41-1208-2111 
BULLETIN 

OF THE 

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS 

NUMBER 112 
DECEMBER 15, 1908REPRINT SERIES NO-6 
THE UNIVERSITY AND THE STATE* 
BY THE HONORABLE T . W. GREGORY, LL. B., OF AUSTIN 
We, the fossil representatives of former generatio~s of students, are gathered here today for the purpose of admiring ourselves. You 
can hear from one end of this town to the other talk about the giants there were in our days. Last night I went up to the recep­tion at the Law Building, and there was a little, weazened, fl.ea­bitten fellow standing by me who graduated back in the SO's, and he said: "They look so childish to me; this present generation are mere children; they look so small; it really astonishes me to see how the student body has retrograded physically and mentally." The lights had gone out about that time, and a fellow by the name of Parrish, a student at the University, about six feet three, center­rush on the football team and holder of the hammer-throwing rec­ord of the South, came in and stepped on this fellow's head ( ap­plause) and apologized as best he could. Parrish hadn't observed him and accidentally walked on him. That is about the way all of these giants are when you get up close to them. I expect I could prove by one hundred men and half a hundred women within the sound of my voice, that there have been no gr~at men, or women either, since the days of Agamemnon. Of course there would be about twenty-five opinions among them as to just which year rep­resented the age of Agamemnon; but that is really a small matter, and no really intelligent person would be deceived by this discrep­
ancy in the testimony. 
*Address delivered at the Alumni Barbecue', Wheeler's Grove, Austin, 
November 25, 190·8. 
Reprinted from the University Record, Vol. 8, No. 4. 
Now there is something beyond the mere matter of eating mut­ton here today and hearing Dick Slaughter, and Adrian Pool, and Lobe Carlton, and their kind lie about what they used to do when they were at the University; as a matter of fact they were not nearly as bad as they claim they were; they overestimate the danger to society which existed when they inhabited this hill. Dick Slaughter-there he is over there-to hear him talk, when he roared the entire police force of the city of Austin, including Ben Thomp­son, jumped into the river. (Laughter.) Well, in a way, of course, he was bad, but he was not nearly as bad as he thinks he was; and so it was with all these other giants. They "swunk," as the nigger says, when you got close to them. 
As a matter of fact, we do think, and it is proper and natural we should thi1;1k, that we were terrible fellows in those days; that we were really much bigger than any of the people who followed us; but on an occasion of this kind, after having filled ourselves with mutton and other things provided by Mr. Bob Connerly of the class of 1885, I think it is a good idea to consider seriously one or two matters in regard to this institution of learning, and take home with us a. few facts in regard to its welfare. 
The question comes up, have these giants of old, who went out conquering and to conquer, done much for this institution? They went out with its stamp upon their foreheads, and not a man among them, or a woman, but left here with the express determi­nation to carry into the daily walks of life fond memories of the University, and its needs and its future. The question arises, have they lived up to these resolutions? Have they done what they should have done, and if these things have not been done, whose fault is it? I wish for a few minutes to call your attention briefly to some matters .Perhaps well known to all, but still worthy of being emphasized, to some figures and facts which all of us should carry away from this meeting and coin into something which will be of value to this institution as time goes by, and will help to develop it in the way that we all used to hope it would be developed. May the day never come when this hope dies out in the bosom of . any ex-student. · 
We know in a general way that many among the men who founded and first carried on this government were untutored, and many also were graduates of the great institutions of the world. 
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'l'hey differed, moreover, in regard to the theories of government. But there was one proposition on which all, whether educated or uneducated, were a unit. From 1839, when the first fifty leagues of land were laid aside for this institution, in constitutional con­ventions and in statute books, there has been evidenced the delib­erate conviction of the leaders in Texas that the best guarantee of popular government is the education of the youth of the land. And finally there was written into the present Constitution of this State, not merely a provision, but a command to every member of the Legislature, to every Governor, to every official, and I may say to every good citizen of this great State, to erect and maintain "a university of the first class." Now what was meant by that? It meant a university second to none; where the young men and young women of 'l'exas could secure, without money and without price, the character of education given by the best institutions of Europe and America. And the question naturally arises, has-this mandate been obeyed? 
