Depoliticizing the California State Library: The Political and Professional Transformation of James Gillis, 1899-1917

Abstract

This article examines the career of James Gillis, California's state librarian from 1899 to 1917. It reviews the role politics played in library staffing prior to Gillis's appointment and considers the extent to which Gillis filled his own staffwith patronage hires. It then discusses why and how Gillis ended the state library's spoils system and professionalized operations. While duly crediting Gillis's importance as a library administrator, this article highlights the role California's Progressive movement played in the state library's modernization. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

Headnote

This article examines the career of James Gillis, California's state librarian from 1899 to 1917. It reviews the role politics played in library staffing prior to Gillis's appointment and considers the extent to which Gillis filled his own staffwith patronage hires. It then discusses why and how Gillis ended the state library's spoils system and professionalized operations. While duly crediting Gillis's importance as a library administrator, this article highlights the role California's Progressive movement played in the state library's modernization.

During his 1899-1917 administration, California State Librarian James Gillis made a remarkable transformation from political hack to library reformer. Gillis not only professionalized the state library's staffbut also instituted a legislative reference department, library services for the blind, a traveling library program, and, most significantly, a statewide county library system. What makes these accomplishments both impressive and intriguing is Gillis's lack of formal library training or experience. Gillis was not a lawyer or a scholar, and he was not schooled in rare books. Instead, his state library appointment was based strictly on his political connections and personal ties to the Southern Pacific Railroad. This background notwithstanding, Gillis became the California libraries' principal modernizer. Set against California's Progressive movement, this study examines California state library politics prior to 1899 and considers the extent to which Gillis filled his staffwith patronage hires. It discusses why and how Gillis dismantled the state library's spoils system and assesses professionalization's impact on library operations. While duly crediting Gillis's role in refashioning California's state library, this article illuminates the importance of Progressivism in state library modernization.

James Gillis has received more professional and scholarly attention than any of California's state librarians.1 Indeed, for four decades after his untimely death in 1917, the literature eulogized California's beloved library leader.2 Not until the 1960s, with scholarly studies by Peter Conmy, Ray Held, and Hannah Kunkle, did assessment of his legacy become more dispassionate.3 However, while these historians noted that Gillis was a major cog in the Southern Pacific political engine, they yet lauded Gillis as a library missionary who revolutionized state librarianship. Thereafter, Gillis largely disappeared from the historical literature, save for mention in several articles about his protégés.4 But even these more contemporary authors lionized Gillis, leaving his vision and methods unquestioned.5 Despite this scholarly and professional attention, what remains missing from the literature is an understanding of the historical context within which Gillis worked and the political and professional influences that shaped his ideas. This article seeks to redress that situation.

Politics and the California State Library, 1890-1899

In the decade prior to Gillis's appointment, six different individuals served as California's state librarian. This frequent turnover reflected the extensive patronage system then dominating California's government and the fact that the state librarian post was deemed "the softest and fattest berth of all."6 Contributing to the job's attractiveness was the librarian's power to appoint the library's staffand the political leverage this perquisite entailed. As a result, the state librarian selection was exceedingly politicized as ambitious candidates vied for the opportunity to dispense library patronage. Having the proper qualifications to run a large library, opined the San Francisco Chronicle, "cut no figure" in the appointment. Nor was it the "knowledge or innate love for literature" that got a man the post. It was simply "how many votes can you get."7

The California Blue Book, a biennial publication listing state employees by party affiliation, provides ample evidence of the integral connection between library jobs and partisan politics. The 1889 edition, for example, lists not only the state librarian and his three employees as Republicans but also four of the five library trustees.8 The 1891 edition shows a new board of trustees, a new state librarian, and a new library staff, all but one Democrats.9 Democrats controlled state library patronage until Republicans seized control of the state legislature in 1898. As the 1899 Blue Book documents, the newly elected officials installed a new state library board of trustees, a new state librarian, and a completely new staff-all but one Republicans.10

In addition to being appointed for their party affiliation, library employees were typically connected with influential members in the incumbent party. For example, W. Dana Perkins (state librarian from 1890 to 1896) hired the daughter (Genevieve Green) and cousin (W. Sam Leake) of library board president Will S. Green, the sister-in-law (Clara Neill) of Governor James Budd, and the state librarian's own son (Newton Perkins). In 1894 Robert O. Cravens, a well-known Sacramento lawyer and judge who was California state librarian from 1870 to 1882, became the library's $100-per-month janitor, also courtesy of Perkins.11

Such rank cronyism put the state library and its employees in an increasingly bad light. The San Francisco Call accused the library in 1890 of being a "close[d] corporation" whose staffwas "working it for everything in sight."12 George T. Clark, a state library employee from 1890 to 1894, expressed similar contempt, declaring that the state librarian was nothing more than "a politician or some party hack who had rendered political service." That he "might not know a book if he met one coming down the street was no handicap," Clark sneered. "The Library exercised no particular functions, no one expected much of it and hence no one was disappointed."13

Gillis Becomes State Librarian

In 1897 California's legislature was due to reappoint the state library's board of trustees, which, in turn, would choose a new state librarian.14 As the dominant party, Republicans replaced the current Democratic library board with five Republican trustees. Complicating matters, however, was the fact that the incoming board could not select a new state librarian until the following spring. Republican office seekers thus spent the next year lobbying for the librarianship. The foremost aspirants were former state librarian Talbott Wallis and California's "Keeper of the Archives," James Gillis.15

Several newspapers predicted that Gillis, with his Southern Pacific connections, would be the next state librarian.16 Yet right before the trustees' election, Gillis caused an uproar by announcing that, if elected, he would retain the current Democratic state librarian, William Mathews, as his assistant. Republican leaders responded by asking each trustee candidate for a signed pledge to employ only Republicans in the library.17 A few months later, Gillis fueled further controversy when State Librarian Mathews appointed Gillis assistant state librarian. Because of Gillis's maneuvering (as well as similar jockeying among rival candidates), when the trustees finally met in March 1898 to select a new state librarian, they were hopelessly divided. After several unsuccessful votes, the board appointed a compromise candidate, Frank L. Coombs.18

Coombs had not sought the position, preferring instead to become US district attorney. According to the San Francisco Call, the trustees sweetened their offer by giving Coombs's wife, Belle, a library job as well. "The Federal position is worth but $4000 a year and involves a very considerable amount of hard work," noted the newspaper, while "the position of Librarian is a sinecure which, with the position to be given to Mrs. Coombs, would be worth $5400 a year."19 Although the Call predicted that Coombs would take this financial "bait" and remain as state librarian, he resigned on March 31, 1899, to accept the federal post.

