regents state, with reference to the seminary grant, that 45,034.86 acres of the entire 46,080 had already been selected, while the remaining 1,044.14 acres were yet to be applied for; of the 6,400 acres granted for building purposes, application was still to be made for 478.33, and of the one hundred and fifty thousand acres of agricultural land granted, 146,615 had been selected, leaving about 3,384.19 still to be located. The minimum price of the last grant was fixed at five dollars per acre, and the estimated value of the unsold grant was $26,860.1

The last substantial work performed by the Legislature for the benefit of the university was the creation of a permanent endowment by levying a tax of one-tenth of a mill on each dollar of assessed valuation of property. The act providing for this tax reads thus:2

"SEC. 1. There is hereby levied, annually for each fiscal year, an 'ad valorem' tax of one per cent. upon each one hundred dollars of value of the taxable property of the State, which tax shall be collected by the several officers charged with the collection of State taxes, in the same manner and at the same time as other State taxes are collected, upon all or any class of property, which tax is for the support of the University of California.

"SEC. 2. The State Board of Equalization, at the time when it annually determines the rate of State taxes to be collected, must at the same time declare the levy of said rate of one cent, and notify the Auditor and Board of Supervisors of each county thereof.

"SEC. 3. The money collected from said rate, after deducting the proportionate share of expenses of collecting the same to which other State taxes are subject, must be paid into the State treasury, and to be by the State Treasurer converted into a separate fund, hereby created, to be called the 'State University Fund.'

"SEC. 4. The money paid into the said State University Fund' is hereby appropriated, without reference to fiscal years, for the use and support of the University of California, and is exempted from the provisions of part three, title one, article eighteen, of an act entitled 'An act to establish a political code,' approved March twelfth, eighteen hundred and seventy-two, relating to the Board of Examiners. When there is any money in the said fund, the same may be drawn out upon the order of the board of regents of the University of California, or such officers of the board as may be duly authorized thereto. Upon the receipt of the order, the Controller must draw his warrant upon the State Treasurer, payable to the order of the treasurer of the University of California, out of the said 'State University Fund.'

"SEC. 5. The money derived from said fund must be applied only to the support and permanent improvement of the university, and the board of regents must include in its biennial report to the Governor a statement of the manner, and for what purposes the money was expended.

J. Hane's report (Land Ag. Univers. California), in Regents' Report, 1885, 120. Laws of California, extra Leg. session, 1887, chap. 3, p. 2.

"SEC. 6. This act takes effect immediately."

This fund yielded in 1887-88 the sum of $76,580.79, and will continue to increase from year to year.

In one thing California stands alone among the several States, and this is in the taxation of the property of private, sectarian or denominational schools.

A reaction from the early practice of aiding such institutions has taken the Legislators to the opposite extreme of taxing the school grounds, property, apparatus, and libraries of private institutions. It is not desired to discuss the question here, but merely to relate the historical fact. It is certainly a novel position that the State has assumed in thus opposing a policy which has grown with the development of the country for over two hundred and fifty years. California is either in advance of her sister States in the wisdom of legislation or else has rendered a great injustice to private benevolence, which should always be encouraged.

SUMMARY OF STATE APPROPRIATIONS.

State University:

State endowment, swamp lands..

Income from State endowment (1874-88)

Special appropriations

From one-tenth mill tax, 1888

Total appropriations.

$811,000.00 712, 319. 15 868, 331.79 76,580.00

-$2,468, 230. 94

The following statement shows the income from State endowment for each year from 1874 to 1888:1

In 1888 the first annual income from the tax of one-tenth of a mill on assessable State property was $76,580.

The following summary of State appropriations for the support of the University of California is taken from the report of the secretary of the university, Mr. J. H. C. Bonté.

In estimating the bounty of the State it seems proper to include the State endowment derived from the sale of the tide lands, amounting to $810,000, and the interest on the same, amounting to about $712,319, according to the reports of the regents. It is true that this fund originated in the United States grant, but it was devoted to internal improvements and could have been used for any other purpose had the

1 Compiled from the regents' reports.

representatives of the people so decided; they chose to devote it to the cause of higher education and to use the annual income for the support and maintenance of the State University. This swells the entire State appropriation to the sum of $2,322,562.22.

APPROPRIATIONS BY THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA FOR THE USE OF THE UNIVERSITY.

Support of university, approved March 30, 1874 ........

Income from tax, 1 cent on each $100, year ending June 30, 1888

Appropriated by Congress, for agricultural experiment stations, per an

num....

Proceeds from sale of land up to the first of April, 1889..

62, 456.00 50,000.00

82, 543. 43

809, 243.22

15,000.00 687, 143.21

OREGON.

UNIVERSITY OF OREGON.

In 1850, two years after Oregon was organized as a Territory, the United States granted her two townships of land for the endowment of a university. The first mention of the university upon Oregon's statute-books is in the Laws of 1850, where Marysville is designated as its location.2 In 1852 a commissioner was appointed to have charge of and to sell the university lands.3 Three years later, the institution was relocated at Jacksonville. So far, the university existed only on paper, and there it remained for some time, as the Constitution of 1857, after providing for the sale of university lands and the investment of the proceeds, directed that no part of the funds should be expended until 1867, unless the same should be otherwise disposed of for common school purposes.5 Evidently the settlers were not ready for the university. The disposal of the lands was further regulated by an act of 1868, ordering that all university lands should be sold, none, however, for less than one dollar and twenty-five cents an acre, and that payment be secured by notes bearing interest at ten per cent."

The first important step toward establishing the university was in 1872, when its location was fixed at Eugene City, on condition that the Union University Association of that place should furnish a suitable building. This society complied with the requirement, and an act of

Article VIII, sec. 5, Poore, Charters and Constitutions, 1502; Report of U. S.^ Commissioner of Education for 1867-68, 121.

€ Laws of 1868, 207.

7 Laws of 1872, 47. Catalogue of 1885-86, 9.

2

1876 fully established the university and pledged the interest on the university fund to it forever, besides granting it twenty thousand dollars additional endowment.1 As over thirty thousand dollars of the fund had become unproductive "through ill-advised loans on the part of the State authorities," two thousand five hundred dollars was in 1878 annually set apart from the treasury for the support of the university. In 1882 interest on the fund was reduced to eight per cent., and an annual tax of one-tenth of a mill on the dollar was laid on all property taxable for State purposes. Of the proceeds of this, five thousand dollars was set apart annually for the support of the university, the remainder to be used for buildings and improvements. Besides this tax and the income on the fund, the university has received fifty thousand dollars from the State.

CORVALLIS COLLEGE.

6

The Congressional land grant of 1862 gave to Oregon ninety thousand acres. In the same year the Legislature accepted the land and appointed commissioners to locate the agricultural college. In 1870 Corvallis College was designated as the recipient of the grant. The lands were disposed of by an act of 1872, which provided that they should be sold for not less than two dollars and fifty cents an acre, and that the proceeds should be loaned on mortgages at ten per cent.,7 reduced to eight per cent. in 1882. The additional appropriations received from the State amounted, in 1887, to twenty thousand five hundred dollars.9

SUMMARY.

While public aid to higher education came first from the Federal Government, Oregon herself has not withheld assistance. Besides the university tax of one-tenth of a mill on every dollar of taxable property, seventy thousand five hundred dollars have been granted, fifty thousand dollars to the State university and twenty thousand five hundred dollars to Corvallis College.