GIFT OF 00 * * .'. ,- ::;;.. : . . "' '''. '. 1 1 .*. * % * * THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, MII.ICENT W. SHINN. "The Overland Monthly,'' y, Prints ..; ;. . ..'.. ' From Painting by Benoni Irwin in the Kacon Library. PRKSIOKNT HENRY nVKANT. . . . V THE Overland Monthly, Vol. XX. (Second Series). October, 1892. No. 118. I'h.jto l.y U'. C. <;ibbs THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. I. I. exact knowledge of the time is given in a range of subjects covering all the IT may be thought," says Professor great departments of intellectual life, Brycein The American Commonwealth, not more than twelve and possibly only " that an observer familiar with two uni- versities which are among the oldest and most famous in Europe, would be inclined to disparage the cor- responding institutions' of the United States. ... I have not found it so. ... If I may venture to state the impression which the American universities have made upon me, I will eight or nine of the American institu- tions would fall within the definition. Of these, nearly all are to be found in the Atlantic States." It is not to be supposed that Profes sor Bryce had a definite list of twelve names in mind when he said this. As he says himself, the steps by which the four hundred or so degree-giving say that while of all the institutions of institutions of the country fall away the country they are those of which the from the greatest universities to the Americans speak most modestly, they least pretenders, are indefinable. Half are those which seem to be at this mo- a dozen institutions, Harvard, Yale, merit making the swiftest progress, and to have the brighest promise for the future." And elsewhere: "If we define a university as a place where teaching of a high order --teaching which puts a man abreast of the fullest and most VOL. XX. 30. (Copyright, 1892, by OVERLAND MONTHLY PUBLISHING Co.) Bacon & Company, Printers. Columbia, Johns Hopkins, Cornell, Michigan, we should all name at once as the great universities of the country : for the next half-dozen, we should hesi- tate and disagree. The rank of a uni- versity rests on a composite basis of All rights reserved. 533451 338 .'. . I I *...* . V :/ : : /-. ..'" ;*'.*'*,*27^ Uifvi'er&ty of California "!* *' It ** Oct. jflbtk Drawn from Photo by Gibbs NORTH HALL AND THE HARMON GYMNASIUM. its wealth, its numbers, its breadth of courses, its provision for graduate work and for research, the distinction and power of its teaching force, and some- thing not exactly expressed in all these, that I may call its spirit and traditions. Some of these excellences are matters not to be settled by the figures of annual reports ; and even in respect to those that are mere matters of record, one university may excel on one side, an- other on another side, and neither clearly rank the other. The half dozen I have named, it is true, exceed all others in the country in numbers, advancement, general scholarly repute, and (except Johns Hopkins University) in wealth; but as among themselves, no one is dis- tinctly eminent. Columbia is the wealth- iest ; Harvard and Michigan are alter- nately the most numerous ; Harvard has the highest matriculation requirement ; and Johns Hopkins the most advanced range of graduate work and research. The Clark University, though too poor in money and still too much of an ex- periment to be ranked with the estab- lished great universities, passes any of them in the place given to research. If one should try to name a second half-dozen, and give to each one its rank, eighth, or ninth, or tenth, among the universities of the country, it would be still more an impossible attempt. Somewhere in this group, however, the University of California would fall, judged by any measurement. By wealth : the American univer- sities that have incomes of over $200,- ooo a year are : THI-: CHEMISTRY BUILDING. 1892.] The University of California. 339 i. Harvard .$1,026,738.20 2 Columbia 800,000 3- Vale 499-720 (1891) 4. Michigan 400,000 5. Cornel! 350,000 6. California 306,611 7. Pennsylvania 275,000 Where round numbers are given, the figures have been brought up to 1891-92, as nearly as I could estimate by the items of gifts received, or enrollment of students, affecting the income from tuition. In the case of California, I was able to obtain the estimate for the current year. This may give it a slight advantage in the comparison, as all these institutions are increasing more or less STILKS HALL, THE HOME OF THE COLLEGE CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATIONS. rapidly in wealth. The sam'e advantage, of figures later by at least half a year, is unavoidably given California in all the comparisons. The following universities have in- comes between $100,000 and $200,000, according to the latest report of the Bureau of Education ; this report is three years old, but I do not find' else- where reason to think the figures have changed much :- 8. Wisconsin 3182,987 (1889-90) 9. City of New York 148,560 10. Boston 127,523 11. Nebraska 117,500 12. Johns Hopkins 113,702 13. Vanderbilt 101,500 THE BACON LIBRARY. I could find no financial statements from Princeton ; nor are any made by the Leland Stanford Jr. University. So far as can be conjectured, these two and the Chicago University have incomes between $100,000 and $200,000. The universities of Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, Mississippi, and four or five religious colleges, of which Dartmouth is the only one well known, have from $75,000 to $100,000 annually. There are 2O-odd State universities that run thence to $25,000 income ; and some 350 private colleges, most of them still poorer. Where incomes depend on legislative appropriations, they are liable to so much variation that any such comparison would be worthless ; but none of the incomes above $200,000 are thus de- pendent. The University of California draws its income from invested funds, and from a tax of one cent on each $100 THE NEW ELECTRICAL BUILDING. 340 The University of California. [Oct. of the State assessment, making an in- come not only very secure but certain to increase for many years. With the same tuition rate as at Cornell, this University would have as large an income. California, the Leland Stanford, Jr., and the small University of Kansas are the only institutions among those named above that do not charge regular tuition, though the fees are very light at Michigan. The comparative wealth of univer- sities is not necessarily quite as their income, for the difference in value of grounds, buildings, and equipments, is considerable. Thus I have ventured to get a rough estimate of what may be called total wealth, by putting together the value of grounds and buildings, funds, and capitalized value (at a uni- form rate of five per cent) of income from other sources, as I could gather these items from their reports, an esti- mate with too many assumptions to be of much value : - 1. Columbia $18,000,000 2. Harvard 16,700,000 3. Yale 11,000,000 4. Michigan 9,000,000 5. California 8,130,720 6. Cornell 8,000,000 7. Pennsylvania 6,800,000 Arranging by numbers of students and teachers : - 1. Michigan 2,693 students (1891-2) 2. Harvard 2,658 3- Yale ,784 4. Pennsylvania ,764 5. Columbia ,564 6. Cornell ,489 7. California ,079 ' (1892) 8 Boston ,038 ' (1891-2) 9. Wisconsin 789 ' (1890-1) 1. Harvard 253 teachers 2. Columbia . 226 " 3. Yale 225 " 4. Pennsylvania 207 5. California 194 6. Cornell 136 ' 7. Michigan 149 8. Boston 118 9. New York City 90 The Johns Hopkins University has 57 teachers, and Wisconsin about the same number. Proportion of graduate students to undergraduate and professional : - 1. Clark University 100 per cent. 2. Johns Hopkins 61 3. Columbia 12 4 Cornell 10 5. Harvard 7 6. Yale 4 7. Pennsylvania 4 8. Michigan 3 9. California 3 10. Boston 3 U. Wisconsin 3 All these figures give but the roughest means of finding the comparative rank of a college. All the large universities are swelled in number of students by a fringe of schools, not only of law, med- icine, and divinity, but dental, veter- inary, and art schools, which do not require full university matriculation, though occasionally, as in the case of the law school here, approaching it nearly. One third of the enrollment of the University of California and of Har- vard, one half at Columbia, and two thirds at the University of Pennsylvania (which, indeed, consists first of all in its great medical school) are in these profes- sional schools. In like manner, a large staff of teachers may mean that much time is allowed the members for original work, or it may only be swelled by a great many lecturers, clinical assistants, and others giving but partial time, in the professional schools ; or most like- ly, as in the University of California, both causes unite. Were it worth while, one might go on to compare the leading universities as to number of courses offered, or titles of articles published by their members ; superficial enough comparisons, for the length of such Ijsts put forth bears no certain relation to value. In those less measurable things that go to make up the greatness of a univer- sity, it is safe to say that the University 1892 ] The University of California. 341 of California is greater, rather than less, than its general repute, greater than its repute in the East, because the East is ignorant of developments in letters to the westward ; greater than its repute here, because we have not yet faith in ourselves in these higher matters, and lean somewhat timidly and provincially on Eastern opinion. Just as Professor Bryce found Americans most apologetic with regard to their universities, their most hopeful institution in his judg- ment, while confident enough about their politics, their press, their cities, one may find Californians bearing them- selves toward their own best possession. The opinion of men who have seen Drawn from an old wood cut THE COLLEGE SCHOOL. the University at Berkeley somewhat thoroughly, after knowing the best uni- versities elsewhere ; the ease with which its graduates compete with those of the most famous American universities in the graduate schools ; the personal cal- iber of its leading men, as one may just- ly enough measure it against that of distinguished men who visit us, or are known to us by their books, - all these means of estimating the rank of their University justify Californians in feel- ing that it holds a very honorable place among those of the country. II. THE beginning of Harvard within fifteen years after the settlement of Massachusetts, "That sound learning may not perish from among us," has Drawn from an old wood cut by Van Vleck and Kehh THE COLLEGE OF CALIFORNIA. always been a cause of just pride ; but it was a matter of public consent and pub- lic taxation, a thing in which the whole community was at one. The founding of the College of California, if less to the honor of the community, was more to the honor of the small guard of men that achieved such results in an indiffer- ent, sometimes even a hostile, commu- nity. And this began with the very year the discovery of gold brought the rush of Americans to the Territory, not yet a State, barely out of Mexican posses- sion, and still under Mexican law. In the very first of this rush, several zealous young clergymen started for California, filled with the purpose of seeing that the things of the spirit should not be forgotten in the craze for gold, and be it said in passing, not one of them was enticed away from that purpose when they came into that fast and furious early-day life. Three of them were on the first steamer that sailed for California. At New Orleans they over- took another, a young Dartmouth man, Mr. Samuel H. Willey, who had started before the news of the discovery of gold, and who stopped at Monterey. Here still lived Thomas O. Larkin, the most important American citizen there ; a Massachusetts man by birth and breed- ing, though he had been years in Califor- nia as United States Consul. As soon as they were fairly acquainted, the two men began to talk of founding a college. Un- 342 The University of California. [Oct. like the gold-seekers, who expected to fill their pockets and go home, these men regarded their homes as fixed here, be- lieved in the future of the community, and meant that its foundation should not be laid entirely in materialism. On the voyage out, indeed, the passengers of this first steamer had kept the anni- versary of the landing of the Pilgrims, with resolutions pledging themselves to found a State in like spirit. There were a few others scattered about the Territory now early 1849- with whom Mr. Willey and Mr. Larkin communicated, and who joined in the plan at once ; and during the summer of '49, in spite of the overwhelming occupa- tions of that time, the vast roadless dis- tances and irregular communication, they managed to shape everything in readiness to charter the college as soon as a constitution should be adopted, and a law passed for granting such charter. They secured promise of land for an en- dowment ; they corresponded with the Harvard and Yale authorities as to method of organization (Mr. Larkin was a kinsman of Dr. Rogers, one of the Harvard overseers ; Mr. Sherman Day, another of the group, was son of the president of Yale), selected a board of trustees, and drafted a law. It was to be a Christian, but not a sectarian college ; all were agreed on that. Not only was the environment heavily against sectarian- ism, fourteen or fifteen tiny churches in 150,000 square miles of territory, mak- ing such way as they could against the reckless abundance of counter institu- tions ; but the sentiment of the circle was Photo by r.ibbs OAKS, LOOKING TOWARD THE CINDER TRACK. 