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Freedom Group Hears Blakley w BILLS E IFS UTS times wish I could do it again …” setting off speculation about his plans. Of 19 great civilizations, said Shivers, all but three were destroyed by their own people.” Concentrating government away from home, a citizen finds thut next year he’s not as free as he was last year.” Government, he said, should be “closOt to the source of its power, the people.” Otherwise it is moving “away from a democratic form of government.” `Indeed Simple’ Sen. Blakley was introduced, by Shivers, as a man who had earned a living for a family at 14 and who would “like you to know him as a cowboy who does a full day’s work come roundup time.” Blakley said Fouts was to be “highly commended” for h i s work. The ex-senator, who has been touted in the press as a likely candidate against Sen. Ralph Yarborough, said, “I have never been, I am not now, and it is not my purpose or intent to become a candidate for public office.” Blakley said he would tell his beliefs in a “plain and unpolished way.” American freedoni is “indeed simple.” The two basic documents are the Declaration of Independence and the ConStitution. In the Declaration the great principle is “freedomfreedom to pursue happiness, to worship, to assemble, to speak and write, and freedom from encroachment upon private business and undue seizure of private property.” “I am not a learned man. What little I know I -have gained from the writings of others,” he said. But he has not found “a single word or sentence” in these two documents “the least complicated or difficult to understand.” He read the Tenth Amendment, which reserves powers not expressly granted the federal gov6rnment to the states and the people. Now, he said, there are those who would reduce states ;”to the status of federal provinces.’ “Who are these enemies of freedom?” he asked. “They are those Who believe more strongly in the welfare state than the public welfare. I am opposed to it with all my being.” Blakley also spoke for the right to work laws. ‘The right to work and the natural obligation to do it is one of the most priceless freedoms of all,” he said. Men have the right to organize, too, he said, but there is nothing ;in the Constitution that “a man must be classified, branded, or otherwise identified, before he is permitted to earn a living, if he is first, willing to work.” Blakley said also: “I believe the American form of constitutional government is the best in the world. I believe in the American system of free enterprise. I believe in front yard government close to the people. I believe in the sovereignty’ of 48 separate states. I believe every American should have the right to earn the liberties and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution.” Blakley said we need more people ready to stand “in soleless shoes with bleeding feet on a February snow” for freedom and individual dignity and fewer who, at the slightest lessening of government subsidy, “head for the nearest cocktail lounge” to “lament the falling of the Republic.” “We have witnessed the might and majesty of the Republicthe greatest military machine in the entire worlddeployed acroE 3 the thereof.” But, said the House, the plan “shall never be given the force and effect of law, but shall be considered for the guidance of the board and shall not be binding upon it in passing upon present actions or applications for permits to appropriate public waters and applications to construct all projects, dams and other works of improvement designed On Two Fronts Action Awaited Possibly fatal blows were struck at Gov. Daniel’s recommendations for creation of a law enforcement study commission and regulation of persons who practice before state agencies last week in the Senate State Affairs Committee. Both bills were sent to a subcommittee which was to meet Mondayonly eight days from the end of the called legislative session. Sen. Dorsey Hardeman, San Angelo, called the law enforcement measure “a Gestapo bill.” Sen. Jimmy Phillips said he believed the Governor already had the authority he was seeking in the bill to appoint a crime study commission. Sen. A. M. Aikin, sponsor of the crime study bill, told the committee he thought “such a bill should apply only to legislators who appear before state boards.” His bill calls for each state agency to file with the secretary of state between the first and tenth day of each month a list of persons registering for the representation of clients. Failure to register would mean a fine not to exceed $500 or a six months in jail, or both. Former Sen. Weaver Moore of Houston appeared in. opposition to the Aikin bill. He said he thought the bill would create “a terrible nuisance,” and would be complied with “for a few months, but .. would die out shortly. I can live under it, any of us can do that, but it will really be ‘a terrible nuisance.” Sri. Doyle Willis, Fort Worth, said he believed tremendous manpower would be necessary to handle the registrations. Willis said more than 400 applications are received each day by the Industrial Accident Board. Aikin told the committee he was willing to limit registration under the terms of his bill to those who represent others before state agencies for a fee. Hardeman told Sen. George Moffett, as the latter explained the House-passed crime study commission measure, that he would “cure” objections to the $25,000 appropriation the bill provides. He said he would seek to have the appropriation stricken in subcommittee. green lawns of a school yard, tramping underfoot with each stride the sovereignty of the state and the dignity and decency of free local government,” he said. “Designing” persons run ahead on the road of democracy posting billboards to “unneeded leftist and socialist detours.” The chief executive once “would have made Congress a rubber stamp and if necessary change the court,” while now the Suprethe Court has “created law” and “beguiled the executive” to enforce it. Blakley said also, “I do not subscribe to the principle that the final conclusion ‘need be a One World.” So ended the first public meeting of Freedom in Action. R. D. to control, develop, manage, conserve and use public waters.” Where an application is in substantial conflict with the adopted plan, the board is directed to hold a hearing to resolve the conflict. The House bill knocked out one of the major Daniel recommendations: the conservation storage feature. But this will not keep him from signing a final water bill, the Governor said. He may yet submit the storage feature in a separate bill this week. The Senate bill keeps the Daniel recommendations for topographical mapping \(something that has not although it trimmed the appropriation about $30,000. The House provides $334,205 for this purpose, about what Daniel had sought. The House bill followed the Daniel recommendations on salary for the planning enginer$17,500 a year. The Senate bill cut this to $15,000 