ustxtxb_obs_1955_10_12_50_00001-00000_000.pdf

The D11C great rule of composition is to speak the truth’. Thoreau O’rxao Ohorrurr 4 ,n Independent Liberal 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. 9 :Vol. 47 ik” Q c 3N` Duval Char .e,.5-6\\-01 fi e, 4;5 Said Invalid OCT, 12, 1955, AUSTIN, TEXAS 10c per copy RAMSEY PICKED FOR COMMITTEE No. 25 Rayburn, Johnson Concur, Mrs. Randolph Protests; Ramsey Says He Will Back Party Nominee in ’56 Shepperd Suggests Judge May Not Be ‘Impartial’ A UST N “Someday George Parr’s Xitical ‘debts will be paid, and we can start ..with a clean slate.” That was the startling Manner, ,in which Attorney General John. Ben Shepperd reacted. after the Court of Criminal Appeals here wiped out 104 indictments aimed at cleaning up alleged corruption in Duval County. The appellate court -here held that the grand jury which returned the indictments against more than 30 Duval officials had been illegally organized. Shepperd said he was ‘considering filing disqualification. proceedings against Judge Lloyd W. Davidson, who wrote the opinion reversing and dismissing a two-year sentence against former &vat County school official R.’ I. Adame. Shepperd said District Attorney Sant Burris of Alice had wired him that he could secure evidence “indicating Davidson is not impartial.” He said this was a serious charge and that he would have to study the evidence. before taking action. , Davidson had no ccimeinnt on Shepperd’s comments. Presiding Judge W. A. Morrison joined with bavidson in the ruling. Judge K. K. Woodley wrote a dissenting opinion.. The decision reversed a-May. 1954, ruling of the ‘court which upheld the validity of the Duval grand jury. But the court did not reverse “itself.” Judge Harry N, Graves, now retired, joined Woodiey in the 1954 case to :rule the grand jury was legal. The appellate court said that District Judge A. S. Broadfoot had acted improperly in dismissing a previouslyappointed grand jury panel and appointing a new grand jury commission. of his own choosing. The indictments had been returned by a grand jury selected by the Broadfoot-appointed commission. The dismissed panel. had been named by District Judge C. Woodrow Laughlin before his removal from office. Laughlin had been removed from office for the same reason the appellate court last week wiped out the 104 indictments”illegally dismissing -a grand jury.” Shepperd gave his reasons for the dismissal of the old grand jury and appointing a new one. “These grand juries were. consistently stacked with George Parr’s cronies, friends, debt ‘ ors, employees, business partners, and political cohorts,” he said. “One member of the grand. jury commission and a member of the grand jury which we originally challenged are now under indictment . . The grand jury commission appointed by the.former district judge was tom posed of three men, -two. of whom were subject to investigation by the grand jury they appointed, and twO were later indicted. One has served on grand juries and commissions nine times in ten years, was a former of= . ficial of the Benavides. school district;.: and was the father-in-law of the -presi-4ent of that district who resigned and was later indicted .. ‘Some interpreted . the , appellate court’s ruling.as meaning meanin that Shepperd had come into Duval. with Broadfoot, dismissed the “stacked” grand jury, and then stacked one himself, screening each member carefully. Monday Shepperd._ went to Duval . .for presentation . of the evidence on which the indictments were .b.ased -to a,. ew grand jury. FORT WORTH Governor Shivers has re-stated his oppositionto l Adlai Stevenson and his battle cry for “Texas independence” in national politics. He told a crowd of perhaps 800 here last week that he would “stay, in this fight and see it through” and that “each of us, whatever his station has one more fight to make.” Whether that meant he will stand for a fourth : term became a subject of speculation. Some felt he was refer ring to a convention struggle between loyalists and conservatives next May. in an apparent reference to those who have criticized him for bolting for Eisenhower in 1952, Shivers said: “Let those Who say that independence is a sin look to their own hearts, for it is they, not us, who have embraced: false doctrine …. If there must be. made again a fight for principle,J am ready for that, too.” , At another point he said :. “Still we are asked to surrender eternal things in return for passing . a faVora. Texans have said no before, and the Texas answer is still .no.” This drew One of ten bursts of applause. But: Shivers granted that the. -weather is chilling some. “I realizeperhaps more acutely than many of youthat it has become IThe Foundation FORT WORTH “The’ Texas Foundation,” a taxfree non-profit corporation which re-: ceived $30,0e from a . fund-raising dinner at which Governor Allan Shivers spoke earlier this year, has pub lished a booklet, ,”Information for the’ Texas Voter.” George Sandlin, chairman of the State Democratic Executive Committee and president of the foundation, says that it is the first of, several. He says the foundation’s work is “educational. Its executive of ficers ‘are members of the state committee. . The bOoklet reviews major offices to be -filled, voting qualificatiOns, marking ballots, primaries, and conventions. It was distributed at the executive committee’s meeting here last week.’ In showing how to mark a split ticket, the booklet uses an illustration on which the national nominees of the Demdcratic Party are crossed thrdtigh. The national Republican nominees and the state Democratic nominees receive the illustrative vote._ FORT WORT II Ben Ramserof San Atig -ustine, the wry,. spare Lieutenant Governor froin the only county in Texas . with a sitting-down statue on the courthouse, lawn, has ‘been -elected new TexaS national ‘Democratic committeeman by the Shivers-dominated Democratic ExeCutive Cothmittee. fashionable for some who once stood in our ranks to trim their sails. furl their colors, and head for other harbors,” he said. “For those who have chosen this course, let Me remind them that winter iscoming soonand it is a lot colder than they think.” Even though: the . new Texas national cOmmitteemanBen Ramsey-has stated that he will support Adlai Stevenson if he is nominated in 1956, Shivers took another crack at the. Illinois Governor. “The soul of Texas is not for sale,” he said. “The people of Texas are not yet willing to cast off their beliefs and go giggling and laughing down the road toward s t a t i s m and smart cracks.” . He mentioned four specific policy questions : “the battle for our tidelands,” which he said was won, but not over yet ; prevention of “the heel of federal authority from being planted on the producing wells o.f our oil and gas fields,” presumably a reference to the Harris bill, ,,to exempt natural gas producers from federal,. regulation; prevention of “the hand of federal. power reaching further into’ the classroorris””;of our children”; and a Supreine Court that . tries to run -local schools -. . , . “We must .fight on. if we are to hold the right to enforce our own laws and to police our. own ‘communities,” he said.. He criticized -a Dallas Speech of Joseph Rauh, national president of Americans for ‘Democratic ,Action.: Rauh “came -in ‘here to tell Texans how to run -their pOlities,” he-said. He was brotight -in “by those who oppose us,” “by our opposition.” ‘ Shivers said that ADA is “all of the leftLWingers in’ America” and ex-‘ pressed “a holy horror of the -things that can, happen to the government” if ADA “gets it,” , He said his goal “has always been to build a stronger Democratic Party’ by wresting control from the minority faction which abandoned the princiPles on which the Party had’ won the support and trust of ‘Americans “Those we have’ fought, such as Mr. Rauh and his ADA’ers, will never rest until the last ‘vestige of Texas ‘independence has been ground into the earth,” Shivers said. He said “we must: now begin to work to bring togetherloyal Texans who will stand and be counted”‘ at next year’s political conventions. “I believe there are within our party men who can and will. support the ‘principles we believe in and, at thesame time; supply the vigorous leadenship with the Democratic Party needs,” he said. A conservative cut from the same cloth. as Governor Shivers, a key member of the Governor’s executive team, and one of the many state officials who cross-filed on the Republican Party ticket . in 1952, Ramsey has nevertheless satisfied observers that he voted for Adlai Stevenson in 1952, and he has promised Speaker Sam Rayburn that he will support the party nominees again in 1956. Campaign workers in Stevenson’s 052 Texas campaign recall that Ramsey wrote . Rayburn that he would do anything -he could for Stevenson. A statewide pro-Stevenson speech was arranged for Ramsey, but he wrote again’ saying that pressures frbm his friends were too strong against a public statement and that he would help privately instead. His choice was adroit : that no one could deny. It was designed to heal the breach between Texas conservatives and the Democratic National Committee without loss of conservative control of the Texas delegation to Chicago next year. A loyalist committeentan at the. head of the Shivers faction will be used as an argument against the efforts of the Democratic Advisory Council to organize loyalist Democrats at the political conventions next year. There is no comment from the executive committee . on whether Ramsey’s lead for the national nominee will be’followed . by Shivers and the committee, all of whom bolted for Eisenhower in 1952. Does Ramsey’s choice presage a return of the Southern . Democrats to the party fold? If Stevenson is nominated again and Ramsey supports him, where does that leaVe Shivers, who has said he will not support Stevenson ‘even if he is nominated?. If Ramsey’s’ choice is a peace pipe, Shivers isn’t adMitting that he’s smoking it \(see the story on his FROM JOHNSON City came a statement. from Lyndon Johnson calculated to throw consternation into those who want a major struggle for.totitrol of the state convention next summer. “It is a fine selection,” he said. “I -Te meets_ every requirement His ap pointment should unite Texas Democrats. I think it will advance the best interests of the party and of Texas.” Rayburn said’ Ramseyhad talked to him before he was nominated and assufed him he had supported the party nominee in 1952 and would do so in 1956..”I told. him that was good enough Democrat for me,” Rayburn said. From Houston, however, came’ unequivocal opposition. Mrs. R. D. Randolph, chairman of the Democratic Advisory Council, said in a press statement that Ramsey was selected by “Shivers’s hand-picked committee” -and that the :people of Texas “are well aware of the Lieutenant GovernOr’s position in the present State AdminiStration that is fast becoming nationally noted .fOr such ‘scandals as the veterans’ . land and insurance scandals and the complete lack of political and governmental integrity,” Mrs. RandolPh said that after being nominated as a Democrat, Ramsey cross-filed on the Republican Party ticket in. 1.952 “and supported by such \(Continued on Page BEN RAMSEY The New Committeeman Shivers for `Independence Tells 800 in Fort Worth He’ll Stay in the Fight