xt7fj678wm3p https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7fj678wm3p/data/mets.xml Kentucky. Department of Education. Kentucky Kentucky. Department of Education. 1968-03 bulletins  English Frankford, Ky. : Dept. of Education  This digital resource may be freely searched and displayed in accordance with U. S. copyright laws. Educational Bulletin (Frankfort, Ky.) Education -- Kentucky Educational Bulletin (Frankfort, Ky.), "The Superintendents and the Issues", vol. XXXVI, no. 3, March 1968 text 
volumes: illustrations 23-28 cm. call numbers 17-ED83 2 and L152 .B35. Educational Bulletin (Frankfort, Ky.), "The Superintendents and the Issues", vol. XXXVI, no. 3, March 1968 1968 1968-03 2022 true xt7fj678wm3p section xt7fj678wm3p  

THE ,   ‘  
SUPERINTENDENTS .
ANDTHE ISSUES

_ 1891 - 1943
FRED ALLEN ENGLE, JR.

  

A Jentucky department of educatiofi

—

  

 kentucky department of education

 

 THE SUPERINTENDENTS AND THE ISSUES
1891—1943

watiou

iii

 

 Published by

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
WENDEL-L P. BUTLER
Superintendent of Public Instruction

 

 

 

VOL. XXXVI MARCH, 1968 N0. 3

Cost of printing paid from state funds.

iv

 

 a IIH

THE
SUPERINTENDENTS
AND THE ISSUES:

A Sludy of
the Superintendenls
of PubHc lnslrucfion

in Kentucky

 

  

 FOREWORD

It is well to remember that professional education in Kentucky
has both a warp and a woof. As cloth has both a vertical and hori-
zontal strand so does Kentucky education have interlaced strands,
some variable and some constant.

The variables of schools administration have been so stressed
in the last decade that it seems fitting and in order to take a look
at some of the constants.

Dr. Engle has identified both the variables and constants of
early school administration but the focus of his inquiry is on the
constants. He has identified and compared efforts of the State
Superintendents from 1891-1943 with the state administration of
today, and focused on certain issues which have remained constant
in administering an educational program for Kentucky public
schools.

This is a past and present study of educational enterprise in
Kentucky and the factors which give it unique character and con-
figuration.

The usefulness of this book is not limited, however, to general
understanding of the state education program as such. Beyond that,
state administrators will find much to reflect upon in guiding the
choices which must be made in giving direction to schools of today
and tomorrow.

_ The department is grateful to Dr. Engle for this contribution
to its series of monthly educational publications.

Sam Alexander
Deputy Superintendent
of Public Instruction

vii

 

 Dedicated to my father, Dr. Fred Allen Engle, Sr. Professor of
Education, Eastern Kentucky State College, 1928-1963. Edu—

cator, christian gentleman and a friend to many.

THE AUTHOR

 

 ior of
Edu—

PREFACE

The purpose of this publication is to provide an accurate,
documented history of the Office of Superintendent of Public
Instruction of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and the respective
office holders, from 1891 to 1943. An examination is made of the
Office, the State Department of Education, and the fourteen
Superintendents—with special emphasis upon the roles and per—
formances of the respective office holders. The focus has been upon
the educational issues faced by the Superintendents and the action
or inaction taken by them.

Primary sources for the study include the Superintendents’
Biennial Reports, selected newspapers of the day, Kentucky Stat-
utes as they deal with education, certain pertinent court decisions,
and reports of various Educational Commissions.

Secondary sources include histories of Kentucky by Thomas
Crittenden Cherry, Thomas D. Clark and Joseph 0. Van Hook;
histories of the University of Kentucky by James F. Hopkins, Helen
Deiss Irvin, and Charles Gano Talbert; a history of the Kentucky
Education Association by Porter H. Hopkins; History of Higher
Education in Kentucky by Alvin Fayette Lewis; A History of
Public Education in Kentucky by Moses Edward Ligon; The Gates
Open Slowly by Frank L. McVey; various educational bulletins; and
several books and dissertations on specific subjects as listed in the
bibliography.

