Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. I, Part 74

Author: Carroll, Charles, author
Publication date: 1932
Publisher: New York : Lewis historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 716

USA > Rhode Island > Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. I > Part 74

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FIRST AMERICAN SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS-Nathan Bishop was appointed Super- intendent of Schools, July 23, 1839, and entered upon his duties, August 1, 1839. The appointment of the superintendent originated with Thomas Wilson Dorr, who argued that if a superintendent or overseer had a function in industry as a coördinator of departments and responsible director of activities, there was in education a place for a similar officer to supervise the work of teachers and pupils in the scattered buildings of a public school system. A committee of the city council was instructed to visit the schoolhouses of the city and examine them; the committee reported that "all were unfit for use in their present condition, and were all either too small, too dilapidated, or too badly constructed to be worth repairing." These were the buildings constructed or acquired in 1800. The brick schoolhouse on Meeting Street was not abandoned, but the city inaugurated a program for building new schoolhouses that continued for six years. A high school building, which cost $21,572.87, was constructed; it is the substantial brick building on Benefit Street which subsequently to use as a high school, housed the Rhode Island Normal School for a generation, and is in 1930 occupied by the Rhode Island Supreme Court. Six grammar schools were built at an average cost of $10,463.22 each, and six primary schools at an average cost of $1,865.60 each. That the era of large schools had not passed in Providence, however, is shown by the floor plans of these buildings, schoolrooms in which provided seats for 120 primary or intermediate pupils, and 225 grammar pupils. Two recitation rooms were provided with each grammar room. Not until 1857 was a change to smaller rooms made, upon the urgent recommendation of Superin- tendent Leach.

The state school act was revised in 1839, the most significant changes being: (1) Fixing the annual appropriation from the general treasury at $25,000; (2) application of lottery and auction taxes exclusively to increase of the permanent school fund; (3) exclusive use of state school money for payment of teachers' salaries, wherefore it was called "teachers' money," a term used still in the school statutes; (4) clearer definition of the functions of school com- mittees ; (5) corporate powers without incorporation for school districts; (6) union school districts, consisting of compact communities straddling town boundary lines. The revision had little effect upon schools or enrollment; it was actually little more than a consolidation of

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statutes, and the incorporation of established practice in statutory enactment. As a matter of fact, the advance movement started by the act of 1836 had spent itself within five years. There was practically no gain in enrollment from 1841 to 1845. The increase in enrollment in Providence was offset by losses elsewhere; while Providence was advancing the remainder of the state was marking time. Moreover, the body politic was much concerned with the con- stitutional struggle known in history as the Dorr War, which is associated with the name of Thomas Wilson Dorr more often than the substantial advances in public education which he initiated or promoted-including repeal of the fuel tax in the public schools of Providence with the purpose of removing an obstacle to enrollment and attendance, appropriation of the income of the United States deposit or loan fund for the support of public schools, and the appointment of the first superintendent of public schools. While a member of the General Assembly, Dorr was chairman of the first committee on education of which there is mention ; he was a member of the school committee in Providence from 1838 to 1842, and chairman of the committee from 1841. He was an influential and active member, and helped to carry through reforms in the public schools of Providence which in 1845 elicited this praise from Henry Barnard, one of the keenest educational observers of the nineteenth century: "The city of Providence has already gained to itself an extended reputation and made itself a bright example to many other cities."

