The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 49, July 1945 - April, 1946 Page: 668

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

Texas weather; a critic might as well butt his head against a
stooping post oak as to attempt to pick flaws in a book which
exceeds his grasp. Ignorance precludes adverse criticism,
though, to be sure, this is a precept often honored in the breach
rather than the observance. Certainly when one trods familiar
ground as presented in Chapter 28, "Cultural Resources of
Texas," written by Walter P. Webb, he finds a fruitful and
philosophic approach to the interpretation of Texas to-day.
One or two generalizations do come to mind. Braggart Texas
has certain lacks in resources; in an industrial society our
vaunted space may well be a loss rather than a gain. Our cap-
ital resources are not (as yet) equal to the full development
of existing raw materials. Hence in a hierarchical society Texas
must rely on outside aid to get the fullest return on its produc-
tivity. But in a world where international isolation is dying
there is little place for economic particularism or cultural pro-
vincialism.
Erich Zimmerman brings all of this neatly to point in the
last paragraph in the book:
The blessings of nature cannot be measured simply in acres of land and
tons of ore. They derive their deeper meaning largely from the wisdom
and foresight which man applies to their use. Therefore, not the size of
the original endowment, important though it is, but the attitudes and
qualities of the people upon whom these blessings are bestowed, decide the
final outcome. ...
The obdurate facts in The Resources of Texas, if studied and
applied, should go a long way toward shaping the attitudes and
qualities of our people that they may wisely use the gifts which
nature has bestowed upon Texas.
REX W. STRICKLAND
Texas College of Mines
David G. Burnet Letters. Compiled by Houston Wade. La
Grange, Texas (La Grange Journal), 1944. Pp. 99.
In recent years several books have been printed for Houston
Wade by the La Grange Journal. These books were An Early
History of Fayette County, written jointly with Mrs. Leonie L.
Weyland, Notes and Fragments of the Mier Expedition, in two
volumes, Masonic Dictionary of the Republic of Texas, and
David Wade: A Texas Pioneer. Houston Wade, a great-grand-
son of this David Wade who settled on Cummins Creek in pres-
ent-day Fayette County in 1833, has rendered Fayette County

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