In addition, a review of literature revealed three basic books:
Barksdadle Hamlett’s History of Education in Kentucky, published
in 1914; H. W. Peters’ History of Education in Kentucky, 1915—
1940; and History of Education in Kentucky, 1939-64, by Wendell
P. Butler. These books provide useful source material, but their
probings have left untouched some important dimensions.

The period of study chosen coincides with the new Constitution

of Kentucky and ends in modern times—in the early years of World
War II.

Fred Allen Engle, Jr.
March, 1968

ix

 

  

 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page
FOREWORD ............................................. vii
PREFACE ............................................... ix
PART I. HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES
Chapter
I. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND .................... 3
II. THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF 1890-91
AND ITS RESULTS .............................. 9
III. A BACKWARD GLANCE ......................... 15
The Origin of the Office
The Nineteenth Century
PART II. THE OFFICE, THE MAN, AND THE
EXTERNAL FORCES
IV. THE OFFICE, THE DEPARTMENT, AND THE
STATE BOARD .................................. 19
Conditions in 1890
Recommendations

Changes Made

Special Divisions
Supervision
Inspection
Special Education
Transportation
Research
School Libraries

In Summary

V. THE FOURTEEN SUPERINTENDENTS AND THEIR
PHILOSOPHIES OF EDUCATION ................ 42

Ed. Porter Thompson (1891-1895)
William Jefferson Davidson (1895-1899)
H. V. McChesney (1899-1903)

James Henry Fuqua (1903-1907)

John Grant Crabbe (1907-1910)
Ellsworth Regenstein (1910-1911)
Barksdale Hamlett (1911-1915)

xi

 

   

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS—Continued

 

Chapter V , Page

Virgil 0. Gilbert (1915-1919)
George Colvin (1919-1923)
McHenry Rhoads (1923-1927)
William Cecelius Bell (1927-1931)
James H. Richmond (1931-1935)
Harry Webster Peters (1935-1939)
John W. Brooker (1939-1943)

The Superintendents’ Philosophies

VI. EXTERNAL FORCES INFLUENCING THE
EDUCATIONAL ISSUES ......................... 57

The Governors
The Educational Legislature
Textbooks, Taxes, and Superintendents
More Aid
Free Textbooks
The 1930’s
The Kentucky Education Association (K.E.A.)
Committee of Ten
Legislative Committees
Codification
Equal Opportunity
Textbooks
A Special Study
Educational Commissions
1908
1920
1932
Kentucky Illiteracy Commission

PART III. ISSUES AND ACTION

VII. GENERAL ISSUES DEALT WITH BY THE
SUPERINTENDENTS ............................ 70
Public Support
Graduation Exercises
\Vhirlwind Campaigns
Favoritism
County Administration

  

xii

 Page,

57

70

Chapter

TABLE OF CONTENTS—Continued

Early Changes
The County Board Bill
The 1910’s
The County Administration Law
County Superintendents
New School Code
A Brief Review
Financing
School Fund and Tax Levy
Equalization
Census Padding-
The School Term
Teachers’ Salaries
Certification
The Question Peddler
Textbooks
Selection
Free Textbooks
Attendance
Grading Schools
Teacher Training
The Reading Circle
The Improvement League
The Institutes
Normal Schools
School Buildings
Teacher Security
Consolidation
Recodification
Vocational Education
Negro Education
Long-Range Planning

VIII. AN ANALYSIS OF THE EIGHT KEY ISSUES ...... 143

The Issues
County Administration
Financing
Textbooks

xiii

 

   

TABLE OF CONTENTS—Continued

   
   
  
 
    
    
   
   
  
   
   
 

Chapter Page

Certification

Teacher Education

Reorganization of the State Department
Vocational Education

Teacher Security

In Summary

IX. OUTSTANDING PERIODS OF ACTION ON THE
KEY ISSUES .................................... 149

The Educational Legislature
Educational Commissions
New School Code

X. EVALUATION ................................... 160

Comparison with Other Systems
Comparison with an Ideal System
Achievements of the Fourteen Superintendents

APPENDICES ............................................ 171

Appendix A
Appendix B
Appendix C

BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................... 183

 

 ‘age

149

160

a
.U
m
w;
m
P
1m
.w
r
m
.w
l
m
P

171

 

183

  

 CHAPTER. I

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The Gay Nineties. The Good Old Days. The Progressive Era.
The Muekraking Era. These are some of the labels applied to the
era at the end of the Nineteenth Century. It was a transitional
period—one of rapid change in almost every walk of life. In parti-
cular, the rapid growth of cities brought a challenge to agriculture
from industry.