Dorr's program for political reform in Rhode Island included inauguration of a system of free schools to supersede the public schools of the period; he planned abolishing tuition in schools throughout the state. A definition of Dorr's position appeared in the People's con- stitution, 1841, which was drafted by the Dorr constitutional convention, thus: "The dif- fusion of knowledge, and the cultivation of a sound morality in the fear of God being of the first importance in a republican state, and indispensable to the maintenance of its liberty, it shall be an imperative duty of the legislature to promote the establishment of free schools and to assist in the support of public education." The constitution adopted by the Landholders' convention of the same period used the following language: "The diffusion of knowledge, as well as of virtue, among the people being essential to the preservation of their rights and lib- erties, it shall be the duty of the General Assembly to promote public schools and to adopt all other means to secure to the people the advantages and opportunities of education which they may deem necessary and proper." The essential differences in the declarations lie in the meaningful use of the words "free schools" as contrasted with "public schools"; and the con- trast between an "imperative duty of the legislature to promote the establishment of free schools," and "the duty . . . . to promote public schools, and to adopt all other means . . . which they may deem necessary and proper." In the latter instances the contrast is the same as that between a mandatory function and a permissive function with unrestricted authority. Other contrast between the two constitutions appears in the protection of all school funds devoted to education in the Dorr constitution, and of only the permanent fund by the Land- holders' constitution. Neither constitution became effective; the new state Constitution of 1842 contained a declaration resembling more nearly that in the Landholders' than that in the Dorr constitution, as follows: "The diffusion of knowledge, as well as of virtue, among the people being essential to the preservation of their rights and liberties, it shall be the duty of the General Assembly to promote public schools and to adopt all other means which they may deem necessary and proper to secure to the people the advantages and opportunities of education." The granting of lotteries was forbidden by the Constitution of 1842, thus abol- ishing the most productive source of school revenue under the act of 1828. The Constitution prescribed a voluntary registry tax of one dollar per annum to be paid by citizens, other than qualified taxpayers, who wished to vote. The registry tax was the forerunner of the present poll tax, and like the poll tax, was appropriated by the Constitution to the support of public

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schools. In 1844 the General Assembly perfected the registry tax provision of the Constitu- tion by an act which directed town treasurers to transfer to the town school account annually the proceeds of the registry tax. The Constitution, therefore, abolished one source of school revenue and substituted another for it. Of no less importance, it made the General Assembly a state school committee, whose duty it was to "promote public schools and to adopt all means that they may deem necessary and proper to secure to the people the advantages and oppor- tunities of education."

THE PERMANENT FUND-The permanent school fund established under the act of 1828 with an appropriation to it of $5000 from the general treasury was to be increased annually by the excess over $10,000 of income derived from lotteries and auctions, plus the income earned by the fund itself unless the income should be required to guaranty an annual appor- tionment of $10,000 to the towns. From the first appropriation of $5000 the General Treas- urer purchased ninety-one shares of bank stock, and from subsequent increments 190 shares of bank stock, 281 altogether, at a total cost of $15,367.53. The first report on the condition of the permanent fund made by the General Treasurer was exacted by refusal of the General Assembly to receive a statement that did not include a summary of receipts and expenditures. The report as printed in the schedules without auditing was erroneous in many details, thir- teen of thirty-two items being incorrect. The General Treasurer reported receipts of revenues for public school purposes amounting to $45,367.53, expenditure of $15,367.53 for bank stock, and payments to towns of $30,000 in three annual apportionments of $10,000 each, the fund showing a deficit of $1008.71. If the Treasurer's accounts had been properly kept and his report had been accurate, the fund, instead of showing a deficit, should show a balance of $4627.23. The same Treasurer continued in office until 1832, making other errors, some of which favored the fund, resulting, however, in the diversion of $3930.75 from the permanent fund into the general account. Thus the permanent school fund, from the beginning, was involved in vicissitudes that were prophetic of a precarious future.

