ustxtxb_obs_1956_08_29_50_00001-00000_000.pdf

AUSTIN The b i t t e r, desperately close Democratic race for governor may be pitched to the Democrats’ state convention in Fort Worth early next month. . . The complete but unofficial Texas Election Bureau tabulation, gives Senator Price Daniel 698,125 votes. to Ralph Y_arborough’s 694,578. Daniel’s lead of 3,547 votes out of 1,392,703… cast amountedto a Margin’ of one out of about every ‘400 votes, an imprOvement from the next-to-last tabulation. It was :a formidable lead, : even though the second closest in Texas gubernatorial . history,. because the T.E.B. ran a recheck , of its final figures before announcing it.. ‘ Yarborough, refusing to concede, said his independent checic had turned up “sizable errors,” and he expected more to be discovered in the Tuesday county ,-by-county. canvass. This canvass did not discover errors sufficient to change the outcome. The canvass will be put together bg the . Shivers-appointed State Democratic Executive Committee Sept. 10, but one prominent Ya r b o rough headquarters worker said the race was so close, and there were so many questionable votes. it was a strong pessibility. that the convention delegates would be asked to settle the issue. Daniel, bidding for a place in history now held only by the immortal Sam Houstonholding a seat in the U. S. Senate and then becoming Texas governorfound himself the apparent victor in the closest nomination race in state history. Until Saturday the closest governor’s race had been in 1932, feated Ross Sterling by 3,798 votes. Former State Supreme Court Justice Will Wilson won a decisive victory over Tom Moore, district attorney of McLennan County, in the attorney general’s race. Wilson, who lacked only a few votes of winning without a runoff in the first primary, polled 804,704 votes to 510.449 for Moore. SIX TOP ATTORNEYS were conferring with former district judge Yarborough to help decide what legal action, if any, should be taken to challenge the questioned votes. Among the cases under study Tne one great rule of composition is to speak the truth. Thoreau Oixtt,6 Obsrrurr W e will serve no group or party but will hew hard to the truth as we find it and the right as we see it. An independent Liberal Weekly Newspaper Vol. 48 AUGUST 29, 1956 10c per copy No. 19 Hart, Dies, 11 Others Consider Senate Post Convention May Decide Governor Daniel Leads by 3,547 But Yarborough Holds Off Daniel, Committed to ‘Freest Possible Choice,’ Hints Might Resign Sometime After Election Fort Worth Court Orders Negroes Be Admitted FORT WORTH AUSTIN Not merely which faction will control the Democratic Party in Texas, but who is to be the next governor, may very well be the issues before the Sept. 11 state Democratic convention at Fort Worth. Jockeying for control therefore has become doubly important. George Sandlin, the present chairman of the committee, has rejected a loyalist demand that the credentials committee convene four days early to hear the contests that will decide who is to control the convention. He has called “illegal” a plan that the loyalist controlled May state convention be reconvened Sept. 10. That convention recessed subject to the call of the chairman instead of adjourning. Senator Lyndon B. Johnson said at Chicago he opposes the reconvening of the May convention, and the convention’s chairman, Raymond Buck of Fort Worth, says he will not recall the May delegates unless there is some issue that cannot be settled fairly and legally by the Sept. 11 convention. However, Speaker Rayburn’s office at Bonham said he was out of town but that he has received a number of letters and wires urging the special convention Sept. 10. District Judge-elect Jim Sewell of Corsicana announced that an eleventh senatorial district caucus at Mexia asked that the conven that I can. I hope you still feel the same way about supporting me. With best wishes … James P. Hart.” The Temple Telegram and the Sherman Democrat editorially urged Ralph Yarborough as a senatorial candidate after the Saturday primary. Yarborough said he is “too busy being governor” to talk about it. Thus, he did not rule out his candidacy should. -Daniel be declared the winner of the Saturday voting. The Telegram editorial said Yarborough should be drafted for the job; that Democrats are indebted to him; and that he would start with more than 500,000 “sure votes” and would be “virtually unbeatable.” Wright Morrow, tional Democratic committeeman from Texas who supported Eisenhower for President in 1952, says he has seriously considered making the race. Two other Houstonians, Sen. Searcy Bracewell a n d Lloyd , Bentsen, Jr., former Congressman from McAllen, may seek the job as Democrats. \(Bracewell has said he’ll support Eisenhower for W. Lee O’Daniel is considered a possible candidate should he be denied the right to run’ as an independent candidate for governor. He can run as a write-in candidate, but it is doubtful that he can get on the ballot Nov. 6, since he would have to execute an affidavit that he did not take part in the Democratic primary in which he was a candidate. . John White, Commissioner of Agriculture, is often mentioned as a possible contender for the Senate seat. He had not made a statement as of Tuesday evening. The Associated Press mentioned as possible candidates Dr. Frank Connally of Waco and John Connally of Fort Worth. Sen. Lyndon Johnson’s political aide and a lawyer for Sid Richardson. Republicans are also considering putting up a candidate. Thad Hutcheson, Houston attorney, is Porter, the Republican state cornmitteeman, but Rep. Bruce Alger of Dallas and ex-Rep. Ben Guill of Pampa were also mentioned. The state GOP backed Hutcheson. Daniel has promised to give voters the “freest possible choice” in the selection of his successor. He has indicated he may wait until after the November 6 election to resign, but he has not revealed his decision. The election code is ambiguous about whether a resignation before Nov. 6 would lead to a spedesignation of the Democratic and Republican nominees by the respective state excutive committees. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Isle Gamblers Eye the Election GALVESTON. Isle gamblers were sweating this week after Galveston County and other state voters dealt them their worst hand in history. Every direction they turned, bosses of the massive Maceo gambling syndicate and other illegal activities found candidates had been elected who had pledged to shut them down. The reform flood began at home. Galveston County elected Paul Hopkins, LaMarque police chief and former highway patrolman, to the office of sheriff. Defeated was twelve-term incumbent Frank L. Biaggne, the pistoltoting lawman who once told a State House Crime Investigating committee he couldn’t raid the Maceo syndicate Balinese Room because “they don’t let me in, I’m not a member.” Unlike Biaggne. Hopkins declared: “I believe I can get in the B-Room.” Upon election he affirmed his campaign statements that he would “enforce all the laws of the state as they appear on the statute books. I promised to uphold my oath of office if elected, and I intend to do just that,” he told newsmen. The sheriff nominee disclosed that at his neighbors’ request, he starts off his investigative day by examining his automobile for car bombs. Ramsey’s Race Tough AUSTIN Incumbent Lt. Gov. Ben Ramsey, who won without a runoff, nevertheless had a hard race in the second primary. Among the write-ins cast against him were four votes for former Land Commissioner Bascom Giles, who is, now serving a prison term for his part in the land scandals; ten for W. Lee Joe Smith . was the balloting in Jasper County, where Yarborough work’ ers had reports that many Negro voters were turned away from the polls on grounds they could not read or write their candidate’s name. An effort was being made to obtain affidavits from Negroes who alleged were told they couldn’t. vote. A YarbOrough worker in Webb County, which Daniel carried heavily, said: “We can challenge som e . 3,000 .votes in Webb County alone..” Daniel also :carried Duval County, 3,523 to 1.494: Daniel joined with Yarborough in asking for poll watchers beforehand. Robert Johnson, head of the said, with Yarborough be . hind 2,500.,and only 1,600 votes put,that “it can go either way.”‘ After the final tabulation, how- ever,. he .;said the official canvass. would. be within two or three hundred :votes of the T.E.B. total. But uriIess various questions YarborOugh may raise about several groups of Votes are settled, the outcome may not be accepted by all parties even with the official tabulation. MOST OBSERVERS consider that Yarborough won a strong psychological victory. HiS tremendous advance from the first to the second primary stunned Daniel supporters. The Senator led the fifst primary by 165,498 votes. Senator Daniel, at his aunt’s home in Liberty, was shaken by how close the vote was running Yarborough Aide Asks Postal Probe AUSTIN Ralph Yarborough’s statewide campaign manager, Jim Boren, has called upon postal authorities to investigate the apparent illegal opening of a special delivery letter containing information on alleged voting irregularities in a border county. Boren charged that the letter, which was sent from South Texas, “was tampered with and apparently opened before it reached me. When I received the letter, it bore a stamp, placed on it by the postal authorities in Austin, saying: ‘Received in Bad Condition at Austin, Texas’.” The Yarborough campaign manager declared that the “lower right-hand corner of the envelope was torn across and a three-cornered piece of the envelope was missing from the corner, It also appeared that the gummed flap on the back of the envelope had been opened and resealed.” Meanwhile, a grand jury probe is in the offing of a Negro box in Fort Worth which gave Yarborough a 1,062-26 majority. Canvassers said they found the voters’ names written down alphabetically. Other vote challenges from both sides are possible in Dallas and Fort Worth. AUSTIN Thirteen politicians have been bandied about as possible candidates for the U. S. Senate seat of Price Daniel, should a vacancy develop, but only twoJames P. Hart and Martin Dieshave definitely announced their availability. Dies, U. S. representative at large from Lufkin, announced on Aug. 18 that he is a definite candidate. The Observer has come into possession of a letter Hart sent a number of friends who had urged him to run for the governorship . Dated Aug. 20, the letter says: “I have definitely decided, to enter the race for the United States Senate, if there is a vacancy and a special election this fall. This time I am going ahead, without first trying to get financial support. Of course, I hope it will be forthcoming. Anyhow, I am going to make the best race Sandlin Refuses Early Session former na U. S. District Judge Joe Estes of Fort Worth, acting on