ustxtxb_obs_1955_07_04_50_00006-00000_000.pdf

Page 4

by

Page 6 July 4, 1955 THE TEXAS OBSERVER ALLREDII Three Conventions TAX FIGHT IS 21 YEARS OLD nee address the next meeting of Dallas News employees “for the purpose of talking … about labor unions, the program of the AFL in Texas, and the benefits to be derived by joining a union.” The News is scared, said the committee, that “perhaps even its own editorial employees will organize. And we think the News is right.” The News replied editorially that it would be glad to have an AFL spokesman at the next meeting of its employees. “We are not opposed to hearing those who differ with us,” said the publicity committee, “We are opposed to letting our convention be used as a sounding board for false charges against our friends.” At all these conventions, a certain amount of news is made. The news made last week at the three conventions: Texas AFL Willian -executive secretary of AFL, said that some businessmen are worried about the forthcoming AFLCIO merger, and why not? he asked. “With 15 million strong against them they’ve got darn good reason to be scared,” he said. Politicians who have supported policies hostile to unions have, too, he said”we’ll be looking into their affairs . … and retire them from public life.” When the merger is complete, he said, there will be “the greatest organizational campaign that we’ve ever seen in this country.” He said that trades in which organization will be especially intensive will be white collar workers, chemical workers, teachers, textile workers, farm labor, and newspapers. In his prepared speech, the national AFL executive, who took George Meany’s job when Meany became national AFL president, said that Texas has more labor restrictions and fewer restrictions on wealth than any other state in the Union. He commented on “strong liberal forces” at work in Texas life and “an increase in the number of state legislators who own their own souls and refuse to jump when the big money speaks.” “The wetback mess,” he said, is “a major national disgrace.” Braceros “work at coolie wages” CLASSIFIED ADS Help Wanted STRINGERSThe Texas Observer is building up a bank of reliable reporters all over Texas. Professional reporters of an enlightened turn of mind are urged bo contact the Editor, The Texas Observer, Drawer F, Capitol Station, Austin. ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVES If you have some spare time and would like to help The Texas Observer grow. writ. the Business Manager for advertising solicitation forms. Percentage of sales can be arranged. The Texas Observer. Drawer F. Capitol Station, Austin. LEGAL ADS CITATION BY PUBLICATION THE STATE OF TEXAS TO Wade H. Miller Defendant, in the hereinafter styled and numbered cause: manded to appear before the 98th District Court of Travis County, Texas, to be held at the courthouse of said county in the City of Austin, Travis County, Texas, at or before 10 o’clock A. M. of the first Monday after the expiration of 42 days from the date of issuance hereof ; that is to say, at or before, 10 o’clock A. M. of Monday the 8th day of August, 1955, and answer the petition of plaintiff in Cause Number 101,702, in which Katy Miller is Plaintiff and Wade H. Miller is defendant, filed in said Court on the 17th day of June, 1955, and the nature of which said suit is as follows: Being an action and prayer for judgment in favor of Plaintiff and against Defendant for decree of divorce dissolving the bonds of matrimony heretofore and now existing between said parties ; Plaintiff alleges abandonment by defendant of her for a period of more than three years, with the intention on the part of Defendant of making such abandonment permanent ; Plaintiff further alleges that no children were born of said union and no community property was accumulated ; Plaintiff further prays for relief, general and special ; All of which more fully appears from Plaintiff’s Original Petition on file in this office, and to which reference is here made If this citation is not served within 90 days after date of its issuance, it shall be returned unserved. WITNESS, 0. T. MARTIN, JR., Clerk and Southwestern employers have a “greed for cheap submissive labor.” Of the Eisenhower Administration, he said the official team is “reluctant to govern,” the President passes the buck, and there is “a v a c u u m” where leadership should be. Shivers Attacked Holleman let loose a blast at Governor Shivers and Shivercrats. He said the Federation “has taken an active part in the efforts to return the Democratic Party machinery to the real Democrats of Texas.” “This is not a fight among Democrats but a fight between Democrats and Republicans, regardless of what name they masquerade under,” he said. “There will be no unity with Shivercrats in Texas,” he said. “The hand which drove the knife into the back of organized labor in Texas in the 54th Legislature was the hand of Allan Shivers …. the same hand he used to knife the Dembcratic Party in 