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age of not less than 30 years, and who shall have been three years next preceding his election a qualified elector of this State. SEC. 4. The term of office of the *

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superintendent of public instruction shall be four years from the second Monday of January next after their election. * * *

ART. X, SEC. 6. All property used for free public libraries, free museums, public cemeteries, property used exclusively for schools, colleges, and all property used exclusively for religious and charitable purposes, shall be exempt from taxation.

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SEC. 9. Except as herein otherwise provided, the total taxes, on an ad valorem basis, for all purposes, State, county, township, city, or town, and school district taxes, shall not exceed in any one year 31 mills on the dollar, to be divided as follows:

State levy, not more than 3 mills; county levy, not more than 8 mills: Provided, That any county may levy not exceeding 2 mills additional for county high school and aid to the common schools of the county, not over 1 mill of which shall be for such high school, and the aid to said common schools shall be apportioned as provided by law; township levy, not more than 5 mills; city or town levy, not more than 10 mills; school district levy, not more than 5 mills on the dollar for school district purposes, for support of common school: Provided, That the aforesaid annual rate for school purposes may be increased by any school district by an amount not to exceed 10 mills on the dollar valuation, on condition that a majority of the voters thereof voting at an election vote for said increase.

SEC. 10. For the purpose of erecting public buildings in counties, cities, or school districts, the rates 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 a majority of the qualified voters of such county, city, or school district, voting at such election, shall vote therefor: Provided, That such increase shall not exceed 5 mills on the dollar of the assessed value of the taxable property in such county, city, or school district.

SEC. 12a. All taxes collected for the maintenance of the common schools of this State, and which are levied upon the property of any railroad company, pipe-line company, telegraph company, or upon the property of any publicservice corporation which operates in more than one county in this State, shall be paid into the common-school fund and distributed as are other commonschool funds of this State.

SEC. 26. No county, city, town, township, school district, or other political corporation, or subdivision of the State, shall be allowed to become indebted, in any manner, for any purpose, to an amount exceeding, in any year, the income and revenue provided for such year, without the assent of three-fourths of the voters thereof, voting at an election, to be held for that purpose, nor in cases requiring such assent, shall any indebtedness be allowed to be incurred to an amount including existing indebtedness, in the aggregate exceeding 5 per centum of the valuation of the taxable property therein, to be ascertained from the last assessment for State and county purposes previous to the incurring of such indebtedness: Provided, That any county, city, town, township, school district, or other political corporation, or subdivision of the State, incurring any indebtedness, requiring the assent of the voters as aforesaid, shall, before or at the time of doing so, provide for the collection of an annual tax sufficient to pay the interest on such indebtedness as it falls due, and also to constitute a sinking fund for the payment of the principal thereof within 25 years from the time of contracting the same.

SEC. 28. Counties, townships, school districts, cities, and towns shall levy sufficient additional revenue to create a sinking fund to be used, first, for the payment of interest coupons as they fall due; second, for the payment of bonds as they fall due; third, for the payments of such parts of judgments as such municipality may, by law, be required to pay.

SEC. 31. The legislature shall have power to levy taxes in the aid of the common schools of the State and to provide for the apportionment and distri bution thereof. Whenever the amount realized from 10-mill ad valorem levy and all other sources shall be insufficient to maintain the common schools in any district five months in any year, the remaining sum necessary to so maintain such schools shall be apportioned and paid out of such State levy.

ART. XI, SEC. 2. All proceeds of the sale of public lands that have heretofore been or may be hereafter given by the United States for the use and benefit of the common schools of this State, all such per centum as may be granted by the

United States on the sales of public lands, the sum of $5,000,000 appropriated to the State for the use and benefit of the common schools in lieu of sections 16 and 36, and other lands of the Indian Territory, the proceeds of all property that shall fall to the State by escheat, the proceeds of all gifts or donations to the State for common schools not otherwise appropriated by the terms of the gifts, and such other appropriations, gifts, or donations as shall be made by the legislature for the benefit of the common schools, shall constitute the permanent school fund, the income from which shall be used for the maintenance of the common schools in the State. The principal shall be deemed a trust fund held by the State, and shall forever remain inviolate. It may be increased, but shall never be diminished. The State shall reimburse said permanent school fund for all losses thereof which may in any manner occur, and no portion of said fund shall be diverted for any other use or purpose.

