cational journal, the subscription payable out of the State School Fund. This provision placed the journal on a paying basis. After the first year, the State Educational Society assumed the control of the Teacher, electing its editors annually. By the Revised School Law of 1865, the State Superintendent was made, ex-officio, one of the editors. Messrs. Swezey and Swett. continued to edit the journal until July, 1868. At the end of this time, Mr. Swezey made the following report: OFFICE OF "THE CALIFORNIA TEACHER," SAN FRANCISCO, June 17, 1868. TO THE CALIFORNIA EDUCATIONAL SOCIETY. GENTLEMEN: The undersigned, as acting publisher of the California Teacher, desires to present the following facts for your information: 1. The California Teacher was established at the State Institute, held in May, 1863, at the same time that your society was formally organized; since which time you have been recognized as the proper representative of the teachers' profession in this State. The Institute elected John Swett, Geo. Tait, Geo. W. Minns, and the undersigned, as resident editors; and, owing to the pressure of engagements upon the gentlemen named, the publishing duties were devolved upon the undersigned, who has continued to perform those duties through the entire five years, closing with the number for June, 1868. At the close of the first volume, the authority of your society was editorially recognized in the following terms: The Teacher will be guided by the wise hand of the California Educational Society, to which, indeed, we have hitherto looked, as the representative of the teachers in the State. What that society says in regard to editors, will be regarded as law; and whenever it desires a change, the resident editors of the first volume will rejoice in their relief from responsibility of no small magnitude, while they give a cheerful hand to their successors in office." (California Teacher, vol. 1, p. 310.) On the 18th of June, 1864, your Society unanimously and formally consented to assume the responsibility of the publication, and thereupon unanimously elected as resident editors, John Swett, George Tait, and the undersigned. (California Teacher, vol. 2, p. 23.) On the 5th of June, 1865, your Society elected John Swett, John C. Pelton, and the undersigned, as resident editors for the ensuing year. (California Teacher, vol. 3, p. 54.) Since that time there seems to have been no formal action taken upon this subject, though the principle has been regarded as settled that the State Superintendent and the City Superintendent of San Francisco should always be among the resident editors. 2. Under Section 84 of the Revised School Law, the State Board of Education, on the 13th of April, 1866, unanimously designated this journal as the official organ of education in this State. (California Teacher, vol. 3, p. 293.) And since that time the expenses of publishing the Teacher have been mainly met by the proceeds of the State subscription. This was to be expected. The proportion of teachers in any State who pay for an educational journal which they can read without paying for, is very small; and since the Teacher has been sent to every district, comparatively few private subscriptions have been received. The amount received at this date for subscriptions to vol. 6, commencing with the number for July, is $48.60. 3. As a matter of fact, the entire labor of conducting the Teacher has been performed by Mr. Swett and the undersigned [Mr. Swezey]. The two have acted in harmony, and have exercised a mutual supervision over each other. Any article or paragraph to which either has objected has been suppressed. The Department of Public Instruction in the Teacher, however, was under the exclusive control of Mr. Swett during his administration; while, as a general rule, the book notices were the special department of the undersigned, who has also attended to the proof reading, mailing, accounts, and business correspondence. The receipts of the first two years did not equal the cost of printing. The third year, the receipts and expenses were about equal. During the fourth and fifth years, the receipts have so far exceeded the expenses as to enable the undersigned to depute to other hands the actual drudgery of mailing; and at the end of the whole term, the two working resident editors are able to rejoice in the fact that they are neither material losers nor gainers pecuniarily in the conduct of their editorial experiments. Last year, the balance sufficed to meet a portion of the office rent of the undersigned, and to leave perhaps $25 per month to the editors, as compensation for the labor bestowed. During the year now ending, the same result is probable, though, as the bills are not all settled, it is impracticable to speak positively on the subject. At the close of each volume, Mr. Swett and the undersigned have divided equally the profits or the losses of the year, and commenced the succeeding one with clear books, to stand or fall on its own merits. 4. A grave practical question comes before your society to-day, arising from the following state of facts: Upon the accession to office of the present State Superintendent, he assumed that, as a matter of course, the Teacher came under his personal and supreme control. In the view of the undersigned, however, the Teacher is to be conducted by persons designated by your society; and they are to act until their successors are appointed--the statute giving the State Superintendent, as such, absolute control over simply his own department in the journal. The Superintendent was informed, therefore, of the time by which the printers were expected to receive the matter for each monthly issue; that whatever space he required for his department was always to be at his service; and that, to avoid any apparent supervision of what he should choose to insert, the printers would be instructed to return the proof-slips of his department direct to his office, so that the appointed editors would not know what he should print, until they saw it in the completed journal. This seems to have been unsatisfactory to the Superintendent, and he declines to accept the proposition, or to use the Teacher as provided by law. At the last meeting of the State Board of Education, the Superintendent announced his intention, if the exclusive control of the Teacher should not be placed in his own hands, to commence the publication of an educational journal on his own account, which he should desire to have designated by the Board as the organ of the department. The Board so far deferred to his wishes as to formally rescind the designation of the California Teacher, and the matter was then left until after your present meeting should be held. Should you abandon the plan hitherto acted upon, and elect the State Superintendent as controlling editor, there is no doubt that his objections to the designation of the California Teacher will be at once withdrawn; and it seems to be equally certain that, should you continue the plan hitherto acted upon, it will rest with the State Board of Education, to make choice between the journal responsible to the profession, as teachers of the State, and a journal under the supreme control of the present State Superintendent, as editor and publisher. With the undersigned, as to the principle involved, there is no shadow of doubt. The example of all educational journals at the East, favors the plan heretofore acted upon, that the teachers, in their highest associated capacity, should name the editors, and the State Superintendent should have entire control, simply, of one department in the teachers' organ. As to the few hundred dollars that may be saved in the publication of the California Teacher, each year, the undersigned, for himself (and, as he thinks, for Mr. Swett), is decided in the wish, that any other persons who think the amount received will properly pay for the responsibility attached, should be elected by your society to the editorial office. All which is respectfully submitted. SAMUEL I. C. SWEZEY. In July, 1868, State Superintendent Fitzgerald and A. L. Fitzgerald were elected editors. In 1872, the State Society elected John Swett, associate editor, with State Supt. Bolander; and, in the year following, the journal was taken out of the hands of the State Society, and its entire control was assumed by Supt. Bolander. At this time, the State subscription amounted to $4,000 a year. In 1876, the Legislature cut off the State subscription, which ended the publication of the California Teacher. THE PIONEER JOURNAL. The first educational journal published in this State was The Bookseller, published in 1860, by H. H. Bancroft & Co., and edited by John Swett. It maintained a lingering existence of a year, and then died of starvation. It contained two fine articles by Starr King, one by Dr. Tuthill, and other able papers. CONTRIBUTORS TO THE TEACHER. The following list includes most of the teachers who were contributors to the State educational journal: |