The Montgomery Advertiser
- TEXT BOOK PRICE PROBE LAUNCHED BY SCHOOL HEADS
- CLAIM REPUBLICANS RESPONSIBLE FOR PROHI LAW FAILURE
- MINERS RESCUED AFTER FIVE DAYS OF IMPRISONMENT
This front page led with a dispute over schoolbook prices at home: Alabama's state department of education, under Superintendent John W. Abercrombie, announced that it had found apparent discrimination in the prices of some adopted textbooks, which seemed to cost Alabama more than other states, and the attorney general was asked to verify the discrepancies in hopes of securing reductions under a contract clause. From the national wires came New Hampshire Democrats, who, unlike their New York and Massachusetts counterparts, backed enforcement of Prohibition while blaming Republicans for its failure, and the happy end of the Pabst mine entrapment at Ironwood, Michigan, where all 43 iron miners were brought up after five days and sent to hospital to rest.
This is a partial reading of three front-page articles. The textbook refund-recovery paragraph that runs across a column break is left out because the scan clips it. The New Hampshire article stops partway through Thomas P. Gore's keynote paragraph, and its continuation is not included. Clipped edge text is marked [?] and has not been reconstructed.
Translation
TEXT BOOK PRICE PROBE LAUNCHED BY SCHOOL HEADS
Independent
VOLUME XCVIII—NO. 273
TEXT BOOK PRICE PROBE LAUNCHED BY SCHOOL HEADS
Attorney General Davis Asked To Investigate Charges of Publishers; Discrimination is Alleged
ENTITLED TO REDUCTION, ABERCROMBIE BELIEVES
Prices Exceed Those Imposed in Other States, Officials Claim
Apparent discriminations against patrons of Alabama schools, in the matter of the price of certain school text-books, have been discovered by the state department of education, in checking up adopted school books used in other states, according to announcement at the department, Wednesday.
The matter has already been called to the attention of the attorney general, who has requested that all apparent discriminations be checked and verified. This is now being done, and it is believed, it is stated, that the result of this investigation will disclose facts which will enable the state to obtain reductions on some of the texts now used.
Announcement of the discovery of the apparent discriminations, is contained in a statement issued Wednesday afternoon by Dr. John W. Abercrombie, state superintendent of education.
In accordance with the Alabama law, all contracts for text-books to be used in supplying the public schools of the state, provide that the publishers of the texts contracted for, shall not charge for such texts, a higher price than is charged for the same texts in another state "where like conditions prevail." [?]
CLAIM REPUBLICANS RESPONSIBLE FOR PROHI LAW FAILURE
[?] CONCORD, N. H., Sept. 29.—(AP)—The democrats of New Hampshire failed to follow the lead of the party conventions in New York and Massachusetts which, during the past two days, have adopted platforms calling for modification of the prohibition laws. The New Hampshire convention went on record in favor of enforcement of all laws, "including the 18th amendment," and held the "republican party, now in full control of enforcement, responsible for failure to enforce the latter."
The platform also urged relief for farmers, relief from burdensome taxation, retention of the primary law with stricter limitation on candidates' expenses, a 48 hour law for women and children, honesty in government, abolition of the poll tax for women and non-abandonment of railroad lines.
Former Senator Thomas P. Gore of Oklahoma, declared in his keynote address that the farmers of the West were displeased with the administration which he charged, had promised everything and given nothing. He assailed republicans' claims of prosper-
MINERS RESCUED AFTER FIVE DAYS OF IMPRISONMENT
[?] IRONWOOD, MICH., Sept. 29.—(AP)—Rescue of 43 iron miners from the depths of the G. Pabst mine, where they were trapped five days was completed at 11:20 o'clock tonight. At that hour every one of the imprisoned miners had been lifted to the surface through an adjoining shaft.
Physicians decided a day's rest in complete seclusion, and hospital comfort was the best way to safeguard the health of the men. Upon this advice all men were ordered to Grandview hospital.
Oscar Olson, chief engineer, told of the men's experiences tonight as he came to the surface. He spent four hours with them, and directed the work of repairing a gangway for their egress. "The water is plentiful," he said, "due to the piping system of the mine."
"Throughout all the hours of discouraging delay the men kept up their spirits. Only one or two were a trifle discouraged. When the blasting was started Sunday in the raise, they knew there was action to get them."
One or two of them thought they had heard the diamond drill which was boring from the second level of the mine. [?]
Context
Who was John W. Abercrombie, the superintendent behind the textbook probe?
The statement announcing the apparent textbook price discrimination came from Dr. John W. Abercrombie, and by 1926 he was one of Alabama's most experienced education officials. He had already been state superintendent of education from 1898 to 1902, was president of the University of Alabama from 1902 to 1911, served in the U.S. House from 1913 to 1917, and was acting secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor from 1918 to 1920 before he returned to the state superintendency. He held that post from 1920 until he retired in 1927, so this probe came late in his tenure. Textbooks were already part of his department's work: in 1921 it published the Course of Study for Elementary Schools, which suggested textbooks and reference materials to help the state's many new public school teachers plan their lessons. The leverage the article describes lay in the contracts themselves. Under Alabama law, each textbook contract barred the publisher from charging more than it charged for the same book in another state "where like conditions prevail." That made the department's comparison with books adopted in other states the evidence the state would need to seek reductions, and it explains why the attorney general wanted every apparent discrepancy checked and verified first.
