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REPORT

OF

1

COMMITTEE ON MILITARY AFFAIRS.

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REPORT.

ASSEMBLY CHAMBER,

SACRAMENTO, February 12th, 1878. ) }

MR. SPEAKER: Your Committee on Military Affairs, commissioned to examine into the condition of the Second Brigade, N. G. C., beg leave to report that they visited the City of San Francisco for that purpose, and found the status of the various regiments, battalions, companies, etc., as follows:

First Regiment of Infantry, under command of Col. Woodhams, armory corner of New Montgomery and Howard Streets, turned out four hundred and fifty men.

Second Regiment of Infantry, under command of Col. Smedberg, turned out four hundred and sixty men.

Third Regiment of Infantry, under command of Col.Wason, turned out four hundred and eighty men.

We visited the Light Guard Battery, under command of Captain R. G. Brush. Of the three (3) cavalry companies of the Second Brigade, the First Light Dragoons, commanded by Captain H. W. Gray, and the San Francisco Hussars, Captain C. C. Keene, turned out in full strength.

The different commands were exercised in the manual of their respective arms; and in this regard we cannot speak too highly of their efficiency in drill-bespeaking the untiring pains and competency of the officers connected with the Second Brigade.

We found the armories of the various regiments and companies kept in neat soldier-like order, and the arms, accoutrements, and other property belonging to the various commands in excellent condition.

The infantry companies are armed with the Springfield rifle, breechloader, which the General Government has issued in a limited number to the State. They are claimed to be the best weapon at present in military use. An increased supply is much needed for the actual requirements of the companies. The equipments of the men are adapted to those arms, and have been purchased by the companies out of their allowances from the State or from company funds.

The uniforms are of the United States pattern, of good material and make, purchased as the equipments, by the companies, the officers' being individual property. The cavalry, though well uniformed and equipped, are much in need of arms. We would suggest that some provisions be made to supply them with carbines, in the event that the negotiations for the settlement of the State's indebtedness to the United States for excess of issues from 1861 to 1865, now going on

between the United States Ordnance Department and that of the State, should fail to obtain a permanent issue of additional arms.

A portion of the committee visited the rifle ranges at San Bruno, on Sunday; there we found excellent facilities provided by the companies, at their own expense, involving the expenditure of several thousands of dollars, for rifle practice. Much commendation is due the National Guard of San Francisco for the zeal manifested in perfecting themselves in the practical use of their arms. We found there men from several of the companies engaged in practice, and witnessed the contest of a match, in which the most excellent marksmanship was displayed. We were informed, and from what we witnessed we have no reason to question its accuracy, that the expenses of rifle practice to many of the companies, for transportation and ammunition (which they manufacture into cartridges in their armories) is more than they receive in allowances for everything from the State. Owing to the excellence here obtained, by zealous and untiring practice, the team of California National Guardsmen, which entered in September last the Inter-State contest, won the champion trophy of the United States.

From our general observations we feel justified in saying that the State troops in San Francisco are a superior body of citizen-soldiers; that we believe them to be a valuable and indispensable auxiliary to the peace-preserving elements of that city. During the recent troubles that have disturbed its people, the knowledge that they were at all times ready to preserve peace and authority, tended more than any other measures adopted, in our opinion, to suppress lawlessness and riot, and to check the evil-disposed who would welcome an occasion of disorder. We were also gratified to observe that the larger number of men in the ranks were of the mechanical and laboring classes-the bone and sinew of the city.

In conclusion, we would say that, from facts and figures furnished to your committee by many of the officers, we believe that the appropriations allowed by the State to the various companies is inadequate for the purpose contemplated.

CALEB DORSEY,

Chairman Committee.

REPORT

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION

TO THE

ASSEMBLY-TWENTY-SECOND SESSION.

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REPORT.

