a tax on all the taxable property in each county, township or school district as they may deem proper."

The higher cost of all school activities and the increasing number of school children seeking admission led the board to refuse the enrollment of any child under seven years of age. But, as always before, the emergency was soon met. The Legislature by an act, approved December 19, 1865, provided that the St. Louis school board should fix the local tax for school purposes at "not more than half of one per cent."

Acting under section five of the new Constitution, relating to the public school fund, the Legislature, in March, 1866, provided that the school moneys derived from the several sources therein mentioned should be invested in United States bonds, "the income of which, together with twenty-five per cent of the State revenues, shall be applied annually to the support of public schools." This confirmation of the 25 per cent of the state funds as the amount necessary for the support of the schools was not made without opposition, but the inadequacy of the provision was soon manifest and active efforts were made to increase the percentage. In 1871 substantial recovery had been made from the depression of the Civil War. There were then 634,443 children of legal school age in the State and 330,070 were reported as attending school. There were 6942 schools maintained with an average teacher's wage of $35 per month and a cost per pupil of $5.30. The average time the schools were kept open was four and one-half months.

The constitutional convention of 1875 incorporated Section 5 of the old in its draft of a new constitution with the emphatic addition: "But in no case shall there be set apart less than twenty-five per cent of the State revenue, exclusive of the interest and sinking fund, to be applied annually to the support of the public schools." Thus the public schools were from 1875 insured one-fourth of all the State revenues and that portion was appropriated regularly

till March, 1887, when the Legislature appropriated "out of the State revenue fund, to be applied to the support of the public schools, one-third of the ordinary State revenues." No less than one-third has been appropriated for any one year since that time.

Substantially all of the provisions on education, found in the Constitution of 1865, were repeated in the Constitution of 1875, but the latter instrument fixed the school age at six to twenty years. However, local taxation had become a subject of complaint in parts of the State, and successful demand was made for constitutional restrictions in that behalf. To that demand the Convention responded and for the first time a limit was written in our organic law on local taxation for county, city, town and school purposes. This restriction was as follows:

"For school purposes in districts, the annual rate on property shall not exceed 40c on the $100.00 valuation: Provided, the aforesaid annual rates for school purposes may be increased, in districts formed of cities and towns, to an amount not to exceed one dollar on the hundred dollars valuation, and in other districts to an amount not to exceed 65c on the hundred dollars valuation, on the condition that a majority of the voters who are taxpayers, voting at the election held to decide the question, vote for said increase. For the purpose of erecting public buildings in counties, cities or school districts, the rate of taxation herein limited may be increased when the rate of such increase and the purpose for which it is intended shall have been submitted to a vote of the people, and two-thirds of the qualified voters of such county, city or school district, voting at such election, shall vote therefor."

The enrollment in the St. Louis schools was about 7,000 in the twenty-three schools maintained in 1864, and six years later the board had an annual income of $727,670 with which it employed 560 teachers in sixty-eight schools to take care of an enrollment of 31,202 pupils and an average school attendance of 19,844. The City had then been divided into school districts and the children were required to attend the school in the district in which they

lived. The schools were being improved and more and more of the children attended. The new constitutional tax limit of forty cents on each one hundred dollars valuation of property was levied and, together with the limited income from the local permanent school fund, and its share of the State School Fund, enabled the board to supply buildings and instruction fairly in keeping with the growth of the system till 1902. In the meantime the revenue requirements had gradually exceeded the income till larger resources were essential for the mere maintenance of the schools as they were. The building requirements were being neglected entirely.

The situation was met by an amendment of the Constitution authorizing the school board to levy a tax not exceeding sixty cents, instead of forty cents as theretofore, on the one hundred dollars valuation of property, unless by vote of the people a higher rate, not exceeding one dollar on such valuation was authorized. For two years after this amendment was adopted, the board was able to meet the school demands with less than the authorized rate and it levied a tax of fifty cents on the one hundred dollars valuation. For several years thereafter the rate was fixed at fifty-five cents and that sum sufficed till 1909. As soon as the resources of the board responded to this latter increased tax rate, a building program was started and in the next six years the board expended for sites and school houses $7.272,733 or an average of $1.212,122 per year. But the revenues and the expenditures increased at disproportionate ratios owing to improvements in the school work and in the facilities furnished, until the rates, theretofore sufficient for all purposes, were inadequate to meet the current expenditures without any provision for new buildings. Therefore, the rate was raised in 1909 to sixty cents on the one hundred dollars at which it remained till the present year when seventy-five cents on such valuation was author

ized by vote of the people at a special election called therefor by the Board. This rate can be levied by the board for one year only without a renewed authorization by popular vote at a special election called for the purpose.

Confronted with lack of money to meet the immediate requirements for maintenance, buildings and instruction the board asked authority in the fall of 1916, to issue $3,000,000. of school bonds to supply new school buildings. The issue was approved by vote of the people and $1,590,000.00 thereof were sold and the proceeds appropriated before the beginning of this fiscal year. Neither the financial nor the building conditions seemed advantageous either for the sale of the remainder of the bonds or the erection of school buildings. But the school enrollment which was beyond the housing facilities in 1916, continued to increase and in June, 1919, the board felt impelled to recognize by action the wrong that was being done by failing to provide rooms for all the children, and it voted to sell the remaining $1,410,000 of building bonds and erect, as far as the proceeds would enable, the buildings that were promised to the neglected districts during the bond campaign. The bonds were sold for $1,322,141 and that fund, notwithstanding the rejection of exorbitant bids, the alteration of plans and the exercise of all other resources to minimize the expense, will provide only onehalf the school room space that could have been furnished with a like sum before the world war.

Assurances had been given in good faith and with good reasons to the districts of the City in which the school children were inadequately and poorly housed, that a favorable vote on the bond issue would insure them new school buildings. The doubling of building costs made. fulfillment of all these assurances impossible. The bond fund was not quite sufficient to complete the John J. Roe, thirteen room; Susan R. Buder, thirteen room; and Wm. Stix, nineteen room, elementary school buildings, the

erection of which has been put under way and will be completed out of general revenue.

The present educational crisis, precipitated earlier by unprecedented increases of all costs, can be met only as like situations have been met heretofore-by the people assuming a slightly greater tax burden for school maintenance. That it may be met promptly, and not at the end of prolonged agitation and persuasion as on a few previous occasions, is the hope of all who are anxious that justice should be done to all the children of this day as well for the public welfare as for the best interest of the particular children. The present rates applied on prospective increased property values will not suffice. The board's "permanent fund" has not undergone any important change in recent years; and there is no prospect that either the fund or the income therefrom will be increased greatly in the future. The proceeds of the village lots that were sold, together with some additions by way of fines, forfeitures, fees and other receipts have been invested in other real estate and in bonds based on public credit, the latter aggregating $1,036,000 face value and producing $41,752.45 annually. Of the eighty-nine parcels of productive real estate belonging to this fund, inclusive of the Board's office building on Ninth and Locust Streets, appraisal has been made from time to time and they are now carried on the books at the value of $1,598,036.16. The year's income from these was $109,769.36. A few minor parcels of the lands originally granted to the board have fallen out of the line of progress, and despite the board's earnest efforts to convert them into investments that will produce a steady and commensurate return for the uses for which the fund was created, they are still held in a comparatively unproductive state. Of this class there are thirty small parcels valued at about $149,034.70. Thus the year's income from the "permanent fund," once thought sufficient to endow adequately our free public schools, is about $151,521.81; while the board's in