ustxtxb_obs_1957_05_14_50_00002-00000_000.pdf

arxas Mhstrurr ……….. 6 Let those flatter who fear, it is not an American art. JEFFERSON `It Ain’t the Principle, It’s. the Money’ 5ree and O p en The Democrats of Texas have their statewide meetingin Austin this weekend. We hope every loyal Texas Democrat who can spare the time Nv i 11 make the trip. It can be an historic event, one which can preface the reshaping of Texas politics and Texas, itself. The purpose is to take control of the Democratic Party away from Price Daniel and Jim Lindsey at the 1958 convention ; to decide whether an organization loyal to the ideals of the national party should be taking stands in specific races ; to reach into every village and town to organize Democrats for politics of the future. In other words, it is to organize Democrats in terms of meaningful ideals and effective work. It is a free and open meeting of free and open Democrats seeking free and open objectives. Anybody who has followed Texas politics knows that for decades the Dixiecrat element has been hooking up with the Republicans who are willing to infiltrate Democratic primaries to thwart the influence of the Democratic Party in Texas. The D.O.T. answer is for the real DemOcrats to organize themselves and assert unchallenged authority in their own party. Daniel and Lindseyhope and wish that the Democrats have forgotten the bald theft of the state convention from the legally elected majority last year in Fort Worth. They have done everything they to discredit and thwart the grassroots D.O.T. The daily press has been predictably skeptical. The best answer to the defenders of the neuter political past of Texas will be a new, potent political grouping on the Texas scene. Democrats of Texas will be that, and every Democrat who believes in his party and its ideals ought to put his back into it. J4e Smith Caoe Bartlett Appears Exclusively in the Texas Observer PEARSON HITS ‘LEADER’ A group of representatives have eloquently slapped down the two stars of the East Texas extremists in the House, Jerry Sadler and Joe Chapman. These two are the leading demagogues of the session ; one might dispute which of them is the worst, but no one will argue that together they tower over the field. In their abominable behavior in seeking to intimidate the University of Texas to withdraw a Negro girl with a fine soprano voice from public performances of a student opera, they conclusively discredited themselves as responsible legislators. University of Texas officials have been making quiet progress toward the equal treatment of all students, regardless of race. Negroes partici We would commend the House, and Reps. Lee and Winfree particularly, for upholding the Holmes decision on workmen’s compensation in spite of the combined efforts of the Texas Manufacturers’ Assn. and the insurance companies to destroy it. Under this decision, injured workers’ benefits are cornputed in a manner substantially more favorable to the injured man than under the formula advocated by business. However, the workmen’s compensation issue is not settled. The Senate has not yet acted, and House conferees may be all too willing to give in on the Holmes decision. Incorporating the State Observer, com bined with The East Texas Democrat May 14, 1957 Published by Texas Observer Co., Ltd. Ronnie Dugger Editor and General Manager Bob Bray, Associate Editor Sarah Payne, Office Manager Staff cartoonists: Don Bartlett and Bob Eckhardt Published once a week from Austin, Texas. Delivered postage prepaid $4 per annum. Advertising rates available on request. Extra copies 10c each. Quantity orders available. Entered as second-class matter April 26, 1937, at the Post Office at Austin, Texas, under the act of March 3, 1879. pate in intramural sports, student government, union activities, and honorary societies ; they are permitted to dance in public with members of their own race. But when Sadler tiraded against the “octopus on the hill” for casting Barbara Smith in the opera, “Dido and Aeneas,” and Chapman called University president Dr. Logan Wilson, the college administration decided, if it had not already decided, that it would knuckle under on a matter of high principle the right of every student to reward for merit. Even in the context of an integrating university feeling its way along, this was a blunder. “They don’t know how much it’s hurt them,” said one representative. National news media are quite properly picking up the story,. and the official . humiliation of the . institution is complete. There are mitigations : over-cautious. administrators trying to preserve their racial gains and their finances in a state divided against itself over integration ; the disquieting an on y mous telephone calls. But there are no valid excuses. The girl was wronged, the principles of education were violated, and the University couldn’t have done anything worse for its public relations than what it did. We hope the administration will have the courage in the future to remember that only decent policies attract the support of the decent elements in the community, and that this is the only kind of support an institution of higher learning can honorably solicit. 