Means of Ascent (98 page)

Johnson’s view from helicopter:
Chudars, Mashman interviews.

Touring the Hill Country:
AA-S
, June 25;
AA-S, DMN, HP
, June 27.
“It gives me confidence”
;
“Happy tired”
;
“That thing”
:
HP
, June 27.

AFL endorsement:
AA-S, DMN, HP
, June 23–27; McKay, pp. 200–1.
Labor’s feelings about Johnson:
DMN, HC, HP
, June 25;
AA-S
, Aug. 10. Hopkins, Corcoran interviews. The AFL said that Johnson “by his own actions, vote and continued support of the Taft-Hartley and Case bills has disqualified himself in the eyes of the working people of Texas,”
HP
, June 25.
Anti-union sentiment in Texas:
Green, pp. 103–7.
“He just
seemingly”
:
Boatner OH.
Stevenson’s reasoning:
Boyett, Murphey interviews; Boatner OH. Boatner was with Stevenson “the day he got word that labor had endorsed him.”

Johnson’s instinct for the jugular:
Graham, quoted in Caro,
Path to Power
, p. 154.
A
“secret deal”
:
Johnson, quoted in
Steinberg, p. 248. Johnson’s attack, like his earlier attacks on Stevenson’s reputation, came in the face of advice of more timid campaign aides, who advised him to try to put as good a
face as possible on the endorsement. For example, Claude Wild told him: “You should be cheerful about it—say that the actual laborers are for you; the political leaders are not.… I would not use the expression ‘stabbed in the back.’ It sounds to the outsider like you are crying over losing your former friends. At least, it is defensive” (Wild to Johnson, June 24, “
Austin-Miscellaneous, 1948,” Box 1, PPMF).
Johnson
“has disqualified himself”
:
Reilley, quoted in
HC, HP
, June 25.
“Deliberate lie”
;
“
INFURIATED
”
:
DMN
, June 25.

Johnson’s charges of “secret deal”:
For example,
DMN
, June 24. In this statement, Johnson also attacked Stevenson for his actions on the Manford Bill, which Johnson called “the state’s vicious anti-labor law,” a rather cynical statement, since it was two of the men who were advising Johnson on this statement—Alvin Wirtz and Edward Clark—who had drafted that law.
“Labor dictators”
:
CCC
, Aug. 11.

Johnson’s charge untrue:
Stevenson’s advisers—Boyett, Murphey, Stevenson, Jr.—say this unanimously in interviews. And so do Johnson’s advisers including Bolton and Jenkins.
“We knew it wasn’t true”
:
Bolton interview.
Not Stevenson but Johnson was receiving secret labor support:
Corcoran, Hopkins,
Rowe, Harold Young interviews.
“He was saying”
:
Hopkins interview.

Abilene press conference:
HP
, July 3.
“My policy is”
:
Abilene Reporter-News
, July 3. Quoted in
DMN
, Aug. 13.
“Repeatedly”
: Stevenson
, quoted in McKay, pp. 227–28.
Refusing to listen to advisers:
Boyett, Murphey, Stevenson, Jr., interviews.

Johnson’s continuing attacks:
AA-S, CCC-T, DMN, HP
, June 24-Aug. 11.
“Anyone who knew”
:
Murphey interview.
Leach demand:
AA-S
, June 24.
Stevenson’s refusal to reply:
DMN
, July 18, 30.
Not
“be drawn”
:
DMN
, June 27.

“Wasn’t like other candidates”
:
Boyett interview.
“Mr. Leach’s letter”
:
DMN
, June 27.

“He’s moving out!”
:
Woodward interview.
Silver Star bar:
And Johnson of course displayed it. If, because of the heat, he removed his suit jacket, on which his Silver Star bar was pinned, he, as the
DMN
reported on one occasion, “held aloft his coat” to display the emblem, and “got a big hand when he shouted ‘I
didn’t sit and puff my pipe when our country was at war,’ ” and then “told about his military service in the Pacific”
(DMN
, July 3). This was one of the speeches at which he was introduced by an amputee. See also, for example, “July I,” Box 91, JHP. His attempts to make capital of his wartime experiences grew ever more intensive. Before the end of the campaign, he was telling audiences that
the reason he had not run for the senatorial seat in 1942 was that he had been “in the jungles of New Guinea”
(HC
, Aug. 22).
“Congressman Johnson”
:
For example,
AA-S
, Aug. 17.
“Seven heroes”
:
AA-S
, June 29.
“But when the election”
:
HC
, Aug. 22.

