Wisconsin v. Texas

For weeks Texas and Wisconsin have been at grips in an economic war. Texas land was pitted against Wisconsin manufactures. State pride brewed bitterness. Last week a friendly settlement between the States seemed likely.

Wisconsin had fired the first shot against Texas when the Wisconsin Real Estate Board put a quietus on some Texans who were hawking Rio Grande valley land through the Wisconsin back country. The Wisconsin Board claimed that the Texas land was no good, that it had been misrepresented by its boosters. When the Board found that its own secretary, John L. Newman, had defied its edict by purchasing a ten-acre citrus farm in the forbidden valley, it promptly discharged him.

Not slow to retaliate was the Texas Legislature. It adopted a resolution calling on loyal Texans to boycott all Wisconsin manufactures, to buy nothing from that State. Texans began to cancel orders for Wisconsin plumbing fixtures, Wisconsin washing machines, Wisconsin fountain pens, Wisconsin farm implements.

Because Wisconsin sells $20,000,000 worth of goods per year in Texas, its manufacturers became alarmed. George F. Kull, secretary of the Wisconsin Manufacturer's Association, hastened to Austin, conferred animatedly with Texas' Governor Dan Moody. Mr. Kull pleaded for peace. Governor Moody, bighearted, invited Wisconsin's Governor Walter Jodok Kohler (plumbing fixtures) to come to Texas as his guest, to inspect with him the disputed Rio Grande valley land. If Governor Kohler could not come, Governor Moody asked him to send "a committee of businessmen whose word will bear weight."

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