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THE JOHNSON SITUATION Oilmen in City Hall Courtroom and Jail \(Another of our periodic reports on events concerning the Texas congressional delegation. WASHINGTON; AUSTIN Although much else has been going on among the Texans in Washington, little has been able to compete for the public interest with the manifold compliments, criticisms, boosts, a n d boots showering the senior senator from Texas, Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson. Within the last few months Senator Johnson has received, as remarked the Abilene ReporterNews, “an astonishing amount of publicity” in the national magazines. For example: Newsweek, in a cover spread . March 30: ” … so long as Johnson himself doesn’t rule out the Life, in an assessment of four Democratic possibilities \( K e nnedy, Humphrey, Symington, and Johnson ever does get the nomination it will probably be only because some midnight a tired, deadlocked convention … ” Saturday Evening Post, March 28: “Is that rule \(against a Southwhen feelings on the racial issue are more passionate than at any time since the Civil War, and the Negro vote larger? The question answers itself.” Waves of criticism Johnson does not publicly admit noticing. New Republic slammed him. for “his intention to play politics with foreign economic policy” by the cutting of economic aid. He spoke to the mass unemployment rally last week and brought a third of the labor people there to their feet with applause with his proposal for a two-month study on unemployment. He was applauded 25 times in 20 minutes. George Meany told the crowd Johnson is a key man. He also said the study idea was very wise but should not be used by Congress to justify delay. The Senate passed Johnson’s proposal for the study unanimously: a report is expected in June. Senator Pat McNamara, who has criticised Johnson for failing to help the liberals pass a depressed areas jobless bill, charged in advance that the Johnson committee was to be just another study group. Emil Mazey, United Auto Workers’ secretary-treasurer, also criticised Johnson and Speaker Rayburn for “the failure of both men to mobilize the Democratic Party to deal adequately with the problems of the unemployed.” Among more concrete events, Yarborough voted for, and Johnson did not vote on, a McNamara amendment to extend unemployment compensation payments to certain individuals for 15 months amendment to broaden unemployment compensation for three months to include new jobless as Sen. Proxmire, Wisconsin, has now three times assaulted Johnson’s “one man rule” of the Senate. The second time Sen. Paul Douglas joined him in “what I regard as the general purpose” of his fight. When the kissing takes place in the Senate, Douglas said, senators from, the industrial East, Midwest, and Pacific Coast are “never under the mistletoe.” Sens. Clark and Morse have also spoken up in a similar vein. Sen. Proxmire has claimed most coinmunications from Texas have hacked him up \(one, from lawyer Bill Kugle of Athens, proposed a fund for a 100-foot statue of Proxmire to be erected in Johnnational A. D. A. chairman, has called Johnson a “feared ai4to crat.” Sen. Ralph Yarborough continues to maintain a rather standoffish position, although, during a visit to Harvard to make a speech for federal aid to education and mandatory oil controls, he told a reporter that the Proxmire criticism is considered by many Democratic senators as “an attack against themselves because they allowed Johnson to have this power.” He also said there that he thinks Kennedy and Stevenson are the two strongest contenders for the Democratic nomination, noting that during his 1958 campaigning for the Democrats, “we had only three men who could always fill the hall,” Truman, Stevenson, and Kennedy. The Columnists Columnists’ reactions to all this Johnson talk varied from David Lawrence’s shaft that Proxmire “should be hailed as a hero” for fighting “one-man control” to Joseph Alsop’s arguments that the choice was strong leadership or weak leadership and that Johnson has only stepped into a vacuum left by Eisenhower. George Sokolsky said a Johnson-versus-Nixon election might result again in “a two-party debate and an opportunity for the people to make a selection without disadvantage no matter which one was elected.” Holmes Alexander said Johnson and the presidency are moving toward a meeting according to “the law of inevitability.” Doris Fleeson was not so sanguine, saying