The University of California and its relations to industrial education : as shown by Prof. Carr's reply to the grangers and mechanics; Prof. Swinton's testimony before the Legislature; the new education, by Columella; memorial to the Legislature by joint committee of the state grange and mechanics online

one. As that does not include the use of domestic animals and
instruction in the selection and raising of stock, so this leaves
out of view the construction of proper buildings for their accom-
modation. As that proposes to send its mechanical students to
San Francisco workshops, and the public works in the bay for
practical instruction, so this has reserved no place for workshops.
If the methods of instruction now adopted are ultimately to pre-
vail, there can be no objection to the plan adopted for the de-
velopment of the grounds ; but if these should be changed to
meet the views of the people, the forty thousand dollars expen-
ded upon the grounds would be literally thrown away.

In view of the facts we have set forth, what can such an Agri-
cultural College as we now have, or as we shall have when all
the promises of its President and the Board of Regents are ac-
complished, do for California ? It may be assumed that of our
population, one-fourth at least will always be engaged in some
of the pursuits of agriculture. Our immense domain must all be
cultivated or utilized. The whole world is to partake of our
products. Our wheat crop which now amounts to 27,000,000
bushels annually, will double itself every ten years for the next
half century. The same may be said of the grape and fruits
generally. Many products now in their incipiency, such as cot-
ton, jute, ramie, &c, will swell into prodigious volume as time
rolls on, and increase the immensity of our exports. Our State
is soon to become famous for theculure and manufacture of silk.
The products of our soil will ever be more diversified than those
of any other State in the union. The application of science in
the irrigation of our valleys, in the reclamation, improvement
and cultivation of our waste lands, in the preservation and trans-



102 THE NEW EDUCATION.

portation of our products, is to be of more consequence than any-
other branches of knowledge taught in our University. Our flocks
and herds already enormous, will exceed in numbers and diversity
those of any other country. Our ultimate greatness lies in
our soil. It is magic that will fill our great harbor with the ships
of all nations, and our workshops with artisans. Commerce must
come to it for aid. Manufactures will always find it their strong-
est friend. Even mining with all its promise of untold millions,
cannot subsist without it. Wornderful as our growth has been
during the past quarter of a century, it forms no criterion by
which to judge of its greatness at the close of the next.

In determining therefore what methods of instruction should
be pursued in our Agricultural and Mechanical College, should
not ample provision be made for the generations who are to carry-
forward the work of developing our noble State ? Shall those
strong arms and sinewy frames perform the labor blindly ?
Shall tho?e active brains expend their powers in mere theory
and experiment ? No. We can better afford to cramp any other
branch of learning than that devoted to agriculture. If there is
a spot on earth where all the recognized means for its improve-
ment should have the amplest scope, that spot is California. If
we could remove from its locality in Wurtemburg, the Royal
Land and Forest Academy of Hohenheim, with its accom-
plished faculty ; its farm of 800 acres ; its forest of 5000 acres ;
its school of practical farming ; its experimental stations ; its work-
shops, manufactories, audits thorough, practical, scientific curri-
culum, it would not exceed the wants of our State. And there
is no other State or country where for the benefits it conferred,
greater reward would be returned.

It is a mistake to suppose that the intellectual culture needful
to qualify professional men, writers and scholars, necessarily
enters into the qualifying studies of the agriculturist. His ed-
ucation beyond that of general science and a thorough knowledge
in the use of the English language, should be in his pursuit. A
thorough training of head and hand in everything relating to the
soil. If he can unite experiment with theory — take nothing on
trust — know the conditions of success, his education cannot be a
failure. This is the aim of the "new education," and unless
means are afforded for its attainment equal to the end to be at-
tained, it must fail. Our University, without great and radical
changes, can never hope to reach it. It must adopt broader views,
a larger scope, more comprehensive plans, and a general system
that will give encouragement to all the branches it assumes to
teach. It must have farms, and barns, and stock, and work shops



THE NEW EDUCATION. 103

for its students, as well as in door instruction in the sciences. It
must have competent teachers, and in its methods of instruction,
must be directed by men who are willing to be guided by expe-
rience. It must, of itself, be a great teacher in our midst, whose
lessons will be respected by the agriculturists of the State, and a
censor whose criticism they will always fear. It must command
respect as a public benefactor. Its achievements in learning must
inspire the people with confidence in its varied capabilites. Its
graduates must always be proud to belong to its alumni.

