The Life of Amon G. Carter
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LONE STAR BOOSTER: THE LIFE OF AMON G. CARTER Brian Cervantez, M.A. Dissertation Prepared for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS December 2011 APPROVED: Richard McCaslin, Major Professor and Chair of the Department of History Elizabeth Hayes Turner, Committee Member Randolph B. Campbell, Committee Member John Todd, Committee Member Richard M. Golden, Committee Member James D. Meernik, Acting Dean of the Toulouse Graduate School Cervantez, Brian. Lone Star Booster: The Life of Amon G. Carter. Doctor of Philosophy (History), December 2011, 269 pp., bibliography, 133 titles. Though a very influential Texan during the first half of the twentieth century, Amon Carter has yet to receive a full scholarly treatment, a problem which this dissertation attempts to rectify by investigating the narrative of Carter’s life to see how and why he was able to rise from humble beginnings to become a powerful publisher who symbolized boosterish trends within Texas and the New South. Publisher of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, philanthropist, oilman, and aviation supporter, Carter used his power and influence to become a leading booster of his city and region seamlessly making the transition from being a business progressive to New Deal supporter to an Eisenhower Democrat. His connections with corporations like American Airlines and General Motors helped bring aviation and industry to his region, and his ability to work with public and private entities helped inspire his failed attempt to make the Trinity River navigable up to Fort Worth. His own success at building the Star-Telegram into the largest circulating newspaper in Texas encouraged him to expand his media empire into radio and television, while the wealth he gained from his oil activities enabled him to form a philanthropic foundation that would provide support for Fort Worth’s medical, cultural, and educational needs for the future. Possessing a life marked by both success and failure, it is clear throughout this dissertation that Carter embodied the idea of the New South civic booster, a figure who at once promoted his goals for his city and region while understanding how this fit within the larger national context. Copyright 2011 by Brian Cervantez ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page 1. AMON CARTER: A BRIEF HISTORIOGRAPHY......................................................... 1 2. THE FORMATIVE YEARS OF AMON CARTER, 1879-1909 ...................................... 9 3. “WHERE THE WEST BEGINS”: BUILDING A MEDIA EMPIRE, 1909-1925 ............ 27 4. “RULE OR RUIN”: LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS OF POLITICAL SUCCESS, 1920- 1928 ................................................................................................................... 63 5. “FOR THE EXCLUSIVE BENEFIT OF FORT WORTH”: THE GREAT DEPRESSION, NEW DEAL, AND AMON CARTER, 1929-1940 ........................................................... 97 6. AIRWAYS, WATERWAYS, AND FATHERHOOD: AMON CARTER, 1930-1941 ... 136 7. THE WAR YEARS OF AMON CARTER, 1940-1945 .............................................. 178 8. “ONE OF THE GREAT MOVING FORCES OF OUR TIME”: THE FINAL DECADE OF AMON CARTER, 1945-55 .......................................................................... 217 BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................................... 261 iii CHAPTER 1 AMON CARTER: A BRIEF HISTORIOGRAPHY As a blizzard swept across the North Texas plains near the Wise County community of Crafton on December 10, 1879, nineteen-year old Josephine Ream Carter gave birth to a healthy baby boy. Named Giles Amon after his father William’s younger brother; he would grow to become one of the more influential Texans of his time, a fact not foreshadowed by his humble beginnings in a one-room log cabin. When Carter died on June 23, 1955, condolences poured into the city of Fort Worth from politicians, businessmen, and celebrities. Senator Lyndon Baines Johnson delivered a special address on the floor of the Senate chamber in his honor, calling him, “one of the great moving forces of our time . a towering figure in the daily life of our citizens.” Fifteen thousand people paid tribute at his grave the day after his burial. Widely recognized around the nation as “Mr. Fort Worth,” Carter left behind a city and state changed in numerous ways. These political, social, and economic changes resulted from the successful relationships Carter cultivated among local, state, and national politicians and businessmen.1 Carter consciously developed his bonds with what can best be described as the “establishment.” His early background as a travelling salesman and in advertising on the West Coast gave him a national network of contacts upon which he could build. Though he had little knowledge of the city’s elite when he arrived in Fort Worth in 1905, he used his position at the fledgling Fort Worth Star-Telegram to gain influence among 1 Fort Worth Star-Telegram, June 24-25, 1956. 