Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 3.djvu/631

576 have and what have not complied with the provisions of the law in respect to maintenance of schools; so that no funds may in ignorance be paid to townships having no legal claim to them.

Third—She must collect, transcribe, classify, verify, tabulate, and transmit annually to the State superintendent the school statistics of her county, together with a detailed written report of the condition of the common schools therein.

Fourth—She must arrange, classify, file and preserve all books, papers, bonds, official correspondence and other documents belonging to her office.

Fifth—She must impart instruction and give directions to inexperienced teachers in the science, art and method of teaching, and must be ready, at all times, to counsel, advise and assist the school officers of her county.

Sixth—She must take an active part in the management of County Teachers' Institutes, and labor in every way to improve the quality of teaching in her county.

Seventh—She must hear, examine, and determine all questions and controversies under school law, which may be referred to her, and must carefully prepare, to the best of her knowledge and ability, such replies to all letters from school officers and teachers as each case demands.

Eighth—She must examine all candidates desiring to teach in her county, and grant certificates to such, and such only, as she honestly thinks are of good moral character and sufficient scholastic attainments. As no one can teach in a public school without such certificate, this gives her the veto power over all teachers. Dr. Bateman, commenting on fourteen specifications, of which the foregoing constitute but eight, says these are some of the many duties made obligatory upon the county superintendent by law. Besides all these, is the visitation of schools, which every true superintendent considers a very important part of the work.

For convenience we will group these duties in three classes: 1. Those concerning finance. 2. Legal duties. 3. Duties to teachers and schools,

I. To give an idea of the financial interests intrusted to the hands of these women, we find by reference to the State superintendent's report for last year that the total receipts for school] purposes in these ten counties which they superintend was $1,009,441. So far as can be learned from the records, not one cent of the large sums over which they had supervision has been lost through their dishonesty, or, what was more to be feared, their ignorance of business. Unlike those of Dora Copperfield, their accounts will "add up." In the county (Knox) where the receipts are greatest, aggregating $182,423.22, the greatest difference between receipts and expenditures, as shown by the superintendent's books, is ten cents. In many of these counties the financial affairs were in the greatest confusion when the ladies came into office. In one, perhaps more, the preceding superintendent was a defaulter, in another he was engaged in a law-suit with the county board, and in still others strange irregularities were discovered. In every instance, so far as we can ascertain, these crookednesses have been straightened out, the finances put upon a surer basis, hundreds, we believe thousands, of dollars of bad debts have been collected, treasurers and directors [sic]hav-been induced to keep their books with greater care and in better shape, reckless expenditure of school funds has been discouraged, and directors encouraged to expend the money for things which will permanently benefit the schools. So much for finance.

II. Legal Duties.—Rightly to discharge the duties imposed by specification 7, the county superintendent needs to be a very good lawyer, for school law in its ramifications reaches many other departments of law. Especially is it inextricably mixed up with election laws, and all know that cases arising under election laws are among the most complex and difficult to handle. Probably a school election never [sic]occurrs in which some such cases are not referred to the county superintendent. In the settlement of these and other cases arising under school law, these women have been peculiarly successful, and some of them have earned the blessing bestowed upon the peacemakers. We know of one county where, after last spring's election, five contested cases were referred to the superintendent for settlement; these were all satisfactorily adjusted by her. During her four years' administration, scores of controversies were