The Path to Power

by Robert A. Caro

  Child labor: See, for example, CCC, Jan. 28, 1935. Tarring the liberal: Hopkins; Miller, quoted in CCC, July 22, 1932. Advocating federal sales tax: CCC, July 21, 1932. “His manner”: Miller.

  Dancing only with the wives: Harbin, quoted in Knippa, p. 28; Brown OH, p. 86; Latimer. “I can’t call him Henry”: Brown OH, pp. 7–8. “Executive type”: Brown OH, p. 8. “Lyndon goes”: Brown OH, p. 86. “Basic orientation”: Brown OH, pp. 39–40. Excerpts from Oral History interviews conducted by Michael L. Gillette, Chief of Oral History at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library, with Jones and Brown are revealing. Jones OH—Gillette: “He seems to have been considerably more of a liberal than Representative Kleberg in the early thirties.” Jones: “I know that would be easy to imagine, but I’m not sure that’s true. Not really more liberal.” Brown OH—Gillette: “Did you get the feeling that [Roy Miller] was sort of a mentor for Kleberg?” Brown: “No. He was a mentor for Lyndon Johnson.” Gillette: “Oh, was he?” Brown: “Yes … He didn’t agree with Roosevelt and the Roosevelt policies at all. I would have to say that Lyndon was really getting himself oriented politically at the time. I think Lyndon’s earliest orientation was on the conservative side, you know, with Kleberg and Roy Miller and those people. He didn’t become a great liberal until quite a bit later.” “I don’t think”: Jones OH II, p. 9. “Winning,” etc.: Jones interview.

  “The brightest secretary”: Maverick, quoted in San Marcos Daily News, March 5, 1934. Sam Johnson’s handwritten note is found on a copy of the clipping, in “Public Activities–Biographic Information–Secretary to Congressman Kleberg,” Box 73, LBJA SF.

  “Your own man”: Brown OH, pp. 57–58. Moving his desk: Latimer interview and OH, p. 6. Grabbing the credit: For examples of how his press releases were reprinted in the press, see CCC, 1933–1934. An article on April 12, 1934, begins: “Information contained in a telegram last night from Lyndon B. Johnson, secretary …” Building up his own organization in the district: Latimer, Jones, Quill, Mrs. Sam Fore; Sam Fore, in Knippa, p. 29. Boat trip: Patman, quoted in Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, pp. 80–81.

  Ambassadorship resolution: CCC, Feb. 28, March 5, 1933. See also CCC, Oct. 21, 1933.

  San Antonio postmastership: Kleberg to McIntyre, Feb. 18, 1934, Roosevelt to Garner, March 12, 1934, Howe to Farley, March 12, 1934, OF 400-Texas, Roosevelt Papers; Quill; CCC, June 15, 1934; among the influential persons whom Johnson persuaded to support Quill was Roy Miller. “A first-class war”: Brown OH, pp. 52–53. “That’s what”; “way above”; immediately handling: Quill.

  Becoming friends with Maverick: Brown OH, pp. 89–90. Patronage post: CCC, Dec. 7, 1934.

  “Do you suppose?”: Wirtz, quoted in Brown OH, pp. 64–66. Elmer Pope: Brown OH, p. 63. “Like youngsters”: Hopkins. Wirtz and Ferguson coming to Washington: Ferguson. “Knew Washington”; “could get you in”: Hopkins, Clark, Ferguson.

  Getting jobs: Keach, Latimer, Crider OH, RJB; Brown OH. Bell: to Johnson, 1937.

  “Didn’t make you rich”: Deason. “The best job”: Crider OH, p. 9. “Very appreciative”: Morgan. “Had sense enough”: Deason. Deason’s career shift: Deason, Richards. Kellam’s personality: Woods, SHJ, Shelton. Racing to Austin: Latimer. Shuffling papers: Deason. Johnson’s domination: Clark. Kellam crying: Latimer. “I remember”: Brown OH, p. 59.

  Passing on Deason’s job to Richards: Deason, Richards. Federal Land Bank jobs: Deason, SHJ; Crider OH.

