Texas Almanac, 1939-1940 Page: 79
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HISTORY OF TEXAS. 79
Houston at San Antonio and Fort Bliss an industrial welfare commission. He
at El Paso were centers of military ac- originated the state park movement and
tivity. appointed the first State Park Board.
Under Governor Hobby's administra- He instituted the reclamation and con-
tion the compulsory school law was servation program pertaining to the
strengthened, free textbooks for public floodwaters and overflowing lands, in-
schools were provided, aid for rural cluding a state-wide topographic\survey
schools was increased and the general and the organization of a state advisory
scholastic apportionment was raised council of engineers. He issued the first
from $7.50 to $14.50. The apportionment official state program of the Texas Cen-
had never been above $7.50 prior to tennial celebration for the holding of the
Hobby's administration and the allot- Texas Centennial of 1936.
ment of $14.50 set a new standard for His administration was characterized
measurement of state support of schools. by declaring martial law for the sup-
Middle West Texas suffered the most pressing of crime and for the handling of
severe drouth in its history during 1918 the railroad strike situation. He estab-
and Governor Hobby was instrumental lished an honor farm in connection with
in obtaining loans for the farmers of the Texas penitentiary. The Texas
this region, so that they might prepare Technological College at Lubbock, and
crops for the following year. The laws State Teachers College at Kingsville,
establishing the State Board of Control, were established, and $1,350,000 worth of
the so-called "open port law," aimed at land adjoining the University of Texas
violence in the longshoremen's strike in campus was added to it during his ad-
port cities of the state, and the law ministration.
establishing a quarantine against pink Neff's first campaign was a stirring
bollworm infested areas and providing affair, with Joseph Weldon Bailey, Rob-
funds to pay farmers who were dam- ert E. Thomason and Ben F. Looney as
aged, were among the measures passed opponents. Bailey, who had come out
during the Hobby administration. The of retirement to private life after his
state tax rate for general revenue pur- resignation from the United States Sen-
poses was reduced from 35c to 23c. ate in 1913, led Neff by a margin of
Prohibition Amendment Adopted. 2,522 votes in the first primary. Howev-
The war fervor and the need of pro- er, the election law had been amended
testing the many military camps in Tex- during the preceding administration re-
as from liquor influences aided the quiring a second primary between the
cause of prohibition. The amendment to two leading contestants in the first pri-
the State Constitution, Sec. 20, Art. 16, mary in instances where no clear ma-
was submitted by the Thirty-Sixth Leg- jority was obtained in the first race. Neff
islature and adopted at an election May defeated Bailey in the second pri-
24, 1919, in which the vote was 158,982 mary. In the primary preceding his sec-
for, and 130,907 against. In the mean- ond term, Neff defeated Fred S. Rogers,
time, however, the national prohibition 318,000 to 195,941. In the first of Neff's
amendment had been submitted, and it two terms, Texas was depressed econom-
had been ratified by the Legislature of ically by the sudden but short-lived de-
this state, Feb. 28, 1918. pression that followed the close of the
Despite war activity, Texas' industrial World War.
development continued. Population in- The first administration of Mrs. Miri-
creased from 3,896,542 in 1910 to 4,663,- am A. Ferguson (Jan. 20, 1925, to Jan.
228 in 1920; manufacturing during the 17, 1927), first woman to hold the gov-
same period increased in annual value ernorship of Texas, came primarily as a
of products from $272,895,635 to $999,- result of the struggle that arose during
995,796, which was a gain of more than the Neff administration over the Ku
100 per cent indicated in actual volume Klux Klan. This secret organization,
after deduction is made for the inflation which carried the name of the old post-
of values. The annual value of minerals Civil War order, but with which it had
produced had increased from $18,383,451 no connection and little similarity of
in 1910 to $371,250,979 in 1920. The purpose, gained strength rapidly in Tex-
number of farms had increased only from as during 1922 and 1923. In the prima-
417,770 to 436,033, due largely to the war ries of 1924, the Klan supported Felix D.
conditions and demand for men imme- Robertson in a nine-sided contest, in-
diately preceding the census of 1920. eluding Mrs. Ferguson, Lynch Davidson
However, improved acreage had in- and T. W. Davidson. Mrs. Ferguson
creased from 27,360,636 to 31,227,503. made the race for her husband, former
The administration of Pat M. Neff Governor, who had been barred from
(Jan. 18, 1921, to Jan. 20, 1925) was holding office by the impeachment pro-
characterized by return to normal after- ceedings of 1917. Robertson led Mrs.
war conditions, and a series of achieve- Ferguson in the first primary, but the
ments such as the making of an educa- combined vote of the two leading
tional survey, the prison survey, the cre- candidates was less than half the total
ation of a prison advisory council, and vote polled. Furthermore, the other
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Texas Almanac, 1939-1940, book, 1939; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117163/m1/81/: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.