Below you will find diary entries on the topic of “Academic Career.” You can view other subjects here.
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Dear Lois:
Ever since I was a kid I have had dreams—dreams about doing something great and good and fine—dreams of becoming a person of importance and respect. But I realize now that my dreams have been daydreams and can never become actualities. True, I probably can do some things worthy of respect and admiration (I sincerely hope so!), but nothing so great and magnificent as I had aspired to. Since I was a freshman in college, I have had visions, at various times, of becoming president, Church apostle, U.S. Senator, or the author of a great and lasting book on economics. These dreams have all vanished into thin air. It would be intellectually, physicality, and financially impossible for me to become any of these. You taught me to dream and you encouraged me, but now I know too much of the world—its cruelties, disappointments, and necessities, to dream. I must try to do whatever I can as well as possible, and thus try to justify in some small way my existence. As I said in a previous letters, I must try to keep some step, however stumbling, however far in the rear, with the vast, silent, often mysterious, sometimes hardly discernible, processes that are slowly but surely transforming this world from a wolves’ den into a place where men can know some peace, some happiness, some sense of the inexhaustible beauties of the universe in which they happen to live.
[LJAD, letter to Lois, ca. November 30, 1939]
Son Visits Parents
Leonard Arrington has arrived from Chapel Hill, N.C., for a vacation visit with his parents Mr. and Mrs. N. W. Arrington. He will return in the fall to resume his studies at the University of North Carolina, where he has accepted an assistant instructorship in economics.
[LJAD, newspaper article, ca. June, 1940]
See if you don’t agree with me on the following:
1. We want to settle in a medium-sized town-25,000 to 125,000.
3. We want to be where we can have a nice home & farm on the outside of the city.
4. We want to be in a region that will grow a great abundance of fine fruits & vegetables, dairy products, etc.
5. We want to be where we’ll be able to ski & ice skate in the winter, & go riding in a snow carriage. But in the summer we want to go horseback riding, have our own swimming pool, if possible, and go camping in the mountains. For your sake we will go to a beach once a year, no matter how much it costs. For my sake, we will attend a rodeo once a year & watch cowboys strut their stuff.
6. We want to be where there are some fine LDS people, who are intellectually inclined.
7. Above all, we want to be where we can give our children the best opportunities & the happiest childhood.
8. We want to be where I can teach at a small college; have facilities for research, and have some small business, like an ice cream parlor—and still have our farm, complete with chickens, cows, horses, etc.
It all sounds like a dream now, but I know we can do it, if we keep our minds to it & let nothing interfere. Now that we are married, there is a Third One who will help us achieve our happiness; if we will always serve Him first.
Boise is the only city in Idaho in which we could realize all our ambitions, and I know you will love it, if you see it.
Logan, Provo, & Salt Lake City in Utah. After that, I don’t know. If we don’t like any of them, we can try to pick out a place in California—or where there are opportunities for employment.
[LJAD, letter to Grace, October 8, 1943]
Nov. 10, 1943
Dearest Darling,
We took it easy this morning. I wrote your Mother & Aunt Bessie. This afternoon we left for work. Tonight we have had the best bull session since I’ve been in the Army. We covered every subject that one ordinarily covers in a bull fest. The Lieutenant was in with us & every one of us enjoyed it. And by the way, I’m learning more & more, about school. Should I ever get into any position of responsibility, such as a Deanship, it will be because of the wider understanding & helpful criticisms that have come from Army experience.
[LJAD, letter to Grace, November 10, 1943]
By the way, I’ve done some more thinking about the part we should play in the community life of Boise (or wherever we live.) Let’s just assume it is Boise for the time being. I’ll just list some of the practices I think it would be wise for us to follow. I’ll wait eagerly your reaction to them.
A. Political
1. Suggest we not belong to or patronize either political party. Otherwise, we’ll go down (or out) when our party loses. We’ll be independents—non-partisans.
2. Be of service to both parties in helping them to understand economic & social issues. We’ll fight for issues, not men or parties. We’ll always stand for tolerance, justice, aiding the underprivileged, agriculture, etc.
3. Work in with state officials by helping them get economic information, gathering material, etc. Especially, help out all agricultural officials. Help them with bulletins, etc. In all this, my name will not be publicized.
4. Learn to give good speeches on current economic & social topics to clubs, schools, churches, etc.
5. In older age, we might seek a political office, but, if so, only as an independent.
B. Religious
1. Suggest we attend LDS Church more or less regularly if we are in Boise, but go now & then to other Churches.
2. Work into position of teacher, if we choose, but not into administrative position as Bishop or Stake Pres. Or Clerk.
3. Be more active in Mutual than in other work of Church., But in no case, spend such a large part of our time & effort on the Church that we might be criticized by the college, by the State, or by members of other faiths.
4. Contribute an article a year to the Era. In old age, if I retire, I could do worse than to work for the Era, reviewing books, writing, & reading manuscripts.
C. Social
1. Suggest we not attach ourselves to any particular social group or set. Be friends to poor, rich & middle classes; to those of all denominations & occupations.
2. In each particular group, we must make fast friends with one couple, so we can feel free in that group and feel its pulse.
3. So as not to offend many of our friends, suggest we never serve alcoholic beverages or tobaccos in our home. This should also help us in rearing our children.
4. In every case, suggest we try to be together in all social relations. At least as many as possible. I think it is a bad tendency for the man to have his friends & the wife her friends. The husband & wife should be invited out together & do things together—not separately. Of course, if you wanted to have ladies for afternoon of tea or bridge, that would be swell, but don’t you agree we ought to minimize that sort of thing. After all, it’s not me and you, it’s us. I want you to be a companion even more than a Mother. You see how much I love you for what you are?
Be sure to tell me what you think of these suggestions & any others you have thought about.
[LJAD, letter to Grace, Monday, March 6, 1944]
One of the reasons I want us to settle down in Boise is that I feel we will be so much freer to do & say as we wish, with no external compulsion. The atmosphere, weather & all would be better in Provo but I’m afraid the intellectual atmosphere there would be stifled by the dogmatists of the Church. If the Church disapproves of certain portions of a book, we wouldn’t use to for a textbook, etc. We would be criticized for not being true LDS, not having faith, etc. In Boise, on the other hand, we are far enough removed from Salt Lake to be able to do and say as we please. Our living will not be controlled by the Church. The school will be small & eventually, perhaps, we shall be able to dictate the policies of the school. Thus we shall be perfectly free.
There is one drawback that the students there are few, money for research is scarce, & the students aren’t of a high caliber. If we find this to be true & feel our opportunities there aren’t great, we can leave after a year for Pocatello, Logan, or some other place. However, I believe we can make the Boise school a good one, a larger one, & one suitable for furthering our aims.
I wish I could tell you in person about some of these aims, but maybe you can get an idea from what I write. Here are some of the things I think the school at Boise could be built to do. (The Boise College is a Junior College & in the past hasn’t done much but teach bookkeeping & typing). Here is what I have in mind for it:
1. Develop & maintain one of the best debating teams in the Northwest.
2. Develop & maintain a political group like the CPU at Chapel Hill to bring political speakers, sponsor an interest in political issues, & encourage correct thinking in political issues.
3. Develop a Pan-Idaho or Pan Mountain movement to make citizens conscious of the resources, beauties, & history of the State in particular & the Northwest & Mountain Region in general. Sort of an idea of Dr. Odum’s Southern Regional movement at Chapel Hill. The idea here is to stimulate
a. Writing of books by Idahoans about Idaho & the nearby States.
b. Writing & production of plays by these people about their own life & surroundings.
c. Interest in good music and art, especially that which will lead to creative work.
4. In this same line, to further the above purposes, an Idaho State Magazine should be published, similar to The State in Carolina. Maybe this has already been done.
5. Ways will have to be found to make the college serve business men, farmers, housewives, high schools & other economic groups so as to build up a student body & get their financial support. My own part would probably be to encourage LDS to go there instead of to Utah schools & to do something for the potato farmers in the Upper Snake River Valley. Above all, I shall have to learn to give speeches and there is one of the ways you will help me.
[LJAD, letter to Grace, Saturday, 1 April 1944]
When I had your pkg. censored this morning I met a Lt. from Utah, who also happened to be LDS. When he spoke, I recognized the western accent & asked him if he wasn’t brought up in the shades of the Rocky Mtns. He was brought up in Salt Lake but has lived in Washington, D.C. & Los Angeles. He belongs to our outfit but I didn’t inquire as to his profession. He had been on a mission to N. C. in 1919-21, but hadn’t been active in the Church since. He doesn’t pay much attention to the admonitions of the Church, but he thinks LDS people ? men & women are the finest people to live with & know. He’s about 38 or 40 yrs. old, 6 ft. 4 in. tall & a real man. He told me about being chased out of Statesville by a mob when he was a missionary there. The people had heard that LDS came to take their women to Utah.
