Progressivism in Texas

The Progressive Era brought rapid social and economic reform. A rising middle class promoted economic development and sought to curtail the influence of big business.  Agrarian reformers desired public education, the regulation of railroads, and the betterment of rural life. Social reformers worked to purify social institutions by prohibiting the manufacture and sale of alcohol and by improving society through prison, education, social welfare, and suffrage reforms. Progressivism in Texas succeeded despite the use of outmoded agrarian solutions and the focus on political self-interest within a one-party system that revealed a bias against the domination of northern financial interests.

Into the Twentieth Century: Texas Politics

Some governors were more committed to progressive reform than others. Ushering in the reform era, the agrarian coalition of former Governor James Hogg pushed through reforms to counter railroad abuses. Former Populists and Alliance members joined with businesspersons, prohibitionists, women’s clubs, and the State Federation of Labor to push for election reform, achieving adoption of the poll tax in 1902, a system of voter registration that largely disenfranchised large numbers of African Americans and poor whites. Passage of the 1903 and 1905 Terrell Election Laws attempted to eliminate election fraud by initiating candidate selection through primaries rather than by convention.

Restoring competition in the marketplace was a significant element of progressivism but reform in Texas received a setback with the antitrust suit against Waters-Pierce, a subsidiary of Standard Oil of New Jersey that implicated Congressman Joseph W. Bailey and Henry Clay Pierce, president of Waters-Pierce. Found in violation of Texas antitrust law, the company forfeited its state charter but Bailey persuaded Governor Sayers and other state officials to restore the charter. Bailey maintained that his relationship with Standard Oil was not a conflict of interest or political misconduct but rather a client-lawyer relationship. Bailey was elected and reelected U. S. Senator until he retired to private life in January 1913.

Progressive reform began in earnest with the election of Democrat Governor Thomas M. Campbell. With the cooperation of the Thirtieth Legislature, the Hogg anti-railroad amendments, an anti-nepotism law and antitrust legislation were passed. Another significant accomplishment was passage of the Robertson Insurance Law of 1907 and a state insurance program to protect deposits in the newly authorized state banking system. Although some aspects were later referred to as “business progressivism,” Campbell advocated direct democracy through the use of initiative, referendum, and recall and encouraged expansion of the Galveston Plan (Texas Idea).

Oscar Branch Colquitt was not as committed to reform but did succeed in implementing the regulation of child labor, factory safety standards, workers’ compensation, penal reform and the limitation on women’s work hours for health and safety reasons. Reform was limited by the state’s dire financial condition resulting from a narrow tax base and a $1 million deficit due to the needs of new state institutions, public education, prison reform and border violence (Mexican Revolution of 1910).

General Progressive Reforms

On the national level, John Dewey’s educational philosophy focused on new social science disciplines, less emphasis on rote learning, and more practical training leading to a general improvement in the social order. There was an assumed responsibility to Americanize, to teach democratic principles, to impart moral values and to enhance health and safety standards, but inconsistent teacher qualifications across Texas and inadequate salaries impeded progress.

Educational reforms spurred an increase in public school attendance, a corresponding drop in illiteracy, a rise in teacher salaries and an increase in state expenditures per student although considerably below the amount spent per pupil in most northern and midwestern states. Standardization was mandated with five-year textbook adoptions and setting state requirements for students and teachers. School consolidation, an unsuccessful attempt to equalize the quality of instruction between rural and urban schools, resulted in the creation of independent school districts. The State Board of Education brought bureaucratic efficiency to the state, apportioning public school funds, selecting textbooks and overseeing investments of the permanent school fund and the distribution of funds to rural schools. Annie Webb Blanton organized the “Better Schools Campaign” and became the first woman to hold statewide office as superintendent of public instruction from 1918 to 1922. 

Reforms in higher education focused on professional education; graduate training; and the creation of business, education, and engineering colleges. Community colleges were established with open-door admissions policies. In an effort to revitalize Texas farms, the state established demonstration farms, conducted agrarian institutes, and created the county extension program to provide scientific training and cooperative marketing concepts.

Efficiency in management and the use of trained experts impacted the operation of prisons and eleemosynary institutions, reclamation projects in forests, waterways and highway development. However, mismanagement and financial misconduct increased problems. Ultimately, a plan for future highway development was formulated and the department was reorganized.The progressive goal of a professional and efficient highway agency materialized in time.

Reform Interrupted: The Ferguson Administration, 1915-1917

Although “Fergusonism” was identified with demagoguery and corruption, James “Pa” Ferguson was a self-made man with whom the oppressed and tenant farmers identified. Despite Ferguson’s impeachment, some reforms were implemented, including Ferguson’s farm tenancy bill capping farm rents and increased funding for colleges. His second term saw even higher educational appropriations, expansion of the college network, a revision of labor laws, and a state highway commission. Border problems escalated with discovery of the radical manifesto, the Plan de San Diego, in January 1915. Ferguson ordered all available Texas Ranger companies to South Texas to restore order, even as U. S. Army General John J. Pershing marched into Mexico to capture the Mexican revolutionary, Pancho Villa.

