Report From Texas (1940s)

[Music] one thing is sure if there's a man in your outfit from texas you've heard some tall tales by now but there's still enough facts about texas to make it one of the dog gone to states in the union hundred thousand men and women in uniform come from texas more than ten percent of the state's population they come from clusters of skyscrapers on the plains like dallas or amarillo houston or from a batch of little buildings on the highway like fredericksburg this texans have gone to war from the cattle ranches the sheep ranches the grain sorghum country dairy farms rice fields turkey ranches oil fields the wheat country the citrus country and as the young men left the state for war texas began a great upheaval of nature of people to meet the emergency shipyards have mushroomed and drawn thousands from the country to the cities the one-time farmer and his wife farmer's daughter are making everything from navy craft to freighters airplane factories have drawn more thousands from the ranches and farms so what happens short-handed texas pitches in and produces more of the stuff that counts than ever before in its history two and a half million barrels of oil are being pumped from texas wells every day in the year farmers without hired hands produced a record wheat crop of 60 million bushels in 1944 and had the winter wheat planted right on schedule the rice growers had another record crop magnesium is being made from rock and if the rock isn't handy they're making magnesium from seawater they pick the cotton by hand or if they can't get help they harvest it with a cotton pickers nightmare hundreds of thousands of acres of sorghum grains were harvested to feed the livestock helium plants continue to furnish practically all of the world's supply of this non-inflammable lighter than air gas black clouds in the sky rise from plants where carbon black is produced by burning natural gas for the making of synthetic rubber and in texas plants a great part of the nation's synthetic rubber is being manufactured [Music] sulfur is brought from underground by a superheated steam the sulfur is dried in hugeness train loads of this vital mineral are shipped daily war has turned this state into one of the great industrial areas but the old texas is here too beef cattle roam the plains until it's time to separate the cavs from the herds [Music] and finally the cattle marked that last mile in the fort worth stockyards texas sheep contribute twice as much woe as the state next in production and the sheep too march that last mile in fort worth to help feed millions angora goats supply 85 of the country's mohair turkey raising is one of the old standbys and that texas climate has produced some whoppers baby beef turkeys running up to 50 pounds yes texas has done itself proud in wartime and the people who have made this possible are simply the families of the men from texas the mothers and wives and fathers and brothers george nicholas has a son hospitalized in new caledonia there are three men named cooper who will recognize mother and dad at work milly bailey carries on with the memory of a son captured on corregidor and the same for her husband ed bailey mrs tom white raised her own son and two foster sons on this farm near paris all are overseas all the kids of the davis family help their mother pick cotton the sun is in the navy raymond malone cotton picker has a son in the army oversea mr reagan's son wears the purple heart otto stevenson has five brothers in the army marines and air corps and john taylor also is the only one of six brothers who's not in uniform jimmy wingfield engineer on the big inch booster pumps as a marine brother with the purple heart and another brother in the eto or alvin sister of a navy man mrs lowry denay is the wife of a gi overseas j.o stockman brother of a navy j.r cox switzerland with two sons and three grandsons in service one son is reported missing mrs h.w mcwilliams has been in war work since corregidor fell her husband was taken prisoner there and on the alabama khashoggi indian reservation out of a community population of 380 there are 28 stars in the circus flag the kids don't quite understand what's going on in the world but they're fascinated by letters from the chief son pfc james celestine of the infantry who's been fighting an enemy in new guinea and the men of the reservation who remain are hard at work in the logging camps in austin the state university campus is a little on the feminine side with so many men away and at the capitol building as everywhere else in the state the flag of texas flies beside the stars and stripes the men from texas mean it when they say that whenever the united states goes to war texas can be counted on to fight right alongside her it's hard to find a texan who doesn't claim that his state has the most beautiful girls in the world here's what came out of a department store in dallas what's the verdict and what kind of a knucklehead would keep a dish like this waiting as in other states church attendance has increased tremendously since pearl harbor typical of texas is the ranch of ed c henke several miles outside kerbin two sons and two daughters were raised here by the hankies but now the elder son is in the infantry overseas and the two daughters are married to men who've shipped out whenever possible the two dollars visit the ranch to help out a little but the only regular hand dad henke has is his younger son wr after breakfast dad and wr start the day with a milking chore a third cow is reserved for wr's pride a bull calf he's raising for the 4-h club competition [Music] little charles lee son of the hinky boy overseas loves to visit grandma and grandpa on weekends and get himself involved in everything possible on the ranch every day is easter for charlie as he tracks down the eggs with grandma charles lee insists on helping with anything such as giving grandpa a lift on feeding the hogs meanwhile mrs pressler the hanky girl married to a field artillery man churned some butter with a newfangled gadget that worked automatically till the motor broke and they couldn't get new parts there's that weekly washing to be taken care of too although it's far from what it used to be when all the kids were growing up mrs peters the other hanky daughter who's married to an air corps man helps her mother and of course charles lee is in there pitching dad and wr have regular inspection trips to be made checking on the livestock and the fencing and while husband and son are away mrs henke finds that as always everybody has forgotten to bring in some wood for the cook stove she's tried for years to train dad and all the kids to relieve her of this chore but she's still doing it herself the cattle gathering around to feed give dad henkey a chance to check on their condition they're in fine shape this year the sheep too look in good health as they come into salt it took texans a long time to convince themselves that a man of honor could raise both cattle and sheep but the war cinched the argument wr is anxious to have his brother see what he's accomplished with this philly three weeks ago she was as wild as a cornered bobcat wr broke her all by himself and mother with the food she put up last summer and fall make sure that the dried apples are in a prominent place they won second prize at the curve hill county fair when deer season opens wr is among the first to get his butt he'll pack it cheerfully to see the proud flicker in dad's eyes when he walks casually up to the house the family is proud too of the way wr looks out for the son of the big brother who's overseas showing him the mysteries of the woods and streams and never a harsh word from him when little charles lee decides the best way to catch fish is to beat them over the head with your fishbowl sunday finds the henke family dressed in its best for morning services at kerrville they meet other neighbors who talk about their husbands and sons who are away and they're led in prayer by reverend props foreign [Music] you