The conflicts of the industrial age became particularly ap-
parent during the 1890’s. Farmers became restless because of fall-
ing prices, mounting debts and farm tenancy and turned to the
Greenback party and later to the Farmer’s Alliance and the Populist
party. Silver became an issue and in 1896 William Jennings Bryan
sounded the call to arms with his Cross of Gold speech. Kentucky
farmers were at the fore in all of these movements and added
another—the Nightriders, who fought the tobacco trust and sought
higher prices for Kentucky tobacco.

In 1886, the Apaches of the Southwest capitulated and the
long armed contest between the European and the Indian for pos-
session of the American continent came to an end. At about the
same time, the \Vestern frontier was inundated by westward
expansion and faded into the history books, leaving historians like
Turner and Beard to ponder its significance. Overseas expansion
became American policy, reaching its peak in 1898 with the Spanish-
American \Var. The Open Door Policy and the Boxer Rebellion in
China were part of this period also.

In the business world, the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890
brought a shift from the trustee device to the holding company as
a form of consolidation and J. P. Morgan led in the formation of
the greatest corporation in history—The United States Steel Cor-
poration. Railroads grew rapidly and the automobile and the air-
plane entered the American scene. The working people Were
beginning to become restless and strikes were violent. The years
from 1898 to 1904 were probably the most successful which the
American Federation of Labor ever experienced. Its membership
grew from 10,000 in 1890 to 1,676,000 by 1904. This work force

3

 

   

 

was augmented by the millions of new immigrants who flooded
the country during the ’90’s.

The years from 1890 to 1915 have been called the Progressive
Period. Four conditions demanded reform—~the breakdown of the
moral code in business, the stifling of competition by monopolies,
corrupt politics, and the concentration of wealth in the hands of a
few. Criticism of the existing order was voiced by the intellectuals,
the muckrakers, the labor unions, and the radicals. To succeed,
the progressive movement had to enter the realm of politics. Presi-
dent Theodore Roosevelt was at the front of the progressive move—
ment. His program was fourfold—trust “busting,” regulating the
railroads, conservation, and health measures. Taft and Wilson
continued the progressive trend. The period from 1896-1915 is
called agriculture’s golden era. Technological improvements in
soil, plants and machinery brought rising production and income.

Following America’s participation in the First World war and
the subsequent cry for “normalcy,” \Varren Harding ran on the
normalcy platform and won. A brief recession in 1921 was followed
by a period of prosperity. This in turn came tumbling down with
the 1929 Great Depression, which ushered in the New Deal and its
many changes in American life. \Vorld \Var II brought to a close
the era of the New Deal and the Depression and America embarked
upon a new venture.1

During the 1891-1943 period, education was moving forward
in America. The influence of such men as Pestalozzi, Froebel,
Francis W. Parker, C. Stanley Hall, John Dewey and Edward
Thorndike was felt. In 1898 one of the major recommendations of
the Committee of Ten was that the secondary-school curriculum be
planned for a small proportion of the country’s children who were
able to profit by an education beyond high school. In 1890 summer
schools for teacher training were begun at \Visconsin, Indiana, and
Cornell. Education during the progressive period might be sum-
marized as emphasizing individual differences, democracy, interest,
object lessons, and teachers’ colleges.

Four major orientations were among those which claimed the
American educator between the two World \Vars: religion, philoso-

1The above information may be documented by reference to any of the
basic American history books.

 

  

 3],

of
3c
re
er
1d

11-

he
10-

the

phy, psychology, and organized knowledge. The religious question
was fourfold: the debate 011 whether securlar morality could be
taught, the clash of Protestants and Roman Catholics, the prob-
lems of Bible reading and prayer in schools, and the issue of the
teaching of evolution. Major conflicting philosophies were realism,
idealism, humanism, and experimentalism. The clusters of psy—
chological thought which swept America were the dominant con-
nectionism, behay 1011sm rising field psychology including Gestalt,
the depth psychology including psychoanalysis, and social psy-

'chology.

