Bastrop Advertiser (Bastrop, Tex.), Vol. 90, No. 17, Ed. 1 Thursday, July 15, 1943 Page: 6 of 8
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BASTROP ADVERTISER. JULY 15, 1943
Lyndon B. Johnson Addresses Texas Press Members Recently
Mr. Chairman, Members of the Tex-
as Press:
When we Texans are called upon
to tell about the growth of our State,
and about the men responsible, we
find it hard these days to give other
folks the true picture. In the fir-t
place, our problem is like that of the
cowhand with the young Brahma
bull fresh off the range. Texas won't
stand still long enough.
Besides, in recent years we have
felt constrained to tone down the
facts. More and more, as you know,
our temptation 'has been to lean over
a little too far in the direction of un.
derstatement. We are aware, for ex-
ample, that Sherman once said if he
owned hell and Texas he'd rent out
Texas and live in hell. Many yeais
have passed since the General went,
as we all hope, to the reward which
seems to have been his heart's desire.
We of Texas do not begrudge 'him.
But have we ever given him our ans-
wer? Do we point out that if he
< wncd Texas today and let it out to
a cash tenant, with the first month's
rent he could buy up all hell and the
State of Ohio and still put his ten
per cent in War Bonds?
Yes. we Texans are getting bash,
ful! Wt have to. If we tell the truth,
we are bracing- When folks from
other parts ask us how wo are fat-
ing in agriculture, for instance, and
they demand facts, we have to u 11
them that our State has the world''
largest wheat field; we confess that
w make more cotton than any ether
State in the union; hesitantly, we
show them rancnes that an eastern-
er can only describe :i« "global '; an;
we demonstrate *hat we grow the
most beef, and the be;it orange; and
perms.
Under real compulsion we -night
even go on to ted ho v we have re.
ceinly gone in for soil rser.'ati'r- -
pr- ceeding, of c . ;'rse. r.,i the same
scab that we tackle e 'i r/th't't; dowr,
here—and how, as a r;-'.i!v a job
ha; already been done or. a rolid block
of .'J4.000 acres'—174 'arnu a- one
I'c'k—in the X rth F1 n Cro k back-
lands, a job that has made suit d >c-
to>s all over the world «r up and ru1,
tlv'r eyes.
When outsiders get u n > a cor-
ner and try to drag out •■{ us the
story of >ur industries, we pas it
off with the -imple statement that in
recent years our State has mevH
up from twenty-sixth to twelfth place
am on? the manufacturing Stat< f
the Union; or we five out a few
statistics showing that we produce
two-fifths o< the country's oil and
nine-tenths if it- sulphur; r mayh«
we'll mention a few "f the new line-
we've gone into lately, like aviation
and aircaft manufacture- the big
Xfirth American plan* at Dallas, r i
the ri'ie at For- Wot r • ; i the |
$•10,000,000 Sheffield work* at H m.'
ton; or gla«-—the plant at War ; or
the new plants in a d "jn f ur;
towns for maki' t toluol, is -jutane.l
and a hundred other chemical- that
only a college profess r could pr - j
If we're driven to it. WC sometime*!
tell of thing- that are i't the card*
for Texas, industrial p&ssibilit < . of
the "i• 11r-, )ik the irrov. -v f , rfc
o- the . rodu -ion of t In Wn hinsr-
ton. you know, whenever a .>rtagO'
of needed material- sh w- up ~'>e- i
cause f the closing of markets in far1
r>la<*es of the world rubber from the
Fast Indies, or tin frf>m Malaya the
boy* un there a e getting the habit
of saying, "!)■ n't five up hope.
They've probably g >t it ■ mewhere ir
Texas."
Well, you see what we are up
ajrain-t. Except in West Texas. • sir
people are inclined to shy away from
oxce-se- of sand or wind. The result
is that we are s metimei. almost
apologetic, and now and then, just
to make certain we are nor blowir.r
up a little on the other -ide. We
might mention the youn^ Army pilot
from the San Antonio field who ra-
dioed back the alarm, while hi- was
approaching the Louisiana line that
he had run into a big squadron of
Jap Zcroe- which were thundering
towards him with a roar like the
voice of d om, They turned out, of
courte. to be merely a little bevy of
our Fast Texas mosquitoes, out prac-
ticing their early summer war games.
