To Johnson friendship was in any case merely a means. His national means came after Roosevelt assigned him to assist the Congressional Campaign Committee in the 1940 elections.
Congressional candidates were at that time expected to pay their own way. The moribund committee contributed at most $250 to a campaign. Johnson changed all that. He saw the power accruing to him in controlling a committee that would become the center for financing congressional races. All that was needed was money, and Johnson had developed his sources in the new industrial order of the Southwest—the independent oilmen, the large-scale contractors and dam-builders, men who knew what they wanted from the government and were ready to make what they considered an investment. The money was siphoned to Johnson. Congressmen in need turned to him, and those who had any hope of winning received help, ample help. In that year’s election more than forty Democratic congressmen felt they owed their success to Johnson. The 10th District congressman was now a power behind the scenes, a man to court, a figure to be respected, to be feared. As Caro noted, by 1941
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