ustxtxb_obs_1958_12_19_50_00001-00000_000.pdf

GOVERNOR’S BUDGET AUSTIN Governor Price Daniel stepped into his holiday-decorated reception hall in the Capitol this week to tell the press Texas will need $60-65 millions annually in additional revenue “to continue present programs” for an expanding population, another $55 milion t o erase the state’s deficit, and unspecified additional millions for “new” programs which he said he wasn’t quite ready to announce publicly but would present to the legislature in January. The biennial budget recommendation totals $2 billion, 311 million from all funds, federal and state, with general revenue needs pegged at $310 million. In a late aftenoon scene enhanced by a lighted Christmas tree, brightly wrapped presents for Capitol employ ee s, and matched candlelabra supporting tall red Christmas candlesa setting that somehow failed to dispel the effect of the less seasonal pressures operating on himthe Governor parried questions about teacher’s pay raises and explained that college-level faculties would have to wait a year for salary boosts “on account of our revenue situation.” Daniel waved an apparent farewell, to the Hale-Aikin school improvement recommendations with the statement, ,”I don’t know whether it will be possible to start on any of these programs during this biennium.” The Hale-Aikin recommendations are good, he said, “as a long-range program and we should finance it when we are able.” He said he would have “some things to add” in his budget message to the legislature, that he intended to propose a “positive program” including some recommendations for state advertising through the Industrial Commission, and that the new tax revenue could in his opinion be raised “without a general sales tax or a state income tax.” The detailed executive budget represents a ten per cent increase in operating expenses for the biennium, specifically $28.9 million in general fund spending. The budget included annual salary increases averaging $650 for faculty members. Daniel said he was proposing that the increase not be put into effect until the second year of the biennium. Cut for UT Total recommendations from all funds for the University of Texas were $14 million for 1960, representing a cut of $2.8 million from the amount requested, $350,000 below expenditures for 1958, and $420,000 below the amount appropriated for 1959. From general revenue funds only, the 1960 recommendation for the University is $90,000 higher than 1959 but $2.7 million below the sum requested. For all state supported colleges and universities, the 1960 general revenue recommendations total $e7 million, $3 million above 1959 but $19 million below requests from the schools. Most of the Governor’s proposed increases result from new capital outlays for hospitals, special schools, and prisons to alleviate “dangerously crowed conditions.” Daniel said the “most significant” increase was a $4,758,000 request for the State Youth Council to implement a new juvenile parole system, a new school for delinquent boys, and for “reconditioning some of these firetraps at Gainesvile and Gatesville.” Youth CotIncil funds, if approved by the legislature, will be used to hire 40 juvenile parole officers, provide a new 500-capacity boys reformatory to separate the recalcitrants from first offenders, a new 100-person building for Negro orphans, and over $1 million for improvements at the girls’ school at Gainesville and the boys’ school at Gatesville. Daniel said that the $4 million plus request for the Youth Council was “the minimum we feel is needed to stem juvenile crime and provide rehabilitation facilities.” More Prisons Biggest single budget increase amounted to $9 million for the prison system for new buildings and for the hiring of 25 additional parole officers. Daniel said “we could not have held these appropriations down had it not been for the adult parole system. We have paroled twice as many men this year as last year.” He added there was “no possible way to get around the building of these new buildings they’ve asked for,” as the prisons are crowded and “it is a dangerous situation to be housed as they are now.” Other proposed budget increases: Health department, $1,044,000 for a new building; Board of Water Engineers, $1,657,000 for exp a n d e d research; Comptroller, $918,000 for additional personnel to improve tax collections \(Daniel quoted the Comptroller as saying the added personnel would collect over $7 million annually in additional revenue under existing tax to take care of 1,062 additional patients, $1,154,000; Dept. of Public Safety, $2,479,000 to employ 100 new highway patrolmen; Board of Insurance, $1 million to implement the new regulatory program; and approximately $200,000 for salary increases for departmental executives. Summarizing the state’s fiscal situation, the Governor said the new legislature faces a task “no worse than in 1939 when wd had to raise $26 million” or in 1951 or 1955 when $55 million in taxes had to be passed. He said he had “every confidence” the legislature would be able to pass the necessary tax measures “without a special session.” L.G. UT Abolishes 443 Courses The one great rule of composition is to speak the truth. ThoREAt Orxa,9 Ohstrurr An Independent-Liberal Weekly Newspaper 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. Vol. 50 TEXAS, DECEMBER 19, 1958 10c per copy No. 37 FAUBUS IN HOUSTON `Which Flag?’ HOUSTON “It seems that sometimes, in the name of freedom, we are about to destroy certain of our freedoms.” The man who said that, standing before an audience of some 2,500 in Houston’s Music Hall, was Gov. Orval Faubus of Arkansas. The audience mainly was composed of members of the White Citizens Councils from Houston and elsewhere, Dixiecrats, members of the right-wing Freedom in Action organization, and members of the Constitution Party, which believes the enemy most to be feared is the government of the United States. There also were a few persons who had come out of curiosity. Prior to his arrival, energetic efforts had been made to fill the hall, but the freezing weather, Saturday night, television, and the usual indifference of citizens to political rallies, whether called patriotic gatherings or not, were too much for Faubus to overcome. The hall was not over one-half full; the balcony held only a very few spectators, the lower floor’s seats were about three-fourths full. Faubus arrived 15 minutes later than the scheduled start of the program. That was due partly to a phony report telephoned to the City Hall about an hour earlier saying that a bomb had been planted in the Music Hall. Police searched but found nothing. Small Confederate flags were distributed in the foyer of the Music Hall as the audience