Or, to give another example of the
thing we might say about Texas juM
to balance the pack, we might quote
the settler who stopped for a sped
in We t Texas and then went back
east, leaving written on the wall of
his dugout:
20 miles to water
10 miles to wood
C inches to hell
When we get down to personalities,
however—to the men who are re-
sponsible for making our State what
it is—here among ourselves 1 think
we are entitled to drop the tooled-
leather lingo, rest our hats and coats
at the door, take the bridle off and
let the dust fly. And today we are
gathered for the purpose of doing
just that.
When it's required of us, we Tex-
ans can be moderate men. When we
are in the kind of out-State society
that require.- it, we can call a spade
a teaspoon. I personally am in a pos-
ition to know. But here at home, on
the subject of Texas personalities, we
can turn loose with our jaw-tackle;
and when we get talking about the
particular personality that happens u>
be in our main topic at this time, we
are like the young mother in a hacks-
wood church in Fast Texas who sud-
denly called over to the old man.
"Here, catch the baby while I
shout."
The Texas personality we are
shouting for today is the property of
a man named Ernest Kurth.
When we stait talking about what
Ernest Kurto has done in, to and for
Texas, we have to ration out our
time. There's a lot of ground to cov-
er. So I'm gointr to use all my ra-
tion points on one item—the one in
which I think the gentlemen of this
audience will be most interested.
A few year- atro, an idea was float-
ing around lo se over the broad for-!
eats of slash pine in our State, look-
ing for a good head to get into, It
went into the head of Frne-t Kurth.
And once there, it decided to stick.
That idea was the vision of a pa-
per mill in the South which could
supply the press in the South with
its own newsprint. Newsprint had
always come down to us over a long
haul. It had always come down in
the pa>t. But would it. always, come
in the future? That question called
forth another idea in Ernest Kurth'-
head—the idea that perhaps, in the
event of a war. and a shortage . f
transportation. or of a possible long,
term depletion of forest- up n. rth
perhaps this rem* te source of supply
made for a situation that was not
t hi healthy from the standf oint of
the -outhern pre*", r.'.t : -> - uiAt
the -ume time, there were tho-e va.-t
pinev woods of our- so vast a crow
had : > take along a pickup whe: h-
flew over them
Frne«t Kurth hot'an talking •\<r
hi- idfie with other folk But the
-aid no. They couldn't see the news-
print f r the trees. They -aid our
kind of tree wouldn't make tha* kind
of tmper ec nomically. They -aid the
place wa 'i'i 'iirht, time wa-i't right,
othing was right. 'Frnt -• Kurth won-
t-red what the Yanke" tree- have g..t
bat our kind of trees, haven't got.
hey t Id him the condition-
favorable, and they mn.rre 'I
by waving he had as much
continuity of a free press in our sec-
tion. As long as people along the
Canadian bonier can keep up with'
Li'l Abner and Joe Palooka, folks
will be keeping up along the Kio
Grande.
I
But what Ernest Kurtih ha.- done
is only an example, a part of a still
bigger story, lie and other men like
him have been carrying that bright
story forward over this whole sec-;
tion of the country; and today we
have, emerging from '. ld one-crop
dependencies, geographical handi-
caps and depressive perils to our
security of other days, a new South,
forging ahead, pioneering in research
and manufacture, diversifying, mov-
ing up into. the place that has long
been destined for it by virtue uf a
tremendous natual heritage.
One does not inherit the earth by
sitting on it. The kind of develop,
what the Victors call gray matter
now is r «>t easy, not passive. It takes
what the dictors call g ay matter
plus what the army calls guts. Among
us Texas folk-, the war has stirred
up a heavy exercise of both. Of cour-
se, I have heard it hinted, in other with the passing of war emergencies.
parts of the country, that it take*. The blocks tk> progress which it ha*
a war U> do that to us. Bu' I have j [K,en t,.ttrjng down have long ante-
never heard it denied that we were ,
born with plenty of each. th,B WHr" °"c'- «0n\' ",';
htades are gone for good. Once net
The new South of which I speak is in motion, the forces by which this
building on firm ground. That which new South - being built will ketp
it is making of itself will not d'ej going. Wt are on our way.
