Means of Ascent

by Robert A. Caro

  No loudspeakers, no bumper stickers: Murphey, Boyett interviews. “Who is that man?” Bolton interview. “Here’s The Man”: Murphey interview. “A quiet dignity”: Lawson interview. “Say, can I butt in?”: AA-S, July 18. “He was them”: Murphey interview; and see Mooney, p. 30. In fact, Stevenson would occasionally—very occasionally—go so far as to say “I’d sure appreciate your vote.” “You knew he meant”: Lawson interview. “Coke Stevenson’s here”: Lawson, Lucas interviews.

  O’Daniel inauguration: McKay, W. Lee O’Daniel, pp. 133–34.

  O’Daniel as governor: Caro, Path to Power, pp. 702–3; McKay, W. Lee O’Daniel, pp. 127–215, 331–406; Bolton, Lawson, Clark interviews. “Why do thinking people”: Stevenson speech on Mar. 2, 1940, quoted in Simons, “Log Cabin Statesman.”

  Coke’s speech: Simons, “Log Cabin Statesman”; and see also Bolton, “Profile.”

  No “radio sex appeal”: Bolton, “Profile.” O’Daniel’s elevation to Senate: Caro, Path to Power, pp. 733–36. Fay at inauguration: Stevenson, Jr., interview; McLendon, “Coke R. Stevenson.”

  “A divine inspiration”: Stevenson inaugural address, quoted in West Texas Today, Sept., 1941. Stevenson’s governorship: Mooney, pp. 34–51; Green, pp. 77–88; McKay, Texas Politics, pp. 391–96; AA-S, DMN, DT-H, State Observer, 1941–47; Stevenson OH; Simons, “Log Cabin Statesman”; Nordyke, “Calculatin’ Coke.” Stevenson and Mexican-Americans: Gantt, pp. 148–49; Green, pp. 80–81; Stevenson OH. Stevenson and Negroes: Green, pp. 79–80. Stevenson and labor: Green, p. 81. Rainey controversy: Green, pp. 84–88; Stevenson OH. Near bottom in social welfare: Allen, pp. 322–23; pp. 317–19 discusses the tax situation. “The biggest tax bill”: State Observer, July 28, 1941. 38th to 24th: Allen, pp. 322–23. Tripling of old-age pensions; subdued style of government: Mooney, p. 43; Gantt, pp. 187, 213, 226.

  “No program”; “I had a program”: Moore, “Stevenson Practiced Economy.” Deficit into surplus: Mooney, pp. 47–48. The deficit situation was so serious when Stevenson took office, state employees were being paid in so-called hot checks—warrants that had to be discounted at stores. “As liberal as the people”: Amarillo Sunday News, undated clipping, Barker Collection. For an example of this attitude, see AA-S, Jan. 19, 1947, which says: “For a man tagged by critics a do-nothing governor, Coke Stevenson … brought the State through some trying years without losing a single rock out of the capitol.… He got some vigorous handling, in this newspaper among other places, [but] he sincerely wanted to leave the State better off than it was when he came here, and he probably will.”

  “A man who”: DMN, July 2, 1941. “A product of the frontier”: Unidentified clipping in Barker Collection. “Abraham Lincoln of Texas”: Among many places this comparison was used is the State Observer, July 28, 1941; Nordyke, “Calculatin’ Coke.” “In the section”: McLendon, “Coke R. Stevenson.” “Seldom traveled trails”: McLendon, “Coke R. Stevenson.” “HORATIO ALGER OF THE LLANO”: Carmack, “Calculatin’ Coke Stevenson.” “He started out”: Bolton, “Profile.” “LOG CABIN STATESMAN”: Simons, “Log Cabin Statesman.” “Coke Stevenson makes”: State Observer, July 28, 1941. “Statuesque”: Simons, “Log Cabin Statesman.” Lumbermen’s Meeting: Boyett interview; Wyatt and Shelton, p. 96. Great hunter: For example, DMN, Sept. 21, 1941. Shearing and branding: Bolton, “Profile”; Bolton, Murphey interviews; he once told DMN “with rancher’s pride”: “I don’t suppose there’s been a calf on my ranch in twenty years that I haven’t branded myself,” July 2, 1941. Life style as Governor: Stevenson, Jr., Edith Stevenson, Boyett interviews; Mooney, p. 46; Simons, “Log Cabin Statesman.” “We’ll just let that cup”: For example, Mooney, p. 55.