A few experiments in chemistry — a little ornamental work on
the college grounds — a smattering in the treatment of fruit
trees — the planting of a few acres here and there in different
parts of the State, with all the book culture in the world, never
did, never can make a practical agriculturist, or even beget a
taste for those nobler and sterner duties upon which the great
value and merit of the pursuit depends.

We feel it our duty to warn the people of California against
an objection, which as yet has appeared only in the form of sug-
gestion and insinuation, that seeks to transfer the government
of the University from the State to other hands. The article
in the Atlantic Monthly for July, already alluded to, contains
the following paragraphs in allusion to the present form of
government :

" At the very outset, the question whether the State should mantain an agri-
cultural school, or a University including an agricultural school, was discussed
and determined in favor of the comprehensive plan. The laws of the State are
clear upon this point.

" With all these prospects, there is a serious danger. The chief supporter of the
University may become its chief destroyer. The funds having come chiefly from
the publics treasury, the legislature of the State has retained a visitorial power,
and is disposed to supervise not merely the expenditures of money, but the interi-
or organization, discipline and courses of instruction. The University is not
governed by a charter, but by sections of the political code. Its Regents are civil
executive officers, individually responsible. The legislature while in session is
supreme, having in its hands a despotic power such as kings and parliaments have
never possessed in the management of Colleges and Universities. It may at will
abolish the Board of Regents, and substitute for it a body selected by popular
suffrage.

" This supremacy is nominally the supremacy of the people ; but there is dan-
ger that it will be the supremacy of ignorant and prejudiced men, acting in
haste, under personal pique, and without full consideration of the consequences
involved."

The article then proceeds to show how this " supremacy of the
people" was illustrated in the efforts of the farmers' granges last
winter, at the close of which we find the following Jesuitical sen-
tence :

"Many persons wonder why the friends of the University in California, prefer
State aid plus State interference, rather than private generosity minus State in-
terference."



104 THE NEW EDUCATION.

This is only a new and more demonstrative form of expressing
the same, idea, partially uttered by President Gilman in his ad-
dress before the Legislature. He says :

"My policy would be, if I were permitted, Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen, to
make a suggestion, that the State should do that which is essential, that which
is fundamental, and then by its stable course of treatment should induce wealthy
men to aid in building up the schools and extending knowledge in all the modern
sciences."

Governor Haight, one of the Board of Regents, in addressing
the students of his old College recently, expressed a belief that
the sole drawback to the University consisted in its dependence
upon the Legislature.

If, taken together, these remarks mean anything, they mean
that all power of the State over the "interior organization, dis-
cipline and courses of instruction" should be surrendered. That
being accomplished, this authority shall be exercised at pleasure
either by the faculty, the Board of Regents, or perhaps by the
President alone. Any methods of study they may adopt shall not
be disturbed by "ignorant and prejudiced men," like the farmers'
granges last winter. No memorial to the legislature shall drive
them to the necessity of another disgraceful disclosure of facts,
like that made by the President and Board of Regents, showing
that after an existence of six years, both "the leading features"
of the University had done literally nothing to promote instruc-
tion in agriculture and mechanics. They will not be compelled
on the spur of the moment, to patch up a system to meet the
exigency, in order to save the institution. No power will com-
pel them to take up and consider recommendations made two years
ago, and temporarily laid on the table, for giving efficiency to
the agricultural department. They will not be betrayed into
the meagre statement of what they have done to show " that the
good will of the Board towards the Agricultural College may be
illustrated."

