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In 1902, Texas voters approved of a poll tax that disenfranchised many poor whites and blacks and further limited the possible third-party challenges to Democratic hegemony. The Texas legislature passed many Jim Crow laws, mandating, for example, segregated railroad facilities. Soon Texas, like many southern states, had erected an elaborate legal code that racially segregated public and private facilities. p. 240.
Governor Miriam Ferguson (1925-1927)
Governor Dan Moody (1927-1931)
Calvin Coolidge 1923-29 “The chief business of America is business” expressed his concept of the nation's destiny.
Herbert Hoover 1929-33
The Presidential Election of 1928.
New York Governor Alfred E. Smith (1873 - 1944)
1929 1933
Banks in operation 25,568 14,771
Prime interest rate 5.03% 0.63%
Volume of stocks sold (NYSE)
1.1 B 0.65 B
Privately earned income
$45.5B $23.9B
Personal and corporate savings
$15.3B $2.3B
Relief line waiting for commodities, San Antonio, Texas. March 1939. Photographer: Russell Lee.
Countless thousands of honest, hard-working people lost their homes and farms to the foreclosure’s hammer. Breadlines formed, soup kitchens dispensed food, and apple sellers stood shivering on street corners trying to peddle their wares for five cents. Families felt the stress, as jobless fathers nursed their guilt and shame at not being able to provide for their households. Breadless breadwinners often blamed themselves for their plight, despite abundant evidence that the economic system, not individual initiative, had broken down. Mothers meanwhile nursed fewer babies, as hard time reached even into the nation’s bedrooms, precipitating a decade-long dearth of births. (The American Pageant, 13th edition, pp. 761-762.)
Selling apples, Jacksonville, Texas. October, 1939. Photographer: Russell Lee. Many tried apple-selling to avoid the shame of panhandling. In New York City, there were over 5,000 apple sellers on the street.
Squatters in Mexican section in San Antonio, Texas. House was built of scrap material in vacant lot in Mexican section of San Antonio, Texas. March 1939. Photographer: Russell Lee.
Dust storm in the Panhandle, April 14, 1935. Prints and Photographs Collection, Panhandle--sandstorm file, The Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin; CN 02655. In 1935 the Dust Bowl covered 100 million acres across the western United States. Visibility in Amarillo that year dropped to zero seven times during the first three months, with one blackout lasting eleven hours.
Dust Storm near Dalhart, Texas, 1936Dust Storm near Dalhart, Texas, 1936
Dust storm approaching Stratford, Texas. Dust bowl surveying in Texas
Image ID: theb1365, Historic C&GS Collection. Location: Stratford, Texas. Photo Date: April 18, 1935. Credit: NOAA George E. Marsh Album
Franklin Delano RooseveltFranklin Delano Roosevelt
Roosevelt consciously abandoned the term “progressive” and chose instead to employ “liberal” to define himself and his administration. In so doing, he transformed “liberalism” from a shorthand for weak government and laissez-faire economics into belief in an activist, socially conscious state, an alternative both to socialism and to unregulated capitalism. (Foner, The Story of American Freedom, pp. 201-204.)
Freedom, Hoover insisted, meant unfettered economic opportunity for the enterprising individual. Far from being an element of liberty, the quest for economic security was turning Americans into “lazy parasites” dependent on the state. For the remainder of his life, Hoover continued to call himself a “liberal,” even though, he charged, the word had been “polluted and raped of all its real meanings.” (Foner, The Story of American Freedom, p. 205.)
Redefining Redefining LiberalismLiberalism
Governor Ross Sterling, (1931 – 1933)
Former President of of Humble Oil and Refining.
Kilgore became the greatest boom town of all oil strikes. In 1931, the immense output drove the price of oil down from over $1 a barrel to 8¢.
When farmers planted their cotton crop in 1931, the market price of cotton averaged 9 to 10 cents per pound; by harvest time, it had fallen to 5.3 cents per pound, where it remained for the next year. p. 325.
A farmer needed at least three times the amount of production in 1931 that he needed in 1928 to pay off the same amount of loan. p. 326.
Louisiana Governor Huey Louisiana Governor Huey P. LongP. Long
Texas Governor Texas Governor Ross S. SterlingRoss S. Sterling
Huey Long’s proposal to “drop a crop” failed to due opposition from Texas and other states. Overproduction continued to be a problem.
The cotton-restriction failure and the issue of having sent troops to the oil field damaged Sterling’s reelection campaign.
