Spoilsmen and Daughters of the Republic: Political Interference in the Texas State Library during the Tenure of Elizabeth Howard West, 1911–1925

Elizabeth Howard West, the first female head of a public agency in Texas, served as state archivist from 1911 to 1915 and as state librarian from 1918 to 1925. West instituted three new initiatives at the Texas State Library: the county library movement, service to the blind, and service to African Americans. West met the challenges of her position with great professionalism, integrity, and dedication. Although she succeeded in revising the law governing the state library, her work was hindered continually by political interference from the governor's office and from the Texas legislature. This interference ultimately precipitated her resignation.

Elizabeth Howard West, the first female head of a public agency in Texas and the second in the United States, became state librarian in 1918. West presided over the Texas State Library at a formative period, when it turned from a chiefly historical institution to one dedicated to promoting statewide library service. West instituted three new initiatives at the state library: the county library movement, service to the blind, and a policy on service to African Americans. Although West met the challenges of her position with great professionalism, integrity, and dedication, her work was hindered continually by political interference from the governor and the Texas legislature, ultimately precipitating her resignation.

West's story offers a window into the Texas politics of the 1910s and 1920s, a time when populism and antielitism led to the rise, fall, and resurgence of Governor James "Farmer Jim" Ferguson, a storied Texas demagogue. During this period the Texas legislature wielded a heavy hand over the state budget and could earmark appropriations with impunity. The fact that the legislature met only every other year, and then only for nine months, did not reduce its power; to the contrary, the budget and laws the legislature enacted remained inalterable until the next biennium.

Events at the state library during West's tenure illustrate trends in U.S. history as well. Before and during World War I many American citizens of German descent were suspected of harboring pro-German sympathies. West's predecessor, a state librarian with a German surname, had to answer to charges of disloyalty to the United States before a legislative investigative committee. Anti-immigrant sentiment ran high in the 1910s, which contributed to the rise of the Ku Klux Klan as a major force in Texas politics. The KKK endorsed its own Democratic candidates, elected a senator, and attempted to gain the governor's seat. While the KKK whipped up sentiment for "protecting Protestant civilization," the state librarian picked her way through a racial minefield, trying to uplift the Negro while upholding segregation.

West's story also illustrates a crucial episode in U.S. labor history. Beginning in the 1890s, the United States saw a phenomenal growth of professionalism among librarians, architects, chemists, and others. The rise of professional organizations sponsoring annual meetings and journals and the founding of professional schools offering training led in the subsequent decades to a workforce revolution. All professions in the United States, including librarians, began to require that new hires have professional training or professional experience, or both. This rise in professionalism, however, flew in the face of the long-established practice of patronage appointments. Professionalism versus patronage became a major issue in the Texas State Library.

Biographical Sketch

Elizabeth Howard West (1873–1948), one of seven children of Mary Robertson (Waddel) and James Durham West, was born in Pontotoc, Mississippi. West's maternal grandfather was Moses Waddel, a Presbyterian minister and educator who served as president of the University of Georgia and then as chancellor of the University of Mississippi. West's father was a Presbyterian minister; when he assumed a ministry in Bryan, Texas, in 1895, the entire family relocated. After completing college in Mississippi, West taught in public and private schools there, then taught in public schools after moving to Texas. West enrolled at the University of Texas at the age of twenty-seven and received a combined BA/MA degree in 1901. Her major was history...