EDUCATIONAL ENTERPRISES 349 



turn alone can be expended, and that only for school 

 puriDoses, chiefly teachers' salaries. Many rural 

 schools of Michigan, as well as urban, particularly 

 those in poor sparsely peopled regions, have been 

 greatly helped by the State aid arising from this 

 fund, especially since its augmentation by the addi- 

 tion thereto of railroad and other similar taxes has 

 made it amount to several million dollars every year, 

 distributed through the office of the superintendent 

 of public instruction to each school district in pro- 

 portion to its population of children between the ages 

 of five and nineteen years inclusive. 



The early constitution and laws of the State like- 

 wise made provision for libraries designed to serve 

 rural as well as urban needs, and financial assistance 

 for them was contained in the provision for the dis- 

 tribution of income derived from fines imposed in 

 the courts for violation of the penal laws. The pro- 

 vision of reading matter through local rural libraries 

 still leaves something to be desired, but the exten- 

 sion of the service of the State Library at Lansing 

 into all parts of the State desiring it, and, in a very 

 few instances, of city libraries into outlying por- 

 tions of the county, has done something to amelio- 

 rate the rural reading facilities. In 1917 the legis- 

 lature permitted county boards of supervisors to 

 establish libraries or to contract with existing li- 

 braries for county service. In that year the super- 

 visors of St. Clair County authorized a contract with 

 the Port Huron Public Library for service to the 

 county. In 1921 this Port Huron Library was thus 