Who, that is familiar with the Legislative investigations of last
winter, does not believe that every act, appointment, appropria-
tion and improvement made since by the Board of Regents,
relating to agricultural and mechanical colleges, grew out of
that damaging process ? They would have remained unnoticed
until now, but for the "ignorant and prejudiced " farmers, gran-
ges, who had the audacity to memorialize the legislature, and
make some charges that unfortunately proved true. The writer
for the Atlantic, who seems to understand this matter as well as
if he had participated in it, says that " the effort was made to
turn out the Board of Regents and replace the members by those
who are fresher from the people/'



THE NEW EDUCATION. 105

Was it not time? Had not the board by its neglect forfeited
all claim to public confidence ? And when those people, who in
their " ignorance and prejudice" supposed that Congress meant by
so declaring, that the Agricultural and Mechanical Colleges
should be "leading features," found that little more than a col-
lege of letters actually existed, was it strange that they should
desire a change ?

This investigation, failure as it was in the object sought, was
productive of results which clearly demonstrates the necessity of
of keeping the University where it is. We should be sorry that
this or any other question affecting it, should require partisan
interferences, and we feel quite sure it never will, unless preci-
pitatated by those who favor a divorce between the institution
and the State. In that event, we shall hope to see the measure
put down with an emphasis that will be forever conclusive.

We may not rightly understand the meaning of the President
in the suggestion " that the State should do that which is essen -
tial, that which is fundamental, and then by its stable course
of treatment should induce wealthy men to aid in the building
up of the schools and extending knowledge in all the modern sci-
ences." Does it mean that the Agricultural and Mechanical Col-
leges shall, after being established by the State, depend for fu-
ture aid, upon voluntary donation, or that this source of support
shall apply to the college of letters as well ? If the former, it is
objectionable. Why should one college be supported by the
State and the other by donations ? Is the college of letters more
worthy of State favor than the college of arts ?

If it means that the State shall cease to make any appropria-
tions for the University after a certain time, but by its "stable
course of treatment" (what does that mean ?) induce wealthy
men to make donations, that is objectionable, because it will
ultimately remove the institution from the control of tne State.
There is no danger even from the President's exhibit of the be-
quests and gifts to the University, that the amounts will ever
exceed the wants, how much soever the State and government
may give in addition. The institution cannot be too largely en-
dowed, and the "wealthy men" of California need have no deli-
cacy in giving to the full extent of their generosity, through any
fear that they will give too much. Neither they, nor the State,
nor the government can give to a better cause, unless by improper
management, its objects should be defeated.

Thus far in its career, the University has had all it required.
If the State has no reason to be proud of the University, she
may certainly feel proud of the noble efforts she has made to es-



106 THE NEW EDUCATION.

tablish it. There has been no lack of funds — and the beautiful
edifices at Berkeley show that there has been no lack of appreci-
ation of the design of the institution by the State. Indeed the
President says :

" The funds of the University are soon to be ample; sufficient I belie re, to
make it soon unnecessary to ask for further help."

In Morill's New Agricultural College bill, is the following
clause :

"If it shall at any time be made to appear to the Secretary of the Interior,
b3 - unequivocal evidence, that any State or Territory has not in good faith sub-
stantially complied, with the provisions of the act named in the first section
of this act, as to the use, object and purpose therein contemplated, he shall at
once duly notify the Treasurer of the United States, who shall thereafter withold
the payment of any interest which may have accrued, or accrue to any Colleges
in such State or Territory, iintil such time as the Secretary of tbe Interior shall
be satisfied, as to the compliance with the provisions of said act and shall so no-
tify the Treasurer aforesaid."