1952. We give fair warning, here and now, that organized labor will be on hand in the 1956 conventions to see to it that that treacherous hand is not given another opportunity to drive a knife into the heart of the Democratic Party.” Rep. Joe Burkett, Kerrville, said he is “generally considered ‘antilabor’ ” but was nevertheless given a standing ovation. He said he believes every man has the right to work anywhere anytime for anyone he chooses; that one man’s desire to strike should not affect another’s right to differ with him; and that there is no right to strike against the government. Rep. Edgar Berlin called for labor to support its friends in the Legislature and to pay their poll taxes. Rep. Don Kennard said that workers, employers, and the public are entitled to “honest, open, and democratic unionism”; and that labor must remove inequitable membership restrictions. He said a “racial, religious, political, or sex test of membership is wholly repugnant to the spirit that should activate the labor movement.” Sen. Wayne Wagonseller, Bowie, pledged to support the Federation’s program. `Interwoven Interests’ Alex Dickie, president of the Texas Farmers’ Union, emphasized of the District Courts of Travis County, Texas. Issued and given under my hand and the seal of said Court at office in the City of Austin, this the 20th day of June, 1955. JR., Clerk of the District Courts, Travis County, Texas NOTICE OF HEARING ON EXCLUSION OF LANDS OR OTHER PROPERTY FROM TRAVIS-WILLIAMSON COUNTY WATER, CONTROL AND IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT NO. 1 THE STATE OF TEXAS COUNTIES OF TRAVIS, AND WILLIAMSON NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN to all persons owning property, real, personal or mixed, located within Travis-Williamson County Water Control and Improvement District No. 1 as created and established by H. B. 775, passed by the 54th Legislature at its Regular Session, THAT A HEARING will be held at 2:00 o’clock, P. M., on the 29th day of July, 1956, at 1301 Capital National Bank Building, Austin, Texas, at which time and place the Directors of said District will announce their own conclusion as to the exclusion of lands or other property and will receive petitions for exclusion of lands or other property from said District. All interested property owners in said District may present petitions for exclusions and offer evidence in support thereof or contest any proposed exclusion and offer evidence in support thereof, whether based on a petition or upon the Board’s own conclusions. Petitions for exclusion of lands must accurately describe the metes and bounds of such lands. Petitions for exclusion of other property shall describe the same for identification. All petitions for exclusion shall be filed with the District not later than said hearing, and said petitions must clearly set out the particular grounds on which the exclusion is sought and consideration shall be confined to the stated grounds. Said hearing may be adjourned from one day to another and until all persons who desire to be heard are heard. THIS NOTICE is given in pursuance of an order passed by the Board of directors on said District on the 17th day of June, 1955. LARRY COX Secretary, Board of Directors NOTICE OF ELECTION THE STATE OF TEXAS COUNTIES OF TRAVIS AND WILLIAMSON TO T H E RESIDENT QUALIFIED VOTERS 0 F TRAVIS-WILLIAMSON CORPUS CHRISTI In 1934, Governor Jimmy Allred laid down a philosophy of state taxation which to this day polarizes the conservatives and the liberals under the Capitol dome. Allred, now living a relatively peaceful life as a federal district judge in Corpus Christi, sent a message to the Legislature two months after his inauguration appealing for natural resources tax increases, an income tax, and other tax forms which he believed were directed at interests that were making piles of money in Texas without making adequate contributions to the cost of government. As late as 1955, in the 54th Legislature, legislators were arguing about exactly the same taxes Allred proposed 21 years ago. Not even the urgent financial needs of the depression and a growing state deficit could weaken the Legislature’s tenacious defense of out-of-state industrial interests. Allred started from the proposition that property taxes were first levied in a time when most every farm-labor interdependence. “We must align ourselves if we are to survive in this battle of the fittest,” he said, because of “our interwoven interests.” He said “the only way the means of communication treat us is the way they do youthey just know one side and they just print one side and that’s not ours.” Fred Schmidt, new executive secretary of the Texas CIO, appeared before the convention in a departure from custom. He received a standing ovation after he told the delegates that labor has been made a “dirty name” with mass media “controlled in high places.” Margaret Thornburgh, national head of the women’s division of Labor League for Political Education, called