[Andrew Torget] All right, section 26 splitting the Texas Democrats.
We're gonna talk about the rise and the fall of James
soon to be known as Paul Ferguson
and then we're gonna talk about the Mexican Revolution
and World War One is we're doing our run-up to the 1920s
all right.
So as the Texas Democratic Party is splitting,
in 1914 you have the emergence of a fellow named
James Ferguson out of political nowherevill,
who shows up on the political scene.
No one's ever heard of this guy before
he's been a banker in Temple Texas.
He's built himself up as a self-made man
pulling himself up by his bootstraps
and he's managed to make, you know,
a pretty decent fortune for himself
and he's decided in 1914 that you know,
he's conquered a lot of things in the banking world
and now he'd like to be governor of Texas
so the way to do that is what,
what election do you have to win
if you wanna be the governor of Texas?
You gotta win the primary, right.
That's what you have to win.
That's gonna be in June of 18, oh sorry, 1914.
So who's he running against in the primary?
Other Texas Democrats right.
He's gonna be running against other Texas Democrats
and so he's got to distinguish himself
between, against all these other Texas Democrats.
Much like James Stephen Hogg did in the 1890s right.
He's got to distinguish himself
from all of these other Texas Democrats
and he's got to find some sort of strategic advantage
that he can make so Ferguson looks around himself and says,
you know what there seems to be this growing divide
between these two parts of the Democratic Party in Texas.
This older conservative side of the party
and this newer, more active part, maybe progressive
side of the party
that's at least looking to regulate alcohol
and do things like that
but is more willing to use state governance
and activity of the state to, you know,
actually change things and circumstances within Texas
so James Ferguson, James Ferguson decides
what I'm gonna do to get the, to win the primary
and to win the Democratic nomination is I'm going to appeal
to both sides of the Democratic Party's.
This is a very good political strategy.
Just say yes to everything and try to appeal to both sides
of any political divide,
and make very vague promises in the process,
it'll, it works out pretty well which is what
James Ferguson typically does.
So the first thing he does
is he tries to appeal to the conservative side
of the Democratic Party
and he tells the conservative side of a Democratic Party
several things that they want to hear.
He says, I don't think that women should be allowed to vote
so giving them the right to vote that's a terrible idea
which was gonna be truly ironic
when his wife is later elected governor of Texas
and he also says, nobody should be outlining alcohol,
that's crazy.
Why should the state be involved in telling me
what I or anybody else can drink.
That's a terrible idea and so
he tells the conservative side of the party,
you know I'm not on board with either of these things,
I'm one of you, you guys should vote for me.
That's fantastic on the conservative side.
Yes, I like this guy.
He seems nice,
he's on board with some things I really believe in.
All right I'm down with that.
Fantastic.
All right.
Then he turns to, he called the cons,
the progressive side of the party
but this more active side of the Texas Democratic Party
all right which includes a lot of farmers.
A lot of the leftovers of the farmers Alliance
and populist groups and he's willing to tell them
that he's actually willing to use the state government
to do some stuff,
which they've been waiting for since the 1890s.
Actually since the 1870s,
but he's willing to help farmers and so he says
very plainly and very loudly that what he's going to do
if he's elected governor of Texas,
he's going to put a cap on the amount of crop
that you have to pay as a tenant farmer.
So when you're a tenant farmer what do you have to,
what do you have to pay?
You have to pay part of your crop
that's, that's what you pay is a tenant for farming
for farming the land.
You might have to pay a third, a fourth,
forty percent maybe of your crop.
Just depends on what you and the landowner work out
and so what James Ferguson says is that if he is limp,
if he is elected governor of Texas
he will limit the amount that a
landowner can charge you as a farmer
to one third of the grain crop
or one fourth of your cotton crop so
no more than a third of your wheat crop or your corn crop
and no more than a quarter of your cotton crop.
That was going to put a maximum of limit
on what you could be charged.
That's not a giant thing necessarily, right
but it's more than any politician has offered
any Texas farmer up until this point, right.
This is the state coming in and actively regulating
how much a landowner can charge tenants on his land
by putting a cap essentially on all of this.
