Public Libraries

3869

Public Schools

To June 30, 1941, the U. S. Government
had made disposal from the public domain
in the United States proper of some 285,-
000,000 acres of land as homesteads, some
420,000,000 acres in cash sales and some
325,000,000 acres in grants to states, rail-
roads, etc.; and title remained in the United
States to some 411,096,048 acres, made up
principally cf National forests, Indian res-
ervations, National parks, military and naval
reservations, and lands unappropriated or'
withdrawr.

Public Libraries. See Libraries.

Public Meetings. In the United States
there are no laws against the holding of pub-
lic meetings, provided they are for legitimate
purposes, and are conducted in an orderly
manner. However, the ordinances of most
towns and cities require the organizers of a
public meeting to obtain a permit from the
proper authority if the meeting is to be held
on the streets or other public place.

Public Parks. The term Public Park is
very general in its application, being used
alike to designate such limited areas as a
square or triangle at the intersection of two
or more city streets, which has been set aside
for the rest and enjoyment of the people,
and to describe such vast and lonely tracts
as those set apart for the public by the na-
tional government in the valley of the-Yel-
lowstone and of the Yosemite. The one res-
pect in which a public park differs from any
other area of land is that its primary use is
for recreation or rest out of doors. A Public
Garden differs from a park in that it is dedi-
cated more particularly to the culture of
shrubs, flowers, and trees, for their own sake;
but often the terms are used interchangeably.

In New England cities the oldest public
park is usually the * common,' set aside as a
grazing ground when the place was settled.
This common or green is characteristic not
only-of the cities, but of the older New Eng-
land villages. Most famous is the Boston
Common which was the first to be set aside
for outdoor recreation (1634). The move-
ment to secure large public parks began with
the acquisition of Central Park by the City
of New York in 1853. This was the earliest
landscape park (840 acres). Philadelphia fol-
lowed the example set by New York by secur-
ing its magnificent Fairmount Park in 1867
(2,816 acres); and Boston secured Franklin
Park in 1883 (527 acres). In 1895 Essex
County, New Jersey, pioneered in providing
a park system on a county-wide plan and by
1930, 74 counties had parks. Of particular in-

terest is the system in Westchester County,
New York, which has a number of excel-
lent connecting roadways. Cook County, 111.,
is the other outstanding example cf county
park systems. Interstate parks are owned
jointly by t\vo cr more States cs in the case
of the Palisades Interstate Park a!o~g the
Hudson in New York and New Jersey and
Lhe wilderness trail planned to run from
Maine to Georgia. The Boston Metropolitan
Park System is extensive and varied and in-
cludes 39 cities and towns and is adminis-
tered by a commission.

State parks are intended to preserve areas
cf scenic, historic, scientific, cr recreational
value. Among the largest State parks are
the Adirondack and Catskill parks in New
York State, together containing some 2,400,-
coo acre?. I-i 1865 California ob-
tained from Congress a grant of the famous
Yosemite Valley as a State park and it re-
mained such for 30 years until taken over by
the Federal Government. The American side
of Niagara Falls became a State reservation
in 1885 and in the same year a beginning was
made in the Adirondack reservation in New
York State and Fort Mackinac was taken by
Michigan for a State park.

Public Policy, a phrase commonly employ-
ed to designate a general principle of law
that no one has a right to do any act which
will work harm to the public. This principle
is applied in many cases where the act is not
specifically prohibited nor recognized as a
criminal offence. It has been most frequently
applied in the law of contracts. Some of the
principles of law which have been evolved by
the courts on the grounds of public policy
have been incorporated into statutes in many
States. The limits of this doctrine are not yet
clearly defined.

Public Schools, a term applied in the
United States to schools open to all, main-
tained by public expenditure, and controlled
by an authority representative of the public.
Since the function of a public school system
is to secure an educated citizenry, the con-
ception of public responsibility in education
has been accompanied by an extension of the
requirement of compulsory attendance at
least during the period covered by the ele-
mentary schools—usually to the age of four-
teen, although by statute a number of States
may require compulsory attendance of pupils,
not suitably employed, up to the age of six-
teen. The development of compulsory school
I attendance has always been followed by re-
1 strictions on the employment of children IT-