ustxtxb_obs_1955_04_18_50_00001-00000_000.pdf

The OM great rule of composition is to speak the truth. Thoreau .11r agrxa,6 Obstrurr An Independent Libe r al Weekly Newspaper We will serve no group or party but will hew hard to the truth as we find it and the right as we see it. VOL. 47 APRIL 18, 1955 AUSTIN, TEXAS NO. 1 Shivers Tax Program Rescued Lindsey’s Gaveling Overrides Outraged SEN. WILLIAM SHEREMAN Solons’ Influence Worries Senator By RONNIE DUGGER and BILL BRAMIVLER AUSTIN Shivers forces in the House rescued the Administration’s sales tax program Monday midnight with Speaker Jim Lindsey gaveling down the clock-fighting opposition. Angry, cursing opponents literally screamed at Lindsey for a quarter of an hour as he pushed to final reading House Bill 660, embodying Rep. Stanton Stone’s revisions of the omnibus tax law. The vote for engrossment of the bill was 75 to 69. Final passage is likely this week, with Senate consideration to begin next Monday. The breakdown shows that if $99 million will be raised, $87 million will be paid from sales taxes \(gasoline, cigarettes, million from natural resources, $2 million from increases in the beer and wine dealers license fee, and $5 million from trading stamp transactions. The vote on the bill came just minutes before midnight after legislators had debated most of a day on amendments. Lindsey had been scrupulously impartial all day, even overruling an objection to an amendment which, if passed, would have killed the one-cent-per-gallon tax increasethe heart of the Shivers program. But when the clock pushed midnight, he apparently decided the time had come for the House to vote. His gaveling down of some of the opponents set off a raging, bitter storm of protest which continued even after the measure had passed on two roll calls. The Administration measure, as passed by the House, would raise between $80 and $99 million for the biennium, most of it from consumer goods. Although there was stiff resistance to the tax bill, none of it appeared to be organized. Early in the afternoon opponents of the measure, when asked about their strategy, repeated again and again: “We don’t know … Everybody’s confused … It’s a bad tax bill, but we’ve got to get something out.” Liberals were in a painful position: They were faced with a tax bill distasteful to them, but they Opposition knew some tax bill had to be passed. They had hoped to amend the Stone bill to increase natural resources taxes, but it soon became evident that although that had a big band of “maverick conservatives” behind them in opposition to the bill, they could not count on this support in adding new taxes. Most amendments were beaten down by decisive margins when proponents of the Stone bill joined with “no tax” conservatives. Opponents of the tax bill wanted to stall a vote until midnight, at which time they could have called nalt to its consideration on grounds that the legislative day on which it could be properly considered had ended. Integration Pleas Heard; Ruling Soon Shireman Would Exact Representation Record AUSTIN “It’s not as fine a thing as you could think of, but it’s closest to a thin g could reasonably hope to pass this session.” That’s the way Senator William Shireman of Corpus Christi describes his bill to require all state officials, including legislators, to file a public statement every time they represent clients before a state agency. Anyone failing to do so would have to go to jail for at least two years, pay a fine of at least $2,000 or both. Shireman, who lost to John J. Bell in a South Texas race for Congress last summer says of the proposal: “A fella in public life who represents big companies or questionable individuals before state agencies will have to put it in the public record, so at least his opponents will have the record, and he’s gonna have to be able to explain it or the people are just not gonna re-elect him.” Shireman would not comment for publication on Congressman Bell’s testimony before House and Senate investigating committees on March 24 that he had taken $27,000 from group land promoters as legal fees. Peace Promoted At Rayburn Fete \(The uranium strike in ordinarily newsless Karnes County has caused general excitement in South Texas. Our Kenedy correspondent sent the By DAN STRAWN Kenedy Correspondent The Texas Observer I have suffered some disappointment that the uranium in Karnes County has been found up to date solely in the northern end of the county, away from where I live. In some of the areas there are armed guards, and in other areas irate farmers and ranchers threaten prospecting pedestrians with violent ends. Uranium has been found in two places, in the Tordilla hills and at Harmony, six miles above Helena. The first find in the county was the Tordilla Hills. There was some irony in the Tordilla Hills strike. Alex A. Homeyer, a Kenedy auto dealer, sold the land in the Tordilla Hills district three or four months before the uranium was found. He was philosophical about it. He said he was paying too much income tax, anyway. Jaffe Brothers, who had uranium lease on the land in question in the northern end of the county, sold out for $5,000,000 according to a radio report, so there must be something up there. I’d be willing to sell out my interests for half that much, and throw in the cows, too. There was a wave of hysteria for a while. The little town of Falls City has been crowded of late with curiosity seekers and prospectors. The hotel in Kenedy has been full to capacity most of the’ time, which is an unusual condition. In the west, the prospectors took some mule packs and picks and started Court should pass authority for ,supervising the enforcement to the federal district courts. Spokesmen for Southern states, however, argued in favor of an indefinite delay in integration. Negro counsel sought integration by next fall or September, 1956, at the latest. The Eisenhower Administration advised the court that the decree should require “bona fide progress” without “riding over people rough shod.” The federal spokesman, Solicitor, General Simon E. Sobeloff, out over the mountain trails hunting for the metal. Hundreds of prospectors crawl over barbed wire fences, tromp down crops and cart away all the hot rocks they can carry. They could probably mine it all themselves and save the Government the trouble if they were left to their own devices. Sears and Roebuck in San Antonio had an extremely profitable time selling geiger counters to Karnes County people. Farmers brought rocks into town to have them checked by feed store merchants who kept geiger counters as part of their stock. The