, 1885, when the first appropriation was made for the state printing office, there have been eighteen separate appropria- tions for equipment and manufacturing, which with the indirect appro- priations, have aggregated $812,354.57. Besides these, State Superin- tendent Hyatt says in his bulletin of July, 1915, "Appropriations were 56 REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. made for the state printing office from time to time in subsequent years (after 1887) for machinery, buildings, etc., but it is not possible to divide the expense accurately between textbooks and other state print- ing." No one knows exactly what the state printing office has cost the state. Professor Brown of Cornell, however, after a most thorough investigation, has stated that it represents an investment of at least $2,628,501 to the taxpayers of California. If it has necessitated an investment of over two and one-half millions for the printing of eighteen elementary school texts, how many times this amount will be necessary to furnish two hundred different high school textbooks ? The most serious problem, too, is yet to be considered. There were but 76,429 pupils enrolled last year in all the high schools of California and yet Kansas has found that the prices of her books are contingent upon the issuance of 100,000 histories and 60,000 classics. Moreover, these 76,429 pupils represent many different courses, the largest number in any one course, viz: English composition, being but 20,174 in 1914-15, and the smallest number being 35 in Homer's Iliad in the Greek, according to the official figures of the state commissioner's office. The total number enrolled in each of the classes for 1914-15 is as follows: This represents the total number of textbooks required last year. English. Grammar 5,392 ( 'ompositiou — Rhetoric 20,174 Myths 10,120 Heroic Ballads 7,2SO English Literature History 7,614 American Literature History 1,222 Oral English and Dehate 3,525 Oration and Argument 2,181 Selections of Poetry 14,118 Selections of Prose 3,543 Latin. First Book 6,996 Grammar 3,512 Caesar 3,565 Beginner's Composition 3,310 Cicero 991 Advanced Composition L0S8 Virgil 767 Other Texts 700 Greek. Grammar Beginner's Greek Anabasis Iliad Composition 83 <>4 58 35 70 French. Grammar 1,808 Beginner's French 1,253 Reader 698 Composition 776 Q( i man. Grammar 2,472 Beginner's German 2,882 Reader 2,126 Composition 1,303 Spanish. Grammar 4.S40 Beginner's Spanish 4,S67 Reader 3,404 Composition 2,009 History. Ancient 8,543 Medieval and Modern 5,104 English 2,252 American 7,037 General 1,008 Industrial 344 f'ivics 5,040 History Note Book 2,812 Economics 1,339 Parliamentary Law 274 REPOKT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 57 Commercial. Bookkeeping , 6,S50 Shorthand Text 5,272 Speller 3,407 Law 1,543 Geography 1,511 Correspondence 2,414 Arithmetic 4,501 Accounting 728 Banking 165 Business Practice 641 Music Boole 4,446 History of Art 580 Mathematics. Algebra, First Year 14,316 Algebra, Advanced 2,445 Geometry (Plane) 9,370 Geometry (Solid) 1,371 Trigonometry l,0OS Calculus 77 Higher Arithmetic 163 Mechanics 11 Science. Physics 3,391 Chemistry 5,835 Physical Geography 3,002 Botany 1,753 Zoology 1,394 Physiology 1,004 Geology 102 Domestic Science 1,871 Household Chemistry 467 Agriculture 737 Biology 717 It is a well-known fact that the greatest cost is in the first 25,000 books, and that 25,000 represents the smallest edition which could be printed with profit to the state. How then can the state expect to print high school textbooks with profit when there is but one subject, first- year English, requiring 20,000 copies, and but three in which there were more than 10,000 textbooks required, and where the great majority of courses outside of English would require under 5,000 books? But, says one of the advocates of state printing, "We will reduce the number of textbooks," while another suggests that one large edition could be printed and continued in use until the supply is exhausted. It will be utterly impossible to reduce the number of textbooks with- out irreparable injury to the schools. This implies a restriction of the courses and a consolidation of classes. As I have tried to show above, the pupils must choose their courses or subjects according to their own needs. "Will there be any justice in compelling a boy who is preparing for civil engineering to take the same course as the girl who is studying household economics with a view of teaching ? The illustration may be somewhat extraordinary, but pupils will be subject to such injustice if the state undertakes to fill the need of the high schools by printing forty-eight books as has been suggested. It would be even more unjust to continue the use of any given book until an edition of 25,000 was exhausted, as this represents the minimum number which the state could successfully print. How long would such an edition last ? A few examples will be sufficient : Third year Latin texts would last 26 years; fourth year Latin 32 years ; Greek texts, from 300 to 700 years ; German texts, 10 or 11 years ; English History, 11 years ; economics, 18 years ; commercial law, 16 years ; business practice, 39 years ; biology, 34 years ; agriculture, 33 years ; household chemistry, 53 years. The absurdity of continuing the 58 REPORT OP TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. single edition in high school subjects is evident. Some of these subjects have been revolutionized within five years. Scientific books are out of date in five years, so rapidly are discoveries being made. Shall we mortgage the interests of the boys and girls of the next generation ami be compelled to teach that which is not true for the sake of having the state printing office publish free uniform textbooks ' In closing, permit me to briefly summarize the argument presented: There are three separate questions which must be kept distinct, free textbooks, uniform textbooks and textbooks printed by the state. High school texts can be furnished free, if desired, without being made uniform and without being furnished by the state. The advantages or disadvantages of the state printing of the elemen- tary textbooks need not be considered as arguments for or against the printing of high school textbooks, which is an entirely different problem. While the fundamentals of an education may be taught from uniform textbooks, it is a gross injustice to the youth of the state to receive the same education from uniform textbooks. The high school is a period of self -discovery. The courses and the textbooks must be selected to meet their individual vocational needs, as well as the varying interests of the communities in which they live and, of necessity, must be chosen with relation to their individual school equipment. These courses must also keep pace with the growing demands of society and be suited to the individuality of the teachers. There is no necessity of state uniformity in order to prevent too frequent changes of textbooks as the four-year adoption law covers the case fully. This time could be lengthened if necessary. There is no necessity for state uniformity, scarcely an excuse, because of the pupils who change schools, since they represent but 3 per cent of the total num- ber enrolled. The convenience of the few is not to be considered if it works an injury to the great majority. State printing can not result in any great saving to the citizens. The taxpayer must pay for all of it directly or indirectly. The printing of the elementary textbooks represents an expenditure of nearly $2,500,000. It would require several times that to print the first edition of the high school textbooks, which number about two hundred. Moreover, the overhead expense of interest on the investment, depreciation of plant, salaries, storage, transportation added to the manufacturing cost would make it a losing investment to the state. The printing of uniform high school textbooks is not only unpedagog- ical and uneconomical, but it is without any precedent whatsoever. Ontario and Kansas arc the only places where the state prints any of the school textbooks, and they arc elementary texts. Finally, the num- ber of copies of the different textbooks required would make it impossi- ble for the si ale to print these without continuing them in use from 11 to REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 59 53 years, as was proven, since at least 25,000 copies of the text must be printed in order for it to pay the state to make the investment. In conclusion, gentlemen of the committee, I desire to thank you again for your presence and your careful attention and to remind you of the fact that you have been called upon to decide one of the most vital questions which ever concerned the high schools of California. Your decision will in a large measure determine the efficiency of the schools a generation hence. I shall place the matter in your hands with the utmost confidence, since the interests of our California schools leave but one course open to you and that is local adoption. 60 REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. Exhibit E. [Address of Mr. Tracy.] "Mr. Garrison said he was born in Indiana. I may say I was born in Illinois, and my father was born in Pennsylvania. My grandfather was born in Vermont, and the original Tracy came over on the May- flower — Lieutenant Thomas Tracy. I might also add that my father was an educator; was county superintendent of schools of Warren County, Illinois, and my mother was a teacher ; and of six children four were pedagogues — two of us escaped. So that when I approach a dis- cussion of high school textbooks, uniform textbooks in our high schools, I do so with a friendly spirit. My immediate family connections were with a group of pedagogues ; and I admire the pedagogue, even though he may refer to himself as an idealist. I think this about the finest group of people, if we may divide ourselves in groups, that we have. It isn't in a spirit to combat them that I am here; rather, if possible, to cooperate in every way with them. I don't think that we started off just right yesterday as proponents and opponents, figuring ourselves as lined up on two sides of a mark. I believe that the legislative com- mittee, the school teachers and the high school principals, the State Printer and the representatives of the typographical conference, all have in mind the trying to accomplish something for the best interests of the educational system of California. Had I been left alone to determine the future course of the typographical conference, after listening to the monograph read to us by Mr. Wood, I would lie willing to say to your committee: 'Gentlemen, so much has been accomplished that if you will accept what Mr. "Wood offers, I will be willing to pack my grip and return to San Francisco. To have Mr. Wood, Mr. McMath and Mr. Garrison come out frankly, honestly and openly with the statement that they believe that we should have free textbooks in the high schools is so satisfactory to me that, personally, I am willing that the other propo- sitions that your committee has been called upon to investigate may wait. ' "The suggestion of California authorship is incidental to the main question. The subject of sectional textbooks is an idea, and an idea only at the present time, and it may wait ; and the subject of the state printing textbooks, in my opinion, is one that will take care of itself. If it is practical, economical and to the best interests of the school system of the state of California that some of our best books be printed at Sacramento, then the Legislature and the people of California will take care of that question as it develops and arises from time to time. So I feel that we have readied a point in this matter that you are investi- gatiim where there is very little left over in which we may differ. In REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 61 making that statement, I don 't want to be misunderstood in the matter at all ; that is, I don 't want to say that I subscribe to everything that was advanced here yesterday by Mr. Garrison and Mr. McMath and others who spoke, because I don't. I don't agree that the present high school system is what it should be. As a matter of fact, I don't think that we know ourselves just what is best to be done. The whole subject of education, so far reaching, and its development, has been of such a character that few of us really understand it. To some it appears to have been a development from the top down, rather than from the bottom up. "I wish to call attention to the fact that from an educational system which contemplated schools for the aristocratic and well-to-do people of centuries ago our common school system was evolved. Not many generations ago it wasn't thought to be necessary that the common people should receive much education at all, and the system developed with the idea that only a small fraction of the people needed a certain kind of education only — an academic education — an education that would supply the need for lawyers, statesmen, physicians, surgeons and clergymen, and that was about its limitations. And so there grew up an educational system that contemplated the education of boys and girls to be ministers, to be doctors, to be lawyers, and to become states- men. And as civilization advanced and developed, we had, first, colleges as an adjunct to the universities; then we had academies, now called high schools, and, as I said before, we seem to be developing downward rather than up from the common schools to the universities. ' ' Now, with this development, we have carried along all of the acade- mic theories of education. Our high schools are, to a large extent, domi- nated by academic texts and teachers. We have all the lawyers we need, and more; we have all the ministers that the community will support, and more ; we have all the physicians that are necessary, and perhaps more. Of course, statesmen are born, not made. [Laughter.] "We have got to a point where we have thousands of boys and girls that must make a living for themselves and be able to perform the duties that are required of good citizenship. They must be prepared for the battle of life and they must follow other lines that deal with the industries. The field of industry is about the largest that we have now to consider because it offers employment to those who must live, raise their families, and educate their children. The other vocations in life that I have referred to seem to be closed to a great many of the children of today. ' ' Now, our technical schools and schools of manual arts are responsive to the necessity of our present-day civilization. They have come to us because our educators realize and all of us have been forced into the belief that something more must come out of our educational system 62 REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. than doctors, lawyers, ministers, etc. Bui have we approached the sub- ject in the right way .' Are our technical schools and the schools of manual arts doing the best wort possible ? I contend that they can not be doing the best work possible because they are in an experimental stage. We have a beautiful school building over there that cost several thousand dollars, and we are pleased to point to that school building and say, 'That is the school of manual arts or polytechnic' But what is it really doing for the boys and girls that must make a living? I will tell you that it is not turning out just what this community needs. It is still turning out what I would call half-baked artisans. And in this development through which we are passing we have lost sight of some of the fundamentals, lost sight of the fact that in our desire for a higher education we have slopped over, as it were, some of the things that are absolutely necessary to make a secure foundation upon which to build. Got too far away from readin', writin' and 'rithmetic. At least, I think we have. I have sent my two boys through high school. The youngest boy hasn't quite finished. He is 19 years of age and he can not spell. He can not spell; he does not know what punctuation is. He can tell a comma from a semicolon, because a semicolon has got a dot over the tail. What it means he does not know. No one has ever told him; no one has taught him. He has burned midnight oil reading 'Treasure Island' because it is interest- ing — something about the story that appeals to him. So, when we contemplate this subject we should bear in mind the fundamentals of education — the general education that belongs to the elementary grades, and when we take the scholar from the elementary grades and pass him into the high schools, it should be with the thought in mind that that boy or girl is going through a course of preparation for a life 's work ; not necessarily a life 's work as an attorney at law, a minister of the gospel, but perhaps as a boilermaker, mason, or patternmaker or a printer, or to follow some of the other trades. "Now, somebody spoke about doing something for the 'culls.' I believe it w T as Mr. McMath. We have 'culls' among the boys and girls just the same as we have in our apple orchards and in our vineyards, in our orange groves, and no matter how much we may sympathize with the boy or girl that is a born 'cull,' still a 'cull' is a 'cull,' and you • an not make anything else of a 'cull' than a 'cull.' That is the way nature produced it, whether it was in the orchard, in the vineyard, or in our own family. "One trouble with our educational system has been, to my mind, trying to make something out of a 'cull' other than a 'cull.' You can not do it. If you want a semiskilled mechanic, perhaps you can get him out of a 'cull,' but there is no use spending money and wasting REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 63 time having that 'cull' read 'Homer's Iliad,' or 'Cicero.' And that has been, to my mind, the large fault of our high school system. Take your child out of the elementary grade, put him in the first or second year of high school and test him out and find, if you can, or as nearly as you can, what the child is best fitted for in life; what vocation he can follow that promises the most for him, and then supplement his general education with a course of instruction and textbooks that fit into his life and his wants and his desires, and I think you have done the best that you can do for the boy and the girl. "And in so far as uniformity of textbooks is the subject for discus- sion, I wish to say that I think that the uniform textbook system will work itself out when we get our high school system worked down to where it ought to be. If you want, to make a printer, or if you want to make an artisan that can design in a ladies' tailoring establishment, you must teach them certain principles that go along with that trade. If you want to make of a boy a printer that can produce a calendar like that you must teach him something besides the picking up and setting down of type. You must teach him color harmony, and shape harmony, and tone harmony, so that he will know what a calendar should look like to be attractive. That sort of schooling should go along with the education that you offer to boys in your technical schools who want to become printers, and if he is to be a ladies' garmentworker, so-called, he must learn to blend the colors and shades that go into garments that will satisfy the tastes and desires of the ladies who are going to wear the garments. You can teach that skill in the high schools, and you will find that the skill will respond if the child's mind turns that way ; but you can not make a garment cutter in ladies ' goods, nor a printer that will build calendars like that, or a book like that, by having him study some of the things that he is now compelled to study in the high schools. "Another point I want to call to the attention of the principals of the high schools. You should take a survey of your own community. In California you should make a survey of the industries of the western part of this country as far as you can go, and you should not set up half-a-million dollar polytechnic high schools to turn out patternmakers or workers in ladies' garments or printers beyond the needs of the business for this section of the country. You should not have a class in your polytechnic high school, including perhaps fifty, sixty or more patternmakers. As this is not a manufacturing community, there is not much demand for patternmakers here. Those things should be studied out, surveyed, put down in black and white. Get your data as nearly correct as possible, and you will get somewhere" in your poly- technic schools. 