EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 349 



mechanical activities and make both rural and urban 

 youth more competent in their respective environ- 

 ments and more actively interested therein. It is a 

 great undertaking and requires qualified instruction 

 and large public expenditure, both of which are diffi- 

 cult to compass. However, popular approval indi- 

 cates that all its requirements will be ultimately pro- 

 vided, both through the funds by the general govern- 

 ment and supplementary appropriations by the State 

 itself. The legislature of 1921 merged the control 

 of all State educational institutions (except the 

 University of California) in a newly created Depart- 

 ment of Education, one of seven chief divisions of the 

 State government and provided liberally for its 

 work. 



UNIVERSITIES 



As discussion in this connection is necessarily 

 restricted to the point of view of rural life, it is 

 only incidental that the constitution with which 

 California was admitted to the Union in 1850 con- 

 tained provision for the establishment of a University 

 as well as the organization of a system of district 

 schools which should embrace all parts of the State. 

 It was not then foreseen that the University would 

 become the "cap-sheaf of the California public school 

 system" but that fact was realized when the Univer- 

 sity was actually established in 1868. 



It was also provided by the constitution of 1850 

 that "the legislature shall encourage by all suitable 

 means the promotion of intellectual, scientific, moral 



