Joe Barton: “There are many Ralph Hall stories, most of which we can't really tell on the House floor--that's how funny they are--but…”

“There are many Ralph Hall stories, most of which we can't really tell on the House floor--that's how funny they are--but I want to tell one real, true Ralph Hall story which is the epitome of a Texan. Several years ago, Ralph told me that he had some property up over in his district and he didn't have time to go visit it. He had been involved in a bank, and apparently the bank had taken control of the property, and somehow Ralph had gotten control of the bank's assets legally, so it was his property, but he never had time to go visit it. He had a caretaker who was taking care of his property. He began to get letters from the Railroad Commission down in Austin. The Railroad Commission is in charge of oil and gas leases and royalties for the State of Texas, and they kept sending these letters asking where to send his royalty checks. And he finally called down and said: I don't have any oil and gas wells, what are you talking about? Well, he said, on such and such a plat in such and such a county, you're the listed owner of this producing oil well. So Ralph took time one weekend to drive up by himself, and sure enough there was a producing oil well on some property that he did not know about. Obviously, he made a change in who was his caretaker at that property, but that is one true Ralph Hall story that shows the epitome of being the Texan that he is.…”