18963 The Long Fight Continued 



fourth) in the street railway system of San Fran- 

 cisco readily brought about one million and a half; 

 but the highest offer before 1898 for the whole of 

 the Stanford holdings in the Southern Pacific was 

 only about five millions. Indeed, the Probate 

 Court's official inventory (1893) of the entire estate 

 estimated its current worth as about seventeen 

 millions only. And in spite of great ultimate value, 

 at forced sale many fine pieces of property (ranches 

 especially) would have then brought next to nothing. 



Still more distressing was Mrs. Stanford's con- Mrs. 

 stant anxiety lest she might not live long enough to ^^'^i'^'"^'^ 

 free the estate and thus bring it into her own hands 

 — a condition precedent to deeding it to the Uni- 

 versity. Moreover, the technical discrepancy in 

 the Enabling Act left the original board of trustees 

 impotent to receive endowments. For this em- 

 barrassment the only solution lay in an amendment 

 to the erratic state constitution ^ which should recog- 

 nize Stanford by name as a quasi-public institution, 

 capable of receiving donations for educational pur- 

 poses — an achievement effected in the fall of 

 1900 through a remarkable series of efforts. 



Anticipating the referendum, George E. Crothers, putting 

 a "Pioneer," prepared the amendment and, assisted Stanford 

 by Francis V. Keisling, '98, took charge of the state- caiijomia 

 wide campaign, enlisting the services of Stanford constitw 

 men and women by whom the necessity for the 

 change was explained in almost every district. As 

 a result the proposition was carried by the highest 

 majority ever received here; by that time, at least, 



^ Admirably described by Bryce in "The American Commonwealth" 

 (Chapter xc) but since modified by the addition of upward of a hundred 

 amendments. 



c 505 3 



tion 



