CHAPTER XXVI. LEGISLATION RELATING TO EDUCATION ENACTED BY THE FIFTY-NINTH CONGRESS, 1905-1907. Department of Justice: Reform School, District of Columbia. 1231 Department of Justice: Reform School, District of Columbia. 1232 Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb. 1240 1240 Department of Agriculture: Agricultural experiment stations. Department of Commerce and Labor: Investigation of woman and child labor conditions 1240 1241 PREFATORY NOTE. The Constitution of the United States provides that all powers not delegated by it to the General Government are reserved to the several States. The establishment and management of schools is one of the powers not thus delegated, and remains therefore with the individual States. Each State makes its own laws for the government of educational matters within its borders, and there is not, consequently, in the European sense of the term, a national system of education. The General Government, however, has not been indifferent to the education of the youth of the land, but has encouraged and aided the several States in the establishment and support of common schools and higher institutions of learning by large grants of public lands, by appropriations of money, and by the establishment of the Bureau of Education for the collection and dissemination among the people of the United States of information in regard to education. While the General Government does not control education in the several States, it controls and makes provision for the United States Military and Naval academies, the various service schools for the training of officers connected with the military and the naval service, the Indian schools, the schools for natives of Alaska, the National Museum, and the Library of Congress. It supports largely the Howard University and the Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb in Washington, and grants in the aggregate a large sum of money annually for the support of colleges of agriculture and the mechanic arts, and of agricultural experiment stations in the several States and Territories. It pays out of the general funds in the Treasury of the United States one-half of the cost of maintaining the public schools of the District of Columbia, and enacts all laws for the government of such schools. The enactments of the Fifty-ninth Congress relating to education, aside from appropriations, are comparatively few in number, and are arranged in this compilation under the Executive Departments having to do with the carrying out of the several laws. The appropriations by the Fifty-ninth Congress in behalf of education, including the continuing appropriations for colleges of agriculture and the mechanic arts under the acts of August 30, 1890, and March 4, 1907, amounting to over thirty-four millions of dollars, may be summarized as follows: Summary of appropriations by the Fifty-ninth Congress for educational purposes, out of the general funds in the Treasury of the United States. Summary of appropriations by the Fifty-ninth Congress for educational purposes, etc.-Continued. The total appropriation for each year was $95,000, one-half payable from revenues of the District of Columbia. DEPARTMENT OF STATE. Student interpreters.—Appropriates $18,000 for ten student interpreters at the United States legation to China, and six at the embassy to Japan, whose duty it shall be to study the language of the country to which they are assigned with a view to supplying interpreters to the legations and consulates in China and Japan. The salary of a student interpreter is fixed at $1,000, with tuition at $125 per annum, and each student interpreter must sign an agreement to continue in the service as interpreter to the legations and consulates in China and Japan, respectively, so long as his services may be required within a period of ten years. (Chap. 3337, June 16, 1906.) Student interpreters.—Appropriates $11,250 for ten student interpreters at the legation to China, and $6,750 for six student interpreters at the embassy to Japan. (Chap. 1184, Feb. 22, 1907.) TREASURY DEPARTMENT. Revenue-Cutter Service.-The cadets of the Revenue-Cutter Service before receiving appointments as third lieutenants must complete a course of study under the direction of the Treasury Department. The course extends through three years, but this period may be reduced to two years in the discretion of the Secretary of the Treasury. The instructors are drawn from the corps of officers of the Revenue-Cutter Service, and in addition there are two civilian instructors appointed by the Secretary. The practice cutter Itasca, when not cruising at sea, is stationed at Arundel Cove, near Baltimore, Md. There is no specific appropriation made for the school of this service, but the expenses attending the instruction of the cadets are paid from the general appropriation for the service. South Carolina.-Transfers to the State of South Carolina the sum of $50,490 heretofore invested in United States bonds under the provisions of the act of March 3, 1873 (17 Stat., p. 600), as a fund for the use and support of free public schools in the parishes of St. Helena and St. Luke, S. C. (Chap. 933, Feb. 18, 1907.) |