for organization of women’s auxiliaries in every union local, pointing out that women have a majority of the total potential vote in the country. Associate Justice W. St. John Garwood of the Texas Supreme Court deplored “the unfortunate outlook” that a jurist is pro or anti-union because of one of his decisions. “I don’t know of a dishonest court in Texas,” he said, “and so long as we have honest courts, COUNTY WATER CONTROL AND IM-PROVEMENT DISTRICT NO. 1 : TAKE NOTICE that an election will be held on the 23rd day of July, 1955, within said District, for the purpose of electing five directors, in obedience to an order duly entered by the Board of Directors of said District on the 17th day of June, 1955, which is as follows : “WHEREAS, Travis-Williamson County Water Control and Improvement District No. 1 has been heretofore created and established by H. B. 775, 54th Legislature, Regular Session ; and WHEREAS, it was provided in said Act creating said District that within 30 days after the effective date of the Act the Board of Directors of said District shall call an election for the selection of the first regular Board of Directors ; THEREFORE, BE IT ORDERED BY THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS of TRAVIS WILLIAMSON COUNTY WATER CON-TROL AND IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT NO. 1: That an election be held in said TravisWilliamson County Water Control and Improvement District No. 1 on the 23rd day of July, 1965, for the purpose of electing five directors for said District. That for the purpose of said election the entire District is hereby constituted one voting precinct. The polling place for said election shall be Bush’s Cafe, formerly Larry Cox’s Place on the Burnet Road, and the following named persons are hereby appointed officers of said election: Martin Pruett, Presiding Judge John Brogdon, Assistant Judge Mrs. Larry Cox, Clerk Mrs. Q. C. Taylor, Clerk. The ballots for said election shall have written or printed thereon the names of the Directors to be voted upon, and blank spaces shall be left on the ballots in which the voters may write in the names of other persons, as follows : FOR DIRECTORS : David L. Tisinger Q. C. Taylor Vernon Lemens Leo Martin Larry Cox Only resident qualified electors in said District shall be entitled to vote at said election. Said election shall be held and conducted and returns made to this Board of Directors in accordance with the provisions of Chapter 25, General Laws enacted by the Thirty-ninth Legislature at its Regular Session in 1925, and amendments thereto, so far as the same make provisions for such election, and in matters not body lived on farms but that by 1934 they had become unfairly burdensome on farm and home owners. He knew full well that his proposals would provoke the most powerful opposition. “In equalizing the tax burdens you and I are going to tread on somebody’s toes,” he said. But something simply had to be done. Out-of-state chain stores had developed into interstate monoliths, doing huge business without having to pay taxes which businesses organized inside state lines were paying. Allred proposed a graduated chain store tax, based on the amount of gross revenues and the number of stores in the chain. Natural Resources Eyed Texas was producing almost half of the crude petroleum in the United States. About 85 percent of that crude oil was being consumed beyond the boundaries of Texas. Texas consumers had to pay four cents a gallon on gasolinea sum that did not change until 1955but out-of-state consumers of Texas gasoline contributed nothing in sales taxes to the Texas treasury. Allred proposed a study to see if the tax on crude oil should be revised. Depletion of the resources was one factor, he said; so also was the fact that “the oil industry is a money making industry even in the midst of these dark days of economic depression.” He also recommended “a flat tax on natural gas of one cent per thousand cubic feet,” a severance tax of the type which finally passed in 1951, only to be declared unconstitutional. A large part of Texas natural gas of state through pipelines. Of the money his natural gas tax would have yielded, Allred estimated that less than one-sixth would be paid by the citizens of Texas and approximately five-sixths by those outside the state. Turning to sulphur and. pipelines, Allred exhibited some of the antimonopolistic fervor which seems to have been melted by the production emergencies of the war and the post-war boom. He said that two companies had a virtual monopoly on sulphur production and have made “stupendous” profits. He wanted their state tax raisednot nominally, but substantially. therein provided for the election proceedings shall be in accordance with the General Laws of Texas. Notice of said election shall be signed by the President and Secretary of this Board of Directors and shall be published once a week for three consecutive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in