inhabitants of this State with the means of acquiring a thorough knowl. edge of the various branches of literature, science, and the arts.”

By the same act it was further provided that the university should consist of six departments: (1) The department of science, literature and arts; (2) the department of law; (3) the department of medicine; (4) the department of theory and practice of elementary instruction; (5) the department of agriculture; (6) the normal department. These have not all as yet been fully organized. In the first-named department good courses are furnished, to which reference will be made later. In the second a two-years law course is provided; in the third a preparatory course, simply, of one year. No attention is given to agricult ure or at present to normal training,1 doubtless because there are two other State institutions in which these are specially pursued. By an act of the Legislature in 1885 the board of regents of the university were directed to establish without delay a chair of pharmacy in the institution. There are departments also of music and art.

The board of regents, as constituted by an act of March 1, 1864,2 consisted of fourteen members, and met for the first time March 21, 1865. A faculty was elected July 19, 1866, and the school was opened September 12, 1866. The catalogue for 1866-67 shows that the students were all, for that year, in the preparatory department, and that they paid a tuition fee of ten dollars, with the exception of a few "orphans of deceased soldiers and those made so by the Quantrell raid.”

By an act of the Legislature, which took effect March 16, 1873, the number of members of the board of regents was reduced to seven, six appointed by the Governor and approved by the Senate, the seventh, the chancellor, elected by the board. It is similarly constituted at present.

The regents were empowered "to appoint a requisite number of professors and tutors, and such other officers as they may deem expedient, to regulate the course of instruction, and prescribe, under the advice of professors, the books and authorities to be used in the several departments, and also to confer such degrees and grant such diplomas as are usually conferred and granted by other universities."

In the report of the president to the Superintendent of Public In. struction in 1866, the former says:3

UNIVERSITY MODELLED AFTER MICHIGAN.

"Michigan University has been adopted as our model, save our basis is broader, consequently making the structure more difficult to rear, but of more value to society when completed. It places the sexes, so far as education is concerned, on an equality. This, without doubt, is both just and expedient. It is no small honor that the Mediterranean

1A normal department was organized in 1876 but has been abandoned.

2 Catalogue, 1888, 5.

3 Sixth Annual Report. of Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1866, 53.

State should be the first to recognize the rights of woman in her educational system."

"The dangers besetting a State institution," he adds in his report, "are twofold: (1) political, (2) sectarian. Either alone is sufficient to jeopardize the success of any institution of learning." That the public in general stand in this fear of sectarian influence in the schools is witnessed by the following clause in the Constitution of 1859:

"No religious sect or sects shall ever control any part of the common school or university funds of the State."1

SEMINARY LANDS.

The regent's report for 1870 showed the University to still be in possession of the 46,080 acres of land granted by Congress to the State in an act above mentioned. The land did not find ready sale, and the Legislature of 1879, upon petition of the regents, made the terms of purchase more favorable. The prices previously fixed upon the lands were reduced twenty-five per cent., the rate of interest on deferred payments changed from ten to seven per cent., and the time extended from ten to twenty years, one-tenth to be paid down and the remainder in nineteen equal installments with annual interest. Prior to April 1, 1880, only 29,597 acres had been sold, but these favorable conditions. resulted in the immediate sale of a large part of the remaining lands. The principal from the sale of these lands is paid into the State treasury and invested by the State board, the interest alone being available for the current expenses of the institution.

APPROPRIATIONS BY THE STATE.

Since 1870 annual appropriations have been made by the Legislature for instruction and various other expenses of the University, and are as follows:5

6

The appropriations on the part of the Legislature for buildings, though included in the above totals, may be mentioned separately. In 1872 fifty thousand dollars was appropriated for the completion of a

1 State Constitution, art. vi, sec. 8. 2 Regent's Report, 1870, 5.

3 Catalogue, 1888, 96.

4 Catalogue, 1888, 98.

Б

5 Laws for years named.

6 Catalogue, 1888, 98-101.

new main building begun by a contribution of one hundred thousand dollars from the city of Lawrence. To this amount fifteen thousand dollars was later added for finishing parts of this building and some additional rooms. In 1883 the board of regents were authorized to use eight thousand dollars, interest, and an appropriation of four thousand dollars for the erection of a chemistry building. An appropriation of fifty thousand dollars was made in 1885 for a building for the department of national history; and sixteen thousand dollars in 1887, for a boiler-house and engine rooms.

No tuition fee is charged in the collegiate courses, but a contingent fee of ten dollars and a graduation fee of five dollars are required.1

In the report of the board of regents for 1883-842 statistics are quoted touching the income, expenditure for instruction, etc., of fourteen leading colleges of the United States, and the comparison summed up as follows:

"Of all institutions compared, the University of Kansas, though oc cupying very high rank in the character of results secured, has the smallest endowment, the smallest receipts from endowment, and the smallest receipts from the State; has received no gifts as compared with three hundred thousand dollars to Ann Arbor, half of that to California, thirty thousand dollars to Missouri, and fifteen thousand dollars to Wisconsin-all in a single year; stands sixth and lowest in the list of receipts from students, though only fifth in number of attendance, showing great generosity on the part of the management of the institution; as to gross receipts, stands next to lowest; pays the lowest total amount for instruction; pays next to the lowest salary for president or chancellor, and the lowest salaries to the faculty and assistants; yet demands the greatest number of hours service, and compels them to instruct the largest number of students-more than twice as many as the general average; expends the smallest amount on its library, that most necessary of all the apparatus of instruction, and therefore, naturally, has the smallest library; is next to the lowest in the charges placed on each student, and expends the least for the instruction of each student—a cheapness of which we may not boast. "Still more briefly, in seventeen points of comparison touching matters essential to good work, and showing generous patronage and support, Kansas stands in nearly every respect at the foot of the list!"

