In 1950 a million Texans--more than a tenth of the entire population of the state--lived in a region where one family in every two earned less than $2,000 a year. Composing that region are the thirty-two counties of northeastern Texas in which the lumber industry is concentrated. In eleven of these counties, 70 percent of family incomes were less than $2,000.
Until 1930 the Texas lumber industry furnished employment for more workers than any other manufacturing in the state. Though displaced in that year by oil refining, it still ranks near the top in the number of workers it hires....
In 1950 a million Texans--more than a tenth of the entire population of the state--lived in a region where one family in every two earned less than...