1892.] The University of California. Photo by Taber ACTING PRESIDENT MARTIN KELLOGG. against it, and rudimentary effort look- ing toward a Presbyterian college came to nothing. The sort of educated young men that were drawn to early California were less likely to be fettered by pre- judices and partisanships than the aver- age of their time. Their very first let- ter, written after Mr. Willey's earliest conferences with Mr. Larkin, led Dr. Rogers in his answer to warn them of the magnitude of the work of creating a university according to the highest idea then held in America of such an institution ; and nothing less than the best seems to have been contemplated by them from the first. The first Legislature met in Decem- ber. A knot of the friends of the col- lege were on the ground, Mr. Willey riding by night and in the rain across the mountains from Monterey to "get there. Their first attention was given to the interests of the future common schools, but they secured their law for chartering colleges. The law provided, as a proper safeguard, that $20,000 of property must be secured before a char- ter should be given. This provision unexpectedly defeated the plan for sev- eral years. Mr. Frederick Billings ap- plied for a charter in behalf of Ches- ter A. Lyman, Sherman Day, Forrest Shepard, Frederick Billings, and S. H. Willey, trustees ; but the Supreme Court, in which the power of granting charters had been placed, decided that in the unsettled condition of titles the lands promised (mainly by Dr. James Stokes and Kimball H. Dimmick), along the Guadaloupe Creek, near San Jose, did not fulfill the property requirement. The result of this set-back was that the promises of land lapsed. The friends of the college now planned UHIVBRSIT7 344 The University of California. [Oct. to begin over again by getting a prepara- tory school under way. They were ex- ceedingly busy men, in a time when all activities were carried on with an over- whelming rush and pressure : no one could take on himself the charge of establishing the school. The churches were not interested in the matter as churches ; the college circle, though mostly clergymen or active members of the pioneer churches, acted as individ- uals. In 1851 their hope of united action for an undenominational college was broken into by the Methodists, who began the foundation at San Jose of the " California Wesleyan College," after- ward the " University of the Pacific." The idea of State aid evidently hov- ered somewhat about the minds of the college-builders from the first, but it was always discouraged by their East- ern advisers. It was at a time after the colonial colleges had detached them- From Painting by Keith JOSEPH LKCONTE, PROKKSSOR OF GEOLOUY AND NATURAL HISTORY. selves from public control, and before the day of State university success - when there was a strong reaction against allowing the State any hand in the higher education. They themselves, in spite of the unsectarian spirit of their plan, were loath to think of excluding religious instruction altogether. " Men- tal and Moral Philosophy and the Evi- dences of Christianity," were the sub- jects of Doctor Willey's central regret when the College passed into the hands of the State, a wasted regret as far as the philosophy is concerned, for that is taught freely in State universities now ; but many adjustments that have since been learned seemed impossible then. On the May-day of 1853 a rather re- markable thing happened. A scholarly looking stranger, "in appearance the very embodiment of the ideal college professor," -came up from the just- arrived Panama steamer to Mr. Willey's house in San Francisco, bringing the best of letters from New England, and said that he had come to work for a col- lege, and wished to begin at once. This was Henry Durant : "a man first fine, and then re-fined," President Oilman said to the students when he died ; an example to them of the result of mak- ing the highest choices, mental, moral, and social, for generations. He was born at Acton, Mass., June 17, 1802; educated at Phillips Academy, Andover, and at Yale, where he gradu- ated in 1827, in the same class with Horace Bushnell. He was four years a tutor in Yale, then studied theology there, was ordained and settled as pastor at Byfield, Massachusetts ; and after quietly ministering there for fifteen years, this serene clerical scholar al- ready more than fifty years old, departed from that quiet harbor, and set out to the remote California of 1853, "with college on the brain," he said. It was surely one of the most curious and hon- orable incidents in the history of college founding. 1892.] The University of California. 345 A month later, he began a " college school," of three boys, in a building in the new hamlet of Oakland, which he had rented for $150 a month, gold coin, payable in advance; the house to be kept by a man and his wife whose wages were to be another $150, gold, in advance. Mr. Durant was the oldest Californian of them all, or the youngest man of them all, as far as venturesome- ness was concerned. Twenty years later, President Gilman, after trying in vain to get him to write down some of his experiences, persuaded him to talk before a stenographer. The stories thus preserved have been told several times in print, but there are new readers each time, and those who are familiar with them will pardon me for not leav- ing them out. The school had not gone on three months before there were arrears. "My housekeepers -- Quinn was the man's name began to be alarmed. He said that whatever did not succeed in two months and a half in California never would succeed. He could not trust me any longer. One morning I went up-stairs as usual to my school. It got to be time for luncheon, and I went down-stairs, and found nothing prepared. Quinn had squatted on the lower part of the house, and put out his shingle : ' Lodgers and boarders ^wanted here. Drinks for sale at the bar.' He had got up a bar-room with his bottles in it. I sent out to a restaurant, and got a luncheon for the boys. Then I went down-town to a lawyer's, and entered a complaint before a Police Court extem- porized for the occasion. Quinn was summoned to appear. He was found guilty of getting up a nuisance, and was ordered to desist and pay a fine of $5. Meanwhile I went up to clear out his fixings. " He came up, and wanted to know what I was about. I told him what I was going to do. He told me to desist. I told him that I had made a beginning, From Painting by H. Raschen PRESIDENT JOHN* LECONTK, PROFESSOR OF PHYSICS. and was not going to stop until I had made an end of it. He got into a rage, laid his hands on me with considerable force, and was pushing me away, when suddenly he became pale as a cloth, lifted up his hands over his head, and began to pray. He begged that I would pray for him that God would have mercy on his soul." " I suppose he had a dim vision of the future glories of the University of Cal- ifornia," President Gilman suggested, in play. " No," said Dr. Durant, quite serious- ly, " I think it was not that. His religion came to my relief. He had an impres- sion that he had laid hands on a con- secrated person, and thought he was committing the unpardonable sin. He regarded me as a priest, and had been so taught. I think that was the secret of it. He told me I need not trouble 346 The University of California. [Oct. myself to move the things ; he would d6 it." While going on with the school, Mr. Durant was looking for a permanent site, and selected a spot on a new road, now Twelfth Street, about to be opened to what was then San Antonio. "Just at this time, 'the jumpers,' as they are called --a certain order of squatters - - assembled in pretty large numbers at the end of Broadway - - two or three hundred of them. It seems a plan had been arranged, and they had been gathering in small numbers until there was a large crowd of them. They were discussing, haranguing, and work- ing themselves up to the point of taking possession of all the unoccupied grounds in Oakland. Learning what they were about, that they were about to take possession of the various lands of the city, and divide them off by drawing lots, giving each one something, I went down into that crowd, took off my hat, got their attention somehow, and proclaimed that negotiations were pend- ing for the purpose of securing four blocks that had been selected for the purpose of building a college. A motion was made that three cheers be given for the coming college. A committee was appointed to take charge of these four blocks, to keep them safe from inter- ference from any quarter, and to hold them sacred to the use for which they had been voted." The old circle of friends backed Mr. Durant cordially, and now a subscription was raised to put up a building on the site thus obtained. The funds ready in hand gave out before it was quite com- plete. Contractors had been known in such cases to borrow the money to finish, take a lien on the house, put in a man with a pistol to keep the owner away, and ultimately get the house. Mr. Durant suspected that something of the sort was breeding, and consulted a lawyer, who advised him to regard him- self as owner and take possession. " I came over at night, took a man with me, went into the house, put a table, chairs, etc., into one of the rooms up-stairs, 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 did n'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 be- ginning 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 con- tractor came back with two burly fel- lows. They came into the room, and helped themselves to seats. I had no means of defense except an axe that was under the bed. The contractor said to one of the men : ' Well, what will you do ? ' Said he : 'If you ask my ad- vice, I say, proceed summarily,' and he began to g-t up. I rose, too, then - about 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 a trespass upon my property, but you will do vio- lence upon 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 house is the square one shown in the sketch, p. 341, which is from an old engraving. The school prospered, and after a while money enough was raised for a second building. In 1855 the College of California was incorpor- ated, and then a search was begun for a fine, ample, well watered tract, which by beginning thus early might be se- cured for a permanent site without extravagant cost. It chanced that in 1856 Dr. Horace Bushneil was sojourn- 1892.] Tlie University of California. 347 ing in California for the sake of his health, and became an enthusiastic ally of the college. He took on himself the investigation of sites, and by stage, in the saddle, on foot, explored the whole circumference of the bay, and the Napa and Sonoma valleys, reporting in writ- ing on all suitable sites. The letters written during the many weeks of these tours form an interesting chapter in his "Life and Letters." The final result was the selection of the present site of Berkeley. The name was not given till ten years later : it was suggested by Mr. Frederick Billings, in memory of Berkeley's well-known stanzas, begin- ning, The Muse, disgusted at an nge and clime. They are curiously appropriate, and as one will see on glancing them over seem in some respects written rather for California than for the Atlantic States. Before leaving the State, Mr. Bush- nell wrote an "Appeal" to the public for the college, from which I quote a passage or two : They [the trustees] propose to create not an academy only, nor a high school, but a college ; nor this only, in its most limited and historic sense, but a college that will be the germ of a proper univer- sity, and will not fulfill its idea till it becomes on the western shore what Harvard and Vale are on the other ; and finally, such as evf n they are not, except in a rudimental and initial 'way. They are not unadvised, the appeal goes on to say, of the immense expend- iture necessary ; and it is curious in view of the figures quoted in the begin- ning of this article to see his illustra- tion of the cost of a great college : Har- vard, he says, has about a million and a half of property, $600,000 in active cap- ital, and still complains of sore restric- tions for want of means ; the College of California should have $500,000 to begin with. He warns against a State univer- sity, and gives a vivid picture of the con- ditions of such, the students rushing into the cabals of party to oust some obnoxious president or professor, learn- ing and science draggling in the mires of uneasiness and public intrigue. The sooner, therefore, you are disabused as a peo- ple, of any expectation of a university to be created by the State, the better it will be for you. It can have no other effect than simply to postpone those private responsibilities which have been too long delayed already. You can never have a university worthy of your place as the central and first Slate of the Pacific, unless you call it into being by your own private munificence. From Painting by Benoni Irwiu PRKSIDENT DANIBL C. G1LMAX. None the less for some prophecies now falsified, the appeal is a noble doc- ument, one of the finest papers con- nected with the history of the Univer- sity. The students of the University should be kept familiar with it, if merely as literature. In 1860, a Freshman class of eight was ready, and Mr. Durant turned over the preparatory school to Rev. Isaac 348 The University of California. [Oct. Photo by Taber EUGENE W. HILGARD, PROFESSOR Op- AGRICULTURE AND AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY. Brayton, and began college work. Mr. Martin Kellogg (Yale, '50) was called from his church in Grass Valley, and Mr. Brayton also gave some time to the college classes. From this time the college went on as a separate institution