The second General Treasurer dealing with the fund discovered the errors in the accounts of his predecessor, and corrected them by proper entries, carrying the fund on his books as an account conforming to the provisions of the statute. The account was a book account, pure and simple; there was not in the general treasury actual money corresponding to the state- ment. To this fact the General Treasurer called attention in his report in May, 1833. The committee of the General Assembly to which the report was referred certified the Treasurer's accounts for accuracy and added: "The committee deem it to be within the range of the duties assigned to them to report to the General Assembly that to meet the ordinary expenses of the state, the General Treasurer has been obliged to use a large amount belonging to the school fund. The committee find that no investment of money belonging to the school fund has been made since 1832; and that on the 30th day of April, 1834, there appears to have been diverted from its appropriate object the sum of $12,894.30 of the school fund, which has been from time to time, during a period of several years, expended in meeting the ordinary demands upon the treasury. The committee wish it to be distinctly understood that in this matter they attach no blame to anyone. The remedy for the evil suggested is in the hands of the legisla- ture, and the application of that remedy ought, in the opinion of your committee, to be promptly made." The problem was thus placed squarely before the General Assembly. One of two remedies was available if the General Assembly would change the practice forced upon the Treasurer. It might either order repayment of the balances due the school fund, recoup- ing the general treasury by levying or increased taxes or by negotiating a loan; or it might amend the statute governing the accumulation of the permanent school fund. The General Assembly chose neither remedy; it did nothing.

The treasurer continued the practice to which he was constrained, of paying demands upon the treasury from the money in his possession, buying stock as investment for the per-

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manent fund as opportunity was afforded. The uninvested balance of the permanent fund was $10,636.90 in May, 1837, and the treasury balance was then $13,185.24 (including the $10,636.90) ; in October, 1837, the treasury was empty, and the uninvested portion of the permanent fund had been used to liquidate a part of the state's indebtedness on other accounts. The state owed the permanent fund $15,773-33 in 1839, a debt which it practically cancelled, unless the provision of the school act of 1839 transforming all receipts from auctions and lotteries to the fund, instead of the receipts diminished by $10,000 annually, may be con- strued as purposing gradual repayment of the debt first, and then further accumulation. A new General Treasurer, elected in 1840, in two reports to the Assembly charged off the bal- ance due the permanent school fund the amounts received from auctions and lotteries, without a transfer of money, and no doubt, in this way, might have accomplished the cancellation of the debt, given time, had the General Assembly's order as to the form of reports to be pre- sented by the Treasurer not yielded to his interpretation a device whereby he ignored the statutory direction to accumulate the fund and made no report upon the permanent fund save as to the stocks held as investments. For eleven years he neglected to credit to the fund the income dedicated to it by the statutes ; the total diversion during this administration amounted to $53,856.61, and by 1845 the state owed the fund $67,472.15. The Treasurer appears to have been an honest man, but not an excellent bookkeeper. Closing his final account in May, 1851, he wrote: "The balance in the treasury on the twenty-third ultimo, as above stated, appears to be but $2611.92, when in fact there was in the treasury $8067.31, which last- mentioned sum I am ready to pay to my successor. My health for some months past has been so poor that I have not been able to make that thorough search to discover the error that I otherwise would have done. It is confidently believed that the error will be detected when my account shall be audited, and that it will be found to have originated in inadvertent omis- sion to enter credits to the amount of the error." The actual treasury balance exceeded the book balance by $5455.39! The auditing committee reported : "The committee deem it to be of . . . . nothing more than an act of simple justice to say that notwithstanding the very advanced age , the late General Treasurer, and the severe indisposition he labored under for nearly the whole of the past year, the duties of the office have been well discharged, and with the same stern and unwavering fidelity that characterized all his official conduct during the ten consecutive years he held the office." After recommending the appointment of a state auditor, the committee continued : "We have now presented a striking and impressive instance directly in point. If . , the late General Treasurer, had not been a man of tried and acknowl- edged integrity, he might have appropriated to his own use the large amount of money found in the treasury over and above the cash balance his accounts exhibited, without the fact, in all probability, ever coming to the knowledge of at least this General Assembly." The Treas- . urer's successor in office received $8067.31 from the outgoing Treasurer, and the legislative record in the Schedules was closed apparently with the auditing committee's commendation of the Treasurer. The integrity and honesty of the latter never were questioned seriously. There were, however, irregularities in his accounts, and he had not dealt with the school fund in a manner to warrant approval.