"The politicians are already figuring on who is to succeed Frank L. Coombs as State Librarian," announced the Call when Coombs's resignation became known.20 Before a new librarian could be chosen, though, Governor Henry Gage had to fill a vacancy on the library board. The partisan press claimed that Daniel Burns, the "notorious professor of Southern Pacific politics," would actually make this decision, for Burns planned on using state library patronage to curry favor for his own wished-for US Senate nomination.21 Fortunately for Gillis, the trustee position went to former State Supreme Court Justice W. C. Van Fleet, a friend of Gillis and Southern Pacific.22 Van Fleet immediately endorsed Gillis for state librarian, and a formal election soon followed. In stark contrast to the previous year's protracted fight, the trustees unanimously elected Gillis as the new state librarian on the first ballot. He took office on April 1, 1899.23

Gillis's minimal qualifications for the state librarian position were similar to those of his predecessors, though most were lawyers or former legislators with some working knowledge of the legislative library. Gillis, on the other hand, lacked a legal background, having spent his career exclusively with the railroads. Employed at fifteen as a messenger for the Sacramento Valley Railroad, Gillis ascended Southern Pacific's corporate ladder, becoming assistant superintendent of the Sacramento Division in 1891. Gillis worked closely with Division Superintendent J. B. Wright on both railroad business and state politics, and together they marshaled the railroad's interests within the Republican Party.24

Wright and Gillis were in charge of Sacramento's railroad depot during the infamous Pullman Strike of 1894. Beginning in May as a labor dispute within Illinois's Pullman Corporation, it mushroomed into a nationwide protest against Southern Pacific and its subsidiaries. In Sacramento, railroad workers, with strong support from city residents, occupied the train station, and throughout the early summer strikers prevented the entrance or exit of any train carrying a Pullman car. Ultimately, President Grover Cleveland dispatched federal troops to Sacramento to restore order, though not before several people were killed due to union-sabotaged railroad tracks. In a subsequent trial, railroad union attorneys accused Gillis of persuading Federal Marshal Barry Baldwin to hire private police to protect railroad property during the strike, thereby giving credence to the workers' claim that federal and local governments colluded with the railroad to defeat the union.25

The extent to which the Pullman Strike personally or politically affected Gillis is unknown, but the incident ended his railroad career. According to a 1901 biography, Gillis "was on duty almost constantly during the strike of 1894, after which he suffered a severe attack of illness as a result of hard work and exposure to the sun during that time." At the strike's conclusion, noted the biographer, Southern Pacific asked Gillis to take full charge of the Sacramento Depot, which he refused.26 After Gillis retired from the railroad in November 1894, his Republican associates appointed him clerk for the state assembly's Ways and Means Committee. This was the first of a series of governmental appointments for Gillis, culminating in his becoming state librarian in 1899.

Like his predecessors, Gillis immediately hired a new library staff. For his assistant librarian, Gillis chose Margaret Eastman, the cousin of Governor Henry Gage, who had solicited the position on her behalf.27 For deputy, Gillis selected Sadie M. Breen to replace former governor James Budd's sister-in-law, Clara Neill. Breen was the stepdaughter of B. A. Worthington, assistant to Henry Huntington, then president of the Central Pacific Railroad, a Southern Pacific subsidiary. For cataloger, Gillis appointed Clara Lemmon, daughter of State Library Trustee Allen Lemmon. Completing the new hires was stenographer Frank O'Brien, who clerked in board president Frank Ryan's law office.28

Beyond hiring his staff, Gillis convinced the state library's board that the library needed recataloging. The trustees authorized Gillis to employ a cadre of special employees, which he did with political appointments. Edith Cowden was hired as a favor to her uncle, William Herrin, Southern Pacific's chief legal advisor. Gillis also hired Mrs. A. L. Blanchard, the wife of Van Fleet's former law partner. Eudora Garoutte, another new employee, was likewise indebted to Van Fleet, for her brother, C. H. Garoutte, had served with him on the state supreme court. Over the next year, Gillis continued to hire employees based on political connections: Agnes Barrett was recommended by Governor Gage; Mrs. S. A. Hutchinson by Secretary of State Charles Curry; and Daisy Ennis, W. J. Weisman, and J. W. Gorman by Gillis himself.29 As far as can be determined, none of these new staffers had previous library experience.

Democratic newspapers bitterly objected to Gillis's initial performance in office, particularly his patronage appointments. The San Francisco Examiner condemned the state library as "a waste of public money," arguing that its only value was to "statesmen with votes to sell." Claiming that library jobs were given to "the favored friends of the politicians who seem to control the State Government," the newspaper named every new employee and the politician or railroad lobbyist securing them their job.30 The Examiner, on the following day, continued its critique of "Gage's Patronage Bureau," noting that while the library was "well supplied with books" and "richly furnished," it lacked one thing: "It has no readers." As for the "thirteen well-paid assistants," the article continued, "they work short hours and draw fat salaries and, strange to say, are almost all friends or relatives of Governor Gage, of the Directors, or of the political friends of Directors. Those who are not, are connected by ties of relationship with William F. Herrin and others who have offices in the yellow building."31

Responding to the Examiner's accusations, neither Gillis nor board president Ryan denied the personal basis of his hires, yet both insisted that politics was not a factor. It was "not because William F. Herrin and Bert Worthington are 'close up' to Huntington that their candidates for the newly created positions were selected," declared Ryan. Rather, it was Herrin's "personal friendship" with Worthington that persuaded Ryan to appoint Worthington's stepdaughter. Herrin's "connection with the Southern Pacific was not considered at all." Gillis had an equally obfuscated explanation: "I want you to understand right here that it was not because Herrin is connected with the railroad that his suggestion in regard to Miss Cowden was followed out. His affiliation with the Huntington corporation had nothing to do with it. I granted his request simply because of his personality. His personal influence was sufficient."32

The newspaper article also included several additional comments from Gillis suggesting that his first year in office had taught him something about the exigencies of running a large research library. "Although I do not say it in any spirit of unjust criticism," Gillis confided, "I must say that there are two of those employed in my office who are not as competent as I would have them. I appointed them, and I feel that I am responsible for their work." But, he continued, "I will, under no circumstances, make other appointments without being fully advised upon the candidates' qualifications."33 Gillis's railroad career had been distinguished by his dedication to his employer and his determination to improve the organization. As Gillis's final comments to the Examiner suggest, this ethic would come to characterize his state library administration as well.

