Copyright}]^ 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 
 
EDUCATION IN MINNESOTA 
 
 IN TWO PARTS 
 
 PART I 
 
 History of Education 
 IN Minnesota 
 
 BY 
 
 DAVID L. KIEHLE, LL. D. 
 
 EX-STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 
 
 LATE PROFESSOR OF PEDAGOGY IN THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA 
 
 MINNEAPOLIS , 
 
 THE H. W. WILSON COMPANY 
 1903 
 
THE LIBRARY OF 
 CONGRESS, 
 
 Two Copies Received 
 
 JUL 20 1903 
 
 Copynglnt Entry 
 
 CUSS^ ^ XXfcN», 
 
 COPY B. 
 
 V 
 
 
 Copyright by 
 
 The H. W. Wilson Company 
 
 1903 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 We study the history of institutions in order 
 the better to understand our own. We begin by 
 studying- our own, after which we study those 
 that will help us interpret the one under which 
 we live. In education -if^will be found a very 
 interesting as well as profitable study to notice 
 how old forms and ideas have been incorporated 
 in the systems of the present, and how new ideas 
 are struggling for recognition and a place. Our 
 state is near enough to the past to feel the power 
 of a system of aristocratic education, and at the 
 same time to be fully possessed with democratic 
 ideas of a practical education for all the people. 
 
 Upon the invitation of the State Historical 
 Society I had the honor to prepare and present 
 before that society at its annual meeting a His- 
 tory of Education in Minnesota. Upon the basis 
 of this address I have prepared this volume with 
 special reference to our educational public. Its 
 plan is to indicate the development of the per- 
 manent factors of our school system, and to 
 show' the place of our system in those of the 
 present day. 
 
 If this contribution shall prove to be in some 
 
4 PREFACE 
 
 measure helpful to a better understanding of 
 what we are, and toward what we aspire in a 
 genuine education for all the people, and so 
 make us wiser educators and better citizens, I 
 shall not count my task unfruitful. 
 
 D. L. K. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 I. Territorial Organization 7 
 
 II. Common Schools under the State Government 17 
 
 Administration of the School Fund ... 17 
 
 State Aid to Education 20 
 
 State Special Aid 23 
 
 Libraries 24 
 
 Supervision 24, 30 
 
 The Improvement of Teachers .... 31 
 
 Normal Schools 32 
 
 III. Higher Education 40 
 
 Financial History of the University . . 44 
 
 John S. Pillsbury as Regent 52 
 
 The Beginnings of University Life ... 54 
 
 Administration of President Folwell . . 55 
 
 Administration of President Northrop . . 59 
 
 Support of the University 60 
 
 Buildings 61 
 
 Industrial Education 62 
 
 The Agricultural College Established . . 64 
 
 Agricultural Education 68 
 
 The New Experimental Farm .... 72 
 
 The School of Agriculture 75 
 
 Professional Departments 82 
 
 The Department of Pedagogy .... 82 
 
 IV. Secondary Education gi 
 
 State High Schools 94 
 
 V. Schools for Defectives and Homeless Children 102 
 
 b1bl10c7raphv 113 
 
 Tables 115 
 
HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 IX MINNESOTA 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Territorial Period. 
 
 The planting and fostering of a system of ed- 
 ucation in a new state is the most far-reaching 
 event in its history. The pioneers who did this 
 service stand as the representatives of the world's 
 civilization at its high water mark. These men 
 and women of that early day brought with them 
 the courage and endurance necessary to face the 
 hardships and dangers of unsubdued nature in 
 climate, land and flood and still held by unsubdued 
 savage life. They opened up highways of travel, 
 built towns and factories, and more than all, they 
 brought in their own characters and ideals the 
 best of modern life in homes, churches and 
 schools. They sought not merely lands and 
 wealth for themselves, but they laid the founda- 
 tions of a system of education in which their 
 children should inherit the learning and culture 
 of the world's historv, and so make themselves 
 
8 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 a part of the continuous history of a Christian 
 civiHzation. Standing as we now do in the en- 
 joyment of the fruitage of this great system in its 
 full vigor and maturity, abreast of the age, and 
 respected by our sister states for what we have 
 done, and still promise for the future, we review 
 with pride the record of our fathers. 
 
 Of those most prominent in this early public 
 service there remains with us only our venerable 
 fellow citizen, Ex-Governor Ramsey/ still the 
 honored president of our State Historical So- 
 ciety, who, in his public and private capacity 
 has rendered invaluable aid by his wise counsel 
 in the erection of this noble structure, and of 
 which he might with modesty say with the tra- 
 ditional founder of the old Roman state, "Quor- 
 um magna pars fui." We congratulate our re- 
 spected fellow citizen that it is his privilege to 
 witness the magnificence and the beneficence of 
 this superstructure of education, the cornerstone 
 of which he helped to lay in those troublous 
 times. 
 
 The honor due these builders of our state is 
 enhanced in the fact, that, besides subduing the 
 wilderness and savagery of this new world, they 
 had to establish the institutions of a Christian 
 civilization in opposition to the corrupting vices 
 ^Deceased since this chapter was written. 
 
IN MINNESOTA 9 
 
 of greed and animalism that always attach them- 
 selves to a vigorous and exuberant life of enter- 
 prise and prosperity. While the dregs of civili- 
 zation fostered houses of debauchery, drunken- 
 ness and licentiousness, these men planted school- 
 houses, churches and homes of love and virtue. 
 May their memories ever be cherished, and their 
 examples of courage and virtue be an inspiration 
 to the youth for whose education they have made 
 provision. 
 
 The Beginning. 
 The spirit of our modern civilization was act- 
 ive in education before the state as an institution 
 had organic form, and long before the elements 
 were at hand for the organization of a state sys- 
 tem. When Minnesota first became known as a 
 territory in 1849, there were but three centers 
 of civil and social life so far developed as to fur- 
 nish starting points for schools, namely, Still- 
 water, St. Paul and St. Anthony. At these points 
 were elementar}^ private schools — Miss Horn- 
 beck (Mrs. H. L. Morse) at Stillwater, Miss 
 Backus at St. Anthony, and at St. Paul, Miss 
 Bishop and Miss Scofield. Two years before. 
 Dr. Thomas S. Williamson, a pioneer missionary 
 to the Indians, in the catholicity of his spirit took 
 in the higher interests of the white people of St. 
 Paul, wrote to Ex-Governor Slade of Vermont, 
 
10 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 President of the National Popular Education 
 Society, representing that in this village there 
 were some thirty-six children of school age, and 
 requested that a teacher be sent them. In re- 
 sponse to this appeal Miss Bishop came. She 
 has described her schoolhouse as a log hovel 
 some 10 by 12 ft., covered with bark and chinked 
 with mud, and previously used as a blacksmith 
 shop. On the sides, pegs were driven into the 
 logs, and upon them boards v/ere laid for seats. 
 This little log schoolhouse was located on St. 
 Anthony street — the old site of the First Presby- 
 terian Church. It is also memorable in being 
 the place where the first public school meeting 
 was held in November, 1849, immediately after 
 the organization of the territory. 
 
 Christian Schools. 
 
 Inasmuch as the earliest educational influences 
 were represented in the missionary spirit of in- 
 dividuals and Christian denominations, this seems 
 to be the place to recognize the continued enter- 
 prise of these high-minded men and women 
 down to the present day. Their work has not 
 been superseded by the more comprehensive plan 
 of the state that followed. With the specific aims 
 of providing an educated laity and ministry, they 
 also established schools of hia-her learniner for 
 
IN MINNESOTA ii 
 
 all who would avail themselves of these advan- 
 tages. 
 
 In 1853 the Baldwin school in St. Paul, open 
 to both sexes, was incorporated, and in the fol- 
 lowing year Baldwin College was opened to 
 young men. The sparsely settled condition of 
 the country, the unorganized condition of soci- 
 ety, accompanied by the financial stress of 1857, 
 and followed by the civil war of 1861-65, arrest- 
 ed all educational enterprises, so that we must 
 look for their continued history in the years fol- 
 lowing. In 1874 through a bequest of Charles 
 Macalester of Philadelphia the name of Baldwin 
 College was changed to Macalester College, and 
 it was permanently located with buildings for in- 
 struction and residences for professors on its pres- 
 ent campus of thirty acres in St. Paul, under the 
 presidency of Rev. James Wallace, Ph.D. It is 
 deserving of record that the founding of this 
 college is chiefly due to the laborious efforts of 
 Rev. Edward D. Neill, D.D., the pioneer mis- 
 sionary and educator who came to this state in 
 1849. ^6 ^^'^'S not only the servant of his own 
 denomination, but as a public spirited citizen and 
 cultivated scholar, he was identified with the civil 
 life of the state, and was one of the influential 
 leaders in developing its educational system, as 
 we shall have occasion to notice further on. 
 
12 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 The Methodist denomination moved early in 
 estabhshing Hamline University in 1854, form- 
 ally opened to men and women in 1857. It 
 was located at Red Wing, which "in 1849 l^^d a 
 population of 305, — 300 being Sionx Indians, 
 and the five being two missionaries with the 
 wife and child of one, and the government farm- 
 er." "In all, between the years 1857 and 1869, 
 the university graduated 14 women and 9 men." 
 
 Hamline University, after a struggling career 
 of many years, owing to conditions already not- 
 ed, dates its new and prosperous history after its 
 removal to its present location between the Twin 
 Cities in 1869, and its re-opening in 1880 as a 
 collegiate institution under the presidency of 
 Rev. D. C. John, D.D. (1880-1883), and Rev. 
 George H. Bridgman, D.D., its present adminis- 
 trative ofificer and president. 
 
 The ending of the Civil War and the estab- 
 lished union of the divided states marks the be- 
 ginning of the larger industrial and educational 
 prosperity of the state. Every religious denom- 
 ination has been active in contributing its in- 
 fluence to the upbuilding of the state in intelli- 
 gence and morality. The Bishop Seabury Mis- 
 sion, chartered in i860, includes the system of 
 academic and divinity schools located at Fari- 
 bault. These stand as a monument to the enter- 
 
IN MINNESOTA 15 
 
 prise and philanthropy of the Episcopal Church. 
 
 At Northfield, in 1867, was opened the pre- 
 paratory department of what in 1870 took per- 
 manent form in the opening of Carleton College 
 under the presidency of Rev. James W. Strong, 
 D.D., who has just closed his long and success- 
 ful administration. 
 
 In 1864 St. John's College was established 
 by the Order of St. Benedict and located 
 at Collegeville. Following the sixties the re- 
 ligious and educational spirit of the state, 
 Protestant and Catholic, multiplied schools and 
 academies in all parts of the state, and sq 
 making the best possible provision for the ele- 
 mentary and higher- instruction of our youth in 
 the absence of the more comprehensive system 
 which the state has since provided. 
 
 Appended, will be found a list of the second- 
 ary and higher institutions now established and 
 supported by private benefactions and religious 
 associations of loyal citizens of the state, who in 
 addition bear their full share in support of our 
 public school system. 
 
 The noticeable characteristic of our own, as 
 of all educational history, is in this, that provis- 
 ion is first made for the higher education and 
 leadership of those who control and give direc- 
 tion to the institutional life. If society has an 
 
14 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 intelligent, virtuous and philanthropic leadership 
 in a few good men and women the masses will 
 follow and obey in confidence. Then again, these 
 movements find support among a class who are 
 impressed by the greatness of an institution, and 
 who are pleased to be identified with an institu- 
 tion that receives public honor. These will often 
 help to build capitols and monuments before 
 they build homes for their own children. For all 
 these reasons the university movement m terri- 
 torial days was a more engrossing subject than 
 the public schools. However, all elements of the 
 system were in view from the first, as we shall 
 see. 
 
 The history of education in Minnesota belongs 
 to a second great chapter of our nation's his- 
 tory, which dates from the Ordinance of 1787, 
 when the old states of New England, New York, 
 and Virginia ceded their claims to territory in 
 the northwest to the General Government, and 
 when this new empire of the great west began its 
 history, estabHshed on the "trinity of principles, 
 free labor, free religion, and free education." At 
 that time the Government set apart one-thirtv- 
 sixth of the public domain — section sixteen of 
 each township — for the support of common 
 schools. In 1848, upon the organization of the 
 Territory of Oregon, the national grant to com- 
 
IN MINNESOTA 15 
 
 mon schools was increased to two sections in 
 each township-section, — number thirty-six being 
 added. 
 
 The first Assembly of the Territory of Minne- 
 sota convened September 3, 1849. Its Governor, 
 the Honorable Alexander Ramsey, in his mes- 
 sage presented the interests of education in these 
 words. "The subject of education, which has 
 ever been esteemed of the first importance, es- 
 pecially in all new American communities, de- 
 serves, and I doubt not will receive, your ear- 
 liest and most devoted care. From the pressure 
 of other and more immediate wants, it is not to 
 
 Alexander Ramsey was born near Harrisburg, Penn- 
 sylvania, September 8, 1815. His parentage was Scotch- 
 Irish on his father's side and German on tliat of his 
 mother. At eighteen he attended Lafayette College, 
 then read law in Harrisburg, attended law school at Car- 
 lisle and was admitted to practice in 1839. His political 
 life began in 1840 with the Harrison campaign; he was a 
 member of the lower house of Congress from 1843 to 
 1847, and the year following was made chairman of the 
 whig state central committee in the campaign which re- 
 sulted in the election of General Zachary Taylor to the 
 presidency. Upon his inauguration, President Taylor 
 appointed Mr. Ramsey Governor of the Territory of 
 Minnesota, April 2, 1849, and he served four years. In 
 1859 he was elected the second Govenor of the state, 
 serving two terms. In 1863 Governor Ramsey was 
 chosen United States Senator, and was re-elected in 
 i86g, serving twelve years. Governor Ramsey lived to 
 see the development of the state in all its interests with 
 which he had been long and closely identified. He died 
 at his home in St. Paul April 22, 1903. 
 
i6 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 be expected that your school system should be 
 very ample; yet it is desirable that whatever is 
 done should be of a character that will readily 
 adapt itself to the growth and increase of the 
 country, and not in future years require a vio- 
 lent change of system." 
 
 The territorial school code made provision for, 
 (i) The appointment of a Superintendent of 
 Public Instruction, — Edward D. Neill being the 
 first, and at the same salary as the Treasurer and 
 Auditor — $ioo per annum. (2) The division of 
 the township into districts, whenever the district 
 contains ten or more families. (3) The levy of 
 a county tax of two and a half mills for the sup- 
 port of schools, to which was added fifteen per 
 cent of all liquor licenses and fines for criminal 
 offense. 
 
 The first report of Superintendent Neill for 
 the year 185 1 gives eight districts in Ramsey 
 County with three school houses valued at $1600, 
 and four districts in Washington County, but 
 with no school houses. 
 
ALEXANDER RAMSEY 
 
CHAPTER 11. 
 
 Common Schools Under the State 
 Government. 
 
 For the permanent organization of our com- 
 mon school system we must pass on to the organ- 
 ization of the state government and the adoption 
 of the Constitution. 
 
 The record of the proceedings of the Con- 
 vention which began its sessions July 13, 1857, 
 gives us a view of the interesting problems thai 
 were then considered and adjusted regarding 
 the administration of our school fund. 
 
 The Administration oe School Funds. 
 
 Prominent was the question whether, inas- 
 much as the public lands were designated as the 
 sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections of each town- 
 ship, the revenue accruing should not be admin- 
 istered by township authorities for the support 
 of the schools of the township in which the lands 
 were located. In favor of this policy, two reas- 
 ons were urged ; First, that instead of appropri- 
 ating the lands in bulk as they were for the uni- 
 versity, they had been distributed in townships, 
 which would seem to indicate that thev were for 
 
i8 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 the respective townships in which they were lo- 
 cated. Second, that to put all these lands under 
 the control of an administration located at St. 
 Paul savored too much of centralization, by re- 
 moving them too far from the people. This view 
 was supported by the recent experience of our 
 nearest neighbor, Wisconsin, where, through the 
 mismanagement and defaulting of state ofificers, 
 the lands were sold at nominal prices to spec- 
 ulators, and the interests of the state largely 
 sacrificed. 
 
 On the other hand it was held ; First, that al- 
 though these lands were located by sections of 
 townships, it is expressly stated in the act author- 
 izing a state government, that these lands "shall 
 be granted to said state, for the use of schools." 
 (Sec. 5) Second; that there was great dispar- 
 ity in the value of these lands, and that conse- 
 quently great hardship would be entailed upon 
 some, while other townships would be made 
 quite self-supporting, and for reasons such as 
 these : Some lands were more valuable than 
 others, because of their fertility or their location 
 near commercial centers. In some townships 
 the school sections were valueless, being located 
 in swamps or lying under water, while in other 
 townships these sections had already been pre- 
 empted, and, therefore, were not available for 
 
IN MINNESOTA 19 
 
 school purposes. The wise conclusion of the 
 convention is incorporated in Article VIII, Sec. 
 2, of the State Constitution, in which the public 
 school lands are to be administered by the state 
 for the scholars of the state, to be sold at public 
 sale and not more than one-third in two years, 
 one-third in five years, and one-third in ten 
 years, the most valuable lands to be sold first ; 
 and that the principal shall constitute an inviolate 
 permanent fund, the income from which shall be 
 distributed according to the number of scholars 
 between the ages of five and twenty-one years. 
 
 This conservative spirit of the convention was 
 expressed in subsequent legislation (1866), pro- 
 hibiting the sale of school lands for less than five 
 dollars an acre; and in 1875 by amendment to 
 the constitution providing for the safe investment 
 of school funds in bonds of the State of Minne- 
 sota and of the United States. In 1896 an ad- 
 ditional amendment provided for the investment 
 of school funds in bonds of counties, school dis- 
 tricts, cities, towns and villages of the state to a 
 very limited amount under the direction and 
 with the approval of a designated board of com- 
 missioners. 
 
 The history of the common school fund of 
 Minnesota bears a most honorable testimony to 
 the business sagacity and the conscientious faith- 
 
20 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 fulness of the officers of the state who have been 
 charged with its administration. The table ap- 
 pended shows the increase of this fund by five- 
 year intervals to the present, when it amounts 
 to $14,316,389. 
 
 State Aid to Education. 
 
 A vital principle in public education was in- 
 volved in this act of the constitutional conven- 
 tion, which extended far beyond the mere meth- 
 od of administrating public funds, namely this : 
 Shall the children be treated as wards of the 
 township and county, or shall they be recognized 
 as the wards of the state? And, shall responsi- 
 bility for their education be left with the town- 
 ship, or with the state? 
 
 In deciding that national grants were given to 
 the state for the children of the state, the con- 
 vention impliedly affirmed that the state must 
 assume its share of responsibility, not only in 
 requiring townships to support their schools^ but 
 also in contributing to the support of the schools 
 over which they have control. 
 
 This principle was long in receiving substan- 
 tial recognition in state financial support of the 
 common schools. The county two and a half 
 mill tax, which had been levied and apportioned 
 by counties "in proportion to persons between 
 
IN MINNESOTA 21 
 
 4 and 21 years of age" had been changed in 1877 
 to what was substantially a compulsory district 
 one mill tax ; and yet by some this was called 
 a state mill tax. 
 
 In his report to the legislature of 1879 State 
 Superintendent Burt exposed the fallacy of this 
 view, and urged with great force the reasonable- 
 ness and importance of state support for com- 
 mon schools. But it was not till 1887 that upon 
 the re-presentation of the pressing importance 
 of this matter by State Superintendent Kiehle, 
 the principle was recognized, and a state one mill 
 tax was levied for the support of common 
 schools. 
 
 A second principle established by the consti- 
 tutional convention was involved in the question 
 whether the distribution to townships should be 
 made according to school population or to schol- 
 ars. It was decided for the latter, that "the in- 
 come arising from the lease or sale of said school 
 lands shall be distributed to the different town- 
 ships throughout the state in proportion to the 
 number of scholars between the ages of five and 
 twenty-one years." This involved the next ques- 
 tion, Who are "scholars?" And this was finally 
 decided by the legislature of 1887, that in view 
 of the fact that the word "persons" was rejected 
 by the framers of the constitution, and the word 
 
22 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 "scholars" inserted, the word must be taken in 
 its literal, restrictive sense, and not as synony- 
 mous with either "persons," "children," or 
 "youth." In other words, "scholars" are those 
 who attend school, and consequently, the dis- 
 tribution of public school moneys shall be for 
 their benefit and for no others. This decision 
 took form in the present statute of 1887, which 
 distributes the national and state school appor- 
 tionment "in proportion to the number of schol- 
 ars between the ages of five and twenty-one 
 years who have been enrolled and have been in 
 attendance forty days in the public schools." It 
 was also provided in this same statute (1887) 
 that the schools should be held for not less than 
 five months each year. 
 
 Considering that the early settlers of the state 
 were of various sorts and conditions, from many 
 different states of the Union, and diflferent coun- 
 tries of Europe, generally in straitened circum- 
 stances and struggling for a livelihood, we can- 
 not wonder that it was quite impossible for the 
 few public spirited to dispose the rural popula- 
 tion to great sacrifice for the education of their 
 children. Hence the support and encouragement 
 given by the General Government was a neces- 
 sity in the early organization of our school 
 svstem. 
 
IN MINNESOTA 23 
 
 State Aid for Special Rural and Semi- 
 Graded Schools. 
 
 As we have noted the beginning- of state aid 
 to common schools, it seems best to complete 
 the history of this movement of state aid down 
 to the present, and show how large a place it has 
 had in promoting education in the rural dis- 
 tricts. 
 
 The next step in progress was to offer special 
 aid to districts affording additional advantages 
 for the education of their children in long terms, 
 better prepared teachers and better equipped 
 school buildings. These schools, according ^o 
 their advancement, were classified as rural, semi- 
 graded, graded schools and state high schools. 
 These schools are placed under special supervis- 
 ion, and are afforded aid ranging from one 
 hundred twenty-five to fifteen hundred dollars 
 each. (For fuller details see Part II.) 
 
 This generous aid of the state has proven a 
 marvelous stimulus to education. The amounts 
 given have encouraged districts to make corres- 
 ponding expenditures in schoolhouses and equip- 
 ment, and instead of making the people depend- 
 ent upon the state they have grown ambitious to 
 do more for themselves. 
 
24 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 And still more has the state done for the im- 
 provement of the common schools. 
 
 Libraries. 
 
 In the year 1885 the legislature passed the 
 library law, which provided that districts which 
 make suitable provision for the care of their 
 libraries, and make purchases of books from the 
 authorized list shall receive one-half the amount 
 expended up to ten dollars for the first statement, 
 and five dollars for each subsequent statement — 
 these statements being made annually. In 1895 
 this allowance was doubled. 
 
 By the aid of this appropriation rural and vil- 
 lage schools, many of which had no books but 
 their ordinary text books, have been supplied 
 with the world's choicest literature, in books 
 of biography, travel, geography and history, 
 which make school life and studv one of delight 
 and intellectual growth. 
 
 State Supervision of Education. 
 
 Competent supervision is essential to the de- 
 velopment of any system of education, and equal- 
 ly essential to its efficient conduct. The superin- 
 tendent represents in his character and ideals the 
 maturest results of experience as they find ex- 
 pression in the best public sentiment of the times. 
 
IN MINNESOTA 25 
 
 The State of Minnesota was led in the build- 
 ing up of its educational system by a man who 
 brought with him the classical culture of the 
 east, and a broad view of the moral and 
 intellectual demands of an American civilization. 
 Edward D. Neill was the first territorial superin- 
 tendent, the first chancellor of the University of 
 Minnesota, and the first State Superintendent of 
 Public Instruction, in which he served from 
 April I, i860 to May i, 1861. In his first re- 
 port (i860) he makes the following recommend- 
 ations : 
 
 1. Provision should be made for county sup- 
 erintendents of schools. The township plan of 
 supervision had proven utterly inadequate. 
 
 2. The civil township should be made the 
 unit of district organization. 
 
 It is noticeable that having adhered to the 
 neighborhood plan of small districts, we are now 
 trying to remedy the evils of small districts, by 
 some plan of combining districts and transport- 
 ing pupils. 
 
 3. The school fund should be distributed ac- 
 cording to scholars in attendance and not ac- 
 cording to a census of persons of school age. 
 
 This recommendation was adopted some twen- 
 ty-five years later. 
 
26 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 4. A uniform series of text books should be 
 provided for the state. 
 
 5. Districts should be aided in obtaining 
 school libraries at wholesale rates. 
 
 Following Dr. Neill, B. F. Crary was appoint- 
 ed, and served from May i, 1861, to Jan. i, 1862. 
 At that session the legislature abolished the of- 
 fice, and assigned its duties to the Secretary of 
 State. Under this law David Blakely and H. C. 
 Rogers served until April i, 1867, at which time 
 the ofifice was re-established and Mark H. Dun- 
 nell was appointed, and served under his re -ap- 
 pointment till his resignation, Aug. i, 1870. 
 
 Mr. Dunnell immediately undertook the more 
 complete organization of schools by a revision of 
 school registers and the preparation of a com- 
 plete set of blanks for the use of teachers and 
 school officers. He appointed and held meetings 
 with school superintendents, which greatly in- 
 creased popular interest in education. He or- 
 ganized teachers' institutes for the rural school 
 teachers, and by his personal attention to them 
 and his popular addresses made them powerful 
 for good. 
 
 The resignation of Mr. Dunnell was followed 
 by the appointment of Horace B. Wilson who 
 served till the expiration of his third term, April 
 1875. Mr. Wilson brought to the office the scliol- 
 
IN MINNESOTA 27 
 
 arship of a professor of mathematics and the 
 practical experience of a county superintendent 
 of schools. His service to the state was felt in 
 the enlarged powers and increased duties of his 
 office conferred by the legislature upon his re- 
 commendation. Mr. Wilson made five reports 
 which are of permanent value for the able discus- 
 sions they contain of the leading topics of school 
 administration. 
 
 David Burt succeeded to the office April 5, 
 1875, and continued until his resignation Sept. 
 I, 1 88 1, a few weeks before his decease, which 
 occurred Sept. 24, 1881. 
 
 Air. Burt came to the office from the county 
 superintendency, and for over five years dili- 
 gently fostered every department of the educa- 
 tional system. He was a man of penetrating and 
 clear intelligence, able to compass the whole sys- 
 tem in its purpose and plan, and equally able to 
 appreciate all details in applications of principles. 
 He urged and secured the enactment of the law 
 appropriating school funds according to the 
 number of scholars attending school. He made 
 a vigorous but unsuccessful opposition to what 
 has been known as the state text book law, which 
 provided for the selection of a series of books 
 and a fifteen year contract for their supply to the 
 schools of the state. The reports of Superin- 
 
28 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 tendent Burt contain much valuable material, 
 the result of careful research and arrangement. 
 Succeeding Superintendent Burt came David 
 L. Kiehle, the principal of the state Normal 
 School at St. Cloud and previously county super- 
 intendent of schools. He served in seven suc- 
 cessive terms from Sept. i, 1881, to Sept, i, 
 1893. It was his fortune to assume the duties 
 of the office just as the state was maturing into 
 social and financial power, and prepared to con- 
 tinue the organization so well established in pre- 
 vious administrations. Taking the work as it 
 came to him, the following are the more import- 
 ant measures adopted as parts of the school 
 system during his administration : 
 
 1. The more complete organization of insti- 
 tute instruction by which, with an increase of the 
 state appropriation from $3,000 to $7,000, and a 
 special conductor provided by each of the normal 
 schools, each county of the State has been pro- 
 vided with an institute annually. 
 
 2. A State tax of one mill has been estab- 
 lished, which increases the school fund annually 
 appropriated to about $1,000,000. 
 
 3. A public school library fund was estab- 
 lished which provides (i) for the selection of a 
 choice list of books by special commission con- 
 sisting of the State Superintendent of Public In- 
 
IN MINNESOTA 29 
 
 struction and the presidents of the four State 
 normal schools; (2) a payment by the State, up 
 to $20, of one-half of the first order for books 
 selected by a district, up to $10 of one-half of the 
 second order, and up to $5 of one-half of any 
 subsequent order, and (3) an annual appropria- 
 tion of $10,000 to meet the requirements of the 
 law. 
 
 4. A system of summer training schools of 
 four weeks each with a present annual appro- 
 priation of $20,000. 
 
 5. The reorganization of the State high 
 school system and the appointment of a high 
 school inspector as explained elsewhere, by which 
 free secondary tuition is now provided in 141 
 State high schools, preparatory to the university 
 and the professional schools. 
 
 6. As regent of the university he formulated 
 the plan for the School of Agriculture, which 
 has developed to its present proportions on lines 
 then laid out. 
 
 Upon the resignation of Superintendent 
 Kiehle, William W. Pendergast, former assist- 
 ant Superintendent of Public Instruction, and 
 at this time principal of the School of Agricul- 
 ture, was appointed and continued in service 
 till January i, 1899. Superintendent Pender- 
 gast brought to the office the mature experience 
 
30 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 of a teacher, a county superintendent and an of- 
 ficer of the department, and discharged the du- 
 ties of the office with efficiency and wisdom. 
 
 From January i, 1899 to January i, 1901, 
 John H. Lewis was appointed and discharged the 
 duties of the office. A teacher and city superin- 
 tendent of schools of long experience, Superin- 
 tendent Lewis administered the of^ce with 
 marked energy and success. Upon his recom- 
 mendation the present system of state examin- 
 ation of teachers was established by statute, and 
 put into successful operation, and the entire sys- 
 tem given a new impulse. 
 
 Upon the completion of Superintendent Lew- 
 is's term, John W. Olsen was appointed and has 
 now entered upon his second term of service. 
 His record as a successful county superintendent 
 of schools has commended him to the confidence 
 of the public, and is the guarantee of a faithful 
 administration. 
 
 County Supervision-, 
 
 By the statute of 1851 the trustees were re- 
 quired to examine and license teachers before 
 employing them to teach in the schools. 
 
 By the statute of 1862 the county commission- 
 ers were required to appoint one man in each 
 commissioner district to visit the schools, and 
 
IN MINNESOTA 31 
 
 to examine and license teachers. The same law 
 I)rovided that in their discretion they might ap- 
 point one man for the whole county to discharge 
 these duties. 
 
 In 1877 the law was amended, making the of- 
 fice elective, and that for all counties. It also 
 fixed the minimum salary at ten dollars for each 
 district superintended. The law has from time 
 to time been amended to provide for assistance, 
 printing and office expenses. 
 
 The history of this office has been one of un- 
 rest and dissatisfaction on the part of the super- 
 intendents, because of the heavy responsibilities 
 laid upon them, and the slow progress which the 
 rural schools are making in introducing the bet- 
 ter conditions of school architecture, support of 
 teachers, and grading of the schools. 
 
 For the Improvement of Teachers. 
 
 But the aid afforded by the state in the im- 
 provement of the common schools is by no 
 means exhausted with the payment of salaries 
 and furnishing libraries. It has given generously 
 for the improvement of teachers themselves. 
 