64 REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. "Another thought that I would suggesl is this, and we will take the printing trade for example. You have in Los Angeles today seventy- five boys, perhaps, that have been apprenticed to the printing trade. Chances are that a large percentage of those boys have chosen this vocation because they like it or they want to follow that particular trade. With a cooperative spirit between the principal of the poly- technic school and the employer of these apprentice boys, you can take those boys, or a large percentage of them, into your polytechnic school at night and give them that supplementary education so necessary that they rnay get a thorough knowledge of principles. On the other hand, possibly you have taken up a boy or girl who has a passing fancy that they want to set type. If so, you have wasted a lot of time. Bring your schools as closely as possible to the needs and the wants of the community in which you have the school, and then you are going to get somewhere with that school. "When we are on our feet and talking we are always prone to dig at, some fellow that spoke before us. [Laughter.] I am going to refrain from taking any such advantage because of my high regard for school teachers. My first impression yesterday was that the school teachers had again given evidence of their lack of being practical when they allowed themselves to shoot their own gun first, but it wasn't for me to determine. However, I am rather glad that it happened just that way because it proved to my mind that there isn't really any difference between us. We all want to do the best we can for the schools of California. We believe that we should have free texts in the high schools, because the expense of education has reached the point where a poor man many times is compelled to take his child out of school. ( me point that was brought out here yesterday was the expense per per pupil per day; I think it was $2.00 per day. I don't know that it is exactly right, but the gentleman who spoke ought to know; he is in the school business. That is a tremendous item! Two dollars a day to send a child to school. Two dollars a day in the city of Los Angeles to send a child to your high schools! It is shocking! Of course he backed up this statement with what he believes to be a good reason for the expenditure of the money. "Now, as to the purpose of this committee. I hope you can see your way clear, gentlemen, to make a favorable report at Sacramento on the subject of free textbooks in the high schools. I believe that you will do something that will lie appreciated by the people of California. I believe if the question goes before the people of this state that it will receive ;in overwhelming majority. I believe that, because of the expres- sions made hSre by Mr. Wood and others. They favored the idea. I believe that the people of California will vote for free high school REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 65 textbooks if tliey get the chance. I don't know of any time when the people have refused to vote for free texts when the opportunity was presented, and the reason why they do that is because they love the schools. They spend their money lavishly in support of our school system, and they are very proud and jealous of it, and whenever you can put before the people a proposition intended for the betterment of the educational system, you're going to get their undivided support. "I hope your committee will see its way clear, after its investigations, to report at Sacramento next January the desirability of free textbooks in the high schools. The matter of state printing and of sectional textbooks, etc., are incidental questions, to my mind. The main ques- tion is the free textbook. The other things will take care of themselves." S— 27503 (JG REPORT OF TKXTHOOK COMMITTED. Exhibit F. [Bbief Submitted i:y Various Interests.] CALIFORNIA SCHOOL BOOKS State Printing and Free Distribution Advocated for High Schools. Recommendation of a System Similar to Elementary Grades. UNIFORMITY IN HIGH SCHOOL BOOKS, Selection of Texts by Most Competent Judges of the Best Books as the Standard, Saving of Time and Expense in Removals, Freedom From Book-Agent Solicitation, Home Production and Economy, FREE DISTRIBUTION, vs. IRREGULARITY OF TEXTS, Similar Arguments Once Used Against Present Elementary Texts, Claims for Individuality of Pupil, Teacher, Prin- cipal, School, District, County. Claims for Geographical Needs, The Book Publishing Companies, and Extravagance. THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA. The State of California adopted the free distribution, or state pay- ment, of textbooks in the elementary schools in 1912. The success of this plan, in economy of production and satisfactory results, has become a monument to California's progress and an emulative incentive to other states. If the furnishing of textbooks to the children of the elementary or grammar grades, without direct cost to the parents, is advantageous, why not, its advocates contend, adopt a similar system throughout the high schools? When the measure for free distribution of common school textbooks was before the stale legislature, its opponents asserted that there was no popular demand for such a system, but when submitted to a vote of the people, their approval was decisive. The success of state printing and distribution, since the inauguration of this plan, has been so apparent. that another vote upon free school books would undoubtedly include those for the high school students also. Free Books Mean More and Better Education. For nearly four years, California's elementary schools have been truly democratic. The state has furnished, without direct cost : school REPORT OP TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 67 teachers, equipment and the textbooks. But the high school student is, or his parents are, compelled to purchase expensive books for that educa- tional course. This cost is one factor in the explanation that but a small percentage of elementary grade students enter the high school. The same forces which opposed the inauguration of free textbooks in the grammar schools are now opposing high school adoption. Some teachers, in the minority we trust, have taken a stand in opposition to state printing, as well as free distribution. This stand is certainly in the interests of the eastern schoolbook publishing firms who are furnish- ing texts to most of the states outside of California, and at a much higher price than it is costing our taxpayers. California a Leader in Education. If this State can save its citizens two hundred thousand dollars annually on its schoolbooks, the menace to trust control is apparent in most of the other states. Other legislatures are commencing to investi- gate our system and are looking to us for data. To perpetuate their grasp on the school books of the country, these corporations are willing to spend a considerable sum to hamper California's free distribution plan, and, if possible, to prevent her from including the books for the higher schools. In considering the advisability of introducing state distribution of books in the high schools, we must base our conclusions largely upon the success of the system in the elementary schools. The following table shows the present cost of manufacture, amount of ro} r alty, chargeable cost, costs in 1911, and prices paid by other states : Comparative Prices. Name of book Primer Pirst Reader Second Reader Third Reader Fourth Reader Fifth Reader Speller One Speller Two First Arithmetic Advanced Arithmetic New Lessons One New Lessons Two Introductory History __. Brief History Introductory Geography Advanced Geography __. Primer of Hygiene Civics Writing Book One Writing Book Two Writing Book Three Writing Book Four Writing Book Five Royalty $.085 $.048 .048 .0525 .06 .09 .09 .025 .025 .0525 .09 .0675 .09 .15 .15 .078 .093 .113 .128 .129 .103 .101 .104 .123 .139 .146 .142 .211 .203 .349 .106 .168 .028 .028 .028 .028 .028 $2,519 .15 .06 .125 .01 .01 .01 .01 .01 $1.5135 $4.60 1911 price Publisher's price $7.25 Present manufacturing cost, $2,519 ; royalty, $1.5135 ; shipping, etc. fornia's total cost, $4.60. Price, under previous administration, $7.25. Eastern publishers' price, $9.79. .32 35 .40 .60 .60 .25 .30 .35 .60 .45 .60 .65 1.00 .60 1.00 .40 .75 .05 .05 .05 .05 .05 $9.79 $.5675 ; Call- (is 1 1 1 : PORT OF TEXTBOOK COM M I TTEE. State Publication Means Less Cost. The cost of element .try school textbooks, in 23 states, where data has Item available, averages about $10. The complete cost in California, including manufacture, royalty for copyrighted plates, and distribution, is less than $4.60. Even under a former nonprogressive, unbusiness- like administration, the cost, under state manufacture, was twenty-five per cent less than when purchased from eastern publishers. Printed under progressive methods the cost has been reduced over fifty per cent compared with costs from eastern concerns. Recently a newspaper in this State, anti-administration in its char- acter, in opposition to free textbook system stated that the state printing plant represented a valuation of a million dollars. The total value of the plant is but one-tenth this sum. and only about one-quarter of the equipment is used for schoolbook manufacture. The annual output of the plant is about a third of a million dollars and the annual saving, under economical management, more than sufficient to replace the entire equipment each year. Taking the intermediate dictionary as an illustration, it is shown that even a greater difference in price is paid where the state does not enter into competition. These books are printed in the East and sold in this State for eighty cents to one dollar each. It lias been figured that they can be printed in the State Printing Office for twenty cents. Even were a royalty of the same sum allowed for copyrighted plates, the cost to the students would be but half or less than at present. There are over 400,000 common school pupils, and, without including the 76,000 high school students, the saving of forty cents per book would amount to over $160,000. Purchased Books and Free Distribution. Books sold annually under eastern publication to school children, prior to state publication, 1SS4 151,250 Books manufactured by State and sold at cost in 1912 641,697 Books manufactured under present administration and distributed under free textbook plan in 1913 1,351,061 Books to be manufactured in 1916 will exceed the 1913 figures. There will not only be more books issued, but they will be of larger size, including colored plates and improved appearance. Elementary School Books, Sold and Distributed Free, 1887-1914. Royalty Prior to July 1, 1904 July 1, 1904-June 30, 1905.. July 1, 1905-Junc 30, 1906.. .Inly 1. 1906-June 30, 1907- July 1, 1907-June 30, 1908.. -Tuly 1, 1908-June 30, 1909.. July 1, 1909-June 30, 1910.. July 1, 1910-June 30, 1911.. July 1, 1911-June 30, 1912.. July 1, 1912-June 30, 1913— July 1, 1913-June 30, 1914.. July 1, 1914-June 30, 1915*. 4,052,327 403,754 453,995 521,453 551,122 578,246 600,348 683,079 683,527 476,241 13,526 477,933 1,379,154 529,116 $10,821 75 41,375 40 46,095 96 49,986 22 52,893 83 35,434 32 40,425 24 41,922 60 42,100 08 55,321 72 86,140 38 30,188 87 *The new series of books being printed in 1916 will show an increase over any or" these figures. REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 69 Comparative Costs. The comparative costs and prices, on the twenty-three books* in the state series, are as follows: List price of eastern manufactured books, as sold in other states, and in California prior to state manufacture, $9.79. Cost and price of printed books in this State prior to the pres- ent administration: Manufacturing, $5,694; royalty, $1,556. Total, $7.25. Present costs: Manufacture, $2,519; royalty, $1.5135. Total cost, $4.60. It will be noted that even with the great saving the state is now making with its own publication, we are still paying within 4| cents of the former total royalty. *The 23 books in the elementary school series have been increased to 29, in 1916, and the total saving will amount to a greater sum. Economy Per Grade Over Old Method. First grade ^Jk'o?c qo Second grade 01 o5? ?T Third grade fl,281 41 Fourth grade 35,485 80 Fifth grade 47,4/7 85 Sixth 1 Seventh { grades 92,651 49 Eighth J $241,652 63 On the basis of a total of 400,000 f children in the elementary schools, the comparative textbook costs are as follows : tThe present attendance of over 420,000 pupils would show a 5 per cent additional saving. Total Costs. Grade Pupils Eastern manufacturers' prices Cost prior to Gov. Johnson administration Present cost First _ - _ - - _----_ 86,880 52,472 51,281 49,980 46,095 41,969 ] 37,189 \ 35,139 J $45,603 20 34,106 80 64,101 25 64,974 00 89,885 25 167,876 00 $36,489 60 25,711 28 49,742 57 46,481 40 65,915 85 118,772 07 $26,064 00 Second _ 18,889 92 Third 32,819 84 Fourth _. 29,488 20 Fifth _. 42,407 40 Sixth Seventh _ _ _ _ _ 75,224 51 Eighth $466,546 50 $343,112 77 $224,893 87 Saving in plan of state publication, over eastern purchase, when first inaugurated, 27 per cent. Comparison and amount saved by the State Printing Department : Cost of textbooks if purchased from eastern manufacturers, $466,546.50 ; cost printed in California, under the present administration, $224,893.87 ; amount saved annually, $241,652.63 ; or 52 per cent over old methods. 70 REPORT OP TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. WHY NOT FREE HIGH SCHOOL BOOKS IN CALIFORNIA OR BOOKS PUBLISHED WITHIN THIS STATE AND SOLD AT HALF THE PRESENT PRICES? High School Books. There is no question that thousands of dollars can be saved to the taxpayers of this state, by having their high school books printed and distributed under a system similar to that prevailing in the elementary schools. Either under the method of state printing- and selling at cost, in effect upon common school books for 28 years prior to 1912, or distributed under the present plan, a large amount annually can be saved the high school students and their parents. No Present Standard in High School Books! Objection to state printing may be made on the grounds that to furnish the variety of books called for by the different counties, districts or teachers, would make the cost prohibitive. This is true, and is the argument used by the agents of the various book companies now hold- ing a monopoly on these textbooks. The same argument was used when books for the grammar grades were first considered. But the standardization of the textbooks for the elementary schools eliminated this difficulty and benefited their general educational facilities. Already legislation has been enacted and some slight progress made toward uniformity in the high schools of the state. If Feasible in Grammar Schools, Why Not in the High? Ill the elementary or common schools of California there are over 400,000 students using 23 books in the eight grades, at a series' cost of $1.60. The high school students number less than one-sixth, or a total of about 66,000. (The attendance in the elementary schools has in- creased to over 120,000, and in the high schools to 76,000.) A year ago, before standardization was undertaken, the number of textbooks on the selective list was ovei' one thousand. The cost of a set of books, for the four years' course, is approximately $30, though in some sec- tions of the state it is over $40. If a reduction of fifty per cent can be made upon these books (the difference between publishers' prices and state cost on elementary books) the saving would amount to 66,000 times f>() per ccnl of $7.50 (one year's books), or $247,500. The life of a book being about three years, this saving would amount to over $80,000 annually. As many books are kept by the owners and not transferred to other students, the total amount which could be saved would probably amount to considerably over $100,000 annually. If the State of California has not the funds, at the present time, to inaugurate the free textbook system in the high schools, there is no good reason why the books can not be printed in the State Printing Department and distributed at cost to the students. This was done with the elementary school books, prior to the adoption of free distri- bution, and saved thousands of dollars to this State. Textbooks can profitably be printed in the State Printing Office in editions of 10,000, and possibly less. With 76,000 students, is it not possible to print thai minimum number on each book used? REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 71 High School Attendance Almost Prohibitory. Why should it be necessary for a student, moving from one district to another, or from any one part of the State to another, to buy an entire lot or a great many new textbooks? And why should it be neces- sary for a student to take up an unfamiliar book when his studies are transferred to another school? If it is thought necessary to omit printing certain books of which a small number are used, and which could more profitably be purchased outside, why can not the books upon standard subjects be made uniform in text, viz : English, Mathematics, History, Science, Music and Com- mercial Course. Possibly those upon French, German, Spanish, Greek and Latin could be purchased economically by a state, contract with publishers upon requisite number. Why the Objection to Change in High School Book System. The school book publishing companies of the East naturally object to losing several hundred thousand dollars' business annually in Cali- fornia, but more than the loss of this business they fear its effect on other states. California is one of the foremost in education, and the leader among all the states in doing its own printing. Other states have commenced to follow our plan in printing their own books, and the eastern book corporations can not afford to let us include high school books also without a fight. Adding the high school books to California publication will mean a saving of at least $100,000 to our taxpayers, and a corresponding loss to the book companies. That they will fight against this financial loss to themselves is evident. School Teachers Opposing. When free distribution of books was first contemplated for the elementary or grammar grades, and the bill of enactment was intro- duced in the legislature, many of the school teachers fought against it. Unfortunately, in the present advocacy of "printed-and-sold-at-cost high school books," a great part of the teaching fraternity, at least many of the leaders, have put themselves in the same position. We do not believe that the greater part of our high school teaching fraternity have thus aligned themselves for any other motives than their desire for an unlimited number of selective texts. But we ques- tion their good judgment, their attainment of better teaching facilities, and their consideration of our taxpayers' burden. Some of the teachers argue that there should be a difference in the textbooks used in a school with a large supplementary library, and one without. We concede that supplemental books are valuable for the student in advance of his class and in research work, but believe their value does not detract from the need of a uniform standard textbook for the city and country student. They should, when available, be truly supplemental and not to supplant. We believe the use of supplemental books is largely for the purpose of adding to the already lengthy list of books for which the taxpayer is compelled to pay, for under the state publication or the library sys- tem, the people pay the bills. But the difference between the two is : 72 REPORT OP TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. no uniformity and unlimited volumes on the one hand, and uniformity and economy on the other. Possibly this committee is not aware of the fact that supplemental books are now being forced on the children in the elementary schools. Through the importuning of salesmen for the eastern publishing houses, and the recommendations of some of the teachers, the elementary schools are being loaded with "supplemental" books through the libraries. "We can cite you instances where the state series of texts in the grammar schools has been ignored and supplanted by these supplementary books. This appears to the proponents as a well-laid plan to discourage the use of uniform texts in our elementary schools, and to add to the cost of the common school system. Supplemental books may be of value as supplements, but we believe that the recognized text should come first. If more study or reading matter is needed, why are not the present standard texts enlarged to meet the needs? The objection of possible contagion from the book that has been used by two or three pupils has proved negligible, though this was once the cry against the free textbook system ; but it could certainly be brought against the supplemental, or library system, where but little check can be kept on its use. At a former meeting of your committee, several teachers asserted, though not publicly, that they were even against the present uniform system of books in the elementary schools. Of course these same teachers are active opponents of the measure now before you, but we w r ill venture to state that were the question of uniformity, excellence and economy of our present free textbook system endangered by relapse into the old diversified and extravagant plan, the people of California would vote, overwhelmingly, in favor of our present system. We believe that the people of the State are in favor of home produc- tion where possible ; in fact there are laws now on the statutes providing for this, but too often ignored. The State of California has been able to purchase its supplies within this State for the manufacture of its grammar school books, to pay its mechanics a better wage than is paid by the eastern publishers, and to compete successfully on its costs. We know that our production is not only more economical, the money expended left within the State, but that the workmanship of the product is superior. It may not be out of place, right here, to present another phase of the question and leave it, without comment, for your consideration. AMERICAN SCHOOL BOOKS MADE IN JAPAN. (Philadelphia Press, Dec. 26, 1915.) It seems almost absurd that man; of Ihe textbooks used in our schools should be printed and bound in Japan and exported to this country, but since the advent of the Underwood tariff the condition is true — alarmingly true — for the printing trade. Time was when the highly colored A. l'». C. hooks of the children, the fairy tales and the tinselled, embossed postcards of flamboyant color and fanciful design, were "made in Germany," mucb to the disgust of American printers. Even the highly- decorated cigar hands of red and gold with the resonant Spanish names had tiny "made in Germany" marks where few could see them. But there was no serious competition, in fact little, if any, in the matter of printing hooks in the English REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 73 language, and particularly educational books in English. There was considerable disparity between the wages of German printers and binders and those employed in America. But the disparity was made up by our protective provisions. Under the Payne-Aldrich tariff so-hoolbooks were dutiable. Under the Underwood tariff schoolbooks can come into this country free of duty. When the matter came up, objections to the proposed provisions for free schoolbooks were met with the argument that the light of education would be made to shine for all free of tariff impediments, and the complaints of the publishers were laughed to scorn. But the prediction the publishers made then is coming true, and were it not for the European war today it would mean virtually the complete destruction in this country of a large portion of the printing business. But Germany, unfailing producer of everything anyone could make use of, is paralyzed by the great war. Her fleets are swept from the seas and her foreign commerce destroyed. And now the business of cheap printing has been taken up by Japan — the wonder nation of the East — with its cheap labor and its cheap supplies that can not be duplicated in this country for many times the cost. Japanese compositors earn about fifteen cents a day, and pressmen and binders are paid in the same proportion. This is about one-twentieth of the wages paid in the United States for similar work. Paper, too, can be made in Japan for less than one-half the American cost of production. And so it is that American schoolbooks are being reproduced in Japan with Oriental exactitude and exported to the United States for seven cents apiece. The same books, made in America, cost thirty-three and one-third cents apiece, with all the advantages of American machinery and increased per capita production by American workmen. America has a high scale of wages. American workmen enjoy advantages and comforts of civilization such as never were available to any people in the history of the world. America is giving her children the greatest advantages of any people in the world today. And it is right that she should. Her standard must never be lowered by permitting the unequal competition of the poorly-paid labor of other countries, and least of all of the teeming millions of the Orient. When the free textbook amendment was before the state legislature it was opposed, we believe, from a knowledge of its enactment, by a maiority of the school-teachers. "While this opposition may have repre- sented but a minority of the teaching fraternity, yet, if so, we do not know of more than a very few who actively or publicly supported it. Their contention at that time was that "uniformity" would destroy the value of tuition in the grammar or elementary schools, and that district or county selection should be made the unit. The same vague problem is thrust forward today when a reasonable standardization and economical plan is submitted. California has taken the lead in its elementary schools with its free textbooks and there are some who would have us wait until other states caught up with our present high standard before we advance farther. Other states are following California's lead in throwing off the grip of the book companies and are patterning after our system. Other states also are meeting the same opposition we met in inaugurating our free schoolbook system ; some following the plan suggested to us for district or county selection. Oregon lias tried it and we are informed that it is far from successful, at least when compared to our efficient and satis- factory system. 