It is pleasing to notice that the appropriations for the support of the university since the above publication have rapidly advanced, and that there is an earnest determination on the part of those in charge to bring the university to the very foremost rank of modern institutions. It verifies what has been stated elsewhere that State education is on the rise; that the era of carelessness, indifference, and experiment is largely passed, and that these institutions, called into existence through the needs of the people, will prove faithful to the cause of their creation. 1 Catalogue, 1888, 107. 2Board of Regents' Report, 1883-84, 8.

Occasionally a croaker, or a misinformed philanthropist, or a wily politician may utter his anathemas against State education, and particularly State universities, but it will be of no avail, for the public school system has become the people's birthright, and its foundation is

sure.

KANSAS STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE.

Pursuant to an act of Congress, approved July 2, 1862, "donating public lands to the several States and Territories which may provide colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts,"1 a resolution was passed February 3, 1863, by the Legislature of Kansas accepting its provisions, and an act was passed shortly thereafter locating an agricultural college upon a certain tract of land in Riley County, upon the express condition that the Bluemont Central College Association, in whom the title of the land was vested, should transfer it to the State with all the buildings and appurtenances thereunto, and the apparatus and library belonging to the association. This provision was complied with by the association.

By an act of the Legislature approved March 3, 1863, the college was named the "Kansas State Agricultural College."3 Its government was vested in a board of regents to consist of the Governor, Secretary of State, Superintendent of Public Instruction, president of the college, and nine others, to be appointed by the Governor and approved by the Senate, with the proviso "that not more than three of those selected shall be members of the same religious denomination."4

The powers of the regents were quite similar to those of the university regents.

The college was to consist of four departments 5: (1) The department of agriculture; (2) the department of mechanic arts; (3) the department of military science and tactics; (4) the department of literature and science, the last including "whatever is taught in any first-class college, embracing English literature, mathematics, natural science, the classics, and modern languages."

For years the department of literature and science was given some prominence, in the eyes of the incoming board of regents as reorganized in 1873, entirely too much prominence, and the result was a radical change. The following quotations are made from their report for 1873:6

1 Laws of United States and Kansas relating to State Agricultural College, 3. 2 Ibid., 6.

3 Ibid., 8.

4 An amendment of 1873 (Laws, p. 17), gave to this board the same constitution as that of the university, viz: six appointees of the Governor and a chancellor or president, chosen by the board. It was further amended that "there shall not be at any time more than two members appointed from any one county of the State, nor shall any trustee be appointed residing in the county in which any charitable institution is located."

"Laws of United States and Kansas, 8.

6 Regents' Report, 1873, 192, in Thirteenth Annual Report of Department of Public Instruction.

"While not necessarily ignoring other and minor objects, the leading and controlling object of these institutions should be 'to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and mechanic arts.' A prominence should be given to these branches in the degree that they are actually used by the farmer or mechanic.

"As against the opinion that the aim of these colleges should be to make thoroughly educated men, we affirm that their greater aim should be to make men thoroughly educated farmers."

As a guide to the faculty in preparing a new curriculum the policy of the board was defined in the following resolutions :" 2

"Resolved, That the object of this institution is to impart a liberal and practical education to those who desire to qualify themselves for the actual practice of agriculture, the mechanic trades, or industrial arts. “Prominence shall be given to agriculture and these arts in the proportion that they are severally followed in the State of Kansas.

"Prominence shall be given to the several branches of learning which relate to agriculture and the mechanic arts, according to the di rectness and value of the relation."

"Believing," they add, "that this college was designed for the masses rather than for a favored few, we shall act accordingly [in adopting a curriculum], avoiding a duplication of the common schools on the one hand, and of the State university and normal schools on the other." The policy thus initiated has been continued.

The institution was opened September 2, 1863, with four instructors, and fifty-four students, one-half of whom were females.3 About onehalf gave attention to the higher branches, the remainder to the common branches. A tuition fee of four dollars per term was charged in the common branches and of five dollars in the higher.

The president in his report for the first, year, 1863, sums up the assets of the institution as follows: "The ninety thousand acres of land for the endowment of the college are mostly located (seventy-six thousand acres) and designated, and their minimum value cannot be less than two dollars and fifty cents per acre, making the minimum value of the endowment two hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. Add to this the value of the college buildings with the library, etc., and one hundred acres of land adjoining, estimated in July last at twenty-five thousand dollars, and since increased by donations in musical instruments, electrical machines, furniture, etc., about nine hundred dollars, and you have the present assets of the institution. About six hundred dollars more are already pledged to the institution by subscription, and this amount is expected to be still largely increased.”

It was provided by a legislative act of January, 1866,5 that the "board

3

Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1863, 35, 36.