ustxtxb_obs_1958_09_05_50_00004-00000_000.pdf

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Germany’s Column Causes Some Rifts establishment, were beaten by three or four men.” Williams obtained an indictment of three men for a felony under the O’Daniel Act. On June 14 they were charged with assault, fined $300 each, and given 15-day jail sentences, and on June 20, the felony charges were dismissed. In another case, Germany continued, William Roy Caperton was “threatened by three men during the illegal strike activity,” and the three mere indicted under the “Right to Work” law on felony charges; but on June 20. on Williams’s recommendation, the charges were dropped and the men released. Offering his own purchased space for the answer, Germany asked Williams in his column: “Why, Mr. District Attorney, did you decide to seek dismissal of the felony charges in both cases after you, yourself, helped prepare the cases as they were submitted to the grand jury and true bills returned?” “Isn’t it, Mr. District Attorney, a bit unusual for a county prosecutor to take it upon himself to countermand the order of the grand jury and substitute another charge–or none at all?” “In short, Mr. D. A., why didn’t you carry out the full responsibility of your office as you swore you would do after being duly elected by the voters of Morris County?” The chairman of the Texas Industrial Commission, and the pres -evvvvvvv ,AnnAnivvvvvvsnnwivvvvvvvy YOUR SAVINGS EARN MORE Accounts Insured To Current $10,000 Rate BOB MULLEN Vice-President Mullen Building Alice MO 4-5446 ident of Lone Star Steel, had thus accused the district attorney of the county at the center of the recent strike trouble of failing to carry out his sworn oath of office. In his answer, four times as long as Germany’s charge, all at the expense, as he carefully noted, of “the stockholders of Lone Star Steel Company,” the district attorney stressed that he was not taking sides between the company and the union, inasmuch as “when I do not know the facts about a matter I view it with an open mind and not with an open mouth.” Recalling the strike situation, he said: “We had, as a result of the strike at Lone Star Steel, brothers against brothers, fathers against sons, churches split, and even our little school children divided.” But for the strike, the three men who had beaten up the two workers during the strike would have been fined the usual $20.50 for fighting, “but what they had done became a felony as a result of the strike going on,” Williams said; he wanted them punished by the law and in a way so that the object of punishment would be carried out. “Article 2 of the Penal Code provides,” he recalled, ” ‘The object of punishment is to suppress crime and reform the offender.’ ” He believed the $300 and the 15 days were calculated to do that. He had also, he said, been following a precedent in Upshur County in which some cases on the same offense had been settled in the same way. “These Upshur County settlements were negotiated, arranged, and carried out by the Special Prosecutor hired by Mr. E. B. Germany, and the local County Attorney,” Williams said. He had been assured by Germany’s prosecutor that such a settlement would be agreeable and had made an agreement, after which the prosecutor had changed his mind, when, said Williams, it was too late. 1-ie Said Frog . . ‘ “This wrong would have been right because he [Germany] wanted to do it, but when I do what I think is right it is wrong because he didn’t want to do it. Mr. Germany is not mad because he thinks I did wrong, he is just mad because when he said frog I didn’t jump,” Williams said, warming perceptibly to his task in prose. Furthermore, he said, one of the injured parties left for the Navy, which would have delayed, and thus weakened, the case; whereas he had wanted the conviction during the strike, so it would have “the proper effect.” “It may come as a surprise to Mr. Germany, but there are still some elected public officials that will attend to the affairs of their office according to the dictates of their own conscience and not give in and be a yes man for any individual or group, and I happen to fall in that category,” Williams continued in Germany’s space. As for the dropped indictments in the Caperton case, he said, as the evidence unfolded he knew he didn’t have a case, and “I … will not try a case or cases at the state’s expense, when I know I don’t have a case, just to please the whim of Mr. E. B. Germany.” Williams said that after he dropped the cases. he went to every member of the grand jury which had indicted the three men and told them what he had done and asked for their views; all 12 agreed he was “100 percent correct” dismissing the Caperton cases, and 11 of the 12 agreed with the settlement in the beating case, the twelfth. an employee of Lone Star Steel, expressing the wish there had been a trial. At the time Germany’s “malicious charges” had not yet appeared, and “Bearing in mind that none of the grand jurors knew Mr. Germany, or anyone else was critical of what had been done,” Williams said, “we know their answers were honest and sincere.” “I am not mad at Mr. Germany,” Williams said, “I am very disappointed in,him though that a man in his position would stoop to such level, and I want Mr. Germany to understand that I welcome at any time his suggestions or advice about any cases that may be pending in our courts the same as I do all other citizens, . but I want Mr. Germany to understand that the office of District Attorney of this district, as long as I am District Attorney, will never be used solely to fluffier your interest or the interest of any group, convention endorsement of Bernard Lifshutz and Mrs. Janice Sherrod for SDEC places. Liberals suspected Knight of setting the traps for a deal with Daniel; Knight threatened to resign at a meeting of the delegates over the matter, and the designation of the SDEC nominees was left to the senatorial district caucus at the convention. Should Daniel seek to “screen” or, as the liberals say, “purge” SDEC members not to his liking say, especially, the nominees of the Harris County caucus, who are sure to be critics of Danielthe convention could be thrown into turmoil. Daniel-FIA forces are expected