Pressure for Reform

It would seem, however, that Gillis's first year in office was a continuation of the political status quo, with the state library serving as a pawn in the larger arena of patronage politics. Gillis appeared perfectly comfortable with this arrangement, even defending it to the press. Yet a closer look at turn-of-the-century California suggests that several forces were at work that would pressure Gillis to look beyond the spoils of office to imagine a larger role for the state library. Most important was the growing antipathy toward the Southern Pacific Railroad and the realignment of California's political parties to achieve Progressive reform. At the same time, librarianship itself was undergoing significant reform, as government positions became part of the developing civil service system and thus increasingly professionalized. These dual forces of Progressivism and professionalization would have a profound impact on Gillis's administration of the California State Library.

The Progressive Movement in California

At the time of Gillis's 1899 appointment, both of California's political parties were controlled by the Southern Pacific Railroad through its legal representative, William Herrin, and his aptly named "Political Bureau." Not only did Herrin dictate Gillis's state library appointments, he also directed government patronage statewide. As reformer John R. Haynes once complained: "From the village constable to the governor of the state . . . the final selection of the people's officials lay with Mr. Herrin or his subordinates in the railroad machine."34

Despite Southern Pacific's pervasive power, by the early 1900s there was growing discontent among prominent businessmen and professionals with the railroad's stranglehold on state and local agencies. These disaffected voices found a sympathetic ear among Democrats, who by 1898 denounced the railroad's tactics and proposed new regulatory legislation.35 Some Republicans also sought to end Southern Pacific's domination of California's politics. Their first successful campaign was in 1899, when the party's antirailroad faction blocked Daniel Burns, Gillis's promoter, in his bid for the US Senate. Empowered Progressive Republicans expanded their efforts over the next few years and succeeded in reforming a number of city governments, most notably in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

A pivotal contest occurred in Sacramento when Republicans divided over their 1901 mayoral nominee. Instead of supporting George H. Clark's reelection, Republican strategists, namely, James Gillis and J. B. Wright, nominated William Land. Discounting his party's repudiation, Clark (guided by his campaign manager Hiram Johnson) ran as an independent on an antirailroad, antiboss platform.36 Adding insult to injury, Clark and Johnson filed a lawsuit against Gillis and Wright, claiming that they had defrauded the mayor of his investments in the Sacramento Oil Company and the Sacramento Land and Development Company.37 Though Clark lost the lawsuit, he won the election by a landslide. Democratic and reform-minded newspapers gloated at the defeat, declaring that Clark's victory meant "the overthrow of Colonel J. B. Wright and J. L. Gillis as directors in the Republican ranks."38 This election also inaugurated the antirailroad career of Hiram Johnson, who would become the leader of California's Progressive Party. For several years thereafter, especially during the bitter fight among California Republicans over their 1902 gubernatorial candidate, Gillis and Johnson were political opponents, with Gillis representing the old guard and Johnson the Progressive insurgency.

Building on similar local triumphs, Progressive Republicans in 1907 formed the Lincoln-Roosevelt League to "emancipate" the party from Southern Pacific's machine.39 The league captured the state legislature in 1909 and the next year elected Hiram Johnson governor. Johnson formally founded the California Progressive Party in December 1914, and it was as a Progressive that he was reelected governor the following year.

Although Johnson promoted California Progressivism as an antirailroad movement, other groups outside mainstream party politics also supported Progressive candidates' push for wider social reform. Perhaps most powerful were the state's women's clubs, which urged Progressives to support civic improvement programs and child-protection measures as well as woman suffrage. Organized labor also formed an uneasy but effective alliance with California's Progressive Party to effectively promote higher wages and improve working conditions. Professionals, too, turned to Progressive leaders to reform the government's hiring practices and adopt civil service.40

With widespread support, California's Progressive movement produced steady governmental reform. Progressives passed legislation legalizing direct primaries and adding initiatives and recalls to the state's electoral process. Reformers strengthened state railroad regulations and established new commissions to oversee utilities, banks, highways, and other public service corporations.41 Between 1911 and 1917 the legislature also enacted significant social legislation, including minimum wage, an eight-hour workday for women, woman suffrage, and a new Industrial Safety Commission. In June 1913 California's Civil Service Commission was established in an effort to modernize and professionalize the government's bureaucracy.42

Corporate leaders often supported expanding the state's regulatory power, hoping to end problems caused by corrupt officials and destructive competition.43 Their goals coincided with the Progressives' quest to rationalize state government through an efficient regulatory system run by a professionalized, apolitical bureaucracy.44 Ultimately, California's Progressive movement signaled the end of an older form of government based on personal connections and influence, replacing it with a more centralized system of government agencies that, theoretically at least, managed the state's affairs in a neutral, competent manner. Ironically, Progressives sought to end big-business influence by applying business principles to state government operations. Efficiency through bureaucracy was the key to California's political and social reform, and "scientific management" was its mantra.

Libraries and Progressive Reform

Librarians across the country were well aware of the reform movements challenging the state and local governments that employed them. Many library professionals advocated for some sort of accrediting system to guide library appointments and debated the merits of civil service.45 Librarians were also concerned with the condition of state libraries, which to a large extent mirrored the situation in California. In fact, in March 1901 Gillis received a letter from Montana State Librarian Laura Howey asking him if he employed "competent persons" or if he was "at the mercy of political wire pullers for place."46 While Gillis's response is unknown, his correspondent continued her pressure in a subsequent letter. "We do not think it wise to bring the State Library into the arena of politics. . . . Library work is fast becoming a profession, requiring special training, as you know, and fitness for the position should be considered above everything else."47

In several states, ambitious state librarians strove to end political patronage and broaden library operations. Foremost among this new type of state librarian was Melvil Dewey, who headed the New York State Library from 1889 to 1906. Believing that a state library should serve the entire state, Dewey expanded his library's collections, created a statewide traveling library system, and instituted a professional training program.48 Wisconsin's Charles McCarthy developed an alternative model. A trained historian, McCarthy believed a state library should serve as the government's research arm. In 1901 he created the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau to provide up-to-date information and research support for state legislators. McCarthy hired a team of lawyers and scholars to build the library's collections, conduct background research for elected representatives, and help draftnew legislation. Wisconsin would become a major force in the national Progressive movement, and McCarthy's Legislative Reference Bureau helped demonstrate how a government, with librarians' assistance, could legislate "scientifically."49