74 REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. The profits made upon our high school hooks enables the eastern book corporations to maintain a publicity campaign and active opposition to any progressive and economical steps undertaken. While the propo- nents recognize the right of these eastern firms to conduct their business in this State, we believe the people of California should and will give their own business and welfare the first consideration. These corpora- tions are legitimately organized for profit, but they are not entitled to an excessive one. So long as they use fair methods to protect their interests, we have only the incentive to advance our own welfare, but we are often called upon to answer unfair statements and garbled reports used in other states. California spent over $80,000 for royalties in 1912, when the free textbook system was inaugurated, and additional amounts since. This figures a cost of over $4,000 for each elementary schoolbook for the one year. For the information of your committee, we present the following figures upon royalties paid for the period of the past four vears : 1912, $42,100.08; 1913, $55,321.72; 1914, $86,140.38; 1915, $30,188.87; total, $213,751.05. Deducting $10,000 for the five small writing books, we find we have paid $203,750 for the eighteen textbooks in the series, or an average of $11,319.44 in royalty for each book. If the State cannot readily secure high school book plates upon a fair basis, would it not be reasonable to pay the same or even a greater amount in securing our own text and our own plates ? Your attention is respectfully called to the advisability of direct purchase of copyrights. When the elementary textbooks were manufactured and sold at cost, a fixed price was made for the book dealer. In the handling of the eastern manufactured high school books, the dealer is allowed about twenty per cent on his sales. We can, of course, expect the retail book dealers to oppose state publication, as it will lessen or remove their profits. We believe that the high school plates can be secured at a fan- price, and would ask, through your committee, that this information be secured by the State Board of Education. The royalty amounts on the elementary textbooks figured as follows: 15 per cent on retail sales price in other states, 33 per cent on our total cost, and 60 per cent on our manufacturing cost. The proponents have made no concerted effort to obtain endorsements or supporl of tree or printing and sale a1 cost of high school books. We have and will await the recommendations of your committee. Neither have we attempted so far to obtain the views of the high school- teachers and principals. A few of the state leaders in educational affairs have taken such a radical position on this question, without con- sulting public sentiment or the arguments of economy presented by the proponents, thai we have, for the time, left this investigation largely with your committee. The working men and women of the State are heartily in accord with our efforts toward uniformity in textbooks, i'ra' distribution if feasible, or state production and sale at cost. The State Federation of Labor and other organizations representative of the working people of Cali- fornia, have gone on record as approving the plan proposed. The proponents for uniformity of high school textbooks have as yet made no campaign among Hie legislators nor the school-teachers, but we are informed that this action is being taken by the opponents. A REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 75 number of teachers have, without solicitation, given us their opinion that uniform books could be adopted with benefit to the schools and the pupils. Unfortunately, as they stated, any activity on their part for uniformity would jeopardize their positions. The following letter from a well known educator of the south, written to the opponents of uni- formity, expresses, we believe, the views of many of the teachers and principals : Chairman Principals' Textbook Committee: Your circular to high school principals on the "question of free uniform text- books printed in part by the State Printing Office" will receive due attention. While there is a question whether high school students should be provided with their textbooks entirely at public expense, it is reasonably certain that parents now pay needlessly high prices for high school books. This morning I bought two books, of about the same size. One, a Spanish Grammar, cost me ninety cents (the regular price is a dollar) ; the other, a new book for civic classes, cost twenty cents. Why did one of these books cost more than four times as much as the other? The answer, I believe, consists chiefly in the fact that the grammar must be obtained from book dealers (our local dealer, by the way, getting no large profit), while the civic can be obtained from our State Printing Office. After listening to a discussion of the subject in the Fresno Teachers convention, and after reading the article in the Sierra Educational News, to which your letter refers, I still hold the opinion that the State Printing Office books will be not only far cheaper, but also, on the average, much better than the books now in use. For if our State Board of Education will seek the advice of a committee of the best informed men in California on a particular subject, and if such committee make a careful investigation of the use of the various textbooks on that subject, it is evident that the quality of the textbook chosen thus by the same board will be better than the average quality of the texts now in use, since they are chosen now by teachers, principals and boards throughout the State after investigations that are often utterly inadequate for wise choosing. Furthermore, the waste of time at the beginning of the year, due to difficulties in getting textbooks promptly into the hands of the high school pupils, in small towns especially, could easily be removed by state uniformity. While I should like to stand with the majority of high school principals, the welfare of the schools, as I see it, requires me to advocate uniformity and state printing of the textbooks in order to reduce their cost and the difficulties in getting them, and to improve their average quality. Sacramento, California, May 11, 191G. Committee upon Promotion of Uniform High School Books: Gentlemen : Replying to your request for a brief opinion on "Shall textbooks be uniform for the high schools of the State," I would say emphatically, yes. It means carrying out the excellent system now followed in the elementary schools, a system against which no sound argument can be brought to beai*. Those who are laboring the hardest in opposition to this proposed uniformity are chiefly high school principals who, under the present plan, can force their pupils to purchase what they please. They claim for themselves that they are laboring for the educational advantages of the boys and girls of the high schools, and that those laboring for uniformity are doing so for the pockets of the parents. Mr. Garrison, principal of the Stockton High School, in a long article published in the Sierra Educational News, which was no doubt very pleasing to those who have books to sell, stated that "boys and girls were more important than dollars and cents." This and similar expressions are being continually used by high school principals and book agents all over the State and country. In my opinion, this is 76 REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. unfair, as it is making assertions of their opinions as facts, and inferring that those who favor uniformity do so solely for the purpose of saving money for the pockets of parents, to the detriment of the education of their girls and boys of the high schools. This I emphatically deny. After thirty-four years' experience in school work, as teacher for six years, member of Board of Education for eight years and twenty years superintendent, one should have an opportunity to form an opinion. Mr. Garrison stated in his article that he had made the discovery that "The high school is pre-eminently the period of self-discovery." We have been of the opinion that he was the same boy who attended the grammar school — just a little more developed — but Mr. Garrison says that he is not, that nothing along the line of his grammar school plan will fit him, and uniform textbooks would not fill his needs. All my experience has not shown me a basis from which to reach this conclusion. There is one thing which I think I have learned to my own satisfaction and that is, that the means to be used to make one a scholar is to develop the powers of reason by study. It matters not what kind of textbook one may use or what kind of teacher he may have, he can never become a scholar unless he develops his reasoning powers by study. There are now a number of good high school books in use, without a doubt. I have been informed that the State Board of Education has signified five as the minimum number from which the high schools of the State can select. Perhaps the merits are about equal upon the whole; then why could they not go a step farther and select one as the best for all? Many of the advocates of the go-as-you-please plan claim that different schools and different localities require different textbooks. This is a dream. The city high schools and the rural high school can and should use the same textbooks. The book should be complete, and if it should have anything in it that could not be understood without assistance that was not at hand in the rural school, it could be omitted ; that is all there is to that. This claim that there should be a different book for different high schools reminds me of the man who cut a large hole in his fence to let his dog pass through and a small hole for his cat to pass through. I have read a number of articles denouncing the uniform high school textbook plan and favoring the present go-as-you-please plan, and it appeals to me make-shift argument; possibly the best that can be offered in behalf of the scrambled scheme of high school textbooks. Answering the main points of contention, brought out in brief sub- mitted by opponents to uniformity, we submit the following: The question before your committee is that of superior education and textbook economy, rather than education versus economy. We believe that the burden of proof rests equally upon the pro- ponents and opponents, as the State lias proven its ability in the past to publish textbooks at a considerable saving to the people and to the State. The proponents are advocating the reasonable uniformity in all textbooks, and state printing, if the work can be handled more econom- ically than by outside purchase. While (he stalenietil is made that uniformity would react to the disadvantage el' the high school system, and thai it would not be feasible, we believe Hint Hie burden of proof should be assumed by the opponents and a plain statement given your committee why at least 1 he standard subjects can not be made uniform and taught from the same books throughout the State. We agree with the teachers that educational progress in this Slate is of greater moment than the economy of a Few dollars, but when uniformity means a lessen- REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 77 ing of the whims or arbitrary selection of books by the individual teacher, principal, or school board and county superintendent, the ques- tion of the reducing of the costs should be given careful consideration. If we agree that a standardization of books upon certain subjects will affect the educational system, Ave clo not believe that it will materially, or in any sense detrimentally, affect the efficiency and development of the high school system. We are pleased to learn from the oral argument presented by the opponents and by their brief submitted, that they are in favor of free textbooks for the high schools of the State. We are rather inclined at this time to submit the question: In their indorse- ment of free books for the high schools, why have the opponents left this proposal and propaganda to the printers and the working people of the State ? And in the reduction in the list of superfluous texts why have not the teachers been in the vanguard ? Arguments have been used in the East against the State Printing Office and its publication of elemen- tary school books which could not be given general publication here. We have been advised, at different times, of articles appearing in school publications, purporting to be legislative and public criticism of the conduct of the State Printing Office, but which, in reality, applied only to the regime of five years ago. Some of these articles appeared in the Western Journal of Education, but, so far, we have heard no reply by the school fraternity of this State to the scurrilous articles in their own magazine. Answers to these untruthful statements, by the state printer, have been refused publication. The recommendation has been made to your committee, by a repre- sentative of the opponents to uniformity, that your committee recom- mend to the legislature a measure providing free textbooks for the high schools of this State. Undoubtedly, a considerable sum can be saved to the districts, school, and pupil, by large purchases, and we most heartily advocate this plan as one feature of progress in supplying books to the children. Your committee can readily see how uniformity would also benefit in this instance, for undoubtedly the less variety and number of books, the greater economy in the purchase. It is presumed that under such a system books for all sections of the State contain- ing the same text would be purchased at one time. This is, at least, a great forward step in uniform buying, if not in uniform texts. The assertion is made that the average amount expended by each pupil for textbooks is, approximately, $6 per year, or $24 for the course. Our former figures were based upon a cost of $30 for the four years, but later investigation leads us to believe that it is much greater. In Sacra- mento, a fair example between the larger and the smaller sections, a cost is shown upon textbooks, without including the reference books, small minor texts and blanks, of the sum of $40. The opponents, while advo- cating free textbooks in the high schools, state in their brief that the cost thereof should be borne by the districts rather than the State as a whole, and that several districts are now successfully following this plan at a considerable aggregate saving. The difference of opinion on this point between the proponents and opponents seems to be the selection by the district versus that of by the State. We submit the argument that if a small district and its teachers are capable of selecting standard books for those pupils in that vicinity, the State Board of Education, or 78 REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. a similar centralized body, is far more capable of making the selection for the whole Stale. The opponents make the plea that the individuality of the child must be considered, and the necessary books selected. We submit the argu- ment that if any standardization is observed, even within one classroom, the teacher can not select a book fitting that class as well as the State Board of Education can select the books for the separate schools. The argument is also made that books must vary in the different sections of the State, and that a variance must be observed between the agricultural, industrial, mining and horticultural sections. We can not see that there can be any difference, even in districts of widely- varied industries, between the standard subjects and textbooks upon Mathematics, English, History, Science, Commercial Course and the foreign languages, or even upon the minor or selective subjects. Uniformity and standardization are the rule today in almost every line of industry ; not alone in the consideration of economy, but progress in this modern period has shown the advisability of selecting the known best. If experiments are necessary in the high school system of the State, would it not be more feasible and more just to conduct these on a smaller scale than throughout the whole State? The one great question to he settled by the school faculties of California and by our State Board of Education, is, who is best fitted for this work — our lead- ing educators or the teachers of those smaller counties and sections where progress has not made such rapid strides? The opponents have gone to some extent to convince you that certain books printed in large editions would last an indefinite time. We partially agree with them and would not propose to print a book and attempt to force its use for a period longer than good judgment would dictate. However, in the illustration used, we would be pleased to learn how Homer's Iliad has been changed in the last twelve or even twenty years. The proponents do not advocate, nor have they submitted, any argu- ment in advocating a rigid uniformity on all texts in the high schools. We believe that progress will best be continued by allowing some lati- tude, but Ave are most emphatic in stating our position against indis- criminate and boundless latitude. Individual teaching of the child is desirable, we believe, but is it feasible in our common school system? Is not the same variety of intelligence and adaptability observable in a class in Del Norte as in a class in San Diego? Where special con- ditions arise and have to be met, and where the needs of special classes have to be considered, particularly in industrial centers and night schools, we see no objection to the selection of special texts. We have submitted the argument that in uniformity not only could a great financial saving be made to the State and a needless expenditure saved 1o the pupil who transfers from one locality to another, and must necessarily buy a new set of books, but a saving of time and energy would also be accomplished in not forcing the student to take up new books. It is argued that this moving factor is small in number, but we submit the fact that were the studies and text of greater uniformity, it would not be necessary for a pupil desiring to enter a university to take a rigid examination. We believe that even this small moving element should be given your consideration. Based upon the book-costs in Sacramento, were the REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 79 pupil compelled to purchase new texts for the year, it would amount as follows : English Mathematics History Science French German First year Second year Third year _. Fourth year $3 20 $1 00 $1 00 $1 40 2 50 80 $1 50 1 30 2 05 2 65 1 40 1 50 5 60 2 95 4 85 75 3 75 1 25 1 15 $1 85 3 65 2 10 2 55 First year _ Second year Third year . Fourth year Latin $1 00 3 05 3 05 4 20 Spanish Greek $1 25 j ! $1 50 .____! 3 00 1 50 Domestic Music Commercial Science $1 10 1 10 $1 10 $7 20 1 10 2 20 1 10 6 10 1 10 Assuming that the pupil takes up but the subjects of English, Mathe- matics, History, Science and German, the costs for each year's books would be: first, $6.55; second, $9.75; third, $13.25, and fourth, $13.15. If only two per cent of the pupils are compelled to change books on account of a change of residence, the cost for the first grade alone would be approximately $5,000 ; an unwarranted expense, we believe. The claim is made that the high school and its course of study is entirely different from that of the elementary school, and that while uniformity of textbooks is good in the lower school, such a system could not be used in the higher. Claims are also made that we are dealing with almost a new boy or girl, but we fail to see it, or to note as great a difference between the higher grades of the elementary school and the first grades of the high school as there is between the first and last grades in the elementary school itself. The argument is made that uniformity of text in the high schools is not as feasible as it is in the elementary schools, because the high school and its progress is of comparatively recent origin. We submit the question that, because it took a great many years to arrive at our present satisfactory textbook system, should it, in these modern times and age, be necessary to follow the same delay in inaugurating this progressive movement in our high schools? The argument that high schools have made a phenomenal growth in the past decade is also an argument that where it may be feasible to print but a few of the standard books at this time, yet the rapid growth will mean a greater number of such books which can be printed later although not feasible at present. We do not argue that all the books in the high school system can be printed economically at this time within the State. There are some of which so small a number are used that this would not be feasible. The question of what would prove an economical production is only one of where the State can print the book for the same, less, or at a considerable reduction under the amounts now charged. It would not be good policy for the State Printing Office, or those advocating state printing, to recommend the printing of any books which could not be more economi- cally handled here than elsewhere. 