Free Text Books

At the special school election called by the board of educación for nest Tnesday the people of Ann Arbor will have the opportunity of expressing their will upon tbe qoestion of furnisbing iree text books for tbe sobools of the city. By free text books is meant tbe ownership of the school books used in the publio schools by the district and the fnrnisbing them without cost to the individual pupils. The issne is one, therefore, which shonld enlist the attention and interest of every oitizen, espeoially of tbose who find tbe borden of bnying books for their children heavy. Free text books will make the schools absolntely and entirely free schools. And why should they not be fnrnisbed at the expense of the district? The pubJio school is established primarily for the good of the state. The advantage to the individual is wnolly secondary. Are there not just as many and jnst as valid zeasons for furnisbing text books at public expense as tbere are for furnishng teachers, desks, dictionaries, chalk and all other equipments of the school without cost to the individual pupil? The same argnments now advanced againsr free school books were originally advaDced against paying the teacher by pnblic tax. Everybody, bowever, whose opinión is worth considering now acknowledges that a long step in advance was taken when the old rate t)i]l system was abolished and the school loom door was opened wide to the ehildren of the poorest family in the state. Bat since that day tbe state bas advanced mncb furtber in its edncational demands npon parents. It now claims the rigbt, and enforces it too, to compel every parent to send his cbild to school a certain number of montbs each year nntil it reaches a cerrain age. And the parent wbo refuses to do this ifi liable to fine or imprisonment or both and to have the child taken from Jjis control and educated by the state. If the state has this paramonnt interest in the ohild's eduoation, it oertainly efaonld fnrnish all tbose thingswbich are made directly necessary by the school. Of course it is the dnty of echool boards nnder the present method of text book snpply to fnrnish books to children of poor families who are unable to snpply them.. But io order to get them the parenta most plead poverty. Thia is too great a hamiliation for the most deserving poor and many times tbey will keep their cnildren ont of school and defy the compnlsory law rather than to ask for public assistance. The children of snoh parents, ■whom the oompnlsory law fails to reach, wonld undonbtedly be bronght into shool by fornishing text books free. Pree books is the only thing lacking to make the schools wholly free and the proposition would seem to need no fense wheu the rightfnlness of free eqnipments in all other respeots is oonoeded. # # The most advanced states of the Union, educationally, are fornishing text books to their children free. Very inany of the Jeading edncators of the conntry are on reoord in favor of free books. At the last two annual meetings of the snperintendents of schools in MichigaD they have placed themselves on record nnanimously in favor of this method of text book Buppiy..; One-sixth of all the sohool distriots of Miobigan are now using free text books and probably one-third of all the children, sinoe in the free book disttiots are inolnded Detroit, Sagioaw, Bay City, Mnskegon and other oities. Where free text books have been in use for a series of years the followiug advantages are established : i. It is the obeapest method of supplying text books. In Detroit the average annnal oost per pupil has been not far from 60 cents. Last year at Saginaw it was between 35 and 40 cents. At Muskegon last year the cost was only 30 oents. This saving is dne to the faot that the books are bought at Wholesale prioes and are used until tbey are worn out. Being owned by the distriot it is made a part of tbe teoahers' duty to care for them and pupils are held strietly responsible for any injury to them. Only three-fifths as rnany books are required becanse of tbe savings mentioned above. 2. Statistios show tbat attendanoe is increased from 10 to 20 per oent. 3. A great saving of time. Classes are organized and put to work the first day of the term as there is no waiting for books. As the books are owned by the district the pupil is snpplied at once on entering and he is ready for stady. 4. Secures absolote olass room, nniformity and relieves the poor man from the burden of pnrohasing books and neoessitates no extra expense when people move from one district to ancther. 5. Trains the ohildren to a proper care of pnblio property. P. It makes the pnbho school wholly f ree as it shonld be. To establish the free system in Ann Arbor and bny an entire new series of books below tbe high school wonld probably cost $1.25 per pupil. On the basis of actual enrollinent, therefore, the total cost wonld probably be soinewhere f rom $2,250 to 2,500. It wonld cost tbe patrón whopays taxes on ons thoosand dollars sometbing like 32 or 35 cents. Bnt if the series of books now in the hands of pupils should be adopted and only as many new books were pnrchased as wonld be needed to supply tbose who lack books, this first cost wonld be greatly rednced. After the first cost 40 cents per pnpil wonld nnqnestionably keep the supply good. This wonld make au additional tax of abont ten cents on eaob one tbonsand dollars of assessed valnation of tbe city. Where tbis system of text book supply has been most tboroughly tested there appears to have beun 110 trouble from contagióos diseases. Wbenever a contagión breaks out in a room, books in bands of afflicred pnpils are collected and burned. Under the present system snch books return to school with tbe return of the afflicted pupil or are sold as second hand books and tbus find their way back into school. There could be no more danger anyway than is now experienced througb the very general use of snpplementary reading material owned by the school district and circulating library books. In f act tbe question of sanitation in connection with free text books is a bogy man. Certainly a sytem of school book supply that has worked so advantageously in Boston, Philadelphia, New York, Detroit, Saginaw, Bay Uity, Muskegon and other cities and raany whole states could not be very disadvantageons and dangerous in Ann Arbor. The Ann Arbor Register and tbe Ypsilantian most vigorously protest against the snap republican convention of next week. What do these papers expect of the victorious republican leaders, and why should they disturb the dense harmony existing in the republican ranks Is not the main object of tbe party to give office to tbe favored few? A Manila chinaman is said to have unoonsciously gotten off a good pun. When asked the differenee between the Spaniard and the American, he said of tbe Spaniard: "he talkee-talkee but the 'melican man he doee-doee. "