been wholly inadequate to the needs of the institution, and that the increased number of students makes the employment of additional professors and teachers imperative. They also ask for an appropriation for additional buildings.

The separate maintenance of the university and agricultural college, where many of the same branches are taught, is much more expensive than if they were united, but it is now too late to cure this defect, and we must expect to meet the increased cost of their separate maintenance.

Something may be done, however, to meet this additional expense, which will constantly increase with the growth and development of these institutions. No tuition or other fee is charged at the university, evidently upon the theory that the university should be a completion of our free-school system, and the admission of students to any of the departments should not be attended with any charge.

Many institutions with which comparisons are made by the chancellor and board of regents charge tuition or fees, and in some measure lessen the burdens imposed upon the state for the support of their state universities. Nebraska imposes matriculation, graduation and diploma fees; Colorado, annual matriculation and incidental fees, and tuition in the medical and law departments; Iowa imposes a tuition fee in the departments of liberal arts, law, medicine, dentistry, and pharmacy. The receipts from these sources in the University of Iowa, last year, with an attendance but little larger than our own, were over $60,000.

If the theory of free education in our state educational institutions is to be continued, it is only a question of time until the cost of maintaining them will be so great that the people will grow restive under their burdens. Whatever may be said as to the policy of a free education in liberal arts, it will hardly be urged that the state is under obligation to furnish a professional education, unless some portion of the expense incident thereto is borne by those receiving its benefits. A matriculation and incidental fee from resident students, a reasonable tuition from non-resident students and tuition in all departments giving a professional or technical education would be reasonable requirements, and assist in reducing the ever-growing demands made upon the state for the support and maintenance of our universities and colleges.

I would suggest the passage of a law fixing the tuition and fees of this institution, or clothing the board of regents and chancellor with such power.

AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE.-The management of this institution during the last two years has attempted to place it in line with the purpose of its creation, and yet the departure from that purpose had been so marked for years that it is doubtful if it will be enabled fully to carry out the objects for which it was established.

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The college has been successfully conducted along the line of education which it has pursued. The faculty and teachers are doing excellent service, and the attendance is very gratifying. The increase in the number of students last year was the largest in the history of the college. The attendance for the present year is equally gratifying, and the enrolment will be nearly or quite as large as the enrolment at the state university. This rapid increase in attendance will render it necessary to provide additional buildings to meet present needs. If the school is to be maintained as a great educational institution, increased appropriations will be necessary.

An incidental or matriculation fee, to be fixed by the regents and president, as their judgment and the welfare of the institution might suggest, would add to the income of the institution, without being a burden to those desiring to avail themselves of the benefits of the education afforded by the college.

STATE NORMAL SCHOOL.-In this institution, as in the university and agricultural college, there has been a marked increase in attendance. For the year 1898-'99 the enrolment was 1803, and for 1899-1900, 1993. The board of regents and the president insist that the corps of teachers has been too small, that new teachers ought to be provided, and, in consequence, a larger appropriation ought to be made for the payment of salaries and expenses; that this is rendered more necessary from the fact that the income from the interest on the endowment fund has decreased by reason of the lowering of the rate of interest and the inability of the loan-fund commissioner to always keep the permanent fund invested. They also ask for an appropriation for a library building, for the double purpose of furnishing a place for the present library and affording additional room to meet present requirements. During the last two years there was collected, in the way of fees paid by irregular students and pupils in the model school, $7824.86. The board of regents should be given authority to make such charges for fees, from time to time, they may consider necessary.

UNDER ONE MANAGEMENT.-The framers of the state constitution considered the question of the establishment of higher educational institutions, and a portion of section 7 of the constitution is as follows:

"Provision shall be made by law for the establishment, at some eligible and central point, of a state university, for the promotion of literature, and the arts and sciences, including a normal and an agricultural department."

It was the plain intention of the framers of the constitution that the education now afforded by the agricultural college and normal school should be a part of the education afforded by the university, and that they should all be located at the same point, under one general management. Afterward, when this provision of the constitution was ignored, and the plan of separate locations and estab

lishments was adopted, the purpose of making each of these three institutions a part of a great educational system was not abandoned.

The law establishing the university provided that it should consist of six departments, as follows: (1) Sciences, literature, and arts. (2) Department of law. (3) Department of medicine. (4) Department of theory and practice and elementary instruction. (5) Department of agriculture. (6) Normal department.

This law was subsequently amended by chapter 258, Laws of 1889, which provided that the university should consist of three departments, viz: (1) A department of the literatures. (2) A department of the sciences. (3) A department of the arts.

The Legislature, by act approved February 3, 1863, accepted the provisions of the act of congress entitled "An act donating public lands to the several states and territories which may provide colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts," and on March 3 of the same year passed a law providing for the establishment of an agricultural college, and declared, in section 3 of that act, that such college should consist of four departments, as follows: (1) Department of agriculture. (2) Mechanic arts. (3) Military science and tactics. (4) Literature and science.

