ustxtxb_obs_1956_12_05_50_00005-00000_000.pdf

The Texas Obsenrer now has subscribers in all of the 254 counties of Texas. SPECIAL RATE: $4 for first gift subscription $3.541 for second gift subscription $3 for each additional Do you subscribe? If notfill out the blank below. If soget a friend to fill it out! P. S. Should you get more than one new subscriber, list them on separate sheet of paper; careful to give name and correct address. GIVE THE OBSERVER TO A FRIEND THE TEXAS OBSERVER Subscription Blank Please enter the following name for one year’s subscription : Name Address Mail the subscription to Texas Observer, 504 West Z4th Street, Austin, Texas. Trciiniii 7g -SwEn tsuriS -PRESSCCMFERENLE *Things haven’t changed much; he falls in with his old associates, and the law is still the same threats, but no supervision. In a few more weeks or months he goes back to Gatesville and again, and again. When he gets old enough he graduates to Huntsville. To break into these cycles of recividiszn, the Youth Development Council is recommending that the legislature appropriate a quarter of a million dollars annually for a state parole agency. Dr. James A. Turman, the YDC’s juvenile delinquency consultant and acting director of institutions, told the Observer that the council believes that supervision of the paroled youths is a big part of the answer to teenage crime. “Your rehabilitation program at the training school can be no better and no more successful than the type of supervision given youngsters once they are released,” he said. As things now stand, he said, youngsters released from state schools receive virtually n o supervision. “All those workers now attempting to supervise our parolees have full time regular jobs in addition to this responsibility,” Dr. Turman explained. Under the YDC proposal, the state would assign 35 parole officers to help supervise youngsters in all areas of the state. There would be one officer to each 65 parolees. The job would be to help the youngster solve the problems that led to commitment. TURMAN SAYS establishment of such a system in Texas is aimed at correcting the tremendous crowding at Gatesville as well as offering help to troubled teenagers. The YDC figures the money would be better spent on curbing repeat offenders than on bigger training schools. Gatesville, in the words of Houston Domestic Relations Court Judge J. W. Mills, “is so crowded, when I send them one youngster they have to turn another one loose.” Turman confirms this is the case, but he hastens to point out: “We have not turned loose one youngster considered dangerous … some Could have been better rehabilitated. Only about five to ten percent of the youngsters are dangerous, and we would not release them on society prematurely.” The Gatesville facility, he said, is set up to accomodate 550 youths b u t regularly handles from 650 to 700. “We are confident,” said Turman, “that with adequate supervision of parolees there will be substantial reduction in recidivism all over the state, and less space will be needed.” The state’s other two training schools for delinquent children, the Gainesville state school for girls and the Crockett state school for Negro girls, are full. Gainesville is set up for 200 youngsters, but 225 are living there. Crockett school has its maximum population of 100. TURMAN ALSO indicated that the YDC probably will ask the legislature for a study to determine whether a parent responsibility law would help curb juvenile delinquency. “I think the whole gamut of school attendance, crimes of violence against persons and property, and other problems should be examined,” Turman said. Judge Mills and other officials working with juvenile delinquents in Harris County are also interested in legislation that would make a parent financially responsible for the acts of delinquent children. The judge also told the Ob server he favors passage of a law which would give judges authority to give determinate sentences to youthful offenders. Turman is opposed to a “determinate sentence law.” He says it . would change the state’s entire approach to the problem. The theory of indeterminate commitment for juvenile offenders is that they may be kept at the training school until they “become rehabilitated.” That may require a few months or many months. Judge Mills favors state financial aid to juvenile institutions which have been set up in “bigcity counties.” He theorizes that since the state now assumes the costs of detaining juveniles, it should be willing to bear part of the cost of supplemental county efforts. H e believes counties should set up such facilities and would if they had financial help. Turman doesn’t oppose the idea but questions where the legislature could get the money for such a venture. “There isn’t state needs,” he pointed out. “If Harris County, the richest in the state, can’t finance its own juvenile problem, what are the poorer counties going to do?” he asked. B.B. thins have ‘admitted they were fishing in the disputed area, but on most occasions they have denied it. THE MOST SERIOUS incident occurred when a burst of gunfire from a Mexican navy boat wounded Tom. Wilson of Brownsville, captain of the “Pescador.” The Mexican officer reported the shot had been fired to warn the Pescador to stop; that hitting the captain had been “an accident.” Retorted Wilson: “The only accident I can see about it is that I ain’t dead.” He said he was “about 12. to 14 miles offshore” when the gunboat started after the “Pescador.” A rifle bullet, which was apparently nearly spent, hit Wilson in the fleshy part of the back without seriously injuring him. He expects to be able to go back to work the first of the year. “But I won’t go back down there until I can get some protection,” Wilson said. “They told me next time they catch me they’ll kill me sure. I believe ’em.” McMillan predicted: “He’s not the only one who won’t go back. There are plenty of trawlermen who have families, and they think more of them than they do of shrimp, even though shrimping is the only thing they know.” There has been talk that the incidents might touch off an outbreak of armed battles between U.S. and Mexican fishermen. McMillan, who has spent time on both sides of the border and was in Mexico when Wilson was shot, is inclined to think this is just talk. “I