Slavic Languages became a part of the curriculum of the University of California in 1901, when I was called there as Instructor in English and Russian. President Wheeler announced that instruction in Russian was established because trade relations between California and the Russian Empire were likely to develop. Whether that consideration was foremost in his mind I have some doubts, for less than five years later he established instruction in Sanskrit. Whatever his purposes may have been, commercial considerations proved of small consequence in the development of his Department of Slavic Languages.