ustxtxb_obs_1958_03_28_50_00002-00000_000.pdf

Let those flatter who fear, it is not an American art.JEFFERSON `Maybe Somebody’!! Turn Up’ A Bartlett Appears Exclusively in the Texas Observer DEBATE ON EDUCATION f7ZELOhn,1CIZIEDI Ltd. We have had a hectic week at the oil imports front. General Johnson has petitioned the commander in chief for an embargo enforced by guns, if necessary. Brig. General Yarborough has been busted to major in charge of stragglers for favoring more liberty for filibustering gas producers. Ordinance chief Morgan Davis and other Joint Chiefs of the Stuff advised the Railroad Commission of the disasters at home because of foreign infiltration. However, an insubordinate private first class from the Baytown oilworkers’ union suggested it might be reasonable for the commission to let Texas producers produce what they can and let the foreigners go it alone. The Railroad Commission decided instead to restrict the Texans’ fighting to eight days out of the month rather than upset the prices for which the war is being waged, and Swi tch blade We have Speaker Waggoner Carr advising Longview teachers to convince the public they are more interested in students than in themselves before asking for higher wages ; to do their best “with what you now have” “without forcing the taxpayers to dig deeper into their pockets.” In other words, says the presiding officer of the House of Representatives, teachers ought not to ask for higher pay rates for their profession or they’ll be accused of selfishness. It does not occur to Carr that if teachers do not get more pay as a class, the education of our children will continue to deteriorate, and that the true course of unselfishness for the teachers is to brave the charges of unselfishness and demand higher pay scales. Carr is flashing a switchblade on a schoolground when he tells the people to choose between better schools and more taxes. They just might choose more taxes. Jiem,J * Why will Sen. Johnson do a thing like thisvote for a retroactive tax cut of $124 millions for insurance companies and then boast to Time Magazine how he never votes with the 15 or so liberal senators for “a lost cause”? Does he really think it is all right to sell out a good cause because it won’t get a majority of the votes today? * Editor Ed Pooley of the El Paso Herald-Post wonders about Lt. Gov. Ramsey : “He sits in a high seat and watches the lobby lobby and the crooks operate. Alsohe does nothing about it. Why not, Ben?” Published by Texas Observer co., MARCH 28, 1958 Ronnie Dugger Editor and General Manager Lyman Jones, Associate Editor Sarah Payne, Office Manager Dean Johnston, Circulation-Advertising EDITORIAL and BUSINESS OFFICE: 504 West 24th St., Austin, Texas. Phone GReenwood 7-0746. HOUSTON OFFICE: 1012 Dennis, Mrs. R. D. Randolph, Dean Johnston. Entered as second-class matter, April 26, 1937, at the Post Office at Austin, Texas, under the Act of March 3, 1879. Lieutenant Daniel was dispatched to Washington to assure the Congress Texas needs more federal controls for the duration. The commander in chief was weakening when Admiral Will Clayton, speaking without clearance of the Joint Chiefs of the Stuff, and with utter disregard for the welfare of oil, said in Houston : “The high-powered drive to cut oil imports differs little from similar efforts by domestic producers of other products. Underneath all such efforts is an understandable, human impulse to choke off competition and protect prices and profits. Nevertheless, such attempts should be understood for what they are : Promotion of the short-term, special interest of certain producers, against the national interest. … Are we going to make all these [importing] areas [Venezuela, Canada, the Middle East] mad just to maintain high prices and big profits for oil producers? If so, we are headed down a road which leads to disunity in the Free World and itS eventual defeat.” The question as the week ended was whether the Joint Chiefs of the Stuff would be able to re-group their troops again now that they had heard the truth about what they were fighting for. PaoJed With the second installment, in this issue, of the Creekmore Fath series, we cannot refrain from remarking that as long as Sam Rayburn and Lyndon Johnson could keep Texas Democrats from organizing and expressing their views and electing their own party leaders, they did ; and when some of them cut out from the RayburnJohnson camp and organized anyway, they were themselves cut off ; and now that they are achieving an organization, a voice, a set of purposes of their own, Rayburn and Johnson don’t know what to do or what to make of it. They are being passed by. We do not rejoice in this, or take perverse pleasure in it. Rayburn and his young protege for many years have served their conceptions of the Democratic Party; they have many friends, and always will. We do rejoice in the hope, born of the strengthening DOT organizaton, that never again will any single person stall off effective work for a presidential candidate as Rayburn did, perhaps for reasons sufficient to him, in 1952 ; that never again will any single person wheel and deal the loyal Democrats out of their rightful seats at state conventions as Johnson did, with assistance from Price Daniel and assent from Rayburn, at Fort Worth in 1956. 