would hate to see it. It could be dangerous, and it won’t solve anything.” McMillan favored a “strong protest” of the Wilson incident by the U.S. State Department, but he is disgusted. “… It looks like we’re just getting some more pussyfooting from Washington. Maybe an undersecretary spoke to another undersecretary, maybe told him to watch that shooting stuff,” he said, “but that’s all.” McM/LLAN’S organization believes that the way to fight back is to embargo Mexican exports of shrimp to the U.S., which still takes all but five percent of the Mexican catch. But he says that you a guess” here he nodded his head up and down quickly three or four times”on it.” The Observer understands that Daniel is saying privately that the school program alone’ will call for $50 million in new revenue. Would he fight for higher teachers’ salaries? “Yes.” Did he know yet how much higher? LITo, not definitely.” He plans to attend the Parkhouse water committee meeting Thursday and still rates that problem as Number One \(as did most of the legislators in the AP On lobby control, he said he has some of the specific points “in mind,” but again he said he’d rather wait to spell them out. He announced he will urge the legislature to give top priority to providing adequate p e r man ent housing for the state’s archives. The records are now housed in a quonset-type building at a Highway Department installation in Austin. The documents include the Texas Declaration of Independence. THEN ROSE the issue, what should the legislature do about school segregation? so far the plan has gotten nowhere, partly because several leaders in the U.S. shrimp industry have invested heavily, in Mexican plants. The T.F.A. officer favors imposition of a strict quota on untaxed Mexican shrimp to be used as a standby provision to avoid future trouble. Since there is only a tiny domestic market for the Mexican c at c h, he theorizes, yanking the U.S. market out from under the industry would be enough to paralyze it. Such a weapon in U.S. hands would make it “highly sensible” for the Mexicans to seek to work out a long-range fishing treaty which would permit both American and Mexican fishermen to work without hindrance in the off-coast fishery, he believes. ORLAND DODSON Legislative Staffers AUSTIN It may be useful for citizens interested in state legislation to have on file the names of the House and Senate office staff, from whom may be obtained information_ about committee meetings, Members’ whereabouts, and other matters during the session. Maurine Willis is secretary to Lt. Gov. Ben Ramsey, who, of course, presides over the Senate. The acting Senate secretary is Charles A. Schnabel, the Senate sergeant-at-arms, John H. Dorman. On the House side, Mrs. Maurine Ray will be secretary to. Speaker Waggoner Carr. Mrs. Dorothy Hallman is chief clerk, Mrs. Carrie Frnka, clerk of contingent expenses, Mrs. Adele Jacobs calendar clerk, Mrs. Orea Guffin enrolling-engrossing clerk, and Miss Gussie Evans journal clerk. The Texas Legislative Service \(P.O. Box 1, 110 E. 9th St., Ausing specific legislative information to its clients. It has completed its compilation of the roster of the Fifty-fifth legislature, a pocket-sized blue book picturing all the legislators, listing all the counties in their districts, and showing where each member of the House sits in the House chamber. W. E. Long is supervisor of the service. THE TEXAS OBSERVER Page 5 Dec. 5, 1956 Daniel said he had “not studied as to what specific recommendations ought to be made.” He will study; the three race referendum propositions and the Shivers advisory committee recommendations before deciding “what recommendation to make to the legislature on the subject.” Does he think the referendum votes were a mandate from the people to the legislature? he was asked. “Well, it is a mandate ofit speaks for itself on thatit is certainly an expression of the people on what they want done about it. Those who want to act will probably consider it a very strong mandate. Those who don’t want to act will probably not consider it a mandate at all.” The legislature, he said, should “give some consideration” to the issues, “and I consider it a mandate from the people that they should do so,” he concluded. But then the new Governor decided to say something else on the subject. He picked up the thought again: “But as you know, there are many other problems the legislature has to attend to in which they could be far more effective than in this particular field.” Would he expand on that, a reporter asked. “You know the Legislature can do something about the water problem … about strengthening narcotics laws … about effectively increasing any salaries they feel should be increased, such as teachers, and state employees …” But in the segregation area, he said, “there is of course a ques Lion as to whether or not the Legislature can act effectively.” He is, he said, in favor of leaving the matter to the local school districts in backing their decisions,” he said, but he thinks the “most effective” course is to “leave it to the decision of the local school districts.” This seems to mean that Daniel will not seek to reverse integration where it has been effected by local school districts. As for the other two items, the intermarriage laws can be tightened up”an easy matter,” he saidand everything the state does about water, schools, high way safety, and so on, helps preserve the state’s rights. After Carr came in, Daniel was asked about all this again, and he said he had tried to say, “without quoting Waggoner Carr,” that the legislature could make more progress in other areas. This implied Carr shares Daniel’s view on the matter. DANIEL is thus hoping to focus legislative attention on his constructive platform planks and avoid any violent argument over segregation. He passed over several interruptions to say how much hope he has for the session. “There are so many things to be done for the good of our state, and the legislators are so conscious of it, I really look for a constructive session. I really feel like we’ll have a constructive session. I’ve never seenI served in the legislature six years, then in the attorney general’s officeit just seems to me that this is a seriousminded group of people that constitutes our legislature.” R.D. A Fight for Gulf Shrimp