Post by John Duncan on Apr 4, 2019 21:30:56 GMT -5
Thanks to the Cold War, Texas' industries expanded at a rate five times faster than those of the rest of the nation. This industrial climax reached a peak in 1963, when General Dynamics of Fort Worth was awarded the contract for the TFX fighter plane.
In the year 1960-61, Texas ranked second in the nation in receiving federal aid with $ 3.9 billion, or 20.1 % of the total state revenue. In 1960, Texas had 53% more federal employees and 65 % more federal aid than the average American state. She had the most extensive highway system (constructed with federal funds) in the country, received the largest amount of aid for paralyzed children, and the highest subsidies for flood prevention.
Washington's favors touched every sector of the economy.
Eisenhower, born in Tyler Texas, faced a Congress led by Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn and Senate Majotity Leader Lyndon Johnson, both Texans.
But not all of the inhabitants of Texas shared in this wealth. In 1963, the state of Texas spent 18 % less per person on education, health, hospitals and public welfare. In education, Texas ranked 3rd in federal aid received and 31st in money spent. It was 1st in child welfare aid, but 44th in expenditures. It was 2nd in federal aid for the elderly, and 40th when it came time to spend the money on them.
Nor did Texas only neglect its people. In 1963, it received more federal aid for experimental agricultural stations than any other state in the union, but ranked 47th in term of the amount spent on improvements in cattle breeding.
By 1967, Texas was first in the nation in terms of murder and armed robbery and second highest for rape. Only 15 % of its agricultural workers were unionized.
Texas was for quite some time the realm of intolerance. In 1954, it invoked a fine $ 20,000 and 20 years in prison for membership in the Communist Party. In 1952, its governor, Allan Shrivers, tried to obtain the death penalty for this "crime". Texas saw nothing wrong with prescribing the death penalty for political opinion, but it protected the right to commit murder. In 1960, there were 1,080 murders in Texas and 5 death sentences.
Moreover, Texas had its own definition of murder. A verdict of death by natural causes had been known to coincide with the discovery of a bullet in the body of the deceased. In 1961, USDA agent Henry Marshall, who was investigating Lyndon Johnson's pal Billie Sol Estes, was found shot to death in his car in Texas. He died from 5 gunshot wounds to the head from a single-shot rifle.
The coroner ruled the death a suicide.
Apparently Marshall shot himself in the head and then reloaded and fired the rifle four more times into his head before he died.
It's as incredible as it sounds.
By the mid sixties, 132 counties in Texas were prohibitionist. One out of every 12 Texans was illiterate, the highest percentage in the nation. Texas delivered fewer high school graduates than the poorest state, Mississippi.
It was 3rd in registered automobiles, but 36th in terms of insurance.
Backward, intolerant and irresponsible, Texas lifted it sould only towards God. There were more than 1,000 churches in Dallas alone. The Rev. Billy Graham was popular in Texas, and playboys are frowned upon.
In the fifties and sixties in Texas, corruption was an institution.
Professional witnesses were a dime a dozen and if you were to dial a certain number, you would have been able to hear an antisemitic diatribe.
The oil industry controlled the government, the politics, and the social life of the state. The oilmen had little difficulty getting their candidates elected to office. They controlled the printed press, radio and television. In addition, they had influence over the police and judicial authorities.
"NUT COUNTRY"
The political atmosphere was supercharged in Texas in the autumn of 1963. Among the Republicans, conservatives were in control and the ultraconservative fringe was out of control.
On the day before Kennedy arrived in Dallas, his opponent from 1960, Richard Nixon, had visited the city and predicted that Kennedy would drop Johnson from the ticket in 1964.
The Republican Party had come to life in Texas in the 1950's. In 1960, the city of Dallas gave Richard Nixon the largest vote margin over Kennedy of any city in the the nation. In elections over the next three years, eight of Dallas County's nine legislative seats went to Republicans.
In November 1960, Lyndon and Mrs. Johnson were attacked by a group of Nixon
supporters as they tried to cross the street after leaving the Adolphus Hotel.
