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Chapter Five. Maneuvers, Intrigues, and Party Leadership 1951–52
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ch apter fi ve Maneuvers, Intrigues, and Party Leadership 1951–52 although shivers’s 1950 “goat speech” had advocated “one or two liberal” state programs, it led only to stopgap solutions. Spending increases in 1949–50, combined with declining petroleum prices, brought another budget imbalance, resulting in the need for a new financial remedy in 1951. State comptroller Robert S. Calvert warned that maintaining 1950 spending levels would require an additional $50 million in revenue for 1951– 53. Rural constituencies clamored for the construction of new farm-to-market roads, further straining the budget. Despite doubling education spending—rocketing Texas from thirty-eighth nationally to thirty-sixth—the landmark GilmerAikin reforms did not fully satisfy public-school reformers. At least as important from Shivers’s perspective, representatives of important business lobbies, including the Texas Manufacturer’s Association and the mineral industry, pushed as they had a year earlier for no additional taxes.1 The events of 1951–52 demonstrate just how “southern” Texas politics remained even after the remarkable modernization the state had experienced since 1933. Despite apparent moves toward a bipartisan system, it remains significant that changes came on the terms of the state Democratic organization and the governor . The conduct of politics continued to emphasize personalities at the expense of issues. Yet, when issues did surface, they typically distracted voters from bread-and-butter concerns and instead served the interests of more conservative politicians. Shivers followed the typical southern model of low and regressive taxation , minimal state services, and a purely economic justification for those incremental improvements in state programs that emerged. Allan Shivers’s Democratic Party allowed a first-ever Republican primary, but sought to control it through cross-filing. The Democrats did so to benefit the political aspirations of Maneuvers, Intrigues, and Party Leadership 67 Dwight Eisenhower against a presumably more liberal presidential nominee from their own party. Shivers bitterly fought tax reform intended to more equitably raise revenues and assure their reliable flow. He deliberately picked fights with the national Democratic leadership. He worked to incite Texans against a federal government bent upon racial integration and stealing their offshore oil. Shivers also began skillfully blending these views with his anti–New Deal/Fair Deal attitudes. In 1950, the governor had lined up the lobbies behind modest improvements in state health and education spending. A key to his success with Texas’ powerful lobbyists was his ability to go directly to the business interests that paid them. He was one of and at one with Texas’ business elite. Business leaders believed Shivers’s portrayal of himself as their closest friend in government and were convinced that Allan Shivers in western garb. Like many Texans, Shivers liked to revel in the state’s western image. However, Texas politics and race relations remained decidedly southern. As governor, Shivers worked to keep one-party Democratic control over state politics, even while courting national Republicans. [34.204.3.195] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 23:52 GMT) 68 ch apter fi ve he alone could keep reform and taxes under control. In governing and politicking, his personal philosophy reflected the years he had spent in a variety of businesses. Governor Shivers’s business interests stretched across state and included land, mercantile, media, insurance, and agricultural holdings from the Valley northward into East Texas. The governor presided over his holdings partially with the aid of his gubernatorial staff. Moreover, he micromanaged day-to-day life in Sharyland to the point of following news of the sexual liaisons of the school district staff. With a good business mind and the capacity to work on many projects at once, he had a seamless grasp of power and money. Without question, Shivers sympathized with and felt most comfortable among the best-off Texans. He might have employed the “common touch” for political advantage, but never comfortably . In 1951, the renewed budget crisis found him in a stronger political position than he had been in the previous year.2 Shivers, intent on avoiding the drastic spending cuts consistently advocated by business leaders in trying economic times, also planned to prevent efforts to improve the state’s regressive tax structure. The modest increases he proposed in oil, gas, and sulfur severance taxes brought no complaints from the mineral industry, in which small independent producers stood to lose more than big businesses. The centerpiece of Shivers’s solution to the continuing budget mess remained higher “sin” taxes combined with a new gasoline sales tax...