In this day when the private institutions of this country are being so magnificently endowed, when institutions like the Uni­versity of Chicago and Leland Stanford are having their every want provided for, what of the people's university, the institution which was put here for the purpose of preserving popular govern­ment, and educating and sending out men and women with the proper ideas of popular government and of the rights of the citi­zen? You hear a lot of people talking about our football team, and saying it doesn't beat anybody. It is an astonishing fact that students should play football in this institution at all. This is per­haps the only university which could be classed as third-rate which has no gymnasium except an unsanitary old den under the audi­torium; where the health of several students has been injured. There is little or nothing to induce athletic sport and the proper development of the physical man in this institution. 
Four years ago the Regents reported to the Governor and IJegis­lature that from the very lowest foundation (where they had bur­rowed to put in Mather's laboratory, just going down into the ground like prairie dogs) up to the garret, they had utilized all the space, including the halls of the literary societies, for offices, lecture rooms, and laboratories, that they were literally crowded to the limit. Yet at that time there were only 1393 students here. 
4 The University Record 
Today there are 2501, almost twice as many, and yet, save for the Law Building, space has not been increased during that time. You can gather from this some vague idea of the congested conditions in the main department of the institution. There are 300 law students here; many of you were present last night at their reception; many of you went up to the place where they were serving refreshments, and somebody had to tell you it was a library. If you had had a spy glass and had looked around carefully you would have discovered a few hundred volumes, for which we are indebted to the generosity of such men as Judge Gould and Governor Roberts, and a few additional volumes purchased from time to time by the State; a collection totally inadequate for the purpose of a law library. These boys today are going to
•
libraries of lawyers of this town for the purpose of getting access to the Texas Reports, and to the reports of the Supreme Court of the United States. Such a condition should not exist in any in­stitution that claims to be in any respect first-class. For the last two years (this is a most astonishing fact, but I wish it to be observed) the School of Chemistry has stopped regis­tration on the second day of the session, because of the utter in­sufficiency of class-room and laboratory accommodations. No stu­dent who arrives here after the second day of the session is permitted to matriculate in that department. Think for a moment of this truly pitiful condition for a. great department in an insti­tution of learning. There are 1000 students in the College of Arts today, say 1500 in all departments, and how much reading space do you suppose there is in the library, the general library of this institution? 'rhere is room for 115 students. And bear in mind, too, some of you old fossils-I do not count mvself among you, of course-some d you who were here twenty-five years ago, or something like that, that the work of the modern university is work of research; it is work in the library and laboratory; nearly all proper college work is done in this way. I call your attention to a proposition even more serious. There are 50,000 volumes in the general library of the University of the estimated value of $200,000; there are volumes there upon which no value can be placed in dollars and cents because they can not he duplicated; archives going back two hundred years, many of 
Alumni Address 5 
them in Spanish and some in English, the basis of a complete his­tory, not yet written, of this great southwestern country. The official archives of Bexar are there, extending through several centuries, and saving from oblivion that remarkable period when Roman Catholic monks and Spanish knights built the great chain of missions and opened up the country of the Comanche to civili­zat1011 There, too, are official documents, not yet thoroughly exam­in·~d and assorted, and having an inestimable value. The volumin­ous and invaluable private papers of Stephen F . Austin and of 
0. M. Roberts are there. And yet all of that library, all of these docu­ments are in a building in no sense fire-proof. This Main Build­ing is not only not fire-proof, but there is far from sufficient fire protection, and in the event of a fire, substantially all of the books and documents would be utterly destroyed. Now is it possible that any institution can be called a university of the first class where such conditions as these exist in its great laboratory, the library of the institution? I further call your attention to a fact that may astonish some, but that is literally true: two years ago when we had a cold spell of weather all the work of the University was stopped and the doors clo;;ed, and the institution waited until milder weather would per­mit a continuation of the work. 'J'he heating plant was put in to heat one or two buildings, but from time to time new buildings have been added, so that today, in case of severe weather, which is liable to occur at any time, even as far south as we are, the institution would have to be closed again. This condition should mortify any person who respects the Constitution of his country and has any consideration for the pro­visions which its authors made for establishing and carrying on an institution which they guaranteed was to be a university of the first class. I am informed that not one-half of these buildings could be heated by that plant under an exceptionally cold spell of weather; and even when it is at all cold, it is impossible to heat all of them. Can this condition be possible in a university of the first class? I ask you the question, and I want you to propound that question to your representatives who come here holding up their hands and swearing to snpport the mandates and guarantees of the Constitution. Now I will ask you to consider for a few moments some figures 
The University Record 
which will give you some faint idea of how far we have fallen short in comparison with other States. In the first place, I briefly call your attention to a few figures which show the entire sums expended annually in certain States for higher education by pri­vate as well as public institutions, taking Texas as the standard for comparison: . . 