One carried a campaign poster with the words "Smiling Judas" scrawled next to Johnson's face.
In the front of the mob was Rep. Bruce Alger (R-Dallas) who held a poster that read, " LBJ sold out to Yankee Socialists". It took the Johnsons 45 minutes to cross the street and later Lyndon said that they were spat upon.
During the National Indignation Convention in Dallas in 1961, ultraconservative Texan J. Evetts Haley said that impeachment wasn't good enough for Earl Warren. He called for a hanging. Another speaker, Dr. Revilo P. Oliver, said that "We are angry and intend to stay that way until we have made America unsafe for traitors." He also told the crowd of 5,000 that, "Modern traitors are still traitors. Their acts must not be excused and they must not go unpunished ".
By the fall of 1963, this indignation had turned from words to actions. UN Ambassador Adlai Stevenson had come to Dallas on October 24, 1963 to speak at a U.N. Day program at Memorial Auditorium. But 100 right-wing extremists showed up to express their disdain for the United Nations. Stevenson was heckled in the auditorium by Frank McGehee, the leader of the National Indignation Committee, and then was attacked as he left. He was spat on and struck on the head with a woman's sign. When he finally got into his limousine, the crowd rocked it from side to side and the driver had to gun it to get out of there.
When Kennedy came to Dallas, he was rejected by the Dallas establishment because of his advocacy of social change and ending the Cold War. It didn't like Kennedy, who it saw as a weakling and a traitor who was trying to end the Cold War by voluntarily disarming America and putting too much trust in the words of the Russians (who had lied to him about the missiles in Cuba). In addition, he was encouraging the Negroes to riot against the "southern way of life".
The more moderate forces in the religious, educational and business leadership had been reluctant to protest the activities of the far right, thus giving a sanction to their acts of extremism.
As the Rev Thomas Fry, Jr., pastor of the First Presbyterian Church said, "We created an atmosphere in which it could happen". The Rev. William A. Holmes , pastor of the Northaven United Methodist Church said that, "We...let our city be taken over by..a bunch of extreme, reactionary, right-wing people."
"This crime was beyond the capability of any one person, Oswald or anyone else. And on that basis, there was a conspiracy."--Harold Weisberg
In the year 1960-61, Texas ranked second in the nation in receiving federal aid with $ 3.9 billion, or 20.1 % of the total state revenue. In 1960, Texas had 53% more federal employees and 65 % more federal aid than the average American state. She had the most extensive highway system (constructed with federal funds) in the country, received the largest amount of aid for paralyzed children, and the highest subsidies for flood prevention.
Washington's favors touched every sector of the economy.
Eisenhower, born in Tyler Texas, faced a Congress led by Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn and Senate Majotity Leader Lyndon Johnson, both Texans.
But not all of the inhabitants of Texas shared in this wealth. In 1963, the state of Texas spent 18 % less per person on education, health, hospitals and public welfare. In education, Texas ranked 3rd in federal aid received and 31st in money spent. It was 1st in child welfare aid, but 44th in expenditures. It was 2nd in federal aid for the elderly, and 40th when it came time to spend the money on them.
Nor did Texas only neglect its people. In 1963, it received more federal aid for experimental agricultural stations than any other state in the union, but ranked 47th in term of the amount spent on improvements in cattle breeding.
By 1967, Texas was first in the nation in terms of murder and armed robbery and second highest for rape. Only 15 % of its agricultural workers were unionized.
Texas was for quite some time the realm of intolerance. In 1954, it invoked a fine $ 20,000 and 20 years in prison for membership in the Communist Party. In 1952, its governor, Allan Shrivers, tried to obtain the death penalty for this "crime". Texas saw nothing wrong with prescribing the death penalty for political opinion, but it protected the right to commit murder. In 1960, there were 1,080 murders in Texas and 5 death sentences.
Moreover, Texas had its own definition of murder. A verdict of death by natural causes had been known to coincide with the discovery of a bullet in the body of the deceased. In 1961, USDA agent Henry Marshall, who was investigating Lyndon Johnson's pal Billie Sol Estes, was found shot to death in his car in Texas. He died from 5 gunshot wounds to the head from a single-shot rifle.
