treasury. A notable change was made in 1907 by a law providing for free county schools of agriculture. They were to be established by the county and were to give instruction in agriculture and domestic economy. They are free to all persons, regardless of age, and they constitute an attempt to do something similar to what is done in the Folk High School of Denmark. (Act 35, 1907) Free tuition to pupils of high school age when such pupils reside in a district not having a high school was provided in 1909. This part of the law was obligatory. It further empowered voters to authorize payment of transportation expenses for such children. (Act 65, 1909)

A writer in the Michigan Journal of Education in 1853, and Oramel Hosford (who later became state superintendent) expressed their doubts as to the wisdom of providing free schools and held it incompatible with free democracy to compel attendance at schools. These changes have both come, and one still further in 1911. By this law provision is made to keep the children of the indigent in school, by furnishing "relief" to the parents or relatives who are dependent on children. This is done by furnishing free text-books, "in addition to such other necessary assistance or support." The limit of this expense is three dollars a week for one child and not more than six dollars for a family. (Act 198, 1911) In the same year, the recent movement for vocational schools resulted in an act granting authority to establish and maintain "trade, vocational, industrial, and marine schools," and "to defray the cost and expense thereof by a general tax upon the taxable property of the school district." (Act. 22, P. A., 1911; School Laws, 1913, 171) The state also maintains free institutions for defectives and dependents, and incorrigibles. The normal schools, State University, and Agricultural College charge tuition.

PART III

INFLUENCING FACTORS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF FREE SCHOOLS

POPULATION ELEMENTS

In both states the predominant element from 1800 to 1870 was of English ancestry. Hence, we find many evidences of the educational system of apprenticeship, and the wide variety of types of school support including several common in England. Endowments and tuition are examples. Taxation for apprenticeship by the law of 1603 in England is again found in the Poor Law of 1795 for the Northwest Territory. In Connecticut some schools seem to have been free in colonial times and these same people knew of free schools in England. The English attitude toward universal education in the rudiments, that it was largely a matter for each individual parent to manage and support, still existed in both states far into the nineteenth century. Even Henry Barnard held a belief somewhat akin to this.

The fact that English was the predominant language is important. In both states there were groups of French Canadians. We find the superintendent of schools of Connecticut repeating complaints about the general indifference of this group towards education. No such record appears in Michigan. Yet had they been in the majority they would have constituted a factor to be taken into consideration.

From 1850 to 1860, aliens and people of alien birth came into Connecticut in large numbers. (See Appendix, Table I) During the same decade this element began to increase in Michigan. In both states the alien group helped to increase illiteracy. The ratio of illiterates for Connecticut was about four native born to five alien born, notwithstanding the larger proportion of native born in the total population. In Michigan the ratio of illiterates was very similar. These illiterates constituted a living example of the need of more universal education. And the existing schools being unable to handle them, a demand arose for schools that

could do more with the problem. As long as schools charged tuition, many of these people could not, and would not, send their children to school. And as long as no facilities existed for adult education, the adult alien illiterates were not affected. Schools using rate-bills could not well cope with the problem of illiteracy. What was true of these schools and alien illiterates would also be true concerning any other group of illiterates.

The number of negroes, both free and slave, was small in both states. The census for 1830 reported thirty-two slaves in Michigan, notwithstanding the prohibitory clause of the ordinance of 1787. The same census reported twenty-five in Connecticut, and in 1840 but seventeen. Free negroes never exceeded 10,000 in Connecticut during the period, and in 1853 there were but 3,336 in Michigan. Two questions are involved. First, would the presence of either free or slave negroes constitute a factor of influence in securing free schools? Second, granting that these elements had an influence, was the number of negroes sufficiently large in either state to exert such an influence? In answer to the first question, we may note the following conditions: (1) Either slaves or free negroes helped to increase illiteracy; (2) slavery, per se, does not seem to have been a retarding or a favoring factor in free school development in some slave states. (See Knight, Influence of Reconstruction on Education in the South) (3) It is known that in Connecticut a hostile feeling existed against negro children attending schools taught by white women. This is shown by the Crandall incident of 1833, and the resulting legislation. (See Johnson's Connecticut, 370) However, the law of 1868 giving negroes equal free school privileges shows a change of sentiment due to the Civil War. (4) No evidence has been found that these elements constituted a factor of importance, either pro or con, except so far as they increased illiteracy. In answer to the second question, it may be said that as late as 1870 only about one fifty-third of Connecticut's population was negro. It does not seem possible that they could have exerted much influence either way. It seems, then, that excepting illiteracy, these elements constituted a negligible factor in the free school movement in both states.