Staggered by the sheer weight and mass of knowledge, edu-
cators were faced with four basic problems in this field: the quarrel
between specialization and general knowledge; the question of
whether knowledge is valuable for its own sake, or for its useful-
ness; the problem of objectivity vs. involvement; and whether
knowledge should be confined to the few or widely disseminated
among the many. At the end of the 1930’s, the answers seemed to
be more general education, knowledge for its usefulness, involve—
ment, and widened educational opportunity.

Kentucky’s educational progress from 1890 to 1943 was inter-
woven with the cultural, social and economic events of this era
as Well as related to the national educational movements. This was
a progressive era, a time of enlightenment in America. In society,
there was a movement to the new and to more freedom and this
was paralleled in the educational movement in Kentucky. Learning
by doing and a less rigid, more free school life were signs of the
times. Along with the improvement of living conditions came im-
provement of school conditions. Neither society, nor school was
content with the past. In Kentucky, from 1904 to 1910, great steps
forward were taken in education——the school term was lengthened,
two Normal Schools were established, the county board and uni-

form textbook laws were passed, and an educational commission
was formed.

Urbanization, centralization and consolidation found their
counterpart in Kentucky in the move away from the local trustee
to the county board of education. Along with new inventions and
technological improvements on the national level, we find better
buildings and equipment in Ixentueky schools. Expanding knowl-
edge in science and other fields led to a widening of curriculum.
The Agricultural and Mechanical College expanded its curriculum

5

 

   

 

offerings, the common school term was extended, Normal Schools
and high schools were established, and more and better higher-
education facilities were provided.

As women moved into business on the national scene, women
in Kentucky were given the right to vote in school elections, and
the Kentucky Federation of Women’s Clubs played a leading role
in the struggle for better education. This was the heyday of sales-
manship in business and the success of this movement may well
have led the Superintendents to take it up—McChesney for gradu-
ation exercises and Crabbe for the Whirlwind Campaigns.

In a period when the tendency was to band together, the
Farmers Alliance and the American Federation of Labor had their
counterpart in the Kentucky Education Association. The scientific
method swept business management via Frederick W'. Taylor and
schools via John Dewey. In Kentucky, teachers’ institutes and
Normal Schools were used to disseminate this new method. The
rise of professional groups in other facets of society and attempts
in Kentucky education to professionalize the State Board of Edu-
cation and teaching went along side by side. Education as a. right
of every child was accepted nationally, as was the conviction that
an investment in education paid big dividends. These principles
Were put to practical use in Kentucky via a commitment to uni-
versal education, the election of school men to the State Superin-
tendency. and the passage of compulsory attendance laws.

The whole progressive period was a time of reform. In Ken-
tucky the. Superintendents led the fight against the playing of
political favorites in teacher Selection, against the question peddler
and census padding, and for a new textbook law and abolition of
the trustee system. The A. F. of L. pushed for national abolish-
ment of child labor and Kentucky passed a child labor law during
the “Educational Legislature” (1908). The national turn to popu-
larly controlled government was followed by Kentucky, which
placed in its Constitution the provision that the State Superintend-
ent and other state officials could not succeed themselves. Presi—
dent Roosevelt and President. \Vilson provided the nation with
dynamic leadership. In Kentucky, the Superintendents, particu-
larly in the period after the turn of the century, provided leader-
ship and pushed for improvements in the school system.

In the era between \Vorld \Yars we find additional parallels.
During World \Var l and again during \Vorld \Var II, the schools

6

 

  

 .ools
‘her-

men
and
role
ales-
well
adu-

the
their
Ltific
and
and
The
mpts
Edu-
right
that
.iples
uni-
terin-

Ken-
.g of
ddler
)n of
olish-
[11‘ng
popu-
vhich
tend-
Presi-

with
rticu—
:ader-

allels.
:hools

were geared to the war effort through training programs for
industry. Also the taking of men to the Armed Forces led to a
shortage of teachers and often to a lowering of teacher qualifica-
tions and the issuance of emergency certificates. Poor educational
preparations and lack of physical fitness posed basic questions about
schools. During the post-war period, Kentucky, too, settled down
and moved at a slower pace. The passage of the Smith-Hughes
Act in 1.917 was followed in Kentucky by the establishment of a
Vocational Education Division in 1918. Kentucky school attend—
ance also benefited from the passage of the Child Labor Law
in 1916.

