ustxtxb_obs_1955_06_27_50_00005-00000_000.pdf

JUDGE JAMES V. ALLRED Governor in the Pioneer Age When he became Governor in 1934, tens of thousands of Texans lived in “the jungles” under the river bridges, on the banks, in the woods. There were 250,000 Texas families on relief. In San Antonio, Maury Maverick helped the homeless organize life in abandoned warehouses, gave them jobs tearing up old freight cars and selling the scrap. These were the desperate times. Mayor Oscar Holcombe of Houston had to tell a legislative committee that unless a relief measure was passed, his police would have to fire on the mobs, but they wouldn’t because their brothers would be in the mobs. Oscar Powell, a San Antonio lawyer, turned to a friend and said, “If this thing doesn’t pass, I’m wiring my wife to leave town.” It passed. Allred’s years as Governor-1935 to 1939were, as he put it when he stepped down, “the pioneer age in social security in Texas.” In one sphere, state policies were miniatures of the New Deal. In another, unresolved conflicts between Allred and the Legislature over taxation and control of lobbyists are mirrored in the issues of modern Texas politics. Gunfights on ‘Smoky Row’ Allred’s parents, who were from Grayson County, moved in a prairie schooner to a homestead on the frontier of Childress County. They lived in a dug-out for a timeit was TD-rimitiVe those days around Childressand they lost a baby girl on their retreat back to Bowie. Jimmy was born in Bowie in 1899. He washed bottles for a bottling company, sold newspapers, shined shoes in a barber shop. He saw gun battles on Bowie’s famous main street, “Smoky Row.” The roughness of his youth conditioned him in a strange way, for later he was to abolish race track betting in Texas and become a teetotaler. In 1935, a news service said: “Boyish observance of lawless saloons -made him a teetotaler …. His Mother’s hearty application of the rod when she overheard him and his brothers use the jargon of horse traders made him avoid both profanity and vile speech.” He enrolled at Rice Institute for a time, working as a filling station attendant to meet expenses. The double load was too much for him. He dropped out, got another job, then enlisted in the Navy in 1918. After the war he got a law degree at Cumberland’s “short-order law school” in Tennessee. He was appointed district attorney of Wichita Falls in the early twenties and brought some Ku Kluxers to trial for floggings. In 1926, a nobody, he ran for Attorney General and missed election by 4,000 votes out of 766,000. Soon thereafter he married Jo Betsy Miller, a music graduate of S.M.U. A Texas Trustbuster When the Attorney General resigned, Governor Dan Moody passed Allred by and chose Robert Lee Bobbitt. Allred “shook his fist under the Governor’s nose and promised to lick the proverbial socks off his appointee in the next election.” He did. As Attorney General, he followed some advice that Dr. Robert Montgomery, one of his brain-trusters, gave him. Montgomery, professor of economics at the University of Texas, and Vann Kennedy, a political savant also close to Allred, conferred with the new legal officer two days after his election. Montgomery recalls that he advised Allred to “pick up where Jim Hogg left off in 1894monopolies, the trusts, the utilities.” Allred filed an antitrust suit against the major oil producers of the United States on grounds that the oil marketing code permitted a trust and monopoly in Texas in violation of its laws. By 1932 they had been fined $16 million. He enjoined “fly-by-night” insurance corporation. from operating in the state. That, of course, has a contemporary ring. He ruled that Negroes could not vote in Democratic primariesa ruling that was to cause him political trouble later. Elected to a second term without trouble, by 1934 he had become the dominant figure in Texas politics. His antitrust policy marked him as the kind of economic liberal that was at that time in demand in policy-making councils. Twenty-one Years Ago Seven men ran for Governor in 1934. The theses and history books are full of the vituperation and mud-slinging t h a t is standard equipment in Texas elections, but Allred’s platform had a clear, substantive ring to it. One of the ironies of that year from the present perspective was his condemnation of lobbyists in Austin and the practice of legislators taking retainer fees from private interests. Here is how Texas political historian S. S. McKay recapitulates this plank in his platform: “He favored a definite fight to relieve the state of lobbyists. His plan was to have all candidates for state office required to file a list of all employments or retainers during the year immediately preceding their announcement; also, that members of the Legislature should be required to file at the beginning of their terms of office and once a month thereafter a list of clients by whom they were re AUSTIN Integration of some big city Texas schools apparently will start this September, with indications that other school districts will put off initial steps until 1956 or later. The State Board of Education meets July 4 in Austin to receive the recommendations of its sevenman committee on implementation of the Supreme Court mandate that local school districts must make a prompt and reasonable start toward integration under supervision of federal district courts. Cecil Morgan, chairman of the board’s committee, said after its second meeting that the members were unanimous on what to recommend. He would reveal only that desegregation problems will have to be worked out locally if the committee’s ideas are followed. He said that the five-hour conference of the committee was concerned mainly with allocation of funds under the Gilmer-Aikin education law, which now provides for payment of separate state funds for Negro and white schools. Shivers Raises Question This seemed to indicate that the board is inquiring how the funds can be re-allocated to integrated schoolsin other words, what legal steps must precede integration. Governor Allan Shivers warned El Paso and San Antonio school leaders thatwhile he was not commenting on their decisions to integrate their schools in Septemberthey might be jeopardizing their state funds by so doing. Before Shivers made this statement at his press conference, J. W. Edgar, State Education Commis tained and the amount of retainers they were paid. A further safeguard was suggested … whereby all lobbyists should be required to file sworn statements telling the names of their employers, the amounts of money they received, and the manner in which it was spent.” In the 54th Legislature, 21 years later, Senator