for nine years, increasing its staff and the number of its students, having a good repute educa- tionally, and holding its main require- ments well up to the best standards of the country at that date. So many of its nearest friends were Yale men, Profes- sor Durant, Professor Kellogg, Sherman Day, Doctor Benton, Doctor Bushnell, and a number of others, that it took a decided Yale coloring, of which glimpses are even now discernible through the various superimposed layers. If any shadow ever disturbed the perfect con- fidence and unanimity even affection- ate regard among the builders of the College, the memory of it has not been kept. I should think such a group of men, so cordially united and to such ends, must b2 rare in the early history of communities. The College never had a president. After two or three years, Mr. Willey was urged to become " vice-president " - act- ing president, we should say now till the place could be filled. Doctor Bush- nell, Doctor Shedd, and Doctor Hitch- cock, were successively asked to take it, but would not leave the Eastern environ- ment for that of California. Professor Durant seems to have regarded himself and to have been regarded as a teacher, not an administrative manager. There was no endowment, and the Col- lege was never free from financial strug- gle. By the time it was incorporated, the "flush times " had passed : " I know very well," says Bushnell in his appeal, "the heavy pressure nowfelt of debt and discouragement, the devouring rates of interest, the depressions of prices, the uncertainties of titles, the cessations of profits, and the general collapse of all that can be called prosperity. There could not, therefore, be a worse time, many will say, for the endowment of any such institution." Appeals made in the East for endowment by Professor Kel- logg and Mr. Willey, backed by Pres- ident Woolsey, President Hopkins, Doc- tor Leonard Bacon, Professor Park, Doctor Storrs, and others, failed to bring forth the help usually given in the East to Western educational beginnings. It seems strange to them to this day, and they attribute it as did the people to whom they talked to the feeling in the East that it was absurd to send money to California, the place that gold came from. Perhaps the non-sectarian char- acter of the College had much to do with it : a non-sectarian institution gets praise and public sympathy for its liberality, while the money goes to the sectarian ones; the church people feel that their "first efforts are due to their own," and the non-church-going people, in New Photo by Waters HUGGINS BRIDGE OVER STRAWBERRY CREEK 350 Tlie University of California. [Oct. England at least, do not give as largely been reported back from various com- in any case. With slight exceptions, all mittees, it was finally turned over to a the funds for the College of California commission, at the head of which was had to be raised here, in a period that Professor J. D. Whitney, then on the covered the time of the great depression Geological Survey in this State. This spoken of by Doctor Bushnell, the war was in 1863. This commission drafted time, and the first years of recovery from a plan which resulted in the Act of 1866, the war. A great deal was raised. Two establishing a College of Agriculture good buildings were put up in Oakland, and Mechanic Arts, to which Mining was the site at Berkeley, with a good deal of added, and constituting a board of di- adjoining land for residence lots, was rectors, presided over by the Governor, purchased, a plan for laying out the This board had power to locate and or- grounds by Frederick Law Olmsted ganize the school, provided only that it obtained, extensive water rights secured, should not be connected with any other and the College carried on for nine years, institution of learning, nor be in any All this was done by continuous sub- manner connected with or controlled by scriptions from business men as usual, any religious sect. not the wealthiest ones, but generally Why the provision against connect- the well-to-do. Many weeks the acting ing it with any other institution was president walked up and down the put in, I do not know, nor whether it was streets, climbing to men's offices and due to Professor Whitney : it could not obtaining these subscriptions. Nor was have been intentionally directed against the effort to get large endowments ever the College of California, nor intended relaxed; among others, several men were to check the expansion of the agricul- appealed to who have since become tural school plan into a university, for founders of other institutions ; but none Professor Whitney, in an address to the of them at that time was at all moved. College, had spoken with a good deal of In 1867 the trustees faced the situation approval of State universities, that their property, though not incon- The success of Michigan University, siderable, consisted entirely of real es- which was founded before the reaction tate, which at present yielded no income, against State aid set in, had greatly and that their current expenses had with tempered that dread everywhere. In the growth of the College risen beyond the West it was now felt to be a less what could be met by subscriptions any danger than the multiplication of pri- longer. Indeed, they were already in vate and sectarian foundations it had arrears. led to. The trustees of the College of California had not failed to note all this ; III. and other guests of distinction besides Professor Whitney had called their at- IN 1862 Congress passed the Act giv- tention to it, notably Professor Silliman. ing those States still containing public In any event, if a State university were lands a grant of such lands for purposes really to be started, the one great uni- of instruction in Agriculture and Me- versity on this Coast, which had always chanic Arts. California had also a small been their goal, would become impossi- Seminary Fund, which, set apart for no ble except by consolidation. The terms very specific use, had been allowed to of the Act of 1866, however, and the ev- accumulate. The State soon began to try ident intention of making a merely to avail itself of the national grant, but technical school, seemed to put out of the Legislature could come to no agree- the question any thought they had had ment about it, and after the matter had of such an event. 1892.] TJie University of California. 351 Governor Low, however, the head of the board that had charge of organizing the school, was as it chanced one of the firmest friends of the College, and a regular subscriber to its funds. He was also much disposed to a State uni- versity, instead of a State technical school. It was legally possible so to construe the act under which the "Col- lege of Agriculture, Mining, and Me- chanic Arts " was organized, as to make it a sort of university, by the addition of minor courses of liberal arts, even without other sources of income than those provided for by the Act. There was no obstacle whatever to making these industrial courses even a minor part of a great university, if the addi- tiftnal income demanded were provided for elsewhere. There would be room for some delicate questions of division of funds, but nothing that could not be settled by honest effort. When the directors of the proposed school had fixed upon a site two miles north of Berkeley, the nearness seemed to bring to a focus the floating talk there had been of consolidation, and Governor Low apparently was the one that made the definite suggestion, while talking over the financial difficulties. The form of the law seemed to forbid it, but there was one way in which it could be done : the College could give its property to the State, on a clear understanding that this should be made the fulcrum for turn- ing the technical school into a univer- sity. Desire of seeing all forces united on the one hand, financial pressure on the other, settled the matter. It was necessary to shape things quickly, for the Legislature was soon to meet. The trustees of the College and the directors charged with organizing the technical school came to a cordial understanding : and on October 9th, 1867, the trustees adopted resolutions offering their prop- erty to the State. The first resolution offered the site at Berkeley without condition ; the second declared that "in Photo by Taber BERNARD MOSES, PROFESSOR OF HISTORY AND POLITICAL ECONOMY. making this donation, the College of California is influenced by the earnest hope and confident expectation " that the State would forthwith establish on this site a university, which should in- clude several technical colleges, and also an " Academic College"; the third, that the trustees would enter into con- tract that upon the establishment of such university they would disincorpor- ate, and turn over all their remaining property to the university. These resolutions were form ulated by John W. Dwinelle, and the trustees of the College were a little disappointed at the precedence given the technical " colleges " over that of liberal arts ; but on the representation that it was neces- sary thus to present it to the Legislature, they yielded the point. It may seem that the unconditioned gift of the site in the first resolution left them at the mercy of the Legislature in case it chose 352 The University of California. [Oct. to accept the site and decline to fulfill the "expectation" of the second; but as a matter of fact the offer was con- veyed to the Legislature incorporated in a bill for the establishment of a univer- sity which should include the school of technology already provided for. The bill was endorsed by the directors of this school, included provisions for the appointment of regents, and had been agreed upon in consultation with the trustees of the College of California. The bill did not pass without opposi- tion, one scheme was presented for breaking up the property into a series of schools, scattered about the State. Mr. Willey went up to Sacramento, and did what he could for its passage ; and Mr. Dwindle and Mr. Felton carried it through. It passed March 21, and on the 27th, an appropriation was made for the support of the proposed university. The date of the Governor's signing the bill, March 23, has since been celebrated yearly at the University as " Charter Day." This great step safely accomplished, the next was the appointment of regents. Six of these were and still are c.v officio ; sixteen are now named by the Governor, and confirmed by the Senate, but at first only eight were chosen in this manner, the other eight being se- lected by the board itself. Mr. Low was no longer Governor. Governor Haight had been elected while the arrangements with the College of California were going on. He was a graduate of Yale, a man interested in education, and of liberal ideas ; he had in his inaugural address urged the Uni- versity bill, as did Governor Low in his retiring address. He had cordial per- sonal acquaintance with members of the College of California board ; but he had not followed the course of the College as closely as Governor Low. When Governor Haight's appoint- ments came out, there was some surprise at them. The regents named, and those in turn named by them, were good citi- zens and earnest friends of education, Photo by \Vateis THE UNIVERSITY AND THE GOLDEN GATE. 1892. The University of California. 353 but they were not the men that people expected. For one thing, there was but slight representation of the College of California on the board. I have taken some pains to talk with friends of Gov- ernor Haight about these appointments, and I am satisfied that from his point of view at that time the College did not play any very large part in the University question. It had been possible for him- self and other friends of the Univer- sity to make use of its gift in bringing about this great foundation, but the gift itself he and the others about him did not regard as of much value. The College was crippled with debts, and though it had property enough to cover them it was all in real estate, that might not be available for many years, while the debts would have to be paid at once by the State. The College came before him with the aspect of financial failure. Its aims were lofty, its men to be re- vered; but it had not "got there." It was first of all necessary so to organize the University that there should be no failure in practical efficiency. There was an important endowment to come into the management of this board, and in such a shape that it might be frit- tered to nothing, or nursed to something very large. He meant, first of all, that the endowment should be safe ; he did not wish a board of clergymen and scholars, but of financiers. Then, too, he felt under certain restrictions of se- lection : the majority of the board must oe of the dominant party ; probably the Legislature would not have consented to anything else. . In this case the dominant party was Democratic, and as the College of California men were al- most exclusively Republicans, five out of the eight nominations necessarily went away from them. Governor Haight was a Northern Democrat himself, but the Southern Democrats were a strong body in the State, and had to be con- sidered. Between this wing of the Democracy - - pro-slavery men in the earliest California struggles, secessionist VOL. at the time the State was with difficulty held in the Union and the New Eng- land men in the State, there was little sympathy ; without actual antagonisms, they still fell into different social groups, and did not come naturally into co-oper- ation. In spite of the most faithful effort to be non-political and non-secta- rian, the College of California had by sheer force of gravitation become mainly Congregational, and almost exclusively