THE STORY OF THE NONPARTISAN LEAGUE 



consolidated within itself the function of three 

 existing state commissions: the Board of 

 Education, the Board of Regents, and the 

 Board of Control. Five persons are to con- 

 stitute the new board, the State Superin- 

 tendent of Instruction, the Commissioner of 

 Agriculture and Labor, and three others to 

 be appointed by the governor. As only these 

 three appointees will be charges on this ac- 

 count against the tax levy it appears that the 

 act is in the interest of economy; and as 

 it reduces and simplifies machinery it may 

 be thought also in the interest of efficiency. 

 Ostensibly the chief attack was based upon 

 the charge that it was designed to put out of 

 office the State Superintendent of Schools. 

 This was an able and popular woman that 

 had been chosen in the primaries by a signifi- 

 cant majority. Opponents of the League said 

 that, as she could not be defeated in any other 

 way, the League leaders had hit upon this as 

 a device to that end, notwithstanding the 

 obvious fact that the law retained her in office, 

 interfered in no way with her functions, and 

 made her a member of the new board. Those 

 familiar with the fact that all these contests 

 have two aspects, the ostensible and the real, 

 or the exterior and the interior, may think 

 they have found the true origin of the savage 

 and continuous assault made on this law to 

 lie in its Section 6, relating to text-books. 



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