The New York campaign behind the dispatch's comparison
The AP dispatch set New Hampshire's Democrats against the conventions in New York and Massachusetts, which, it said, had just adopted platforms calling for modification of the Prohibition laws. The New York meeting was the Democratic state convention held on September 28 at Syracuse, which renominated Governor Al Smith. The same day, New York Republicans met at Madison Square Garden, nominated Ogden L. Mills for governor and renominated Senator James W. Wadsworth Jr. Prohibition remained on the ballot that November, when a referendum to repeal Prohibition was accepted by a very large majority, and Smith beat Mills by 1,523,813 votes to 1,276,137. The dry vote also cut into the Republican Senate ticket. The Prohibition Party made no Senate nomination of its own and campaigned instead for Franklin W. Cristman, who ran as an independent Republican and drew 231,906 votes. Wadsworth lost to Democrat Robert F. Wagner, 1,321,463 to 1,205,246, a margin smaller than Cristman's total. New Hampshire's Democrats took the opposite course. They pledged enforcement of all laws, including the 18th Amendment, and blamed the Republicans in power for its failure.
How were the Pabst mine men trapped and brought out?
The Ironwood dispatch describes the end of the Pabst Mine disaster, which began on September 24, 1926. The mine belonged to the Oliver Iron Mining Company, a U.S. Steel subsidiary. That day the elevator in its "G" shaft fell, killing the three electricians riding in it, and a rock fall sealed the shaft above the eighth level, leaving 43 men trapped for 129 hours. Rescuers went down the neighboring "H" shaft almost to its bottom, where a tunnel connected the two shafts, and then worked their way up the ladderway of "G" shaft. The survivors came up in small groups on the "H" shaft elevator, which matches the report that they were lifted "through an adjoining shaft." Underground, the food left from the miners' lunches ran out before the second day. After that, their only nourishment was tea made from birch bark scraped from the planks lining the shaft and heated with their carbide lamps. That background gives weight to Olson's remark that water was plentiful and to the doctors' insistence on a day of secluded hospital rest. Later accounts put the last man's removal at 11:22 p.m., close to the paper's 11:20. The men were taken to a local hospital, and the rescue made headlines across the United States.
Original
TEXT BOOK PRICE PROBE LAUNCHED BY SCHOOL HEADS
Independent VOLUME XCVIII-NO. 273 TEXT BOOK PRICE PROBE LAUNCHED BY SCHOOL HEADS Attorney General Davis Asked To Investigate Charges of Publishers; Discrimination is Alleged ENTITLED TO REDUCTION, ABERCROMBIE BELIEVES Prices Exceed Those Imposed in Other States, Officials Claim Apparent discriminations against patrons of Alabama schools, in the matter of the price of certain school text-books, have been discovered by the state department of education, in checking up adopted school books used in other states, according to announcement at the department, Wednesday. The matter has already been called to the attention of the attorney general, who has requested that all apparent discriminations be checked and verified. This is now being done, and it is believed, it is stated, that the result of this investigation will disclose facts which will enable the state to obtain reductions on some of the texts now used. Announcement of the discovery of the apparent discriminations, is contained in a statement issued Wednesday afternoon by Dr. John W. Abercrombie, state superintendent of education. In accordance with the Alabama law, all contracts for text-books to be used in supplying the public schools of the state, provide that the publishers of the texts contracted for, shall not charge for such texts, a higher price than is charged for the same texts in another state " where like conditions prevail. " [?]
CLAIM REPUBLICANS RESPONSIBLE FOR PROHI LAW FAILURE
[?] CONCORD, N. H., Sept. 29. - (AP) - The democrats of New Hampshire failed to follow the lead of the party conventions in New York and Massachusetts which, during the past two days, have adopted platforms calling for modification of the prohibition laws. The New Hampshire convention went on record in favor of enforcement of all laws, " including the 18th amendment, " and held the " republican party, now in full control of enforcement, responsible for failure to enforce the latter. " The platform also urged relief for farmers, relief from burdensome taxation, retention of the primary law with stricter limitation on candidates ' expenses, a 48 hour law for women and children, honesty in government, abolition of the poll tax for women and non-abandonment of railroad lines. Former Senator Thomas P. Gore of Oklahoma, declared in his keynote address that the farmers of the West were displeased with the administration which he charged, had promised everything and given nothing. He assailed republicans ' claims of prosper -
MINERS RESCUED AFTER FIVE DAYS OF IMPRISONMENT
[?] IRONWOOD, MICH., Sept. 29. - (AP) - Rescue of 43 iron miners from the depths of the G. Pabst mine, where they were trapped five days was completed at 11: 20 o'clock tonight. At that hour every one of the imprisoned miners had been lifted to the surface through an adjoining shaft. Physicians decided a day's rest in complete seclusion, and hospital comfort was the best way to safeguard the health of the men. Upon this advice all men were ordered to Grandview hospital. Oscar Olson, chief engineer, told of the men's experiences tonight as he came to the surface. He spent four hours with them, and directed the work of repairing a gangway for their egress. " The water is plentiful, " he said, " due to the piping system of the mine. " " Throughout all the hours of discouraging delay the men kept up their spirits. Only one or two were a trifle discouraged. When the blasting was started Sunday in the raise, they knew there was action to get them. " One or two of them thought they had heard the diamond drill which was boring from the second level of the mine. [?]
Source: Holding institution