A third Progressive Era model was the state library commission, which sidestepped ineffective state libraries altogether. Run by a volunteer board of elected officials, citizens, and librarians, commissions hired experienced librarians to coordinate and improve statewide services. Library commissions, which between 1895 and 1910 were established in twenty-six states, advised cities seeking to establish libraries and provided professional training to inexperienced public and school librarians. Among the commissions' most important work were traveling library programs, which circulated book collections to rural communities too small or poor to support their own libraries.50

Progressive librarians thus experimented with innovative ways to render state libraries more responsive to public need. Some state libraries and library commissions aimed to expand library services and coordinate operations throughout the state. Wisconsin's legislative reference model limited services to state officials but made the state library a vital component in public-policy development. All three models sought to modernize and professionalize state libraries, yet the proliferation of these library agencies ran counter to the Progressive ethos of centralization and bureaucratic efficiency.

California's Progressive Library Movement

Though far removed from the East's pioneering professionals, California librarians were creating a reform movement of their own. Between 1890 and 1910 the state witnessed significant library development, including the expansion of major university libraries at the University of California (UC), Berkeley, and at Stanford, and the professionalization of metropolitan libraries in San Francisco and Los Angeles. These influential institutions were administered by some of the country's premier librarians: George T. Clark (San Francisco Public Library), Frederick J. Teggart (Mechanics Institute), Charles Greene (Oakland Public Library), Arthur Jellison (Mercantile Library), and Joseph C. Rowell (UC). In 1895 Clark, Jellison, and Rowell spearheaded the creation of the California Library Association (CLA) to advance statewide library interests. Clark, with his state library experience, particularly sought its reform. Teggart, too, had witnessed state library politics during his candidacy for state librarian in 1898. After the position went to politician Frank Coombs, Teggart voiced his frustration in an 1899 issue of Public Libraries: "It does seem strange that the one necessary qualification for the librarianship of the largest library in a supposedly enlightened state should be a record for participation in low-class politics."51

Not surprisingly, given such disaffection, the CLA's earliest reform effort was directed at the state library. Hoping to bring California in line with other progressive states, in November 1898 CLA representatives met with state library officials to discuss expanding the institution's influence.52 Although Coombs was initially sympathetic, his interest evaporated when he resigned as state librarian several months later. However, he did endorse the CLA's proposal to change library board appointments so that trustees would be appointed by the governor and serve staggered terms. In 1899 the state legislature passed a Coombsdrafted bill to this effect.53

Gillis's Transformation

James Gillis was appointed state librarian at the outset of the Progressive Era, and his administration would be shaped by the movement's evolving ethos. Indeed, after only a few years in office, Gillis became an ardent advocate for depoliticizing and professionalizing governmental operations, particularly the state library. The pragmatic Gillis understood, however, that change would not come through rhetoric alone. Thus, throughout his state library career, Gillis was willing to negotiate, even compromise, to achieve larger ends. This became a trademark of Gillis's administration and the key to his success.

Gillis's first challenge as new state librarian came from the California Library Association. Because of the state library's past reluctance to expand operations, the CLA allied with the League of California Municipalities to draftlegislation for a state library commission. Recounting the events some years later, librarian George Clark admitted that the commission plan was "a big bluff," because CLA leaders anticipated that Gillis would "not look with favor" upon such competition.54 Predictably, when Clark mailed Gillis a copy of the proposed commission bill, Gillis immediately arranged a meeting between the library board and the CLA.55 Meanwhile, the trustees consulted with Governor Gage, who assured them that he would oppose the commission legislation and support expansion of the state library's activities.56

When CLA representatives met with Gillis and his trustees on December 20, 1902, each party got what it wanted: the CLA obtained the state library's commitment to greater involvement in the library community, and the state library secured the CLA's assistance in new program development.57 On April 18, 1903, Gillis and Clark organized a second meeting in San Francisco to consider how the state library might proceed. Attending were librarians from UC Berkeley, Stanford University, and the San Francisco Public Library, as well as representatives from the Federation of Women's Clubs (FWC). The two constituencies made presentations detailing what state libraries were doing elsewhere and presented their respective visions of what might be done in California. Suzanne Patch of the FWC discussed the successful traveling library program that California women's clubs had operated since 1900 and suggested that the state library take the project over. Berkeley librarian J. C. Rowell supported Patch's idea and urged the trustees to hire a "competent person" with traveling library experience to carry on the work. George Clark, who at the time was director of the San Francisco Public Library, seconded Rowell's recommendation. He also encouraged the trustees to employ a professional library fieldworker to travel the state teaching small-town librarians how to catalog and administer their libraries' collections. While no solid commitments were made at the meeting, over the next few years most of the recommendations materialized as state library policy.58

This April meeting cemented Gillis's relationship with the state's foremost library professionals, and these strategic ties enabled him to expand the state library's services. Gillis frequently turned to Clark and Rowell for guidance in drafting library policy, providing state library employee recommendations, and promoting state library initiatives. In 1904 Oakland librarian Charles Greene was appointed state library trustee, a position he held until 1917, and Gillis and Greene became a powerful team in advancing the state library's agenda.59 Gillis also became active in the CLA, being elected vice president in 1903 and president in 1906. During his ten-year stint as CLA president, Gillis made the state library a key performer in the profession. Whereas his predecessors had ignored the state's librarians and denied them a role in determining public policy, Gillis looked to the professional community for guidance and support. Because California's librarians reciprocated Gillis's regard, together they built the nation's largest and most influential state library.

