worked for it, were Representatives Tarver, Prince, McAnally, Chambers, Grubbs, Neff, Wooten, Monroe, Palmer, Wheless, Maxwell, McKamy, Childs, Grogan, Connoly, Kittrell, Staples, Caldwell, Collins, Goodlett, Thomas, and Little. It seems that opponents to the appropriations for the university whose constitutional scruples were overcome were still, many of them, swayed by their prejudices and economic views as to the propriety of the grant. It is, unfortunately, too true that many members of the legislature never visit the university so as to be enlightened as to the character, work, and needs of such an institution.

What the legislature of 1899 finally did was to allow the university for the main establishment at Austin $40,000 for each of the two years from the State's general revenue, and from the same fund $35,500 for each year for the medical department at Galveston. The Agricultural and Mechanical College at Bryan was allowed $103,900 for the first and $30,900 for the second year. Provision was also made to establish a chair of entomology at the college. The number of the board of college directors was increased from five to eight members.

For the first time in the history of the university, the legislature, in some sense, complied with the law providing for a board of visitors, in addition to the board of regents for the university, by appointing a committee to visit it, the appointees being Rosser Thomas, Jasper Collins and John Willacy, all members of the house of representatives. The bill of Representative Grubbs for the establishment by the State of a girl's industrial school, after passing the house, was defeated in the senate.

Not a word was said in the legislature during the session about a university tax; but as a tax commission was created it may be that body will recommend the fixing of a special tax for the university.

After the appropriations of $40,000 for each of the two years for the university from the general revenue were adopted, Representative Henderson stated to the house that he intended to make the question of the right of the legislature to appropriate general revenue for that institution an issue before the people in the next State canvass, and Representative Monroe promptly responded that he would meet him on the stump on that question. He would never admit that such propriations were unconstitutional until declared to be so by the Supreme Court.

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Chapter VII.

UNIVERSITY ORGANIZATION.

So far it has been shown how the university trust has been neglected and university organization retarded by legislation too often responsive to misdirected public sentiment; it remains now to recite how, despite all obstacles encountered and consequent retrogression, the university finally got into operation, not under the acts of 1858 and 1866, but under the provisions of the constitution of 1876, abridging, as that did, the originally grand endowment of the university, and more definitely under the final university act of March 30, 1881, and subsequent legislation up to the date of the practical operation of the institution by temporary use of rooms for recitations and lectures in the State capitol in September, 1883, till the main building at Austin was sufficiently constructed for occupancy January 1, 1884.

Realizing fully the heavy drain of funds which were constantly diverted from the State to educate Texas boys and girls abroad, and seeing places of honor and emolument for teachers and other professions preferably awarded to young men and women of other States on account of their superior educational qualifications, the great majority of the people were at last alive to the importance and necessity of weighing existing conditions and launching the university upon the open sea of experiment without waiting for its being fully manned and equipped. The quicker done the better, in order to sooner bring it into competition with the growing universities of the country, and by affording Texan youth the all-satisfying repasts of a grand university's advantages, remove the temptation to seek advanced instruction at other institutions, and thus utilize home talent and home development at home institutions for home work and professional excellence. Fortunately, nothwithstanding the great obstacles encountered to get it into operation, it had the promoting influence of men of experience and advanced ideas as to the benefits and effects of university education in the older States, but for which the establishment of the Texas University, with all its grandly planned endowment, might not even now be effected. As it is, while much has been accomplished to open the way to success, much remains to be done to keep step to the music of educational progress, and the grand march of this great empire State in political importance.

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As finally passed, the university act of 1881, under which the university was organized and is now operating, is as follows:

UNIVERSITY ACT OF 1881.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the legislature of the State of Texas, That there be established in this State, at such locality as may be determined by a vote of the people, an institution of learning, which shall be called and known as the University of Texas. The medical department of the university shall be located, if so determined by a vote of the people, at a different point from the university proper, and as a branch thereof, and the question of the location of said department shall be submitted to the people and voted on separately from the propositions for the location of the main university. The nominations and elections for the location of the medical department shall be subject to the other provisions of this act with respect to the time and manner of determining the location of the university.

