Bruce Alger

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Bruce Reynolds Alger (born June 12, 1918) is an American politician and a former Republican congressman from Texas, the first to have represented a Dallas district since Reconstruction. He served from 1955 until 1965. He was born in Dallas but was reared in Webster Groves, Missouri, a small St. Louis suburb.

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[edit] Education and business career

Alger attended Princeton University in New Jersey on a scholarship. He studied philosophy, art, and music. After his graduation in 1940, he went to work for the RCA Corporation as a field representative. With the coming of World War II, he joined the United States Army. He flew bombers and attained the rank of captain. He received the Distinguished Flying Cross. On returning to civilian life, RCA refused to rehire him on the grounds that he had been out of television production for too long.

In 1945, Alger moved to Dallas and formed his own real estate and land development company. He was chosen as the first president of the White Rock Chamber of Commerce.

[edit] Congressional service (1955-1965)

In 1954, Alger became the Republican candidate for U.S. House of Representatives for the Fifth Congressional District. Given Texas' Democratic tradition, it was unexpected that he would win. Yet, Alger received 27,982 ballots (52.9 percent) to Democrat Wallace Savage's 24,904 (47.1 percent). He was the only Republican in the Texas delegation for eight years until 1963, when Ed Foreman of Odessa, later of Dallas, joined him for two years.

Alger served during the heyday of the Lyndon Johnson and Sam Rayburn era. As a Republican and a most conservative Republican at that, he was the odd man out in the Texas delegation. Alger considered himself an individualist, a constitutionalist, and a man of principles. Critics, however, equated his principles to stubbornness.

His belief in limited government conflicted with many of his colleagues, who expected to trade for votes on various issues and projects, something he refused to do. In the era of civil rights, he believed that solutions lay with local, not national government. He maintained that the national government should concentrate on defense and foreign affairs. He believed that the responsibility for social programs belonged at the local level. He was the only member of the House, for example, to oppose the popular school lunch program.

According to Time magazine (January 6, 1958), Alger assessed the upcoming second session of the Democratic 85th Congress in a pessimistic but resolved vein: "I foresee bitterness and hatefulness. . . . We are going to squabble and fight and make the world think we hate each other and that we can't solve our problems. We are going to have bigger and bigger budgets, higher taxes, more government spending at home and abroad, and more inflation accompanied by deficit financing. Happy New Year!"

[edit] Defeated for reelection, 1964

Alger's opposition to "big government" worked against him politically. In 1962, he won his last term in the House with 89,938 votes (56.3 percent) to Democrat Bill Jones' 69,813 (43.7 percent). He was unseated in the 1964 general election by the former mayor of Dallas, Democrat Earle Cabell. Alger polled 127,568 ballots (only 42.5 percent), a considerable number of votes in a House election. Yet, turnout was so much higher in 1964 than in 1962 that Alger lost even though he polled nearly 40,000 more votes in the latter year than in the former. Cabell prevailed with 172,287 (57.5 percent). Alger's defeat can be attributed to:

  1. The slowly increasing liberalism of Dallas voters, who also purged the entire six-member Republican state legislative delegation from Dallas County,
  2. The political climate that stemmed from the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas,
  3. The Democratic tradition of Texas,
  4. The presence of a native Texan, President Johnson, on the ballot, and
  5. The weak opposition candidacy of Alger's preferred presidential choice, Republican Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona.

[edit] Return to private life

After a decade in Congress, Alger resumed working as a real estate broker. He moved for a time to Florida but returned to Dallas in 1976. He remained out of the political limelight, except for a few occasional public appearances. Alger's extensive congressional papers are located in the archives section of the Dallas Public Library.

Alger resides in Carrollton in Dallas County.

[edit] Related persons

The first post-Reconstruction Republican congressman from Texas who served more than a single term was Harry M. Wurzbach, who served during the 1920s from a San Antonio and Hill Country district.

Cabell represented the Fifth District until his defeat in 1972 by Republican Alan Steelman. The seat reverted to the Democrats in 1976, when Jim Mattox was elected to succeed Steelman. Steelman ran for the U.S. Senate that year instead of reelection to a third House term.

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Joseph Wilson (D)		 United States Representative for the 5th Congressional District of Texas

Bruce Reynolds Alger (R)
1955–1965

 Succeeded by
Earle Cabell (D)
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