80 REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. Even under the presenl system without any degree of uniformity, we find thai a considerable saving can be made, and respectfully call your attention to the accompanying figures : State Printing Office 5.000 10.000 {•Composition 5.000 10.000 English ! ifl 10 Civiea . l 25 1 00 1 00 1 00 1 40 80 75 Science Economics Algebra, e'-cmentary Algebra, advanced Geometry, plane Geometry, solid Bookkeeping 1 40 Spanish Grammar l 25 l oo 1 12 64 1 12 1 00 $11,000 12,500 10,000 10,000 10,000 14,000 8,000 7, "On 14,000 12,500 $2,000 2,300 1,800 1,900 1,800 2,600 1,600 1,400 2,500 2,100 $3,900 4,500 3,500 3,700 3,500 5,000 3,000 2,800 4,800 4,000 $1,400 1,600 1,300 1,600 1,500 2,200 1,400 1,100 2,100 1,400 100 500 ,000 ,200 100 300 ,000 700 ooo ,100 $0 39 J5 35 37 35 50 30 28 48 40 $7,100 8,000 6,500 6,300 6,500 9,000 5,000 4,700 9,200 8,500 $70,800 *Based on 25 per eer.t royalty on wholesale price of books; included. tCoruposition figures less; possible if copyrights are purchased. The above are but a few of the high school books, including only the principal subjects. The argument is made that the elementary school books are printed in editions of 25,000 or more, and this would be impossible with the high school books. This is a question of economy in production, and if the books can be successfully printed in 5.000 lots, or even less, there can be no argument upon this point. The proponents ask your committee to consider the advisability of printing those books which can, at present, be printed economically, and which can be included under a more uniform system, and that some recommendation be made for the whole- sale purchase of those books whose limited number does not make economical state production possible at this time. We believe that your committee could recommend the home manu- facture of such books as it is possible to print economically, and that the matter of free textbooks be considered from a separate angle. We ask you to consider the subject under discussion from the viewpoint of the common people of the State and the taxpayers, rather than that of the school teachers or of the allied printing industries. We believe that the interests of the people as a whole should be considered rather than the arguments of the teachers for a possibly satisfactory present system, or of the printers of the State and their pleas for home production. The matter of state authorship is one which will need careful consid- eration, and should be taken up at a later period. We have been informed thai the California authors' work may be popular in the east, while eastern authors' books are sought in California, yet this is a subject that we do not feel competent to advise you upon now. The opponents have stated that the \'ery extensive list of books used a couple of years ago, and the latter extensive list in use at the present time, can be reduced to five on each subject. We must submit the argument that if the former ten or twenty books on each subject can be reduced to five, it can be further reduced to a lesser number. REPORT OP TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 81 It is claimed by some that the vast number of selective books is neces- sary for experimentation in growth and progress. Bnt the advocates of a standardized system claim this extravagant plan is unnecessary. It may be true that additional books, other than a standard set, may be advisable for trial, but it does not seem just to the students of our high schools to double the cost of their books to accomplish this end. If we may use the following illustration, we present it as a parallel: In building the state highway, the subcontractor in small stretches of highway was not allowed to use his individual judgment as to material, but it was designated by the central administration. Where experi- ment was deemed advisable, a small section was selected under the supervision of the department. We believe, if it is advisable to try experiments in books, the State Board of Education should be qualified to make such trials to a limited extent in certain schools for comparison. Has the local authority, vested with the selection of the books for a school or class, the opportunity of judging between all the available texts, and if so, how are all the various published books obtained by these teachers? Naturally, every teacher, principal, city or county board, striving for what they themselves deem best, wish to use their individual judg- ment or opinion. This, no doubt, would be feasible did the results justify the means, and were it not the means of doubling our textbook costs. No well-conducted business would allow subordinates such individual action, and no other department of state is so conducted. With all due respect to our splendid force of teachers in this State, who, however, gave no assistance in the promotion of the present textbook system and who have offered no aid in the proposed plan, the needs of students and the expense to their parents should be paramount. We have not yet heard an argument against the proposed "home production in school books" that can not be readily answered. The eastern book publishers, in their efforts to discredit our present com- mon school book system, and the adding of high school books, used and are using many subterfuges. They have employed journalists and others in this state to discountenance the State Department of Printing, and have flooded other states with statements that they would not dare to employ here. The proponents of the present agitation for uniformity and economy in high school textbooks have proposed this in good faith. If they can be shown that a standardized system of books is not for the best interests of the school children they will not further advance it. If they can be shown why a student in Del Norte should be taught from an entirely different set of books from one in San Diego, or why schools in neighbor- ing districts should have the same dissimilarity, making it necessary to buy new books on every change of residence, we believe the taxpayers of the State should know the reason. While the proponents of the measure before you may be mistaken in some of their arguments presented, yet Ave contend that on the whole it has been based upon common sense and good judgment, and one in which the people of the State are surely interested and approve. If, in your judgment, and in your recommendations to the legislature, you do not deem it wise to recommend all that has been proposed by the proponents, we believe the people of the State have secured and will derive much benefit from the consideration of the question before you. 6—27503 82 REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. The adoption by the state of horn.' production and eeonomy in print- ing its elementary school books, and its recent adoption of the free text- book plan, took considerable educational work and many years to accom- plish. We can hardly believe that a similar plan for the high schools will be delayed the same length of time, yet we realize that it is a mat- ter of evolution, and when the alleged insurmountable obstacles can be removed, if will mean, as we believe it, a better system in the high schools of the State. Like the textbook question in the common schools, a few years ago, when the people of California fully realize what economical maim facture and distribution means, they will also demand that the high school books be included in the same system, and at least sold at cost (at half the present prices) until such time as the state can include them under the same free distribution plan. Xo doubt your committee has read the Superintendent of Public Instruction's report upon "History of the California Textbook Plan," and noted some of the points brought out. We submit several extracts which may have some bearing upon the question before you : Much scandal had gathered about the supply of the public schools with textbooks (in 1884, before state publication was adopted), so many charges of corruption alleged to have been done by the book houses among school officers and school boards, that many would be satisfied with textbooks published (by the state) at more expense. But the cost has been one of the most gratifying things about the enterprise. Every teacher preferred to use some favorite textbooks, that he had been brought up on, perhaps, and to be obliged to give these up for something else again caused loud verbal explosions on every hand. There were hundreds of book dealers in the State who were cut out of the profits of retailing books, and they were fre- quently heard from. The great publishing houses had agents circulating in every part of the laud, whoso religion it was to everlastingly damn the whole idea of stale publication. The leading educators almost universally followed suit. Institutes, clubs and associations condemned it. No educational gathering was complete that did not take a fall out of the state textbooks. Never did anyone have a good word to say for them in public. They were an impersonal sort of thing, like the weather, that any one could criticize and abuse without fear of unpleasant consequences. Doubt- less, at this time, any books whatever that could have been printed by the state would have met the same fate. Yet it is worth remarking that the people of tin- State who do the voting have never failed to uphold the California plan by over- whelming majorities whenever an opportunity has come to them, even down to present date. The committee (textbook committee at time of inauguration of State printed books) went to work enthusiastically, but had difficulty at first in getting the publishers to lease the plates of their successful books. * * * Public clamor againsl graft died down; the book companies were ameliorated; the teachers had the same books as oilier people; the dealers bad accepted the situation. In bis report to the Governor in 1888, State Superintendent of Schools Ira pl< of the state?" In reply we have only to quote a report of the California Council of Education, in which a system of free textbooks Tor California schools was advocated by the teachers as early as 1902. (Sec Exhibit A.) The teachers of California have not as the proponents affirm, been slow to show "consideration of our taxpayers' burden." On the con- trary, they were the first to advocate free textbooks for the schools of EEPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 85 the state. In the light of this fact we shall concede that the sarcasm of the proponents concerning our advocacy of free textbooks is indeed futile, as they have suggested. REAL REASON FOR CALIFORNIA'S LEADERSHIP IN EDUCATION. It is very gratifying to note the caption on the proponents' brief — "California a leader in education." Our state is, indeed, one of the most progressive of all the American commonwealths, thanks to that very body of teachers whose "good judgment and consideration of the taxpayers' burden" is questioned by the proponents of state uniformity. The proponents would have you believe that this leadership is due to the system of state uniformity and state publication of elementary school textbooks. We wish to point out that the only general estimate of the efficiency of school systems in the United States is that published in 1912 by the Russell Sage Foundation. In that estimate the high schools of California, working under a textbook system which the pro- ponents have denounced, were second in rank, while the elementary schools, working under a textbook system which the proponents consider ideal were fourth in rank. We would also point out that every one of the twelve states at the bottom of the list have state uniformity of high school textbooks, while none of the twelve states at the top of the list had state uniformity of high school textbooks at the time the report was compiled. Surely the proponents erred in offering California's leader- ship in education as an argument for state uniformity. UNIFORMITY MEANS A STRAIT- JACKET. While it is quite beside the question to discuss the use of supplemental books in the elementary schools, and the alleged attempt to substitute supplemental books published by Eastern publishing houses for the state-printed textbooks, we can not refrain from suggesting that the laws of California give the proponents a ready and efficacious remedy for any violation of the textbook law. While the question raised has no direct bearing on the matter under discussion, we must solemnly protest against the sweeping allegation of wrong-doing on the part of our co-workers in education, the elementary school teachers of California. We would respectfully suggest, also, that this statement concerning the use of sup- plemental material in the elementary schools represents fairly the atti- tude the proponents would assume under a plan of state uniformity for high schools. They would deny the right of the high school to use sup- plemental material. They would insist upon absolute uniformity in the instruction offered in the high schools of the state. This argument offered by the proponents only confirms us in the belief that the pro- ponents are preparing for the high schools of California a strait- jacket 86 REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. which will check our efforts to adapt education to the needs of the stu- dents and to make our instruction practical. TEXTBOOK PROBLEMS OF HIGH AND ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS DIFFER GREATLY. In an effort to discount the substantial arguments against state uni- formity presented by the opponents at Los Angeles and San Francisco, the proponents state that the same arguments were used when books for grammar grades were first considered. In our first brief we pointed out clearly and specifically the difference between the elementary and high school situations. * * * AN ANALYSIS OF THE ANONYMOUS LETTERS. The proponents have submitted tw T o letters written by California high school teachers in advocacy of state uniformity. It will be noted, however, that the censor has deleted the names of the teachers, who are fearful that publication of their names would jeopardize their positions. Waiving discussion of the alleged Peign of Terror among the high school teachers of California because the absurdity of the allega- tion is so patent, we shall analyze some of the statements made by these two people. First of all, we would have you note the statement on page 10 of the proponents' brief that "the proponents for uniformity of high school textbooks have as yet made no campaign among the legislators nor lln school teachers, hut wt are informed thai this action is being taken />.// the opponents. A number of teachers have without solicitation given as their opinion that uniform hooks could he adopted with benefit to tin schools and tin pupils. * * * The following letter from a well- known educator of the south, written to tin opponents of uniformity, expresses, wt l>< li< vt . //" views of main/ of tin teachers and principals.'' Then follow the two letters. Recalling that these letters were written without solicitation, we are at a loss to understand why the second letter addressed to the Commit- tee upon Promotion of Uniform High School Hooks should begin as follows: "Replying to your request for an opinion on 'Shall textbooks be uniform for lln high schools of lln statt .'' I would say emphatically, yes." As an unsolicited letter, it is indeed remarkable. The first Unknown Principal has undertaken to compare the cost of a Spanish grammar published by a hook company, with a little booklet containing the federal and state constitutions, published by the state prinl ing office. He stales that he was surprised to find that the Spanish grammar cost !)() cents, while the book in civics cost only 20 cents, lie forgol to take into account the fact that the authors of Magna Charta and the two constitutions made no charge for their services in compiling the material published in the book in civics, while the author of the REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 87 Spanish grammar, realizing that he must eat, had demanded a certain royalty. Moreover, he did not know that the plates of the book in civics were made for the Legislative Counsel Bureau; that they were paid for by that bureau; and that the State Board of Education sold the book to the high schools for the actual cost of printing and binding. COST OP TEXTBOOKS UNDER PRESENT SYSTEM. The proponents have laid great stress upon the cost of high school textbooks under the present system and have challenged the estimate of $6 for each pupil as the average annual cost of high school textbooks in this state. On page 14 of their brief they give what purports to be a statement of textbook costs in the city of Sacramento. The cost for textbooks in Sacramento for the first year, according to these figures, is $6.55; for the second year $9.75; for the third year $13.25; and for the fourth year $13.15. These figures, we have been assured, are authentic, since they were secured through a high school pupil. As- suming that the most reliable figures could be secured through the office of the principal of the Sacramento High School, we asked for and obtained a statement, showing that the average cost was $7.21 per pupil, including all the necessary bookkeeping forms, which are not textbooks in the ordinary sense. The original statement of the principal of Sacramento High School is submitted to the committee for its con- sideration. (Exhibit B.) Realizing the danger of basing a conclusion on insufficient data, we obtained statements from seven high school principals concerning the cost of high school textbooks. Each statement is signed by the prin- cipal of the school concerned and all of the originals are submitted for the consideration of your committee. (Exhibit C.) Following is a synopsis of these statements : Average Range of cost annual cost San Diego , $5 25— 8 05 $6 78 Santa Ana Q 79 Auburn 4 31 Red Bluff 6 86 San Jose 4 19—10 61 7 40 Chaffey Union 3 90 Gilroy 6 00 $42 04 Average $6 01 These figures are based on the theory that each pupil has purchased a new book in each subject. The principals estimate that the figures should be reduced by 25 per cent at least on account of the use of second-hand copies. This would make the average amount expended annually about $4.50 for each pupil. 88 REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. COST OF TEXTBOOKS FURNISHED FREE BY DISTRICT. In the first brief which we submitted to your committee we pointed out the desirability of maintaining the present plan of adoption by the district from a state list, and suggested that books so adopted should be purchased by the district and furnished free to the pupils. We called attention to the fact that districts could avail themselves of the discount of 20 to 25 per cent which is invariably allowed by the publishers where books are bought in quantity. We maintain that this is not only the best arrangement from the educational standpoint, but that it is more economical than the plan put forth by the proponents. Fortunately, we have figures showing the cost under the plan which we have proposed. San Mateo has been supplying textbooks free to the pupils of the high school, paying for them out of district funds. The cost for each pupil enrolled last year was $3.16. Books have been ordered for next year, and the cost thereof for each pupil enrolled is $1.72. It is probable, however, that the average cost for each pupil enrolled will amount to approximately $2.50 each year. We are tiling with your committee the original data supplied by the principal of San Mateo Union High School. (Exhibit D.) We submit this plan, which will secure a saving of approximately 50 per cent in the cost of books, as far more worthy of your recommendation than the plan offered by the proponents. The plan we suggest will conserve the interests of the parents and taxpayers ; it will render high school education free, and will maintain for the high schools that degree of freedom which is- essential if they are to do suc- cessful work. As against the plan of the proponents, which is destruc- tive, educationally wrong and economically hazardous, we offer you a plan which is constructive, educationally right and economically sound. ESTIMATES THAT DO NOT CHECK WITH ACTUAL FIGURES. On page 15 of their brief the proponents of state uniformity present figures purporting to show what the state printing office can save by printing high school textbooks in the more common branches. These figures are so remarkable that we have given them more than cursory consideration. The proponents state that they can save $7,100 on the publishers' list price of $11,000 for an edition of 10,000 books in English. You will note that the estimated cost of this edition is $3,900, including an allowance of 25 per cent of the list price for royalty. The royalty on this edition, based on 25 per cent of the list price, would amount to $2,750, leaving only $1,150 for the manufacturing cost. This is just 11^ cents per volume. Now every English book listed at $1.10 in use in the high schools of this state contains approximately as many pages as the Brief History of the United States, published as a state series text for use in the elementary schools. The manufacturing cost of this EEPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 89 book, according to the proponents' own figures (page 2 of their brief), is 21.1 cents. We would request that the proponents explain this glar- ing discrepancy. Is the manufacturing cost of the Brief History too great? Or have the proponents suddenly discovered a labor-saving process that will cut the manufacturing cost of textbooks in two? We believe that the real explanation is that the figures given on page 15 are a product of the crudest guesswork. A little further analysis shows that they are most unreliable. For every one of the ten books listed, the proponents claim a saving of 65 per cent on the list price. We ask you to compare this claim with the statement in the proponents' brief (page 4) that the saving through state publication of elementary school books is 52 per cent. Will the proponents explain how they will be able to save 13 per cent more in publishing high school textbooks than they are now saving in publishing elementary school textbooks? The utter absurdity of this claim is apparent when we recall that the number of copies of each high school textbook required annually will be about one-tenth of the number of each of the state series of elementary textbooks required. HAS THE PLAN OF STATE UNIFORMITY IN CALIFORNIA ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS BEEN SO SUCCESSFUL THAT IT SHOULD BE EXTENDED TO HIGH SCHOOLS? The proponents base their chief argument for state uniformity of high school textbooks on the success of state uniformity and state publi- cation in the elementary schools. To show the success of the plan, they submit certain statistics which we will accept as a basis for this discus- sion. The claim is made that the state printing office is saving the people of California $224,893.87 per annum. The basis for reckoning the saving is the publisher's list price. We wish to point out, however, that in other states where state uniformity of elementary school text- books prevails, the books are furnished by the publishers at a discount of 25 per cent on the list price. (See U. S. Bureau of Education Bulletin, 1915, No. 36, page 66.) If California were to purchase its books directly from the publishers, it could secure a discount of 25 per cent on the publishers' list price. We must, therefore, deduct from the amount of saving claimed by the proponents an amount computed at 25 per cent of the list price, or $116,636.62. This reduces the saving under state publication to $108,257.25. We can not refrain from pointing out that previous to Governor Johnson 's term the apparent annual saving on elementary school books, after deducting 25 per cent as discount, was only $6,797.11. These figures are computed on the basis of data supplied by the proponents in their brief, so they can not be questioned. Moreover these figures were made when the cost of manufacture was much less than it is to-day. In 90 REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. the circumstances, we