ustxtxb_obs_1958_09_12_50_00008-00000_000.pdf

DEMONSTRATION WITH A RIOT’S VOLUME Maverick said the law of the land requires Lifshutz be seated; “but by your rules to the games, forgetting the law of the land, Lifshutz will say that he will do that, and Lifshutz is not a member of DOT. Bernard, are you a member of DOT?” Lifshutz rose and said “No.” “Will you support the Governor’s three-point program?” “Yes.” “Are there any other questions?” Maverick asked. Brenan asked Lifshutz: “Who did you vote for for governor?” “What’s that got to do with it?” Maverick demanded’. “You gonna take away the secret ballot now, Spike? Are we gonna do away with that today too?” “I’ve been told sub rosa and off the record we’re gonna get John Peace shoved down our throats whether we like it or not,” Maverick exclaimed angrily. “There’s nothing in the law of the land about that. “First there is the question of integrity. Before one is a liberal or conservativebefore one admires or is not friendly to Daniel there is that question of integrity. It has to do with common decency and courtesy. “This is a question of integrity. This is a question of the law.” Dan Moody, Jr., a conservative who had, however, voted for Dr. Armstrong, rose and said: “I’m not a liberal. I’m not even a conservative. I’m just a plain black-hearted reactionary. But we have come in here as I understand it instructed to accept nominees unless there is reason to believe they will not support the Governor’s three-point program. He says he will. It seems to me that we, our side, lost Bexar County. Weren’t our instructions to accept nominees unless they would not support the Governor’s three point program?” No one answered. Hill said he had no personal attacks to make on Lifshutz. “I do not know him. I have investigated the political position of this man and what position I think he would take on the cornmittee. Part of that three-point program involves the Governor’s programwhich will be submitted to this convention. I think he would not support that Program. certainly not enthusiastically.” The roll call went 25-9 against Lifshutz, Moody “reluctantly” included in the minority again. Maverick, infuriated, addressed Woodward: “Would you please tell me what Section 1338 says and if so if it’s the law of the ;and.” Homa Hill wanted the question repeated. “Whether 1338 of the Texas Election Codeis it the law?” Woodward ruled him out of order. “I have a right to ask a parliamentary inquiry,” Maverick said. Woodward ruled him out of order again. W. B. Wright, Cisco, moved Mrs. Sherrod be replaced by Mrs. Al Buchanan “on the basis of information from Mr. Brenan.” Maverick called out: “Mrs. Al Buchanan is particularly qualified because she voted for Eisenhower a couple of times. That really makes her qualified.” “If you’ll sit down,” Woodward told Maverick sharply, “we’ll allow you to be heard, if you will abide by the rules of this committee.” “I’ll abide by the law of the land,” Maverick said, sittin g down. Conferring w ith Turlington and Woodward, Cisco withdrew his motion on Mrs. Sherrod. “Who made the motion’?” one reporter asked another. “The Governor,” he was told. The reply was repeated along the press row. Eckhardt, who had been listening, although technically he was not a committee member and could have been barred from the room, had concluded from the vote that there could be no minority report and hastened at once to the Bexar delegation on the floor. After he explained what was happening, he and Hank Brown of Bexar went backstage to try to get permission to raise a point of order. Jake Jacobsen authorized the police at the stage door to let them in. The situation was explained, the point made the SDEC’s report had been violated because Lifshutz said he would back the “three-point program,” arid the point of order broached that a committee had no more power than that granted it under the rules. Eckhardt talked to Ikard, who said, “Well, you’ve got a point, but I’m not chairman any more.” Jim Lindsey, SDEC chairman, said he’d go talk to somebody else about it:. Dolph Briscoe, Uvalde, listened to the case. Finally Jacobsen said he would talk to permanent chairman Maurice Bullock, Fort Stockton, to see if it could be vorked out. Anger Meanwhile Maverick had returned from the committee to his delegation. Rumors condensed out of the soggy air of the late afternoon. “Ralph is coming over to lead the floor fight,” “Lyndon has been contacted,” “An FIAliberal coalition is possible,” “Sam and Lyndon got Daniel on a three-way phone conversation and accused him of breaching their trust.” In fact Walter Jenkins of Johnson’s staff was importuning Daniel to honor all the nominations; but Johnson and Rayburn did not talk to him, Daniel