Chapter 8Chapter 8Texas in the Age of Texas in the Age of Agrarian DiscontentAgrarian Discontent

“The Land Grant Law of 1876 authorized the granting of sixteen sections of land to railroad companies for every mile of main-line track they completed.” p. 206.

Coming of the Steam Train in 1873 put Reagan, Texas on the Map! The old Reagan Depot stood next to the Train tracks until the 1960's.

Actions taken to support railroad building1. Land Grant Law of 18762. Local subsidies and bonds3. Private subscriptions

This photo shows a "land train," bringing prospective investors to Texas, circa 1915. African-American porters stand on the far right. "Separate but equal" segregation was the law in Texas and other Southern states from the 1880s until segregation was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1950s.. Many jobs were also segregated. The job of porter was considered a black man's job. Prints and Photographs Collection, Texas State Library and Archives.

Governor Oran M. Roberts and the Fifty Cent Law of 1879. See p. 210.

Problems created by the railroads. Railroads1. ended local patterns of trade2. discriminated between shippers.3. sometimes charged more for shorter hauls4. granted free passes to political friends5. gave rebates to preferred customers6. formed monopolies7. provided poor service8. blocked any legislation that addressed these abuses

(From the East Texas Research Center Collection)

Perspective map of Texarkana, lithograph; circa 1888.Source: http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/media-detail.aspx?mediaID=6857©2008 The Central Arkansas Library System - All rights reserved

(From the East Texas Research Center (From the East Texas Research Center Collection) Collection)

Economic Development:

Railroads, Public lands, Lumber, Light industries, Mineral industries, Labor unions, Agriculture

From 1875 to 1900, lumber led all other freight in tonnage transported by Texas railroads.

The first multi million-dollar firm in Texas was a lumber company owned by John Henry Kirby. John Henry Kirby, the "Prince of the Pines," shown in a 1925 photo. With East Coast investors, Kirby established land companies with vast timber holdings in the Pineywoods. In 1893, he built the Gulf, Beaumont, and Kansas City Railroad and used proceeds from its sale to finance more land purchases. In 1901, he organized the Houston Oil Company of Texas and the Kirby Lumber Company. Although at one point the lumber company controlled more than 300,000 acres of land and operated 13 sawmills, business reversals during the depression forced Kirby into bankruptcy.

In the lumber industry, African-Americans workers comprised about one-third of the labor force.

The attitude of the timber-company owners toward organized labor could best be described as hostile opposition.

The most important labor union in late nineteenth-century Texas was the Knights of Labor

The Great Southwest Strike of 1886 was a strike led by the Knights of Labor against Jay Gould’s railroad lines. (See p. 219.)

Throughout the late nineteenth century, the state financed its prison system by leasing out convict labor. (See pages 223-224)

Before the development of the oil industry, the most important mineral resource in Texas was coal.

Industry grew rapidly but Texas still remained far behind other industrial states.

Table 8.1 Dollar Value of Texas Crops (See p. 221)

1870 1880 1890 1900

Wheat $391,886 $2,441,918 $3,589,442 $7,592,852

Corn 10,153,941 11,509,808 34,940,748 39,259,415

Oats 297,439 1,761,609 5,334,496 6,241,192

Cotton 21,212,994 39,458,916 63,263,400 107,510,010

37.641.9

49.7

0

5

10

15

20

25

3035

40

45

50

1880 1890 1900

The Increasing Percentage of Tenant Farming in Texas, 1880-1900

(See page 220)

Farming on “halves” means paying half of one’s cotton crop in rent.

Number of Farms and Acres per Farm 1850-1997The number of farms has decreased since 1935, while the

size of farms has increased

Source: Census of Agriculture, various years.

Public fund had subsidized the railroads, and now that they had fallen short of the promised economic panacea, proponents of the New South and the railroads themselves became politically suspect. See p. 209.

The fixing of rates explains the shippers’ charges of railroad corruption, which only increased in intensity as southern farmers became less prosperous.

Railroads proved a mix blessing as farmers became tied to faraway markets and the vagaries of the wider national and international economy. See page 209.

Greenback party: Greenbacks, Specie Resumption ActIn 1875, Congress passed the Specie Resumption Act, which returned the nation to the gold standard by 1879. When the country returned to the gold standard, the amount of money in circulation declined precipitously, which caused interest rates to skyrocket. Farmers were particularly hard hit by these developments.

The Greenbacks were an agrarian reform party that emerged in the 1870s and 1880s favoring monetary inflation. They wanted to reverse the Specie Resumption Act. (See pp. 228-229)

Greenback Party Platform:

1. Federal government should issue greenbacks2. Income tax3. Australian ballot4. Direct election of U. S. senators5. Railroad regulation6. Improved schools7. Elimination of convict leasing8. Reduced salaries for government employees9. Elimination of government employees

An agrarian reform party of the 1870s and 1880s favoring An agrarian reform party of the 1870s and 1880s favoring monetary inflation was the Greenback party.monetary inflation was the Greenback party.

Greenback - Republican alliance:

Wash Jones, 1882

See pages 229-230.