  17. Lady Bird

  SOURCES

  The primary source of information for this chapter is the author’s ten interviews with Mrs. Johnson.

  Books and articles:

  Two biographies—Montgomery, Mrs. LBJ, and Smith, The President’s Lady—present an idealized picture of her life, at variance with that given by other sources.

  Helpful is the script of “A National Tribute to Lady Bird Johnson, on the Occasion of Her Sixty-Fifth Birthday,” presented at the LBJ Library, Dec. 11, 1977.

  Among scores of magazine articles on Lady Bird Johnson, the most revealing are Blake Clark, “Lyndon Johnson’s Lady Bird,” Reader’s Digest, November, 1963; Elizabeth Janeway, “The First Lady: A Professional at Getting Things Done,” Ladies’ Home Journal, April, 1964; Barbara Klaw, “Lady Bird Remembers,” American Heritage, December, 1980; Flora Rheta Schreiber, “Lady Bird Johnson’s First Years of Marriage,” Woman’s Day, December, 1967; “The New First Lady,” Time, Nov. 29, 1963; “The First Lady Bird,” Time, Aug. 28, 1964.

  Oral Histories:

  Sherman Birdwell, Russell Brown, Ellen Taylor Cooper, Daniel J. Quill.

  Other interviews:

  Mary Elliott Botsford, Willard Deason, D. B. Hardeman, Rebekah Johnson, Sam Houston Johnson, L. E. Jones, Gene Latimer.

  NOTES

  Democratic primary results: 1931, Blanco County Clerk’s office; 1932, SAE, July 25, 1932. Because it was Johnson’s home: Among those who report this feeling are Stella Gliddon, Clayton Stribling, Gene Latimer. “But they just didn’t”: Latimer. “Same old Lyndon”: Stribling. A familiar figure: Knispel, Richards.

  Johnson at the King Ranch: Ethel Davis. Johnson’s correspondence with Mrs. Kleberg: SHJ.

  Thomas Jefferson Taylor description: Time, Aug. 28, 1964. Also Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, pp. 83–4. “But making money”: Wright Patman, quoted in Steinberg, p. 83. “Peonage”: Eugenia Lassater, quoted in Time, Aug. 28, 1964. “He looked on Negroes”: Tom Taylor, quoted in Time, Aug. 28, 1964. Negroes called him: Steinberg, p. 84.

  Origin of nickname “Lady Bird”: Among others, Time, Aug. 28, 1964. Description of Lady Bird’s mother: Smith, pp. 29–30. “I remember”: Smith, p. 32.

  Playing around the store: Montgomery, p. 10; Smith, p. 33. Being sent to Alabama: Smith, p. 33.

  “She opened my spirit”: Smith, p. 35. Loved to read; finished Ben-Hur: Time, Aug. 28, 1964. “Perhaps”: Janeway, “The First Lady.” To another reporter, she once said of Karnack: “It was a lonesome place, but I wasn’t lonely. It’s true that I didn’t know many youngsters of my own age and background, and that proved difficult later when I had to mingle with others in school. But I had the whole wide world to roam in. And I had Aunt Effie.” (National Observer, April 24, 1967.) “I came from”: Interview with author. Her high school years: Steinberg, pp. 85–6; Schreiber, “Lady Bird Johnson’s First Years,” Janeway, “The First Lady” and Time articles. They remember a shyness: Time, Aug. 28, 1964. “I don’t recommend”; “drifts of magnolia”: Janeway, “The First Lady.” Fear of being valedictorian; praying to get smallpox; she still remembers exact grades: Smith, p. 36; Montgomery, p. 13. Newspaper joked: Steinberg, p. 86. This is not the picture of Mrs. Johnson given in the Smith biography, in which Dorris Powell is quoted (p. 34) as saying that Mrs. Johnson was “a thinker even as a little girl. She was popular, pretty and an A-1 student, but she did not run with the herd. She was never identified with any group; she chose her friends because of their individual qualities, how they appealed to her.”

  At University of Texas: Time, Aug. 28, 1964. Soloman and Benefield: Quoted in Schreiber, “Lady Bird Johnson’s First Years of Marriage.” Taking pains to make sure she wouldn’t have to return to Karnack: Interview with author. “Because I thought”: Smith, p. 38.

