ustxtxb_obs_1959_06_06_50_00008-00000_000.pdf

I Over $1 2 0 Million Insurana In Force esfotetea 29e INSURANCE COMPANY P. 0. Box 8098 Houston, Texas LBJ FOR PRESIDENT RUNS WARM, COOL i He leads in Senate Poll, Third Among Party Leaders; Anderson for Him, Humphrey Cools, Butler Joins Proxmire; Gore Joins in Demand for a Democratic Policy in Senate, Johnson Calls Charges a ‘Myth’ and ‘Fraud’; Among Other Texans in Washington, Yarborough Asks a Probe of Strauss; Several Congressmen Oppose the Housing. Bill WASHINGTON Sen. Lyndon Johnson has strong support for president, much, but not all of it, from the South, but he has also sustained his first sharp criticism from a Southern senator, Albert Gore of Tennessee. The wire service UPI surveyed Democratic senators except for the four senators in presidential contention. The results: Johnson 17 votes, Kennedy 4, Humphrey 2, Symington 1. UPI noted: “Johnson’s support was most apparent in the South, but it also reached into the West and the border states.” Sen. Dodd of Connecticut also endorsed Johnson, saying he “would make a great president.” The Washington Star polled 84 Democratic leaders on their preferences. The result: Kennedy 19, Symington 14, Johnson 13, Stevenson 10, Humphrey 10, and others. The Star said while both Johnson and Symington “received support for the presidential nomination outside of the South, it was apparent from the answers … from that section of the country that these senators were their favorite candidates.” A Washington report in the New York Herald Tribune says Adlai Stevenson “told friends” that he thinks Lyndon Johnson is the most “capable” of the various Demo c r at i c presidential prospects but that his nomination is most unlikely because of his Southern background. Stevenson lists Humphrey, Kennedy, and Symington in that order as the next most capable candidates, this report on his “private opinion” says. Time and Life magazines said Harry Truman and Sam Rayburn agreed to promote Symington or Johnson for president. During the Observer’s recent inquiries in Washington a powerful mutual friend of Truman and Johnson informally confirmed this understanding. f’llruman brushed off the report in the Luce magazines. Johnson’s candidacy received cool reception at the Western States Democratic conference on May 16. The Observer learned in Washington that a staff, executive for another presidential candidate polled the Democratic committeemen and women in attendance from the Western states and found only one for Johnson. The Congressional Quarterly said the meeting “took a cool view” of Johnson’s candidacy. Butler Hits Record Paul Butler, the national chairman of the Democrats, not very obliquely joined the Proxmire The Way of Life * Three hundred professional and not professional writers are expected at the Southwest Writers Conference in Corpus Christi June 13-16. The program for the writers includes a cocktail party with a south-of-theborder flavor, autograph parties, a cruise on Corpus Christi Bay, a ‘Supper in a private garden, luncheons, a dinner, and a picnic on Padre Island. * Deciphered at the University of Texas Museum: a letter from Stephen F. Austin to Andrew Jackson, written at Columbia July 4, 1836, in which Austin said Santa Anna, then a Texas prisoner, had “an ardent and patriotic desire to serve the true interest of Mexico, and the cause of humanity by terminating an expensive and useless war,” that is, ought not to be shot. Douglas criticism ‘ of Johnson, saying to a cheering crowd at the Denver meeting, “the American people expect more of the Democratic Party than this Congress has given them so far.” Sen. Kennedy said he believes Johnson has been “an effective majority leader.” Sen. Anderson \(of New Mexson for president, saying a Johnson-Kennedy ticket would “run like wildfire in the country.” Johnson would carry the South and the Rocky Mountains and Kennedy would bring along the New England states, he said. Sen. Humphrey, who has been an avid supporter of Johnson’s leadership, cooled. Although the national press did not take notice, Humphrey,. in a speech, in Harlem, defended the liberals’ civil rights bill and slammed some of the ideas in Johnson’s measure, saying it is “folly” to count on “legislative gestures limited to `conciliation’ or other forms of exhortation.” In a statement to the Observer, Humphrey, choosing his words with some care, said, “I have cooperated with Senator Johnson as a member of the Democratic majority. “I’ve done so because I believe he is as effective a leader as we could get out of our Democratic membership. We have disagreed on occasions, but we have sought areas of agreement. . “I consider that Senator Johnson is more liberal than his votes, but his liberalism is cloaked and conditioned in responsibility. “I have a good friendly ‘working relationship with the senator.” Gore Joins Critics Johnson for the first time openly defended himself against the attacks on his leadership when Sen. Gore explicitly criticized a lack of Democratic policy against bigh interest rates. Before the protracted discussion ended, Senators Proxmire and Douglas had joined Gore, not much to Gore’s liking. Gore recited astronomical’ increases in many kinds of interest charges recently. “If I may make a suggestion to the senator,” he said to Johnson, “this is one area in which we should have an overall unified party policy which would give to the committees a yardstick to guide them.” Proxmire has argued Senate Democrats should hold regular caucuses to decide party policy. Johnson replied that Gore should talk to the chairman of the banking and currency committee of the Senate and try to get that committee to recommend action. “I again urge the senator, as I have done in the past … to help find some way for our party, which enjoys a 2 to 1 majority