can not concede that state publication of elemen- tary school textbooks was successful previous to Governor Johnson's term, and we can not concede that it will be successful in the future unless we assume that the improvement in the state printing office under Governor Johnson's administration is permanent. We submit that state uniformity and state publication of elementary school books has not been so markedly successful as to justify the extension of the principle of state publication to high school textbooks. RATIO OP ROYALTY TO TOTAL COST. On page 15 of the brief filed by the proponents there appears a list of the high school books which they claim can be printed at the state print- ing office at a saving to the state. A careful study of the table and of data we have collected will show that these books will cost considerably more under state publication than under our suggested plan. On page 9 of the proponents' brief you will find this statement: "The royalty amounts on elementary textbooks figured as follows: 15 per cent on retail sales price in oilier states, 33 per cent on our total cost, and 60 per cent on our manufacturing cost." Boyatty Manu- facturing cost Per cent of royalty on total cost Number distributed, 1915-1916 Primer First Reader Second Reader Third Reader Fourth Reader Fifth Reader Speller One Speller Two First Arithmetic Advanced Arithmetic English Lessons I English Lessons II Introductory History Brief History Introductory Geography Advanced Geography Primer of Hygiene Civics $0,048 .048 .0525 .06 .09 .09 .025 .03 .0525 .09 .0675 .09 .15 .15 .09 .15 .06 .125 Average $0,085 .078 .093 .113 .128 .129 .103 .101 .104 .123 .139 .146 .142 .211 .203 .349 .106 .168 M33 .126 .1455 .173 .218 .219 .128 .131 .1565 .213 .2065 .236 .292 .361 .293 .499 .166 .293 36% 38% 36% 34% 41% 41% 19% 23% 33% 42% 32% 38% 51% 41% 31% 30% 35% 43% 35% 17,169 15,096 17,364 12,485 11,069 10,691 31,785 20,446 29,225 23,926 16,097 16,878 10,848 16,796 21,251 23,910 11,985 9,722 The table above shows the per eenl of royalty on the total cost of each hook and the number of each book distributed in 1915-16. We would have you note especially that the total cost in mosl instances is three times the royalty COSt, as the proponents have stated. The average is about 35 per cent. We are justified in assuming, there- fore, that ttic ratio of one-third between royalty and total cost is a REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 91 reasonably constant one. We shall apply this ratio in a later paragraph in estimating the cost of those high school textbooks which the pro- ponents purpose publishing. PROBABLE ROYALTY COST. In our first brief we stated that it would probably be impossible for the state to secure the lease of plates to be used in publishing high school textbooks. The proponents suggested (page 9 of their brief) that information on this point be secured. Our correspondence with publishers confirms our belief. Even assuming that plates can be leased, we pointed out in our former statement that the royalty would be exorbitant on account of the small number of each book needed to meet California demands. The proponents have admitted that the royalty on plates for high school books will be higher than the royalty on elementary school books. (See page 15 of their brief.) They estimate royalty on high school books at 25 per cent, although the state is paying only 15 per cent royalty on elementary school books. The experience of Kansas in attempting to lease plates for high school books warrants the conclusion that if any bids for acceptable books are received, the royalty will be at least 30 per cent of the list price. (See United States Bureau of Education Bulletin, 1915, No. 36, page 66.) Assuming, however, that the royalty charge will be 30 per cent, and the total cost under state publication will be three times the royalty, as the proponents have stated in their brief (page 9), the cost of an edition of 10,000 copies of each of the books mentioned on page 15 of the proponents ' brief would be as follows : (i) Royalty (2) Total cost per copy (3) Wholesale price per copy from publisher Total cost for 10.000, state man- ufacture Price for 10.000 wholesale from publisher English Civics Science Economics Algebra (Elementary) Algebra (Advanced) _. Geometry (Plane) Geometry (Solid) Bookkeeping Spanish Grammar Totals .33 $0.99 $0.88 $9,900 .374 1.12J 1.00 11,250 .30 .90 .80 9,000 .30 .90 .80 9,000 .30 .90 .80 9,000 .42 1.26 1.12 12,600 .24 .72 .64 7,200 .221 .674 .60 6,750 .42 1.26 1.12 12,600 .374 1.124 1.00 11,250 $98,550 $8,800 10,000 8,000 8,000 8,000 11,200 6,400 6,000 11.200 10,000 $87,600 (1) The royalty is computed at 30 per cent of the publishers' list price. (2) To find the total cost per copy, multiply the royalty by 3. (The proponents in their brief [page 9] state that the royalty on elementary school books amounts to 33 per cent of the total cost.) (3) Found by deducting 20 per cent from the publishers' list price. 92 REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. LOSS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS UNDER STATE PUBLICATION. It will be noted that the loss sustained by the state on an edition of 10,000 copies of each book would be $10,950. To this must be added the cost of making the adoptions. The experience of the State Board of Education in adopting boohs for the elementary schools proves that the cost of adopting books is no small item. The commissioners and expert readers must carefully investigate the books submitted and the board must sit to hear arguments by the publishers' agents on the merits of the books. Under the present system the public does not incur any expense for adopting high school books. The cost of adopting one elementary textbook is approximately as follows : Cost of Adopting Book. Per diem of seven members of State Board of Education, two days at $15 each .$210 00 Expenses of seven members of State Board of Education, two days at $5 each 70 00 Thirty days time of Commissioner of Secondary Schools, investi- gating book, preparing brief, etc 333 00 Five expert readers to investigate book, at $25 125 00 Clerical assistance in handling extra work 25 00 Total cost per book_ $763 00 For the ten books included in the table we must therefore add $7,630 to the cost, making the total loss to the state through state publication $18,580. Taking the publishers' wholesale price as a basis, we find that the cost of these ten books under state publication will be at least 21 per cent greater. If state publication of other books recpiiring smaller editions were undertaken, the loss to the state would be at least $50,000 annually. This is assuming that a state printed book would be equally well printed and bound and the materials used of quality such that it would last as long as the one purchased in open market. From an economic standpoint, therefore, state publication of high school textbooks is out of the question. SMALL ENROLLMENT, LONG USE, GREAT LOSS. It would be unjust to continue the use of any given book until an edition of 25,000 was exhausted, as this represents the minimum number which the state could successfully print. How long would such an eilit ion last? A few examples will be sufficient: Third year Latin texts would last 26 years; fourth year Latin, 32 years; German texts, 10 to 11 years; English history, 11 years; eco- nomics, IS years; agriculture, 33 years: household chemistry, 5:5 years. Shall we mortgage the interests of the hoys and girls of the next generation and be compelled to teach that which is not, true? REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 93 II. EDUCATIONAL PHASES OF STATE UNIFORMITY. UNITY VS. UNIFORMITY. We are interested in maintaining such freedom in the matter of textbooks as shall make it possible to fit them fairly to the diverse needs of classes formed for various purposes and coming from varying sur- roundings. "We do not want growing subjects to be crystallized about any one man's ideas. We do not want the study of any of the great fields of knowledge to be limited for an entire state to what is given in one textbook. We do not want to place a premium upon the study of traditional subjects and ancient knowledge by furnishing such text- books free, as suggested by the proponents on page 14 of their brief, while the new and vital stuff! of the day is sidetracked because the pupil must pay to get it. We do not want the marvelous advantages of unity muddled in anybody 's mind with the deadening effects of slavery to uniformity. Finally, we recognize the necessity of careful scrutiny of financial methods involved in the different ways of furnishing text- books. We recognize the great value of some central body to guard against careless expenditures for textbooks and evident mistakes as to the reliability or adaptability of such books. We would strongly deprecate any change that would replace the benevolent power of such a central body, subject to reason and to changing conditions, with the technical restrictions and complicated laws and the embalming effects of large financial investments and unnecessary financial ventures on the part of the state. TEACHERS FIRST ADVOCATED FREE TEXTBOOKS. Let it be clearly understood that the educational people of the state are and have been generally favorable to free textbooks, and that the proposition, backed by careful investigation of the experience elsewhere, that textbooks should be free, was made by them long before any other bodies had even discussed the matter. The state association in 1902 adopted the report of a committee favor- ing free textbooks, and later the Southern California Association adopted a similar report. It thus appears that the teachers of the state, whenever they have made any investigation of the matter, have reported favorably to free textbooks, and largely on financial grounds. But there has never been any report from any state teachers' body favoring uniform textbooks for high schools. None of the objections to uniformity apply of necessity to free books furnished by the district, either with or without state aid. Local adoptions can have thrown about them all necessary care and oversight. 94 RErORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. Limitations can be placed on expenditures, so that interests of economy can be conserved and still educational conditions and aims be fully met. The State Board of Education can adequately guard all interests concerned. Free books have their objections, but these objections apply to them if uniform just the same. They are largely objections of sani- tation and administration. It is worth while to note that we may compel districts to provide text- books free within a given period, give state aid if we think best so to do, and still be free to retire from this position at any time we think best to do so, or provide for uniformity or state printing if we then think it wise, without financial loss to the state in making the change. On the other hand, the undertaking of production of these books by the state means not only uniformity, but long continued use of the same textbook, good or bad, and an investment by the state that renders any modification of our course in the light of experience, our own or that of others, most difficult. THE TEXTBOOK A BODY OP KNOWLEDGE. The textbook is primarily an accepted body of knowledge. Time was when we were able to include between the covers of a textbook pretty much all the accepted body of knowledge in any field. Today, such a body of knowledge in most fields would fill libraries. Different text- books present different portions of this body of knowledge according as people and schools differ in their estimate of what is most funda- mental. Even teachers differ frequently as to what they can give with greatest effect. While any good teacher may be able to present with average success any portion of his own field, a teacher is frequently found who can do work of remarkable effectiveness in some portion of the field where he has exceptional education, experience, or native talent. Thus it is quite within the realm of reason that at times it may be in the interest of efficiency to make this work possible. "Whether it is financially expedient is then the question for some responsible authority to decide. Where the young people in different parts of a state have been educated in a given field — say civics — in different textbooks, the equilibrium of the state as regards this field is maintained after these young people leave school and become an influential part of the state by the attrition of these various ideas and ideals upon one another. In other words, the larger education is the education the young people of the slate give each oilier as they bring into the contact of real life their various views obtained in school life. It is fortunate for the educational breadth of any state if its school views have not all been obtained from the same book. REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 95 THE TEXTBOOK A MODE OF APPROACH. A textbook is not only an organized body of knowledge ; it is also a mode of approach. As long as schools were for "born scholars" only, and so-called culture was the sole aim of the school, Greek roots and science were on equal footing. Today all are going to school and are demanding that school work shall appear to them rational and worth while attempting. That it may do this, it must find its roots in the real life the pupil knows and must show itself in some degree applicable to the solution of the life problems he anticipates meeting. The demand is that education shall be practical, growing out of the surroundings of the pupil and helpful to him in living a larger and more effective life than he could otherwise do. The selection of a textbook is one impor- tant factor. It is the prescription. The local physician may not always be able to make the wisest prescription, but it is very certain that a committee at a central point should not be expected to make the wisest diagnosis of the local needs. Cooperating in a reasonable way, a central committee could do the work of an expert consulting physician. The demand for more practical education, applicable to life and derived from real surrounding condi- tions, has given rise to a flood of new textbooks meeting this need with greater or less success. But those books adapted to one purpose, or to one set of conditions, are thereby less adapted to some other purpose or set of conditions. Such efforts are the hope of popular education. Stifle them and we are tied to the past. The body of teachers will naturally teach largely as they have been taught, but the cutting edge of progress for them and for the schools is the new textbook that links some field of knowledge up with life in a new and more effective way. TEXTBOOKS AS TOOLS. The textbook is not only a body of knowledge and mode of approach, but also a tool in the hands of the teacher. A teacher may, to be sure, teach any subject of which he is a thorough master, without a textbook, but only as he practically makes a textbook himself. Teachers of excel- lent abilities in the class room may be wholly unable to organize the equivalent of a good textbook even if they have the time, and the ordinary textbook on the market requires years for its completion. An occasional experiment without a textbook may be advisable for tempo- rary reasons, but is not usually compatible with greatest efficiency. How the conception of the textbook as a tool may call for a difference in textbooks in different schools is apparent if the kind of textbook in civil government for instance, required by a teacher of a class in a large city high school be compared with that required by the teacher in a small rural high school, who frequently finds that in addition to 96 REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. other subjects he must teach the civil government. The former, with large reference libraries at hand, both in school and city, with time to organize the work and take his class to study first hand the details of city and county government, wants a mere outline for the textbook and prefers that his pupils should not be prejudiced by arguments and conclusions drawn by an authority already adopted and accepted. The rural high school teacher, on the other hand, must have a book that will largely carry the subject, to which he can scarce give the time for recitation. A system that would permanently and certainly pro- hibit principals from having any possible voice in the selection of the tools their teachers must use, would doubtless be held in the same regard by them as a system by a superintendent of a manufactory that would permanently debar him from having any voice or power of recommendation of machines or tools that he sees will make for efficiency. NARROWING INFLUENCE OF THE SINGLE TEXT. It is as preposterous to demand that all high school teachers use the same text as it would be to demand that all carpenters use a Simonds or a Disston saw. Is there not the same reason for prescribing uniform apparatus in all the laboratory sciences; uniform tools in the industrial art courses; uniform equipment in all the commercial departments, and indeed, uniform articles in all general school supplies'? The courses and the textbooks must not only be chosen to suit the varying needs of the pupils and of the communities in which they live, and be adapted to the individuality of the teacher, if the highest efficiency is to be attained, but these textbooks must be selected in relation to the school equipment. This is true in all departments, particularly in the cultural subjects of history, English, economics, to say nothing of the laboratory courses, whether in the sciences, commercial work or other branches. How could a small high school, with few, if any books, use successfully a history text calling for a great deal of supplementary reading 1 Should the Los Angeles High School, on the other hand, with 8,100 volumes in its own library, be compelled to use a text without such a rich fund of supplementary materials? There would be a gross injustice in compelling all schools to follow the same course and to use the same laboratory texts or manuals in the sciences. The small high school would find it utterly impossible to purchase the apparatus and supplies required by the science courses as given in the Oakland Technical High School. It would be a greater injustice to limit the efficiency of the larger high schools by expecting them to conform to the same course requirements as some of the meagerly equipped schools of the state. REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 97 There are numerous subjects that are being newly taught in high schools such as economics — a study of the principles underlying the business world — in which crystallization by the long-time adoption of a single textbook would chloroform the subject. General science is everywhere coming in as necessary, it being only ordinary good sense to believe that young people should be made acquainted with the science of common things in this, an age of science. But the ventures at text- book making in this field have thus far been wholly inadequate. Even so formal a subject as algebra has recently received some lively and practical contributions to its list of textbooks. A most excellent text- book has just appeared, in which all algebraic formulae are derived from such ordinary surroundings as the sewing machine, the turning lathe, the traveling crane, and the more common machines of the shop, so that the subject is not a mere juggling of symbols. It will probably be the making of boys and girls where it is used by a teacher who understands and appreciates it, because it makes the best of algebra real and discards what can not be made real. Its successful introduc- tion, however, can hardly come by hat. The teacher must recognize in it a needed tool. Science preparatory for engineering is not the same as science for home economics courses. Science adapted to needs of girls is not necessarily the science needed by the boys. The agricul- tural and horticultural conditions in different parts of the state demand treatment in textbooks differing the one from the other. Instances requiring difference of treatment impossible in case of state-wide adoption might be multiplied at length. "Probably no one of all the thousands of high schools," say Strayer and Thorndike in their book on Educational Administration, page 175, "is doing the best possible thing for education, but most of them would do worse than they now do if they all did do the very best possible thing for any one of them." It has been asked if there are not subjects in which there is practi- cally no change. It has been suggested, for instance, that the Greek Epics of Homer are not liable to any violent changes in the general disturbances of modern life ; that the Lady of the Lake is the same as when written; and so with the classic literatures of other languages. Would it not be advisable, we are asked, to make these uniform as to edition and perhaps print them at our state printing office even though the pupil must purchase his other textbooks? If such text as "Lady of the Lake," for instance, were made uniform and free, other litera- ture, no matter how much more practical or well adapted to the pur- pose in hand, requiring a textbook to be bought would be sidetracked. We should at once see the tendency to give only those subjects in which the book is free. Spanish would give place to Latin. Similar examples in other fields of educational endeavor come readily to mind. 7—27503 98 REPORT OP TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. UNIFORMITY A DANGEROUS ADVENTURE. In our opinion, your committee would do well to consider carefully the likelihood of the state being able to command the best of the text- books already written or to obtain for state use with any certainty the best of our local product. Your committee should also determine whether really successful textbooks can be written to order. We believe that it is the business of the state, where possible, to pro- tect its citizens against egregious and costly errors of judgment. For- tunately, in this case, it is not necessary to throttle initiative or hamper progress to do it. There is ample experience both outside and inside the state of California to draw upon. Many states and hundreds of cities have tried free textbooks. Their experience covers many years. There is no necessity for making any excursion into the sea of untried policies. We have a State Board of Education that was created to bring to us the light of the world's experience and keep in full touch with the real educational situation in California. They can keep the state from foolish and dangerous adventures, but only as the state through its organization consults them and listens to them. We are but a temporary committee of a voluntary organization. Without doubt we do, in this matter, represent the teachers of the state. The State Board of Education in a permanent and authoritative way rep- resents not the teachers only, but the entire educational interests of this state. To the State Board of Education we refer your committee for any factors on