ustxtxb_obs_1955_05_16_50_00002-00000_000.pdf

`Let’s Just Put ’em Down the Disposal!’ The Kitchen Conference Let those flatter who fear, it is not an American art. JEFFERSON One ore utting Our state legislators have now passed a bill which requires workers to strike before they can be recognized as a union and which then permits an election that cans be held among strike-breakers on whether the strikers should get their jobs back. Senator Parkhouse’s S. B. 45 is undoubtedly the most heinous abuse of the working people of Texas ever perpetrated in the name of the public interest. Under this bill, as passed last week by the House, workers cannot strike unless they represent a majority of the workers at the establishment affected. They cannot prove they represent a majority of the workers until they strike and a court suit ensues. Then the trial judge may conduct the election. the strikers will have been fired. Then they will not be permitted to vote. The people who took their jobs will vote to decide if the original strikers wanted a union. Not only will this not prevent “another Port Arthur,” but as Governor Shivers and the other labor-baiting hypocrites sponsoring this bill well know, it will require its exact duplication all over Texas. It was precisely what this bill makes necessarya strike before the election to ‘decide the question of worker majoritythat critics of the Port Arthur strikers emphasized. Rep. Joe Burkett of Kerrville even went so far as to say that this is as it should be. Just signing a card is too easy, Burkett said; a man should have to go on strike before he is allowed to join a union. The House turned down, 67-66, the election provision of the Taft-Hartley act. They refused by voice vote to include the right to bargain collectively along with “the right to work.” They behaved as though they suffered from total amnesia that Texas voters voted for Franklin Roosevelt four times. They refused any concession to the fact that craft unions -involve only portions of the workers at many establishments. If the law is enforced, craft workers will be seriously handicapped in organization efforts, and artisans will find it literally impossible to organize if they number less than half the workers at the establishment. Reps. Wade Spilman and Scott Sayers conceded this was discrimination against the AFL, but neither would accept any proposal to remedy it. Many lawyers believe that it is unconstitutional to deny to a minority the right you grant a majority. Labor leaders will fight S.B. 45, and it will probably be held to be unconstitutional and discriminatory. Historically viewed, therefore, the law’s main effect will be to galvanize working people in greater efforts toward organization and more effective political opposition to the legislators who do not seem to realize that the social philosophy of America includes a fair and healthy labor-management partnership. 5ouching 5riencLhip The other night, about fifty folks gathered in the cavernous Court of Criminal Appeals chamber in the Capitol to hear ouah Guvenuh and the chief law enforcement officer of Texas, Mr. Shepperd, relate how “alleged irregularities” and “so-called frauds” occurred under their noses on the Veterans’ Land Board. The best moment came when the two made the mistake of sitting beside each other and an Observer photographer, backed up by two others, snapped a picture of them. Their subtle consternation was hilarious. A few moments later Mr. Shivers said on the stand, rather pointedly, that he was sure he would have done something about letters complaining of irregularities \(such as Mr. Shepperd received, he might as well have that after all, the Melado group deal was disapproved “in Governor Shivers’s office” in 1953. The friendship between the two great statesmen is touching to behold, and we mark it a rare privilege to print elsewhere this week their beaming countenances juxtaposed. Gitt &leas *lanolin Incorporating The State Observer, combined with the East Texas Democrat MAY 16, 1955 3 Published once a week from Austin. Texas. Delivered postage prepaid $4 per annum. Advertising rates available on request. Extra copies 6c each. Quantity orders available. Entered as second-class matter April 26. 1937, at the Post Office at Austin, Texas, under the act of March 3. 