the Democrats’ choice of Los Angeles for the 1960 convention was a blow to Johnson and Rayburn, who favored Chicago. William S. White columnized that the ADA is “sniping tirelessly” at Johnson and that “his principal disability is that he neglected to inform his parents that he must not be born in Texas.” The Washington Post said last Friday that the criticism of Johnson “ought to be kept in perspective,” that it actually is the product of a schism between the liberals in the Democratic majority and the Southerners still clutching the committee chairmanships, and that Johnson’s candidacy for the nomination makes him “a more attractive target.” Some historians think Johnson is the ablest majority leader since the Wilson period, the paper said; though he has “not emerged as a creative statesman with a program around which his party is happy to rally,” he has bridged the gap between factions and is “steering a moderate program through. Congress.” Texans for Johnson One of the most interesting events apropos Johnson’s presidential possibilities occurred re.. cently in Abilene, where 650 Democrats showed up for a $25a-plate dinner honoring him. About 150 of them \(including Harte-Hanks publishing chieftain son for President; he smiled but did not remark about it. Johnson himself commended the Western temperament, and Sen. Mike the Southwest, West, and Southern border states as “the new axis” of the Democratic Party. Byron Skelto n, Democratic national committeeman, Zollie Steakley, the Texas Secretary of State, and other speakers in Abilene endorsed Johnson for the presidency. In Dallas this week, Gov. Daniel said that Johnson’s chances of getting the nomination are getting better “every day.” Waggoner Carr and Grover Sellers also advocated Johnson for president during the recent Democratic $100-a-plate fund raising dinner in Washington. Attendant to this latt:x conclave, Texas labor leaders were invited to a joint meeting with Yarborough and Johnson. They were quite surprised when Johnson usher e d them into the presence of their national president, Meany, who had been visiting Johnson on some legislative maters and stayed for the session. From reports received here, Johnson handled the scene skillfully. Creekmore F a t h, secretarytreasurer of the Democrats of Texas organization, which has been, behind the scenes, hostile to Johnson, was greeted by Johnson and Mrs. Johnson most cordially during the Washington meetings. Fath and Johnson had one conference. The Pay Scandals The controversies about congressmen renting personal propergovernment as their offices, and hiring relatives for their office work, led to the disclosure by the Washington Post that 17 senators have at least 22 kinfolk on their payrolls. As known in Texas, these include Sam Johnson, Lyndon’s brother, and Sam Johnson’s wife, Mary Johnson, both of whom are in the senior senator’s office; and Richard Yarborough, Senator Ralph Yarborough’s son, who is his legislative assistant. Sam Johnson worked as a congressional secretary before Johnson was elected to the House in 1937. Yarborough said there is public concern about the congressional pay scandals, especially about congressmen renting front porches and garages to the government, “and about paying their children big salaries while they go to college. It’s a dissatisfaction LEGALS NOTICE TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: Notice is hereby given that the partnership firm of Aero-Charter of Houston will be dissolved, and notice is also hereby given of the intention of said firm to become incorporated under the name of Aero-Charter of Houston, Inc. Witness my hand this 16 day of March, 1959. AERO-CHARTER OF HOUSTON By JAMES R. FISK, One of the Partners NOTICE J. S. Honigblum doing business as Nu-Horizon System has incorporated such business, effective March 26, 1959, under the name Nu-Horizon System, Inc. J. S. HONIGBLUM CITATION BY PUBLICATION THE STATE. OF TEXAS TO John N. Leggitt, Defendant, in the hereinafter styled and numbered cause: You are hereby commanded to appear before the 98th District Court of Travis County, Texas, to be held at the courthouse of said county in the City of Austin, Travis County, Texas, at or before 10 o’clock A.M. of the first Monday after the expiration of 42 days from the date of issuance hereof; that is to say, at or before, 10 o’clock A.M. of Monday the 11th day of May, 1959, and answer the First Amended petition of plaintiff in Cause Number 102,323, in which Frances M. Leggitt