Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 2.djvu/152

 cent. in advance, annually, on the appraised value of the land leased. The title remaining in the State, the lands were exempt from taxation, the person leasing with the privilege of buying, was neither required to improve nor to live upon the land, as in the case of one taking a homestead, and the amount that one person could lease and buy was not limited. These conditions made the college lands the most desirable investment to a large class of people who had confidence that in the future there must be great increase in the value of Iowa lands. This plan of disposing of the college grant met the approval of the General Assembly and was promptly enacted into law. Its workings met the most sanguine expectations of projectors, as will be seen hereafter.

Article IX of the Constitution, which established a Board of Education, also provided that after the year 1863, the General Assembly should have power to abolish or reorganize the Board. After a trial of five years, public opinion clearly demanded that the Board should be abolished; not because its work did not meet the approval of the people of the State, but because under that system school legislation became cumbersome and complicated. The Board of Education had no power to levy taxes or make appropriations of money; these powers could only be exercised by the General Assembly. Consequently no act of the Board could become effective which required the expenditure of money unless it met the approval of a majority of the members of both branches of the Legislature. While the members of the Boards of Education had usually been men well qualified to enact educational laws, and their acts had met public approval, the people could see no necessity for a third legislative body and the additional expense and delay involved in the new system. The Board of Education was therefore abolished by the first General Assembly which had the power, under a provision of Constitution.

The most notable contest in the Tenth General