Knowing he was a kind of free thinker & therefore able to speak unbiased about conditions in Utah, I asked him if he thought you & I would be happy teaching & living in Utah. He thought we would like it very much. He thought I shouldn’t teach at BYU, tho even there a teacher is much freer than is commonly thought—so he said. He thought A.C. in Logan would be swell, or if we preferred a large city, Salt Lake would be better & teach at U. of U. He had never been to Boise & didn’t know anything about it except he knew schoolteachers & professors there were very poorly paid & he saw little likelihood that their salaries would go up. All in all, he could see little economic opportunity for progressive young people in Idaho. He made one good suggestion about which I’ve done a little thinking. He suggested a fine young college from which to work up would be Weber Normal College in Ogden, Utah. Ogden, he says, has expanded tremendously under the defense program & he thinks it will remain as a part of the Pacific post-war program of Kaiser & his group Steel plants, copper, agriculture & all. However, I have never been overly fond of Ogden as a city & think most of the citizens wouldn’t be nice neighbors. Logan has much finer people, & so does Salt Lake. Logan is an agricultural center & would be splendid for an agricultural economist & economist mixed. Also it would be a wonderful place or our country home? Utah has admirable poultry-growing conditions. I mention these suggestions just as I would if we were together laying in bed talking about things. It will be hard to root me out of our plans for going to Idaho. As I told you, we may have to go the first year anywhere I can get a job. We can look prospectives over for a year & then decide definitely.
I am so happy you want to go West just as I do. The South has so many old hates & prejudices, customs & traditions that it would be impossible for us to live the free abundant life we want s badly & which we need to be happy. The human air and the air we breathe will both be cleaner & fresher in the west. Among Southern boys I have found a great deal of prejudice against Jews, Catholics & almost everybody that isn’t a 100% Christian, American. In other words all of Senator Reynolds’ baloney. I know now why he was elected & supported for so long. The good people in the South are among the best in the world. Education & knowledge will dispel most of the prejudice, bit it will take a long time, longer than our lives & I know we would not be as happy as we will be in the west where there are no inherited hates & prejudices. We won’t get too close to orthodox Mormonism or t Mom & Dad so we can be where we will be completely free & happy.
[LJAD, letter to Grace, Monday, 2 October 1944]
Yesterday I found a Boise, Idaho paper. I read it over very carefully. It is the paper in Boise, & its policy & items gave me the feeling that my ideas might not be welcome there, that maybe we’d be better off in Logan, Salt Lake, Ogden or some place a little less Provincial. However, we will have time to investigate that later. The main thing is to get our degree. Then get a good job for one year while we look around & plan.
[LJAD, letter to Grace, Wednesday, 18 October 1944]
After Church this afternoon I talked to a Bro. Smith, a Lt., who was a dramatics teacher in Ogden. He seemed pretty smart & quite well informed. I asked him about locating in Salt Lake, Logan Provo, & Ogden & Idaho. Here were his suggestions:
1. Don’t settle in Boise or Pocatello, Idaho. The schools are only 2-year schools & are on very meager budgets. I’d never be able to advance far or support a family of 4. I’d have to be hustling for money all the time. There isn’t much culture in those towns & I probably wouldn’t be very happy.
Provo is the best spot to settle for everything except that I might not be too free in teaching there & there might be more social life than I’d care for. The town has everything one could want but this factor of freedom in teaching is important to me so I probably shouldn’t teach there.
3. Ogden would not be ideal because it is such a “worldly” town. It’s a railroad terminal, they have an industry there, & there is a lot of riff raff, Race riots, etc. I should probably prefer not to try to raise a family there, he said. Furthermore, the school is only a 2-year school.
4. That left a choice between Logan & Salt Lake. He thought the best solution would be to try to get a job at University of Utah in Salt Lake my first year west. That would enable me to get my fingers on how things work in the intermountain region. I’d bee able to meet many important people & lay a groundwork. Then he suggested we plan to settle permanently in Logan as soon as a position on their faculty is open.
If it proved impossible to get a good job in a Utah school the first year, he suggested I get a job in California where they pay very well, & stay there until I can get a job at Logan.
Those were his suggestions with the reasons for them. As you can see, I’m following the situation at every opportunity. If we cannot get a job at a Utah or other choice western school after the first year after I get my degree, would you agree that we should take one in California, or should we stay another year at State College? Personally, I’m inclined to the idea of going west just as soon as we can, no matter where it has to be, but I want your thoughts on the subject.
[LJAD, letter to Grace, Sunday, 29 October 1944]
This morning I went to the Baptist Church, where a prayer was held for President Truman. This afternoon I went down to the Red Cross Club, listened to some music, and then went to the L.D.S. services. For the first time since I’ve been overseas I met an L.D.S. chaplain—a Captain Gibbons (I think). The topic for discussion was whether President Roosevelt was inspired by God in his decisions. There were about 10 at the LDS service, including a young lady who was a Red Cross girl.
The Chaplain was a great big husky fellow formerly an All-American football player. He used to be with Utah Sate at Logan. He says Logan is a town of only about 12000 and that most of the Professors have small farms. The climate is swell, he says, and most everything is grown in the valley. He says the college doesn’t pay much but that it is growing. And besides the cost of living is very low.
He told us that at a dance recently (he loves to dance) two officers cornered him and says “How, about it, Chaplain, tell us the truth. How many women have you slept with since you’ve been overseas?” It made him mad to think that his morality was questioned and he said, “Anybody who asks me that has to say it with a smile on his face or I’ll push this fist right down his throat. I’ve only been with my wife in all my life and anybody who ever intimates otherwise is going to get it right smack in the jaw.”
I just wonder what he would have said if he had been a little fellow. It’s o.k. for a big fellow to say brave things like that, but we little fellows have to be more conciliatory and less dramatic.
[LJAD, letter to Grace, Sunday, 15 April 1945]
Dr. Leonard J. Arrington, associate professor of economics at Utah State University, has been appointed Fulbright Lecturer in Italy for the academic year 1958-59.
[LJAD, “USU Professor Appointed Fulbright Lecturer, Italy,” The Herald Journal, Logan (Cache County) Utah 6 April 1958]
My purpose in coming over here was to deliver lectures on American economic history at the University of Genoa. These will consist of about 15 lectures to be given during March and April, and will be in Italian. The University may later publish them if it feels they are worthy. In addition, The United States Information Service, which has provided me a nice office in Genoa near the University, wants me to give some lectures in other cities. So far we are scheduled for lectures in Turin, Milan, and Venice. I hope to take Grace along on these trips, and this will give us a chance to see more of Italy at relatively little expense. [They pay travel expense.] Right now we are looking forward to spending the week after Christmas in Rome. Some friends of ours from BYU, who are in Germany for the year, are coming to our home for Christmas, and we are all going to Rome together. They will later take off for other sightseeing.
[LJAD, letter to Aunt Bessie and Uncle Bruce, 15 December 1958]
April 29, 1961
Professor Leonard J. Arrington
Economics Department
Campus
Dear Leonard:
The budget for the academic year 1961-62 provides a base salary of $9,700 with a total payment of $11,250 for eleven months’ service. Of this total, one-half of your base payment is in compensation for your services as professor in the Department of Economics. One-half of your base, plus the sixteen percent summer differential is in return for your services in research and administrative commitments.
Without doubt, at present you are our most productive faculty member in the College of Business and Social Sciences in terms of scholarly and professional publications. I sincerely hope that this will continue in the years ahead and that administrative commitments will not lead you astray from your major professional interest of Economics and Economic History. Director Wynne Thorne is extremely happy with your research output and has expressed the hope that you can continue in that program. If there is anything I can do to assist you in your professionally career, i.e., travel funds for conventions, etc., please feel free to raise the point at any time.
Cordially yours,
Robert P. Collier
[LJAD, letter from Robert P. Collier, Dean, College of Business and Social Sciences, Utah State University, 29 April 1961]
3. In case you didn’t get told before, your Dad was given a distinguished professor-ship by the Utah Board of Higher Education. This is supposed to add $2,000 to my salary, and I’m supposed to give a lecture and seminar at some other Utah colleges and Universities. All this we learn from the newspapers; no official notice yet. I’m sending the clipping in case you didn’t get it.
[LJAD, letter written to James, 2 March 1970]
November 21, 1972
Dr. Leonard J. Arrington
Historian
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
47 East South Temple
Slat Lake city, Utah
Dear Leonard:
Although there was a perfunctory thank you given at the Annual Meeting to the retiring board members, I would like to make it a matter of record that the present administration is sincerely appreciative of your efforts toward helping build a successful Western History Association. Your term as president was outstanding, and your contributions since then have been noteworthy. I think especially valuable have been your efforts in establishing the very well received Western Historical Quarterly. I am sure you have seen the letters of congratulations which have come into the Western Historical Quarterly and Western History Association offices, and I think it is best summed up in the words of Bob Utley when he said, “The quality of the Western Historical Quarterly exceeds our fondest hopes.”
I will personally miss you on the Council because it is always good to have a friend in court you can turn to for support of new programs. I think I hold my present position through your efforts and sometimes I am not sure I should be grateful, but on the whole it has been worthwhile, especially working with such scholars as Howard, John Caughey, and others.
Once again many thanks for your work on behalf of the Western History Association.
Sincerely,
Everett L. Cooley
Secretary-Treasurer
[LJAD, letter to LJA from Everett L. Cooley, Secretary-Treasurer of The Western History Association, 21 November 1972]
Let me describe in as brief a manner as possible the founding of the Western Historical Quarterly at Utah State University. After the American West Magazine had been founded about 1965 there was some discontent among the more scholarly members of the Western History Association with the format of the American West, which was consciously modeled after American Heritage. Not that American West as such was regarded as a poor publication but simply that the association ought also to have a more scholarly publication. The American West was aimed at the buffs in the Western History Association and other people interested in Western history. It was trying to please the average reader rather than the scholar. This was proper but the scholars continued to believe that there ought to be another publication aimed primarily at the scholars.