either side of the question that we have overlooked or through unwitting prejudice have failed to state fairly. Finally, we submit that a unified educational system does not involve uniformity. Unity of effort implies rational cooperation among factors differing as widely as the conditions that surround them. Uniformity means mechanical duplication, displaces reason, and stops progress. Unity is the law of life. Uniformity is the rule of death. REPOBT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 99 Exhibit H. THE CALIFORNIA TEXTBOOK PLAN. By the Superintendent of Public Instruction. What is known as the California Textbook System began when the legislature of 1883 submitted the Perry amendment to the constitution, providing for state publication of textbooks, in the following words: "Sec. 7. The governor, superintendent of public instruction, and the principals of the state normal schools, shall constitute the State Board of Education, and shall compile, or cause to be. com- piled, and adopt a uniform series of textbooks for use in the common schools throughout the state. The state board may cause such textbooks, when adopted, to be printed and published by the superintendent of state printing at the state printing office, and when so printed and published to be distributed and sold at the cost price of printing, publishing, and distributing the same. The textbooks so adopted shall continue in use not less than four years. ' ' This was adopted by the people by an almost unanimous vote in November, 1884, and was followed by the necessary enabling legislation in 1885. By 1886 the state board had prepared and the State Printer had published four books, by use of an appropriation of $170,000, of which $20,000 was for compiling and $150,000 for plant, material and labor. The feeling of that time is interesting to observe as reported by W. T. Welcker, the superintendent of public instruction, in his report to the governor in 1886 : "The opponents of this measure (the Perry amendment), although they were not successful, were able and fiercely zealous. It was indeed a novel experiment and a great departure from all known methods. In opposition it was urged that the State Board of Education would prove incompetent ; that granting their ability to discharge their appropriate duties, this was a work of expertism of a rare and special kind ; that the preparation of school textbooks was a trade in itself which required years of training in that par- ticular business. "So much scandal has gathered about the supply of the public schools with textbooks, so many charges of corruption alleged to have been done by the book houses among school officers, school boards, and legislatures, that many persons would be well satisfied with textbooks published under the scheme now under consider- ation, even were they somewhat inferior in quality and more expensive in cost than those heretofore in use. But the cost of the books is one of the most gratifying things connected with the enter- prise. The cost at Sacramento, as determined by the State Board of Education, of the books now furnished, is as follows : 100 REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. CALIFORNIA STATE BOOKS IN 1886. Speller and Word Analysis 20 cents First Reader, 128 pages 15 cents Second Reader, 228 pages 30 cents Third Header, 512 pages 40 cents "The series of readers, covering substantially the same ground as those heretofore in use, will cost 85 cents, while the price of Ban- croft's is $2.60; McGuffey's is $2.50; Appleton's is $3.00; and Swinton's $3.05! The series of the state costs but little more than one-third of the price of the cheapest of the above!" Two years later the legislature, upon the advice and request of the State Board of Education, made another appropriation of $165,000, $15,000 for compiling and $150,000 for plant, materials and labor, and authorized the publication of a number of additional books. Other appropriations were made for the state printing office from time to time in subsequent years, for machinery, buildings, etc., but it is not possible to divide the expense accurately between textbooks and other state printing. FIRST PERIOD. This gets us fairly into the first period of the California Textbook System, which may be called the period of state publication and local authorship. It continued from 1883 to 1903, or twenty years. It was a time of contention, strife and abuse, very disquieting to those who were responsible for the enterprise. The newness of the scheme shocked people's minds and roused their antagonism. The mechanical difficulties to be overcome were innumer- able. Some editions were badly bound. Some books were poorly written. Every teacher preferred to use some favorite textbooks, that he had been brought up on perhaps, and to be obliged to give these up for something else again made loud verbal explosions on every hand. There were hundreds of book dealers in the state who were cut out of the profits of retailing books, and they were frequently heard from. The great publishing houses had agents circulating in every part of the land, whose religion it was to everlastingly damn the whole idea of state publication. The leading educators almost universally followed suit. Institutes, clubs and associations condemned it. No educational gathering was complete that did not take a fall out of the state textbooks. Never did any one have a good word to say of them in public. They were an impersonal sort of thing, like the weather, that any one could criticize and abuse without fear of unpleasant consequences. Doubtless, at this time, any books whatever that could have been printed by the state would have met the same fate. Yet it is worth remarking that the REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 101 people of the state who do the voting in the legislature and at the polls have never failed to uphold the California plan by overwhelming majorities whenever an opportunity has come to them, even down to the present day. However, those in charge of state publication became very uncom- fortable over the general clamor. They revised the books and added to them in vain, and continually they looked for some way to improve the matter, to stop the howls. Undoubtedly, if it had not been planted deep in the constitution itself, state publication would have gone by the board during this period. The close of the period found the state publishing fourteen textbooks, as shown in the following table: CALIFORNIA STATE BOOKS IN 1903. Name of book Cost price at Sacramento Revised First Reader Revised Second Reader Revised Third Reader Revised Fourth Reader Speller Primary Number Lessons Advanced Arithmetic Lessons in Language Revised English Grammar New U. S. History (Grammar School). Elementary Geography Advanced Geography Physiologjr Civil Government $0 16 28 44 53 25 20 42 25 47 81 50 1 02 50 46 These books were prepared under the general direction of the State Board of Education. As a matter of fact it was quite impossible for the busy and overworked men who composed the board (the superin- tendent of public instruction - and the presidents of the state normal schools) to do the work of writing textbooks, so various plans were tried. W. L. Willis, a teacher and newspaper man of Sacramento, prepared the speller, which remained in use for twenty years. H. C. Kinne, a veteran teacher of San Francisco, offered a set of readers which were adapted to meet the ideas of the board. F. H. Clark, of the Los Angeles high school, was engaged to prepare a history. At least a dozen other teachers of the state were engaged in one way and another in the prepa- ration of these earliest books. Among them were Win. Carey Jones, Frank Morton, Volney Rattan, G-eo. R. Kleeberger, Sarah P. Monk, Elizabeth Wilson, Ruth Royce and Cornelia Walker. At last the actual work was placed upon an editor-in-chief, W. H. H. Raymond, with various expert assistants from time to time. Among 102 REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. these were Miss Anna C. Murphy, who is now Mrs. Edwin Markham, and Mrs. Mary W. George, who is now on the faculty of the San Jose State Normal School. This editorial board worked at the state capital in connection with the office of the superintendent. SECOND PERIOD. During the twenty year period four million books were made and sold to the people for a million and half of dollars. During the administration of Governor H. IT. Markham, while Thomas J. Kirk was superintendent and Tirey L. Ford attorney general, the law and the constitution were very carefully scrutinized to find some way out of the woods of general complaint. It Avas determined that, although the books themselves must be manufactured at the state print- ing office, there was nothing in the constitution that required local authorship, nothing to prevent the state board from leasing or buying copyrights and plates of books already published for the use of the State Printer. This construction was hailed as a godsend. Thus could the teachers of the state have the very best books extant, from the most meritorious, successful and popular authors, selected in the open markets of the world, with the sky for a limit. The legislature of 1903 passed a new set of enabling laws, providing for the following plan : A standing committee of the State Board of Education, composed of the Governor, the superintendent and a third member elected by the board shall have direct charge of the textbook business. This state text- book committee was given a secretary with a salary of $2,500, which was regarded as a wild extravagance at the time. Under the general direc- tion of the board it should select books, lease plates, do all necessary editorial work, and report to the board. The books when printed should be sold to the children at cost as before. A textbook appropriation of $20,000 was made for the use of the textbook committee. About half of this was still on hand when free textbooks were adopted in 1913. The new committee went to work enthusiastically. It had difficulty at first in getting the publishers to lease the plates of their successful books. They were chary of the scheme. Inertia was to be overcome. The first royalties were high, ranging from one-fourth to one-third the list price of the book. The American Book Company had the lion's -hare of the adoptions. D. C. Heath & Company, the Macmillan Com- pany, Ginn & Company, were also represented, and later Silver, Burdetl & Company, the World Book Company, and Newson & Company. This was the period of state publication and leased copyrights. It lasled from 1903 to 1913, or leu years. Public clamor somewhat died down. The hook companies were ameliorated. The teachers had the same hooks as other people. The dealers had accepted the situation. REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 103 The chief storm center at this time was the cost of the books to the children, alleged to be caused by their frequent change. Of course, in changing the system, all the books were eventually changed, but the law requiring no change in less than four years, and no book contract for less than four years, was strictly adhered to. Several of the books had stood unchanged from a dozen to a score of years. However, it was found that when a book had been in use four years so many people were fighting it that it must needs be changed. During the latter part of this period determined efforts were made to lower the cost of the books. The publishers very generally entered into heated competition against each other and the royalties were reduced from about twenty per cent to about fifteen per cent of the list price. No headway, however, could be made in lowering the manufacturing cost. In general the price to the children was somewhat below the publishers' list price for the same book, and the book in most cases was specially adapted to California use by changes and supplements in the plates. The following table shows books, costs, royalties and prices at the close of the period: CALIFORNIA STATE BOOKS IN 1913. (Prices fixed March 3, 1912.) Books Cost of manufacture Royalty Cost price at Sacramento Primer _. First Reader Second Reader Third Reader Fourth Reader Fifth Reader Speller— Book I Speller— Book II First Book in Arithmetic Advanced School Arithmetic English Lessons*— Book I _._ English Lessons* — Book II__ Introductory History Brief School History Introductory Geography Advanced Geography Civics Writing — Book I Writing — Book II Writing— Book III Writing*— Book IV Writing*— Book V Primer of Hygiene 18 17 19 25 30 30 17 17 26 31 37 58 45 65 38 04 04 04 04 04 21 The State Printer and the State Board of Education in fixing prices all these years had added to the actual cost a small percentage to build up a fund to repay the state its original outlay for the printing plant. At the end of the period this accumulated school book fund amounted to 104 REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. about $200,000. It was then added to the appropriations for free books, and expended for that purpose. There were four successive secretaries of the state textbook committee : J. H. Strine, ex-superintendent of Los Angeles County ; Robert W. Fur- long, ex-superintendent of Marin County ; George L. Sackett, ex-super- intendent of Ventura County ; and B. S. Lobdell, a long time agent of the publishing houses. The plan followed for adopting books and get- ting them to the children during this period was as follows : "The textbook committee has direct charge of all the textbook affairs, under direction of the board. When the contract for the plates of a textbook is about to expire, this committee invites bids from publishing houses for suitable books, renewing or substituting the contract. "Half a dozen or more expert teachers of the state are designated as readers, and paid about $25 each, to make a detailed study of all books offered in a given branch. The state board meets and con- siders the various books, giving opportunity for the agents of the books to present arguments, hearing the reports of the readers, and admitting any other testimony or opinion that may be offered. Then it chooses the book by ballot and instructs the textbook com- mittee to make contract accordingly. The complete plates in dupli- cate are furnished to the State Print or by the publishing company gratis, all changes desired by the committee being incorporated. "The books are then manufactured in the state printing office and sold by the Superintendent of Public Instruction to the dealers and school officers of the state. The publishers are paid quarterly from the proceeds of the sales, so much royalty for each book sold. The prices are fixed by the State Board of Education annually upon the cost reports of the State Printer. ******* ' ' Before a dealer can buy books from the state office he must sign an affidavit by which he agrees that he will not sell the books at a price higher than that fixed by the State Board of Education, and also that he will not sell the books to purchasers outside the state. Upon signing it. the dealer must forward it to his county superin- tendent of schools, who, in turn, must endorse it and forward it to the state office." THIRD AND LAST PERIOD. The third and last period may be called the time of state publication, leased copyrights, and free distribution. It extends from 1913 to the present time, or a little more than two years. Free school books was not a new idea. Superintendent Ira G. Hoitt recommended it in bis report to the Governor in 1888 as the cure for our textbook troubles, as follows: "The state of California has taken a step in the right direction in furnishing books of its own manufacture -to the children at cost. It should, in my opinion, go one step farther and furnish the use of textbooks free to all children attending the public schools." EEPORT OP TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 105 It had been proposed many times since, without hope or prospect of success, until the progressive idea began to free men's minds from precedent and convention. The administration of Governor Hiram "W. Johnson took it up. The legislature of 1911 submitted to the people a constitutional amendment known as the Shanahan amendment, which came to vote in November, 1912, and despite the customary opposition was carried by a great majority. It read as follows : "Sec. 7. The legislature shall provide for the appointment or election of a state board of education, and said board shall provide, compile, or cause to be compiled and adopt a uniform series of textbooks for use in the day and evening elementary schools throughout the state. The state board may cause such textbooks, when adopted, to be printed and published by the superintendent of state printing, at the state printing office ; and wherever and however such textbooks may be printed and published, they shall be furnished and distributed by the state free of cost or any charge whatever, to all children attending the day and evening elementary schools of the state, under such conditions as the legislature shall prescribe. The textbooks so adopted, shall continue in use not less than four years without any change or alteration whatsoever which will require or necessitate the furnishing of new books to such pupils." It was the intention and expectation of all who had to do with this amendment that it would not go into effect until the beginning of a new fiscal year and after proper enabling legislation had been effected. Attorney General Webb, however, after taking some time for delibera- tion and investigation, rendered an official opinion stating: First — That the old State Board of Education and the textbook committee are abolished and there can not be a new plan until it is created by legislative action. Second — That the free textbooks should be furnished the schools at once, without waiting for enabling legislation or anything else. Third — That all of the functions of the state educational system devolved upon the Superintendent of Public Instruction, as the educational representative of the people. Thus the superintendent faced one of the most extensive, complex and difficult tasks that ever came to any man, to furnish free textbooks by hundreds of thousands to the impatient schools and children of a great state ; to do it without funds, without precedent, without previous plan, and at once. He went ahead as best he could. The state printer put his great plant to work day and night at fullest capacity. The legisla- ture made some emergency appropriations. A scheme of distribution was devised that worked well and that has never been changed in prin- ciple since. The books went out in carload lots and reached every nook and corner of the state, in every desert, and mountain and plain, from Oregon to Mexico. The teachers of the state were very helpful and 106 REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. patient, making their first demands as light as possible, and when necessary doing without the books that were slow in making. During this time the state printer was Friend Wm. Richardson, a practical newspaper man with a talent for organization. He was of great service to the state in the early days of the free textbook enter- prise. By a careful eost finding system and rigid supervision of detail he substantially reduced the cost of manufacture time after time. The new State Board of Education was organized in the fall of 1913. It was a lay board of seven members, appointed by the Governor and generously furnished with appropriations .for remuneration, expenses, equipment and all the expert assistants and office helpers that it desires. Up to the present time it has made no changes in textbooks or in manner of handling them, but it is admirably adapted for investigating and wisely choosing books through its experts in future, and for handling the commercial and industrial problems that come up in connection with their production, distribution, and use. . The whole thing is simply a matter of state enterprise. If it can be efficiently and honestly and economically administered it will be successful and a great blessing to the people. Otherwise — well, then it will be to the contrary! The following table shows the books manufactured at the present time, July, 1915, with their cost and selling price to those who buy. Private schools like to buy the state books. A very few parents buy, so that their children can have duplicate books at home, or so that they can use individual books. Sometimes children buy to replace those they have themselves lost or destroyed. Books are not sold outside the state. CALIFORNIA STATE BOOKS IN 1915. Name of book Primer First Reader Second Reader Third Reader • Fourth Reader Fifth Reader Speller— One Speller— Two First Arithmetic Advanced Arithmetic New English Lessons — line. New English Lessons -Two. Introductory History Brief History introductory Geography _. Advanced Geography Hygiene < 'ivies Cost and selling I nice :it Sai ramonto Writing Rook One Writ ing Boob Two . Writing Look Three Writing Book Four - Writing Book— Five .. $0 15 15 18 19 • 24 24 14 14 18 23 23 26 31 41 32 54 18 31 04 04 04 04 04 REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 107 The following table will be of interest in this connection, showing the trade name of each of the California books with its publisher and the price at which it is delivered to the children by the publisher : EQUIVALENT OF CALIFORNIA STATE BOOKS IN 1915. Original name of book Publisher Publisher's list price Newson & Co. __ . $0 32 Silver, Burdett & Co.... American Book Co. __ American Book Co. Silver, Burdett & Co.__. The Macmillan Co. . The Macmillan Co. _ __ American Book Co. American Book Co. _ _ Silver, Burdett & Co.— Silver, Burdett & Co.... D. C. Heath & Co American Book Co. _ . _ The Macmillan Co. _ The Macmillan Co. D. C. Heath & Co.. 32 Brooks Second Reader _ _ _ 35 Brooks Third Reader . _ . 40 Stepping Stones to Literature _ __ 60 Chancellors Spellers — Book I _ _ _ 25 Chancellors Spellers — Book II 30 McClvmonds & Jones El. Arithmetic McClymonds & Jones Essentials in Arith. Guide Books to English — Book I 35 60 45 Guide Books to English — Book II__ _ 60 Thomas Introductory Historv _ .. 65 McMasters Brief History of the U. S. Tarr & McMurrays Intro. Geography Tarr & McMurrays Advanced Geography. Dunns Community and the Citizen 1 00 60 1 00 75 Spencer Sons Writing — Book I ... American Book Co. American Book Co. American Book Co... American Book Co... ... American Book Co W T orld Book Company.. 