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Conclusion: Redemption’s Final Act
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conclusion Redemption’s Final Act The odor from oil refineries settles over the cotton fields and makes scarcely perceptible the magnolia scent of the Old South. v.o.key(1949) i f a distinct period in the political history of texas had closed by the end of the 1880s, Redeemer democrats left behind unfinished business and enduring patterns of government. over the next century, the state’s fundamentally southern politics would continue to be shaped by resources and populations that set it apart from much of dixie. corporate regulation was one of the state’s more conspicuous bits of unfinished business when Governor Hogg clambered into office in 1891.the widespread enthusiasm for public oversight of railroads had been obvious in the first years of Redemption. But for fifteen years thereafter, democrats argued over how and when the government should exercise the powers the Redeemer constitution gave it to regulate rates and prevent discrimination. should it allow railroads to expand farther before wielding those powers too aggressively? could the legislature delegate its regulatory powers to a commission ? the old antagonists James throckmorton and John ireland both supported the establishment of a state railroad commission (throckmorton, the longtime texas & pacific ally, had by the late 1870s voiced a concern that “the corporations are becoming masters of the people and the government”). Gov. sul Ross, though, doubted the constitutionality and utility of such an agency and preferred regulation by statute. the state experimented in the late 1870s and early 1880s with general laws setting maximum rates and restricting long-haul/short-haul discrimination and with the appointment of a state engineer to oversee railroad operations.1 168 beyondredemption Regulatory sentiment grew more insistent as the ownership of texas railroads became increasingly consolidated. despite Redeemers’ eagerness to cultivate homegrown lines,the management of the state’s most important routes fell into the hands of two decidedly remote tycoons, Jay Gould and collis Huntington,who came to agreements between themselves on rates and traffic.in the latter half of the 1880s,Hogg,then texas attorney general,began to litigate against various corporate abuses, such as pooling and failure to maintain offices in the state,and helped draft a state antitrust law that passed in 1889. At the same time, domestic business interests, including merchants and lumbermen, joined with the burgeoning Farmers Alliance in seeking expanded and more routine oversight. texans voted to amend the constitution to provide explicitly for the establishment of a railroad commission in 1890, the same year they elected Hogg governor. this hardly put the issue of regulation to rest,though.Hogg and members of the Farmers Alliance fell to fighting over whether commission members should be elected or appointed by the governor.democrats more solicitous of railroad interests worried that Hogg’s brand of energetic regulation might drive capital from the state. this squabbling contributed to the three-man gubernatorial race of 1892, which pitted Hogg against a fellow democrat and the populist nugent.2 despite its creation during the seedtime of texas populism, the texas Railroad commission would in subsequent decades regulate in the manner and to the ends envisioned by developmentally oriented Redeemers in the 1870s. in overseeing transportation and eventually the oil industry, the commission’s policies seem to have focused more on protecting indigenous business interests and rationalizing commerce than on easing any burdens on farmers and consumers. the commission’s early rate policies favored shipping through the ports of Galveston and Houston rather than to outof -state entrepôts. For four decades after the opening of the east texas oil fields at the beginning of the 1930s,the commission limited oil production in the state to prevent gluts and keep prices from collapsing. david prindle has pointed out that with this system,texas—popularly imagined to be a citadel of laissez-faire—departed more aggressively from free-market economics than a number of other important oil-producing states.commission policies also routinely favored texas-based independents and landowners over major petroleum concerns dominated by out-of-state capital. in both symbolic and practical terms then, it was surely significant that the commission’s first chairman was John H. Reagan, that ardent advocate of railroad regulation and equally ardent promoter of economic development.3 Among Redeemers, Reagan had also been an early and ardent advocate [52.90.50.252] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 16:51 GMT) Conclusion 169 of suffrage restriction. For some democrats, that remained a second bit of unfinished business as a...