In Texas

Only a year ago she was elected and less than a year ago she took office, but already there is talk in Texas of impeaching the Governess, Mrs. M. A. ("Ma") Ferguson.

In 1917, Texas impeached Governor James Edward Ferguson, removed him from office, and deprived him of his civil right: (the right to hold office, etc.). But in 1924 he came back by a combination of cleverness and good fortune. He put up his wife to run for Governor. She ran second in the first Democratic primary. In the second Democratic primary Texas had the choice between her and the man who ran first--who was supported by the Ku Klux Klan. Texas, intent on repudiating the Klan, chose Mrs. Ferguson to be the Democratic nominee for Governor. In the election she beat the Republican nominee 1) because she was a Democrat, and 2) because she was anti-Klan. Last January she was inaugurated with a great ball (TIME, Feb. 2, WOMEN) and promptly gave her attention to moving her furniture into the Executive Mansion while her husband sat in her office chair in the State House.

That has more or less typified the condition of affairs since then. Occasionally she emerges from obscurity to do some formal act of governing, but by and large the former Governor, who holds no office, manages things at the Capitol. One of the first things done was to get a bill through the Legislature (TIME, Feb. 28, WOMEN) restoring to the former Governor the civil rights taken from him by impeachment.

By and large Texas has no complaint against its Governess except that she leaves affairs too much in the hands of her husband. Things have been happening, or are said to have been happening, which are laid at his door. For example, the Governess has pardoned or paroled over 1,000 convicts in the ten months she has been in office. (The previous Governor, Pat M. Neff, issued only 17 pardons in his entire term). Her husband is said to have a job as attorney for the Sugarland Railroad that yields him three times as much salary as a governor gets. He is said to have used executive office stationery to solicit advertising for his weekly paper, The Forum, and to have taken as much as $2,000 for a single advertisement. He is said to have picked the three Highway Commissioners.

That is one of the chief charges. Dan Moody, a young fellow of only 32 (tall, blond, good-natured), was elected Attorney General of Texas at the same time that Mrs. Ferguson was elected Governess. He had a majority of 400,000 (whereas Mrs. Ferguson's majority was only 90,000). He has attacked the record of the Highway Commission, claiming that it has spent 20 millions in a few months, and that it let contracts to high-bidders instead of low-bidders. He demanded that the Commission cancel 36 contracts it had made. The Commission declined. The husband of the Governess is declared to be very close to the Commissioners, even to sit in at their meetings and make decisions. The fight is really between him and Mr. Moody. There is no Klan issue involved because Moody's anti-Klan attitude is as well known as that of the Fergusons.

Moody is putting his charges against the Road Commission before a grand jury. And it is in that connection that the talk of impeaching the Governess has chiefly arisen. Nothing or very little can be done about her husband. He holds no office. He has called himself "chief choreboy," "high-toned flunkey," "official spokesman," "official adviser," but he holds no legal post from which he can be kicked out. It would not be easy, either, to impeach his wife. It would be extremely difficult to prove anything against her except that she has been free in delegating power to her husband--and even that is not easy.

Besides, there would have to be a session of the Legislature to institute impeachment charges. The Governess will not call such a session. She has said that if anyone has a grievance against her appointees, he can take it to a grand jury and the courts, and if it is proved, she will dismiss the offending official. Her husband answered the talk about a special session by saying: "It would cost the taxpayers $100,000, and that is too much money. And, besides, there is nothing to investigate,"

The State constitution provides that the Governor may call a special session of the Legislature in emergency. When Mr. Ferguson was Governor, a law was passed saying that the Speaker of the State House of Representatives, on the petition of 50 members, may call a session for purposes of impeachment. This Speaker Lee Satterwhite threatened last week. Said he: "I feel hopeful that Governor Ferguson will recognize the seriousness of these charges and call this session, but if she does not I will do so as soon as the Attorney General, who now is investigating, has made a report, probably in about three weeks."

The Fergusons will probably question the legality of such a move if it is made, and their adherents declare that the whole rumpus is political--aroused because some time ago the Governess announced that she would stand for a second term and her husband announced that he would run for Senator against Earle B. Mayfield in 1928. Yet it is not generally believed that Dan Moody, that earnest, hard-hitting young man, is taking part in such a game.