10 Published once a week from Austin, Texas. Delivered postage prepaid $4 per annum. Advertising rates available on request. Extra copies 10c each. Quantity prices available on orders. We will serve no group or party but will hew 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. HOUSTON Two liberal Democratic candidates for the state legislature spoke up for higher teachers’ salaries and the right of the people to be heard on proposals for legislation affecting the schools when Hale-Aikin subcommittees for the Houston Independent School District made their reports here. They were Robert C. Eckhardt, attorney and legislative advisor, who is chairman of the Harris County Democrats, and Dean F. Johnston, former University of Houston teacher, now in advertising and public relations. Eckhardt urged that the reports include a recommendation for a higher state salary minimum for teachers. No such recommendation had been included in the subcommittee reports made by Mrs. Presley Werlein, William E. Loose, and William R. Brown. After Eckhardt spoke, Mrs. Werlein indicated she would include the teacher pay raise proposal. Johnston drew fire from Loose, an oil company attorney, as he ques tioned the refusal of Loose to allow the public to be heard when the subcommittee on curriculum held its meeting. Members of the audience in the San Jacinto High School auditorium previously had complained to Charles Alexander, chairman of the meeting, that they were rebuffed when they tried to get permission to appear and be heard by one of the subcommittees. Mrs. R. R. Kraft, a leader in the Houston Association for Better Schools, protested that this was contrary to the purpose of the HaleAikin committees to get the ideas of as many persons as possible. Loose, identifying himself as the chairman complained about, said that he ran his subcommittee as he thought right, without regard to Hale or Aikin. “Aikin,” he said, “is not paying me. I’m not working for Aikin.” “Who are you working for ?” shouted somebody from the audience, but Loose ignored the taunt. \(He has Loose said his committee considered teaching methods in the Houston schools entirely adequate. More homework could be required, he said, provided teachers were relieved of much paper work and clerical work. It had been suggested that foreign languages ‘ might be taught in the elementary grades, but that would require a lot of qualified and trained teachers, all of whom would cost a lot more money, and it would cost the state or somebody, Loose said. While Houston schools allow an abundance of electives, Loose said his committee found nothing to criticizes in the Houston curriculum. He said his committee would recommend that the state count non-adult night school students and pay per capita apportionment on them the same as for day-time students ; in response to a question by school board member Mrs. A. S. Vandervoort, he said he would propose also that if the school system is to be required to operate kindergartens, the state should pay per capita for the children enrolled in them. One of the audience asked Loose if controversial subjects like the United Nations should be discussed in the schools. Loose said that was like discussing sin. The evils of sin should be discussed, he said, and likewise the evils of UNESCO and the UN should be discussed “and if there was any good in it, that should be discussed also.” Loose was asked by Johnston if there would be another meeting of his committei before recommendations were passed on to the county-wide committee meetings set for April 15, 17, and 22, and if the public would be allowed to attend. He replied that if he called another meeting of the committee it would not be open to the public. He said there simply was not time; any recommendations should be submitted in writing, he said. Johnston then read to the committee and the audience from a study guide prepared by the state committee: ” ‘The extensive participation of all interested persons is regarded as the foremost objective in this study.’ ” “You will note he did not do this, he held a private meeting on his own responsibility and his attitude is that he doesn’t care what Aikin or Hale had to say about the purpose of this committee,” Johnston said. “I don’t care what you think about it or what Aikin thinks about it,” replied Loose. Brown, speaking for the subcommittee on finance and construction, said 12-month use of the schools had been considered. A West University Place Parent-Teachers Association member asked “what kind of undesirable federal control comes with federal aid to ,construction?” But there was no reply. AL HIEKEN Zrxas Ohm=