How did that sound at Texas farmers?
If you're a tenant farmer
sounds pretty fantastic doesn't it?
Sounds pretty darn good and the reality is by 1910
most Texas farmers are tenant farmers.
Most of them are, they don't own their land,
they've, you know,
going back to the problems of the price of cotton
in the 1870s and 1880s things had not gone better, right
and so Houston Chronicle you can see in 1912 has a story
basically saying, there's a real problem here,
and this is a widespread and well-known problem
but the reality is up until this point nobody,
especially in the conservative side of the Democratic Party
had been willing to do anything
using the state government at least
to challenge and deal with this problem, right.
The other thing that Ferguson promises
is to help rural schools, okay.
We talked about around 1900 how the increase of urbanization
gave a monetary advantage to people who wanted to
put their children in school in the cities.
They could congregate more resources,
you had more people who could share the burden and so
in Texas schools in urban places
you can afford $8 per student,
in rural places you can only afford $5 per student.
The Constitution of 1876
had prohibited the state to invest in public education
but James Ferguson comes out and says, no that's not right.
What we need to do is invest in public education
particularly for rural schools and so he promised to secure
one million dollars of state funding for
public schools in Texas,
particularly those in the country in rural environments.
He said we should, we should afford as much
much schooling as we can possibly manage for our youngsters,
especially those on the farm.
So he's promising stuff to both sides
of the Democratic Party in Texas.
He's telling the conservative side things they wanna hear
and he's telling the farmers in particular
and other people who are interested in progressivism
things that sound more like what they're wanting to hear.
A little bit more active state government,
more active than it's been ever since the populist revolt.
Yes sir?
[Student] So he's basically Hogg 2.0.
[Andrew Torget] Yes but he's actually gonna follow through
so the comment is he's like Hogg 2.0
but he's actually gonna follow through
on some of these promises
which is a very big difference from, from Hogg.
Yes sir?
[Student] Wasn't funding education
unconstitutional?
[Andrew Torget] Yes, they're gonna have to work on that.
It is and that's going to be a problem because he,
well I'll tell you about that in a minute.
So, any case.
The election happens the Democratic primary happens
all right, in June of 1914 and guess what?
He wins with 55 percent of the votes,
so he edges out his competition,
he's the Democratic nominee
which guarantees he will be elected what?
[Student] Governor.
[Andrew Torget] Governor of Texas
because there's no re-election in November it's just a,
it's like a formal ceremony essentially.
There's no actual competition and so
winning the primary means winning the election
and what this signals is that there is a real shift
that's happened in Texas right.
It's not just the vote on prohibition.
He is tapping into a real interest amongst the Texas voters
for some change
and some more active use of the state government
to try to make some sort of
viable change within Texas structure.
A lot of it related to, you know
interests both of the farmers and of the progressives
in this era of rapidly evolving cities.
He's tapping to something very powerful.
Another example of progressivism gaining force within Texas
is the election of Annie Webb Blanton
which I really wanted to get to her because
Annie Webb Blanton used to teach English here
at the University of North Texas and in 1918
Annie Webb Blanton was elected Superintendent of Education,
all right.
That's important because she was elected,
she was the first woman elected to statewide office
in the state of Texas.
No woman had ever done that before.
No woman had ever held statewide office before
so that's majorly significant by itself.
Can you imagine Orrin Roberts voting for a woman
to have statewide office of any kind whatsoever.
It's been a real shift,
and a lot of that is the Progressive Era.
Empowering women, empowering women voters
and trying to support women in getting the right to vote
but in addition to that,
there's a reason Annie Webb Blanton is elected in 1890
I'm sorry, 1918.
In Texas, in 1918 Texas passed an amendment
or a, passed the law that said that
women have the right to vote in state primaries.
Why is that significant in Texas?
(mumbling from audience)
That's the election that matters right.
If you can vote in the primaries
you get to decide the elect,
you get to be a part in deciding the election.
If you don't vote in the primaries, right,
you don't get to decide the election.
You don't have an opportunity here.
So, this is before the 19th amendment has passed,
the US Constitution
that gives women officially the right to vote in elections.