05 Spencer Sons Writing — Book II . __ __ 05 Spencer Sons Writing — Book III _ _ _ _ 05 Spencer Sons Writing — Book IV 05 Spencer Sons Writing — Book V — 05 Primer of Hygiene 40 It will be seen that the California prices are very much lower than those of the regular publishers. The comparison is not cpiite fair, perhaps, in that some of the overhead expense, as the salaries of some managers and editors, the cost of exploiting, the interest and deprecia- tion of plant, the losses by unsuccessful books, is not included in reckoning the California costs. We believe, however, that the state is getting its service of textbooks at a saving of at least 25 per cent, everything considered, over what it would cost if given to private publishers in the regular way. Certainly the state would not recede from or give up its textbook system under any circumstances. It is running more smoothly, giving more general satisfaction and meeting with less opposition than ever before in its history. The teachers find great comfort in being relieved of the task of badgering the children to buy books and in being able, for the most part, to start their classes all together fully equipped on the first day of the term. It is alleged by some that our books are not so well bound as those of private publishers. We find, however, that they last as long in actual use as any books. The present method of adopting, making and distributing textbooks may be briefly sketched thus : The preliminary investigation of the textbooks offered to the State Board of Education by publishers and authors for adoption is made by 108 REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. the three commissioners of education and the superintendent of public instruction. They spend some months in the study and are free to con- sult and to employ expert teachers actually at work in the schools of the state upon any phase of the examination in which they need help. Finally they report to the board. The board gives audience to the representatives of every book offered, questions them, listens to briefs, recommendations and all other testimony offered. It listens to the reports of the commissioners and the expert readers. At last the board makes choice and contracts for the use of the plates of the successful books for four or more years, at a certain royalty for each book dis- tributed, stipulating any additions, changes or California supplements that may be desired at the expense of the publishers. The publisher furnishes the completed plates in duplicate to the state printer, who prints the books in 25,000 editions and turns them over to the ware- house, from which they are distributed to the schools upon the order of the superintendent of public instruction. At the end of each year the teacher or principal sends in a requisition for the additional books she will need for the next year, accompanied by a list of the books she alread}^ has. In response, the books are sent out to the school clerks by the superintendent, with parcel post, express or freight rates prepaid by the state. Some shipments consist of half a dozen books by mail to a remote school on a mountain top ; others are whole carloads to some city in the valley or by the sea. Later supple- mental requisitions are filled when necessary. The necessity and the reasonableness of the demands are verified by requiring all the requisi- tions to be approved and signed by the clerk of the school and the county superintendent. When the clerk receives the books for his school he turns them over to the teacher, principal or superintendent, who in turn distributes them to the children, keeps a record of them and is responsible for their care and preservation. Annual reports are made, showing the number of books on hand and their condition. At the end of the term the books arc, or should be, collected, repaired, recovered, fumigated, ready for redistribution at the opening of the new term. It is a most encouraging thing that the teachers have accepted the responsibility of the free textbooks wisely and moderately. No selfish grabbing for unreasonable supplies of books is apparent, and the books usually are carefully used. The cost for the first two and one-half years, including the original stocking up of the schools, was roughly half a million dollars. There are about 400,000 children in the schools, so llic total cost per child per year is approximately fifty cents. This includes the expense of distribution, I ml docs not include such additional or supplementary books as are purchased by the local schools. The law forbids requiring pupils to buy any books whatever. The cost in future REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 109 seems likely to be about $200,000 per year, if the present policy is pursued. A question for the future to settle ' is the matter of individual ownership of school books. Hygienically it would be preferable for a book never to be used by more than one child. Many people contend that a book once issued should belong to the individual child and never be passed on to another. So far, the state has not seen its way clear to throw away the service that still remains in many of the books after they have been once used, the value of which would range somewhere between fifty and one hundred thousand dollars per year, probably. It is possible that some plan may be evolved for issuing books in cheap pamphlet form, a week or a month at a time, to put in the children's hands for a while and then destroy. The question of royalty is another interesting one for the future. The royalty at present is about 15 per cent of the list price of the books, or about 50 per cent of the cost of manufacture. Since the beginning of the plan for leasing copyrights the state has expended $530,756.11 for royalties, or something less than fifty thousand dollars per year. To the ordinary man it seems as if this great sum could be saved in future if the books were written by our own California teachers. It looks like velvet. However, there are two sides to the matter. As a matter of fact the books, in the past, cost quite as much under the local authorship plan as they have since under the leased cop}^right plan. It is possible that we could do better now, however, since we have more experience and improved conditions. Moreover, there is a law upon the statute books requiring texts made in California to be adopted when they are of equal merit and the same cost. But local authors have to be paid in one way or another, and the editorial work, the mechanical work of preparing the books for publication, has seemed in the past somehow to eat up the velvet. The royalty represents the author's compensation, the expense of preparing the plates, the cost of exploiting the book into a well-known and popular one that California would accept, the loss by unsuccessful books and the publishers' percentage of profit. There is room for quite a pretty argument as to whether or not the payment of royalty is the cheapest and best way to try our multitudes of textbooks in order to secure the successful and workable ones. Probably the future will see a course somewhere between the two extremes. Some books lend themselves well to local preparation and others are born, not made. It is well to leave the whole matter in an elastic form, ready to adapt to future ideas, for the future will bring changes no fewer than those of the past. It is impossible to forecast the nature and the extent of those changes, however, and now that we have brought the thing up to date our task is done, and we may leave the future to take care of itself. Edward Hyatt. 110 REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. Exhibit I. [Nobth Dakota Statute.] CHAPTER 145. [S. B. No. 159 — Rowe] Providing Uniform Textbooks. An act to provide uniformity of school textbooks in each of the common, independent and special school districts; to regulate the sale and price of same; to provide for selection, adoption, and contract by common school district boards and boards of education of inde- pendent and special school districts, and the sale of same through purchasing agents of such boards, or the purchase direct of such boards and sale at cost or loan free of expense to pupils. Be it enacted by the Legislative Assembly of the State of North Dakota: § 1. Before any person, firm, company or corporation shall offer for selection, adoption, contract, sale or exchange any school textbook or book for use in the schools of the state of North Dakota, such person, firm, company or corporation shall comply with the following con- ditions : 1. File a copy of such school textbook or book for use in the schools of the state in the office of the state superintendent of public instruction with a sworn statement of the published list price ; the lowest wholesale price ; and the lowest exchange price ; based upon three and five year contract periods, at which said school textbook or book is sold or exchanged for an old book in the same subject of like grade and kind but a different series, to any school board, school corporation, or school commission anywhere in the United States. 2. File with the state superintendent of public instruction, a bond running to the state of North Dakota, with a responsible surety com- pany authorized to do business in the state of North Dakota as surety thereon in the penal sum to be determined by the state superintendent of public instruction but not less than two thousand dollars nor more than ten thousand dollars conditioned as follows : (a) That any book listed in said statement and in any other state- ment subsequently filed by said person, firm, company or corporation shall be supplied by the publisher to any school district or any school corporation in the state of North Dakota at the price and terms con- tained in said statement. (b) That such price and terms so filed are to be reduced automatically in North Dakota whenever reductions are made by the publisher elsewhere in the United States so that at no time shall any book so filed and listed be sold to district school boards, boards of education EEPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. Ill or to their authorized purchasing agents at a higher price than is received for such book by the publisher elsewhere in the United States. (c) That all textbooks offered for sale, adoption, contract or exchange by the publisher in the state of North Dakota shall be equal in quality to those deposited in the office of the state superintendent of public instruction, as regards paper, binding, printing, illustrations, subject matter and all particulars that may affect the value of such textbooks. (cl) That in case an abridged or special edition of any book shall be prepared the person, firm, company, or corporation manufacturing the same shall sell such special edition to district school boards, boards of education of North Dakota or to their authorized purchasing agents at the same wholesale price at which the book is sold elsewhere. (e) That no person, firm, company or corporation filing their books in North Dakota under the provisions of this act shall enter into any understanding, agreement or combination to control prices or restrict competition in the sale of school textbooks. § 2. Such bond shall be approved by the attorney general and upon such approval, said person, firm, company or corporation shall be licensed by the state superintendent of public instruction to sell the book or books so filed in the state of North Dakota. § 3. It shall be the duty of the state superintendent of public instruction to have printed and distributed to the clerks of district school boards, secretaries of boards of education of independent and special school districts and county superintendents of schools within six (6) months after this act takes effect, a complete list of books filed with his department, giving the prices and terms of same; and the state- superintendent of public instruction shall have printed and dis- tributed annually thereafter a supplementary list of textbooks with prices and terms filed during the year, and all books used in the public schools of the state of North Dakota may be selected, adopted and contracted for from said list by district school boards and boards of education, and books so designated and contracted for shall be used exclusively for three (3) or five (5) years, during which time such books shall not be changed; provided, however, this shall not prevent school boards from using other supplementary books. § 4. If in any case any person, firm, company or corporation, shall supply any district school board, board of education or purchasing agent of same, books inferior to the samples on file with the state superintendent of public instruction, or charge a higher price than was filed or than the same are sold for elsewhere in the United States, then it shall be the duty of the county superintendent on written complaint filed with him by the school board of such a district to inform the state superintendent of public instruction of the failure of 112 REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. said person, firm, company or corporation to comply with the terms of his filing. The state superintendent of public instruction shall there- upon notify the said person, firm, company or corporation of said complaint, and if said person, firm, company or corporation shall disregard the notification and fail to comply with the terms of agree- ment, filed with the state superintendent, then the bond of said person, firm, company or corporation shall be forfeited; and the attorney general shall upon written request of the state superintendent of public instruction proceed to collect the full amount of said bond. § 5. No person, firm, company or corporation shall secure or attempt to secure the adoption, selection, contract or sale of any school textbook in this state by rewarding or promising to reward any teacher in any school in the state. No person, firm, company or corporation shall offer or give emolument, money or any valuable thing, promise or work, or any other inducement to any teacher or school officer in any school district for any vote or promise of vote or for his influence for any school book to be used in this state; provided, that nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent any person, firm, company or corporation from giving, or any school officer or teacher from receiving a reasonable number of sample school books for examination with the view of obtaining information as to the textbook or series of books from which said officer shall give his vote; provided, further, that any school officer or teacher receiving for examination sample books, shall after such examination deliver such samples to the clerk of the school district and such books shall then become the property of the district. § 6. Boards of education and district school boards are hereby authorized and shall have the power to appoint agents or dealers to purchase, handle and sell the books which have been selected and contracted for, and it shall be unlawful for any dealer or for any purchasing agent of any school district to sell any books to pupils of the district listed with the state superintendent of public instruction as hereinbefore provided at a price to exceed 15 per cent advance on the net cost of the book as listed with the department of public instruc- tion and as named in the contract with the school district; provided, that to the selling price as above determined be added the net cost of transportation. § 7. School districts are hereby authorized to purchase textbooks from the publisher at prices and terms listed with the state superin- tendent of public instruction and to sell said books to the pupils at said cost prices or at such prices as will include the cost of transporta- tion and cost of handling. District school boards and boards of education shall have the authority and are authorized to purchase all necessary books for REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 113 indigent pupils and pay for the same out of the funds of the district and to loan same free of expense to such pupils. The district school board or board of education shall purchase all books necessary for the use of teacher in conducting the work in the schools of the district where such teachers are employed and such books shall be paid for out of the funds of the district and be held as the property of the district. § 8. When a family removes from a school district, where free textbooks are not provided, the school board of the district from which the family removes may purchase out of the funds of the district, the textbooks in actual use by the children of such family at a fair price based upon the cost of the books and upon the condition of same; the books so purchased may be resold to other children in said district. § 9. When the district school board or board of education of any district deems it advisable said board may provide for the free use of school textbooks by the pupils of their school or schools, or whenever five or more legal voters of a common school district or 10 per cent of the legal voters of a consolidated, special or independent school district shall petition the board to submit to such district the question of providing free textbooks to pupils attending such schools, it shall be the duty of such board to submit the same to the legal voters of such district. Such questions may be submitted to a special meeting or at any annual meeting provided fourteen days' notice is given thereof and by posting said notice on the school house or school houses of such district and in such other public place or places as the district school board or board of education deems advisable, and in all cases the notice of such meeting shall call attention to the fact that such question will be submitted, and in case of a majority of the legal voters of such district present and voting at such meeting are in favor of such free textbooks, it shall be the duty of the board to provide the same. All books purchased by school boards, as herein provided, shall be held as the property of the district and loaned to pupils of the district while pursuing a course of study therein, free of charge; but the school board shall hold such pupils responsible for any damage to, or loss of, or failure to return such books at the time and to the person that may be designated by the board of such district. § 10. Any person, firm, company or corporation violating any pro- vision of this act shall on conviction thereof be punished by fine not to exceed five hundred dollars or by imprisonment not to exceed three months, or by both such fine and imprisonment at the discretion of the court. § 11. All acts or parts of acts inconsistent herewith are hereby repealed. Approved, March 11, 1915. 8—27503 11 4 REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. Exhibit J. I From r. S. Bureau of Education Bulletin.] Methods of distribution have been designated by law in some of the uniform textbook states but not in others. In general it may be said that publishers receiving contracts in any state arc required to estab- lish a state depository or county depositories. When a state deposi- tory is required, county selling agencies as a rule must be established. In practice it is customary for all firms receiving contracts in a state to unite in establishing a single state depository which handles all the state-adopted books for all of the firms. Often some already established business house is designated as a state depository. Each firm pays to the management of the depository a commission on sales. The depository contract provides that the depository shall maintain "absolute neutrality" between publishers whose books it distributes. The formation of these depositories is purely a business arrange- ment for economy in management and efficiency in distribution, since in but few instances are the sales in any state of any single firm great enough to warrant the establishment of a separate depository to handle its business. In a few states where individual firms are doing an especially large business independent depositories have been established; in Georgia, for instance, two firms maintain their own depositories apart from the general depository. The fact that publishers have united in establishing single state depositories has often been cited as evidence of a "book trust." Inves- tigation, however, of the conduct of the depositories does not show any reason for a belief in the existence of such a trust. Publishers distribute state-adopted books from state depositories in 21 of the 24 uniform textbook states: Alabama, Arizona. Florida. Georgia, Idaho. Kansas. Kentucky. Louisiana. Mississippi, Montana. Nevada. New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma. Oregon, Smith Caro- lina, Tennessee. Texas, Utah. Virginia, and West Virginia. As already noted, certain cities and towns in these states are not required to use the state-adopted books. The states bind the publishers by contracts protected by bonds guaranteed by surety companies to have their books constantly on sale at the depositories at the prices fixed by the state boards of education or the school-book commissions, and also in one or more places in every county of the states. Publishers are either expressly required, as in North Carolina, to "maintain one or i»ore joint state depositories at some convenient distributing point or points in the state." or are practically required to do so. as in Alabama, where they must establish one or more depositories -subject to the approval of the state textbook commission. In some instances even the terms of KEPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 115 discount, etc., are prescribed by the state board or by the commission, the depository, however, being required as stated, to maintain "abso- lute neutrality" between the publishers whose books it distributes. For the convenience of the merchants and the school children of these states the publishers have, when a central depository has not been designated by the state board of education or state textbook commission, selected one or more merchants located at the most convenient points of distribution, railroad facilities being considered, to act as their general distributing agents. From these general depositories the local agencies obtain all the state-adopted books, thus saving time, trouble, and expense incident to ordering from different places in the state or from the many contracting publishers. This arrangement is manifestly in the interest of the selling agencies and the school children, allowing the agencies, as it does, to secure all the adopted books at a central point in their own state and the children to obtain their books at convenient places when they need them. Publishers are also required by the majority of the states working under the state-adoption plan to mail postpaid or to ship by express or freight to any person ordering, if his order is accompanied by cash, a single copy or any number of copies of the state books at state prices. A citizen has, therefore, the option of ordering from the central depository, the local dealer, or the publisher. In order to insure the selling of books to school children at state prices, the publishers are sometimes required to stamp upon the back covers of the books which they furnish under their contracts both the retail and the exchange prices. It is made by law the duty of the county superintendent to report to the state superintendent of schools every case known to him of overcharge on the part of a merchant selling or exchanging at a price higher than the state contract price. Both the state authorities and the publishers have tried to work out a plan of selling state adopted books so that the books may be obtained easily and promptly by the local agents, so that school children may obtain the authorized books without delay when needed and so that books may be always obtained at the same place. 