Bringing Power to the Hill Country (LBJ: Part One B)

 


Re-posted by Nicholas Stix
 

Introduction




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LBJ

Written and Produced by David Grubin
Narrated by David McCullough

PBS Transcript

As Johnson arrived in Washington, the excitement and promise of Roosevelt's New Deal still animated the capital. The New Deal was the perfect climate for the young congressman and his wife, Lady Bird. He had proposed to her the day they met and she became the perfect political wife, rising at midnight to scramble eggs for his friends, running his congressional office, working as his business manager. Lady Bird never stopped serving her husband's ambitions.

Assigned a room in the old House Office Building far from the corridors of power, the freshman congressman didn't hesitate to turn to the President for help. With the support of the White House, Johnson secured loans and millions of dollars in federal grants for farmers, schools, housing for the poor, roads, public libraries; but helping complete the great dam on the lower Colorado River was his greatest achievement and the next step in the education of Lyndon Johnson. In 1938, rural Texans were still living without electricity.

E. Babe Smith, Pedernales Electric Co-op:It was a rather primitive life, you know -- no running water and they had no refrigeration. Every meal had to be started from scratch. They used to say, you know, the man was a gentleman who could provide his wife with a sharp axe, you know, to cut the wood with.

McCullough:[voice-over] "Of all the things I've ever done," Lyndon Johnson later wrote, "nothing has ever given me as much satisfaction as bringing power to the hill country of Texas."

E. Babe Smith, Pedernales Electric Co-op:And my daughter -- she was about nine years old -- she just couldn't believe how the house was lit up. She said, "Momma, the house is on fire."

McCullough:[voice-over] The dam was everything a young congressman could have hoped for. The hill country farmers thanked Johnson for the electricity and the men who built the dam thanked him for the government contracts: George and Herman Brown of the Brown and Root Construction Company. Johnson helped the Brown brothers build a billion-dollar construction empire. In turn, the Browns would fund Johnson's political campaigns.

Ronnie Dugger, LBJ Biographer:Judgmentally, what I'd say is that they were a couple of guys who were making a lot of money out of the New Deal and they didn't want to have to pay higher wage rates, so they were against the union. It wasn't a matter of high principle. They wanted to get rich and they did get rich. Well, Lyndon sidled up to them or they sidled up to him and they made book.

I remember asking Johnson once in the White House, "Did you deal with cash?" And he said, "It was all cash." I mean, there were no records, so under those circumstances, there were plenty of politicians who were selling out to business interests. I use a pejorative term. I don't know what other term to use. I mean, in TV you have to use some shorthand. I mean, they were agreeing to be with those people in exchange for money which they used in their campaigns. That's pretty close to selling out, isn't it?

And everything is organized not like his father -- around ideas and ideals -- but like a sun, around himself and his own career; not to say that he is not, therefore doing a lot of good. He brings real electricity to people that don't have it in his own district. Yeah, sure he's really smart.

McCullough:[voice-over] On May 2, 1939, George Brown wrote Johnson a letter. "I hope you know, Lyndon, how I feel in reference to what you have done for me and I'm going to try to show you my appreciation through the years with actions rather than words." Two years later, the Brown brothers made good on their promise.