1939: Texas

Area and Population.

With a total area of 265,896 sq. mi., Texas is the largest of the states. The greatest breadth (east-west) is 773 miles, and greatest length (north-south) is 801 miles. The temperature is subtropical in the extreme south, permitting citrus and winter vegetable industries. The extreme north extends beyond the cotton belt and is devoted primarily to hard wheat. The wide range in climatic, plant-life and living conditions through 12 degrees of longitude is accentuated by the upward slope of surface from sea level to cultivable plateaus of more than 4,000 feet elevation. The eastern third of the state is coastal flatlands, largely timbered with pine and hardwood; the central and middle western portions are largely prairies, the southern extension of the Great Plains; the extreme west is in the Rocky Mountain area, with numerous ranges, some of more than 8,000 feet elevation.

The population was 5,824,715 in 1930 (U. S. Census); the latest Federal estimate, July 1, 1937, was 6,172,000. Population per square mile in 1930 was 22.2, slightly more than half the average density of the United States. However, density ranged widely from 379.2 population per square mile in Dallas County, to 0.3 in Culberson and Loving Counties. The principal cities are Houston, 292,352 (344,000 unofficial estimate in 1939); Dallas, 260,475 (293,000); San Antonio, 231,542 (262,000); Fort Worth, 163,447 (187,000); El Paso, 102,421 (108,000). The capital is Austin, 53,120 (63,000). In 1930 whites numbered 4,283,491, or 73.5 per cent of the total population; Negroes, 854,964, or 14.7 per cent; Mexicans, 683,681, or 11.7 per cent. The Negro population is largely in the eastern half of the state, and the Mexican largely along the southwest border and in the south central portion. Of European foreign stock, Germans predominate, largely in south central Texas.

Education.

The state's school population (ages 6-17, inclusive) is 1,579,841. There are 6,735 local school administrative and taxing units, of which 1,020 are independent districts and 5,715 are common school districts. The total number of public schools of all classifications is 11,514. There are 1,361 (1937-38) high schools, having a total enrollment of 307,652. The total elementary enrollment is 983,259. Expenditure of state funds for public schools (1938-39) was $40,500,000, raised largely from taxes on petroleum production, general property, cigarette sales and from interest on permanent funds. The state's public school permanent fund, derived from original public domain, amounts to $72,000,000.

The average salaries are, for high school teachers (white) $1,271, not including administrators and principals; Negro, $900; for elementary teachers (white) $964; Negro, $587. Schools receive two-thirds of their support from the state and one-third from local sources. The principal educational problems have arisen because of sparse population in most sections of the state. Consolidation of districts, with motor bus transportation, has been an outstanding development in recent years. There are more than one hundred junior and senior colleges, of which seventeen are supported by the state.

Agriculture.

Of the total land area of Texas, amounting to 167,934,720 acres, 137,597,389 acres, or 82 per cent, is in farms and ranches. A preliminary estimate put the 1939 crop land at 26,500,000 acres harvested. The total value of all crops harvested during the year was approximately $321,000,000; of livestock products, $305,000,000. These figures include the value of products sold on the market and consumed on the farms. The total farm cash income from all sources during 1939 was $481,420,000, based on figures for the first ten months, according to the Bureau of Business Research, University of Texas. Government benefit payments during the year approximated $97,000,000. A severe drouth during the latter part of the year cut down production, but average prices rose somewhat as a result of the war in Europe, so that the farm income in 1939 was approximately on a parity with that of 1938.

Minerals.

The total value of minerals produced in Texas in 1939 was $785,000,000, according to a preliminary estimate, a slight decline below the preceding year, due to stricter proration of oil production and the temporary break in the price in August. Petroleum accounts for approximately 74 per cent of the annual value of minerals produced: there is also a large production of natural gas and natural gasoline, sulphur, stone, cement, clay products, and a smaller production of asphalt, coal and lignite, fullers earth, gypsum, helium, lime, mercury, silver, sodium sulphate and lead. Oil production in 1939 amounted to 455,632,000 barrels, based on figures for the first ten months. Texas produces 39 per cent of the oil in the United States, and is the leading state in the annual value of all minerals produced.