AN INVESTIGATION-Meanwhile the condition of the Treasurer's books had not failed to occasion discussion in the General Assembly. At the October session, 1851, "The House of Representatives having learned information that a committee appointed by the Honorable Senate at the last June session to make certain examinations in relation to the General Treas- urer's office, has reported, among other things, that there has been misapplication of the funds of the state to a very large amount, and the House not being aware of any misapplication of the public money, therefore, resolved, that the Honorable Senate be respectfully requested to send said report to the House, in order that the same may be read for the information of the members previous to the printing of the same." There is in the Schedules no further mention

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of the report referred to. In the "Manufacturers' and Farmers' Journal" for November I, 1851, it was stated that the report was received from the Senate and read in the House. It was then moved that the House have the report printed, and the motion was debated. Friends of the late General Treasurer opposed the motion on the ground that his integrity was attacked by insinuation. The Senate was criticised for undertaking an investigation of the treasury without concurrence by the House. The House was Whig and the Senate was Democrat; the action of the Senate was interpreted as an attempt to reopen the controversies attending the Dorr War. At the close of the debate in the House the motion was withdrawn, and the report was returned to the Senate on the same day, October 31, 1851, the last day of the Octo- ber session. In the Senate Journal, under date of October 31, 1851, this entry appears: "Report in part of committee on finance received and consideration thereof continued to January session, 1852. Subsequently said vote became rescinded and it was voted to have 500 copies printed and distributed among the members." No copy of the Senate committee's report has been found. The "Manufacturers' and Farmers' Journal" of later date commented upon and severely condemned the report, which "we have seen," as a political expedient of Democrats. From the "Journal" article it appears that the report dealt principally with the late General Treasurer's administration of the school money and charged him with misap- plying $82,487.96, which should have been credited to the permanent school fund. The "Journal" placed responsibility for this irregularity, which it did not admit was an irregu- larity, upon the General Assembly, which it then excused from blame because by using money in the treasury the necessity for levying additional taxes had been avoided. In its zealous defence of the Whigs the newspaper declared that subsequent action of the General Assembly had, in fact, although without direct and explicit resolution, repealed and nullified the provi- sions of the school law directing accumulation of the school fund; that is, that when appro- priation exceeded the general treasury balance, law sanctioned payment of appropriations from any money in the treasury.

Modern theories of public finance make appropriations charges only upon money not otherwise appropriated. A later committee report, printed as a separate Senate document, and not in the Schedules, discussed public financial problems of the period, following the mak- ing of a "detailed statement of expenditures, ordinary and extraordinary, of the state from October 1, 1841, to June, 1851." "The Honorable Senate," the report declared, "does not require to be informed . that the reports and accounts of the General Treasurer annually undergo the scrutiny of a . . . . committee on audit, and having once passed such an ordeal, might safely be deemed correct and incapable of containing any error, especially one of such magnitude as $5000 or $6000. And yet, the committee, in the preparation of said tabular statement did detect a number of errors that had obviously, up to that time, escaped observa- tion or remark. But the greatest embarrassment has been experienced from a want of uni- formity in the classification, form and order in which the accounts and reports have been annually and semi-annually made up and submitted to the General Assembly; it is believed that no two of them are in those respects alike. . Another and very serious difficulty with which the committee, in the investigation of some portion of the extraordinary expenses of the state, have been met, is the absence from the office of the Treasurer, and the Secretary of State of most of the vouchers, or documents used as such, in proof of the great bulk of said expenses, termed by the political party then in power 'insurrectionary' expenses, and which occurred in the years 1842 and 1843. . . About $56,000 were drawn on orders of Gov- ernor King alone and supported by no sort of vouchers. A board of commissioners 'to receive, examine and audit all the claims against the state that have occurred by reason of the recent insurrection, other than for military service,'" drew orders in favor of claimants individually without specifying services. "All that the public, after the lapse of about ten years, is per- mitted to know . . is that the state is indebted to the public deposit fund for these extra-

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ordinary expenditures . ... the extraordinary sum (for Rhode Island) of over $194,000, and during the same period of time, has, in addition thereto, misapplied about $80,000 right- fully belonging to the permanent school fund of the state." The committee reported that errors had been detected in the accounts and reports of the General Treasurer, but that it had been unable to "discover the precise cause of there being in the treasury such a large sum as over $5000 of which the Treasurer should be entirely ignorant and not know the time when or the source whence the same had been received."

