Texas in the early twentieth century

1
Texas in the early twentieth century

• Still agricultural but getting more urbanized
• Diversification evident but still reliant on
  natural resources (extraction-oriented)
• Living standard slowly increasing
• Life not that great for blacks and (newer)
  mexicanos

2
Spindletop

• NOT the first oil field in Texas
• Corsicana Hutchins
• Higgins and Lucas
• Salt dome geology
• Gladys City as boom town
• Sparked interest in other salt-dome areas

3
Oil industry

• Improvements in drilling technology allowed
  exploration of other fields (without domes)
• First oil refinery built in Port Arthur (its
  still there)
• Birth of several major oil companies
• Increased use of petroleum by-products led to
  birth of petrochemical industry by 1920s
• Ask Prof. Mojo about carbon black!

4
Other industries

• What other industries?
• Texas ranked behind most of the other states,
  both economically and in terms of the standard of
  living
• Texas still widely perceived as backwards or
  frontier in nature
• Impact of the Great War (WW1) on Texas
• Industrialization
• Great Migration
• Camp Logan incident

5
Growth of the big Cities

• In order Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Fort
  Worth, El Paso
• Impact of the Houston Ship Channel
• Other cities grew Beaumont/Port Arthur, Corpus
  Christi

6
Galveston after the storm

• Storm of 1900 leveled the city
• Reformers feared old entrenched interests would
  interfere with rebuilding of city
• Deep Water Committee of wealthy businessmen
  proposed governor appoint a commission to run the
  city
• Later modified to allow voters to select members
  of the commission
• Differs from regular city council in that members
  were responsible directly for various municipal
  departments
• Adopted by Houston, Dallas, and even Des Moines,
  IA (who claimed credit for the idea)
• Galveston-Des Moines Plan of city commissions
  considered to be highly progressive

Galveston after the storm (from Texas Almanac)
7
The niceties of modern life

• Texas Power and Light begins operations
• Use of natural gas in homes and businesses
• City Beautiful movement
• Shorter work week
• Low cost of living
• Opportunities for women
• Compulsory school attendance

8
The labor movement in Texas

• Radicalism had died out with the Populists, for
  the most part
• Traditional unions did not make much headway
• Oil industry the exception
• Impact of anti-union feelings
• Red Scare
• Galveston Strike of 1920 illegal disruption of
  business
• Open Port Law

9
The boll weevil

• Invader from Mexico in 1894
• Causes losses of up to 90 in some cotton fields
• Resistant to pesticides of the day
• Boll Weevil Commission
• 50,000 prize
• NOT immune to cold
• Shift in cotton to High Plains
• Would eventually spread to other states
• Not really contained until the Twenties

Anthonomus grandis
10
Ranching Shifts

• Beef ranching on the decline
• Dairy ranching on the increase
• Improvements in refrigeration
• Mass marketing
• Other animals became popular
• Sheep
• Goats

11
Life on the Farm

• Despite improvements, most Texas farmers remained
  poor
• Continued reliance on sharecropping system
• Nature of the beast
• Long hours, poor pay
• Later competition from mechanization
• No lights, no phone, no motor car, not a single
  luxury?

12
Blacks in Texas

• Plessy v. Ferguson
• All-white primaries the legacy of the 1890s
• Lynchings
• Race riots
• Brownsville
• Camp Logan
• Changes in Texan attitudes towards lynchings came
  about largely because the churches turned against
  them

13
Blacks in Texas

• Most blacks in Texas remained out on the farm
• Black coops
• Prairie View AM
• Chief Sam predating Marcus Garvey
• The Great Migration at work
• The emergence of a middle class
• Professional organizations
• Filling the niche
• Hobart Taylor

14
Black Education

• Underfunded, underutilized
• Lack of trained teachers
• Prairie Views dilemma
• Most of the money for black colleges would come
  from out-of-state

15
Tejanos

• Increase in immigration from Mexico heightened
  tensions
• Violence from the civil war
• Completion of railroad lines
• Poll tax also targeted poor Tejanos
• Informal discrimination

16
Tejano workers

• Agricultural work
• Tsinques
• El desenraice
• La pizca
• The Big Swing
• Lots of union activity
• Patron system still dominant
• Wells and Guerra
• El Primer Congreso Mexicanista
• LULAC