Atrocities implicating the Texas Rangers were investigated by State legislator J.T. Canales, resulting in reduced companies. Ferguson’s troubles mounted when he battled against University of Texas faculty members regarding the university’s appropriation of the Permanent University Fund which he threatened to veto. The University Board of Regents called for his impeachment backed by the support of the Texas Equal Suffrage Association leader, Minnie Fisher Cunningham. Ferguson resigned to avoid impeachment. The court of impeachment removed him anyway and banned him from holding future state offices. This had no impact on Ferguson’s plans, however. He successfully ran for the U.S. Senate and his wife obtained the governorship in 1925.

Woodrow Wilson, Will Hobby, and World War I, 1917-1919

Will Hobby’s election as governor signified a victory for Woodrow Wilson’s policies as well as a rejection of Fergusonism.  Hobby supported women’s suffrage and prohibition, but tensions between whites and blacks accelerated; even black men in uniform were lynched or court martialed for causing riots. Texas contributed greatly to the war effort. After the war ended the state’s veterans were generously provided with free tuition at state institutions and helped to find employment.

Women in Action

World War I increased women’s opportunities in the work force and in voluntary agencies, fueling the suffrage movement’s final surge and contributing to the concept of the “New Woman”—vigorous and progressive — who saw options other than marriage and motherhood. The women’s club movement significantly impacted reform in the creation of public parks, state eleemosynary institutions, and city beautification movements. Women were also involved in the settlement house movement, the Young Women’s Christian Association, the League of Women Voters, the Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teachers-Associations, the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union as well as other professional organizations.

Women also played a key role in passage of the Prohibition Amendment. Prohibition completely dominated Texas politics and split the Democratic party. Lobbying groups such as the Texas Brewers’ Association and the Retail Liquor Dealers’ Association tried to influence the outcome with illegal contributions. Overall, alcohol was associated with ethnic groups (and the Democratic party). It became “unpatriotic” to drink, and criticize the war effort.

Progressives saw nothing wrong in imposing their values on others thus protecting morality through prohibition. They expected public schools and other state institutions to Americanize foreigners, inculcating middle-class values. The state legislature mandated the teaching of patriotism and citizenship. Laws were changed to prevent the foreign born from voting and Germans, in particular, were ostracized. After the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, everything associated with the Soviet Union was also regarded as un-American. Bolsheviks, Socialists and minority groups in general were harassed and deprived of their civil liberties.

The Return of Progressive Administration in Texas

The administrations of William P. Hobby and Pat M. Neff coincided with new job opportunities and prosperity after the economic downturn of 1920 -1921. Hobby, a business progressive, worked to strengthen Texas’ expanding urban economic network but only his measures to aid education succeeded due to an unconcerned legislature and public.  Neff was successful in consolidating the Pure Food and Drug Department with the Health Department, the creation of cooperative marketing associations for farmers and water reclamation and irrigation districts. Neff also put a stop to the easy granting of paroles and used martial law on at least two occasions. His legacy was the Good Roads movement and the creation of a state park network. Trying to enforce prohibition, however, caused Neff his biggest headache. Interestingly, he supported the Ku Klux Klan’s opposition to bootlegging.

The Klan, Fundamentalism, and the Evolution Debate

Failed attempts to enforce prohibition caused a “crime wave” and a general decline in community values. Historians have cited urban growth (migration and immigration) as the cause of tensions between rural and urban Americans. World War I and the Red Scare simply exacerbated the tensions. The “new” Klan emerged in this same time period and appealed to the new urban middle class while still opposing radicals, Catholics, Jews, blacks, Mexicans, and foreign immigration. The hub of Klan support was in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, East Texas and Central Texas.

Imposing moral conformity rather than racism and nativism was its major motivation. Neff and other members of the elite (including judges and law enforcement officers) gave unspoken support to the Klan and Neff refused to condemn Klan extralegal use of force. Many Protestant churches endorsed its anti-Semitic and anti-Catholic disposition.

In 1924, the year that Neff finally spoke out against the Klan, voters nominated Miriam A. Ferguson for governor rather than the Klan candidate. Membership in the Klan began to drop, but the organization’s demand for conformity accompanied a resurgence of religious fundamentalism. Protestant churches and ministers took the lead in the fight to establish moral conformity in the midst of the revolutionary social changes of the 1920s. Texas, however, did not pass an anti-evolution law due to its heterogeneous population and strong opposition from state legislators from the German Hill County and the Rio Grande Valley.

The Waning of Progressivism, 1925-1931

The end for progressivism came with Miriam Ferguson’s gubernatorial victory. “Ma” Ferguson was not reform-minded and the political controversies that had plagued her husband’s administration continued. After a young state attorney general, Dan Moody, defeated her in the 1926 race, progressive reform took a new direction — business progressivism. Governmental efficiency in civil service, new taxation laws, more modern fiscal control on state agencies, a reorganization of part of the state judiciary, and expanded appointive powers for the governor became key priorities.

In 1928, the unity of progressive Democrats was shattered with Al Smith’s presidential nomination. Roman Catholic and “wet” was just too much for some Democrats to accept; in November Texas joined North Carolina and Florida in voting Republican (Herbert Hoover) for the first time since Reconstruction. Moody’s second term witnessed the stock market collapse and an economy in tatters.  Although the rhetoric of business progressivism went silent during the Great Depression, remnants can be found in popular acceptance of the public-service functions of government.