  “Almost everybody”: Bolton, “Profile.” “Well, folks”: Gladys Carroll, identified as a “San Antonio Newspaper Writer Visiting in Dallas,” in DMN, Apr. 3, 1942. “In fancy”: McLendon, “Coke R. Stevenson.” “The most important thing”: Murphey interview.

  1942 election: McKay, Texas Politics, pp. 367–89, 393–94. Nordyke, “Calculatin’ Coke.” “Out on the squares”: Nordyke, “Calculatin’ Coke.” “No danged music”: Stevenson, quoted in Nordyke, “Calculatin’ Coke”; Boyett interview. No platform or promises, only record: Mooney, p. 44. “I have never made”: Mooney, p. 54. 68.5 percent: Texas Almanac, 1945–46.

  1944 election: Mann’s attacks and Stevenson’s responses are discussed in Nordyke, “Calculatin’ Coke”; and in Mooney, p. 54. See also McKay, Texas Politics, pp. 394–95, and Amarillo Globe, Feb. 28, 1944. “Mr. Texas”: In fact, Booth Mooney’s biography of him takes that as its title. Liberal commentators knew they had miscalculated. See, for example, AA-S, Jan. 19, 1947.

  84 percent, all 254 counties: Texas Almanac, 1945–46. To this day: Texas Almanacs, 1910–89; Heard and Strong, pp. 132–88. “Perhaps no other product”: Gantt, p. 292. Entire career unique: Gantt, p. 9. Later Governors, including Allan Shivers, would serve longer. In fact, Stevenson may also have been the only candidate for Lieutenant Governor who had ever carried all 254 counties. He did so in his 1940 race for that post. The author could find no other candidate in a contested Democratic primary who had done so, but state records are incomplete, and missing for some years, so it was impossible to compile a definitive record of Lieutenant Governor races.

  1946 polls: For example, DMN, Oct. 19, 1946. And Stevenson’s popularity did not wane after his retirement. In 1947, a Belden Poll showed that if he ran, he would defeat Pappy O’Daniel 74 percent to 26 percent (AA-S, Apr. 8, 1947). A 1948 Belden Poll would find that “Stevenson commanded a vast majority of the votes no matter what candidate was pitted against him” (DMN, May 16, 1948). “Seems to believe”; “sincerely wanted”: AA-S, Jan. 19, 1947. Refusing to consider: Boyett, Murphey interviews.

  “Now he was alone”: Murphey, Boyett, Stevenson, Jr., Edith Stevenson interviews. The mail, and description of life on ranch: Murphey interview; Mooney, p. 65. A reporter who visited Stevenson in retirement reported: “Coke Stevenson doesn’t count mail. He measures it—by the gallon” (DMN, Jan. 10, 1948). Changing the tire: Murphey interview; DMN, July 23, 1941. “We hope”: Mooney, p. 65; Boyett interview.

  9. Head Start

  SOURCES

  Books, articles and documents:

  Allen, ed., Our Sovereign State; Anders, Boss Rule in South Texas; Dugger, The Politician; Green, The Establishment in Texas Politics, 1945–1957; Gunther, Inside U.S.A.; Heard and Strong, Southern Primaries and Elections, 1920–1949; Henderson, Maury Maverick; Kahl, Ballot Box 13; Key, Southern Politics in State and Nation; Kinch and Long, Allan Shivers; Lynch, The Duke of Duval; McKay, Texas Politics, 1906–1944 and Texas and the Fair Deal, 1945–1952; Miller, Lyndon; Mooney, Mr. Texas; Texas Almanac, 1941–42; WPA, Texas: A Guide to the Lone Star State.

  James M. Rowe, “The Mesquite Pendergast: George B. Parr—Second Duke of Duval” (unpublished manuscript), Ingleside, Tex., 1959–60; Edgar G. Shelton, “Political Conditions Among Texas Mexicans Along the Rio Grande” (master’s thesis), Austin, Tex., 1946.