Huey Long, governor of Louisiana, proposed a “drop a crop” plan. Under this plan farmers would plant no cotton in 1932, thus solving the cotton-glut problem and raising cotton prices.
The Texas Cotton Association, an organization of shippers and buyers, and most of the big city dailies opposed Long’s “drop a crop” plan.
Early efforts to reduce the production of cotton and raise the price failed. The 1931 cotton crop of 17 million bales was the second largest in history, which only added to the existing surplus of 4.5 million bales held over from 1930 production. (See pp. 326-327.)
Cotton Problem: Over Production Cotton Problem: Over Production & Low Prices& Low Prices
Miriam "Ma" Ferguson is elected governor of Texas for the second time. In protest over political patronage and corruption, 40 Rangers quit the force and the remainder are fired. Political appointees replace them. The governor issued “Special Ranger” commissions to 2,344 men, thus making the force a venue for political patronage.
THE RETURN OF “FERGUSIONISM,” 1933-1935
Governor Sterling attributed “Ma” Ferguson’s victory in 1932 to voter fraud. In 132 counties, 40,000 more votes were cast than poll taxes paid. Many of these votes came from East Texas, where the Fergusons had strength and Sterling was disliked. Although there was fraud, Ferguson’s victory also lay in the continued support of her husband by poor folk and in the political despair generated by the widening depression. (See pp. 327-328)
Miriam “Ma” Ferguson
Vice President John Nance Garner (1933-1941)
SHORT BIOGRAPHY: John Nance Garner was born in Red River County, Texas, on 22nd November, 1868. After studying law he was admitted to the bar in 1890 and became a lawyer in Texas.
A member of the Democratic Party Garner served as a judge in Uvalde County (1893-1896) and in the Texas house of representatives (1898-1902).
Garner was elected to Congress in 1903. He served as minority floor leader in the 71st Congress and as Speaker of the House of Representatives in the 72nd Congress.
In 1932 Franklin D. Roosevelt selected Garner as his running mate and on 8th November was elected as Vice President of the United States.
Roosevelt upset Garner when in 1940 he announced that he intended to stand for a third term. Garner resigned and Henry Wallace took his place. running mate.
Vice President Garner offered President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) advice on a wide range of matters. However, Garner and FDR gradually split over the New Deal’s swing to the left and the president’s decision to run for a third term. Nonetheless, the crusty West Texan remained a life-long Democrat, if not a supporter of Roosevelt. (p. 329)
A Brief Era Of Cooperation Between A Brief Era Of Cooperation Between An Old Texan Democrat And A New An Old Texan Democrat And A New Deal DemocratDeal Democrat
A prominent Texans becomes Vice President
Jesse Jones, businessman and New Deal official, with President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the opening of the Texas Centennial, Dallas, 1936. Jones helped save the nations' banking system as chairman of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation.
FDR made the Houstonian Jesse H. Jones chairman of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (1933-1939). He also expanded Jones responsibilities with assignments to the Export-Import Bank (1936-1943), the Federal Loan Agency (1939-1945), and as secretary of commerce (1940-1945). Jones was more conservative than were most of his New Deal colleagues, and his disagreement with Roosevelt’s policies led in 1945 to his break with the Democratic Party. (See p. 329.)
JESSE H. JESSE H. JONES: AN JONES: AN INFLUENTIAL INFLUENTIAL TEXAN IN THE TEXAN IN THE FDR FDR ADMINISTRATIADMINISTRATION.ON.
JESSE H. JESSE H. JONESJONES
Texan Congressman Sam Rayburn chaired the important Interstate and Foreign Commerce during the FDR Administration. Rayburn went on to become majority leader and Speaker of the House for most of the time from 1940 to 1961. His ability to manipulate legislation and to work out political compromises won him respect on both sides of the House aisle. (See p. 330.)
Texan Congressman Sam Rayburn
The Maverick political family - Congressman Maury Maverick, Sr., a liberal New Dealer, is sworn in by his father as San Antonio mayor, as Maverick, Jr. looks on.
Texan Congressman Maury MaverickCongressman Maury Maverick received national acclaim as a New Deal Democrat. After his defeat in the congressional race of 1938, he became mayor San Antonio, and then served as an able administrator of wartime mobilization agencies. (See p. 330.)
Congressman Congressman Maury MaverickMaury Maverick
Texarkana congressman Wright Patman won acclaim as a progressive, particularly concerning bank legislation and benefits for veterans. Patman, Johnson (who went to congress in 1937), and Rayburn were the most consistent supporters of Roosevelt throughout his administration. (See p. 330.)
