The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 103, July 1999 - April, 2000 Page: 406
554 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
first half of the twentieth century San Antonio probably had the weakest
business leadership of the three cities and not only experienced
machine rule characteristic of the nation's eastern cities, but it also gave
America Maury Maverick, one of the most prominent liberals of the New
Deal era. San Antonio's leaders were not as aggressive or unified as city
builders in Dallas and Houston."1 All this suggests the dangers of over-
generalizing about the state's cities and also indicates that the vague and
simplistic "conservative" label has been overused.
These cities did share some common ground, however, when it came
to how they addressed their social problems. Despite the existence of
poverty and inadequate housing since at least the turn of the century,
none of the cities had strong traditions in housing reform like eastern
centers such as New York City, Philadelphia, or Cincinnati. Although
social work groups had acknowledged such problems and even surveyed
each city's bad housing before the Great Depression, city leaders, preoc-
cupied with promoting urban growth, or keeping their tax rates low,
gave little attention to housing the poor, and made no effort to correct
these matters through housing codes or model tenements, solutions
popular in the North between 1880 and 192o. Nor were the urban con-
stituencies that often supported such actions very strong in these cities.
Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio were generally more homogeneous
than their eastern counterparts, and those ethnic groups that predomi-
nated, Mexican Americans and African Americans, generally had little
clout. Unions, a traditional source of housing support, also offered little
to energize housing reform in the Texas cities.
Even the Great Depression did not bring about major changes in the
Texas cities. While it is true that all three cities suffered from the ill
effects of the stock market crash and Great Depression, none of them
faced the extent of unemployment nor the economic catastrophe found
in the North. Indeed, during the early years of the Depression these
cities liked to emphasize the health of their economy compared to the
rest of the country.8
Despite their caution when addressing social needs, no tradition of
housing reform, and the limited impact of the Great Depression, all
three cities appropriated resources to participate in the nation's first
permanent public housing program. Although the bulk of money
would come from the federal government, local governments loaned
money to fledging housing authorities, agreed to provide infrastructure
support, and promised to supply police and fire protection despite the
" Miller and Johnson, "The Rise of Urban Texas," 17, 28.
18 Dorothy De Moss, "Resourcefulness m the Financial Capital: Dallas, 1929-1933," in Robert
C. Cotner, ed., Texas Cztzes and the Great Depresszon (Austin: Texas Memorial Museum, 1973),
12 1-123; Wilham E. Montgomery, "The Depression in Houston, 1929-1933," in ibid., 153; Mary
Maverick McMillan Fisher, "San Antonio I: The Hoover Years," in ibid., 53-54.406
April
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 103, July 1999 - April, 2000, periodical, 2000; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101220/m1/462/: accessed April 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.