Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 3.djvu/180

 The reports of the public schools showed 12,444 school-houses and 14,829 schools in which are employed 24,675 teachers. The school houses are valued at $11,360,472. The permanent school fund at that time amounted to $4,187,839.94. The total disbursements for the past year for school purposes were $6,323,172.42; the number of children enrolled in the schools was 480,788 out of 638,156 of school age.

Governor Larrabee appointed Delos Arnold to assist in making a settlement with the Capitol Commissioners who had built the new State House and after carefully examining the records of their work, extending over the entire period, their accounts were approved. The total amount of expenditures under their direction was $2,871,682.05; it was estimated that it would require about $130,000 to complete the building and grade the grounds. The entire work was carried on under the personal supervision of Robert S. Finkbine and is an enduring monument to the fidelity and business ability of the Commissioners.

A contest had, for many years, been going on between the farmers of the West and one Greene who had procured a patent on a method of making wells by driving an iron tube into the earth. By virtue of this patent he and his associates claimed the right to collect a royalty of ten dollars from every person in the United States who used a well made by driving a tube into the ground. This kind of well had been in use in various parts of the country for a generation. Encouraged by some of the early decisions of the courts, in granting the broad claims to the first patentees of barbed wire, the Greene combination saw an immense fortune for them if a similar decision could be obtained for the drive well patents. With the aid of good lawyers such a decision was obtained and the crusade against the users of drive wells was inaugurated. Many well owners paid the demand rather than be forced into expensive litigation. Others took counsel and formed associations similar to the one which in Iowa was