Texarkana congressman Texarkana congressman Wright PatmanWright Patman
President Roosevelt used executive emergency powers granted in World War I to close the nation’s banks for a “bank holiday,” a hiatus that stopped runs on banks. When the bank reopened, they fell under government regulations.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) guaranteed deposits up to $5,000 and periodically audited the insured banks. By 1935, the Federal Reserve System controlled interest rates, thereby limiting competition from new (and possibly shaky) banks that might offer more attractive deals to prospective customers. The government also mandated the periodic auditing of banks by various state and federal agencies. These measures restored public confidence in banking. (See p. 330.)
RUN ON BANKSRUN ON BANKS
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FDIC & THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FDIC & THE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM RESTORES FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM RESTORES CONFIDENCE IN BANKINGCONFIDENCE IN BANKING
"Let us unite in banishing fear. We have provided "Let us unite in banishing fear. We have provided the machinery to restore our financial system; it the machinery to restore our financial system; it is up to you to support and make it work.“ --FDRis up to you to support and make it work.“ --FDR
In 1935, Congress passed the Wagner Act, which guaranteed the right of unions to organize peacefully. The New Deal legislation spurred the growth of unions in Texas.
Wagner Act
The CWA, WPA, CCC, and NYA all were New Deal agencies that provided employment to the unemployed.
Civil Works Administration (CWA)
Work Progress Administration (WPA)
Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)
National Youth Administration (NYA)
The 26-year-old Lyndon Johnson served the Roosevelt administration for two years as state director of the National Youth Administration.
The CCC at work
The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA), passed in 1933, applied restrictions to cotton, wheat, corn, rice, tobacco, dairy products, and hogs; cattle products were soon added t the list. In Texas, more farmers than in any other state took advantage of crop-reduction contracts. The most significant result for the Texan economy was a dramatic reduction in the amount of cotton produced.
Texans sold over 4 million head of cattle, sheep, and goats to the AAA, which spent $27 million to buy these surplus animals, making Texas stockmen by far the largest recipients of this type of aid. Approximately 1,750,000 of the animals were destroyed, with the remainder going to the Federal Surplus Relief Corporation for distribution to the needy. (See pp. 334-335.)
The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)
The Rural Electrification Administration (REA) provided low-interest loans and WPA labor to electric cooperatives to lay power lines to rural dwellings. Through these efforts, 17,712 miles of power lines reached 54,000 new customers in Texas at a cost of $16 million. The work of the REA moved Texas farmers into the era of modern amenities and communications and helped break down the isolation of rural dwellings. (See p. 335.)
The Rural Electrification Administration (REA)
The New Deal helped induce most African Americans to switch their political allegiance to the Democrats.
LULAC's principal purpose was LULAC's principal purpose was to fight discrimination against to fight discrimination against Texas Mexicans.Texas Mexicans.
As attorney general, James V. Allred earned a reputation as an opponent of monopolies and political lobbies. His image as a trust-buster made him popular in Texas.
As governor, Allred strongly supported the New Deal and cooperated closely with federal programs for combating the Depression.
James V. Allred
In 1937, Hatton Sumners in the House and John Nance Garner in the Senate combined to defeat the President Roosevelt’s plan to increase the number of Supreme Court justices.
Texan Representative Hatton Sumners and Texan Senator Tom Connally help to defeat an anti-lynching bill in Congress in 1937.
John Nance Garner led the new southern Democrat-Republican coalition that opposed further expansion of New Deal programs in the late 1930s.
Martin Dies assumed the chairmanship of the House Un-American Activities Committee, and used his committee to attempt to link FDR and his program to Communist subversion in government and labor unions.
W. Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel became prominent in Texas (and was later elected governor) because of his popularity as a radio personality. Rural Texans were O’Daniel’s strongest supporters.
In a controversial 1941 race for the United States Senate, Governor O'Daniel defeated Lyndon B. Johnson by a razor-thin margin.
"Texas furnished proportionally a larger percentage of men and women for military service than did any other state.“ (p. 351)
Thirty-six Texans won the Medal of Honor.The two most decorated American servicemen were Audie Murphy and Samuel Dealey.
Other Texans included Dwight D. Eisenhower, Chester A. Nimitz, and Oveta Culp Hobby, who commanded the Women's Army Corps.
