The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1912-05-02
old TEACHERS MUST Be PAID
Must Provide Fund to Pay Teachers
Who May Retire at This Time, Even
Though They Have Not Paid Por-
ton of Their Salaries to State Fund.

=
known as the teachers insurance and
retirement fund law, is held constitu-
tional in an opinion by Attorney Gen
|eral Bancroft in response to an in
|quiry by State Treasurer Dahl.
Treasurer Dahl is prompted to
make the inquiry by the fact that
warrants are coming to him for pay
ment under the provisions Of the law.
The statute creates teachers insur-
ance and retirement fund to be made
up Of so-called assessments upon the
salaries of all teachers coming within
the provisions Of the act and Of an
amount set aside annually from the
so-called -tenths mill tax, equal
to ten cents for each person Of school
age in the state. These assessments
are not paid by the teachers but are
retained from their salaries by the
school boards. The fund thus Great
ed is used for paying certain annui-
q . q
ties or pensions to retired teachers.
Whether this law in fact results in
the taking of private property with
out compensation or in the granting
of public money in aia Of any individ-
ual, association, corporation, etc, are
held by the attorney general to be
questions already determined by the
courts negatively and there is left
only the material objection that the
payment of public funds under this
act is not for a public purpose-it is
automatic that public funds can be
used only for public purposes.
The attorney general points out that
the courts have held laws giving pen
sions to policemen and fremen to be
valid s1and it is difficult to see why
the same reasoning should not apply
in the case Of teachers in the public
schools.
In discussing this phase Of the ques-
tion, the attorney general recalls
discussion of the power of the state
in a similar case by Justice Cooley Of
the Michigan supreme court, where
in he said:
/, do not understand that the word
public, when employed in reference
to this power, is to be construed or
applied in any narrow or illiberal
sense, or in any sense which would
preclude the legislature from taking
broad views Of state interest, neces
|sity or policy, or from giving those
views effect by means Of the public
revenues. Necessity alone is not the
Test by which the limits of state au-
thority in this direction are to be
defined. but a wise craftsmanship
must look beyond the expenditures
which are absolutely needful to the
continued existence of organized gov
eminent, and embrace others which
may tend to make that government
subserve the general well-being Of so
ciety, and advance the present and
prospective happiness and prosperity
Of the people. To erect the public
buildings, to compensate the public Of
icers and to discharge the public debts
are not the sole purposes to which the
public revenues may be applied, but
on the contrary, considerations of nat
ural equity, gratitude and charity are
never out of place when the general
good of the whole people is in ques-
tion and may be kept in view in the
imposition of the public burden. The
sovereign Legislative authority must
judge of the force of such considera-
tions on a general view of the Just
and proper demands upon the public
treasury, and of the ability of the
people to provide for all; and when
that authority determines that such
payment will subserve the public
good, the responsibility of the legisla-
tor for the correctness Of his judg-
ment must be to the people whose
representative he is and upon whom
the burden he imposes must rest. =
DEATH OF S. GUSTAV PETERSON.
Well Known Swedish Resident of City
Died Sunday at the Schlitz Hotel.
S. Gustav Peterson, aged So years,
widely known among the Swedish peo-
pie of the city and for time employ
"A 90 q hraac ~olIor ~ tho nlan+ IF tha