Another significant force behind Gillis's successful state library administration was Laura Steffens. The daughter of trustee Joseph Steffens, Laura joined the library's staffin early 1903 and soon thereafter was put in charge of the newly formed Extension Department. Although lacking the professional skills championed by Clark and Rowell, Steffens proved an inspired choice, and she worked tirelessly with Gillis in supervising the library's expansion.60 By 1906 Steffens was managing four new divisions- traveling libraries, study clubs, public libraries, and books for the blind-and over the next decade assumed responsibility for most of the state library's day-to-day operations.61 A political Progressive, Laura's outlook was influenced by her brother Lincoln, who in the early 1900s was a muckraking journalist celebrated for his exposés of political corruption. 62 According to Lincoln's biographer, Laura was her brother's "conscience and counselor," serving as a "steady voice of reason" in the day's heated political battles.63 In turn, Lincoln's democratic ideals suffused Laura's-and ultimately Gillis's-professional vision, particularly their shared commitment to providing all Californians with fair and equitable library service.64

Gillis's evolution as a Progressive is most apparent in his growing involvement in and commitment to the library profession. Yet in seeking to improve the quality of the state library's workforce he faced two daunting challenges: the entrenched political patronage system and the dearth of qualified professionals to fill his posts. Gillis confronted both challenges with his characteristic creativity and conciliation, significantly upgrading his staffas a result. Gillis first expressed concern about his employees in 1903 in the wake of his fact-finding tour of state libraries throughout the nation. "Trained help" was employed in every library he visited, reported Gillis to his trustees, a practice that he deemed essential in meeting a modern state library's expanded mission. During his tour Gillis consulted with many prominent librarians, including Melvil Dewey, Charles McCarthy, and Librarian of Congress Herbert Putnam, and he later told his board that these professional luminaries "all doubt the quality of work done by the California State Library because no trained help is employed." California must hire experienced librarians, concluded Gillis, "if for no other reason than to maintain our standing among the other libraries of the United States."65

Gillis thus began a systematic campaign to remove politics from the library's hiring practices. One of his first symbolic steps was to eliminate the listing of library employee party affiliations in the 1903 California Blue Book. He similarly used the library's 1905 Biennial Report to publicly lament how the institution had suffered in the past "from frequent changes of administration" and "a lack of expert assistants."66 Elsewhere he condemned politicians who pressured state librarians to hire their family and friends. As he complained in a 1905 Library Journal article, "All state libraries are at present to some degree subject to political control, and the appointment of an incompetent assistant may be the price that has to be paid for securing important concessions or appropriations. Probably no one more earnestly desires to employ experienced assistants than the progressive state librarian, but under present conditions in the majority of state libraries it is not always feasible to make such appointments."67

Gillis's plan to limit patronage appointments advanced in March 1906 when the trustees, now headed by librarian Charles Greene, released new "Rules for Library Service." Preceding California's civil service law by seven years, these rules were the first civil service code adopted by a California state agency. Dividing the library's workforce into graded and ungraded categories, the code stipulated that all graded position applicants pass an exam and have "a satisfactory record of library experience." The rules also created an apprenticeship program to help aspiring librarians enter the profession.68

Gillis artfully used these rules to fend offunqualified job seekers and their political benefactors. For example, in the fall of 1909 Congressman James Needham sent a governor's office representative to "very earnestly" ask the state librarian to hire Lillian McKean. Gillis wrote to the Modesto politician that while he would like to cooperate, library employment depended on "qualification and opportunity." "We are doing expert work here," he explained, "and consequently require expert people to do it." Gillis suggested that McKean serve an apprenticeship without pay. If satisfactory, she could then assume a $50-a-month deputy position.69 Needham replied that McKean was a teacher but desired other employment. "While she has had no experience, as I understand it, in library work," the congressman admitted, "she is exceedingly bright and apt, and I feel sure that she would very soon become one of your best qualified employees." After mentioning that he would have McKean's friends contact Gillis on her behalf, Needham complained about the low starting salary. "But I feel very sure," he continued, "that her qualifications are such as to warrant her employment from the beginning at a salary in excess of the minimum."70 As indicated in his January 1910 monthly report, the politically astute Gillis found a place for McKean in the library, but she began her career as an unpaid apprentice.71

Other lawmakers similarly approached Gillis about patronage appointments. In March 1911, for instance, he received a letter from seven California legislators: "The undersigned Senators and Assemblymen respectfully request that Allie Hurlihy be employed by you, and if this request is granted it will certainly be appreciated by the undersigned."72 On April 3 Hurlihy joined the library's staff, but as a $30-a-month page, not a professional employee.73

In this manner Gillis balanced his desire to employ a professional staffwith the need to curry favor among politicians controlling the library's budget. While Gillis publicly advocated for the library's professionalization, his payroll records reveal the persistence of other influence-based hires. Among the trustees, for example, Allen Lemmon's son worked in the Law Department and W. C. Van Fleet's wife in the Extension Department. Of course, Gillis's most enduring patronage-based appointment was his daughter Mabel, whom he hired to work in the Traveling Library Department in January 1905. A UC graduate but without professional experience, Mabel made her career at the library, serving as state librarian from 1930 to 1951.74

Despite such compromises, Gillis's professionalization efforts elicited positive, if grudging, press comment. For instance, in May 1909 Progressive Sacramento Bee publisher-editor C. K. McClatchy wrote:

A politician himself, and a leader among politicians, one of Mr. Gillis' first moves in the State Library-and to tell the honest truth, it surprised the people of Sacramento a great deal-was to weed out political encumbrances in the institution; to do away with political pulls; to put in force civil service rules; to make efficiency and industry the test. This writer knows personally of more than one individual, with the strongest political influence known in the State of California at his or her back, who knocked at the portals of the State Library for a position, and who was told that no place was obtainable unless the tests required could be satisfactorily passed.75

The San Francisco Chronicle, previously so critical of Gillis, also acknowledged a change in library operations:

The State is accumulating a very fine library at Sacramento and, while the library presumedly continues to be a nesting place of politicians, it is only fair to recognize that the particular politicians who are now in charge of the library have brought into that service the same intelligent vigor and alertness which, when devoted to the baser uses of politics, presumedly got them their jobs. No student or investigator in any part of the State could ask for more prompt and effective assistance than he receives from the State Library.76

While struggling to limit patronage appointments, Gillis faced another obstacle that was arguably even more difficult to surmount: finding and retaining professional librarians. One of his first tasks was to hire an experienced library organizer to assist small towns with their local libraries. CLA president Joy Lichtenstein recommended Mabel Prentiss, whom he considered among the most "thorough-going and up-to-date" librarians in the state.77 Gillis, thinking Prentiss "rather young for the place," preferred Bertha Kumli.78 Fortunately for Gillis, his trustees were so impressed with Prentiss and Kumli as to authorize the hiring of both.79