As noted above the committee exonerated the Treasurer of charges of dishonesty. The treasury receipts of money related to the permanent fund between 1841 and 1851 were: lot- teries, $33,750 ; auctions, $8878.15; dividends on stock, $35,797.50; interest on balances, $1960.II ; total, $80,385.76. The committee report of $82,487.96 neglected the difference between the par value and the actual expenditure for bank stock held as an investment. With reference to the law the Treasurer had been less at fault than the committee reported. The act of 1839 may be interpreted as cancelling the state's accumulated debt of $15,773.33 to the permanent fund, and opening a fresh account with bank stock of the par value of $51,300 held as an investment, and a statutory obligation binding the Treasurer to transfer to the fund the state's income from certain sources. The state owed the fund $67,472.15 in 1845, of which $53,856.61 was occasioned by the Treasurer's failure to administer the treasury in the manner stipulated by law.

The Barnard school law of 1845 appropriated $25,000 annually from the income "of the school fund and of the money deposited with the state by the United States," and repealed the act of 1839. After October, 1845, and until an act in 1857 reserved auction fees for the fund, there was no provision in the statutes for increasing the permanent fund, and the Treas- urer's practice was legal. Curiously, the new Treasurer elected in 1851, more familiar with the report of the committee that had investigated the accounts of his predecessor than with the statutes, began in 1851 to transfer to the fund intertest on deposits of the revenue, divi- dends on permanent fund bank stock, receipts from auctioneers, etc., although there was no statute setting apart any revenue of the state for the purpose except, under the act of 1848, forfeitures of school money incurred by towns. Through this benevolent misadministration $35,085.06 was added to the fund, reducing the state's outstanding indebtedness to $32,387.09 in 1859, when $155,541.27, the balance of the United States deposit fund, was transferred on the books of the Treasurer to the permanent school fund, which was reported in May, 1859, as consisting of 3784 shares of bank stock, two city bonds and money awaiting investment, the whole aggregating $245,091.67.

Although the statute specified investment of the fund in bank stocks, and the Constitu- tion forbade the General Assembly to "divert said money or fund from the aforesaid uses," or to "borrow, appropriate or use the same, or any part thereof, for any other purpose, under any pretence whatsoever," the General Treasurer in 1867 invested $3940 of school fund money in a state bond. When the bond was cancelled the proceeds were not credited to the permanent school fund. Other errors in the account as printed in the annual reports of the treasury include a change in the reputed value of stocks from $250,376.37 to $240,376.37, a loss of $10,000, without explanation in 1876; a change in the reported value of 1166 shares of the stock of a certain bank from $59,289.57 to $50,289.57 in 1873, without explanation and with- out change in the total value of stocks reported; a reduction of $1000 in the list value of 332 shares of bank stock, without explanation, and without change in reported total values. These changes were probably typographical errors, and not significant except as they illustrate the utter neglect of the permanent school fund, the income of which was at the time transferred on the Treasurer's books as received, to offset a part of the annual appropriation made by the General Assembly for the support of public schools. With advancing years the income of the fund tended to become so insignificant a part of the appropriation that it was both negligible

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Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. I, Part 74

Author: Carroll, Charles, author Publication date: 1932 Publisher: New York : Lewis historical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 716

Author: Carroll, Charles, author
Publication date: 1932
Publisher: New York : Lewis historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 716