is Plaintiff and John N. Leggitt is defendant, filed in said Court on the 24th day of March, 1959, and the nature of which said suit is as follows: Being an action and prayer for judgment in favor of Plaintiff and against Defendant for decree of divorce dissolving the bonds of matrimony heretofore and now existing between said parties; Plaintiff alleges cruel treatment on the part of defendant towards her of such a nature as to render their further living together as husband and wife altogether insupportable; Plaintiff further alleges that no children ‘born of said union and no community property was accumulated; Plaintiff further prays for relief, general and special; All of which more fully appears from Plaintiff’s First Amended Original Petition on file in this office and to which reference is here made; * The Three Rivers City Coun cil decided to let the Seboney Oil Co. rent an office in the city hall for $75 a month. * Ernest Smith of Gonzales, Texas, is in England on a Rotary Foundation fellowship. A report appeared in a magazine on a speech he made in London about Texas, and he wrote home, to the Gonzales Rotary Club: “If the remarks I was reported to have made on the racial problem ever drift down to the South, my lynching w ill doubtlessly ‘be cheerfully attended by white and colored.” He said the story was garbled. * Grand jurors questioned about two dozen women in. a prostitution investigation. They were called to Dallas from various points in North Texas; the Mann Act may be involved. with the whole situation, but especially with paying for work that’s not done.” Johnson said he believes Congress will defeat Eisenhower’s increase in the federal gasoline tax, which Johnson said is not a good tax. The majority leader ordered a full-scale investigation of the administration’s defense budget to determine whether the $41 billion Eisenhower asks is adequate. He also called for a committee on the economic development of “the Amer i c a n regions,” which he specified as the North, South, and West. Sen Proxmire called on Congress to rescind mandatory oil import controls. Sen. Williams renewed a demand oil depletion be cut from 27.5 to 15 percent. If this citation is not served within 90 days after date of its issuance, it shall be returned unserved. Witness, 0. T. MARTIN, JR., Clerk of the District Courts of Travis County, Texas. Issued and given under my hand and the seal of said Court at office in the City of Austin, this the 24th day of March, 1959. 0. T. MARTIN, JR. Clerk of the District Courts, Travis County, Texas. By GEO. W. BICKLER, Deputy CITATION BY PUBLICATION THE STATE OF TEXAS TO Roosevelt White Defendant, in the hereinafter styled and numbered cause: You are hereby commanded to appear before the 126th District Court of Travis County, Texas, to be held at the courthouse of said county in the City of Austin, Travis County, Texas, at or before 10 o’clock A.M. of the first Monday after the expiration of 42 days from the date of issuance hereof; that is to say, at or before, 10 o’clock A. M. of Monday the 4th day of May, 1959, and answer the petition of plaintiff in Cause Number 113,383, in which Ella Faye White is Plaintiff and Roosevelt White is defendant, filed in said Court on the 16th day of March, 1959, and the nature of which said suit is as follows: Being an action and prayer for judgment in favor of Plaintiff and against Defendant for decree of divorce dissolving the bonds of matrimony heretofore and now existing between said parties; Plaintiff alleges the defendant is guilty of cruel treatment toward her of such a nature as to render their further living together as husband and wife altogether insupportable; Plaintiff further alleges that three children were born to them as issue of their marriage, the oldest of said children being born in 1952, that Plaintiff should be awarded their care, custody and control and that defendant be required to contribute a proper and suitable amount toward their support until they reach the age of 18 years; Plaintiff further alleges that one 1955 Ford automobile was acquired out of community funds , which should be awarded to her and for which she prays judgment; Plaintiff further prays for costs of suit and for relief, general and special; all of which more fully appears from Plaintiff’s Original Petition. on file in this office and to which reference is here made: If this citation is not F-rved within 90 days after date of its issuance, it shall be returned tinserved. WITNESS, 0.