Sum ssent on 
State Population Per cent. higher e ucation Per cent. Texas .... ............ 3,200,000 100 $ 655,000 100 California ... ...... ... 1,500,000 47 1,845,000 281 Missouri ....... ..... . 3,300,000 103 1,239,000 189 MinneE'-0ta . . . .. .. .. . . . 1,900,000 59 1,225,000 187 Virginia .... .. ....... 1,900,000 59 719,000 110 North Carolina ... . . . . . 1,925,000 60 516,000 79 Nebraska .. ..... .... . 1,100,000 34 700,000 107 Kansas ............ .. 1,500,000 ·!7 843,000 129 Wisconsin ......... ... 2,300,000 72 1,219,000 186 
State  Assessed valuation  Per cent.  True valuation  Per cent.  
Texas  . . . . .... . $2,400,000,000  100  $3,000,000,000  100  
California  . . . . .  1,500,000,000  71  4,115,000,000  137  
Missouri  . . . . . .  1,378,000,000  66  3,759,000,000  125  
Minnesota  . . . . .  871,000,000  41  3,343,000,000  111  
Virginia  . . . . . .  430,000,000  20  1,288,000,000  43  
North Carolina .  434,000,000  28  84.2,000,000  28  
Nebraska  . . . . .  304,000,000  14  2,009,000,000  67  
Kansas  . . . . . . .  378,0001000  18  2,253,000,000  75  
Wisconsin  1,400,000,000  66  2,838,000,000  95  

Value of 
State buildings and grounds Per cent. Texas ..........·........... .......... : .$ 3,196,000 100 California . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10,460,000 333 Missouri . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6,917,000 216 Minnesota . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,678,000 115 Virginia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,236,000 132 North Carolina. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,046,000 87 Nebraska . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,505,000 78 Kansas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,238,000 101 Wisconsin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,723,000 148 
Alumni Address 
Consider these tables carefully; you will be surprised and in­terested. I will point out a few things; you can find many more. The States are nearly all in the same class in age, wealth, and popu­lation, although T·exas has somewhat the advantage in these re­spects. Texas, for instance, is first, save one, in population, and is surpassed· slightly by only three in wealth. California his only 47 
people to every 100 in Texas, and has $137 to every $100 in Texas, but she spends $281 on higher education to every $100 spent by Texas; less than one-half the population of Texas, only one-third more wealth, and more than two and three-quarters as much spent on higher education! Next consider Wisconsin: 72 men and women to every 100 in Texas; $95 to every $100 in Texas; $186 spent on higher education to every $100 spent in Texas; about two-thirds of our population, only 5 per cent less wealth, and nearly 90 per cent. more spent on higher education. The only one of these States that spends less on higher education than Texas is North Carolina, and North Carolina has 60 per cent of our population and 28 per cent of our wealth, and she spends more than three-fourths of what we do on higher education. Even Kansas, "Bleeding Kansas," with 
47 per cent of our population and three-quarters of our wealth, spends 29 per cent more than we do on higher education. I could stand the rest, but Kansas is too much. Comments with regard to the money involved in buildings and grounds, I leave to you. 