SEC. 3. The interest and income of the permanent school fund, the net income from the leasing of public lands which have been or may be granted by the United States to the State for the use and benefit of the common schools, together with any revenues derived from taxes authorized to be levied for such purposes, and any other sums which may be added thereto by law, shall be used and applied each year for the benefit of the common schools of the State, and shall be, for this purpose, apportioned among and between all the several common-school districts of the State in proportion to the school popu lation of the several districts, and no part of the fund shall ever be diverted from this purpose, or used for any other purpose than the support and maintenance of common schools for the equal benefit of all the people of the State.

SEC. 4. All public lands set apart to the State by Congress for charitable, penal, educational, and public-building purposes, and all lands taken in lieu thereof, may be sold by the State under such rules and regulations as the legislature may prescribe, in conformity with the regulations of the enabling act. SEC. 5. Section 13 in every portion of the State which has been granted to the State shall be preserved for the use and benefit of the University of Okla. homa and the University Preparatory School, one-third; of the normal schools now established, or hereafter to be established, one-third; and of the Agricultural and Mechanical College and Colored Agricultural and Normal University, one-third. The said lands or the proceeds thereof as above apportioned to be divided between the institutions as the legislature may prescribe: Provided, That the said lands so reserved, or the proceeds of the sale thereof, or of any indemnity lands granted in lieu of section 13 shall be safely kept cr invested and preserved by the State as a trust, which shall never be diminished, but may be added to, and the income thereof, interest, rentals, or otherwise, only shall be used exclusively for the benefit of said educational institutions. Such educational institutions shall remain under the exclusive control of the State and no part of the proceeds arising from the sale or disposal of any lands granted for educational purposes, or the income or rentals thereof, shall be used for the support of any religious or sectarian school, college. or university, and no portion of the funds arising from the sale of sections 13 or any indemnity lands selected in lieu thereof, either principal or interest, shall ever be diverted, either temporarily or permanently, from the purpose for which said lands were granted to the State.

SEC. 6. The permanent common-school and other educational funds shall be invested in first mortgages upon good and improved farm lands within the State (and in no case shall more than 50 per centum of the reasonable valuation of the lands without improvements be loaned on any tract), Oklahoma State bonds, county bonds of the counties of Oklahoma, school-district bonds of the school districts of Oklahoma, United States bonds; preference to be given to the securities in the order named. The legislature shall provide the manner of selecting the securities aforesaid, prescribe the rules, regulations, restrictions, and conditions upon which the funds aforesaid shall be loaned or invested, and do all things necessary for the safety of the funds and permanency of the investment.

ART. XIII, SEC. 1. The legislature shall establish and maintain a system of free public schools wherein all the children of the State may be educated.

SEC. 2. The legislature shall provide for the establishment and support of institutions for the care and education of the deaf, dumb, and blind of the State.

SEC. 3. Separate schools for white and colored children with like accommodation shall be provided by the legisalture and impartially maintained. The

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term colored children," as used in this section, shall be construed to mean children of African descent. The term "white children" shall include all other children.

SEC. 4. The legislature shall provide for the compulsory attendance at some public or other school, unless other means of education are provided, of all the children in the State who are sound in mind and body, between the ages of 8 and 16 years, for at least three months in each year.

SEC. 5. The supervision of instruction in the public schools shall be vested in a board of education, whose powers and duties shall be prescribed by law. The superintendent of public instruction shall be president of the board. Until otherwise provided by law, the governor, secretary of state, and attorney general shall be ex officio members, and with the superintendent compose said board of education.

SEC. 6. The legislature shall provide for a uniform system of textbooks for the common schools of the State.

SEC. 7. The legislature shall provide for the teaching of the elements of agriculture, horticulture, stock feeding, and domestic science in the common schools of the State.

ART. XXI, SEC. 1. Educational, reformatory, and penal institutions, and those for the benefit of the insane, blind, deaf, and mute, and such other institutions as the public good may require, shall be established and supported by the State in such manner as may be prescribed by law.

ART. XXIII, SEC. 3. The employment of children under the age of 15 years in any occupation injurious to health or morals or especially hazardous to life or limb is hereby prohibited.

