election, shall determine the amount of salary to be paid such superintendent. In the same way, the salaries of assistant district superintendents are paid by the districts, and fixed by a majority vote of the whole board of school directors prior to the election of such assistants.

Supervising Principals.-The board of school directors of any school district of the third or fourth class, which has no district superintendent, may employ a supervising principal of the public schools for a term not exceeding three years. No person is eligible as a supervising principal unless he holds a teachers' certificate valid in any part of the State. Supervising principals perform such duties as the school law and the directors require. Two or more districts may unite in the employment of a supervising principal.

Vocational and Special Schools. The school law allows the board of school directors in certain districts to establish in connection with the elementary schools, as an integral part of the system, certain vocational and special schools. Free evening schools, for the instruction of resident pupils above the age of fourteen years, may be established. Provision is made for kindergartens, agricultural schools or departments, and evening manual training schools. The public schools should provide some means for training the young for the vocations which must be followed by a large portion of our people. To earn a decent living is not all of life; yet we must remember that to earn a living is to render a service to society. If everybody did it the millennium would be close at hand. Our social troubles to-day are mostly caused by those who will not earn their own living. School Visitors.-In districts of the first class each ward elects at the municipal elections alternately four and three school visitors for a term of four years. Their terms of

office begin on the first Monday in January. These seven visitors are required to visit the schools at least once every three months, and report any matter requiring official action. The school visitors elect the janitors. Fire drills in public schools must be given at least once a month.

Medical Inspection.—Medical inspection of the pupils of the public schools is made compulsory in first and second class districts. In first class districts, where the department of health is providing the inspection, it is permitted to continue and appoint such inspectors. No teachers' certificate of any kind can be granted until the applicant furnishes a physician's certificate that the applicant is not mentally nor physically disqualified to teach on account of tuberculosis or other defect. The State superintendent furnishes blanks for such certification.

Higher Education. There are thirty-four colleges and universities in the State, some of them among the foremost in the country. The University of Pennsylvania is a great school, the oldest of our higher institutions of learning. Opened in 1749 in a room in a private dwelling, it has grown until its buildings are among the finest and most imposing of their kind in the United States. Thousands of students are in attendance, and, in the sense of teaching the whole circle of sciences, the University of Pennsylvania well deserves the name.

Among the other higher institutions of learning may be mentioned: Lafayette, Franklin and Marshall, Allegheny, Dickinson, Washington and Jefferson, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, Ursinus, Swarthmore, Westminster, Grove City, Geneva, and Villanova colleges (165); University of Pittsburg, Bucknell University, and Lehigh University. State College is supported by State and National funds, and its

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special work is to train students in those branches of learning which are fundamental in modern industrial pursuits. An institution which has an immense endowment is Girard College in Philadelphia, founded as a college for the education of orphan boys. Besides these schools, there are many excellent professional, technical, and art schools; and the medical schools of Philadelphia have long been noted for their excellent work. The Carnegie Technical Schools, recently established in Pittsburg, give to earnest students that special training necessary to fit them for active duties in that great industrial center. The growing appreciation of higher education, and the demand for men and women of superior training, should do much to encourage the friends of the colleges and universities of our Commonwealth.

QUESTIONS

How much State money did your school district receive last year? Discuss the schools of the present time. What is the school unit? What is the amount of the State expenditures for schools?

What is the free text-book system?

What are the required studies in the common schools?

To what children is the compulsory education law applicable? What are the exceptions? Who appoints the truant officers?

What may directors do in regard to libraries and kindergartens? What provision does the State make for the support of high schools? What certificates are issued to teachers? What is the minimum salary paid to teachers?

Discuss the annual institutes as factors in the advancement of the school system and the molding of public opinion.

Name some of the colleges and universities of the State. What technical school has recently been established in Pittsburg?

What are vocational schools?

Who is the present State superintendent?

What is the length of the school term in your home district?
Who is the superintendent of schools in your home county?
Name some important features of the "New Code".

CHAPTER XXII

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE STATE CONSTITUTION

Bases of Government.-Government in Pennsylvania, historically considered, naturally falls into three great divisions:-(1), the provincial period, extending from Penn's grant in 1681 to the Revolution in 1776; (2), the revolutionary period, ending with the adoption of the State constitution of 1790; and (3), the period of the Commonwealth, beginning with the adoption of the State constitution of 1790.

As has been previously stated, the bases of the government of our State are found in the charter of King Charles granted in 1681; the "Frame of Government" of 1682-83; the "Great Law" adopted by the first Assembly at Chester; and the Charter of Privileges" granted by Penn in 1701,-which continued to be the practical constitution of Pennsylvania until the Revolution.

State Constitutions. The first constitution of Pennsylvania was inspired by a resolution passed by the Continental Congress in May, 1776, advising the assemblies and conventions of each of the colonies to adopt such government as would best lead to the happiness and safety of the people. Under the initiative of the Committee of Safety in Philadelphia a State Convention, with Franklin as president, adopted a new constitution September 28, 1776. The State government was organized, and the new constitution was delivered

to the General Assembly at its first meeting, immediately after the speaker had been chosen. Thus this first constitution went into effect a short time after independence was declared. It was framed and adopted by a convention elected by the people.

The constitution thus framed by State Convention, after the old Assembly which went back to the days of Penn had fallen to pieces in the Summer of 1776, was novel in many features and made the government of the State a centralized democracy. The first section placed the power in the hands of an Assembly, a Council, and a President. The supreme legislative power was vested in the Assembly, called the House of Representatives, and elected annually by the qualified electors of the Commonwealth. Members of the Supreme Executive Council were elected for three years. One was elected for each county and one for the city of Philadelphia. On joint ballot the Assembly and Council elected annually the President and Vice President. The President and the Council were the executive branch of the government. The Vice President acted in the absence of the President. There was no senate, and no veto. A novel feature was the Council of Censors, chosen once in seven years. Its duty was to inquire whether the constitution had been kept inviolate, the taxes properly levied, the public money wisely expended, and the laws duly carried out. This Council of Censors, largely judicial in its character, was regarded as the bulwark against the tyranny of officials and the unjust acts of lawmakers.

Pennsylvania was the only one of the States which at first attempted to establish a single House of Assembly, Franklin himself being so far carried away by the principle of the sovereignty of the people, as to have concurred in the