ustxtxb_obs_1956_09_05_50_00001-00000_000.pdf

ii; one great rule of composition is to speak the truth. Thoreau Ohgrrurr 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. An independent Liberal Weekly Newspaper Vol. 48 TEXAS, SEPTEMBER 5, 1956 10c per copy ,Np. 20 Texas’s New Lawyer 4. 4. 4. 4 + + 4 + Wilson Won ‘tCrusade for Segregation , possible with the present attorney smooth transition,” Wilson added. general staff toward making a I \(Continued on Page WILL WILSON A Middle-Road Democrat AUSTIN Will Wilson, an emphatic Democrat who assiduously avoids alliance with what he calls “party extremes” was pleased as he studied the election returns which show him to be Texas’s next attorney general. The figures are, he believes, practical proof that a strong majority of Texans still favor “middle of the road” Democrats for public office. Bob Bray The 43 year old, friendly, square-j awed D a 11 a s attorney, whose previous political successes include terms as district attorney of Dallas and as a Texas Supreme Court justice, explained his political philosophy to the Observer this way: “I’m essentially a middle-man in politics, using middle in the sense of avoidance of extremes, and I seek to find an intellectual, rather than an emotional answer to a question. This leaves me in position to reasonably settle each case on its own merits.” As result of this philosophy, what changes may be expected in the attorney general’s office oprations in January? Probably the most obvious difference will be the approach to the controversial school integration problem. Wilson, unlike Attorney General John Ben Shepperd, does not plan to “crusade on segregation.” It is his feeling that the integration problem is “something that will gradually work itself out” and that the problem would be worsened by bitter, outspoken opposition from him as attorney general. Yarborough Not To File Contest AUSTIN Ralph W. Yarborough has announced that he does not intend to file a contest in the governor’s race and will turn his attention to actively cam-, paigning for Adlai Stevenson and Estes Kefauver. Judge Yarborough said: “I do not intend to file a contest in the governor’s race . From the bottom of my heart, I thank my friends, known and unknown, seen and unseen, for their sacrifices and their generous contributions of their time, their money, and their labors on my behalf, and on behalf of good government in Texas in the 1956 governor’s race. “I will continue to fight for good government in Texas, and, as I did in 1952, I will again take the stump for Adlai Stevenson. I predict a victory for the Democratic Party in Texas and the Nation this November …” Wilson explained: “I regard the problems arising from the Brown case predominantly as local problems for local school boards. The school desegregation problem in Texas,” he added, “calls for tolerance and lots of judgment.” Wilson said when state school questions come to his desk, that is, when school officials ask his advice on whether to admit Negroes or related questions, he will simply render his opinion of the law in the case at hand and advise them to follow it. As a Supreme Court Justice, Wilson pointed out, he recognized the U. S. Supreme Court’s ruling in the Brown case, which called for desegregation. He emphasized that each case referred to him LAKE TRAVIS A strong, eloquent plea for “local recognition of the human dignity” of Negro citizens was made to 50 key Texas State Federation of Labor members at the Workers’ Education Annual Institute on Lake Travis last week. The advice that qualified Negro workers should be welcomed into Texas u n i on s and extended proper respect in community affairs came from George Mitchell of the Southern Regional Council at Atlanta, Ga., in a series of lectures on “Problems of the South.” Mitchell said that union workers, like other Americans, not only have a moral responsibility to treat Negroes fairly, but that admission o f Negro members would greatly strengthen unions in Texas and throughout the South. “You men who have worked with Negroes know that if you do one a kindness, he will stick by would be treated “purely as a question of law.” THE NEW attorney general nominee said he will run “what I call a solid law office” when he takes over in January. Actually, he expects to begin an inventory of pending cases within the next few weeks. Said Wilson: “I plan to emphasize the opinion work \(those written for state working procedure used when Gerald Mann was in office.” \(Wil”An individual on the staff will be assigned to write each opinion, then the opinion will go before an attorney general staff board for review before being issued. “I expect to work as closely as you forever. If the union does a lot of Negroes stick with us forever,” Mitchell predicted. cepting Negroes in the unions was not the whole answer to the problem. He dealt at length with the controversial school desegregation question and related racial issues. He advocated that Texans learn to let Negroes be represented in community affairs, “that we learn to sit down together and talk over our problems. The innermost thing is local recognition of human dignity.” In discussing the school desegregation question, he touched on the fight in Virginia in 1947, when a federal court first held there had to be equal, if separate, schools for Negroes. He said the Negro school in question was just a shack that didn’t have any library or lab and did not offer half a dozen of the classes available to students in the white school. Instead o f integrating, t h e school board “bought 17 buckets of war surplus paint, put some listerine bottles on a shelf in a room under the stairs and labeled it a ‘chemistry lab,’ and hauled in. two truckloads of old books and called them a library. The book piled on top of the stack was a comic book published in German in 1890,” he declared. When the federal court still ruled the schools were not equal, Mitchell said the school board, rather than integrate the students, elected to cut out six classes in the white school and close the library and chemistry lab so the schools would be “equal.” At that point, the Negro students dropped the fight, Mitchell said. “They issued a statement saying that it was all right for the classes to be reopened in the white school, that nothing would be gained by both groups of students having bum schools.” The question of how long a time will be required for desegregation, Mitchell explained, will have to be solved on a local basis. “In some spots it will be tough. In two-thirds of Texas, it’s a cinch,” he predicted, “if you meet colored people fair and square in a slow, orderly way …” “There won’t be any trouble if you will all get around a table together and talk out your problems before anyone gets mad, and you will find the colored people, instead of holding back, will want to help.” Mitchell assailed the governors of the Southern states for what he termed “running away and trying to hide from this problem.” He `Enough’ Saunders DALLAS “I do not feel that we need any additional insurance reform measures,” said J. Byron Saunders, chairman of the Texas Insurance Commission, at the convention of the Texas Legal Reserve Officials Assn. here. The insurance industry, he said, “needs to prevent restrictive legislation from being passed” byre Legislature next year. Since unions admit only those they choose for membership, he made it clear that Negro members could be selected carefully on the basis of craftsmanship and high standards of character. Two instructors at the Texas State Federation of Labor Workers’ Education Institute confer with Hank Brown \(at Kornbluth, AFL-CIO Department of Education, Washington, and Don Ellinger, regional director of COPE. The fiveday session held at Lake Travis was attended ‘by some 50 key union workres from locals across the state. Kornbluth discussed community relations and Ellinger lectured on national election issues. Union, Other Segregation Scored at Lake School By Spokesman of Southern Regional Council to them when we “turn them a kindness, they’ll free.” HE SAID he recognized that many Negroes are “apathetic and He said that “labor can lead irresponsible” but that such traits the way on this very touchy busiwere the inevitable result of the it is in a perfect position to help their incentive. He related a case those Negroes who are ready to he had come across several years improve their economic status. ago where all machinists on a job were white men and all machinist helpers were Negroes. Regardless of how skilled the Negro helper became, he was never promoted to a machinist position. Mitchell said he talked Mitchell said it would take time to one elderly Negro worker who for Negroes to improve their ecohad taught three younger white nomic and educational position, men the tradetaught them to but he explained: “Promise peouse tools he was forbidden to ple freedom and independence know how to operate and they and they will rise to it.” He charwent on to better jobs as machinacterized the magic keys to Neists while the Negro remained a groes’ advancement as “ambition, helper at half the salary. “That’s courage, responsibility, and eduthe tragedy. It kills a man’s amcation,” all of which would come bition,” he declared. Mitchell made it plain that ac Unions Urged to Aid Negroes