of New England. This Governor Haight intended to break up; he meant to make the University as broad-based as the population of the State. He planned to represent North and South, Catholic, and Protestant, and Jew, on the board. It was all good and wise ; but after talk- ing with those who can give me light upon it, and reading over the first vol- ume of the records of the board, I am forced to conclude that among these adjustments he failed to make enough of the need of university knowledge in such a body. The men in California who had studied college plans closely, and had advised constantly for years with college managers in the older States were not on the board. The difficulty was in some respects impossi- ble of solution : in 1868 New England was the only section of the country that had universities, and a board fairly dis- tributed sectionally could not be the most skilled in college management. This first board contained many ad- mirable men, several of them ideal regents. But as a body they or so their record impresses me took hold of the work of laying the foundations of the institution with an inadequate sense of its difficulty, except on the financial side. The pages are filled with notes of their careful considera- tion and re-consideration of sales of lands ; but their first important step educationally was in open meeting, without even nominations at a previous meeting, much less a committee to cor- respond and consider to elect a presi- dent. They elected General McClellan, 354 The University of California. [Oct. and ex-Governor Low resigned in con- the Commonwealth" manifested in the sequence, --the first ripple of political resolutions of gift; their recognition in trouble, which afterward was abundant those resolutions of "the incipient germ enough, from outside the board at least, of the State University " ; and their in- General McClellan declined, and though tent to " preserve, cherish, and carry there were a good many nominations, forward to posterity those trusts in the no president was actually elected till same enlightened spirit in which they are after the organization was complete. confided to us." Meantime, November 10, Professor The presence on the board of Dr. Kellogg was nominated to the chair of Horatio Stebbins, president of the Col- Ancient Languages, and elected Decem- lege trustees, was the thing that espe- ber i. At the intervening meeting, daily helped in all adjustments. Dr. Professor John Le Conte, whose name Stebbins is still on the board, an active had first been brought before the board and valued member. In November the by a letter from Professor Pierce, of consolidation was completed, the total Harvard, was nominated and elected, liabilities accepted by the regents being thus becoming the senior professor. On reported to the Legislature at $49,030.04, December i, also, Professor Joseph Le against a value of $80,000, exclusive of Conte and Professor R. A. Fisher were the two sites in Berkeley and Oakland, nominated and elected. which four years later were reported as During this year of 1868-69 the Col- worth $350,000. lege of California was asked to continue I have more than once asked why, instruction, while the gift of the site with a property of so much real value having been accepted the offer of the in spite of embarrassments, the College remaining property was held under con- of California could not have taken sideration. It was accepted on April 5, stronger ground. Any one who has had 1869, and the University advanced the todo with businessmen, however, knows money for payment of arrears during the light in which they look upon a the year ; while the professors so far property whose values are not yet avail- chosen for the University gave instruc- able, and which is in distress for imme- tion in the College. It was agreed that diate funds. And there was a still more the University should take over unbrok- potent difficulty in this case : the offer en the courses of the College, which, in of the property had first of all to pass a fact, would practically constitute the Legislature which had no great desire to " College of Letters." In some of these see a University founded, and was ready negotiations, the regents seem to have to be deflected by a feather's weight been unnecessarily curt with the Col- from considering it at all. Some light lege ; but one learns it only from the is thrown on this point by the fact, of regents' own record ; the College trus- which I am credibly told, that certain of tees carried their part of the negotiation the worldlier friends of the proposed through, so far as appears, with an un- university were obliged to use some sharp failing urbanity and readiness for con- politics to prevent the defeat of the cession that doubtless had joint origin whole plan in the interest of other sites, in their financial disadvantage and their which men with land adjoining were anxiety to fix the course of liberal arts anxious to present, firmly in the University, at the cost of It may be said, therefore, that the whatever other sacrifice. In their form- price received by the College for the al acceptance of the College, however, Berkeley site was the establishment of a the regents express "their profound ap- university instead of a technical school ; preciation of the far-seeing public spirit, and for the remainder of the property, devotion to learning, and to the good of the privilege of organizing the course of 1892.] The University of California. 355 the " College of Letters " in accordance with their own standards, Professor Kel- logg passing over into the University to do this. The importance of this privilege may be measured by the fact that for some years the matriculation require- ment for the classical course was high- er by a full year than that for the other courses ; and this was doubtless the most potent means of drawing up the others to the same standard. The thing that the College men desired in addition to receive, and were disappointed in not receiving, was a guarantee of the secur- ity and prominence of the course of Letters. In 1869 the University opened its ses- sions, Professor John Le Conte acting as president. Professor Le Conte had also been charged with the organization of the courses, the planning of the build- ings, which were now under way, and in general the mapping out of the Univer- sity. The regents were fortunate in his broad-minded and scholarly counsel. The faculty was filled out with several more appointments, and the sessions opened with unshadowed promise. IV. IN January, 1870, Mr. Tompkins suc- ceeded in obtaining from the Legislature an additional endowment of tidelands. The dependence on the Legislature was bound to be close, for appropriations were needed from time to time, and the very organization and existence of the University rested on a law, which could be repealed at any time. Mr. Tompkins became the guardian of its interests, perhaps its most effective friend, during the remaining years of his life. He was a Union College man, born in Oneida County, New York, "a student of lit- erary and philosophical subjects, an earnest advocate of the higher education, and the generous friend of all good un- dertakings in the community where he dwelt." I quote the resolutions offered by Dr. Stebbins in the board of regents when Mr. Tompkins died, nearly three years after this. It was a most fortunate thing for the University that it had his services for these few years, but most unfortunate that it lost him when it did, before the time of its great struggle with the Legislature. In this three years Doctor Durant had been made president of the University (Aug. 1 6, 1870) ; had retired after two years of service, being then just seventy years old ; and after a few years, during which he dwelt, a venerable and honored figure, in Oakland, giving to its young people a little of that training in rever- ence that is common in the older col- lege towns, he died suddenly, January 22, 1875, while presiding at a dinner of ke- Berkeley Club, and speaking on the subject, "The Good Time Coming." He was Mayor of Oakland at the time of his death. His theology, never very rigid, relaxed notably in his last days, and he followed his pastor, the late Rev. L. Hamilton, out of the Presbyterian Church, as a protest against the doc- trine of eternal punishment. Upon his retirement, Professor D. C. Oilman, of the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale, was elected president. He had been asked once before to take the chair, and had refused. He now accepted, and was- on the ground by the beginning of September, 1872. He was received with the utmost cordiality ; the regents seem to have been eager to co-operate with him, and uphold him in every way. He found the University going on smoothly enough. A preparatory department had been organized, with the strict under- standing that it was to be a merely tem- porary arrangement, until the high schools should be encouraged to assume the preparatory work ; and in fact it was dropped after two or three years, thus closing the last phase of the old Col- lege School, which had been consolidat- ed with it. On motion of Regent But- terworth, by a unanimous vote, women had been admitted to the University "on 356 The University of California. [Oct. equal terms in all respects": this was October 3, 1870, so that it was not pos- sible for any women to become regular students in any class before that of '74 ; one woman graduated with that class. An incident of the same period that may be worth mentioning is Bret Harte's election (Aug. 16, 1870) as "Professor of Recent Literature and Curator of the Library and Museum," at the highest salary given by the University, an ap- pointment that he, however, declined. The University was still holding ses- sions in the old College buildings in Oakland, while those at Berkeley slowly progressed. President Oilman's administration was singularly successful ; a new orderliness, vigor, and aspiration filled every depart- ment. One of his first acts was to have the president invited to attend the meet- ings of the board, with a right to discuss ; and later he was made an ex officio mem- ber. The records of the regents begin to be thronged with acknowledgments of gifts, large and small, the largest that of the Francis Lieber library, from Michael Reese. 1 The curt, business-like style of their own communications changes to one of attentive courtesy, under which some old difficulties chiefly concerning proposed affiliated schools melted away. But troubles were brewing from out- side. The cost of the main brick build- ing then called the College of Agri- culture had surprised every one, and work on it had been more than once suspended for long periods. In conse- quence, the North Hall, then called the College of Letters, had been hastily and cheaply put up. The Legislature of 1872-73 became suspicious as to both buildings. Moreover, this was in the height of the Granger political move- tnent ; there was a sentiment of injury among the farmers easily precipitated on any class or institution. They were not satisfied with the working of the College 1 When Mr. Reese died, his will added a bequest of $50,000 to this gift, for library purpose*. of Agriculture, as one branch of a mani- fold institution ; they felt that the ori- ginal grant had been given for a "School of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts," and that the University should in fact be this, and this only. The State Grange memorialized the Legislature on the subject. The result was an unfriendly legislative investigation, on the two sub- jects of the buildings and of the instruc- tion in agriculture and mechanic arts. One of the regents, Dr. Merritt, who had been responsible for the erection of the wooden building complained of as defective, was charged with direct fraud. He was exonerated from any such charge, and, with the rest of the building committee, from that of neg- ligence ; and the regents and President Gilrnan stood by him and by each other in the whole investigation. But he shortly resigned from the board, and never had anything further to do with the University ; when he died, what he had to give to education went to Bowdoin College. The other branch of the investigation did not end so promptly. Each speci- fication contained in the inquiry had been given to the proper person, to an- swer by a full exhibit of the facts. The professor of agriculture, Professor Ezra Carr, answered the inquiry as to the con- dition of the agricultural instruction in a way that practically endorsed the dissatisfaction of the State Grange. Professor Carr and his wife, the well- known writer and horticulturist, Jeanne C. Carr, had just joined the local grange, and Mrs. Carr in especial was much in sympathy with the Granger movement. The real contention was that between the technical school idea and the uni- versity idea, which had been supposed to be settled in favor of the university, and which was now entirely re-opened. But . there were already several of the faculty in antagonism with President Gilman, on personal and administrative grounds rather than matters of opinion, and Professor Carr, with Professor 1892.] Tlie University of California. 