and appropriations to them of the money of the state are liable to the same abuses. They must all stand or fall together." The legislature approved this section, and it was included in the amendments adopted in 1874.

§ 11. Local indebtedness.- No county, city, town, or village, shall, hereafter, give any money or property, or loan its money or credit, to or in aid of any individual, association, or corporation, or become directly or indirectly the owner of stock in or bonds of any association or corporation, nor shall any such county, city, town, or village be allowed to incur any indebtedness except for county, city, town, or village purposes. This section shall not prevent such county, city, town, or village from making such provision for the aid or support of its poor as may be authorized by law.

The substance of this provision was proposed in the Convention of 1867, and as I have pointed out in the previous chapter the amendment was suggested to prevent town bonding in aid of railroads by which several towns had assumed large and even ruinous liabilities. That Convention once agreed to an amendment prohibiting the legislature from enacting any law permitting a municipality to aid a private corporation or become the owner of its stock, but finally concluded not to recommend any provision on the subject. Governor Hoffman in 1872 recommended the immediate repeal of the general town bonding law, remarking that “aid has already been given to railroads, upon the credit of municipalities, to quite as great an extent as is wise, and in some instances to the oppression of taxpaying communities." The Commission may therefore be deemed to have resumed the consideration of this subject where it was left by the Convention. For the purpose of aiding its deliberations the Commission sought and obtained from various local officers a statement of the indebtedness of

municipal corporations, from which statement a table was prepared showing in detail the indebtedness by classes of counties, cities, towns, and villages. The committee on local indebtedness presented this table in connection with its report on the subject, making a recapitulation of the statistics and deducing certain conclusions therefrom. Without burdening these pages with statistics, even on this important subject, it is worth while to consider a few of the results of the inquiry instituted by the Commission concerning municipal indebtedness. Thus it appears that in 1872 there had been issued "by towns, cities, and villages of the state, in aid of railroads, and remaining unpaid, $26,946,662.09.

For the purpose of erecting public buildings, such as courthouses, city and town halls, and school buildings, $10,416,864.84.

Of the debt growing out of the recent Civil War, which then remained unpaid, $26,934,696.19.

Bonds issued for roads, boulevards, streets, avenues, and bridges, $36,658,144.59.

For waterworks and fire apparatus, $29,335,383.79. For parks, local improvements, and other purposes, $84,052,655.08.

Making the aggregate bonded indebtedness of counties, cities, towns, and villages of the state the enormous sum of $214,344,676.58, which amounted to a little more than 10 per cent of the assessed valuation of the property of the state.

Twenty-one counties had no bonded debt, thirty-nine, including New York, had a bonded debt amounting in the aggregate to $46,685,264.40; excluding New York, the county bonded debt was $15,030,159.94, which was about 23 per cent of the valuation.

There were then twenty-four cities, all of which, except Lockport, had a bonded debt. The aggregate city

indebtedness was $137,539,609.34, "exclusive of the county debt of New York, and a portion of the town debt of Yonkers, which are a debt upon those cities." The city indebtedness amounted to 9 per cent of the assessed valuation of the property.

517 towns had no bonded debt, 416 were bonded for $25,167,781.33, which was 73 per cent of their valuation, some towns having been bonded for 20, 30, and even 50 per cent of their valuation.

Of the 256 villages then incorporated, 66 reported an aggregate indebtedness of $2,204,700.09.

It also appeared that a large amount of the town bonds were issued in 1872, showing that the practice of town bonding was still in progress. The results of the inquiry concerning municipal indebtedness convinced the committee that the time had arrived when it was "absolutely necessary to impose some restraint upon the power of municipalities to incur debt." The committee therefore recommended the following section:

"No city, town, or village shall hereafter give any money or property, loan its credit to or in aid of any individual, as sociation, or corporation, or become, directly or indirectly, the owner of stock in any association or corporation, or contract any debt or liability for the construction of any roads, public parks, or buildings, or the purchase of land or materials for the same, to an amount which, with the amount of its existing indebtedness, shall exceed 10 per cent of the value of its taxable property, to be determined by the last assessment roll thereof.'

The Commission, on motion of Mr. Morris, adopted the following substitute for this section:

"No county, city, town, or village shall hereafter give any money or property, or loan its credit to or in aid of any individual, association, or corporation, or become, directly or

indirectly, the owner of stock in any association or corporation, nor shall any such county, city, town, or village be allowed to incur any indebtedness except for county, city, town, village, or municipal purposes."

The Commission rejected a proposition by Mr. Jackson to include in the section the 10 per cent limitation clause reported by the committee. On motion of Mr. Rogers the section was amended so as to prohibit local aid of money as well as credit, and also to prohibit a municipal corporation from acquiring bonds as well as stock in any association or corporation. The Commission evidently did not intend to impose any specific limitation on the amount of municipal indebtedness, for it not only rejected Mr. Jackson's proposition already noted, but afterwards rejected a similar proposition presented by Mr. Dudley. The Commission once, on motion of Mr. Kernan, struck out "individual" before "association or corporation," which would have permitted local aid to individuals, but this word was afterwards restored. Mr. Davis sought to exclude charitable corporations from the operation of the section, but his proposition was rejected. Up to this point the section as agreed to was as rigid as the first part of the preceding section; but on motion of Mr. Rogers the Commission adopted the concluding sentence authorizing local aid in support of the poor. The section was approved by the legislature and adopted in 1874. Mr. Brooks proposed a section regulating the election of directors in private corporations, but the Commission thought it inexpedient to include it in the Constitution. Mr. McIntosh offered a series of amendments relating to railroads, providing, among other things, that railroads should be deemed public highways, and free to all persons for the transportation of persons and property, subject to legislative regulation, and the

legislature was required to fix the reasonable and maximum rates of charges; limiting the issue of railroad stocks and bonds; declaring the rolling stock and other movable property personalty, subject to execution, and prohibiting any exemption of such property by the legislature, prohibiting consolidation of railroad companies owning competing lines, and requiring sixty days' notice to the stockholders of any proposed consolidation, and requiring a majority of railroad directors to be citizens and residents of this state. The committee on corporations declined to recommend these amendments, but did recommend a provision which was also included in the proposed Constitution of 1867, prohibiting consolidation of railroad corporations owning parallel or competing lines of road; but this proposition was rejected by the Commission.

ART. IX. EDUCATION.

The Commission did not recommend any amendments to this article. Mr. Opdyke proposed an amendment providing for "compulsory attendance, at some school, of all children residents of this state, between the ages of seven and fourteen years, for at least three months in each year when their health will permit," and also for the free instruction in the common schools of this state of all residents of the state between seven and twenty years of age. The latter amendment was also proposed by Mr. Brooks together with an amendment to the existing school fund section, by including the amendment relative to the college land-scrip fund and the Cornell endowment fund, which had been recommended by the Convention of 1867. It will be remembered that Mr. Opdyke and Mr. Brooks were both members of that Convention, and were therefore familiar with its discussions on these subjects. The Commission did not deem VOL. II. CONST. HIST.-36.