Each

us to California. The garments which make a good comfortable fit for other communities, would prove an intolerable straight-jacket for us. It is good for us that we can practice a wise and liberal eclecticism. must contribute something for the general good. Each must also yield something for the good of the whole. I am cheered by the conviction, that while our people are so diverse in their opinions on all subjects, none can be found more truly liberal in their sentiments. During the nearly three years that I have held the office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, I have derived the greatest satisfaction from the exhibitions of this liberal spirit everywhere. I have at headquarters endeavored to illustrate, by my own utterances and actions, that enlightened liberality so admirable in itself and so necessary to our peace and prosperity as a people. I have wished to move in an atmosphere high above prejudice, bigotry, sectarianism or party spirit.

PARTY SPIRIT IN SCHOOL MATTERS.

In a country with institutions like ours, parties must exist; and where there are parties, there must be party spirit. This is the simple truth, and we must accept it. I have no particular admiration for those who are always deprecating party spirit, and assuming superiority over "politicians," and who are yet the first to rush forward and claim "the spoils" after a political battle has been fought and won. I esteem the honest, positive men, of all parties. I believe, also, that there is such a thing as party obligation. A man who is not true to legitimate party obligation is a dishonest man. On the other hand, the man who drags in party where it does not belong, is a fanatic or a fool. Party politics properly apply to the selection of political officers, and there is a legitimate party patronage. But party spirit has properly no place in our educational affairs. Education is a common interest. As teachers and school officers, we represent all parties, and are the servants of all. It is our duty to lift up the cause of education above party and keep it there. We can do it. Though nominations to official positions in the Department of Public Instruction come through party channels, we can rescue our schools from partisanship by taking a firm stand and consistently maintaining it against all partisanship in the management of our public schools. By this, I do not propose that you should surrender any of your rights as freemen. I do not propose that you should surrender your right to hold political opinions, and to vote according to the dictates of your independent judgment. I claim this right for myself, and would as willingly accord it to you. But what I do ask is, that the great interests of education, in which we are all equally concerned, and in support of which all may unite, shall alone be recognized in the school room. Let us do our duty to the cause and to one another, and we shall ultimately reach a point where the sacred cause of education will be above the control of ward politicians and political intrigue. Under limitations and disabilities which you all can understand and appreciate, I have labored to this end, and if I could believe that any progress had been made toward its accomplishment, I should have a life-long source of gratification.

TRIBUTE TO THE TEACHERS.

I feel myself toned up to a higher ideal, and placed under the most solemn obligation to work for the complete emancipation of our schools from the thraldom of party, by the noble example of the teachers of

California, who, ignoring or rising above all partisan or other inferior and unworthy motives, have accorded to me the most cordial and efficient co-operation in my work as Superintendent of Public Instruction. With all its cares and toils and difficulties, I am glad that I have held the office on one account, and that is, that I have made the acquaintance and discovered the worth of so many true men and excellent women. Pardon this expression. It was in my heart, and would find utterance.

GOOD SCHOOL OFFICERS NECESSARY.

It is repeating a truism to say, that the best possible school system will be a failure if its administrators are incompetent or neglectful of their duty. A drone in the Superintendent's office will strike a whole county with paralysis. A fool in the Superintendent's office will inoculate a whole corps of subordinates with stupidity. A careless or ignorant Board of Trustees can diffuse throughout a whole community a careless spirit, or retrogressive tendency.

THE MAIN-SPRING OF ALL EDUCATIONAL MACHINERY.

But the chief requisite for success in the administration of our school system is good teachers. The teacher is the main-spring of all educational machinery. The advent of a real live teacher in a community works a speedy revolution.. The Trustees awake, the parents awake, the children awake, everybody awakes The average attendance of pupils will frequently be nearly or quite doubled under a good teacher. I do not blame the pupils of some teachers for truancy. Juvenile human nature cannot stand everything. The wooden-headed, stupid teacher is intolerable, and if the Trustees do not rebel against him, it is well that the children do so. Did you ever visit a school taught by one of these machines? The school room of such a teacher is a dead sea of stagnated stupidity. How I long to introduce such men to a saw-horse or a hod! And I have sometimes seen lady teachers who were not very successful. It is seldom that a woman equals a man in downright stupidity, but I have seen lady teachers who knew very little, and that little they could not impart. What would I do with them? Introduce them to a sewing machine, or a husband!

aim.

PROGRESS.

Our school system may be further developed and improved; there is also room for improvement in the administration. This should be our The amendments to the School Law made by the last Legislature were few in number, but will be fraught with great advantage to the State. I think every move made, save one, was a step forward.

A GREAT STEP FORWARD.

Perhaps the most important amendment was that relating to school revenue. By this amendment, rate bills are abolished, and an eight months' school is provided for in all districts having more than twentyfive school children and over seventy-five thousand dollars' worth of taxable property. With one more effort we may reach the full maximum of a ten months' school in every district in the State. This will be a

grand result, and I trust my successor will have the satisfaction of seeing its consummation. ·

THE STATE NORMAL SCHOOL.

The Act providing for the permanent location of the State Normal School and for the erection of suitable buildings is another step forward. Work upon the building has already commenced, and within a year from this date one of the handsomest school buildings on the continent will stand on Washington Square, San José, as a monument of the wisdom and public spirit of our people. I do not hesitate to pronounce the plan adopted a remarkable achievement of architectural skill, judgment and taste. I am ambitious that California should have the best Normal School in the country. My hope is, not that we may graduate a large number of teachers, but that those we send forth shall be of the first quality.

