The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 51, July 1947 - April, 1948 Page: 98

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

alone constitute as large a problem as that of the entire migrant
group.
Mrs. Kibbe does a good job of reporting some of the salient
aspects of this Texas problem. She could well have devoted much
more space to the question and still not have covered all the basic
issues. The work may be criticized as having devoted too much
space unnecessarily to Mexico and Latin America generally and,
relatively, too little to the principal theme. The author, how-
ever, has done a good job of those parts of the problem that she
has found it possible to portray.
This critic finds it hard to concur in the optimism of the
author to the effect that industrialization in Texas will go far
toward solving the problem of the so-called Latin American.
Industrialization has not solved the problem of other peoples in
analogous situations elsewhere. Often, such problems are aggra-
vated by industrial developments. The answer lies deeper than
that. As long as Jim Crowism continues to be applied with com-
placency by institutions and state leaders to this sector of its
population, the problem of the Mexican in Texas will continue
to be a grave one. Industrialization coupled with the same lack
of vision that has characterized political leadership, on the part
of "Mexicans" as well as of others, as regards this minority group
would only lead the state from the frying pan into the fire.
Mrs. Kibbe's book is, nevertheless, the most comprehensive
report that has yet been made of this Texas problem. This is
recommended reading for those who would acquaint themselves
with what is probably the most truly basic issue facing the people
of the state.
GEO. I. SANCHEZ
The University of Texas
They Were Open Range Days: Annals of a Western Frontier.
By Albert W. Thompson. Denver (The World Press, Inc.),
1946. $2.75-
A. W. Thompson, cultivated and educated pioneer of north-
eastern New Mexico, has written his story of sixty-one years of
intimate association with that area. It is a personal memoir
amplified by long and intelligent inquiry into the sources of the