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These problems of the school are felt in differing degrees wherever the school is known. They have been met and solved by many of our wisest and best teachers. They are farthest from solution where the good of the school is exalted above the needs of the children, and where teachers are content to rest in the belief that the thing that has been is the thing that shall be, —that there is no new thing under the sun. But until we know how to make our schools minister in fullest measure to the needs of every child within their borders, we must count ourselves keepers of schools rather than teachers of children. And until we ourselves recognize the true meaning of our labors, and consider the children above the institution, we shall fall short of our desired attainment even in "school-keeping."

STATE UNIVERSITIES OF THE WEST- THEIR RISE AND GROWTH.

TH

J. L. PICKARD, LL.D., IOWA CITY, IOWA.

HIS warm day in January, 1900, finds me in reminiscent mood. Upon just such a day fifty-four years ago, while riding in a coach from Chicago westward, my eyes rested for the first time upon a boundless "sea of land," an Illinois prairie. As was natural, my thoughts roved over a wide expanse in search of some settlement bearing evidence of need of the services of a "Yankee schoolmaster." A stirring mining village just east of the Mississippi suggested the possibilities of a fair support. Trial proved the suggestion illusive. The college was yet far away. The era of high schools had not dawned. The generous provision of the General Government for State universities had attracted little attention, save from men who were anxious to secure the land donated. There was but little call for instruction beyond the "bread and butter studies." The hunger for higher education was not severe. Academies and embryo colleges and misnamed universities furnished meager food, but all that was required.

Of the forty-five States only those formed out of public territory, twenty-seven in number, have received the donation of 46,080 acres each, known to-day as "University Lands." Ohio, Florida and Wisconsin were more liberally treated.

Ohio located her lands in 1795, chartered a university in 1804, and opened its doors with a corps of professors in 1822. Alabama followed in 1831; Indiana in 1839; Michigan in 1841; and Missouri in 1842.

Not one of the above would be recognized as a university to-day. Ohio University at Athens has never been other than a college. Alabama as late as 1876 had only a collegiate department. Michigan was without a president till 1852, when Chancellor Tappan as its head introduced the true university idea. Missouri added to her university the first professional department in 1868.

Practically the above five universities date their beginnings within the half century of my Western life. In the table appended I have arranged them in chronological order, giving the date of their emergence from a mere collegiate state, taking my data as far as possible from Commissioner Harris's reports. The first column gives the date of opening the university; the second column the date of the introduction of professional departments; the third the names of professional departments arranged in order of introduction. Several States gave their agricultural college grants to the State university authorities; so the agricultural department appears as the first professional department organized, and in a few cases the only one. As all have a collegiate department which embraces engineering and pedagogy to a greater or less extent, these subjects are not named as of distinct character except in a few instances of special prominence given to them.

Ohio appears twice since the University at Athens has not passed the collegiate state, but the institution now known as Ohio State University is at Columbus.

Illinois used its university fund in founding a normal university still in successful operation at Normal, and the institution now known as the University of Illinois was founded upon the agricultural college grant.

STATE.

University
Opened.

TABLE I.

Professional Departments with Date of Opening.

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Illinois

1868

California

1869

Ohio
Minnesota

1870

Nebraska. 1871

Arkansas.

1872

Oregon

1876

Medicine (59), Normal (68), Law (73), Pharmacy (?).
Law (42).

Medicine (50), Law (59), Hom. Med. (75), Dentistry (75),
Pharmacy (82).

Medicine (45), Agriculture (70), Law (72).

Law (54), Agriculture (71).

Agriculture (66), Law (68), Pharmacy (83).

Law (66), Medicine (70), Hom. Med. (77), Dentistry (81),
Pharmacy (85).

Normal (57).

Agriculture.

Pharmacy (95).

Law (79), Pharmacy (85).

Agriculture (68), Architecture (68), Pharmacy (59). Agriculture (69), Pharmacy (73), Law (78), Dentistry (82). 1870 Agriculture (70), Law (91), Pharmacy (—).

Agriculture (70), Medicine (83), Law (88), Hom. Med.
(83), Dentistry (88), Pharmacy (92).
Agriculture (71), Law (91).

Agriculture (72), Law (87).

Law (84, Medicine (87).

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Agriculture (83), Law (83), Medicine (91), Pharmacy (93).

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The following table is drawn from Commissioner Harris's Report for 1897-8. The income from tuitions is excluded, since it is designed to show only the aid furnished students in pursuit of an education. The item of income will vary year by year in totals, while that realized from Productive Funds will change less as the lands from which the fund is derived are largely disposed of and proceeds invested.

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The tables presented above show the movement from a collegiate status to the broader one of a group of professional schools, with the college as the center, thus establishing the right to the title University. The West is full of self-styled universities collegiate, normal, commercial, etc.,- some of which may take equal rank with the best high schools; some are fair colleges;

Agricultural grant alone.

↑ University land and Agricultural grant combined.

No preparatory department.

§ Only Universities without preparatory department carried out for purpose of comparison.

a few have professional schools attached; here and there one amply endowed by private benefactions which deserves the title it bears. These last are setting the pace for the State universities to follow. Unfortunately the State has not the funds in hand to meet the challenge of Rockefeller or Mrs. Stanford -though Mrs. Hearst has recently helped California University to stand side by side with her neighbor at Palo Alto. We may hope for the time in the Middle West when large fortunes made out of agriculture, manufactures and mining will be as generously bestowed as have been those drawn from oil wells, from railway investments, and from gold placers. In the cherishing of "Great Expectations" the less-favored universities have not taken the attitude of the unique character in "David Copperfield," "waiting for something to turn up," but with the meager help they have been able to beg from the Mother State they have made rapid progress toward the university ideal -the realization of which will lift the university out of competition with colleges and will make it a graduate school, toward which the eyes of college students will be turned when they would become Masters in Literature, in Science, in Politics, or Doctors in Philosophy, or when they have determined upon the pursuit of a profession.

Though yet far from the ideal, it is kept ever in sight and approaches are steady and rapid. A few facts must suffice or this article will become tedious.

It has been the privilege of the writer to be brought into official relation, more or less close, with the State universities of Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa.

Until the University of Wisconsin received the Agricultural College Grant it maintained a good reputation as a college, relying upon a slender income from the avails of the University Lands which had been sacrificed by an early sale. Even this income was reduced by the charge made by the State for the care of the Fund.

The school had been kept alive by the self-sacrificing labor of a half dozen professors until the days of Chancellor Barnard, when a little assistance was obtained from the Normal School Fund by the introduction of a Normal Department. This was but temporary relief, since normal schools in other localities re

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