Texas Government Chapter 3

um industries that have shaped texas

politics

of course uh in the 1800s number one was

cotton or as they called it at that time

king cotton

in the early 1800s the us as a whole

especially in the in the in the deep

south uh cotton becomes a cash crop uh a

lot of that is because of the uh british

textiles that were uh

in high demand the british had uh

created

the first real industrial revolution

in textiles which is just cloth and of

course

that cloth was

made of cotton and so they the more

textiles that were in demand the more

cotton they needed and the u.s was happy

to

supply as much cotton as possible and

texas being part of that

another important reason that

cotton became so so valuable is the

invent mention of the cotton gin

it allowed cotton to be processed

uh in the in the seeds removed in a much

much more

uh efficient way

which made it of course much more

profitable

if you can do anything

in your business more efficiently and

faster with

better equipment well that increases

your profitability

but because they no longer needed so

much slave labor to actually process the

cotton because the cotton gin would do

that now

uh they

uh

shifted that labor that was doing that

to work in the fields to plant

and uh

tend and harvest the cotton

that um

that the um

slaves would uh that were working um

and processing it would now be doing

that and the gin would do the rest of

the work

this of course created an explosion of

cotton growth after the invention of the

cotton gin

so other reasons that might be good for

a test like all the following

excuse me all of the following were

reasons for the explosion of cotton

growth after the invention of the cotton

gin

uh

accept so

kind of know this list of reasons uh

immigration from the deep south to other

cotton growing states

like texas

removal of native americans from prime

cotton growing areas that was one of the

reasons for the trail of tears and for

the engine removal act was to remove

native americans from prime cotton

growing areas

advanced plows that made it much

easier to

till the soil

barbed wire to protect the the products

and railroads to move the cotton to

market as quickly and as efficiently as

possible

texas of course becomes one of those

as i mentioned the states that was

profiting

from uh

cotton

now other industries railroads as i

mentioned earlier early railroads helped

allow more efficient distribution of

cotton and other freight other things

that that uh people were growing in the

state

uh specifically agriculture

lack of railroad regulations meaning

laws you know governing

what they could do how they could do it

the prices they could charge the routes

they took it led to what's called

monopolistic practices which is

basically a monopoly you may know is

just a one company or one person that

completely dominates an industry

what that is not a good thing in a um

in a capitalist economic system because

if you are the only one that supplies a

service or a a product

like a route from

houston to san antonio for instance and

you're the only one that supplies it

you're the only railroad and everybody

has to get their products from one place

to another well if there's no

competition you can pro a charge

whatever price you want

as high as you want

for that service and that can lead to

what's called price gouging

and

eventually the problem got so bad that

governor james hogg established the

texas railroad commission in 1891 to

regulate railroads mainly to regulate

the rates they charge so they could no

longer price gouge as they did

prior to the

implementation of regulations

uh later uh oil becomes the most

dominant industry in texas um mainly in

the 1900s or the 20th century uh the the

first discovery of

oil was in

top near beaumont there was a gusher in

it and it ushered in you know the oil

boom of texas uh once oil is discovered

in one place the assumption is oil will

be in other places

and so uh people flooded into texas

people called wildcatters which are

individual

uh individuals searching for oil

um

and texas becomes uh one of the leading

oil producing states in the nation uh

and as they kept looking kept moving

westward more oil more oil more oil and

this created a

plenty of opportunities

for

as i said people that

searched for the oil that that

drill for the oil but also it created

jobs for others

uh it created a uh a ripple effect in

the economy because the more oil that

was discovered that means more money for

the people working in the oil fields and

those people would in turn spend that

money in texas on other things services

such as uh you know houses restaurants

automobiles all the things that you

think of so the oil boom had a uh had a

profound ripple effect on the texas

economy

by the end of world war ii rapid change

from rural to urban populations

people began moving into the cities

where the oil companies were based and

there were many other industries tied to

the oil companies

houston becomes the dominant u.s

refinery and petrochemical center in the

in the nation really along the gulf

coast uh

you just there were just uh

uh refineries and petrochemical plants

as far as the eye could see and that

created job opportunities uh and of

course people

came here to work or came to houston to

work and the beaumont area uh and uh

found their uh you know

established their families and uh

started uh started their lives uh and

that was good for everybody

the oil industry though has a tends to

be a boom and bust uh

industry and in the 1980s there was a

glut of oil

on the market

mainly because of excessive oil being

produced in the middle east

to compete with texas oil which lowered

the prices the more product there is

on the on the uh on the market

there's more competition that means

prices will generally drop

and so low price has meant less profits

for the oil companies which means less

money for the oil workers

which means that ripple effect stops

so and and so this was a a common theme

this boomer bust within the texas oil

industry

uh tied with all this as texas is

growing transportation

extends and expands uh of course we've

always had the railroads

crisscrossing texas from the early uh i

mean mid to late 1800s but now

the interstate highway system is being

created beginning in 1956

under president eisenhower to

have non-stop

highways or interstates

between major urban areas

so all the major cities and the and the

purpose for this initially was

militarily

we were in the middle of the cold war at

this point with the soviet union and so

where there was always the threat of an

attack on the united states and a war so

you had to have a mechanism for moving

supplies and troops and everything else

excuse me all across the country

and

you don't want to have a bunch of roads

with stop signs and red lights so the