Johnson’s small-town speeches:
No complete transcript of Johnson’s basic impromptu speech can be found. To reconstruct the speech, the author took paragraphs and phrases from descriptions of this speech that were printed in daily or weekly newspapers. Then he asked members of Johnson’s staff who heard the speech repeatedly—most notably Warren G. Woodward, Joe Mashman, Mary Rather and Horace Busby—to give their
recollection of what he said and to try to recall the phrases Johnson used. In an attempt to capture the Hill Country intonations that Johnson used, he had relatives and boyhood friends from Johnson City, including Johnson’s brother, Sam Houston Johnson, and his cousin, Ava Johnson Cox, try to recall the phrases he used.
“My boy died”
:
DMN
, July 18.
An old man’s tears:
HP
, Aug. 15.
“Flying in B-29s, helping bomb one Japanese island after another”
:
Port Arthur News
, July 15.

Imitating Coke:
Among newspaper accounts of his imitation, the most evocative is Margaret Mayer’s in the
AA-S
, June 27; Busby, Woodward interviews.
“Gone berserk”
:
Busby to Wade, June 24, “Intra-Office Memoranda,” Box 98, JHP; Busby interview.

Johnson’s emotions:
Busby, Mayer, Rather, Woodward interviews.
“Son, they’re
people!
”
:
Busby interview.
Racing the train:
CCC-T
, July 7.
Waving his hat:
For example,
DMN
, July 7.
“Hello, Port Arthur!”
Port Arthur News
, July 15.
“Whipped his Stetson”
:
AA-S
, June 25.

Following him by auto:
Chudars, Oltorf, Bolton, Woodward, Nachlin interviews;
Boatner, Plyler OHs.
“That mad dash”
:
Knight to Johnson, “Fort Worth–IJK,” Box 87, JHP.

“Three hours”
:
Nichols OH.
Johnson’s hard work:
Busby, Chudars, Jenkins, Rather, Woodward, Bolton, Clark interviews.
“Worry yourself”
:
Wild to Johnson, June 19, “Austin-Miscellaneous, 1948,” Box I, PPMF.
Awake when Woody came
to wake him:
Woodward interview.
“I never saw anyone”
;
“harder”
:
Caro,
Path to Power
, p. 425; Clark interview.

Visit to Alice Glass’s mother:
Oltorf, Mary Louise Glass Young interviews.

“Just too nervous”
:
Quoted in Steinberg, p. 256.
Stevenson’s speech:
DMN
, July 16.
Coverage of Stevenson campaign:
For example,
AA-S
, July 18;
DMN
, July 8, 17, 18, 21;
HP
, July 16, 18.
“Five towns”
:
AA-S
, June 28.

“Coffee, doughnuts”
:
Steinberg, p. 256.
Raging at clerks;
“nudity”
:
Busby interview.

“See the [face]”
:
Boatner OH.
Treatment of Cheavens:
Mayer interview.
Switching
HP
reporters:
Oltorf interview.
Obscenities to Rather:
Mayer interview and OH; Rather interview.

“Umbrage”
:
Busby interview.
Predicting no runoff:
Phipps, “Tell ’em About Me, Joe.” “Having heard it a lot myself, I almost believed it,” Phipps wrote.
FWS-T
, June 25,
AA-S
, June 27.

The older men knew:
Brown, Clark interviews.

Cowboy Reunion:
Interviews with Murphey, Boyett and Ray Arledge, former Reunion president;
HP, DMN
, July 3.
“Thinning ranks”
:
WPA, pp. 467–70.
“I didn’t sit
,”
etc.: For example,
DMN
, July 3.
“One constant”
:
HP
, July 3.
Johnson’s excuse:
DMN, CCC-T
, July 3.

Poll results:
DMN
, July 11.