UNIFORMITY OF TEXT BOOKS.

The amendment to the School Law, requiring uniformity of text books, is another step forward. By the amended law a uniform series of text books is provided for the whole State, so that a child may now go from any school district in the State to any other and take his school books with him and use them. The advantages that will result from the change are so obvious that it would insult your intelligence to waste words on the subject. Not only will the number and cost of text books be diminished, but much precious time will be saved.

As text books are henceforward to be uniform, it is especially important that the best should be adopted. With this view, a few changes have been made-in every case, I trust, for the better. Before making any changes, the views of teachers were consulted by me, and I was greatly aided in reaching my conclusions by their intelligent, unbiassed opinions. The action taken, I have reason to believe, is in accordance with their views. Without distinction of party, they have voluntarily given me the most cordial assurances of their confidence and approval. This approval is dear to me, and assures me that while I cannot hope that I have not made mistakes, I have not been unfaithful to the great trust committed to me.

EQUALIZATION OF SALARIES-SIMPLE JUSTICE.

The Act of the last Legislature equalizing the salaries of teachers without regard to sex is another forward step. It is but simple justice that for the same work, in quality and quantity, a woman should receive the same pay as a man. This proposition involves no question of "woman's rights," in the political aspects of that subject. Neither does it involve the question of the intellectual inferiority of the one sex to the other. I repeat, it is only a question of simple justice. I shall not enter into any discussion of the question whether women, as a general rule, are as competent as men for the higher, more laborious and responsible positions in the profession of teaching. But I say that when God has given a woman the ability to do the highest work, and in equal measure, she ought to be as free as man to do it and to be as well paid for it. These are my earnest convictions, and I doubt not they are shared by every man in this audience. If there is an exception, I cannot discover him; there is no microscope with sufficient power to magnify him into visibility.

Though it was apparent to my mind that the Act referred to could not be at once made practically operative, I favored its passage for the moral advantage of the recognition by our law-making power of the great principle involved. Let justice be done in this matter, though there should be a howl from every mannikin in trousers from Fort Jones to San Diego.

THE COSMOPOLITAN SCHOOLS.

It

The cosmopolitan schools of San Francisco are a peculiar and progressive feature of our public schools. I do not know who is entitled to the credit of originating these schools. I claim none of it for myself. On my accession to office I found them in efficient operation, and I have had only to mark their development and rejoice in their prosperity. is an extraordinary fact, that by means of these schools little children in the primary grades acquire a knowledge of the leading modern languages without being retarded in their English course. Formerly it required a fortune to send a boy to Europe to acquire French or German. All that is now necessary in San Francisco is that you should wash his face, comb his hair, give him his breakfast and send him to Post or Filbert street, to Professor Bolander or Miss Kennedy. Such a fact as this may be alarming to the aristocracy of mere money, but it is very gratifying to all friends of popular education. I am not informed whether or not cosmopolitan schools have been successfully introduced in our Eastern cities. It would not lessen my State pride as a Californian to know that in this, as in some other particulars, we are a step in advance of our countrymen on the Atlantic side.

THE EVENING SCHOOLS.

The establishment of the evening schools in our cities is another instance of gratifying progress in a particular direction. I have previously taken occasion to express my profound interest in these schools. A visit to them not long since impressed me with a still stronger conviction of their utility, and aroused a sympathy in behalf of their pupils to which it would be difficult to give adequate expression. The corps of teachers in these evening schools comprises some of the ablest men in the profession, with my predecessor at their head. These able educators could not more honorably exercise their talents than in teaching these schools; and nowhere does the genius of our system exhibit itself more attractively than in these schools for poor boys and toiling men.

THE FREE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA.

Another forward step is the inauguration of the University of California on a basis that challenges the approval of all liberal-minded persons, and promises the most gratifying success. There are two things in connection with our State University that gives me particular pleasure. One is, that it is free to every boy in the State who is prepared for admission. It is a University for the people, not a school only for rich men's sons. This feature of our University has elicited much favorable comment abroad, and our example is already adduced to excite older communities to adopt a similar policy. It is something to be proud of, that we are leading in new and right paths, and that older communities are following. The other thing that pleases me is the manner in which the University is endowed. The endowment of the University,

as you are aware, is from the proceeds of the tide lands. This arrangement obviates the necessity of imposing a single cent of additional taxation upon our already tax-ridden people. This surely is a great thing— a free University munificently endowed without additional taxation. And there is a double advantage in this arrangement. The tide lands are forever put out of the reach of lobby members, corrupt politicians and plunderers. The biennial scramble for them at Sacramento will cease. They will no longer furnish a corruption fund for venal legislation.

A GENERAL FORWARD MOVEMENT.

There is a general forward movement all along the line, with here and there a case of constitutional and incorrigible non-progressiveness. There is a lonesome time in store for these antediluvians. The world moves forward while they remain stationary. Soon they will find themselves left far behind, and will only be heard as one lonesome frog croaks a response to another on a cool night in the early Fall. Let them croak, but let the grand column move on, guided by the providence of God as a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night, until humanity shall have passed the wilderness of ignorance and error and reached the promised land of universal enlightenment, liberty and happiness.