Paul Schuster Taylor Papers, 1660-1997, bulk (bulk 1895-1984)

Summary

Creators:

Taylor, Paul Schuster, 1895-

Abstract:

Primarily consists of Paul Taylor's professional and academic research and writings, spanning his career from the 1920s to his death in 1984, but includes a small amount of personal papers. The bulk of the collection concerns Taylor's research in the field of agriculture, and includes segments on Mexicans in the U.S., migrant workers, the farm worker strikes of the 1930s and 1960s, water and land policies in California's Central Valley, and the 160 acre irrigation limitation. With the exception of correspondence, all series contain research materials, which include any material gathered; drafts of books, articles, and reports; any correspondence concerning projects, and field notes. Taylor's personal papers include genealogical material for the Schuster and Taylor families and family correspondence, as well as a collection of materials dedicated to the work of Dorothea Lange after her death in 1965. Also includes a group of materials which reflect Paul Taylor's contribution to California Democratic politics from 1932 to 1982, particularly his preparation of analyses on agricultural and water policy issues.

Extent:

128.7 linear feet 22 boxes, 91 cartons, 2 oversize boxes, 8 oversize folders, and 2 oversize volumes

Language:

English and English

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Paul Schuster Taylor papers, BANC MSS 84/38 c, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

Background

Scope and content:

The Paul Schuster Taylor Papers primarily consist of Taylor's professional and academic research and writings, spanning his career from the 1920s to his death in 1984, but include a small amount of personal papers. The bulk of the collection concerns Taylor's research in the field of agriculture, and includes segments on Mexicans in the United States, migrant workers, the farm worker strikes of the 1930s and 1960s, water and land policies in California's Central Valley, and the 160 acre irrigation limitation.

The collection has been divided into eight series, and except for Correspondence and Personal Papers, all contain research materials. Writings, and Professional Research Projects and Consultant Work contain the bulk of his professional research files, and include any material gathered; drafts of books, articles, and reports; any correspondence regarding the project; and his field notes. Taylor relied heavily on personal observation and interviews in conducting his research and for his major projects there are usually field notes consisting of interviews and notes taken on the road by either himself or his researchers. Often, as well, there are photographs taken by himself, Dorothea Lange, or others; these have been transferred to the Bancroft's Pictorial Collections and have been described separately from his papers.

In 1943, Taylor began a crusade to protect the small farmer's right to federally subsidized water. He regularly testified before senate committees and legislative bodies that land ownership patterns directly affect the quality of rural life. His belief that small farms contribute to a healthy society while large farms create a mobile, poverty stricken populace with no roots was persuasive enough to have influenced court decisions which threatened many of the giant farms in California's Central Valley and led to the Federal Reclamation Reform Act of 1982. This aspect of his career is represented in his consulting work for the Office of the Secretary of the Interior and the Bureau of Reclamation (1943-1952).

While most of Taylor's early work was done either in the United States or Mexico, in later years he often worked in Asia or South America, serving as a consultant for groups such as the United States Agency for International Development (AID), and the United Nations. A great deal of this work involved community development and land reform in developing countries.

Taylor's personal papers include genealogical material for the Schuster and Taylor families, family correspondence, and a series of monographs about the family written by Taylor's mother, Rose Schuster Taylor, and his uncle, O.J. Schuster. Also included with his personal papers is a collection of materials dedicated to the work of Dorothea Lange after her death in 1965. Paul Taylor assumed responsibility for the preservation of her work and established the Dorothea Lange Fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley.

To further compliment the collection of personal papers, there is a group of materials which reflect Paul Taylor's contribution to California Democratic party politics over the fifty year period from 1932 to 1982. One particular effort involved California's U.S. Senatorial Race of 1950, for which Taylor prepared political analyses on agricultural and water policy issues for Helen Gahagan Douglas and other candidates.

Biographical / historical:

Paul Schuster Taylor (1895-1984), an Iowa-born economist, graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1917. He served as a Marine captain with the Second Division, American Expeditionary Forces in France from 1917 to 1919. At the end of his military service, he resumed his studies at the University of California, Berkeley, where he received a Masters degree in 1920, and a Ph.D. in 1922. Joining the Department of Economics immediately after graduation, Taylor remained at the University of California, Berkeley throughout his career.

As one of the first scholars to study the problems of migrant farm workers, Taylor was asked by the California Emergency Relief Administration to report on the plight of the Dust Bowl migrants who flocked into California during the Great Depression. He took a leave from the University to complete the study and persuaded Dorothea Lange, a San Francisco photographer, to join his study team. His report, illustrated by Lange's moving photographs, persuaded California relief officials to build housing for migrants and inspired the Franklin Roosevelt administration to provide food, housing, and medical care for Dust Bowl refugees. Lange and Taylor married in 1935. In 1939, they again collaborated for the book, An American Exodus, which is generally considered the most moving depiction of the effects of the Depression on rural America.

