ustxtxb_obs_1956_06_06_50_00004-00000_000.pdf

W11 COSick Leave Plan Protects You On AND Off the Job! available to small groups of employees from 5 to 50 and to individuals! to large groups, up to thousands …. Western Indemnity Life Insurance Company Affiliated with Home Office : 5011 Fannin, Houston, Texas AGENCIES THROUGHOUT TEXAS .YARBOROUGH GIVES PROGRESS -PLAN Seeks Benefits for Teachers, Studen’ts, Aged, Needy, Injured Workers; Opposes ‘Forced Commingling’ AUSTIN Ralph Yarborough, speaking in deadly serious tones,., opened .his third campaign for Ovenior here by nailing clown the Planks in what he ‘termed his”platform of progress.” His address, delivered to about 1500 persons at Fair Park arena and to thousands by statewide radio hookups, was regarded by some of his political followers as a contrast to past campaign speeches in its emphasis on a carefully defined constructive program rather than criticism of the “ins.” He was applauded 26 times. Declaring that his last campaign’s charges of “corruption in government” .had been proven conclusively and that Texans knew it, Yarborough outlined his platform: Texas needs a real water conservation program to save the more _than.. 80 percent of floodwaters of Texas that flow into the Gulf of Mexico each year unused, wasted, lost forever. We need dams on the rivers, on the creeks and on the little streams. Texas needs a real soil conservation programto hold the black dust, more precious than gold dust, out of the air on the land before it blows out of our lives forever. We will improve our public schOol facilities, with higher teacher pak, the higher teacher retirernent pay provided in the constitutional amendment to be voted on this fall, and with adequate classroom space to prevent part-time schooling. Our Texas colleges are starving for fi. nancial support. We need a policy of expansion, not one of stagnation. We ‘must not slam the door on educational opportunity in Texas by making it too . costly for the widow’s son and the orphan ‘girl -to go to college. Our grants to the needy blind, the dependent children, and old age pensioners are disgrackfully low and inadequate. Texas is too big, too rich, too proud, too intelligent, and too generous to lag where it now lags, in 36th place, among the states of the union in the amount we pay out to needy aged citizens. We pay our aged citizens an average pension of only $39.10 a month, with ma_iy getting only five, six, seven, or eight dollars a month. Yarborough made a plea for higher old age pensions and received substantial applause. He askecl: “Friends, could you pay rent, water, light and gas bills, buy groceries, clothing, pay doctor bills, buy medicinesall on $39.10 a month ? Should we starve the mothers and fathers of Texas any longer? In the name of humanity, I call on Texans to help me . raise these pensions. “Did you know that 71 cents of every dollar spent in Texas on old age pensions and for needy blind and for dependent childrenis furnished by the federal government, with Texas furnishing 29 cents per dollar? Did you know that for every additional dollar put up by Texans on old age pensions in the future, the federal government will put up two? “If we add $30 more to every qld ‘age pension in Texas, in addition to the present pensiOns, the federal government would pay $20 of that $30 and the state government would pay only $10. We get three for the cost of one …. I promise you we will raise these pensions.” . C ONTINUING with his platform, Yarborough declared : Texas needs fulltime state probation and parole officers. It has none. Texas calls for the restoration of the community service division of the Youth Development Council to combat juvenile delinquency. Texas needs an enlarged adequate anti-narcotics . division in the Department of Public Safety to protect the boys and girls of Texas from the dope ped , dlers. I’ve been speaking for this antinarcotics law for four long years. Lately, others have joined us. We welcome this help, both old and new Texas needs a program of treatment for its mentally ill. The custodial care now used does not cure. It often makes illness permanent. Mental illness is an ailment, not a crime. Texas needs a public health and hospitalization program in keeping with our expanding population needs. Texas needs larger workman’s compensation payinents, and fewer accidents. Last year, 227,000. industrial accidents were reported with more than 60,000 Texas, workmen hurt bad enough, to file claims. Those accidents cost Texas $125 million. With proper safety laws, Texas could cut the number of accidentS, reduce the number of men and women injured in industry and raise the present workmen’s compensation from the , lower $25 a week figureall without extra insurance cost to employers, because a lower accident rate means lower insurance rates. We have campaigned many years for rural electrification, farm to market roads, and better highways for Texas. In four years …of arduous labor, vte have opposed any new sales taxes and a state income taxand we will ndlt approve either of them. TURNING to the contro-_ versial segregation issue, Yarborough declared: “A new condition has caused concern and unrest among our people during the past year: I refer to the antiLsegregation opinion of the Supreme’. Court of the United States. My position on the Texas situation is clear and Unambiguous : I oppose the forced commingling of white and Negro children in the’ schools. I oppose the use’ of force in the integration of public s c h o o l s.” This statement brought one of the heaviest rounds of applause of the night. “I V was born believing in state rights,” he continued, “being a grandson of two Confederate soldiers. But I am even more interested in protecting your rights in your own independent school districts, your community, and your countyto work out your problems in your own way, on a local basis. “Those rights are basic rights. The closer we keep the government to the people, the more representative of the will of the people that government will he. “On this, as on all other questions, I avoid stirring up hatreds, strife and dissension. I do not denounce any race of people nor do I try to set class against class.” AUSTIN Arthur DeWitty, state public relation5 director for the Natiohal Association , for the Advancement of Colored People, has scored Ralph Yarborough for his position against “forced. commingling” of the races . In an Observer interview, DeWitty said: “The Negroes are not going to like it at all. There’s plenty of reaction here already.” . He said that ,none of the other gubernatorial candidates have upheld the Supreme Court decision on integration, either. He went on : “None of them are worth two cents. It puts us in the position of having no choice. Little people never will unless they pool together enough money to elect a man who will speak for them. Of course, Negroes can’t support Price Daniel.” Especially bitter -about Yar borough’s use of the adjective, “forced,” which was elsewhere interpreted as a qualification intended to indicate acquiescence to voluntary integration in districts where it occurs, DeWitty said : “Why