ustxtxb_obs_1955_06_13_50_00002-00000_000.pdf

Let those flatter who fear, it is not an American art. JEFFERSON c,61 5h,em Produce When they were in power, the Democrats put a ceiling on farm production and a floor under farmers’ income. The Republicans mantained the production ceiling but lowered the income floor by making price supports “flexible.” Both political parties juggle farm prices with subsidies. Neither party operates on the “free market theory” of price in farm products. The result of the “quota and subsidy” program has meant restricted farm output and a minimum income level for farmers. Why doesn’t the Nation adopt a policy of maximum farm production along with its present policy of subsidized farm income? It is callous to limit the production of food and decry “farm surpluses” when most of the world’s two billion people are hungry. We should accept maximum farm production and then separate farmers’ minimum income from the free market price of farm goods, just as it is now separated from that price by the subsidies that prevent it from occurring. Farmers should be encouraged to produce all they can, consistent with soil conservation. The products of the earth should then. flow through the free market at low prices to the people of this and other countries. We would all eat more for less money. Were farm income left alone, it would probably decrease, but we don’t leave it alone now; why should we leave it alone under a maximum production policy? A simple annual income guarantee \(probably in relationship to a formula of acres planted in various crops of asprosperity from high production and low prices. If farmers could get more on the open market than the assured minimum, well and good. Such a policy would give the world more food and yet maintain farm prosperity. American farmers can produce 50 percent more if the government will let them. People here and abroad will eat more if the government will let them. Why do we cling to the assumption that the only way to protect the farmer is to limit his production? Why do we forget that the people of the world, and many of the people of this Nation, need more to eat? 5he 2anger Point Our little newspaper is six months old with this issue. It is still a modest enterprise, but it has had its few preliminary successes. It has exposed a Texas Congressman for taking large “legal fees” while in the Texas Senate, revealed suppressed veterans’ land scandal documents, and anticipated the major indictments; publicized San Antonio library censorship, reported fully the Port Arthur strike, and told of the glandinflaming role of Texas political hucksters; written of Texas leaders with a certain candor; interpreted and perhaps influenced the Legislature just adjourned, and described and analyzed the Austin lobbyists; and it has presented editorially each week a simple-minded humanity. Now we are getting interested in certain state agencies and the ethics thereof ; in the cities of the state, the people and their ways, and the arts and crafts. We cannot promise you a . steady flow of pleasing facts. beacuse we must print them as we find them. We do promise the truth. We cannot promise you a steady flow of pleasing opinions, either, because we are often displeased by our own opinions. We do promise that newspapermen, and newspapermen only, will continue to run this newspaperthough we’re a halfbaked lot, it’s true. We pass our sixth month with many new friends and many new subscriptions. If we’re not careful, the paper will succeed, and then what will happen to its ideals? 4e aexas Otistrurr Incorporating The State Observer, combined with The East Texas Democrat JUNE 13, 1955 140FP’ 3 Published once a week from Austin, Texas. Delivered postage prepaid $4 per annum. Advertising rates available on request. Extra. copies 10c 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: 7-0746. Ronnie Dugger, Editor and General Manager Bill Brammer, Associate Editor Sarah Payne, Office Manager Jim Dyer, Circulation Manager 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. We are dedicated to the whole truth, to human values above all interests, to the rights of man as the foundation of democracy ; we will take orders from none but our own conscience, and never will we ‘overlook or misrepresent the truth to serve the interests of the powerful or cater to the ignoble in the human spirit. … Wanted in Other States Too FEDERAL AID FOR FLOOD CONTRoL AND WATER. SAVIN1G. Dale in The San Antonio Express TEXAS AT LARGE John Ben Says They Cooled Capitol But There. Wasn’t Much of an Airing Attorney General John