the difficulties were sufficient to deter the horde of beggars and vagrants from densely populated regions. As between Europe and the Atlantic ports, so between New York and San Francisco, in proportion as the difficulty and expense of transit has diminished, so the number of undesirable and worthless immigrants has increased." Thus while we have reaped large advantages from these improved facilities, it has, in a certain way, left us still pioneers in the cause of education. In these older States of yours there are a thousand allies of education. The schoolmaster is no longer abroad here, he is at home. He is surrounded by all manner of helpful influences. Colleges and libraries, and churches friendly to education, with wealth that knows its own best use of ministering to public intelligence, are here scattered broadcast over the land. The institutions of culture and refinement are too firmly based to be shaken by every idle wind of shifting notions. No ambitious politician here hopes to make capital by pandering to the ignorant prejudices of the mob. No jealous sectarianism ventures to put itself in the way of the march of improvement. Your people, even in the remotest rural districts, are full of the enthusiasm of ideas. The fame of your great colleges has reached every hamlet and household, and the examples of educated and eminent men are familiar to every boy and girl. In California it is very different. These later years have brought us large numbers of immigrants from every nation; and multitudes, even of our own people, of a restless shifting disposition feel no permanent interest in the prosperity of the country, and do not even call it "home." But when, a few weeks ago, in our State Legislature, I heard a graduate of our State University make an eloquent appeal for the generous support of his Alma Mater, I realized that a better day was close at hand, and that pioneer work would ere long give place to the labors of loyal sons and daughters, born on the soil of California, and nurtured in her own institutions. And I rejoiced in the power and the value of such labors, when, a little later, I learned that the measure so ably and zealously advocated by him and his fellow-graduates in the Legislature had passed that body, been signed by the Governor, and was a law. You will readily appreciate this when I tell you that by this act a perpetual annual tax of one cent upon each $100 of taxable property in the State is levied for the support of the University. Upon the valuation of last year this will amount to over $75,000. Yet before I speak more definitely of these institutions, I must recall one or two things which seem to have aided largely in the success of our early efforts. Evidently the character of our State builders themselves was the main factor; but, among the wisest and best is diversity of opinion as to the means of attaining the same desired end. It is well that it should be so always. For inquiry, doubt, discussion-even hot debate are the winds and tides that keep the great world-encompassing ocean of educational thought from stagnating; and common sense, one might add, is the good clean salt that keeps it all pure and sweet. Certain debatable questions were open to our early educators. What shall we teach? How much shall we teach? How early in childlife shall we begin? How far shall our course extend? And so forth. Of course these questions came gradually, and the result is still being evolved. But into the laying of their plans, came something of the same spirit which had brought them to this untrodden soil. The breadth of a continent lay between them and the ancient and fossilized theories of the past, and they grasped the opportunity to infuse into their work the fresh energy which they found in the very breezes that invigorated their lungs. Then the cosmopolitan character of our pioneers contributed largely to success. From east and west-from north and south-from England and Germany and France, from Oxford and Heidelberg and Edinburgh, came men bringing the advanced thought of the age. So methods were compared with methods, results with results, until the outcome has been a growth like that of other products transplanted to our soil-almost unprecedented. First in rank, and having its birth in early days, stands the STATE UNIVERSITY, crowning our system of free public education. The University of California really had its birth early in 1853, when a Congregational minister, a graduate of Yale College, opened a boys' school in a little room in Oakland. This man was Henry Durant, who at this early date had in his capacious brain the plan of a State university, and who lived to see its buildings rise on the fair slopes of Berkeley Hills, himself its first honored President. Its beginnings read like a tale of romance. You will pardon me a brief chapter as told familiarly by Dr. Durant himself: The house was building. It had been roofed in, the outside was nearly finished, some of the rooms quite well under way, and one room furnished inside. The contractors, as I understood, were about making arrangements with some parties to let them have the money to finish up the building-some six or seven hundred dollars— and to take a lien on the building. They proposed to get the whole property for themselves in that way. This thing had been done, I knew, with regard to a pretty good house that had been built a little while before. The builder was not able to pay for it immediately, and the contractors got somebody to advance the money to complete the house. They put into the house a man armed with a pistol to keep the proprietor away, and took possession of it themselves; and he lost the house. Knowing that fact, and not knowing but something of that kind might occur, I consulted a lawyer, who told me what I might do. Said he, "You go and take possession of that house. Be beforehand. You have had to do with the contractors; you really may be regarded as the proprietor of it." I came over at night, took a man with me, went into the house, put a table, chairs, etc., into one of the rooms upstairs, and went to bed. Pretty early in the morning the contractor came into the house and looked about. Presently he came to our door. Looking in, says he, “What is here?" I was getting up. I told him I didn't mean any hurt to him, but I was a little in a hurry to go into my new home, and I thought I would make a beginning the night before. I asked him if he would not walk in and take a seat. I claimed to be the proprietor, and in possession. He went off. My friend went away, and in a little while the contractor came back with two burly fellows. They came into the room and helped themselves with seats. I had no means of defence except an ax that was under the bed. The contractor said to one of the men, "Well, what will you do?" Said he, "If you ask my advice, proceed summarily," and then he began to get up. I rose, too, thenabout two feet taller than usual; I felt as if I was monarch of all I surveyed. I told him that if I understood him, he intended to move into the room. Said I, "You will not only commit trespass upon my property, but you will do violence to my body. I don't intend to leave this room in a sound condition. If you undertake to do that, you will commit a crime as well as a trespass!" That seemed to stagger them, and finally they left me in possession. This was the beginning of the college school which was designed as preparatory to a university subsequently to be established. My own first connection with the educational interests of Oakland, with which I have ever