State v. Pike County Court

• Decision Date: 24 May 1898
• Citation: 45 S.W. 1096,144 Mo. 275
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court
• Parties: STATE ex rel. STATE INDUSTRIAL HOME FOR GIRLS v. PIKE COUNTY COURT et al.

45 S.W. 1096

144 Mo. 275

STATE ex rel. STATE INDUSTRIAL HOME FOR GIRLS v. PIKE COUNTY COURT et al.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 1.

May 24, 1898.

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW — INDUSTRIAL HOME FOR GIRLS — STATUTES — AMENDMENT.

1. Acts 1887, p. 274, establishes a "State Industrial Home for Girls," and provides that every girl between 7 and 20 years of age convicted of "being a disorderly person, or of any offense not punishable by imprisonment for life," and "not deemed incorrigible," might be sentenced to such institution until she should become 21 years of age. Acts 1891, p. 164, further provides that "any female child may be bound as an apprentice to said Industrial Home for Girls as to any other master, and subject to the same provisions of law as are now, or may hereafter be, enforced," and requires the county from which a girl is sent as an apprentice or otherwise to pay a stated amount for her support. Rev. St. 1889, §§ 5671, 5762, declare the Industrial Home for Girls to be a state eleemosynary institution, and require the adoption of rules making it a "reformatory institution." Rev. St. 1889, § 373, provides that the probate court may bind as an apprentice any poor child chargeable to the county, or who shall beg for alms, or whose parents are chargeable to the county, or who are poor and the father an habitual drunkard or the mother a bad character. Held, that as the legislature evidently intended that apprentices to the industrial home should be of the class specified in Rev. St. 1889, § 373, the act establishing the Home is not in conflict with Const art. 4, § 47, prohibiting the legislature from authorizing any county "to bind its credit or to grant public money or thing of value in aid of or to any individual."

2. Const. art. 4, § 25, provides that "no bill shall be so amended in its passage through either house as to change its original purpose." Held, that Acts 1891, p. 164, providing that "any female child may be bound as an apprentice

to" an industrial home, which was established by Acts 1887, p. 274, for disorderly girls and those guilty of offenses punishable by imprisonment for life, does not violate such provision.

Appeal from circuit court, Pike county; Reuben F. Roy, Judge.

Suit by the state, at the relation of the State Industrial Home for Girls, against the county court of Pike county and others. From an order dismissing the suit, plaintiff appeals. Reversed, and a writ of mandamus ordered.

Scott J. Miller for appellant. Geo. W. Emmerson and Dalton Biggs, for respondents.

WILLIAMS, J.

The "State Industrial Home for Girls" seeks to compel, by mandamus, the county court of Pike county to pay for the support, from May 31, 1894, to January 8, 1897, of an inmate of said institution, sent there from said county. The sole ground for resisting payment is the alleged invalidity of the act of the legislature under which the girl for whose support the claim is presented was "apprenticed" to said industrial home. We have therefore only to determine whether said act is constitutional. The circuit court decided this question in the negative, and held that the county was not liable. The case has been brought here by appeal.

The general assembly, by act approved March 30, 1887 (Sess. Acts 1887, p. 274), established the State Industrial Home for Girls, and provided for its location, management, and support. It is enacted, in section 12 of said statute, that every girl between 7 and 20 years of age, convicted of "being a disorderly person, or of any offense not punishable by imprisonment for life," and "not deemed incorrigible," might be sentenced to said institution until she should become 21 years of age. This section was repealed in 1891 (Sess. Acts 1891, p. 164), and a new section adopted in lieu thereof, which, in addition to a provision for the sentence to said industrial home of girls convicted of crime, as in the original act, also contained this clause, to wit: "Any female child may be bound as an apprentice to said Industrial Home for Girls as to any other master, and subject to the same provisions of law as are now or may hereafter be in force." The next section requires the county to pay, quarterly, in advance, to the superintendent of the home, $75 per annum for the support of each individual sent there from such county as apprentice or otherwise. The girl whose support is involved here was not convicted of crime, but, at the age of 15 years, was, on May 31, 1894, duly apprenticed to said home by the probate judge of Pike county. The petition was treated as the alternative writ, and defendants demurred thereto on the ground that "the act establishing said home is unconstitutional."

1. It is claimed that the act violates section 47 of article 4 of the constitution, which prohibits the legislature from authorizing any county "to lend its credit or to grant public money or thing of value in aid of or to any individual, association or corporation whatsoever, or to become a stockholder in such corporation, association or company." We do not understand the respondents to contend that it is beyond the power of the legislature to establish such an institution, or to provide for its support and maintenance from the public revenues. It is the recognized duty of the state to care for the unfortunate and dependent classes, and taxes may properly be levied for such purpose. Hence we have asylums for the insane, the blind, and the deaf and dumb, and also hospitals, poor houses, and reformatories, supported at public expense. Judge Cooley, in his work on Taxation (2d Ed., p. 125), says: "He would be a bold man who in these days should question the public right to make provision for these benevolent objects." It is also true that the counties have been, and are, required to pay, out of their funds, for the support of certain inmates of these institutions. "The legislature has as much control over the revenue of the counties as it has over that of the state, unless restrained by some provision of the constitution." State v. Holladay, 70 Mo. 137; State v. St. Louis Co. Ct., 34 Mo. 546.

The demurrer assigns as ground therefor that the act establishing the home is unconstitutional. The argument of respondents, however, only goes to the validity of the requirement in the act of 1891, above cited, that each county, having an inmate in said home, as an apprentice or otherwise, shall pay a certain sum for her support; and the clause providing that "any female child may be bound as apprentice to said Industrial Home for Girls as to any other master, and subject to the same provisions of law as are now or may hereafter be in force."...