A committee was appointed under the direction of John Alexander Carroll, then at the University of Arizona to study the possibility of establishing another journal. The thought was that perhaps one of the other Western regional journals could be “captured” by the association and converted into something suitable for general WHA circulation. Contacts were made with Pacific NorthWest Quarterly at Seattle, which preferred to remain a Northwest journal; with Arizona and the West, which wanted very much to be converted into an official WHA journal, but was prevented from doing so by the governor, legislature, and other prominent people in Arizona who wanted it to remain oriented to Arizona; and Pacific Historical Review published in UCLA, which after a long and rather disagreeable fight among its board of editors and sponsors, supported in a slight vote to remain oriented toward the pacific.
At the time I was vice president of WHA, I was approached by Klaus Hansen, then a professor of history at Utah State University, with the idea that USU make application to establish a new journal to be called Western Historical Quarterly to be sponsored jointly by USU and WHA. We had conversations with Dr. Milton Merrill, then academic vice president of USU, and wrote some memos about this. Dr. Merrill put us off and finally it became clear that we would not get the money or support, so we gave up this idea. Klaus Hansen accepted at appointment to Queen’s College in Canada. It appears that the previous year the English Department had applied to the administration through J. Golden Taylor, professor of English at USU, to have USU sponsor a journal of western literature. The administration had turned it down. Colorado State University had moved to support such a journal and Dr. Taylor had moved to CSU where he remains as editor of Western Literature where he remains to this day.
In the meantime, USU acquired a new president, Glenn Taggart and a new academic vice president, Gaurth Hansen. Klaus Hansen being gone, George Ellsworth then approached me about placing an application with Gaurth Hansen for USU to sponsor the Western Historical Quarterly. I was quite preoccupied with other projects, but agreed to join George in working to found such a magazine. I knew from my associations on the council of Western History Association that the association had not found a university, which was willing to invest sufficiently to establish a journal of the type that we desired. I also knew that because of my position as incoming president of WHA that the membership would support me as an editor. George Ellsworth and I also recognized that he had not published enough for the members of the association to be acquainted with him and to support him in that position.
Having had no discouragement from Gaurth Hansen as the result of our oral interview, George and I worked out a plan for WHQ, which would list myself as editor, and George as associate editor with USU as a sponsor. The plan provided that USU would pay for the overhead editorial work and the association would pay for the printing and distribution cost in return for which we would send a copy to each member of the association. There were about 2,300 members of the association at the time. George wrote up these items in a memorandum to Dr. Hansen. We submitted it to him, and he approved it tentatively. We then informed the business vice president, Dee Broadbent, and discussed the matter with the dean of social science, Judd Harmon, and the dean of business, Robert Collier. We got clearance to make a formal application to the Western History Association. But this time I was president of the association. I received council approval to appoint Clark Spence incoming president and a committee of others including Robert Utley and John Bannon to approve arrangements for the establishment of a journal. George Ellsworth wrote the first draft of a complete proposal at which I made considerable input. This was then filed by Gaurth Hansen and Dee Broadbent, and Ellsworth and myself representing USU submitted it formally to WHA. Clark Spence looked it over, sent copies to his committee, they approved, and the journal was thus founded. We then made plans to start with the first number beginning January 1970. The arrangements were okayed by the general membership in October 1968 and by the counsel in April 1969.
With me as editor and George as associate editor, we then began the process of acquiring staff materials for publication. We approved the paper, the style of type, a program of limited advertising by book publishers, and so on. We asked Keith Montigue of the firm of Bailey and Montigue of Salt Lake City to help work out a design. We wanted a design, which would be appropriate and suitable for a scholarly publication: The basic design we modeled after was the William and Mary Journal, although our type style was not as antiquarian as theirs. We planned a publication of 100-120 pages in each issue. The publication would include an average of four articles running twelve to twenty printed pages each—about half the publication would consist of book reviews and notes. We set a price of $7 for subscriptions outside the association and charged the association $4.50 for each four issues that went to a member.
We employed Mary Turner Adams as office manager and copy editor and Cheryl Smith White as a part-time assistant copy editor. She also worked half time with the information center of the university. We also appointed a graduate assistant to work on the Quarterly. George was half time with the Quarterly and I was half time the first year and one-third time for the next two years. We also had Fred Yonce, a professor of history at USU appointed to serve one-fourth time to supervise book reviews, notes, and so on.
In all of this planning George Ellsworth took a most active role. Although I was editor, I felt sure that George did not have full confidence in my decisions. It is a characteristic of George that he always knows how to do things better than others and this is true—he does. He is a brilliant, imaginative person and whether it is doing carpentry work or printing or giving lectures or whatever the task, he can always do it better than anyone else, and because of this he gets bogged down in doing things that should not have high priority. Unlike Lincoln who could black his boots better than anybody he ever employed, he still left the blacking to his “boy”, George has been unable to accomplish a great deal in the way of publication because he gets bogged down with things that he can do better than his colleagues.
At any rate, George played a leading role in making all the basic decisions even to the extent of insisting upon certain things he believed strongly in doing. This did not bother me because I perceived that after a limited number of years, I would be able to turn the Quarterly over to George without any difficulty. By that time members of the association would know him and would have confidence in his work and judgment. So I allowed him to be the directing genius. I did not overrule him in any way and catered to his own recommendations and desires. This proved to be fortunate since when I received overtures from BYU about the creation of the Redd Center, I was able to work out with the association for George to be listed as co-editor. Then when I received the call from the Church to be Church Historian necessitating my resignation in the fall of 1972 from USU, I was able to obtain permission for George to be listed as full editor. In that change of editorship, the only thing, which stung as far as I was concerned, was George’s refusal to have me listed as a member of the Board of Editors of the Quarterly. Various persons recommended it to George but he adamantly refused. I do not know to this day the reasons for such a refusal but I will confess that it hurt me some although I have never mentioned it to him.
USU has continued to support the journal in fine ways. Total costs of the journal run about $50,000, of which USU puts up about $30,000 and the association puts up about $20,000. The association in essence pays for the printing and distribution of the journal. Advertising and other subscriptions pay for some of the editorial overhead and the university absorbs the salary and time of George Ellsworth and Charles Petersen now associate editor one-third time, Mary Turner Adams, full time as manager and copy editor and Evelyn Lawrence who replaced Cheryl White who is now assistant copy editor. There is also a graduate assistant obtaining the same stipend as a regular graduate assistant in history half time for a year for $2,500. George Ellsworth was disappointed with the work of Fred Yonce and after two years on the USU staff Charles Petersen took his place.
Approximately fifty manuscripts are received each year, of which the association is able to publish only about sixteen. About half of the manuscripts are seminar papers by graduate students and not of the quality that ought to be published. We also received occasional manuscripts from buffs, most of which are not suitable for publication. From the very beginning, the editors have insisted upon interpretive-type articles rather than narrative accounts and we have gotten articles that will have an interest to many people. We may run an occasional photo or two, but because of expense we have never had more than one or two photos per issue, nor do we emphasize artwork in the form of line drawings or otherwise.
One of my ideas at the outset was to ask the great ones in the field of western history to prepare autobiographical articles detailing their experiences in the field of western history. We started this out in the lead article with Ray Allen Billings, which had a wonderful effect on teachers and graduate students who read our journal and we have carried autobiographical articles by these leading men in the field in most of the issues since. George was never as enthusiastic for this as I and has not given it the same emphasis that I did during the two years that I was editor. George is always cautious that the articles we commission may not be good enough for publication, then we are stuck with publishing them. I have not had the same caution and only one of the articles which has been published which were accepted during my years as editor (and all of those published thus far were accepted during those years), was not stimulating and brilliant. George still has one or two pieces, which I accepted which he hesitates to publish. I do not agree with this policy and think he should publish them.
We regard our area of interest as emphasizing first the western United States, which we interpret to mean the area west of the Mississippi plus Alaska and second the westward move, which includes also movement toward the west from the east coast. We have always aimed toward the more scholarly members of the Western History Association and think of that in terms of the 700 professors who belong to WHA and the graduate students who are assigned to read it. We publish approximately 3,600 copies of each issue which will include about 2,500 to go to members of the association, 300-400 to go to private subscribers, and a few hundred to the store for future demand. The Quarterly has established a firm reputation as one of America’s most important historical journals. I In 1971 the American Historical Association formed a committee consisting of editors of leading historical journals to study the possibility of cooperative activity among the journals and chose me as editor of WHQ to be one of the members of this committee. Other members were the editor of the American Historical Review, Journal of American History, William and Mary Quarterly, and Southern Historical Review. To give us this recognition demonstrates the status, which we attained and have maintained. This is not the kind of journal, which will build up rapidly. Our subscriptions have increased a little each year, and we expect this to grow, but not more than by a small percentage each year. The advertising has grown slightly. We began as I recall with two pages of advertising plus the back cover, and we now have six pages of advertising plus the back cover in most issues.
[LJAD, LJA Diary, Friday (possibly Thursday), 22 March 1973]
Recollections
In preparation for the 75th anniversary of Utah State University in 1963, President Daryl Chase and Dean of Arts and Sciences Carlton Culmsee asked me to write a history of the University. They suggested that I should apply to Dr. Wynne Theme, vice president for research, for funds to do the history. They agreed to give me half-time for a year. (This was at a time when teaching loads were around 13 hours, so that I would still have to teach at least two or three classes each quarter.) I accepted the appointment under promise of sufficient help and support.
It soon became clear that the University was not prepared to give me the necessary support. I worked on the project for a full year, then decided it was hopeless and did very little further with it. The following were indications of my frustrations.
