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The plums were to be distributed where they would do the most good-to the politicians.15

Awakened consciousness of the importance of a new type of education and of the desirability of taking advantage of the provisions of the Federal Government led to the enactment of legislation in 1890 and in 1891. In order that the entire background of the present organization may be better understood and also to interpret as clearly as possible the objectives in the minds of the framers of the legislation very extensive literal transcripts are given here. The statutes are very difficult to understand. They are very bunglingly stated and very indefinite in many respects.

The acts of 1890 and 1891 aimed to accomplish exactly what was attempted in the legislation of 1865. The later acts, especially that of 1890, are more bunglingly drawn than the law of 1865.

An act to create a commission of technical instruction, and to establish a State agricultural college and school of science, and to declare an emergency

Whereas, By section sixteen of an act of Congress approved February twenty-second, anno domini eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, entitled “ An act to provide for the division of Dakota into two States, and to enable the people of North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Washington to form constitutions and State governments, and to be admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States, and to make donations of public lands to such States," ninety thousand acres of land (to be selected and located as provided in section ten of said act, approved February twenty-second, anno domini eighteen hundred and eighty-nine) are granted to the State of Washington for the use and support of agricultural colleges in said State, as provided in the acts of Congress making donations of lands for such purposes; and

Whereas, By section seventeen of said act, approved February twenty-second, anno domini eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, one hundred thousand acres of land are granted to the State of Washington for the establishment and maintenance of a scientific school; and

Whereas, By an act of Congress approved March second, anno domini eighteen hundred and eighty-seven, and entitled “An act to establish agricultural experiment stations in connection with the colleges established in the several States", under the provisions of an act approved July second, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, and of the acts supplementary thereto, certain moneys are appropriated to each State, entitled (under the provisions of said act, approved March second, anno domini eighteen hundred and eightyseven), to the benefits of said act: therefore

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Washington:

SEC. 1. That a commission is hereby created and established, to be known as the commission of technical instruction, which shall be composed of three commissioners, who shall be appointed by the Governor of the State of Washington, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate

SEC. 3. That it shall be the object and duty of the commission to further the application of the principles of physical science to industrial pursuits, and in particular to

1 Bryan, Historical Sketch of the State College of Washington, p. 32

collect information as to schemes of technical instruction adopted in other parts of the United States and in foreign countries, to hold farmers' institutes at such times and places and under such regulations as it may determine, and to perform such other duties as may from time to time be prescribed by law. *

SEC. 4. That there is hereby established within the State of Washington an educational institution by the name of the Washington State Agricultural College and School of Science. The said college shall be under the management of the commission of techni. cal instruction, and the chairman of said commission shall discharge the duties of presi dent of said college. Said commission shall locate the said college unless its location has been otherwise selected in accordance with law, previous to the first day of June, A.D. eighteen hundred and ninety; and in selecting said location said commission shall have in view the best interests of said college and the attainment of the object aimed at in the creation of the same.

SEC. 6. That the object of said college shall be to train teachers of physical science, and thereby to further the application of the principles of physical science to industrial pursuits.

Sec. 7. That the commission is authorized to appoint a secretary, and such professors, or other employees as may be deemed necessary by it;

SEC. 8. That the said commission shall make provisions that all instruction given in the college shall, to the utmost practicable extent, be conveyed by means of practical work in the laboratory. Said commission shall provide in connection with said college, the following laboratories: One physical laboratory or more, one chemical laboratory or more, and one biological laboratory or more, and suitably furnish and equip the same. Said commission shall provide that all male students shall be trained in military tactics. Said commission shall establish a department of said college to be designated the depart ment of elementary science, and in connection therewith provide instruction in the following subjects: Elementary mathematics, including elementary trigonometry; ele, mentary mechanics, elementary and mechanical drawing, land surveying. Said commission shall establish a department of said college to be designated the department of agriculture, and in connection therewith provide instruction in the following subjects: First, physics, with special application of its principles to agriculture; second, chemistry, with special application of the principles to agriculture; third, morphology and physi ology and physiology of plants, with special reference to the commonly grown crops and their fungus enemies; fourth, morphology and physiology of the lower forms of animal life, with special reference to insect pests; fifth, morphology and physiology of the higher forms of animal life, and in particular of the horse, cow, sheep, and swine; sixth, agriculture with special reference to the breeding and feeding of live stock, and the best mode of cultivation of farm produce; seventh, mining and metallurgy. And it shall appoint demonstrators in each of these subjects, to superintend the equipment of a laboratory and to give practical instruction in the same. Said commission shall estab lish an agricultural experimental station in connection with the department of agricul ture of said college, appoint its officers and prescribe such regulations for its management as it may deem expedient. Said commission may establish other departments of said college, and provide courses of instruction therein, when, those are, in its judgment, required for the better carrying out of the object of the college.