  Ralph Maitland, “San Antonio: The Shame of Texas,” Forum, Aug., 1939; Gordon Schendel, “Something Is Rotten in the State of Texas,” Collier’s, June 9, 1951; Douglas O. Weeks, “The Texas-Mexicans and the Politics of South Texas,” American Political Science Review, Aug., 1930; Owen P. White, “Machine Made,” Collier’s, Sept. 18, 1957; Roland Young, “Lone Star Razzle Dazzle,” The Nation, June 21, 1941.

  Papers of Tom C. Clark (HSTL).

  Papers of George E. B. Peddy (Barker Texas History Center).

  Oral Histories:

  Malcolm Bardwell, George R. Brown, Cecil E. Burney, Tom C. Clark, John B. Connally, Mrs. Sam Fore, Reynaldo G. Garza, Callan Graham, D. B. Hardeman, Luther E. Jones, Joe Kilgore, John E. Lyle, Jr., Clarence C. Martens, Booth Mooney, Robert W. Murphey, Frank C. Oltorf, Daniel J. Quill, Mary Rather, Emmett Shelton, Polk Shelton, Adrian A. Spears, Claude C. Wild, Sr., Wilton Woods.

  Interviews:

  Paul Bolton, Ernest Boyett, George R. B
rown, Edward A. Clark, John B. Connally, Thomas G. Corcoran, Willard Deason, Anne Edwards, D. B. Hardeman, L. E. Jones, Joe M. Kilgore, William J. Lawson, Beverly Lloyd, Frank B. Lloyd, Maury Maverick, Jr., Frank C. (“Posh”) Oltorf, Dan Quill, James H. Rowe, Jr., James M. Rowe, Luis Salas, Emmett Shelton, Coke Stevenson, Jr., Gerald Weatherly, Wilton Woods, Ralph Yarborough, Harold Young.

  NOTES

  Peddy biography and significance of his candidacy: McKay, Texas and the Fair Deal, pp. 168–69; McKay, Texas Politics, pp. 124–27; Boyett, Clark, Oltorf, Stevenson Jr., interviews. The admiration of conservatives for him is expressed by the extremely conservative DMN columnist Lynn Landrum in his columns of January 12 and March 8, 1948.

  Polls: DMN, May 16, 1948. “That strong, silent man”: DMN, Jan. 27, 1947.

  Stevenson’s financing: Boyett, Brown, Clark, Hardeman, Stevenson, Jr., interviews. Between $75,000 and $100,000: This estimate was given to the author by, among others, Boyett, Hardeman, Young.

  Johnson’s first campaign: Caro, Path to Power, pp. 405–9. In that campaign, Johnson spent, in a single congressional district, between $75,000 and $100,000, about the amount other candidates spent on a respectable statewide campaign.

  Checks or envelopes stuffed with cash: For example, cash raised in Washington and in New York City’s garment district by Corcoran and Rowe was sent to Johnson or his aides by trusted couriers; on June 20, 1941, Walter Jenkins arrived in Texas with, he recalls, “bills stuffed into every pocket”: between $10,000 and $15,000. Jenkins gave it to Marsh, who gave it to his personal secretary, Mary Louise Glass, to hold, “and I put it in a white mesh purse. It just bulged with money” (Caro, Path to Power, pp. 716–17). For other descriptions of checks, or envelopes stuffed with cash, going to Johnson, see Caro, pp. 683–87, and Note, p. 840. Brown & Root alone gave Johnson about $200,000 for the 1941 campaign (Caro, pp. 717–18; 743–53).

  Herman Brown’s pledges: Brown, Clark, Corcoran interviews.

  “The way to play”: Gunther, p. 834. Politics in San Antonio on the West Side: Caro, Path to Power, pp. 718–20; Gunther, pp. 832–35; Henderson, pp. 177, 180, 181, 185; White, “Machine Made.” Johnson buying votes for $5: Caro, p. 277; Connally, Quill, Hardeman, Maverick, Jr., interviews. Johnson buying votes wholesale: Caro, pp. 719–20. His failure to personally oversee the voting there in 1941, however, meant that West Side politicians “got Johnson’s money—but Johnson didn’t get the votes,” at least not as many as he had been promised. His overall edge over O’Daniel in the Mexican slum was 3,058 to 1, 110 in the 1941 election, but he had been promised many more than 3,000 votes (Caro, pp. 736–37).