  “Unlimited” charge account: Smith, p. 38. She still dressed: Steinberg, p. 87. Her only coat: Time, Aug. 28, 1964. “No glamour girl”: Hardeman. Her classmates remember: Steinberg, p. 87. “Gene made me”: Steinberg, p. 87; Smith, p. 37. “Stingy”: Eugenia Lassater, quoted in Time, Aug. 28, 1964.

  Lady Bird’s first meeting with Lyndon: Interviews with author, which expanded on Smith, p. 40; Steinberg, p. 82; and numerous magazine articles. “Some kind of joke”: Smith, pp. 40–41. “Excessively thin”: “A National Tribute,” p. 3. Her feelings for his father and mother; “Extremely modest”: Interviews with author. Exploding at Birdwell: Birdwell OH, p. 11.

  Cap’n Taylor liking Lyndon: Ruth Taylor, quoted in Schreiber, “Lady Bird Johnson’s First Years of Marriage
.” “I could tell”: Smith, p. 41. Kissing him, and scandalizing the neighbor: Smith, pp. 41–2. The neighbor was Dorris Powell. “I have never”: Ellen Taylor Cooper OH, p. 11. “Moth-and-flame”: Janeway, “The First Lady”; Smith, p. 40.

  “This invariable rhythm”: Latimer, Jones. “My dear Bird”: Johnson to Lady Bird, Oct. 24, 1934, quoted in “A National Tribute,” p. 4. “I see something”: Johnson to Lady Bird, undated, quoted in “A National Tribute,” p. 5. “Every interesting place”; “Why must we wait?”: Johnson to Lady Bird, Sept. 18, 1934, quoted in “A National Tribute.”

  “Dearest”: Lady Bird to Johnson, undated, quoted in “A National Tribute.”

  “When we were on the phone”; getting engaged: Interviews with author, which expanded on Smith, pp. 42–3, and numerous magazine articles.

  The marriage: Smith, pp. 44–5; Quill OH, p. 8 ff. Telephoning Boehringer: Time, Aug. 28, 1964. Lyndon telephoned his mother: Smith, p. 44.

  “Just ordered her”: Botsford. Acquaintances were shocked: A number of Texans in Washington at the time described Johnson ordering around his new wife, but asked not to be quoted by name on this particular subject. “He’d embarrass her”: Lucas. “I don’t know”: Lucas; other acquaintances.

  Exploring alone: Interviews with author. “I was always prepared”: Brown OH, pp. 71–2. Couldn’t get him to read: Steinberg, p. 100. “He early announced”: Interview with author. And she did them: Steinberg, p. 255. She was to tell a reporter: “Lyndon is the leader. Lyndon sets the pattern. I execute what he wants. Lyndon’s wishes dominate our household.”

  “I had never swept”: Smith, p. 57. Maverick dinner: Mrs. Maverick, quoted in Schreiber, “Lady Bird Johnson’s First Years of Marriage.” “Get the furniture insured”: Brown OH, p. 11. Her graciousness: Attested to by dozens who knew her.

  18. Rayburn

  SOURCES

  Books and articles:

  Alsop and Catledge, The 168 Days; Anderson and Boyd, Confessions of a Muckraker; Burns, Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox; Cocke, The Bailey Controversy in Texas; Daniels, Frontier on the Potomac and White House Witness; Donovan, Conflict and Crisis; Dorough, Mr. Sam; Douglas, The Court Years and Go East, Young Man; Dulaney, Phillips and Reese, Speak, Mr. Speaker; Freidel, Launching the New Deal; Gantt, The Chief Executive in Texas; Halberstam, The Powers That Be; Leuchtenburg, Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal; Link, Wilson: The New Freedom and Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive Era; Miller, Fishbait; Moley, After Seven Years and 21 Masters of Politics; Mooney, Roosevelt and Rayburn; Parrish, Securities Regulation and the New Deal; Schlesinger, The Age of Roosevelt: I The Crisis of the Old Order, II The Coming of the New Deal, III The Politics of Upheaval; Steinberg, Sam Rayburn; Timmons, Garner of Texas.

