The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 62, July 1958 - April, 1959 Page: 125

Book Reviews

economy of Texas. The ever expanding economic bases helped to
make Dallas the cultural center of the Southwest. In telling the
story of the State Fair, major developments in fine arts seem to
get lost.
In 1924 Adolph S. Ochs, while publisher of the New York
Times said: "I received my ideas and ideals from the Galveston
Daily News and Dallas Morning News." Howard's chapter on
journalism emphasized the cultural values for the state to be de-
rived from J. Lon Tinkle's book review page and John Rosen-
field's "Passing Show" in the News, but some accounts of the Times
Herald and other papers were also worthy of inclusion. An impor-
tant point to remember is that Dallas was built up by "a cadre of
civic spirited men," largely business and professional leaders, Jew
and Gentile, "who achieved their goals for city improvement by
associational means and avoided government authority to force
through a project." The high esprit de corps stemmed from this
idea: "The privately organized group formed for a civic or semi-
public end is the hallmark of Dallas."
ROBERT C. COTNER
University of Texas
The Letters of Antonio Martinez, Last Spanish Governor of
Texas, r817-1822. Translated and edited by Virginia H.
Taylor, assisted by Mrs. Juanita Hammons. Austin (Texas
State Library), 1957. Pp. vi+354. $6.oo.
Spain's tottering American empire was wracked with revolu-
tion and disorder in the early nineteenth century. In addition to
the usual difficulties of governing such a far-flung colonial system,
rebellion threatened the Spanish holdings from South America to
New Spain, or Mexico. At the northern extremity of Mexico was
Texas, which toward the end of the colonial period constituted
one of several distant outposts and formed an important bulwark
against the moving Anglo-American frontier. In Texas during the
declining days of Spanish rule, however, Governor Antonio
Martinez was faced with more than the possibility of pressure
from the east. The day-to-day management of Texas presented
major problems which proved to be of a continuing nature and
which were inherited by independent Mexico in 1821. By ex-

125