357 Swinton, was among these. The regents supported President Oilman, and it was at this very time practically certain that Professor Swinton would resign, as he did the next month. The Legislature was still in session, and he joined in the attack on the University, and published a pamphlet on the subject. The strained relations between Pro- fessor Carr and the University culmin- ated in July, when he was asked to resign, and refusing, was removed. These circumstances excited the Grange and also some of the mechanics' bodies to great hostility to the University, and public sympathy was entirely with them. The storm of denunciation from the press was overwhelming, and most in- temperate. I think that I am right in saying that the Sacramento Record- Union and the San Francisco Bulletin were the only papers of importance that did not join it. " President Gilman and the kid-glove junta," "teaching rich lawyers' boys Greek with the farmers' money," such were types of the daily phrases for months. There was much gross personal abuse, and pamphlets and resolutions of various bodies were added to the tirades of the press. There was in a sense no cessation of this for years ; of course, the newspapers ceased in time to pay much attention to Univer- sity affairs, but some of them have never ceased to fall easily into a hostile tone toward it, and when any difficulty arises concerning it they are ready to take it for granted that the University is to blame. It was plain that the people did not desire a university. They desired to use the word, as more imposing than "tech- nical school," and the fashion through- out the West ; but they wished it to be a. technical school. It gave displeasure that the ancient languages should be taught at all in the institution. Profes- sor Carr was elected State Superintend- ent of Education as a demonstration in his favor. It was a very serious matter, for the University was really at the mercy of the Legislature, which could break it into a series of technical schools, the course which Professor Carr and his wife were then advocating ; and the weight of the Granger vote alone in the Legislature was considerable. In this crisis the conditions of the gitt of the College of California rose to an unexpected importance. It was pointed out unceasingly that the site would have to be forfeited if the College of Letters were given up ; besides other gifts, such as the Lieber library, given to the Uni- versity as such. What would have been the result if it had come to a legal con- flict, it is hard to say : the unceasing labor of the friends of the University in the Legislature, the defense of the two or three friendly papers, the courtesy and tact of the committees that received the legislative committees, and showed them the real good faith in which the departments were being carried on, and the patient good nature with which Pro- fessor Hilgard, the new professor of agriculture, conquered the confidence and friendship of press and people, car- ried the University safely around this, its worst point of danger. The old College of California men, though they doubtless felt their worst fears realized, said nothing of the sort publicly, and defended the University loyally ; but the religious denominations generally fell in with the popular dis- praise for a converse reason : all this, they said, showed the danger of State in- stitutions, the impossibility of preserv- ing classical learning when at the mercy of legislatures. Their especial antagonism was, of course, the absence of religious training, and they were unjustifiably ready to believe ill of the conduct of students of a- " godless State university." The con- duct of the University students, how- ever, has been unusually good, as com- pared with that in other colleges, and no case to justify the worst criticism 358 The University of California. [Oct. ever gave the definite impetus to found- ing sectarian colleges ; so that these have been slow in getting into existence, and to this day, though each denomination now has its foundation, they constitute no serious rivalry to the University. In 1875 President Oilman received a call to found the Johns Hopkins Uni- versity. It was a tempting call, for he was to be free to organize it according to his own plan, making the first real graduate university in the country. It was not to be expected that he would not accept, but it left the University of California in a bad position. It was out of the question to hope that any good man would come from the East to take the presidency. It was too evident that the University had not the backing of the people. It was not indeed certain that it would be in existence many years. The antagonisms within the faculty had not been closed by the departure of Professors Carr and Swinton. A legacy of internal feud was left, which lasted for many years, gathering itself always mainly about the question of technical as opposed to liberal education, or as it was misleadingly called, scientific as op- posed to classical, for no question of pure science was concerned". These differences involved both faculty and regents, and in both bodies there were for a long time two parties, one of which desired in all specific cases that arose the predominance of the technical, or practical, in the University ; while the other stood for the policy President Oilman had left, which seemed to some at the time a preference for the liberal courses, but which I am satisfied was what it claimed to be, the restoration of these to a position of full equality. For some years the colleges of liberal arts were on the whole at a disadvantage. Up to the appointment of Professor Moses, for instance, in the fall of 1875, there was absolutely not a line of in- struction in history or economics in the University With this effort for the development of the University outside the technical courses, the later appointed professors, even of technical specialties, have been in full sympathy, but the earlier men regarded it with suspicion. As the revenues grow, and as it becomes more clearly understood throughout the coun- try what a university is, such differences and ^difficulties disappear. After President Oilman left the Uni- versity, Professor Le Conte served first as acting president, then as president till 1881 ; Mr. W. T. Reid till 1885 ; Pro- fessor Edward S. Holden till 1888; Mr. Horace Davis till 1890. Since then, Professor Kellogg has been acting pres- ident. When the new constitution was adopted, in 1879, the University was firm- ly fixed in it, beyond further reach of leg- islative moods. The "Vrooman Act/' approved February 14, 1887, which made that part of the income derived directly from the State come by a fixed tax in- stead of legislative action, was the final emancipation. In spite of the public clamor against President Oilman, and the presence of a hostile group in his own faculty, the loyalty of the University to him was great, and the great majority of educated people and influential business men outside had especial confidence in him. The regret when he went away was sharp and bitter ; in the long struggle that followed, he was always looked back to as the lost leader ; and by the time that reports of his Eastern success (which his friends did not fail to see thoroughly and reproachfully " rubbed in ") had awed detractors, the period of his administration became the golden age of University tradition to a degree that made a real embarrassment to suc- cessors, it has been said to me that President Oilman himself would be at a disadvantage here in competing with the Oilman tradition. The University has, in fact, at no other time had, or understood itself as having, a per- 1892.] The University of California. 359 manent president. The successive men about the presidency shows that there in the chair have taken it, as Doctor is a weakness somewhere. Other uni- Durant did in the first place, to bridge versities have trouble in finding the a gap and keep things going, or with a right president and keeping him, but sense of experiment on both sides. It not such trouble as we have had. The is this condition of affairs about the press, since its great blunder in the case presidency that now chiefly keeps up in of President Oilman, has been disposed the public mind the discontent with the to support the successive presidents, and University that began in resistance to lay the blame on faculty and regents : the widening of courses. the faculty is insubordinate, and broke Yet, if one will look at net results, down this president ; the regents med- the achievements of the seventeen years died, and broke down that one. since President Oilman went away have There is a certain knowledge of the been enormous. facts in this : insubordinate is a foolish The growth in wealth and numbers word, because a faculty are not the un- speaks for itself. The freedom from derlings of a president, but the faculty political meddling assured by the present has never been well in harmony with arrangement of income, and by constitu- any administration until the present one ; tional provision, is a gain simply inestim- and the regents have felt it right, in the able, and perhaps the real turning-point unsettled condition of the presidency, in the history of the University. The to assume a minuter control of things at accrediting system that now binds Berkeley than they were really corn- together the high schools and the Uni- petent to do. But neither of these versity assures it such a corps of prepar- things is a cause, but a result, of the atory schools as no other university in failure to settle the presidency question. the country has, and makes it give such Let me say frankly, the real difficulty service to public school education as no has been that the regents have not other does. A little of this growth is been good judges of men for university the inevitable result of time, in scatter- purposes. They have come out all right ing alumni throughout the State, to in the long run, and made a good facul- become defenders of the University, ty ; but they have come slowly to see Much of it has come from individual which men to trust for wisdom and fair- good things done by successive pres- ness, and which ones to check, and have idents, though no continuous policy was bred confusions in learning. They will possible. Still more has been done by come out all right with the presidency, certain members of the faculty, who but after years of experiment most try- with a wisdom and devotion that have ing to every one concerned, and ham- never begun to be appreciated, have pering to the University. Of the suc- carried up their own departments, cessive presidents, every one was an smoothed over differences, and by mu- able man, and most successful in his tual consultation and agreement given own special work, not one was pri- the University a steady and upward marily a college president ; not one had policy, without any continuous executive had training inside any great university head, and through difficulties greater elsewhere within recent years, nor fol- than those that have half-wrecked some lowed the developments of university universities. I think the whole faculty administration. Not one was first care- would agree that the chief credit of this fully chosen by the regents, with ref- is due to Professor Kellogg. erence to his special qualifications for The regents, in the last analysis, must the place and with full regard to the take the honor of having made a success wishes of the faculty, and then strongly of the University. Yet the difficulty supported by them. This experimental 360 The University of California. [Oct. way of treating the presidency grew, I and care, with full consultation with the believe, from that same underrating of faculty and inquiry about other universi- the importance of this part of the work ties, for the best president. Either of that was visible from the first. The names the two men between whom they will that have been put in nomination for the almost certainly choose, Professor Kel- presidency first and last make instructive logg and Professor Moses, will be a safe reading. The early regents nominated and able man in the chair, and both are each other ; they nominated military men thoroughly familiar with the University whom they admired ; normal school and its needs. Each is the superior in principals ; personal friends. For many some respects, and there will be differ- years after President Oilman went ence of opinion to the end as to which away a large minority of the regents should be chosen : but whichever it be, were possessed with the idea of disre- he will be loyally supported by faculty and garding scholarship and knowledge of regents. During the two years of Pro- universities altogether, and choosing a fessor Kellogg's acting presidency, the man for industrial success or enthusiasm last remnants of old controversies have for the industrial arts. The recurrent been smoothed away, and if the news- fear that some such destructive blunder papers will refrain from re-creating them would be made though in fact it never there is no reason to expect new ones, was --has injured the relation of the The tone of several of the papers has not faculty to the regents, lowering its con- been good ; they have denounced the re- fidence in them as a body. gents for their. wise delay and long in- In this insufficient appreciation of the quiry ; they have gossiped of the prefer- importance of a university within itself ences expressed among the faculty, as if its men, its traditions, its courses, its their now thoroughly self-respecting and ideals the regents simply represented mutually respectful differences were a the public. They have been chosen by political wrangle. Yet even the papers successive governors, sometimes care- mean reasonably well by the University lessly, oftener to guard the University now, and we may expect that a few years funds, as they have done with unusual more will see their relation to it as won- devotion and skill, perhaps greater than derfully improved as its relations within any other State university has had at itself have become, its service ; rarely for knowledge of and The appointment of alumni upon the sympathy with university ideas. The board of regents has been a great cause pressure from the public has always perhaps the great cause of the bet- been against respect for scholarship (in tered conditions : and though others itself considered, fame and success may deserve the credit as much, it is through scholarship secures public fol- certainly the general disposition of lowing), and against respect for the those who watch University affairs with dignity of a university and its men. interest to give it very largely to Regent "What difference does it make what Rodgers, a graduate of the Class of '72, the hired men over at Berkeley think now a most active and earnest regent, about the president that is to be given cordially trusted by his colleagues, the them?" asked a leading journal, hear- faculty, and the alumni, three bodies ing that some of the faculty had ad- between whom he and the other alumni dressed the regents on the subject. regents supply for the first time a link. I can make the criticism of the re- Some reasons have existed in the con- gents with the better grace, because struction of the board for a slower un- it is now a thing of the past. They are derstanding of the conditions of the seeking, with the utmost deliberation University. It is a very large board - 1892.J The University of California. 