SEC. 2. An election shall be held on the first Tuesday of September, eighteen hundred and eighty-one, for the purpose of locating the University of Texas, and the governor is hereby authorized and instructed to issue his proclamation ordering an election on said day for said purpose, and returns of said election shall be made in the manner prescribed in the general election law.

SEC. 3. All localities put in nomination for the location of the university shall be forwarded to the governor at least forty days anterior to the holding of said election, and the governor shall embrace in his proclamation ordering said election the names of said localities: Provided, That any citizen may vote for any locality not named in said proclamation.

SEC. 4. The locality receiving the largest number of votes shall be declared elected, and the university shall be established at such locality: Provided, That the vote cast for said locality shall amount to one-third of the votes cast; but if no place shall receive one-third of the entire vote cast, another election shall be ordered, within ninety days of the first election, between the two places receiving the highest number of votes, and the one receiving the highest number at said second election shall be declared to be selected by the people as the location of the University of Texas.

SEC. 5. The government of the university shall be vested in a board of regents, to consist of eight members, selected from different portions of the State, who shall be nominated by the governor, and appointed by and with the consent of the Senate.

SEC. 6. The board of regents shall be divided into classes, numbered one, two, three, and four, as determined by the board at their first meeting; shall hold their office two, four, six, and eight years respectively, from the time of their appointment. From and after the first of January, eighteen hundred and eighty-three, two members shall be appointed at each session of the legislature to supply the vacancies made by the provisions of this section, and in the manner provided for in the preceding section, who shall hold office for eight years respectively.

SEC. 7. The regents appointed pursuant to the fifth section of this act, and their succesors in office, shall have the right of making and using a common seal and altering the same at pleasure.

SEC. 8. The regents shall organize by the election of a president of the board of regents from their own number, who shall hold his office during the pleasure of the board. They shall establish the departments of a first-class university, determine the officers and professorships, appoint the professors (who shall constitute the faculty, with authority to elect their own chairman) and other officers, fix their respective salaries, and to enact such by-laws, rules, and regulations as may be necessary for the successful management and government of the university: Provided, That the salaries and expenses of the university shall never exceed the interest on the university fund and land-sales fund, or ever become a charge on the general revenue of the State.

SEC. 9. The immediate government of the several departments shall be intrusted to their respective faculties, subject to joint supervision of the whole faculty, but the regents shall have power to regulate the courses of instruction and prescribe, by and with the advice of the professors, the books and authorities used in the several departments, and to confer such degrees and to grant such diplomas as are usually conferred and granted by universities.

SEC. 10. The regents shall have power to remove any professor, tutor, or other officer connected with the institution, when, in their judgment, the interest of the university shall require it.

SEC. 11. The fee for admission to the university shall never exceed thirty dollars, and it shall be open to all persons in the State who may wish to avail themselves of its advantages, and to male and female on equal terms, without charge for tuition, under the regulations prescribed by the regents, and all others under such regulations as the board of regents may prescribe.

SEC. 12. The treasurer of the State shall be the treasurer of the university.

SEC. 13. It shall be the duty of the governor within thirty days after the location of the university shall have been determined to convene the board of regents at the city of Austin for the following purposes:

First. To effect the permanent organization of said board.

Second. To adopt such regulations as they may deem proper for their government. SEC. 14. Meetings of the board shall be called in such manner and at such place as the regents may prescribe, and a majority of them so assembled shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business, and a less number may adjourn from time to time.

SEC. 15. It shall be the duty of the board of regents, after the organization of the board of regents, to meet at the place chosen for the university for the following purposes:

First. To establish the departments of the university.

Second. To define the general plan of the university buildings.

Third. To advertise for plans and specifications of the same.

Fourth. To take such action as may be deemed advisable for the creation of professorships and the election of professors.

Fifth. To take such action as may be deemed necessary for perfecting the organization of the university.