Section 9 authorized the commission to prescribe regulations for the admission of stu dents, the rates of tuition, and the government of students. It also specifies that " The commission may confer on any person or persons power to enforce the regulations provided in this section. 16

1 Laws of Washington, 1889-90, pp. 260-266.

The second Morrill Act.-On August 30, 1890, another act supplementary to the Morrill Act was passed by Congress. It provided, That there shall be, and hereby is, annually appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, arising from the sales of public lands, to be paid, as hereinafter provided, to each State and Territory for the more complete endowment and maintenance of colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts now established, or which may be hereafter established, in accordance with an act of Con gress approved July 2, 1862, the sum of $15,000 for the year ending June 30, 1890, and an annual increase of the amount of such appropriation thereafter for 10 years by an additional sum of $1,000 over the preceding year, and the annual amount to be paid thereafter to each State and Territory shall be $25,000, to be applied only to instruction in agriculture, the mechanic arts, the English language, and the various branches of mathematical, physical, natural, and economic science, with special reference to their applications in the industries of life and to the facilities for such instruction

17

Committee to select site.-A committee of three was appointed under authority of the act of 1890 to select a site for the agricultural college. The committee consisted of E. C. Ferguson, Snohomish County; F. J. Smith, Whitman County; and Edward Whitson of Yakima County. They examined sites and considered propositions from citizens in Walla Walla, Colfax, Spokane Falls, North Yakima, Dayton, Sprague, Pullman. On July 14, 1890, they balloted but were unable to agree on a site and adjourned, subject to the call of the chairman. 18

Supplementary act of 1891.-The legislature of 1891 passed another act in which the specific objective was to establish a college of agricul ture and not a commission on technical instruction. The management of the college was placed very properly in the hands of a board of five regents. The act of 1891 was mainly for the purposes of clarifying and correcting the law of 1890 which had been so bunglingly drawn. The objectives of the two were identical. The essential features of the act are reproduced.

Agricultural College and Experimental Station

An act to provide for the location and maintenance of the agricultural college experi ment station, and school of science of the State of Washington, and declaring an emergency.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Washington:

SECTION 1. There is hereby established an institution of learning to be known as the agricultural college, experiment station and school of science of the State of Washington. Said institution to be located as hereinafter provided, on a tract of land containing not less than one hundred and sixty (160) acres.

SEC. 2. The agricultural college, experiment station and school of science created and established by this act shall be an institution of learning open to the children of all residents of the State, and to such other persons as the board of regents may determine,

17 26 Stat. L., 417.

1 Annual Report of the State Agricultural College for 1890, p. 3.

under such rules of (and) regulations and terms as may be prescribed by said board of regents; shall be nonsectarian in character, and devoted to practical instruction in agriculture, mechanic arts, natural sciences connected therewith, as well as a thorough course of instruction in all branches of learning upon agriculture and other industrial pursuits.

SEC. 3. The course of instruction of the agricultural college, experiment station and school of science shall embrace the English language, literature, mathematics philosophy, civil and mechanical engineering, chemistry, animal and vegetable anatomy and physiology, the veterinary art, entomology, geology, and political, rural and household economy, horticulture, moral philosophy, history, mechanics and such other sciences and courses of instruction as shall be prescribed by the regents of this institution of learning * *19

*

SEC. 5. That a commission of three be appointed by the governor, with the advice and consent of the senate, to select a site for the location of said agricultural college, experiment station and school of science, who shall locate said college and school of science upon land selected with special reference to its adaptability for the purposes intended and not for its pecuniary value: And provided, That none of the commissioners so appointed shall be from any county east of the Cascade mountains: Provided further, That said commission shall not consider, receive or accept any bonus, other than a tract of land not exceeding three hundred and twenty (320) acres, and said commission shall locate said college and school of science on or before July 1, 1891, in some county east of the Cascade mountains. The commission to locate the State agricultural college and school of science shall not locate said college in any county already having a State institution.