This is something that gives women the right to vote
before that happens in Texas.
They're given the right to vote in state primaries
and they're a part of electing Annie Webb Blanton
as Superintendent of Education.
That is a milestone for women in Texas.
A woman being elected in part on the votes of other women
to a statewide office
this is an outgrowth of the progressive movement, right
and all the reforms and interests that they're,
they're pushing, right.
So those are some great successes
and then James Ferguson crashes and burns
in spectacular fashion and becomes this crazy figure
who keeps popping up in Texas history
over and over again going forward you see
James Ferguson when he's elected governor of Texas
decides that he, he must be a very powerful person
because he's governor of Texas.
He's currently not read the Texas Constitution of 1876
and so he wants to build on his power
and starts throwing his weight around
and he decides this as an opportunity to enrich himself so
he starts doing very corrupt things.
He starts selling bribes, he starts taking bribes, oh sorry
selling pardons, he starts taking bribes.
He tells anyone who wants to do business with the state
that they can do so but that's really,
it's really encouraged they buy very expensive advertising
in his newspaper the Ferguson forum.
Money starts disappearing from the Texas Treasury
and for different road projects.
They start the Ferguson,
Ferguson starts approving road projects at various sorts
and then some of that just seems to disappear
and go, no one's quite sure where,
but the real trouble for Ferguson begins when
he gets into a tiff with the University of Texas
and there's a long story here but the short version is
some professors in the Department of Journalism
who had been criticizing a critical of Ferguson
and Ferguson thought since he's governor of Texas
and the University of Texas is a public institution
then he should be able to basically fire the professors
that are in, that are in term office
of the Department of Journalism.
So he sends a note over to William Battle.
All right the presidents of the University of Texas
and Battle's the classics professor
and boy does he look like it right.
This is a guy who reads Greek and Latin all day
but William Battle as president of the University of Texas
tells the governor Ferguson,
no you can't just fire the journalism department.
You don't have the right to do that and Ferguson says,
I'm the governor.
Yes I can.
Of course I can.
Battle says no.
No you can't and so then Ferguson tries to line-item veto
aspects of the University of Texas as a budget
as a revenge tactic here
and then he starts just going on this public campaign
that screaming and yelling about the University of Texas
and what a terrible elitist place it is
and it's ruining all of, all those Texas
because of all of these like highfalutin professors
looking down their noses at average Texans
and all that good stuff.
Here's the problem with Ferguson going on crazy about
the University of Texas.
If you were a well-connected Texan,
and you didn't send your son
cause there's always sons here, they're working on educating
but if you didn't send your son to Yale or Harvard
outside of a state or someplace like that
and you educated them in the state
what university are you most likely to be sending them to?
Yes, the University of Texas
so the alumni of the University of Texas is a
particularly well-connected group of people, right.
Usually with political connections, financial connections.
This is a, this is not a group
that you necessarily want to mess with so when William,
when James Ferguson starts screaming and yelling
about the University of Texas
and threatening to close it down,
he says very clearly in interviews he's like,
I don't care what happens to that place.
The bats can roost in it for all I care.
This gets the attention of the Alumni Association
of the University of Texas
which the presidents of the Alumni Association as this time
of the University of Texas is a guy named Will Hogg,
all right.
Whose daddy do you think is his?
James Steven Hogg, right.
First native governor of the state of Texas in the 1890s.
This is when the Hogg family, a very well-connected family
and Will Hogg here as the president of the University
of Texas Alumni Association is not particularly pleased
with the circumstances of what's going on with Ferguson
and so he and the Alumni Association decide
that the best way to handle this
is to launch an investigation of James Ferguson
and his finances and what he's been doing as governor
and they got the money and the will power
and the interest in doing this so
the University of Texas Alumni Association
launches an investigation of Hogg's finances
and realizes very quickly it's a hot mess
and a lot of money's disappeared
that shouldn't have disappeared.
There's not a lot of paper trail,
you can't explain a lot of things
that he hope to be able to explain
and so the results of this is that
they turn over all this evidence to the state government
and James Ferguson is put on trial in the summer of 1917
for embezzling funds and all kinds of shenanigans that
boil down to basically, misappropriation of state funds
and embezzlement all right
and in July of 17 he is convicted and found guilty
on 10 of those charges.