The following table shows the income and attendance of a num­ber of State universities: 
1905-1906  
State  Income  Students, Regular Session  Students, All Dep'tm'ts  
California  . ......... . .. . . ....$852,000  2,036  2,707  
Iowa  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  638,000  1,556  1,815  
Nebraska  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  443,200  2,669  2,914  
Missouri  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  572,000  1,743  2,139  
Virginia  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  185,300  728  728  
North Carolina ...... .... . ... . .  108,000  710  710  
Arkansas  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  220,000  1,206  1,806  
'l'exas  (Main University) . .....  252,000  1,674  2,275  

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Texas' income equals  Texas students equal  Of those of­ 
30 per cent  80 per cent  California  
46 pt>r  cent  108 per cent  Iowa  
57 per  cent  62 per cent  Nebraska  
44 per cent  96 per cent  Missouri  

Virginia's income is 73 per cent of that of Texas; her stu<lents are 43 per cent. Nortli Carolina's is 42 per cent of that of Texas; her students a.re 42 per cent. Arkansas's income is 87 per cent of that of Texas; her students are 72 per cent. 
There is another line of figures which I want to call your atten­tion to for a moment, and I want to impress it upon every man here who is willing to see his representative and talk to him before the next Legislature. You hear this proposition constantly an­nounced by the ignorant and misinformed, that every teacher has only four or five students to teach, and that the number of instruc­tors is vastly in excess of what it should be when compared with the number of students. I wish you would please bear the follow­ing figures in mind: 
N.UMBER OF INSTRUCTORS IN RELATION TO THE NUMBER OF STUDENTS 
State College of Arts All departments California 16.0 per cent 11.5 per cent 
Iowa 9.7 per cent 8.0 per cent Kansas 13.0 per cent 8.0 per cent Missouri 11.9 per cent 7.0 per cent Nebraska 14.4 per cent 7.0 per cent North Carolina 10.5 per cent 10.0 per cent Virginia 11.0 per cent 9.0 per cent Wisconsin per cent 7.0 per cent Texas 7.0 per cent 4.5 per cent 
I leave these figures to you for full comment; note only that the University of Texas has fewer instructors per student in the College of Arts than any of the other institutions listed, and that she has practically only one-half as many instructors per student when all departments are taken into account. 
Alumni Address 
Now is it possible for any one to say that with this great State of ours, stretching one-third across the United States from east to west and half across it from north to south, with all of its mag­nificent present and more magnificent future, is it possible for any one to say that the constitutional guarantee and promise has been in any sense carried out when we have about one-half (speaking in a general way) the number of instructors, as compared to the number of students, that Iowa, Kansas, North Carolina, California, Nebraska, Missouri, Virginia, and Wisconsin have? 
I present these figures, not that I think any one is able to retain all of them, but with the belief that we can carry in our minds a general idea of what these figures mean and a general appre­ciation of how far short the State of Texas has come in fulfilling 
the guarantees and promises of the men who laid out the funda­mental law of this land. 
These figures show another thing: they show that the young men and young women in Texas, in answer to this invitation and guar­antee of the Constitution, are flocking to this institution; they show by comparison that the number of students who crowd here is, in a way, commensurate with the size and importance of this State. But the difficulty is that when they come here they do not find that which the Constitution has guaranteed they should have; they do not find what the founders of this government have prom­ised they should receive. 
Now what has the State done for this institution? I want you, in a general way, to take these figures away with you for future consumption. The idea prevails among many people, owing to the 
great increase in the number of students and the splendid work done here, that this institution has been magnificently provided for and that in a munificent way the policies of the Constitution have been carried out. Now, that is not true; we have prospered; 
we have not prospered because these promises have been made good, but we have prospered, notwithstanding the fact that they have not been made good. T'o illustrate what I mean by that, I knew of a man once who drank whisky, chewed tobacco, smoked, 
swore, beat his wife, was a bright and shining example of every­thing that he should not have been, and he lived to be 102 years old. If he had been a strictly moral man, if he had not been a whisky drinker, a user of tobacco, and a wife-beater, the angel 
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Gabriel would have had to shoot him at the judgment day. (Ap­plause.) We have accomplished all that we have, notwithstanding the fact that we have been starvelings at the hands of the State. 
