The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-01-26
PACIFIC UNIVERSITY.

The complications that for years past
have involved the affairs of the Methodist
colleges in California have been untangled
at last. 1t has b cen decided to consolidate
the college at Napa with that of San Jose
and to restore to the unified institutions
the historic name of the University of the
Pacific. Ghe consolidation is to be COM
plete in fact as we'll as name, in reality
as well as in spirit. The buildings and
land of the college at Napa are to be sold.
All energies and efforts are to be directed
to the building up of the institution at San
Jose. The union is complete and in that
completed union may be seen the satisfac-
tory settlement of almost every difficulty
that has hampered the work of the col
leges IN the past few years.
Under the title of the University of the
Pacific the college near San Jose has long
enjoyed high repute among the educa-
tional institutions of the country. 1t was
the earliest foundation of college of lib
eral arts in California. 1t comes down to
US from the time of the pioneers and is a
monumental witness of their devotion to
the cause Of education in the highest and
broadcast sense. In that respect its welfare
is dear to the whole State. There are
thousands having no connection either
with the institution or with the church
that sustains it who felt that a mistake
had been made when it was proposed some
time ago to separate the name from the
college and establish the university in San
Francisco.
The policy now adopted, however,
means something more than the restor-
| alton of a name and is backed by stronger
reasons than that of restoring the historic
continuity of the oldest of our universities.
In the past the Methodists of the State
have made the mistake of dividing their
energies between the university at San
Jose and the college at Napa. As natural
result neither institution has been sup
ported as it should have been. Moreover,
there have arisen from time to time differ
ences that have led to discussions and even
antagonisms among those in whose hands
lay the welfare of the colleges. With the
consolidation of course all the causes of
trouble pass away. The University of the
Pacific has received as it were new birth
and is about to enter upon an era which
promises to be one of more than ordinary
| success in every direction of its efforts.
To all who are interested in the progress
of higher education this happy solution of
the difficulties that surrounded our pIo-
neer university will give the greatest salts
faction. There is need in California for
just such an institution of learning as that
which the University of the Pacific is des-
| tined to become. 1t is in no sense COM
petitor with either the State University or
with Stanford. Itoccupies domain which
they do not enter. Founded and main
tanned by great church, its course of edu-
cation is interfused through and through
with the spirit of Christianity, and rests
upon those great dogmas of religion that
form the foundations of our social organ
ism. On this basis it aims to build up
liberal training OF young men and women
In the truth that makes men free, and it
serves therefore not as an antagonist but
as the complement to the other UNIVERSE
ties where education is confined almost
wholly to the purely scientific aspects of
learning.
Having now been freed from it's past diff
| ficulties and having this broad field before
1t, there is little doub. that the university
will soon advance rapidly in every way.
1t possesses already a large, earnest and
influential body of alumni to assist the
Methodist church in promoting its welfare
and extending its influence. Its location
at San Jose is one OF exceptional advant-
ages and these will increase with the years.
Liberal endowments it must have to per-
form its work, and now that the whole
educational energy of the Methodism of
the State is centered there, such endow-
ments may be safely counted on. When
the right seed has been rightly planted,
growth is certain, and in this case both the
seed and the planting are of the kind to
which have been promised an increase of
| thousand fold.