Mostly corruption of various sorts
and misappropriation of funds and here's the dealio,
all right.
In 1917 he is found guilty, he's impeached, he is convicted
and then he is removed from office
and he is the first and so far only governor
who has ever been removed from office
and removed from being a part of the,
being the governor in active, in active service.
When they take him out,
and listen to this phrase very carefully.
When they take him out they tell him,
you are fired for being governor,
you can't be governor anymore
and you can never hold statewide office again.
You can never be governor again.
You are, you are thrown out,
you are not allowed to do this anymore,
no more statewide office for you,
and in Ferguson says, ah, fine and he leaves
and that is not gonna be the last two Ferguson that we see,
all right.
That is not the end of Ferguson.
That is not the last of Ferguson,
and so he started off in office in 1917.
Meanwhile, just to make things complicated
there's an entire revolution happening in Mexico
that's gonna have an enormous effect on Texas.
Now when we last off, last left off with Mexico
how were things going they're?
(audience mumbling)
Not terribly well.
We've seen the last of Santa Anna I can assure you that but
things have not been going terribly well in Mexico
up until this point.
We last left off in the aftermath of the US Mexico war.
The Mexican state was collapsing
in terms of finances and on, in the aftermath of losing
the entire American Southwest.
The 15 million dollars
that they had been given by Ana States was spent immediately
and then they get involved in the
very hot Civil War in the wars of reform
where Santa Anna is deeply involved in all that.
By the 1860 the French take over Mexico for a short while
and then they're displaced
and it's in the 1870s that you have a strongman dictator
named Porfirio Diaz.
This is a, this gentleman right here
who's dressed up in all of his general finery.
Porfirio Diaz who establishes or reestablishes his
(mumbling)
he establishes his control over Mexico and becomes a
president slash dictator of Mexico from 1876
up until about 1910
and this period is often called the Perfidy Alto
in Mexican history and what Porfirio Diaz was doing
as president of Mexico is he's centralizing authority
in Mexico City and he's using that strongman position
to try to develop and as he would say
modernize the nation of Mexico.
What he's trying to do is bring investment,
outside investment in New Mexico to deal with the poverty
of Mexico, it's constant indebtedness
and try to get foreign companies from the United States
or from Europe or everywhere,
anywhere they can get investment from
to come in and build things like railroads
to modernize infrastructure
and to put a whole lot of money into the country
and so there's a lot of development that happens
in northern Mexico
but what comes with that also is this strong arm
dictatorial style of authoritarian rule within Mexico
where Porfirio Diaz and his buddies
control Mexico, you know, with a fairly iron fist
during this period and the,
the economic disparities between poor Mexicans
and the friends of Porfirio Diaz grows exponentially
and so you have this, you know,
class of Mexican peons right at the very bottom
of Mexican society, you know, who are,
feel like they're the constant yoke of the land bearings
the people who are connected to the Diaz administration
who are receiving all the benefits from Diaz ,
who have the great connections with him.
See this great big divide between the haves
and the have-nots
and most of Mexico are in the have-nots category right there
right, so all of that anger boils up in 1910.
I'm doing a very thumbnail sketch version
of this entire story
but in 1910 all that anger boils up and boils over
in the outbreak of the Mexican war for independence and so
maybe some of these great images from the early 20th century
of Mexican rebels making their way to the front
to fight for overthrowing the Diaz regime
and then to assert authority and control in Texas.
This is the era of Pancho Villa riding in northern Mexico
who raids over into New Mexico at various points, right
but the Mexican Revolution was an incredibly violent war
that killed anywhere between one and a half
to two million Mexicans, think about that.
From 1910 to 1920.
Anywhere between one and a half and two million Mexicans
are killed in the Mexican Revolution, right.
As a part of that when you have that kind of violence
and that kind of level of death
you also have a large number of people who are refugees
who make their way out of Mexico and they're searching,
searching basically for any opportunity they can find
to defend themselves and their families
and find new opportunities they're going to be safe.