to seek to chastise DOT. However, they have proved chary of seeking to displace Mrs. Randolph, who has an intense and extensive fol Member of the Piano Technicians Guild, Inc. Douglas R. Strong PIANO TECHNICIAN Tuning, Repairing, Rebuilding JAckson 3-1278 808 Harold, Houston 6, Texas Page 4 September 5, 1958 THE TEXAS OBSERVER and no man, no matter how high their position, can dictate to the public officials in this area the way they discharge their duties, because our people still believe in equal and exact justice to the high and the low alike.” In closing Williams said he was sure the stockholders of Lone Star Steel wouldn’t mind paying for his long article since so many of them, and employees and others, had told him Germany’s article did not reflect their views but was “strictly one man’s views.” Attacks McDonald The most recent episode flowing from a Germany column occurred late last month. Aug. 21, Germany led off with a paragraph from Fortune Magazine saying David J. McDonald, president of the steelworkers in the U.S., has paid “less and lesS attention to union affairs” and has “ignored the union’s executive board.” Germany added: “This has turned a majority of the board against him.” Later on in his piece, Germany said of McDonald: “He is a devout Catholic, according to the Fortune article, and ‘his divorce and second marriage outside the church have placed him and his Catholic wife, in the eyes of the church, in a state of mortal sin’.” Germany also wrote that McDonald in the recent strike was “concerned only with getting the labor trouble settled to the complete satisfaction of the union regardless of the fairness of the deal to all concerned.” He said McDonald “evidenced no concern” for the 750 dues-paying union men who were still at work during the wildcat walkout. McDonald could have averted the turmoil, Germany maintained, if union leaders “had simply said, ‘This strike is illegal, get back to work.’ ” Even though Germany did not offer them his column space for their reply, the steelworkers decided not to take this supinely, whose status in the convention will be underpinned by the huge Harris County delegation. Yarborough made his stand clear in an arm-raising speech at the REA convention in Lubbock. He told REA delegates they should not forget the loyal Democrats who have organized into the Democrats of Texas. He said DOT has been “slandered” by newspapers just as he had been. He said Mrs. Randolph’s only crime had been being a loyal Democrat and supporting the Democratic Party. And he slammed FIA as an undercover group trying to infiltrate both parties. Ralph on DOT Thus it seemed certain that the convention would become a Yarborough-Daniel fight with many preliminary skirmishes and the possibility that the main event will be compounded by Johnson and Rayburn clambering through the ropes. Pundits who were predicting a Daniel sweep of the convention shortly after the precinct and county results came in were not so sure as the event approached. Allen Duckworth of the Dallas News, for example, said “political arithmetic” gives “the conserva tive-moderate faction Gov. Price Daniel is trying to consolidate control,” yet, he adds, “there could be an emotional upset. and they dispatched an ad, “The Way It Really Is,” to all the papers in which Germany’s column. appears. It is bylined Martin Burns, director, District 37, United Steelworkers of America. It was carried two colum in 12 point bold face type. In this ad, Burns condemns what he calls Germany’s “irresponsible and reprehensible spewing,” “futility and frustration,” “bunglings,” “egotistical ravings,” “smear program,” “baseless charges” against Williams, and “vicious attack” on McDonald. “I sincerely hope that Germany did not really intend to indulge in fomentation of religious hatred in his ‘The Way I See It’ article of last week,” Burns said. “I trust that his unfortunate mouthings were rather the blundering words of an egomanic wailing over his lost face.” \(Whether this was meant to be “egomaniac” but was mis-typed, or a play on “manic” and “ego,” the Observer does not In the balance of his piece, Burns leaned heavily on the theme that Germany is trying to “save his face.” He suggests a conflict between what he calls Germany’s “hate mongering” and his invitation the week before his Aug. 21 column for all to join him in meditation in the Chapel in the Pines. Burns wrote that under McDonald the union steelworkers “have become the highest paid industrial workers of all time,” exceeding in pay scales even the auto workers. “The crude attack on McDonald by Germany was lifted in part from Fortune Magazine, the $1.50 per issue Republican-owned industrial journal published by and for big business,” he charged. As for the union leader’s response to Germany’s remark that an executive board majority has “turned against” McDonald, suffice it to say here, although admittedly with some loss of verbal tang, that Burns did not regard this as a true statement. borough could rock the convention hall. The same goes for Speaker Sam Rayburn, who supported Yarborough’ for senator.” Few contests over delegations seemed in the offing for the credentials meeting Monday before the convention. Atascosa, Robertson, and Walker counties were to have contest hearings. Compared to Fort Worth in 1956 this area of disagreement had dwindled to insignificance. The possibility of a close contest for control in the 28th senatorial district materialized after a meeting of counties in the district reportedly designed to unite liberal opposition to the conservative delegation from Lubbock. The 28th district was counted conservative shortly after the conventions. The Dallas delegation, militantly conservative, was temporarily embarassed when loyalist leader Joe Bailey Humphreys pointed out that five delegates to the state convention were to sit at the head table Sept. 5 at a luncheon for Republican Rep. Bruce Alger. One of them, Earle Cabell, said Alger deserves the voters’ support in Dallas against Democrat Barefoot Sanders. The Republicans made plans for their state convention Tuesday, too, at Wichita Falls. Alger will be the keynoter. No controversy was expected. The State Convention lowing in the state party and A personal appearance by Yar