head of an administrative department, the board of education, by the terms of the charter, possesses the powers and privileges of a corporation. As such it sues and may be sued. It has "the management and control of the public schools and of the public school system of the city, subject only to the general statutes of the State relating to public schools and public school instruction and to the provisions" of the charter. It has power to establish schools, to appoint administrative officers, principals, heads of departments, and teachers, and to adopt by-laws and regulations for the proper execution of its duties. It also has the power to fix the salaries of all members of the supervising and the teaching staff, subject to the provision that there shall be established a uniform schedule providing for an equal annual increment and that the salaries, and annual increments, paid to men and women respectively, shall not be less than specified amounts.

The board of education annually submits to the board of etstimate and apportionment an estimate of the moneys needed for the entire school system during the next succeeding year and the board of estimate and apportionment is required to appropriate for the general school fund an amount not less than three mills on every dollar of assessed valuation of the real and personal estate in the city of New York liable to taxation. The board of education administers all moneys so appropriated subject to the general provisions of the charter relating to the audit and payment of salaries and other claims by the department of finance, and in case the amount appropriated exceeds the amount needed the surplus becomes part of the general school fund for the following year.

Apart from the power of the mayor to appoint and remove as stated, and the duty of the city to supply the funds required, the board of education exercises its powers independently. It is not subject to control by the city authorities. There is no contract or official relation between the teachers and the city. The city cannot be sued upon the contracts made by the board. This results, as the Court of Appeals has said, from "the settled policy of the State from an early date

to divorce the business of public education from all other municipal interests or business," and from the creation of the board of education as a corporate body "to conduct a system of public education in a designated division of the State and manage and control the schools therein." (Gunnison v. Board of Education, 176 N. Y., on p. 16, 17.)

The board of education is thus directly subject to the control of the Legislature, and whatever provisions may be found necessary or wise for the purpose of defining its powers or prescribing its policy must be prescribed by the Legislature. No other authority is competent to make such provision.

But while the Legislature has power to deal with every phase of the matter, the course which experience approves is that certain general principles of action should be laid down and that within these principles freedom with reference to details of management should be left to the subordinate body acting with peculiar knowledge of local conditions.

When the so-called Davis Law was passed in 1899 it was thought important to the educational interests of the city that certain minimum salaries for teachers should be prescribed, as well as minimum annual increments, presumably to improve the service. In these prescribed minima wide differences appear between the amounts payable to men and to women. These control the board of education only as minimum requirements, but the practice has been to pay women less than men and under the by-laws adopted by the board glaring inequalities now exist.

The motive of the present bill is to compel equal pay for men and women holding the same positions under any particular schedule of salaries. The provisions of the bill relating to classification, schedules and the raising of additional funds by taxation turn upon this central requirement and are for the purpose of giving it effect. And inasmuch as the question is one of general principle it is claimed that it is a requirement proper to be established by the Legislature in laying down the rules under which the board of education shall exercise its powers.

Now, without taking up the alleged ambiguities of the bill,

it clearly appears, with respect to this fundamental matter, to be open to serious objection.

It is proposed by legislative enactment to establish the proposition that for the work of a given position women shall receive equal pay with men. It is for this principle that the supporters of the bill contend and not for mere increased pay. The gross inequalities which have been permitted by the board of education, and which clearly should not be continued, are pointed to for the purpose of emphasizing the principle in question.

The proposition as it is put "equal pay for equal work -is an attractive one and set forth on behalf of the worthy public servants who are engaged in this important calling it has elicited a large measure of support while at the same time it has provoked vigorous opposition from those who believe that the desired legislation would be unfortunate both for the schools and the women teachers.

But it is manifest that the principle is one of general application and it should not be adopted by the State unless the State is prepared to apply it generally. The question is necessarily one of State policy and as such it should be presented and debated before action is taken.

There is no reason why the principle should be applied to teachers in New York and not to those in Albany, Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo and elsewhere in the State. Nor is there any reason why it should be limited to school teaching. If sound, it should be applied in our State hospital service, in our charitable and reformatory institutions, and generally through the civil service of the State. It is indefensible that a principle of grave importance to the State as a whole should be established in connection with a local measure inviting only the consideration which as such it receives. The consideration of such a matter should be under circumstances directing the attention of every member of the Legislature to its importance with reference to his own constituency and to the State at large and not upon the assumption that it is a question of purely local

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What local authorities or subordinate boards may do within the limits of their discretion, while locally important, is a very different matter from the establishment by legislation of a principle of action which has no appropriate local limitation. By acting in such matters through local bills, the State finds itself committed to a course which as State policy has never received thorough consideration.

For this reason I cannot approve this bill. The matter should be left to the board of education to be dealt with locally as may seem best, unless the Legislature is prepared to lay down the general principle for the entire State and the entire public service.

I return herewith, without my approval, Assembly bill No. 2592 (Senate Reprint No. 1569), entitled

"An act to amend the legislative law, generally." In its main features this seems to be a proper bill. I return it that suitable correction may be made in the twelfth section so as to avoid unnecessary payment of those of the officers mentioned whose attendance prior to the opening of the session may not be needed.

(Signed)

CHARLES E. HUGHES

Increasing the Salaries of Deputy Clerks and Record Clerks of the Court of General Sessions in New York County

STATE OF NEW YORK-EXECUTIVE CHAMBER

Albany, June 4, 1907.

TO THE ASSEMBLY:

I return herewith, without my approval, Assembly bill No. 1595, entitled

"An act to amend chapter four hundred and ten of the laws of eighteen hundred and eighty-two, entitled 'An act to consolidate into one act and to declare the special and local laws affecting public interests in the city of New York,' relating to the compensation of the deputy clerks, assistant clerk, record clerks, and attendants of the court of general sessions of the peace in and for the county of New York."

This bill proposes to increase the salaries of the deputy clerks and record clerks of the Court of General Sessions in

New York county. The matter is one which should be dealt with by the local authorities.

(Signed)

CHARLES E. HUGHES