courthouse was neglected for a while in Karnes City. The county attorney was off prospecting most of the time. He bought a geiger counter at first, but because it is necessary to have it almost at contact for it to be effective, he sold it at a two-dollar loss and rented a scintillator.. Off he went again Some members of the Highway Department came by when I was talking with him about his new profession and presented some rocks for tests. They were hot. The county clerk was out er prospecting for uranium most of the time. Also the district attorney. The county judge seemed not as enthusiastic about uranium as the others. He has a red-headed secretary. There have been numerous airplanes in the area prospecting with scintillators. There have been Piper Super Cruisers, Tripacers, Bellancas, Stinson Voyagers, Super Cubs, Bonanzas, Navions, and even an Aeronca Champion here and there. A workable scintillator in an airplane costs from $500 up. Usually the fellow operating it sits in the back seat watching it; the pilot tends to the business of flying. The Atomic tests in Nevada must be consistently worrisome to the airborne prospectors, since the scintillators are unreliable after a test. They scintillate with totally spurious information when the radioactive dust clouds float down here. The flights are made early in the morning or at night when the air is smoothest. This is especially necessary in summer, when the heat waves rising from the ground during the day make the planes jump like bucking broncs close to the ground. The aviators I questioned about their prospecting said that because of the extreme sensitivity of the scintillators, the quality of the ore could not be established. The scintillators will pick up radiation of low grade ore valueless for mining purposes, and only the Atomic Energy Commission geologists could determine with certainty the quality and quantity of the ore. The aviators said that there were numerous hot spots over the county. There have been a lot of complaints about low-flying planes by the farmers in the county. Some, in jest, of course, complain of the difficulty of keeping their fences in repair because of them. One, Jack Crews, complained of their using his flax field for a landing strip. Marcus E. Warden, Jr., who together with Junius Pogue hired an airplane to do aerial prospecting for unanium at $10 an hour, said, “A plane certainly unlocks a lot of gates. And you can’t be made to get out by mad farmers either.” I haven’t been out prospecting yet. I might take a geiger counter and point it at some of my old cows. If they were radioactive they might bring a little more money. Maybe I could “salt” them with a “It is our problem. Let us solve it,” Shepperd said to he court. The Texas legal officer also advised the Texas Legislature that he thinks it would be unwise for them to adjourn without a policy statement on the segregation issue. Responding to a wire from eight representatives wishing him well in his Washington testimony, Shepperd said there had been no indication in Washington that the May 17 decision would be reconsidered. “The only question to be answered is: How and when will segregation be completely abolished and integration effected?” Shepperd said. Shepperd urged the Legislature to create a 15-man interim committee to survey the situation. They would have an appropriation of at least $250,000 to investigate and help in “complaints and violence both actual and imagined.” Rep. Joe Burkett of Kerrville, one of the eight members who got the wire, told The Texas Observer that it is “possible, very possible,” that the House will take action on the recommendation. He said the eight had assured Governor Shivers and House Speaker Jim Lindsey they would consult with them before taking any legislative steps. Shepperd suggested the commit. tee might study the problem of segregation, study the school laws of Texas and other states, formulate a plan of legislation, draft laws and recommend to the Legislature prospective courses of action. Last week in the hearing chamber of the Supreme Court, attorneys for Delaware, Virginia, South Carolina, Kansas, and the District of Columbia advised the court on the integration issue as a result of their involvement in earlier litiga tion before the court. Attorneys for Florida, North Carolina, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Maryland, and Texas made “friends of the court” presentations. Hundreds of spectators of both races heard the arguments. Testimony from the border and Southern states ranged from assurances that integration was being effected to expressed fears of “bloody race riots” and the end of public school systems if sudden integration were ordered. Although comments from members of the court were infrequent during the four days of testimony, the direction of the justices’ questioning at times seemed hostile toward counsel from the South and border states. Chief Justice Earl Warren asked WASHINGTON It has become clear as a result of the Sam Rayburn dinner here last weekend that Governor Allan Shivers and George Sandlin, State Democratic Executive Committee, are interested in reinstating the Shivers faction with the national Democratic Party. Harmony prevailed at the dinner and the preliminary pow-wows here. Apparently members of the two factions are tending to find common ground. Just what this will mean in terms of Texas Democratic leadership in 1956 is not yet clear. Two planes flew a number of legislators to Washington for the event. Austin lobbyist Elmore Torn made available the private plane of Transcontinental Pipeline Co. hi addition, Sandlin arranged the chartering of a Braniff plane. It is understood that Austin lobbyists helped pay the cost of the charter. WASHINGTON Impassioned pleas from Southerners and Negroes behind them, the nine men of the United States Supreme Court must now decide how to enforce their May 17 decision that segregated schools are unconstitutional. A decree is expected in June. All parties agreed last week in Washington during the four days of testimony on the issue that the Supreme EVERYBODY’S PROSPECTIN’ also said that attitudes “should be considered but they should not control” steps to achieve integration. Texas Attorney General John Ben Shepperd spoke for official Texas in a “friend of the court” appearance. He argued that if the court attempted to enforce immediate integration, the Texas school system would “virtually collapse.” He opposed “the shock of forced or too-rapid integration before the publk conscience is prepared to accept it” and wanted enforcement left in “local hands.” URANIUM FRENZY IN KENEDY