ustxtxb_obs_1958_05_02_50_00001-00000_000.pdf

SMYRL WINS WASHINGTON Lt. Col. James Smyrl, the former commander of the Lackland Air Force Base recruit-training unit who was found “unsuitable” for retention in the service by a board of general officers after he charged Lackland’s commanding general with pressuring recruits into using civilian concessions on the base, has been ordered reinstated to duty by the Sec’y. of the Air Force. The Observer is informed that the decision will be made public shortly. Smyrl charged, among other things, that he was ordered to make recruits use a civilian skating rink and to substitute this for regular physical training required by Air Force training standards. The one great rule of composition is to speak the truth. Thoreau. hstrurr 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. An Independent-Liberal Weekly lVewspaper Vol. 50 TEXAS, MAY 2, 1958 10c per copy No. 5 Herring, Gonzalez Eye Daniel Post AUSTIN If state Sen. Charles Herring of Austin does not announce for governor against incumbent Price Danielthe filing deadline is Monday at midnight state Sen. Henry Gonzalez of San Antonio, perhaps the most outspoken liberal in Texas politics, will be urged to run. Dist. Judge Jim Sewell of Corsicana, who took himself out of the governor’s race several weeks ago, was made the subject of an 11th-hour draft by liberal-loyal Democratic elements late this Lyman Jones weekbut he turned the draft move back. Herring, meantime, was conferring with advisers in person and by telephone, and was expected to make up his mind, and make an announcement one way or the other late Friday or early Saturday. These were the most important of the fast-breaking political developments which followed hard on the heelS of, and were directly dependent upon, Sen. Ralph Yarborough’s Monday night announcement that he would seek election to a full six years in the U. S. Senate [an announcement flatly predicted by the Observer some months ago]. The Yarborough announcement, made over a 3lstation radio hookup, opened the spillway and political ambitions came floating down the river like logs in a spring flood. AUSTIN Last April 2, Lee G. Williams, for 20 years an employee of the Texas Employment Commission, was fired from his post as TEC’s chief counsel. Commissioners S. Perry Brown, public representative, and Maurice Acers, e m p l o y e r representative, voted to fire him after he refused to resignat Brown’s suggestion. Commissioner Robert Newman, labor repre AUSTIN Last March 25, Commissioner Robert Newman, labor representtative of the Texas Employment Commission, asked his fellow commissioners, Maurice Acers, for employers, and S. Perry Brown, for the public, to consider a 20-point statement of policy principles he had drafted in what he said was an attempt to clarify TEC administration and functions Acers turned the proposals down, Acers labeling them “raving and ranting,” for the purpose of “washing dirty linen in public”; he said also that Newman’s was a “cheap” tactic for “propaganda” purposes. After the turndown Newman submitted his proposals to Ed McDonald, director of the regional office of the bureau of employ Gov. Price Daniel, already an announced candidate for reelection, suddenly got one major opponent, and would, from the Herring-Gonzalez “if-you-don’t-I-will jockeying,” soon get another. About 24 hourS after the Yarborough announcement, W. Lee O’Danielhe of the flour sack, Beautiful Texas, and the Decalogue, and the fearsome vote-getting reputation [he garnered 346,355 votes running for governor in the 1956 first Democratic primary against Yarborough and Daniel ] said he’d hit the comeback road again. A Central Texas O’Daniel adviser, Jim Fritts of Austin, told the Observer that O’Daniel would mount a typical slambang campaign, kicking off at Waco, his traditional jumping-off place, in about a month. The Herring-Gonzalez possibility likewise had developed out of a wait upon Yarborough’s disclosure of his plans. Sources close to Herring, who may not be identified, told the Observer that Herring had been, until the Yarborough and O’Daniel announcements, about to abandon the idea of running for governor this year. About Easter, it was said, with no great interest developing in a gubernatorial race, Herring’s sources of campaign funds began one by one to drop away, telling him they believed that Gov. Daniel likely could not be defeated. But, it was said, after the two announcements—-particularly, of course, the entrance of O’Daniel, whose votes would cut deep into conservative strength sentative, voted to retain Williams. The only reason given for Williams’s discharge at the time it took place was that Brown “lacked confidence” in him. Williams charged it was because he was a liberal who “never voted for Allan Shivers.” At the same time Williams was fired, Brown and Acers, with Newman dissenting, removed the position Williams had held from coverage by the tenure provisions ment security, Dallas, a subdivision of the U. S. Labor Department. This week McDonald replied. Following are pertinent excerpts from McDonald’s letter [in which the emphasis is supplied]: “You made available to me two proposed policy statements, considered by the Commission at its meeting on March 25, 1958, in Austin, Texas. These were “Principles of Appeals Hearings” and “Procedural Policies for SecondStage Appeals.” After review and collaboration with our headquarters office the following comments are offered your your ments are offered for your consideration: “1. The appeals supervisor’s re view of appeals examiner decis which otherwise would be Gov. Daniel’sthere came a reawakening of interest in Herring. Herring’s hesitation in the face of this bettered chance is said to be because of his religion. He is a Catholic and is deeply worried lest his getting into the race might arouse religious emnities. Among those who have raised this spectre to Herring is Sen. Lyndon Johnson, the Observer understands. [Gonzalez is also a Catholic.] The Lineup Thus, the Democratic primary gubernatorial line-up seemed certain to go, after Monday, something like this: Daniel, O’Daniel, Herring or Gonzalez, Alvis Vandygriff of Austinone of the organizers of the veterans land program