In 1943, Taylor began a persistent crusade to protect small farmers' rights to federally subsidized water. He argued that land ownership patterns directly affect the quality of rural life. Small farms create schools, churches, community organizations and other adjuncts of a healthy society, while large farms create poverty-stricken farm workers. His arguments led to numerous court decisions which threatened many of the giant farms in California's Central Valley. The rulings generated a successful lobbying effort that led to the Federal Reclamation Reform Act of 1982.

Paul Taylor's testimony, frequently given before congressional committees, and his many contacts with people in related fields of endeavor made him a well-known and highly respected scholar. Through varied interests, Taylor became disturbed by the efforts of large land and water owners in California, as well as in other western states, to prevent the enforcement of the 160-acre excess land limitation in the Federal reclamation laws. In 1949, his "Central Valley Project: Water and Land" was published in The Western Political Quarterly; in it Taylor reviewed the history of irrigation in California and the West, and described efforts made in Congress to break down reclamation legislation. He followed this article with a second piece in the same journal in 1959, in which he showed the various ways administrators with the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Reclamation were permitting the breakdown of enforcement of the excess lands provision. As an example of how well Paul Taylor succeeded in setting forth his analysis, the United States Supreme Court cited his "Excess Land Law: Execution of a Public Policy" in its landmark 8-0 decision upholding the validity of the 160-acre limitation law (Ivanhoe vs. McCracken, 1958).

During most of the 1960s, Taylor conducted studies of rural community development for the United Nations, Stanford Research Institute, and the International Cooperation Administration. He acted as a consultant in numerous foreign countries, including India, Pakistan, and the Philippines, each time recommending solutions to effect change in meeting the land problems of each country.

During the last twenty years of his life, Dr. Taylor wrote many articles on reclamation law for law school journals. Seventeen were reprinted in 1979 by The New York Times Arno Press. In his introduction to the volume, Paul W. Gates, a leading historian of land policy, wrote: "Paul Taylor set an example for scholars to have the courage of their convictions, to delve deeply into major social and economic questions, to present their facts no matter how unpopular this may make them with selfserving politicians who play the game of greedy economic interests attempting to monopolize natural resources made valuable at public expense."

The Conservation Service Award, highest honor of the U.S. Department of the Interior, was presented to Paul Schuster Taylor on May 30, 1980. Secretary of the Interior, Cecil D. Andrus presented the award and the featured speakers included Cesar Chavez, president of the United Farm Workers of America. During the presentation, Secretary Andrus stated, "Eight presidents and many Secretaries of the Interior have heard from Professor Taylor. Some have not gotten the message, despite the fact that it has always been loud and clear."

Paul Taylor's life work has affected the largest institutions and the common working people. The lives of family farmers and farm laborers in this and other nations are still being influenced by his understanding of the delicate relationships between the land and the lives of the people who work it.

Date	Event
1895	Born June 9th in Sioux City, Iowa
1917	B.A., University of Wisconsin
1917-1919	U.S. Marine Corps, American Expeditionary Forces, France
1920	M.A., University of California, Berkeley
1922	Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley
1922-1962	Instructor, and later professor, Department of Economics, University of California, Berkeley
1927-1929	Chief Investigator, research project, Social Science Research Council, Mexican Labor in the United States
1930-1931	Consultant to National Commission on law observance and enforcement, (Wickersham Committee) studying crime and the foreign-born
1931-1932	Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship for study in Jalisco, Mexico
1933	Researcher on self-help cooperatives among unemployed, Social Science Research Council and a Rockefeller Foundation grant to the University of California, Berkeley Consultant, Governor's Fact Finding Committee on the Cotton Strike
1935	Field Director, Division of Rural Rehabilitation California State Emergency Relief Administration (CERA)
1935-1943	President, California Rural Rehabilitation Corporation
1935-1936	Regional Labor Adviser, U.S. Resettlement Administration
1935-1942	Member, State Advisory Council, California Department of Employment
1936-1940	Contributing Editor, Rural Sociology
1936-1941	Senior Economist, Social Security Board
1939	Member, Governor's Commission on Reemployment (California) Consultant, United States Senate, Civil Liberties Committee
1940-1944	Member, California State Board of Agriculture
1943-1945	Vice-Chairman, Committee on American Principles and Fair Play
1943-1952	Consulting economist, Office of Secretary of the Interior on Central Valley project studies
1946-1952	Consultant, Bureau of Reclamation on Central Valley problems of water distribution and land settlement
1949	Editorial Board Member, American Quarterly
1950-1951	Consultant, President's Migratory Labor Committee
1952	Consultant, Export-Import Bank on Artibonite Valley project, Haiti
1952-1956	Chairman, Department of Economics, University of California, Berkeley
1955-1968	Consultant, International Cooperation Administration (ICA), later called the Agency for International Development (AID), in Asia, and joint projects with AID and the United Nations, the Ford Foundation, the University of California, and Stanford; also, field studies on Community Development in India, Pakistan and the Philippines, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Cuba, Ecuador, Venezuela, Jamaica, Colombia, Mexico, Egypt, Iran and Panama.
1956-1962	Chairman, Institute of International Studies, University of California, Berkeley
1962	Professor Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley
1962-63	Visiting Professor, Institute of Land Reclamation, University of Alexandria, Egypt
1965	Doctor of Laws, Boalt Law School, University of California, Berkeley
1970	Research Director, California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO
1971	Consultant, California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO
1972	Board of Directors, National Coalition for Land Reform
1973	Legislative Spokesperson, Friends of the Earth
1976	Land-Water Symposium to Honor Paul Schuster Taylor
1980	Conservation Service Award
1984	Died March 13th at his home in Berkeley, Calif.

