nine counties now favored the repeal; but the majority given by the seventeen was sufficiently large to prevent this retrograde step. The vote was 209,346 against, and 184,308 for, the repeal. The seventeen counties which were against the repeal are the following: Albany, Columbia, Dutchess, Erie, Kings, Montgomery, New York, Onondaga, Putnam, Queens, Renssalaer, Richmond, Rockland, Schenectady, Seneca, Ulster and Westchester.33 New York, Kings, Queens, and Richmond counties included New York City, Brooklyn and suburbs; Albany county, the city of Albany; Erie county, the city of Buffalo; Renssalaer county, the city of Troy; Schenectady county, the city of Schenectady; Onondago county, the city of Syracuse; and Columbia, Dutchess, Putnam, Rockland, Ulster and Westchester counties border on the Hudson river, and lie between New York and Albany. The voice of the cities was unmistakable. Although the legislature did not fully carry out the will of the majority as represented by this referendum, and although the rate bill in a modified form was not finally abolished until several years later, this vote may be said to have definitely settled the matter of tax-supported schools in the state of New York. The New York Tribune, in commenting on this referendum, said: "the cities have fairly tried free schools as the country has not; our approval of them is founded on knowledge, while the country's hostility is in good part founded on prejudice.

་

Before the eye and the mind are distracted by the details which a study of the different states will present, let us examine briefly the outline picture which is now before us. The second great period in our educational development follows closely upon the rapid growth of industrial centers, the increase of manufacture, and of mutual interdependence due in this case to the birth of the modern factory system and the specialization of industry. Preceding the educational revival of the second quarter of the nineteenth century the prevailing type of school was rural rather than urban. Horace Mann "stands in history as the representative of the urban school." It is important to notice that at the moment when the theories of natural rights, laissez faire,

33 Ibid.

34 Editorial, N. Y. Tribune, November 28, 1850.

individualism, are apparently at high-water mark, we find a growing demand for protection for the manufacturing classes and for tax-supported free schools for all classes, and an increasing tendency away from an extremely decentralized administrative system. These three important manifestations of this period of social unrest are not mutually unrelated phenomena. They are the natural fruit of specialization and concentration of industry and of the development of improved methods of transportation; in short, of the introduction of modern industrial and commercial methods. They mark the widening and intensifying of the sphere of common interests. Urban communities demand an increase in collective activity over that required by rural districts.

The religious motive for the support of the common schools which had been predominant in colonial times, has now dropped out of sight. With the growing heterogeneity of population, the elements which fostered the school system in the early history of New England lost interest, and turned to the private schools. This period (1820-1850) marks the rise of the influence of manufacturing interests and of the city in the affairs of the nation. The cities and the workingmen looked to economic, civic and ethical motives. The prevention of class differentiation and the preservation of free institutions are the two arguments in which these two overlapping elements of our population saw the chief justification of tax-supported schools. The elements of our population 'whose agitation and political power forced the general acceptance of the doctrine of free education for all, were pushed to the front and made powerful factors in American life as a result of mechanical inventions and industrial progress. The visible and honored leaders were humanitarians whose zeal was developed by a genuine desire to alleviate the suffering and misery which the rapid growth of towns, workshops and factories 'was producing. The point which this analysis throws into clear view is one which has been, hitherto, almost uniformly overlooked or neglected, namely, that the real underlying forces with which we are chiefly concerned are industrial. Educational history during the first half of the ninteenth century must be studied by the aid of the light given us by industrial history.

The inventor and the entrepreneur guided the steps of the educator and the legislator.

In short, the power loom, the slide-rest, steam and water power, the canal, the railroad and the blast furnace have increased the size and the importance of the cities, added to the numbers who toil for wages and built up an important manufacturing interest. The consequent displacement of the political and social center of gravity developed that unique and powerful, although not numerically strong, class called humanitarians. The frontier has placed the ballot in the hands of the adult white male population; and the increasing mobility of popula tion has softened the animosities of sectarian and racial differences. Directed and aided by the humanitarian leaders, the workingmen and the cities have effectively used the weapon placed in their hands by the men of the frontier. The agitation for tax-supported schools which gradually acquired strength during the first fifteen years of the period, came to fruition during the latter decade and a half. The educational ideal of the Puritan has receded into the background, and a new democratic one conceived during this period of unrest and social flux, has replaced it. Each section or each state has its own peculiar trend of industrial and educational advance. In order to complete the picture and to note whether the details harmonize with the outlines already sketched, a detailed study of several representative states must be undertaken.

CHAPTER VI

PROGRESS IN DIFFERENT STATES

MASSACHUSETTS

In Massachusetts, as we have seen, the principle of tax-supported schools was firmly established. It came down from the act of 1647. In this state and in Connecticut, the old traditions as to education never completely lost their hold. There was, however, a modification in regard to the relation of the state to education. The early New England statutes emphasized the right of the state to compel the father to provide education for his children. The view which was generally accepted before the end of this period 1820-1850, placed the emphasis upon the duties of the state. The latter should not only demand the education of all children; but must also provide schools and teachers. The following newspaper clipping gives an idea of the condition of the schools of Boston at the end of the first decade of our period. "The system of education here, supported from the municipal treasury, takes the child at four years of age, and carries it through a course of education, till it is fourteen, or older if a pupil at the Latin or High School. The range of instruction is from the A, of the alphabet, through the sciences, and to a knowledge of the Greek and Latin languages. The number of Public Schools in Boston is 68 . and the estimated expense, for the current year, is $52,500. The assumption of this duty by the city, secures the tuition of all children, while it relieves parents from much direct care and expense. It increases the taxes, but the addition to rate-bill is inconsiderable, compared with what the preceptor's charges would be against the parents."2

1 Perrin, Compulsory Education. (Univ. of Chicago, 1896.)

2 New England Palladium and Commercial Advertiser, July 10, 1829.

The struggle for better education in Massachusetts was twofold: centralization of authority in order to overcome the glaring evils of the district system, and the establishment of free public high schools. One serious obstacle standing in the way of the improvement in the schools of Massachusetts was alleged to be "the little interest taken by the most enlightened part of the community . . . in the condition of the common schools, from the circumstances that their own children are receiving education in private schools at their own expense." A state of affairs developed similar to that which is found where various religious denominations support schools of their own. The influence of the private schools of this state during the twenties and thirties was considerable. "The amount paid for tuition in private schools, for one-sixth of the children of the state, is $328,000; while the amount raised by taxes for the education of the other five-sixths in public schools is $465,000, and the amount voluntarily contributed to the public schools is $48,000.' "The district school of the central village . often is... the poorest in the whole territory." In 1830 returns from 131 towns in Massachusetts, showed that the annual amount paid in those towns for public schools was $170,342.96; and the number of pupils, 12,393.6 There was urgent need of improving the public schools; but the friends of the private schools were hostile and powerful.

The fight which centered around the legalizing of the high school presented many features similar to those found in New York and Pennsylvania in regard to the tax-supported elementary school. The opposition between rural and urban districts was clearly marked; and the rural forces were reinforced. by the friends of the private schools. "In towns containing a village center, growing populous under the new order of things, a struggle began between the village and the outskirts, often protracted for years. The movement for the town high school was in most cases an occasion for an annual tug of war.'

3 North American Review, (1838), 47: 303.

4 Ibid., 304.

5 Ibid., 305.

Niles' Register, 38:401.

7 Martin, Evolution of the Mass. Common School System, 203.

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