Evening star., 1940-09-22

young bull for your herd. I'll be
able TO give you one this fall"
Here was Mr. Rayburn on his
favorite subject. He loves his cattle
his registered prize Jersey bulls, his
early morning rides TO the river
ranch, fishing in his well-stocked
lakeland his black land.
It's beautiful in North Texas"
he will say with his gaze straying
past the Capitol marble toward the
grassy mall that rolls down to
Washington Monument.
It's beautiful Not many hills.
but rolling. prairie land. And that
black land is 40 feet deep. There
doesn't seem TO be any bottom to it.
Beds and Plenty to Eat.
This black land has formed the
centerpiece for Mr. Rayburn's past
The farm which he calls home is
the same homestead near Bonham
to which his father tok him when
Sam was 5. Two brothers. Tom
and Will. and a sister, Miss Lou
live there full time, as does Sam
when he is not in Washington
They keep nine beds and plenty
to eat ready for any other Rayburn,
or any friends. who might drop in
For there were II children in the
Rayburn family and those that are
left like to get together. They were
brought up on the 40 acres that
William Marion and Martha Ray
burn settled upon when they moved
out of Tennessee's Clinch River
Valley to Texas in 1887.
The father had ridden with Lee to
the bitter end OF the Confederacy at
Appomattox. Grant had decreed
that the Southern soldiers might
keep their horses, and William
Marion Rayburn headed back to the
Tennessee hills astride a dappled
gray mare to make a corn crop
But at Knoxville the Federals took
his horse away from him. He hated
the Yankees until the day of his
death so years later.
Began to Raise Cotton.
After the removal to Texas, he
began to raise cotton instead of corn.
Sam went to the two-teacher
country school, then talked his
father into allowing him to go and
work his way through college. His
father, with 40 acres and 10 other
children to care for, put Sam aboard
a train and gave him $25.
At the East Texas Normal College
at Commerce, Tex, Sam rang the
college bell and swept the school
buildings. He taught school a year
and earned enough for another year
in school. He ran for the Legislature
and while a member Of the House
at Austin studied law at the Uni
versity of Texas. He began to prac.
tice at Bonham. In 1911, at 20, he
was Speaker of the House at Austin.
Then he decided to run for Con-
gress. He had no organization. He
just wanted to go to Congress- went
out and told folks he did, and they
elected him. They have been doing
1t ever since.
Mr. Rayburn and John Nance
Garner had come up from the same
sort of background and the same
kind Of SOIL Mr.. Garner had already
been in Washington 10 years when
Mr.. Rayburn got here, but it was
natural for them to be friends. That
friendship fl0urished with the years.
He was Mr.. Garner's floor manager
in his 1882 campaign for the presi-
Dental nomination, supported him
again In 1910 in spite Of his own
closeness to the New Deal.
Carried New Deal Flag.
But he has carried the flag for
the New Deal in many of its tough
est battles, many of them before he
became House leader. Mr.. Rayburn
served on but one committee in the
HouSe-interState commerce. Much
of the important New Deal legiSla-
ton came through that committee.
One was the utility holding company
bill. He brought it to the floor
without a rule to hold of amend
ments and stood OF all assaults until
it was passed. But there were many
INSTRUMENTATION, rural elec-
trification, motor carriers.
And the Utilities Act. which he
foStered and helped push through
the House. by sheer coincidence, pro-
vided among other things for the
construction of the Norris Dam, just
a few miles from Sam Rayburn's
birthplace. He still has . sort Of
fuzzy recollection of steamboats,
moving up and down the chnch and
still gets boyish thrill out Of hear
ing q boat whistle.