ALL IS NOT HARMONY IN TEXAS, DESPITE CALM; NEW DEAL HATERS PLANNING DRIVE

Munz, Charles Curtis

All Is Not Harmony In Texas, Despite Calm; New Deal Haters Planning Drive Fergusons Active in Lone Star State; Maverick Heads City Group BY CHARLES CURTIS MUNZ AUSTIN, Texas — Did somebody say...

...With Mrs...
...The delegates from Texas to the Democratic national convention in Chicago will be instructed to vote for Garner on the first ballot...
...that Roosevelt men should control the delegation...
...This year she and Jim are confident of winning again...
...Despite the strong Roosevelt sentiment, however, the state-wide committee had a hard task on its hands, mainly because it was known that Pres...
...Thus indiscreet statement caused immediate repercussions in Washington...
...The strike was called in July, 1939, with 1,200 miners and copper smelters answering the call in Isabella, Ducklown and Copperhill...
...Basing its strength on opposition to prohibition and friendship for the tenant farmer, the House of Ferguson has since 1914 controlled from 25 to 30 per cent of the Texas vote...
...Maverick Heads City Group BY CHARLES CURTIS MUNZ AUSTIN, Texas — Did somebody say "harmony...
...After the Wisconsin and Illinois primaries, however, some of the more extreme Garner leaders made it plain that they regarded all the Garner votes and all the Republican votes as having been cast against Roosevelt...
...P. C. Brainard of Denver, another International representative of the union, declared that federal agents had "herded strikers Into a private concentration camp" at Copperhill where "they were held for six days, questioned and threatened" until five of their number signed confessions, "under duress...
...He was said to be unwilling cither to humiliate Garner or to do anything that would contribute to a conflict within the party...
...O'Daniel himself has taken no stand on national issues...
...So the story goes...
...Garner supporters were in a most unhappy situation...
...But the friends of Roosevelt are expected to control the delegation, and when the delegates have satisfied the beautiful amenities of political courtesy by casting a first-ballot for Garner, they will be ready to do what Roosevelt wants them to do...
...Garner will be in a position at Chicago to destroy the New Deal...
...Mayor viaury Maverick out-generallcd Davis, and captured the county convention...
...Mrs...
...Sam Rayburn, are convinced now that Garner has no chance whatever, even to influence the convention in any important way, and that Roosevelt will run for a third term...
...Jim Ferguson was the most important member of a state-wide committee that set out in late March to win the Texas delegation for Roosevelt...
...Telegrams buzzed back and forth between Austin and Washington...
...Ferguson won a second term...
...and that the Garner leaders would abandon their efforts to stop Roosevelt...
...From the first the Gamer leaders had gone to great pains to claim that his campaign was not directed against Roosevelt...
...However...
...But at a time when almost every other politician in Texas was quaking under the lash of the Ku Klux Klan, the Fergusons dared to take up the fight against it...
...In the strong Roosevelt sentiment in Texas, they sense a wave of popular feeling as great as carried them to power in 1924 and 1932...
...The union vote to end the strike was revealed by International Pres...
...Miriam A. (Ma...
...Roosevelt himself did not thoroughly approve of pushing the fight in Texas...
...Ferguson claims that in the space of a single week he received 10,000 cards and letters asking him and his wife to come out of retirement to save the state for Roosevelt and the New Deal...
...Wins Second Term In 1932, after unsuccessful campaigns in 1928 and 1930, Mrs...
...Hate New Deal The extreme Gamer leaders will do everything they can to wreck the agreement, and will fight Roosevelt to the list ditch...
...Reid Robinson of Denver, who also blasted the activities of J. Edgar Hoover's agents in this valley, the largest producer of sulphuric acid in America...
...in this barren valley were made here following the decision of the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers (CIO) to terminate a 9-month strike against the corporation...
...The presence of an AFL federal local, which had last an NLRB election shortly before the strike was called, added to the complications of the strike situation in this isolated, mountain region on the Georgia border between Knoxville and Chattanooga, Tenn...
...Alvin J. Wirtz, a prominent Texas politician who was appointed under-secretary of the interior only a few months ago, had a conference with Roosevelt, and then announced on the White House 'steps that he was going to Texas to put in "a few licks for the New Deal...
