Show THE TEXTBOOK BUSINESS greatly exaggerated exa ideas prevail concerning the total irum number of textbooks sold in afie united states each year and the annual profits resulting from such sales confidential data obtained by the united states bureau of education from 43 textbook ok publishers lish Vs ip in the united states show that their aggregate total 9 sales ales of textbooks jr for use in public and private schools iii 1913 amounted to the aggregate for public r school chool elementary and high amounted to the total enrollment in public elementary arid and high schools for the year was approximately approximated Y 1 excluding the oe elementary emen school enrollment of california since california prints its own elementary books the number becomes for each child enrolled in the public schools in the united states therefore the total annual sale of textbooks is cents the total expenditure per child for all school purposes is approximately the cost of textbooks is thus approximately 2 per cent of the total cost of maintenance te nance support and equipment the cost per child on the school population basis 5 18 years of age is cents the annual per capita cost of textbooks on the total population basis is less than 15 cents these figures indicate that is little ground for the fear sometimes expressed that the introduction of free textbooks will add greatly to the cost of the public school system and will greatly increase the rate of taxation for school pur pos po S As a rint ter of fact the th cost c ial for textbooks Is a relatively small item in the total eapen i delre for purposes bureau of education officials firel convinced that the figures I 1 obtained afford a trustworthy trust worth statement of the real facts about the size of the schoolbook business the 43 firms from which data were obtained handle probably 99 per cent of the total textbook sales in this country besides california kansas also now nov prints its own textbooks but the plan was not in operation in 1913 |