ustxtxb_obs_1957_06_07_50_00005-00000_000.pdf

A Free Newspaper Since 1954 The Texas Observer has been waging a weekly , war on corruption in Texas with scoops and candor. Since 1954 this newspaper has stood fast for the ideals of liberal democracy which go begging for a friendly nod from the metropolitan dailies. Since 1954 this newspaper has been owned by one group of independent liberals and written and edited by professional journalists whose only instruction is to follow their own consciences. An Honored Newspaper Since 1954 the Observer has been favorably noted in national magazinesNew Republic, Nation, Harper’s, Coronet, Lookand in newspapers over the country and abroad. Since 1954 the Observer has been needled and ignored by many of the large Texas dailies and quoted in many of the Texas weeklies. Since 1954 the Observer has been cursed by more Shivercrats than any other newspaper in the state. A Much-Read Newspaper Since 1954 the Observer has spread to every county in Texas, three fourths of the states of the union, and several foreign countries. Today it is read by informed people of various political persuasions in leadership roles all over Texas. Many of its editorial programs are adopted, and others will be in the course of time. The Texas Observer Four dollars a year. Do you subscribe? Do your friends ? 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 24th Street, Austin, Texas. P. S. Should you get more than one new subscriber, list them on separate sheet of paper; careful to give name and correct address. Week in Texas Magee Bend Dam Battle Weed, president of the Lower Neches Valley Authority, an agency that sells water to industrial and agricultural users in the Beaumont-Pt. Arthur area, takes He says they are misinforming the people of their area on what benefits the darn will offer and on what problems it will create. Weed charged that the inundation of the additional 50,000 acres of timberland needed for the larger dam “will have little effect on the economy of the area.” He quotes a Texas Forestry Association report which stated that there are more than ten million acres of land in East Texas suitable for the growth of pine timber. “Therefore, the removal of 60,000 acres, six-tenths of one per cent, can have very little ad Argument for It and opponents of the Droject Timber interests managed to forestall major dam development until 1951, when Congress authorized the Magee Dam project but failed . to appropriate any money for it. Kurth and other opponents intensified their fight to block appropriations and build opposition. As Beaumier sees it, everything went well “until the REA got interested in the project. It has one of the biggest lobbies in Washington and is strong with the country people,” he said. “The REA,” are all REA men, you know. I’d say the REA got behind it and should get credit for getting it through,” said Beaumier. Kurth and other opponents of the project contend that construction of the larger dam at McGee Bend with the power phase included would inundate an excess amount of valuable timber land, thus depriving the area of a continuing basic resource; that the power phase will not be financially feasible and will kill the chance for upstream conservation and flood control development of the Angelina; and, that Magee Bend dam is planned principally for the benefit of water users of the Beaumont-Port Arthur area and will afford few benefits for residents of the vicinity. Declared Beaumier: “We realize libthat a dam and reservoir will be built on the Angelina and we are not opposed to it. We do feel that it should be designed to better fit the needs of the area it will serve.” However, after District Judge William H. Atwell recently men” like Elmo dismissed the suit of Kurth and Burke, San Antonio; Dick Hughes, 57 other property owners aimed at blocking construction of the power phase, Beaumier confirmed that it would “take a miracle” to win the battle. THE MORSE AMENDMENT issue with Kurth, Beaumier, was debated the next day. Morse other would discriminate against the said he had “heard” that a majorverse effect on the timber indusgovernment’s other national debt ity of the Republicans “join up try.” ” creditors to buy all the housing with a minority of senators on Weed continued: Compare this notes at 100 cents on the dollar this side of the aisle and … a to the benefits to be received from when the public debt notes are coalition is formed, particularly industry, agriculture, and recreabeing discounted. “There could in opposition to some of the more tion, and one immediately sees be dreamed up no more inflation! humane, social issues.” the importance of the project. It ary plan,” he said. I Voting for the amendment were 1 was recently reported in the pa Williams called it “the most in-; Carroll. Case, Chavez, Church,IPers that three million visitors I flationary and most extravagant ; Clark, Douglas, Gore, Humphrey, went to Lake Whitney last year proposal yet advanced” and “pre! Ives, Jackson, Javits, Kefauver, 1 and six million went to Lake Tex posterous.” Sen. Prescott Bush, ; Kennedy, Morse, Murray, Neu homa. Magee Bend Dam will be the biggest body of water in R., Conn., said it is “one of the berger, O’Mahoney, Pastore, Sy Texas \(approximately 39 miles most amazing, if not preposterous, mington, and Yarborough. propositions” he had seen as a long and nine miles across at the Yarborough and Johnson voted ; senator. I together to I Senators voting for the amendment to increase the government draw three million people to Lake rnent were Carroll, Church, Clark, interest rate on college housing Whitney up there in that rocky Gore, Humphrey, Jackson, Johnloans. They voted with a losing country, I’ll be surprised if they ston, S.C., Kefauver, Long. Monminority in an effort to retain a; don’t attract many more to Magee roney, Morse, Murray. Neuberger, prevision that the federal governI Bend in the pines and hills.” Talmadge; and inent put up three-fourths of ur Weed said that the project will , ban renewal costs instead of two further benefit the East Texas agreed to a thirds as now. ” economy because of the expenditure of $47 million for construeEon in a five-year period. Even OMrs. Stelle Cordor, 50, a widow, f o r m e r Jefferson County tax clerk, was indicted by a county grand jury on a charge of misapplication of public money and theft by bailee in connection with a $4,709 shortage in the auto license account. The Southwest Texas Con ference of