Gillis had more difficulty finding a qualified individual to develop the Legislative Reference Service. Hoping to re-create Wisconsin's model, Gillis contacted Charles McCarthy, who suggested Ernest Bruncken, a Milwaukee attorney with work experience in several state agencies. Gillis immediately contacted Bruncken, who, after a modest apprenticeship with McCarthy, joined the California State Library in 1904.80 When Bruncken resigned in 1909, Gillis informed his trustees that Bruncken's replacement should be a lawyer and an "expert in sociological work such as is required by this Department."81 With input from the New York and Wisconsin state librarians, Gillis chose another McCarthy protégé, Robert Campbell. "He is not a lawyer," admitted Gillis to the board. "I find it impossible to secure one, as they go to practice if of any value, and we do not want any other."82 Campbell, however, lasted less than two years, resigning in October 1911 to become secretary of Wisconsin's Public Affairs Commission.83 It took Gillis another year, plus assistance from George Clark and J. C. Rowell, to find a replacement with the requisite legal knowledge and library experience-Stanford's Melvin Dodge.84

With no academic library school in California, Gillis faced comparable problems filling other library positions. One solution was to mine out-of-state programs for likely candidates. To this end, he corresponded with New York State Library School director J. I. Wyer, who apprised him of promising "California girls" interested in finding library work in their home state.85 Gillis eventually persuaded a number of New York graduates (male and female) to come to Sacramento, including Milton Ferguson, May Nerney, and Julia Steffa. Gillis also hired several University of Wisconsin graduates, such as the aforementioned Campbell and Winifred Merrill. Recruiting in California as well, Gillis routinely contacted well-regarded public librarians, including Anne Hadden (Palo Alto Public Library), Alice Haines (San Francisco Public Library), and Edith Coulter (Stanford University), about moving to the state library. Gillis envisioned these state positions as apprenticeships, giving talented professionals an opportunity to advance their careers. He often suggested that the librarians take a leave of absence from their current jobs to keep their employment options open. Gillis desired to develop a corps of trained county librarians, which was another opportunity he offered individuals accepting temporary Sacramento assignments.86

By 1909 Gillis's temporary recruitments had evolved into a formal state library apprenticeship program for working librarians. The library annually accepted ten librarians who spent three to six months learning different departments' routines. After completing the program, these librarians could apply for a state or county library position or return to their previous institution. As Gillis explained to the library's trustees, the apprenticeship program "is to the advantage of library development in California as well as to the State Library and the students themselves."87 In March 1914 the apprenticeship program became a full-fledged library school, serving as the primary training ground for California's burgeoning county library system.

While Gillis was professionalizing California's library workforce, he was also promoting his own staff. He obtained state funding for staffmembers to attend conferences and sent several individuals to the East for training. In 1909, for example, Bruncken spent five weeks studying the "methods and system of managing legislative business" at the Wisconsin and New York state libraries.88 Milton Ferguson visited the Library of Congress in 1913, while Melvin Dodge interned at the New York State Library the following year. These opportunities were not restricted to male employees. In 1914, for instance, Laura Steffens consulted with Carnegie Corporation's James Bertram in New York. That same year Anne Lowry studied binding techniques at the New York Public Library and the Library of Congress.89

Despite Gillis's efforts to build a first-rate professional team, he was often thwarted by low salaries and limited budgets. Time and again, proven librarians rejected Gillis's job offers, stating that the transfer would mean reduced pay or demotion. Stanford librarian Edith Coulter is a prime case in point. She regretfully turned down a state library job in 1910, explaining, "I do not feel that I should be justified in resigning the head of a department to accept an assistant position at, what would be for the present, a small increase in salary."90 Gillis also lost experienced librarians who secured more lucrative positions. Sanguine about employee turnover, Gillis understood that just as he recruited librarians from other institutions, so too did competitors court his well-trained staff. As he explained to Kansas City librarian Purd Wright, "The employees of the California State Library are at liberty to better themselves or make changes that are agreeable to them at any time. I make it a rule to assist those who desire to go elsewhere."91

Conclusion

James Gillis had quickly learned that an effective state library required a competent, committed staff, and he devoted his administrative prowess to professionalizing library operations. To this end, he recruited experienced librarians from outside of California and cultivated promising ones within. Further limiting patronage, Gillis instituted the state's first civil service employment rules and ended the practice of listing state library employees' political affiliations in the California Blue Book. Gillis also experimented with different professional training programs, leading to the state library's establishment of one of the first library schools in the West. Gillis's evolving professional ideals would ultimately transform his politics, so that in January 1914 he became one of the first state officials to join Hiram Johnson's Progressive Party.92

Much had happened since 1901, when Hiram Johnson and James Gillis represented opposing sides in the Sacramento mayoral election. In the intervening years, both had become central actors in a reform movement that modernized California's government and curtailed big-business influence. While Johnson guided California Progressivism from the governor's office, Gillis provided a model of how a professionalized state agency could function. Ironically, as Gillis's colleague Laura Steffens surmised, it was Gillis's experience with railroad politics that made him a successful library administrator and reformer. As a railroad man, recalled Steffens, Gillis's primary objective was to give "satisfaction to the Company" while doing "as much good and as little harm as was possible."93 Demonstrating the same philosophy as state librarian, Gillis cooperated with state power brokers, skillfully using his connections to advocate for substantive change. In the process, Gillis replaced a politicized state library with a professionalized one, leaving a legacy that continues to benefit the state today.

Footnote

Notes

1. Kevin Starr, California state librarian from 1994 to 2004, is the only other librarian to appear in the historical literature with some frequency. Most references, however, concern Starr's historical writings.

2. Laura Steffens Suggett, The Beginning and the End of the Best Library Service in the World (San Francisco: Francisco Publishing Company, 1924); Harriet G. Eddy, County Free Library Organizing in California, 1909-1918 (Berkeley: California Library Association, 1955); "Dedication of James L. Gillis Hall," special issue, News Notes of California Libraries 27 ( January 1932); special issue dedicated to James L. Gillis, News Notes of California Libraries 52 (October 1957).

3. Peter Thomas Conmy, "James Louis Gillis, Westerner and Librarian: A Professional Biography," Wilson Library Bulletin 34 (December 1959): 272-83; Dictionary of American Library Biography, s.v. "Gillis, James Louis," by Ray E. Held (Littleton, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 1978); Hannah Josephine Kunkle, "A Historical Study of the Extension Activities of the California State Library with Particular Emphasis on Its Role in Rural Library Development, 1850-1966" (PhD diss., Florida State University, 1969).