Changing helicopters:
Mashman, Chudars interviews; Mashman OH.
“My good pilot Joe”
:
Mashman interview.

One of the hottest summers:
Texas Almanac
, p. 168.
“Flying in a greenhouse”
:
Chudars interview.
“Just dripping”
:
Mashman interview.
Thirty-one speeches:
CCC-T
, July 8.
Circling thunderstorm:
DMN
, July 10; Mashman interview.

Stump speeches:
See Note, Johnson’s small-town speeches above. See also
AAS, DMN, HP, CCC-T
, June 20-July 21.
“A goatherder”
:
DMN
, July 9.
“Twenty bombs”
:
HP
, July 8.
Germ warfare:
HP
, July 4.
“Pray”
;
“the best atomic bomb”
:
For example,
DMN
, July 4. For another example of his rhetoric on this subject, see
DMN
, July 24: “ ‘The atom bomb we dropped on Hiroshima is just a T-Model compared with the bomb we have ready right now, wrapped
up and tied with a blue ribbon.’ ”
“I wish”
:
FWS-T
, July 20.
“Day is over”
:
AA-S
, July 11.
Oil depletion should be increased:
For example,
DMN
, July 9, 15.
“Big-bellied
,” etc.:
For example,
DMN
, July 7.
“Isolationist”
;
“appeaser”
;
“umbrella man”
;
“Munich”
:
For example,
DMN
, July 17;
HP
, July 18;
CCC-T
, July 18;
DMN
, July 21. During the Berlin crisis in July, Johnson’s attacks on Stevenson as “appeaser” intensified, as did his warnings of imminent war. “The Russian bear
is moving!” Johnson “shouted” in speech after speech. “No one knows what the next day or hour will bring!” And his attacks on Stevenson intensified. “Other persons,” he said, in a thinly veiled reference to Stevenson, “want to cut the throat of the free country we have always known.” He said America must not retreat “one inch.… We are willing to draw the quarantine line, and we would rather have it on the
Mediterranean than on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico.… The people realize the issue in this race is preparedness and peace versus isolationism and appeasement.” Stevenson’s own statement on the crisis pointed out that he had consistently favored a strong military. “None of us running for office now will be in Washington before January [and] I will not attempt to fool the people of Texas by pretending that, as a candidate, I can do anything effective
about this urgent problem. Certainly a matter as serious as this has no place as a political issue. But I would call for a showdown with Russia if I were there.” He felt that Russia did not want war at the present time, because “her forces aren’t strong enough.” So, he said,
“I
would call for a showdown with Russia if I were there. Make Russia toe the mark, and if we do, too, I don’t believe we will have
war.”
“
STOOGE
”
:
For example,
HP
, July 8.
“Slick tongue”
:
For example,
AA-S
, July il.
Woodward getting caught up:
Woodward interview.
Semicircle edging closer:
Busby interview.

The meeting and greeting:
Johnson’s phrases in these unwritten speeches are re-created from the recollections of a dozen persons who heard him give them. Some of the phrases are the same as or similar to phrases he used in unrehearsed stump speeches during his 1937 campaign for Congress—because he would use the
same phrases.
“Mighty hard
schedule”
:
Meredith to Wild, July 17; Wild to Meredith, July, “District 4 Chairman-Fred Meredith,” Box 100, JHP.
In the helicopter:
Mashman interview.
Johnson’s lack of concern for own safety:
Mashman, Chudars, Woodward interviews.
Rosenberg landing:
Woodward interview.

“Concentrate”
:
Parr, quoted in Salas, “Box 13,” p. 53.
Conditions in Precinct 13:
Lloyd, Salas, Rowe interviews.
“Inside we had a table”
:
Salas interview; Salas, “Box 13,” p. 56.
“I tell you once more”
;
“told them, Absolutely”
:
Salas, “Box 13,” pp. 53, 51.
“I just ordered”
; Holmgreen’s arrest:
Salas, Holmgreen, quoted in Kahl, p. 93.
“Up many times”
;
“just ignored same”
:
Salas, “Box 13,” p. 54.
Voting results:
AA-S, DMN, HP, CCC-T
, July 26;
Texas Almanac
, pp. 462–64.