On the 7th of March, 1863, the Legislature passed a law establishing and locating the state normal school, and declaring its purposes to be the "instruction of persons, both male and female, in the art of teaching and in all of the various branches that pertain to a good common-school education, and in the mechanic arts, and in the arts of husbandry and agricultural chemistry, and in the fundamental laws of the United States, and in what regards the rights and duties of citizens.' ""

So, while the university, agricultural college and normal school were located at different points, and each one designated to give different instruction, it was in pursuance of a common plan.

The university was to be a school of liberal arts; the agricultural college, one of agriculture and the mechanic arts; and the normal school, one for the equipment of teachers.

There is no reason why this plan could not have been kept constantly in view, and why these three institutions could not have worked toward the accomplishment of a common purpose, neither encroaching upon the province of the other, if they had all been under one common management. But these schools have been directed by separate managements, each wholly independent of the other, so that at this time there is little united purpose or action among the three, when they ought to be a part of a common system.

I think much could yet be done to render all of these institutions more efficient, by carrying out the intent of the constitution, of making each a part of a general plan; and the first step in this direction would be to place them under the control of one board of regents, composed of six members, not more than four of whom should be

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long to one political party, with the head of each institution an ex officio member, and the presiding officer of such board in all matters relating to the particular institution of which he was the head, and I earnestly recommend the enactment of a law creating such board. No objection could be urged to such a law, except as it might arise from those who are willing that some one of these institutions should be fostered by the state to the neglect and consequent injury of the others.

INTEREST FUNDS.-The state university, agricultural college and normal school have permanent endowments, from which is received annually a large sum in the way of interest. This amount is expended by the several boards without any restriction, and no report of such expenditures is required to be made to any state officer.

It would seem advisable to have the statute require that all such funds be paid into the state treasury, and drawn out in the regular way by warrants of the auditor, upon vouchers properly itemized and verified, providing an additional safeguard in the expenditure of the money, and giving the public full information as to such expenditures.

In this connection, I desire to call the attention of the Legislature to the recommendations of the auditor, advising the abolition of treasurers of separate institutions, and requiring all funds to be turned into the state treasury and paid out on proper vouchers. The recommendation is a wise one, and should be acted upon.

WESTERN UNIVERSITY.—The last Legislature made an appropriation for the establishment of an industrial department at the Western University, and provided for the appointment of a majority of the board of trustees, giving the state the control of such department. An industrial building has been erected, and there has been a large increase in the attendance of students. The work that has been done fully justifies the expenditure made.

I believe that reasonable appropriations for the purpose of educating the young people of the colored race along educational and industrial lines can be wisely made and should be encouraged.

CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS.

INSANE ASYLUMS.-Principal among best institutions are the insane asylums at Topeka and Osawatomie. They are in excellent condition. An appropriation was made by the last legislature for the erection and equipment of an administration building at the Topeka asylum, and this building is nearing completion. This will render available, in the buildings heretofore used for administration purposes, considerable room which may now be divided into wards for the accommodation of patients. The number in this asylum in 1898 was 795; in 1899, 833; in 1900, 901; and with the additional room afforded by the changes heretofore mentioned, the state will be enabled to take care of 970 patients in that institution.

The preceding administration attempted to complete and furnish some basement wards in one of the buildings at Osawatomie. The work was never completed, but it is now well under way, and a small appropriation would furnish the money necessary to complete the work, which would give room for 100 additional patients. The attendance at the Osawatomie asylum for 1898 was 1013; 1899, 1025; 1900, 981.

It is the judgment of the board of charities that, when these improvements are completed, there will be ample room in the two asylums to meet all of the present demands, and that a new asylum at this time is unnecessary.

For years the Legislature has been making large appropriations to pay for the expense of caring for indigent insane who were denied admission to the state asylums for the lack of room for their accommodation. An appropriation of $220,000 was made by the last Legislature to meet this claim. This large expense of caring for the indigent insane was the basis of argument for another asylum. Recently room was made at the asylums for the care of additional female patients, and notices were sent to the probate judges of counties from which applications had been made for the admission of such patients that the institutions were now ready to receive them, and thus relieve the counties from the further charge of caring for them, and requests were made that such patients be sent to the asylum at once. In a number of instances no response was made to these requests, although the state, in every instance, had been paying for the care of such persons. An investigation disclosed the fact that in many cases frauds had been perpetrated upon the state in. securing from the state treasury the allowance made by law for the care of the indigent insane whose admission had been denied for want of room.

I would suggest that chapter 85, Laws of 1876, relating to the care of indigent insane, be repealed, and that a requirement be made that patients shall be admitted to the asylums in the order in which the applications are made, and that the state be relieved from the expense of their support in the interim.

sons.

The last Legislature provided for the erection of a new asylum, and appointed a committee for the purpose of locating the same and securing a site. This committee selected a site near the city of ParThe commencement of the building was delayed on account of litigation between that city and a rival city for the location of the institution: The supreme court has decided that the site was properly selected. It remains now for the Legislature to say whether a new asylum shall be constructed, or whether provision be made for additional room in the present asylums and the building of the new asylum be wholly abandoned.

REFORM SCHOOL.-It is hard to conceive of a worse condition of things than that surrounding the reform school when the present