New Deal for the Lone Star?

On June 28 Texas holds a primary to pick a Senator in place of the late Morris Sheppard, and last week Franklin Roosevelt set out to capture the State for the New Deal. The irony of the situation was that the nation's No. 1 Democrat, who has Texas in his pocket on foreign affairs, has had to rely on Texas politicians rather than on bright young New Dealers to support his domestic policies. And Texas gave him Garner and Dies, thorns in his side. But a greater irony was that political wiseacres did not think the nation's smartest politician had a chance to win, if Texas Governor O'Daniel, who is no politician at all, decided otherwise.

People who still think of W. Lee O'Daniel as "Pass the Biscuits, Pappy" are way behind the times. Direct, unpredictable, religious, forever outsmarting the politicos by his simplicity, the Governor of Texas has become the State's most popular officeholder. He is passionately Texan as only a true-born Midwesterner can be (Ohio was his birthplace). When his hillbilly band sings Beautiful Texas, the song he wrote himself, crowds hear a note of unsophisticated faith that nobody else gives them:

You have all read the beautiful stories Of the countries far over the sea, From whence came our ancestors To establish this land of the free. . . .

Texas newspapers, businessmen and the legislature have fought the Governor from the start. But the typical Texan attitude is that 1) the Governor is a well-meaning man who does not understand government, and 2) that is a good thing. Since he has been deadlocked with the legislature for two and a half years, with neither able to do much, Texans say the State has forged steadily ahead. When Senator Sheppard died last month, legislators thought they saw a golden opportunity to get rid of the Governor. They unanimously urged him to resign, have his Lieutenant Governor appoint him Senator, and hie himself to Washington.

The Governor was touched. At his regular Sunday-night broadcast, he asked his listeners to pray, then send him their advice on what he should do. Meanwhile, from his farm in Jasper County, Tex., Representative Martin Dies, 39, a mighty campaigner in his own country, announced that he would run for the Senate. So did sharp, energetic, able Gerald Mann, 34, the Attorney General, an ex-preacher and star quarterback from Southern Methodist University.

The Governor prayed. He waited as long as he could. The 105th anniversary of the Battle of San Jacinto was at hand, and the Governor never passes up a chance to salute the heroes of Texas in song & story. On his way to memorial services at the battlefield he stopped at a shacklike house near Houston. There dwelt General Andrew Jackson Houston, 87, only surviving son of Sam Houston, the Raven, the hero of San Jacinto and the greatest Texan of them all. The old man, who paints, writes history, and fusses with people about his father, talked for ten minutes with the Governor. Then O'Daniel loitered for an hour in a filling station near by, got to the battlefield four minutes before he was scheduled to speak.

At 3 p.m., exactly 105 years after the Battle of San Jacinto began, the Governor pushed his way to the microphone and announced that he had appointed Sam Houston's son to be Texas' interim Senator. The Governor was never in better form than when he described how the old man got the news: "Just as I broke the news to him of his appointment, the sun suddenly shot through the dark rain clouds in such a fashion that it appeared dazzling. I said: 'General, do you know what caused that sun to suddenly burst through those dark and heavy clouds? It appears to me as if our great and good loving God has just spread the clouds apart so the spirit of your illustrious father could smile down upon his son on this particular scene and see the big smile on your face.' "

The Governor talks that way all the time.

Last week, after O'Daniel's appointment, New Dealers hurried into the Texas fight. Representative Lyndon Johnson, 32, devout New Dealer, announced his candidacy for Senator. Representative Johnson has had a nine-year political career, most of it in Washington. He got on with New Dealers at the start, became Texas director of NYA, has handled most New Deal spending in Texas, stands solid with Ickes, Hopkins, Robert Jackson. Sam Rayburn is his friend. He can count on the support of Texas' Federal employes. Last week the most important of Federal em-loyes came out for him.

At his press conference President Roosevelt said that he could not comment on the Texas Senatorial campaign. The people of Texas would choose their own Senator.

Nevertheless, he said, Lyndon Johnson was an old friend of his--an old, old friend. He did not want reporters to draw conclusions; he was not butting into Texas' affairs. Correspondents laughed, and he laughed with them.

Lyndon Johnson flew to Texas, lit a-running. Martin Dies began to roar. Gerald Mann drew a stunning crowd of 20,000 for his first speech. Governor O'Daniel still kept his intentions dark, asked his listeners to keep on praying for his guidance. Texans say the primary is a tossup unless the Lord calls O'Daniel, but if the Lord calls, O'Daniel will probably win in spite of Martin Dies and the New Deal and the President.

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