The coroner ruled the death a suicide.
Apparently Marshall shot himself in the head and then reloaded and fired the rifle four more times into his head before he died.
It's as incredible as it sounds.
By the mid sixties, 132 counties in Texas were prohibitionist. One out of every 12 Texans was illiterate, the highest percentage in the nation. Texas delivered fewer high school graduates than the poorest state, Mississippi.
It was 3rd in registered automobiles, but 36th in terms of insurance.
Backward, intolerant and irresponsible, Texas lifted it sould only towards God. There were more than 1,000 churches in Dallas alone. The Rev. Billy Graham was popular in Texas, and playboys are frowned upon.
In the fifties and sixties in Texas, corruption was an institution.
Professional witnesses were a dime a dozen and if you were to dial a certain number, you would have been able to hear an antisemitic diatribe.
The oil industry controlled the government, the politics, and the social life of the state. The oilmen had little difficulty getting their candidates elected to office. They controlled the printed press, radio and television. In addition, they had influence over the police and judicial authorities.
"NUT COUNTRY"
The political atmosphere was supercharged in Texas in the autumn of 1963. Among the Republicans, conservatives were in control and the ultraconservative fringe was out of control.
On the day before Kennedy arrived in Dallas, his opponent from 1960, Richard Nixon, had visited the city and predicted that Kennedy would drop Johnson from the ticket in 1964.
The Republican Party had come to life in Texas in the 1950's. In 1960, the city of Dallas gave Richard Nixon the largest vote margin over Kennedy of any city in the the nation. In elections over the next three years, eight of Dallas County's nine legislative seats went to Republicans.
In November 1960, Lyndon and Mrs. Johnson were attacked by a group of Nixon
supporters as they tried to cross the street after leaving the Adolphus Hotel.
One carried a campaign poster with the words "Smiling Judas" scrawled next to Johnson's face.
In the front of the mob was Rep. Bruce Alger (R-Dallas) who held a poster that read, " LBJ sold out to Yankee Socialists". It took the Johnsons 45 minutes to cross the street and later Lyndon said that they were spat upon.
During the National Indignation Convention in Dallas in 1961, ultraconservative Texan J. Evetts Haley said that impeachment wasn't good enough for Earl Warren. He called for a hanging. Another speaker, Dr. Revilo P. Oliver, said that "We are angry and intend to stay that way until we have made America unsafe for traitors." He also told the crowd of 5,000 that, "Modern traitors are still traitors. Their acts must not be excused and they must not go unpunished ".
By the fall of 1963, this indignation had turned from words to actions. UN Ambassador Adlai Stevenson had come to Dallas on October 24, 1963 to speak at a U.N. Day program at Memorial Auditorium. But 100 right-wing extremists showed up to express their disdain for the United Nations. Stevenson was heckled in the auditorium by Frank McGehee, the leader of the National Indignation Committee, and then was attacked as he left. He was spat on and struck on the head with a woman's sign. When he finally got into his limousine, the crowd rocked it from side to side and the driver had to gun it to get out of there.
When Kennedy came to Dallas, he was rejected by the Dallas establishment because of his advocacy of social change and ending the Cold War. It didn't like Kennedy, who it saw as a weakling and a traitor who was trying to end the Cold War by voluntarily disarming America and putting too much trust in the words of the Russians (who had lied to him about the missiles in Cuba). In addition, he was encouraging the Negroes to riot against the "southern way of life".
The more moderate forces in the religious, educational and business leadership had been reluctant to protest the activities of the far right, thus giving a sanction to their acts of extremism.
As the Rev Thomas Fry, Jr., pastor of the First Presbyterian Church said, "We created an atmosphere in which it could happen". The Rev. William A. Holmes , pastor of the Northaven United Methodist Church said that, "We...let our city be taken over by..a bunch of extreme, reactionary, right-wing people."
"This crime was beyond the capability of any one person, Oswald or anyone else. And on that basis, there was a conspiracy."--Harold Weisberg