 Beginning with the present law (1867) re- 
 establishing the state superintendency of schools, 
 provision was made for a system of state insti- 
 tutes under the direction of Superintendent 
 
32 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 A'lark H. Dunnell, with an appropriation of $3,- 
 000. By the aid of this fund teachers have an- 
 nually been called together in the counties of the 
 state and instructed in whatever seemed helpful 
 in the organization and instruction of their 
 schools. 
 
 The early stage of this work was in short in- 
 stitutes of a few days, and generally extended to 
 a week. In 1891 the appropriation was increased 
 to $12,000, in order to provide for summer 
 schools for teachers in which more systematic 
 academic and professional instruction should be 
 given for a longer term of not less than four 
 weeks. During the first season fourteen schools 
 were held, with an aggregate enrollment of 12 10. 
 The second season (1892) the university sum- 
 mer school for both elementary and advanced 
 work, and for the improvement of teachers in 
 both graded and high schools was opened and 
 has been continued to the present. 
 
 In 1 90 1 the term of the school was increased 
 to six weeks. The first enrollment of this school 
 was 741, and has steadily increased to 1107 in 
 1902. The annual appropriation for institutes and 
 summer schools has been increased to $27,000. 
 
 Normal Schools. 
 But the crowning support of the state for the 
 
IN MINNESOTA 33 
 
 improvement of its common schools has been in 
 the recognition of teaching as a profession, and 
 in recjuiring the special training of teachers. The 
 normal schools were the result of this movement. 
 For nearly a century, Etirope — especially Ger- 
 many — had been wrestling with the problem of 
 education for the people. From the humiliating 
 defeat of Prussia by Napoleon and the Peace of 
 Tilsit (1807), this problem of systematic edu- 
 cation of the people has been the leading. In 
 this country the general conception of the com- 
 mon school has been that it is where the three 
 R's are mastered by the perfunctory drill and 
 discipline of the school master. 
 
 The revival of common school education dates 
 from the services of Horace Mann, who, as Sec- 
 retary of the Board of Education of Massachus- 
 etts (1837) gave his splendid talent and great 
 enthusiasm to the improvement of the schools of 
 the people. The period from 1830 to 1870 may 
 be considered the revival period of popular ed- 
 ucation. Although the common school had been 
 planted, and the principle acknowledged, the real 
 interest even in common schools had positively 
 declined. It is one thing to recognize in reason 
 a principle or doctrine, but quite a different thing 
 to incorporate it into the life and habits 
 of a people. It was so in the organization 
 
34 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 of our government, and was equally true of our 
 school system. This lethargy concerning public 
 schools was not because of indifference to edu- 
 cation, and does not signify that there were no 
 good schools. On the contrary, the colleges and 
 academies had increased in number and efficiency. 
 In every town select schools, seminaries and 
 academies were taught by young men graduated 
 from the colleges. The result was that the better 
 class of families were separated in their common 
 associations and interests from the common 
 people. 
 
 Yet the schools and colleges of higher educa- 
 tion furnished the very men of broad vision and 
 democratic spirit who become the wise friends 
 and champions of popular education. They 
 caught the idea from Germany, and under the 
 leadership of men like Rev. Charles Brooks of 
 Massachusetts, Horace Mann and Edmund 
 Dwight, and with the moral support of states- 
 men, as Daniel Webster and John Quincy Ad- 
 ams, the normal schools were established in Mas- 
 sachusetts. The following views adopted in reso- 
 lutions at a convention in 1838 represent the at- 
 titude of these reformers in education. 
 
 I. The deplorably low condition of the public 
 schools. 
 
IN MINNESOTA 35 
 
 2. The necessity of immediate and radical re- 
 forms. 
 
 3. The inauguration of normal schools after 
 the Prussian type would reform and vitalize the 
 whole system of education in the state. 
 
 In 1839 the first normal school in America was 
 opened at Lexington, Mass. 
 
 During forty years this most essential adjunct 
 to our common school system has been establish- 
 ing itself in the confidence of the public, and in 
 perfecting its methods in the preparation of 
 teachers. 
 
 To Winona belongs the honor of giving first 
 expression in Minnesota tO' this new movement 
 for the improvement of our schools. In 1858 
 Dr. John D. Ford, through the legislative del- 
 egation from Winona County secured the pas- 
 sage of the bill establishing three normal schools, 
 at Winona, Mankato and St. Cloud. Through 
 the generous donations of its citizens the first 
 normal school was opened in the city of Winona 
 on the first Monday in September, i860, with 
 Professor John Ogden of Columbus, Ohio, as its 
 Principal. "To the credit of this normal board 
 and its secretary. Dr. Ford, it may be said that 
 the first state tax for school purposes was author- 
 ized and levied upon their urgent recommenda- 
 tion." In 1861 Professor Ogden resigned the 
 
36. HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 principalship for the purpose of joining the 
 Union army. After another term, owing to the 
 disturbed condition of the country, the school 
 was suspended to be re-opened in 1864 under the 
 principalship of Professor William F. Phelps, of 
 New York, and recently of the State normal 
 school of New Jersey. The educational center at 
 which the normal idea was most efifectually focal- 
 ized was the Oswego normal school. New York, 
 under the presidency and direction of Dr. E. A. 
 Sheldon. From there it radiated east and west, 
 and was represented in Minnesota by Principal 
 Phelps in the reorganization of the state normal 
 school at Winona. Here, with an enthusiasm 
 that made no compromise with traditional con- 
 servatism, he advocated the Pestalozzian idea, 
 and introduced the teachers from Oswego that 
 fixed permanently the standard of normal in- 
 struction in that school, and, following it, of ev- 
 ery other normal school of the state. The first 
 appropriation was for $3000 the first year, $4000 
 for the second, and $5000 annually thereafter. 
 The second school was opened in Mankato in Oc- 
 tober, 1868; the third in St. Cloud in September 
 1869. The fourth was opened in Moorhead in 
 September, 1888, and the fifth in Duluth in Sep- 
 tember, 1902. These centers of training for 
 teachers have had a continuous growth, and have 
 
IN MINNESOTA 37 
 
 exerted a powerful influence in the education of 
 the state. For years they had to meet the op- 
 position of conservatism and ignorance, just as 
 they did in Massachusetts. Within a year after 
 the opening- of the Lexington normal school the 
 Committee of Education was directed hy the leg- 
 islature "to consider the expediency of abolishing 
 the board of education and the normal schools, 
 and to report by bill or otherwise." That com- 
 mittee reported submitting a bill abolishing the 
 Board of Education and the state normal 
 schools : but by the influence and labors of Hor- 
 ace Mann and his associates, the bill was lost by 
 a vote of 245 to 182. So in Minnesota, at every 
 session of the legislature opposition arose until 
 in 1876 the special appropriation was refused, and 
 the schools were left to do the best they could 
 on the annual appropriation of $5000. That was 
 the legislature in which it was proposed, in a 
 spirit of some seriousness and of greater ridicule, 
 that the normal schools should be turned into in- 
 ebriate asylums. From that day to the present 
 these schools have received the generous sup- 
 port of the state, and their instruction is thor- 
 oughly established in the confidence of the public. 
 The appended tables show the amount appropri- 
 ated for the support of these schools in their sev- 
 
38 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 era] interests, and also their enrollment and grad- 
 uations. 
 
 Qualifications of Teachers. 
 
 The organization of anv institution or system 
 is only complete in providing for efficient service. 
 Having furnished opportunities for a prepar- 
 ation to teach, the state has improved the means 
 by which the public is able to make reasonable 
 discrimination in the selection of teachers for 
 their schools. The plan in its present form was 
 recommended by State Superintendent John H. 
 Lewis antl enacted by the legislature of 1899. Its 
 main features are these : 
 
 1. All Examinations are held on the same 
 days in the several counties of the state under 
 the supervision of the respective county super- 
 intendents, upon questions prepared by the state 
 department of public instruction, and under in- 
 structions fixed by that department. 
 
 2. All papers are forwarded to the state de- 
 partment, and are passed upon by a corps of ex- 
 aminers. 
 
 3. Certificates are graded as follows : First 
 grade, good for five years, and Second grade, 
 good for two years. These are issued onlv to 
 persons who have satisfactory- academic and pro- 
 fessional preparation. Certificates of the first 
 
IN MINNESOTA 39 
 
 grade are valid in any county of the state ; and 
 those of the second grade are valid in the county 
 in which the examination is held, and in any 
 other county upon the endorsement of its covmty 
 superintendent. The law also provides for local 
 Third grade certificates, good for single year 
 in a given district. The statute of 1885 provides 
 that the diplomas of the State normal schools shall 
 be valid as certificates of the first grade for two 
 years, and that upon satisfactory evidence of 
 success in teaching as evidenced by the endorse- 
 ment of the Superintendent of Public Instruction 
 and the president of the normal school issuing 
 the diploma, that of the Elementary course shall 
 be valid as a state certificate for five years, and 
 that of the Advanced course shall be a perman- 
 ent certificate of qualification. This survey of 
 our common school system, including the ap- 
 pended tables, completes the financial and educa- 
 tional history of this first part of the entire 
 system. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 Higher Education. 
 
 We now come to the history of secondary and 
 higher education as embodied in our state uni- 
 versity and high schools. Inasmuch as a his- 
 tory of education is far more than a record of 
 material resources in lands, money and buildings, 
 that we may take a just measure of our educa- 
 tional progress, we must take a general survey 
 of the past that will help to interpret the present. 
 We are a part of the world's history and pro- 
 gress, and our own must be measured by the de- 
 gree in which we incorporate the best of the past 
 in our institutional life, keeping abreast of the 
 times in the forward movement toward the ideals 
 of the future. For our purpose, this history in- 
 volves tv/o phases. The first is, education for the 
 people — the masses to wdiom the matter of sus- 
 tenance is the all-absorbing one. The second is the 
 education of the higher classes, representing 
 blood, wealth and political position. To these, 
 sustenance has been assured in their inheritances, 
 and education has been for the utilization and en- 
 joyment of life in various degrees from merest 
 
.EDUCATION IN MINNESOTA 41 
 
 animalism up to the highest activities of intel- 
 lectual and moral natures. Schools — a word 
 from the Latin schola, meaning leisure — were 
 anciently for those who were free to give time to 
 stud}-. A liberal education was for freemen — 
 liberal being kindred to liberty — and not for peas- 
 ants, laborers and slaves. These from the days 
 of Athens have furnished the aristocracy of 
 learning and authority. When "aristocracy" 
 was taken in its exact meaning, it included the 
 best of society, who, by their inherited authority, 
 by their wisdom and intelligence, by their phil- 
 anthropy and beneficence, have governed, guid- 
 ed and protected the people in paternalistic spirit. 
 For this governing, intellectual citizenship, edu- 
 cation was for culture, intellectual and esthetic. 
 Its aim was to interpret the life of man in the 
 vmiverse of nature — what its worthiest ideals, 
 and how to live it. The attitude of the higher 
 classes being paternalistic, the schools of the peo- 
 ple were regarded as charities, supported by the 
 voluntary gifts and service of wealth and cul- 
 ture. As society became democratic, and the peo- 
 ple came into possession of wealth and political 
 power their schools have risen in social rank. 
 Yet so persistent in this class distinction, that in 
 as democratic and free a nation as England, the 
 middle and aristocratic classes avoid the public 
 
42 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 schools ; and in our own country, until the re- 
 vival of education, to which we have already al- 
 luded, the common schools were treated in a 
 spirit of charity, and ignored by many of the 
 higher classes in favor of private schools, semin- 
 aries and academies. This principle, then, has 
 prevailed, that when the people govern and sup- 
 port their own schools they assume the social dig- 
 nity and rank of free people. In the transition of 
 the public schools from schools of charity to free 
 schools, the people have asserted their right, and 
 have undertaken to solve the problem of life for 
 the people — not how to sustain mere animal ex- 
 istence, and not merelv to improve their condition 
 within the limitations of social and intellectual 
 servility, but to determine the rights, privileges 
 and opportunities of men as human beings under 
 the broad canopy of the Divine Fatherhood, and 
 on the broad plane of human brotherhood, and to 
 determine what knowledge they may rightfully 
 claim of nature's laws and resources for the in- 
 crease of their comforts and to make the homes 
 of their children beautiful and happy. This is the 
 revolutionary idea of popular education as against 
 all class education. And that it was revolution- 
 ary was forseen in England, when, in 1807, "The 
 Poor Bill" was under discussion. This bill — sig- 
 nifically named — was for a charitable improve- 
 
IN MINNESOTA 43 
 
 ment of the intelligence of the laboring classes. 
 "Mr. Davies Giddy opposing said : 'Giving educa- 
 tion to the laboring classes would be prejudicial to 
 their morals and happiness. It would teach them 
 to despise their lot in life. Instead of making them 
 good servants in agriculture and the like, to 
 which society had destined them, they would be 
 factious and refractory, they would read sedi- 
 tious pamphlets, vicious books and publications 
 against Christianity and become insolent to su- 
 periors.' " ( De Montmorencey's State Interven- 
 tion in English Education, p. 222.) 
 
 As the people came into possession of institu- 
 tions of higher education they enlarged its scope 
 to include the utilization of intelligence and ma- 
 terial resources in gaining the means whereby to 
 live ; and this, not as an end, but as essential and 
 preparatory to a higher type of living. What the 
 higher classes had by inheritance as a basis of 
 culture the people have had to gain by labor and 
 skill before they could enter upon the higher life 
 of leisurely study for culture and philosophic 
 ease. In the development of elementary education 
 we have passed out of the era of charitv into that 
 of free schools for a free people, and no Ameri- 
 can citizen loses caste or advantage in having 
 been educated fn them. The history of state 
 universities is a historv of a democratic move- 
 
44 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 ment in which the people control the organization 
 of higher education in their own interests. This 
 history has three phases: (i.) The financial sup- 
 port provided by the people; (2.) The adaptation 
 of the curriculum to the needs of the people ; and 
 (3.) The articulation of higher education with 
 elementary education in the development of higli 
 schools of secondary education. And this will 
 give us the order of our treatment. 
 
 Financial History of the State University. 
 
 We recognize at the outset that the great men 
 of our republic, who laid the foundations of our 
 government, and outlined with quite prophetic 
 vision the order of our western civilization, made 
 generous provision for the education of the 
 people. In 1851 u.pon recommendation of Gov- 
 ernor Ramsey, the legislature memorialized con- 
 gress for a grant of 100,000 acres of public lands 
 for the endowment of a university. The same 
 year Congress appropriated two townships 
 (46,080 acres) for the support of a university in 
 the territory of Minnesota. Next, in the act of 
 Congress (Feb. 26, 1857) authorizing a state 
 government, it was provided "that seventy-two 
 sections of land shall be set apart and reserved 
 for the use and support of a state university." 
 
IN MINNESOTA 45 
 
 This was construed by the regents of the uni- 
 versity as an additional grant to the state, and not 
 a mere confirmation of the former territorial 
 grant. However the Commissioner of the Gen- 
 eral Land Office refused to take this view, and 
 after repeated presentations of their claim by the 
 regents, the matter was finally settled bv a con- 
 gressional grant (July 8, 1870) "to the full 
 amount of seventy-two sections mentioned in the 
 act of Congress approved Feb. 26. 1857." Of 
 the territorial grant, 36,560 acres had been se- 
 lected, so making the total land grant to the state 
 university 82,640 acres. ( U. S. Land Laws. Pub- 
 lic Domain.) 
 
 The history of the university, from the date of 
 its establishment by the territtorial legislature 
 (Feb. 185 1 ) to that of its reorganization under 
 its present charter of (Feb. 18, 1868) is one of 
 continuous struggle against adverse circum- 
 stances, a premature organization under the 
 stress of a frontier enthusiasm and hopefulness, 
 which resulted in financial embarrassment, and 
 the suspension of the educational department. 
 
 The first building was erected in Minneapolis 
 on a site donated by Franklin Steele, and lo- 
 cated near Central Avenue, and what is known as 
 the Exposition building. This was a two story 
 frame structure, 50 by 30 feet, and costing $2500. 
 
46 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 With two rooms finished, a private school was 
 opened by Rev. E. W. Merrill, to whom the re- 
 gents gave the nse of the building. Beginning 
 with 25 students, it increased to 65. "In 1854 the 
 building was transferred to other hands in a com- 
 promise regarding the title, which proved defec- 
 tive." Mr. Merrill was appointed Superintend- 
 ent of Public Instruction, and the school was 
 closed. The site of the present campus was lo- 
 cated in 1854 bv the purchase of 27 acres at a 
 cost of $6,000. Private contributions were made 
 to the amount of $1000, and the remainder se- 
 cured by mortgage with interest at twelve per 
 cent. In 1856 the legislature authorized the re- 
 gents to issue bonds "to an amount not exceeding 
 the sum of $15,000 with interest thereon not ex- 
 ceeding twelve per cent per annum, of said sum 
 $5,000 to be applied in liquidation of a debt in- 
 curred in the purchase of a site for said uni- 
 versity, and $10,000 to be expended under the 
 direction of the board of regents in erecting suit- 
 able buildings for the same" ; these bonds to be 
 secured by mortgage on "any lands now belonging 
 or which may hereafter belong to the said uni- 
 versity." The regents with $10,000 in hand, by 
 a bare majority vote, adopted plans for a fine 
 four story building 277 feet in length, and let the 
 contract for the erection of one wine — now the 
 
IN MINNESOTA 47 
 
 rear part of the present "Main building" — for 
 the sum of $49,000. The financial crisis of 1857 
 proved fatal to this venture. To save what they 
 had the legislature extended the authority of the 
 regents to- issue bonds for $40,000 in addition, to 
 be likewise secured by mortgage on the lands of 
 the university. ]n 1850 the building was com- 
 pleted at a cost of $65,000. For eight years it re- 
 mained unused, and nothing seemed to prosper 
 excepting the interest on the debt, a part of 
 which was at twenty per cent. 
 
 In 1858 Rev. E. D. Xeill was elected Chancel- 
 lor, and the next year he was made Superintend- 
 ent of Public Instruction ex-of^cio, from which 
 position he resigned in 1861 to enter the army. 
 
 Edward D. Neill was born in Philadelphia, August g, 
 1823. He was graduated at Amherst in 1842, completed 
 a theological course at Andover and was ordained to the 
 ministry of the Presbyterian Cliurch. He removed to 
 St. Paul in April, 1849, and became immediately identi- 
 fied with the educational interests of Minnesota. He 
 was at once made a trustee of the schools of St. Paul, 
 and was one of the organizers of the State Historical 
 Society. In 1851 he was appointed the first territorial 
 superintendent of public instruction. In 1853 he secured 
 a charter for the Baldwin School, St. Paul, and in 1855 
 took a leading part in preparing the charter of the board 
 of education of St. Paul. In 1858 he was elected 
 Chancellor of the State University, and secured the 
 charter of i860. He was made State Superintendent of 
 Public Instruction in i860, from which he resigned in 
 1861 and entered the army as Chaplain of the First 
 Minnesota Regiment of Infantry. In 1864 he was ap- 
 
48 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 By act of legislature, approved Feb. 14, i860, 
 the university was reorganized. Under this act 
 the board of regents was made to consist of the 
 "Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Chancellor of 
 the University and five electors of the state, ap- 
 pointed by the Governor, by and with the advice 
 and consent of the Senate." It also provided for 
 a "department for the training of teachers for 
 the common schools of the state." . 
 
 In their report to the Governor, dated Dec. i, 
 i860, the regents made the following statement 
 of the indebtedness of the university in amounts 
 due : 
 
 Site $ 4-833-34 
 
 Building 19,130.69 
 
 Bonds 59,511.70 
 
 J. G. Riheldaffer 117.70 
 
 Isaac Atwater (probably) . . 1,913.66 
 Accumulated interest 8,000.00 
 
 Total, - - - $93,506.66 
 
 pointed special secretary of President Lincoln, and later, 
 appointed consul to Dublin, Ireland, by President Grant. 
 Upon his return, and during the remainder of his life, he 
 gave his services chiefly to historical research and to ed- 
 ucation in connection with the foundation of Macalester 
 College, established by his friend Charles Macalester, of 
 Philadelphia. 
 
 His History of Minnesota, which appeared in five suc- 
 cessive editions, is the only one of original research and 
 authority for this state. 
 
IN MINNESOTA 49 
 
 The regents farther reported that they were 
 without resources for the hquidation of this 
 indebtedness, and recommended that authority be 
 given the board of regents to alienate sufficient 
 of the lands of the territorial university to liquid- 
 ate the indebtedness. Governor Ramsey, in his 
 message to the legislature of 1861, approved this 
 view of the regents, and recommended that the 
 necessary legislation be enacted. 
 
 By act of legislature, approved Mar. 8, 1862, 
 the regents were "authorized and empowered in 
 their discretion to arrange, compromise or liquid- 
 ate any existing indebtedness," and "to grant, 
 bargain or sell and convey to the holder or hold- 
 ers of any such indebtedness, upon such terms as 
 shall be agreed upon, any or all the lands here- 
 tofore granted or reserved by Congress for the 
 use and support of a state or territorial univer- 
 sity." This act is explicit in providing "that 
 nothing in this act shall be construed as an ad- 
 mission on the part of the state, of the validity of 
 the bonds and mortgages, executed by the Board 
 of Regents of the late territorial university, or 
 any obligation existing on the part of the state 
 
 Dr. Neill was a man of forceful character, broad 
 scholarship and public spirit. No man figured more 
 prominently in the early history of education in Minne- 
 sota. He died at his home in St. Paul, September 26, 
 1893. 
 
so HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 to pay the said liabilities." The same provision 
 is made to apply to any notes executed pursuant 
 to any vote or resolution of said Regents, "but 
 said Regents of the University of Minnesota are 
 hereby fully authorized and empowered, in their 
 discretion to compromise and adjust any indebt- 
 edness arising upon said notes, or to contest and 
 resist payment of the same as they may be ad- 
 vised, or shall deem most conducive to the inter- 
 ests of the state, or of said university." 
 
 This was amended by an act approved March 
 4, 1864, in which a new board of Regents was 
 named, to wit, O. C. Merriman and John S. Pills- 
 bury of Minneapolis, and John Nichols of St. 
 Paul, for a term of tv/o years. Each was re- 
 quired to give bonds in the sum of $25,000. The 
 specific duties of the board were to adjust the in- 
 debtedness already referred to ; and for this pur- 
 pose they were authorized to make sales of not to 
 exceed 12,000 acres of the lands donated by the 
 United States for university purposes. 
 
 To the financial ability and the disinterested 
 services of the three men who constituted this 
 new board the state is indebted for the removal 
 of the incubus of that great debt. Such services 
 are so dependent upon quiet shrewdness, and 
 upon personal influence that never comes to light, 
 that no record can be made of the details of their 
 
IN MINNESOTA 51 
 
 labors. Suffice it to say, that as men prominent 
 in affairs of politics and business, men held in 
 highest esteem by their fellow citizens of the 
 cities and the state in which they lived, and 
 highly appreciative of the higher educational in- 
 terests of the state, they gave the best they had in 
 time and labor to the adjustment of these vex- 
 ing claims. This special mention of the names 
 of Mr. Merriman and IN'Ir. Nichols, associated 
 with Mr. Pillsbury in this important service, is 
 the more appropriate by reason of the fact that 
 the continued service of Mr. Pillsbury in the in- 
 terest of the university from that day to the day 
 of his decease (1901) has made him so renowned 
 as the "Father of the University," that we are in 
 danger of forgetting that in his earliest service, 
 and at a time when prospects were darkest, these 
 two men — Mr. Merriman and Mr. Nichols — 
 stood with him, and divided with him the labor 
 of extricating the university from its impending 
 peril. In the day of our university's greatest 
 prosperity, let the names of these three men be 
 mentioned together as its financial saviors in the 
 darkest day of its history. In a word, the indebt- 
 edness was finally cancelled with the proceeds of 
 15.000 acres, and so leaving some 30,000 acres 
 of selected lands of the territorial grant in the 
 possession of the university. 
 
52 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 We are now at the threshold of a new era of 
 substantial prosperity and development for the 
 university. 
 
 John S. Pillsbury, 
 
 Regent of the University. 
 
 At this point it is fitting that we note, once for 
 all, that this coming history of the university can- 
 not be written without making it likewise a his- 
 tory of Regent John S. Pillsbury. From 1863, 
 the date of his first appointment as regent, he 
 continued in that relation to the time of his de- 
 cease. As private citizen, as State Senator, and 
 as Governor (i877-'82), for thirty-eight long 
 
 John Sargent Pillsbury was born in Sutton, New 
 Hampshire, July 29, 1828. His school life was limited 
 to the schools of his native village. Leaving school at 
 sixteen he began the trade of a painter, but soon changed 
 to that of a salesman, aad at twenty-one became a part- 
 ner in business. Removing to Concord after two years, 
 he engaged in business four years, and in 1855 started 
 westward and located at St. Anthony of this state. Here 
 he continued in the hardware business with the fortunes 
 that attended the panic of 1857 and a severe loss by fire 
 without insurance. As a man of business he regained 
 all losses, and by diligence, integrity and business 
 sagacity accumulated a goodly fortune from which he 
 drew largely in public and private beneficences. Nota- 
 able among these are the erection of a public library for 
 his native village, a public library for East Minneapolis, 
 a boarding home for young women for Minneapolis, 
 named for his wife, The Maliala Fisk Pillsbury Home, 
 and to the State University, its biological science hall. 
 
JOHN S. PILLSBURY 
 
IN MINNESOTA 53 
 
 years the university was his constant care. TTis 
 financial abihty was given to the management 
 and increase of its revenues, in the selection of its 
 public lands, and in the expenditure of its funds, 
 from the purchase of the agricultural farm and 
 the erection of buildings down to auditing the in- 
 dividual bills for current expenses. Whenever 
 the university needed his credit, or an advance 
 of his money to meet an exigency, without osten- 
 tation, he freely advanced it. Whenever a friend 
 of the university, or a member of the faculty, or 
 an undergraduate student wished to consult him 
 upon any matter that related to education in the 
 university, his house was open and a welcome 
 given. For the university he lived: he endured 
 detraction in the most troublous times — and that 
 is v/hen calumniators are most active — he sac- 
 rificed leisure and comfort, and gave as a me- 
 mento of his enduring interest one of the impos- 
 
 In 1863 Mr. Pillsbury was made a regent of the Uni- 
 versity, in which position he was continued during his 
 lifetime. In 1863 he was elected State Senator from 
 Hennepin county, and was re-elected for the four suc- 
 ceeding terms. In 1875 hs was elected Governor of the 
 state, and was re-elected for the two succeeding terms, 
 closing his career as Governor, January 10, 1882. 
 
 During the last years of his life his time was given to 
 a general oversight of his private business and benevo- 
 lences, but chiefly and laboriously to the upbuilding of 
 the State University. His decease occurred October 18, 
 igoi. 
 
54 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 ing halls that adorns the campus, and now bears 
 his name. And, finally, those who have received 
 from him, and have loved to honor him, have 
 erected their own testimonial to his memory in 
 the statue of bronze that stands upon and adorns 
 the canipus that it may bring to our memories 
 the features that express the nobility of his char- 
 acter and the beneficence of his service to the 
 university and to the State. 
 
 The Beginnings of University Life. 
 
 In his message to the second legislature 
 (1851) Governor Ramsey recommended that a 
 university be established ; and by act approved 
 Feb. 13, 1851, the University of Minnesota was 
 established. The important provisions of this act 
 were : ( i ) That a board of twelve regents be 
 elected by the legislature for a term of six years. 
 (2) That the university be located at or near the 
 Falls of St. Anthony. (3) That the regents shall 
 have control of all funds appropriated for the 
 erection of buildings and other necessary equip- 
 ment of the vmiversity, and also of all lands 
 granted by Congress for the maintenance of 
 higher education. 
 
 The first board of regents consisted of Isaac 
 Atwater, J. B. Thurber, William R. Marshall, B. 
 B. Meeker, Socrates Nelson, Henry M. Rice, 
 
IN MINNESOTA 55 
 
 Alexander Ramsey, Henry H. Sibley, C. K. 
 Smith, Franklin Steele, N. C. D. Taylor, and 
 Abram Van Vorhees. Edward D. Neill was elect- 
 ed Chancellor, and became ex-officio Territoiial 
 Superintendent of Public Instruction. 
 
 The succeeding years were years of struggle 
 with the financial conditions of the university as 
 has been already noted, so that until the settle- 
 ment of these difficulties in the payment of debts 
 and in the increase of the government grants of 
 1862, and the added university grant of 1870, the 
 university was practically without an educational 
 history. With the encouragement of freedom 
 from debt, with the general prosperity of the 
 state, and with a state appropriation of $15,000 — 
 the first one by the state for the university — for 
 repairs and furnishings for the building, a pre- 
 paratory department was opened in October 1867 
 — W. W. Washburn, Principal, and Gabriel 
 Campbell and Ira Moore assistants. The report 
 of the principal for the second year (1868) shows 
 a faculty of five and an attendance of 100. 
 
 The Presidency of William W. Folwell. 
 
 In 1869, Colonel Wm. W. Folwell was elected 
 to the presidency of the university. This year be- 
 gan with a faculty of nine, an enrollment of 217 
 in the preparatory department and a freshmen 
 
56 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 class of thirteen, of whom two were graduated in 
 1873 ^^^th the B.A. degree. 
 
 The administration of President Folwell con- 
 tinued from 1869 to 1883, and as acting presi- 
 dent to June 1884 — a term of fifteen years. In 
 its academic history, this corresponds to the finan- 
 cial history of the university, — a period of fer- 
 ment and experiment, all tending toward per- 
 manent organization. 
 
 The general lack of preparatory schools made 
 the instruction of the university largely prepara- 
 tory in three classes below the freshman year. 
 The small collegiate enrollment and the poverty 
 of the state required that professors teach in sev- 
 eral lines at the same time, as that French was 
 taught by the professor of chemistry, in addition 
 to geology, mineralogy, botany and physiology. 
 The curriculum was mainly the traditional one 
 of classical colleges, Greek, Latin, mathematics 
 and philosophy, history and the natural sciences 
 holding a subordinate rank. 
 
 The educational problems of those days were 
 quite as pressing as those of the present, and in 
 some cases occasioned personal feelings and an- 
 tagonisms similar to those of the financial world. 
 First, the question of co-education came up at 
 the opening of the university under Principal 
 Washburn. College traditions had always limited 
 
IN MINNESOTA 57 
 
 the privileges of higher education to men ; and 
 this view was represented by the new faculty in 
 opposing the admission of women as students in 
 the university. The regents were more respons- 
 ive to the growing popular sentiment, and, over- 
 ruling the judgment of the faculty, decided in 
 favor of admitting women on equal footing with 
 men. The second stage of progress came under 
 the administration of President Folwell, the ar- 
 ticulation of the industrial sciences and depart- 
 ments with the college of science, literature and 
 the arts. The Charter had provided for the es- 
 tablishing of "five or more colleges or depart- 
 ments, that is to say, a department of elementary 
 instruction, a college of science, literature and 
 the arts, a college of agriculture and the mechanic 
 arts, including military tactics, a college or de- 
 partment of law and also a college or depart- 
 ment of medicine." 
 