1 the city fathers. By 1920, he had established himself as a prominent civic booster within his adopted hometown and moved into the next stage of his development. During the 1920s, Carter began exercising more statewide influence as evidenced by his role in the founding of Texas Technological College (now Texas Tech University) as well as using his position as publisher of the Star-Telegram to increase his political influence. By the time Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected in 1932, Carter was the head of the largest media empire in Texas (he founded WBAP, one of the first radio stations in Texas in 1922) and a friend to countless national politicians, businessmen, and celebrities. Using the relationships he had crafted over the years, he wielded his influence to ensure that Fort Worth would receive the benefits of federal largess during the New Deal. As vice-president John Nance Garner said, Carter wanted “the whole Government of the United States to be run for the exclusive benefit of Fort Worth.” This was not due to any small-minded provincialism on Carter’s part. After all, he spent a large portion of his adult life meeting with business and political associates in cities like Chicago, New York, and Washington, D.C. and enjoying the limelight on these visits if at all possible. Still, it must be kept in mind that his underlying desire on many of these trips was “to get Wall Street and the industrial centers to move into Fort Worth.” What is clear is that his actions for most of his life were based on a firm recognition of the need for Fort Worth to integrate with the state and national economic and political networks.2 The image Carter developed as “Mr. Fort Worth” was a reflection of what historian Blaine Brownell called the urban “ethos,” which he defined as “a general overarching concept of the city which stressed the desirability-indeed the necessity-of 2 Alva Johnston, “Colonel Carter of Cartersville,” Saturday Evening Post, November 26, 1938, p. 8. 2 both urban growth and social order in such a way that they would be mutually reinforcing.” The urban boosterism that Carter was so famous for (in 1952, Time magazine called him “a civic monument, which unlike San Antonio’s Alamo, Houston’s Shamrock, and Dallas’ Cotton Bowl, can walk and talk at incredible speed”) was “actually an expression of the urban ethos . a rhetorical effort to achieve the realization of the corporate-expansive city by promoting urban unity, growth, and commercial-civic opportunities.” Carter devoted much of his time and a good portion of newspaper space trying to promote these goals for Fort Worth, a reflection of his role as one of the “first Texas news barons,” as historian Patrick Cox argues. Like other Texas media moguls of his day, Carter influenced “public opinion and policy making” while maintaining “ties with the growing commercial concerns of the state and its dominant political class.” 3 Never the philosophizer, Carter in no way articulated his motives for his persistent promotion of Fort Worth. His communications with friends and colleagues lauded Fort Worth but offered no explanation for why he chose that city upon which to lavish his attentions. This leaves scholars the task of parsing through archival material to assess what his motives might have been. Carter’s correspondence reveals a man possessing a rather large ego, an insatiable appetite for success, and a penchant for sales. Fort Worth was small enough to lack an entrenched political and economic elite, yet, like Brownell’s southern city, large enough to provide a man of his ambition and 3 Blaine Brownell, The Urban Ethos in the South, 1920-1930 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press), 1975, xix; “Personality,” Time, February 25, 1952, 45; Patrick Cox, The First Texas News Barons (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2005), 3. 3 talent with potential for “promoting urban unity, growth, and commercial-civic opportunities.”4 Born into a poor rural family, Carter had to work hard to develop an economic foundation for success. Despite the obvious shortcomings of his background, he successfully maneuvered his way through life, beginning first as a “chicken and bread boy” selling sandwiches to train passengers in his hometown of Bowie, Texas. After spending his late teens and early twenties as a travelling salesman, he settled briefly in San Francisco to work in advertising. Despite a promising future in San Francisco, Carter decided to move back to Texas, where he connected with investors looking to start their own newspaper. By 1909, this newspaper had become the Fort Worth Star- Telegram. Much of Carter’s widespread influence sprang from his position as the founder and publisher of the Star-Telegram, turning it into one of the most widely circulated newspapers in Texas during the mid-twentieth century. Under his watchful eye, Fort Worth was transformed from a large cattle town into a thriving city of commerce and industry. Due to Carter’s presence and power, Fort Worth was able to attract many major businesses and construction projects that attested not only to the dynamism of the city but also to the drive he possessed.