said the next day. Anger flooded up against everything the men on stage were trying to passresolutions, the platform, the time of day. Chants of “roll call” persisted through John Peace’s valiant effort to tell a joke about a drunken Irishman. The anger focused into a tight knot of planners standing in front of Mrs. Randolph, who was sitting in the front row of the Houston delegation, behind a brass rail, Miron Love to her right, Shirley Jay to her left. In the circle were Sewell, Eckhardt. Chris D i x i e, Fath, Woodrow Seales, B i 1 1 y Goldberg, and others. It was agreed to have a floor fight and if necessary a demonstration to get a roll call; Maury Maverick, Jr., was to be the leader. “He has a lot of personal feeling for Bernard,” Sewell said. “Get Maury!Get a runner!” Mrs. Randolph cried out to anybody. “Harris County will follow through on a demonstration that has never been seen,” said someone. Downstairs Maverick was in a conference in the aisle. “I agree,” he was saying, “we should raise the question, but I don’t know about the roll call vote.” Brown told him, “We’d win, a lot of these rural areas would vote with us.” Together they walked toward the stage door, Maverick shuffling along, head down, arms jarring at the elbows with each step, suldenly central; Brown walking upright beside him. but his head bent to him, talking. Jimmy. Knight, the Bexar chairman, sought to get permission for Maverick and Brown to go backstage. The guard would not let them pass. Knight became most angry, insisting that they represented the offended delegation. The guard said the parliamentarian said”To hell with this parliamentarian business, you go back and tell him Jimmy Knight wants to see himtell the chairman of the convention. We’re the ones who are making the motion.” Eckhardt appeared at the door. Maverick went forward to him and took him by the elbow and said, “Robert, come over here and sit down with me.” They sat in the front seats on the aisle and Fath, Brown, and Knight stood around listening to the talk. About this time onstage they were passing the Lyndon Johnson for President resolution with about equally loud choruses of ayes and nos. The Travis delegation was torn up by Moody’s efforts to get them recorded against the party registration resolution and yet another effort to force a vote on whether to protest the Johnson for President resolution. The convention was entering its last moments but noone realized it. The nominations committee was being read. Lindsey was reaffirmed as SDEC chairman, J. Ed Connally of Abilene was named the new secretary. Bullock recognized Maverick from the wings for the point of order. Speaking quickly, Maverick told of the two nominees recommended by their caucuses who had not been approved and made the point of order. “Before one is a liberal or a conservative, before one admires or is not friendly to Price Daniel,” he said again, “there is that question of integrity, where people it’s simply a question of following the rules of the committee and the rules of the law of the land.” Bullock said the point was “deserving of real consideration.” But the House of Representatives rules provide, he said, that committees are autonomous. “Therefore I have no other alternative but to overrule the point of order.” He raised his gavel, but Maverick shoved his way to the mikeBullock did not yield an inchand shouted, “I appeal to the floor!” Bullock’s arm was arrested in mid-air. Grabbing the mike Maverick repeated, “I appeal from the ruling of the chair.” Vann Kennedy of Corpus. the parliamentarian, appeared and took the gavel. Without hesitation he called out: “The issue is shall the chairman be sustained. Those in favor say aye. Those opposed no. The ayes have it and the chair is sustained.” Immediately the delegates from Bexar emptied into the aisles and streamed down through the standing delegates to the center shouting “Roll Call, Roll Call.” Bullock took the gavel back, looked down at the charging delegates, and banged his gavel. It was 6:55. He had adjourned the convention, but not a motion, second, or voice vote was heard. The delegates packed up before the brass rail above the press pit and shouted for a roll call. Unceremoniously the huge red curtain was lowered to the stage. Then it began to dawn on the delegates that the meeting was adjourned. “Roll Call” was the chant for five minutes; the delegates stomped their feet in unison with .their demand; Bob Eckhardt’s heavy-browed face was black with fury. Delegation signpoles from many counties were carried into the storm of the demonstrators. Delegates motioned to Harris County in the balcony to come down; they emptied out of their seats into the aisles and around the ramps to the