1. It was obvious that I could not write the history without using the minutes of the Board of Trustees. I went to the secretary of the board, Dr. Mark Neuberger, and he said I could not use the minutes without the formal approval of the board. I thereupon requested that formal approval, and was subsequently informed that I could read the minutes but on]y in D. Neuberger’s office. I tried this out a few times, going in to sit on one of the sofas there and reading while students came in and out to talk about registration problems. (Dr. Neuberger was dean of registration or registrar.) I could not set up a typewriter to take notes; I could not make Xerox or photographic copy; and Dean Neuberger had no confidence that the board would allow me to take the minutes up to my office. So that stymied the project right there.
2. I talked with Dean Culmsee about doing a brief interpretive history which night be published in Utah Historical Quarterly , thus giving me the opportunity of thinking through some of the problems of interpretation and emphasis, and also giving me a publication which would show on my record so it would be easier to obtain support funds from the Research Council of the University. Dr. Culmsee informed me that he himself planned to write such an essay, and had already discussed it with the editor of the UHQ. This proved to be true, and his essay was published in the 75th year emphasizing the land-grant aspect of the University.
3. The Research Council was liberal, according to their policies, in giving me assistance. They paid half my salary–a pretty bit investment. And they gave me enough money to hire an assistant part-time; that is, something like $2,000. I employed Richard Merrell, a graduate student in political science, who did a study of financial aspects of the University, using what he did to write a master’s thesis–an arrangement I thoroughly approved of. We did a fine job, and it was one of the solid products of the project. I also employed, with Research Council funds, Julie Robinson to do some research on the histories of each of the colleges, the student organizations, etc. She also made good use of her time, and the task papers she prepared were contributed by me in 1972 to the Special Collections of the USU Library. I also acquired a large number of books and pamphlets and other materials germane to writing a university history, all of which were placed in Special Collections. With Research Council assistance I also employed Tom Alexander, who had been my research assistant and collaborator on several projects, to help with task papers, and he did prepare some which are on file in Special Collections.
4. However much we were able to accomplish with the appropriations, we were still dealing with the periphery of USU history. President Chase had no concept of the investment that a proper history would involve. Considering the very rock-bottom appropriations which the Research Council made to me–appropriations which to them were generous but rock-bottom in terms of what the writing of an institutional history involved–I then raised with President Chase the problem of publishing the book itself when it was completed. I asked him straight out if he had the money, if the Board had promised it, if the board would support it, if his budget would permit, it, and so on. The president was positive, optimistic, but not completely confident. He offered no definite
assurance, no commitment, that the book would be published after it was prepared. I talked with other administrators who said the president had great ideas but could not or would not back them up with financial resources. I knew this was true from other experiences. The president called in George Ellsworth one day and asked him to prepare a book on Utah history for the 7th grade classes in the public schools. George agreed to do it, but was given a little help for a year or two and was then told that he would have to pay the university back for any such help out of royalties on his book. The project dragged on and on, and it was not finally completed until 1971. The president also called me in one day to talk about the desirability of having an atlas of Utah. Asked me to do it. I talked it over with Wynne Thorne, received some support, employed George Jensen as an assistant to help, and Dr. Thorne appointed Lois Cox to help. We did finally prepare an atlas, turned it over to the president, after some delay he said he could not publish it; no money. He also commented he would be angry if someone had asked him to prepare such a work (maybe 500 pages) and then didn’t publish it. Anyway, it still sits on my shelf and presumably on the shelf of Lois Cox.
The result of the above experiences was my “sapping out” on the university history project. Nor did the president urge me on, nor did any administrative official. No one ever came to “talk me into it” or to ask me what could be done to get the project completed. My frank opinion then, an opinion I still hold, is that the administrators were relieved that they didn’t have to put any more money into the project, and especially relieved that they did not have to put up the money to publish it. Some individuals have since asked me why I didn’t complete it. And they have gone so far as to speculate that I gave it up because I felt that I could not write objectively about President Chase’s administration, or if I did, that he would not want to publish it. That was not the real problem–the real problem was time to do it, money, and getting
access to the real documents which would make it an honest and worthwhile history.
[LJA Diary, 17 May, 1975]
ARTICLES ON UTAH’S DEFENSE INDUSTRY AND RECLAMATION
Shortly after I returned from Italy in 1959 I applied for a continuing grant from the Utah State University Research Council to do a study of Utah’s defense industry. The research council supported me for several years in this project. Basically they gave me funds to hire research assistants and a part-time secretary. It is important to record these projects because they represent a new kind of research work for me–a new approach. Until that time all of my research had been strictly individual. I had no research assistants and no classes in which the student would be writing papers that deal with Utah, Mormon, or Western History, and for that matter, no special secretarial assistance. I simply had the use, when she had time, of the department secretary to type manuscripts. Because she was busy with other work, any important project I usually had to employ with my own funds somebody to do the final typing. This was true of my dissertation and of certain other papers which I sent off for publication in the 1950s. It was also true of the final manuscript of Great Basin Kingdom. Because of this it had taken me 11 years, one might say, to produce Great Basin Kingdom. I began the research for it in 1946 and did not have the final manuscript to send to Harvard until 1957.
It now occurred to me that the people in agricultural sciences at USU had an advantage over those of us in the social sciences and humanities because they were given funds to employ assistants, to cover travel expense, to take care of secretarial expenses, and so on. When I discussed this with Wynne Thorne, who had been appointed chairman of the University Research Council, he readily agreed to assist me and support me so long as I kept turning out the work. I therefore applied for a grant which averaged out, I think, to about $2,000 a year to cover expenses in writing articles about Utah and Western economic history. In addition, I received his support for a proposal to be employed each summer at the same salary that I would have received as a teacher but to be involved in research instead. The first project was a study of Utah’s defense industry. Utah had just become a leader in the production of missiles and missile motors. I employed a graduate student in English, Jon Perry, as a assistant for the summer to help with the research and writing an article on Utah’s spectacular missiles industry. This was later published under our names in Utah Historical Quarterly and appeared in 1962. In the years that followed I looked each year for a bright young senior or graduate student to help with research and writing a series of articles on each of the different defense plants or bases. In each case I assured the student that his name would appear as co-author of the paper produced. In each instance he visited the plant or base and for weeks at a time copied down materials and put them together into a rough narrative. I then wrote the article from this material and also had him find additional material that I felt was needed to make the article complete, accurate, and certain. We did a series of articles which were published in the Utah Historical Quarterly on each of the defense bases in Utah: Tooele Army Depot with Thomas Alexander (now professor of history at BYU and associate director of the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies); U.S. Naval Supply Depot in Clearfield with Archer L. Durham (a black student, now an officer in the Air Corp); Wendover Air Force Base with Thomas Alexander; Camp Floyd with Thomas Alexander; Dugway Proving Ground with Tom Alexander; Ogden Defense Depot with Tom Alexander; Forts Cameron, Thornburgh, and Duchesne with Tom Alexander; Hill Air Force Base with Tom Alexander and Eugene Erb (now an officer in the Air Corp); Camp Williams with Tom Alexander; and Fort Douglas with Tom Alexander. The above recitation demonstrates that Tom Alexander, who had been a student in my economic history class at USU, had begun work for me as a student assistant and I had liked this work so well that I had continued to bring–him back each summer–after he left for Berkeley to work on his doctorate.
The next step was a series of studies of each of the industries established by the Defense Plant Corporation in Utah during World War II. A series of articles was published in Utah Historical Quarterly and Pacific Historical Review. Finally I had a student, Tony Cluff, who did a master’s thesis which I with his approval adapted and published in the USU Monograph series under our names as collaborators. Also I employed an accounting major for a sunnier, Gary Wil1iams–and also Leo Memmott–to help me with a statistical work on preparing the monograph, The Changing Economic Structure of the Mountain West. That publication was well received by the profession and has been duplicated in the National Reprint series.
With success having been attained on the defense plant series, I thought it would be useful to do a series on each of the federal irrigation projects in Utah. The plan was to have a student assistant help in connection with each. We did begin the series and published a number of articles in Utah Historical Quarterly, but we did not complete it primarily because the new editor of UHQ did not want to publish all of these. We still have some in my files which were not used by Utah Historical Quarterly and which I think deserve publication eventually. The various articles published are listed in my personal bibliography.
About the sane time Gary Hansen (now a professor of economics at USU) did a fine master’s thesis on the history of Bingham Copper Mine which with his approval I rewrote and condensed and published under our names in the USU Monograph series. I also did a comparison of income changes in the western states with George Jenson, one of my senior students. His work being satisfactory, I brought him back for two or three years to help with additional studies of Utah and its defense industry, and he and I published under our names two USU monographs on Utah’s defense industry and its impact. George now has the Ph.D. and is professor of economics at California State University at Los Angeles. I thought of doing a series on the history of various important mines in Utah and managed to get only one completed–a history of the Horn silver mine with Wayne Hinton, who is now a professor of history at Southern Utah State College. It was about this time, 1966, that I was invited to write a history of the U & I Sugar Company. This was done primarily by myself with little or no research assistance and was completed in 1967.