...Ferguson, only woman ever elected governor of Texas, has come out of retirement this ye,ar in an effort to unseat Gov...
...However, the agreement will probably be kept In its main outlines at the state convention in Waco because the really responsible Garner leaders, like Roy Miller and Rep...
...A few months ago this position may have appeared wise, but now it looks like a major political blunder...
...Finally it was agreed that the delegates from Texas to the national convention should give a courtesy vote to Garner...
...It was true that by pressing the fight they might win Texas for Garner, but it would be an empty victory—and a dangerous victory, too, for It would put the Garner leaders outside the party councils...
...They hope that if Roosevelt does not run...
...Ferguson is strongly opposed to Garner...
...Ferguson is somewhat less than half of the House of Ferguson...
...But the struggle between Roosevelt and Garner continues, and will not end even when the delegates to Chicago are chosen at the state convention in Waco on May 28...
...Yes, somebody did...
...Twenty six years ago, in 1914, her husband, James E. Ferguson, was elected governor...
...In 1917 Jim Ferguson was Impeached on 21 charges of misconduct and barred from office forever...
...By nightfall, however, the loving kindness had dissipated and the political air was sharp again...
...It saves a good many political faces — both in Texas and in Washington...
...Garnerites Unhappy As the fight waxed hot and bitter a number of faces in both Washington and Texas became increasingly red...
...Robinson charged that FBI agents had arrested 20 unionists, including International Representative M. C. Anderson who was In direct charge of the strike, on charges of conspiracy to dynamite property and halt the flow of electric current to the tall smelter furnaces and acid reduction plants...
...At this Juncture the Garner leaders sued for peace...
...When Wirtz arrived in Texas he openly charged that the Garner campaign was not a campaign for Garner at all, but a campaign against Roosevelt, Garner, said Wirtz, was being victimized by his friends, who were using his as a blind behind which to strike at Roosevelt and the New Deal...
...The 254 counties in Texas vary greatly in their political complexions, and the issue will not be decided until the state convention meets in Waco on May 28...
...Of course Mrs...
...Every day It became more likely that Roosevelt would control the Chicago convention and that Garner would not be the nominee...
...But at this point a curious thing happened...
...Ferguson carrying the family colors, and with Jim planning the strategy and making the speeches, the House of Ferguson crushed the Klan In Texas...
...Down in San Antonio, for example, In the precinct conventions on May 4 and the county convention on May 8, Frank C. Davis attempted to secure a real instead of a courtesy endorsement for Garner...
...After closing down operations for several months, the union received its first setback when the company decided to reopen Its mines and smel-tering plants under the protection of more than 300 heavily armed special deputy sheriffs...
...Saves many Faces That is the agreement...
...In Austin, between the Colorado river and the pink granite capitol building, that the atmosphere was as sticky as the air on a sultry day...
...Extreme Garner leaders, in their hatred for Roosevelt, refused to abide by the agreement...
...Her principal issue is a demand that Texas shall support Roosevelt and the New Deal...
...In Dallas, on the other hand, the extreme Garner forces appear to be In control...
...Outwardly the bitter struggle between the friends of President Roosevelt and the friends of Vice-President John Nance Garner, Texas' native son, has been composed in compromise...
...A third term for Roosevelt—or for Roosevelt's policies—is a leading issue in the state campaign this summer for governor...
...W. Lee O'Daniel, w'hose bizarre "hillbilly" campaign two years ago astonished the nation...
...For about six hours there was so much political loving kindness up and down Congress ave...
...Tennessee ISABELLA Tcnn.—Bitter charges that the FBI used "gestapo meihoris" in investigating the alleged dynamiting of TVA power lines serving the gigantic Tennessee Copper Co...
...Although the Garner forces had a iead start, the work of the committee met with a strong response for a as Gallup poll showed, 72 per rent of Texans favored Roosevelt over Garner...

Vol. 10 • May 1940 • No. 20


 
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