ustxtxb_obs_1958_10_10_50_00002-00000_000.pdf

Federal Aid Praised AUSTIN The volatile q u e s t ion of whether or not to accept federal aid for education continued to bubble and boil in official and unofficial cauldrons in the state this week. A subcommittee of the East Texas chamber of commerce announced against, the AFLCIO announced in favor : education officials by the score rose to be heard, and daily newspapers scrubbed the issue in a bath of statistics. Meanwhile, in a quiet session in Austin, the State Board of Education granted state commissioner J. W. Edgar permission to prepare state plans in accordance with the new National Defense Education Act. The Board also voted, with member W. C. Graves of Dallas dissenting, to set up its own subcommittee to study the new federal education act which provides increased federal assistance in a number of educational fields. Earlier Edgar said school administrators across the state are “unanimous” in pleading to “help us keep federal aid” for the vocational and lunch programs. M. A. Browning, Texas assistant comm. for vocational education, said “school officials have found no federal control over vocational education.” He said almost 300,000 Texas students took vocational training last year, half of them adults, and added that Texas’s vocational program is the most extensive of any state except California. The state has been receiving federal vocational aid since the passage of the Smith-Hughes Act in 1917. John Holcomb, official of the State Vocational Agriculture Teachers Assn., said divorcing Texas from the national program would “cripple” Future Farmers of America work. OAn East Texas businessman told the United National last week the United States is making tremendous progress in. combatting racial discrimination and eventually will wipe it out. Watson Wise of Tyler said “as long as there is one single human being who is discriminated against, there is injustice which cannot be condoned.” OThe White Citizens for Amer ica met in Dallas Hotel this week to discuss the topics “The Federal Government, Tool of Communism” and “Faubus for President.” Sterling W. Houston, only Negro boy in his room, was elected class president at Edgar Allan Poe junior high in San Antonio. District Judge Charles Betts handed down a $953,000 judgment against a New England management corporation and 13 Texas subsidiaries as a result of a suit attacking a credit insurance agreement between the defendants and the defunct Home Life and Accident Insurance Company of Dallas. Herman Jones of Austin, attorney for the receiver, said similar suits totaling $14 million are pending against 245 other companies, all as part of the Home Life case. OSan Antonio’s plans for ur ban renewal have been cut back to meet reduced federal allocations of funds for slum clearance. City urban renewal chairman Roy Baines said the action resulted from failure of Congress to appropriate sufficient funds for urban renewal. In Dallas, the education subcommittee of the East Texas chamber of commerce moved to place a resolution opposing federal aid before its board of directors in a scheduled Oct. 14 meeting. Senator A. M. Aikin, chairman of the Hale-Aikin Committee which recommended the state reject federal funds for vocational education, lunch and milk programs, told the subcommittee, “The reason we don’t want help is we don’t want them \(the fedschools.” The group, meeting in the Texas Bank and Trust Co., heard Hale-Aikin Committee member Henry Stilwell, president of Texarkana Junior College, declare “if the federal government takes over educationwhich is what federal aid will bringit will take over the lives of the people.” The Beaumont Enterprise expressed editorial doubt Texans are as fully opposed to federal aid as they claim. “Don’t kid yourself,” the paper said, “only two states received more of it than Texas during the 1956-57 year … California and New York. Texas’s total was $98,423,031 and from three main sources: Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Department of Agriculture and Veterans Administration.” A Houston Post county-bycounty survey of school study committees showed that 188 counties expressed the view the state should not assume the total cost of programs partially financed by the federal government. Twelve counties said the state should assume the total cost. The Post said the Hale-Aikin committee “flew in the face of its own county study committee when it recommended that federal funds for school lunch, milk and vocational OFinanced by federal funds, a survey is being made of a blighted West Dallas area to determine what steps the city’s urban renewal committee should recommend to voters. Coordinator Alex Bul said that elsewhere in Dallas, 60 homes are slated for demolition unless brought up to minimum standards. Housing Administrator Albert M. Cole extended congratulations to the city for slum clearance work already completed. OFour Texas newspaper asso ciations meeting in Dallas endorsed proposed legislation to make invalid any action taken by a public agency at an “unofficial meeting.” The president of the State Bar of Texas, Leo Brewster of Fort Worth said “This nation cannot endure too long if we do The Week in Texas not insist that people respect the laws and likewise insist that the federal government respect the portions of the Constitution resawing certain rights to the people.” Citing a recent poll showing teen-agers are ready to give up most of their constitutional freedom, Brewster said “we have got to keep before our children what their fundamental rights are.” OA Dallas district judge issued a temporary restraining order against Atty. Gen. Will Wilson’s investigation of a group of Dallas small loan firms. ORailroad Commissioner Ernest Thompson accepted an award in Houston from the Soci education programs be rejected by the state.” Jerry Holleman, State AFL-CIO president, urged in a letter to Edgar that Texas participate fully in the new national defense education program offering stepped up federal aid for science, math, and foreign languages. “When we think of the demands in the fields of science and mathematics that the space age will make, it behooves us to lay aside our partisan positions and use every resource possible,” Holleman said. Sen. Lyndon Johnson told the county judges and commissioners meeting in Dallas, “I don’t hesitate to say that if it is proper in principle to extend aid to governments abroad at a low interest, it is proper to extend loans to our local governments at the same area. I am tired of the hypocrisy that says it is not.” This was greeted by an ovation. He compared opposition to federal aid with “little terriers who are always barking.” Agriculture Cmsr. John White told the same meeting that refusing federal funds for lunch and vocational education would be moving in reverse; would put crushing financial burdens on the schools; “would mean virtual abandonment of the … programs in many of our school districts.” Corpus Christi Caller said editorially that the Hale-Aikin committee was “ill-advised” in opposing the federal aid, that the recommendations would cost Corpus Christi taxpayers $250,000, that there would be doubt whether the state or local districts would maintain the programs at present standards, “and even if they should, Texans would then be paying double, for their own program and also through federal taxation for the federal aid still going to all other states.” ety of Petroleum Engineers of AIME and told the group the 27.5 per cent depletion allowance “should not be tampered with at all.” He warned that “only nine senators voted to cut the allowance in 1951 but this year 31 senators did so.” 0 Fifteen thousand Texas res taurants will serve almost 12,000,000 meals this week, says the Texas State Department of Health. OTestimony on flexible auto insurance rates vs. fixed rates continued before a legislative study committee in Austin with Gus Wortham of Houston, president of the American General Insurance Co. and of the 17company Texas Assn. of Fire and Casualty Companies, speaking against proposed flexible rates. OLawyers for Candy Barr pleaded for reversal of her 15-year prison term for possessing marijuana on 15 counts of error, including Dallas Asst. D. A. Bill Alexander’s question asking whether a visitor to the stripper’s apartment was “white or colored.” She is working in Las Vegas, Nev., while free on bond. OThe AP said from Rio de Janeiro, where BenJack Cage is visiting, “Informants said Cage is investing in a fiberglass project either here or in Sao Paulo.” Cage is being sued for$15 million along with 133 other defendants; he has been convicted of embezzling from ICT Corp. and is indicted also in Texas on charges of misappropriating $400,000 from ICT Insurance Co. and bribing two former state insurance commissioners. BRUCE ALGER: agricultural department get rid of surpluses. But as written this time, the bill at one end makes an appeal on the basis of school children, and on the other it sounds like a chamber of commerce plug for the dairy business. But the fact is it builds surpluses, not diminishes them. There was an awful lot of double-talk on this bill. On the floor of the House, I asked Cooley of North Carolina how this bill, which once was to get rid of surpluses, had now become a bill for the relief of school children. Now listen to his answer. Listen to the words. This man is chairman of the agriculture committee. He said ‘The main purpose was to dispose of surpluses. The real reason is to improve the nutrition of the school children.” Alger shook his head. “Now isn’t that an example of doublethink. ‘The main purpose, the real purpose.’ What is he really saying? The members of the House laughed at Cooley’s statement and one of them near me said it ‘sounds just like Cooley.’ But they voted for the bill.” Just Logical He became serious again. “They voted for it because it is hard to campaign for office when it appears you have voted to take milk away from school children. When the vote was taken and I found I was the only member who voted `no,’ I asked permission to speak and explained my vote to the House. The bill was unconstitutional. It was not a function of the federal government. At the very least, it was a state function and more probably a local function. This is no answer at all for a politician but it is the only answer for me. Some call it rugged individualism but I call it sticking up to my constitutional oath. “This is not a question of human rights vs. property rights. There is no difference between a human and a property right. The right to own property is a basic human right, the basis of all our rights. A man cannot be liberal with one and conservative with the other. Here I take issue with the President. He said he wanted to be a liberal with the people’s needs and conservative with the people’ money. Well, you can’t be both. I’m just trying to be logical and brutally analyze this. I hear people talk about human rights versus property rights and to me it just sets class against class, the haves against the have nots. We have very few people who do not have some property. It is a right they have that is identical with every other right. What about urban renewal? Alger’s answer was direct, emphatic. “Everyone is for urban renewal. Who pays for it? Question. The federal government? The state? The locality? The logical answer to me is this: it is a local project, it should be run by local people, with local inspection codes, local health regulations, local enforcement, local police power, paid for with local money. Remember, if any federal money is used, you immediately set all of your wages according to the Secretary of Labor, his opinion. From his opinion, you cannot even go to court. Its a very unusual law. Moreover, the concept of eminent domain has been reinterpreted by current Supreme Court to mean that private property can be taken, not only for public use, but for private use as well. Worse than that, it can be taken for, and now I’m quoting, Rep. Bruce Alger Just Trying To Be Logical “spiritual values” and “esthetic values.” Property is simply not sacred any more under this interpretation. If somebody doesn’t like the columns in front of your house, its esthetic value, under the law it might go. That’s possibly a far-fetched example but I’m trying to illustrate the extent of this invasion of individual property rights. “The second great danger under federal urban renewal programs is the question of federal money itself. There are so many reasons, I have facts as long as your arm, sometime when you have half a day to read them, you should. Federal money is not the way.” In a Briefcase Alger was asked why he didn’t try to increase his effectiveness and avoid the reputation of a naysayer by offering a positive program of his own when he voted against some federal program. “I can’t get an audience,” he replied. “Up until now I have not had enough seniority. An old fashioned viewpoint held by a junior member of congress is not newsworthy.” Couldn’t he communicate with his constituents in his weekly newsletter and his weekly radio program and present positive remedies he considered constitutional? “Yes, we have not talked at all about my positive program. I have a briefcase which I carry around with me when I talk. It has my whole legislative program. Of course, I can’t dictate to the people back home. As for the milk program, let the local community take care of it. I’m not a watchdog. I can’t be. I’m in the federal realm. It is a job for the local community, the churches, the community chest.” The interview had been conducted under some duress. Alger’s two young sons, David and Steven, aged seven and nine, had burst in and out of the office to get cookies. He told them quietly, then more firmly, then quite forcibly not to interrupt. Finally his secretary appeared with a photographer and some visiting dignitaries. The Congressman excused himself, told one of his office workers to give the Observer any literature requested. Then he left to rejoin the world of practical politics, an articulate,