It was also about that time, 1966, that I began seriously doing some things on Mormon history that had no relationship to economic history. My record in producing articles and monographs was such that the University Research Council was willing to assure me grants each year–essentially what I needed and wished–so it was easier for me to move out of economic history into other areas. I did some studies of Mormon literature, some intellectual history, and some social and institutional Mormon history and neither my department nor the University research council objected to this involvement. I contributed articles to Dialogue and to Church magazines and other publications. Other entrepreneurial efforts inc1uded:
1. Organizing and editing a special Mormon history issue of Dialogue published in 1966 under the title “Reappraisals in Mormon History.” This way I was able to get a number of those who had been doing work in Mormon history to contribute articles.
2. Working with Truman Madsen to begin an annual issue of BYU Studies dealing with some aspects of Mormon history. This began with a special Joseph Smith issue–1969–and has been continued each year since that date. I have played an important role in getting papers written and contributed for each of those special issues. Upon my appointment as Church Historian it was clear to me that we could utilize the community of Mormon historians to turn out a number of works which were needed. It ultimately became possible to employ a number of these persons in our office. Others have assisted us upon request, and we have used our fellowships as recompense for the efforts of same of them. I am thoroughly converted to the idea that an organized program of research and writing is both necessary and desirable–and practical–and I believe this can be done without tendentious writing. It is a long-time practice in the various fields of science and my experience is that it is completely workable in history as well.
[LJA Diary, 24 Mar., 1976]
Logan, 1946 to 1949
We drove through Sardine Canyon into Cache Valley on July 1, 1946. The valley was lovely, colorful, cherries showing red. Neither of us had been in Cache Valley before. We looked at each other and said, “This is our valley!” “What a beautiful valley!” We were very pleased. We telephoned Dr. Wanlass to say we had arrived, but he was out of town, so we telephoned Evan Murray. We went to a real estate dealer, “Red” Roy Davis, who showed us three homes—the only homes then for sale. Grace saw the possibilities in the home at 754 No. 5th East and after going back to see it the next day, July 2, we bought it. This was being sold by the Heningers, and we bought it for $6,300. We got a $5,000 GI loan and paid the rest down. Payments would amount to $50 per month for ten years. In 1956 we had it all paid off. By 1957 we had decided to build our own home–larger and more modern. So we looked around for lots for several months and then bought two lots from Lee and May Petersen on the corner of 4th East and 8th North. We contracted with George Rasmussen of Providence to build the home, under an architect’s plan worked out by Grace and Bea Andersen. That home was finished by January 1963 and we moved in then to the address 810 No. 4th E., Logan. That home cost in the neighborhood of $50,000, considering all the furniture, landscaping, contract price, adjustments, fence, etc.
The “old” home needed a good deal of work. Alden Arrington, my cousin, had asked about coming to live with us for four years, and we agreed provided he pay $50 per month for room and board. We also agreed that he could pay in advance for several months by working during the summer at the rate of (I think) $1.00 per hour–good for that time. He did all the electrical work, putting in new wires and plugs etc. He also did much of the painting. Grace and I took down the wallpaper–several layers of ugly brown–by attaching a hose to the hot water faucet and running hot water on it. We put a rug in. Had the lovely oak floor on one side sanded and shellacked, and throw rugs on it. We took out the old Monarch kitchen stave, and had a furnace installed ($1,300). Alden put in some kitchen cabinets. Mr. Fred Glauser put in a concrete support for the north side of the house, in the basement. Healso built us a garage. Price, as I recall, $275. We also put in a lawn, and harvested the garden the Heninger’s had put in. We bought furniture, fixed the upstairs rooms, and put Alden in one. We rented another to the LaVere Wareing’s. The next year we had my brother Wayne, and still later my brother Ralph, and for one or two quarters, Don.
The soil had chlorosis, so only certain things could grow there. Lilac did well, and we eventually got a long all-around border of lovely lilacs. Nice lawn in the back and complete lawn in front, Dr. Wanlass took a dim view of our location, partly because he didn’t want us to get a chlorosis soil, and partly because we were in the Swiss or German ward where there was much feeblemindedness and insanity. Not a nice place, he thought. Well, we liked it, and the people. Good hardworking people, faithful and friendly and helpful. We stayed all 26 years we were in Logan in the 10th ward and were never sorry of it.
Grace was not a member of the Church. We started out with the intention of going every other time to an LDS Ward and every other time to the Presbyterian or Community Church. Reverend Miner Bruner was o.k., but we had the impression that he and his congregation were more anti-Mormon than they were pro-Christian. We didn’t like the nasty digs they took at the Mormons. (Of course, they didn’t know I was a Mormon—Grace and I had just come from North Carolina.) Grace did not like it, nor did I. We were invited to a number of their functions, and there was drinking, which we didn’t do. We didn’t go to the 10th Ward at first, but to some stake conferences, and to the 5th-l8th ward, After about a month, Grace and I agreed to try the 10th ward. In one more month, Grace asked to be baptized in Twin Falls by my father who was bishop of the First Ward. She is baptized Sept. 15, 1946.
Meanwhile, we had gone to Twin Falls to see my brothers and sisters and father and mother and grandmother and grandfather Arrington. Then in August 1946 Grandpa died, and we went there for his funeral. (I gave one of the talks.)
Not long after our return, probably September or October, I was asked to be MIA president of the ward, and Grace a counselor in the Relief Society. We enjoyed our activities in the ward, had many parties, dances, and get-togethers. We joined a square dancing group and danced once a month I think—perhaps every week. We were active in the Faculty Association—went to their dances and outings. Grace was active in Faculty Women’s League and Newcomers. We invited couples quite often to dinner; Grace became an adviser to Sigma Kappa Sorority. We were invited to join Solero Study Club, and have remained a member ever since. Many fine friends. I became an adviser to the Cosmopolitan Club or International Students Club, and we often had “foreign” students at our house to dinner. Enjoyed them very much. One of these we had several times the first years was Ardeshir Zahedi, of Iran, who later married the Shah’s daughter, became ambassador to the U.S. Very charming person.
I enjoyed my classes–even one I knew nothing about,’Small Business, a class of 120 persons. Got along fine, even though I had only the B.A. degree (I never did take out a Master’s). We had no problem with the Logan climate; enjoyed it, the people, the college, which was a small family of faculty. We were in a kind of Shangri-la; it was precisely what I had hoped for and dreamed for. A rather simple, pleasant, informal life. We got along great.
Grace had some problems with her health. It appeared that she could not become pregnant. Finally, the doctor (Francis of Wellsville) removed a cyst from her ovary. Then he gave me vitamins. Then she conceived. But after some four months she had a miscarriage. Then more vitamins. Finally, in the spring of 1948, she conceived again. James, born in December, was the result.
My mother thought we should go to the temple before James was born. So
did some of our friends. After much thought, we obtained a recommend and went to the temple to be sealed Sept. 23, 1948. Sealed by Temple President ElRay L. Christiansen.
Our bishop had been Aubrey Parker; then Valdo Benson, to whom we have always been close. He was a great bishop, (He’s a brother of Ezra Taft.)
When we first went to Logan in 1946 there was one house on the “hill;” the little white frame house Valdo and Ruth Benson lived in. Then first one and another build homes until now there are hundreds of homes there.
In the meantime, I went to SLC in July 1946 to try to pin down a thesis topic. I talked to Dr. John. A. Widtsoe, who suggested I write on the economic contributions of the Mormons toward the development of the West. This sounded great, and he gave me advice on obtaining material gradually from the Church Historian’s Library. First, he said, go in and ask to see published books. Read those a few days. Then ask for theses and dissertations. Read those a few days. Then ask for the Journal History. And when you’re through with that, ask for specific documents you need. This way you will build up their confidence in you, and they will see you as a serious scholar. Like the proverbial camel, you will stick your head in the tent, gradually move father in, and ultimately carry the whole tent away with you.
I did precisely that. I worked in the Library Aug and Sept 1946, and every summer thereafter until 1952. I went thru the entire Journal History, page by page, taking necessary notes, and was never turned down on any document I wanted to see or use. (Of course, I didn’t know of the existence of many documents we now have.) I rented a room in SLC to stay during the week. At first at Jean Dunn on Roosevelt Avenue; then a Mrs. Stewart on the Avenues, and I don’t recall where else. Used to stay in some of the cheaper hotels in SLC. Hotel Miles is one I recall one summer. Anyway, I did more or less solid work Monday thru Friday, in the Church Archives, and never once had to show a note to a soul. This was the basis for my Ph.D. dissertation, and for the articles I published in the early 1950s, and for much of GREAT BASIN KINGDOM.
It was in the early 1950s, when graduate research at BYU built up, that Brother [A. Will] Lund put the clamps on research by insisting that each library user clear his notes with him before he could have them. Most scholars worked out various devices for clearing this hurdle: keeping carbon copies of notes; carrying out notes in inside pockets, in their stockings and soles of their shoes, etc. Brother Lund’s system was an obstacle, an irritant, but did not impede or prevent honest and comprehensive research. Many fine dissertations and theses written in the late l940s and early 1950s. I mention: George Ellsworth, Eugene Campbell, M. R. Merrill, Philip Taylor, Merle Wells; Gaylon Campbell, as well as my own. All of us became acquainted in the halls of the Archives, had many conversations, worked out interpretations, helped each other out to suggest things to see, and so on. We were a loyal community of scholars, were confident that we were doing a service for the Church, and believe subsequent events have proven this to be the case.
