MANUAL LABOR INDISPENSABLE. 381 



The Board of Regents, as at present constituted, is an anom 

 aly in the history of democratic institutions. It is virtually a 

 self-perpetuating close corporation, managing a property 

 already worth more than a million dollars, commanding an im 

 portant and constantly increasing political influence. Already 

 the skillful dispensing of patronage has made itself felt at 

 Berkeley. &quot;What it may become in the future requires no illus 

 tration. 



It should be remembered that the State is not only the trus 

 tee of the national benefaction, but that the people have freely 

 given of their substance, over eight hundred thousand dollars, 

 for buildings and the maintenance of the University. 



Another hindrance to the prosperity of the Agricultural Col 

 lege of the University is the want of land upon which to carry 

 out farming operations on a scale commensurate with the mag 

 nitude of this interest in California. Since the sale of nearly 

 two hundred acres of the University domain, (see page 191,) it 

 will be impossible to exhibit the varied capacities of this State 

 for agriculture and horticulture on the present site, or to carry 

 out a manual labor system which will judiciously employ and 

 train the students for their work. In nearly every other Agri 

 cultural College in the country manual labor is made obliga 

 tory, and it should be in every College, upon this foundation. 



No way could be devised to give a stronger or more lasting 

 direction to the taste of young men and women for these pur 

 suits, than their association as students in the labors of the 

 horticultural school and the farm. Four years of practical and 

 theoretical training of the right kind, of such a body of stu 

 dents as California is even now ready to furnish, would, in my 

 judgment, prove an incalculable benefit. It is the proper 

 function of the public school to train the young for a respecta 

 ble position in the industrial state. The Agricultural and Me 

 chanical College should complete this training; its diploma 

 should have a money value, as a certificate of educated power. 

 This cannot be done without means and appliances for the ac 

 quirement of skill. &quot; This acquisition of skill requires physi 

 cal labor, just as the acquisition of science requires mental 

 labor. Hence, physical labor should be compulsory, in the 

 same sense and for the same purpose that mental labor is com 

 pulsory, and in no other. As long as a student feels that he is 

 gaining either knowledge-or skill that will be valuable to him 



