Ben H. Procter
GREAT DEPRESSION. Texans were optimistic about the future in January 1929. Over the past decade the state population had increased to 5,824,715, representing a gain of more than one million people, or almost 25 percent. Although geared to one crop-"Cotton is King"-the economy was somewhat diversified. In East Texas the Piney Woods accounted for a substantial lumber industry; in the lower Rio Grande valley, with the introduction of irrigation, both truck and citrus farming had proved extremely profitable; on the Edwards Plateau and in West Texas, livestock had established the state as the nation's number-one producer of hides and wool and mohair; and at many oftentimes isolated sites such as Desdemona and Wink, wildcatters pursued the legacy of Spindletop by producing vast amounts of oil and gas. In fact, Texans prided themselves on their situation, in being the largest state-indeed more spacious in area than any western European nation-and in maintaining the American frontier traits of rugged individualism, of fierce competitiveness, of unblushing patriotism. At the same time they had solidified and strengthened their economic position through political action. On the state level in 1928 they had reelected Dan Moody as governor, a brilliant lawyer versed in administrative efficiency and dedicated to "wiping out debts and lowering taxes," while on the national front they had for the first time voted for a Republican for the presidency. Herbert Clark Hoover of Iowa, with a strong belief in future prosperity for the country, had touched their wallets and won their purse-string allegiance. In addition to the prosperity factor was the issue of controversial Democratic nominee Alfred E. Smith. Catholic, urban-born, progressive in policies, yet educated politically by boss-dominated Tammany Hall, Smith was anathema to a majority of Texans, who were Protestant, agrarian conservatives and who openly embraced the return of morality and traditional American values nominally espoused by the Ku Klux Klan.