In the fall of 1949 Grace and I and “Jimmie” drove to N.C. where I would enroll for a year at UNC to finish course work on my Ph.D. and take the oral and written exams. Grace stayed with her mother in Raleigh and while “Miss Mary,” a colored woman, looked after Jimmie, Grace worked in the Beauty Shop. I got a room in the Graduate dorm and stayed there during the week, hitchhiking from Chapel Hill to Raleigh every Friday afternoon. I was a full-time student; I did not teach. I took a full load of classes. During the spring I took the Oral Exam—a three-hour affair. Passed, all right. I was much worried about statistics, and could not sleep the entire night before. But a mockingbird sang outside window much of the night; I enjoyed it, and felt it to be a good omen, which was the case. Grace got a terrible headache while waiting form me.
We drove back to Logan in the summer of 1950, through with our orals and writtens, and having written some chapter of a dissertation and tried them out on some members of my committee. A year of teaching and writing, and in January 1952 I took a six-months leave to finish the dissertation. Worked at home solidly January to March 15; finished the dissertation. Then drove with Grace and Jimmie and Carl Wayne to N.C. There we stayed with Nana. I got Chloe Hodge to type the dissertation, and she did a splendid and quick job. Some 450 pages. Took the final oral and passed o.k. Seems to me we also had a little visit to Washington, D.C. and New York. Then drove back to Logan.
My teaching in Logan was on a heavy schedule. I taught at least 16 hours per week each of these years, with three to four preparations. And yet I somehow found time to do writing. Must have done so at the expense of Grace who, however, was busy with the children, with Relief Society assignments, with her women’s clubs and social groups, and so on. Grace canned in the summer, kept up the garden to some extent. I did a great deal of outdoor work, and in the house also. We always had some boys boarding and rooming in our house, and Grace had the benefit of their help as well. Grace got along pretty well, but had migraines on the average of about once a month. She nursed the babies for several months, and was very tender and motherly with them. She was an excellent mother, as well as wife.
[Reminiscences of Logan, 1946-1949; LJA Diary, 6 Sep., 1976]
Productive Years in Logan (l952-l958)
Grace and I and Jimmie and Carl Wayne returned to Logan in 1952. Each or these trips
we took different routes to and from Utah and North Carolina, and thus covered nearly all the United States except New England. We took scenic routes, and took a couple of weeks each way to cross the USA. These trips were leisurely and pleasant. W traveled in “Mr. Bill,” the Pontiac Grace had driven during World War II, and which still continued to function. A good old car. Grace is a good traveler, and we had a good time. We’d stop at friends and relatives for a night and part of a day, thus saving on motel bills.
In the 1950s I was active in the Faculty Association, serving as social chairman one year, member of the Council another year, and as president in 1956-57. Grace was active in Faculty Women’s League, serving as chairman of Newcomers, and hostess chairman, and other assignments I do not recall. One year she was secretary. We both enjoyed Solero during all these years, and Grace joined Logan Literary Club, Les Amis, and Logan Study Club. Grace was a popular hostess and committee member. Continued with the Relief Society as a counselor during part of these years, and in other important Relief Society assignments during the remainder. We enjoyed the 10th Ward activities. I had been ordained a Seventy in April 30, 1947, and very soon thereafter was made a president of Seventies, and very quickly became Senior President. I held this position until 1959 when I was ordained a High Priest and sustained as a High Councilor for the new Utah State University Stake, with Reed Bul1en as stake president.
At the university I taught advanced economic theory, income and employment, labor economics, money and banking, American economic history, history of economic thought, advanced monetary theory seminar, and several sections of principles of economics. Our teaching loads continued in the 15-16 credit hour range. I continued to put in some time in the late afternoon and evenings, particularly during the long winters, on research and writing, and published several dozen articles and book reviews. These are given in the appendix. My article on the settlement of Brigham Young’s estate brought me recognition in western historical circles so I was runner-up for the prize for the best article of the year in Pacific Historical Review. In 1956 my article on the Mormon Cotton Mission did win the prize-$100–as best article of the year. I also did a piece on the Mormon economy for the Western Ecortomics Association which was reproduced in the Johnson Reprint Series as one of the best articles ever published in the Proceedings of the Western Economics Association. These were years when I had no research assistant, no secretary, and no research funds. Finally, in 1956, the University began to give me small grants, and over the years these became more and more generous. I taught summer school at BYU in 1956 and in 1958.
During the early 1950s I worked to transform my dissertation into a good book, and eventually took a leave without pay in 1956-57 to complete a volume, which is when I wrote GREAT BASIN KINGDOM. I have told the story of that separately, so do so here.
At home we got along well and enjoyed our children. Susan came along in 1954, and she was our last. I have left a separate reminiscence on the children. I gave a number of talks to downtown groups and church groups, some of which are in the diary.
Our stay in Pasadena deserves much treatment in this chapter, and I think I have other mentions of that to be used. I think perhaps copies of some of my letters to others, George Ellsworth, Evan Murray and others, will tell much of what happened. I can get copies of these letters, I think. I left the car with Grace, took the bus at 7 each morning, arrived at HEH at 8, worked till 5, took bus home, arrived at 6 just as Disney program was just signing off. We watched another hour or two of programs with the children, then-to bed. No work at home. Just 8 full hours at HEH. Every weekend we would go somewhere—to Disneyland, Knott’s Berry Farm, San Diego Zoo, Griffith Park, to the beach, to a movie, football game, and other places of interest. We enjoyed these.
We were fairly faithful in going to Sunday School in the Pasadena Ward, but
often missed the Sacrament meetings, which were inconvenient for the children. Neither Grace nor I had an assignment with the ward, although we did speak once or twice in Sacrament meeting, did assist with Sunday School, etc. I do not recall going Home Teaching and don’t know why. Nor do I recall home teachers coming to our house and don’t know why. Maybe we didn’t send our membership down and simply left it in Logan.
I finished GBK about August 1957 and we returned to Logan. We had rented our home for the year.
After one more year in Logan, I took a leave to accept a Fulbright Professorship in Italy. That should be the subject of a separate chapter. And we have a diary and various letters and notes that should provide sufficient for that chapter.
[LJA Diary, 8 Sep., 1976]
I have always strongly believed that a scholar owed it to himself, his research interests, and his college, to be active in professional societies bearing upon his teaching and research interests. I first attended the Pacific Coast Branch in 1952, at my own expense. (One couldn’t expect the USU Economics Dept to pay for my travel to a history convention.) I found it helpful to go; one makes good connections with people; one learns something about universities and research centers; one becomes acquainted with cities and places. In 1956 my article in their quarterly, The Pacific Historical Review, won the prize as best article of the year. The article was on “The Mormon Cotton Mission.” In 1959 my book, GREAT BASIN KINGDOM, won the prize as best first book by a Western historian. And in 1981, in their meeting in Eugene, Oregon, I was elected president. I think I am the only person who ever won the prize for best article and best book and then became president. I try to attend their conventions every year, but don’t always make it. In 1964, at the meeting in Los Angeles, I was invited to give the luncheon address, which I did on, “Cassandra in Pursuit of Clio; or, why Economists turn into Historians.” It was a good talk but was never published.
[LJA to Children, 17 Aug., 1989]
THIS LETTER NOT SENT
Dear Children:
Yesterday Harriet and I went to the funeral of George Ellsworth in Logan. We rode with the Bittons–Davis driving up and JoAnn driving back. Good ride and good conversation. We sat next to Susan and Dean, and I passed on to them the present we had for Susan and the one for Emily.
George Ellsworth was my great and good friend in Logan for several years, particularly 1952 to 1956. We met George and Maria at the Faculty Christmas Party held at the LDS Institute in December. I was excited to find someone who had written a dissertation on early Mormon history and was anxious to learn more. I had, of course, already spent the summers of 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951 at the Church Historian’s Office and thus knew much Mormon history. We got together and, with Gene Campbell, new at the LDS Institute, also with a Ph. D. on Mormon history, and Wendell Rich at the Institute, also with a Ph. D. on Mormon philosophy, we formed a little group that met monthly at each other’s homes to read papers and talk about our research. This went on for months, even years.
I read George’s dissertation, took two seminars from him on the methods and literature of history, and asked him many questions about writing and publishing. I wrote him regularly when we went to Huntington Library in 1956-57. Having finished the first draft of Great Basin Kingdom, I sent it to him to read. He made extensive comments, many of which I incorporated.
After I returned in the fall of 1957 he became very cool to me. He accused me of using material in papers my students wrote in my writing, without acknowledgement. I profited from research my students had done. There was truth to that charge, but I acknowledged student help in any articles I published. Even used their names as co-authors in many instances. There are many articles that bear my name with a student.
When we went to Italy on the Fulbright, the Ellsworths took care of our little dog, tho it was loose and run over while we were gone, but they continued to treat us coolly. Maria made some fantastic charges to Grace about my failing to recognize George satisfactorily in Great Basin Kingdom. When it was Grace’s turn to be nominated president of Faculty Women, Maria intervened and prevented it. This hurt Grace who thought she was entitled. The Ellsworths were not happy with any of the honors that came to me. They thought I was not deserving. George seemed respectful enough, but not Maria.
It was strange. At a time when I was recognized as a historian and wanted to cross-list my economics courses that dealt with history, George opposed it. I was not a historian, had no degree in history, and the History Dept. would not dignify my teaching by listing it in their History offering. People often introduced me as a former professor of history at US U. This infuriated George who would never have allowed me to be listed as one of their historians.
The officers of Western History Association a few years ago wanted George to publish an article on the founding of Western Historical Quarterly. He did so, and he wrote a 30 or 40 page summary of the history. Not a word on my having been the original editor. My name not even mentioned as having been an agent for its publication by USU.
