of the public free schools. By this means it is more than probable that both the permanent and available funds can be rapidly and considerably increased, resulting in the lengthening of the terms of the schools and better payment of the teachers. In a subsequent message, just presented, Governor Sayers, in urging upon the legislature the immediate and pressing necessity for the safe and quick investment of the permanent school fund upon the lines suggested in a former message, says: When the legislature convened, that is, on the 9th day of January, A. D. 1899, there was idle in the treasury and could not be invested, under restrictions imposed upon the board of education, of this fund $1,213,342.87. This sum has increased to $1,339,146.20. Several opportunities for its safe investment have already been lost, and I trust that the legislature will at once take such action in the premises as in its judgment may be proper. The interest accruing upon the permanent school fund is one of the principal means by which the public free schools are maintained. And among them as the head of the public-school system the university, as the writer has argued, should be maintained from this very fund in common with the other free schools. UTILIZATION OF UNIVERSITY LANDS. As for the university lands, since only their rentals and interest on land sales can be used for its available resources, it would seem that they might properly be utilized as tied-up lands (having a value as a basis for negotiations) are in other States. An instance of this method of using such lands is cited in Commissioner Harris's report of the United States Bureau of Education for the year 1896-97, voi. 2, p. 1142. The new State of Idaho, in order to utilize the lands, authorized a loan for buildings for her normal schools to be negotiated by a board consisting of the governor, treasurer, secretary of state, and attorneygeneral, on the faith and credit of the State, and secured by proceeds of the sale of the normal-school lands and timber; the bonds of the State, to be known as normal-school bonds, to be issued for the amount of the loan, and proceeds of the sales of the lands and timber to be set apart as a normal-school sinking fund to secure the payment of the loan. As already seen, the management of the university lands by the regents has been much more satisfactory than that by the State, and the facts in this respect ought to satisfy the State authorities of the impolicy of State control generally in university affairs. An elaborate statement by Thomas J. Lee, the university land agent, as presented in the last report of the board of regents shows that, among other more or less important facts When the act of 1895 investing the board of regents with the management and control of university lands went into effect, which was in the month of August of that year, there were in existence 51 lease contracts, made by the commissioner of the general land office, that were in good standing, and these covered 288,780 acres of land, yielding an annual income to the university of $8,663.40; and 23 lease contracts that were delinquent and subject to cancellation, and these covered 54,560 acres of land, the accrued payments thereon amounting to $2,767.20. The following summary shows the acreage at present leased and the amount annually received therefrom: Leases made by the Land Office prior to August, 1895 (still in effect). Under lease No. 39. Total.. Less, counted twice.. Net The increase in the annual revenue to the university since August, 1895, from land leases is $31,746.06. The increase in the acreage leased is 1,095,852 acres. An examination of the statements as to university land leases, made from time to time to the board of regents by the State treasurer, which I find in the biennial reports of the board to the legislature, discloses the fact that there is at present a much greater acreage under lease than ever before since the inception of the lease system. The greatest number of acres that has heretofore at any time been leased was 685,280, which was in the year 1892. But the amount received by the institution from that source during that year was only $15,027.70, and 147,690 acres must have therefore been delinquent, leaving 537,590 acres covered by contracts in good standing, or 847,042 acres less than at present. In the report of Hon. R. L. Batts to the board of regents in 1895, upon the status, etc., of the university lands, I find the statement made that the total receipts from leases of university land from January, 1884, the date of the first lease, up to and including the year 1894, amounted to $84,365.28. Comparing the receipts for the three years named with the receipts as shown by Professor Batts's statement, it will be seen that they exceed by $127.40 the total amount received during the eleven years from January, 1884, to December, 1894. Not only is the impolicy of State control of university affairs shown by the above statements, but the history of educational matters in other States is equally in evidence. In Mississippi, as claimed by Governor McRae in 1854, the State allowed itself to owe its university $1,077,790, or deducting appropriations, $874,324, for which it finally provided by appropriations of $20,000 annually. In Ohio the lands granted by Congress for the establishment of a university were leased for ninety-nine years at a valuation of $1.75 an acre, and though in 1804 this valuation of the lands amounted to $70,000, in 1883 it was found that they were assessed at $1,060,000. Yet the university was only receiving at that date an income of $2,400 instead of $63,600 from the 46,000 acres which had been granted in 1787 for the establishment of a university. THE CORNELL UNIVERSITY PLAN. The land scrip for 990,000 acres issued to New York under the Federal act of 1862 was ranging on the open market at from 50 to 60 cents an acre, when, according to United States Commissioner Harris's report Mr. Cornell made a proposition to the State to buy the whole body of scrip, yet unsold, at 60 cents an acre, to be paid for as resold, provided the scrip be placed in his hands for location and that all obtained for the lands above 60 cents an acre become an endowment for a university. The proposition was accepted, the scrip was judiciously located in the white pine forests of Wisconsin, all premature longings and solicitations of too impatient people were resisted, and the lands were eventually sold for $6.73 an acre on the average. As a result, the Cornell University has a fine endowment, a monument not only of the public spirit but of the business sagacity of Mr. Cornell and Mr. Henry W. Sage, who so ably effected their splendid project, not by "benefactions" but by their personality, the element by which "benefactors" accumulate their wealth. Why should not some great benefactor or benefactress, by his or her personality, in some way utilize the 2,000,000 acres of Texas University lands for the benefit of the university as well as personal benefit-say, by buying them, as might be done, at a reasonable price, and on terms for payments in such installments as would amply meet the annual needs of the university, and holding the lands till well appreciated in value, sell them at a fine profit, to be divided with the university, or, if disposed to be as generous as Mr. Cornell, devoting the entire profits to the university, under similar contract with the State-all with the advantage, in the case of the Texas University, of the party having the benefit of the rentals of the lands toward making their annual purchase installments? As to selling the lands in a body, the regents have not been without some solicitations in that direction, and are understood to be open to any reasonable proposition to sell them in large quantities. They might be profitably utilized for immense pastures by parties having the means at command for such enterprises, for which-as the lands are mainly in large, solid bodies-they are finely adapted. A purchaser would have the accruing benefit of existing leases, now for over 1,000,000 acres, at an annual rental of over $40,000. 10323-03-13 |