361 twenty-two members ; different mem- bers are present at different meetings, and points already nearly settled are lia- ble to be unsettled over and over, to the annoying delay of all business. It has .six ex officio members, who come in and go out in a body every four years. A constitutional change, cutting off all the y T.il er. THK HOPKINS -SKAKI.KS MANSION. 592 '/'he University of California. [Dec. MAIN HALL IN THE HOPKINS-SEARLKS MANSION. the degree. The Polyclinic is primarily a charity, incorporated in 1889 by a group of San Francisco physicians, with Dr. J. H. Stallard as president, for the purpose of giving free daily clinics to the poor, and is supported by funds raised by a board of Lady Patronesses. It is attended by forty-one physicians, and had last year 20,881 visitors. Its trustees had long wished to turn to ac- count, for purposes of instruction, the great amount of material at hand, think- ing that a purely clinical course, open only to those already graduates in medi- cine, would be most beneficial to the standards of the profession here. An attempt had been made to organize such a course, but it had failed to obtain students. On the other hand, the Uni- versity medical school wished to have a graduate year, making its course really four years, though it did not feel able to require more than three as a condi- tion of the degree. Accordingly, an affiliation was made in May, 1891, ac- cording to which the Polyclinic retains its own management and its character as a charity, while conducting at the same time the graduate course of the Medical Department of the Univer- sity. The course is open to all who hold regular medical degrees, but those who hold them from the University are asked but one third of the fees. Among its advantages will be a com- plete apparatus for bacteriological study, the gift of R. H. McDonald, now on its way from Berlin. Hitherto there have been no facilities of the sort on the Coast. The undergraduate course also includes clinical instruction, for which there is exceptional chance in the fact that many of the teaching staff are also on the staff of the City and County Hospital ; the school has charge of sev- eral wards there, and four graduates every year have the privilege of appoint- ment as internes. In this very impor- tant matter of clinical teaching a small school of good character has a real ad- vantage over the great schools ; the student may see close at hand every 1892.] Tlie University of California. 593 operation, and learn much by actual fear it would overcrowd the profession, handling ; while in the great schools he Its graduates have ranked well, although must often see from a distance, even all are still young ; five are on the Supe- th rough opera glasses, I am told. rior bench (all of these regular Univer- Immediately after the Medical De- sity graduates also), and several have partment was organized, in 1873, Pres- been district attorneys, ident Oilman suggested the affiliation The circumstances of the contem- of a school of pharmacy which had been plated affiliation of the School of De- started the year before by the California sign are fresh in every one's mind. Mr. Pharmaceutical Society, then just incor- Searles had offered to the school the porated. The course in the College of famous Hopkins-Searles mansion in Pharmacy is accepted as equivalent to a San Francisco, the bequest of his wife, year's work in the Medical Department, formerly Mrs. Hopkins. The house cost where seven of its graduates are en- perhaps half a million, and though the rolled by the latest register. costly furniture has been removed, is The Hastings College of the Law was remarkable for the opulence of its inside founded in 1878, expressly to belong to finishings, carving, panelings, and tap- the University, although its founder, estries. The School of Design did not Judge Hastings, preferred to put it feel able to accept a gift that would cost under separate trustees, and make the so much in taxes and repairs and bring separate arrangement for its funds men- no income, and it was accordingly offered tioned above. I do not know that there to the University on condition of the is any good end to be gained by this affiliation of the school. The offer was arm's-length sort of connection which accepted, and the deeds have gone for would not be better gained by a full signature to Mr. Searles, who is now union ; but in this case the presence of abroad. so many of the University graduates in The School of Design was founded in the law school makes the connection in 1873 by the San Francisco Art Associa- feeling close. It was the effort of the tion, which was itself founded two years trustees of this school to exclude from earlier by a group of artists and news- it two women, on the ground of their paper men. Colonel Avery, at one time sex, that brought about the Supreme editor of the OVERLAND, and Noah Court decision which fixed the status Brooks, one of its earliest contributors, of affiliated schools as parts of the Uni- were in this group ; J. B. Wandesforde versity. It is to the effect that all reg- was first president of the Association, illations of the University not expressly and Virgil Williams director of the excepted in the articles of affiliation are school from its foundation till his death, binding upon affiliated schools. In ac- There are now five teachers, Arthur F. cordance with this decision two or three Mathews at the head. The school has women have graduated from the law been entirely dependent on its fees and school, and one is now studying there. the membership dues of the Association, A home law school is felt by the Cal- and has no important property except a ifornia bar to be especially important, fine set of antique casts, the gift oS the because law learned elsewhere does not French government, through Pietro prepare for practice under the California Mezzara, then a leading sculptor of Cal- constitution and codes, and the school ifornia. That it has given, in spite of has always been looked on with a good meager facilities, a thorough element- deal of interest and consideration ; ary training seems evident from the though one of its professors speaks of a good standing its graduates have taken "stupid opposition" formerly felt, for in Paris and elsewhere. By the proposed VOL. xx 52. 594 University of California. [Dec. terms of affiliation it will keep its board of directors and the entire management of its funds and its course of study ; the regents are to give certificates upon recommendation of the faculty. The school is to have such occupancy of the building as it needs for purposes of fine art. It covets the stable as its head- quarters, on account of the north light ; the lower floor will be especially adapted to modeling, also. An art museum, occu- pying one floor of the mansion itself, is also talked of, but the school does not yet possess the contents for such a museum. The regents, on their part, expect also to use the building as head- quarters for Extension lectures, and for their own meetings. II. THE ACCREDITING SYSTEM, AND EXTEN- SION WOEK. In its relation to the public school sys- tem the University of California is be- comingespecially strong, stronger than any other great university except that of Michigan, whose method it has followed in the main. The University of Michi- gan was founded as part of a comprehen- sive plan of State education, embra cing every thing, from lowest to highest, as in the Prussian system, by which it was inspired. The definite connection between high school and university was not supplied, however, until 1870, when a sort of voluntary and unofficial relation, corresponding to the official one between the German gymnasia and universities, was established in the " diploma system." The essence of this system is the admission of graduates from certain accredited schools, upon their diplomas, without examination. It is not exactly promotion from high school to univer- sity, as from one grade to another in the same school ; but it is in effect a good deal the same thing, only under such safeguards as surround no other promotion in the whole school system. The system has been adopted in Illi- nois, and attempted, in imperfect form and without much success, by Cornell, Amherst, and Williams. The " Regents' Examination " in New York is a system somewhat akin. The Stanford Univer- sity accepts high school certificates at its discretion, but has no regular ac- crediting system. In California it has had an independent development, not following strictly that of Michigan ; nor does it owe its origin altogether to Michigan. For ten years before it was adopted, there was talk in the Univer- sity of bringing about a better co-opera- tion with the high schools, and efforts were made through conference with the high school teachers to influence and help the preparatory work. During that decade, however, the high schools were by the new constitution cut out from the State public school system, and were experiencing a period of great discouragement. Nothing was really accomplished till the end of 1883 ; a plan of accrediting was then decided on that closely followed that of Michi- gan, whether actually taken from it, or from the same German sources, no one seems to remember clearly ; prob- ably from both, and from the obvious demand of the local situation as well. It was formally adopted by faculty and regents in the spring of 1884. The substance of the system is as follows : The University notifies all preparatory schools that such as request it will be visited and examined on the quality of teaching by a committee from the University, and if found satisfactory will be granted the privilege of entering its graduates without examination. The visiting and examining of the school is in some ways more thorough here than anywhere else. In the first place, in- stead of sending one examiner, to look into the merits of the school in a gen- eral way, the University - - as soon as a request has been received for examina- 1892.] The University of California. 595 tion,and it has been shown by sched- ules of studies and sample examination papers forwarded that the school is really trying to cover the ground of University preparation -- sends from time to time representatives of all de- partments, who remain it may be a whole day listening to the instruction, perhaps taking a class, examining records and papers, conferring with teachers, prin- cipal, and trustees, and in every way getting the fullest attainable idea of the status of the school, each one as to his own department. Upon bringing to- gether the reports of these various visit- ors it is determined whether the school may be accredited or not. Nowhere else in the country is any such searching ex- amination given the school : a committee of one, or at most of two, visits and re- ports ; or, perhaps, at need some com- petent person unconnected with the University is authorized to examine. Moreover, in California the accredited status must be renewed annually ; in Michigan it lasts for three years, unless some material change in the course of studies or teaching corps of the school takes place. This greater vigilance in California, however, may not mean any real superiority in thoroughness, for in Michigan the University deals with strong schools of established standards, manned largely by its own graduates ; here, the work is largely of building up and setting standards. The examination is by no means a mere form, and schools have been re- jected more than once or twice. Since 1888-89 a school may be accredited, however, for one only of the four differ- ent matriculation examinations by which different courses in the University are entered. Usually they prepare for three, which means that the high school does not afford teaching in Greek, and consequently cannot prepare for the classical course. Of 31 schools this year, 1 1 only are fully accredited ; 6 prepare for but two courses ; the rest for all but the classical. Since 1891, a school may be accredited in one or more subjects, though failing to offer any whole course satisfactorily ; 14 of the 31 schools are accredited in this limited way. When the school is examined sub- ject by subject, and teacher by teacher, as it is, it gives no more trouble to the University to accredit in this partial way, beyond a little more book-keeping ; and it serves as a strong stimulus to the deficient departments to pull up to the level of the others. Besides the diploma of an accredited school, a candidate must bring a special recommendation