4. John V. Richardson Jr., "Harriet G. Eddy (1876-1966): California's First County Library Organizer and Her Influence on USSR Libraries," California State Library Foundation Bulletin 94 (2009): 2-13; Florence M. Jumonville, "The Role of the State in the Organization of Statewide Library Service: Essae M. Culver, Louisiana's First State Librarian," Library Trends 52 (Spring 2004): 853-76.

5. In fact, I have treated Gillis similarly in my own writing, emphasizing how he changed the state library "from an exclusive, underused gentlemen's club . . . into a thriving legislative research agency" (Debra Gold Hansen, "Professionalizing Library Education, the California Connection: James Gillis, Everett Perry and Joseph Daniels," Library Trends 52 [Spring 2004]: 967).

6. "Big Trade in Offices," San Francisco Chronicle, April 4, 1897.

7. "The State Library Fight," San Francisco Chronicle, January 11, 1893.

8. W. C. Hendricks, comp., Governmental Roster, 1889 (Sacramento: State Office . . . Supt. State Printing, 1889), 14.

9. E. G. Waite, comp., California Blue Book, or State Roster, 1891 (Sacramento: State Office . . . Supt. State Printing, 1891), 109-10.

10. Charles Forrest Curry, comp., California Blue Book, or State Roster, 1899 (Sacramento: State Office . . . Supt. State Printing, 1899), 14.

11. California State Library Trustee Meeting Minutes (Book C), July 9, 1894, 12, California Section, California State Library, Sacramento. Hereafter cited as California Section, CSL.

12. "State Library Force to Be Reduced," San Francisco Call, September 16, 1890.

13. "Dedication," 5.

14. The state library's trustees held concurrent four-year terms.

15. "Frank L. Coombs State Librarian," San Francisco Call, March 3, 1898. In California the state archivist was known as the keeper of the archives. The position was, and is, part of the secretary of state's office.

16. "Library Trustees: Fight for Office Developed into a Scramble," Los Angeles Times, January 19, 1897.

17. "Gillis Leftat the Post," San Francisco Chronicle, February 3, 1897.

18. California State Library Trustee Meeting Minutes (Book C), March 5, 1898, 103-5, California Section, CSL.

19. "Fat Bait for Frank Coombs," San Francisco Call, May 5, 1898.

20. "Figuring on the Successor of Coombs," San Francisco Call, February 11, 1899.

21. Ibid.; "Mr. Burns and His Candidacy," San Francisco Call, December 7, 1898.

22. "Van Fleet Appointed State Library Trustee," San Francisco Call, March 29, 1899.

23. California State Library Trustee Meeting Minutes (Book C), April 1, 1899, 141, California Section, CSL.

24. For more information on Gillis's and Wright's association, see "Mayor George H. Clark Routs His Opponents in Sacramento," San Francisco Call, November 6, 1901.

25. "Strikers Stalled," San Francisco Call, November 21, 1894. For more on the Pullman Strike in California, see William Deverell, Railroad Crossing: Californians and the Railroad, 1850-1910 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996).

26. A Volume of Memoirs and Genealogy of Representative Citizens of Northern California (Chicago: Standard Genealogical Publishing Company, 1901), http:// freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~npmelton/sacgill.htm.

27. "Gage's Cousin Gets a Place," San Francisco Call, April 20, 1899.

28. "Railroad Influences Fill State Library Positions," San Francisco Examiner, August 5, 1900.

29. Ibid. These new employees' professional qualifications were not mentioned in the library's trustee minutes nor in its 1900 biennial report. Indeed, in this latter document Gillis did not mention the library's staffat all. See Biennial Report of the Trustees of the California State Library . . . July 1, 1898 to June 30, 1900 (Sacramento: A. J. Johnson . . . State Printing, 1900).

30. "Railroad Influences."

31. "State Library, Whose Tomes No One Reads, a Luxury for Which the People Pay Dearly," San Francisco Examiner, August 6, 1900. Presumably, the "yellow building" refers to Southern Pacific's headquarters in San Francisco. For over sixty years, the railroad painted its buildings colonial yellow.

32. "Railroad Influences."

33. Ibid.

34. As quoted in Kevin Starr, Inventing the Dream: California through the Progressive Era (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985), 201.

35. Curtis E. Grassman, "Prologue to California Reform: The Democratic Impulse, 1886-1898," Pacific Historical Review 42 (November 1973): 518-36.

36. "Mayor George H. Clark Routs."

37. "Clark Reopens Oil Land Case," San Francisco Call, March 26, 1902.

38. "Mayor George H. Clark Routs."

39. James C. Findley, "Cross-Filing and the Progressive Movement in California Politics," Western Political Quarterly 12 (September 1959): 699-711.

40. See Deverell, Railroad Crossing; Robert D. Johnston, "Re-democratizing the Progressive Era: The Politics of Progressive Era Political Historiography," Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 1 ( January 2002): 68-92; Mary Ann Mason Burki, "The California Progressives: Labor's Point of View," Labor History 17 (Winter 1976): 24-37.

41. Gerald D. Nash, "Bureaucracy and Economic Reform: The Experience of California, 1899-1911," Western Political Quarterly 13 (September 1960): 678-91.

42. Sven Kennedy, Inventory of the State Civil Service Commission Records (Sacramento: California State Archives, 2007), 2.

43. Mansel Griffiths Blackford, "Businessmen and the Regulation of Railroads and Public Utilities in California during the Progressive Era," Business History Review 44 (Autumn 1970): 307-19.

44. Heather A. Haveman et al., "The Winds of Change: The Progressive Movement and the Bureaucratization of Thrift," American Sociological Review 72 (February 2007): 117-42.

45. See, for example, Helen E. Haines, "The Effect of Civil Service Methods upon Library Efficiency," Library Journal 31 (October 1906): 699-704.

46. Laura E. Howey to the State Librarian, March 14, 1901, Administrative Correspondence, State Library Records, F3616, California State Archives, Office of the Secretary of State, Sacramento. Hereafter cited as Administrative Correspondence, CSA.

47. Laura E. Howey to J. L. Gillis, April 6, 1901, Administrative Correspondence, CSA. Judging from the content of Howey's letter, it appears she was surveying all state librarians to determine the extent to which politics determined library appointments.

