ustxtxb_obs_1955_10_26_50_00003-00000_000.pdf

themselves “in the spirit of Christ”; the crisis “shall not be made the, occasion for new and bitter prejudices.” Methodist Conferences: Central Texas : The court decision “is but a legal assertion of the position of the Christian Church” and should be accepted ; “in personal, religious, and social activities \(Methodthat no one should be discriminated against because of race or color.” Interpretive THE TEXAS OBSERVER Page 3 October 26, 1955 SHIVERS’S TALE Churches Favor Equality In Different Terms Texas at Large The jack Porter-postmaster ruckus bids to become a full-blown scandal. A lot of people in the postmaster field are involved. Reports from Washington suggest that the story is not yet fully told. Porter, the G.O.P. committeeman in Texas, stoutly maintains the legality and morality of his conduct in the matter. …. Rep. Barefoot Sanders of Dallas, who has been prominently mentioned as a candidate for Attorney General, is now givinc ,6 more serious thought to running for Speaker of the House. He was one of the more popular members, stood in a peace-making role between liberals and conservatives on some issues. Governor Shivers held an impromptu news conference in the Capitol press room , recently, and much of the talk centered . around the selection of Ben Ramsey as national committeeman. A Dallas News reporter, Allen Duckworth, had scooped the press corps when, on the morning Ramsey was to be sprung upon the committee, he broke the story. Some Capitol. newsmen wondered if Governor Shivers had been Duckworth’s source. The Governor corrected the impression : “When he if Ramsey was going to get it, I just flat lied to him.” A lot of newsmen have been fibbed to and steered away by politicians, but rarely have the politicians admitted doing it. Shivers’s candor disturbed San Antonio Express correspondent Jon Ford, who asked : “When, indeed, in the future is the reporter to accept what he is told as the way things are? Or must he always watch for a telltale flicker of an eyelid, a nervo: start, a downcast glanceand interpolate these reactions in sizing up the answer ?” …. The liberals are in a critical period. They have not decided whether to settle on Byron Skelton as new chairman of the loyalist Democratic Advisory Council or to install someone less closely associated with Speaker Rayburn’s leadership in the past. Resentment about Ramsey is quite general. D.A.C. also has some family problems to work out Nov. 4th in Waco. Some members want an explanation for the hold-up of the distribution of the full list of members. There is also the question of the resolution D.A.C. passed at its last meeting against any position of leadership in the 1956 delegation for a 1952 party bolter ; it was not released to the press afterwards. Some doubted the wisdom of the interview Senator Johnson granted Harry Provence of the Waco newspaper, in which Johnson was quoted as saying he suggested Ramsey as committeeman to Shivers. Stuart Long said in his Austin Report at week’s end that he had information Johnson had . consented, but had not suggested ,Rarnsey ; but from Washington, Les Carpenter of the Houston Post said Johnson “engineered” Ramsey’s appointment. The Austin American -States man announcedwith some pride last week that one of its staffers, reporter Lyman Jones, .had won second place in a national highway safety contest. Jones will receive $100 and the newspaper “a handsome plaque.’ -Jones’s prize-winning story on traffic safety appeared just before the July 4 holiday. There was no byline on it. Jones who recently left Austin and who is now doing his newspapering in Cali forniahad,been working under a byline ban imposed by the publisher in Waco since last March. Jones once wrote a little too candidly about Bascom Giles and the land scandal. . A reception for Sam Rayburn and Lyndon Johnson at the State Fair two weeks ago drew only about 50 people, although it was well publicized. Only the die -hard liberals of Dallas showed up.. State Fair officials passed it off as an unimportant part of their visit to the fair. AUSTIN A survey of .the position of Texas Protestant churches on school integration has been published by the Texas Council of Churches here. Statements adopted by various denominations support the idea of human equality, but in varying terms. The Texas Council of Churches. Says that “these changes are in keeping with our Christian convictions” and should be met, not by “attempted evasion,” but by efforts by the churches to bring about “forbearing understanding.” Other comments at recent church conferences : United Church Women of Texas: tt … we are impelled to promote a Christian society in. which segregation is no longer a burden on the human spirit.” Baptist G e n e r al Convention of Texas : Baptists should work out “a Christian solution of our race problem, not allowing either demagogues .or radicals to rob us as Christians of that moral leadership which God wants us to exert in the solution of this problem, which is primarily moral and ‘spiritual.” South -ern Baptist Convention: The court decision is “in harmony with the constitutional guarantee of equal freedom”; Christians . should conduct Which Side Is Cold? To the Editor : The last ObServer is goodyour Ramsey story fine. One can hardly tell which way the wind blows these dayswe need one of those Frank Lloyd Wright dwellings to be able to get to the leeward side of the storm. MARY WEINZIERL Riverside Whither? T9 the Editor : It is high time that we sheep of the Texas loyalist Democratic flock ask: “Whither are our . shepherds \(or us ?” Is it from rocky slopes and barren fields to greener pastures? Or perchance from stormy skies to shelter in a wolves’ den ? BILL BOWEN Commerce Landrum Says Maybe To the Editor : An open letter to Senator Johnson and Speaker Rayburn : The October 9 issue of Austin Report reads’ in part as follows : “In ’52, Ramsey accepted Republican crossfiling, and then agreed to make a statement in support of Stevenson. Word of it leaked . out, and pressure from the Ike camp led him to back down on hiS statement the day it was to be released. He then assured -Rayburn he would do what he could for Adlai in San Augustine County, and made ‘ no public statement of any kind.” After remarking that Governor Shivers knows political okra from Johnson grass, Lynn Landrum continued as tollows: “Maybe, therefore, there is cause to believe that Ramsey, Shivers, Rayburn, and Johnson have something cooking which will, be genuine okra, peppered and spiced to the taste of Billy Goat Hill after all.” And 40 endeth.the Kitchen Conference. . FRANKLIN JONES Marshall Northwest Texas : “Hearty concurrence” is expressed with the support of the court ruling by the Council of Bishops of the Methodist Church. Southwest Texas: The conference petitioned the Governor, the Attorney General, the State Board of Education, the Legislature, and all local school boards to bring the school system into “full harmony with the letter and the spirit” of the Supreme Court decision. Texas conference : The court ruling should be “no surprise to any Christian.” Among Friends To the Editor : . .. I would like to tell you what happened when your paper went with me_ to an American Friends service committee Internees-in-Industry project in Louisville, Ky., this summer. There were 17 of ‘us living together, doing all of our own house work, with the boys even learning to cook ! We. men and women in the fields of labor-management relations, public schools, integration, social work, and so on. In addition, we worked eight or more hours a day in factories throughout the city . . . . Most of the group seemed ‘-to think that Texans were rich or near-rich, U.S. property grabbing, Republic of -Texas minded individuals. It was, therefore, with something of surprise and delight that they received my ideas on Governor Shivers, etc. It was then that I mentioned the Observer. This made only a slight impression at the time .but when my second copy arrived, I tacked it up on the kitchen door .. . . . the boy from Yale took it down, glanced through and then .went back to read an article. He left it on the dining table, and during the next few days Inoticed several people stopping to look through it. From then on, when the Observer -arrived, it -lay next to our Louisville daily, and more and more of the project members were stopping to read it, asking questions and wanting to know more about what Texas is really like, and bringing up some of the articles and editorials in our discussions and meetirfgs p Our director, Dick Batchelder from the Universityof Maine,, was especially impressed. And Reverend Pinckney, minister of the church where we lived and himself a Negro, used your articles On what Texas is doing for integration as the background for a talk before the First Unitarian Church. `Both he and Dick expressed their appreciation for having had the Observer during the summer and wished it the very greatest success nave sent a year’s gift subscription to Rev. Pinckney . . . BONNIE JANE JOHNS014 Halstead House; 2610 Whitis, Atistin Presbyterian Church in the United States, Synod of Texas : “… the church should lead rather than follow in the eradication of racial prejudice and discrimination.” Presbyterian Church, U.S.A., General Assembly : “… all forms of racial discrimination are denials of human worth and , are contrary to the will ‘of God. We call for the launching of ‘operation desegregation’ in our churches .. .” The Texas Synod` of the Evangelical and Reformed Church : Approval of the decision and compliance with it were urged. Congregational-Christian General Council: Local churches that are segregated should “move toward ways” to ‘desegregate ; “timely and tolerant implementation” of the school ruling is urged. . . Episcopal Diocese of Texas: squarely behind -the justice of the decree recognizing that the practical implementation … must be worked out within the framework, of forgiveness and love. Disciples of Christ \(Texas AssociaThe churches should “study their ethical and spiritual position.” African Metho dist Episcopal Church, Connectional Council.: the decision is commended and support for it urged. Schisms, Splits To the Editor : Mark Adams”s story under caption: “Idealism’s Strange Obscenity,” . and putting truth ahead of tribal loyalties many might be illustrative of the schisms, divisions, splits, factions, etc., now. in what was formerly called the Democratic Party ! Some more independent, perhaps more Texan, than RayburnStevenson, et al, insist on knowing what is under the label before they follow the name … F. G: SWANSON Box 1020, Tyler A Complaint To the Editor : The deficiencies of your paper are becoming more and more apparent. The lack of pinups and comics is inexcusable. I realize that your editorials are a reasonable substitute for comics, but by no flight of the imagination can they replace pinups. DAN STRAWN Star Route 2, Kenedy The Slum Series To the Editor: …. Your article,on “The Slums of Texas” interested me very much. It is a well written and thought-provoking piece of journalism …. RAY ENNERLE 425 Lees Ave., Collingswood, N.J. For the Luvva Mike .. . To the Editor : For the love of Mike tell me why should Johnson and Rayburn consult with Shivers,’ our Republican Governor, as to who should be Texas Democratic chairman …. A. L. LANDRY McAllen Criss-Cross? To the Editor : About this cross filing business, I have this to say: everybody knows that a fellow that would cross file will double cross …. G. L. HUCKABY 4617 Sinclair, Austin I