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Texans are 49% in earnest when they talk about their state as an independent country, allied with the U.S. And it is true that Texas is different from its sister states; but the difference is one of degree. Texas is the U.S.—only more so.
This week Texas is in the throes of a rebellion against the national Democratic Party. Leader of the rebellion is Texas Governor Allan Shivers, a man who alternates between boldness and caution, who often talks in sweeping absolutes and temperamentally prefers compromise. At present, Shivers seems to be in one of his bold moods. For size, for noise, for drama, his upheaval seems peculiarly Texan.
Underneath, the issues are essentially the same as those in the rest of the U.S. Shivers and his rebels are up in arms against the overconcentration of power in Washington and against the abuse of that power. This rebellion is probably stronger in Texas than in any other large state. But Texas also has strong ties with the Democratic Party, and a deep distrust of the Republican Party. The rebellion against the New Deal may not carry Texas, as it may not carry the rest of the U.S.—but the fight in Texas is hotter than in the nation generally because Texas magnifies everything.
The Battleground. Many of the truths about Texas sound more like lies than some of the lies about Texas. It is first among the states in the production of oil, gas, mohair, wool, cattle and Angora goats. It has 132,000 oil wells, three highly regarded city symphony orchestras and a housewife who recently ordered a bracelet bangle designed to look like a kitchen sink with diamonds dripping from the faucet. It has the Cullen Foundation, which has set aside $160 million worth of oil properties to endow medical, educational and charitable institutions. One Texan has a million-dollar-a-week income, and so many others have so much less that the per-capita income of Texans is slightly less than the national average. The rags-to-riches story is so standard that one Texan, who inherited a fortune from his grandmother in Boston, tries to make his neighbors believe he won it in a crap game.
Perceptive Europeans have long noted with bewilderment the apparent contradiction between the American tendency toward economic change and American political conservatism. Both are found to the nth degree in Texas. When the Republic National Bank decided to build in Dallas the tallest skyscraper in Texas, it tore down a six-story building only three years old to make room. The geography books once described east Texas as a land of cotton, west Texas as beef country. Today the books are out of date. Cotton was wearing out east Texas land. Today it is prime cattle-grazing country and west Texas is cotton country. East & west, oil derricks prick the Texas sky and a 50-year-old boom goes on & on.