TEXANS IN TEXANS IN WORLD WAR IIWORLD WAR II
Mrs. Oveta Culp Hobby, first commander of the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAC's) is shown in front of a World War II U.S. Army Recruiting Poster.
Black troops stationed in Texas were expected to conform to demands of Jim Crow segregation. Training camps had separate and inferior facilities for African Americans. Doris Miller won a Navy Cross for his service at Pearl Harbor. (p. 352.)
"Negro messmen aboard a United States Navy cruiser who volunteered for additional duty as gunners. They have been doing proficient work under battle conditions on a task force in the Pacific under the instruction of the officers at the right." July 10, 1942. 80-G-21743.
"The Negro janitors of the plant maintenance department in North America's Kansas City factory in V-formation as they start out on their daily tasks." February 4, 1942. Carl Conley. 208-NP-1KK-1.
"Fliers of a P-51 Mustang Group of the 15th Air Force in Italy `shoot the breeze' in the shadow of one of the Mustangs they fly." Left to right: Lt. Dempsey W. Morgan, Jr.; Lt. Car roll S. Woods; Lt. Robert H. Nelson, Jr.; Capt. Andrew D. Turner; and Lt. Clarence P. Lester. Ca. August 1944. 208-NP-6XXX-1.
"Christmas Dance at Negro Service Club #3. The dance was sponsored by the 1323rd Engineers. They had their own orchestra. Camp Swift, Texas." December 23, 1943. Pvt. Greene. 111-SC-18834.
Coke Stevenson 1941-47: conservative financial policies and limiting the power of the national government.
Stevenson's administration:1. Improved the state highway system2. Raised teachers' salaries3. Building program at the University of Texas4. Improved soil conservation5. Sympathy for the labor movement6. Manford Act (1943) labor organizers must register, no union political
contributions7. Showed concern for discrimination against Mexican Americans; no
sympathy for African Americans8. Turned the state's deficit into a surplus
The wartime economy benefited all Texans. Fifteen army posts. Forty air bases. Over thirty prisoner of war camps.
German Prisioner of War CampGerman Prisioner of War Camp
Fort Sam Houston, TexasFort Sam Houston, Texas
New aircraft factories; shipyards, steel mills, tin smelter plant, oil fields, paper and lumber products. Need for new refineries and synthetic rubber turned the Gulf Coast new Houston into the largest petrochemical industry in the world.
A new industry that helped to turn the Gulf Coast into the home of the world's largest petrochemical industry was synthetic rubber.
The number of wage earners tripled. 500,000 moved from rural areas to cities. There was new work for blacks and women, and the standard of living rose for many Texas families.
During World War II, Texas farms became larger, fewer, and more valuable.
Power farming displaces tenants. Texas panhandle. Photographer: Dorothea Lange.
Acres Planted: 1 dot = 1,000 acres.
During World War II, the center of the cotton industry shifted to South Texas and the High Plains.
Cotton had always required a large amount
of hand labor.
The perfection of the mechanical cotton picker revolutionized the cotton farm.
Harvest scene in the Corn Belt - a large combine quickly unloads grain to a high-capacity grain cart
Number of Farms and Acres per Farm 1850-1997The number of farms has decreased since 1935, while the
size of farms has increased
Source: Census of Agriculture, various years.
Women working outside the home:
23% 194033% 1960
Bracero card issued to Jesús Campoya in 1951 in El Paso, Texas.
The Bracero ProgramThe term bracero (from the Spanish brazo, which translates as "arm") applies to the temporary agricultural and railroad workers brought into the United States as an emergency measure to meet the labor shortage of World War II. The Bracero Program, also referred to as the Mexican Farm Labor Supply Program and the Mexican Labor Agreement, was sanctioned by Congress through Public Law 45 of 1943.
Why the number of Mexicans working Why the number of Mexicans working in Texas increased:in Texas increased:
1. Many Tejanos moved to cities because of
low agricultural pay and urban job opportunities.
2. Bracero program: contract labor agreement between the USA and Mexico
3. Rise of corporate, vertically integrated farms that preferred cheap migratory labor from Mexico
In 1949 the Border Patrol seized nearly 280,000 illegal immigrants. By 1953, the numbers had grown to more than 865,000, and the U.S. government felt pressured to do something about the onslaught of immigration. What resulted was Operation Wetback, devised in 1954 under the supervision of new commissioner of the Immigration and Nationalization Service, Gen. Joseph Swing.
