EXECUTIVE MESSAGE.
Governor's Office,
Austin, Texas, January 20, 1921.
To the Members of the Senate and House of the Thirty-seventh Legislature:
The Mandates of Our "We are here." I am ready for my part of
Party Platform the work that brings us here. Under the ConShould
Be Obeyed.
stitution and by the will of the people, we are
yoke-fellows in law making. I realize full well
that team work is necessary between the Governor's office and the
Legislature. It is sincerely hoped that a fine spirit of co-operation
will exist between these two departments.
Once more have the policies and the candidates of the Democratic
party been honored with a vote of confidence at the polls. The party
continues to control every department of the State government.
This trust imposes solemn responsibilities.
Our first business at hand is to redeem the pledges made by us to
the people. All party platforms should be carefully considered and
faithfully followed. Sometimes it is charged that platform planks
are exploited before the election, only to be forgotten after the election.
We are under bonds to observe the spirit and carry out the
demands of the platform on which we were elected. Therefore, I
deem it not improper to transmit herewith for our mutual guidance
and as a program of immediate legislation a copy of the Texas Democratic
Platform, unanimously adopted as our confession of political
faith at Fort Worth, September 8, 1920, by the duly chosen delegates
of the party in convention assembled. We have been commissioned
to write every concrete proposal into law. Less than this we cannot
do. Thus, and thus only, will we keep faith with ourselves, with
our party and with our people. For the first time, perhaps, in more
than a quarter of a century, the platform was not dictated by the
nominee for Governor. The nominee in the recent election declined
to take any part in the drafting of the party platform. It was drawn
by and represents the crystallized thought of the representatives fresh
from the people.
The Constitution contemplates and your implied contract with the
people is that the party platform shall be considered and finally
passed on at the Regular Session of the Legislature. The translation
of its planks into law should have priority of other legislative
matters. Within the next few days, and from time to time, just as
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