ustxtxb_obs_1957_03_05_50_00008-00000_000.pdf

SENATE SCRAMBLE IS OFF WITH 23 MEN ‘Fraud’ Probe Continues Blakley Not Big Field Btu a Candidate; rs Outlook AUSTIN It has been suggested cheerfully by less reverent Capitol obser ers that the two chambers of the legislature r e c e s s, investigate each other, reconvene, and see if they have a quorum left. For all practical purposes last week’s session ended at mid-week; this week will be dominated by both the Cox and ICT probes. House and Senate committees were appointed in the ICT Insurance Co failure last week. The House group was told to investigate affiliated ICT companies; the Senate committee is to look into anything Mrhich may bear on the matter. Of some political significance is the report-back date of the allconservative House committeee- April 1. The Senate election is the next day. The Senate panel is authorized to work until April 10. It is required by its authorizing resolution to submit a reporta barb s perhaps, at the Senate’s U. S. Trust probe committee \(Willnever submitted a report. Rep. Scott McDonald, Ft. Worth, AUSTIN State Comptroller Robert Calvert has upped the state’s anticipated revenue estimate for the next biennium to $316 million. This is $100 million more than current biennium appropriations but still $42 million under the $358 million recommended by Governor Price Daniel. This prediction reduced the probabilities of new taxes and Senate passage of the college tuition increase. The House has passed a bill doubling college tuitions which Daniel urged to raise $9 million for professors’ pay raises, but the bill has not yet found a sponsor in the Senatean indication that strong opposition may be waiting there. The House last week passed, 115-26, a resolution by Rep. Truett Latimer, Abilene, opposing federal aid to Texas schools. Rep. Roy Harrington, Port Arthur, and James A. Turman, Gober, opposed the resolution on grounds “we can’t holler states rights until we are willing to vote schools taxes.” Latimer said he had filed a bill designed to furnish more funds for state school building. City and rural interests clashed over a constitutional amendment proposed by Latimer and Rep. Louis Anderson, Midland. It would set up mandatory realignment of county commissioner precinct lines on an equalization of week. The Senate passed a bill by Rep. Leroy Saul, Kress, giving the Board of Water aigineers authority to cancel unused portions of appropriative water permits not utilized for a period of ten years. It also approved by voice vote a bill clarifying the chairman of the House committee, said “legislative courtesy” will be followed and his panel will not call any senators involved in ICT. William T. Moore, senator from Bryan who took fees from ICT in 1953 when chairman of the Senate insurance committee, spoke out on. the Senate floor about it. Supporting the Senate investigation, he said: “They have injected my name into this thing and I’d like to find out why. I’ve had no connection with any insurance company since the summer of 1954, and I have never represented the ICT before the Insurance Commission or in this Senate. I am going to have a complete statement at a later day, and I want to come before the investigating committee under oath. I stand ready, willing, and able to answer all questions.”! Rep. Ben Atwell, Dallas. explained the fee he is shown as having received as payment for giving a legal opinion on “certain phases of Texas insurance and securities law.” enough. They approved his bill to make Thanksgiving the fourth Thursday in November, instead of the last Thursday, which differs with the federal holiday date every few years. Reps. Criss Cole, Houston, and Harold Parish, Taft, won House approval 106-35, of their proposed constitutional amendment to redistrict the state’s congressional seats after taking of the 1960 census. The House passed Rep. Jack OJohn Osorio, chairman of the Insurance Commission, told the House group “outright frauds” were involved in switching assets from one Cage firm to another. He added the firm’s 1953 losses ought to have tipped it off that something was wrong. OChief Examiner Tom Robinson said Texas only has 38 exwith 2,000 companies, while New York has 228 examiners for 900. OCommissioner Morris Brownlee said apparently ICT was tipped in advance Of the commission’s plan to examine them. On Aug. 31, 1955, the firm’s bank deposits totaled $214,000; when the audit started Sept. 30, 1955, deposits were $1,273,000. OAnita Ekberg, the film star shown as associated in some way OGovernor Daniel said in general: “I think that nembers of the legislature should not have attorneys’ fees or employmet that would conflict with the pub The Observer last week reported fully on the fees BenJack Cage firms paid Col. H. A. Longshore, Alabama insurance superintendent. The Houston Press revealed Cage also gave him a car through ICT Insurance Co. Longshore explained the fees as compensation for helping Cage promote his fly repellant for cows. Otto Mullinax, labor attorney said in Dallas the last time he saw Cage in New York Cage said he was “planning on leaving the U.S. for good and going to a South American country to re-establish himself.” Cage, who liked to say, “Lord, give me a creation,” or, when the occasion a r o s e, “I’m building this as a mounment to my daddy,” offered to take over U. S. Trust & Guaranty for A B. Shoemake before it went bust with a bang heard around the country. Cage would have received 60 percent control in return for “saving” U. S. Trust. \(For other developments see Welch’s bill to permit the death penalty for second-offender heroin sales to juveniles. Gov. Price Daniel won a point when he got the Senate to send back all the names of ex-Gov. Shivers’s appointees to the boards of Texas University and Texas A&M. Once he got them back, he turned around and resubmitted the same names as his own oppointees. Rep. Marshill Bell, San Antonio, introduced the bill Atty. Gen. Will Wilson drafted to this effect at Daniel’s request. 0 Dallas DA Henry Wade proposed DA’s ought to be asked to check possible criminal violations of an insolvent company before the firm goes into receivership. “The case is kicked around for a year before there’s any study of criminal implication,” he said. DIES USES ‘FRANK’ TO MAIL SPEECH AUSTIN Congressman at -large Martin Dies, Lufkin, who has warned his U. S. Senate race opponents to stay within the $19,094 spending limit of the race, seems to be cashing in on his federal mailing permit to help get his name before the people just before election time. The Observer learned Saturday that several Austin residents have within the past few days received a stamp-free letter from Dies containing an excerpt from one of his speeches in the House on his anti-Communist bill. The Congressional Record excerpt, dated Tuesday, July 3, 1956, carries the notation, “not printed a t government expense.” But the envelope carries the frank signature, “Martin Dies, M.C.,” where the stamp would be on private mail. THE TEXAS OBSERVER Page 8 March 5, 1957 AUSTIN With a field of 23 candidates reminiscent of the 1941 special U. S. senate race when a total of 29 starters moved to the wire, voters found themselves with a choice between a very large flock of Democrats, several independents, and two Republicans. Among the entries was the name of interim U.S. Senator William A. Blakley, whose entry fee was wired to Secretary of State Zollie Steakley by former Attorney General John Ben Shepperd just a few hours before the filing TWO OF THE OTHER better known contenders, James P. Hart, former state Supreme Court justice, and Agriculture Commissioner John White, stepped up their campaigns. Hart said he believes “the great majority of Texans are Democrats, they would like to see the splits in the Democratic Party healed, and they want the Democrats to remain in control of the Senate. I want these things, too, I would like to see the Democratic Party in Texas united and representative once more of the great majority of Texans.” Hart outlined a fourteen-point program which called for “A permanent solution of the farm problem; at least 90 percent price support for farm commodities; an adequate drouth relief program; strong enforcement of anti-trust laws to slow down the increasing trend toward mergers and monopoly situations; modification of federal income tax laws, using a graduated scale that will give small businesses a chance to save enough earnings to accumulate necessary capital. If a tax cut is possible, individuals in low income brackets should get first considerations …” White lamented the fact that the Senate had refused to pass the Pool election runoff bill. “I regret that the issue of a majority vote in the coming election has again been postponed by the Sen ate. Further delays can only prolong the confusion that centers