 The land grant already considered applied par- 
 ticularly to the college of science, literature and 
 the arts. For a "college of agriculture, including 
 military tactics" a grant was made by Congress 
 in 1862. To this we shall refer later. At pres- 
 ent, we note that in the planning for the future 
 the regents recognized the enlarging scope of 
 education as demanded by our developing in- 
 dustrial civilization. A third problem was recog- 
 
58 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 nized by President Folwell, and deserves this spe- 
 cial notice, because the educational world, after 
 thirty years, is coming to realize its importance. 
 Hitherto, higher education had been for general 
 culture, and of the classic and philosophic type. 
 Now that higher education is to serve the indus- 
 tries, and that the skill and intelligence required 
 in their pursuit demands long and special study 
 in preparation, shall students be required to com- 
 plete the four years collegiate course before reg- 
 ularly entering upon their professional prepar- 
 ation ? President Folwell, in his inaugural ad- 
 dress (Dec. 22, 1869) outlined a plan by which 
 the collegiate and disciplinary work should con- 
 clude with the sophomore year, and that higher 
 graduate and professional work begin with the 
 jvmior year. This plan assumed that in the pre- 
 paratory classes of the university, and ultimately 
 of the secondary schools, the necessary instruc- 
 tion should be given that would make these two 
 collegiate years of high grade, and would also 
 make the third year the beginning of such elect- 
 ive studies as pertain directly to the prospective 
 industrial and professional callings of students. 
 This scheme was adopted by the regents and con- 
 tinued in a tentative manner through the admin- 
 istration of President Folwell, but was finally 
 abandoned at the beginning; of the followinsf ad- 
 
IN MINNESOTA 59 
 
 ministration. Its suspension was due to the lack 
 of good preparatory schools, in being quite op- 
 posed to the traditional collegiate organization, 
 and not generally approved in the faculty of the 
 university. We had imposed the university name 
 upon collegiate instruction without introducing 
 university methods. President Folwell proposed 
 to shorten collegiate instruction, which is aca- 
 demic and disciplinary, in the interest of strictly 
 university and professional study, to begin with 
 what we know as the junior year. That he an- 
 ticipated a genuine demand of American educa- 
 tion, appears in this, that just now our great uni- 
 versities, as Harvard and Columbia and Chicago, 
 have under consideration the shortening of the 
 academic course in this professional interest. 
 
 The Presidency of Cyrus Northrop. 
 
 The administration of President Northrop 
 opened in 1884, ^"d has been continuous to the 
 present time. It may be justly named the era of 
 expansion. The lines of development had be- 
 come defined. The personal antagonisms that 
 arose from financial embarrassments and personal 
 differences as to educational policy had disap- 
 peared. The state had become populous and 
 wealthy, the system of preparatory instruction in 
 high schools had bec-^me well developed, and the 
 
6o HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 land grant endowment had become large -rnd 
 productive. The people felt strong and aspiring, 
 and the regents sought the man who with a broad 
 vision could comprehend the situation, could har- 
 monize the active forces and give freedom of 
 growth to each as the times demanded. Such a 
 man they found in Cyrus Northrop of Nvw 
 Haven. Under his wise administration the uni- 
 versity has won the entire confidence of the pub- 
 lic, has received the generous support of the leg- 
 islature in greatly increased appropriations, and 
 an increase in students in every department, from 
 310 in 1884, of whom a large part were in the 
 preparatory department, to over 3500 in all de- 
 partments at the present time. During this time 
 the several departments contemplated in the 
 charter have been organized and developed. The 
 accompanying tables will show the dates of or-, 
 ganization and the annual enrollment. 
 
 The Support of the University 
 
 consists of ( I ) Income from U. S. land grants ; 
 (2) Government money appropriations; (3) The 
 ^^/loo state mill tax ; (4) Tuitions in the law and 
 medical departments; and (5) Registration fees 
 in the academic departments. 
 
 I. The U. S. land grants consist of the Uni- 
 versity grant which we have considered, and the 
 
IN MINNESOTA 6i 
 
 Agricultural land grant of 1862, appropriating 
 120,000 acres for the benefit of agriculture and 
 the mechanic arts. As we shall later refer to this 
 grant and its history, it is sufficient to say that by 
 act of legislature approved Feb. 18, 1868, the 
 two grants were merged, and the fund accruing 
 from the sale of the lands is now known as the 
 Permanent University Fund. For the farther 
 encouragment of education in agriculture and the 
 mechanic arts Congress, by act approved Aug. 3, 
 1890, made a standing appropriation for this and 
 other states of $15,000 the first year, with an in- 
 crease of $1000 each succeeding year until it 
 should reach the sum of $25,000, at which sum it 
 should remain permanent. 
 
 2. The appropriations by the state have been 
 for buildings, equipment and current expenses. 
 For the latter a standing appropriation of ^Vjoo 
 of a mill was voted in 1S93, increased to "°/ioo 
 in 1895 ^^''d to -Vioo in 1897, upon the assessed 
 valuation of the property of the state. 
 
 The table accompanying this narrative gives the 
 aggregate amounts received from all sources for 
 its support as reported by the State Auditor. 
 
 Buildings. 
 
 In 1884 there was but one of the present group 
 of buildings on the campus — the Main building. 
 
62 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 Since that time 19 new buildings have been ad- 
 ded to the campus and 18 to the campus of the 
 School of Agriculture and Experiment Station. 
 The aggregate expenditure of the state for all 
 buildings has been $1,450,642. 
 
 Industrial Education. 
 
 We have already observed that a history of 
 education is more than a record of the increase 
 of its material resources in funds and buildings. 
 These are the foundation and framework of a 
 successful system ; but the history itself, that in 
 which all else finds its value, is in its adaptation 
 to the developing life of the people. The ancient 
 university and all its colleges belonged to an 
 aristocratic civilization. The state university be- 
 longs to the people, and, accordingly, must be 
 democratic. It must not only be great as the 
 crown and ornament of the people's schools, it 
 must be greatest in service. 
 
 It has been the fortune of Minnesota to develop 
 its institutions at a time when the great industrial 
 problems of our modern civilization are pressing 
 upon us, and our history must, therefore, be a con- 
 tribution to their solution. We have not been per- 
 mitted merely to take on the forms of an older 
 civilization, and to plant institutions of a tradi- 
 tional type. We are compelled to move on, to ap- 
 
IN MINNESOTA 63 
 
 ply democratic principles to new conditions ; and 
 our honors will be awarded as future generations 
 shall pronounce us equal to our opportunities. 
 The problem of industrial education was intro- 
 duced by the act of Congress, approved July 2, 
 1862, whereby there was apportioned to the sev- 
 eral states "an amount of public land equal to 
 30,000 acres for each Senator and Representative 
 in Congress to which the states are respectively 
 entitled under the census of i860;" "that the 
 monies accruing from the sale of said lands shall 
 be invested and shall constitute a perpetual fund, 
 the capital of which shall forever be undimin- 
 ished, and the interest of which shall be inviolably 
 appropriated by each state which may take and 
 claim the benefit of this act, to the endowment, 
 support and maintenance of at least one college, 
 where the leading object shall be, without ex- 
 cluding other scientific and classical studies, and 
 including military tactics, to teach such branches 
 of learning as are related to agriculture and the 
 mechanic arts, in such manner as the legislatures 
 of the states may respectively prescribe, in order 
 to promote the liberal and practical education of 
 the industrial classes in the several pursuits and 
 professions of life." (U. S. Land Laws. 1862. 
 ch. 130.) 
 
 As mav be inferred from the sreneral and in- 
 
64 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 definite character of the conditions of this grant, 
 there existed only the undefined feehng that 
 higher education must address itself to the intel- 
 lectual improvement and skill of the industrial 
 classes. The application of the principle express- 
 ed in this law, and the utilization of the fund 
 provided, involved two questions ; First, how 
 shall this industrial education be organized ? Shall 
 a new institution be established to be devoted to 
 the purposes contemplated in this bill? or, shall 
 this instruction be given as a part of the curricu- 
 lum of the established colleges and universities of 
 the states? And, second, in what manner shall 
 this instruction be given so as to serve most ef- 
 fectually the desired end? 
 
 The Agricultural College. 
 
 Regarding the first question, both views were 
 entertained, and both plans have been tried in 
 the various states. Confining ourselves to Min- 
 nesota, by act of legislature approved March lo, 
 1858, a quantity of land in McLeod County was 
 "set aside for the purpose of an experimental 
 farm and a site for an Agricultural College," to 
 be "under the control of the President and Ex- 
 ecutive Committee of the State Agricultural So- 
 ciety." The Board of Education of the Agricul- 
 tural College was to consist of twelve members, 
 
IN MINNESOTA 65 
 
 to be elected by the members of the State Agri- 
 cultural Society. In 186 1 the legislature donated 
 to this college all the "swamp lands" within the 
 boundaries of McLeod County. 
 
 The conditions of the times in financial strin- 
 gency, Indian wars and the Civil war prevented 
 all action under this law, and nothing was done 
 until after the war, in 1866. 
 
 The Legislature had accepted the Agricultural 
 land grant (Jan. 27, 1863), and had authorized 
 the Commissioner of the General Land Office to 
 select the lands donated. This donation of lands 
 and the close of the war revived the interests of 
 the Agricultural College, and the question pressed 
 for decision, what disposition shall be made of 
 the agricultural land grant? And just here, let it 
 be noted, that while the grant was to serve three 
 interests, agriculture, mechanic arts and military 
 tactics, agriculture being the predominating in- 
 dustry in Minnesota, it took precedence, and all 
 discussions were conducted on this assumption. 
 The college is known as the agricultural college, 
 and the grant, as the agricultural land grant. Me- 
 chanic arts and military tactics have always been 
 recognized, but rather as attachments than as 
 leading interests contemplated in the grant. 
 
 In the disposition of the grant, the presumption 
 was in favor of the agricultural college already 
 
66 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 established. The state university having pro- 
 vided in its charter for the organization of a col- 
 lege of agriculture and mechanic arts, it was urged 
 by the representatives of the university that the 
 best interests of the state and of the industries 
 named in the grant would be served by uniting 
 this with the university grant in the support of 
 a college of agriculture and mechanic arts as a 
 department of the university. The financial con- 
 dition of the university was still uncertain, the 
 regents, Pillsbury, Merriman and Nichols, were 
 not yet ready to report, and to meet the ex- 
 igencies of 1866, and preserve the grant intact, 
 under the management of Senator Pillsbury, by 
 an act approved Mar. 2, 1866. the grant was made 
 over to the Agricultural College at Glencoe. In 
 1867 the regents reported the university indebt- 
 edness liquidated, with 32,000 acres of the terri- 
 torial grant still in possession of the university. 
 Quoting from an address of Regent Pillsbury be- 
 fore the alumni of the university : "The friends 
 of Mr. Hill (representing the Glencoe Agricul- 
 tural College) held a conference with the Senator 
 from East Hennepin (Regent Pillsbury) on 
 the question of uniting the agricultural college 
 grant with that of the luiiversity, as it was ap- 
 parent to them that they could not obtain appro- 
 priations for buildings, and that the grant was 
 
IN MINNESOTA 67 
 
 likelv to be divided up among the normal schools, 
 the Senator advocating- that it would be much bet- 
 ter for Hill's institution, the university, the state, 
 the friends of agriculture and of education, to 
 consolidate the two grants and thus make a good 
 strong educational institution, which view Mr. 
 Hill and his friends finally accepted, with the pro- 
 vision that the swamp lands which had been 
 granted bv the state to the agricultural college 
 should be re-granted to the County of McLeod, 
 to endow Stevens's Seminary, which seminary 
 was to be established and organized by an act of 
 that present legislature. The friends of each in- 
 stitution were to co-operate in the passage of the 
 bill to consolidate the agricultural college grant 
 with the university, and to endov/ Stevens's Sem- 
 inary by the transfer of the swamp lands former- 
 ly granted by the state to the agricultural col- 
 lege." 
 
 The act of consolidation was approved Feb. 18, 
 1868. "An act to establish Stevens's Seminary" 
 and endow the same with 4684 acres of swamp 
 land, was also passed by the legislature and be- 
 came a law, March 6, 1868." 
 
 It was recognized at the time, and is still well 
 known to our older citizens, that the leading re- 
 sponsibility and management of this plan of 
 transfer was with the Senator and Recent Pills- 
 
68. HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 bury. To this interest he gave his individual at- 
 tention and efforts until its final accomplishment. 
 With the remains of the territorial grant, the 
 state university grant, made in 1870, and the ag- 
 ricultural grant of 120,000 acres, the university 
 had an available endowment of some 200,000 
 acres for its support. The increase of the Per- 
 manent Fund accruing from the sale of lands 
 will be seen in the table attached. 
 
 Agricultural Education. 
 
 The second, and no less difficult problem, was 
 how to meet the requirements of this grant in a 
 manner satisfactory to the public sentiment which 
 prompted it. If it had been required to carry out 
 technical and detailed instructions, so leaving 
 the responsibility of success or failure with those 
 who imposed them, the course of the university 
 would have been simple and comparatively easy. 
 On the contrary, the grant practically imposed 
 upon the university the task of devising a course 
 of instruction and training which would make 
 the culture and scientific knowledge of our higher 
 education available for agricultural life. 
 
 To realize the difficulty, we must take into ac- 
 count the conditions under which this demand 
 was to be satisfied. It will be remembered that 
 in the early history of education all claims to its 
 
IN MINNESOTA 69 
 
 advantages were limited to free citizens ; and 
 that as citizenship was extended by the enter- 
 prise, thrift and struggles of the people, educa- 
 tion and its institutions widened their doors and 
 extended their curricula. In this progress the 
 trades and burghers of cities and towns took pre- 
 cedence, while the laborers on farms have been 
 the last to receive recognition. From time im- 
 memorial they have been peasants, serfs and 
 •slaves, confined to the country, and excluded 
 from the privileges of culture and the schools. 
 This was true in Greece, in Rome, and has been 
 true in modern Europe down to the present. In 
 America, at the opening of this question of agri- 
 cultural education, the sentiment was practically 
 universal among all educators and educated men 
 that the farmer has, and can have, no use for 
 more than a common school education. And 
 when farmers' sons went to schools of higher edu- 
 cation it was to rise above farm life into the more 
 remunerative, and the more respectable occupa- 
 tions of mercantile and professional life. There 
 existed an educational caste spirit which excluded 
 agriculture, and which intensified the determin- 
 ation of talented and ambitious sons of farmers 
 to escape its conditions. It has been the boast of 
 great men, that, born and reared as farmers, they 
 have risen to positions of political and social dis- 
 
;o HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 tinction. A third condition, and one not distinct 
 from the preceding, was, that the teaching body 
 of the rising schools was necessarily selected 
 from the schools of classical cnlture, — at that 
 time the predominant ones. Whether the agri- 
 cultural schools were incorporated as departments 
 of the regular university, as in our own, or or- 
 ganized as separate agricultural colleges, the feel- 
 ing of the faculty, and the sentiment of the stu- 
 dent body, was that agricultural education was an 
 incongruity, if not an absurdity. The conviction 
 prevailed that the general culture of regular col- 
 leges served the purposes of all occupations, even 
 that of agriculture for those who chose to pur- 
 sue it. The one result that followed was univer- 
 sal east and west, that farmer students were so- 
 cially an ostracised class, and that the better class 
 of students soon changed their courses.^ 
 These then, were the general conditions 
 prevailing over the entire country, and un- 
 der which the University of Minnesota had 
 to solve the problem of agricultural education. 
 
 In establishing a College of Agriculture as a 
 department of the university, Minnesota followed 
 the example of Wisconsin, while ^Michigan and 
 Iowa were of those states which separated their 
 industrial colleges from the university, and or- 
 ganized them in distinct institutions. Beginning 
 
IN MINNESOTA 71 
 
 with 1868, the date of the present charter, an ex- 
 perimental farm of 96 acres, and located just 
 east of the campus, was purchased for $8,500, and 
 Professor E. H. Twining was elected to the de- 
 partment of Science and Agriculture. A pre- 
 paratory course of two years was offered "adapt- 
 ed to the wants of students fitting for the agri- 
 cultural college." The studies of the first year 
 were arithmetic, grammar and composition, geog- 
 raphy, algebra and physiology ; and of the sec- 
 ond year, algebra, bookkeeping, natural philoso- 
 phy, and chemistry. 
 
 For the following twenty years the history of 
 this department is one of struggle and experi- 
 ment to satisfy the demand for an agricultural 
 education. In his first report President Fohvell 
 gives his estimate of the importance of high in- 
 tellectual training for students of agriculture, and 
 says , "that mere manual dexterity and technical 
 cleverness are not the final wants of American 
 farmers and artisans." In his report to the Leg- 
 islature, the President of the Board of Regents 
 says , "Thus far, all the students who have de- 
 iired work have been employed in taking care of 
 die university buildings, the farm and the 
 grounds. The number of students who signify the 
 desire to pursue the agricultural course continues 
 to be small. But all things are in readiness, 
 
^2 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 and we only need to have tlie farmers send 
 their sons to put this department in a flourishing 
 condition." Again, in their report of 1873, the 
 regents say, "The regents do not think it juchc- 
 ious to spend a large amount on experimental 
 farming until students present themselves who 
 are desirous of instruction in agriculture." And 
 President Folwell, in his report of the same year 
 says , "So far as I am aware, not a single young 
 man has come here desiring to learn the science 
 of farming in order to practice it." And again, 
 in 1877 President Folwell says, "The number of 
 farmers' sons in attendance seeking instruction 
 in, general science and letters, is, as heretofore, 
 very large, while the number of students of sci- 
 entific agriculture does not increase, and proba- 
 bly cannot be materially agumented until our agri- 
 culturists learn to diversify their products, and 
 cease to raise for market a single staple." 
 
 The New Experimental Farm. 
 
 By legislative authority, granted in 1881, the 
 regents proceeded to the sale of the old experi- 
 mental farm, and to re-invest in the one now oc- 
 cupied. In this transaction Regent Pillsbury as- 
 sumed the entire responsibility, and gave his time 
 and financial skill toward gaining the greatest 
 possible advantage to the department of agricul- 
 
IN MINNESOTA -72, 
 
 ture, and with a heartiness as if the profits were 
 to be his own. Under liis direction the old farm 
 was platted into some 300 lots, and at ptiblic auc- 
 tion (Oct. II, 1882) one half of them were sold 
 for $47,400. 
 
 The new farm was known as the "Bass Farm", 
 located on the Como road, between the Twin 
 Cities, and consisted of 155 acres. This was 
 bought for $200 an acre, or $31,000. The entire 
 surplus, after paying for the new farm, was de- 
 voted to its improvement and the erection of 
 buildings for the accommodation of the depart- 
 ment of agriculture. 
 
 And yet, the problem of agricultural educa- 
 tion was not solved. Whether the farmers them- 
 selves were really ready to support the depart- 
 ment, or whether what was offered was not 
 adapted to the agricultural conditions and de- 
 mands, was in dispute. 
 
 It appears from the records, that for twenty- 
 five years the department of agriculture was al- 
 most literally without patronage. One, two, and 
 three students was the limit of enrollment ; and 
 one graduate in each of the years '80, '83, '85, 
 '87, was the result in the completed course. 
 
 The eighties were years of general social and 
 political agitation among the agricultural classes. 
 Farmers were inquiring how they were to better 
 
74 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 their conditions. They organized neighborhood 
 granges, co-operative enterprises and farmers' al- 
 Hances. They asserted themselves, not only in 
 agricnltural matters, but in politics and education. 
 As a part of this movement, they turned their 
 attention to the Agricultural Land Grant, and the 
 service it ought to render, and was rendering to 
 the farmers of Minnesota. Violent attacks were 
 made upon the university administration, charg- 
 ing the regents with deliberately robbing the far- 
 mers' fund in the interest of the university. All 
 these attacks and criticisms were pointed to the 
 one man who for those twenty years had given 
 his best thought and labor to the solution of the 
 problems of the new university in a new state. 
 The singleness of his purpose, and the greatness 
 of his achievements, had made him the single 
 mark of all the criticisms and insinuations of bad 
 faith that attached to this painful chapter of uni- 
 versity history. Above all financial successes, 
 Regent Pillsbury held most sacred and dear to 
 himself his good name, and to no thrust was he 
 so sensitive as that which aimed at his integrity 
 of purpose. A searching legislative investigation 
 sustained every claim, and vindicated every act of 
 the regents. 
 
 In 1887, and again in 1889. a bill was introduced 
 in the legislature separating the agricultural col- 
 
IN MINNESOTA 75 
 
 lege and land grant from the university, and 
 placing them under a separate board as a separ- 
 ate institution. So worn out was this "father of 
 the university" with these harrassing attacks, 
 that in the midst of the conflict he expressed him- 
 self as willing that the separation should be made, 
 provided that there might be saved to the univer- 
 sity the valuable lands of the state farm Avhich 
 was the product of his personal financiering and 
 labor, in which the state had invested originally 
 but $8,500. 
 
 The School of Agriculture. 
 
 This brings us to what we may note as the 
 second chapter in the history of our Agricultural 
 education. As Superintendent of Public Instruc- 
 tion and ex-officio regent of the university, 
 (1881-1893) the writer was, during this period, 
 both officially and professionally related to the ed- 
 ucational interests of the state and the uni- 
 versity. It may, therefore, seem not out of place, 
 if, as a factor of the times, he offers some of his 
 own experiences and contributions to the adjust- 
 ment of the subject that was engrossing public 
 attention. 
 
 All important contributions to social and edu- 
 cational progress must find their origin in the 
 history of the times. Asrricultural education is no 
 
76 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 exception to this law. Those who are conversant 
 with the educational history of the eighties, will 
 recall that in the National Educational Associa- 
 tion, which discussed living questions, and so re- 
 presented the educational trend of the times, 
 the manual training problem was then the 
 all-engrossing one. It was not a question 
 of professional schools for specialists ; it was 
 rather a claim for the practical training of the eye 
 and hand of youth in the schools, a claim for 
 manual training as a part of their education for 
 life. For successive years the ground was fought 
 over between those who represented pure intellec- 
 tual culture, and those who claimed a culture val- 
 ue for manual training, and a corresponding place 
 in the school curriculum. The heroic leader who 
 fought the battle for manual training was Dr. C. 
 M. Woodward of Washington University, St. 
 Louis. 
 
 Present, as Regent Kiehle was, through all 
 these discussions, and also in contact with rural 
 conditions as a frequent lecturer at school and 
 agricultural meetings, and interested as well in 
 the problems of the university, he gave this ques- 
 tion much careful attention, and, after visiting 
 manual training schools and agricultural colleges 
 east and west, submitted for public consideration 
 a plan for the organization of a school of agricul- 
 
IN MINNESOTA .^^ 
 
 ture to the public press in Feb.. 1889, to the 
 Board of Regents at their meeting following, 
 and to the National Educational Association at 
 its St. Paul meeting in 1889. 
 
 The following extracts will indicate the essen- 
 tial features of the plan proposed. 
 
 "In the organization of a school of agriculture, 
 us ii seems to me, the following considerations 
 should govern. 
 
 "I. It should meet the demands of the young 
 farmers who desire a knowledge of such matters 
 of business, science, and agricultural experience 
 as belong to their calling. 
 
 "2. It should receive them at the close of a 
 common school training, and at an age not 
 }'Ounger than fifteen years. 
 
 "3. As it is intended for those who live and 
 labor on the farm, the term should include the 
 months during which they are at leisure, say, 
 from Nov. i to April i. 
 
 "4. The courses of the school should be mostly 
 objective, manual, practical and scientific; and 
 in its results should accomplish the following: 
 (a) It should cultivate the taste and abilities of 
 agricultural life. The student should, therefore, 
 pursue his school life as closely as possible with 
 his life on the farm. To be absent too long and 
 to become accustomed to other surroundingfs will 
 
78 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 wean from the farm. Hence, a course to be com- 
 pleted by winter terms has two advantages. It 
 leaves to the student the working season in which 
 to apply his learning and earn wages for his 
 support. It also continues his life on the farm 
 without a long break, and so strengthens rather 
 than weakens his taste for his chosen calling, 
 (b) It should cultivate his powers of observation 
 and judgment, and his manual skill in lines be- 
 longing to his occupation, (c) It should make 
 him acquainted with the elements of thofe 
 branches of science most immediately allied to his 
 calling." 
 
 Then, after outlining, I., The General Business 
 Course ; II., The Scientific and Manual Training 
 Course, and III., The Lecture Course, the fol- 
 lowing : 
 
 "If this plan is reasonable, we shall have in the 
 fruit of it a school that will be, both as to expense 
 and preparation, within the reach of farmers of 
 ordinary thrift. It will give what'all intelligent 
 farmers should have, namely, a good business ed- 
 ucation of a high school grade, fair mechanical 
 skill, with the habit of themselves making and 
 mending rather than buying; a practical knowl- 
 edge of the alphabet of the natural sciences so 
 that they can read and observe intelligently in 
 the lines of their work. All this in the school of 
 
IN MINNESOTA 79 
 
 agriculture. Beyond this is our college of agri- 
 culture, in which these subjects will be continued 
 to meet the demands of the fewer, and that most 
 important class in agriculture, lecturers, profes- 
 sors, physicians and statesmen." 
 
 This plan was promptly considered and adopt- 
 ed by the board of regents, of whom no member 
 was more appreciative of its reasonableness, and 
 more ready to make the trial of its efficiency, than 
 the regent who had borne both the labors of ser- 
 vice and the calumny of opposition. It was re- 
 solved to erect a single building at a cost of some 
 $40,000, which should at once afiford the conven- 
 iences of educational, culinary and dormitory ser- 
 vice. The school was opened Oct. 18, 1888, to 
 continue to April 17. 1888. In the History of Ed- 
 ucation in Minnesota, issued by the United States 
 Bureau of Education, is the following comment 
 by Hon. S. M. Owen, then regent of the univer- 
 sity. "No proposition suggested in the foregoing 
 met with more adverse criticism than the one to 
 hold the school during the winter months, when 
 it was said, practical agriculture could not be 
 taught, since the opportunity for object lessons in 
 crop growing and conditions for practice would 
 be wanting. But experience has confirmed the 
 predictions of Professor Kiehle. ]\Iany of the 
 disadvantages of teaching practical subjects in the 
 
8o HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 winter have been overcome by means of plants, 
 animals, machines, charts, models, and other il- 
 lustrative material which from year to year is be- 
 ing collected. The boy receives instruction during 
 the winter that he is eager to put in practice on 
 the farm during the succeeding summer. While 
 at work there he discovers defects in his educa- 
 tion that cause him to look forward with pleasant 
 anticipation to the second term of the school, 
 when the defects may be remedied." 
 
 The school opened under the principalship of 
 William W. Pendergast, and with an enrollment 
 of 47 students. From the first, the school was a 
 standing protest against the plan of separation 
 embodied in the bill of 1889, ^^^ the immediate 
 and continued success of the school caused all op- 
 position to melt away. 
 
 Under the wise management of its officers and 
 instructors it has merited and won the enthusias- 
 tic support of the agriculturists of the state, 
 and has received from the legislature every ap- 
 propriation asked for in buildings and equip- 
 ment ; and has become the center about which 
 have clustered the experiment station, farmers' 
 institutes, dairy schools and the stated agricultur- 
 al meetings. 
 
 In 1897 upon the motion of the farmers them- 
 selves, it was determined to open a department 
 
IN MINNESOTA 8i 
 
 for the daughters of farmers, in which the aim 
 should be the culture and education of home- 
 makers. It has been made to include the culture 
 of home life, the domestic occupations of the 
 complete home in domestic science, cooking, sew- 
 ing", dairying, horticulture, and whatever prom- 
 ises to make the home of the prosperous Ameri- 
 can farmer wholesome and attractive. For the 
 care, comfort and home culture of these young 
 ladies, the state has provided most liberal accom- 
 modations in buildings, equipment and instruc- 
 tion. 
 
 The appended table shows that in the fourteen 
 years of the existence of this school the atten- 
 dance of young men has increased from 47 in 
 1889 to 328 in 1902; and the total number of 
 graduates 353. Of these graduates, 82 per cent, 
 are employed at present in agriculture and the 
 allied branches. In the young ladies' department, 
 during the five }*ears of its existence, the enroll- 
 ment has grown from 33 in 1898 to 122 in 1902; 
 and the graduates from three in 1899 to 23 in 
 1902. 
 
 The support which this school gives to the Col- 
 lege of Agriculture appears in this, that the ag- 
 gregate enrollment in this college for the period 
 of the school has been 179. 
 
82 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 Professional Departments, 
 
 The professional colleges of law and medicine 
 have, for many centuries, been identified with 
 university education, and have been patronized 
 by the students of government and science. These 
 colleges were readily and naturally opened as the 
 regents considered the time propitious. The De- 
 partment of Medicine, the outgrowth of the med- 
 ical examining board established in 1883, was 
 organized in 1888, with Dr. Perry H. Millard as 
 its first dean. In buildings, laboratories and 
 general equipment it is thoroughly provided, and 
 sustains a four year course. It contains the Col- 
 leges of I, Medicine and Surgery; 2, Homeo- 
 pathic Medicine and Surgery; 3, Dentistry, and 
 4, Pharmacy. The total enrollment of all col- 
 leges for the last year (i90i-'o2) was 551, and 
 the number of alumni, 728. 
 
 The College of Law was organized in 1888 
 under the deanship of \Y. S. Pattee, LL. D. 
 Its development has been rapid in enrollment, and 
 its curriculum takes high rank for its scholarship 
 and thoroughness Its enrollment for 1 901 -'02 
 was 503 ; and its alumni number, 857. 
 
 Department of Pedagogy. 
 
 The complete history of the university, in the 
 
IN MINNESOTA 83 
 
 organization of its departments to meet the de- 
 mands of modern life, requires a record of tiie 
 development of the department of pedagogy, or 
 the science of education. A half century ago, the 
 public mind was impressed with the importance 
 of the common schools, and with the necessity 
 for trained teachers. This was known as the nor- 
 mal school movement, and of which we have al- 
 ready treated. In laying the broad foundations 
 of the university this interest was recognized, and* 
 in the act of 1851, establishing the university, it 
 was provided that the "university shall consist 
 of five departments." one of these being "the de- 
 partment of the theory and practice of elementary 
 instruction." Again, after the organization of the 
 state, the legislature, in i860, provided that "there 
 shall also be a department for the training of 
 teachers for the common schools of the state in 
 which shall be taught the theory and practice of 
 teaching, and everything that will tend to perfect 
 the elementary and other schools of the state." 
 It is well worth while that we recognize the dem- 
 ocratic attitude of the friends of the university, 
 and their interest in the improvement of all the 
 schools of the state. In the years following, the 
 normal schools, in this as in other states, became 
 the leaders in elementary education, and were de- 
 
84 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 voted to the single purpose of training teacliers 
 for the common schools of the state. 
 
