The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 48, July 1944 - April, 1945 Page: 301
617 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 24 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Texas Collection
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch recently reported:
With remarkable frequency during this war, two-fisted exploits of our
Yanks have been reported spearheaded by Texas doughboys or Texas
Marines or Texas fliers. News accounts leave the impression, which we
don't discount an iota, that Texans can find their way into the thick of
a fight with unerring persistency. The Lone Star doesn't tarnish.
So maybe it wasn't a long horn of coincidence that when the smoke of
Cherbourg's assault cleared away an American warship named Texas
loomed the hero of the day. It was incidental that the captain of the
U.S.S. Texas hailed from Washington, D. C. He might have come from
any Cross Roads or Podunk. Just the name, Texas, seems a talisman for
fightin' fools.
If those rangy lads from the cow country sometimes appear a trifle
cocky about their valor, they come through. On land, in the air, and
now the Texas Navy.
The following interesting comment on Dr. Charles Seymour's
article on Colonel E. M. House comes from John Gould of the
Wichita Daily Times, Wichita Falls.
The sketch of Col. E. M. House by Dr. Seymour, in the July Quarterly,
probably gave rise to wistful thoughts on the part of many readers, who
would like to believe that other Handbook assignments will be handled
with the same objectivity and high literary skill. That, of course, is a
vain hope. You can't enroll the services of such men for very many of
the assignments. Even so, it sets a mark for other contributors to shoot at.
I was especially interested in Dr. Seymour's handling of the legend that
grew up around Col. House, as to the master-minding role that he was
supposed to have had in Texas politics before he became a national figure.
When his close friendship for Woodrow Wilson first became known, stories
were printed which portrayed him as a powerful and astute behind-the-
scenes manipulator of Texas political affairs. He had given Jim Hogg
some quiet but valuable help, and had been interested in Culberson and
some others. But the legend, that he needed only to press a button to
make or unmake a candidate, is out of keeping with both the facts and
the character of the man.
Many Texans who were quite well informed about Texas politics were
puzzled when these stories began appearing.
The culprit, I am convinced, was Albert Sidney Burleson, then con-
gressman from the Austin district, later postmaster general in Wilson's
cabinet. The Washington correspondents, when they discovered Col. House,
had to account for him in some way. They went to Burleson to find out
who this man House was. Burleson, no tyro in politics or in the uses of
publicity, saw the necessity of a proper build-up for Col. House. He knew
that his friend and neighbor from Austin was to be among the picture-
cards of the Wilson regime and that a factual explanation of the relations
between the two men wouldn't serve. He gave the correspondents a story
that was plausible and that put a touch of glamor on House's earliest301
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 48, July 1944 - April, 1945, periodical, 1945; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth146055/m1/319/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.