In 1839, fifty leagues of land were laid aside by the founders of the Republic of Texas for the purpose of endowing the State Uni­versity, and the general impression is that we have that land today. Those fifty leagues in round figures amounted to 191,400 acres of land. It was a part of the best lands of Texas; it was set aside in early days when there were good lands for the asking-it is a low estimate to say it is worth $30 an acre today; much of it is worth $100 an acre. If we had that fifty leagues it would give us a per­manent endowment of $5,700,000, and many people have the idea that we have that land or the proceeds of it. What became of it? When the war came on, most of it was sold and Confederate money taken for it, or Confederate bonds, or it was turned into securities for the benefit of the Confederate government. A comparatively small part of it, together with some other funds, constitutes about one-half million dollars invested in bonds and land notes, the in­terest on which, some $30,000 annually, is a part of our available fund. In 1887 a claim was made on the Legislature for $438,000, representing the exact amount of money, with interest, which had been used by the State for other purposes and diverted from the University, and we got a loan of $125,000 in settlement of an abso­lute obligation of very nearly half a million dollars; that was not exactly a compliance either with the provisions of the Constitution or with what we should term, between ordinary individuals, com­mon honesty and justice. 
There are two million acres of land belonging to this institution. (And I digress for an instant to e.ay, what I never lose an oppor­tunity of saying, in order that honor may be given where honor is due, that this institution owes to the efforts of one man the fact that we received from the Eighteenth Legislature one million acres of this land. I refer to the man to whom I always love to refer, 
whose blade has time and again passed between this institution and its enemies and guarded it from harm, the Honorable A. W. Terrell, of this city.) (Applause.) But these· two million acres represented the tail of the coon. The coon had been eaten up by railroad subsidies and various other agencies, 
Alumni Address 
and these two million acres of land were thrown to us, as the tail of the coon, out upon the far distant border, where they were supposed to have and did then have little value. We have, in addition to this land, the bonds and land notes above referred to; and this constitutes the permanent fund of the University of Texas. We must seek from the general revenues of the State the money with which to supplement the income from the permanent fund so as to run the institution and make permanent improvements. 
Let us glance for a moment at the history of these appropria­tions. What have the Legislatures of 'l'exas done? Have they been as liberal as they think they have? Have they been as liberal as they should have been? Eight years ago, when the University had about one-third the number of pupils that it has now, the · Legis­
lature gave it from the general revenue $125,000; today, with three times as many students, it gives $105,000. Five years ago, when it had less than half the present number of students, the Legislature gave it $126,000 from the general revenue. 
I want you to remember this proposition and these general fig­ures. For twenty-five years this institution has stood as a mendi­cant before the Legislatures of this State; and why a mendicant? It should have stood there proudly, asking that these Legislatures do what the Constitution required and bound them to do. During that twenty-five years the entire donations to the University of Texas from the general revenue have amounted to how much? T'o $1,196,400. T'he State of Illinois in 1907, at one session of the L egislature, appropriated for its State university $1,214,000, prac­tically what we have done in twenty-five years. In 1905, Califor­nia, with one-half of our population, at one session of the Legis­lature gave to its State institution, in order to put it on a par with Leland Stanford, $1,139,00'0, or substantially what we have given for twenty-five years. Wisconsin in 1905, at one session of the L egislature, gave $1,540,000, which is more than we have given during the entire period of twenty-five years. From this compari­son of figures you can form a fairly safe estimate as to whether or not the guarantee of the Constitution has in fact been made good. The University of Texas is the only institution which is pro­hibited by the Constitution from using the general revenue in the construction of permanent improvements, and doubtless that pro­vision was inserted by the makers for the very purpose of expressing 
12 The University Record 
