the leading features of our State University, and for this purpose we expect your cordial co-operation, and such appropriations as are necessary. Nor do we think that any mechanical schools in San Francisco, valuable as they may become, can supply the place of the College of Mechanic Arts, as provided by the original plan of the State University. We also request the present Legislature to order that block letters be prepared and placed upon the east and west faces of the main building of the University, marking it for all time with the words, "Agricultural College of the University of California."

Document B. is omitted, as not properly belonging to the annals of the State Grange. It was a reply made by Professor Carr to these committees for a "full statement of the history of the Agricultural College, with a view to laying it before the people and the next Legislature."*

The following Report of the Committee on Education and Labor, was enthusiastically adopted:

When Congress, at the opening of its last session, appointed a Committee on Education and Labor, it seemed a recognition by the highest legislative body of the country, that these great interests are indissolubly connected. So we believe, and a thorough and practical education being the only means by which labor can be elevated, your committee desire to present a few suggestions with regard to improvements in our public schools, high schools, and university.

Our schools, both higher and lower, have naturally grown up on English models, and were then made to fit the needs of the aristocratic classes, rather than of working men and women. This is the reason why so much of our elementary instruction imparts a knowledge of words rather than of things.

Germany, France, and other European countries, are far ahead of England and America in both the quality and quantity of education furnished to the laboring classes, for they seek to impart skill, along

*On the occasion of Professor Carr's removal from the Agricultural Professorship of the University, (August, 1874,) Worthy Master Hamilton, who had been appointed a member of the Board of Regents, made this protest:

I protest against the summary removal of Professor Carr at this time:

1st-Because such removal will be in direct violation of pledges made by friends of the University to the House Committee on education of the last Legislature.

2d-I believe such an act is in opposition to the wishes of a large class of the friends of the University, viz., the agriculturists and mechanics of California, and will go far to confirm the belief that the vacating of the Chair of Professor of Agriculture at this time is more to gratify personal feeling than to subserve the public interest.

3d-Because such removal will have the effect of strengthening opposition to the present management, and give color to the charge now so openly preferred: That the President and Regents are striving to build up a purely literary institution at Berkeley at the expense of the agricultural and mechanical interests, and are thus diverting the University from the original purpose for which it was formed, by either ignoring entirely or making those objects secondary which the organic act declared should be primary ones.

4th-Because the summary dismissal of any Professor of the University for alleged incompetency, without first granting the accused the privilege of a hearing, and an opportunity to defend himself from the charges made against him, is demoralizing in its tendency, and is not in accordance with the principles of right and equity which should ever prevail in the management of the institution.

A great number of the Subordinate Granges sustained the action of their Worthy Master, and embodied their opposition to the present management of the University in the strongest terms.

REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND LABOR.

199 with the merely mental training which is given them. They have. consequently the best trained workmen in the world, both in agriculture and the arts, as all our best educators freely acknowledge.

To get more of this practical or technical education into our common schools, is a great desideratum, and for it two things are necessary. First, an enlightened public opinion, which will create a demand for improvement; and, second, better teachers and better books to meet the demand. The teachers should be able to "throw a light" upon all the subjects of common life, and the books should convey some definite knowledge adapted to the capacity of the pupil.

For instance, no study is better adapted to the comprehension of a child than elementary botany, which is made practical by what he daily sees done in agriculture and horticulture. Even young children should be encouraged to observe and collect the useful and wild plants of the neighborhood, to bring them to school, and to find out all about them. This finding out all about things is the alpha and omega of education. Putting the findings into practice is all there is of labor, except its drudgery.

These are simple principles which every Patron can recognize. Our watchword is "Progress. The three R's, "readin,' 'ritin' and 'rithmetic," are no longer sufficient for us; especially if these are fed out to us as dry husks, while all the juice is kept for the benefit of other pursuit. We, ourselves, want more knowledge of the natural sciences, and we want our children to have it secured to them at the period of their lives when such knowledge is gained most easily. We want suitable books to tell the children all about the plants, animals and birds with which they daily come in contact. If they do not exist, and there is no school, botany, or natural history for this coast, let them be made. In short, we want our children to grow up around us with a respect for our calling, even if they choose a different one, and so to fit them for it that they may carry it on by better methods to higher ends.