116 REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. Exhibit K. Official Report Showing Textbooks Used in October of the School Year 1915-16 (Individual Classics Are Not to Be Included in This Report.) English — Grammar 31 Composition— Rhetoric 2.">4 Myths -- 216 Heroic Ballads 171 English Literature (History), 187 American Literature (History) 69 Oral English and Debate 59 Oration and Argument 130 Selections of Poetry i 214 Selections of Prose 50 Journalism 9 Latin — First Book 250 Grammar 161 -ar 242 Beginner's Composition 162 Cicero 140 Advanced Composition 116 Virgil 127 Other Texts 34 Greek — Grammar 8 Beginner's Greek 9 Anabasis 7 Iliad 5 Composition 5 French- Grammar 65 Beginner's French 60 Readers 50 Composition 33 German— Grammar 145 Beginner's German 145 Readers 159 Composition 91 Spanish- Grammar 144 Beginner's Spanish 128 Readers 135 Composition 89 History- Ancient 245 Medieval and Modern 242 English 135 American 256 General 8 Industrial 19 < 'ivies 256 History Note Books 89 Economics 68 Sociology 4 a a 5 4,111 25,643 11,619 9,444 5,465 1,530 4,639 3,381 15,063 3,555 68 i 4,776 5,016 3,647 1,081 1,542 713 565 2,223 1,516 1,474 891 3,478 3,148 3,532 1,282 6,187 5,098 5,746 2,626 Commercial — Bookkeeping Shorthand Text-.. Speller Law Geography Correspondence .. Arithmetic Accounting Banking Business Practice Penmanship Typewriting Salesmanship Advertising Music Books History of Art. Mechanical Drawing Mathematics- Algebra, First Tear. Algebra, Advanced . Geometry (Plane) .. Geometry (Solid) ... Trigonometry Calculus Higher Arithmetic .. Mechanics 6,339 2,382 8,132 307 420 5,250 3,786 1,579 85 Science— Physics Text Laboratory Manual Chemistry Text Laboratory Manual Physical Geography Text- Laboratory Manual Biology Text Laboratory Manual Botany Text Laboratory Manual Zoology Text Laboratory Manual Physiology Text Laboratory Manual Geology Text Laboratory Manual Domestic Science Texts Household Arts Texts Agriculture Texts Manual Training Text Genera] Science • >ther Subjects Elocution Dramatics Psychology Astronomy Current History Assaying and Cyanide- Mineralogy 243 222 127 131 87 97 214 24 16 26 104 188 4 4 103 9 38 266 198 2&5 189 170 4 5 225 203 235 205 87 61 51 17 68 24 13 3 34 7 7 REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 117 Exhibit L. KANSAS STATUTE. The said state school book commission shall, as soon as, and when practicable, print, publish, or provide for the publication of a com- plete series of school textbooks, as hereinafter mentioned, for use in the public schools, including the high schools, in the state of Kansas. Also they shall provide, by adoption, under the provisions of the law, for such books of the hereinafter-mentioned series as they find it impossible or impracticable to print or publish. They may also write, select, compile, or cause to be written or compiled, or purchase the copy- right or contract the right to publish all such books by the payment of an agreed royalty therefor. The said series of school textbooks shall consist of one spelling book, one primer, one each first, second, third, fourth, and fifth reader ; one each, elementary and advanced arithmetic ; one each, elementary and advanced geography ; one each, elementary and advanced grammar ; one each, elementary and advanced physiology and hygiene ; a primary and an advanced history of the United States ; a history of the state of Kansas; one civil government of the United States and of the state of Kansas ; one elements of agriculture and stock raising ; one system of penmanship ; a graded system of drawing books ; textbooks containing collections of masterpieces of American and Eng- lish literature, for the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth grades; algebra (elementary and advanced) ; geometry (including both plane and solid) ; Latin grammar ; Latin exercises ; Caesar ; Cicero ; Virgil ; English com- position ; English history ; English literature ; ancient history ; medieval and modern history ; rhetoric ; botany, chemistry ; zoology ; word analysis; geology; physical geography; complete texts in German and French (including exercises, grammar, readers, and classics) ; descrip- tive astronomy; and a bookkeeping text. Such books to be equal in subject matter, material, binding, and mechanical execution and approx- imately in size to the books named in sections 7318 and 7833 of the general statutes of Kansas of 1909. The said state school book com- mission may adopt, print, or publish, as in their opinion may be desirable or practicable, other textbooks in addition to the books enumerated above and may approve textbooks in subjects not enumer- ated above for special courses, to meet the needs and requirements of the courses of study prescribed for use in the public schools, including the high schools of the state ; provided, that the state school book com- mission shall have authority to so vary the period of adoption for high school classics as to meet the college entrance requirements ; provided further, that the state school book commission shall not contract with any person, company, or corporation for any of the books provided for in this act at a price in excess of the lowest price at which such book or books are sold for use in any other state, county, city, or district. The distribution of all textbooks adopted under the provisions of this sec- tion shall be according to the provisions of section 7820 of the general statutes of Kansas of 1909 except as relates to the 15 per cent com- mission, allowed in this act; cmd provided further, that any person, persons, company, or corporation who shall contract to furnish text- books adopted under the provisions of section 1 of this act shall take 118 REPORT UK TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. up any textbooks previously in use and displaced by said adoption which may be offered to the contracting publishers or their agents within one year after the beginning of said contract and shall allow for such displaced books in exchange for new books in the same branch an amount not less than the highest amount allowed on the lowest price in any other state, county, city, or district, and which said amount shall lie specifically set out in each bid. Said exchanged books to be returned to the publishers or their agents within one year after the beginning of said contract according to their direction and at the expense of said contracting publisher. Exhibit M. CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION. OFFICE COMMISSIONER OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS. Sacramento, December 18, 1916. Mr. A. P. Will, Legislative Counsel Bureau, Capitol Building, Sacramento, California. Dear Sir: I am submitting herewith information concerning the number of pupils using each of the textbooks listed by the State Board of Education during the year 1915-1916. This information was compiled at the request of the special committee of Senate and Assembly appointed to investigate the high school text- book situation. The statistics given are as accurate as we can make them. In some instances pupils enrolled in a subject use no textbook; in other instances they use two or three ; in consequence the total number of pupils reported as using the textbooks in algebra, for example, may not tally with the total number of pupils taking the subject. Hoping that this information will be satisfactory, I am. Very truly yours, Will C. Wood, Commissioner of Secondary Schools. 120 REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. ALGEBRA. Pupils Text using Hawkes-Luby-Touton ,- 10,5 4 3 Wells-Hart 2,192 Wentworth-Smith 532 Slaught-Lennes — 2,836 Wells 280 Cajori & Odell's Elementary Algebra 55 Brookman 16 Short-Elson — 61 Stone-Millis — _- 37S Foung-Jackson, Elementary Algebra *. 60 Collins' Practical Algebra 100 Breslich 140 Milne 15 GEOMETRY. HISTORY — American. 17.20S Wentworth-Smith, Plane and Solid Geometry 6,655 Shutt, Plane and Solid Geometry : 353 Ford-Ammermann, Plane and Solid Geometry — 853 Stone-Millis, Elementary Algebra 365 Wells. Geometry 246 Hart-Feldman, Plane and Solid Geometry 188 Wells-Hart , 30 Beeman-Smith — 29S Betz-Webb 1,039 Short-Ellson 36 Robbins 30 Slaught-Lennes • 9 Wentworth 4 i :; 10,575 Muzzy 5,92S Hart, Essentials in American History — 200 ('banning, Students' History of the United States 357 West, American History and Government 57 1 James-Sanford, American History 441 McLaughlin, A History of the American Nation 61 Adams 9 Ashley, American History 46. > Forman, A History of the United States. — 346 Montgomery 7 30 8,507 H ISTORY— Ancient. Wolfson, Essentials in Ancient History — . 92 "West, Ancient World (revised) 4,276 Botsford, History of the Ancient World 6S4 Myers, Ancient History 1,507 Goodspeed, A History of the Ancient World 63 Webster, Ancient History 1,466 Robinson-Beard, Outlines of European History 546 Ashley (both books) 138 Westermann — — •_'! Morey °' 8,886 HISTORY — Medieval and Modern. Harding, New Medieval and Modern History 2,939 Myers, Medieval and Modern History J'?ol West, American History and Government 1,184 Robinson-Beard, Outlines of European History 354 Robinson "41 6,325 HISTORY— English. Cheyney, A Shorl History of England 1.995 Walker, Essentials in English History 140 Andrews, Short History of England— "" Thomas, History of England Wesl f_°_ 2,254 REPORT OP TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 121 ENGLISH — Oration and Argument. Pupils oxt using radley's Orations and Arguments 1,174 Shurter, Masterpieces of Modern Oratory 1,414 Laycock-Spofford, Manual of Argumentation 35 Gardiner's, The Making of Arguments 130 McMillan 12 Denny, Duncan and McKinney 115 Webster : 24 Fulton and Trueblood 21 Hall 57 Burke's Orations — — 126 Boardman's Modern American Speeches 176 Foster, Exposition and Argument 25 Pattee, Practical Argumentation 30 ENGLISH — Grammar. 3,339 Allen, Review of English Grammar for Secondary Schools 1,169 Mead, English Language and Its Grammar 70 Kittredge-Farley, Advanced English Grammar _, 369 Buehler, Modern English Grammar 7 Harris-Gilbert 542 Scott-Buck, A Brief English Grammar — 24 Clippinger 243 Brooks' Composition 338 Prince, Practical English Grammar — 496 Wisely, An English Grammar , 64 Hitchcock 740 Carpenter 49 ENGLISH— Heroic Ballads. 4,111 Gayley-Flaherty, Poetry of the People 7,701 Armes, Old English Ballads 1,163 Withan 19 Palmer 53 Smith, Oral English for Secondary Schools — 100 Seward, Narrative and Lyric Poems for Students — 231 Kinard, Old English Ballads 177 9,444 ENGLISH— Myths. Gayley, Classic Myths-- 8,844 Guerber, Myths of Northern Lands 2,386 Palmer 21 Francillon 108 Gayley-Guerber 57 Long, American Literature 81 ENGLISH — History of Literature. 11,497 Long, American Literature -_ — 3,962 Halleck (three books) — 778 Pancoast-Shelly, First' Book in English Literature 227 Gayley- Young — . 14 Mackenzie, History of English Literature _ 19 Tappan (three books) — 108 Moody, Lovett and Boynton 22 Howe (two books) 7 Cranshaw 22 Newcomer- Andrews 13 Brooks, .History of English Literature . 153 Tisdel. Studies in Literature 67 Simon's American Literature-- 60 Johnson — 12 ENGLISH — American Literature (History). 5,464 Long, American Literature 393 Howe (two books) = 33 Tappan (two books) 237 Newcomer- Andrews 28 Halleck (three books) 281 Pace's American Literature 311 Page, Chief American Poets 15 Pancoast. An Introduction to English Literature 59 Brooks, History of English Literature 33 Abernethy 109 Cairns, American Literature for Secondary Schools 31 1,530 122 REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. ENGLISH — Selections of Prose. Pupils Text using Ashmun's Modern Prose and Poetry 2,326 Simon's American Literature 62 Emerson 13 Scribner's Stories from American Authors 37 Pocket American — 62 Duncan, Beck & Graves, Prose Selections G29 Ashley It; Snyder 25 Raskin 14 Gayley- Young, English Poetry 163 Gateway Series 4 Rhys 126 Shurter, Masterpieces of Modern Oratory_____ 14o ENGLISH — Selections of Poetry. COMPOSITION— Rhetoric. SCIENCE — Chemistry Laboratory Manual. SCIENCE— Chemistry Text. SCIENCE— Physics Text. 3,617 Gayley- Young, English Poetry, Its Principles and Progress 14,505 Syle, Milton to Tennyson , 250 Sheffield. Old Testament Narrative.-- 24 Gateway Series of English Classics 52 Page, Chief American Poets „__ 85 Baldwin — — 2 7 Long, American Literature 50 Newcomer-Andrews 12 Riverside Series 19 Shakespeare _- 10 15,0:',4 Lockwood-Emerson, Composition and Rhetoric 22S Scott-Denny, New Composition Rhetoric-- 1,840 Brooks (two books) X.9S4 Wboley .. l . n 2 r, Clippinger. Composition-Rhetoric -_ 2.759 Brooks-Hubbard, Composition-Rhetoric 507 Briggs-McKinney, First Book of Composition 3,216 Davenport, A First Book in English ^ 135 Kavana-Beatty, Composition and Rhetoric — 50 Blaisdell — — 31 Gerrish -Cunningham, Practical English Composition 1,869 Hanson, English Composition-- 898 Kittredge-Farley, Advanced English Grammar 72 Hitchcock's (four books) 665 Canby-Opdycke, Elements of Composition 317 Gardner, Kittredge and Arnold, Manual of Composition -- 402 Thorndyke 4 >3,87: Brownlee and others (two books) 1,088 McPherson-Henderson (two books) 921 Smith. Textbook of Elementary Chemistry 712 Newell (two books) _,_ -- ::tjs Whitmore, Combination Chemistry Manual 174 Morgan-Lyman, Elementary Textbook in Chemistry 2,045 Bradbury. Inductive and Elementary Chemistry— 59 Kahlenberg-Hart, Chemistry and its Relations to Daily Life 13 Hessler-Smith, Essentials of Chemistry - 189 5,569 Brownlee and others, First Principles of Chemistry 1,965 McPherson-Henderson, Exercises in Chemistry 1,164 Smith. Laboratory Outline of Elementary Chemistry 1.19:: Morgan-Lyman, Laboratory Manual in Chemistry--. 1,955 Xeweii, Laboratory Manual 383 Kahlenberg-Hart, Chemistry and lis Relations to Daily Life 13 Hessler-Smith, Essentials of Chemistry ._ 43 Bradbury (two books)___ 93 6,809 Milliken-Gale, A First Course in Physics 1,8,4 Coleman (two hooks) _ — Two Black-Davis ■- 1,337 Carhart-Chute i two i»>oks) lt., Tower-Smith-Turton, Principles of Physics 87 Hoadley, Essentials of Physics 4:; 4,174 REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 123 PHYSICS — Laboratory Manual. Pupils Text using Coleman 1,424 Milliken-Gale-Bishop : 392 Black-Davis 262 Cavanagh-Wescott-Twining . 1,215 Carhart-Chute ' 34 Fuller- Brownlee 30 3,357 SCIENCE— General. Clark, & Laboratory Manual 903 Snyder __ 1,509 Rowell 196 Coldwell & Eichenbery S47 Hessler-Smith 55 3,516 SCIENCE — Physical Geography. Tarr, New Physical Geography 637 Arey-Bryant-Clendenin-Morrey, Physiography 1,001 Dryer, High School Geography 263 Salisbury-Barrows-Tower, Modern Geography 48 Fairbanks, Practical Physiography 32 Snyder — 39 2,020 SCIENCE — Physiology. Eddy, Textbook in General Physiology and Anatomy 56 Hough-Sedgwick, Human Mechanism 873 Peabody ' 32 Conn-Buddington 71 Ritchie's Sanitation and Physiology 76 Davison, Human Body and Health 255 1,233 SCIENCE — Domestic Texts. Morris — IS Farmer 127 Snell 113 Williams and Fisher — 165 Kinney-Cooley '. 1,403 Campbell 214 Lilly-Frick 82 Weid -_ 2 7 Fullerton 16 Olsen 56 Bailey : — 30 Greer . 2 Conley — IS Blanchard -- 6 Parloa 2 4 Rose 53 2,356 CO M M E RC I A L— Law. Richardson 48 Huffcutt 825 Gano 2 82 Nichols-Rogers , 107 Wliigam 56 Parkinson 68 1,386 COMMERCIAL — Correspondence. Practical Textbook Company 27 Hogan 1S1 Belding , 131 Cody 96 Buhlig 1,976 Erskine _ ,, 30 Davis & Lingham 359 Gregg 64 Smith & Mayne 59 So Relle l_, 44 Altmier 597 Webber 12 International Correspondence , . 26 Marshall . 9 3,611 12-1 REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. COMMERCIAL — Arithmetic. Pupils Text using Van Tryle :- 2,600 Moore-Miner • 2,526 Thurston 1,194 Schenck 2 7 Sweet 1 92 Lyons 8S Robinson 4 Smith 7 6,507 COMMERCIAL — Typewriting. Smith 162 Cutler-So Relle 1,047 Remington Company si Rational 297 So Relle 542 Barnes 325 Gregg 908 Eldridge 93 Underwood 18 Fuller 11 Fritz-Eldridge --• 1,936 Knox 29 Mosher 102 Van Sant 202 6,653 COM MERICAL— Speller. Osborn 1 83 So Relle 144 Eldridge 2,165 Mayne 285 Atwood 790 Gregg 161 Kimball 23 Marshall 22 1 Osborn & King 583 I >alv 9 < !hew 430 Miller 28 "Words" .. 4 So Relle & Ritt 30 Loomis 90 5,091 COMMERCIAL — Bookkeeping. Wm. Rogers 2,468 Moore-Miner 2,181 Baker , 237 Rowe 1,403 Neal 362 Webber 76 t M. M. B .__ 357 20th Century 47 Marshall 54 Pierce 30 G. M. is Palmer 25 So Relle & Ritt Bliss 107 8,138 COMMERCIAL — Penmanship. Palmer , 1,353 Zaner 1,608 Mills 585 Rodgers 272 American Penman 41 Business Journal ., 31 Zaner & Bloser 82 Lester 14 3,986 LATIN — Grammar. Beimel I, Latin ( lianimar 1,716 Allen-Greenough, New Latin Grammar 2,825 Nutting _ __ __ 112 D'Ooge ,__ 32 Gunnison-Harley L0 Gildersleeve-Lodge, Latin Grammar .. 1 Collar-Daniel l, First Latin Book '. 2.". Greenough 66 4,817 REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 125 LATIN — First Book. Pupils Text U3ing Nutting (three books) 427 Moulton, Introductory Latin »40 D'Ooge — 2,07o Smith (two books) ' ?A Mitchell, Elements of Latin 10 Bennett, First Year Latin °7 JpGcirson ■' &ix Inglis-Prettyman, First Book in Latin 83 Tuell-Fowler, A First Latin Book 654 Kirtland-Rogers, Introduction to Latin ; 78 Gunnison-Harley 96 Collar-Daniell 2o4 7,615 LATIN — Composition. Pearson, Prose Composition _ 177 Baker-Inglis, High School Course in Latin Composition 1,36b Bennett lb g Nutting, Exercises in Latin Composition s Rolfe-Dennison, Junior Latin Book ' < Daniell, A New Latin Composition — 39 Gunnison-Harley ■< 7o Allen-Phillips, Latin Composition 131 Barss, Writing Latin 54 Daniell-Brown "1 Jones ' „„i D'Ooge 1.368 3,455 LATIN— Cassar. Allen-Greenough, New Caesar 651 Gunnison-Harley, Gallic War 850 Greenough-D'Ooge and Daniell, Second Latin Book 1,036 Walker, Caesar's Gallic War . 348 Towle-Jenks, Caesar: Gallic War 1,101 Miller-Beeson, Second Latin Book 143 Bennett 71 Mather . 37 Roberts- Rolfe — 47 Rolfe-Dennison, Junior Latin Book : 787 Kelsey, Cassar: Gallic War . 32 4,960 SPANISH— Readers. Bransby, A Spanish Reader 253 Harrison, Spanish Commercial Reader 2,894 Worman, Second Spanish Book , 1,899 Carrion-Asa, Zaragueta 44 Hill, Tales for Beginners 72 Whentoff 12 Turrell, Spanish Reader 64 Cortina , 158 Dowling 20 Bonilla : 74 Alarcon , 29 Padre Isla Z 7 Marion-Garennes 187 Giese-Cool 2S Wagner 63 5,775 SPANISH — Composition. Umphrey, Spanish Prose Composition , 1,492 Crawford, Spanish Composition 944 Loiseaux, Spanish Composition 61 Harrison, Spanish Correspondence 30 Remy, Spanish Composition 38 2,626 SPANISH — Grammar. Garennes 149 Hill 2,294 Garner, Spanish Grammar 25 Olmstead-Gordon, Spanish Grammar 599 Coester 2,212 DeVitis' Spanish Grammar .=. 359 Giese, A First Book in Spanish 24 Worman 9 Marion-Garennes , 46 Wagner 214 Mousanto-Languellier, Practical Spanish Course 172 Ingraham-Edgren 200 6,303 126 REPOBT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. SPANISH — Beginners. Pupils Text using Wurman 2,1 !i I Olmstead-Gordon 76 • larennes 97 s Hill 32 de Whentoff 24 I »owling 902 Harrison 347 Marien-Garennes 572 Giese 24 Bransby 358 5.075 FRENCH — Composition. Francois, Introductory Prose Composition 495 Koren, Exercises in French Composition 27 Kimball S3 Lazare, Premieres Lectures 10 Carter _ 39 Grandgent, French Composition 19 Bouvet, Syntax and Composition---- 10 Comfort, Exercises in French Composition , 76 891 FRENCH— Readers. Talbot, La Francais et sa Patrie 31 Aldrich-Foster 310 Super, Preparatory French Reader 9 Snow-Lebon, Easy French 17 Jovnes, Contes de Fies 3 Manet 12 Lazare, Premieres Lectures _■_ 192 Syms 20 Chardenal, Complete French Course 17 Morneaux 44 Guerber 97 Bruno 9 2 David. Chez Nous 1- 50 Bruce 14 Heath 11 Francois-Giroud, Simple French 96 Weill (two books) 10 Ballard, Oral French 420 Dumas 14 1.449 FRENCH — Beginners. Fraser-Squair, Elementary French 541 Worman 5 Super , 13 Snow-Lebon 93 1 Inward 51 Labiche 7 Ballard 369 Aldrich-Foster , 8 Maloubier and Moore, First Book 71 Lazare 12 Francois 29 Bruce, Lectures Faciles 66 I Hipres 6 Chardenal, Complete French Course 226 Krause i , 25 1,522 FRENCH — Grammar. Fraser-Squair -- 1,4 74 Chardenal 628 Francois 6 I Aldrich 2 7 Walter- Ballard — 6 Howard -' 1 2,223 REPORT OF TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. 127 GERMAN — Composition. Pupils GERMAN — Reader. Mosher-Jennj using 76 93 Text Wesselhoeft (two books) r - Harris Selections for German Composition Allen, First German Composition £>»<> Pope (two books) -"' Bernhardt, German Composition £»° Bacon 6 ^ Boetzinger __ 6 ^ Truscott-Smith c % Chiles b ? Mineley- Allen j> Whitney-Stroebe __ &9 1,282 Muller-Wenckbach, Gluck Auf '»ll Holzwarth, Gruss aus Deutschland z »j> Carruth, A German Reader : ljj Worman (two books) «j» Manlee - 1,215 Spanhoofd, Erstes Lesebuch — 229 Walter Krause, German Reader 480 Allen, First German Composition 29 Guerber 143 Martini, First German Reader 39 Hewett 4o Geschichten und Marchen ; 84 Gerstacher 6 3,783 GERMAN — Beginners. Thomas, A Practical German Grammar 276 Spanhoofd (two books) 1 'ri- Bacon 50 » Bagster-Collins *6 Joynes-Meissner, German Grammar : 46 Gohdes und Buschek 71 Bernstorff 83 Bierwirth . 49 Gronow 9 Vander Smissen . 116 Worman , 8 Vos ^ 8 3,478 GERMAN — Beginners. Krause 596 Spanhoofd 1,616 Bacon 404 Bagster-Collins 74 Guerber 14 Hempl 6 Heinze , 61 Holzwarth _Z 10 Gronow-Jung, Deutschland 98 Worman 11 Allyn and Bacon 2 Collar, First Book 2 Bierwirth 32 Muller-Wenckbach 29 Vos ] 6 •Toynes-Meissner 20 1 29 3,010 128 REPORT OP TEXTBOOK COMMITTEE. Exhibit N. [Conclusions of Ontario Commission.] . The list of books authorized for high schools and collegiate institutes is unnecessarily large owing chiefly to there being more than one book authorized in a subject. In the authorized list there are two reading books, three books on composition, two on geography, two on British history, two on Canadian history, two on arithmetic, two on algebra, three on geometry, three in Latin, and two on bookkeeping. The method and matter to be taught has, surely long before this, become pretty well defined, and could be contained in one book of moderate size. ( Jheapness of production is almost out of the question when two or three books are authorized in a subject and produced by different publishers. Again, it often occurs that a pupil moves from one high school to another, and is compelled to buy new books to enable him to take up the work with the class. * * * * * The price of nearly all high school books is too high, and could be materially reduced and still allow a fair profit to the publisher. There is a heavy expenditure by pupils of high schools aud continua- tion classes for annotated texts in English Literature, Latin, Greek, French and German. The texts prescribed are usually padded by notes and other matter, causing the pupils to pay from 50 cents to $1.25 for selections that should cost less than one-third of those sums. Enterprising publishers manufacture blank books with specially ruled lines to suit certain subjects at too great an advance on the price of ordinary foolscap paper. Some means should be devised by the Education Department to prohibit the use of these blank forms. The pupil might do his own ruling on foolscap paper for all school exercises necessitating the use of blank forms.