All over this country the hunt for the unorthodox text-book is going on, and the principle upon which the revisers are working is set forth by Edward Mandel, district superintendent of schools in New York, who ordered every school principal in the city to direct his teachers of history to examine the history books and transmit reports. Said Mr. Mandel: “The question to be considered is not one of whether statements made in the text-books are truthful and based on fact, but whether propriety would be observed if they were included in them.” You will not be surprised to hear that this educational gang-leader went up to Albany, and was active in pushing through a series of bills known to the teachers as the “spoils bills,” their purpose being to undermine the merit system and give the gang entire control over promotions; and when he got through with this job, he was promoted to be associate superintendent at a considerably higher salary. The final goal of these patriots has been reached in Arkansas, where the state legislature has just passed a bill providing exactly how American history shall be taught; the teachers are to avoid “a mere recital of names and events,” and devote themselves to “instilling an understanding and a love of country,” etc. In other words, there is to be no more history, only propaganda; and any teacher who slips up on it is to be fined from one hundred to five hundred dollars, or to serve in jail from thirty days to six months, or both. As we used to say when we were youngsters, and had got somebody down with our thumb in his eye: “Now will you be good?” The leader in the crusade against what he calls “treason texts” is Mr. Charles Grant Miller, organizing director of the “Patriot League.” Mr. Miller tells me how “for years in my newspaper work I have encountered evils arising from the rivalries of text-book publishers and their unscrupulous methods of manipulating school officials and intimidating teachers.” He then goes on to tell how the Patriot League has set to work to give the text-book companies a dose of their own medicine. The haughty American Book Company has been brought to its knees; they submitted to Mr. Miller the proofs of a new school history, which had won the endorsement of the Sons of the American Revolution. But it didn’t suit Mr. Miller; he specified over three hundred unsatisfactory passages, and the American Book Company agreed to accept ninety-five per cent of these corrections. It has just sent Mr. Miller proofs of another school history, which he finds to be ninety-nine per cent all right from his viewpoint. Then they asked him to read in manuscript a new high school history; says Mr. Miller: