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

Stebbins and other prominent citizens secured every needed
facility, and were from sources which warranted their confidence
and justified my election to the Professorship from which they
have removed me. My record up to that time was wbII known
to them. 1 had been constantly employed in prominent institu-
tions for nearly thirty years. A Professorship was open to my
acceptance in an Eastern College when I was appointed here.

POSITION DEFINED.

In the University of California I have had the misfortune to
be the only representative of the agricultural interests, though
not their only friend. I saw the land sold which was so necessa-
ry to our practical education ; then announcements so changed
that the Agricultural College, as such, no longer existed. Then
the accommodations designed for its use were taken for other
purposes. Then a Loan Fund substituted for the self-respect-
ing manual labor system required by law, and, finally, an
attempt to vacate the Chair of Agriculture. I was powerless to
prevent these evils. That I loyally and honorably desired it,
and presented my views first of all to the Regents, is proven in
the foregoing pages. The necessity for a " change in the Pro-
fessorship," so strongly put by Regent Stebbins in his studiedly-
insulting resolution, was not so much to give " greater efficiency
to the department " as to secure its permanent inefficiency and
the private ends of President Gilman and the Advisory Com-
mittee. It is not unlikely, under the tremendous pressure of
public opinion, that a spasmodic attempt will now be made to
show zeal and efficiency in promoting the practical features so
presistently neglected,. Those who were present on Commence-
ment day will remember that when the President and Regent
Stebbins announced the programme for the coming year, there
was nothing promised in these directions.

COLLEGE OF MECHANIC ARTS.

You have asked for information, also, concerning the College



44 PROFESSOR CARR'S REPLY.

of Mechanic Arts. As, to the inquiries of Congress concerning
the agricultural department, the answer must be made, that six
years after our organization we had neither experimental farm,
or stock or team, or farming machinery or implements ; that we
had not planted a fruit tree, so of the department of mechanic
arts it must be said, we have no shops, no practical instruction
or special teacher. Much valuable theoretical instruction is
given by Prof. Le Conte to the students of all the so-called Col-
leges, in common. The logic which has been employed by
Gilman and the Regents would make not only every high school
and academy in the State an agricultural and mechanical college,
but those of law, medicine and divinity, for they all "touch upon"
subjects related to these pursuits. But no amount of logic will
convince -the farmers and mechanics of the State that a horse
chestnut and a chestnut horse are of the same practical value, or
that the Colleges of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, without
farm or shops to-day, were the " first equipped with the necesa-
ry apparatus/'

CORNELL UNIVERSITY.

A good deal of the work upon the Cornell University buildings
was done by the mechanical students. President White says
of this department in Cornell's University : " Professorships of
Industrial Mechanics and Practical Mechanics were early estab-
lished and filled. Valuable models were imported ; a large
amount of machinery was acquired. Hon. Hiram Sibley erected
a building expressly for this purpose, gave $10,000 to furnish it,
and afterwards a donation of $30,000 for its equipment. There
are now closely connected with the lecture room, in which the
theoretical side of mechanic arts is presented, other rooms for
the designing and modeling of machinery, and work-shops fitted
with power and machinery for working in wood and metals, in
which the practical side will be conducted. The machine shop
is to be conducted wholly as a means of instruction, and each
student will be required to devote at least two hours of the day
to work in the shop, so that he will not only get theory and prac-
tice combined, but he will also have opportunies to construct and
use tools of the greatest precision. Each candidate for the de-
gree of Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering will be given an
opportunity to design and construct some machine or piece of
apparatus, or conduct a series of experiments, approved by the
departmen t, such as promise to be of public utility. A special
course will be arranged with such young men as have a fair
knowledge of the machinist's or pattern-maker's trade, who de-
sire to fit themselves for foremen or leading positions in their



PROFESSOR CARR's REPLY. 45

business. Practice will be given in work of the highest class,
with thorough instructions in draughting and mathematics.
From such students, forty-five hours per week, aside from reci-
tations, will be required, either in the machine shop or draught-
ing room," etc. (See Cornell University register, pp. 73-74.)

The history of our Mechanic Arts College is confined to the
courses of general lectures in San Francisco, given each Winter
by the Professors of the University, as a part of their intruc-
tion. These certainly have had no special relation to the me-
chanic arts. Usefnl as they have been in information imparted
and by inspiring a kindly feeling towards the University, they in
no respect lessen the necessity of carrying out in good faith the
provisions of the law. The scientific lectures given in Boston
year after year by no means supplied the want of a Technological
School, which divided these with the Massachuesetts Agricultural
College, the proceeds of the Congressional grant. When the
President of that school, Mr. Kunkle, came to this coast, three
years ago, and purchased a five stamp-mill from H. J. Booth &
Co., of San Francisco, and shipped Colorado ores by the ton for
his Boston students to experiment with, the firm generously pre-
sented a similar mill, through me, to the University of California.
It has never been set up, nor do I know what has bacome of it.

WHAT HAS BECOME OF THE $30,000 ?

At the opening of the Mechanics' Institute lectures in San
Francisco last year, President Gilman announced that the sum
of fifteen thousand dollars a year for two years had been guar-
anteed by some of the wealthy gentlemen of San Francisco to
carry on certain branches of technological instruction.
Just what relation this had to the University I do not
know ; there has been no public announcement that such in-
struction is yet furnished, or that it is to be furnished the
coming Winter. I believed at the time it was an adroit move
to checkmate the establishment of a Mechanic Arts College at
Berkeley.

THE OBJECT OF AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES.

The fact should never be lost sight of that the object of Agri-
cultural Colleges is to fit men for the business of agriculture, to
train men in the rural and domestic sciences, arts and economies
— in other words, to put brains into these pursuits, and elevate
them to the dignity of other callings. We have had as many
translations of the words of the Congressional Act "in order to
promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial
classes in the pursuits of agricultural and the mechanic arts,"
as if they were written in the arrow-headed characters of ancient



46 PROFESSOR CARR'S REPLY.

Ninevah. Congress meant to endow schools that would bear
the same relation to those pursuits that Schools of Law and
Medicine do to those professions. As far as this is done the re-
sults are all that could reasonably be expected. Where they are
managed in the interests of other pursuits, as in our own case,
they are not eminent successes. The question as to who is to
blame can easily be settled by enquiring who has the responsi-
bility ; for in a matter like this, ignorance is not a valid plea.
Farmers and mechanics must take the management of institu-
tions designed for their benefit, into their own hands if they
would have them succeed. No other classes are or can be so deep-
ly interested in their success.

The average time since the opening of the thirty-nine Agri-
cultural Colleges, enjoying the national benefaction, is less than
five years. Twenty-four of them had, a year ago, an attendance
of 2,604 students, with 321 instructors — an average of 109 and
12.3, respectively ; while the 217 old institutions (from 30 to
100 years old) which reported their collegiate and past graduate
students, in 1872 had 20,866 and 3,018 instructors — an average
of 95 and 13.8, respectively. They have called out State and
individual donations to a very large amount. Thirteen of them
have thus received $2,923,550. Eighteen, not including the
richest, Cornell, possess property and funds to the amount of
$8,272,382. Neither is it true that nineteen- twentieths of their
graduates never take to agriculture for a living.

Massachusetts is not an agricultural State, but she says of the
fifty-seven graduates of her Agricultural College, "A large por-
tion of them have engaged in agricultural and horticultural pur-
suits." Michigan says of her sixty-seven graduates, "A large
portion of them have devoted themselves to agricultural pur-
suits." If Cornell University has but four Agricultural stu-
dents, we are sorry for the State of New York, which ought to
have 4,000. Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Iowa, are making
educated farmers by the hundred in Agricultural Colleges, sepa-
rated from the overpowering influence of literary and purely
scientific education. The difference is in the omission of the
practical, for the quality and quantity of theoretical instruction
is nearly the same in both cases. And more than all, the differ-
ence is in the spirit of the administrative or directing power of
the Institutions.

CONCLUSION.

The President of the Board of Kegents, Gov. Booth, has
said, "In the broad daylight of free inquiry and full infor-
mation, the people are responsible for every public abuse.'" If



PROFESSOR CARR'S REPLY. 47

my removal has stimulated enquiry, and furnished needed infor-
mation, if what 1 have said will lead the people to guard with
more zealous care the precious inheritance intrusted to them, a
great benefit will have been secured at a trifling cost.

The opportunities the Regents claim to have had to judge
of my fitness and competency have never been improved, for not
one who voted for my removal is an agriculturist, and not one,
including Regent Gilman, was ever present at one of my lectures
to the agricultural class. The same lectures, general and speci-
al, before farmers' clubs and associations have been cordially
approved, and their publication requested. My life-long interest
and association with the working men of the country has given
me a vital interest in all their organizations. In this lies the
secret of my offence to the Univerisity and its present rulers.

That our colleges have fostered a spirit of caste which has
made them uncomfortable, to say the least, for students of in-
dustry, will not be denied by those who witnessed the early efforts
to graft the new education upon the old.

They have been aristocratic rather than democratic in their
tendencies. We have no other aristocracy than that of wealth,
and within a few years we have seen how dangerous and how
corrupting the power of concentrated wealth may become. The
people must erect their own safeguards. Let our public institu-
tions remain and become more and more popular in the highest
sense if the word — exponents of the traditions, spirit and deter-
mination of the people of California, rather than a handful of
politicians and capitalists. Instead of separating our Agricul-
tural and Mechanical schools from those of Letters and the
Professions, let us have the latter developed around, not above,
the Industrial in the order of their necessity to the public wel-
fare. Let their interests be confided to representative, unselfish
men, who have faith in the intrinsic dignity of all labor and in
the elevation of the people. Respectfully submitted,

EZRA S. OARR.

Oakland, September 5, 1874.



^PPEISTDIX.



I have frequently alluded in the foregoing pages to the "State-
ment " of the Eegents to a Joint Committee of the Legislature
of 1873-74, appointed at their request, which they say was
"Carefully considered by them, unanimously adopted and certi-
fied to as correct in all its particulars." This document is dated
March 4, 1874. It not only contradicts itself in important par-
ticulars, but is at variance with other well attested facts, docu-
ments and records.

The Eegents tell us (page 37 of Statement) that they have
either sold or contracted to sell the entire grant of 150,000
acres at $5.00 per acre, in gold coin, net, 20 per cent, being paid
down, the remaining 80 per cent, bearing interest at 10 per
cent, per annum. This should give us a productive fund of $750,-
000, or an income of $75,000 per annum. The law of Con-
gress requires this to be invested in United States Stocks or
other safe stocks. It is not so invested.

The ifetal amount of principal, cash, received at date of State-
ments, was $114,025.47, of this amount, $79,709.96 was in the
hands of Regent Ralston, bearing interest at the rate of six per
cent, per annum. $34,315.51 was expended for the purchase of
the Brayton Estate, for which Regent Tompkins was agent; (see
pages 33 and 34.) Applications on file and certificates of de-
posit to the amount of $94,573, " bearing interest at 10 per
cent." are in the hands of the Land Agent, the money in the
Bank of California, but no account of interest allowed by said
Bank appears in the exhibit of the Regents, (see page 35.)
Four dollars credit per acre on 94,573 acres amounts to $378,-
292 and should have been drawing interest, otherwise the income
from the land fund is diminished at the rate of $37,829 per
annum.

A still more serious evil appears in the fact that the Regents
have so framed their regulations, that the purchaser is not
obliged to pay interest on the credit portion of his purchase
money until his title is obtained. The time intervening be-
tween the application and rendering of patent may be extended
for years, while the land is occupied and cleared of timber. No
bonds had been given guarding against such a contingency up to
the 1st of July last ; while on page 36 of the Statements we



PROFESSOR CARR'S REPLY. 49

find that 8,840 acres have been forfeited by applicants and re-
turned to the Land Agent. We have seen from the Statements
that $79,709.96 of the Agricultural Land Fund was drawing
interest at six per cent, per annum ; $34,315.51, temporarly in-
vested in property, subject to a mortgage of $50,000, bearing
originally ten and later nine per cent, per annum interest, and
$94,583 drawing no interest at all up to the 1st of July last, as
appears from the books. " I submit this as conclusive evidence
of the care, the ability, and the fidelity " with which the Re-
gents say, " they have administered the responsible and onerous
trust confided to them."

Again, with reference to the Brayton property, or rather
" four full blocks in the heart of the growing city of Oakland,"
we are told, " it has cost to date, including $11,386.25, paid as
interest on the mortgage, the sum of $112,476.25 ; " (page 34
of Statements.) On page 44 of the Financial Exhibit, the
property is stated to have cost $113,592.45, (Brayton Estate,)
and the "College of California property including the block and
buildings thereon " $49,030.04, or $162,000 for the four full
blocks.

Blocks No. 2 and 3, purchased of the Brayton Estate, cost
$94,315.51, according to the Statements on page 40, in this man-
ner : They assumed a 50,000 mortgage for Mrs. Brayton, " and
transferred to the vendors the outside property, valued at about
$30,000, adjoining the University site at Berkeley, which had
been obtained without any additional cash expenditure." But,
on the $50,000 mortgage $11,386,25 interest was paid, also $2,-
929.51 for some unexplained purpose, as will be seen by referring
to page 34, where we find that $34,315.51 of the principal of the
land fund was " temporarily invested " in this purchase, $20,-
000 of this specific sum having been paid subsequently for an-
other block of Brayton property " to complete the quadrangle."
We find that the addition of $11,386.25 to that sum leaves $2,-
929.51 unaccounted for, making the entire cost of the two blocks
upon which the mortgage rested, as above stated.

If the block and buildings formerly belonging to the College
of California, are considered as a part of the " purchase " which
has proved valuable to the State, " being worth many thousand
dollars more than it has cost," the total cost of the four full
blocks may be summed up as follows, according to the Regents'
own showing:



50 PROFESSOR CARR'"s REPLY.

The College Block, or No. 1, cost $49,030.04

Blocks 2 and 3, (Br ay ton property,) cost, by mortgage assumed ( $50,000.00

Interest on the same •? 11,386.25

Item unaccounted for ( 2,929.26

$94,315.52

Vacant Block, No. 4, cost $20,000.00

Total cost of four full blocks $163,345.55

Yet on page 34 of the Statements, the Kegents say : " Should
it be deemed best to dispose of this property it will realize
1150,000 at least, sufficient to pay off the mortgage of $50,000,
to repay the Land Fund the $34,315.51 borrowed, and leave a
surplus of $65,684.48, yielding in the shape of profit a far
larger interest upon the amount of the land fund invested than
could possibly have been derived from any ordinary safe invest-
ment." From their own showing these four blocks cost $163,-
345.55, and they will " realize," (page 34 of Statements,) $150,-
000, making a net loss of $13,345.55.

It were well for the Agricultural interests of the University
if this were all the Eegents have attempted to conceal in count-
ing the cost of that dear purchase. On page 46 of the State-
ments, they count among the possessions of the University, the
present domain, " 200 acres of land, worth, at a low valuation,
$1,000 per acre." Directly Adjoniing, and situated on both sides
of Strawberry Creek, the beautiful wooded stream which mean-
ders through the University grounds, is the property exchanged
with the Brayton Estate, " valued at about $30,000," described
in the deeds as follows: "Lots 1 to 11 inclusive, in Block B;
lot 49 in Block F, and lots 20, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29, 31, 32
in Block D ; 81, 70-100 acres of land in Nos. 80 and 82, Kel-
lenb^rger's map, (situated between the Deaf and Dumb Asylum
and University,) 112 acres of undivided or mountain land," cov-
ering unestimable water rights and resources. Two hundred
thousand dollars is as low a valuation for this land as for that
remaining in possession of the University.

The Brayton property, therefore cost the University $170,-
000 more than is shown in the Statements, it robbed the experi-
mental farm of ground most essential to its uses, well sheltered
and valuable for horticultural purposes, with water rights which
no money can ever replace.

The account then, stands as follows :

Brayton property, (3 blocks) cost in Berkeley lands $200,000.00

Mortgage on two blocks 50,000.00

Cash paid from Land Fund 34,315.51

Cash paid on College Block 49,345.55

Total cost $333,345T55

Value as estimated by Regents $150,000.00

Loss to the Uniyersity $183,345.55



PROFESSOR CARR'S REPLY. 51

These lands were donated and in some of them the terms of
the deeds are explicit, "for an Agricultural College." The lia-
bilities of the College of California, paid by the Regents, did
not equal the amount realized on the College Block at the recent
sale. The Berkeley lands also were advancing in value, and
since the removal of the University, are practically unestimable,
even considered with reference to future speculative uses.

If this is ths best showing the Regents can make of the man-
agement of property lying directly under their eyes, what, in all
probability, would be the exhibit of losses in the management
of 150,000 acres of valuable timber and other lands of which
the pu blic knows little or nothing ? The history of the sales of
school and University Lands has been one of shameless fraud and
peculation committed, not upon one, but many generations.

Misstatements and misrepresentations abound in these and
more recent Statements of the Regents upon other points. They
authorized me to employ a gardener Sept. 18, 1872, yet, in re-
ply to the inquiries made by the Grangers and Mechanics Aug.
8, 1874, they state that " within the past year the Berkeley
property has been surveyed and mapped, and the right places
marked out for Agriculture, Horticulture, Botanic, Garden and
Forestry." In their printed statements, dated March 3d, they
say that " $500 was placed at my disposal to secure the aid of
competent lecturers on special subjects," but on April 17th, the
Secretary writes, asking me to name these lecturers and submit
plans, "that the Board may understand just what you would
like to see done when the outlays asked for are authorized ! " I
might multiply these instances, demonstrating the financial
" unfitness " of the managing Regents, to administer a trust of
$750,000 from the Nation, and a still larger sum from the State ;
and their moral " incompetency " to tell the truth, in the excep-
tional position of witnesses not under oath.

But I think enough has been said to guard the true friends of
the University against the sophisms of educational charlatans
and political demagogues, and from future betrayals by the land
speculators and moneyed corporations who have hitherto man-
aged it in their own rather than the interests of the people.



THE



University and its Managers

BEFOKE THE PEOPLE AND THE, LAW.



BY PROF. WM. SWINTON.



PROP. SWIUTOFS TESTIMONY

Before the Legislature of California,



—GIVEN TO THE—



oinf jVgfelafiw flommitt^ on ||muft[sttg W®**



MARCH 11th. 1874.



WM. SWINTON, Sworn.

The Chairman. — Prof. Swinton, we propose to examine you first under the
first resolution : (reads,) "What instruction has been given in Agriculture
and the Mechanic Arts in the University, whether it has been defective or not ;
and if defective, what is the cause, remedy, etc?" In what particulars do you
disagree with the " Statements" embodied in this report? (Regents' of March
3, 1874.)

A. — I object to the use of the term "College of Agriculture," as it does not
conform to our last official statement of the organization of the University.
We have no such thing.

Mr. Tinnin. — What did I understand was your objection to the report — your
objection to calling it an Agricultural College ?

A. — It does not conform to the official statement ; I do not think a special
course in the College of Science is an Agricultural College.

Mr. Friedenrich. — In what way does it lack or fall short?

A. — A number of subjects stated in our catalogue are not taught.

Q. — Can you suggest any remedy ? A.ny improvement?

A. — As a measure of economy, I should say that the abolition of the office of
President would be a desirable measure. I should be happy to respond in writ-
ing, more fully.

Q. — Can you name any College that does not have a President' ?

A. — Yes sir. The University of Virginia.

Q. — What were your relations with the President ?

A. — They have always been those of civility. I think he is not as good a
President as the University of California deserves.

Q. — Can you give us any reasons for that ?

A. — I will. I think he has put the Board of Regents in a sort of tacit attitude
of antagonism to the wishes of the people of the State in regard to certain phased
of practical education,

Q. — In what way ?



56 pkofessok swinton's testimony.

A. — Rather by inference and implication than by direct statement, viz . giv-
ing the impression that the people who are struggling passionately, though some-
what crudely, after a great educational idea are mistaken in their wishes, that
their idea has been tested elsewhere and failed ; query, has it failed? That is
one point. Another point is, that I do not think there is that feeling of con-
fidence, on the part of the students towards him, that is necessary to the success-
ful working of the University for any considerable length of time.

Q. — How long have you entertained these feelings ?

A. — It is difficult to state the genesis of feeling. I never had a very high re-
gard for his fitness for the position, founded on what I heard in the East. I did