This law will add over $30,000 annually to the permanent
endowment of the University, in case it can be shown that the
institution has faithfully complied with the provisions of this
act, in making agriculture and the mechanic arts the "leading
object." We fear for the effect of the answers which the Board
of Regents and President of California University will be com-
pelled to make to the searching questions put to them by Con-
gress on this subject. It is no enviable task. It is easier to tell
what many of these replies ought to be, than what they will be,
if we are to judge from the "statements" of the Board, the Uni-
versity Register, and the President's address. But Congress asks
for detailed information. The questions are not what expendi-
tures have been made for the course of general instruction, but
for branches relating to agriculture and mechanics. How much
for theory and practice — how much for agricultural chemistry
— for botany — horticulture, forestry — animal physiology — vet-
eriniary practice — economic entomology — irrigation ? How much
for the experimental farm — the machine shops — mining processes
and methods? What are the subjects of study relating to agri-
culture — what in the mechanic arts ? And then those compre-
hensive questions at the close :

"Has your institution in good faith performed all the conditions and require"
ments of the statute of July, 1862, and the acts supplementary thereto ? If not,
state for what cause and in what particular you have failed? Has the gift of the
United States been preserved unimpaired and devoted to the purposes of your in-
stitution ? If not, to what extent has it been impaired or diverted, and. under
what circumstances?"

We should be glad to feel that the answers to these questions
could be favorable to the future interests of the University.
The provisions made for the encouragement of education by the



THE NEW EDUCATION. 107

government have ever been on the broadest scale. Before the
adoption of the Constitution; the Continental Congress deter-
mined that in every six miles square, the school system should be
established. Six hundred and forty acres of every township was
conceded for its support — one thirty-sixth of the entire public
domain. Education and the settlement of the country were thus,
from the first; contemporaneous interests.

When the new States began to come into the Union, the con-
cession was doubled, so that the cause had twelve hundred
and eighty acres in each township. The aggregate of the
land thus given to the support of the common schools, amounts
to seventy millions, five hundred and fifty-nine thousand, one
hundred and twelve acres ; besides one million, two hundred and
forty-four acres granted for seminaries of learning.

Now that the feasibility of a newer, more practical, more ad-
vanced system of instruction has been demonstrated, government
again advances with its aid, and concedes nine millions, six hun-
dred thousand acres, for its encouragement. And when it is fairly
under way it comes to its assistance with a permanent annual en-
dowment. For all this munificence, it naturally expects a return
in the increase of public intelligence, and the improvement of the
country. It contemplates great progress in the industrial pur-
suits of the nation. It looks to see the farms, the workshops
and the various mining and mechauical occupations, brought un-
der the control of science, and conducted by an educated people.
It anticipates a period when every man in the nation shall by the
results of educated labor, be placed above want, and become a
contributor to the general welfare. Shall California do her part
in this great reformation ?

COLUMELLA.



MEMORIAL

OF

California State Grange,

AND

MECHANICS' DELIBERATIVE ASSEMBLY

ON THE

STATE UNIVERSITY.

To the Senate and Assembly of the State of California :

In accordance with the accompanying resolutions of the State Grange of Cal-
ifornia, and the Mechanics' Deliberative Assembly of San Francisco, the follow-
ing: petition has been prepared :

KESOLUTIONS OF STATE GRANGE.

OFFERED BY W. H. BAXTER. _

Resolved, That a coram itee of three be appointed on the subject of agricultural
education. Said commitee to inquire particularly into the condition of the Agri-
cultural Department of the State University— what improvements, if any, should
be made, and what legislation, if any, is required to secure to the farmers of the
State the full benefits of the Agricultural College grant.

Resolved, That the true meaning and intent of the Congressional grant (see Act
eighteen hundred and sixty-two), was to establish primarily " Agricultural or
M Mechanic Arts" Colleges, and that the funds derived therefrom should be nrst
applied to these purposes, and that the State should render such aid as may be
necessary. Such colleges should be mainly under the control of men engaged in
these pursuits, and should be practical as well as theoretical.

Adopted. University Commitee : J. W. A. Wright, W. H. Baxter, O. L.

RESOLUTIONS OF MECHANICS' DELIBERATIVE ASSEMBLY.

