Excerpts from The Official History of Chiropractic in Texas
By Dr. Walter R. Rhodes
Published by Texas Chiropractic Association, 303 International Life Building, Austin, TX 78701.As authorized by the various Boards of Directors of the Texas Chiropractic Association from 1958 to 1977, the idea first being presented to the board by E. L. Bauknight in 1958.
These excerpts are presented for educational purposes.
Texas’ chiropractors have been blessed with doctors possessing extraordinary ability in the field of politics. Being a minority profession they were usually unable to afford the services of lawyers or professional politicians as lobbyists to represent their interests in the legislative halls. But that was undoubtedly a blessing in disguise because no hired lobbyist could ever have given the necessary zeal and dedication to the cause of chiropractic over so long a period as was done by the doctors themselves.
Among these men were Dr. Harvey H. Kennedy of Longview; Dr. Walter Fischer, and his wife, Nell, of Temple; Dr. G. M. Brassard of Beaumont; Dr. S. M. Elliott of Dayton; Dr. F. L. Charlton of Austin; Dr. R. E. Hurting and his father Dr. R. C. Hurting both of San Antonio; Dr. J. R. Drain of San Antonio; Dr. Elton Berkman of Colorado City; Dr. Melvin Garrett of Waco; Drs. Lee and charlie Lemly of Waco; Dr. R. S. Florence of Tyler; Dr. F. A. Black of Wichita Falls and the Dickson sisters, Dr. Lucille and Dr. Beulah of Corsicana; Dr. A. B. Horne of Corsicana, Dr. Devere Biser of Dallas; Dr. L. George Grupe of San Angelo; Dr. Ernest Cheney of Jasper; Dr. E. P. Bunn of Mineola; Dr. W. V. Shaw and Dr. Roy LeMond of Austin.
Lobbyists work in varying ways. They explain, they plead, they help in campaigns, they do favors, they do anything they can to secure legislation in their best interests. Some of them are skilled in multiple ways but they are almost uniformly articulate, smooth and cultivated in their ways.
Dr. F. L. Charlton, an Austin chiropractor, might qualify as an exception to the rule. He was gentlemanly and cultivated enough but he was a quiet one. He treated many state senators and representatives in his personal practice and his influence was very great in those days. He was the silent type who exerted influence more by demonstrating sincerity and efficiency than by persuasion or cajoling. A senator, for example, who had been personally relieved of headaches, backaches or some chronic disease, was not likely to be swayed by someone who said that chiropractic’s claims were groundless. He knew better, and the explanation that could persuade him otherwise hadn’t been invented.
Politics, being the pursuit of power by powerful personalities, will always have its share of strange stories and serendipities. Dr. Harvey H. Kennedy tells of the time when Price Daniel was running for the office of Attorney General for the State of Texas.
The chiropractors liked him and respected his abilities and threw all the weight they could muster into the race on his behalf. And everyone in Texas new the election would be close indeed.
Daniel was suddenly attacked by the medical interests in a rather strange way. The medical doctors got a letter out to every chiropractor in the state asking for help for Price Daniel because he, they said, was a friend to the medical doctors and would support their positions. It was signed by an M.D.
Timed to arrive in the chiropractor’s offices at the last moment, the letter created havoc and panic in equal parts. Dr. Kennedy discovered the ruse in Longview where Daniel happened to be speaking that day at the courthouse. Accompanying him on the trip was Earl Sharp of Longview, the chairman of the demarcated executive committee, who was also managing Daniel’s campaign in that area. When Dr. Kennedy showed him the letter and explained that it would alienate every chiropractic influenced vote in Texas the two of them immediately went to Daniel for an explanation. Daniel’s words cannot be repeated for delicacy’s sake, but he credited the ruse to Philip R. Overton, the medical lobbyist in Austin.
Chiropractic headquarters in Austin worked until the wee hours getting a letter out to every chiropractor telling the true story. The letter arrived barely in time to be read before the vote on Tuesday and Price Daniel won the election by a very, very slim margin. The chiropractors’ votes had saved him and he never forgot it.
Dr. Kennedy also tells of the frustration of the early chiropractors when their best legislative efforts were bottled up in committees, thereby preventing the full legislature from ever coming to grips with the documents submitted.
Before 1934 or 1935 the chiropractic bills were routinely put into the public health committee for consideration – which was the proper place according to established custom in the legislature – and were just as routinely squashed in that committee, which was loaded with the physician’s and allied medical interests.
The chiropractors complained loudly that their bills never got any consideration and one of the unfriendly legislators said, “Why don’t we refer it to the Livestock Committee with the rest of the jackasses?” Dr. Kennedy and Dr. J. H. Durham who had come from Louisville, Kentucky, to assist in the lobbying effort, replied that they didn’t really care, but that even the livestock committee was preferable to the public health committee.
And so the chiropractic bill of that year (1933 or 1934) was put into the livestock committee, duly considered, and finally voted out for consideration by the whole legislature, a considerable victory for the chiropractors, although the bill got no farther.
From these years of trial and ridicule the chiropractors learned to stay with their legislative friends. They never forgot those who helped their cause and rewarded them with support, votes and any other possible way that was morally and legally correct, and they stayed with them through good times and bad.
A good example of this political integrity was the appearance of Waggoner Carr, the former attorney general of Texas, at the 1974 Ladies’ Auxiliary luncheon held in Austin, Texas, as a major speaker. While Attorney General he had spoken at the chiropractic convention and had been counted as a friend of the profession for several years.
He had fallen into political difficulties due to the Sharpstown banking scandal of Texas politics in the early 1970s. He had been indicted and tried, and found innocent, on matters relating to the scandal. But innocent or not, his political career was very low in 1974 due to the climate of the times. Waggoner Carr had been roundly applauded before in places where he was no longer welcome but among the chiropractors of 1974 he received a thunderous standing ovation in appreciation of his past friendship, and he was visibly moved. The chiropractors remembered, and so will Waggoner Carr, no matter what the future may bring for either.