48. See Wayne A. Wiegand, Irrepressible Reformer: A Biography of Melvil Dewey (Chicago: American Library Association, 1996).

49. Marion Casey, "Charles McCarthy's 'Idea': A Library to Change Government," Library Quarterly 44 ( January 1974): 29-41. See also Casey's monograph, Charles McCarthy, Librarianship and Reform (Chicago: American Library Association, 1981).

50. Jim Scheppke, "The Origins of the Oregon State Library," Oregon Historical Quarterly 107 (Spring 2006): 130-40.

51. F. J. Teggart, "The Library Field in California," Public Libraries 4 (May 1899): 211. For more information on the founding and early years of the California Library Association, see California Library Association, Historical Committee (CLA), California Library Association Proceedings, 1895-1907 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University, 1930).

52. CLA, Proceedings, 13.

53. Kunkle, "Historical Study," 50-51.

54. CLA, Proceedings, 16-17.

55. Ibid., 17; J. L. Gillis to Geo. T. Clark, December 8, 1902, Administrative Correspondence, CSA.

56. J. L. Gillis, "State Library System of California," Bulletin of the American Library Association 4 (1910): 728.

57. CLA, Proceedings, 17.

58. California State Library Trustee Meeting Minutes (Book C), April 18, 1903, 264-74, California Section, CSL.

59. Greene was president of the State Library Board from 1909 to 1911, during which time California's county library system was established.

60. A Stanford graduate, Laura had planned on becoming a teacher. For more on her background, see Suggett, The Beginning and the End, 15.

61. In her memoir Steffens intimates that although she should have succeeded Gillis as state librarian, this did not occur, because "it was thought not possible to get a woman appointed State Librarian at that time" (ibid., 59). For Steffen's promotions, see Biennial Report of the Trustees of the California State Library . . . July 1, 1904 to June 30, 1906 (Sacramento: W. W. Shannon . . . Supt. of State Printing, 1907), 13; and State Library Monthly Reports, April 3, 1909, and November 5, 1910, Monthly Reports, State Library Records, F3616, California State Archives, Office of the Secretary of State, Sacramento. Hereafter cited as Monthly Reports, CSA.

62. Steffens's best-known work is The Shame of the Cities, published in 1904.

63. Peter Hartshorn, I Have Seen the Future: A Life of Lincoln Steffens (Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint, 2011), 419.

64. Laura Steffens Suggett, The California Library Plan (San Francisco: Francisco Publishing Company, 1925).

65. California State Library Trustee Meeting Minutes (Book D), n.d., 11, California Section, CSL.

66. Biennial Report of the Trustees of the California State Library . . . July 1, 1902 to June 30, 1904 (Sacramento: W. W. Shannon . . . State Printing Office, 1905), 6.

67. J. L. Gillis, "State Library Administration," Library Journal 30 (September 1905): 37.

68. California State Library Trustee Meeting Minutes (Book D), March 3, 1906, 89-90, California Section, CSL.

69. State Librarian to Hon. James C. Needham, September 30, 1909, Administrative Correspondence, CSA.

70. J. C. Needham to Hon. J. L. Gillis, October 12, 1909, Administrative Correspondence, CSA.

71. California State Library Monthly Report, January 8, 1910, Monthly Reports, CSA.

72. Thomas Finn et al. to J. N. [sic] Gillis, March 27, 1911, Administrative Correspondence, CSA.

73. California State Library Monthly Report, April 8, 1911, Monthly Reports, CSA.

74. California State Library Trustee Meeting Minutes (Book D), January 5, 1905, California Section, CSL. Like Mabel Gillis, several patronage hires had long, successful careers. Annie L. Blanchard, for example, stayed with the library until 1914 and was considered by Gillis to be one of his most valuable workers. Eudora Garoutte, who worked until 1933, created the library's invaluable California history section.

75. "A 'Literary Cuss' May Not Make a Good Librarian," Sacramento Bee, May 8, 1909.

76. "The State Library," San Francisco Chronicle, September 24, 1908.

77. Joy Lichtenstein to Mr. Gillis, October 24, 1905, Administrative Correspondence, CSA.

78. Joy Lichtenstein to Mr. Gillis, November 3, 1905, Administrative Correspondence, CSA.

79. California State Library Trustee Meeting Minutes (Book D), November 4, 1905, California Section, CSL.

80. C. M. McCarthy to J. L. Gillis, October 25, 1904; Ernest Bruncken to Board of Trustees, November 10, 1904, Administrative Correspondence, CSA.

81. California State Library Monthly Report, October 2, 1909, Monthly Reports, CSA.

82. California State Library Monthly Report, January 8, 1910, Monthly Reports, CSA.

83. California State Library Monthly Report, October 7, 1911, Monthly Reports, CSA.

84. California State Library Monthly Report, October 5, 1912, Monthly Reports, CSA.

85. J. I. Wyer to J. L. Gillis, March 14, 1906; J. I. Wyer to Mr. Gillis, June 11, 1907, Administrative Correspondence, CSA.

86. See, for example, State Librarian to Julia Steffa, November 23, 1911, and State Librarian to Anne Hadden, October 24, 1911, Administrative Correspondence, CSA.

87. California State Library Monthly Report, May 5, 1909, Monthly Reports, CSA.

88. California State Library Monthly Report, April 3, 1909, Monthly Reports, CSA.

89. California State Library Monthly Reports, June 4, 1913, January 24, 1914, February 21, 1914, Monthly Reports, CSA; California State Library Trustee Meeting Minutes (Book D), October 26, 1914, 325, California Section, CSL.

90. Edith M. Coulter to J. L. Gillis, December 26, 1910, Administrative Correspondence, CSA.

91. J. L. Gillis to Purd B. Wright, July 14, 1911, Administrative Correspondence, CSA.

92. "State Clerks Are Progressive," San Francisco Chronicle, January 3, 1914. Gillis had established a working relationship with his former nemesis, Hiram Johnson, as early as 1911, when he invited the governor to speak about California Progressivism at the ALA conference taking place in Pasadena. Lincoln Steffens also spoke to the ALA delegates. See California Library Association, "Handbook and Proceedings of the Annual Meeting, 1911," News Notes of California Libraries 6 (October 1911): 17-25.

93. Suggett, The Beginning and the End, 12-13.