Ben Love: My Life in Texas Commerce

Chapter 11. Striking a Balance

Chapter 11 striking a balance investing in politics and the community When I joined Texas Commerce in 1967, I had the unshakable belief that the bank owned all of my time except Sundays. Because the bank owned my time, I reasoned, it seemed imperative to work on matters that would, much like Jesse Jones expressed, create a healthier, larger business climate for the city. His theory was that if we in the bank were intelligent enough, alert enough, energetic enough, and productive enough, the bank would get its share of the business. As usual, his theory was correct. No company can consider itself a success unless it strikes a balance and invests in the welfare of its region and its industry and its profits (long range and short range). And no company will be in business for long unless it keeps close tabs on its political and regulatory environment. ★ interest in politics When, as a ten-year-old farm boy, I paid that bedazzling visit to my uncle O. K. Allen in the Louisiana governor’s mansion, politics instantly became my primary goal in life. I was absolutely smitten. In high school, I debated and stumped for local candidates, and in college, before I turned eighteen and enlisted in the Army Air Corps, I devoured pre-law courses. But World War II had a maturing effect on many veterans (including this one) that spurred us to accelerate any remaining college education and get on with life. Returning to the University of Texas, I noted that a business degree offered me a three-year road to “life” (versus law’s five-year road), and that was the end of young Ben Love’s “bedazzling” career in politics. I switched majors. Politics had little impact on my life for many years after the war, but that changed when I joined Texas Commerce in 1967. It changed quickly, and it changed personally, because Lloyd Bentsen ran against Ralph Yarborough for the Senate in 1970. Lloyd and I had become very close friends in the Young Presidents’ Organization when he was chairman of Lincoln Liberty Insurance Company in Houston. Senator Yarborough had represented my future wife successfully in a trust case while we were at the University of Texas, and I had gotten to know him well after Margaret and I were engaged. I also wrote letters to him protesting when GIFT-RAPS’s major raw material supplier, Champion Paper Company, threatened to compete directly with our small company. Senator Yarborough empathized with my “small-versus-large” competitive dilemma (and so communicated to Champion). Reciprocally, I made modest contributions to his political campaigns for years. Lloyd faced an uphill battle. With maybe 3 percent name recognition across the state, he was running against a well-known senator who had been in office since 1957. Lloyd was a conservative Democrat; Senator Yarborough was a liberal Democrat. By 1970, I was deeply involved in the daily process of trying to earn a high return for the bank’s stockholders, trying to create more jobs, and I believed that Lloyd’s conservative philosophy was in the better interests of the Texas economy and TCB. Striking a Balance ★ 253 After the dust of the merger settled, Walter Shipley and I had lunch in the Senate Dining Room with my longtime friend, U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen. (Love family archives) Lloyd’s victory over Yarborough in the 1970 primary, and over Republican George H. W. Bush in the general election, launched a distinguished career in the U.S. Senate that lasted until 1993, when he resigned to serve as secretary of the treasury. Lloyd was identified several times as a presidential candidate; in 1988, he was nominated for vice president on the Democratic slate against the Republican ticket of George H. W. Bush (again) and Dan Quayle. Lloyd’s sterling character, astute business acumen, proven patriotism, unquestioned intelligence, genteel manner, and warm personality contributed to his becoming a leader in the national Democratic Party. Banking issues abounded in politics at both state and national levels. Admittedly, Texas Commerce was small potatoes compared to the distant money center banks, but from time to time we needed politicians on the national scene to be sensitive to certain components of our business so that TCB would not be disadvantaged by its money center competitors. Closer to home, we were continually aware of attempts (primarily by our own...