Commissions created. CHAPTER 3. AN ACT to create a State School Book Commission and a County Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky: 1. There is hereby created a State School Book Commission which shall consist of the Governor, the Auditor of Public Accounts, the State Treasurer, the Clerk of the Court of Appeals, and the three members of the State Board of Education. The Governor shali be chairman, and the Superintendent of Public Instruction shall be secretary, and they shall be the executive officers of said commission. The members of said School Book Commission shall serve without compensation, other than that received by them respectively, as in cumbents of the State offices which they hold. Before transacting any business relating to the duties of the commission, they shall each take an oath before some one autherized by law to administer the same, to faithfully and honestly perform all the duties imposed upon them by this act, and that they have no interest, directly or indirectly, in any contract that may be made hereunder, and that they will receive no personal benefit therefrom. All meetings. of said commission shall be held in the office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, who, as secretary of said commission shall be the custodian of all papers, records and sample books which shall at all times be held subject to inspection by any member of 1 the State School Book Commission, and said Superintendent of Public Instruction shall conduct for said Commission and under its orders all correspondence relating to the business of the same. time. § 2. The State School Book Commission shall Books, price and meet within thirty days after this act shall take effect, at a time which the Governor shall designate in writing to the several members of said commission, and shall advertise in such manner and form as they may deem best, that at a time to be fixed by said commission stated in said advertisement not later than August 1, 1904, said commission will receive at the office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction in the city of Frankfort, sealed bids or proposals from the publishers of school books for furnishing text books on the branches required to be taught in the common schools of the Commonwealth, namely: Spelling, Reading, Writing, Arith-, metic, English Grammar, including Language Lessons, English Composition, Geography, Physiology and Hygiene, Civil Government, United States History, and the History of Kentucky. Said bids or proposals shall be for furnishing such books or any of them for a period of five years and no longer; shall state specifically and clearly and in contract prices at which such book or books will be furnished to the Commonwealth of Kentucky, or to any board of education, city or county, or to their lawful agents, and said contract price shall be as low as any contract price at which said book or books are sold by said publisher under contract to any State, county, city or school district anywhere in the United States; Provided, That no bid or proposal shall be considered by said State School Book Commission or contract made for the aforesaid books to be sold at retail at a price greater than the following: For Spelling Book, twelve cents; for Primer, ten cents; for First Reader, twelve cents; for Second Reader, twenty cents; for Third Reader, twenty cents; for Fourth Reader, thirty-five cents; for Fifth Reader, forty-five cents; for Primary Arithmetic, twenty cents; for Mental Arithmetic, twenty-five cents; for Intermediate Arithmetic, twenty-five cents; for Practical Arithmetic, forty cents; for Elementary Geography, forty cents; for Complete Geography, eighty cents; for Elementary English Gramınar, twenty-five cents; for Complete English Grammar, forty cents; for Physiology and Hygiene, Complete, sixty cents; for Physiology and Hygiene, Intermediate, thirty cents; for Primary History of the United States, forty cents, Complete History of the United States, seventy cents; for History of Kentucky, sixty-five cents; for English Composition, Complete sixty-five cents; for English Composition, Elementary or Language Lessons, Part III, twenty-five cents; Language Lessons, Part II, seventeen cents; Language Lessous, Part I, twelve cents; for Civil Government, fortyfive cents; for Writing Books, five cents each. Said bids or proposals shall further set out clearly and specifically an exchange price at which said book or books shall be furnished to pupils and patrons who may have old books in actual use in school of like subject and same grade, and exchange for said new book or books, and said exchange price shall not, in any event to be more than fifty per centum of the retail price of said new book or books fixed as herein provided. Provided, That after each and every adoption under this act the exchange price as herein provided for shall apply. Each bid or proposal shall be accompanied by a sufficient number of specimen copies of all books offered for adoption to supply the State School Book Commission and each County School Book Commission with copies of each book, and a copy of each of said sample or specimen books shall be transmitted to each County Superintendent of Public Instruction by the State Superintendent of Public Instruction at the same time he transmits the lists of prices, blanks, etc., hereinafter set out. When said bids or sample copies shall have been received by said commission they shall require each bidder to deposit with the State Treasurer such sum of money which said commission may designate in writing to each bidder separately; such deposit to be not less than five hundred dollars, nor more than twenty-five hundred dollars according to the number of books each bidder may propose to supply. Such deposit of any bidder shall be forfeited absolutely to the School Fund of the State if said bidder shall fail or refuse to make and execute such contract or bond as is hereinafter required in case of the acceptance of such bid on any or all the books so offered. The deposits herein required shall be made by said bidders within ten days after receipt of said notice from the commission, and the State Treasurer shall upon receipt of such deposit report the same to the secretary of said commission. Provided, That no bid or bids from any individual, corporation, partnership, association, or joint stock company, the members of which reside in another State shall be received or considered by said commission, unless accompanied by a statement naming an agent or agents residing in this State upon whom process may be served in any action úpon said bond, and they shall in case of a change of such agent or agents, file at once in the office of the Secretary of State, a statement showing name and residence of the new agent or agents; a failure to file such statements shall be a breach of said bond. mission. § 3. A County School Book Commission is hereby County comcreated to consist of the County Superintendent of Pub Duties of State and county commission. lic Instruction, the County Judge and the County At torney of each county respectively, of which the County Superintendent shall be Chairman. § 4. The State School Book Commission shall open and examine said bids and ascertain whether the net contract prices offered therein are in accordance with the provisions of this act, and within thirty days after date provided for the submission of sealed bids as provided in section two of this act shall transmit to the several County Superintendents of Public Instruction a complete list of such books so offered by the various bidders and shall notify said County Superintendents of Public Instruction to convene the County School Book Commissions of their respective counties on the day to be designated in such notice for the purpose of examining and selecting books from said list for a uniform and exclusive use of the common schools of this Commonwealth. Prorided, That all books so furnished to County School Book Commissions for this purpose, excepting the samples of the books selected and adopted, shall be returned to their respective bidders when the selection of books as herein required shall have been completed. The State School Book Commission shall send to the County Superintendents of Public Instruction, in addition to the lists of books and the prices thereof from which they may make their selection, a copy of this act, such blanks as are required for making said selection of books and such instructions relative to their duties hereunder as may be deemed necessary: Provided, That the blank on which the County School Book Commission shall report the list of books selected by them shall contain in proper form an oath to which each shall subscribe, that he has faithfully, and to the best of his ability, performed the duties required thereunder, and that he is not in any way, directly or indi |