After his retirement George began to publish books he had worked on. He sent me a couple of these, duly inscribed. All along, of course, I had sent him copies of some of my books. I did have a strong feeling for his effective teaching me of the methods and literature of history, and always acknowledged him. I had him appointed chairman of the first Utah Humanities Council. I had him appointed author of one of our sesquicentennial books, but he did not one thing to get it ready for publication. I had him appointed president of Mormon History Association, and recipient of the Grace Arrington History Award. I insisted on treating him nicely.
And now he dies and they have his funeral. I am truly sad for the loss of an outstanding historian. And on using other people’s work, George used much of my economic research in his textbook, Utah’s Heritage, and not one word of acknowledgment.
Well, I’ve got this off my chest. I’m glad to have nice things to say about him in my Memoirs, and have even included a photo of him as my mentor in history. In his life in heaven he will be appreciative.
[LJA to Children, 28 Dec., 1997]
Questions from Becky Cornwall to LJA about Utah State University chapter of his biography.
4. How would you characterize USU as a school and its economics dept. as aschool when you arrived? You have already characterized Logan and your ward.
USAC at the time was a reasonably good A & M college. It had a forestryschool with a good national reputation, and an agricultural college with a good national reputation in nearly all branches. Also good reputationin home economics. Most of the other departments were supportive of theseschools plus the engineering school which was particularly outstanding inagric. engineering, irrigation engineering, and reasonably good in civiland mechanical engineering. The econ. Dept. included Dr. William Wanlass,head of the dept. and dean of the college of commerce and Evan Murray and myself. In the next year or two we expanded the department by a person or two.I taught a wide variety of courses which included business statistics,small business, principles of economics, economic problems, economic theory,and monetary theory. My course load usually consisted of 15 to 16 hours per quarter. Usually four preparations. Usually no repeat during any yearbut principles of economics. As the years went on I developed courses ineconomics of income and employment or macroeconomics, government and business,American economic history, history of economic thought, and development economics.I enjoyed teaching and enjoyed preparation for my classes. I think I was agood teacher, and this is partly attributable, if true, to my experience indebating and public speaking. I could communicate.
[LJA Diary, 2 Oct., 1976]
After the return from the Fulbright to Italy I had enjoyable years in
Logan. By this time all of the family were in school, Grace was in reasonably
good health, and I was well-established as a productive scholar. I hadestablished myself’ in a fruitful field of study-western economic and businesshistory, with particular emphasis on the activity of the Latter-day Saints.Grace was active in Faculty Women’s League; in Les Amis, a women’s study andsocial group, in Logan Study Club; and in a literary group. She was acceptedinto these study groups despite the fact that she was not a college graduate,and most of the members were. Grace and I belonged to Solero, a group wehad joined in 1946; to a Sunday night group of University people; and toa Saturday night group also composed of University people. We loved thecouples in each of these groups and truly enjoyed our associations with them.In 1964 President Heed Sullen invited me to join Rotary, and this was arrangedunder the classification “Professor of Economics.” I enjoyed that association.Within three years I was elected a member of their council and enjoyed it verymuch.
We continued to live in Logan Tenth Ward. In 1957, just prior to our
Fulbright, we had purchased from Lee Petersen two lots on the corner of 6th East and 8th north,on which to build our own homes and this was completed in January 1963. GeorgeRasmussen of Providence was contractor. The house cost originally about $35,000,after which we had a full basement completed, etc., for a total investment ofabout $50,000. When we left Logan in 1972 we sold it- for about what we hadput into it. We enjoyed having more room-more room for the children, for mybooks, for Grace to have nice things. It was regarded as one of the nice andmodem homes in ‘Logan. We planted lots of trees, a large lawn. We did nothave a very large equity in the house–most of it was under mortgage, but, wecould handle the monthly payments, which we expected to have paid by the time I reached 65. Beautiful woodwork, light and airy, and wall-to-wall carpeting.
The home was still in the 10th ward.Upon my return from the Fulbright, I was asked to become a member of thisHigh Council of the Utah State University Stake, with Reed Bullen as president.I discovered that I had been slated for this position when the stake wasorganized in the spring of 1958, but my imminent Fulbright had made thatimpossible so they saved a slot for me until I returned. It was the kindof job in the Church that I was sure I would enjoy, and this proved to betrue. My associations and assignments were all pleasant. I enjoyed preparingtalks which involved a kind of intellectualization of the Gospel. I think thetalks stand up as “pretty good” for university students. Copies of then arein my diary, Not all of them, but all of them that I wrote out. After fiveyears on the high council I was asked to be a member of the stake presidencyand enjoyed that until my year’s leave to go to UCLA, at which time they
released me with the understanding that they would leave open a high councilposition when I returned. This was true, and I held the high council positionuntil news of my appointment in Salt Lake City. The presidency of USU Stakeduring my period of service consisted of Reed Bullen, stake president; Wendell0. Rich, 1st counselor; myself second counselor; Gordon W. Haws, clerk. Bullenwas state senator from Cache County during all these years and owned and operatedRadio Station KVNU. He also owned some land properties which he managed. Richwas director of the LDS Institute of Religion in Logan during all these years.He had a Ph. D. in educational philosophy from USU. Gordon Haws was the chiefloan officer of Logan Savings & Loan in Logan. His wife Ruby was from NorthCarolina, just as was Grace.
[Reminiscences, Years of 1959-1971; LJA Diary, 10 Oct., 1976]
As for my own professional activities. During these years I had grantsfrom the University Research Council each year which enabled me to employa student assistant part-tine and a student typist part-time. Also consideration for a lower teaching load. I ended up teaching history of economicthought, economic history of the US, economics of development,and government and business. I was active in Faculty Association, havingbeen president earlier, and was now chairman of the professional relationshipscommittee. I let everybody know I was not interested in administration andso no such posts were offered me at any time. I was invited to join the BYUfaculty, also the U of U, but I expressed no interest. I was happy at USU.After GREAT BASIN KINGDOM and the economic history of the US that I wrote in Italy, I worked on some monographs published by USU and some important articles. See my bibliography. As my publications continued I was given some grantsto assist further research. In addition to larger research grants from USUResearch Council, I received one from the Coordinator of Social and EconomicPlanning of Utah to do studies of the defense industry of Utah, from theUtah-Idaho Sugar Company (now U and I Sugar Company) to write a companyhistory for their 75th anniversary, from the American Philosophical Societyto study the role of government in the development of Utah, from the American Council of Learned Societies to continue the same, and, more recently, grantsto write a history of First Security Corporation, and biographies of CharlesC. Rich, David Eccles, and Edwin D. Woolley. During these years I was anofficer of the Pacific Coast branch of the American Historical Association,a fellow of the Utah State Historical Society, president of the MormonHistory Association, president of the Western History Association, and president of the Agricultural History Society, officer of the Utah Academy ofSciences, Arts, and Letters.
I was invited to give lectures at a few universities on aspects ofMormon and/or Western history. All of the above is pretty well detailedin some special reminiscences which you will find in my diary index.
I suppose I should make a special reminiscence on our experience inPacific Palisades, 1966-67. That will require a special section of achapter, I suppose. I think I have left a dictation on the origin of theMormon History Association and the service with Dialogue If you don’t findit, I think I can put my hands on it. Also the founding of Western HistoricalQuarterly.
[Reminiscences, Years of 1959-1971; LJA Diary, 10 Oct., 1976]
I had received a half-year sabbatical from USU to work on a book tentatively entitled THE FEDERAL KINGDOM: THE ROLE OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IN THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE MOUNTAIN WEST. To make this possible financially, I had alsoreceived a grant from the American Council of Learned Societies which would makeup the other half-year salary, so that I would have a full year to write thebook. I planned to retain home base in Logan, but make visits ofa few weeks at a time in each of the eight mountain states: Montana, Idaho,Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, and Utah. There I would doresearch on their economic history, and the role of the federal government.I planned to use as the basis for this the monograph I had done in 1963 on theeconomic changes in the MountainStates, and also the depression agencies of theNew Deal. (I did get a few articles out of this intended study, and still havea file drawer full of material that I could turn to if I ever get fired frommy present position.)
In late spring, just as I was about to start on this leave, I received atelephone call from John Caughey at UCLA who said that he was taking a year’sleave, and they wanted me to come for the year as a visiting professor of history. They would pay me my USU salary plus 10 percent, or something likethat. Would I come? I wrote to the American Council of Learned Societies andthey gave their approval to an arrangement whereby I would get full-pay from them for the summer before and after UCLA, and I could keep the UCLA fullsalary. Thus I could take leave without pay from USU and save my sabbaticalfor another time, possibly 6 months later. So I agreed. The family had hada good experience during our year at Pasadena and the Huntington Library, andthought. this would be a nice experience together. UCLA had the best status inWestern History of any university. They published the PACIFIC HISTORICAL REVIEW, John Caughey was probably the most productive and prestigious professor of western history in the nation. It would be a great honor to serve as hissubstitute; that he should call me was real recognition.
At any rate, that invitation changed my plans. I used the summer to finish
up the book for U and I Sugar Company, and it was published in the fall of 1966
as BEET SUGAR IN THE WEST. I did all of the research and writing myself undera grant from U and I to USU. I had p1enty of money to travel to factories,and to spend several weeks in Salt Lake City going thru company minutes. Alsoexpert secretarial help. After accumulating all the research notes, I had towrite rapidly to get it to the publisher so it could be published during the76th year (1966), and I took two weeks on some of the early chapters,and finished the last chapter in one week. But I had to work night and dayto do this. Anyway, I’m rather proud of the result, and it has had goodreviews in the journals. I have written a separate reminiscence on how it
was done.
