Legislative Service
2nd and 3rd Term

Helen Moore with Officials San Antonio Light September 16, 1930 Copyright Hearst Corporation. Reprinted with permission.

During her second term, to better secure additional appropriations to fix the problems she had found, Helen requested membership on the Appropriations Committee, writing in her letter of application:

“I am anxious to be on the Appropriations Committee. I am sure that I can help materially toward an equitable distribution of the State's appropriations for Eleemosynary* Institutions, and feel that the knowledge I have gained first hand through visiting these institutions is valuable.”

After gaining membership on the Appropriations Committee, she successfully obtained funding to address some of the substandard conditions in those hospitals, and was instrumental in establishing the Galveston Psychopathic Hospital.

Helen ran for a third term in the 43rd legislature but was defeated. She attributed her defeat to not having made an “active” campaign. She ran again in 1934 for the 44th Legislature (Jan. 1935-Oct. 1936) and was elected by a large margin. In this last term, she supported an expansion of the Galveston Psychopathic Hospital and obtained funds to increase the capacity of the Hospital for Crippled and Deformed Children, part of Sealy Hospital in Galveston. She also helped secure a change in the Texas Constitution that allowed persons to be admitted to a mental institution without being forced to endure a jury trial. See Amendment.

Helen was commended for her courageous fight for disadvantaged citizens by her colleagues in the legislature and the media. When she decided that her third term was to be her last, she received a “Tribute to Honorable Helen Moore” from the Texas House of Representatives, which declared:

“…By her retirement Mrs. Moore is closing a career, which has contributed invaluable service to the eleemosynary institutions of this State and to the underprivileged of our citizenship generally, which service has not only reflected credit on the Legislature of the State of Texas, but has established Mrs. Moore as a pioneer in the humanitarian history our State…” (Resolution, 10/27/36, Helen Edmunds Moore Archives)