The San Francisco call., 1898-03-08
Regents of the University May Fill the Holden
 Vacancy To-Day.
Accrued Interest on the Will merding Gift of Four Hun
 dred Thousand Dollars.
Plenty of Money on Hand, but There Is No School to Teach Me-
 chanical Trades.

It is expected that the Board of Re gents of the. State University will, at the regular session to-day, take up the question of appointing director of the Lick Observatory at Mount Hamilton to succeed B. $. Holden, whose reSig- nation took effect on the 1St of last January. Whenfthe vacancy was about to be filled some weeks ago it was surmised that Professor George David son had a force of regents in his favor strong enough to give him the posi- tion. He had the indorsement of many eminent astronomers and quite a num- Der of leading citizens of California, but the election was postponed at the sug gestion of Regent Rodgers, who asked the pOstponement until Mrs. Hearst, who had gone to Mexico, could be pres ent. Mrs. Hearst had done so much for the university and was planning to do so much more, that the regents were constrained to do anything in req son to oblige her.
 It is understood that some active work has been done in the interest of another candidate for director since the postponement and the voting to-day may surprise the friends of Professor Davidson.
 The regents have another important place to fill, and that is the office of director of the Wilmerding School. MT. Wilmerding gave the regents $400,000 to establish a school to teach boys how to earn an honest living at mechan- ical trade of some kind. The regents put the sum out at interest and the in tereSt earnings to date exceed S5O,O0O. The idea of lending the money while the boys were running the streets, or course, never occurred to MT. Wilmerd- ing, so he placed nothing in the con ditions of the gift to prevent it. Be- fore long the regents will have a half million dollars, but there will be no school for the boys. The principle domi- hating the university to-day is to get money and lend it. The way the board is managing the trust confided to the university by MT. Wilmerding may not encourage many other millionaire phil anthropistS to endow the institution with money.
 Word is give. out that Regent Hal lidie is going East and that no direc- tor for the school will be chosen until he returns. The regent wants to look about and see what kind of material the East can supply to superintend the school. MT Wilmerding no doubt supposed that there were men in Cali fornia capable of experimenting the school and perhaps fancied that the regents would not look elsewhere, hence he made no conditions in the trust on this score. While MT. Halli- die is skirmishing around the coun- try east of the Mississippi in quest of a suitable superintendent the money which the generous Mir. Wilmerding gave for the boys is drawing interest. True enough, there is no school to teach trades, but the regents can point with pride to a brilliant object lesson in finance. The original gift of s400,- 900 is intact. and with accrued inter- est amounts to more than $450 GOO. Still MT. Wimerding did not give the money to. esta blish a school of finance All he thought of was a plain, com mon, every day sort of workshop. where the youngsters on the street could be assembled and instructed how to handle the ordinary appliances of a mechanical trade. He did not contemplate the establishment of a great scientific institution to challenge the admiration of the world and invoke the eloquence of the ages. All he had in mind was a help for the boys who were in danger of becoming vicious through idleness and lack of working opportunity. All of this has been ex- plained to the regents by the men who were with MT. Wilmerding when he was making up his mind to give $4O0,- 900 in trust for the boys