it as their intention (construing it along with the provision that there should be erected and maintained a university of the first class) that the available fund should be used for permanent improvements as long as any were needed. The income of the institution is $258,000 a year, of which $105,000 comes from the general revenue; the land leases of the University of Texas today produce $102,000 a year, and the entire available fund is about $140,000. When the Regents, in 1895, took over from the St.ate, under legislative enactment, the handling of the leasing of the public lands of the institution, they were producing $9027 a year; since that time the aggregate rents have increased from $9027 to $102,000 a year. This, then, is a fund practically created by good business work on the part of the Board of Regents and its land committee. Here is a great fund, today constituting almost one-half the in­come of this institution, created and built up by the business meth­ods of the Board of Regents, and I insist, and shall always insist, that at least this much of the available fund should be utilized in carrying out the provisions of the Constitution in the erection of permanent improvements. I call your attention to the particular needs of the University today; it is in need of $70,000 to build a heating plant which will enable it to run through the winter; it needs $250,000 for the pur­pose of erecting a fire-proof library building, which is not only urgently needed, but will also in a great degree relieve the general congested condition by throwing open the present library for class rooms and offices. T'he Board of Regents is asking the next Legislature to appro­priate from the general revenue $270,000 a year for two years to pay the full running expenses and thus permit the Regents to use the entire available fund of $140,000 a year in the erection of these two improvements, without which it is practically impossible, with any degree of certainty and success, to carry on the work. This should, in my judgment, be a permanent policy of this insti­tution, to set aside the entire available fund for the construction of permanent improvements until all necessary buildings have been completed. It is for the ex-students of the University to wage the crusade; it is for them to carry into their homes and carry to the Repre­
Alumni Address 13 
sentatives in the Legislature an idea of these needs, an idea of what is required. A word to a man from his constituent is worth more than from the University of Texas and its entire Board of Ht-gents. The alumni of other State universities have recognized this fact, and have built up their institutions by going out and educating the people and reaching the representatives of the people in the halls of the Legislature; this is a lesson which we can afford to learn from them. 'rhere have been many people in many States who have stolen their ideas from Texas. Wisconsin and the na­tional government of the United States stole largely from 
A. W. Terrell their ideas about regulating railroads; the married woman's law of this State has been borrowed far and wide; the homestead law sprang into life within the limits of Texas, and is recognized today as one of the funda­mental principles upon which the judicial systems of the States of this Union have been built. These and other ideas have been bor­rowed or stolen or taken from Texas, any way you want to put it; and don't let us be too proud to borrow from these States what has, above all other things, made us hewers of wood and drawers of water for many of the enterprises of the North and East. The one great thing in which they have surpassed us is in appreciating the value of this educational proposition; they know what the founders of this republic knew when they fought the battle of San Jacinto, but they have put that knowledge to better use than we have. They know that a State, like a family that will not educate itself, is sooner or later fatally degraded to a place below its educated neighbors. Now let us borrow from them the enthusiasm of their alumni; let us borrow from them the enterprise which they have shown along the line of procuring larger appropriations and carrying out larger designs; and in that connection permit me to quote a few lines from Kipling, indicating that we should not be too proud to borrow, or beg, or steal some things ourselves: 
"When 'Omer smote 'is bloomin' lyre, 
He'd 'eard men sing by land an' sea; 
An' what he thought 'e might require, 
'E went an' took-the Rame as me ! 
The market-girls an' :fishermen, The shepherds an' the sailors, too, They 'eard old songs turn up again, But kep' it quiet-same as you! 
They knew 'e stole; 'e knew they kn.owed. 
They didn't tell, nor make a fuss, 
But winked at 'Omer down the road, 
An' 'e winked back-the same as us!" 
Let us cheerfully follow good old Homer's example. Ideas, edu­cational and others, are fortunately as free as the air we breathe. I want in conclusion to thank you for the very kind attention which you have given to what has necessarily been largely composed 
of statistics and the effort to demonstrate that the State of T'exas has assumed a responsibility which, up to this time, it has not fully made good. 
I will ask that we, before leaving this meeting, before leaving the pleasant associations which are revived here, swear an oath more solemn than that of Hannibal, not to destroy Rome, but to save Carthage, to take home with us a determination to remember the needs of this institution, to remember the promises made by us 
when we went out from these walls with its seal upo~ our brows, and to see that the guarantee and the promise of the Constitution of Texas is not a matter of sounding brass and tinkling cymbals, but that this institution shall be in fact and in deed "a university of the first class." (Applause.)