By Jerry Flook, Garland Historian
Published in the Garland-Rowlett Messenger, October 2012
Since so much of our national attention is now focused on the presidential campaign and debates, a brief history of presidential election debates should be informative.
Because they play such a critical role in informing the nation of the candidates’ positions on issues of major concern, one might suppose that presidential debates are surely a tradition dating from the country’s founding. However, even though the Lincoln-Douglas debates in 1858 arguably could be viewed as a forerunner of the modern tradition, in truth the first actual presidential election debate as we know it was the Kennedy-Nixon debate in 1960. The seven Lincoln-Douglas debates were formal affairs, each debater alternately taking his turn beginning with a one-hour speech, followed by the other debater giving a 1 1/2 hour rebuttal, and the first debater then closing with a half-hour response. There was no moderator. It is doubtful that many modern Americans, no matter how politically motivated, would sit still for a 3-hour debate.
There were no further political debates of note following Lincoln-Douglas until 1948, when Dewey and Stassen, candidates for the Republican presidential nomination, debated on radio. The 1960 Kennedy-Nixon debate, which was televised, was not followed by presidential debates in 1964, 1968, or 1972. Debates resumed with the 1976 contest between Carter and Ford and have since become integral parts of the campaign process.
Even though debates in Garland’s early days were not between political candidates, they were popular sources of public entertainment. The public attended debate contests like we would concerts or movies. A student debate society was often sponsored by the public school but just as often debaters were local men who enjoyed the competition. In 1889 the Dallas Daily Times Herald reported:
A large number of citizens filled the town hall of Garland to hear a debate between the Hon. T. F. Nash and J. H. Cullon, editor of the Garland News, on the affirmative, and Prof. P.A. Sidell and C. C. Gillespie on the negative side of the question “Resolved that the peaceable acquisition of Cuba and Mexico would be beneficial to the United States.” The disputants argued the question for several hours. The judges returned a verdict in favor of the negative.
Another popular diversion for the people of early Garland and most other small towns of the period was the community picnic. As its name suggests, the community picnic featured a spread of food cooked by the local women, who prepared enough for their own families and several more. It was the men of the community who instigated these events, since it was the womenfolk who bore the brunt of the work, cooking for days in advance of the event. The host town invited everyone from the surrounding countryside and even neighboring towns. Entertainment at these events was varied, including baseball games, old fiddlers, band performances, and almost always one or more long-winded political speakers.
The Dallas Daily Times Herald in 1880 described one of these destivities at Duck Creek, which were usually held in what was then known as the park, a wooden tract now bounded by Duck Creek, Avenue D, S. 12th Street and Avenue F:
Yesterday the good people of the Duck Creek community gave a grand picnic. Not less that two thousand people were on the grounds. They came from all directions, on horseback, in wagons, in carriages, in buggies, and some of those living near by on foot. And such a dinner! It was . . . a basket dinner, prepared by the good housewives at their homes, and it was served in lavish and superb style.
Capt. William Alexander, on behalf of the Duck Creek Democratic Club, opened the ceremonies with a speech of welcome replete with kindly greeting and generous words of welcome. Hon. Olin Wellborn was the first of the visiting speakers. He made a straight-out Democratic speech, reviewing the history and acts of the two parties. After music by the band, Mr. Charles L. Martin addressed the people, discussing briefly national politics, state issues and county matters. The band played another piece and then dinner was annouced. After dinner, Gov. Roberts entertained the audience for an hour and a half, reviewing and defending his administration. Judge Barksdale next spoke, and his effort was both able and eloquent. He showed himself well posted on all the political issues of the day and he discussed them lucidly and forcibly.
Although these events with their hours of political speechifying strike most of us today as unbelievably boring, it should be remembered that other than a few newspapers and magazines there was no means for political issues to be brought to the public for their consideration. And life in those days was much slower than ours today, and besides, almost any sort of diversion from the daily routine was appreciated. A Garland Picnic held during the 1894 gubernatorial campaign was almost sabotaged by the political opponents of Democratic candidate Charles Culberson, who was scheduled to speak at the event. One of Culberson’s political foes in an interview with a Dallas newspaper stated that the refreshments at the upcoming Garland picnic would be “meager unless those who attend bring their dinners with them.” The Garland picnic committee fourthwith responded with emphatic assurance to the people of Dallas and elsewhere that there would be an abundance of dinner on the grounds, that several beeves and hogs would be barbecued and the local people would supplement this with well-filled baskets.