Ben Shepperd, speaking at the Texas Press Association convention in Galveston last week, took the Legislature to task for the things it didn’t do. But he said passage of Rep. Dolph Briscoe’s bill strengthening the Veterans Land Act justified the sessioneven if nothing else had been accomplished. Said Shepperd: “There were some things the Legislature just didn’t want to talk about, such as segregation … While they favored investigating a lot of people, they chose not to pass a bill to find out what legislators had represented private persons before state boards. I guess they figured the half-million dollars they appropriated for air-conditioning a number of state offices was enough airing for one session.” Shepperd also pointed out that the 10 new insurance cleanup laws have no penalties attached to them. “If you catch violators,” he said, “you can make them stop but you can’t punish them.” …. Reuben Senterfitt’s announcement for Governor caught most everyone in Austin off guard. The former House Speaker, who planned to run in 1954 until Shivers announced for re-election, has been lobbying in Austin this session for the retail merchants. H e was Speaker for two sessions. His announcement did not mention the Democratic nomination, which led to some speculation, …. The Associated Press ran Senterfitt’s announcement with a list of twelve other potential candidatesAttorney General Shepperd, State Senators Phillips and Lock, Associate Justices Wilson and Calvert, former U.T. Chancellor Hart, Lieutenant Governor Ramsey, Agri culture Commissioner White, Rep. Sadler, Ralph Yarborough, Mayor Hofheinz of Houston, and U. S. Senator Daniel. Shepperd may try for re-election to his present post. Phillips, Wilson and White, tell friends they are interested in running. Hart says he is thinking it over. Calvert says flatly he is not interested, is happy on the Texas Supreme Court. Daniel’s desire to leave the Senate and run for Governor is reported waning. Lock, Ramsey, Sadler, Yarborough and Hofheinz are not discussing it much. Very few now think Shivers will seek re-election, Allen Duckworth wrote in the Dallas News that liberals and conservatives agree that the end of an era in state administration has arrived. …. Rep. Waggoner Carr, Lubbock, is apparently now a shoo-in for Speaker of the House next session. …. The increased salaries of elected officials is likely to multiply the number of candidates all up and down the line. The same is true of the Legislature, which now pays $175 a week for the first 120 days of each session. Sens. Bracewell, Aikin, Martin, Fuller, and Hardeman and Reps. Briscoe and Strickland are mentioned for the lieutenant governorship. Sen. Secrest and Speaker Lindsey are prominent Attorney General candidates, along with Charles Herring \(who is not lobbying, as we reported earlier because …. During Fess Parker’s appearance before the Texas House the last day of the session, the thought came up at the press table “What if he runs for Governor?” …. New York reports, by the way, indicate that record companies may be shifting from Davy to Daniel Boone \(“Daniel Boone, the …. A federal grand jury in Fort Worth is checking into antitrust complaints against Safeway Stores, Inc., the grocery chain. …. Emilie Heinatz, executive secretary of the Texas Social and Legislative Conference, can claim to be an earlier skeptic about the veterans’ land program than either Shivers or Shepperd, members of the Board. She persuaded the Conference to adopton Nov. 7, 1954, just as the investigation was beginning in earnest in Austina resolution that legislation was needed to prevent “present abuses by speculators who buy the veterans’ rights and the use of their names for small sums and make profits at the expense of the State Government and the Veterans’ Land Program.” This is exactly what was happening. Last-day cordiality between political foes in the Texas House last week hit a runner when Rep. Edgar Berlin, Port Neches, expressed his hope that none of the members would be back next year. “Does that include you, Mr. Berlin?” asked Sp e a k e r Lindsey \(whom Berlin has badgered all sesback. … House and Senate investigators turned in their reports on the land scandals last week. Senator Jimmy Phillips refused to sign the Senate report, called it “a very slight tap on the wrist for those responsible for the greatest scandal in the history of Texas.” He will file a minority report. Both House and Senate reports excused the Governor and Attorney General from guilt of fraudulent or dishonest practices. The Saiate found them guilty of “absenteeism.”