convention floor. Soon about 1,000 were actively demonstrating. The organist sat down at her place in the press pit and began playing, “0 say can you see.” The air conditioning was shut off, the lights dimmed, perhaps 50 policemen clustered at the doors to backstage, but the demonstration continued with the volume of a riot. Maverick came from backstage into the edge of the crowd. Eckhardt was standing there, “Was I entitled to a roll call?” he asked. “Certainly you were,” Eckhardt said. The man on whom had been thrust so suddenly the leadership of a protest then sounding with astonishing force went over by the backstage door and leaned against the wall, standing on one leg, his head sunk on his chest. “Shall I ask ‘ern to stop?” he asked someone. “No, let ’em go!” he was told. A reporter went up to talk to him. “… Then you ought to expect them to get up on their hind legs and let the world know about it!” he said. “Under the rules we were entitled to a roll call vote.” \(“Roll call, roll call, roll call,” they were Russian Congress?” he asked another reporter. Neither knew. “Well, the Reichstag then … What was done today might have been appropriate in a Russian convention but has no place in America.” The demonstrators were circling in the aisles now, signs bouncing ‘overhead in rhythm with the chants. People had begun to laugh; especially the liberal leaders who knew what it all meant. Mrs. Kathleen Voigt, San Antonio, had induced the organist to play “Yellow Rose of Texas,” Yarborough’s theme song, but the din was so deafening nobody had heard it. Bob Hall of Austin said he’d heard talk of “another convention a DOT convention, on. the spot,” and this .was echoed around the floor, from mouth to mouth. Holleman and Mrs. RandOlph were standing half-way back, talking about another convention. “I think we ought to,” she said. “I wonder if that microphone is working up Of tered in the middle aisles were the scraps of the Dallas and Tarrant delegation signs. And Laughter After about 15 minutes things toned down, became more consciously a demonstration. A delegate sat near the exit and reflected, “Kinda messes things up.” “Love that harmony,” said another. “We want Ralph” got started. Bill Petri, Austin, said “Hey I bet there’s a majority of Democrats in the place now.” Mrs: Voigt said “Vann Kennedy was the executioner.” Rep. elect Roger Daily said “Kennedy is the architect of every evil move that’s been made at the state conventions.” “We were buried all morning and then suddenly we sprang full blown from the ashes,” Faith said. “I think it’s going to give.organization activity a shot in the arm. There is no question but that Price Daniel broke faith with the convention.” Mrs. Randolph appeared on the stage, in front of the curtain, and said, without a microphone, “Once again we have gotten the `noble’ treatment.” People yelled they couldn’t hear, so then no one could. “You’ll have to bear with me, there’s no microphone,” she said. “Now you know why we call ourselves the Democrats of Texas. I don’t think there are any Democrats of Texas except this group. We must go onwe have been betrayed again but we will be back in 1960.” “And get Lyndon!” someone shouted from the crowd. “Ralph Yarborough is at the Gunter Hotel. Let’s march down and see him,” she said. Trent Cheyney of San Antonio first read a resolution condemning Daniel and John Peace and “the fascistically controlled state Democratic convention.” It was “adopted” in a roar, “On to the Hotel” went up in chant, and 40 minutes after the curtain was rung down, the demonstrators, now about 700, set off, stretched two blocks along the street, in search of Senator Yarborough. Yarborough had been in the convention in the morning, and when the demonstration began; but he had left promptly. Escorted by red-lit police cars onstrators became a parade, somebody halting them at the head now and then to bunch them up so they’d make better pictures, They sang “The Eyes of Texas,” rattled cowbells, chanted “We Want Justice,” “We Want Ralph,” called to Tom Moore, whom they passed standing on the sidewalk, to joint them \(he smiled and waved his with Price,” and one even thought to say, “We Want Gonzalez,” and there was laughter around him. They poured into the Gunter lobby at 7:50, and their chanting “We Want Ralph” echoed and seemed to vibrate through the walls. Bob Bray, a Yarborough aide, said Yarborough wasn’t in the hotel; Tom Moore went to the mezzanine balustrade overlooking the lobby and told them: “The more I see of the professional politiciansthe more I respect the native intelligence of us traitorous as we’ve ever seen, but had we tried to trap our opposition into a fool mistake like this we couldn’t ‘a believed we could’a