Mr. SPEAKER: Your Committee on Education, having visited the several institutions of learning under the control and management of the State, beg leave to submit the following report:

First in the order of our visits was the University of California, and it gives us pleasure to state in general terms that all we saw impressed us with the conviction that it is worthy of the high position it has already attained among the institutions devoted to the higher scientific and classical learning in this country, and should be cherished generously by the State. No similar institution has made greater progress during the period of its existence. Its Faculty are men of approved ability and devotion to education. Among them, there are some who have achieved not only a national but a European celebrity as scientists and educators. There are also among them young men who, raised in our midst, are exhibiting the qualities which furnish the assurance that they will prove worthy co-laborers with their older colleagues. The enthusiasm for learning was an unmistakable feature pervading every department of the University, so far as we are able to judge. We had opportunity to witness the regular daily instructions in several of the classes of the University, which, without exception, were characterized by clearness and vigor on the part of the Professors, and earnest and intelligent attention on the part of the students. We were not displeased to observe a tendency on the part of each Professor to magnify his own department. We have spoken thus fully concerning the corps of instructors now employed in the University, because we believe that the establishment of a great and successful institution of learning depends more upon the quality and caliber of the men who fill its chairs than upon fine buildings, costly apparatus, and extensive libraries. Of President John Le Conte and his not less distinguished brother, and their associates in the Faculty of the University of California, it is but justice to say they are worthily filling the positions they occupy.

We found that, after a delay which we, in common with all others interested in the welfare of the University, regret, the building for the use of the College of Mining and Mechanic Arts was in course of construction. The importance of this department of our University need not be urged. The site of the new building is good, and the plan of its construction, as explained to us, seems to be judicious. Whatever aid may be necessary for the equipment and development of this College of Mining and Mechanic Arts will be cheerfully extended.

The College of Agriculture, under the management of Professor

Hilgard, a gentleman of the large information, keen perception, indefatigable activity, and earnest devotion to agricultural interests, is conducted in such a way as to more fully meet the popular wish and expectation. Our visit to this department of the University, and our investigations concerning its past history, present condition, and the plans proposed for its future development, lead us to think that, while it may never conform to the Utopian and impracticable notions of some, it will be of almost incalculable benefit to the agricultural interests of California. That it will receive the generous, fostering care of the State, we do not doubt.

Of the other departments of the University, it is not necessary to speak, further than to say that they seem to be efficiently conducted. The discipline of the institution is good, and will not suffer by comparison with that of older institutions in the Eastern States.

As the crown of our public school system, the interests of our University should be jealously guarded, and its wants generously provided for. As details of its affairs will be obtained from other sources, we content ourselves with this general glance, and with a recommendation that the State continue to extend its protection and support to an institution which is an honor and a blessing to our young commonwealth.

The Institution of the Deaf, Dumb, and the Blind was next visited by your committee. The good order, the cheerfulness, the neatness, and the activity pervading the Institution were too obvious to allow us to doubt the competency and faithfulness of its Principal, Professor Wilkinson, and his assistant teachers. The hygienic arrangements were as good as the crowded condition of the building permitted. The beds were clean, the dormitories well lighted and ventilated, the food well cooked and served in a proper manner. The children of misfortune have, by the beneficence of the State, been furnished here with a home where their comfort is provided for, and a school in which, under the marvelously effective methods of modern instruction, the deaf, dumb, and blind are introduced into the world of thought, and their sources of happiness increased a hundred-fold. The new buildings, to replace those destroyed by fire, when completed, will be models of convenience, comfort, and general adapta bility to the purposes for which they are designed. This Institution is every way creditable to California as a civilized State, and whatever appropriations are necessary to maintain its efficiency will not be grudged by any legislator who truly represents the intelligence, the humanity, and liberality for which her people are celebrated.

The State Normal School, at San José, was found by us to be crowded with pupils, not less than five hundred being in attendance. Surveying them as they sat before us in the commodious hall of the Normal School building, at the opening exercises, we were favorably impressed with their general appearance. The recitations we witnessed were in most instances admirably conducted, showing that the teachers were fully up with the latest and best methods of instruction, and that the institution is now what it claims to be, a Normal School, in which the art of teaching is imparted to those who will make it their business. Professor Chas. H. Allen, the Principal, is assisted by a corps of teachers of the first order of ability in their several special departments, and, by their joint exertions, they have built up a Normal School whose popularity is attested by the num bers who crowd its halls, and whose excellence is proven by the ser

vice its graduates are rendering to the cause of education in every part of the State. The magnificent square, surrounding the noble Normal School edifice, continues to lie unimproved for lack of means. We think the time has fully come for a reasonable appropriation to be made for this object.

In view of the large increase of attendance upon the Normal School, and the consequent demand for additional instructors, for additions to the library, and for apparatus for illustrating the different branches of study pursued in the institution, the increase in the appropriation for defraying its current expenses seems to be necessary. The amount asked for by the Trustees in their report to the Governor seems to be needed, and we trust that it will be granted. A generous support should not be withheld from an institution which is doing so much for the advancement of popular education in California.

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