ustxtxb_obs_1957_01_08_50_00003-00000_000.pdf

REVENGE AHEAD OF PARTY LISTENING POST Drew Pearson says: The man who runs Democratic Party in Senate couldn’t be elected dog-catcher by Democrats in Texas; Lyndon Johnson put personal prejudice ahead of his political party; Rayburn booed in Texas for fast time. WASHINGTON As congress convenes here, the Democratic Party finds itself in tenuous control, under the leadership of two men who are no longer leaders among the people who elect them. Most of the Democratic senators and representatives who will accept the leadership of Sen. Lyndon Johnson and Speaker Sam -Rayburn of Texas today do not know that back in Texas these two men have hit an alltime low. For the first time in his life, Sam Rayburn was booed by his own Texas followers at the state convention laSt fall. In a way it was not Sam’s fault. He was being loyal to a younger man whom he had helped to train, and who got himself into trouble. That man, Lyndon Johnson, would have real difficulty staying in the Senate were an election held in Texas today. Yet he will now ride’ herd on other senators, will try to dictate legislation for them and for all the people of the United States. It’s an ironic twist of political fate. But the man who helped lose Texas for the Democratic ticket last November now wants to run the Democratic Party in Washington. While he couldn’t be elected dog-catcher by loyalist Democrats . back in Texas, here in Washington he declines to cooperate with Stevenson, Truman and Kefauver on an advisory committee for the Democratic Party. . Lyndon’s .Own FaultNo man in the U S. Senate is shrewder than Lyndon Johnson ; no man more powerful in putting across a program ; no man better knows the political ropes, has more legislative know-how. He has accomplished some great things in the Senate. When he puts his country and ‘his party first Lyndon is unassailable. When he puts himself ahead of party and country, he cbmes to grief. In his day-, Lyndon has done both. Lyndon’s troubles in Texas are almost entirely of his own making. If he had not put a personal grudge ahead of his .party, his name would Migrant Workers To the Editor: .. 2. It is good to see that the Legislative Council, as well as other thinking Texans, are gravely concerned ,with the problem of migrant workers JIM PARISH Mt. Valley Ranch, Joshua, Texas \(Mr. Parish edits a quarterly review, “Central America and Mexico.” Aggie Tradition To the Editor: is absolutely right in his courageous stand against the brutal discrimination against the Fairer Sex which has been so wantonly practiced at A.&M. for -so many years. Every progressive citizen should rise with him in righteous wrath at such backwardness in a modern conformist society …. By all means let’s immediately set to work to open wide the doors to any and all. Away with old standards! Down with traditions ! Let us no longer tolerate the Spartan influences which might harden or temper the pliable, tender minds and spirits of our youths. Let us keep our boys exposed DREW PEARSON on The WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ROUND not be jeered at among loyalist, Texans today. Here is the story that his fellow Democrats in Congress don’t know as to what happened: When Texas Democrats voted last May for the state convention at Dallas to pick delegates to the Chicago National convention, they gave Republicrat Gov. Allan Shivers the trouncing of his life. His forces were routed. Johnson-Rayburn-loyalist forces won. At that point Johnson could have organized a new loyalist leadership of the Democratic Party. He didn’t. He appeased Governor Shivers. He and Shivers are the type who can call each other names publicly, then go out and have a drink together privately. Many an evening the Governor, despite public opposition to Johnson, has driven down to Lyndon’s ranch outside Austin and spent a quiet evening dividing up political spoils in Texas. So, immediately after the loyalists defeated the Shivercrats laAt May, Lyndon turned his back on the loyalists and rescued the Shivercrats. He kept in power the Shivers-stacked Texas state Democratic executive committee. . Lyndon’s Enemy Wins-131A Lyndon lost one battle at the Dallas state convention in ” May. Mrs. Frankie Randolph, Houston lumber heiress and a liber al whom Lyndon hates, was elected Democratic national committeewoman. Came the second state convention at Fort Worth in September and Lyndon passed word'”to the Shivercrats and the Price Danielites that Mrs. Randolph was not even to be given an honorary official badge to get on the convention floor. Mrs. Randolph was Democratic national committeewoman, duly elected. Yet she was kept waiting all day in a cowbarn, near the convention hall. With her was kept waiting the entire loyalist Democratic delegation from always to the gentling, soothing warmth of the weaker sex so that they may be constantly prepared to meet head-on the challenges of home and country club. Let not the young be prematurely hardened by discipline, loyalty, and rigorous devotion to school and studies ! After all, what kind of character-building can take place in such a smothering atmosphere ‘of pride: pride in school, pride in self, pride in hardships shared and overcome, and pride even in escapades successfully completed? …. But let not the crusaders stop here. There are still those poor misguided slaves at West Point, Annapolis, V.M.I., Yale, Princeton … BRUCE PEARSON Denver, Colo. \(Mr. Pearson, needless to add, is Bray Browned To the Editor : In a recent issue of the Observer “The Horrors of Prohibition ….” Thinking people vote ,for decency and against the so-called legal sale of beverage alcohol …. There is much more prosecution of legal liquor dealers month after month in the State of Texas than of bootleggers …. Sixty active and most loyal county of all. Its Democrats had gone down the line for Stevenson in 1952, had remained vigorously loyal in 1956. . But they were not enthusiastic over Lyndon Johnson. Other loyalist Democratic delegates from other areas also were not enthusiastic over Lyndon. So Lyndon conspired with his old enemy and sometimes-friend, Shivers, and with Sen. Price Daniel who also had turned against the Democrats in 1952, to bar these fighting loyalist Democrats from the state convention. These were the most untiring, most enthusiastic precinct workers of all.’ They had battled hard for Stevenson in 1952 when Lyndon was out of the state ducking the fight for Stevenson. Yet enough of them’ were barred from the so-called Democratic convention by those who had worked against Stevenson in 1952 so that Shivers,. J Daniel, and Johnson controlled. Pyrrhic Johnson VictoryLyndon had his way at the Fort Worth con vention. He and Rayburn were booed, but they got their way.Mrs. Ran-, dolph, the one Texas leader who had opposed Lyndon, and won, was kept in the background. That Johnson victory, however, led to later Johnson defeats. It helped lose the state of Texas to the Demo cratic ticket. For the precinct workers he had kicked out of the Fort Worth convention just didn’t have the same enthusiasm any more. They would have worked for a separate volunteers for Stevenson committee. But Lyndon wouldn’t let it be organized. His old enemy, Mrs. Frankie Randolph, would have been chairman. So Stevenson headquarters in Washington listened to Lyndon and Texas was the only state without such a committee. Lyndon didn’t want it, so Texas didn’t have it. His personal prejudice was more important than the party. ‘That’s why Senator Johnson’s name is mud in Texas today, Loyalists will never trust. him. And the Shivercrats, though willing to make temporary deals, will cut his throat at the earliest opportunity. In fact, Shivers is trying to cut his throat right now by sending a senator to Washington who `will unseat Johnson as majority leader of the Senate. per cent of the time of all police forces, judges, courts, jailers, etc., is taken up with the problem created by the use of beverage alcohol …. Thank goodness, more than 300 dry newspapers in the state with five hundred times circulation of your scandal sheet take no liquor advertising’ and neither do they write thoughtless editorials such as yours on the wet and dry issue. For your information, three more units this month \(Baytown, Deer dry. Almost 300,000 people live in this vast area. This makes seven units voted dry in 1956 and twenty units that have voted dry the last three years, while at the same time, not a single county, precinct, or municipality has gone from dry to wet in that period of time. People who vote as they pray and live as they talk are voting against’ beverage alcohol. Why not join the parade instead of parroting the wet liquor propaganda which you have clone in the above _mentioned article. ALBERT F. TUCKER 812 Thomas Bldg., Dallas \(Mr. Tucker is executive secretary of Texas Alcoholic-Narcotic EducaTimes Lauds Observer Rayburn Study Is Due D. B. Hardeman, whose recent article in Harper’S on Allan -Shivers stirred up a lot of Texas reaction, is now doing research on Sam Rayburn. He is working in Washington and Bonham mostly. …. The Alsops write that the “revolt of the liberals” in the Democratic Party is turning into a “damp squib” because of Lyndon Johnson’s influence. Johnson squelched the adcisory committee, and now he will. squelch change of the Senate rule on the filibuster. “On most issues” Johnson is Ivith the liberals, the Alsops say,; on civil rights and oil, “a Texan can only vote one way,” bj,it on public housing and power, the minimum wage, farm aid. and so on, Johnson is with the Northern Democrats. Johnson’s dilemma, say the Alsops: he is “an obvious candidate” for president in 1960, but then he is also up for renomination in Texas, “where he has numerous enemies:” “It will not be easy for Johnson to make a record which will pleat ,. his Texas constituents without f;nally alienating the liberal forces which exercise a veto power at Democratic conventions,” the Alsops conclude. But he is “agile and brilliantly astute,” and it will be “interesting to see.” …. Lyman Jones has placed an article in The New York Times Magazine on the Texas drouth. In it he noted that ‘the Observer, which he dubbed a “maverick independent,’ was the only one of Texas’s nearly 700 daily and weekly newspapers which reported recently that nearly 100,000 Texans, more than at any time since the Dust Bowl days of the 1930’s, ‘are eating Federal relief …. Eight members of the 31-member Texas Senate are newcomers, an Unusually high turnover. They Floyd Bradshaw, Weatherford; Henry Gonzalez, San Antonio ; Charles Herring, Austin ; Hubert Hudson, Brownsville ; Culp Krueger, El Campo ;’ Bruce Reagan, Corpus Christi ; Preston Smith, Lubbock ; and Bill Wood, Tyler. In the House, there are 56 new members this time, but that’s about normal. …. The Mount Vernon Optic Herald of Mount Vernon, Franklin County, Texas, carried a revealing’ little news story before the new year. The heading : “First Baby of ’57 To Be Awarded Gifts by Merchants.”‘ The story began: “The first white baby bf ’57, born in Franklin County after midnight on January 1, 1957, will receive valuable gifts from the local merchants of Mt. Vernon, who are sponsoring the `First Baby of 1957 Contest’.” . The Texas State Federation’s column, “Behind the Scenes,” says Price Daniel was convinced that his election “would justify the use of improper means,” now -“recognizes that he was wrong,” and “deserves sympathetic help from all Texans. He will get it from many who opposed him last summer.” …. The Austin Statesman editorialized on the Texas water problem. The headline : “Editorial : Texas Losing Water to Gulf of Mexico.” …. Censorship on The Daily . Texan, the student newspaper at the University of Texas, is now virtually complete. Opinions are expressed only on the tolerance of the night censor, Harrell Lee, who works with the student staff right up to two in the morning. There are also certain political taboos in the news copy. …. The Alamo Hotel in Austin . permitted Negroes privileges of the hotel and restaurant during the recent ‘ CIO convention. There were no incidents. THE TEXAS OBSERVER Page 3 Jan. 8, 1957 ,