Natural gas, a product in which Texas also ranks first, amounted in 1938 to an estimated 845,000,000 M. cu. ft. as against 854,561,000 (value $132,166,000) in the previous year. Sulphur, another outstanding product, slightly exceeded the amount produced in 1937 (which had a value of $36,545,670) with a 1938 total of 2,058,940 tons. This represented 86 per cent of the whole amount produced in the United States. Shipments of cement also rose in 1938 above the figure for the previous year, as they totaled 7,116,545 bbl. valued at $11,488,866. The production of helium at the Amarillo plant of the Bureau of Mines was increased by 37 per cent above the figure for 1937, to 6,099,960 cu. ft.

Industry.

The principal manufacturing development in Texas in 1939 centered about the chemical industries. The most noteworthy individual enterprise was the newsprint paper mill being constructed at Lufkin, the first mill in the United States to make newsprint from Southern pine. This $6,000,000 plant will be in operation in 1940. The total value of products manufactured in Texas in 1937 (latest census) was $1,581,422,401, of which $439,854,447 was 'value added by manufacture.' There were 4,422 manufacturing establishments, employing 129,501 wage earners who received $132,505,115 wages.

Manufacturing production in 1939 was estimated as approximately on a parity with 1937, after a recession in 1938. Several iron, steel and heavy chemical industries were established on the coast during the year, while clothing manufacturing and food processing plants which constitute the principal development for consumer goods, were situated largely in the upper part of the state. There is much interest in the development of new synthetic products as a result of the farm chemurgic movement; and the laboratories of universities and colleges, as well as private industrial institutions, are experimenting with the production of plastics and various synthetic products from the state's abundant raw materials. A company was organized during 1939 for the production of iron from deposits in East Texas, but there was no actual development.

The trend of general business conditions was upward during the year, according to the index of the Bureau of Business Research of the University of Texas. The level of activity in November 1939, was 8 per cent above the corresponding period of the preceding year, but still slightly below the post-depression peak reached in 1937.

Finance.

The revenues of the state government for the fiscal year ending August 31, 1939, were $175,216,238, while total expenditures were $164,323,499. However, the excess of receipts over expenditures was reflected largely in balances in the highway and other special funds, while the state's general revenue fund had accumulated an all-time record deficit of $28,812,583 by the end of November 1939. Deficits were also shown in the Confederate pension fund and social security funds. The old-age pension fund closed the fiscal year with a deficit of $2,100,000, although the number of beneficiaries was decreased during the year and the amount of payments was cut. At the close of the year the state was paying an average of about $8 monthly out of the maximum of $15. The bonded debt of the state, always severely limited by the Constitution, was approximately $12,000,000 at the close of the fiscal year. The bonded debt of all civil subdivisions was approximately $632,000,000, having declined during the year because retirement of the outstanding debt was considerably in excess of new issues voted.

Legislative Matters.

Political interest centered largely in the effort of a four-months' session of the Legislature early in the year to provide greater revenues for social security. After bitter controversy the Legislature adjourned without acting on Governor O'Daniel's proposal of a compromise bill based on a sales tax and increased taxes on natural resources. Public demand for a special session of the Legislature to resume consideration of social security revenues caused the Governor to poll the members of the Legislature in September and October, but his decision as a result of the poll was against a special session. Besides the social security issue, the legislative session was directed primarily at educational, judicial and public health reforms. Four Constitutional amendments were submitted to be voted on during 1940. A total of 1,641 bills was introduced during the session and upwards of 700 were passed, including special laws. Issues before the electorate in the 1940 elections will be social security, tax reform, educational reform, and possibly the overhauling of prison and eleemosynary institutions. The state supports schools for both white and Negro blind, deaf and dumb, a tuberculosis sanatorium, a hospital for epileptics, eight hospitals for the insane, an orphan's home, and junior training schools for boys and girls.

State Officers.

The principal administrative officials of the state are: Governor, W. Lee O'Daniel; Lieutenant Governor, Coke R. Stevenson; Secretary of State, M. O. Flowers; Treasurer, Charlie Lockhart; Comptroller, George H. Sheppard; Auditor and Efficiency Expert, Tom C. King; Attorney General, Gerald C. Mann; Superintendent of Public Instruction, L. A. Woods.

United States Senators.

Tom Connally, Morris Shephard.