  Joseph Alsop and Robert Kintner, “Never Leave Them Angry,” Saturday Evening Post, Jan. 18, 1941; David L. Cohn, “Mr. Speaker,” Atlantic Monthly, Oct., 1942; Robert Coughlan, “Proprietors of the House,” Life, Feb. 14, 1955; Edward N. Gadsby, “Historical Development of the S.E.C.—The Government View,” Foreword by William O. Douglas, The George Washington Law Review, Oct., 1959; D. B. Hardeman, “The Unseen Side of the Man They Called Mr. Speaker,” Life, Dec. 1, 1961; Paul F. Healy, “They’re Just Crazy About Sam,” Sat. Eve. Post, Nov. 24, 1951; James M. Landis, “The Legislative History of the Securities Act of 1933,” The George Washington Law Review, Oct., 1959; W. H. Lawrence, “The Texan Who Rides Herd on Congress,” NYT Magazine, March 14, 1943; Dale Miller, “A Requiem for Rayburn,” Dallas Magazine, Jan., 1962; W. B. Ragsdale, U.S. News and World Report, Oct. 23, 1961; R. Tucker, “Master for the House,” Collier’s, Jan. 5, 1935; Jerry Voorhiis, “Mr. Rayburn of Texas,” The New Republic, July 10, 1944. William S. White, NYT Magazine: “Sam Rayburn—The Untalkative Speaker,” Feb. 27, 1949; “Then Martin, Now Rayburn, And So On,” Feb. 6, 1955; “The Two Texans Who Will Run Congress,” Dec. 30, 1956.

  Fortune: “The Legend of Landis,” Aug., 1934; “SEC,” June, 1940. Time: “Leader Apparent,” Dec. 14, 1936; “Yataghans at 15 Blocks,” April 18, 1938; “Mister Speaker,” Sept. 27, 1943; “Sam Rayburn, Texan,” Jan. 14, 1946.

  Bascom N. Timmons, “The Indomitable Mr. Sam,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram series, Oct. 11–18, 1961.

  Oral Histories:

  Helen Gahagan Douglas, Marvin Jones, James M. Landis, Wright Patman, Henry A. Wallace.

  Interviews:

  Andrew Biemiller, Richard Boiling, Emanuel Celler, Benjamin V. Cohen, Sterling Cole, James P. Coleman, Thomas G. Corcoran, Helen Gahagan Douglas, H. G. Dulaney, O. C. Fisher, D. B. Hardeman, Kenneth Harding, John Holton, Welly K. Hopkins, Edouard V. M. Izac, Walter Jenkins, Lady Bird Johnson, SHJ, L. E. Jones, Murray Kempton, Eugene J. Keogh, DeWitt Kinard, Gene Latimer, Wingate Lucas, George H. Mahon, Gerald C. Mann, W. D. McFarlane, Dale Miller, Frank C. Oltorf, William Howard Payne, Elwyn Rayden, Elizabeth Rowe, James H. Rowe, Lacey Sharp, James F. Swist, Harold Young.

  NOTES

  “The rich richer,” etc.: CR, 63rd Congress, 1 Session, May 6, 1913, pp. 1247–51. “Never stopped hating”: Coughlan, “Proprietors of the House.” “Will not forget”: White, “Then Martin, Now Rayburn.” “As long as I honor”: Quoted in Steinberg, p. 84.

  Rayburn’s youth: Steinberg, pp. 4–9; Dorough, pp. 43–61; Dulaney, p. 10. “The people … on their trek”: Quoted in Dulaney, p. 10. The first year: Steinberg, p. 6; Dorough, p. 58; Dulaney, p. 10. “I plowed and hoed”: Rayburn speech, May 19, 1916, quoted in Dulaney, p. 10.

  Picture of General Lee: Dorough, p. 59. “Any show”: Steinberg, p. 38. “Many a time”; “loneliness consumes people”: Cohn, “Mr. Speaker”; Rayburn speech at 1952 Democratic National Convention, quoted in Dulaney, pp. 10–11.

  “Dominated”; “his tones”: Bowers, My Life, quoted in Steinberg, p. 14. “I didn’t go”: Alsop and Kintner, “Never Leave Them Angry.” Practicing: Dorough, p. 65; Steinberg, p. 8. “I’m going”: Steinberg, p. 8.

  “I’m not asking you”: CR, 76th Congress, 3 Session, Sept. 19, 1940, p. 18747; Steinberg, p. 9. At the railroad station: Rayburn interview in Ragsdale, USN&WR, Oct. 23, 1961. “Sam, be a man!”: Steinberg, p. 20.

  At college: Steinberg, pp. 10–12.

  Campaigning: Dorough, pp. 76–77; Steinberg, pp. 16–17; Lawrence, “The Texan Who Rides Herd”; Rayden. “I’m not trying”: Rayburn speech, 1912, quoted in Dulaney, p. 20. Gardner: Steinberg, p. 16; Dorough, p. 77.

  “My untarnished name”: Dulaney, p. 12; Hardeman. Pharr’s soda: Rayburn to Ridgway, quoted in Dulaney, p. 18. Handed check back: Dulaney, p. 20. “We often wish”: Mrs. W. M. Rayburn to Sam Rayburn, March 9, 1909. “No one”: Among many, who knew Rayburn at different periods of his life, who said it to the author: McFarlane, Hardeman, Miller, Mahon. “I’ve always wanted responsibility”: Alsop and Kintner, “Never Leave Them Angry.”

  Bailey episode: Cocke, passim; Dorough, p. 79; Steinberg, pp. 17–18. “In dark moods”: Robert J. Donovan, NY Herald Tribune, Nov. 17, 1961. Campbell episode: Dorough, p. 106.

  “No degrees”: Hardeman. “He had a reputation”: Ridgway, quoted in Dorough, p. 89. “Once you lied”: Hardeman OH, pp. 116–17.

  “Just” and “fair”: Dorough, p. 98. “Whether or not”: Dorough, p. 104; Hardeman.

  “If you have anything”: Alsop and Kintner, “Never Leave Them Angry.” Election as Speaker: Dorough, pp. 96–97; Steinberg, pp. 20–22. “Cottonpatch yell”: Dulaney, p. 19. “Up in Fannin County”: Rayburn speech, Jan. 10, 1911, quoted in Dulaney, p. 19. As Speaker: Dorough, p. 108; Steinberg, p. 23.

  Redistricting: Steinberg, p. 25. “When I was”: Rayburn, July 16, 1912, quoted in Dulaney, p. 23.

  His first speech in Congress: CR, 63rd Congress, 1 Session, May 6, 1913, pp. 1247–51. Railroad regulation bill: Link, Woodrow Wilson, p. 68; Steinberg, p. 43. “With admiration”: Wilson to Rayburn, June 9, 1914, quoted in Steinberg, p. 45. Confrontation with Wilson: Timmons, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Oct. 12, 1961; Hardeman; Steinberg, p. 52.

  Refusing lobbyists’ mea
ls, travel expenses: Alsop and Kintner, “Never Leave Them Angry”; Dulaney, p. 24; Hardeman. One trip: Dulaney, p. 24. “Not for sale”: Dorough, p. 85; Steinberg, p. xii. $15,000: Steinberg, p. 346.

  Pumping of a piston: Daniels, Frontier, p. 58. Holding the two Congressmen apart: Miller, p. 242; Hardeman. “Amidst the multitude”: Sam Rayburn Scrapbooks, Rayburn Library; McFarlane, Hardeman. “Young in years”: Rep. William C. Adamson, quoted in Steinberg, p. 45.

  “Someday”: Alsop and Kintner, “Never Leave Them Angry.” “The only way”: Steinberg, p. 33.

  “My ambition”: Rayburn to Katy Thomas, Feb. 2, 1922, in Dulaney, p. 35. “Almost kills me”: Alsop and Kintner, “Never Leave Them Angry.” Standing in the aisle etc.: Time, Dec. 14, 1936. “The smartest thing”: Dulaney, p. 37; Miller, p. 234.

  Cochran Hotel: Alsop and Kintner, “Never Leave Them Angry.”