Texas Almanac, 1958-1959 Page: 71
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HISTORY OF TEXAS
-Texas Highway Department.
Battleship Texas in its berth off the Houston Ship Channel, San Jacinto Battlefield Park.But the discovery of the great Spindle-
top oil field, the building of the packing
plants at Fort Worth and other industrial
development plus good crops, especially
in 1900, rang out the old century and
rang in the new with prosperity and
bright prospects.
Primary Election Law.
The administration of Gov. W. T. Lan-
ham (Jan. 20, 1903, to Jan. 15, 1907), was
distinguished in the political development
of the slate b)y the adoption of the Ter-
rell election law and the inauguration of
the popular primary. This law, so-called
from Judge A. W. Terrell, author of the
bill while serving in Legislature, did away
with the convention system of nominat-
ing candidates for political parties having
more than a scattering support.
As originally written the law provided
for a single popular primary. If no can-
didate received a clear majority, then
the state Democratic (or other party)
convention was re(luired to dr'op), on suc-
cessive ballots, the low man, prorating
the vote among the other candidates, as
dictated by county delegations, until some
candidate received a majority.
Thomas W. Campbell was the first
Governor elected under the new law. The
popular primary-convention combination
was required for his nomination over
three opponents --M. M. Brooks, O. B.
Colquitt, and Charles K. Bell. He was
elected in the general election with small
opposition. His two terms ran from Jan.
15 1907, to Jan. 19, 1911.
There was an amendment to the elec-
tion law to do away with the bunglesome
combination of popular vote and conven-
tion proration of vote in event no onereceived a majority in the election. It
was provided that nomination should be
by single popular vote, the one with a
plurality, whether majority or not, to re-
ceive the nomination, Campbell was nomi-
nated for his second term over R. R.
Williams.
During Lanham's administration the
second suit against the Waters-Pierce Oil
Company was won.
Although the two terms of Governor
Campbell witnessed the panic of 1907 and
its following bad effects, there was rapid
economic development in the state. The
census of 1910, at the end of his second
term, revealed a population of 3,896,542,
which was an increase of 847,832, or 27.8
per cent, over the population of 1900.
The total value of manufactured prod-
ucts, between 1900 and 1910, jumped from
$92,894,433 to $272,895,635. The number
of farms in the same ten years increased
from 352,190 to 417.700.
Prohibition, which had been agitated
with increasing support from the close of
the War Between the States, was the
major question before the public during
the administration of Gov. O. B. Colquitt
(Jan. 19, 1911, to Jan. 19, 1915).
A constitutional amendment for state-
wide prohibition had been submitted at
an election Aug. 4, 1887, and had lost by
a vote of 220,637 to 120,270. However,
prohibition sentiment spread rapidly as
evidenced by the successes of the "drys"
in local option elections.
In the Democratic primary, July 25,
1908, the question of submitting a prohibi-
tion amendment to the Constitution had
been submitted to popular vote-an odd
procedure that arose from Legislature's
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Texas Almanac, 1958-1959, book, 1957; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117139/m1/73/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.