The coming of the automobile era to America was reflected in
the move to consolidation and free school transportation in Ken-
tucky. Kentucky and her schools suffered from the fact that
agriculture never recovered from the sharp 1920-21 depression.
And when the 1929 depression came, Kentucky education was
injured by the drop in real—estate valuation and the resultant fall
in taxes. Kentucky did participate, with alacrity, in the New Deal
recovery and aid programs, including the 0.0.0. and the Voca-
tional. Rehabilitation Act.

The Machine Age, with its industrialization and improved
business administration, was reflected in Kentucky with the strides
forward in county administration, financing and budgeting, re—
codifieation of the school laws, and reorganization of the State
Department of Education along functional lines. The movement
from rural to urban living brought better school buildings and
accelerated consolidation in Kentucky.

As a new class moved to the top in America to replace the old
aristocracy, Kentucky educators accepted the concept of educating
the many rather than the few. This was evident in the drives by
the State Superintendents for equalization of educational oppor—
tunities. Kentucky essentially held to the traditional methods in
education, but did adopt some experimentalism, based on ideas

involving the whole child, general education, usefulness of in-
formation, and involvement.

A very definite correlation may be found between Kentucky
and the rest of the nation in the upgrading of the teaching pro-
fession, improvement of teacher preparation, replacement of Nor-
mal Schools by Teachers Colleges, and strengthening of certifica-

7

 

   

 

tion requirements. The K.E.A. program paralleled that of the
N.E.A., and the growth of special education in the United States
had its counterpart in Kentucky’s programs for the young, the
handicapped and the adult. As Americans became more security
conscious, Kentucky passed acts setting up teacher retirement and
teacher tenure systems.

All in all, Kentucky’s schools kept pace fairly well with those
of the nation throughout much of this era. The Illiteracy Commis-
sion, Educational Commissions, Free Textbook Law, New School
Code, and Teacher Retirement and Tenure Laws show the pro-
gressiveness of Kentucky education. Of course, the shortage of
school funds and the defeat of equalization constituted drawbacks.
It was not until World War II, however, that Kentucky really
began to drop out of the race for excellent, outstanding schools.
This was certainly not the fault of the State Superintendents, all
of whom led the fight for improvement of the educational system
of Kentucky.

This was the situation in the spring of 1890 when the delegates
to the constitutional convention convened in Frankfort. Kentucky
had moved through a period of transition, along with the rest of
the country, from frontier days to the close of the West. She had
suffered greatly in the Civil War, but had recovered. Education
had passed through lean days, but some progress had been made
and many thought the schools now stood on the threshold and
could go forward. There was a growing public interest in the
education of children. Kentucky needed better schools and it was
hoped that the new Constitution would help. America in 1890 was
on the move to greatness. Change was in the air. Kentuckians
wanted Kentucky and Kentucky education to go along.

 

 

 of the
States
1g, the
ecurity
ant and

[1 those
ommis—
School
1e pro-
age of
vbacks.
really
.chools.
ats, all
system

legates
ntucky
rest of
he had
leation
, made
.d and
in the
it was
)0 was
ckians

CHAPTER II

THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF 1890-91
AND ITS RESULT

By 1890 many people felt that the old Constitution of 1850
was outmoded. It had been adopted when slavery was the major
question, and there was no provision for amendments. The state
had grown rapidly, the population had doubled, and large cities
were springing up. New roads were needed and educational needs
had multiplied. These changes gave the people a different outlook,
but much of the old remained. Only a few houses had running
water, the telephone was rarely found save in a few businesses,
and a third of the population could not read. Corporations had
become an important form of business organization. Farmers feared
the growing power of these great enterprises and looked for ways
to curb their influence. Although many attempts were made to
call a constitutional convention, it was not until 1888 and 1889
when a majority of eligible voters cast affirmative votes that the
Legislature could issue the call.1

The call provided for a delegate to be elected from each of
the one hundred state representative’s districts. The Farmers
Alliance was a potent factor in the election of delegates, since over
80 per cent of Kentucky’s 1,858,000 residents were farmers or
lived in small rural communities. Some, of the goals of the Alliance
were the abolition of the school book trust and an increased appro-
priation for the State Agricultural and Mechanical College, now
the University of Kentucky. Nevertheless, the rising industrial
movement was affecting the thinking of Kentuckians. Railroads,
timber, and coal were big business.

