ustxtxb_obs_1958_05_16_50_00008-00000_000.pdf

Oil Men Divide On ‘Little’ Bill The Week in Texas SAN ANTONIO About a thousand oilmen meeting here under the convention banner of TIPRO, Texas independent oilmen, agreed on backing Rep. Frank Ikard’s congressional plan for an oil import quota but divided over the LongYarborough bill to remove small but not large gas producers from federal price regulation at the wellhead. Guy Warren, gas committee chairman of TIPRO, said the Harris bill to relieve all producers of such regulation is believed unlikely to pass; the Long-Yarborough bill offers some relief but with pitfalls. It “tends to divide the producing segment of the industry, but it is the first attempt on the part of the so-called liberal group in Congress” to help gas producers, he said. TIPRO would not support dividing “the little from the big,” he added. R. L. Foree, ex-TIPRO president, said the Long-Yarborough plan ought to be carefully considered. A. P. King, Jr., said it might kill any friends on the spot,” Gonzalez said. “All I want is their vote. I would not initiate or request endorsement: it would have to come from within [the organization],” he said. “I realize some think a MexicanAmerican might hurt a ticket,” he said. “And nobody wants to bet on what they think is a loser. Or ganizations naturally want a winner.” Gonzalez said he offered to write Mrs. R. D. Randolph, Democratic national committeewoman and chairman of DOT, a letter, and has written it, saying that “if endorsing me would create such dissension, then I would forego the endorsement.” He said Mrs. Randolph and Bob Eckhardt, another Houston liberal leader, were concerned that if DOT does not endorse him 25 percent will be angry, and if it does, another 25 percent will be angry. Gonzalez said he will appreciate all the support he can get and, ‘endorsements or no, he will do what he has done in Bexar County, “and that’s just hustle.” Sixty delegates to the DOT convention were selected at a Corpus Christi-Nueces County meeting; some 400 were designated in Travis County Monday night. Fath says he has received notices on more than 40 county meetings which were held before Monday, another 100 were scheduled this week, and 30 or 40 next week, several of them, as in Harris and Bexar counties, co-ordinated with Democratic Party night May 20. At the Nueces County meeting the 40 in attendance voted for a closed party primary enforced by party commitment at the time of voter registration. “Conservative candidates have either openly or quietly solicited and received Republican votes in the runoff election, thus winning the ‘tantamount to election’ status that makes a farce of the subsequent general election,” the resolution said. The 50 or so attending the Travis County meeting approvod a resolution for abolition of the poll tax and permanent party registration. Mrs. Jean Lee, said Travis County Democrats intend to draft a bill to effect such registration. The resolution said such “non-essential” factors as sex and race ought not to be required from registrants. Another resolution opposed abolition of precinct conventions. OGeorge Carmack, Houston Press editor, says Galveston “is just as fine and clean a place as any man could want for a family vacation” now, that reservations and inquiries are running 25 to 30 percent ahead of last year, and that in a few years Will Wilson will be recognized as Galveston’s “truest friend.” OAn attorney for Lee Williams filed an injunction suit seeking to restrain the Texas Employment Commission from firing its veteran general counsel. OSen. Johnson said totalitarian space control would mean a bleak world future but free world control “might very well mean a world free of war.” OExcessive crude oil supplies and lower prices caused a drop in Humble Oil & Refining Co.’s net income for the first 1958 quarter to $32.3 million, 45 cents a share, from $58.2 million the same 1957 period. ODr. Richard Gonzales, Hum ble Oil economist, told an oil group in Austin that Texas producers will have to maintain efficient production to compete with foreign oil and other fuels, including shale oil and nuclear power, which he said are “at the threshold of becoming economically feasible.” He said “substantial improvement” in the producing schedule in Texas can be expected later this year, but return to the once-normal 15-day schedule cannot be expected for several years. OWith the prospects becoming fainter for passage of the reciprocal trade extension to which mandatory oil import limits were to be proposed as an amendment, and the -Eisenhower administration reported opposing such limits, prospects were not bright in Washington for legislative action backing up the Texas industry. OA plan prepared by the Trin ity Improvement Assn. proposes 27 major water reservoirs along the Trinity River. It has been sent to the state board of water engineers. OA Democratic candidate for the U .S. Senate from Mary land, George Mahoney, charges that when he was running against Republican Sen. John Butler in 1956, a Texan Maloney would not identify offered him $100,000 for his campaign if he would “guarantee” he’d vote for the oil and gas interests. Texas GOP committeeman Jack Porter says he never heard of Mahoney. OSen. Dorsey Hardeman, San Angelo, has called for a detailed accounting of state college building funds. He attacked the building of $90,000 homes at two teachers’ colleges. OCharles Devall, Kilgore pub lisher, says the state highway department has been “nonpolitical, efficient, and progressive.” OIn an agreed court judgment, membership on the Duval County Democratic executive committee has been divided 5-to-5 between the Old Party and the Freedom Party Dan Tobin faction. OReynolds Metals Co. will cut aluminum output a fourth and release 150 to 175 workers at its San Patricio plant in Corpus Christi. ORep. James Roosevelt \(D script of Atty. Gen. Will Wilson’s hearings on gas prices in El Paso. Roosevelt, chairman of a subcommittee of the House small busi ness committee, says an inquiry is possible. Their request rejected by Dallas federal judge William Atwell, Dallas school officials have asked the New Orleans fed eral court to settle a conflict be tween federal integration decis ions and state segregation laws. An assistant attorney general from Texas told the New Orleans court he was bewildered by the suit, which names state officials as de fendants but does not allege the state laws are unconstitutional. 10 Alex Dickie, president of the Texas Farmers’ Union, said TFU will fight for an extension of the present minimum cotton acreage now in effect. Dickie said he could not understand why the GOP is opposed to direct cotton payments when it has used them on wool several years and now urges Congress to adopt them on copper, lead, zinc, fluorspar, and tungsten. ;0 An attorney for a Dallas Negro convicted and sentenced to death in the rape of a 38-year-old Negro housewife read a statement to the board of pardons from the victim saying she thought the death penalty severe and she and her husband hoped it would be changed to life in prison. 0 Almost a fourth of the Texas populationmore than two million people live in the state’s three critical target areas, Houston, Dallas, and Fort Worth, the federal civil defense administration reports. Albert Hayes, president of the International Assn. of Machinists, said in Houston Con gress is preparing legislation to make unions creatures of the Steel Workers Win body. It has been estimated that such back pay, asked by the union but denied, would have amounted to perhaps $5 million. Based on. seniority, and consistent with the production needs of the company, Lone Star is to restore one third of the remaining employees \(not now on the payruled. A second third are to be restored within 180 days and the remaining third within 270 days. Kelliher further ruled: “The reinstatement of the Grievants is conditioned on the understanding that if they are absent from all or part of any one shift on which they are scheduled during an illegal strike or work stoppage prior to January 1, 1961, they shall forfeit their right to be employed by the Company under this probationary reinstatement, unless they can prove to the Company’s satisfaction that their absence was for an excusable reason.” THE LANGUAGE of Kelliher’s provisional award, its terms and conditions, and the future promise of a final award, plus requirement for affirmative actions by the company and by the union members and employees, make it evident that many negotiation sessions, much activity and perhaps other arbitrations and other awards will be needed before all the issues raised by the wildcat strike and the company’s reaction to it are finally settled. CORRECTION Last week’s issue erroneously reported Congressman Jim Wright’s voting record, as evaluated by the railroad brotherhoods, at 17 good votes and 23 bad. The brotherhoods gave Wright a score of 15 good votes against six bad. state. He said investigators had been able to find only 40 corrupt union officials out of 430,000 union officials in the U.S. OMaj. Gen. Herbert Grills, commander of Lackland