since been identified, except my term as State Superintendent, was in this school, to which I went as a teacher early in 1861. In 1855 the State gave the college a charter, and the first building of the college proper was erected on Twelfth street in Oakland. In 1859 Dr. Durant was made professor of Greek, and mental and moral philosophy. Three other gentlemen, one of whom-Rev. Martin Kellogg-is now dean of the university, were associated with him, and in 1860 the first Freshman class entered. This class graduated in 1864 four members. The following year three graduated. One of theseHon. John Glascock-represented that same district as a member of the Forty-seventh Congress. The constitutional convention which met in Monterey in 1849 had provided for the protection, preservation, and improvement of land which might be granted for university uses, either by the United States Government or by individual gifts, and had made it the duty of the State Legislature, as soon as possible, to provide effectual means for the improvement and permanent security of the funds of the university. The germ of this fund was a grant by Congress in 1852 of 72 sections of land" for the use of a seminary of learning." The same act also set aside 10 sections to create a Public Building Fund. In 1862 the act was passed, offering to each State a certain amount of land for a college of agriculture and mechanic arts. This was formally accepted by California in 1864, and her portion was 150,000 acres. Some ineffective and fruitless legislation was had in the interim, and in 1867 the situation was substantially this; a State university existed on paper, backed by sufficient funds, but having nothing else. The College of California had a site, buildings, a faculty and students, but no funds. Evi dently consolidation was desirable to both parties, and this was satisfactorily accomplished in 1868, and the organic act of incorporation was passed by the Legislature. The buildings of the College of California in Oakland were occupied by the university until 1873. In July of that year commencement exercises were held at the new site, and the north and south halls formally dedicated. Failing health had com. pelled the resignation of President Durant, and in 1872 President D. C. Gilman, now the honored president of Johns Hopkins University, had been installed as his successor. I will not tax your patience with details of early struggles, which have been many and desperate, but as the university is the crowning achievement of our system of free public education, it seems to demand the especial notice which I have given it. Tuition is absolutely free. All courses of study are open to both sexes. During the last year 122 different courses of study were offered, of which 94 were actually given. I have not been able to verify the correctness of my impression, but it is my belief that when the University of California in 1870 opened her doors to her daughters as well as to her sons, she was the first of the higher institutions of learning to recognize their equal rights and privileges, all absolutely free. The site of the university, comprising 200 acres, is unsurpassed in beauty. Five miles from the City Hall of Oakland, its buildings rise on the lower slopes of the Coast Range, here not more than 1,200 or 1,500 feet in height, facing the beautiful bay and harbor of San Francisco; and looking directly out through the Golden Gate towards the regions of the setting sun and covering all the miles that lie between, are blossoming orchards and fertile farms; and where the mainland meets the bay, the city of Oakland, covering an area of many miles, lifts her graceful spires amid the trees and gardens that surround the homes of 50,000 inhabitants. It is a remarkable fulfilment of a remarkable prophecy found in a poem written in 1794 by Dr. Dwight of New Haven-if I am not mistaken, the grandfather of Dr. Dwight, president of Yale College: All hail thou Western World! By heaven designed The example bright to renovate mankind! And claim, on far Pacific's shores, their home. Proud commerce's mole the western surge shall lave; The long white spire lie imaged on the wave; Where marshes teemed with death, shall meads unfold; Where slept perennial night, shall science rise, And new born Oxfords cheer the evening skies. I think I know something of the estimate in which the higher institutions of learning in the new States were wont to be held by our brothers in the older States; and no doubt there was (and may be still for aught I know) much to justify the tone of voice, the expression of face, and the impression sought to be conveyed, as they were alluded to as "Western Colleges." But when you think or speak of the University of California, try to think and speak of her as she is. The limits of a paper for an occasion like this, and the ground to be covered in the subject assigned me, forbid that I should dwell much longer on this particular part of our system of public education. I invite those who are interested in this special line of work, and all who are disposed to be well informed concerning our university, to take a copy of the last Register, a number of which I have here for this special purpose. To summarize then: The University of California is an integral part of the public educational system of the State. As such it aims to complete the work begun in the public schools. Through aid from the State and the United States, and by private munificence, it furnishes ample facilities for instruction in science, literature, and the professions of law, medicine, dentistry, and pharmacy. In the colleges of letters, agriculture, mining, mechanics, civil engineering, and chemistry, in the literary course and in the course in letters and political science, these privileges are offered without charge for tuition to all persons that are qualified for admission. The professional colleges, being self-sustaining, require moderate tuition fees. All courses are open to all persons without distinction of sex. The constitution of the State, as will appear elsewhere in my address, provides for the perpetuation of the university, with its existing departments of instruction. The departments of instruction comprise the following: 1. The College of Letters: (a) Classical course. (b) Literary course. 1. IN BERKELEY. (c) Course in letters and polit- 2. The College of Agriculture. 3. The College of Mechanics. 5. The College of Civil Engineer- 6. The College of Chemistry. 2. IN SAN FRANCISCO. 1. The Hastings College of the 3. The College of Dentistry. Law. 2. The Toland College of Medicine. 4. The California College of Phar macy. It is intrusted to the care of a board of regents, which includes the Governor, the lieutenant-governor, the speaker of the assembly, the State superintendent, the president of the State Agricultural Society, the president of the Mechanics' Institute of San Francisco, the president of the university, and sixteen other regents appointed by the Governor and approved by the Senate. To this body of regents the State has committed the administration. of the university, including the finances, care of property, appointment of teachers, and determination of the interior organization in all particulars not already determined by law. The instruction and government of the students are intrusted to the academic senate and the faculties of the various colleges. The senate consists of all persons engaged in giving instruction in any of the departments of the university by authority of the board of regents. It holds its meetings twice a year. |