Swing oversaw the Border patrol, and organized state and local officials along with the police. The object of his intense border enforcement were "illegal aliens," but common practice of Operation Wetback focused on Mexicans in general. The police swarmed through Mexican American barrios throughout the southeastern states. Some Mexicans, fearful of the potential violence of this militarization, fled back south across the border. In 1954, the agents discovered over 1 million illegal immigrants.
In some cases, illegal immigrants were deported along with their American-born children, who were by law U.S. citizens. The agents used a wide brush in their criteria for interrogating potential aliens. They adopted the practice of stopping "Mexican-looking" citizens on the street and asking for identification. This practice incited and angered many U.S. citizens who were of Mexican American descent. Opponents in both the United States and Mexico complained of "police-state" methods, and Operation Wetback was abandoned.
Operation Wetback
Anti-union sentiment in Texas
•The traditional hope that outside industries would move to the South to take advantage of cheap labor
•Suspicion on the part of rural populations towards union activity
•Conservative viewpoint that unions spawned unwanted social and political agents
•Texas had a high percentage of service and high-tech industries. These industries traditionally do not attract unions as much as do manufacturing industries.
•Inexpensive Mexican labor depressed wages and discouraged unionization.
Review your textbook, pp. 362-363.
Right-to-work laws: law against compulsory union membership; a law that prevents membership in a labor union from being a condition of employment
Texas Unions were strongest among labor working in oil refineries along the Gulf Coast.
The Gulf Coast of Texas has a high concentration of refineries, power plants, and other fixed CO2 sources, conveniently located atop enormous beds of deep saline aquifers.
Demographics
Between 1940 and 1960 there was an increase in urban dwellers from 45-75%.
By 1960, women outnumbered menBetween 1940 and 1960, blacks proportion of the population declined from 14 to 12.5%.
Hispanics grew from 12 to 15%.
The escape from the depression and the impact of the return of veterans from war led to a rise in both marriages and births in the late 1940s and early 1950s, the so-called Baby Boom. pp. 365-366
End of the Depression and return of veterans led to a rise in both marriages and births in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
The Total Fertility Rate (TFR) in the United States declined from more than 4 late in the nineteenth century to less than replacement in the early 1930s.
However, when the small numbers of children born in the depression years reached adulthood, they went on a childbearing spree that produced the baby-boom generation. In 1957 more children were born in the United States than ever before (or since).
Eradication of childhood diseases helped to increase life expectancy.
The decline in cases of measles.
The Total Fertility Rate (TFR) in the United States declined from more than 4 late in the nineteenth century to less than replacement in the early 1930s.
However, when the small numbers of children born in the depression years reached adulthood, they went on a childbearing spree that produced the baby-boom generation. In 1957 more children were born in the United States than ever before (or since).
These population pyramids show the baby-boom generation in 1970 and again in 1985 (green ovals).
The passage by Congress of the G.I. Bill of Rights resulted in he rapid growth of higher
education in Texas.
Father Knows Best, 1954-58
The arrival of an urban economy and population accented demands that the state provide a better system of public education. The argument concerning schools that had started with the advent of business progressivism had changed little by the mid-twentieth century: improved schools, reformers urged, would invite new industry into the state by making it more attractive to prospective migrants and by providing a better-educated workforce. These ideas clashed with older demands that taxes be held down at any cost and that teachers should receive minimum pay. (pp. 366-367.)
The Gilmer-Aikin laws of 1949 reorganized and modernized the public school system.
The Gilmer-Aikin laws of 1949 reorganized and modernized the public school system.
Claud Gilmer, A. M. Aikin, Gilmer-Aikin Laws of 1949
1. Established a state board of education
2. Required nine-month school terms
3. Set minimum training standards for teachers
4. Mandated improved facilities
5. Established a formula for minimum teachers' salaries(See p. 367.)
Results of the Gilmer-Aikin laws of 1949 1. Teachers went back to school meet requirements
2. Teachers' salaries went up
3. Black teachers received equal pay
4. Began special equalization funds to aid poorer school districts
5. Along with better roads, spurred school consolidation. Independent school districts outnumbered common schools.
Criticisms of the Gilmer-Aikin laws of 1949
1. Consumer taxes were inefficient to support reform
2. Teachers' salaries still too low
3. Those districts that made the least effort to raise taxes received the greatest amount of state aid.
"Possibly, the best evaluation of the Gilmer-Aikin acts would be that they at least moved the state educational system into the early twentieth century."
(See p. 367.)
