cated, and supplying in the Faculty representative ability of the age, we can attract the young men of Missouri to the University and prevent them from leaving home to find higher advantages elsewhere. The above views are commended to the attention of the people of Missouri and its Legislature.

The salaries paid in our University are as low as the lowest paid in any University of reputation in the country, while the stronger State Universities all pay larger salaries. If we are to retain our best Professors it is necessary that they should receive somewhat larger salaries. It is idle to say that good men are easy to get. Experience shows that it very hard to get thoroughly good men. Every time that a good Professor leaves an immense risk is incurred of getting a weaker man in his place. It is wise policy when you have secured a thoroughly good Professor to hold him if two or three hundred dollars more of salary will do it.

is

The Faculties at Columbia (the same is also true at Rolla) are more harmonious than they have ever been in the history of the University. Teachers and Officers are working in sympathy for the advancement of the Institution. This is no small thing.

THE STUDENTS.

Discipline.

The discipline up to date in the session of 1900-1901 has been remarkably good at Columbia and at Rolla.

Intercollegiate Debates.

Students of our University in the last two years have engaged in a number of debates with students of other Colleges and Universities. We are proud to say that they have won in most of the debates in which they have engaged. In some instances they have taken first one side and then the other, proving victorious on either side.

Paying One's Own Way.

A number of students manage to pay their own way at the State University by their own exertions. Some of the most distinguished

men of Missouri and other states have done this in former years. The number of such students in the present session (1900-1901) is larger than ever before in the history of the University. The Y. M. C. A., a student organization, to its credit be it said, has appointed a committee to canvass the town for work and distribute it among students needing it. Too much praise can not be given for the encouragement which this body of Christian students and the teachers and officers of the University have given to poor young men in supporting themselves by their own labors. In this connection we ask for a modest appropriation in the next Biennial period of $1,200 for student labor on the farm. It will enable the University to help these men more effectually.

Religious Organizations.

There is an effective Chapter of the Y. M. C. A., and one also of the Y. W. C. A. These bodies hold weekly prayer meetings. In addition to this there is every morning just before the regular chapel exercises of the University a volunteer students' prayer meeting.

Co-operative Store.

To protect the students from unreasonable charges for books, stationery, etc., the University has established in two rooms of the Academic Hall a Co-operative store. Three students keep this store, receiving for their services very small salaries. The profits are divided among the purchasers. No one receives any profit except he be a purchaser in the store and his profit is in proportion to his purchase. store sells to the University people only, refusing to sell to the people of the town. It has saved the students in the present session a large sum of money. It was established with the consent of the Curators and has been heartily commended by the Board of Visitors.

Cadet Uniforms.

The

In the Militia appropriation more than $5,000 should be given to uniform the Cadets of the University. It should also be provided that out of the amount appropriated only one half can be drawn in the first year. At least $7,500 should be appropriated.

In spite of the entreaty of the University the Fortieth General Assembly gave only $5,000 to uniform our Cadet corps. This was sufficient in former years when the enrollment of the University, and consequently the enrollment in the battalion, was small; but it has not been enough for the present battalion. The enrollment in the Military department last session was 290. It took $3,600 to provide one uniform for each of the Cadets appointed by the Senators and Representatives. The volunteers paid for their own uniforms. This left only $1,400 out of an appropriation of $5,000. Consequently in the summer of 1900 we had to announce in our Catalogue that every Cadet would have to pay a part of the cost of his uniform. Each Cadet therefore last fall (1900) paid $6.60 of the cost of his uniform, except the Officers who paid $8.60. Now the State has undertaken to uniform these Cadets. The general public expect it; the Senators and Legislators expect it in appointing Cadets; and the result is disastrous when the State fails to provide uniforms. As a result our Military enrollment this year is fortyfive less than it was last year. For ten years we have been trying to build up the Cadet corps. Last session for the first time in the history of the University it reached the goodly enrollment of 290. The failure of the Legislature to provide the uniforms has reduced the enrollment this session to 245. With the large growth that the University will achieve next year and the year after I can predict a Cadet corps of 300 men if the State will provide $7,500 for uniforming them. The instruments of the Cadet band are worn out through constant service. about $300 to provide new instruments.

