ustxtxb_obs_1956_08_15_50_00002-00000_000.pdf

Bartlett Appears Exclusively in The Texas Observer Convention Glimpses Let those flatter who fear, it is not an American art. JEFFERSON `And WHO Suggested It’s Time for a Change?’ In the heat of a gubernatorial runoff it is easy to neglect the conspicuous silences. For example, Senator Lyndon Johnson says he expects strict party loyalty from people seeking party honors, yet he raises not a chirp against Price Daniel’s refusal to pledge to support the national Democratic nominees. He even permits the impression to grow that he is not in favor of the devoted Democrat in the runoff. John White, t h e Agriculture Commissioner, is always outspoken for the loyalistsin his own races. Wh. Are J4 e y . Where is he hiding out during this runoff ? Price Daniel is a singularly unoriginal man. One would expect a senator in full and ludicrous pursuit of a job of less importance than the one he already has to offer the people some better explanation than “I just love dear old Texas.” One would hope that he would advance some observations about Washing ton politics more trenchant than how Texas farmers would suffer if the U.S. helped Egypt build the Aswan Dam on the Nile. \(He has :fallen silent even on this since the Republicans’ backdown on Aswan .so angered Egypt’s Nasser that he would hope that Daniel might try to vary the poisonous campaign themes of the late Allan Shivers. Instead, apparently without any reservations, he has set out against Negro citizens and working men in the wretched and despicable Shivers tradition. In the first primary Daniel held himself in check, relatively speaking, on the Negro issue. But now he has counted the votes in the urban Negro precincts and finds he was defeated heavily there. One can almost hear him thinking: Sir Price’s Charge Fri :::: AUGUST 15, 1956 Incorporating The State Observer, combined with The East Texas Democrat Ronnie Dugge:, Editor and General Manager Bob Bray, Associate Editor Sarah Payne, Office Manager Published once a week from Austin, Texas. Delivered postage prepaid S4 per annum. Advertising rates available on request. Extra copies 10c each. Quantity orders available. Entered as second-class matter April 26, 1987, at the Post Office at Austin, Texas. under the act of March S. 1879. We will serve no group or party but will hew bard to the truth as we find it and the right as we see it. We are dedicated to the whole truth, to human values above all interests, to the rights of man as the foundation of democracy ; we will take orders from none but our own conscience, and never will we overlook or misrepresent the truth to serve the interests of the powerful or cater to the ignoble in the human spirit. John Ben Shepperd, the Attorney General, always has a lot to say about almost anything. Why doesn’t he grace the people with his thought on the runoff ? James Hart is not in public life, but a lot of people would like to know how the man who almost ran for governor feels about the convenient showdown. Politics is a strange business, politicians a funny breed. About all you ever find out about their election preferences is that they favor themselves. “Well, those votes are gone, I might as well make the most of it.” So he exclaims, “Just look at the returns from colored boxes in the first primary !” Surely, he says, the N.A.A. C. P. is working for his opponent. In fact, the N. A. A. C. P. is disillusioned with Ralph Yarborough, as it should be. The Negro voters apparently decided \(against the adfor Yarborough because his position on integration is more moderate than Daniel’s. The senator also blasts away without surcease at “the CIO.” He insults the 400,000 members of Texas AFL-CIO every time he scores “labor bosses,” who are no more than working men their fellow workers have elected to leadership. On of these days, soon, we hope, the strings on the shabby ShiversDaniel banjo are going to pop, leaving the demagogues caterwauling their off-color ditties without accompaniment. Weathervarte Isn’t it strange that the ShiversDaniel leadership in Houston bolted the Harris County convention in the face of plain evidence that the liberals actually won out ? We are inclined to agree with Mrs. Kathleen Voigt of the Democratic Advisory Council that they are getting ready to throw out the Democratic majority at the September convention if Price Daniel wins the governor’s race. Then, if Daniel’s whim turns against the Democrats as it did in 1952, the nation will once again have to watch the state’s “Democratic” party machinery turn out in politically obscene regalia for the Republican Party. 