\
✓ \
the Pleasure 8pot
of Bastrop
53
CHRISTMAS PACKAGES FOR
SOI.IHEKS
Christmas packages may be mailed
to American soldiers overseas with-
out a req.iest from the soldier, from
September 15 to October l.Y Thi
packages must be no more than five
pounds in weight, fifteen inche- u
length, and thirty-six inches in lengtsh
and girth combined. They should be
marked "Christmas fiift parcel." Only
one such package will be accepted
for mailing bv or on behalf of thi
same person or concern to or f"r
the -ame addressee diring any « n«
week
Where delicious Meals and
Cooling Drinks help you
to forget the heat of the
Summer and the grirnness of
W ar for a while!
DINE AND DANCE AT
MBNBS
JLANNf. CHAMPION, Mgr
Just across the river on the Austin Highway
i
\
/
::V
B
tim
Well Krr
< hat
auet
the
he
ell
ded
rif
ud
ful f the
the table
fool would ha\
That' about
i and the
nir. Sam
tuff, \Yfih\ i
and exclaim
HwalU
what
it it tod
i j ren
litti If
pat it out <
id, "Mr
wed tha"."
Rrne«t K un
did with the ideas of his defeati-t
advi i ■ Condition-! Who exp< ted
th- •• I" 1 perfect " | • i ondtt: !
'Vere all that mattered, there would-
n't be another goat on the whole Fd-
wari Plateau!
So Ernest Kurth went ahead, 1
have not the time to give v u the
whole -t r.v of that venture ai Fuf.
km, of 'he headache^ and heartache-,
the setbacks and the barriers that
had to be hurdled. It is enough to be
able to say that today, when the
]future need > f the newsprint produc-
Ition for 'he southern looms
larger than ever—to large indeed
that without -ueh a local source of
supply we might have been fa< ing
the threat of ruinous shortage* to
day we have the beginnings of that
production.
Actual output of newsprint at the
I.ufkin mill has, as you know been
started. You, the newspapers of Tex-
as, and we, the readers of Texas, are
therefore provided with a measure of
insurance agairwt this disastrous kind
of shortage which might break the
GRAND
PRIZE
Cultivate the (hmmI Yhiuns
n of tii« Per-
r rirhrt, >nil>
d lio n found
in farmer who
lo I. urn th l
n llw l.irin he
It eiio mi, r I lu I rio ■'. i
• • in lied ihc world f<
' itrr' « of rli.i nond- lo
haul •old '
ll • lion h lh< •Htne with diamond* of hu|>|iinr ■«.
You'll find litem in 'lt> little lliniz* lli.it Ii i|i| ti in
nil ol n« ever« iIji> ... in tin rein x.il i.in lli.il n>nir«
iiflir ;i job well (lone, in ihi •mi-'lllo ihnl follow* a
mill, in the i-it of Winr fin 111 lite afTerlimi uf
• our f.imilt and the pl> ,i«iuit roiuforl of •mir own
i bnir.
# nllltnlf ifif film/ llung'. f.njiii mill llrmiiii- ihrm
. . . riml lit- tiire i,s inrlmlr timwilt I him llu frunilh
rhfrr urn I i mil rrfrrihmriil n/ annul latlin' i'tuml
I'riif. I Inn t-ragf uf ttimh rnliiin . . . I.rntul I'rtir 11
tin* n/ ihr f>lrifiirr$ thai tnhl mm h l/> thr /in uf
liring.
Ill' •••■in* 00 . MOWITOa, Til At
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Standifer, Amy S. Bastrop Advertiser (Bastrop, Tex.), Vol. 90, No. 17, Ed. 1 Thursday, July 15, 1943, newspaper, July 15, 1943; Bastrop, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth236915/m1/6/: accessed June 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Bastrop Public Library.