Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 8.djvu/163

FINANCIAL HISTORY OF OREGON. 155 The Common School Fund. The doubling of the national bounty in the grants of public domain for the common schools was initiated with the act organizing Oregon Territory. Section twenty of this act pro- vided that when the lands ,of the Territory were surveyed, section thirty-six, as well as sixteen in each township, should be reserved for the purpose of being applied to schools. The Legislative Assembly, at its first session, acting in harmony with the design of Congress in making this grant, provided for the creation of a "common school fund," the income of which should be appropriated for the support of the common schools in the Territory. It declared "that the principal of all moneys, falling or accruing to the Territory of Oregon, for school purposes, whether by donation or bequest, or from the sale of any land heretofore given, or which may hereafter be given by the Congress of the United States to this Territory for school purposes, or accruing from licenses, fines, for- feitures or penalties appropriated by law to common schools, or in any other manner whatever, shall constitute an irreduci- ble fund ; the proceeds, or interest, accruing from which, shall be annually divided among all the school districts in the Territory, proportionally to the number of children or youth in each, between the ages of four and twenty-one years ; for the support of common schools in said districts; and for no other use or purpose whatever." All moneys paid into this fund should "bear an annual interest of six per centum," and the Legislative Assembly should ' ' from time to time make such disposition of the fund, that it shall never be diverted from its proper object, and that it may be made to yield the foregoing interest with the greatest possible degree of cer- tainty and regularity. ' ' And moreover, ' ' all moneys accruing from the lease or rent of school lands, and also from a tax of two mills on the dollar, to be assessed and collected in the same manner as other territorial taxes," should be added to the interest on the school funds. 61 61 Oregon Statutes, First and Second Sessions, 1849 and 1850-1, pp. 66-76.