It happened through a coincidence that I had on my desk a letter from Professor Charles H. Judd of the University of Chicago, whose adventures with the National Industrial Conference Board were told a few chapters back. Professor Judd, as head of a great department of education, has had opportunity to watch the book company business from the inside. He says, among other things:
The situation in the state of Indiana, where there is a book adoption by the state board of education every five years, is certainly worth your investigation. The state board of Indiana, which is made up of a number of ex-officio members, is asked every time there is a book adoption to canvass an impossible number of school books. It would be worth while to find out exactly how many are submitted for judgment by the board. None of these busy professional men can make the analysis of a book necessary to an intelligent choice, and yet they have to make the choice. I was told by one of the members of that board that at the time of the recent adoption an attorney, living in the city of Richmond, Indiana, where one of the members of the state board lives, was paid a fee of $10,000 for a month’s work, the character of which was not otherwise known.
Let us consider the American Book Company, because it is the biggest, and has set the pace for the rest. Thirty years ago my friend George D. Herron, then a Congregational clergyman and college professor, came upon the wholesale knaveries of this concern. Henry D. Lloyd and President Gates of Grinnell College took up the facts, and published them in a little Christian Socialist paper in Minneapolis, the “Kingdom.” The answer of the American Book Company was to file suit for a hundred thousand dollars damages. Dr. Herron writes me:
The suit has never been brought to trial to this day. The Book Trust never had any intention of facing the trial or facing the facts in our possession at that time. They merely meant to announce, as they did through the Associated Press and with great acclaim, that they had brought immediate suit for damages because of these infamous and false charges; and that was all that was necessary. They knew perfectly well what a short memory the public has, and that they would gain all the benefits of a victory in the public mind without ever bringing the matter to trial.
And now, a generation later, we find the Commissioner of Accounts in New York City carrying on his investigation into text-books, and there appears before him Mr. George E. Morrison, editor of “The Historic Hudson,” and recently a reporter for the Detroit “Journal.” You will recall Detroit as the home of Mr. A. V. Barnes, president of the American Book Company; also of ex-Senator Newberry, his brother-in-law; also of Mr. Fred Cody, agent of the American Book Company, convicted with Newberry of election frauds; also of Mr. Frank Cody, brother of Mr. Fred, and superintendent of schools in Detroit. Under these circumstances you will not be surprised to learn that Michigan is a center of American Book Company activity. Mr. Morrison in his testimony stated that he had been given several weeks’ leave of absence by the Detroit “Journal,” to collect evidence concerning this matter. Mr. Morrison interviewed a hundred and twenty-seven witnesses, and turned over their evidence, with the affidavits of eighteen out-of-town people, to the prosecuting authorities. The matter was presented to the grand jury, which took minutes and returned a report in which Mr. Morrison was abused by numerous public officials, who stood in with the Newberry-Cody gang. The influence of this gang, said Mr. Morrison, was sufficient to paralyze the arm of the public prosecutor, and to cause a police justice to get busy and prevent indictments.
Mr. Morrison went on to explain the methods of the American Book Company, and just how the money of the school children of the United States was used to buy a seat in the Senate for Truman H. Newberry. I quote from the stenographic record:
All his money practically has come from the American Book Company. His brother-in-law, Mr. Barnes, is head of the American Book Co., and both he and his brother John have more money than they know what to do with. In his campaigns Mr. Truman H. Newberry transferred his funds from John’s bank account to Truman’s, and no question was ever asked. The private agent of Mr. Truman H. Newberry was Mr. Frank Cody, who was by the way indicted with Newberry and the others in the United States Court at Grand Rapids. He was involved in the scandal of the American Book Company in Oklahoma at the time Haskell was governor, and has been a legislative representative of the American Book Company and a salesman on special occasions when special force was needed to put over contracts. He always had declined to admit that he was a representative of the American Book Company. During the time that I was more or less closely identified with trying to find out about the American Book Co., I was never able to learn absolutely the identity of anyone that ever represented the American Book Co. There was one man that came into the open when I worked at Grand Rapids, Michigan, who supplied the members of the Board of Education with money. The members said that the money represented campaign contributions. The agent and the two members of the Board of Education were indicted, and it seemed to be difficult to prove that the money was given to them as members, and as I recall the case never came to trial. This man named White, as I recall, subsequently declined to see me, and as I say, I have never known any representative of the American Book Company.
Also I quote from another portion of this interesting testimony:
The Commissioner: Do you think the American Book Company would be inclined to pay large premiums, call it that way, to anyone who has the power to introduce any set of books?
Mr. Morrison: I think there is no question about that at all.