larger numbers. At the Louisville meeting of the Department of Super- 

 intendence, which will be held in the latter part of February, and at the 

 meetings of the State associations, which will assemble between Christmas 

 and New Year, the State managers will begin the work of organizing their 

 excursion parties. Questions of great importance will come before the July 

 meeting, and this fact should of itself attract an unusual number of active 

 members. California is famous for Its climate and scenic beauty, for the 

 excellence of its schools, the enthusiasm of its teachers, the hospitality of 

 its people and the attractiveness of its summer resorts. The teachers of 

 America travel more than those of any other country upon the globe. In 

 fact, everything seems to justify the prediction that the San Francisco 

 meeting will be one of the largest in the history of the association. 



The Intellectual Growth of 

 California. 



DAVID 5TARR JORDAN. 



I AM asked to say a word in regard to the progress of higher education in 

 California, and its effect on the development of the State. 

 I have not any statistics at hand. Those who need such to fix their 

 faith can find them at either university, or at the Department of Public 

 Instruction in Sacramento. 



It is sufficient that we recognize this fact. Twenty years ago 

 higher education and the training on which it rests seemed merely in- 

 cidental in California. The mind of the people was busied with other 

 things. There were not many children anyway on the Coast, and these 

 could be sent East for culture, or else in the glorious climate they could get 

 along without it. 



With a population of less than a million and a half, California has two 

 universities of the first rank, with more than four thousand students, besides 

 nearly a thousand more in affiliated professional schools. These students 

 come from every State of the Union, as well as from California. Every 

 civilized nation Is represented, off and on, from year to year, and the 

 students return to every State and nation for their life work. Five or six 

 hundred graduates are sent out each year, as well trained as the best which 

 go from anywhere. The high schools of the State, ten or fifteen times as 

 numerous as twenty years ago, are practically all in the hands of men and 

 women of college breeding. The smaller colleges and normal schools are 

 effective and flourishing, each in its v/ay. The great interest in college 

 athletics has been turned to the account of higher education, for these 

 sports have been freed from professionalism, vulgarity, and other incidents 

 connected with the presence in colleges of the athletic tramp. The young 

 college men of California are doing their part in the century-long conflict 

 between Democracy and Graft, the one great battle which is on to-day. 

 The contributions of California to the advancement of science through its 

 universities and colleges and through the activity of its Academy of Science 

 are fully abreast of the times. In amount and value they are not second 

 to the output of any other region with the population of California. 



California has the tremendous advantage of perfect climate, mag- 

 nificent scenery, charming in its near views and sublimo in its broad ones. 

 Its advantages educational and social will be equally marked. Not long 

 ago, I had occasion to use these words: 



The social life of California is, in its essentials, that of the rest of the 

 United States, for the same blood flov/s in the veins of those whose influence 

 dominates it. Under afl its deviations and variations lies the old Puritan 

 conscience, which is still the backbone of the civilization of the republic. Life 

 in California is a little fresher, a little freer, a good deal richer, in its physical 

 aspects, and for these reasons, more intensely and characteristically Ameri- 