SEC. 10. The agricultural experiment station provided for in this act in connection with said agricultural college, shall be likewise located in connection with said agricul tural college, and upon the land referred to in section one (1) of this act.

Generous endowment. So well was the college endowed by the Federal Government that State Superintendent Bryan said—

Through the generosity of the general Government the State agricultural college is rendered far less dependent upon State support than any other State institution. In fact, the land endowment of the school of science and agricultural college combined together with the annual appropriations made by Congress, seem more than adequate for the support of a single school, and should the varied climatic conditions of the State suggest the advisability of establishing another school than the one now located at Pullman, these land endowments will in the near future, if judiciously managed, prove ample for the support of two such schools.20

• New committee to select site.-Governor Laughton immediately named S. B. Conover of Port Townsend, A. H. Smith of Tacoma, and George A. Black of Fairhaven as the committee to select a site. The story of the selection of Pullman is dramatically told by Dr. Bryan who came as president of the college a couple of years later.21 The narrative discloses the political influences that entangled all educational development of that time. The details need not be restated here.

19 Laws of Washington, 1891, ch. CXLV, pp. 334-341. Approved Mar. 9, 1891. Biennial Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1892, p. 63.

1 Bryan, loc. cit., pp. 57-81.

6. Opening of the College at Pullman, 1892

Selection of President Lilley and faculty.-The board of regents. proceeded with great promptness to select a president and faculty, to erect buildings, and to open the college. On May 1, 1891, George Lilley of the Agricultural College at Brookings, S.Dak., was elected President at a salary of $4,000 a year. The president was also professor of mathematics and physics. Five other faculty members were elected on December 1, 1891. John O'B. Scobey was appointed professor of agriculture; E. R. Lake, professor of horticulture, forestry, and botany; Charles E. Munn, professor of veterinary science; and George S. Hitchcock, professor of chemistry. Each of these four professors was to receive a salary of $2,000 per year. Mrs. Van Doren was appointed preceptress and professor of English at $1,500 per year."3 Beginning instruction. The college inaugurated instruction on January 13, 1892, within 9 months after the appointment of a board of regents and a committee to select the site. They were probably afraid that a subsequent legislature might relocate the college if it were not actually in operation. At the opening 60 students were enrolled, 16 of them being classified as freshmen, and 44 as preparatory students. Whitman County furnished 50 of the students, 40 of them being residents of Pullman. According to Dr. Bryan the total registration for the year was 84. Of these 21 were classified as freshmen, the remaining 63 being preparatory students.

Material equipment.-While the initial equipment was meager and crude compared with the splendid equipment on the same campus 40 years later, it was generous compared with that of the university dur ing its pioneer days. According to the first announcements at the opening there was a farm of 200 acres and a campus of 25 acres, all donated by the people of Pullman.

The report says the college hall is

two and a half stories in height, including a basement. It contains the president's office, class rooms, library and reading room, physical and chemical laboratory, music room, and a large assembly hall on the first floor. The building will soon be lighted with electricity and is heated by steam. The dormitory was of brick construction 104 by 57 ft., five stories in height including the basement and attic. The basement contained the kitchen, dining room, and two suites of living rooms. The report states that the four remaining floors are provided with thirty-two suites of rooms, each consisting of a study and two sleeping rooms. Eight study rooms are 23 by 10 feet, each with a bedroom 10 by 10 feet. Twenty-four study rooms are 18 by 8 feet each, with bedrooms 9 by 8 feet

is heated throughout by steam.

. It will soon be lighted with electricity and

" Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Agricultural College. Experiment Station and School

of Science, of the State of Washington, Nov. 1, 1892, p. 5.

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