Date	Event
1895	Born June 9th in Sioux City, Iowa
1917	B.A., University of Wisconsin
1917-1919	U.S. Marine Corps, American Expeditionary Forces, France
1920	M.A., University of California, Berkeley
1922	Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley
1922-1962	Instructor, and later professor, Department of Economics, University of California, Berkeley
1927-1929	Chief Investigator, research project, Social Science Research Council, Mexican Labor in the United States
1930-1931	Consultant to National Commission on law observance and enforcement, (Wickersham Committee) studying crime and the foreign-born
1931-1932	Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship for study in Jalisco, Mexico
1933	Researcher on self-help cooperatives among unemployed, Social Science Research Council and a Rockefeller Foundation grant to the University of California, Berkeley Consultant, Governor's Fact Finding Committee on the Cotton Strike
1935	Field Director, Division of Rural Rehabilitation California State Emergency Relief Administration (CERA)
1935-1943	President, California Rural Rehabilitation Corporation
1935-1936	Regional Labor Adviser, U.S. Resettlement Administration
1935-1942	Member, State Advisory Council, California Department of Employment
1936-1940	Contributing Editor, Rural Sociology
1936-1941	Senior Economist, Social Security Board
1939	Member, Governor's Commission on Reemployment (California) Consultant, United States Senate, Civil Liberties Committee
1940-1944	Member, California State Board of Agriculture
1943-1945	Vice-Chairman, Committee on American Principles and Fair Play
1943-1952	Consulting economist, Office of Secretary of the Interior on Central Valley project studies
1946-1952	Consultant, Bureau of Reclamation on Central Valley problems of water distribution and land settlement
1949	Editorial Board Member, American Quarterly
1950-1951	Consultant, President's Migratory Labor Committee
1952	Consultant, Export-Import Bank on Artibonite Valley project, Haiti
1952-1956	Chairman, Department of Economics, University of California, Berkeley
1955-1968	Consultant, International Cooperation Administration (ICA), later called the Agency for International Development (AID), in Asia, and joint projects with AID and the United Nations, the Ford Foundation, the University of California, and Stanford; also, field studies on Community Development in India, Pakistan and the Philippines, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Cuba, Ecuador, Venezuela, Jamaica, Colombia, Mexico, Egypt, Iran and Panama.
1956-1962	Chairman, Institute of International Studies, University of California, Berkeley
1962	Professor Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley
1962-63	Visiting Professor, Institute of Land Reclamation, University of Alexandria, Egypt
1965	Doctor of Laws, Boalt Law School, University of California, Berkeley
1970	Research Director, California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO
1971	Consultant, California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO
1972	Board of Directors, National Coalition for Land Reform
1973	Legislative Spokesperson, Friends of the Earth
1976	Land-Water Symposium to Honor Paul Schuster Taylor
1980	Conservation Service Award
1984	Died March 13th at his home in Berkeley, Calif.

Acquisition information:

The Paul Schuster Taylor Papers were given to The Bancroft Library by Paul Schuster Taylor beginning in 1945. His professional library and personal files were bequeathed to The Bancroft Library on April 13, 1984, by his will. A small amount of materials transferred to The Bancroft Library from the Water Resources Center Archives in 1998 have been added to the collection.

Processing information:

Funding for processing provided in part by a Library Services and Construction Act (LSCA), Title III: Networking, Preservation and Statewide Resource-sharing grant 1994-1996.

Physical location:

For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.

Related resources

Related material:

Paul Schuster Taylor Photography Collection, ca. 1851-1981,BANC PIC 1983.219Paul Schuster Taylor Photographs relating to agricultural strikes in California, 1933,BANC PIC 1945.007Dorothea Lange Farm Security Administration Photograph Collection, 1935-45,BANC PIC 1942.008Manuel Gamio, Mexican Immigration to the United States, 1926-28,BANC MSS Z-R 5

Separated material:

1. Printed materials have been transferred to the book collection of The Bancroft Library.
2. Photographs have been transferred to Pictorial Collections of The Bancroft Library.
3. University of California materials have been transferred to University Archives in The Bancroft Library.
4. Government Documents have been transferred to the Doe Library.

Indexed terms

Names:

Taylor, Paul Schuster, 1895-

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

Copyright has not been assigned to The Bancroft Library. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Public Services. Permission for publication is given on behalf of The Bancroft Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Paul Schuster Taylor papers, BANC MSS 84/38 c, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

Location of this collection:

UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library

University of California, Berkeley, The Bancroft Library

Berkeley, CA 94720-6000, US

Contact:

510-642-6481

bancref-library@berkeley.edu

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