  Towns along the river: WPA, pp. 460–66, 509–12. Literacy rates: Schendel, “Something Is Rotten.” In Sam Johnson’s Boy (p. 259), Steinberg says that Duval ranked 253rd among the 254 Texas counties in literacy. “Only”: Key, p. 272. “From time immemorial”: Weeks, “The Texas-Mexicans,” p. 609. “Lords protector”: Weeks, p. 610. “As hard-bitten”: Philadelphia Record, Nov. 2, 1939.

  “The Valley”: The overall picture of politics in the Valley comes from Key, pp. 271–74; Lynch; Rowe, “Mesquite Pendergast”; Shelton, “Political Conditions”; Weeks, “The Texas-Mexicans”; Green, pp. 4–5; Philadelphia Record, Nov. 2, 1939; interviews with three of George Parr’s lawyers—L. E. Jones, Emmett Shelton, and Gerald Weatherly; with Frank B. Lloyd, District Attorney in Alice in the 1940s and with Luis Salas. Interviews with Boyett, Clark, Connally, Kilgore, Lawson, Rowe, Stevenson, Yarborough, Young.

  (In his thesis, as was shown in The Path to Power, Shelton says that much of the material comes from “personal interviews with men who know politics,” including “ex-Governors, candidates for high state offices, campaign managers, local politicians.… For obvious reasons, these men could not be quoted directly. Their identity must remain a secret.” This thesis is valuable nonetheless because of the identity of the author. Edgar Shelton, Jr., was the son of Edgar Shelton, Sr., one of three Shelton brothers—the other two were Polk and Emmett—who were three of George Parr’s attorneys, as well as attorneys for other financial and political interests in the Valley. Through them, Edgar, Jr., had entrée to the politicians in the state, and the Valley, most familiar with its political machinations. And the only survivor among the three elder Sheltons, Emmett, not only confirms the statements in the thesis, but gives further details of many of the incidents involved. In some of them, he was himself a principal; he knew of others through discussions with his brothers, and with Valley political figures.)

  Keeping receipts in safes: Shelton, “Political Conditions,” p. 107. “Insure discipline”: Key, p. 273. “The Mexican voter”: Lynch, p. 23. Description of voting procedures: Jones, Hardeman interviews; the herding image is used by Weeks, “The Texas-Mexicans,” p. 611. “Poll list”: For example, Rowe, “Mesquite Pendergast,” pp. 36–37.

  Checked only irregularly: Philadelphia Record. “The ‘machine’ votes the dead men”: Shelton, “Political Conditions,” p. 7. “An excellent location”: Shelton, “Political Conditions,” p. 74. Dolores: Philadelphia Record. Ten to one: For example, Table 27, in Key, p. 275, shows that in Duval County, “over a 20-year period … almost invariably the leading candidate received over 90% of the vote.”

  Between 20,000 and 25,000 votes: This estimate was given to the author by Quill, Lawson. Salas’ own estimates range as high as 35,000 votes.

  A decisive consideration: “In negotiating with some jefes, an ample supply of campaign funds is no handicap,” Key, p. 273; Lynch, pp. 30, 41, 53. The State candidates: Shelton, “Political Conditions,” p. 113. “To withstand”: Schendel, “Something Is Rotten.”

  “A siege”; “bodyguards”; “practiced charm”: Schendel, “Something Is Rotten.”

  “In counties like”: Connally interview. “Denies”; “the facts”: Schendel, “Something Is Rotten.” Murders are not uncommon: For example, Rowe, p. 180, quotes a longtime resident of Duval County, Dr. John Sutherland, as saying that during his lifetime “I personally have counted 103 murders.” Lynch, pp. 69 ff., chronicles a number of murders that began in 1952. “It is not easy”: Rowe, “Mesquite Pendergast,” p. 75.

