The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 49, July 1945 - April, 1946 Page: 674
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
homesteaders had only scorn. After their sod-houses were
erected, they organized a Farmer's Alliance, held a harvest pic-
nic, attended "protracted meetings," held box socials, and or-
ganized a band, and an Anti-Horse Thief Association. During
the drouth and depression of 1893 the money from pensions
and mortgages was the only real money spent. Hired hands were
paid $13-16 a month, except during harvest, when they received
a dollar a day.
After the bumper crop of 1897, new houses and granaries
were erected, and the pioneer days were over. By 1906, when
the magic of statehood became a reality, a quarter sold for
$5-6000, and 30 per cent of the Strip was still owned by the
men who had proved up. Some ultra-democratic devices clogged
the democratic process. Prohibition brought its woes; agrarian
haranguers came and went; Negroes were forbidden in the
town; speculation in Florida lands was indulged in by some,
while others organized oil companies or talked of the high cost
of living. City ways were being advanced by civic gamesters
rather than by town builders. In 1911 a moving picture theater
was opened, and two years later garages were in operation,
and Ford joke books were circulating. Tuition pupils rode in
from surrounding districts, and "consolidation" became the
shibboleth of educators. The town was beside itself over ath-
letic achievements. Graduates went to business college or taught
school.
Politically, the town had been for "Teddy," the champion of
the West; when war loomed, allegiance shifted to Wilson, be-
cause he "kept us out of war." Later, the town sent forth its
young men, participated in bond drives, dropped the German
language, and saw a slacker's place painted yellow. After the
influenza epidemic came the Ku Klux Klan hysteria. Then stills
were found in haystacks, and young people, feeling that society
had no use for their strength and industry, took up smoking
and drinking. Following the discovery of oil, strangers flocked
in, and the bank overstrained its credit. The boom was soon
over. On its heels came the depression and hatred for Old
Hoover. The New Deal, with its WPA projects, was somewhat
suspect, too, and there was talk of "Roosevelt just scheming to
get us into war." The second World War, together with the
extensive use of the automobile, the collapse of the oil boom,
and the depression, hastened the decline of the town. By 1943,
less than one-fourth of the land was in the hands of the original
owners, and about one-half was cultivated by tenants.674
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 49, July 1945 - April, 1946, periodical, 1946; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth146056/m1/761/: accessed March 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.