assembled. At the opening the audience eras asked to stand and give the pledge of allegiance to the flag. “Which flag?” one man asked, loud enough to be heard near the stage. Faubus w a s introduced by Wright Morrow, one-time Texas Democratic national committee member, who broke with his party . to support Eisenhower for president. He said the Supreme Court “has assumed legislative powers.” Faubus attacked Time and Life magazines, which he said used to have substantial circulation in Arkansas but don’t now. Then he discussed Harry Ashmore, editor of the Arkansas Gazette of Little Rock, “who won the Pulitzer prize for jumping on me but What It Means AUSTIN Under the heading, “NOTICE, Colored People Only,” the Campus Theater in Denton announced a “special screening” of the film, “Albert Schweitzer,” for Negroes. “This will be the first time the colored people have ever been given on opportunity to see inside the beautiful Campus Theater,” wrote manager J. P. Harrison in an ad in the Denton RecordChronicle, “and I think, in fact, I know, that after they have seen this remarkable film … they … will have a newer and finer conception of what it means to be a citizen of these United States.” whose newspaper has lost about 30,000 circulation.” Faubus said little had been published by his journalistic critics about the accomplishment of his administration. Among these he listed a program he said attracted 300 new industries to Arkansas. School teachers, he said, ‘had received the highest pay increases in the history of the state, and the increases went to everyone, in country and city, “white and colored.” He spoke of the state’s welfare program for care of the indigent, old, blind, and children, an audio-visual center, a trade school and “a great hospital center.” Faubus attacked the court because, he said, it had “taken all jurisdiction from the states to prohibit or control subversion within its borders.” The federal troops, he said, “encamped upon and occupied the school grounds Al Hieken in Little Rock which were supported by state and local monies. They chased people at bayonet point from sidewalks, from their own lawns, and from their own houses,” he said. When Faubus remarked one of his ancestors had fought under Washington, a man in the audience shouted: “Hooray for your grandfather.” There was a commotion near the rear of the hall; a floodlight was directed at the man \(later identified as Dr. Daniel L. Rosenstein of Houston, formen ran up to the area shouting “Throw him out. Throw him out.” Police also came on the double. They escorted the doctor and his wife to their car. As Faubus concluded, there came a standing ovation and cries of “Faubus for president,” and a woman in the audience yelled piercingly, “We need a president, not a general.” After Faubus’s speech, it was announced that 2700 signatures had been obtained on petitions circulated by a group of clergymen and other prominent persons in Houston who “do not want another ‘Little Rock’ here.” A letter asking for signatures was signed by Mrs. Ellana E. Ball, state Democratic committeewoman from Harris County, Rev. John A. Bosman, J. H. M. Boyce, Rev. Thomas W. Currie, chairman of the race relations committee of the Co uncil of Churches of Greater Houston, R. A. Farnsworth, Rev. Virgil E. Lowder, Morris McDonald, Rev. Herbert Meza, Rev. James R. Nbland, Mrs Eugenia Pate Rayzor; Rev. Edwin P. Shaw, Jr., and Mrs. A .S. Vandervoort, retiring Houston school board member. Faubus called the petitions “the work of the NAACP and a few brainwashed ministers.” The board of directors of the Houston, Assn. for Better Schools released a criticism of Faubus in advance. “He has shut down the high schools of a major city, and there is no end in sight to the dis OThe number of course offer ings at the University of Texas in. Austin has been reduced this year by 443, or 11.5 percent, and further reductions will be made, vice-president Harry Ranscm announced in El Paso. The business administration college cut its number of courses 33 percent, and education 21 percent, and “both report that the resulting curricula are better, and that the time and energy of faculty members are being utilized more fully,” Ransom said. OA group of employees in the state Department of Agriculture have organized a local of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees’ Cmsr. John White said he told employees who advised him of their desire for the union that if they wanted to meet, they should meet in the office instead of going off and holding a secret meeting. OA number of employees have been discharged by Hunt Oil Co. and Placid Oil Co., which pleaded guilty to 29 counts of hot oil charges and were fined a total of $49,700 in T y 1 e r. Further charges are being prepared a g a i n j s t independent operators. The charge is that Hunt and Placid “overproduced”that is, produced more than the Railroad Commission told them they could. 0 Two striking Irving bus driv ers were charged with viola tion of the Texas right to work law in Fort Worth. Both. are mem bers of bus employees’ local 1142. Texas Rangers charged them with one beating and one attempted beating of Continental drivers who are working. The local is The Week in Texas striking Continental. One of the drivers, who suffered a broken nose, loss of several teeth, and bruises, said three men jumped him from behind but ran when a deputy sheriff came to his assistance. A prizefighter was charged with murdering 29-year-old Wayne M. Riley, a former union organizer, in Odessa. The fighter admitted he saw the kil’ing but denied he was guilty. “Th:.. , whole mess reeks of labor trouble,” Odessa’s sheriff said. Riley was an organizer for the International Union of Operating Engineers but reportedly had not been an organizer in recent months. One report said he was warned to get out of town five or six months ago and was beaten when he did not leave. The Texas Employment Corn mission reported $60 million in unemployment payments to 280,000 Texans during recessionplagued fiscal 1958, almost double 1957 payments, The unemployment compensation trust fund was reduced to $275 million. OInsurance commissioner Wil liam Harrison’ warned he’d suspend the license of any firm or agent caught trying to make an illegal policy replacement, explained, “It has come to the attention of the state board that some Texas life insurance policyholders have ben induced to forfeit, surrender, or lapse existing life insurance policies and to replace them with others of different form.” …. The Senate committee investigating insurance irregularities reported the condition of Preferred Life Insurance Company of Dallas was “somewhat” improved but added the firm has not achieved full benefit of investments made by its stockholders.