SEC. 16. After the plan and specifications of the building shall have been adopted, it shall be the duty of the board of regents to advertise for bids for the construction of the same, and to proceed as soon as practicable to the erection of the same. The buildings to be substantial and handsome, but not loaded with useless and expensive ornamentation: Provided, That the cost of the buildings shall not exceed one hundred and fifty thousand dollars: And provided further, That said buildings shall be so constructed as to admit of additions thereto, without marring the harmony of the architecture.

SEC. 17. The regents are empowered, and it shall be their duty to purchase the necessary furniture, library, apparatus, museum, and other appliances: Provided, That the amount expended for said purposes shall not exceed forty thousand dollars. SEC. 18. The regents shall have authority to expend the interest which has heretofore accrued, and may hereafter accrue, on the permanent university fund, for the purposes herein specified, and for the maintenance of the branches of the university, and the said interest is hereby appropriated for this purpose.

SEC. 19. All expenditure shall be made by order of the board of regents, and the same shall be paid on warrants of the comptroller, based on vouchers approved by the president and countersigned by the secretary.

SEC. 20. No religious qualification shall be required for admission to any office or privilege in the university; nor shall any course of instruction of a sectarian character be taught therein.

SEC. 21. The board of regents shall report to the board of education annually, and to each regular session of the legislature, the condition of the university, setting forth the receipts and disbursements, the number and salary of the faculty, the number of students, classified in grades and departments, the expenses of each year, itemized, and the proceedings of the board and faculty fully stated.

SEC. 22. There shall be appointed by the legislature, at each regular session, a board of visitors, who shall attend the annual examinations of the university and its branches, and report to the legislature thereon.

SEC. 23. The reasonable expenses incurred by the board of regency and visitation, in the discharge of their duties, shall be paid from the available university fund. SEC. 24. That all laws and parts of laws in conflict with this act be, and the same are hereby, repealed.

Approved, March 30, A. D. 1881.

Takes effect ninety days after adjournment.

ADMINISTRATORS AND REGENTS.

In 1866 Governor Pease, under the act of 1858, appointed the "ten administrators of the University of Texas," as the law then required and designated them. The appointees were Charles S. West, George B. Erath, Henry F. Gillette, William G. Webb, Robert Bechern, Gustave Sleicher, P. W. Kittrell, William S. Glass, I. W. Ferris, and S. A. Stockdale. The number was subsequently reduced to eight, and in 1872 Governor Davis appointed as the board James H. Raymond, S. Mussina, C. R. Johns, M. A. Taylor, Hamilton Stuart, S. G. Newton, E. G. Benners, and J. R. Morris. In 1873 Governor Davis appointed a new board: Edward Degener, James H. Starr, A. H. Bryant, George W. Smyth, James W. Talbot, John W. Harris, Hamilton Stuart, and John C. Raymond.

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The board of eight university regents," as the law subsequently designated them, was the one authorized by the university act of 1881, and was appointed by Governor Roberts and confirmed by the senate, as follows: Thomas J. Devine, James W. Throckmorton, Richard B. Hubbard, Ashbel Smith, James H. Starr, A. N. Edwards, James H. Bell, and Smith Ragsdale. James Bell was appointed in place of E. M. Pease, who declined the appointment on account of his political views as to the management of the university. Col. Ashbel Smith was elected president of the board at the first meeting of the regents, held November 14, 1881, in Austin. The gentlemen who have successively been appointed for regular terms or to fill vacancies occurring in the board by declination or resignation were J. L. Camp, T. M. Harwood, T. D. Wooten, J. M. Boroughs, Lipscomb Norvel, William H. Crawford, M. L. Crawford, James H. Jones, A. T. McKinney, E. J. Simkins, George F. Moore, B. Hadra, James B. Clark, M. W. Garnett, George T. Todd, Seth Shepard, L. C. Alexander, George W. Brackenridge, A. J. Rose, T. C. Thompson, W. L. Prather, F. W. Ball, Robert E. Cowart, Armory R. Starr, Thomas S. Henderson, Beauregard Bryan, E. M. House, Frank M. Spencer, and T. W. Gregory.