Corporations and farming interests were arrayed against each
other on that fall day in 1890. Farmer members feared the sinister
influence of the corporations. The farmers were experienced at

 

1A majority of those voting was gained several times before, but never
until then “a majority of those entitled to vote for Representatives” as the 1850
Constitution, specified. The same Legislature that issued the call passed the
Richardson Bill, which proposed to tax railroads for public-school support.

9

 

   

    

opposing big business. The Grange had attacked railroad corpora-
tions for years and at this time the Louisville and Nashville Rail-
road Company was a potent factor in Kentucky politics. The cor-
porations exercised great influence over cities and towns. Cor-
poration property worth more than $2,000,000 was not taxed be-
cause it served the public needs. Corporations fought hard against
the attempts of farmer groups to tax them and to bring them under
control by the government. The delegates elected to the conven-
tion were guided somewhat in their approach to these new com-
mercial-age problems by federal acts such as the Sherman Anti-
Trust Act, which governed combinations and restraints of trade,
and the Interstate Commerce Act, which set up a commission to
regulate railroads. The farmers succeeded in placing controls of
ing business in the szstitution. There are nineteen sections per-
taining to railroads and commerce. A railroad commission was
created and the exemption from taxation of corporate property
was voided.

Other delegates sought to restrain the power of the General
Assembly and many legal details and provisions were put into the
Constitution. The building of political dynasties was forestalled
by providing for more elective offices and limiting officials to a
single consecutive term in office. As the Industrial Revolution
roared round their heads, these Kentuckians groped for ways to
deal with it.

Most of the delegates were lawyers (60). Cassius M. Clay, Jr.,
of Bourbon County, presided over the convention. One of Ken-
tucky’s most distinguished historians expressed the opinion that
about. half of the delegates were “motley” and that Kentucky would
have been well served had at least fifty of these delegates remained
at home.2

The convention met for the first time on September 8, 1890,
on the second floor of the Old State House. It was a hot, dusty
day in Frankfort. For nearly a week important people from all
over the state had been arriving by train, turnpike and steamboat.
The convention finally adjourned on September 28, 1891, having
met for only 226 days—actually most of the work was done by
April of lSQl—and the document was submitted to the public.

2Thomas D. Clark, A Hixlm‘y of Kentucky (New York: Prenticchall, Inc”
1937), p. ($02. This book was revised in 1965.

10

 

 irpora-
3 Rail-
ie cor-

Cor-
ed be-
gainst
under
)nven-
' com-
Anti-
trade,
ion to
ols of
3 per-
1 was
iperty

aneral
:0 the
talled
to a
[ution
ys to

r, Jr.
Ken-
that
would
ained

1890,
lusty
n all
boat
wing
e by
iblic.

Inc,

There was much opposition to the new Constitution. The Courier-
Jom'nal and Editor VVatterson fought hard for its rejection, calling
it “confusion worse confounded.” The Republican and Democratic
candidates for governor supported its ratification. The public ap-
proved it on August 3, 1891.3 After public ratification, some changes
in the Constitution were made by the convention.

The rewritten version was somewhat different from the one
approved by the voters. It was reduced by nine sections; it forbade
the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the Auditor, and the
Clerk of the Court of Appeals to succeed themselves; it. made mem-
bers of the railroad commission elective rather than appointive; it
dropped the confirmation of appointive state officials by the
Senate, and it added a provision for local option elections on the
sale of alcoholic beverages. These revisions were never submitted
to the people for ratification, but were upheld by the Court of
Appeals whose main argument was that to throw out the changes
would bring confusion and anarchy upon the state.

