The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1883-09-27

ton 1t would require the employment
and pay of at least eight professors,
who, at the rate we are paying those
in the law department, would con-
sumo S28,O 600 per annum actual cash.
1t is the earnest desire and the con-
slant effort of the regents to so dis
pose of the 100000 acres of land
owned by the university as to realize
from them an income adequate to es-
tablish every department of the insti-
tuition upon basis of success and of
that high order required by the law
creating it. In this endeavor we are
practically without authority, except
by courtesy of the land board, and, as
in almost every step we have taken
from the commencement of our
labors, we find ourselves hampered by
incomplete legislation. If we sue
coed in leasing these lands, at the
rates fixed by law, it will give us an
income sufficient, in the course of
time, to establish the medical and re-
naming branches of the university.
AS to embarrassments labored under,
DR.. Wooten relates:
Our history has been a chapter of
embarraSSmentS. In the first place
we were called to assume control of
an institution which had previously
existed only on paper, and about
which neither the public at large nor
any of us had any Well-defined ideas.
Its resources had neyer been estimated
nor hushanded by any one author
lied to represent it; its objects were
but vaguely shawdowed in the public
mind, and its exact relation to our ed
ucational system had never been
fixed, and was often ignorantly and
sometimes Intentionally misrepreSent-
ed and attacked We found its avail
able finances seriously small, and for
a long time past depleted and diverted
to alien projects, so that what had
once been considered a munificent ell
dowment was practically hardly suf-
ticient to provide a decent beginning
for a university. The million acres
given us by the constitution Of 1876
were not available for sale or lease
without additional legislation; 1,700,-
900 acres had been taken from the
university by the same constitution;
an honest debt of $134,472.26, due
the institution. had been classed
| as of doubtful validity" the perma-
nent fund, though apparently consid
cradle, furnishes very meager avail
able profit, which alone was at our
disposal, and certain branches of the
university, created by law and in
| themselves meritorious enough, were
yet thriving at the expense of the
parent institution, and consuming the
resources that should rightfully have
been reserved for the proper inaugu-
ration OF the university proper. All
these embarrassments must be met
and surmounted, and their solution
demanded an outlay of time and
thought, and the assumption of a
grave responsibility, such as few men
engaged in active private pursuits and
living at distant and different places
could, with justice to themselves,
undertake to incur and discharge.
Hence as soon as the magni-
tude of the labor and the Sc
verify of the duty BECAME
apparent, resignation became the
order of the day, and has continued
with such fatal repetition that the
/ board of regents has in this manner
been repeatedly changed in its men,
bership, and some times so diminished
as to scarcely command quorum for
the transaction of business. 1t was
necessary to importune and memoir
alize the legislature to correct and
repair the defects and wrongs referred
| to, and in this undertaking we were
seriously retarded by the want of in
formation prevalent among the ma
jority of the legislators in regard to
the condition, prospects and aims of
the institution committed to our care.
Moreover, in certain quarters, both
through ignorance and design, an
opposition was Studiously exerted to
pr, judice the friends of the public
free schools against the university
upon the utterly false and irrational
assumption that there was a necessary
antagoniSm between the two when,
in fact, the latter is but the compile
ment and browning gloryof the former
| We at once adopted plan for b lid
| ing, not larger than was required to
accommodate the necessary depart
mentS, and of that plain and inexpen-
siye character described by the law
establishing the institution. This we
have been able, on account Of limited
means, to finish only in part, and the
remainder should be completed at the
earliest practicable moment. We
have succeeded in having the SIS
4722G Of doubtful validity recUg-
nized and validated, and an addition
million acres OF land set apart to the
university The latter has not been
surveyed, and the last legislature
failed to authorize Us to act with sur
| ticielt power in the matter. LuGSf-
the orders Of the land board,
however, we have employed all
agent to inspect and classify the
lands, and hope soon to have
them on the market for lease. An in
telligent review of these various
difficulties with which we have had
to deal will give some notion of the
embarrassment that have surrounded
us at every step. But no one who
has not experienced their full force
and d1scouraging influences can form
any adequate idea of the heavy load
we have had to carry from the very
first. And here it may be said that
the public press of the state, so far
from aiding and encouraging our
labors, has, almost without exception,
endeavored with seeming delight to
array against us every obstacle that a
flippant and unthinking prejudice
could desire and elaborate. This we
have ascribed more to misconception
than to deliberate malice, and hope
soon to see our leading papers afford
the young institution generous and
intelligent support.
AS to the prospects for the univer-
sity, the regent continues:
DR.. Wooten-Its prospects are more
favorable now than its best friends
could have anticipated twelve months
ago. 1t has an available fund suffi-
Gent to meet the immediate exigen-
cieS of its present organization, and
the assurance of increased resources
adequate to provide, in reasonable
time, for the full establishment of al
its departments on sure and success
full basis. 1t has begun with a num-
Der Of students greater than any one
of the great universities of America
ever had in its first session. Its faculty
is, in point of ability and experience,
second to that of no institution on the
continent. 1t will never burden the
people with taxation, and it appeals
by its free tuition peculiarly to the
poorer and laboring classes. Its loca.
ton is singularly attractive and
healthful, and its territorial situation
will soon secure a large patronage
from other states. The unfounded
and irrational prejudices which have
been attempted to be arrayed against
it are fast being dissipated by fuller
Il