nant with promise of permanent prosperity to the American people only because it was organized with marvelous shrewdness. We cannot enjoy similar advantages from applying to the principle of local self-government within the State unless we will similarly have some regard to political experience and exercise some sense and political judgment. One rule which we must follow is this: that duties of local government can never be wisely laid on any community which is not so constituted as to have a vigorous, independent public life.

Our old New England towns have such a vigorous public life of their own. But when you take away the duties of local government from the towns and give these to from six to twenty little fractions of the towns, you are violating sound principles of political organization. The effect of the changes of population in Connecticut has been to make this more apparent and to leave the life of hundreds of school districts feebler and feebler from year to year. There are many of them which really have not within their limits a single man who is fit to have the hiring of a school teacher. The population of very many has become so small that the law of averages, which in a considerable community by neutralizing the selfishness of individuals makes the rule of majorities bearable, no longer has any chance to operate. A single family may control the school in the most brutal disregard of the public interest. In hundreds of districts girls are kept as teachers who are ignorant and incapable simply because they are sisters or daughters or nieces or because they will pay the larger part of their salaries to the committee man for board.

All the history of political institutions is the story of efforts to prevent this kind of use of political authority. After centuries of groping experiment we have found out that on the whole there is only one way of getting ourselves governed with some sort of genuine regard for the public interest and that is to develop some shrewd organization which will really make those in authority feel a practical responsibility to an intelligent public opinion. This is just what you do not accomplish and cannot accomplish within these little school districts and this is why you now have and always will have all sorts of abuses within them. There is no more sense in

a district management of schools, than there would be in a district management of the poor or of the roads. I believe in local self-government, but I believe also that by restoring to the towns the complete responsibility for the common schools you tend to increase the public interest in town affairs, to invigorate the local public life, and to encourage the development of a watchful and intelligent public opinion without which you can have no self-government that will not fail of thorough success. In one sense the change effected by this bill is a very slight one. In the first place it substi tutes the authority of one committee elected in annual town meeting for the dual and conflicting authority of school visitors and district committee men. There is certainly nothing very terrifying about this change. We should think a private business pretty poorly organized if the man who superintended it had nothing to say about the employment of workmen, and if the employer of the workmen never went near the work or consulted the superintendent. But that is just the principle on which we manage our schools. The acting school visitor almost always knows something about education, and on that account is chosen to inspect the schools. The district committee man in most country towns is not chosen because he knows anything about education, nor does he ever go near his school. But he hires and dismisses teachers at his own pleasure and practically the school visitor has nothing to say about it.

In the second place this bill substitutes the town meeting for the little district meeting. There is certainly nothing very alarming about that.

In the third place it makes all the property of the town pay the same rate of taxes. There is certainly nothing but justice in that, yet these are all the changes which this bill makes.

The importance of the measure to my mind lies in the fact that these changes, slight as they are, involve the substitution of a good organization for one which is unsound in principle and inefficient in operation. We cannot, by passing this bill, legislate good schools into the places of bad ones.

The responsibility for the character of the schools is still left entirely with the local communities.

But by removing the obstacles which a bad system of school management now creates we shall certainly bring nearer the day when every child in the State shall enjoy that opportunity of a good common school education which is our shame to anywhere fail of providing.

LEGISLATION.

The following Acts relating to education were passed at the January, 1887, session of the General Assembly.

CHAPTER XXIII.

An Act concerning Education.

The agents appointed by the State Board of Education, in accordance with the provisions of section three of chapter one hundred and twenty-four of the public acts of 1886 (page 624), may be directed by said board to enforce the provisions of law requiring the attendance of children in school and to perform any duties necessary or proper for the due execution of the duties and powers of the board.

CHAPTER CXIX.

An Act concerning the Property of Union School Districts.

SECTION 1. Whenever any town shall have assumed control of and appraised the school property as provided in section five, chapter six, title eleven of the general statutes, the town may, by vote in town meeting, extend the time in which the tax payers of any district or districts shall be required to pay the excess of assessment over the appraised value of the property in such district for a period not exceeding five years; and all the property belonging to the school districts over which any town has assumed or shall assume control shall be vested in such town, to be held for school purposes so long as so required, and may be sold and deeded by said town when not required for school

purposes.

SEC. 2. Whenever any town has voted or hereafter shall vote to assume control of all the schools, as provided in chapter six, title eleven of the general statutes, in case there is a joint dis

trict the selectmen of the towns out of which such joint district is formed shall meet within ten days after receiving a written request for such meeting, signed by the first selectman of either of said towns, and appraise the school-house and other school property owned and used by said joint district, and determine what proportion is owned by the inhabitants of the towns residing in said district. If the several boards of selectmen shall not agree, the same shall be determined by a judge of the superior court upon application of either of the boards of selectmen, and his decision shall be final. The proportion belonging to the taxpayers of the town in which the property is not located, after deducting the indebtedness of the district, shall be paid to the treasurer of such town by the treasurer of the town in which such property is located, and the same shall be remitted to the tax-payers of said town.

CHAPTER CXXV.

An Act amending an Act concerning Public Schools and School Districts.

Section two, of chapter one hundred and six of the public acts. of 1886 (page 611), is hereby amended by striking out from the second line of said section the word "July," and inserting in place thereof the word " June," so that said section will read: The school visitors and selectmen in each town shall meet as a joint board on the second Tuesday in June in each year for the election of officers and the transaction of any other business relating to schools.

CHAPTER CXXXVI.

An Act concerning the election of Women as School Committee.

No person shall be deemed ineligible to serve as a member of any board of education, board of school visitors, school committee, or district committee, or disqualified from holding such office by reason of sex.

CHAPTER CXLIV.

An Act relating to Text-Books in Reading.

SECTION 1. The board of education of any district or the board of school visitors or town school committee of any town

may, in addition to the text-books prescribed according to the provisions of section one, chapter four, title eleven of the general statutes, prescribe the use of other series of books to be used as text-books in reading; provided, such additional series are purchased by the district or town and the use thereof furnished free to the scholars.

SEC. 2. This act shall take effect from its passage.

CHAPTER CXLV.

An Act amending an Act relating to the Instruction of Children.

SECTION 1. Section two of chapter ninety of the public acts of 1885, is amended to read as follows: Children under thirteen years of age who have attended school twenty-four weeks of the preceding twelve months, and children between thirteen and fourteen who have attended school twelve weeks of the preceding twelve months, according to the requirements of chapter eighty (page 162) of the public acts of 1882, and children over fourteen years of age, shall not be subject to the requirements of the preceding section while lawfully employed to labor at home or elsewhere, but this section shall not be construed to exempt any child who is enrolled as a member of a school from any rule concerning irregularity of attendance which has been enacted or may be enacted by the town school committee, board of visitors, or board of education having control of the school.

SEC. 2. Section three of the same chapter is amended to read as follows: Each week's failure on the part of any person to comply with the provisions of the preceding sections shall be a distinct offence, punishable with a fine not exceeding five dollars. Said penalty shall not be incurred when it appears that the child is destitute of clothing suitable for attending school, and the parent or person having control of such child is unable to provide such clothing, or the mental or physical condition of such child is such as to render its instruction inexpedient or impracticable. Prosecutions under this act shall be conducted and judgment may be suspended as provided in section two of chapter eighty (page 162) of the public acts of 1882, and certificates shall be furnished and required as provided in section four of said act.