Subpoena.-A subpœna is a writing, or process, whereby witnesses are brought into court in order to obtain their testimony. If the person subpoenaed does not appear as ordered, he is punishable for contempt of court.

Process.-A process, in the legal sense, is a writ that issues from a court or judge. It is a means of compelling the defendant in an action to appear in court. It must be served by an officer of the court, as a sheriff or constable.

Writ.-A writ is a written command issued by a court directing something to be done touching a case or suit. A process in a civil suit is sometimes called a writ, while a process in a criminal case is called a warrant. A death warrant is an order directing the execution of a person who has been sentenced to death.

Penalty.-A penalty is some form of punishment inflicted by competent authority for the violation of law. Capital punishment is taking the life of the person punished; it is the same thing as the death penalty.

Execution.-An execution is the act of carrying into effect the final judgment of a court. This is done by means of a writ, some

times called a writ of execution.

Judgment.-A judgment is the sentence of the law pronounced by the court in a case or law-suit.

Decision.-A judicial decision is the determination, or conclusion, reached by the court in a given case.

Verdict.-A verdict is the finding or conclusion reached by a jury. A judge may issue decisions or judgments, but not verdicts. NOTE.-The Seventy-second General Assembly enacted that the death penalty should be administered by passing a current of electricity through the body of the condemned man, this to be done within the walls of the Penitentary of Columbus.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM

209. History.-At the very organization of government in the Northwest Territory, it was expected that the public education of youth would be provided for. The Ordinance of 1787 declared in an oft-quoted clause:

Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged." The State of Ohio has not disappointed this expectation. In each of its Constitutions has the clause just quoted been incorporated. The one now in force says further: "The General Assembly shall make such provisions, by taxation or otherwise, as, with the income arising from the school trust fund, will secure a thorough and efficient system of common schools throughout the State; but no religious or other sect, or sects, shall ever have any exclusive right to, and control of, any part of the school funds of the State."

210. Governing Authorities.-A school, or system of schools, appears to the pupils who are members of it to be governed by the teacher or teachers, with perhaps the supervision of a principal or superintendent. In reality, teachers and their supervisors are but agents of the State. The law vests the control of schools in local boards of education, and oversight of the educational affairs of the whole State is 1 Art. VI, Sec. 2.

intrusted to a Commissioner of Common Schools; it also authorizes boards of examiners to issue licenses or certificates to teachers.

The School District. The school district is the unit-area of school organization, and determines the bounds of the authority of a board of directors. It generally consists of a whole municipal corporation or a whole township, exclusive of any such corporation that lies within its borders. However, communities may be joined for educational purposes that are separate in other governmental affairs. There are township school districts, special districts, village districts, and four classes of city districts. Cincinnati is the only representative of the first of these classes, and Cleveland the only one of the second class.

212. Boards of Education: Organization.- For city school boards, like city councils, the usual unit of representation is the ward. There are one or two members elected from each of these divisions. Cleveland, however, has a special form of schoolboard, which is composed of a single school director and a council of seven members elected for the whole city. For village and special districts, the law prescribes a board with a fixed number of members. Township districts present a peculiar organization. They are divided into sub-districts, each of which elects one director. All these directors taken together, constitute the Board of Education. This arrangement is the result of recent changes in the management of rural schools. The term of office, in the majority of districts, is three years. A schoolboard organ

izes by electing one of its members president and

by choosing a clerk, except that in township districts the Township Clerk acts in this capacity. In city and township districts, the treasurer of the local government is also treasurer of the school board. In cities regular meetings of the school board occur once in two weeks; in township districts once in two months. Adjourned or special meetings are also sometimes held. Every board is a body corporate and politic, in that it is capable of buying, holding, and selling property, of suing and being sued, and of entering into contracts.

213. Boards of Education: Duties.— Boards of education are charged with duties of great importance. They appoint the superintendents, principals, and teachers of the schools, and adopt courses of study and text-books. They provide buildings, equip them with libraries, apparatus, etc., and supply furniture and the service of janitors. They have final authority in questions of discipline. They have power to tax the property owners of the district for the support of the schools. The amount of business which these duties involve varies with the population of the district. Township districts may have less than half a dozen school-houses, with a single school-room and one teacher for each with a few pupils, while city districts sometimes number their school buildings by the score, their teachers by the hundred, and their pupils by the ten-thousand. In Cincinnati and Cleveland the principals and teachers are appointed by the Superintendent, by and with the advice and consent of the Board. In Cleveland the Superintendent is appointed by the Director and Council.

214. Teachers and Instruction.-Nowhere in the United States are teachers required (as in Germany) to take an oath of office; they are not, therefore, classed as officers of the government. This, however, does not detract from their importance in the educational system. Their influence in training the minds and developing the characters of their pupils is one of those forces that do not admit of measurement. Then, although it is the Board of Education that adopts courses of study and text-books, the teachers commonly prepare these courses and recommend the books. And still further, the primary power of discipline is vested in the teacher. The law protects the teacher in the exercise of a certain authority over the school and the individual pupil, but, as remarked, the final jurisdiction is in the Board. Thus, to advise the introduction of studies into the course, to organize the pupils that flock to the schoolhouses in schools and classes, with grades adjusted to the needs of pupils and to one another, and to assign studies, this is largely the work of teachers. The courses of study offered to pupils in the first public schools of Ohio were very elementary, and were adapted to the irregular or brief attendance of the pupils, which the conditions of pioneer life necessitated. Not until the decade 1840-1850 were public high schools established, but since that time great progress has been made in that direction, and in all other directions. The township school, although necessarily incomplete in grading, still provides for every pupil who asks it eight years of training, and dismisses him with a certificate entitling him to enter some high