1879. MAILING ADDRESS: Drawer F. Capitol Station, Austin, Texas. OFFICE OF PUBLICATION : 504 W. 24th St., Austin, Texas. Phone : 70746. Editor and General Manager Associate Editor Ronnie Dugger Bill Brammer Office Manager Circulation Manager Sarah Payne Jim Dyer the right as we see it. We are dedicated to the whole truth, to human values above all truth to serve the e power from none but our own conscience, and never will we overlook or misrepresent the interests, to the rights of man as the foundation of democracy : we will take orders We will serve no group or party but will hew hard to the truth as we find it and he interests o f the p owerful or cater to the ignoble in the human spirit. TEXAS AT LARGE Mayor-To-Be Favors Bawds and Bingo Galveston Island is going to have its sin and talk quite frankly about it, too, according to new Mayor-elect George Roy Clough. He says he’s going to let gambling and prostitution run wide open in Galveston. Clough, in a way a reformer, won last week in the mayoralty race over incumbent Herbert Cartwright. Clough indicated that he had no plans to clean up the isle, but he took a new tack as Galveston officials go by admitting bawdy houses and gambling hells do flourish there. “Many wealthy people come here for the express purpose of having fun,” he said … “And we want to keep the tourists coming here. I think we can have gambling and prostitution and still have a clean town.” One of Clough’s first moves will be to reopen Post Office Street, the brothel district, and “get those prostitutes out of the downtown hotels.” He said he was going to call a meeting of all gambling men, including the Maceo Syndicate chiefs to set up a system of “self government.” Clough campaigned against misuse of public funds. What if the Rangers who came to town attempted to close the wide open city? “That’s none of my affair,” said Clough. …. Capitol newsmen were talking about the nine amendments to the Administration’s tax bill, now being studied in committee, introduced by Senator Carlos Ashley last week. They decided it was I done mostly for showjust so they could say they had studied the whole field of taxation before passing a bill. A couple of the newsmen got to thinking about another amendment, Senator William Shireman’s state income tax suggestion, which got only one vote in the House several weeks ago. “It might not be so bad,” one of them said. “Two and a half per cent of what I pay in federal taxes would run about $15 or $20 a year. The tax would raise around $40 million. That would solve a lot of problems. We could abolish all sales taxes.” The bulk of the $40 million would come from corporate income. …. Governor Allan Shivers, wisecracking with reporters before he appeared at the hearing of the House committee investigating the land scandals, was asked if he was going to get a tax bill out of the Legislature. “I’ll get one,” he said. “I could really write them a good one,” he added. …. The Fort Worth-Dallas public relations firm of Witherspoon and Ridings has opened a New York City office to better service its Texas accounts. The scuttlebutt in Dallas is that Price Daniel has contacted the agency about the possibility of handling a statewide campaign in 1956. …. Apparently Rep. Tom Cheatham’s resolution commending Kenneth Towery for winning the Pulitzer Prize by uncovering the veterans’ land scandal isn’t going to be passed. It was sent to State Affairs by acting Speaker Pearce Johnson and Parliamentarian Read Granbery on grounds it set “state policy” and convicted principals before courts had done so. Now Cheatham says that he doubts he will get a hearing on it. … Resentment over the Kitchen Conference between Butler and Shivers is so strong among Texas liberals, some political leaders have adviser Butler his June tour of Texas would be unwise. Butler was booed lightly at the Kefauver dinner in Houston. The name of the late Maury Maverick, Sr., drew better applause in both cities than Senator Lyndon Johnson’s. Daniel got very little applause when mentioned in San Antonio. Ralph Yarborough, gubernatorial candidate in 1952 and 1954, introduced most of the guests, throwing in the observation that there were too many Democrats for the head table, a situation different from that two years ago, when there were too many tables for the Democrats. Commissioner o f Agriculture John White, introducing Kefauver, said “We’re gonna get rid of the iffy and the maybe Democrats in Texas.” He said that if Kefauver would do a little investigating in Texas, “the population of some neighboring states would immediately increase by a sizeable number of some of our most dignified citizens.” Told he had six minutes to use up before Kefauver’s TV speech began, White quipped: “Six minutes! Why we can win or lose an election in that timeor better still I know some people who can steal one.”