You have this in any kind of a war zone situation.
Families flee try to find new opportunities.
About 15 million people fled Mexico for the United States
during this period.
There's a lot of fighting that happens in northern Mexico
and so you have huge numbers of people
coming into the modern American Southwest
and a lot of them come into Texas.
This is the source of the modern Mexican-American
population of Texas.
Most people who are Mexican-American descent in Texas
can trace their ancestry.
Some people can trace into the Tejanos in the Spanish era
but most people trace them to the Mexican Revolution itself
in the 19-teens
because that's when you have a massive in migration
from Mexico.
Refugees that are coming across the border.
My wife's family, her father's side came over
during the Mexican Revolution.
Their family came over from the areas around Monterey
right up here and then they move up into
South Texas and ultimately make their way to,
make their way to Houston in the 19-teens
as a part of this refugee tide that's coming into Texas
during this time period, right.
Why does that matter?
Well, in addition to
increasing the Mexican-American population of Texas
in a huge way, right and rapidly increasing
the Mexican-American population of Texas
it also increases dramatically ethnic tensions
between this new Mexican population that's moved into Texas
and the Anglo Americans who are already in Texas,
and there's a lot of violence that happens in Texas
as a part of the Revolution.
There are revolutionaries who come across the border,
some of whom are using the United States as a safe haven,
some of whom are using San Antonio as a base of planning
and operations.
You have other Mexicans who come into South Texas
and other parts of Texas to recruit and to build support.
There's actually a rebellion in South Texas
called the Fonda San Diego
where it's just an effort to kill off
a lot of Anglo Americans
and you have a lot of tensions that result from this.
You also have a lot of nervousness amongst Anglo Americans
in Texas who are nervous about just this big immigration of
Mexicans into the United States
and what that's gonna mean for like Texas
and so James Ferguson who's governor
for part of this time period,
he sends down the Texas Rangers
and these are officially Texas Rangers at this time,
down to South Texas who go down there and kill
a lot of these Mexican migrants who are coming into Texas
making really few with any distinction between
Mexicans who have come over from Mexico
and Mexican Americans who've been living in Texas
for a long time and in either case
killing people fairly without,
without a whole lot of consequences.
James Ferguson as you might not be surprised to learn
was very free with giving out Texas Ranger badges.
They were called Ferguson Rangers cause they were
basically Rangers who paid Ferguson
for the right to be a Texas Ranger.
He said, yeah, you got enough money?
You can have a badge and if you can have a badge you can do
pretty much whatever you want and so the point being
what you want to take away from this is that
this increased ethnic tensions between Mexican Americans
and Mexicans, ethnic Mexicans in Texas
and the Anglo American population in Texas
that's worried about these circumstances.
So, the significance for the Mexican Revolution.
A massive wave of immigration into Texas
and a greatly increased tensions right.
Then in addition to that
just to make things more complicated
there's also a war in Europe.
As World War One breaks out in 1914 and if I,
you know, if I sped over the causes
of the Mexican Revolution
I'm just gonna fly through the causes of the,
of the war of, of World War one.
Basically, some Archduke gets shot, okay
and then you got a family feud in Europe
as all these different alliances come unraveled
and they start all pointing at each other and shooting.
Anyway, there's a war in Europe that breaks out in 1914
and as Europe marches to war
the United States is looking at this from afar saying,
I don't know.
I don't really want to deal with that.
Not that's something that I'm
terribly interested in being a part of.
Most Americans, or a lot of Americans at least
like the isolationism of allowing the Europeans
to tear themselves apart.
We had a big ocean between us and them.
Plenty of space.
Let them deal with their problems we'll deal with ours,
alright but as we get closer to 1916, 1917
the United States gets increasingly involved in supporting
one side of World War One
and Woodrow Wilson increasingly involves the United States
in supplying allies and then as we get closer to
the sinking of Lusitania there's more and more committed to,
to supporting the particular side in World War One.