My assignment at UCLA was to teach two classes: a class in the AmericanWest, and a class for graduate students in the American West, The department was good enough to assign a graduate assistant to me, and he was Jon Haupt,who had finished a master’s in literature and was working towards a Ph. D.in history. He was a brilliant student, read voraciously, had done muchwriting for himself (a novel) still unpublished, married, a chain smoker,no knowledge of the Mormons, of German ancestry. Very helpful to me; Ihad him in a couple of classes and he wrote brilliant papers. After I lefthe decided to try to earn some money and went into business and still there.He never did finish the degree and doesn’t expect to. Anyway, he and I havecollaborated on some things that we talked about while we were together.He introduced me to Western literature. He said: “How can you be a goodprofessor of Western history without knowing Western literature?” I agreed,and he gave me a good introduction to the subject. After my return to USU,I invited him to spend a few weeks doing some research for me under my USUgrant and he did so, but only three weeks, I think, then he gave up to gointo business. We have not been in touch since except some professionalconventions we both have attended. One of our articles, “Intolerable Zion,”won a Mormon History Assn prize for best article of the year.
I enjoyed my classes at UCLA. The Western history class for undergraduatesand graduates had about 300 students, and I gave lectures. Upon my completionof the lectures at the end of the quarter, the class rose and applauded. This had happened to me only one other time. In the spring of 1958at USU I had a class in beginning economics which, on the last day of class,arose and applauded. A rare experience for a teacher–at least for me.During my second quarter at UCLA I taught an honors colloquium of about 50seniors, plus the graduate seminar in western history. During my third quarterI taught the graduate seminar and for the life of me can’t think of what else.Perhaps only the graduate seminar. Or perhaps a class in California history.Or perhaps two graduate seminars. I just don’t recall.
At the end of classes, I remained in California until about August, asI recall, and then returned to Logan. In the meantime, I had signed acontract to do a one-volume history of the Mormons with Alfred A. Knopf andhad First Presidency approval to use everything in the Church Archives. Thisset a kind of precedent. And I was thinking seriously on a volume with JonHaupt on the image of Mormonism in American literature. By this time, I hadnot completely given up THE FEDERAL KINGDOM. I did work on it, and eventuallypublished two or three articles in the journals. But I was now pretty heavilyinto Mormon history.
Our family believe the three leaves we had–to go to Huntington libraryfor a year, to go to Italy for a year, and to go to UCLA for a year-was ahealthy experience for us all. We got outside the Mountain area, found wecould adjust with no difficulty to a new ward and situation, to a differentculture, even a different language, to a completely different setting. Theresult is that all three of our children are completely confident of fittinginto any area or people wherever their work might take them. It has alsoprevented then from developing a Cache Valley accept, and typical CacheValley values and attitudes. They are able to see cultures more in perspective.
[Reminiscence, My year to teach at UCLA, 1966-1967; LJA Diary, 10 Oct., 1976]
FACULTY ASSOCIATION
The Faculty Association was made up of all faculty members and the functionswere two-fold: (a) professional, and (b) social. Professionally we attemptedto get increases in salaries–they were low; lower the course load of each teacher–and they averaged 15 to 16 hours per quarter, which meant an average of four tofive courses per quarter per person; encouragement and assistance in publishingand getting an expanding budget for expenses in attending national conventions.We also got an appropriation to furnish every faculty member who needed one aWebster’s Unabridged Dictionary, with stand. I am proud to say I was one of thefirst to have one of these besides the administrators.
In terms of social activities, we usually held an opening social in Octoberwhere we danced–in those days people did ballroom dancing!–and where we servedrefreshments. During the intermission there were usually a few games to helpnewcomers get acquainted with the old timers and vice-versa. In this way the old timers got a chance to dance with each of the wives and/or husbands of thenewcomers and there was a “Choose the Newcomer Queen” contest and, that sort ofthing. These dances were usually held in the LDS Institute ballroom–there wasno Student Union Building in those days. There was usually another dance atChristmastime and then another dance around March, and then a canyon barbequeand party and program in June. All of these affairs were attended by almost100 percent of the faculty. Nearly everybody knew everybody else and the facultywas such a size that the whole faculty was a kind of extended family. I was chosenchairman of the social committee the second year I was there and served again inthat capacity in 1953. I was elected President for the year 1955-56. My functionswere to supervise both the professional activities and social activities, to appointcommittees, and so on. I think we put out a new constitution during my administration. One of the things we did during that year was to inaugurate AnnualFaculty Honor Lectures–one in the Natural Sciences and one in the Humanities.The Faculty Association published both of these each year. Actually, they hadpublished and distributed these for years; the Faculty Association hadbeen doing one lecture per year since 1948 and I managed to get them to expandthem to two on the grounds that the faculty was larger and that there was a tendencyto choose only natural scientists. By creating one in the Humanities wemanaged to get people in literature, languages, social sciences, and so on.I was chosen to give the Honor Lecture in the Humanities in 1963. I am not sure whether it happened under my presidencyor the year before, but about this time we created the Committee on ProfessionalRelationships and Faculty Welfare, which took over the professional side of our activities.The Faculty Association then became almost entirely a ceremonial and social organization. I served as chairman of the Committee on Professional Relationships & Family Welfare in the early 1960’s.
The Faculty Women’s League worked closely with the Faculty Association in putting on our dances and programs. Grace was active in that just as I had been in the Faculty Association.
As time went on, we got the university interested in establishing a FacultySenate and that took over some of the activities of the main body of the faculty–that having grown too large. When I first went to USU (USAC) there were probablynot 200 faculty members, and we used to have a monthly meeting presided overby the President. Now they probably have at least a thousand members of the facultyand the important business is done by the Senate.
GRANTS
I received a grant from the Committee on Research and Economic History- -agrant of $2,000–to finish up my dissertation. This is one reason I had anobligation to submit it for publication to the Committee on Research in EconomicHistory which publishes through Harvard Press. The grant permitted me to take offhalf a year without pay in 1952 to finish the dissertation. In 1956 the Universityestablished a University Research Council primarily to make some grants in thefield of Sciences. But the director, D. Wynne Thorne, was very impressed with mypublishing record to that date and I managed to induce him to let me have a grant.I think maybe $300 the first year, maybe $1,000 the second, maybe $2,000 for severalyears, and then a grant of $2,500 a year plus paying for some of my time which wouldenable me to put half-time on research and half-time on teaching. These grantswere to enable me to have secretarial help, that is, a part-time girl to dosecretarial work for me. Later on, as the grants were increased, I was able toemploy some senior students part-time and the grants covered such things asxeroxing, supplies, occasional travel, and so on. I was able to get additionalgrants for specific projects. My vita sheet (copy attached) gives on page 2 theimportant grants. The Committee on Research and Economic History, of course, wasto do the dissertation. The fellowship to Huntington Library was to writeGreat Basin Kingdom. The grant from the Coordinator of Social and Economic Planning, State of Utah, was to do a study of the Defense Industry of Utah, and I publishedtwo such studies. I would guess the grant amounted to $10,000 but maybe more.The Utah-Idaho Sugar Company grant was to write Beet Sugar in the West and I thinkit was for $12,000. The American Philosophical Society was to do a study of theNew Deal in the West. It was for $700 and paid my expenses to work for a few weeks in the National Archives. I did publish several articles as a result. The American Council of Learned Societies was to do a study of the role of the Federal Government in the West and it paid my salary forhalf a year. I have published a few articles on the topic but never did producea book as I intended. I have now turned my notes on that over to Tom Alexanderand he is considering himself whether to do a book on the subject. The grant onthe First Security Corporation was to do a history of the First Security Corporation,and I think it amounted to $25,000. But that included the cot of publishing thebook which we estimated at $8,000, so I think that I used only $17,000. TheRoland Rich Woolley Foundation gave me a grant of I think $3,600 to do theCharles Rich biography, and the Nora Eccles Treadwell Foundation grant amountedto about $16,000 to write and publish the biography of David Eccles. I think Iused only about $8,000 of that. All of these grants were not to me personally butto Utah State University, The accounts were handled by them and all I could dowas draw on the fund to pay salaries of student assistants, of secretaries, payaccounts in the bookstore for supplies, and trips and so on. None of these involvedany personal payment to me. In some instances the university charged the accountfor part of my salary because of time spent, but none of these grants representedany increase in income to me personally. Some of these grants have continued sincemy job here but that story ought to be told in the chapter that covers the years1972 to the present.
I did receive a special grant from the University Research Council to do someadditional work on defense industries in Utah, and this grant made it possible forme to employ Tom Alexander and other students and senior students to serve asresearch assistants in doing a series of articles on federal installations for theUtah Historical Quarterly. I also got a grant from the Agricultural ExperimentStation in Logan to pay for research assistants in doing studies of some of thefederal reclamation projects in Utah. Most of these were published. If you willgo over my publication you will see listed persons who assisted me on these projects.Wherever I had a research assistant I tried to give him professional credit forhis work by listing him as co-author, and you will see a considerable number ofmy articles have a student or former student or colleague as co-author. I did moreof these with Tom Alexander than with any other person, and he and I worked welltogether; and you will note that I asked him to be my associate director of theRedd Center when that was organized it BYU.
[LJA Diary, 15 Dec., 1976]