Societies and Paper.

It will take

There are connected with the University these Societies for students, mostly literary and scientific: the "Athenæan," the "Union Literary,” the “Bliss Lyceum," the "Medical Society," the "Agricultural Society," the "Engineers' Society," the "German Club," the "Biological Club," the "French Club," the "M. S. U. Debating Club," the "New Era Debating Club," the "Missouri University Debating League," the "Graduate Club," "The Choral Union," and the "Athletic Association." These societies hold meetings for improvement in debate, declamation, oratory, composition, language work, or music, and

form an important means of culture, especially in speaking and writing. The "Independent" is published every two weeks by the students of the University. It is an excellent paper. The students maintain an efficient chapter of the Young Men's Christian Association, and one also of the Young Women's Christian Association.

Women in the University.

Every department of the University, except that of Military Science and Tactics, is open to women on the same conditions as to men. The first honors have frequently been won by women. Of the women that take Law some mean to practice, but many take it to qualify themselves better as stenographers in courts and in the offices of lawyers. Women are better in some departments of Medicine than men are. It should not seem strange that they should be invited to study Engineering. At least three-fourths of the Engineers of our country make their living by drawing in the offices of head Engineers. This work can be done as well by women as by men.

Rooms for Women.

The women of the University have set apart in the Academic Hall a suite of five rooms for their special enjoyment and use. These rooms are strictly private. They are presided over by a Matron who does nothing but exercise motherly care over the young women. kept in beautiful order by a Janitress.

No Dormitory for Women.

They are

The State has en

The University has no Dormitory for women. abled us to cheapen board to young men, but young women have to pay full rates in the boarding houses of Columbia. While it is possible for them always to secure very comfortable homes it is not possible for us to cheapen board to them as we do to the young men. This we regret.

Increased Enrollment.

The enrollment in the Departments at Columbia (and also at Rolla) is very much larger in the session of 1900-1901 than it has ever

been (at either place) in the history of the University. It is now assured that unless something unforseen and calamitous happens the enrollment at Columbia will reach by the close of the present session 1305 students, while that at Rolla will reach 170, making a total in the whole University of not less than 1475. With the heavy gains that have been made up to date this enrollment is now assured. With the new railroad from Columbia to McBaine giving good connections with the M. K. & T. and the Missouri Pacific Systems, and with the large increase in the number of Approved Schools, it is confidently expected that next session 1570 students will be enrolled at Columbia and 175 at Rolla. It is safe to say that the Forty-second General Assembly will find by June, 1903, 1800 students at Columbia, and at Columbia and Rolla combined at least 2000. In the session of 1899-1900 the students at Columbia and Rolla came from 42 States, territories, and foreign countries. In the present session the enrollment at Columbia from other states has increased 40 per cent. Among foreign countries Canada, Japan, Cuba, Porto Rico, Mexico, and Argentine Republic are represented by students. Recently the Argentine Minister at Washington sent to this University five students from that Republic, the sons of prominent persons. They came to study our Missouri system of Agriculture.

The increase in attendance at Columbia will appear from the following statement: In June, 1898, the gain in attendance was 0; in June, 1899, the gain was 114; in June, 1900, the gain was 223; in June, 1901, the gain will be (estimated) 267. The actual gain since June, 1898, up to December 15, 1900, is 524, which makes the gain for that period more than 76 per cent. Among the State Universities we are in enrollment about the seventh. It does not seem improbable that the gain of this year will be maintained for several years to come if only we consider the following facts-(1) tuition next fall will be free in every department of the University; (2) the University sent over the length and breadth of the country last year more than a quarter of a million of documents which will bring better fruit next session than they did this; (3) the number of good high schools is increasing at the rate of 15 or more a year; (4) each high school is increasing its annual enrollment rapidly, thereby becoming a larger source of supply of students. If