 Accordingly, and, as it seems, naturally, in the 
 reorganization of the university under its present 
 charter (1868), this section, and all expressed 
 provision for a department of pedagogy was 
 omitted. The latitude given the regents was in 
 the clause (Sec. 2) "There shall be established in 
 the university of Alinnesota five or more depart- 
 ments," &c. 
 
 At that time the sentiment prevailed that special 
 training was only required for elementary teach- 
 ers. From time immemorial it was assumed that 
 ability to instruct was an essential accompani- 
 ment of university education. The very name of 
 the degrees conferred — "doctor" and "master" 
 — signified this. Learning and culture were all 
 that the university could furnish. If, with these, 
 one could not teach, it must be because of some 
 native defect which could not be remedied. This, 
 at that time, was the prevailing attitude of uni- 
 versities and colleges. Indeed, so strong was this 
 conviction, that the normal school movement in 
 the interest of elementary education was gener- 
 ally depreciated ; its defects, which were many in 
 its experimental stage, were magnified, and its 
 ideals not recognized. It seemed as if the only 
 college men who stood up for them were those 
 
IN MINNESOTA 85 
 
 who were elected to positions as principals and in- 
 structors in the normal schools. 
 
 But that was a generation ago. In the mean 
 time America has been under the intellectual 
 influence and direction of Germany, from whom 
 she learned her first lessons in the philosophy of 
 education as applied to elementary schools. 
 
 Our teachers have learned in the universities 
 of Germany that education is a process subject to 
 physical and mental laws, that cause and efifect 
 rule as absolutely in the domain of education as 
 in that of mechanics, though on a plane immeas- 
 urably higher, and that conscious and intelligent 
 skill is not to be limited to the care of children. 
 They saw the technical and classical schools of 
 Germany taught by university men trained to their 
 work professionally, and with results that put 
 our own to shame. Gradually, the sentiment 
 strengthened in America that teaching is a p^^o- 
 fession, and that the principles of pedagogy are 
 as applicable to our schools of secondary educa- 
 tion as to our primary. This movement was felt 
 in our own university. As early as 1873, Presi- 
 dent Folwell, in his report to the regents said, "I 
 am of the opinion that after some years it will be 
 desirable to open in the university, as the proper 
 place, a normal department for training teachers 
 of higher schools.'' 
 
86 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 The first response to this advancing sentiment 
 appears in 1885, when Harry P. Judson, Pro- 
 fessor of History, was appointed to give a special 
 course of lectures on teaching. In 1893, by un- 
 animous vote of the regents, the chair of pedago- 
 gy was established, and to its duties D. L. Kiehle 
 was appointed. 
 
 That the decision to establish this department 
 was timely and wise is evident from these facts : 
 that the legislature in support of secondary or 
 high schools has required that all graduates of 
 the university who were to be recognized as qual- 
 ified teachers in high schools must have pursued 
 the prescribed courses of pedagogy ; that the 
 classes of this department, according to its last 
 report (1902), had 102 members, and that of the 
 graduating class, 40 per cent of the whole num- 
 ber, and 60 per cent of the ladies held the Uni- 
 versity Teacher's Certificate. 
 
 But to establish by resolution an institution or 
 department, contrary to traditional usage and 
 sentiment, is but the beginning of a long struggle 
 against pre-conceptions, and a long experimenta- 
 tion in a practical adaptation of methods and 
 principles to existing conditions. It was doubted 
 even by some members of the board whether the 
 department merited a place in the curriculum of 
 the university. The head of the department 
 
IN MINNESOTA 87 
 
 found it necessary to justify the judgment of 
 the board that estabHshed it, which he did in a 
 special report to the board. In this report are 
 found the following propositions : 
 
 "The historic university is not a part of, nor tlie 
 fruitage of a system of popular education. It has pro- 
 duced the men who have led in popular reforms, but as 
 an institution it has been conservative and aristocratic. 
 It has been the patron of scholarship, but not of the 
 people." 
 
 "The history of the State University has been one 
 of readjustment between itself and the people who sup- 
 port it. In other words, its history has been one of 
 transition from its ancient aristocratic spirit to the 
 democratic of modern times.'' 
 
 "But so far it has responded to the demands of 
 classes representing financial and industrial interests. 
 There remains to be reckoned with an interest of the 
 people of comparatively greater importance; an interest 
 of the the people not as craftsmen, nor as doctors and 
 lawyers, but as citizens and parents, whose supreme 
 concern is to give every child of the nation the best 
 preparation for complete living that the science and the 
 wisdom of the age affords." 
 
 "The greatest honors have come to the men in our 
 greatest universities, and those of greatest learning, who 
 have contributed most to the problems of childhood, and 
 how to educate it. In the universities the great names 
 in philosophy, that are most familiar to our ears, are 
 those who are contributing to the philosophy and edu- 
 cation of childhood." 
 
 "To this point there has developed a profession of 
 
88 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 teaching and a philosophy of education represented 
 by the normal schools, and receiving support from in- 
 dividual scholars in universities. But the university as 
 an institution, until recently, has had no part in the 
 movement. On the contrary there has grown up the 
 feeling that university sentiment has been indifferent, 
 if not disposed even to belittle it." 
 
 "Since that time — 1879, when the department was 
 established in the University of Michigan — every state 
 university in the United States has recognized this pop- 
 ular demand, and has made provision for the department 
 of pedagogy. The University of Leland Stanford, Junior, 
 is best known by what it offers to teachers. In the Uni- 
 versity of Chicago the department of philosophy, under 
 the leadership of Dr. Dewey, is most active, and its 
 head most widely known through his pedagogical serv- 
 ices. The president of Clark University, Dr. G. Stanley 
 Hall, is best known, and that most honorably, in a 
 world-wide reputation, as a student of childhood, and 
 the university is well known through the pedagogical 
 department. Then too, old Harvard and Columbia have 
 responded with well equipped schools of pedagogy, and 
 President Eliot and President Nicholas Murray Butler 
 are prominently identified with the cause of popular 
 education." 
 
 "Pedagogy ranks as the highest form of biological 
 science. Large and costly provision has been made for 
 the study of the structure of plants, and the laws of their 
 growth. Corresponding provision has been made for the 
 utilization of this science in the culture of plants useful 
 to man, in the department of horticulture and agricul- 
 ture. Provision has also been made for the application 
 of this science in the department of animal industry, by 
 
IN MINNESOTA 89 
 
 educated and skilled men in raising sheep, and hogs and 
 cattle, all of greatest value to mankind. But pedagogy 
 rises to the highest plane of biological inquiry, and has 
 for its subject, not a plant, nor a bug nor a frog, but a 
 'little child.' " 
 
 "And it is not to be overlooked, that as civilization 
 rises to higher conceptions of what life is, and what is 
 worth living for, it turns more and more from the 
 study of crops and cattle to the study and care of its 
 children. For this reason, this subject of the education 
 of children is the supreme study of interest to society." 
 "As a co-educational institution in which women are 
 furnishing a large part of the patronage, and taking the 
 most of the academic honors, this is the only profes- 
 sional study in which they are most interested, and in 
 which their claims should be considered. As women, 
 the study of childhood and its education is their study ; 
 but as a calling, teaching is the only one that is pecul- 
 iarly appropriate to them. Now, every professional pro- 
 vision thus far made — law, medicine, dentistry, pharm- 
 acy, etc. — is for men. That a few women enter them 
 only proves that these callings are essentially masculine. 
 And now, does the University graduating this large 
 body of women propose to leave them at the threshold 
 without offering them any means of professional prep- 
 aration for the calling which they desire to enter? The 
 effect of this policy has been to emphasize the industrial 
 professions, to encourage our youth to enter them, and 
 to engage in teaching only as make-shift for support 
 while preparing for some more permanent calling." 
 
 And so the department was not abolished. 
 There remained — and still remains — the ques- 
 
90 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 tion whether the department should be ex- 
 panded to meet the pedagogical demands of sec- 
 ondary education ; whether the pedagogical as- 
 pects of the subjects taught in the secondary 
 schools, and continued in the university shall be 
 recognized by the several departments, and pro- 
 vision be made for the systematic training of 
 teachers in the same. The pressing demands of 
 the educational public is an assurance that this 
 youngest of departments will soon be given the 
 place its importance merits. 
 
 That the development of this department has 
 been slow and inadecjuate, is due to traditional 
 conditions, and to the hindrances of opposing 
 interests which accompany all new movements, 
 and must alwavs be counted. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 Secondary Education. 
 
 In t-aiiy education, all emphasis was placed on 
 the two extremes, the common schools for the 
 people at large, and the college or university for 
 the higher classes ; and so there was an impass- 
 able gap between the two. The traditional feed- 
 er to the college of the eastern states was the 
 academy and the private school. In the west 
 these intermediate schools were generally want- 
 ing. On the other hand, our common schools 
 had no intermediate school to which they could 
 promote, and especially none in which to pre- 
 pare for the university. 
 
 And hence the history of high schools must 
 be studied from the two directions, the demands 
 of the common schools, that their more ambi- 
 tious and capable students be given a better pre- 
 paration for business and industrial life ; and 
 also, of the university for a proper preparation 
 of its entering classes. 
 
 As was reasonable, the representatives of these 
 two interests co-operated in establishing, as a 
 third subdivision of our school svstem, the state 
 
92 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 high school, which is unique in its tv/ofold re- 
 lation, — as (i) the academy of the university, 
 and (2) the college of the people. The oppo- 
 sition that attaches to all progressive movements, 
 at the first declaimed against taxing the public 
 for more than rudimentary education, while 
 these same objectors were sending their sons to 
 a state-supported university. However, the prin- 
 ciple of an entire system of public education 
 prevailed, and development began. 
 
 In 1853 Superintendent E. D. Neill se- 
 cured the enactment of a law providing that, 
 "The trustees of any two or more districts may, 
 by a concurrent vote, agree to establish a gram- 
 mar school for the older and more advanced 
 children of such district." The word "gram- 
 mar" was used in its traditional sense to include 
 the classical and other languages. 
 
 In i860 the legislature authorized the City of 
 St. Anthony to establish "two grammar schools," 
 and "a central high school, where instruction in 
 the higher English branches shall be given." 
 This law, amended the following year to include 
 the teaching of the languages, was the beginning 
 of our high school movement. 
 
 But the period of the positive advance of our 
 high schools, both in number and in scholarship, 
 dates from the time when thev came under the 
 
IN MINNESOTA 93 
 
 inspiring and moulding influence of the univer- 
 sity and the state. In 1869 President Fohvell, 
 in his first report to the regents, said ; "Our sys- 
 tem of pubHc instruction will not be an organized 
 whole until the 'Secondary schools' are graded, 
 not merely with reference to the primary schools 
 below, but to the university above." In 1872 
 State Superintendent H. B. Wilson appointed a 
 special committee, consisting of David Burt of 
 Winona, O. V. Tousley of Minneapolis, and O. 
 Whitman of Red Wing, "to suggest some plan 
 for securing a course of study in our high 
 schools which shall be preparatory to our state 
 university." The report of this committee is 
 important in that it represents the twofold rela- 
 tion of high schools, and undertakes an adjust- 
 ment. 
 
 I quote in part. "We recognize the fact that 
 our high schools have a specific w^ork in our 
 graded system ; that they are designed for those 
 who have passed through the lower schools in 
 the grades and may never be able to go beyond 
 the high school. We regard it as necessary that 
 these schools should have a course of study for 
 such that will qualify them as far as possible for 
 the spheres of hfe which they may enter on leav- 
 ing the high school. Our acquiesence is hearty 
 in what is intended by the assertion that they 
 
94 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 are 'the people's colleges' for the education of 
 the masses of our youth, who will enter no high- 
 er institution of learning. We believe that they 
 should have a course of study sufficiently broad 
 and versatile to accomplish this purpose. Yet 
 while this is done the question arises, Can there 
 not be some point of articulation between these 
 schools and our higher institutions of learning? 
 Can they not also prepare for higher courses of 
 classical and scientific study those who may wish 
 to enter our university, having an optional 
 course of study for any one who may desire it? 
 Can not this be done in many of our high schools, 
 and ultimately, perhaps, in all of them without 
 interfering with their appropriate work as re- 
 lated to the lower schools in our graded system ?" 
 In August of the same year President Fol- 
 well expressed the disposition of the regents 
 through its committee to the convention of city 
 and county superintendents as follows , "The 
 business of this committee is formally to invite 
 this body to join the board in aif endeavor to 
 bring about a vital, organic connection between 
 the university and the high schools." 
 
 State High Schools. 
 
 In August, 1877, the State Teachers' Associa- 
 tion, held at Mankato, adopted the following: 
 
IN MINNESOTA 95 
 
 "Resolved, That this association earnestly hope 
 and recommend that the boards of education in 
 our cities and larger villages will, at the earliest 
 moment, arrange courses of study suited to pre- 
 pare students for admission to the university, 
 and whenever possible, to admit students to these 
 courses on liberal terms. 
 
 "Resolved, That the legislature is requested 
 to make suitable appropriation for paying the 
 tuition of country students in the high schools 
 of the state, so that free education from ABC 
 to the master of arts may be the birthright of 
 ever}' child of the state. 
 
 "Resolved, That there be a committee to bring 
 this subject to the attention of the Governor and 
 the legislature in such manner as mav seem to 
 them best." 
 
 The next legislature (1878) passed the first 
 state high school law embodying these features ; 
 ( I ) A State High School Board consisting of 
 the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, 
 the President of the University, and a third 
 member to be appointed by the governor. 
 
 (2) The sum of $400 was apportioned to each 
 graded school which, (a) admitted properly 
 prepared students free of tuition; (b) gave in- 
 struction fitting for the sub-freshman class; (c) 
 
96 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 shovild agree to the inspection of its classes by 
 the high school board. 
 
 Mr. Charles S. Bryant was appointed as a 
 member of the board, and acted as its inspector 
 with an earnest and intelligent enthusiasm. To 
 the legislature of 1879 State Superintendent 
 Burt reported 33 schools in which Latin was 
 taught to 628 pupils, and in six of these schools 
 Greek was taught to 46. 
 
 The appropriation for this encouragement of 
 higher education was $8000, but by an oversight 
 it was not made annual. Hence, after one year 
 its operation was suspended. 
 
 In 1881 the law was re-enacted with several 
 amendments, chiefly the following : 
 
 (i) The Governor, ex-officio, was made the 
 third member of the board. (In 1901 the third 
 member was made appointive.) 
 
 (2) High schools shall provide "orderly cours- 
 es of study embracing all the branches prescribed 
 as a pre-requisite for admission to the collegiate 
 department of the University of Minnesota." 
 
 (3) The board may appoint "competent per- 
 sons to visit and inspect any schools, and to 
 make report thereon." 
 
 (4) "The board shall have power to establish 
 suitable rules and regulations relating to ex- 
 aminations, reports, acceptance of schools, cours- 
 
IN MINNESOTA 97 
 
 es of study, and other proceedings under this 
 act." 
 
 (5) The sum of $20,000 was appropriated 
 annually for the purposes of this act. 
 
 The operation of this new law began with 
 the administration of D. L. Kiehle as state su- 
 perintendent of public instruction, and ex-ofificio 
 member of the high school board. 
 
 In the larger interests of the high schools, 
 completing the education of many for the busi- 
 ness life, as well as fitting others for the higher 
 education of the university, the superintendent 
 of public instruction recommended that the 
 board enlarge and emphasize the policy hitherto 
 adopted, and, besides looking immediately and 
 chiefly to the interests of the university in the 
 supervision of high schools, that the board adopt 
 a more general plan of building up these high 
 schools in proportions answering to their twofold 
 relations ; and this by means of more definite 
 rules, requiring thoroughly prepared teachers, 
 a well-balanced course of study, a classification 
 of the schools according to their advancement, 
 a systematic written examination of classes by 
 the board, and issuing the certificates of the 
 board to students passing, which certificates 
 should be accepted in lieu of entrance examin- 
 ations to the university. This plan was approved 
 
98 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 and adopted by the board, and at once set in 
 operation. The president of the university took 
 charge of the examinations, and the Superintend- 
 ent of PubUc Instruction, as secretary, looked 
 after the inspection and general business of the 
 board. 
 
 The advantages of the plan adopted were 
 these : ( i ) The university related itself broadly 
 as the promoter of education of every grade. In- 
 stead of being merely the recipient of the choic- 
 est fruits of secondary education, and of bene- 
 fiting the state through its inspiring example, 
 it made itself the servant of the entire system. 
 
 (2) The classification of the schools— third, 
 second, first — without diminishing their support, 
 gave aid to the weak, and operated as a stim- 
 ulus to higher rank. (3) The examination and 
 certificating of students in the several branches 
 passed, gave them rank at the university, and 
 likewise, by decision of other institutions, at the 
 colleges and normal schools of the state. Young 
 students in all parts of the state were officially 
 accredited with what they accomplished. 
 
 In 1893 the legislature authorized the appoint- 
 ment of an inspector of State high schools at a 
 reasonable compensation. Under this act George 
 B. Alton was appointed inspector. Under his 
 diligent and wise administration to the present 
 
IN MINNESOTA 99 
 
 time, the high schools have attained to a degree 
 of efficiency in number and scholarship that 
 makes them the pride of the state. 
 
 The number of hjgh schools has increased 
 from 39 in 1881, to 141 in 1902. The annual 
 appropriation for their support has increased 
 from $20,000 in 1881, to $217,000 in 1903; and 
 for the support of the individual schools, from 
 $400 in 1881 to $1000 in 1902, and to $1600 in 
 1903, with the provision that in case the amoimt 
 appropriated will not suffice, the appropriation 
 shall be apportioned pro rata. 
 
 A detailed enumeration of the features of prog- 
 ress in our high schools is impossible within 
 these limitations. In number, in buildings, in 
 equipment, in apparatus and libraries, and in 
 the liberal provision made for instruction, these 
 schools have kept abreast of the age, and now 
 fill completely the gap that once existed between 
 the common schools and the university. 
 
 Graded Schools. 
 
 The supervising authority of the state high 
 school board has been farther extended to in- 
 clude the graded schools, numbering 119, which 
 have been already reported as the advanced com- 
 mon schools articulating with the high schools. 
 They receive state aid to the amount of $550 each, 
 
loo HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 and are under the inspection of A. W. Ran- 
 kin, an appointee of the board, who has served 
 in that relation to the present time. 
 
 Semi-Graded and Riral Schools. 
 
 The marked improvement of the high schools 
 and the graded schools under the influence of the 
 aid given by the state in money and stricter super- 
 vision determined the legislature to offer the en- 
 couragement of financial aid under strict condi- 
 tions to semi-graded and rural schools. These 
 conditions were that, for semi-graded schools, 
 the district should be provided with suitable 
 buildings, libraries and apparatus, and that a 
 school of eight months should be maintained 
 each year. Organized in at least two departments 
 with a suitable course of study, and taught by 
 competent teachers, one of whom shall hold a 
 state certificate of the first grade, or its equivalent. 
 These schools receive state aid to the amount 
 of $225 each. 
 
 Rural schools that meet the above conditions 
 with the exception that they are not required 
 to maintain two departments, shall receive one 
 hundred twenty-five dollars. These schools re- 
 main under the supervision of the county super- 
 intendents. 
 
 This survey completes what is recognized as 
 
IN MINNESOTA loi 
 
 our public school system. It is complete in of- 
 fering every child of the commonwealth a free 
 education, and progressive from the primary 
 grade to the university. Every grade points 
 upward toward the university ; and to the uni- 
 versity itself as the aid and support of all below. 
 
CHAPTER VL 
 Schools for Defectives and the Homeless. 
 
 In its school system the state educates itself. 
 These in the schools will soon be the citizens of 
 the state, assuming all its duties and responsibil- 
 ities. But besides these, the state has another 
 large class of its children who, by reason of 
 physical defects and the lack of proper moral 
 environment in family and social life, are be- 
 yond the reach of the educating influences of 
 the public schools, and may never assume the 
 responsibilities of citizenship. These are the 
 deaf, the blind, the homeless waifs, the imbecile, 
 and the morally depraved. As the state, in be- 
 nevolent spirit, builds hospitals for the care of 
 the sick, who would otherwise die of neglect, 
 in the same spirit the state undertakes to educate 
 these defectives in special institutions, and by 
 instruction especiallv adapted to their condition. 
 
 This class of schools can be only outlined, but 
 must not be overlooked in an estimate of the 
 comprehensiveness of the plan of the state in the 
 care of all its children. 
 
EDUCATION IN MINNESOTA 103 
 
 I. Schools for Defectives. 
 
 The children who are defective in sight, hear- 
 ing or intelHgence, and who thereby cannot be 
 taught in the common schools, are provided for 
 by the state in three separate institutions locat- 
 ed in the city of Faribault. In these they are 
 provided with homes and are given an education 
 adapted to their condition. 
 
 The legislature of 1863 appointed a commis- 
 sion consisting of George F. Batchelder, Rod- 
 ney A. Alott and David H. Frost and author- 
 ized them to provide for the relief and instruc- 
 tion of the indigent blind and deaf of the state. 
 
 In September following a school was open.ed 
 in a hired building under R. H. Kinney, Princi- 
 pal, with one matron, one teacher and a class of 
 five, soon increased to eight, deaf children, three 
 of whom were feeble-minded. 
 
 Ill 1865, the limiting term "indigent" was re- 
 moved from the statute, and by the same legis- 
 lature, provision was made for a permanent 
 board of five directors, adding the governor and 
 state superintendent of public instruction as ex- 
 ofificio members of the original number. 
 
 The history of this institution is a record of 
 the cordial interest the citizens of Faribault have 
 taken in the care and the beneficent purposes of 
 
104 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 these schools. Of the twenty-three different citi- 
 zens who have served on the board, three have 
 served notably the longest of all in the state. — T. 
 B. Clements, twenty-five years ; Hudson Wilson 
 thirty-three years; and R. A. Mott, thirty-eight 
 years. 
 
 In 1879, the legislature appointed a commis- 
 sion of expert physicians to visit the state hos- 
 pitals for the insane and select from them such 
 idiotic and feeble-minded children as, in their 
 opinion, were proper subjects for special care 
 and instruction, and assign them to this board 
 for care and training. i\s a result, twenty-two 
 were selected and placed in a school that same 
 fall with Dr. George H. Knight of Connecticut 
 as Principal. 
 
 In 1 88 1, the school was incorporated as a de- 
 partment of the institution for defectives, and 
 epileptics were added, to be cared for. Until that 
 time the superintendency of all departments had 
 been under Dr. J. L. Noyes ; but then they were 
 .separated, Dr. Noyes retaining charge of the 
 deaf, leaving Dr. J. Dow superintendent of the 
 blind, and Dr. Knight superintendent of the 
 feeble-minded. 
 
 Until August, 1901, the three departments 
 were administered under the original board, at 
 
IN MINNESOTA 105 
 
 which time that of the feeble-minded was trans- 
 ferred to the State Board of Control. 
 
 The entire number received under the care of 
 this department to the end of the scholastic year, 
 June, 1902, is 1582. 
 
 1. The school for the blind is free to all blind 
 children in the state between the ages of eight 
 and twenty-six years. Board, care and tuition 
 are furnished without charge. The school is 
 equipped with all the appliances of a modern 
 school of this class. Special instruction is given 
 in music, and in manual training and industrial 
 work, such as sloyd, broom-making, hammock- 
 weaving, bead-work, basket-work and sewing. 
 The course of study embraces a period of seven 
 years, beginning with the kindergarten and end- 
 ing with the usual English studies required for 
 entrance to the high school. 
 
 2. The school for the deaf is free to all deaf 
 children between eight and twenty-five years of 
 age whose parents or guardians are citizens of 
 the State. The school course is seven years, 
 which by the vote of the directors may be ex- 
 tended three years. About one-third of the time 
 is devoted to industrial training in trades, such 
 as boot and shoe making for boys, with print- 
 ing, carpentry, and cabinet making; and for 
 girls, dressmaking, plain sewing and cooking. 
 
io6 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 Of the total enrollment (947) to June, 1902, 
 551 were males and 396 were females. 
 
 Upon completion of the course of this school, 
 examinations are given for entrance to Gallaudet 
 College, to which twenty-seven have been ad- 
 mitted, giving ^Minnesota second place — Iowa 
 being first — of the number sent to college as 
 compared with the total deaf population of the 
 state. 
 
 Of the Minnesota students who have attended 
 college, 10 have become teachers; i, a super- 
 visor; I, a founder and superintendent of a 
 school for the deaf; i, a matron of a school; i, 
 an artist; i, an architect; i, an editor; 3. gov- 
 ernment clerks ; and i , a banker. 
 
 Of those who have graduated from the school, 
 26 are, or have been, teachers, and others are 
 found in various callings, as book-keepers, clerks, 
 artists, merchants, and similar occupations. All 
 of which shows that out of the indigent and de- 
 pendent, the state has educated self-supporting 
 and useful citizens. 
 
 3. For the feeble-minded a main building 
 has been provided at a cost of $290,000. It is 
 divided into a north wing for girls, and a south 
 wing for boys, leaving the middle part for ad- 
 ministrative rooms, hospital, assembly hall, in- 
 dustrial rooms and the culinary department. 
 
IN MINNESOTA 107 
 
 The children are grouped into "famihes" for 
 home Hfe, each group being under the care of an 
 attendant during the hours when not in school. 
 This grouping is arranged both according to age 
 and congeniality. In the school rooms the group- 
 ings are arranged according to comparative men- 
 tal ability. 
 
 During the year 1901-1902, the enrollment 
 was, 474 males, and 397 females. Of this number 
 325 were in the school department. A large per- 
 centage promise to become self-supporting. 
 
 4. The Minnesota State Training School for 
 Boys and Girls was given its present name — 
 changed from State Reform School — to avoid 
 the appearance of separating these youth from 
 society, and of identifying them with the crim- 
 inal classes. 
 
 The school, formerly located at St. Paul, is 
 now located at Red Wing on a tract of 450 acres 
 of land. It is provided with an administrative 
 building and separate cottages for boys and girls. 
 Its purpose is to counteract the results of idle- 
 ness and evil companionship by moral and intel- 
 lectual instruction, and by training to habits of 
 industry through useful and remunerative occu- 
 pations. The school is organized on what is 
 known as the "open family plan." It is divided 
 into families of from fiftv to seventv-five, accord- 
 
io8 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 ing to ages, each family being in charge of a 
 family manager, a teacher and a housekeeper. 
 
 The cost of maintaining the scliool. for the 
 year ending July 31, 1902, was $126,439. of 
 which a part was defrayed by the industrial work. 
 The cost of buildings has been $335,504. 
 
 School for Dependent and Neglected 
 Children. 
 
 This school, known as the State Public School, 
 was established in 1885. It provides a temporary 
 home and school for the dependent and neglected 
 children of the State. 
 
 In the school all l)odily wants are cared for, 
 and instruction is given in morals and the com- 
 mon school branches. The average time of re- 
 tention being ten months, no systematic training 
 in trades is undertaken ; but all are well occupied 
 in the various industries and services of this 
 State home. 
 
 Through an organized State agency children 
 are provided with homes in families, which are 
 regularly visited to learn of the condition and 
 care that is given the children. 
 
 Up to Jan. I, 1903, there had been received 
 from 76 of the 82 counties, 2474 children — 15 19 
 boys and 955 girls. Of this number all but 257, 
 
IN MINNESOTA 109 
 
 then in the school, had been placed in family 
 homes. Of those so placed 1030 still remained 
 under the supervision of the school. Inform- 
 ation gained by visitation showed that 84 per 
 cent had developed into young men and women 
 of good character. The cost of the entire prop- 
 erty has been $226,910. 
 
 Co^^CLusION. 
 
 Taking a summary and general view of what 
 Minnesota has done and is doing for the educa- 
 tion of its children, we find that the aggregate 
 expenditure and present valuation, in round 
 numbers, is as follows : 
 
 I. Buildings and Permanent Improvements. 
 
 1. By the State $ 3,500,000. 
 
 2. By Special and Independent 
 
 Districts 12,000,000. 
 
 3. By Common School Districts. . 4,000,000. 
 
 Total $19,500,000. 
 
 II. For Annual Support. 
 
 1. By the General Government — 
 Revenue from land grants, and 
 
 money, $ 590,000. 
 
 2. By the State 1,400,000. 
 
 3. By School Districts 3,000,000. 
 
 Total $4,990,000. 
 
no HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 These amounts are necessarily approximate ; 
 yet they are sufficiently accurate to answer tlte 
 purpose of a general estimate of the material ex- 
 pression of the worthiest impulses and principles 
 of our people in the care of those who are the 
 future hope and honor of the State. 
 
 Another, and higher view than merely the 
 financial one, is the successful application of the 
 state's intelligence to the development of its sys- 
 tem to comprehend every stage and aspect of its 
 civic and industrial life. In the geography of 
 our state, we see that every stream, rivulet and 
 spring finds its way to the great ocean, and so 
 makes itself a contributing part of the great sys- 
 tem of waters ; likewise, so complete is our sys- 
 tem of education, that every vocation of life, 
 every gradation and degree of culture, — artisan 
 and statesman ; the care of the plant and the pro- 
 tection of human life ; the child at his alphabet 
 and the mature student of the philosophy of life ; 
 the brilliant genius and the unfortunate imbecile ; 
 the child of the poorest and the son of the rich- 
 est , — all are comprehended in the provisions of 
 our system of education, so far perfected, that 
 it stands at the forefront of all that human 
 wisdom has devised for the improvement of the 
 race and the perpetuation of human institutions. 
 
 And, now, in wh?t we have accomplished, we 
 
IN MINNESOTA iii 
 
 have a guarantee for the future, that the prob- 
 lems still unsolved, that the defects still unrem- 
 edied, will find their solution, and that complete- 
 ness will ultimately crown our history with the 
 honors of intelligence and philanthropy. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Report of the State Constitutional Convention. 
 
 General Statutes of Minnesota. 
 
 United States Land Laws: Public Domain. 
 
 Reports of the State Department of Public In- 
 struction. 
 
 Reports of the Regents of the University. 
 
 Address of John S. Pillsbury, before the Alumni 
 of the University, June i, 1893. 
 
 History of Education in Minnesota. Circular 
 of Information, No. 2, 1902, U. S. Bureau 
 of Education. 
 
 History of Minnesota, Edward D. Neill, D. D. 
 
TABLES 
 
 TABLE I 
 
 Showing the Complete List of Educational Officers of the 
 State and oi State Institutions. 
 
 I Superintendents of Public Instruction. 
 
 Term Begun Ended 
 
 Edward D. Neill March, 1851 1853 
 
 E. W. Merrill August, 1853 1854 
 
 M. C. Baker March, 1854 Q 1855 
 
 W.S.Hall 18551?) (.?) 
 