How did urban and rural elements of population affect free school development? In Connecticut some of the first evidences of free schools, in 1800-1870, appeared in urban localities.

Middletown, Hartford, New Haven, Bridgeport, Meriden, Bristol, Norwich and Collinsville are examples. In Michigan the first free school law was enacted for the city of Detroit.

Further, in the Constitutional Convention of 1850 some of the arguments against a state tax for free schools came from rural sections of the state. Many urban communities had free schools by 1867. The rural sections used rate-bills in 1864 in 40 per cent. of their districts; in 1866, in 46 per cent.; and in 1867, in 48 per cent. From 1859 to 1867, the percentage of rate-bill districts, rural and urban, averaged 48, but when many cities had secured special legislation for union districts, graded and high schools, and free schools, the rural communities yet retained the rate-bill. It was the urban communities that forced the issue of secularization of school support in 1850-1853, which caused the state to flatly declare that free public schools were not sectarian schools. The consolidation law of 1859 was an answer to the demand of urban communities, and the same localities were the first to develop free schools of secondary grade. In both states the urban population was most aggressive for free schools, and secured such schools, as a general thing, before the rural sections.

It has been shown that the state of Michigan was peopled very largely by settlers from New York, Ohio, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Jersey. New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey were represented by 148,870 in 1860, and the New England states by 30,923. Vermont led from New England, and New York from the Middle States. There are some evidences that educational conditions in these states influenced the movement for free schools in Michigan. First, rate-bills were in use in Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and in Ohio until at least 1853, and probably later. So we find Michigan adopting this method of support in the law of 1829. Second, in all the states named a small district system was in operation and we find it also in Michigan. Third, the New England states had a town system of local government, and we find certain features of this embodied in the Michigan township and school district. In such states as New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, New Jersey and Ohio, there was a quite prevalent belief, held for years, that each community should have a school. So we find the same belief in Michigan. People who came into Michigan from Connecticut

knew about the use of a state school fund and difficulties in the use of rate-bills. A larger portion of those from Massachusetts and Vermont would know about schools free from tuition charges. We find a state superintendent in New York in 1813 and a very weak state board and secretary in Connecticut, and in Massachusetts in 1838. A similar office was established in Michigan, but the example of Prussia seemed to be the model suggesting it.

A good example of direct transplanting of educational practices is found in the Vermontville colony in Eaton County, Michigan. This settlement was composed of people from East Poultney, Vermont. They purchased their land "with Michigan, a church, and a school in their minds." During the very first year this colony had its schools, held in the log cabin of one family. Shortly after a log schoolhouse was erected and school was maintained for seven months in the year. (Mathews, 230) Another example is the Michigan school law of 1827, which places upon every community the responsibility of maintaining a school, said law being largely a copy of the Massachusetts law of 1647 and the Connecticut law of 1650. "Of the 100 members of the Constitutional Convention of 1850, 81 were natives of New England and New York." (Putnam, 204) The superintendents of public instruction represented the following states: PierceNew Hampshire, New York, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island; Sawyer Massachusetts; Mayhew, Shearman, and Gregory— New York; Hosford-Vermont. Thus all of these men came from New York and New England. (Supt. Rept., 1880, 425, 427, 428, 430, 431; McLaughlin, 34) These evidences show considerable general influence from New England and New York. If we select a few leaders who strongly favored free schools we find them from the same states. Pierce, Crary, and Hosford are examples.

These states influenced the development of free schools in Michigan as follows: (1) by transplanting the idea that schools must be supplied; (2) by bringing into Michigan the rate-bill and public tax as means of school support; (3) by establishing certain elements of local control in schools; and (4) by contributing important personalities.

In both states some phase of the religious question became involved in matters concerning public schools. In Connecticut before the Revolution, the clergy of the dominant church had