Report From Texas (1940s)

One thing is sure, if there's a man in your outfit from Texas, you've heard some tall tales by now. But there's still enough facts about Texas to make it one of the doggonest states in the union. 700,000 men and women in uniform come from Texas. More than 10 percent of the state's population. They come from clusters of skyscrapers on the plains like Dallas, or Amarillo, Houston, or from a batch of little buildings on the highway like Fredericksburg. They've gone to war from the cattle ranches, the sheep ranches, the grain sorghum country, dairy farms, rice fields, turkey ranches, oil fields, the wheat country, the citrus country. And as the young men left the state for war, Texas began a great upheaval of nature and people to meet the emergency. Shipyards of mushroom have drawn thousands from the country to the cities. The one-time farmer and his wife, the farmer's daughter, are making everything from navy craft to freighters. Airplane factories have drawn more thousands from the ranches and farms. So what happens? Short-handed Texas pitches in and produces more of the stuff that counts than ever before in its history. Two and a half million barrels of oil are being pumped from Texas wells every day in the year. Farmers without hired hands produced a record wheat crop of 60 million bushels in 1944 and had the winter wheat planted right on schedule. The rice growers had another record crop. Magnesium is being made from rock and if the rock isn't handy, they're making magnesium from seawater. They pick the cotton by hand or if they can't get help, they harvest it with a cotton picker's nightmare. Hundreds of thousands of acres of sorghum grains were harvested to feed the livestock. Helium plants continue to furnish practically all of the world's supply of this non-inflammable lighter-than-air gas. Black clouds in the sky rise from plants where carbon black is produced by burning natural gas for the making of synthetic rubber. And in Texas plants, a great part of the nation's synthetic rubber is being manufactured. Sulfur is brought from underground by a superheated steam. The sulfur is dried in hugeness. Train loads of this vital mineral are shipped daily. War has turned this state into one of the great industrial areas, but the old Texas is here too. Beef cattle roam the plains until it's time to separate the calves from the herds. Finally, the cattle march that last mile in the Fort Worth stockyards. Texas sheep contribute twice as much wool as the state next in production and the sheep too march that last mile in Fort Worth to help feed millions. Angora goats supply 85 percent of the country's mohair. Turkey raising is one of the old standbys and that Texas climate has produced some whoppers. Baby beef turkeys running up to 50 pounds. Yes, Texas has done itself proud in wartime and the people who have made this possible are simply the families of the men from Texas. The mothers and wives and fathers and brothers. George Nicholas has a son hospitalized in New Caledonia. There are three men named Cooper who will recognize mother and dad at work. Millie Bailey carries on with the memory of a son captured on Corregidor and the same for her husband, Ed Bailey. Mrs. Tom White raised her own son and two foster sons on this farm near Paris. All are overseas. All the kids of the Davis family help their mother pick cotton. The son is in the Navy. Raymond Malone, cotton picker, has a son in the army overseas. Mr. Riggins' son wears the Purple Heart. Otto Stevenson has five brothers in the Army, Marines, and Air Corps and John Taylor also is the only one of six brothers who's not in uniform. Jimmy Wingfield, engineer on the Big Ench booster pumps, has a Marine brother with the Purple Heart and another brother in the ETO. Orrell Bill, sister of a Navy man. Mrs. Lowery Denae is the wife of a G.I. overseas. J.O. Stockman, brother of a Navy man. J.R. Cox, switchman, with two sons and three grandsons in service. One son is reported missing. Mrs. H.W. McWilliams has been in war work since Corregidor fell. Her husband was taken prisoner there. And on the Alabama-Kashawdee Indian Reservation, out of a community population of 380, there are 28 stars in the service flag. The kids don't quite understand what's going on in the world, but they're fascinated by letters from the chief's son, PFC James Celestine of the infantry, who's been fighting an enemy in New Guinea. And the men of the reservation who remain are hard at work in the logging camps. In Austin, the State University campus is a little on the feminine side with so many men away. And at the Capitol Building, as everywhere else in the state, the flag of Texas flies beside the stars and stripes. The men from Texas mean it when they say that whenever the United States goes to war, Texas can be counted on to fight right alongside her. It's hard to find a Texan who doesn't claim that his state has the most beautiful girls in the world. Here's what came out of a department store in Dallas. What's the verdict? And what kind of a knucklehead would keep a dish like this waiting? As in other states, church attendance has increased tremendously since Pearl Harbor. Typical of Texas is the ranch of Ed C. Henke, several miles outside Kerbis. Two sons and two daughters were raised here by the Henkes. But now the elder son is in the infantry overseas, and the two daughters are married to men who've shipped out. Whenever possible, the two daughters visit the ranch to help out a little. But the only regular hand that Henke has is his younger son, W.R. After breakfast, Dad and W.R. start the day with the milking chore. A third cow is reserved for W.R.'s pride. A bull calf he's raising for the 4-H club competition. Little Charles Lee, son of the Henke boy overseas, loves to visit Grandma and Grandpa on weekends and get himself involved in everything possible. On the ranch, every day is Easter for Charlie as he tracks down the eggs with Grandma. Charles Lee insists on helping with anything, such as giving Grandpa a lift on feeding the hogs. Meanwhile, Mrs. Pressler, the Henke girl married to a field artillery man, churns some butter with a new fangled gadget that worked automatically till the motor broke and they couldn't get new parts. There's that weekly washing to be taken care of too. Although it's far from what it used to be when all the kids were growing up, Mrs. Peters, the other Henke daughter who's married to an Air Corps man, helps her mother. And of course, Charles Lee is in their pitching. Dad and W.R. have regular inspection trips to be made, checking on the livestock and the fencing. And while husband and son are away, Mrs. Henke finds that, as always, everybody has forgotten to bring in some wood for the cook stove. She's tried for years to train Dad and all the kids to relieve her of this chore, but she's still doing it herself. The cattle gathering around the feed give Dad Henke a chance to check on their condition. They're in fine shape this year. The sheep do look in good health as they come into salt. It took Texans a long time to convince themselves that a man of honor could raise both cattle and sheep, but the war cinched the argument. W.R. is anxious to have his brother see what he's accomplished with this filly. Three weeks ago, she was as wild as a cornered bobcat. W.R. broke her all by himself. And mother, with the food she put up last summer and fall, makes sure that the dried apples are in a prominent place. They won second prize at the Kerrville County Fair. When deer season opens, W.R. is among the first to get his buck. He'll pack it cheerfully to see the proud flicker in Dad's eyes when he walks casually up to the house. The family is proud too of the way W.R. looks out for the son of the big brother who's overseas, showing him the mysteries of the woods and streams. And never a harsh word from him when little Charles Lee decides the best way to catch fish is to beat them over the head with your fish pole. Sonny finds the Henke family dressed in its best for morning services at Kerrville. They meet other neighbors who talk about their husbands and sons who are away. And they're led in prayer by Reverend Pope's.