After the long, hectic work of the convention an origi-
nal copy of the document was written out in a fine script
hand by \Villiam Randall Ramsey, the delegate from Laurel
and Rockeastle counties. And on Monday, September 28,
1891, at 4:30 pin, 96 delegates marched to the clerk’s
desk to sign this copy personally. On that same day, a
committee of three members delivered the document to
the Secretary of State, who issued a receipt for it.

lint the only “original” copy of the 1891 Constitution,
now on file at Frankfort in the Kentucky Historical Society
at the 01d Capital. is a typewritten document apparently
eopied from the original. For more than thirty years the
sinned, handwritten copy of our present Constitution has
been missing.

For that matter7 the original draft of Kentucky’s Con-
stitution of 1950 has also disappeared from sight. And
only in 1949 were the original copies of Kentucky’s first
two Constitutions—«1792 and ”SQ—secretly returned to
the uovcrlh‘ir by an unnamed person who obtained the docu-
ments in an unrevealed manner.

 

31‘1“. exact vote is uncertain. Vanl—look gives it as 212,5il4-74,332. Joseph
0. Vanllook, The Kenna-75y Story (Chattanooga: Harlow Publishing Corporation,
1909). Clark and the Legislative Research Commission say the vote was 213,
432774.017.

1,1

 

I
H
i

>m—-———-—_..___

 

   

    

Perhaps some day our present Constitution will be
returned in a similar fashion. Or it may turn up in a
musty pile of long—forgotten papers. It may have been
destroyed. At some point it was apparently stolen by a
collector of historical documents—or, to use the words of
a writer who has explored the mystery of the missing Con-
stitution, it may have been “rescued from imminent destruc-
tion.” In any case, the government of Kentucky continues
to operate, unhampered by the fact that we have only a
“carbon copy” of our basic law.4

What was embodied in the new Constitution? With a few
changes it copied the Bill of Rights of 1792. Delegates tried to
foresee the future needs of the government and provide for them.
Railroads, commerce, and corporations were closely regulated.
Bonded indebtedness was circumscribed. No more than two amend-
ments at a time might be submitted to the public. The Australian
(secret) ballot was adopted. Kentucky was officially designated
as a commonwealth, not a state.

Several sections of the new Constitution deal with education.
Section 183 states that “The General Assembly shall, by appropri-
ate legislation, provide for an efficient system of common schools
throughout the state.” Other sections deal with the distribution
of the public school fund among districts, the maintenance of
separate schools for whites and Negroes, and the prohibition of
the use of educational funds to support parochial schools. Section
184 almost prohibits the use of funds for high schools and colleges
by requiring that funds for any but the common grade schools
may not be raised without the approval of the voter. This was
inserted because of the pressure of private, church-related colleges.
Section 186 provided that “each county in the Commonwealth shall
be entitled to its proportion of the school fund on its census of
pupil children for each school year . . . ,” but this was later changed.

Even though given a mandate to provide an efficient system
of schools, the General Assembly on its own initiative, without a
referendum, did not levy a dollar of taxes in support of the public
schools until thirteen years later, in 1904. It was not until 1908
that it became mandatory upon counties to establish schools and
to levy local taxes for their support.

4Kentucky Legislative Research Commission, The Constitution of Kentucky
(4th ed.; Frankfort, 1961), pp. xx-xxi.

12

 

 L few
ed to
them.
.lated.
mend-
ralian
'nated

sation.
ropri-
3hools
)ution
cc of
on of
action
lleges
zhools
s was
legcs.
shall
.us of
nged.

vstem
out a
mblic

1908

s and

Mucky

The education sections of the Constitution are:

#183. General Assembly to provide for school system.
The General Assembly shall, by appropriate legislation,
provide for an efficient system of common schools through—
out the State.

#184. Common School Fund; what constitutes; use;
vote on tax for education other than in common schools.
The bond of the Commonwealth issued in favor of the Board
of Education for the sum of one million three hundred
and twenty-seven thousand dollars shall constitute one
bond of the Commonwealth in favor of the Board of Edu~
cation, and this bond and the seventy-three thousand five
hundred dollars of the stock in the Bank of Kentucky,
held by the Board of Education, and its proceeds, shall
be held inviolate for the purpose of sustaining the system
of common schools. The interest and dividends of said
fund