6 Staff correspondents: Ramon Games, Laredo; Clyde Johnson, Corsicana ; Mike Mistovieh, Bryan ; Jules Loh, Central Texas ; Jack Morgan, Port Arthur ; Dan Strewn, Kenedy ; and reporters in San Antonio, Dallas, El Paso, and Big Spring. Staff contributors : Franklin Jones, Marshall; Minnie Fisher Cunningham, New Waverly : Robert G. Spivak. dashington, D.C.: John Igo, San Antonio : Edwin Sue Goree, Burnet ; J. Henry Antonio ; Edwin Sue Goree, Burnet ; and others. Staff cartoonist: Don Bartlett, Austin. Cartoonists : Bob Eckhardt, Houston : Etta Hulme. Houston. MAILING ADDRESS: 604 West 24th St.. Austin. Texas. EDITORIAL AND BUSINESS OFFICE: 604 West 24th St., Austin, Texas. TELEPHONE in Austin : GReenwood 7-0746. HOUSTON OFFICE: 2501 Crawford St.. Houston. Mrs. R. D. Randolph, treasurer. CHICAGO Senator Kennedy of Massachusetts walks into the lobby of the Blackstone and draws a swarm of sticky fans. Senator Lehman of New York passes through the Hilton lobby unnoticed. A girl in tight turquoise shorts holds up a Happy Chandler banner while a band in the Blackstone lobby whangs out a brassy version of “My Old Kentucky Home.” Down in the Hilton basement, where the press is working, a white haired reporter sits three feet from a television set, leaning on his typewriter and jotting down notes from a press conference on the screen. A squat, penguiti-like little man is hardly moving his arms as he walks along and talks, leaning toward the shoulder of a taller elderly lady. A delivery man on the sidewalk says “That’s Stevenson, ain’t it ?” “Yeah, with Mrs. Roosevelt.” An old man on the Hilton elevator says “It looks like that Lyndon’s holding everything, uh ?” A girl rushes through a ballroom full of people complaining she’s out of Harriman buttons. A tall, trim chick wearing green sunglasses gets on the elevator at the Hilton. At the back a delegate enlightens his neighbor in a whisper : “That’s Nancy Kefauver.” A young lady in knit white steps out of a cab up onto the curb, reels back into the street, mutters, “Better try again.” In Room 407 at the Blackstone, three or four bright looking intellectuals, one of them older, answer telephones and shuffle incoming delegates. Governor Harriman’s presence in the adjoining room is felt through the wall. At the convention hall, outside, in the smell of raw steak, a man from the Hall Syndicate passes out badges : “I Go Pogo.” And then there is early evening, when the crowds seethe and bubble through the halls and lobbies, when a brass band strikes it up at a lower level for no apparent reason, and from a balcony a male chorus in white tuxes renders “The Eyes of Texas” softly, as in a church, for Adlai Stevenson, while hired modelsblondes, brunettes, redheads, whose only style in common is darling decolleteparade around the elevator lobby for “Harriman the Man.” It’s history, and even the Chicago Tribune admits it’s American. First to last. RONNIE DUGGER Listening Post …. A letter mailed out by the state manager of Woodmen of the World, life insurance society, endorses Daniel for governor as “Sovereign Price Daniel,” a member of the lodge. A complaint to the Attorney General concerning this letter has not evoked a response. …. The editor is advised of some reports in Austin that he plans to change jobs. They are in error. He is happy where he is. … Archer Fulingim of the Kountze News says Senator Daniel didn’t run nearly as strong in his hometown of Liberty as many followers had expected. He quotes Liberty County returns showing Daniel got 3424 votes while his opponents got a total of 3687. By comparison, Yarborough, who was born and raised in Henderson County, was given a three-to-one lead over Daniel and a two-to-one lead over O’Daniel in his home county. …. The failure of working men and women to vote in the first primary is being given credit in Houston by Price Daniel supporters for the fact their candidate ran 73,000 votes ahead of Ralph Yarborough in the 10 bigcity counties, according to a labor news letter. …. Although Gov. Shivers has been subpoenaed to testify in the land scandal trial of Brady real estate dealer B. R. Sheffield, a spokesman said the governor is on a “standby” basis but that he doesn’t expect he will really be called on the stand. he Shat h y gani. atxas Mhstrurr