William Shireman of Corpus Christi introduced a bill which would have accomplished almost exactly what Allred wanted on retainer fees; and Rep. Maury Maverick, Jr., of San Antonio, introduced another one which would have required lobbyist registration almost precisely as Allred had proposed it. Allred told the Legislature in January, 1935, that he favored “a real lobby regulation law and a sioner, said that the Texas Education Agency will continue to pay state funds to school districts which abolish segregation. The El Paso school board voted six to one to integrate its 600 Negro pupils with its 25,000 white pupils in September. Thomas B. Portwood, San Antonio school superintendent, says the San Antonio schools will be integrated in September, but the school board there has not taken action. Edgewood Independent School District in San Antonio has decided on September integration. In Houston, however, a 25-member bi-racial committee on integration was told by the census director of the school district that about a year would be required to work out boundary changes in school attendance zones. This would mean integration in Houston in 1956 at the earliest if such changes are considered pre-requisite to integration. Shiverswho has been circumspect in comments on integration since the last court decision talked more extensively about it at his conference. He said he does not think it is un-Christian to object to the Supreme Court decision, the question being, rather, “what is best for the children.” Local, people ought to decide that, he said. He said that the answers indi”premature attempts” to do away with segregation. He does not agree with “avid desegregationists,” he said. People have a right to object as long as they use “constitutional levels.” Edgar Comments Edgar had said that he is sure the state board will make no effort law requiring periodical disclosures under oath by members of the Legislature and other state officers as to their employment and retainers.” The Legislature, of course, did nothing, even as they did nothing in 1955. At Allred’s inaugural in 1937, he said, rather indirectly, that “the hand of privilege must be kept from the halls of government,” but apparently by that time he had accepted the facts of Austin life. Ready for a New Cycle The social programs Allred advocated in his 1934 campaign included relief to the needy, an old age pension system, an expanded education system, and full recognition of the rights of organized labor. He was for full support of President Roosevelt. Later in the decade, he said he felt that prohibition was not an in to withhold funds from El Paso schools unless “ordered to do so by the courts or Legislature.” Upon announcement of El Paso’s September desegregation intention, Edgar said: “All efforts of desegregation will be interesting to watch. I have a lot of respect for , the El Paso board, and I am sure they know what they are doing. They do a good job, and I do not think they would go into this without considerable study, preparation, and understanding of their local situation.” Meanwhile, Thomas Sutherland, director of the Texas Commission on Race Relations, released a statement that despite the Governor’s efforts “to confound the Constitution,” a poll of 200 Texas school superintendents indicates that Texas will be “one of the first states” to desegregate. He said that the answers indicated t h e superintendents a r e “slightly in favor of compliance with the law.” No definite geographical pattern of opposition emerged from the poll, he said. He said he will release a tabulation of the poll later. The Commission intends to have a representative at the July 4 meeting, Sutherland said. It will be open to the public. Regents of the University of Texas will meet in Austin July 8 to set policy on admission of Negroes to the University and its branches. They may now attend on the graduate level if courses they want to take are not offered in state-supported Negro institutions of higher learning. telligent solution of the drinking problem, but personally he was a dry. In 1934, he wanted to submit to the people the question of the repeal of prohibition. He also wanted to outlaw race track gambling, which had been legalized in Texas in 1933. He wanted a balanced budget. The State was $10 million in the red. By the time he packed up and left the Governor’s Mansion four years later, it was $20 millibn. He was adamant against federal control of natural gas production. In this he opposed the New Deal. Dr. Montgomery’s counsel was heeded on public utilities, and Allred advocated a utility commission empowered to make rates based on actual investment, t o eliminate large sums paid utilities for services, and to set rates. On January 15, 1935, the 36-yearold Governor told the Legislature and six million Texans: “Too many of our citizens are on relief rolls; and fear clutches at the hearts of even those fortunate enough to be employed …. We are ready for a new cycle of progress.” RONNIE DUGGER First Giles Trial Set Next Week AUSTIN On July fifth, in 98th District Court in Austin, Bascom Giles, once L ._*, Irommissioner and erstwhile cant_k$ite for governor, goes on trial charged with felony theft. Other. Giles trials, including one on a charge that he took a $30,000 bribe, will follow. District Attorney Les Procter has issued 52 subpoenas for the trial of Giles and that of B. R. Sheffield, Brady land dealer and business associate of Giles. Sheffield’s trial will probably begin after the completion of the Giles trial. Sheffield is charged with forgery in this particular count. State Comptroller Robert S. Calvert and State Treasurer Jesse James are among the state officials who will be called by the prosecution to produce official records. Some observers have predicted that the litigation growing out of the veterans’ land scandals will take two years to wrap up. Earlier this month, Cletus Ernsster was brought to trial in Cuero on a charge related to the scandals, but he won a change of venue on grounds he could not get a fair trial there. Allred Revisited A Time to Remember CORPUS CHRISTI Jimmy Allred used to be a shoeshine boy and a sailor, an Attorney General and a Governor. He used to slam his opponents around and fight the trusts and demand new taxes on oil and gas and sulphur. Now it’s Judge Allred, and when he’s not hearing evidence or handing down decisions in his federal court here, he’s watering the flower seeds his wife indefatigably plants, or reading novels of the West, or teaching a Sunday School class. Jimmy Allred has retired from politics, but his time was a time to remember, and this is an effort to. Integration Decisions Near