SEC. 4. Boys under the age of 16 years and women and girls shall not be employed underground in the operation of mines; and, except in cases of emergency, eight hours shall constitute a day's work underground in all mines of the State.

OREGON.

ART. I, SEC. 5. No money shall be drawn from the treasury for the benefit of any religious or theological institution, nor shall any money be appropriated for the payment of any religious service, in either house of the legislative assembly. ART. II, SEC. 4. For the purpose of voting, no person shall be deemed to have gained or lost a residence by reason of his presence or absence while a student of any seminary of learning.

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ART. IV, SEC. 23. The legislative assembly shall not pass special or local laws in any of the following enumerated cases; that is to say-*

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Providing for supporting common schools, and for the preservation of school funds.

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ART. VIII, SEC. 1. The governor shall be superintendent of public instruction, and his powers and duties in that capacity shall be such as may be prescribed by law; but after the term of five years from the adoption of this constitution it shall be competent for the legislative assembly to provide by law for the election of a superintendent, to provide for his compensation, and prescribe his powers and duties.

SEC. 2. The proceeds of all the lands which have been, or hereafter may be, granted to this State for educational purposes (excepting the lands heretofore granted to aid in the establishment of a university), all the moneys and clear proceeds of all property which may accrue to the State by escheat or forfeiture; all moneys which may be paid as exemption from military duty; the proceeds of all gifts, devices, and bequests made by any person to the State for commonschool purposes; the proceeds of all property granted to the State, when the purposes of such grant shall not be stated; all the proceeds of the 500,000 acres of land to which the State is entitled by the provisions of an act of Congress, entitled "An act to appropriate the proceeds of the sales of the public lands, and to grant preemption rights," approved the 4th of September, 1841; and also the 5 per centum of the net proceeds of the sales of the public lands to which this State shall become entitled on her admission into the Union (if Congress shall assent to such appropriation of the two grants last mentioned) shall be set apart as a separate and irreducible fund, to be called the common-school fund, the interest of which, together with all other revenues derived from the school lands meationed in this section, shall be exclusively applied to the support and

maintenance of common schools in each school district, and purchase of suitable libraries and apparatus therefor.

SEC. 3. The legislative assembly shall provide by law for the establishment of a uniform and regular system of common schools.

SEC. 4. Provision shall be made by law for the distribution of the income of the common-school fund among the several counties of the State, in proportion to the number of children resident therein between the ages of 4 and 20 years. SEC. 5. The governor, secretary of state, and State treasurer shall constitute a board of commissioners for the sale of school and university lands, and for the investment of the funds arising therefrom, and their powers and duties shall be such as may be prescribed by law: Provided, That no part of the university funds, or of the interest arising therefrom, shall be expended until the period of 10 years from the adoption of this constitution, unless the same shall be otherwise disposed of, by the consent of Congress, for common-school purposes.

ART. IX, SEC. 1. The legislative assembly shall provide by law for a uniform and equal rate of assessment and taxation, and shall prescribe such regulations as shall secure a just valuation for taxation of all property, both real and personal, excepting such only for municipal, educational, literary, scientific, religious, or charitable purposes as may be specially exempted by law.

PENNSYLVANIA.

ART. III, SEC. 7. The general assembly shall not pass any local or special law: * * Regulating the affairs of counties, cities, townships, wards, boroughs, or school districts: ** Erecting new townships or boroughs, changing township lines, borough limits, or school districts: Regulating the management of public schools, the building or repairing of schoolhouses, and the raising of money for such purposes: * * *

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SEC. 15. The general appropriation bill shall embrace nothing but appropriations for the ordinary expenses of the executive, legislative, and judicial departments of the Commonwealth, interest on the public debt, and for public schools;

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SEC. 17. No appropriation shall be made to any charitable or educational institution not under the absolute control of the Commonwealth, other than normal schools established by law for the professional training of teachers for the public schools of the State, except by a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house.

ART. IV, SEC. 1. The executive department of this Commonwealth shall consist of a governor, * * * and a superintendent of public instruction.