PRESENTED BY JUDGE E. D. SAWYER.

Whereas, The Congressional Act of eighteen hundred and sixty-two, grant-
ing lands to the several States, had for its object the promotion of liberal and
practical education of the industrial classes ; and whereas, this State, in accepting
the grant and establishing the University of California, made provisions tor a
College of Mechanic Arts, and a College of Agriculture, thus guaranteeing to the
people of the State practical instruction in these pursuits ; therefore,

Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed to make snch inquiry as may
be proper as to what caD be done, or what legislation is necessary to secure to the
industrial classes, through the State University, its educational advantages.

The resolution was adopted, and E. D. Sawyer, C. C. Terrill, and M. J. Donovan
appointed on the commitee.

Your petioners, in furtherance of the above views, and in behalf of the industrial classes of
California, both agriculturists aud mechanics, would respectfully call the attention of your
honorable body to the condition and wants of the State University.

We make this petition with all due deference to the Honorable Board of Regents and
Faculty of our University, and with no desire to interfere improperly with any of their rights or
duties. But we believe the interests of the people of the State, for whose benefit especially this
noble institution was established, require that greater efficiency be given to the agricultural,



110 MEMORIAL.

mechanical, and other industrial instruction therein, without diminishing the usefulness of those
departments already in successful operation.

Your petitioners find that the State University resulted from an Act of Congress entitled
" An Act donating public lands to the several States and Territories which may provide Col-
leges/or the benefit of agriculture and the meclianic arts." By this Act one hundred and fifty
thousand acres (more or less) were donated to California.

In accordance with this munificent provision of the United States Government, our Legisla-
ture passed an Act establishing a University, and prescribing that its most prominent features
should be Colleges of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts.

By reference to the last report from each of the thirty-eight States that shared in this national
endowment, to the Department of Agriculture, at "Washington, we find nearly every one of them
carrying out both the letter and the spirit of the Act of Congress ; " that they are attended by
over three thousand students, most of whom are practically pursuing agricultural and mechan-
ical studies," with well stocked farms, workshops, and all necessary appliances of instruction.

In the same report, we read that " in California a farm of about two hundred acres has been
provided for the Agricultural Department, but it has not been improved, nor are the students
instructed in agriculture outside of the school-room.

The Act of Congress requires that the " leading object" of the Industrial Universities shall be
without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including military tactics, to teach
such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, in such manner
as the Legislatures of the States may respectively prescribe, in order to promote the liberal and
practical education of the industrial classes in their several pursuits.

The organic Act creating the University requires that the College of Agriculture shall first be
developed, " and next, that of the Mechanic Arts." We find that of the monthly appropriation
(six thousand dollars) for the regular expenses only one twentieth is now devoted to the Agricul-
tural Department, and that one Professor is discharging all the duties of instruction on the
subjects related to it. JYo technical instruction in the meclianic arts has thus far been given.

The instructional force of the University (besides the President) is as follows :

One Professor of Latin and Greek, and two Assistants.

One Instructor in Hebrew.

One Professor of Mathematics, and two Assistants.

One Professor of Modern Languages, and two Assistants.

One Professor of Chemistry, and two Assistants (advanced students) .

One Professor of PhysicB and Mechanics.

One Professor of Geology and Natural History.

One Professor of Civil Engineering and Astronomy.

One Professor of Rhetoric, History, and English Language.

One Instructor in Drawing.

One Professor in Agriculture, Agricultural Chemistry, and Horticulture.

Your petitioners do, therefore, request, that in accordance with plans pursued at Cornell, the
Massachusetts and Michigan Agricultural Colleges, the Universities of Missouri, Illinois, and
many others (as may be seen from the report already referred to), that whatever State aid is
granted for our University; and as rapidly as the income from the land sales is received, it may
be "first of all applied to the extending of the Colleges of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts,
and all the departments of instruction which directly bear upon the studies pursued in them."

With this object in view, we earnestly recommend a sufficient appropriation to carry out the