Prohibitionists1. Local option v. statewide prohibition2. United Friends of Temperance, Bands of

Hope3. Women's Christian Temperance Union4. Election of 1886, E. L. Dohoney5. Prohibition amendment

Ebeneezer Lafayette Dohoney

Granger Movement, agrarian movement in the United States, initiated shortly after the American Civil War with the aim of improving the social, economic, and political status of farmers. The movement constituted the initial stage in the unrest among farmers in many areas of the U.S. that characterized the latter part of the 19th century. Among the causes of the unrest were the declining prices of farm products, the growing indebtedness of farmers to merchants and banks, the discriminatory freight rates imposed on farmers by the railroads, and the acquisition by the railroads of public lands that formerly had served pioneer farmers as a source of new farmland.

Grangers exercised significant influence over the constitutional convention of 1876.

In 1867, Oliver H. Kelley, an employee of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, founded the Patrons of Husbandry, commonly called the Grange. He conceived of the Patrons as a secret fraternal society that would offer social and educational benefits to its membership. (p. 231)

Grange1. Patrons of Husbandry, Oliver H. Kelley, 18672. Social and educational organization3. Economic cooperatives4. William Lang5. Texas Cooperative Association, 1878

A Farmers’ Alliance Convention.A Farmers’ Alliance Convention.

In the 1880s, the Farmers’ Alliance replaced the In the 1880s, the Farmers’ Alliance replaced the Grange as the largest agrarian reform organization in Grange as the largest agrarian reform organization in Texas.Texas. The Texas Farmers' Alliance

Differed from the Grange in the following ways:

1.Grass-roots organization

2.The Alliance appealed to less prosperous farmers who had formed voluntary associations: vigilantes, schools, churches, Masonic lodges, former Grangers.

Cleburne Demands1. Recognition of labor unions2. Regulation of railroads3. Revision of the banking system4. Inflation of the currency5. Interstate Commerce Commission6. Prison reform7. Ban on speculation in agriculture futures

Democratic response:Nationally: lower tariffs, Interstate Commerce Commission. Some Texans in the U. S. Senate and House of Representatives endorsed the free coinage of silver. Progressive Democrats in Texas advocated legislation to encourage farmers to settle western land, to address corporate and railroad abuses, and to reform the banking system.

James S. HoggActions as Attorney General:

1. protected public domaine2. regulated insurance companies3. wrote anti-trust legislation

"Hogg and a Commission," 1890Hogg Laws:

1. Railroad Commission2. Railroad stock and bond law3. forced corporation to sell land4. Alien Land Law5. restrictions on bonds

Other actions:1. prison reforms2. longer school term3. supported universities4. forced railroads to segregate

Populists advocated1. Government ownership of railroads2. Abolition of the national banking system3. Subtreasury system4. Income tax5. Eight-hour workday6. Direct election of U. S. senators7. Free coinage of silver8. Australian ballot, referendum, and recall

The Populist Party advocated government ownership of railroads, abolition of the national banking system, and establishment of the subtreasury system. The Subtreasury Plan would have allowed farmers to store staple crops in government warehouses and receive loans against the market value of these crops in the form of government notes that could circulate as currency. (pp. 236-237)

Historical cartoon of Populist Party as a snake with William Jennings Bryan's head swallowing donkey of the Democratic Party.

Violence on the local level and “fusion” with the Democrats on the national level destroyed the Populist movement

Texas' First Public Institute for Higher Education(The Agricultural and Mechanical College -- 1876)

A&M's Earliest Campus. In its first year, the campus at the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas consisted to just two buildings: Steward's Hall (left) and Old Main. Two wooden barracks were added behind Old Main for the second session (just visible through the front porch of Steward's Hall).

In 1902, Texas voters approved of a poll tax that disenfranchised many poor whites and blacks and further limited the possible third-party challenges to Democratic hegemony. The Texas legislature passed many Jim Crow laws, mandating, for example, segregated railroad facilities. Soon Texas, like many southern states, had erected an elaborate legal code that racially segregated public and private facilities. p. 240.

After the death of Edmund J. Davis, the Republican party of Texas was led by the African American Norris Wright Cuney.

1888 Pictures of Dallas, Texas. Hand colored engraved images titled, " Texas.-The City if Dallas, Its Progress and Its Prospects-Views of Its Public Buildings, Streets, Etc., City Hall Buildings, in course of Construction, view on Commerce Street, View on Elm Street, Alliance Exchange Building, Private Residences, Corner of Commerce and Elm Streets, Merchant's Exchange, Bird's Eye View of the Texas State Fair Grounds and Dallas Club House," from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper. Shows scenes of Dallas, Texas and its landmarks and buildings. Source: http://www.printsoldandrare.com/texas/

Charles A. Culberson (1895-99)

1. Vetoed measures to save money2. Enforce the 1889 antitrust act3. Sponsored tax relief for victims of the

1895 drought4. Increased powers for the Railroad

Commission5. Laws regulating labor relations and

public lands Edward M. House, Joseph Weldon Bailey

During Culberson’s four-year tenure as During Culberson’s four-year tenure as governor, he blended Hogg’s reform governor, he blended Hogg’s reform tendencies with conservatism.tendencies with conservatism.