and former chief clerk of the land office, Don Booker of Orange, a former Republican, and Joe Irwin of Dallas, a real estate and insurance man. There is one Republican announced for governorfor his own party’s nomination; he is rancher Edwin S. Mayer of Sonora and San Angelo. He announced on a platform of states’s right and condemnations of paternal federalism. The Democratic primary program for the Senate race listed two major candidates, fa -rSorough and Dallas mulitmillionaire William S. Blakleythe man who served in the Senate by appointment of ex-Gov. Allan Shivers, between Daniel’s resignation and Yarborough’s swearing-in, four months later. of the state Merit Systema kind of civil service. Williams nevertheless appealed his discharge to the Merit System Council. He was granted a hearing by the council last Friday. The council upheld the firing. Williams now plans to appeal to a district court. In a formal statement he said: “I have now exhausted my administrative remedy of appeal to the Merit System Council, and I have no alternative than to pro One Republican has announced for the GOP senate nomination, Roy Whittenberg, a wealthy publisher and rancher of Amarillo. His platform includes a plan calling for curbing of the scope of the U. S. Supreme Court. Atty .Gen. Will Wilson, considered a sure bet for a gubernatorial try in 1960, Wednesday filed for reelection. As of Friday, he was still unopposed. Wilson’s filing gave rise to reports that he, because of the entrance of O’Daniel into the governor’s race, might himself enter that race. It is known that Wilson tried to discourage the entrance of Herring apparently so that he might keep his 1960 timetable intact; a Herring win this year might mean Wilson would have to wait another four years for a clear gubernatorial shot. A sidebar occurence of much interest to liberals developed Wednesday and Thursday, after the O’Daniel announcement. It took this form: Sewell had not yet reappeared as a possible candidate and Herring was dragging his feet. In this vacuum San Antonio liberals suggested that Gonzalez be urged to run. Gonzalez, it was argued would do considerable damage to Gov. Daniel in South Texasan area where previously he has run strongly, and, with O’Daniel likely to cut away at East Texas Daniel support, Gonzalez’ presence in the race might be considered more weighty than if he were to oppose Daniel alone. Yarborough The Yarborough announcement’s content was a closelyguarded secret. Not even his intimates were told that he had made up his mind to seek reelection. In his speech Yarborough referred nostagically to the pleasures of living at home in Texas, but added: SAN ANTONIO Texas employers of domestic or bracero farm labor who pay but 50 cents an hour are “a disgrace to Christianity,” in the opinion of Archbishop Robert E. Lucey of San Antonio. Lucey, speaking to a regional meeting of the Bishop’s Committee for the Spanish Speaking, called attention to the recent order of Sec’y. of Labor James Mitchell ordering that the domestic unemployed get first chance at farm jobs \(before braceros are “Perhaps now our own American citizens born in Texas will have a chance to get a job in agriculture. Thousands of them are unemployed and their families need food.” But, he said, “there is a hitch in this whole miserable business. We are told that the prevailing agriculture wage rate in the Valley and in the Winter Garden is 50 cents an hour. “How can growers in Texas do this to their fellow American citizens? How can they expect a human being to work eight hours for four dollars, pay his own cost of transportation and supply his family with food, clothing and shelter on such a wage? “If I forgot duty and thought only of personal comfort, of course there could be but one decision, and that would be Texas we decide … the survival or failure of our Western Freedoms? Not in the spacious governor’s mansion at Austin. The future of free men everywhere will be determined to a great extent in the Senate of the United Statesin that small rectangular Hall of the States with its 96 desks of destiny … I asked you last year for the biggest job it was yours to give. You worked and sacrificed, many of you, to put me in that place. I have no intention of quitting it now … I am filing for reelection to the United States Senate. 14… I seek to remain one of that small company of able men who work in the shadow of history, and on. the even of a limitless future for our people.” O’Daniel O’Daniel’s announcem,ent sounded like the O’Daniel of two decades ago. Among the things he said: “Reckless spending has led us to the brink of deficit spending at a time when those who work for wages and salaries are either unemployed or close to it.” “There shall never be any Little Rocks in big Texas.” “The political stooges of the moneychangers have held the reins of our Texas state government too long … Our old folks are still underfed, ill-clad and without proper medical care. Small businessmen are going bankrupt and big business is worried. “The public debt forced upon unborn generations and the destruction of our free enterprise system, by the government has generated despondency among our “Defrauding the laborer of his hire is one of the sins that cry to heaven for vengeance … any grower who pays an honest American worker 50 cents an hour is a disgrace to Christianity.” Meantime, in Washington, representatives of Texas’s largest employers of farm labor were holding a series of meetings with Sec’y. Mitchell protesting the order to use domestic unemployed in advance of importing braceros from Mexico and protesting the 50-cent wage rate. The employer representatives were told the Mexican government would not the 50-cent rate was guaranteed. Joe Montague, attorney for the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Assn., said he believed the minimum wage demand was not a Mexican government demand, but “originated with our own people.” Montague said also he believed the minimum wage demand would violate the Wagner Act whicr, he said, specifically exempts agricultural labor from its minimum wage requirements. Lucey’s condemnatory remarks were echoed by Redemptorist \(Continued on FEDS BACK NEWMAN WILLIAMS LOSES APPEAL Eight Hours = $4