Sec.12.  In the towns are officers whose duties are to examine teachers, visit schools, apportion the school moneys among the districts, and to collect the lists of the number of children in the several districts, with such other information as the law requires, and report the same to the county officer, or, if there is none, to the state superintendent.  In some states, there is in each county an officer or a board of officers, for examining teachers, and performing certain other duties relating to the schools of the county.

Sec.13.  Academies and colleges also receive aid from the state, to a limited extent.  A distinct fund is created in some states for their benefit; in others, they are aided by special appropriations from the state treasury.

Chapter XXIII.

Canals and Rail-Roads.

Sec.1.  In carrying out the purposes of government, provision ought also to be made to secure to the people the means of obtaining a suitable reward for their industry, and to render the labor of all, as nearly as may be, equally profitable.

Sec.2.  The people of some states do not possess the same advantage as those of others; nor do all the people of the same state enjoy equal advantages.  Those who reside at a great distance from market, or from navigable waters and good roads, are not so well rewarded for their labor as those who reside near them, because of the greater cost of the transportation, both of what they have to sell, and of the goods they buy.  Hence the necessity of good roads, canals, or other means of facilitating trade between the different parts of the state.

Sec.3.  Among the works intended to effect this object, canals are perhaps the most useful, and are to be preferred wherever their construction is practicable.  Canals are sometimes constructed by incorporated companies; but generally these works, especially those of great magnitude, are made by the state, and are the property of the state.  Although there are some states in which are no canals of this kind, it may be interesting to young persons generally to know how so important a state work is made.

Sec.4.  To raise the money necessary to make a canal, the legislature might levy a general tax upon the property of the citizens.  But this would not be expedient or just; because, first, the payment of so large a sum by the people within the time in which it would be desirable to complete the work, would be inconvenient and burdensome; and secondly, the expense must fall alike upon the people of all parts of the state:  whereas, those residing most remotely from the line of the work, would derive from it little or no benefit.

Sec.5.  When, therefore, a great enterprise of this kind is undertaken by a state, the law authorizing the work usually provides a fund, the income of which is to be applied to this object.  This fund consists of such lands, property, and moneys as the legislature may grant for this purpose.  Funds were thus constituted in some of the western states, to which funds congress made grants of the public lands of the United States lying within those states.