and raised the salary of the Board of Water Engineer members from the present $10,000 to $15,000. In all, the House bill provides a total of $927,215 for the balance of the current biennium. The Senate total is $600,240. Thubbing’ Only delay in Senate debate on. the bill came from Sen. Henry Gonzalez, S a n Antonio, who “chubbed” 49 minutes in what a press railbird called “a little downfield blocking” against segregation bills. He sent up a handwritten amendment that “Nothing in this bill shall affect the present and existing rights of San Antonio and other large cities of Texas,” from which platform he then attacked the city Water Board of San Antonio for failing to advise with him on the import of the water ‘bill for San Antonio. He said the board is dominated by the philosophy that “a few chosen people … ride into the power rawhide on the backs of the people.” Some families in San AUSTIN As anticipated in the Observer, the state tax study commission has turned over to the privately financed Texas Research League the research and policy inquiry into the state’s tax needs for the 1959 legislature. In a letter to the league, Sen. W. S. Fly, Victoria, asked the league, without cost to the state, “to compile, for the commission’s use, factual information on the tax structure” to “serve as the basis” of the report of the commission to the legislature in 1959. Friday in Austin the league met and accepted the request. Outgoing league president Ben Belt, president of the Houston chamber of commerce and a Gulf Oil Corp. executive, told the league, “Confidence has been established tivity. The same must be carried into the tax study.” The league elected J. B. Thomas, Fort Worth, president of Texas Electric Service Co.. its new chairman; Milton F. Brown, Dallas, president of the Mercantile National Bank, vice-chairman; and James P. Nash, Austin, independent oil operator, secretarytreasurer. Fly said the state commission’s job would not be to recommend “a tax here or a tax there, but to put the findings of fact in the hands of the legislature.” “We are not going to unjustly point the finger at one industry ; or the Antonio, he said, drink water out of barrels, barrels that have wiggle worms in them.” He also attacked the City Public Service Board for holding closed meetings and for maintaining a full-time lobbyist in Austin “on the payroll of the people of San Antonio.” He complained whimsically that the water board had not consulted him. “I wanta know what they think. I’m getting hurt. I want some of those $5 steaks,” he said. The “Governor’s water bill,” he said, looks “innocuous, innocent, like a little dimpled darling,” but it might be “a question. of tweedle-cle-dee and tweedle-de-dum” when its meaning for San Antonio and other large cities reaches the board of water Engineers and the courts. Gonzalez then changed his amendment to rule out effects on the rights of “any municipality.” Just before noon Sen. Bill Wood, Tyler, gave him a glass of water a thoughtful gesture, it was agreed on the floor. Zollie Steakley, the Secretary of State, was in the ‘chamber discussing something with several senators`perhaps the water bill. The House earlier heard Cong. Wright Patman of Texarkana start the week’s deliberations with a fervent plea for water planning. “Otu Texas pride is involved,” he said. Of the states of “the Gulf Southwest,” Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas, “Texas is the only one that doesn’t have a planning commission.” California, Oregon, and Washington last year received 27.5 percent of the available federal money for state-federal water projects, he said. California is spending $20 billion eventually on water. “It takes years of planning, planning, we must have planning, it’s necessary, planning!” exclaimed Patman. “The good Book says, Where there’s no vision the people perish,” he said. “We believe in states other,” said Sen. Ottis Lock, ‘Lufkin. “What we contemplate is an objective, unbiased study.” Dr. John F. Sly, chairman of Princeton’s department of politics, was retained by the league as consultant for the study. He told the directors Friday that natural resources severance taxes constitute 30 percent of the state’s tax income and equal one-half of all severance taxes collected by states in the U. S. He said selected sales taxes in Texas amount to 46 percent of state taxes, compared to an average for all states of 34 percent. “The solution of any current tax problem is 84 percent political,” he said. “The same pressures that immobilize a legislature can, and often do, immobilize a citizen’s commission.” The commission adopted an outline of the study. The league is to make available five full-time staff workers to go into general theory, studies in Texas and other states, and Texas law. Public hearings will be held. Factual reports will be prepared by the league on Texas total taxes, comparative taxes, future tax needs, selective excise taxes, business taxes, natural resources taxes, ad valorem tax, miscellaneous taxes, and major non-tax revenue. The outline says: “Policy Reportshould set forth findings and conclusions of the commission. Mechanics of writing may be undertaken by league staff, but all decisions on content and final wording will rest with the commission.” rights. We believe in the Ten Commandments, but there are certain things the federal government will always do,” such as providing money for flood control. The need is for “additional water at a minimum cost. We need the co-operation of our great state, our great legislature, for the proper planning of our great resource, water,” he concluded. Houston Angle Efforts were made in the House by Rep. Bill Stroman, San Angelo, to amend the whole House bill by offering as a substitute the Senate version. This was supported by the entire Houston delegation \(fast-growing Houston fears for the upriver sources of Houston does, said Sen. Searcy Bracewell, find the Senate version acceptable. “It doesn’t,” he said, “give Houston any additional rights, but it does preserve our existing rights and does no violence to our position.” It is expected that Houston legislators will make a strong pitch for the Senate version in the conference committee sessions. The Senate bill, since it does not provide for adoption of a master plan, makes no reference to existing water rights. But the House bill, with the master plan feature in it, goes to great lengths to spell out legislative intent as to existing water rights: The House bill also orders that the planning engineer and the board must give full effect to any master plan of river authorities already in existence, and provides that “the rights and powers under their respective approved statutory master plans of river authorities and other public agencies shall not be increased or diminished by this act …” Board Has Power To Curb Loan Costs Atty. Gen. Will Wilson last wek exploded a long-standing insurance board policy based on the assertion that it does not have