 Edward D. Neill April, i860 May, 1861 
 
 B. F. Crary April, 1861 January, 1862 
 
 D. Blakeley (i) January, 1862 January, 1864 
 
 H. C. Rogers (i) January, 1864 January, 1867 
 
 Mark H. Dunnell April 2, 1867 August 1, 1870 
 
 Horace B. Wilson .August i, 1870 April 5, 1875 
 
 David Burt .April 5, 1875 September i, 1881 
 
 David L. Kiehle September i, 1881 September i, 1893 
 
 Wm. W. Fendergast September i, 1893 January i, 1899 
 
 John H. Lewis January i, 1899 "January i, 1901 
 
 John W. Olsen January i, 1901 
 
 (i) Ex officio, as Secretary of State. 
 
 n Presidents of the University of Minnesota. 
 
 Edward D. Neill (i) March, 1858 May, 1861 
 
 W. W. Washburn (2) September, 1867 June, 1869 
 
 Wm.W. Folwell September, 1869 May, 1884 (3) 
 
 Cvrus Northrup September, 1884 
 
 (i) Chancellor. (2) Principal. (3) Resigned May, 1883 
 
 HI Presidents of the State Normal Schools. 
 
 1 Winona. 
 
 John Ogden September, i860 September, 1861 
 
 Wm. F. Phelps November, 1864 June, 1876 
 
 Chas. .\. Morey September, 1876 June, 1879 
 
 Irwin Shepard September, 1879 June, 1898 
 
 J. F. Millspaugh September, 1898 
 
 2 Mankato. 
 
 Geo. M. Gage September, 1868 lune, 1872 
 
 Julia , A. Stearns (i) September, 1872 June, 1873 
 
 D. C. John September, 1873 June, 1880 
 
 Edward Searing September, 1880 October, 1892 
 
 Chas. H. Cooper January, 1899 
 
 (i) Acting. 
 
ii6 
 
 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 TABLE I — Continued 
 
 Ira Moore 
 
 David L. Kiehle 
 
 lerome Allen 
 
 Thos. J. Gray 
 
 Joseph Carhart 
 
 Geo. F. Kleeberger 
 
 Waite A. Shoemaker September, 1902 
 
 3 St. Cloud. 
 
 September, 1869 
 September, 1875 
 September, 1881 
 September, 1884 
 September, 18 
 September, 18 
 
 L. C. Lord 
 Frank A. Weld 
 
 E. W. Bohannon 
 
 4 Moorhead 
 
 August, 1888 
 September, 1898 
 
 5 Duluth 
 September, 1901 
 
 June, 1875 
 ]une, 1881 
 June, 1884 
 lune, 1890 
 June, 1895 
 June, 1902 
 
 June, 1898 
 
 TABLE II 
 
 Showing the Amounts and Income of the Permanent 
 
 School Funds and the School Enrollment 
 
 for Every Fifth Year. 
 
 
 University 
 
 
 Permanent 
 
 
 Enroll- 
 
 
 Perm. Fund 
 
 Income 
 
 School Fund 
 
 Income 
 
 ment 
 
 1862 
 
 % 
 
 $ 
 
 % 242,531 
 
 Si2,3o8 
 
 32,560 
 
 1867 
 
 840 
 
 196 
 
 1,587,210 
 
 91,906 
 
 68,870 
 
 1872 
 
 145,121 
 
 17,093 
 
 2,739,089 
 
 163,555 
 
 120,352 
 
 1877 
 
 353,989 
 
 37,843 
 
 3,403,219 
 
 200,982 
 
 152,023 
 
 1882 
 
 625,124 
 
 29,813 
 
 5,372,326 
 
 267,082 
 
 189,239 
 
 1887 
 
 837,361 
 
 35,296 
 
 8,258,096 
 
 352,822 
 
 245,481 
 
 1892 
 
 1,000,445 
 
 38,634 
 
 10,132,867 
 
 515,333 
 
 300,333 
 
 1897 
 
 1,202,893 
 
 49,266 
 
 11,823,145 
 
 551,941 
 
 371,889 
 
 1902 
 
 1.334,035 
 
 53,698 
 
 14,316,389 
 
 592,554 
 
 414,671 
 
IN MINNESOTA 117 
 
 TABLE III 
 
 Showing tlie Total Cost of Buildings and Permanent Im- 
 provements for Educational Institutions, 
 including 1901-1902 
 
 State University, from 1867 51,450,642 
 
 State Normal Schools, from 1H66 751,000 
 
 Schools for Defectives, from 1866 883,250 
 
 State Training School, from 1867 335,504 
 
 State Pu blic School , from 18S6 219,774 
 
 Total, - 53,640,170 
 
 TABLE IV 
 
 Showing Annual Disbursements for the Current Ex- 
 penses of Educational Institutions for 
 Every Fifth Year 
 
 University go^^J^ Defectives Reform p„^'^^^j^_ 
 
 1861 < S 1,318 $ $ $ 
 
 1867 11,508 ('69) 5,000 
 
 1872 21,000 26,212 20,000 12,000 
 
 1877 39,000 30,000 28,000 27,000 
 
 1882 43,881 37>023 45.074 32,000 
 
 1887 84,100 50,000 74,874 35,000 13,026 
 
 1S92 184,624 86,520 111,017 56,723 24,258 
 
 1897 283,716 122,604 166,550 58,186 34,88g 
 
 1902 415,104 134,007 187,388 5**.7i2 38,053 
 
ii8 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 TABLE V 
 
 Showing the Enrollments and Graduations of the Normal 
 
 Schools at Winona, Mankato, St. Cloud and 
 
 Moorhead from the beginning. 
 
 
 Enroll 
 
 nient 
 
 
 
 Enroll 
 
 ment 
 
 
 
 Male 
 
 Fem. 
 
 Tot. Grad 
 
 
 Male 
 
 Fem. 
 
 Tot. Grad 
 
 1861 
 
 29a 
 
 30 
 
 
 1883 
 
 228 
 
 466 
 
 63 
 
 1863 
 
 
 
 
 1884 
 
 197 
 
 475 
 
 94 
 
 1864 
 
 4 
 
 28 
 
 
 1885 
 
 .321 
 
 632 
 
 75 
 
 1865 
 
 9 
 
 41 
 
 
 1886 
 
 354 
 
 690 
 
 115 
 
 1866 
 
 13 
 
 67 
 
 14 
 
 1887 
 
 301 
 
 617 
 
 140 
 
 1867 
 
 13 
 
 74 
 
 11 
 
 1888 
 
 240 
 
 579 
 
 122 
 
 1868 
 
 22 
 
 100 
 
 i6 
 
 l8Sg 
 
 213d 
 
 558 
 
 116 
 
 1869 
 
 76 b 
 
 245 
 
 .39 
 
 1890 
 
 244 
 
 525 
 
 129 
 
 1870 
 
 115c 
 
 337 
 
 31 
 
 1S91 
 
 242 
 
 731 
 
 125 
 
 1871 
 
 148 
 
 345 
 
 71 
 
 1892 
 
 245 
 
 785 
 
 231 
 
 1872 
 
 130 
 
 320 
 
 64 
 
 1893 
 
 246 
 
 771 
 
 219 
 
 1873 
 
 142 
 
 429 
 
 42 
 
 1S94 
 
 274 
 
 809 
 
 237 
 
 1874 
 
 176 
 
 422 
 
 62 
 
 1S95 
 
 301 
 
 931 
 
 257 
 
 1875 
 
 188 
 
 SCO 
 
 60 
 
 1896 
 
 328 
 
 1150 
 
 291 
 
 1876 
 
 140 
 
 532 
 
 73 
 
 1897 
 
 335 
 
 1039 
 
 345 
 
 1877 
 
 167 
 
 344 
 
 77 
 
 1898 
 
 355 
 
 1385 
 
 279 
 
 1878 
 
 14S 
 
 287 
 
 57 
 
 1899 
 
 414 
 
 1640 
 
 .367 
 
 1879 
 
 127 
 
 287 
 
 83 
 
 1900 
 
 325 
 
 1121 
 
 379 
 
 1880 
 
 138 
 
 264 
 
 85 
 
 1901 
 
 266 
 
 1117 
 
 465 
 
 I88I 
 
 166 
 
 307 
 
 59 
 
 1902 
 
 255 
 
 1093 
 
 308 
 
 1882 
 
 220 
 
 465 
 
 61 
 
 
 
 
 
 F"irst 
 
 enrollments: 
 
 a. Winona; b. 
 
 Mankal 
 
 ;o; c. SI 
 
 :. Cloud: 
 
 ; d. Moor 
 
 
 head. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
IN MINNESOTA 
 
 119 
 
 TABLE VI 
 
 Showing Enrollment and Graduations in the several De- 
 partments of the University. 
 
 1869 108 
 
 1870 
 
 1871 
 
 1872 
 
 1873 
 
 1874 
 
 1875 
 
 1876 
 
 1877 
 
 1879 
 1880 
 
 1890 
 
 1894 
 1895 
 1896 
 1897 
 
 1900 
 1901 
 1902 
 
 Coll., Sci., Lit. and 
 
 Arts 
 M. F. Tot. G. M 
 
 726 . . 
 
 Professional 
 
 Colls. 
 , F. Tot. C 
 
 Industrial School of 
 
 165 
 202 
 202 
 203 
 186 
 193 
 209 
 
 234 136 
 259 133 
 209 97 
 
 I88I 
 
 182 
 
 88 
 
 1882 
 
 159 
 
 75 
 
 1883 
 
 122 
 
 76 
 
 1884 
 
 131 
 
 75 
 
 1885 
 
 124 
 
 83 
 
 205 88 
 
 124 97 
 
 200 134 
 
 236 151 
 
 259 221 
 
 264 255 
 
 267 270 
 
 251 380 
 
 203 476 
 
 238 484 
 
 311 508 
 
 332 577 
 
 350 590 
 
 361 5-t6 
 
 359 582 
 
 146 
 212 
 225 
 
 265 
 278 
 287 
 235 
 264 
 202 
 370 
 382 
 306 
 270 
 234 
 198 
 206 
 
 2I7f 
 
 293 
 221 
 
 334 
 387 
 
 Colls. 
 M. G. 
 
 Agr. 
 F. 
 
 14 
 10 
 47h 
 78 
 104 
 
 18 
 
 85 
 
 2a 82 
 
 13 2 92 
 
 3 113 
 
 25 2 71 
 
 34 152 
 
 _ _ 27 174 9 183 24b 174 
 48og 45 254 II 264 63 181 
 519 45 357 17 374 79 i93 
 537 54 449 21 470 98 254 10 loi 
 631 84 516 32 548 152 204 14 114 
 679 80 569 25 594 156c 255 II 144 
 722 108 657 31 688 170 247 18 204 
 819 117 740 27 767 213 306 16 269 
 909 129 717 30 747 164 320 27 335 
 940 139 832 26 858 158 339 27 276 
 907 152 887 35 822 ifas 387 18 257 
 _.. _ 941 141 1044 40 1084 23id434 32 328 
 418 675 1093 157 959 37 99& 240 521 27 338 
 333 846 1179 208 1016 38 1054 249 630 19 328 122 70 
 First Graduations, a. Medicine; b. Homeopathic Med., Dentistry, 
 Law; c. Pharmacy; d. Pharmaceutical Chem. 
 
 e. including 3d and 4th yr. prep, classes, f. 4th yr. prep, class dis- 
 continued, g. 3d yr. prep, class discontinued, h. School of Agr. 
 opened, i. first <;raduation of ladies. 
 
 G. 
 
 19 
 25 
 28 
 28 
 33 23 
 56 341 
 
 79 45 
 
 80 63 
 
HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 s < 
 
 3 C 
 W 
 
 O CO 
 
 
 
 3 e 
 •1^ Z 
 
 CCOi^OCC i--'0 o o>^ o 
 "O ro in I-. M ro r^> N ■-' i-h 
 
 1 O O O '^ O 
 
 NOO O fO O 1 
 
 -O^r^LnuTic N r^rs.1. 
 
 f^ t^ r-N. . cv. r^ m in>o o^ 
 
 :Q 
 -- o o-a_ 
 
 St 
 
 
 ex> 
 
 
 W! 
 
 i: g 3 ^ 2; s: 3 « 3 
 
 PnUl-lSj-ihkJUl-l 
 
 O cQ 3 
 
 0) • .^.^cq 
 
 c c c 
 o n. '-' m n! rt iJ 
 r: o— "" ■- •- — 
 
 — T3 
 
 to biO 
 
 U 3 
 
 k;< 
 
 C <5 r,' 
 
 •— ' -*- O -i ^ 
 
 3.| §;^ g i 
 
 Q n > >fH 
 
 c c re !; 
 
 ni « a:s " a a 
 
 3 3 '5. <!* rt 5. O. 
 
 xix; t» 
 
 ■" ■" c 
 3 3 o 
 
 £i;3nrtrt^^-C3t;v- 
 
 - ^ 5 >" 
 
 o o o_ 
 CJUUC 
 
EDUCATION IN MINNESOTA 
 PART II 
 
EDUCATION IN MINNESOTA 
 
 IN TWO PARTS 
 
 PART II 
 
 A Systematic Study and 
 
 Arrangement of the School Laws 
 
 AND Sources of School Support 
 
 IN Minnesota 
 
 BY 
 
 DAVID L. KIEHLE, LL. D. 
 
 EX-STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 
 
 LATE PROFESSOR OF PEDAGOGY IN THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA 
 
 MINNEAPOLIS 
 
 THE H. W. WILSON COMPANY 
 1903 
 
Copyright by 
 
 The H. W. Wilson Company 
 
 1903 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 This summary of the school laws of Minnesota 
 i.> pitpared for teachers and others who are stu- 
 dents of education. The systematic arrangement 
 wii] make it possible to see some imity in the re- 
 lations of parts to each other, and to form some 
 judgment regarding the completeness of our sys- 
 tem for its purpose. In this respect it becomes a 
 study in education, — of principles, and more than 
 ? mere handbook. 
 
 It includes all the laws that are required for 
 the general guidance of teachers and school offi- 
 cers, om-itting such minuti?e of details as are of 
 minor interest, and needed only when the original 
 statutes must be referred to as final authority. 
 
 I have given all references to the sections of 
 the school laws of 1901 prepared under the di- 
 rection of the state superintendent of public in- 
 struction, with such amendments, in footnotes, 
 as are made by the legislature of 1903. 
 
 When possible without sacrificing accuracy, I 
 have abbreviated expressions required by forms 
 of law, and so, I trust, have made the sense more 
 intelligible in its abbreviated form to the general 
 reader. 
 
6 PREFACE 
 
 Since a knowledge of school law is of general 
 interest and is required of teachers, this modest 
 contribution is offered to the educational public 
 in the hope that it will answer its intended pur- 
 pose. D. L. K. 
 
SYNOPTIC INDEX. 
 
 Chapter I. Principles and Facts. 
 
 I. State Systems 15 
 
 II. A Democratic System 16 
 
 III. General Principles 18 
 
 1. Authority near the people 18 
 
 2. The state represents public sentiment 18 
 
 (i) It requires uniformity; (2) it 
 guarantees honesty and economy; (3) 
 it protects individual rights; (4) it en- 
 courages progress; (5) it supports in- 
 stitutions. 
 
 3. The state bases legislation upon social 
 
 conditions 20 
 
 (i) Rural society; (2) urban society. 
 
 4. The General Government in education 23 
 
 Chapter II. Territorial Units. 
 District Boundaries. 
 
 I. Rural Districts 25 
 
 1. Organization and boundaries 25 
 
 2. Petitions 25 
 
 ( I ) Description of territory; (2) pop- 
 ulation and children; (3) districts 
 affected; (4) signatures; (5) county 
 commissioners; (6) consolidation. 
 
 3. Transportation 28 
 
 II. Independent Districts 29 
 
 1. Territory . 2g 
 
 2. Limitations 29 
 
8 SYNOPTIC INDEX 
 
 3. Procedure in organization 30 
 
 (i) Notices; (2) meeting; (3) election 
 of board. 
 
 4. Special districts 31 
 
 5. Changes in boundaries 31 
 
 (i) Petition; (2) notice; (3) decision re- 
 corded; (4) rehearing. 
 
 Chapter III. School Administration. 
 
 A. Of Rural Schools 33 
 
 I . Power of the Electors 33 
 
 1. To appoint moderator and adjourn 33 
 
 2. To elect a board 33 
 
 3. To designate site 33 
 
 4. To vote tax for schools 33 
 
 5. To vote tax for building 33 
 
 6. To decide indirectly the length okterm 34 
 
 7. Voters 34 
 
 (i) Residents; (2) freeholders; (3) wom- 
 en. 
 
 II. School Board: Election and Qualification 35 
 
 1. Duties of the Board 36 
 
 (i) Employ teachers; (2) provide for 
 school; (3) sell and lease property; (4) 
 issue bonds ; ( 5) contract for text books. 
 
 2. Duties of the Clerk 37 
 
 (i) Keep records; (2) post notices; (3) 
 make report; (4) report tax levy; (5) 
 draw orders; (6) receive pay. 
 
 3. Duties of the Treasurer 38 
 
 (i) Give bond; (2) receive money; (3) 
 annual report. 
 
 4. Duties of the Director 39 
 
 I I I. Teachers 40 
 
 I. Qualifications 40 
 
SYNOPTIC INDEX 9 
 
 2. Contracts 41 
 
 (i) Form; (2) wages; (3) orders. 
 
 3. Term of school 42 
 
 4. Duties 42 
 
 ( I ) Records ; ( 2 ) reports ; (3) temperance 
 instruction. 
 
 IV. Superintendence 44 
 
 1. Election of Superintendent of county. . . 44 
 
 2. Salary and expenses 44 
 
 3. Duties 45 
 
 (i) Conduct examinations; (2) may is- 
 sue certificates; (3) semi-graded 
 schools; (4) state rural schools; (5) state 
 board examinations; (6) re-examina- 
 tions and suspensions; (7) distribute 
 blanks; (8) visit schools; (q) report en- 
 rollments to county auditor; (10) re- 
 port to state superintendent; (11) pen- 
 alties; (12) transfer to successor. 
 B. Independent Districts 51 
 
 1. Duties of Electors 51 
 
 ( I) Choose directors; (2) vote for or 
 against new school house; (3) may dis- 
 solve organization; (4) may increase 
 the board. 
 
 2. Organization of the Board 53 
 
 3. Powers and duties of the Board 54 
 
 (i) Organize grades; (2) provide rooms, 
 etc.; (3) erect school houses; (4) pro- 
 vide fuel, furniture, etc.; (5) provide 
 repairs, etc.; (6) employ teachers; (7) 
 defray board expenses; (8) direct in- 
 struction and discipline; (g) make 
 rules for property; (10) make rules 
 for officers; (11) levy tax; (12) furnish 
 blanks; (13) execute deeds, etc.; (14) 
 report tax levy to county auditor; (15) 
 issue bonds; (16) report receipts, etc.; 
 (17) elect superintendent; (18) fix com- 
 
lo SYNOPTIC INDEX 
 
 pensation of clerk and treasurer; (ig) 
 fill vacancies; (20) establish kinder- 
 gartens. 
 
 4. Duties of the Clerk 56 
 
 (i) Keep records; (2) make reports; (3) 
 give notices; (4) draw orders; (5) re- 
 port to county superintendent. 
 
 5. Duties of the Treasurer 57 
 
 (i) Execute a bond; (2) receive and 
 pay money; (3) make report; (4) trans- 
 fer to successor. 
 
 6. Superintendent of Schools 58 
 
 (i) Election; (2) visits schools; (3) 
 reports to state superintendent. 
 
 C. Special Districts 58 
 
 1. Organization 58 
 
 2. Minneapolis and St. Paul charters 59 
 
 3. Annual school meetings 62 
 
 D. State High School Board 62 
 
 1. The Board 62 
 
 (I) Organization; (2) powers and duties 
 — (a) make rules, (b) appoint high 
 school inspector, (c) appoint graded 
 school inspector, (d) keep record and 
 report, (e) receive applications for aid. 
 
 2. State High schools 63 
 
 (i) Conditions of acceptance — (a) 
 term of school, (b) free tuition, (c) 
 course of study, (d) inspection, (c) ap- 
 plications from state graded schools; 
 (2) state aid. 
 
 3. State Graded schools 65 
 
 (i) Conditions of acceptance — (a) term 
 of school, (b) departments, (c) equip- 
 ment, (d) course of study, (e) applica- 
 tions from semi-graded schools; (2) 
 state aid. 
 
SYNOPTIC INDEX li 
 
 4. Supervision 67 
 
 (i) Of state high schools; (2) of state 
 graded schools. 
 
 E. State Normal Schools 67 
 
 1. The Board of Directors 67 
 
 (i) Organization — (a) appointment, (b) 
 shall qualify, (c) elect president; (2) 
 duties and authority — (a) supervision 
 of schools, (b) prescribe course of 
 study, visit, etc., (c) report to Govern- 
 * or; (3) duties of treasurers— (a) give 
 
 bonds, (b) receive and disburse money, 
 (c) compensation. 
 
 2. Normal Schools 70 
 
 (i) Tuition; (2) diplomas; (3) presi- 
 dent's report. 
 
 F. University of Minnesota 71 
 
 I. Board of Regents 72 
 
 (i) Organization; (2) powers and dut- 
 ies — (a) body corporate, (b) enact by- 
 laws, (c) rules of admission, degrees, 
 etc., (d) may accept gifts in trust, (e) 
 hold annual meeting, (f) geological 
 survey, (g) salt spring lands, (h) ex- 
 perimental farm, (i) provide for crip- 
 ples, (j) report to Governor; (3) duties 
 of the secretary ; (4) duties of the treas- 
 urer. 
 
 Chapter IV. Certificates and Examinations. 
 
 1. Classes and validity of certificates 76 
 
 (i) State certificates — (a) state professional, (b) 
 university teachers', (c) state first grade, (d) 
 second grade; (2) diplomas as certificates — 
 (a) of a college or university, (b) of a normal 
 school. 
 
 2. Examinations "]"] 
 
 (i) For state professional certificates; (2) for 
 
12 SYNOPTIC INDEX 
 
 state first and second grade;(3) local certifi- 
 cates; (4) miscellaneous — (a) teachers may dis- 
 miss school, (b) state superintendent may issue 
 certificates, (c) expenses of conducting exami- 
 nations, (d) suspension of certificates, (e) ap- 
 peals. 
 
 Chapter V. Support of Public Schools. 
 
 1. General support of common schools 82 
 
 (i) By the General Government; (2) support 
 by state; (3) apportionment; (4) support by the 
 district — (a) localone mill tax, (b) special taxes. 
 
 2. Special state support 86 
 
 (i) State high schools; (2) state graded schools; 
 (3) state semi-graded schools; (4) rural schools; 
 (5) teachers' institutes; (6) teachers' training 
 schools; (7) district libraries. 
 
 Chapter VI. Support of State Normal Schools. 
 
 Chapter VII. Support of the State University. 
 
 1. By the General Government 89 
 
 (i) University land grant; (2) agricultural land 
 grant; (3) experiment station; (4) supplement- 
 ary agricultural appropriation; (5) salt spring 
 lands. 
 
 2. By the State gi 
 
 (i) State tax; (2) special annual appropriations. 
 
 3. University Tuition 92 
 
 4. Special State Appropriations 92 
 
 Chapter VIII. State Supervision. 
 
 1. Appointment of Superintendent of Public In- 
 
 struction 93 
 
 2. Assistant 94 
 
SYNOPTIC INDEX 13 
 
 3. Ex-officio member of boards 94 
 
 4. Duties 94 
 
 (i) Meet county superintendents; (2) distrib- 
 ute blanks; (3) organize institutes and training 
 schools; (4) hold examinations; (5) consider 
 appeals; (6) issue jirofessional certificates; (7) 
 make apportionment; (8) make requisition for 
 schools; (9) make requisition for library aid; 
 (10) keep records; (11) recommend text books 
 in hygiene, etc. ; (12) neport receipts and dis- 
 bursements; (13) sell dictionaries; (14) report 
 to legislature. 
 
 Chapter IX. Miscellaneous Laws. 
 
 1. Reports of private schools 97 
 
 2. Compulsory attendance 97 
 
 3. Truant officer 98 
 
 4. Tobacco 99 
 
 5. Intoxicating liquors 100 
 
 6. Child labor 100 
 
 7. Holidays loi 
 
 8. Transportation of pupils loi 
 
 9. Women as electors loi 
 
 10. Dictionaries loi 
 
 11. School libraries 102 
 
 12. Free text books 102 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 Principles and Facts 
 
 A rational understanding of school law re- 
 quires that we keep in mind certain facts and 
 principles that have conditioned the organiza- 
 tion of our school system and the development 
 of school laws. By the aid of these one may in- 
 terpret law in the light of the principles that 
 underlie our form of government, and may also 
 estimate its value as fairly or unfairly representing 
 the principles of the government. For this pur- 
 pose we shall introduce the subject of school 
 law in Minnesota by an examination of several 
 of these important facts and principles. 
 
 I. State Systems. Education in the United 
 States is organized in state systems. The sov- 
 ereign state reserves to itself the education of its 
 youth. The traditions, ideals and culture 
 that make for citizenship are jealously retained 
 and controlled by the state. So positive is this 
 sentiment that when, a few years ago, a bill was 
 introduced in Congress (the Hoar Bill) propos- 
 ing a large government appropriation annually 
 for the support of common schools, and on the 
 basis of illiteracy — the most needy receiving the 
 largest appropriations — the southern states, 
 
i6 SCHOOL LAWS 
 
 which would have received the largest amounts, 
 and were in the greatest need, rejected it on the 
 ground, that impliedly it compromised their sov- 
 ereignty in education, and allowed the general 
 government to interpose its authority in the man- 
 agement of their schools. Systems of education 
 are seldom national. There is no German sys- 
 tem of education ; but a Prussian system and a 
 Saxon system. There is no British system, but 
 an English, Scotch, and Ontario system, — but 
 no Canadian. 
 
 The state, the church and the family are the 
 educating authorities of our country. The relation 
 of the general government to education as con- 
 ducted by the states is in no sense authoritative. 
 It is vitally interested, and exerts great influence 
 upon education, but as we shall see, it does all 
 indirectly by its encouragement and financial aid, 
 and by the information which it disseminates 
 among the people. 
 
 II. A Democratic System. It is important 
 that we keep in mind that ours is a government 
 by the people. Under a monarchial government 
 authoritative direction and power are central- 
 ized in the crown. For good or for evil, this 
 gives the monarch and his government entire 
 control without regard to what the people know 
 or desire. This centralization facilitates system 
 
OF MINNESOTA 17 
 
 and discipline. The wisdom of the government 
 may be put into immediate execution without 
 the delay and compromises that the ignorance 
 and divided interests of the people might inter- 
 pose. But ours is a democratic system. What 
 we have is what the people demand, and until 
 the wisest can so convince the people that to- 
 gether they rise to a higher plane of understand- 
 ing, we cannot advance. In education, the peo- 
 ple have conferred authority upon the state in 
 their Constitution. Within the limitations of 
 this Constitution the state exercises its jurisdic- 
 tion. This authority is expressed in Section i, 
 Article VIII of the Constitution in these words: 
 "It shall be the duty of the legislature to estab- 
 lish a general and uniform system of public 
 schools." This delegation of authority is as com- 
 prehensive as it is brief. In effect it confers 
 upon the legislature complete authority to deter- 
 mine what constitutes "a general and uniform 
 system of public schools," and to enact all leg- 
 islation necessary to effect that which is re- 
 quired. In this, then, the state is made the source 
 of authority by the people themselves, and in 
 the development of the system the distribution 
 of power and authority is by the state, even when 
 it is conferred back upon the people themselves. 
 And now in this distribution of authority and 
 
i8 SCHOOL LAWS 
 
 duties we must keep in mind the fact already 
 noted, that ours is a democratic and not a cent- 
 tralized monarchial form of government. We 
 must not set for ourselves the system or the 
 methods of German administration as a guide 
 and standard for our own. Hence, we must note 
 several democratic principles that govern in this 
 distribution of school duties and authority. 
 III. General Principles. 
 
 1. Authority and responsibility must be kept 
 as near the people as possible. This is the very 
 opposite to that of a centralized monarchial sys- 
 tem. In the latter, the people are subordinate to 
 and serve the government ; in the former they 
 act for themselves and assume responsibility of 
 judgment and action as far as practicable. This 
 is the presumption, and when these duties are 
 removed farther from them it must be for good 
 reasons that commend themselves to public sen- 
 timent. The bearing of this will appear when 
 we come to consider the assignment of duties and 
 offices to the people, to school boards, to county 
 officers, the state retaining and exercising certain 
 authority directly. 
 
 2. The state represents the maturest public 
 sentiment which can be efifectively incorporated 
 in its institutions. It takes comprehensive views 
 of social conditions. It is informed upon the 
 
OF MINNESOTA 19 
 
 experiences and methods of other states. It has 
 authority by which general conditions may be 
 effected, and which cannot be done by the peo- 
 ple ill any other capacity. For these reasons 
 the state assumes direct authority in tlie follow- 
 ing matters : 
 
 (i) It requires uniformity of administration. 
 In the formation of school districts, in the elec- 
 tion of officers and in their duties and methods 
 of doing business, in all of which the state de- 
 lines what shall be done. The necessity of this 
 is too obvious to require explanation. 
 
 (2) It guarantees the honest and economical 
 use of means in requiring bonds of school offi- 
 cers, in making reports, in selecting qualified 
 teachers and in requiring competent supervision 
 of schools, and in compelling children to attend 
 the school provided for tbem. 
 
 (3) It protects the rights of individuals 
 against unjust impositions. For example, it 
 fixes a maximum limit of taxation for school 
 purposes ; it establishes the claims of the teacher 
 to pay for service ; it requires a minimum term 
 of school, and authorizes the school board to 
 levy a sufficient tax to support it. if not voted 
 at the annual meeting. So the poor cannot over- 
 tax the rich, neither can the rich prevent schools 
 for the poor. It equalizes the burdens of tax- 
 
20 SCHOOL LAWS 
 
 ation. This it does in the district, by requiring 
 that the property of the district shall bear the 
 burden of education ; also, in the state, requiring 
 that the wealth of the state shall bear its share 
 of the expenses of education. 
 
 (4) It goes beyond the reach of authority and 
 . encourages where it cannot compel, and stim- 
 ulates by the assistance ofifered for excellence. 
 It provides institutes and schools of instruction 
 for teachers ; it ofifers additional support to dis- 
 tricts that make special efiforts to conduct good 
 schools ; it shares expenses in the purchase of 
 good libraries. 
 
 (5) It establishes and undertakes the entire 
 support of higher institutions of learning that 
 are wholly beyond the needs and abilities of any 
 subdivision of the state, and yet are essential to 
 the larger administration of state affairs, both 
 politicallv and industrially. Such are the state 
 normal schools and the state university, includ- 
 ing its several departments. 
 
 3. In the distribution of authority the state 
 recognizes two distinct social conditions, each 
 of which has its characteristics, and which must 
 be considered in adapting a school system to 
 tlie needs of the people. These are. rural and 
 urban. 
 
OF MINNESOTA 21 
 
 (i) Rural Society and Schools. 
 