As the population grew and more and more visitors showed up expecting to be fed, the local women complained mightily and eventually the reatition was abandoned. One of the last community picnics was held in 1900, and the housewives’ revolt was evident in the advertisement of the event in the Garland News:
People attending the picnic from within five or six miles are expected to assist in furnishing dinner. There is no need to go to much trouble and expense preparing knick-knacks. Boil a ham, fry a couple of ‘yaller-legged’ chickends, buy half a dozen loaves of bread and a gallon of pickles and you have a first-class dinner.
The requirement that all picnickers bring their own dinners was apparently a damper to the picnic attendance, as suggested by the next week’s follow-up reort on the event:
The picnic was largely attended in the afternoon, but not so much so in the morning. Many of the townspeople ate before going, so dinner baskets and boxes were ‘few and between.’ About 2,000 people heard speeches by six political candidates. The orator of the day was Hon. Dudley G. Wooten, who spoke for one hour on the subject of imperialism.
Information about presidential elections in historic Garland is relatively scarce, but a few newspaper reports give us some insight:
9 Nov 1900-Election day was Tuesday. There was a remarkable absence of excitement. After supper a large number of enthusiastic suffragans congregated at Williams’s store and the Santa Fe depot, where bulletins were to be received by telephone and telegraph respectively. About 10 o’clock, the news began to look rocky, and one by one the disgusted Democrats began to drop out and go home [Republican William McKinley won by a landslide.].
Politics in the years between 1900 and 1920 were marked by a struggle between the philosophies of progressivism and conservatism [sound familiar?]. But in contrast to today’s contest, neither party was identified with one or the other of these opposing philosophies; that is, each party had its own progressive and its conservative factions. The progressive movement advocated a program of breaking the power of big corporations, monopolies, and corrupt political machines. They also pushed for social justice legislation such as child labor laws, a 10-hour work day, workman’s compensation, and equal rights for women including the right to vote and hold office.
The profressive social issues of that day seem not to have exercised Garlandites to any appreciable extent. However in 1916 and advocate of the vote for women from New York City visited Garland. The Garland News reported:
10 Mar 1916- Miss Elizabeth Freeman, women’s suffragette from New York, will be in Garland tomorrow but will probably not be able to speak at the school auditorium at night because of the Richardson band concert and minstrel show at the Lyric Theater. Miss Freeman will have to speak between band numbers on the street.
17 Mar 1916- Miss Elizabeth Freeman talked to a large crowd in front of the Lyric Theater Friday night. She “showed clear thinking and remarkable force of oratory; making her points exceedingly plain. Several times she brought forth hearty applause from the crowd although this was the first women’s suffrage speech that most of the crowd had ever heard.”
On 17 Nov 1916 the News reported a big celebration on the square on the occasion of Woodrow Wilson’s election. A big bonfire was announced to the town by ringing of the fire alarm. The fire was started with paper boxes, but soon mena nd boys were fueling it with their hats. Hats were taken away from everyone and thrown on the fire. There was also anvil-shooting. Wilson’s Republican opponent, Charles Evans Hughes, was burned in effigy. [It should be noted that there were probably less than a half-dozen Republicans in Garland at that time.] New hats were evident everywhere on Saturday morning. The old-timers said it carried them back to the hat burning for Grover Cleveland in the nineties. Wilson was hailed as the “Humanitarian” and the “Peoples’ President.”
On 7 Dec 1923 Garland heard its first presidential speech over the radio. President Coolidge addressing Congress was played over a loudspeaker on the Square amplifying druggist S. R. Weirs’ radio set. Weir’s radio was at that time one of only two or three in town. A large crowd reportedly gathered on the Square to listen. The message reached Dallas by telephone.