the Methodist Church condemned the legislature and Governor Price Daniel for passing and signing “racist legislation” and commended “those state senators and representatives who resisted” the segregation bills. OAlejandro Martinez, 22. for mer Duval County school employee, was given a five-year suspended sentence after he entered a plea of guilty to a charge of misapplication of $675 of public funds. OState Highway Engineer D. C. Greer predicted that the new highway right-of-way laws which become effective Aug. 22 Sen. Russell Long, D., La., backing Gore, said: ‘I think we should … show the American people who is for high interest rates and who is against them …. So we come to the issue … who is for high interest rates and who is against high interest rates which have cost the nation more than $20 billion in the past five years.” Gore said under current discount policies a veteran borrows $10,000 but gets the equivalent of $9,000 and has to pay back $10,000 and the interest on the larger sum over a 25-year period. He said instuance companies, “enjoying the largest profits in their history,” savings banks, and commercial banks are the “beneficiaries” of the discounting, in that order. He said the record vote would show “those who are for the home owners or those who are for the discount clippers on loans guaranteed by the United States Government.” Capehart pointed out that federal law prohibits the builder from passing the discount on to I the seller. Long said the builder either has to sell the home without a profit or “find some way tol fake this 10 percent beating on his mortgage paper.” Sen. Hubert Humphrey, D., Minn., said: “This is the first time … we have had an opportunity to vote on the fiscal and monetary policy of this administration …. That issue will separate the men from the boys.” Sen. Holland, D., Fla., said it Pastore. Scott, Yarborough. The Senate then THE TEXAS .OBSERVER will “speed up considerably” the state’s highway construction program. OMr. Gus II, the world’s most expensive drilling rig built for offshore exploration at a cost of $6.5 million, was commissioned at the Bethlehem Shipyard in Beaumont. OWilliam J. Van London, who designed the Gulf Freeway from Houston to Galveston as the state’s biggest, safest single road project, was killed in Utah when his jeep plunged over a 150-foot embankment. OFederal tax agents in Hous7 ton are pressing for indictment of a businessman there on tax evasion charges involving between $3 and $4 millionthe bigcrest such case ever handled in this area. cutting the $250 million-ayear urban renewal program authorization from four to two years. Yarborough and Johnson both voted aye, while eleven erals held out with nays. JOHNSON, co-sponsoring the downpayments amendment with Sen. John Sparkman, D., Ala., said he had looked into the matter thoroughly, counseling with “experienced Pampa; Wilson Brown, Dallas; and George Puryear, president of the National Association of Home Builders. more to help people of moderate means buy their own homes than almost any other action we could take,” Johnson said. The amendment was agreed to without controversy or a record vote. deplored the Eisenhower Administration’s r e c o m mendation of of only 35,000 public housing units a year. He noted that out of 70,000 authorizations for a preceding period only 8,185 had been authorized for preliminary planning. He said he could take senators four or five blocks from . the Capitol and “show them living quarters occupied by fellow human beings … in which I would not keep my cattle.” The cost of 200,000 units, he said, would be about $50 million a year. Capehart asked who controlled , the House and Senate. Humphrey more important, he believes, will be the ultimate result of industry having the water for use in the Beaumont area. “There is a desperate need for fresh water for industry and agriculture,” he said. “Only last October we were faced with prorationing of 44 percent of normal take of water to industry, and we came within two days of the ration when the rain came. Completion of this project will provide municipal, agricultural and industrial water needs for the foreseeable futurelet this area realize its full potential.” Weed said supplying water to the Beaumont-Port Arthur industrial center was vitally important to all East Texas because “the result will be felt hundreds of of miles away. We get our timber, fresh produce, milk, hundreds of products, and most important, workers, from this East Texas area. The additional job opportunities and market expansions will be important to this entire section of the state,” he explained. Regarding attempts to block the power phase of the project, Weed said there was no truth to the statement by Kurth that it would be a losing proposition. He produced a letter from Col. Harry P. Fisher of the U. S. Corps of Army Engineers which reported: “On the basis of percent cost allocations, the amount of $804, 000 annually offered by the Texas Electrical Cooperatives is sufficient to pay the actual cost, including amortization, interest, and maintenance, and operation of the hydro-electric power feature of the project.” Weed said that records of flow of the river over a period of many years showed that the river could be expected to furnish a Minimum of 650,000 acre feet of water per year of which the LNVA expects to use around 400,-000 acre feet annually for agriculture and 250,000 acre feet for municipal and industrial purposes, taking the water at a point ‘below the power generation station. Despite the law suits on appeal Weed says Magee Bend is moving ahead on schedule. Congress has appropriated $5.5 million to the project and shows every sign of intending to add enough money to complete the project each fiscal year. Last year as money was appropriated for the project, President Eisenhower said in his message that Magee Bend would supply water and power to East Texas Gulf Coast area by 1961. But Beaumier says that opponents of the program are not dismayed by any work done this far. “It still is only preliminary work that would be needed without the power phase,” he said. State Liquidator J. D,I Wheeler estimated that the claimants against U. S. Trust & Guaranty Co. may get about half their money back. Ralph, Lyndon Split compromise by Sen. John the increase would be in governBricker, R., Ohio, cutting $1.3 ment credit that would be repaid, billion from the authorization not in actual expenditures. and Page 5 June 7, 1957