The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-06-19

tuition fee at Berkeley:
HOTEL VENDoME, SAN JOSE,
June IL, 1895.
Hon. Charles W. Slack, Regent of the Uni
|.vers,ry-UEAR SIR: Your interest in the
univeI sity and your official relations with
it seem to me sufficient justification of
my addressing you public note concern
ing a matter OF much Importance now be-
fore the board of regents. | hope this will
not seem to you an intrusion nor an un.
due assumption on my part. | refer to
the proposition before the board to es-
tablish tuition fee in the university.
There has been some difference of opin-
ION on TINS matter from the beginning,
some thinking that the institution should
be entirely free, others that moderate
fee should be imposed. The Legislative
act establishing the university leaves the
matter to the discretion of the regents.
Time ana events develop what always
proves to be the case with institutions not
established to make money-that wants
exceed means. Educational institutions
are always in want, and from the very
nature of the case they always must be, as
education is such boundless thing, for
ever aggressive, encroaching upon the I'M
| known and making conquests over new
realms. that its wants are ever increasing,
| and Just enough is never enough.
| The question arises fairly, squarely and
| honorably: Ought not those who have
| peculiar and exclusive privileges to do
| something to relieve this ever pressing
| want and bear part in the expense Of
! their privileges? The very question seems
| trite and obvious to the moral sense How
does it happen that there is any confusion
about it? 1t happens thus, l imagine:
| From our habit of calling the university a
| part of the common-school system of the
State. In certain sense it is, and in an
other very certain sense it is not a part of
| the common-school system.
The common school and the university,
| both in respect of the idea and motive that
underlie them, and in their accessibility
| and commonness are distinct. The COM
mon school is common; it is everywhere
and accessible to all The university is e1-
elusive. by the necessary conditions of To-
cation and concentration, and is accessible
to but few. They are distinct also in idea
and motive. The idea and motive of the
common school are the duty of the
State to furnish all its citizens the means
of intelligence that they may act their part
we'll as citizens. The idea and motive of
the university are liberal education TO
those who voluntarily seek it, The one is
primarily for the State, the other is for the
man himself. They are identical only in
this, that they are free from partisan con-
troll of politics or religion.
But il we go from theory to practice the
truth seems to me equally clear. AS a
matter of fact, only a small number of the
youth of the State can or will avail itself of
the privileges of the university. AS mat
ter of fact, the pupils of the university are
a privileged class, made SO by legislation,
and the necessary exclusiveness of loca-
rl,o< sN<xv ~f v>r,, D.
public justice does the State pay $500 or
$500 year for youth from the age of six.
teen to twenty-one? The motives that in
f1uence young men to 60 to the university
are not widely different from those that in
fuence honorable young men in other
walks. The general motive, and it is not
necessarily mean, is to get on in the world
Why should the State give John $500 to go
to the university for liberal education,
| and let Henry go to the iron business with
out a stipend?
Both alike have honorable ambition to
become successful and useful men. Will
it be said that the educated man is worth
more to the State and therefore, his bills
should be paid from the public chest? 1t
may be so, that he is worth more; but
before it can be assumed as ground of
| public policy for paying the expenses of a
student in the university 1t must be shown
that there is an essential, elementary and
necessary relation between science or lit
erature ard public or private virtue. Will
man give bonds for that? knowledge IS
power. There is no doubt about that; but
power for what depends on something
besides the power of knowledge.
Is it not plain and simple truth that if
a man would enjoy peculiar and exclusive
| privileges, every sense of honor, self
respect, public and private duty, urge him
to do something to pay for those privi-
f,rlI
pay fully for the benefits he receives from
society or the State-but if he receives ex-
elusive benefits through institutions not
accessible to all, every manly sentiment
suggests that he should do something that
at least confesses debt of gratitude that
he can never pay. | imagine, sir, that
every young man will confess this at the
very bottom of his heart, when he looks
these facts fully in the face.
Let it not be supposed that / am indif-
ferent to the trials and struggles of the
student of narrow or limited means-I
congratulate him upon his opportunities
in community of learning, where men
are valued by their manhood, to show him
self man. If the good man, successful
in a great cause, or calm and strong in ad-
versity, is the most sublime vision on
which our eyes may rest, then the young
man who is poor, but whose mind is so
athletic and his heart so unworn that he
never thinks that he is poor, is the best
example of human ambition. Let him
not be discouraged-the long minded
powers are with him.
Doubtless the policy of the university
should be liberal, but it should not be in
fantile. The university is not a nursery,
nor an orphan asylum, nor an almshouse,
nor place to get something for nothing.
1t is place for liberal education, and
every one who. resorts there should paw
something for the great privilege If the
tuition fee is made $50, or any other sum.
provision should be made that those who
are unable to pay during their privilege
may give their obligation year by year,
without interest, until graduation. Then
interest should begin at a rate about equal
to that of the funds of the university. This
would be bond of honor, pride and graft
tude that every one would be glad to con-
fess. If the maker of the bond dies, that
event dissolves the obligation; if he lives
and does not pay, it may be a fair question
whether or not he belongs to that class of
ungifted minds that should have gone to
another institution.
There is one other matter not immedi-
ately connected with the question of tut
ton fees but cognate to it. There should
be, in my opinion, no scholarships founded
nv the state There is a tendencv tha,