  Beer license: Schendel, “Something Is Rotten.” Extra nickel: Lawson interview. Oil wells: Schendel said he had an interest in “no fewer than 200 wells.” Erasing clauses: Steinberg, p. 260; Lynch, p. 45. $25,000 in cash: Lynch, pp. 39–41; Rowe, “Mesquite Pendergast,” p. 14. Formed own construction company: Dugger, p. 324; Schendel, “Something Is Rotten.” $406,000 income: Schendel, “Something Is Rotten.” “Despite”; race track; $15,000 bets: Schendel, “Something Is Rotten.”

  Two $25,000 “loans”: Lynch, pp. 52–53, 89. “Therefore”: Rowe, “Mesquite Pendergast,” p. 21. See also Schendel, “Something Is Rotten”; Dugger, pp. 324–25.

  Divorce: In the actual settlement, she was awarded not only oil wells and other property but $425,000 in cash (Schendel, “Something Is Rotten”).

  “Little is known”: Shelton, “Political Conditions,” p. 44.

  Revolt in Jim Wells County: Lynch, pp. 60–62; Rowe, “Mesquite Pendergast,” p. 33; Ben Kaplan, “Inside the Parr Empire: Opposition to Duval’s Emperor Develops in Jim Wells County,” HP, Sept. 9, 1948. Rowe interview. Salas’ biography: Salas, “Box 13”; Salas interview. “Stop! Don’t you know?”: Salas, “Box 13,” p. 44. “He used to tell me”: Ibid., p. 38. “Spend this money”; “Through my hands”: Ibid., pp. 44, 36. “We never said no”: Ibid., pp. 34, 38. For accounts that tally with Salas’, see, for example, Shelton, “Political Conditions,” p. 107; Key, p. 273; Lynch, p. 23 and passim; and Rowe, “Mesquite Pendergast,” pp. 56 ff.

  “‘Indio, I want his place closed’”: Parr, quoted in Salas, “Box 13,” p. 37. 80 percent: Ibid., p. 44. “The right hand”: Ibid., pp. 32, 33. “Stood there like a king”: Ibid., p. 37.

  Wirtz negotiating with Archie Parr: Lynch, p. 37. And Steinberg, p. 172, says: “Along the Rio Grande, Wirtz was competing with friends of O’Daniel to buy off c
ounty political dictators.” Wurzbach charged fraud: Steinberg, p. 60. He would never: Lloyd interview. In 1941, Johnson himself had telephoned: Caro, Path to Power, p. 739. 95 percent to 5 percent: Texas Almanac, 1941–42, p. 385; Heard and Strong, pp. 177–79. “It was nauseous”: unidentified source quoted in Shelton, “Political Conditions,” p. 72. “Worse than Pendergast”: Quoted in Ibid., p. 25.

  Stevenson had been the exception: Boyett, Hardeman, Lawson, Quill, Shelton interviews. “Straight behind”: Quoted in Shelton, “Political Conditions,” p. 45. “Why shouldn’t”: Boyett interview.

  Stevenson’s refusal to appoint Kazen: Lynch, p. 56; Boyett, Stevenson, Jr., interviews; Callan Graham, quoted in Miller, pp. 125–26, says he was present when Parr and other border dictators told Stevenson, “Coke, we’ve liked you … but we cannot tolerate a Governor” refusing an “important patronage request.” Parr himself was to tell reporters flatly: “I have nothing against Coke personally. We went to him and asked him to appoint Jim Kazen. [He refused.] This election is the first time we have had an opportunity since then to vote against him” (CCC-T, Sept. 14, 1948). Also see AA-S, Aug. 30, 1977.

  “For years”; “double the meat”: “A source completely inside Parr’s circle,” quoted in Dugger, p. 323. “Everybody knew”: Lloyd interview. Others say: Quill, Shelton interviews. Moreover, on Feb. 16, 1948, Johnson wrote Parr, “John Lyle and I tried to reach you by telephone the other afternoon. He came by my office, and we got to talking about our friends and just decided to call you. We got as far as Dallas, but they said the lines to San Diego were busy, and we never did get to talk before we had to leave. I still haven’t made any definite decision. Expect to be back in Texas the later part of the month, and hope to talk to you then.… Take care of yourself and if there is anything I can do at any time, let me know.”