 Country life is marked by its simplicity and 
 freedom. It has few restraints and few compro- 
 mises that come from closer organization and 
 cooperation. The unit of social life is the neigh- 
 borhood. In this the spirit is democratic rather 
 than representative. Every man is interested 
 in and exercises his judgment in every matter 
 of public concern, and often in much that is 
 merely private. In rural life the people being- 
 accustomed to look individually after their own 
 affairs, delegated authority is limited, and expert 
 skill in a systematic administration of public in- 
 terests is not developed to a great degree. Ac- 
 customed to manage their own afifairs, the people 
 do not realize the importance of careful super- 
 vision as their relations and interests become 
 organized and complex. They are, therefore, 
 often indifferent and opposed to a strict super- 
 intendence of their schools. 
 
 The prosperity and success of rural affairs is 
 guaranteed more by the native integrity and 
 honesty of the people than by exact and scientific 
 methods of doing business and rendering ac- 
 counts. In view of these facts and conditions, 
 in the organization of rural schools by the state, 
 the neighborhood is made the unit of administra- 
 tion. The people in annual meeting have large 
 
22 SCHOOL LAWS 
 
 powers in electing officers, voting taxes, fixing 
 the school term, expenditure for equipment, and 
 in auditing the accounts of officers. The school 
 board has quite limited authority, in selecting 
 teachers, and in expending the money of the dis- 
 trict for salaries, equipment, buildings, etc., as 
 directed by the people at the annual meeting. 
 The supervision of the schools is assigned to 
 an officer of the county to whom teachers and 
 school officers make their respective reports. 
 
 (2) Urban Society and Schools. 
 
 The complexity of urban life requires a sub- 
 division of labor, interdependence and coopera- 
 tion, in wdiich each serves the many, and in 
 turn receives the more from this community of 
 interest. This requires a concession of many in- 
 dividual rights, a delegation of authority to in- 
 dividuals, who shall represent the whole and who 
 shall be responsible for the faithful discharge 
 of public trusts committed to them. 
 
 The unit of this society is the municipality, 
 and its citizens are accustomed to limit their per- 
 sonal attention within the narrow boundaries of 
 their own business, family and social circle, and 
 to be content with a general knowledge of public 
 affairs as conducted by those whom they have 
 chosen to represent them. 
 
 This being the case, the state makes the mu- 
 
OF MINNESOTA 23 
 
 nicipality the territorial unit of education. It 
 provides for the election of a board of education 
 by the people ; and beyond this, within certain 
 limitations fixed by the state, assigns to this 
 board all other duties, as the voting of taxes, 
 building school houses and equipping them, 
 selecting teachers and superintendents, and mak- 
 ing all rules for the conduct of the school, both 
 in discipline and instruction. This is suf^cient 
 to illustrate the general principle in the admin- 
 istration of urban districts. The application of 
 this principle to special districts need not be 
 mentioned in this place. 
 
 4. The General Govemuiciit in Ediicafioii. 
 
 Although the general government has no 
 authoritative relation to state systems of edu- 
 cation, its influence has been no less potent in 
 the encouragement it has given to every de- 
 partment of education. It has stimulated the 
 people to great effort and large expenditures 
 by the large grants of land made to public 
 schools and universities, and of lands and money 
 to industrial schools and colleges. It has given 
 direction to education through the advisory in- 
 fluence of its Commissioner of Education of the 
 Bureau of the Interior (Hon. Wm. T. Harris, 
 the present incumbent), by his personal ad- 
 dresses and contributions, and by the selected 
 
24 SCHOOL LAWS 
 
 educational literature of the world, issued by 
 the department to every educational center of 
 the country. 
 
 These are the guiding principles in the inter- 
 pretation and estimate of school legislation. 
 With these before us we may gain an under- 
 standing of the laws we have, and may form 
 a reasonable judgment of changes that promise 
 to embody more exactly the fundamental prin- 
 ciples upon which our system is founded. We 
 shall see that the spirit of our system is not only 
 to secure better schools for the children, but also 
 to educate and elevate public sentiment. Every- 
 thing the people can do they are left to do; 
 and what is done for them is with a view to en- 
 abling them to do more for themselves, both in 
 a higher appreciation of their interests and re- 
 sponsibilities, and also a corresponding expend- 
 iture of labor and money for the support of ed- 
 ucation. 
 
 These results are the compensations for the in- 
 complete and irregular character of our educa- 
 tion, for the waste of money, and the superficial 
 views that so largely characterize our school ad- 
 ministration. The education of an administra- 
 tive, democratic people is slovv', but it is worth 
 all the time, experimentation and money it costs. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 Territorial Units. District Boundaries. 
 
 I. Rural districts. 
 
 In the organization of the state, the town- 
 ship was recognized as the unit of administra- 
 tion. The government grant was in two sections 
 (i6 and 36) of each township (Enabhng Act. 
 passed Feb. 26, 1857) ! '^"d the state Constitu- 
 tion (Art. VIII, Sec. 3) provides that "The leg- 
 islature shall make such provision" as "will se- 
 cure a thorough and efficient system of public 
 schools in each township of the state." In ef- 
 fect, however, the neighborhood, into which so- 
 cial life naturally crystalizes, was made the unit. 
 
 1. Organisation and Change of Boundaries. 
 Common school ijdistricts are org'anized by 
 
 authority of the county commissioners of the 
 county in which the district is located, (§16) and, 
 in case of joint districts, by the joint action of the 
 commissioners of the counties concerned (§§i6, 
 20). 
 
 2. Petitions for organization imisl contain : — 
 (i) A description of the territory to be em- 
 braced in the proposed district. 
 
 (2) The number of persons, and the number of 
 
26 SCHOOL LAWS 
 
 children between five and twenty-one years of 
 age residing in the same. 
 
 (3) The districts affected by the proposed 
 change, together with the number of children of 
 school age in each, and also the number of such 
 children to be taken from such districts respect- 
 ively. 
 
 (4) It must have the signatures of a majority 
 of free holders residing within the territory of 
 the proposed new district who are entitled to 
 vote at school meetings of their respective dis- 
 tricts. These signatures must be made before 
 some person authorized to take acknowledge- 
 ment (§17). 
 
 (5) Upon the presentation of this petition the 
 county commissioners shall appoint a time and 
 place of hearing, shall cause to be posted a notice 
 thereof in each district affected, at least ten days 
 before the time of hearing, and also cause to be 
 served a like notice upon the clerk of each dis- 
 trict affected (§18). 
 
 Provision is also made for appeal to the dis- 
 trict court by any freeholder aggrieved (§19); 
 also, in case of division, for an equitable division 
 of school property and obligations in buildings, 
 moneys and bonds (§§22, 23). 
 
 School districts may not be organized with 
 less than twelve children of school age (§24). 
 
OF MINNESOTA '2.7 
 
 Special provision is made for the relief of fam- 
 ilies b}^ the organization of a new district, in 
 the discretion of the commissioners, when the 
 school of the district in which they reside is in- 
 accessible (§28). 
 
 (6) Consolidation into Independent Districts. 
 
 Whenever a petition signed by a majority of 
 the resident freeholders of each of two or more 
 districts which are proposed to be organized into 
 one independent district, duly certified to by 
 their respective clerks, is presented to the coun- 
 ty superintendent, he shall cause written or 
 printed notices to be posted in three public places 
 in each of the districts, requesting the qualified 
 voters to assemble at some specified place in 
 each district at the same date, not sooner than 
 ten days after the notice, for the purpose of vot- 
 ing upon the matter stated in the petition (§§211, 
 212). 
 
 The electors in favor of the proposed consol- 
 idation shall cast ballots with the words "Inde- 
 pendent district, yes," and those opposed, with 
 the words "Independent district, no." 
 
 If a majority of each district favor such con- 
 solidation, the county superintendent shall, with- 
 in ten days, certify the same to the county aud- 
 itor or auditors, which fact shall immediately be 
 entered upon his or their records (§215). 
 
28 SCHOOL LAWS 
 
 Within thirty days after the first meetings the 
 county superintendent shall post five notices in 
 public places of the newly organized independent 
 district, requesting the electors to assemble at 
 some specified place, and a time not sooner 
 than ten days after the notice for the purpose of 
 electing a board of education. The laws govern- 
 ing independent districts will govern in such 
 district when not inconsistent with the provis- 
 ions of this act. 
 
 3. Transportation. 
 
 The board of education of any district organ- 
 ized under this act shall have power to provide 
 for the transportation of children to and from 
 school at public expense, provided that every 
 person employed for this purpose shall give a 
 reasonable bond for the faithful discharge of his 
 duties (§§216-217).^ 
 
 iLaws of 1903. (i) One or more districts adjoin- 
 ing a district maintaining a state graded school or a 
 state high school may be consolidated with that dis- 
 trict upon a majority vote taken and duly certified to by 
 the county superintendent. Such consolidated district 
 shall have power to provide for the transportation of 
 children to and from school at public expense. 
 
 (2) The trustees of any school district may, when 
 deemed best, dispense with holding a school, and may 
 arrange with an adjoining district for the instruction of 
 the children of said district. It shall be the duty of the 
 
OF MINNESOTA 29 
 
 II. Independent and Special Districts — 
 Municipality Unit. 
 
 The general basis of organized independent 
 and special districts is the larger municipal unit, 
 which is political and industrial rather than so- 
 cial, as is the neighborhood. This allows larger 
 territory, as of two or more common school 
 districts, to organize upon the same plan. The 
 following are the general provisions of the stat- 
 ute. 
 
 1. Any incorporated city, town or village 
 may be organized as an independent school dis- 
 trict. It may or may not include common school 
 district territory lying outside the boundaries of 
 the municipality (§173). 
 
 2. One or more school districts may be or- 
 ganized into an independent district, provided 
 (i) said territory contains not less than five hun- 
 
 trustees of such district to provide for the transpor- 
 tation of the children to and from the school to which 
 they are assigned, and at the expense of the district. 
 A separate record shall be kept and report made of 
 these children, so that the state apportionment shall be 
 made to the district in which they reside. 
 
 (3) A special or independent school district in a 
 city having over fifty thousand inhabitants may provide 
 for the free transportation to and from school of chil- 
 dren living more than one mile from a graded school. 
 
30 SCHOOL LAWS 
 
 dred inhabitants, and (2) said territory does not 
 exceed "six miles square" (§173). 
 
 3. Method of Organization of Independent 
 Districts. 
 
 (i) Written notices must be signed by not 
 less than six resident freeholders of the con- 
 templated district appointing time and place of 
 meeting of all qualified electors, then and there 
 to vote by ballot for or against organization. 
 These notices must be posted in three public 
 places and at least ten days prior to said meeting. 
 
 (2) Ax this meeting, after the appointment of 
 presiding officers, chairman, assistant chairman 
 and clerk, who shall also be judges of said elec- 
 tion, all electors in favor of said organization 
 shall write "Independent district. Yes," upon 
 their ballots ; and those opposed shall write "In- 
 dependent district, No" (§175). 
 
 (3) In case a majority of votes are cast in 
 favor of such organization, a second meeting is 
 called by the chairman and clerk within twenty 
 days at the same place by a notice posted at least 
 ten da3's previous. At this second meeting there 
 shall be chosen by ballot six directors, who shall 
 serve until the time of the regular annual meet- 
 ing, the third Saturday in July, at which time 
 six directors shall be chosen, two for one year, 
 two for two years, and two for three years ; and 
 
OF MINNESOTA 31 
 
 annually thereafter two directors shall be chosen 
 to serve for three years or until their successors 
 are elected and qualified (§176). 
 
 4. Special districts are such as are organized 
 under a special charter, which specifies all that 
 pertains to the territory included, and the duties 
 and authority of the board of education. In 
 general the special school district follows the plan 
 of the independent district. The constitutional 
 amendment, adopted 1892, forbids special legis- 
 lation. 
 
 5. Changes in Boundaries. 
 
 The boundaries of all districts, rural, independ- 
 ent and special, are changed under a uniform 
 law. The county commissioners have power 
 under prescribed conditions to change the boun- 
 daries of districts, as follows : 
 
 (i) Petitions shall be presented by one or 
 more persons. 
 
 (2) Notice, verified by affidavit, shall be posted 
 by the county commissioners in each district af- 
 fected, setting forth the substance of the petition, 
 and fixing time and place of hearing in each dis- 
 trict affected ; and shall also cause to be served 
 a copy upon the clerk of each district afifected 
 at least ten davs previous to the time of hearing 
 
 (^37)- 
 
 (3) If the prayer of the petitioners is granted, 
 
32 SCHOOL LAWS 
 
 an exact record shall be entered upon the books 
 of the commissioners, and a copy of the same 
 sent to the clerk of each district affected (§38). 
 
 (4) A petition for a rehearing may be filed 
 with the county auditor within twenty days of 
 the time when the commissioners entered their 
 order by any live or more voters who are res- 
 ident freeholders and are aggrieved by the pro- 
 posed change. Said petition shall be presented 
 at the next meeting of the commissioners, and 
 after due notice has been filed with the clerks 
 of the affected districts, the petition shall be con- 
 sidered and decision rendered (§38).^ 
 
 '§ I. If parents are residents of a district in good 
 faith their children are entitled to its privileges. Inten- 
 tion must be decided by the avowed purpose of a party. 
 
 A minor who is a bona fide resident, although his par- 
 ents reside in another district, is entitled to tuition in 
 the district. 
 
 § 30. Women may be made eligible to a school office 
 without giving them the right to vote. 
 
 A woman who is entitled to vote and is a freeholder 
 may sign petitions and remonstrances respecting the 
 formation and alteration of school districts. 
 
 The citizenship of a foreign born woman, when mar- 
 ried is established with that of her husband. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 School Administration. 
 
 A. Administration of Rural Schools. 
 
 I. Poii'crs of the Electors at Annual and 
 
 Special Meetings. 
 At the annual meeting, held on the third Sat- 
 urday in July, the voters have authority : 
 
 1. To appoint a moderator; and adjourn from 
 time to time. 
 
 2. To elect by ballot a director, a clerk and 
 a treasurer, and each one for three years in 
 such order that the term of but one shall expire 
 each year. 
 
 3. To designate a site for a school house ; 
 also, to change the site upon certain prescribed 
 conditions (§45. Fourth). 
 
 4. To vote tax for support of the school ; 
 to purchase, build or hire a school house when 
 necessary ; to provide for necessary repairs, fur- 
 niture, library, apparatus and fuel (§45). 
 
 5. The tax levy in any one year for building 
 a school house, leasing or procuring a site, shall 
 not exceed eight mills on the dollar. But in 
 case this limit will not produce the sum of six 
 hundred dollars, the limit may be raised to pro- 
 
34 SCHOOL LAWS 
 
 diice said sum, provided that the hmit of twenty- 
 five mills shall not be exceeded (§45). 
 
 By authority of the General Tax Law "There 
 shall be levied annually" as voted by the district, 
 not to exceed fifteen mills for the support of 
 the school or ten mills for the erection of a 
 school house. 
 
 6. In effect, and indirectly, the annual meet- 
 ing determines the length of the school term 
 beyond five months — that required by law — by 
 the tax voted for its support. 
 
 Duties assigned to the trustees cannot be as- 
 sumed by the annual meeting. 
 
 7. Voters. 
 
 The persons entitled to vote at the annual 
 meeting are (i) Bona fide residents in the dis- 
 tricts. 
 
 (2) Freeholders, or those holding real prop- 
 erty. These only are authorized to call special 
 meetings ; to sign petitions for a change of dis- 
 trict boundary ; to sign petitions for rehearing 
 in change of district boundaries, and to sign 
 petitions to consolidate districts (§§17, 38, 63, 
 212). 
 
 (3) A woman is a legal voter at any election 
 or meeting in the school district in which she 
 has had a residence for ten days, provided she 
 is twenty-one years of age and upwards, belong- 
 
OF MINNESOTA 35 
 
 ing to either of the classes mentioned in sec- 
 tion one of Article seven of the Constitution of 
 the State of Minnesota, and has resided in the 
 United States one year, and in the state four 
 months. She may vote upon any measure relat- 
 ing to schools, and shall be eligible to hold any 
 office pertaining solely to the management of 
 public schools (§30). 
 
 If she is a freeholder she has the rights of a 
 freeholder in the signing of petitions, remon- 
 strances and the like (§39). 
 
 II. School Board. 
 
 Election and Qualification. 
 
 In each common school district there shall 
 be a director, a treasurer and a clerk, to be 
 elected by ballot at the annual school meeting, 
 and for a term of three years and until their 
 successors are elected and qualified. The elec- 
 tions shall be so arranged that but one of these 
 three will be elected each year. If an officer is not 
 elected to fill the vacancy at any annual meeting 
 the incumbent shall continue in office till the 
 next annual meeting, when the vacancv shall 
 be filled for the unexpired term. And if a va- 
 cancy occurs during a term, the remaining trus- 
 tees shall fill the vacancy until the next annual 
 meeting, when the vacancy shall be filled for 
 the unexpired term. 
 
36 SCHOOL LAWS 
 
 Within ten days after notice of election is 
 served by the district clerk, the person elected 
 shall file his acceptance in the office of the 
 clerk. His oath may be filed later within a rea- 
 sonable time. The treasurer must also file his 
 bond with suf^cient sureties for double the 
 amount that will come into his hands during his 
 term of service (§§49. 50, 51, 59). 
 
 I. Duties of the Board. 
 
 These three officers constitute a board of 
 trustees. They shall have general charge of 
 the schools and schoolhouses in their district. 
 
 (i) They shall hire legally qualified teachers, 
 shall make written contracts with such teachers, 
 specifying term of service and wages per month. 
 In case a teacher is related by blood or marriage 
 to either of the trustees he can be engaged only 
 upon the unanimous vote of the board, duly en- 
 tered on the clerk's record. 
 
 (2) They shall make all necessary provision 
 for the school in fuel, repairs and the like for a 
 term of at least five months, and for such fur- 
 ther time as the district may direct ; but they are 
 prohibited from incurring indebtedness. 
 
 If no provision by tax voted has been made 
 by the annual meeting, the trustees are author- 
 ized to levy a tax sufficient to maintain a five 
 months school (§§52 (a), 57). 
 
OF MINNESOTA ^7 
 
 (3) When authorized by a vote of the district 
 they shah lease, purchase, sell or exchange 
 school house or site ; and with funds provided 
 for that purpose they shall build, hire or pur- 
 chase a suitable school house (§52). 
 
 (4) When authorized by a two-thirds vote of 
 all legal voters present at a legally called special 
 meeting' or any annual meeting", the trustees may 
 issue the bonds of the district, to be payable 
 within fifteen years, and bearing interest not to 
 exceed seven per cent. (§75). 
 
 (5) The board of trustees or board of edu- 
 cation is authorized to select, adopt or contract 
 for text books needful for the use of the school 
 mider its charge, and to purchase the same and 
 provide for the loan free of charge, or sale at 
 cost to pupils of the school, provided that no 
 adoption or contract shall be for a period of 
 less than three nor more than five years (§296). 
 
 2. Duties of the Clerk. 
 
 (i) The clerk shall act as clerk in all district 
 meeting?, and shall keep a record of the pro- 
 ceedings of the district meetings ; of board meet- 
 ings ; of all reports to the county auditor and 
 county superintendent; of the term reports as 
 they appear in teachers' registers, and shall de- 
 liver the same to his successor in office (§62). 
 
 (2) He shall give ten days notice of each an- 
 
38 SCHOOL LAWS 
 
 nnal and special meeting by posting three no- 
 tices in conspicuous places. 
 
 (3) On or before the tenth day of August an- 
 nually he shall make a certified and detailed re- 
 port on a blank provided, showing the financial 
 condition of the district as required in the blank 
 furnished. He shall also report to the county 
 superintendent the time of the commencement 
 of each term, two weeks before the said com- 
 mencement ( §64) . 
 
 (4) On or before the tenth of October he 
 shall annually furnish the County Auditor an 
 attested copy of his district showing the amount 
 of money voted by the district for school pur- 
 poses, and any amount levied by the trustees 
 without the vote of the district (§67). 
 
 (5) He shall draw all orders on the treasurer 
 of the district for the payment of teachers wages 
 and for other lawful purposes, — each order to be 
 numbered, dated, purpose stated for which it was 
 drawn, and attested by the director (§70). 
 
 (6) The clerk shall receive pay at the rate of 
 two per cent on cash disbursements of the year, 
 provided that the amount shall not exceed six 
 dollars except by direct vote of the district (§66). 
 
 3. Duties of the Treasurer. 
 (i) The treasurer shall file a bond with suf- 
 ficient sureties to be accepted by the clerk and 
 
OF MINNESOTA 39 
 
 director, for two-thirds of the amount of money 
 estimated as coming into his hands during his 
 term (§59). 
 
 (2) He shall receive and pay out all moneys 
 detailed account of the same (§61). 
 helonging to the district, keeping an accurate and 
 
 (3) Three days before the annual meeting he 
 shall file with the clerk of the district a detailed 
 report of all receipts of moneys from all sources 
 and of all disbursements accompanied with 
 vouchers therefor. 
 
 His report shall be audited by the clerk and 
 director, and, if found correct be indorsed by 
 them, and be so reported to the annual meeting 
 for its approval, upon which the annual meeting 
 may authorize the clerk to issue an order in favor 
 of the treasurer to an amount not exceeding two 
 per cent on all orders regularly drawn and paid 
 by him during the year (§60).^ 
 
 4. Duties of the Director. 
 
 The duties of the director are less individual 
 than of the clerk and treasurer. He acts as a 
 
 ^§ 45. The acts of district officers are limited in mode 
 manner and subject matter, by the authority con- 
 ferred in the statute. Hence they cannot contract for the 
 erection or lease of a school house; neither can they lo- 
 cate a school house without the authority of the district 
 meeting. Likewise, the district meeting, under corres- 
 ponding limitations, cannot select the teacher or fix his 
 salary. 
 
40 SCHOOL LAWS 
 
 member of the board in the duties that belong 
 to that body, and which have already been con- 
 sidered. As director he approves the bond of 
 the treasurer, attests orders issued by the clerk, 
 and Avith the clerk audits the report of the treas- 
 urer. When actions are brought against the dis- 
 trict, and no other provision has been made by 
 a lawful meeting of the legal voters the director 
 shall appear in behalf of his district (§289). 
 
 In the enforcement of the compulsory educa- 
 cation law it is made the duty of the director, 
 as well as of the president of the board of ed- 
 ucation, to inquire into all cases of neglect, and 
 if they are apparent and w'ithout reasonable ex- 
 cuse, he shall proceed to secure the prosecution 
 of the same. If he neglects to secure prosecu- 
 tion for such offense within ten days after writ- 
 ten notice has been served upon him by any 
 taxpayer of his district, he shall be liable to a 
 fine of not less than tw^enty nor more than fifty 
 dollars, unless the person complained of has been 
 excused by the district board (§287). 
 
 III. Teachers. 
 
 I. Qualifications. 
 
 A legally qualified teacher is one who holds 
 a certificate from an authorized officer or insti- 
 tution, authorizing him to teach in a given school 
 or class of schools for a given length of time 
 
OF MINNESOTA 41 
 
 (§§279, 52a). (See Certificates and Examina- 
 tions.) 
 
 2. Contracts. 
 
 (i) A teacher having been elected by a board 
 of trustees at a meeting called for that purpose 
 may make a written contract naming wages, 
 and the beginning and length of the term of ser- 
 vice (§52a). It should specify the time when sal- 
 ?nes will be due and paid, whether monthly or at 
 the close of the term. 
 
 (2) The wages of teachers shall be paid out 
 of moneys raised or apportioned for that pur- 
 pose, and that in the order of the terms of their 
 service (§72). 
 
 (3) When an order on the treasurer for teach- 
 er's wages is presented, and not paid for want 
 of funds, the treasurer shall endorse upon the 
 back, "Not paid, for want of funds," with date 
 of endorsement and the signature of the treas- 
 urer. Such order shall then bear seven per cent 
 interest until the treasurer serves a written no- 
 tice upon the payee or his assignee, personally 
 or by mail, that he is prepared to pay such order. 
 In case the address is unknown to the treasurer 
 and the notice cannot be served, the order shall 
 not draw interest beyond the tim.e when the 
 funds are in the hands of the treasurer for its 
 payment (§70). This makes it incumbent upon 
 
42 SCHOOL LAWS 
 
 the payee that his address shall always be in the 
 possession of the treasurer. 
 
 The revoking of a certificate is in effect the 
 annulling of the contract. (See County Super- 
 intendents — Duties.) 
 
 3. Terms of School. 
 
 A school month consists of twenty days or 
 four weeks of five days each (§106). 
 
 The following are the legal holidays on which 
 no teacher shall be required to teach school. 
 Any contract to the contrary is void and no de- 
 duction from the teacher's salary can be made by . 
 reason of such cessation of school. Christmas ; 
 New Years ; Lincoln's birthday — February 
 twelfth ; Washington's birthday — February twen- 
 ty-second; Soldiers' Memorial day — April thir- 
 tieth ; Labor day — first Monday in September ; 
 Thanksgiving day — uniformly the last Thursday 
 in November. 
 
 4. Duties. 
 
 (i) In a register furnished by the clerk of the 
 district, the teacher shall keep a record of names 
 and daily attendance of all scholars, checking 
 names of all who are under five or over twenty- 
 one years of age, and all who are charged tu- 
 ition. Of those between five and twenty-one 
 his record must enable him to report them in 
 three classes; (a) those between five and eight 
 
OF MINNESOTA 43 
 
 years ; (b) those between eight and fifteen years ; 
 and, (c) those between fifteen and twenty-one 
 years. 
 
 (2) The teacher shall make detailed report as 
 required by law, and as instructed in blanks fur- 
 nished him to the county superintendent of 
 schools vvjthin ten days after the close of the first 
 term in the school year, August first. To en- 
 sure promptness in making these reports, the 
 clerk is prohibited from drawing an order for 
 the teacher's salary for the last month until this 
 report has been properly made and returned to 
 the clerk (§164). 
 
 (3) Teachers shall give regular and systematic 
 instruction in physiology and hygiene including 
 special reference to the effects of stimulants and 
 narcotics upon the human system. Neglect to 
 obey this law is sufficient cause for annulling 
 ihe certificate of the offending teacher by the 
 county superintendent (§367).^ 
 
 i§ 52a. A teacher's contract is valid as long as he 
 holds a valid certificate. It is not in\alidatedby the ex- 
 piration of a certificate, provided another is obtained be- 
 fore the expiration of the former. 
 
 A verbal teacher's contract cannot be enforced. 
 
 A written teacher's contract is not valid if not voted at 
 a board meeting as provided by the statute. 
 
 § 70. School orders may be paid by the treasurer 
 without the signature of the clerk, but not without the 
 signature of the director. 
 
 § IC9. In common school districts the authority to 
 
44 SCHOOL LAWS 
 
 I\^. Superintendence. 
 
 1. Election. 
 
 In the supervision of rural schools the unit is 
 the county, and the officer is known as the coun- 
 ty superintendent of schools. 
 
 The county superintendent of schools is elected 
 biennially by the voters of the county at the gen- 
 eral state election on the first Tuesday after the 
 first Monday in November. He qualifies and 
 assumes the duties of the office on the first ]\Ion- 
 day of January following. His term of service 
 is two years, and until his successor is elected 
 and qualified (§147). In case of vacancy the 
 county commissioners shall appoint some person 
 to serve till the next general election (§148).^ 
 
 2. Salary and Expenses. 
 
 The annual salary of the county superintend- 
 ent shall be fixed by the county commissioners, 
 at a rate not less than ten dollars for each or- 
 ganized district in the county, and not to ex- 
 examine, grade and assign studies to pupils rests wholly 
 with the teacher. The law prescibes what studies may 
 and shall be taught. The trustees are required to visit 
 the schools, and to give advice to the teacher when nec- 
 essary, and to have general charge of the schools and 
 schoolhouses. Under this general provision they may 
 doubtless expel unruly and incorrigible pupils; but the 
 management of the schools rests wholly with the teacher. 
 
 ^By constitutional amendment (1883) the terms of all 
 state officers were made to begin on January first. 
 
OF MINNESOTA 45 
 
 ceed eighteen hundred dollars. 
 
 In counties in which the salary of the super- 
 intendent exceeds twelve hundred dollars, the 
 county commissioners are authorized to allow a 
 reasonable sum for travelling expenses and the 
 keeping of a team, but not to exceed two hun- 
 dren and fifty dollars (§151), 
 
 He shall be furnished by the county auditor 
 with necessary stationery for examinations and 
 official correspondence. Bills for postage for 
 official correspondence, express charges, and the 
 printing of notices, circulars, questions and re- 
 ports pertaining to his office shall be paid by the 
 county, provided that all required reports of 
 school visitation have been filed with the county 
 auditor (§150). 
 
 3. Duties. 
 
 (i) The county superintendent shall conduct 
 examinations for state teachers' certificates in 
 his county, either in person or by proxy, upon 
 questions prepared by and under regulations pre- 
 scribed by the state superintendent of public 
 instruction, and transmit the examination pa- 
 pers to the department of public instruction for 
 estimate and grading by the state superintend- 
 ent. 
 
 (2) He may issue a second grade certificate 
 good for one year to applicants not under seven- 
 
46 SCHOOL LAWS 
 
 teen (17) years of age, who have passed the 
 scholastic examination given by the state super- 
 intendent of pubhc instruction. 
 
 He may, on his own examination, issue his 
 own certificate of the third grade, but vaHd only 
 in a given district specified in the certificate and 
 for one year, not renewable without examination, 
 and not to be issued a third time to the same per- 
 son in the same district (§265). 
 
 He may issue on his own examination a cer- 
 tificate of any grade to applicants who present 
 satisfactory proof that they were unable to be 
 present at the public examination. Such cer- 
 tificate shall be valid only in a district ?])':ciried 
 on its face and until the next succeeding pub- 
 lic examination (§267). 
 
 (3) Supervision of Semi-graded Schools. 
 
 Of the schools under the supervision of the 
 county superintendent it is provided that any 
 common school district or public school in any 
 hamlet or village or any township graded school 
 may receive special state aid for each school 
 building wherein school has been held as re- 
 quired, according to the following conditions. 
 
 (a) School shall have been maintained at least 
 eight months for the school year next preceding 
 that for which aid is ciranted. 
 
OF MINNESOTA 47 
 
 (b) It shall be well organized, having two de- 
 partments under efficient teachers, at least one 
 of whom shall hold a first grade certificate or 
 a diploma, valid as a certificate, from the ad- 
 vanced course of a normal school of this state, 
 or a diploma from the advanced course of a nor- 
 mal school of another state approved by the 
 state superintendent, or a professional state cer- 
 tificate, and all other departments shall be taught 
 by teachers holding at least a second grade cer- 
 tificate. 
 
 (c) It shall have suitable building, outhouses, 
 library and apparatus. 
 
