ustxtxb_obs_1959_01_31_50_00003-00000_000.pdf

Daniel in ‘Fighting Clothes’ AUSTIN Rep. F r a t es Seeligson, leader of the amorphous forces in the House of Representatives for a general sales tax, genially admitted he has “a literary narcissus complex” last week as the legislature closed down and he opened up with a lengthy typed criticism of Gov. Daniel’s budget. “I’ve just made an objective analysis,” he said, smiling a little in his usual off-hand manner. “Misleading,” he said, and “not completely true,” Daniel’s claim he was advancing state spending only 10 percent. The actual Daniel increase, he said, is $47,857,343, or 27.7 percent. Further, according to the San Antonio multi-millionaire oilman, Daniel made no effort at tax reform or economy but raised taxes on the same people and occupations now paying them. Seeligson said the severance beneficiary natural gas tax is probably unconstitutional and opposed Daniel’s liquor sales tax increase. The new House appropriations committee agreed to meet all day every Thursday and Friday on state spending. Presidents of 29 of the state’s 32 public junior colleges said they would need about $1 million more a year than they had figured before. Only an emergency legislative appropriation can save the Texas prison system from shutting down many of its operations this spring, Fred Shield, vice-chairman of the state board of corrections, said. In presenting an emergency request for $600,000, Shield said the system will run out of money by May 1st. About 250 people met at the Commodore Perry Hotel during the week to organize support for the REA co-ops’ bill on its rights in certain incorporated areas. REA is maintaining a suite at the Commodore. Meanwhile, at the legislature, lobbyists, except for labor lobbyists, were as scarce as free meals. The Harris County delegation voted to exclude both lobbyists In a statement before announcing the committees, he laid down the principle that he was not going to change the people’s decisions about their representatives by distorting the character of the House with unrepresentative cornmittees. He was also harsh with those who label members as liberals, moderates, or conservatives; his remarks along this line were understood on the floor to have been aimed at Gen. Preston Weatherred of Dallas, who so labels legislators and seeks to influence elections with mail-outs of his ratings. One out-of-pattern Carr appointment was Rep. Winfree, Houston, as chairman of criminal jurisprudence. Winfree, chairman of the Houston delegation, supported Burkett. However, the Harris County legislators told Carr they wanted him to honor seniority within the delegation regardless of the Speaker’s race, which meant they wanted Winfree to get t h e chairmanship he wanted, Another Carr designation causing comment was Rep. Huffman, Marshall, chairman of liquor regulation. Huffman did not divulge his preference in the Speaker’s race. Rep. Wheeler, Tilden, was named vice chairman. Ramsey’s Senate committee and the press from its regular weekly caucuses after some comment about the Observer’s reference last week to the delegation’s lobbyist-paid breakfast. The delegation met with representatives of the Houston chamber of commerce on Houston’s water needs. The Houston city council endorsed the proposed establishment of a state-wide public utility commission, “provided it is properly set up and adequately financed.” The Harris County delegation had asked for an expression of opinion from the council. The House agreed with the Senate to intercept $1.5 million from the cigarette tax before it reaches the general fund in order to fill out financing of the $2.3 million regular session. This will increase the deficit by this amount. An interim committee on House rules advocated more detailed reports from all committees, printing of bills at the time of introduction, and increased staff assistance to the legislature. A division of the House on rules was averted by an agreed delay. Speaker Waggoner Carr appointed a committee to improve the procedures for electing a speaker; the races should start later and end earlier, he said. \(Rep. Will Smith, Beaumont, introduced a resolution to prohibit announced candidacies or pledges also called for a business-like session and recommended more office space and a lounge and cloakroom for House members. Rep. Jamie Clements, Crockett, introduced a resolution reminding reporters not to lobby and inviting them to sit at a table on the House floor. Rep. William Stroman, San Angelo, asked a few questions, and it was agreed to repair with the issue to the rules committee. Each member of the House received, from Rep. Max Smith, San Marcos, a copy of a Saturday Evening Post article about Sen. Lyndon Johnson. “If he can get the nomination he would be elected,” Smith said. chairmen: Moffett, agriculture; Phillips, banking; Herring, claims; Wood, constitutional amendments; Martin, contingent expenses; Aikin, counties, cities, and towns; Willis, education; Fly, finance; Krueger, game and fish; Bradshaw, insurance; Smith, interstate cooperation; Lane, jurisprudence; Parkhouse, labor; Roberts, districts; Hudson, military and veterans’ affairs; Reagan, nominations; Owen, oil and gas; Hazlewood, privileges and elections; Colson, public health; Weinert, rules; Hardeman, state affairs; Crump, state departments and institutions; Kazen, transportation; Weinert, water and conservation. Sen. Gonzalez, San Antonio, received no chairmanships but was placed on several important committees. . Carr’s House committee chairmen: Hutchins, aeronautics; Latimer, agriculture; Heady, appropriations; Anderson, banks; Stroman, claims; Bass, commerce and manufacturers; Matthew, common carriers; Hughes, Charles, congres_sional and legislative districts; Murray, conservation and reclamation; C o t t e n, constitutional amendments; Glass, contingent expense; Zbranek, counties; Winfree, criminal jurisprudence; Jamison, education; Yezak, engrossed bills; Kilpatrick, enrolled bills; Myatt, state accounts; McGregor, Malcolm, federal relations; Oliver, game and fisheries; Parsons, highways a n d rbads; Conley, insurance; Boysen, interstate cooperation; Pipkin, judicial districts; C h a pm a n, judiciary; Bristow, labor; Huffman, liquor regulation; McIlhany, livestock; Woolsey, local and uncontested bills; Ballman, military and veterans’ affairs; Blanchard, motor traffic; T u r ma n, corporations; Roberts, oil, gas, and mining; Har AUSTIN Governor Price Daniel, aroused by attack from conservatives of the legislature led by Rep. Frates Seeligson of San Antonio, tossed third term