from the principal in order to be exempt from examination. The conditions of recommendation to the University are understood to be more severe than those of graduation even from the best schools. Nor are principals likely to become lax in giving these recommendations, for the renewal of the accrediting depends not only upon the annual examination, but also, and as much, upon the record made in the University by the recommended graduates of the previous year. In one case a school lost its accredited rank through careless recommendations given by the principal. Still farther to lessen the danger of a point's being strained to recommend a boy who deserves it in most respects but not in all, a principal is permitted since last year to recommend with exceptions, and the candidate is required to pass exam- ination on the excepted study only. Thus there has grown up a complete system of inspection, examination, and report upon the schools throughout the State, more guarded, and yet more flexi- ble and stimulating to the schools, than exists in any other State. Out of it has grown a supplementary system of visit- ing, even where the formal examina- tion is not asked, with advice and sug- gestion. This has come spontaneously into existence in the last three years, as an outcome of the cordiality of relation 596 The University of California. [Dec. the schools have come to hold toward it has been the Cinderella of the school the University, and the growing sense system. of .dependence on its advice, and desire The University test has supplied the for its verdict as to their work. The schools a standard which they could not University not only stands ready to visit possibly have had in any other way, and and advise in the organization of a high the accrediting is earnestly sought, and school, or the possibility of bringing one . teachers are sifted and changed with to accredited grade in future, but makes reference to it. It is not that the ex- it now its business to take the initiative emption from examination is so great a in a systematic attempt to have knowl- thing to obtain, for the boy or girl that edge of all the secondary schools of the deserves the exemption does not need State, to make direct acquaintance with to fear the examination; but that the all as opportunity offers, and to keep up accrediting fixes the status and merit of a living relation between the university the school. Principals who know they and high school stage of education. It are doing good work wish it attested to was this visiting system that President their trustees, and trustees suspect some- Eliot, after examining its workings on thing wrong when neighboring schools his recent visit to California, adopted obtain the guarantee and their own does for the use of Harvard. not seek it. To lose this certificate of In all this there is no assumption of what may be called standard high school authority, for it is purely voluntary, rank, once gained, is a serious matter, But in a spontaneous way, and by -and an instance has been known in mutual consent, it supplies in a consid- which a great city high school reorgan- erable degree that supervision of the ized its force rather than meet such schools from the universities, instead a discredit. Even political influence of from the public that Matthew Arnold weakens in its power to uphold an says (in a very important article in the incompetent teacher in face of it, for Century Magazine?) makes the lower severe popular disapproval might be schools of the Continent alive to the provoked by the loss of standing for the bottom, where those of America and school. The University has nothing to England are dead. Its effect on the say anywhere on the choice of teach- schools has been wonderful. Three ers : it simply reports on the quality were fully accredited the first year, 11 of the teaching when asked; and now this year, besides 20 partly accredited, that so many schools are accredited, it In 1888 the privilege was extended to is impossible for the authorities of any private schools, and seven of these are prominent one to avoid asking. on the list, leaving 24 free high schools As an instance of the value attached preparing fully or in part for college, this report, it was related to me that to where 8 years ago scarcely half a dozen when, some years ago, the school board made any attempt These numbers are of a small inland city was surprised by small by those of the "approved" the University examiners with the in- schools of Michigan, 54, besides 37 in formation that its little high school was neighboring States, over which the the best on their list, and published the Michigan University now extends the news with some elation, the examiners privilege; but the system has been in op- promptly received appeals and com- eration almost twenty-two years there, plaints from the large schools ; and the nearly three times as long as in Califor- little school was soon stripped of all its nia, and I judge that even before 1870 three teachers, two called to larger po- secondary education had been better sitions, one to opportunities for further cared for in Michigan than here, where study, an unfortunate result for the 1892.] The University of California. 597 school itself, but in the line of the gen- sible attainment unthought of before, eral advancement of education. In sometimes changes a life. President another case, a community was grudg- Angell says that this impulse given to ingly supporting, by vote of a small the high schools goes down through all majority, anew school, and by no means the lower grades, and imparts an aspira- certain to maintain its thoroughly tion and energy to the whole school competent principal against a local system. The university, too, he points favorite who wished the place. The out, is bettered, not only by receiving school had not yet the advanced more and better students, but also by classes that would justify a request for being kept in touch with a large region accrediting, but some of its friends of sociology that universities sometimes asked the University to send a represen- neglect. tative to visit and report on it on general A second means of alliance with the principles. The University cordially schools is the appointment of a profes- responded to this, and to a later request sor of pedagogics, whose special topic for a speaker on a public day connected is school education. The University with the school; and the community, has been somewhat late in this, though surprised and pleased to find the un- such a department was remotely planned pretending little institution many of for here almost as soon as one existed them had thought scarcely worth foster- anywhere in the country. In Eastern ing valued and praised by wise men universities the pedagogical work con- from afar, gave in the next election cerns itself mainly with the scientific their hearty support to school and prin- study of the subject ; but in State uni- cipal, and shouldered cheerfully a con- versities a good deal of active relation siderable tax for a schoolhouse. with the lower schools is added to it. In other cases, perhaps in many at In the University of California this new the beginning, the visiting committees department does not lessen the work of have doubtless met much antagonism the visiting and examining committees, and distrust toward the University ; but but supplements it. The professor of it has always disappeared on acquaint- pedagogics is often sought as a speaker ance with the real character and work at teachers' institutes ; and as there are of the institution. Ten years ago it was fifty-three of these annually in Califor- no recommendation to school boards nia a really heavy demand is likely to that a candidate held the University be made on him among them. His degree, and college graduates were not regular business in the University expected to make up the staff of a high is with professional instruction, not school to any extent, at least, not col- Normal School training, but still in- lege women. The regular path to high struction looking directly to the prepar- school positions in the cities was by pro- ation of the student for the work of a motion on account of success in gram- teacher or superintendent of education, mar school work. Now, each year finds This is properly graduate work. If the University graduates more and more student takes part of his undergradu- sought, for high school positions espe- ate course to prepare himself for the cially. work of a teacher, it robs him of that Besides the use to teachers and com- much time for the general education he munity, these visits from the Univer- will never have an uninterrupted chance sity and the sense of connection with to get again in his life. Just as much it have an incalculable effect on the as a man or woman who desires to take pupils. At that age a mere glimpse of the highest rank as a physician plans to something higher and beyond, of a pos- give three years to professional work 598 The University of California. [Dec. after completing his college course, one who really appreciates the demands of the schoolroom should plan for a special training on as high a level. In no other way can the long-talked-of " elevation of teaching to the rank of a profession " take place. It is a cherished hope, also, of students of common school educa- tion, to see school superintendencies, State, and county, and city, come to be regarded as callings peculiarly belong- ing to special students of educational affairs, and properly to be looked for- ward to by young men of ability when they seek advanced graduate training in the subject. If three years of graduate work, is hardly to be hoped for as a preliminary to a profession of so small emoluments, one year at least, might be urged on graduates who look to high school teaching Meanwhile, the Uni- versity authorities have judged it best to give instruction on common school education among undergraduate studies ; and certainly some knowledge of the subject belongs to what every educated person should know. Still another link between the two grades of education is in the special Teachers' Courses that have for years been growing into more and more im- portance at Berkeley, until now Satur- day is largely given up to them, and considerable bodies of teachers from the neighboring cities and villages come in to one or another lecture or seminary, especially adapted for their uses. Some of this work is pedagogical in its nature, professors in one and another depart- ment giving instruction on the method of elementary teaching, each in his spe- cialty ; oftener they are the regular un- dergraduate work, so arranged that it can be followed in weekly classes. Some of the evening sessions of literary, scien- tific, or philosophical organizations are quite largely attended by listeners, or even members, from Oakland or San Francisco. This is University Extension in all except that the students come to the classes instead of the classes going to them. Last year, regular Extension courses were begun in the two neigh- boring cities. University men everywhere differ as to the advisability of this Extension work, whose great advocate in this coun- try is the University of Pennsylvania. The English idea of taking to remote towns the opportunity for some real university work, which must be of a serious and systematic character, such as to rank up to a certain point with the work done in residence, is one thing, and the system of popular lectures to- ward which it easily degenerates among us is another. There is no question that the Extension lectures of the Uni- versity have been successful, as lectures. Last year there was an average attend- ance of 40 at lectures on historical and comparative English grammar, 40 in mathematics, 100 in ethics, 250 in his- tory (these in Los Angeles), and 400 in Shakespeare criticism. Of these 830 listeners, some 60 entered for examina- tion, and 39 passed, and received certif- icates, which entitled them to a certain amount of credit for undergraduate work, should they ever become students at Berkeley. A limited amount of home study is expected of those regular at- tendants upon the lectures who propose to pass examination, and each lecture is supplemented with questioning, explana- tion, and discussion, sometimes the ex- amination and criticism of papers, so that to the fraction who take the cpurse as real students its educational vafue is unquestionable. Whether these about one tenth of the whole attendance in Oakland and San Francisco might not have managed to hear the one lecture a week in Berkeley with as little trouble as it cost the lecturer to come to them may be questioned. As far as definite educational results are con- 1892.] The University of California. 