around this important campaign,” he said. An eleven-car caravan of Women for White toured Central Texas while the commissioner addressed people at Conroe on the water problem. Senator Searcy Bracewell, Houston, stumped Dallas where Aggie friends gave him a breakfast at the Baker Hotel. Ralph W. Hammond, 50, Houston auditor and accountant, announced his candidacy on the basis of putting “all insurance ment …” Hammond promised an “extremely active campaign.” He said he’s an isolationist. AMONG OTHER candidates filing shortly before the deadline Elmer Adams, 65, Dallas life inCurrin, 55, Sulphur Springs; president of the Northeast Texas Livestock Association; Rev. M. T. Banks, Beaumont, minister; Hugh Wilson, Port Arthur refinery worker; Walter Scott McNutt, Jefferson, an educator and author; Clyde R. Orms, Dallas manufacturer; Curtis Ford, former representative from Corpus Christi; Charles W. Jack Hill, Fort Worth lumberyard operator; J. Perrin Willis, Rusk businessman; John. C. Burns, Sr., Deer Park; C. 0. Forester Jr., Elsa horticulturist; and Dr. H. Frank Connally Jr., Waco physician and f o r m e r mayor. ‘t Quit AUSTIN The Pool bill for a special Senate election runoff, which spectacularly passed the House when 13 members flip-flopped their votes overnight, has apparently floped in the Senate. Only one member flipped. Sen. Grady Hazelwood, Amarillo, who was chagrined when colleagues failed to give him 21 votes needed to suspend the rule to bring the bill up, told the Observer he would not bring the matter up again “unless I am damned sure that it will pass. That was almost precisely what he had said after it failed the first time, 18-13. The last time it drew a 17-12 vote, four ballots shy. The only senator who changed his vote to favor the bill was Sen. Ottis Lock, Lufkin. He offered no comment, but one of his senatorial brothers, Sen. Dorsey Hardeman, San Angelo, ribbed, “Old Lock’s a turncoat.” Two who had previously voted for the bill, Sens. Joseph Fuller, Port Arthur, and David W. Ratliff, Stamford, were absent. Hazelwood warned: “If a Republican wins and Democrats lose control of the Senate they’ll change the leadership. They’ve got that civil rights bill coming up. They’ll cram everything down the throat of the South.” Rep. Joe Pool, Dallas, said: “It’s still got a chance anytime right up to the day of the election.” population basis if so willed by the voters in a countywide elecwith an $850 expense claim by tion. The proposal is currently in BenJack Cage, said in Hollywood a House constitutional amend she and Cage were “just friends,” ments subcommittee f o r o n e she hadn’t gotten $850 from him, and “I met him a couple of times maybe three times or so, and he took me to lunch.” right of news reporters to attend lic interest.” He said there is precinct, county and state party “laxity somewhere” in the laws political conventions and with or administration in the ICT cononly one dissenting vote approved nection. a bill by Sen. Crawford Martin, Hillsboro, revising the adult probation and parole law setting up state paid parole officers. Sen. Dorsey Hardeman’s colleagues also agreed with him that o n e Thanksgiving Turkey is OHe asked a full reorganization commission, of which the key provision is that the three appointed insurance board members appoint a commissioner who would also be state fire marshal. NEW CASH CUTS TAX NEEDS Notes On the ICT get a ruling from Atty. General Will Wilson to determine whether the filing was a legal application. Blakley wired Steakley Monday to withdraw his name. None of the late entries was re garded as a top contender with were H. A. Jamison, 49, Waxa the election less than 30 days hachie banker; Frank G. Cortez, away. Backers of Ralph Yarbor 55, San Antonio mortician; Le ough breathed a heavy sigh of land M. Johnson, 48, Dallas, for 0’mer state representative from El Daniel was not among the last to . lis County; J. Cal Courtney, 41, file, since he had cut into Yarbor Dallas, public relations man; Ja ough’s vote heavily in the first cob Bergolofsky, Wichita Falls, primary for governor last year, v,rho said he was educated to be But with voters having 23 can a school teacher; didates to decide on, the job of guessing who would split off whose votes and who would be high man on the totem poll was like pulling names out of a fish bowl. Congressman at large Martin Dies, Lufkin, generally regarded as one of the top contenders, said,