Most Texans aren't terribly interested in all of that
nor interested in becoming a part of,
of the world war experience until 1917
because in 1917 Germany decides that the United States is,
because of what Wilson is doing,
very likely to join World War One
and so Germany decides to get the jump on the United States
and a good way to do that would be
bring in an ally in North America,
they can help Germany oppose the United States.
Wouldn't that be delightful?
Who in North America doesn't like the United States?
Mexico, yes.
The sting of the US Mexico war is still
plenty strong at this time.
So the Germans decide that the thing to do here
is to offer the American, I'm sorry, offer the ger,
to offer Mexico an opportunity to join Germany
and make them an offer they really can't refuse.
So in 1917 they send what becomes known
as the Zimmerman Telegraph or telegram.
The Zimmerman Telegram
and it is sent from Germany to Mexico,
it is intercepted, it is translated
and it is made available to the Americans
and they read what it says
and here's what Germany offered Mexico they say,
hey Mexico, wouldn't you like to join the war on our side?
Wait before you answer
let me tell you why it's a good idea, okay.
Join the war, you can help us oppose the United States
which we know you don't like them, alright
but if you do join us and when,
not if but when we defeat the United States
here's what we're gonna do,
we're gonna give you back the modern American Southwest.
That Mexican Cession you gave up,
it's all back for you right.
Texas you want it back, it's all yours.
You can have all that land back
that you'd lost to the United States.
That'll be the incentive for you
to come join Germany.
Is Mexico interested
in trying to strike this deal with Germany?
No, this is not, this is like no
we're not touching this one.
We're gonna leave this one alone
but the significance of the Zimmerman telegram is that
it enrages Americans generally but Texas in particular
against both Mexico but in particular Germany,
and this happens at precisely the same moment essentially
that Woodrow Wilson brings the United States in fully
into World War One and Texans volunteer for the
world one war, war effort all right in huge
and fairly impressive numbers all right so
here's guys in the trench and World War One.
Texans during World War One,
it's about a million Texans to register for the draft
including 449 women who served as nurses.
So you've got a big turnout of people who join from Texas
in order to serve in World War One.
There's actually 20,000, 200,000 I'm sorry
who actually served.
About 25 percent of whom were African Americans.
African Americans served in the US military
and every engaged combat
going back to the American Revolution.
In every war they'd served and served with distinction
and then every war they had to start over again
in proving themselves and World War One,
again you have about a quarter of the Texas troops
are African American Texans who are making their way
into the war.
About 5,000 Texans died during World War One
and the vast majority of them
are not from battlefield fatalities right,
they're from the flu pandemic
that killed huge numbers of people all over Europe all right
but that's true of most Wars is that
it's disease and camp life that up until,
you know World War Two kills most people
not fighting in the field or anything like that and so
Texans sacrifice mightily for, for the war effort
but I wanna emphasize about World War One is that
it helps accelerate the urbanization process in Texas.
The US Army makes investments in Texas
in terms of army bases and so it's a part of that slow
but steady urbanization that the oil process has begun
and is continuing,
and will continue to change Texas
from being a predominantly rural place
into a place that after World War Two
will be a predominantly agricultural economy,
and then we get to 1920 all right
and this is New York City right here but
we were getting to 1920
and something amazing has happened to the United States
by 1920.
They do a census, which they do every 10 years, right.
They do a census of the entire country
and the census takers come back
and they crunch the numbers and they realize
something amazing has happened in the United States.
In 1920 the majority of Americans
for the first time in American history live in urban places.
By 1920 the vast majority of Americans are living in cities
of various sorts.
That is the first time that has ever happened.
Up until this point the amass,
the majority of Americans had always been
people who lived in rural spaces,
people who lived in farms and ranches.
That was by 1920 something that had changed
and it's all that urbanization we were talking about, right.
The late nineteenth century
but particularly the early 20th century that's transforming
Texas, it's transformed the rest of United States
is leading to progressivism.
It's changing a whole lot of things, right and so the new,
the new Texas that's going to emerge is going to be a more
urban Texas and that's going to lead to some
profound changes and the entrance of a very nasty group
into Texas in the 1920s the Ku Klux Klan so,
we enter section 27,
rise and fall of the new Ku Klux Klan.
So.