AFB, charged Pentagon brass “1200 miles away” with trying to run his base and making his base exchange officer a “whipping boy” in the Air Force concession abuse charges brought by Col. James Smyrl. The fired concession officer denies charges of improper conduct. O”Houston Town,” a slick paper monthly has appeared in Houston under publisher Bill Roberts, columnist for the Houston Press. It has such features as “fotoflashes,” “newsightems,” “shortems,” “oillionaires,” and an article by a choreographer on why young people who want to dance don’t need a college education. Houston D. A. Dan Walton, acting against a grand jury which apparently had not heeded his recommendation, asked and obtained dismissal of a murder indictment against Walter Wiebusch, former assistant district attorney, in the killing of a 23-yearold salesman in Mrs. Wiebusch’s room at the Town House Motel. “The facts of this case clearly establish the act as justifiable homicide,” Walton told the judge, who dismissed the charge. Labor Speaks people, who otherwise could not afford to serve, will be able to of fer their services to the people.” Other issues on the November ballot recommended: authorizations for county retirement, disability, and death compensation funds; limiting filling of county judgeships and JP vacancies until next general election; pensions for certain retired Texas Rangers; medical payments for recipients of old age assistance, aid to blind, aid to dependent children, and aid to permanently and totally disabled; state-financed advertising for the state; and hos= pital districts for Amarillo and Wichita and Jefferson counties. Governor segregation bills. O’Daniel may have lost East Texas loyalist votes by running as a rightist Constitu tion Party nominee after Daniel and Yarborough nominated him; or he may run better in East Texas with Yarborough out of the race. The fact a vote for Gonzalez may help get O’Daniel in a run off has not escaped union leaders. Labor money is likely to be tied up for Yarborough and Nokes. Horace Busby and Mac Roy Rasor, who put out “The Texas Businessman,” got in on the punditin -g too, of course. Among their conclusions: A unified conservative effort is now unlikely. Daniel’s people have a hard race and can’t help Blakley. Labor can go with Gonzalez and hold the balance of power in an O’DanielDaniel run-off. Ramsey’s forces are distracted a bit and kept busy with races against three-fourths of the Senate incumbents up for election. The legal profession is tied up in two Supreme Court races in which liberals are making serious bids. Conservatives are backing Blakley, Daniel, and O’Daniel. If O’Daniel heads for the cities and announces a heavy TV schedule he will have his heavy backers behind him again as in 1938-’42. THE TEXAS OBSERVER Page 8 May 16, 1958 AUSTIN Delegates are being chosen at county meetings of Democrats around the state for the Democrats of Texas meeting May 31 in Austin at which DOT will decide whether to endorse statewide candidates this summer or to restrict its activities to party and possibly legislative reforms. Speakers include the keynoter, Walter Hall, president of the Citizens State Bank in Dickinson, Sen. Ralph Yarborough \(“The Judge James Sewell of Corsicana \(“The Future of the Democratic be announced. DOT’s steering committee will meet May 30 at 2 p.m. in the Austin Hotel. The decision ?whether to endorse candidates will hinge on this session, since, under the group’s constitution, the countybased steering committee must indicate endorsements before the convention can act on them. DOT members of course are supporting Yarborough for reelection, and most of them will be supporting Sen. Henry Gonzalez for governor and ex-Sen. George Nokes for lieutenant governor. As long as two months ago some sentiment against endorsements began developing on the DOT executive board. Speculation afoot also suggests some DOT members may resist endorsements on grounds that Gonzalez, a LatinAmerican Catholic integrationist, should not be linked with Yarborough through DOT. On the other hand, the San Antonio delegation, led by commissioner Albert Pena, may support Gonzalez’s endorsement. With delegates siding both ways, hot arguments could ensue. DOT secretary-treasurer Creekmore Fath said in Austin he believes it would be best for the steering committee to leave endorsements to county groups. “Once we win one state convention, then DOT will be able to step out on candidates,” he said. He remarked that each county has only one vote in the steering committee. DOT’s last newsletter says, “The