in the Senate, to develop an overall economic policy,” Gore said. Speaking of Douglas and Gore, Johnson asked, “What power have I to bring these two strong men into agreement by waving a wand.” Proxmire thought he could but no senator can be told what to do, Johnson added. Gore reminded Johnson he had made a speech that the Congress would and should stop the spiraling interest rate. “Yet one of the first bills which passed the Sen., ate increased the GI interest rate. The result might have been different if our party had in some wayand I am not offering any suggestions as to how we can do itdeveloped a policy …” Johnson said the party policy is “going to committee with this matter.” He said Democrats have divided 30 to 25 in favor of the increase in the GI interest rate and he could not have changed that, nor could have a caucus. Douglas “detected, the very clever way” Johnson “sought to deflect the bolts of lightning” from Gore, Douglas said; whereupon Gore demurred, “I did not intend any such thing.” Proxmire commended Senator Gore, saying “We have no caucus.” Johnson said no caucus can bind the conscience of a senator. He said Proxmire and Gore ought to get ‘their own committees to recommend the policies they want instead of “putting the monkey” on his, Johnson’s, back. “I do not think they are impotent. I do not think they are uninfluential,” he said. Myth”A Fraud’ ‘`This one-man rule .stuff is a myth,” Jdhnson continued. “The theory that one man is able to tell 64 other senators how they shall vote does not exist … how does the senator suppose I can get them to change their convictions on a vote of 30 to 25? So we ought to expose this fraud for what it is.” “It does not take much courage, I may say, to make the leadership a punching bag,” Johnson said. “If they cannot get their committees to go along with them, how do they expect a fairy godmother or a wet-nurse to get a majority to deliver it into their ,hands?” Proxmire said “he has set up a strawman,” that nobody argued senators could be bound, but that a party policy flowing from a caucus “would have great influence with us … We do not have a policy.” Johnson said no “super policy committee or i #uper caucus” could have “the slightest influence” with Proxmire. Gore concluded: “… unless there is some guiding policy or understanding we shall again be confronted with a piecemeal treatment of an issue of overwhelming importance.” Proxmire and Sen. Neuberger debated “The Struggle for a Liberal Senate” in the Progressive for June, 1959. Proxmire said Johnson has more power than any other senator in history and asked “why not try democracy?” Neuberger replied the caucus is a “discredited device” which would not be effective without “obnoxious restraints on individual independence.” AFL-CIO reported that from Feb. 7 through April 25 this year, Johnson cast 21 “right,” and 6 “wrong” votes, while Sen. Yarborough cast 25 “right,” and three “wrong” votes. Sen. Douglas, in an article in the Industrial Union Dept. Digest of the AFL-CIO, remarked, “If Sen. Johnson has come forward an inch on civil rightsand I am not sure that he hasthe Administration has surely retreated a mile.” Ralph Defends Oil Yarborough took the Senate floor to oppose Sen.’ Proxmire’s bill to lower the depletion allowance on a graduated basis. He advocated a federal department or science and technology before a Senate committee. In El Paso he was made an honorary life member of the LULACs and opposed cuts in federal aid for schools in federally impacted areas. On the Senate floor he argued strongly for. the bill for international medical research funds. Yarborough took the floor of the Senate to blast Admiral Strauss several days before the confirmation debate began. This attracted attention in Washington especially because Sen. Johnson has not yet said how he’ll vote. He has condemned as propaganda the point widely made that his position will be decisive. Arthur Krock insisted on the point in a column in the Times. Yarborough urged a full scale investigation of questions raised by a Dallas attorney, Jarrell Garonzik, about Strauss’s connection with New Mexico uranium development while he was chairman of the Atomic Energy Cornmission. Strauss seemed to be “a man with something to hide” and had proved his own earlier statements to be false, Yarborough said. Yarborough continued his fight against the burying of radioactive wastes in the Gulf, accusing the AEC of a “deceitful” attitude. Johnson on his radio broadcast endorsed the medical research funds program. On the Senate Subscribe To the Observer 504 West 24th, Austin $4 per year floor he said the Congress had cut the President’s budget effectively. He had lunch with Chancellor Adenauer of Germany. At the invitation of the Roosevelt family, Johnson delivered the Memorial Day address over the grave of the former President. In a commencement speech in San Marcos he urged a summit meeting of the nations of the non-communist world. Texans on Housing On interesting insight into the composition of the Texas House delegation was afforded on the vote on the 1959 housing bill. Voting against final passage of the bill, which included public housing, were Alger, the lone Republican from Texas, and seven T e q a Democrats, Burleson, Casey, Dowdy, Ikard, Kilgore, Mahon, and Teague. The bill passed 261-160. Rep. Thomas, Casey’s colleague from Houston, voted for final passage, but he added on an amendment, by 222-201, requiring a n n u a 1. clearance through a House committee for funds for the programs. This was regarded as the most serious limitation on the legislation accepted in the amendments by friends of the bill. Voting with. Thomas were Reps. Alger, Dowdy, Fisher, Mahon, and Rogers, while most of the Texans voted against him. 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