And, therefore, while we as Patrons mean to look very sharply at all proposed changes in our methods of instruction, and to "prove all things," as far as we are able, we also mean to change for the better whenever we can. We are aware that text-books, or the implements of instruction, are to be improved just as much as the implements of husbandry; and we believe that the new education will require them as fast as it is perfected.

Under our laws, wisely framed in this respect, all such changes must be gradual, thereby making them less oppressive. Though all matters relating especially to this subject are made the business of the State Board of Education, we nevertheless feel that it is within our province to present to that body, either through our own Executive Committee, or such other way as the Grange may direct, an expression of our sentiments; and therefore, suggest the adoption of the following resolutions:

Resolved, That it is the opinion of the State Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry that all our public institutions, from the primary school to the university, should be developed also in the direction of practical and technical education.

Resolved, That to this end elementary studies in botany and other branches of natural history, in their relations to agriculture and horticulture should be introduced into our district schools.

Resolved, That we desire the State Board of Education to encourage the preparation and gradual introduction of text-books which are adapted to the wants of this coast; and that, while protecting the people from unnecessary expense, it is their duty, other things being equal, to foster home industries in the selection of text-books, apparatus and furniture for our public schools.

Resolved, That our more advanced classes should be instructed in the rights and duties of American citizenship, viz: The "duty of earning a living," of obedience to the laws, respect for religion, the rights of property, the privileges and responsibilities of the ballot, what monopolies are, how industry of one kind creates another, etc.

The standing committees for the following year were announced by the Worthy Master as follows:

Resolutions-J. W. A. Wright, R. C. Haile, J. D. Spencer.

Constitution and By-Laws-A. T. Dewey, G. W. Henning, W. S. Manlove.

Finance-H. A. Oliver, J. Earl, and Sister Colby.

Good of the Order-J. D. Fowler, John Wasley, Ed. Hallett, Sisters Manlove and Carr.

Master's Message and other Reports-G. W. Colby, W. McPherson, J. M. Thompson.

Commercial Relations-James Shinn, R. G. Dean, H. M. Leonard. Co-operation and Transportation--C. G. Bockens, Wm. Erkson, C. Cutter, Andrew Wolf, and Daniel Inman.

Education and Labor-Sister E. S. Carr, Brother Meyer (Humboldt,) and Sister Dean.

State University-O. L. Abbott, W. H. Baxter, J. W. A. Wright. Immigration-O. L. Abbott, J. Earl, J. D. Spencer, J. B. Carrington, R. G. Dean, in addition to the old committee, which was continued.

Legislation-Thos. Fowler, W. K. Estelle, G. B. Crane.

Irrigation-H. B. Jolley, R. G. Dean, Ed. Evey, M. Lammers, J. A. Hutton.

Judiciary-J. D. Spencer, T. H. Merry, R. C. Haile, H. S. Case, D. Inman.

American Finance-J. W. A. Wright, E. S. Carr, W. McPherson Hill, O. L. Abbott, W. S. Manlove.

Grange Statistics-J. B. Carrington, Thos. A. Garey, J. D. Spencer. Arrangements of Business-J. D. Fowler, Sister E. S. Carr, Ed. Hallett, Sister W. S. Manlove.

Centennial Committee-B. P. Kooser, J.W. A. Wright, H. B. Jolley, Andrew Wolf, O. L. Abbott.

Executive Committee-J. M. Hamilton, Chairman; J. C. Merryfield, G. W. Colby, A. B. Nalley, A. D. Logan, H. M. Leonard, J. M. Thompson.

The State Grange then adjourned to meet in San Francisco the second Tuesday in October, 1875.

MR. WALCOTT AND THE WHEAT KING.

201

CHAPTER XVI.

THE PATRONS' TRIALS AND TRIUMPHS.