SEC. 8. He [the governor] shall nominate and, by and with the advice and consent of two-thirds of all the members of the senate, appoint a secretary of the Commonwealth and an attorney general during pleasure, a superintendent of public instruction for four years,

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SEC. 20. The Superintendent of public instruction shall exercise all the powers and perform all the duties of the superintendent of common schools, subject to such changes as shall be made by law.

ART. VIII, SEC. 13. For the purpose of voting no person shall be deemed to have gained a residence by reason of his presence, or lost it by reason of his absence, while a student of any institution of learning,

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ART. IX, SEC. 1. * the general assembly may, by general laws, exempt from taxation public property used for public purposes,

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SEC. 8. The debt of any county, city, borough, township, school district, or other municipality or incorporated district, except as herein provided, shall never exceed 7 per centum upon the assessed value of the taxable property therein, nor shall any such municipality or district incur any new debt, or increase its indebtedness to an amount exceeding 2 per centum upon such assessed valuation of property, without the assent of the electors thereof at a public election in such manner as shall be provided by law; but any city, the debt of which now exceeds 7 per centum of such assessed valuation, may be authorized by law to increase the same 3 per centum, in the aggregate, at any one time upon such valuation

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SEC. 10. Any county, township, school district, or other municipality incurring any indebtedness shall, at or before the time of so doing, provide for the collection of an annual tax sufficient to pay the interest and also the principal thereof within 30 years.

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ART. X. The general assembly shall provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of public schools, wherein all the children of this Commonwealth above the age of 6 years may be educated, and shall appropriate at least $1,000,000 each year for that purpose.

SEC. 2. No money raised for the support of the public schools of the Commonwealth shall be appropriated to or used for the support of any sectarian school. SEC. 3. Women 21 years of age and upward shall be eligible to any office of control or management under the school laws of this State.

RHODE ISLAND.

ART. IX, SEC. 1. No person shall be eligible to any civil office (except the office of school committee) unless he be a qualified elector for such office.

ART. XII, SEC. 1. 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 means which they may deem necessary and proper to secure to the people the advantages and opportunities of education.

SEC. 2. The money which now is or which may hereafter be appropriated by law for the establishment of a permanent fund for the support of public schools, shall be securely invested, and remain a perpetual fund for that purpose.

SEC. 3. All donations for the support of public schools, or for other purposes of education, which may be received by the general assembly, shall be applied according to the terms prescribed by the donors.

SEC. 4. The general assembly shall make all necessary provisions by law for carrying this article into effect. They shall not divert said money or fund from the aforesaid uses, nor borrow, appropriate, or use the same, or any part thereof for any other purpose under any pretense whatsoever.

ART. VII, SEC. 2 [amendment]. The assessors of each town and city shall annually assess upon every person, who, if registered, would be qualified to vote, a tax of $1, or such sum as with his other taxes shall amount to $1, which tax shall be paid into the treasury of such town or city and be applied to the support of the public schools therein:

SOUTH CAROLINA.

ART. III, SEC. 34. The general assembly of this State shall not enact local or special laws concerning any of the following subjects or for any of the following purposes, to wit:

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IV. To incorporate educational, religious, charitable, social, manufacturing, or banking institutions not under the control of the State, or amend or extend the charters thereof.

V. To incorporate school districts. **

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ART. IV, SEC. 24. There shall be elected by the qualified voters of the State a secretary of state, and a superintendent of education, who shall hold their respective offices for the term of two years, and until their several successors have been chosen and qualified; and whose duties and compensation shall be prescribed by law.

ART. VIII, SEC. 6. The corporate authorities of cities and towns in this State shall be vested with power to assess and collect taxes for corporate purposes, said taxes to be uniform in respect to persons and property within the jurisdiction of the body composing the same; * * *.

SEC. 7. No city or town in this State shall hereafter incur any bonded debt which, including existing bonded indebtedness, shall exceed 8 per centum of the assessed value of the taxable property therein, and no such debt shall be created without submitting the question as to the creation thereof to the qualified electors of such city or town, as provided in this constitution for such special elections; and unless a majority of such electors voting on the question shall be in favor of creating such further bonded debt, none shall be created: Provided, * That such cities and towns shall on the issuing of such bonds create a sinking fund for the redemption thereof at maturity. *

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SEC. 8. Cities and towns may exempt from taxation, by general or special ordinance, except for school purposes, manufacturies established within their