 (d) It shall have an orderly course of study, 
 and shall comply with the rules of the super- 
 intendent of public instruction (§§234,235), A])- 
 plications for aid must be made to the superin- 
 tendent of public instruction through the county 
 superintendent, and with his indorsement and 
 certificate that all required conditions have been 
 complied with (§236). Upon proper application 
 and certification the state superintendent shall 
 apportion to each of such semi-graded schools 
 the sum of two hundred (200) dollars, provided 
 that in case the amount available is not suffi- 
 cient to apportion the full amount to each school, 
 then the amount available shall be apportioned 
 
48 SCHOOL LAWS 
 
 pro rata among all schools entitled thereto 
 (§237). 1 
 
 (4) Supervision of State Rural Schools. 
 
 Of the rural schools under the supervision of 
 the county superintendent, it is provided that 
 any common school district not located in an 
 incorporated village or city may receive state 
 aid for each school building wherein school has 
 been held as required, according to the following 
 conditions : 
 
 (a) School shall have been maintained at least 
 eight months during the year preceding that for 
 which aid is granted. 
 
 (b) It must be taught by a teacher holding a 
 first grade certificate, or a diploma from a normal 
 school of this state or a diploma of another state 
 approved by the state superintendent of public 
 instruction. 
 
 It must have a suitable school building, out 
 houses, library and other necessary apparatus. 
 
 (c) Application for aid must be made to the 
 superintendent of public instruction through and 
 with the indorsement and recommendation of 
 the county superintendent of schools certifying 
 that all required conditions have been complied 
 with (§§240, 241, 242). 
 
 ^Law of 1903. State semi-graded schools may receive 
 $250 each. Appropriation, $67,000. 
 
OF MINNESOTA 49 
 
 Upon proper application and certification, the 
 state superintendent shall apportion to each of 
 such schools the sum of one hundred (100)^ dol- 
 lars, provided that in case the amount available 
 is not sufificient to apportion the full amount to 
 each school, then the amount available shall be 
 apportioned pro rata among all the schools en- 
 titled thereto (§243). 
 
 (5) His relation to the state high school board 
 shall be the same as that of a principal or su- 
 perintendent of the schools ; and upon his ap- 
 plication to said state board, examinations or tests 
 shall be granted to common district schools, and 
 to schools of independent and special districts, 
 even though not under the supervision of the state 
 high school board. And under the supervision 
 of said board he shall establish a regular and or- 
 derly course of study that shall fully meet the re- 
 quirements of said examination or tests (§153). 
 
 (6) He may cite for re-examination any 
 teacher upon satisfactory evidence that such 
 teacher is without good moral character or with- 
 out sufficient learning and ability to teach a 
 common school. Upon refusal by such teacher 
 to appear for re-examination when summoned, 
 the superintendent shall revoke the certificate 
 
 ^Law of 1903. State rural schools may receive $125 
 each. Appropriation, $100,000. 
 
50 SCHOOL LAWS 
 
 held by him, fihng a statement of this act in the 
 office of the district clerk, and delivering a copy 
 of the same to the person whose certificate is re- 
 voked (§157). 
 
 (7) He shall forward to clerks of districts and 
 to teachers of schools all required blanks fur- 
 nished by the state superintendent (§158). 
 
 (8) He shall visit each school of his county 
 at least once in each year, and give such advice 
 to the teacher as may seem necessary (§152). 
 And on the first day of July, October, January 
 and April of each year he shall file with the 
 county auditor a statement of the number of 
 schools visited the preceding quarter, together 
 with the numbers of the districts and dates of 
 visitation (§150). 
 
 (9) He shall report to the county auditor on 
 the day preceding the last Wednesday of Octo- 
 ber in each year an abstract of the number of 
 scholars enrolled in each school within the year 
 and entitled to be counted for apportionment 
 from the current school fund, together with the 
 length of each school in months (§160.) 
 
 (10) On the twentieth day of September in 
 each year he shall report to the state superintend- 
 ent the number of dififerent scholars between the 
 ages of five and twenty-one years properly en- 
 rolled in the school of each district. This re- 
 
OF MINNESOTA 51 
 
 port must also contain such other tabulated 
 matter as is required by the blanks provided by 
 the state superintendent (§159). 
 
 (11) A superintendent failing to make the re- 
 quired reports to the auditor and state superin- 
 tendent, upon which depend the apportionments 
 of the state to the counties and districts, shall be 
 guilty of misdemeanor, and shall forfeit for each 
 omission the sum of fifty dollars, to be deducted 
 from his salary by the county commissioners 
 (§163). 
 
 (12) Upon retiring from office, the superin- 
 tendent shall deliver to the auditor, for his suc- 
 cessor, all records of his office, including a 
 list of the school district clerks with their post 
 office addresses, a list of all common school 
 teachers under contract in any district, and all 
 records, blanks and other property belonging to 
 his office and in his possession. Full payment of 
 his salary by the county auditor shall not be 
 made until he has complied witli this requirement 
 (§149)- 
 
 B. Independent Districts. 
 
 I. The electors of an independent district, 
 having exercised their authority in its organiza- 
 tion as indicated in Chapter II, page 30, have the 
 following duties : 
 
52 SCHOOL LAWS 
 
 ( 1 ) They shall annually on the third Saturday 
 in July, elect two directors, whose terms of office 
 shall be for three years, and until their successors 
 are elected and qualified (§176). They shall also 
 fill vacancies by election for the unexpired term 
 (§181). 
 
 (2) At a meeting regularly called by the di- 
 rectors they shall vote (a) for or against the 
 erection of a school house and the purchase of 
 a site therefor,, and (b) the amount of money to 
 be raised for the purpose aforesaid.^ 
 
 (3) At a meeting called and held in the man- 
 ner as nearly as may be for the purpose of or- 
 ganizing independent districts, and by a two- 
 thirds vote of the legal voters at such election, 
 any independent district organized under Chaptef 
 36 of the General Statutes of 1878, or under any 
 special law of this state may dissolve its organ- 
 ization (§208). 
 
 (4) In cities of less than fifty thousand inhab- 
 itants, upon petition of twenty-five per cent of the 
 
 ^Law of 1903. The legal voters of any town in the 
 state forming part of a common school district contain- 
 ing twenty or more townships may elect a town school 
 superintendent, whose duty it shall be to advise the 
 board regarding school properties and supplies, and hir- 
 ing teachers. He shall also look after truants, visit the 
 schools and report conditions to the trustees. 
 
OF MINNESOTA 53 
 
 legal voters, estimated from the last general elec- 
 tion, the school board may be increased to two 
 members for each ward, whose term of office 
 shall be for two years or until their successors 
 are elected and qualified (§§202, 203, 204). 
 
 (5) School districts with over fifty thousand 
 (50,000) inhabitants, may vote, in addition to 
 other sums authorized by law, a tax not exceed- 
 ing three mills, two and a half mills of which 
 may be appropriated to the general maintenance, 
 and the remainder to the erection, repair, fur- 
 nishing and fitting of school buildings, and the 
 purchase of school sites, and for no other pur- 
 pose ; but the total tax levy for the maintenance 
 of schools shall not exceed eight mills for any 
 one year (§47). 
 
 (6) In cities of less than ten thousand (10,000) 
 inhabitants, and in which taxes are levied by 
 the city council, it shall be the duty of such 
 council, when the boundaries of the district are 
 coterminous with those of corporate limits of 
 the city, to levy a tax suflficient to cover de- 
 ficiencies as estimated and reported to them by 
 the board of education, provided that said tax 
 levy for any financial school year shall not ex- 
 ceed fifteen mills (§378a). 
 
 2. Organization of the Board. 
 
 Within ten days after their election, and an- 
 
54 SCHOOL LAWS 
 
 nually thereafter on the first Saturday of August, 
 the board shall meet and organize by choosing 
 a president, a clerk and a treasurer for a term 
 of one year and until their successors are elected 
 and qualified (§178). 
 
 3. Poivers and Duties of Boards of Educa- 
 tion. 
 
 (i) To establish and organize grades of 
 schools. 
 
 (2) To provide rooms, buildings and grounds 
 for schools. 
 
 (3) When authorized by the district to pur- 
 chase and erect school houses and purchase sites 
 for the same. 
 
 (4) To provide fuel, furniture, apparatus and 
 other appendages for school houses. 
 
 (5) To provide for repairs, care and insurance. 
 
 (6) To contract with, employ and pay teach- 
 ers legally qualified and to discharge the same. 
 
 (7) To defray the expenses of the board, pay 
 clerk, treasurer and superintendent, printing, 
 record books, stationery and necessary incidental 
 expenses. 
 
 (8) To superintend and manage in all respects 
 all that pertains to the schools in organization, 
 government, instruction, records, text-books, 
 courses of study and the admission and expul- 
 sion of pupils. 
 
OF MINNESOTA 55 
 
 (9) To make rules for the protection of prop- 
 erty of the district. 
 
 (10) To make and change rules for its own 
 government and the duties of its officers. 
 
 (11) To provide for the prompt payment of 
 indebtedness by a levy of the necessary tax. 
 
 (12) To provide for examiners the required 
 blank forms of certificates, 
 
 (13) To execute and deliver deeds, mortgages, 
 releases and other instruments when duly author- 
 ized by a vote of the district (§198). 
 
 (14) To estimate the amount required to sup- 
 port the school including all necessary expenses, 
 excepting for the erection of school houses and 
 the purchase of sites, and on or before October 
 tenth of each year report the same to the county 
 auditor to be assessed, collected and paid over to 
 the treasurer of the district (§199). 
 
 (15) To issue bonds for amounts authorized 
 by the vote of the district, which bonds shall 
 be signed by the president and clerk of the 
 board, and be made payable at such time, not 
 exceeding fifteen years, as the board may direct, 
 and with interest not to exceed five per cent, 
 and not to be sold at less than their par value 
 (§192). 
 
 (16) To make accurate and detailed report to 
 
S6 SCHOOL LAWS 
 
 the annual meeting of all receipts and disburse- 
 ments (§200), 
 
 (17) To elect by ballot, in their discretion a 
 superintendent, who shall hold his office during 
 the pleasure of the board, and at such compen- 
 sation as shall be fixed by the board (§178). 
 
 (18) To fix the compensation of the clerk and 
 treasurer (§179.) 
 
 (19) To fill vacancies until the next annual 
 district meeting (§181). 
 
 (20) To establish kindergartens for children 
 of the ages between four and five years, to be 
 supported, the same as other grades, also to em- 
 ploy kindergarten teachers holding legal certifi- 
 cates (§§200, 201).^ 
 
 4. Duties of the Clerk (§187). 
 
 (i) To keep record of the proceedings of dis- 
 trict and board meetings ; and of all reports 
 made by him ; and of all expenses of the district ; 
 and of the inventory of all property of the dis- 
 
 '§ III. Boards of education and of health have 
 power in the interest of the public health to require vac- 
 cination as a pre-requisite to the entrance of children in 
 the schools. 
 
 ^Law of 1903. Boards of education of over 50,000 
 inhabitants may make rules for the examination of 
 teachers, for the government and grading of their 
 schools, for books to be used and for the courses of 
 instruction. 
 
OF MINNESOTA 57 
 
 trict. He shall also keep all records, books and 
 papers belonging to his office. 
 
 (2) To report to the county auditor on or be- 
 fore the tenth of October annually the amount 
 voted for school purposes by the district or by 
 the board of education. 
 
 (3) To give notice of all meetings of the dis- 
 trict. 
 
 (4) To draw and sign orders upon the treas- 
 urer for the payment of money when so ordered 
 by the board. 
 
 (5) To transmit on or before the tenth of 
 August annually a written detailed report tO' the 
 county superintendent of schools of receipts and 
 disbursements within the year as required by 
 the blank form furnished by the department of 
 public instruction. 
 
 5. Duties of the Treasurer (§189). 
 
 (i) To execute a bond before entering upon 
 the duties of his office in double the estimated 
 amount of money which will come into his hands 
 as treasurer within the year. This bond shall 
 be signed by two sureties approved by the board, 
 and shall be filed with the clerk of the board. 
 
 (2) To receive and pay out all moneys belong- 
 ing to the district upon the order of the board, 
 and keep an accurate account of each fund com- 
 insf into his hands. 
 
58 SCHOOL LAWS 
 
 (3) To file with the clerk within three days 
 preceding the annual meeting a written and de- 
 tailed report of all receipts and disbursements 
 during the year ; said report to be audited by 
 the board and entered upon their records. He 
 shall also make such additional reports as may 
 be required by the board. 
 
 (4) To pay to his successor in office, upon de- 
 mand, all money in his hands, and perform such 
 other duties as may be ordered by the board. 
 
 6. The Superintendent of Schools. 
 
 (i) Is elected by the board and receives com- 
 pensation as the board votes and determines. 
 He is ex-officio a member of the board, but 
 without a vote (§178). 
 
 (2) He is required to visit the schools of the 
 district, to superintend the grading, the exam- 
 inations for promotion, and perform such other 
 duties as may be required of the board ; and 
 shall make report to the board as often as they 
 require (§185). 
 
 (3) He shall make to the state superintendent 
 of public instruction, directly, or through the 
 county superintendent of schools, such reports 
 as may be required. 
 
 C. Special Districts. 
 
 I. Previous to the adoption of the constitu- 
 tional amendment (1883) prohibiting special legis- 
 
OF MINNESOTA 59 
 
 lation,many districts were organized under special 
 charters enumerating boundaries, organization 
 and powers of electors and of officers. In 
 general, they have followed the plan of inde- 
 pendent districts in their administration, in some 
 cases, howcA-er, curtailing the authority of the 
 board especially in levying taxes, and in con- 
 ferring greater authority upon the annual meet- 
 ing. 
 
 2. They are generally corporate bodies (§177), 
 but may be only administrative under the author- 
 ity of the common council. As examples of the 
 two types we present in parallel columns the 
 outlines of the system of Minneapolis, represent- 
 ing the usual organization as corporate bodies, 
 and of St. Paul, representing the second type, 
 in which the powers of the board are limited, 
 and administered under the mayor and common 
 
 council of the city. 
 
 Constitution of the Local Educational Authority in the 
 
 CiTLEs of Minneapolis and St. Paul.* 
 
 Minneapolis St. Paul 
 
 Name of Educational Authority 
 
 Board of Education. Board of School Inspectors. 
 
 Njcmber of Members. Hoiv Elected. 
 The Board of Education con- The Board of School Inspec- 
 
 sists of 7 School Directors elect- tors consists of seven persons 
 ed by the people at the time of, appointed by the Mayor, 
 and as a part of, the general bi- 
 ennial election for State and 
 Connty Officers, but on a sepa- 
 rate ballot. 
 
 *Compiled from the Report of the Commissioner of Education 
 (U. S. A.), 1895-96, Vol. I., Chap. I., Laws relating to City School 
 Boards. 
 
6o 
 
 SCHOOL LAWS 
 
 Term of Office. 
 
 The term of office is six years, 
 'wo school directors being elect- 
 ed every two years, except every 
 sixth year, when three are elect- 
 ed. 
 
 The term of office is three 
 years, two School Inspectors be- 
 ing appointed every year except 
 every third year, when three are 
 appointed. 
 
 Vacancies, hoiv filled. 
 Vacancies are filled at the Vacancies are filled by the 
 
 next annual election for the un- Mayor for the unexpired term 
 expired term of office. of office. 
 
 Officers of the Board. 
 The Officers consist of a Pres- The Board elects a President, 
 
 .dent and Secretary, \yho ni^ust Vice-President, and Secretary to 
 
 be School Directors. The City 
 Treasurer and City Controller 
 are Treasurer and Controller, 
 respectively, of the Board. The 
 Officers are elected annually. 
 
 serve for one year, and a Super- 
 intendent of Public Schools to 
 serve for two years. 
 
 General Poivers of the Board. 
 
 The Board of Education is a 
 legal Corporation, has a com- 
 mon seal, and is capable of suing 
 and being sued, of buying, re- 
 ceiving, selling, and conveying 
 real or personal property, and of 
 making and enforcing contracts. 
 The title to all real and personal 
 public school property in the 
 City is vested in the Board. 
 
 The Board of School Inspec- 
 tors is not a corporation, and 
 cannot sue or be sued or hold 
 property, all contracts being 
 made in the name of the City of 
 St. Paul, and the title to' all 
 property being vested in the 
 City. 
 
 The Board of Education is au- 
 thorized and empowered to levy 
 upon the taxable property in the 
 city such taxes as will raise suf- 
 ficient sums of money for all 
 school purposes, including pur- 
 chase of sites and buildings and 
 expenses of maintenance of the 
 same, but the aggregate levy 
 must never exceed in any one 
 year 4 mills on the dollar of as- 
 sessed valuation. 
 
 The Board must make return 
 of the annual levy of taxes to 
 the County Auditor, and the 
 taxes are collected by county of- 
 ficers at the same time and in 
 the same manner as State 
 and county taxes, and the 
 full amount paid over to the 
 City Treasurer to the credit of 
 the'Board of Education. 
 
 Authority to Levy Taxes. 
 
 The expense of the Public 
 Schools is limited to the amount 
 appropriated by the Common 
 Council. The tax imposed by 
 the Council may not be greater 
 than 2'/< mills, nor less than 2 
 mills on the dollar of assessed 
 valuation. All school moneys 
 are paid to the City Treasurer, 
 and the City Treasurer and Con- 
 troller report to the Board of In- 
 spectors every month as to the 
 amount of funds in the City 
 Treasury set apart by the Coun- 
 cil for educational purposes. 
 
OF MINNESOTA 
 
 6i 
 
 Authority to obtain Sites and 
 The Board of Education may 
 purchase real estate for school 
 purposes if six directors vote for 
 such purchase, and may sell or 
 convey the same on the vote of 
 five directors. They have also 
 compulsory powers of acquiring 
 real estate whenever it is deem- 
 ed expedient to do so. The 
 Board may hire or erect and 
 maintain school-houses, and has 
 entire control and management 
 of all the common schools of the 
 city. 
 
 erect School Buildings, etc. 
 
 The Board of School Inspec- 
 tors must report annually to the 
 Council as to the need of new 
 buildings, specifying as nearly 
 as possible the cost of the sites 
 required and the probable cost 
 of suitable buildings. If the 
 state of the school fund justifies 
 it, the Council by a three-quar- 
 ter vote may empower the May- 
 or and the President of the 
 Board of Inspectors to obtain 
 the necessary sites and erect 
 suitable buildings in accordance 
 with f)lans and estimates sub- 
 mitted by the Board of Inspec- 
 tors. The Board of School In- 
 spectors have the care, custody 
 and control of school-houses. 
 They cannot, however, purchase 
 their own sujiplies, but must 
 make a yearly statement to the 
 Mayor of what are required. 
 These are then advertised for 
 and obtained by a Committee of 
 the Council. 
 
 Authority to employ and to dismiss Teachers, etc. 
 
 The Board of Education has 
 power to employ superinten- 
 dents and teachers, and to make 
 rules and regulations for the 
 government of the schools and 
 for the employment and exami- 
 nation of teachers, prescribing 
 their powers and duties. They 
 also make rules for the grading 
 and classification of puiiils and 
 prescribe the course of study, 
 books to be used, etc. 
 
 The Board of School Inspec- 
 tors have full power to employ 
 and dismiss teachers, the City 
 Council having no control over 
 them in this respect. Teachers 
 serve during the pleasure of the 
 Board, and after one year's suc- 
 cessful service are not subject 
 to annual elections. 
 
 The Board reports yearly to the 
 Mayor on the subject of teachers' 
 salaries, specifying in detail the 
 salaries proposed for the coming 
 year. This report is transmitted 
 to the Council, who may reduce 
 the total amount, but may not 
 raise it nor may they fix the sal- 
 ary of any teacher. 
 
 3. Annual School Meetings of Special Dis- 
 tricts. 
 
 The board of trustees or of education of any 
 special school district may appoint the time for 
 
62 SCHOOL LAWS 
 
 its annual meeting when so authorized by a 
 majority vote of the district at any general elec- 
 tion or at any special election called for such 
 purpose (§378). 
 
 D. State High School Administration 
 Board. 
 
 The ofifice of this board is administrative and 
 supervisory in relation to certain schools known 
 as state high schools and graded schools. 
 
 I. The Board. 
 
 (i) Organization of the Board. 
 
 The board is constituted of the state superin- 
 tendent of public instruction and the president 
 of the University of Minnesota, ex-ofBcio, and 
 a superintendent or principal of any high school 
 in Minnesota to be appointed by the Governor 
 and confirmed by the Senate (§219). 
 
 (2) Powers and Duties of the Board. 
 
 (a) To establish necessary and suitable rules 
 for the acceptance of schools, and for the regula- 
 tion of examinations, reports and courses of 
 study, including an optional English or business 
 course, required to be taken for admission to 
 the state university (§221). 
 
 (b) To appoint, in their discretion, a suitable 
 person to inspect high schools, who shall be call- 
 ed the high school inspector. The board shall 
 
OF MINNESOTA 62, 
 
 fix his salary and provide for his travening ex- 
 penses as provided by law in the case of state 
 officials (§220). 
 
 (c) To appoint a suitable person to inspect 
 state graded schools, who shall be called graded 
 school inspector. The board shall fix his salary 
 and provide for his travelling expenses as provid- 
 ed by law in the case of state officials. His duties 
 shall be similar to those of the state high school 
 inspector. 
 
 (d) To keep a record of all proceedings, and, 
 on or before the first of September, annually, 
 make detailed report to the state superintendent 
 of public instruction of all receipts and dis- 
 bursements, and of the number and condition of 
 the schools under their supervision (§222). 
 
 (e) To consider with full discretionaiy power, 
 and act upon applications of high schools for 
 state aid. Subject to the provisions of the act un- 
 der which the board is constituted, the boan' 
 may prescribe conditions upon which such aid 
 shall be granted (§228). 
 
 2. State High Schools. 
 
 (i) Conditions of Acceptance. 
 
 A high school may become a state high school, 
 to be received under the supervision of the high 
 school board, and may receive state aid upon 
 compliance with the following conditions : 
 
64 SCHOOL LAWS 
 
 (a) It shall have maintained for the school 
 year next preceding that for which aid is granted 
 at least nine month's school. 
 
 (b) It shall afford free tuition to students of the 
 state who shall have completed satisfactorily the 
 common branches (arithmetic, grammar, geog- 
 raphy and U. S. history) through the eighth 
 grade of the graded schools. 
 
 (c) It shall have regular courses of study, em- 
 bracing all branches prescribed by the high 
 school board as prerequisite for admission to 
 the collegiate department of the state univer- 
 sity. 
 
 (d) It shall be subject to the rules and regula- 
 tions of the high school board, and be at all times 
 open to the visitation of said board or of the high 
 school inspector (§§224, 225). 
 
 (e) Application may be made by the trustees 
 of any state graded school to the high school 
 board to be advanced to the class of state high 
 schools, and upon an examination into the re- 
 cords and standings of such school, the board is 
 satisfied that it is able to maintain the curricu- 
 lum of a state high school, it may raise such 
 school to a state high school entitling it to aid 
 as such (§233). 
 
 (2) State Aid. 
 
 (a) Each school accepted by the board and 
 
OF MINNESOTA 65 
 
 complying with the requirements of the statute 
 and the rules of the board shall receive one thous- 
 and dollars, provided that in case the amount 
 appropriated is not sufficient to allow the full 
 payment, then the amount available shall be ap- 
 portioned pro rata among the schools entitled 
 thereto/ 
 
 (b) State high schools prepared to give special 
 instruction in the common school branches help- 
 ful to teachers may receive a special appropria- 
 tion of five hundred dollars upon certification 
 of the high school board. 
 
 3. State Graded Schools. 
 
 (]) Conditions of Acceptance. 
 
 Any public school of any town, village or town- 
 ship graded school may become a state graded 
 school, to be received under the supervision of 
 the high school board and receive state aid upon 
 com.plying with the following conditions : 
 
 (a) It shall have maintained for the school 
 year next preceding that for which the aid is 
 granted at least nine months' school. 
 
 (b) It shall be organized, having at least four 
 departments, having a principal and teachers 
 with qualifications as required under the rules of 
 
 iLaw of 1903. State high schools may receive $1500 
 each. Appropriation, $217,000. 
 
66 SCHOOL LAWS 
 
 the high school board ; provided, the principal 
 shall be a graduate from the advanced course 
 of a state normal school, or the academic or ped- 
 agogical department of a reputable college or 
 state university, or have a first grade state cer- 
 tificate, or a state professional certificate. 
 
 (c) The school shall have suitable buildings, 
 library and other apparatus necessary for doing 
 efficient work. 
 
 (d) It shall have a regular course of study, 
 embracing such branches as are required under 
 the rules of the high school board (§§229, 230). 
 
 (e) The county superintendent of schools may 
 recommend to the state high school board the 
 advancement of a semi-graded school to the class 
 of state graded schools whenever he is satisfied 
 that it has the necessary qualifications ; and if 
 upon examination into the records and standing 
 of such school, the high school board is satis- 
 fied that it fully complies with all necessary re- 
 quirements, said board may raise it to a state 
 graded school, entitling it to aid as such (§239). 
 
 (2) State Aid. 
 
 Each school accepted by the state board and 
 complying with the requirements of the statute 
 and the rules of the board shall receive four 
 hundred (400) dollars in each year, provided 
 that the amount appropriated is not sufficient 
 
OF MINNESOTA 67 
 
 to allow this full payment, then the amount 
 available shall be apportioned pro rata among 
 the schools entitled thereto (§232).^ 
 
 4. Supervision. 
 
 (i) Of State High Schools. 
 
 Under the authority of the high school board 
 the inspector of high schools, or his assistant, 
 shall visit each high school at least once in each 
 year, who shall inspect the instruction and dis- 
 cipline and make a written report on the same 
 immediately ; and no money shall be paid until 
 such report has been received, examined and 
 approved by the board (§226). 
 
 (2) Of State Graded Schools. 
 
 Under the authority of the high school board, 
 the graded school inspector or his assistant, shall 
 visit each school at least once each year, who 
 shall inspect the instruction and discipline of the 
 school and make a written report immediately ; 
 and no money shall be paid until such report 
 has been received and approved by the board 
 (§231). 
 
 E. State Normal Schools. 
 
 I. The Board of Directors. 
 
 (i) Organization. 
 
 (a) The state normal school board of direct- 
 
 ^Law of 1903. State graded schools may receive $550 
 each. Appropriation, $79,000. 
 
68 SCHOOL LAWS 
 
 ors consists of nine members, of which the state 
 superintendent of public instruction is ex-offtcio 
 a member and secretary, and eight appointed 
 by the governor with the advice and consent of 
 the senate, for a term of four years. One mem- 
 ber — and but one — shall be appointed from 
 each of the counties of Winona, Blue Earth and 
 Stearns. By implication, upon the increase of 
 the board from six to eight appointed members, 
 and the addition of two normal schools — Moor- 
 head and Duluth — one member will be ap- 
 pointed from each of the counties of Clay and 
 St. Louis (§308). 
 
 (b) Each member shall qualify before entering 
 upon his duties by filing with the secretary of 
 state the usual oath of office (§311). 
 
 (c) The board shall biennially elect by ballot 
 one of their number as president (§310). 
 
 (2) Duties and Authority. 
 
 (a) This board shall have general supervision, 
 management and control of the state normal 
 schools, and all property pertaining thereto. They 
 shall have power to contract for the erection of 
 buildings connected with said schools, to appoint 
 all professors and teachers and fix salaries for 
 the same, provided that the salary of no prin- 
 cipal shall exceed twenty-five hundred (2500) 
 dollars (§312). 
 
OF MINNESOTA 69 
 
 (b) They shall prescribe courses of study in 
 the normal schools, conditions of admission and 
 confer diplomas. They shall make all necessary 
 rules, and visit the schools, either as a whole, or 
 through a committee of their own number, in- 
 spect grounds, buildings, instruction and man- 
 agement, at least once during each term (§313)- 
 
 (c) They shall, through their president, on 
 or before December first in each year, report to 
 the governor the condition of each school, its 
 receipts and disbursements, wants and prospects, 
 together with such recommendations for its im- 
 provement as they may deem proper and nec- 
 essary (§313). 
 
 (3) Duties of the Treasurer. 
 
 (a) Each treasurer shall give bond payable 
 to the State of Minnesota in such sum as the 
 board may direct, and with one or more sureties 
 to be approved by the board. 
 
 (b) The directors resident at the several 
 schools shall act as treasurers to receive and 
 disburse all moneys under the direction of the 
 board, and report the same whenever so directed 
 by the board (§317). 
 
 (c) He shall receive a sum not to exceed three 
 hundred (300) dollars for services and expenses 
 incident to keeping the accounts of his school 
 
70 SCHOOL LAWS 
 
 (§319). The salaries of treasurers shall be paid 
 by their respective schools (§320). 
 
 2. Normal Schools. 
 
 There are five state normal schools, located 
 at Winona, Mankato, St. Cloud, Moorhead and 
 at Duluth. 
 
 (i) Tuition. 
 
 The schools are free to all students upon con- 
 dition that they file with the principal a declara- 
 tion of their intention to engage in teaching in 
 the public schools of the state for a term not less 
 than two years after their connection with the 
 school shall cease. 
 
 The board may fix such tuition for pupils in 
 the model school, and for students of the normal 
 school not intending to teach, as they may deem 
 just (§316). 
 
 (2) Diplomas. 
 
 Every diploma shall be valid as a certificate 
 of qualification of the first grade to teach in the 
 public schools of the state for a period of two 
 years from date of graduation (§276). 
 
 At the expiration of two years of actual teach- 
 ing service the diploma of such graduate may be 
 indorsed by the president of the normal school 
 from which it was issued, and by the state su- 
 perintendent of public instruction, upon satis- 
 factory evidence of successful and satisfactory 
 
OF MINNESOTA 71 
 
 service. Such endorsement shall make the di- 
 ploma of the elementary course a valid certifi- 
 cate for five years, and the diploma of the ad- 
 vanced course a permanent certificate of qual- 
 ification (§277). 
 
 Any county or city superintendent of schools 
 under whose supervision such graduates may be 
 employed shall have power to suspend such cer- 
 tificates for causes duly shown, such suspension 
 to be subject to the same appeal as is provided 
 in the case of certificates issued by such county 
 or city superintendents (§278). 
 
 (3) President's Report. 
 
 On or before September first the president of 
 each school shall make a written report to the 
 state superintendent of public instruction for the 
 year of the school. This report shall set forth 
 the general statistics of the school, its enrollment 
 in each department and class, the average at- 
 tendance, the number of graduates, teachers, 
 together with an account of the general condi- 
 tion of building, library and apparatus, and such 
 other matter as will be of interest to the public 
 and for the welfare of the school (§314). 
 
 F. University of Minnesota. 
 
 The university, established and located "at or 
 near the falls of St. Anthony" (185 1) is con- 
 
72 SCHOOL LAWS 
 
 firmed by the constitution (Art. VIII, §4), shall 
 provide means of acquiring a thorough knowl- 
 edge of the various branches of literature, sci- 
 ence and the arts, and such branches as relate 
 to agriculture, the mechanic arts and military 
 tactics. There shall be established five or more 
 colleges, including colleges or departments of 
 law and medicine and shall be under the con- 
 trol of a board of regents (§§328, 329). 
 I. Board of Regents. 
 