THE WHEAT SHIPPING BUSINESS-THE WHEAT KING AND MR. WALCOTT-ADVANCE IN FREIGHTS IN 1872-3-EXAGGERATED ESTIMATES OF THE CROP OF 1874-5-MR. WALCOTT'S VARIOUS ENTERPRISES-THE SACK PURCHASE-FAILURE OF MORGAN'S SONS PROVES A BLESSING IN DISGUISE-CALLED MEETING OF THE GRANGE-PRACTICAL FELLOWSHIP-ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL-DISCONTINUANCE OF DAIRY AND PRODUCE AGENCY-THE BUSINESS ASSOCIATION FORMED -OFFICERS AND ARTICLES OF INCORPORATION OF THE GRANGERS' BUSINESS ASSOCIATION.

THE reader who has patiently followed the history of the farmers' movement thus far, has not failed to notice the competition established in the years 1873 and 1874 between the agent of E. E. Morgan's Sons, Mr. Alfred Walcott, and the "Wheat King," Mr. Friedlander. The latter gentleman, of high standing in the business circles of San Francisco, had for many years controlled the grain shipping interests of the coast. He had numerous agents along the lines of railroads, and throughout the wheat-growing districts, and was ready to advance money to the farmers for the purchase of machinery, or to meet their pressing debts, to provide for harvesting expenses, purchase of sacks, pay of help, etc. The difficulties and ill-feeling which arose between the parties who had thus mortgaged their crop and the party who had the power to fix its value, was incident to the peculiar condition of wheat culture on this Coast, which had partaken largely of the speculative character which marks the transitional period of our industries.

So heavy were the operations of the single firm which combined the functions of money-lender, merchant and shipper, that any opposition which appeared was immediately absorbed, and the farmers were fully persuaded that firms purporting to act independently, with branch houses in Liverpool, were really the agents through whom the Wheat King received his orders for cargoes. The advances in the foreign markets being telegraphed to San Francisco three or four weeks before the great body of the farmers could avail themselves of it, the prices of wheat and rates of freight were practically beyond their control.

The appearance of a competitor whose paper was good for a

large amount with the London and San Francisco Bank, and whose policy had been announced as the upbuilding of a "slow, safe, permanent shipping business," was naturally welcomed by the Patrons. The crop of 1872-3 had been a large one; to move it Mr. Friedlander had chartered every available ship at from £3 10s. to £4 5s., and at once rushed the freight market up to £5 13s. In thus re-letting his low-priced vessels, a large profit was gained. It is a very difficult matter to form a correct estimate of the amount of the wheat crop, and the shipper has his risks as well as the farmer.

The Sacramento Record issued a circular of inquiry in 1873, containing a blank schedule to be filled up with the acreage and prospective yield of each of the principal crops, tɔ which the leading farmers so generally responded, that this paper was able to lay before its readers what proved to be a correct estimate of the export of that year. A similar circular issued in May, 1874, warranted, on the testimony of the farmers, the extraordinary estimate of eight hundred and seventy-five thousand tons for shipment; four hundred and fifteen thousand tons more than the shipment of the previous year, including the Oregon wheat shipped from this port.

The crop of 1873-4 gave cargoes to two hundred-and fortyseven ships, and was valued at $19,400,000.

The crop of 1874-5 would require four hundred and thirteen ships, and at the average prices of the previous year, was worth over $40,000,000. Mr. Walcott had made his own estimates, and had chartered some seventy vessels to arrive, at prices varying from £4 to £4 10s. By the time they did arrive, a surplus in the foreign market had lowered the price of wheat and of rates in San Francisco, and consequently the crop came forward slowly. Mr. Walcott had not only the Grangers' business on his hands, but in prospect commissions from farmers outside of the Order; nor was the wheat business the only one which had attracted his attention. One of the most important complications deserves to be mentioned here. We have seen how grievous a burden the farmers had felt the sack monoply to be upon the wheat industry, and in previous chapters have noticed. their efforts to extricate themselves. In February, 1874, the agent employed by the Executive Committee, Mr. Gardner, called their attention to the fact that a corner was about to be made in sacks. A circular was immediately sent to all the