The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 81, July 1977 - April, 1978 Page: 135
521 p. : ill. (some col.), ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Tenant Farmer Discontent and Socialist Protest
135
had fostered. In 1907 Taylor McRae, the editor of a Farmers' Union
newspaper in Fort Worth, wrote Tom Watson to explain that many
of the younger farmers were "sliding into the Socialist Party," which
had started organizing in Texas after the turn of the century.5 When
the old Populist newspaper, The Southern Mercury of Dallas, stopped
publication in 1907 and the weakened Farmers' Union fell into the
hands of business interests, the way was open for the young Socialist
party to win recruits among discontented Democrats and ex-Populists.
The growth of Socialism in the Lone Star State during the early
twentieth century was directly related to the rise of tenancy which
increased from 37.6 percent of all farmers in 188o to over 52 percent
in 1910. During this time, the Socialist vote grew rapidly in the fertile
"black waxy" cotton belt of East Texas and in the newer cotton coun-
ties north of Abilene, where land speculation caused a rapid increase in
tenancy.6 In 1900 Eugene V. Debs only polled 1,841 votes in Texas on
his first run for the presidency, despite the efforts of William E. Farmer,
a radical Populist who had merged his own Texas Social Democratic
Party with Debs's in 1899. After the founding of the Socialist Party of
America in 1901, party organizers established locals in various coun-
ties, wooing trade union leaders and ex-Populists. In 1904 Debs polled
a few thousand votes in his second Socialist presidential campaign, but
failed to win as many votes as the popular agrarian, Tom Watson, who
was running as the candidate of the Allied People's party. In 19o8,
after the Mercury folded and the Farmers' Union collapsed, however,
Debs exceeded his 1904 vote by a noticeable margin, polling close to
8,ooo votes and easily outdistancing Watson, who ran a token cam-
paign for the moribund People's party. The Texas Socialist vote
increased to 11,ooo in 1910 despite the effects of off-year election apathy
and rising cotton prices.7
The growth of tenancy continued. "There was a marked tendency
for farm lands to be consolidated into the hands of fewer owners, many
of them business or professional men who had foreclosed on mortgages
5James A. Tinsley, "The Progressive Movement in Texas" (Ph.D. dissertation, University
of Wisconsin, 1953), 63-67, 164; Taylor McRae to Tom Watson, January 23, 1907, Thomas
E. Watson Papers (Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina, Chapel
Hill).
6Leonard and Naugle, "The Recent Increase in Tenancy," 12, 14-15, 18.
70n the early development of Socialism in Texas see Howord H. Quint, The Forging of
American Socialism: Origins of the Modern Movement (Columbia, South Carolina, 1953),
331-332. Also see William Farmer's articles in the Social Economist (Bonham, Texas), Jan-
uary 13, March 1, 19, 1899. Voting returns are from World Almanac, 9goi (New York),
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 81, July 1977 - April, 1978, periodical, 1977/1978; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101205/m1/163/: accessed April 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.