 (1) Organization. 
 
 (a) The board of regents consists of twelve 
 members, the governor of the state, the superin- 
 tendent of public instruction and the president of 
 the university, members ex-ofiicio, and nine 
 members appointed by the governor by and with 
 the advice and consent of the senate^ for terms 
 of six years (§329). 
 
 (b) The officers of the board are a president, 
 treasurer and secretary, who shall hold their 
 respective offices during the pleasure of the 
 board. The president and treasurer shall each 
 execute a bond in the sum of fifty thousand 
 (50.000) dollars with at least two sureties, to the 
 State of Minnesota to be approved by the gov- 
 ernor and filed in the office of the secretary of 
 state (§331). 
 
 (2) Powers and Duties. 
 
OF MINNESOTA yz 
 
 (a) The regents of the university shall consti- 
 tute a body corporate, and may sue and be sued, 
 contract and be contracted with, and make use 
 of a common seal (§330). 
 
 (b) They shall enact by-laws for the govern- 
 ment of the university, elect a president, profes- 
 sors, instructors, ofificers, employees, and fix their 
 salaries and terms of office. 
 
 (c) They shall have full power in determining 
 the qualifications for admission and in prescrib- 
 ing books and authorities to be used in depart- 
 ments, and in conferring degrees and granting 
 diplomas as is usual in universities (§332). 
 
 (d) They may accept in trust or otherwise any 
 gift, grant, bequest or devise of property real 
 or personal, for educational purposes, to hold, 
 manage, invest and dispose of the same and the 
 proceeds therefrom in accordance with prescribed 
 conditions (§333). 
 
 (e) The annual meeting of the board shall be 
 held on the second Tuesday of December, and 
 special meetings shall be called and held at such 
 times as the regents shall determine (§337). 
 
 (f) The board shall cause to be begun and 
 carry on a thorough geological and natural his- 
 tory survey of the state, and through their pres- 
 ident make annual report of the progress of the 
 said surveys (§§345-352). 
 
74 SCHOOL LAWS 
 
 (g) The board shall have control of the state 
 salt lands donated by the general government, 
 and shall have power to sell them in such man- 
 ner as they may see fit, and disburse the proceeds 
 in accordance with the law ordering a geological 
 and natural history survey of the state (§353)- 
 
 (h) The board shall make provision for the 
 purchase of suitable lands in the vicinity of the 
 university for an experimental farm, and as soon 
 as practicable make the improvements necessary 
 for experimental purposes, and in connection 
 with the course in the agricultural college (§340). 
 
 (i) The board shall make provision for the 
 care and treatment in some hospital within ten 
 miles of the state university of indigent, crippled 
 and deformed children who have resided in the 
 state not less than one year. Medical and sur- 
 gical attendance shall be by members of the staff 
 of the medical college of the vmiversity without 
 extra compensation. Hospital care shall be pro- 
 vided on such terms as may be agreed upon by 
 the regents. 
 
 Rules for the admission, care, treatment and 
 discharge of children shall be adopted by the 
 board as they may deem proper (§380). 
 
 (j) On or before the second Tuesday in De- 
 cember the board shall make report annually 
 
OF MINNESOTA 75 
 
 through its president to the governor, showing 
 in detail the progress and condition of the uni- 
 versity, the wants of the various departments, 
 and the amounts of money received and dis- 
 bursed and such other matters as they may deem 
 important and useful. 
 
 (3) Duties of the Secretary. 
 
 The secretary shall record all proceedings of 
 the board, and shall carefully preserve all books 
 and papers, and before entering upon the duties 
 of his office he shall take and subscribe an oath 
 to perform his duties faithfully (§332). 
 
 (4) Duties of the Treasurer. 
 
 The treasurer shall give the required bond 
 (see, Organization of the board), and take and 
 subscribe an oath that he will faithfully perform 
 the duties of his office. He shall keep an ex- 
 act and faithful account of all moneys, bills re- 
 ceivable and evidences of indebtedness, and all 
 securities and properties received or paid out by 
 him. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Certificates and Examinations. 
 
 I. Classes and Validity of Certificates. 
 (i) State certificates. 
 
 (a) State Professional, valid for the time stated 
 on the face, and in all schools of the state. 
 
 (b) University Teachers' Certificate, has the 
 rank of the State Professional. It is valid as a 
 probationary certificate for two years from its 
 date, and upon endorsement by the state superin- 
 tendent of public instruction and the president 
 of the university, it is made perpetual (§275). 
 
 (c) State first grade, valid for five years, and 
 in all schools of the state, excepting-, that by rule 
 of the high school board it is not accepted in 
 state high schools, and that boards of education 
 of special and independent districts may by for- 
 mal action decide not to recognize for the grades 
 either this or the second grade (§§263, 265-270). 
 
 (d) Second grade, valid for two years in the 
 county in which the examination is held, and in 
 any other county upon the endorsement of the 
 superintendent of such county (§§263-265). 
 
 (2) Diplomas as Certificates, 
 (a) The diploma of a college or university of 
 good standing, after one vear's successful teach- 
 
OF MINNESOTA 77 
 
 ing- under a state first grade certificate entitles 
 the holder to a state professional certificate 
 (§273). 
 
 (b) The diploma of a state normal school is 
 valid as a certificate of the first grade for two 
 years from graduation (§276). 
 
 Upon endorsement, at the expiration of two 
 years, by the state superintendent of public in- 
 struction and the president of the school issuing 
 the diploma (i) the diploma of the elementary 
 course shall be valid for five years, and (2) the 
 diploma of the advanced course shall be a cer- 
 tificate of permanent qualification (§277). 
 
 2. Examinaiions. 
 
 (i) For State Professional certificates upon 
 examination, a committee of three is appointed 
 by the state superintendent of public instruction. 
 By rule of the department, examinations are held 
 at the state university in August immediately 
 following the regular state examinations, and 
 also at the capitol during the Christmas holidays 
 A second grade may be issued to deserving teach- 
 ers lacking not more than three of the required 
 subjects (§273). 
 
 (2) Under the direction of the superintendent 
 of public instruction two examinations shall be 
 held annually in every county of the state under 
 the following regulations. The county superin- 
 
 L.ofC. 
 
78 SCHOOL LAWS 
 
 tendents shall designate the places of examin- 
 ation. Public notice shall be given of time and 
 place of examinations. The time shall be uni- 
 form (§267). 
 
 The county superintendents shall conduct the 
 examinations of their respective counties, or 
 shall appoint persons to conduct them in their 
 stead (§267). 
 
 When required, the examiner shall make af- 
 fidavit that the examination has been conducted 
 strictly according to the regulations prescribed 
 (%267). 
 
 The following subjects are required for all cer- 
 tificates : spelling, reading, arithmetic, penman- 
 ship, grammar, composition, geography, history 
 of the United .States, physiology and the practical 
 facts of hygiene. For first grade certificates, the 
 following in addition : elementary algebra, plane 
 geometry, physical geography, natural philos- 
 ophy and civil government, provided that in 
 lieu of natural philosophy, physical geography 
 and plane geometry, the state superintendent 
 may designate equivalent optional subjects, and 
 may offer music and drawing as optionals (§§267- 
 268). 
 
 The certificates of the state normal schools 
 and of state high schools in all subjects including 
 the so-called common branches having a stand- 
 
OF MINNESOTA 79 
 
 ing of not less than seventy-five (75) per cent, 
 mav be accepted in lien of examinations in such 
 subjects (§268)/ 
 
 (3) Local certificates. (See page 46.) 
 
 (4) Miscellaneous. 
 
 (a) Teachers desiring to take the examination 
 may dismiss their schools for that purpose for 
 a period not to exceed two days in each year 
 without loss of pay (§267). 
 
 (b) The state superintendent may in his dis- 
 cretion issue a certificate of qualification without 
 examination to a person who has taught in the 
 
 §273. For Professional Certificates. Final markings 
 from Minnesota State normal schools, will, upon recom- 
 mendation of the several presidents, be accepted in 
 place of an examination in History of Education, School 
 Economy, School Law and Psychology. 
 
 §268. P'or State Teachers' Certificates, First and Sec- 
 ond Grade. State High School Board certificates which 
 show a standing of not less than 75 per cent, will be ac- 
 cepted in lieu of examinations in Senior Arithmetic, 
 Senior Geography, Senior Grammar, Senior His- 
 tory OF THE United States, Algebra, Civil 
 Government, Plane Geometry, Physical Geo- 
 graphy, and Natural Philosophy, CPhysics), pro- 
 vided, that no such certificates shall be accepted if pre- 
 sented more than a year later than the date of the last 
 certificate received by the candidate, unless he has 
 taught with success since the date of the last certificate, 
 as certified by the county superintendent. 
 
 Standings of 80 per cent, or more in branches com- 
 pleted at a Minnesota state normal school within the 
 past two years will be accepted in lieu of examination in 
 such branches by the department upon the recommen- 
 dation of the president where the standings are granted. 
 
8o SCHOOL LAWS 
 
 public schools of ihe state five or more years, 
 upon a written application endorsed by the 
 officers of the school and of the city or county 
 superintendent under whom he has taught the 
 greater part of five years next preceding the date 
 of appHcation (§271). 
 
 (c) The expenses for the examination shall be 
 paid as follow^s: (i) local expenses by the county 
 in which the examination is held, (2) expenses 
 of the state superintendent in the examination 
 of papers and issuing certificates, by the state 
 from the appropriation made for conducting in- 
 stitutes to an amount not exceeding twenty-five 
 hundred dollars (§272). 
 
 (d) Any county or city superintendent under 
 whose supervision a graduate of a normal school 
 or other teacher is employed may, for causes 
 duly shown, suspend the certificate of such 
 teacher, such suspension to be subject to appeal 
 (§§264-278). 
 
 (e) Appeals. 
 
 Any teacher aggrieved and desiring to ap- 
 peal from the decision of a superintendent re- 
 voking or suspending his certificate shall, within 
 ten days after receiving such notice, serve a 
 written notice of appeal from such decision on 
 the state superintendent of public instruction, 
 specifying the grounds upon which the appeal 
 
OF MINNESOTA 8i 
 
 is taken. This appeal shall be reviewed by the 
 state superintendent under equitable regulations 
 prescribed by him (§§264, 266, 279). 
 
 Any applicant failing to pass the scholastic 
 examination for a certificate may, upon appeal to 
 the state superintendent, have his papers re- 
 viewed by the instructors in the corresponding 
 branches in the state university, provided such 
 appeal is taken within ten days from the date of 
 receipt of notice of such failure (§269). 
 
CHAPTER Y. 
 
 Support of Public Schools. 
 
 I. General Support of Coiuiuon Schools. 
 
 The term "common schools" applies to all 
 schools of the system excepting normal schools 
 and the university. It also applies to all grades 
 of these schools, including the high schools. 
 This support is provided in several forms as 
 follows : 
 
 (i) By the General Government. 
 
 The general government has set apart sections 
 sixteen and thirty-six of each township and has 
 granted the same to the state for school purposes. 
 (Act of Congress Authorizing a State Govern- 
 ment, passed Feb. 26, 1857.) The state in its 
 constitution provides that the lands intrusted to 
 it for educational purposes shall be sold and 
 the proceeds remain inviolate ; and the income 
 from the lease and sale of such lands shall be dis- 
 tributed in proportion to the number of scholars 
 between the ages of five and twenty-one years. 
 The proceeds of sales shall be safely invested 
 under suitable laws enacted by the legislature, 
 in interest-bearing bonds of the United States, 
 M'innesota, and of other states. They may also 
 be invested in the bonds of any county, city, vil- 
 
OF MINNESOTA 83 
 
 lage, town or school district, under the direction 
 and approval of the designated board of commis- 
 sioners. Loans and investments shall not be 
 made when the issue of the same would in part 
 make the entire bonded indebtedness exceed 
 seven per cent of the assessed valuation of the 
 taxable real property of the count}% school dis- 
 trict, city, town or village issuing such bonds, 
 nor the interest be less than three per cent per 
 annum, nor for a time less than five years nor 
 longer than twentv vears. (Constitution, Article 
 VIII, §§2, 6.)i 
 
 (2) Support by the State. 
 
 There shall be levied annually upon the tax- 
 able property of the state a tax of one and 
 twenty-three hundredths of a mill to be known 
 as the "state school tax." of which the proceeds 
 of one mill shall be added to the general school 
 fund, which together shall be known as the "cur- 
 rent school fund" (§172). 
 
 (3) Apportionment of the Current School 
 Fund. 
 
 The "Current School Fund" apportioned by 
 the state consists of (i) the income from the per- 
 
 ^Law of 1903. Loans of permanent school and per- 
 manent university funds shall bear interest at the rate 
 of four per cent. County drainage bonds at three per 
 cent may be purchased of the counties issuing them. 
 
84 SCHOOL LAWS 
 
 manent fund, and known as the "general school 
 fund," and (2) the state one-mill tax (§172). 
 
 On the first Monday in March and the first 
 Monday in October of each year, the superin- 
 tendent of public instruction shall make an ap- 
 portionment of the available current school funds 
 in the treasury, among the counties in proportion 
 to the number of scholars between the ages of 
 five and twenty-one years who have been en- 
 rolled and have been in attendance forty days 
 in the public schools that have had at least five 
 months of term within the year by a qualified 
 teacher, and have reported as required bv law 
 (§164). 
 
 On the last Wednesday of March and on the 
 last Wednesday of October in each year, the 
 county auditor of each county shall make appor- 
 tionments of the money in the county treasury 
 accruing from the current school fund, and from 
 the liquor licenses, estrays and fines among the 
 several school districts in the county in which 
 schools have been held as required by law, and 
 the required reports have been made to the 
 county superintendent. Statements of the 
 amounts apportioned shall be transmitted to the 
 clerks of the several districts. 
 
 A district is entitled to a share of the liquor 
 
OF MINNESOTA 85 
 
 license in case the licenses of such district are 
 paid into the county treasury. 
 
 A new district voting and providing for a four 
 months school and having continued it one 
 month, shall be entitled to the first and succeed- 
 ing apportionment upon the basis of actual en- 
 rollment ; and for two years succeeding, the dis- 
 trict shall be entitled to apportionment in propor- 
 tion to the number of scholars who have attended 
 thirty days of four months' school. 
 
 No district shall receive from the apportion- 
 ment a greater amount than that appropriated 
 by such district from the special and local one- 
 mill tax levied in that year, unless the district 
 is levving the maximum rate allowed by law 
 (§167). ^ 
 
 (4) Support by the district. 
 
 (a) Local One-mill Tax. 
 
 The county commissioners shall levy an an- 
 nual tax of one mill to be known as the local 
 mill tax, to be collected as other taxes are 
 collected, and distributed to the districts of the 
 county in amounts equal to the collections made 
 from the several districts ; and in case the com- 
 missioners fail to make such levy the county aud- 
 itor shall extend the same upon the assessment 
 roll of the year (§172). 
 
 (b) Special Taxes. 
 
86 SCHOOL LAWS 
 
 The annual meeting of school districts may 
 vote an amount of money to be raised by a tax 
 levy, sufficient to meet the conditions on which 
 apportionments of state school funds are made, 
 and to raise such additional amounts as the dis- 
 trict may determine. 
 
 2. Special State Support. 
 
 (i) For State High Schools. (See page 65.) 
 
 (2) For State Graded Schools. (See pages 66, 
 
 (3) For State Semi-graded Schools. Seepages 
 
 47, 48.) 
 
 (4) For State Rural Schools. (See page 48.) 
 
 (5) For Teachers' Institutes the state makes 
 annual appropriation of seven thousand dollars. 
 
 (6) For Teachers' Training Schools the state 
 provides an annual appropriation of twenty thous- 
 and (20,000) dollars (§146). 
 
 (7) For the purchase of libraries, the state pro- 
 vides that any school district, having provided 
 a suitable book case for the care of books, and a 
 librarian with suitable rules for the distribution 
 of books, and having purchased books from the 
 list approved and selected by the library commis- 
 sion, and having forwarded a certified statement 
 of the same with the endorsement of and through 
 the county superintendent to the state superin- 
 tendent, the said state superintendent shall make 
 
OF AIINNESOTA 87 
 
 requisition upon the state auditor for one-half the 
 amount so expended, who shall issue his warrant 
 in favor of said district, provided, ( i ) that no dis- 
 trict shall receive more than twenty dollars upon 
 the first statement, nor more than ten dollars upon 
 any subsequent statement, and (2) that each 
 school building of the district for the purposes of 
 this act shall be estimated as one district, and (3) 
 no more than one statement shall be made by any 
 one district in any one school year. 
 
 P'or this purpose ten thousand (10,000) dollars 
 are annually appropriated (§§290, 291, 392).^ 
 
 ^Law of IQ03. Fifteen thousand dollars are annually 
 appropriated for libraries. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Support of State Normal Schools. 
 
 The state normal schools are supported wholly 
 by state appropriations. 
 
 1. For current expenses the annual appropri- 
 ation for the several schools is as follows for 
 1903 : 
 
 Winona $42,500 
 
 Mankato 42,500 
 
 St. Cloud 47*500 
 
 Moorhead 48,000 
 
 Duluth 27.000 
 
 2. The appropriations for buildings and re- 
 pairs are made from year to year upon the recom- 
 mendation of the state normal board of directors. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 The Support of the State University. 
 
 I. By the General Government. 
 
 ( 1 ) By act of congress authorizing a state gov- 
 ernment two townships — seventy-two sections — 
 were set apart for a state university to be se- 
 lected by the governor, subject to the approval 
 of the commissioner of the general land office, 
 and applied by the legislature for the purpose 
 aforesaid. (Act of Congress passed Feb. 26, 
 
 1857, §5-) 
 
 In 1870, by act of Congress, an additional two 
 townships were set apart for the same purpose 
 and upon the same conditions. These lands be- 
 ing sold, the proceeds formed the "permanent 
 university fund," and was required to be in- 
 vested, as was the permanent school fund (see, 
 Chap. V. I.). The income from the same con- 
 stitutes the "general university fund" and shall 
 be used for the support of the state university. 
 
 (2) In 1862, by act of Congress, thirty thous- 
 and acres for each of the four representatives of 
 the state in Congress (120,000 acres), were set 
 apart for the benefit of a college of agriculture 
 and mechanic arts, including military tactics. In 
 
90 SCHOOL LAWS 
 
 1868. by act of Legislature, the college of agri- 
 culture and mechanic arts, together with all 
 lands and funds provided for its support, was 
 united with the state university, upon w^hich 
 the two funds were merged under the one name 
 "permanent university fund," the proceeds of 
 which are required to- be used for the purposes 
 prescribed by acts of Congress and the legisla- 
 ture of the state. 
 
 (3) By act of Congress (Hatch Bill, March 
 2, 1887), fifteen thousand (15,000) dollars are 
 annually appropriated for the support of an agri- 
 cultural experiment station. The management of 
 this fund, subject to conditions defined in the 
 bill, was committed by the legislature to the 
 regents of the university. The purposes and re- 
 sults of this department are educational in a 
 large and popular interest, and, therefore, is most 
 appropriately administered by the regents of the 
 university. 
 
 (4) By act of congress (Morrill Bill, Aug. 30, 
 1890) there was appropriated from the sale of 
 public lands for the more complete endowment 
 and maintenance of colleges for the benefit of 
 agriculture and the mechanic arts, fifteen thous- 
 and (15,000) dollars for the year ending June 
 thirteenth, 1890, to be increased annually by 
 one thousand (1000) dollars until the annual 
 
OF MINNESOTA 91 
 
 amount shall amount to, and remain perman- 
 ent at, twenty-five thousand (25,000) dol- 
 lars. This appropriation shall be applied to 
 instruction in agriculture and mechanic arts, the 
 English language, and the various branches of 
 mathematical, physical, natural and economic 
 science, with special reference to their application 
 in the industries of life. 
 
 (5) By act of congress (Feb. 26, 1867) certain 
 reserved lands known as "Saline," to the amount 
 of 46,080 acres were donated to the state of 
 Minnesota. And by act of the state legisla- 
 ture (Mar. 10, 1873) these lands were trans- 
 ferred to the custody and control of the regents 
 of the university, upon condition that these lands 
 be sold by the board of regents, and the proceeds 
 disbursed in accordance with the law ordering a 
 geological and natural history sun'ey. 
 
 2. By the State. 
 
 (i) An annual tax of twenty-three hundredths 
 of a mill is levied upon the taxable property of 
 the state and added to the general university 
 fund (§172.) 
 
 (2) Special annual appropriations are as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 For the department of mining engin- 
 eering $5,000 
 
 For the maintenance of the library. . 7,500 
 
92 SCHOOL LAWS 
 
 For general repairs $ 8.000 
 
 For printing 2,000 
 
 3. University Annual Tuitions. 
 Registration, fifteen dollars. 
 LaAv Department, sixty dollars. 
 Medical Colleges, one hundred dollars. 
 Dentistry, one hundred dollars. 
 Pharmacy (for entire course) one hundred 
 
 sixty-five dollars. 
 
 4. Special State .Ippropriations. 
 
 Appropriations for buildings and other inter- 
 ests are made by the legislature as necessary, 
 and upon the recommendation of the regents of 
 the university. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 State Supervision. 
 
 The general supervision of education in the 
 state is assigned to the state superintendent of 
 public instruction, who is related to every de- 
 partment of education and every state educa- 
 tional institution as an ex-officio member of each 
 board. In many respects his relation is authori- 
 tative and directory ; in others, and in which he 
 exerts his greatest influence, he represents the pro- 
 gressive ideals of education, and, in an advisory 
 capacity, co-operates with the educators of the 
 state in the improvement of their schools and in 
 sustaining them in their efforts to realize the best 
 methods of school administration and instruction. 
 
 I. Appointment. 
 
 The superintendent of public instruction is 
 appointed by the governor by and with the ad- 
 vice of the senate for two years, and at an annual 
 salary of twenty-five hundred dollars.^ By con- 
 stitutional amendment he assumes the duties of 
 his office on the first Monday of January, having 
 taken the required oath of office. His office is 
 
 ^Law of 1903. The salary of the superintendent of 
 public instruction shall be three thousand dollars. 
 
94 SCHOOL LAWS 
 
 at the capitol, where all papers, records, reports 
 and other documents pertaining to his office are 
 kept (§§133, 134). 
 
 2. Assistant. He shall appoint an assistant su- 
 perintendent whose salary is fixed at eighteen 
 hundred dollars per annum. 
 
 3. He is ex-officio, a member of the board of 
 regents of the state university (§329) ; of th-j state 
 normal board of directors, of which he is ex- 
 officio secretary (§§308, 310) ; of the board of 
 directors of the institute for defectives (§140) ; 
 and of the state high school board (§219). 
 
 4. Duties. 
 
 (i) To meet the county superintendents at 
 such time and place as is conducive to the in- 
 terests of education, for the consideration of such 
 matters of administration and instruction as are 
 of value and interest to the counties represented 
 (§136). 
 
 (2) To prepare and distribute blanks, registers 
 and records required by the county superintend- 
 ents, district clerks and treasurers for the trans- 
 action of the business of school districts, (§138). 
 
 (3) To organize institutes and training schools 
 (§§141, 143). 
 
 (4) To hold teachers' examinations and issue 
 certificates (§263). (See Chap. IV.) 
 
 (5) To consider appeals. (See page 80.) 
 
I 
 
 OF MINNESOTA 95 
 
 (6) To issue state professional certificates 
 (See pages 76, jy.) 
 
 (7) To make apportionment of the current 
 school fund and report the same to the state 
 auditor (§171). (See page 84.) 
 
 (8) To make requisition for aid to state rural 
 and state semi-graded schools (See pages 47, 48.) 
 
 (9) To make requisition for library aid. (See 
 page 86. 
 
 (10) To keep record of all schools applying for 
 state aid as rural and as semi-graded schools 
 (§§238, 244). 
 
 (11) To recommend, with the presidents of the 
 normal schools, suitable text books for the study 
 of physiology, hygiene, stimulants and narcotics 
 (§368). 
 
 (12) To make biennial report of receipts and 
 disbursements of the money appropriated for the 
 aid of Sitate semi-graded and rural schools, the 
 names and number of schools of each class, num- 
 ber of pupils in classes, and the cost of supervi- 
 sion for the years covered by the report, and also 
 his estimate of the amount required for the two 
 succeeding years (§245). 
 
 (13) To take charge of the sale of dictionaries, 
 and turn over to the state treasurer all money 
 received for said sales (§295). 
 
 (14) To make biennial report through the gov- 
 
96 SCHOOL LAWS 
 
 ernor to the legislature on or before the fifth 
 of December a comprehensive and detailed report 
 of the public schools and all other institutions 
 that may report to him ; including all receipts 
 and disbursements of public educational funds, 
 and all matters relating to teachers and schools 
 that are of public interest and importance (§137). 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 Miscellaneous Laws. 
 
 1. Incorporated colleges and seminaries are 
 required to report annually before January first 
 to the state superintendent the names of officers 
 and students of their several institutions, to- 
 g-ether with their financial condition in property, 
 s^nd such other information as will tend to exhibit 
 their condition and operations (§139). 
 
 2. Compulsory Attendance. 
 
 Every parent or guardian or other person re- 
 siding in a school district of the state having con- 
 trol of a child between the ages of 8 and 16 years 
 shall send him to a public parochial or private 
 school during the entire time the public school 
 of such district is in session. This requirement 
 may be suspended in part or for the whole of 
 such period by the board when it is shown to 
 the satisfaction of the board ( i ) that the parents 
 or guardian is not able to properly clothe such 
 child, (2)that the child is not physically or men- 
 tally capable of attending school, (3) that he is 
 taught at home in all the required common 
 school branches ; (4) that he has already acquired 
 a common school education, and (5) that he is 
 
98 SCHOOL LAWS 
 
 actually employed in some useful occupation per- 
 mitted by law (§280). 
 
 3. Truant Officer and Schools. 
 
 The board of any school district shall have 
 power to appoint and remove one or more tru- 
 ant officers, whose duty it shall be to investigate 
 cases of truancy and non-attendance at school, 
 to make complaints, serve notices and to enforce 
 all laws and school regulations respecting truant, 
 incorrigible and disorderly children, and the at- 
 tendance of children at school (§281). 
 
 Truant Scholars. 
 
 Such board of any school district may establish 
 one or more ungraded schools for the instruc- 
 tion of children between eight and sixteen years 
 of the following classes: (i) habitual truants. (2) 
 incorrigible, immoral and vicious children, and 
 (3) habitual wanderers on the street without law- 
 ful employment. Children of these classes may 
 be assigned to and be required to attend such 
 ungraded truant school as the board may deter- 
 mine (§282). 
 
 Complaints. 
 
 Whenever such board of any school district 
 shall determine it to be necessary, the truant 
 officer, upon the order of the board, shall make 
 complaint against such juvenile offender before 
 a justice of the peace or other authorized mag- 
 
OF MINNESOTA 99 
 
 istrate, who shall issue a warrant and proceed to 
 a hearing- upon the complaint. If it be found 
 that the complaint is sustained, such justice of 
 the peace or magistrate shall sentence such juve- 
 nile offender to the Minnesota State Training 
 School, provided that for the first ofifense the 
 magistrate may suspend the sentence in his dis- 
 cretion. 
 
 Penalty for Failure to Comply (§283)- 
 
 Any parent or guardian having been duly 
 notified by the truant of^cer but fails to comply 
 with the provisions of this act in sending a child 
 under his control to school, shall be guilty of 
 misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be pun- 
 ished by a fine not exceeding fifty dollars, or 
 bv imprisonment not exceeding thirty days 
 (§284). 
 
 4. Cigarettes^ Cigars, or Tobacco. 
 
 Any person furnishing by sale or otherwise 
 cigarettes, cigars or tobacco to any person under 
 eighteen years of age, or to any minor pupil in 
 an}' school, college or university shall be pun- 
 ished by a fine of not to exceed fifty dollars or 
 imprisonment in the county jail not to exceed 
 thirty days. 
 
 Any person under eighteen years of age or 
 minor pupil who shall smoke or use cigarettes 
 or tobacco in any form in any public place or 
 
100 SCHOOL LAWS 
 
 street shall be subject to a fine of not to exceed 
 ten dollars or imprisonment in the county jail 
 not to exceed five days for each ofTense. 
 
 Any person who shall provide a place in which 
 persons under eighteen and minors may frequent, 
 for the purpose of indulging in the use of cigar- 
 ettes, cigars or tobacco in any form shall be lia- 
 ble to the same penalty as those who sell to such 
 minors (§377). 
 
 5. Intoxicating Liquors. 
 
 No license shall be issued by county com- 
 missioners to sell intoxicating liquors at a place 
 outside the corporate limits of any incorporated 
 city, village or l)orough and within a distance 
 of fifteen hundred feet of any school house of any 
 public or independent school district (§276). 
 
 6. Child Labor. 
 
 No child under sixteen shall, in the year next 
 succeeding his birthday be employed during the 
 hours in which the public schools of the district 
 are in session until he has attended some school 
 for the period required by law. 
 
 No child who cannot read simple sentences in 
 English shall be employed at any indoor occu- 
 pation except in vacations unless he is a regular 
 attendant at a day or evening school. But when- 
 ever it shall appear to the school board' upon ex~ 
 amination that the labor of such minor is nee- 
 
OF MINNESOTA lor 
 
 essary for the support of his family, the board 
 may issue a permit authorizing the employment 
 of such minor within such times as they may 
 
 fix (§375)- 
 
 7. Holidays (See page 16). 
 
 8. Transpovtation of Pupils (vSec page 28). 
 
 9. Women as electors. 
 
 (i) Qualifications (See pages 34. 35). 
 
 (2) A separate ballot box shall be provided for 
 the ballots of women for each election district 
 in which they are entitled to vote (§31). 
 
 (3) Any woman who is a qualified elector is 
 entitled to vote for a county superintendent of 
 schools in the election district of which she has 
 been a resident at least ten days, in which case 
 she shall register as now provided for male vot- 
 ers (%%Z2, 33). 
 
 (4) By provision of the Constitution (§8, Art. 
 7, as amended), women may vote at any election 
 for the purpose of choosing any ofificers of 
 schools or members of library boards, or upon 
 any measure relating to schools or libraries. 
 They shall also be eligible to hold any office per- 
 taining to the management of schools and libra- 
 ries (§36). 
 
 10. Dictionaries. 
 
 Any district or district department not al- 
 ready provided for, upon application by its su- 
 
J02 SCHOOL LAWS 
 
 ptrintendent, clerk or secretary of the board, to 
 the state superintendent, shall be furnished with 
 a copy of Webster's Unabridged Dictionary for 
 each school or department at a cost not to exceed 
 seven dollars a copy. The sum of twenty-five 
 hundred dollars is appropriated for this pur- 
 pose (§293). 
 
 11. School Libraries (See page 86). 
 
 12. Free Text Books (See page 37). 
 
JUL 20 1903