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THE WEEK IN TEXAS Texas stations on which he advertised the company. Atty. Gen. Shepperd said Ben Franklin, if alive today, would “snort his glasses off and start another revolution” over “the destruction of state laws by federal pre-emption, the robbing of state treasuries through fed eral usurpation of fields of taxation, and the making of laws by the judiciary instead of Congress.”‘ He. said Franklin would “wonder why we have no laws to remove from office any public official’ who hides public records, stands on the Fifth Amendment and refuses to account for his official conduct.” Texas Baptists will spend half.. a _ million dollars in all on evangelical work with Texas Latin-Americans in 1956, the Baptists’ convention in Fort Worth was told. Damages of $3 million are esti mated after a pier and a floating drydock burned in the biggest blaze in the history of the Houston ship channel last week. Victims of the 1947 Texas City disaster have until Feb. 8 to file damage claims with the federal government. iv U.S. Sen. Dennis Chavez of New Mexico will help boost the Valley poll tax drive in appearances., there Jan. 22-24 under sponsorship . of the Texas G.I. Forum. City commissioners in Port .Ar thur promise .a full probe into the shooting of Negro youth in the hip and leg by citypolice who arrested him New Year’s eve and charged him with raping a Negro housewife. The police said he was trying to escape. A national N.A.A,C.P.’ official told an integrated audience in Dallas that not much economic pres-. sure against Negroes is used in Tekas against integration and that “generally speaking, Texans dOn’t fight dirty.” Two San Antonio railroad sta . tions have taken dowft segregation signs ;. two bus stations . and one railroad station there have not. Segre kation of interstate /travelers is now illegal. The president of the Tarrant County Citizens’ Council is re-, ported planning advocating a threeschool plan in Fort Worthtwo types segregated and one integrated. . Texas Southern University for e Negroes at Houston has’ voted to desegregate, as most .state universities formerly. ‘for whites have already done. . Sen. Daniel urges the death pen . alty for dope pushers,wire tapping -legalization in dope cases if there is a sealed court order permitting it, and better treatment facilities for addicts in his preliminary report on the subject in Washington. Gov. Shivers said that Texas. wants “quality, not just quantity” higher education. as the . Texas Commission for Higher Edtication held its first Meeting. Shivers said that America cannot afford a president controlled by “leftist, A.D.A., egghead theories of economics or politics” in a speech to the Valley Chamber of Commerce in McAllen. Gov. Shivers flew to Dallas’ this week for alt emergency political conference. may have to act before Daniel if he intends to run for re-election. A Texas Ranger from Dallas went to Corsicana at the request of Mayor Walter Erwin there to see about Erwin’s reports that violence is flaring in the strike of Workers at the Oil City Iron Works. One. striker says he was run over by a company bus carrying nonstrikers ; Erwin says that homes of two nonstrikers have been bombed with incendiary devices and a third nonstriker has been shot at. The strike started Jan. 2. _ W. L. Moody III of San Antonia has gone into court in an effort to break the will of his father, W. L. Moody, Jr., Galveston financier whose estate is said to run to $400 million but which was valued officially at $55 million. Moody III was cut off with $1. . Attorneys for Safeway Stores plead not guilty: to government allegations they tried to monopolize retail grocery trade in Texas and parts . of New Mexico. The case is in U.S. district court in Fort Worth. . El Paso Natural’ Gas announces plans for a new pipeline and two gasoline treatment plants around El Paso at a cost’ of $20 Millionand purchase of two more refineries in New ‘Mexico for $2 million. American General Insurance Co. of Housotn has bought controlling interest in Union National Life Insurance Co. of Lincoln, Neb., which has $171 million worth of insurance in force. An Arizona publisher told a Texas daily newspaper seminar in Austin that service to the community, is the only legitimate excuse for newspapers’ existence. The Texas Supreme Court an nounced it with review the Harris County car tax adopted for right-ofway under legislative authorization. Atty. Gen. John Ben Shepperd has maintained the Legislature didn’t have power to authorize it. A similar tax has failed twice in Dallas. ‘ French Robertson, Texas Prison Board chairman ., says that the \(The Stump usually appears Ott P. 3 Texas Needs To the Editor: We are really enjoying the Oh’server. Your editorial on the East most dynamic and human I’ve ever read. How much Texas needs the Observer when such as this can happen in our state! …. MRS. BONNIE NELSON . New York City Proteges To the Editor : different departments of state with his proteges, and the resultant corruption, is beginning to overtake him, until it is now an almost full-time job to suppress the. putrid operations that have been in effect for a long period M. M. JOHNSON Dallas Warmup To the Editor: \\ I see that the Governor has already started ‘warming up for next year’s campaign, and from now until next November every Democrat is a wildeyed pink in his book … S. W. NICHOLS Box 226, Rockdale Full Charge To the Editor: the Negroes are taking the city over, and I believe that within ten years they will have full charge of -Houston. RAYMOND. CROUCH P;O. Box 89, Center New Role To the Editor : Mr. Allan Shivers recently played a minor role in a moving picture. He is currently starring in “Scandals of 1955or, I Didn’t Have Time To Be Governor.” M. E. MOSS “4413 Cynthia, Bellaire Senator Daniel To the Editor: It seems inconsistent with his principle for Daniel to be considering running for governor while serving in Washington as Senator. If he runs -without resigning he will be usurping public office for political gain. If he resigns he will be neglecting Senate duties, leaving -Texas without a semi for with vital committee seniority … Daniel should keep faith with 1952 promises and serve out his six-year terns. H. E. PERRY RFD 1, Honey . Grove cotton acreage reduction this year may cost the prison system $1.5 million and force it to ask for more legislative funds. Hidalgo County’s auditor has de nied charges that the delinquent tax office payroll has been padded regularly over a period’ of years, defrauding the state of $25,000. A criminal libel suit against the former mayor of Corsicana, C. C. Sapp, h a s been postponed until March., Drew’ Pearson has transcribed two television programs on U.S. Trust & Guaranty, the collapsed banking-insurance firm which sponsored him in Texas. This month he is offering the two programs free to the same No Equal To the Editor : Special praise and congratulations .. for your .untiring efforts in digging out the information on the ‘Texas Banking:Tragedy.” It is increasingly evident that you are living and working in a period: …that hasno equal for dishonesty and iraud. The number. of our officials in executive, legisla= tive, and judicial brancheS, allied or consenting to this rot, is appalling. May you continue to have the courage and strength to keep up your excellent work…. RALPH L. EVANS Corsicana. New Blood To the Editor: ….Your paper has ably and amply demonstrated….that there are very few if any personages in \(the Legised to do any investigating without a millstone of private interest and. political implications and considerations lowering their heads …I would therefore suggest that new blood be injected into these so-called investigating committees. ….At the right elbow of each of the elected representatiyes there should be a private citizen., . T. P. COWAN 4521 Helen, Corpus Christi. \(That’s the trouble nowa private citizen is at each elbow. Printer’s DevTime to Stop To the Editor Your December 21st issue should go into the home of every honest man in Texas. You certainly told the story well I have an idea this will do a lot of good. When any state government, or its agencies, is run so loosely as some of our have, it is time to “Stop,’ Look, and Listen.” 0. It MOORE De Leon, Texas. A ‘Ghastly Situation’ To the Editor: Relative to a letter appearing in the Observer and written by a Mr. WOdon of Huntsville, I must say that I am, shocked that such tripe could come from the mind of a journalist Waldy-boy labels such great men as -Adlai Stevenson, Hubert Humphrey, Estes Kefauver, and Averell Harriman as “radicalg.” I dare say, if defending the Constitution … and protecting the rights and liberties granted by this -same document renders a man ‘radical,” it is very likely that they will plead “guilty” … Allan Shivers has done little more than help ,lex,as -deteriorate into la The Texas Observer Page 8 Jan. 18, 1956 “Den of Iniquity” The people of Texas must remedy the ghastly situa tion that exists in Texas government, CLARENCE S. THOMPSON. 1202 Wyoming St., San Antonio Dallas Car Tax To the Editor : The Dallas car tax question has been twice defeated but refuses to die. I have read the papers through both elections, and there was not once a clear. statement of the issues. Despite this, the people smelled a rat and voted it down. The way the bill was written the tax would be smaller on many trucki than on cars. How, ridiculous can. we get It is the heavy trucks which destroy our highways andstreets…., Destructive pounding goes on as the square of the axle load, so that a loaded truck is not ten times but a hundred times more damagino -b to the public’s roads than a car. Thus, overload laws must be vigilantly enforced and Violators punished not by petty fines but by prohibitive fines. Again, trucks regularly run up 60, 000 miles per year, where the family car will run only 10,000 to 20,000 miles. The. car license tax is a “head tax”, and ignores the mileage factor. . A gasoline tax would be more fair. A good workable ton-mile tax would be the most equitable solution The amendment proposes a yearly, tax on all vehicles registered in Dal.. las County, the tax to be onethird of -. the state license -fee, but not to exceed $3.00 per axle for trucks. ROBERT N. JONES 3002 Dutton St., Dallas 11, Texas An Alley To the Editor: . . I am convinced something of magic has been pulled on Lyndon and Uncle Sam. These two gentlemen are old horses in the political arena and know their way around, but for then -I-% RatriSey as being acceptable to them and the Democratic Party is beyond the comprehension of any liberal Democrat. In the past their word was a lamp to my’feet and a light to : My path, but it seems to me the light has been turned out and the path turned into an alley called Brown Root …. Knowing Lyndon and Uncle Sam as I do, I just can’t help but believe’ their acceptance of Ole Ben…. means they have something up their sleeves; .let’s hope so. Without your good paper the DeMocrats in Texas would be like the ‘blind and deaf man’ who lost his heating aid.., PHIL KERAS Box 333, Wharton.