possibilities and a veiled threat into an Austin picture already beginning to seethe over the natural gas-sales tax controversy. Daniel told a press conference, called overnight to answer a blast loosed by Seeligson, that “I am not about to announce for any office or burn any bridges, either. If someone gave me a fight or a challenge that I couldn’t back away from, I’ll just say I’ve got my fighting clothes on.” Earlier, Seeligson, an avowed champion of a general sales tax, released an 11-page statement accusing the governor of trying to mislead the legislature and condemning large segments of Daniel’s budget and tax-raising recommendations. Seeligson said the Governor has offered an “unfair” tax program that falls “on the same people and the same occupations that have paid the bill in the past.” Daniel has asked for tax increases on corporation franchises and on natural gas. In response, Daniel told a crowded press conference that he Stir Up the Good Sirs: The issue of The Texas Observer of January 16, 1959, sets a new high in journalism in Texas. I think it is the top issue of all the issues that I have seen of the Observer. You have surpassed your own standards and, in the field of governmental reporting, you have set a high mark for your own paper or any other paper issued in Texas. I hope that you. have some extra copies. A copy of this issue should be on the desk of every Texas state legislator at all times. I have never seen issues in Texas so completely analyzed in so few pages before. This is a great issue of a stimulating paper. The number of subscribers you have in Washington intrigues me. I am surprised from week to week when someone in some key organization in Washington tells me that when the Texas Observer arrives, work is suspended until it has been observed. Your paper has ideas. Its titles strike fire; they show imagination; they ought to stir up the good that is latent in Texas; the good for public good. Your headlines “Education: Mediocrity as a Habit” and “Mental Hospitals: Gentle Cultivation of Death” are stories in themselves, and your headline “Welfare: 40th, 40th, 44th, 36th …” tells the tale of the failure of the Government of Texas to serve the people of Texas. Here are the issues for all to see, and I’m hopeful that a group of young legislators in the Texas Legislature will seize them and do rington, penitentiaries; Parish, privileges, suffrage, and elections; Kennard, public health; Hollowell, public lands and buildings; Koliba, public printing; Coley, representation before the legislature; Ramsey, revenue and taxation; Slack, rules; Springer, school districts; Cory, state affairs; Smith, Will, state hospitals. There was some amusement that Sen. Roberts, McKinney, and Rep. Hughes, Sherman, happened to be chairmen of the Senate and House committees in charge of congressional redistricting. Roberts and Hughes both come from the tiny congressional district of one Sam Rayburn, Bonham. held no prejudices against corporations or the oil and gas industry, adding, “I’ve worked for them for years on keeping the depletion allowance and trying to keep the federal government from taking over the regulation of natural resources. But,” said the Governor, “I am not about to let them pull the wool over the eyes of the people of Texas and paint our financial situation black so that they can get a general sales tax. We’re not going to tax bassinets and baby shoes before natural gas if I can help it.” “The amount Texas needs is picayunish, it is two-bit stuff. I wish these people would quit telling the world we’re broke down here. Texans aren’t going to believe it, I know, and I hope nobody else believes it, not when we’re trying to get new industries down here,” he said. Daniel said the state is “in wonderful shape” and added he had had a lot of experience in fighting a sales tax. “Most Texas governors have fought both the general sales tax and the income tax. If you don’t fight both, you get both,” he said. Daniel said that Seeligson “is an able and intelligent legislator but his so-called factual analysis of my budget does not do justice to ei something for the people of Texas. God Bless you for what you have done for independent journalism in Texas. Ralph W. Yarborough, United States Senate, Washington, D. C. On Teaching Teachers Sirs: Congratulations on your January 16th issue. You have done a comprehensive job of identifying and suggesting remedies for a large number of problem areas in my beloved state of Texas. As a person in education, however, I must take issue with your proposal regarding the de-emphasis of methods courses in the preparation of teachers. I would hesitate to say what should be the proper ratio of methods to subject matter courses, but I would challenge the assumption that one is inherently of greater value than the other. What we need is better teaching of methods courses, not their elimination. I have sat through some very dead subject matter offerings, as well as some lively and useful methods classes. Properly taught \(and to the process by which students veloping democratic skills and willing to experiment in the solving of educational and other problems. There is more to learning than the memorization of facts, and more to the motivation of students than the well-known “carrot and stick” method. Traditionalists, who represent the strongest body of opinion against “newfangled” methods, typically view subject matter as the be-all and end-all of education. They remind me of violinist who played only one note on his violin hour after hour. Asked why he never varied, he replied: “You know Heifitz and all those other guys who go up and down the scale? They’re looking for the right note. I’ve found it!” Walter J. Ligon, social sciences teacher, 108 Grove St., Hempsted, L. I., N. Y. THE TEXAS OBSERVER Pauo 3 Jan. 31, 1959 ther his ability or his intellect. I don’t doubt his sincerity but he wants things to look bad enough to enact a general sales tax on some of the necessities of life most of them as I understand it except food, fertilizer, and feed.” Daniel said Seeligson’s tax bill does away with taxes on oil well servicing, cement manufacturers, textbook publishers, chain stores, stock transfers, coin operated machines, radio, television, cosmetics, and admissions. The Governor said Seeligson’s measure taxed people “who spend all they make instead of taxing luxuries and natural resources. I believe in taxes on ability to pay,” Daniel said. Warming to his own defense, Daniel asserted Seeligson had taken his remarks out of context and that the gubernatorial budget recommendations represented a