599 earned, it is rather a large apparatus for has kept itself very free from this sort comparatively small results. But there of degeneration. It has been conserva- are other justifications for the work, tive about issuing publications, in the For one thing, the lectures and classes absence of such important graduate in cities within easy reach of the Uni- work and research as might make these versity are a test and a school for work of unquestioned merit throughout the in more distant ones. For another, they university world. It has been shy of the help to make the University known to press, partly through unpleasant past the public. experience. It carries this particular This is a motive the University of conservatism so far, indeed, as to amount California perhaps because of its Yale to a neglect to take its real place in the ancestry --has always looked on with eyes of the public. One finds in jour- caution. It savors of advertising meth- nals where regular reports are given ods, and of the cheapening that befalls from the colleges of the country no an institution of learning too anxious mention of the University of California, to be " known." To be trying to show though institutions of perhaps one fifth itself to the best advantage and plan- the wealth and standing are heard from ning for public approval, is a danger- regularly. Books or magazines that ous step toward losing that solid and publish popular articles on representa- assured honesty that a university must tive colleges of the country receive no have if anything on earth is to have it. reminder from this one that it belongs Yet on the other hand, an American in the number. The bent and tradition university, a private foundation scarcely of the University seems therefore a less than a State one, depends upon the guarantee that the Extension work will people ; and while it must not court their not be managed in an advertising spirit, favor by any betrayal of their interests nor carried to an excess, in the way of lowering standards, neith- er has it a right to too close a seclusion. III. To distribute its regular official state- ments and hold its books open to inspec- IN closing these articles upon the tion is not enough : in some way it must State University, which have length- reach the people to give them knowl- ened beyond my wish or intention, I edge of what it really is and is doing, must first make a few corrections. Two How delicate and difficult a line of be- are as to small points of fact, which I havior a university must draw to do this take the time to mention only in the effectively, and yet sacrifice nothing of interest of accuracy. Mr. Willey 'did a sturdy reliance upon the fact of its not, as I said, leave New York in work rather than the appearance, one advance of the first steamer to Panama may realize by watching the behavior of and join it at New Orleans, but sailed the various American universities in from New York on that steamer, which this respect, Yale, Columbia, Johns started, with its four young clergymen, Hopkins, Harvard, Pennsylvania, Chi- before the news of the discovery of gold, cago, say. Extension lectures, publica- Doctor Durant did not die at the Berke tion of books and monographs, and pop- ley Club, where he was to have spoken of ular presentation of results through the "Good Time Coming," but was tak- the press, are the legitimate and usual en ill there, and-died next day. A third methods, and there is not one of them error, which doubtless corrected itself that is not liable to a certain degenera- to readers by its absurdity, was the care- tion in the way of trying to make a good less copying down of the number of showing. The University of California tons of rock 72,000 removed from 600 Tlie University of California. [Dec. the crest of Mount Hamilton to get standing room for the Observatory, as 72 ! a sort of error that fairly flaunts in a writer's face the temptation to say the printer did it. I may have committed other inaccuracies ; but my attention has been called to no others. I have been criticised, however, for the statement that the University is " weakest on the side of pure science," and not unjustly, for the phrasing is misleading. The sentence occurs in a rather hasty and cursory glance over the present status of the University, which closes an article intended to be primarily a story of origins ; but it should none the less have been more carefully worded. It was far from my meaning to say that the instruction on this side is weak, or even less strong than in other directions. I have every reason to believe that some of the best work in the University is done in pure sci- ence. But the organization and equip- ment of the University are weak on this side. Certain subjects, indeed, math- ematics, physics, and chemistry in especial have full place in the sched- ules, a staff of teachers in proportion to other departments, excellent labora- tories, and adequate attention in every way ; and this because they were regarded at the outset as supplying the theoretic basis on which several indus- trial sciences rest. Each of the three has in fact developed quite beyond this limited purport, and I was in error in saying that the College of Chemistry is given up to industrial chemistry : on the contrary, assaying, analysis of soils, and the like, are relegated to the Colleges of Mines and Agriculture, where they belong. These sciences, with astronomy, make up what I may call an "exact science" group, and the others, geology, mineral- ogy, zoology, physiology, botany, may be grouped for want of a better term as "natural history" sciences. The University forces are thus divided : Technical Science 19 instructors, 35 courses Exact Sciences 15 " 48 " Language and Literature. ..14 " 87 " Sociology and Philosophy .. 10 " 33 " Natural History Sciences.. 7 " 17 " The largest force in a single branch is in Agriculture. In the Stanford Univer- sity, out of a faculty somewhat smaller, the technical sciences have 12 men, the exact science group 10, and the natural history group 9 ; with a good deal more pro-vision of laboratories and museums than in Berkeley. Harvard, out of a faculty not twice as large as that of Berkeley, has more than three times as many men in natural history ; and the Chicago University announcements also make that group of sciences prom- inent. Michigan University, however, gives them less place than is given here; and I do not think that they have hitherto had much attention, on the whole, in systematized instruction in this country. The University of California is not so much behind other institutions in its provision for them, as behind its own in other departments. Two years ago, they had the services of but three men in the faculty. At present, their most serious disadvan- tage, which they share with all the sci- ences, except chemistry, outside of the technical courses is that the arrange- ment of courses tells' somewhat against their election by students looking for- ward to a degree. As I have said, the system of " colleges " fixed in the State constitution is somewhat cumbrous. It protects the University against any dan- gerous alteration of its general plan by legislatures, but it also makes it hard to keep the expanding and increasing courses free and flexible. The regents have now under consideration the estab- lishment of a new "college," which would not be bound by any constitu- tional regulation, and could with entire freedom provide for all courses not other- wise provided for. Even now, by a com- bination of choice of courses, and of elec- 1892.] The University of California. 601 tion within each course, the student has great freedom of choice in studies ; and if the arrangement now talked of be carried out, he will have as perfect free- Idom as any but the most radical believ- ers in electives could ask. To summarize: We have thus the University, built up of : I. The College of California, a pio- neer classical college, created chiefly by New England men, largely under Yale influence, and now represented by the classical course of the College of Let- ters, and by a certain spirit of liberal learning throughout the institution. I [. The Colleges of Agriculture, Me- chanic Arts, Mining, and Civil Engi- neering, making up a school of technol- ogy, established by Eederal and State patronage, and expanded to a university by the adoption into itself of the clas- sical college. These have carried out their original purpose unaltered. III. The College of Chemistry, a sci- entific course added later by the legisla- ture without the definite technical pur- pose ; and the new courses, "Literary" and "Letters and Political Science," created by the regents nominally with- in the College of Letters. These rep- resent really the growth and expansion of the University, the branching of the trunk growing from the two roots. IV. The graduate and research work, now just beginning to rise to impor- tance ; and the several forms of out- reaching work. These also are growths from the University's self. V. The four professional schools, and the Lick Astronomical Department, acquired by gift and by affiliation, situ- ated at some distance from Berkeley, and all except the Astronomical De- partment self-supporting. There is thus sketched out an almost complete university system : when the School of Design is added, no important department of learning except theologi- cal study will remain unprovided for. It is conceivable that some time the way will clear for a non-sectarian provision for even this. As for the filling in of the outlines : Within the colleges at Berkeley, the whole ground of practica- ble undergraduate study will be covered with a little more increase of force and adjustment of courses. If this were all, the increase of funds from the reg- ular sources would be enough to keep the University in the front rank in America. But a university now depends more on its graduate than its undergraduate work for its status ; and there is no such thing as having a sufficient reve- nue for graduate work, for this has all the known and the knowable as its pro- vince. Besides this insatiable demand, there is need of a special endowment for the Observatory, not less than half a million, and of endowments for all the professional schools, and especially the medical. What will be the future of this uni- versity ? It stands now fifth or sixth in wealth, seventh in numbers, of Ameri can universities. After his visit here last spring President Eliot, of Harvard, mentioned the University of California in a public address among "five leading American universities." Melvil Dewey, State Librarian of New York, at a learned gathering, said that there would be ultimately four great university cen- ters in this country, Harvard, ^ohmy in^y Chicago, and the University of California. When such things are said by careful men at a distance, peo- ple at home must believe that the proph- ecy may be fulfilled. Whether it will be, time must show. It will take many years to show whether the Pacific center of university life will finally be at Berkeley or Palo Alto. Some ob- servers say that two really great uni versities cannot exist near together. The case of Oxford and Cambridge may be quoted to the contrary. In any case, the University of California has already set standards that can not be passed, except by a degree of attain- ment that will place the State very high in the world of learning. Milicent W. Shinn. 602 A Peninsular Centennial. [Dec. A PENINSULAR CENTENNIAL. I. VANCOUVER'S VISIT, IN 1792, TO THE BAY AND PENINSULA OF SAN FRANCISCO. NOTABLE, every way, was the incom- ing, that winter dusk in 1792, of the first foreign ship known to have entered the Bay of San Francisco, bearing, in the person of its distinguished com- mander, the forerunner of the Teuton civilization and empire which was to have its seat on the waters of this " mar mediteraneo. Especially true is this to that historical student who touches his material not as debris, to be sorted and labeled, but as clay, and this not of the brickmaker but of the sculptor, interpreting a thought not his own. The narrative runs easily. On April I, 1791, the young Lieuten- ant George Vancouver, then but thirty- three years old, set sail in his sloop-of- war, Discovery, for a voyage of explora- tion in the Pacific seas, which he had twice visited as a member of Captain Cook's party. After visiting and surveying portions of Australia and New Zealand he set out for the north-west coast of America. It was in April of 1792 that he sighted California, just south of Cape Mendo- cino. Two hundred and fourteen years had elapsed since his countryman Drake had visited these shores, taking posses- sion of them in the name of his queen, Elizabeth, and giving to them the name of New Albion, which Vancouver is careful always to use. Proceeding north- ward the young explorer surveyed the coast with minute care to a point north of the island now bearing his name, and whose insularity he was, I believe, the first to prove. It was exactly two hun- dred years after the discovery of the island by Juan de Fuca. Vancouver's work " formed the basis of all subsequent surveys." Some broad lines had remained to be drawn, others wholly re-drawn, and some amazing ones to be erased. Of these, notably, were the lines, drawn with some detail, of the mythical Straits of Anian, as- sumed to connect, on the latitude of the Great Lakes, the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, thus forming the water-way to Cathay which Columbus had sought just three hundred years before. Thus dis- solved the dream, sublimest in its results of all illusions of men, of three centu- ries. (Winsor, however, states that it lingered in some minds so late as 1806.) An international incident at Nootka Island gives color to Vancouver's sub- sequent visit to the Spanish settlement. At that place he met Senor Quadra, with whom he attempted a solution of certain problems concerning territorial and trading rights claimed by Spain. Their negotiations reached no conclusion oth- er than a reference of the whole matter to a convention of their governments ; but in this intercourse, that were so easily productive of animosities, was begun a generous friendship which was afterward so to advantage the one and embarrass the other. And now on November 15, 1792, the Discovery rounded Point Reyes, and came into view of the broad sweep of coast line fronting the Farallon Islands, and long known as the Port of San Francisco. In this open bay, or bight, several in- dentations were observable, one of which the young explorer knew to open into the newly found San Francisco Bay. That this noblest of American har- bors should have remained so long un- discovered assuming that it is not UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY