196 Mass. 309 | Mass. | 1907
Under the R. L. c. 112, § 72, street railway companies are required to transport “ pupils of the public schools ”... while “ travelling to or from the school houses in which they attend school,” at a rate of fare not exceeding one half the regular fare charged for the transportation of other passengers between the same points. By the St. 1906, c. 479, this section was amended by the insertion of the words “ or private,” after the word “ public,” so that the requirement now applies to pupils of the public or private schools. The defendant refused to transport at this rate one Chapin, who was attending the Northampton Commercial College, which is an institution owned and conducted by a private person for his own profit, in which are taught, among other subjects, telegraphy, shorthand, typewriting, bookkeeping, office practice, phonography, commercial law, penmanship, letter writing, English grammar, arithmetic and rapid calculation. It had one hundred and eighty students, of an average age of sixteen to nineteen years, the eldest being fifty years of age. Forty of these were from towns in which the defendant operates its railway, and these forty were of the same average age. The eldest was twenty-nine years of age. An indictment having been found against the defendant for a violation of the law, the question arose at the trial whether Chapin was a pupil of a private school, within the meaning of the statute.
A preliminary question is, What is meant by the words “ public schools” in this statute? Do they include all schools that are supported by taxation and are open to the public under reasonable regulations, or are they limited to schools which are a part of our system of compulsory education for children, and which must be maintained by cities and towns and be open to all children of proper qualifications, and must be attended by all children unless they are properly instructed elsewhere ? The
The regularly established schools for the education of children and youth which must be maintained everywhere, according to the size and ability of cities and towns, and must be attended by all the children of school age, unless they receive approved instruction elsewhere, constitute a system by themselves, and are referred to in different parts of the statutes as the public schools, in distinction from the others. They are the schools mentioned under that name in E. L. c. 42, § 49, which compels
The statute which we are now to interpret provides only for “ pupils.” The word “ pupils,” by derivation and the definition of lexicographers, is properly applicable to children and youth. Students in colleges and professional schools are not called pupils. There is much to show that the pupils of the public schools, referred to in the act, are only the children and youth who attend the day schools maintained under the R. L. c. 42, §§ 1, 2, 4, 8. The Legislature did not intend to provide in this chapter for the transportation of adults attending the evening schools or the evening high schools, nor for the “ young men or boys ” "attending the nautical schools, nor for the persons attending the industrial schools, nor for the children attending vacation schools, in no one of which does attendance take the place of the regular attendance required by law in the public schools.
In the case of Commonwealth v. Interstate Consolidated Street Railway, 187 Mass. 436, the constitutionality of this statute was considered, and the decision was put upon grounds inconsistent with the contention that the schools for adults, established and maintained at the public expense, are public schools, within the meaning of the act. The statute was treated as an act in aid of the education of children in the regularly established public schools.
The form of the amendment shows that the private schools now included are only those which are ejusdem generis with the public schools previously mentioned. There are schools of theology, schools of law, schools of medicine, schools of dentistry, schools of music, of art, of architecture, of agriculture, and many others, which, in a broad sense, are private schools. Students in these schools are not in the same class with pupils in public schools, in reference to the purpose of this enactment. The public schools referred to are intended to provide general instruction for all children and youth. Even if they cover a broad field, they are not intended to take the place of technical schools, or of colleges, or of others of the higher institutions of learning.
It is quite plain that colleges, technical and professional schools, and other institutions of learning which do not cover substantially the same field as the schools maintained under R. L. c. 42, §§ 1 and 2, are not within the statute.
We are of opinion that the students in the Northampton Commercial College are not pupils of a private school, such as are referred to in the St. 1906, c. 479.
Exceptions sustained.