idea of the interstate highway system

uh of course not only did it allow for

the movement of military

uh

personnel and goods it also led to the

movement of everything uh goods that go

to stores people that go on vacation and

travel

and it led to the ripple effect of more

automobiles being

bought

more highways connecting the interstates

being built

suburban areas meaning

residential neighborhoods outside of the

city

because now with the highways and the

interstate system you can easily travel

from outside of this the major urban

area into into the major urban area to

work

and then uh chains of uh different

industries uh gas stations

restaurants

hotels and motels when you have people

traveling on the highways all over the

country they are going to need those

services so it also created a ripple

effect

of course today

texas is a very diverse state in its

economy it is no longer a single

industry state

basically as it was with

cotton and oil

but uh

one of the new

dominant industries in texas is the

technology industry specifically in the

uh

in the hill country uh firms like dell

computer southwestern bell

communications texas instruments all of

these are are

very important and very uh

provide a lot of jobs

in the areas and then the different

cities in texas of course oil and

natural gas and those things are still

very important

they don't dominate as they used to

which is a good thing because if there

is a bust in the oil prices

because it's not the only major industry

in texas it doesn't have the profound

negative effect on the economy that uh

it had in the past

there's so much technology in the in the

hill country that they now some people

refer to it as silicon hills

uh which is a uh

a play on the uh the technology centers

of california which is called silicon

valley uh and they are generally in

texas clustered around the austin area

it's just a uh

photo of the spindle top gusher

texas demographics talk a little bit

about that

texas is the second most populous state

in the uh

in the country behind california it is

also the second most uh

geographically large state square miles

behind alaska

it has been growing rapidly especially

in the last 20 years

as of 2015 17

of the population of texas is foreign

born so they are first generation

uh immigrants

and the majority of those come from

mexico but

there are others that come from

throughout the world

27 percent

of the population of texas is under the

age of 18. so we're a very young

population and 10 percent is over the

age of 65.

as far as ethnicity breakdown there are

no what you might call majority

ethnicities in texas uh

non-hispanic whites make up 45 about 45

percent of the population

hispanics make up uh

about 37 and a half percent

african americans make up almost 12

percent asian americans 3.8

and then some of the smaller uh ethnic

groups by uh

by population and then uh what's left

other races throughout the nation i mean

throughout the world excuse me they have

moved here

uh or have settled here make up about 10

of the population

now let's talk a little bit about the

the political culture of texas the

political culture of texas

or the political culture in general is

kind of how

as a society

and as a population

uh we view the role of government texas

view you know

what do we expect of government

there's a political scientist named

daniel ellazar who tried to classify

this and kind of categorize it in a lot

of ways to to to describe the different

cultures

that

political cultures that exist in

different societies and he came up with

three a moralistic political culture an

individualistic political culture and a

traditionalistic political culture

as far as the definitions in a

moralistic political culture government

is seen as a means to better society to

to promote the general welfare so

government is seen as being a potential

possible uh

good

a proactive good

people who embrace a moralistic

political culture

see the government as having the ability

especially the closer to the people

local and state governments having the

ability to improve society through their

actions uh people who are this

or believe this or embrace this tend to

be called oftentimes progressives or

liberals individualistic political

culture government is seen as a

mechanism for addressing issues that

matter to individual

citizens and and pursuing individual

goals so the general welfare and

moralistic is not is as important and

may not be important at all to people

with an individualistic uh

perspective on political culture they

think all that matters is not what

what's happening with everybody and and

promoting the general welfare of

everybody but only my

welfare what's good for me what you know

and and if that does not help others

then that's okay because it's in it's an

individual world and we're all looking

out for ourselves

uh

people that um

embrace this i would argue tend to be

maybe classified as libertarian

uh

you know leave me alone let me do my

thing and you know whatever happens to

you is your issue

the other is a traditionalistic

political culture uh those that are this

tend to be uh referred to oftentimes as

more conservative

politically they see government as

necessary

for maintaining the existing social

order and the status quo

basically the government is there to

make sure

things

people act the way society expects them

to act

and to maintain the economic and social

power structure

so as not to upset the status quo or how

things are this is also called elite

theory

because it means that the elites in the

society be at the local community

the elites of the state or the elites of

the nation

they

are elites because they have power and

they have influence and of course if you

have power and influence

you want to maintain that power and

influence so you don't want anything to

change you don't want new people gaining

power you don't want things to you know

somebody to come in and rock the boat

you want to keep it traditionalistic you

want to keep it as is

and and as a way to maintain

the status quo

now texas but if you base it uh texas or

look at texas on elizar's

classifications

we are traditionalistic dominant with

some individualistic characteristics

meaning that we have a

conservative mindset politically

we want to maintain the status quo as in

general now this doesn't mean everybody

that doesn't mean every person in in the

society is this it just means the

majority of it and it's the overriding

attitude if you will of texas uh they

see uh government is necessary

you know kind of a necessary evil for

maintaining existing social order

um that's why you have

texas is a very socially conservative

state and maintaining the status quo

the uh keep things the way they are

according to

traditionalistic uh change is bad