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. 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. Editorial and business office: 504 West 24th St., Austin, Texas. Phone GReen wood 7-0746. Houston Office: 2501 Crawford St., Houston. \(Mrs. WASHINGTON Lyndon Chafes Dents Democratic leaders made no effort to hide their irritation with Sen. Lyndon Johnson, the so-called Democratic leader of the Senate, for leaving Washington when the former President of the United States, the Democratic candidate for president, and other top leaders of the party came to attend a money raising dinner and confer on Democratic strategy. In addition to being irked at Lyndon’s boycott, they learned that he is secretly grooming Sen. George Smathers of Florida to replace Paul Butler as Democratic chairman when Butler retires to run for the Senate from Indiana. Smathers, one of the handsomest senators, sometimes referred to as a member of the “Lyndon Johnson Charm School,” is well remembered by Adlai Stevenson for the way he sat on his hands in Florida in 1952. Smathers made not one speech for Stevenson, did not lift a finger in that election. Finally toward the end of the campaign he was asked to introduce Stevenson at a Democratic rally in Tampa, but refused unless he were permitted to make a speech during his introduction explaining why he differed with Stevenson. In brief, he wanted to make a speech against Stevenson before Stevenson spoke. This was rejected. Smathers did come to Tampa and sat on the platform. When asked to take a bow he was greeted with long, loud, and continuous boos. This is the man Lyndon Johnson wants to push as chairman of the Democratic National Committee. NoteTo atone for his past, Lyndon pushed Smathers into the post of money-raiser for Democratic senators last year. But Democratic leaders point out that Smathers’s activities helped Lyndon’s Senate friends, not the national ticket. It. was no accident that the Southerners stayed home, almost en masse, from last week’s $100-aplate Democratic dinner. Johnson organized a “passive boycott” as a deliberate snub to the Democratic National Committee …. He believes the committee is dominated by Northern liberals, but should be run b y Southern congressional leadersmeaning himself primarily …. Johnson personally led the boycott by going to Texas instead of the dinner. He passed the word to Southern leaders to follow his example …. Result : Only one Southern governor, North Carolina’s Luther Hodges, showed up for what was also supposed to be a Democratic governors’ conference …. Even Tennessee’s fireball Gov. Frank Clement, who had agreed to sit on the stand, sent his regrets at the last minute. Scott McLeod A significant unreported incident took place inside the closeddoor session of the Senate foreign relations committee during consideration of Scott McLeod as ambassador to Ireland. It illustrated how difficult it is for the Democrats to show any sign of leadership against the E is e n h o w e r administration when their alleged leader is frequently in secret cahoots with the administration. Just before McLeod’s name was to be voted on, Chairman Theodore Francis Green of Rhode Island, oldest and most revered member of the Senate, said he had had a talk with Chris Herter, acting secretary of state, who requested that a vote on McLeod be postponed for a week. Senator Fulbright of Arkansas immediately moved o n e week’s postponement. This brought protest from Republicans. Senator Alex Smith of New Jersey, the former Princeton professor, said he couldn’t understand it. Senator William Knowland of California, the Republican leader, left the room. He came back in a minute looking red in the face. “I am authorized by the administration to say that consideration of McLeod not be postponed,” he announced …. What acting secretary Herter hadn’t known, when Chairman . Green phoned him, was that Sen. Lyndon Johnson, the alleged Dem ocratic leader, had already made a deal with Republican leader Know land to confirm McLeod. Regard less of what the opposition was, re gardless of the time-honored cus tom of Democratic debate, regard less of what was brought out in the hearings, Johnson had agreed that enough Democratic votes would line up for McLeod to confirm him. DREW PEARSON