ustxtxb_obs_1959_06_13_50_00006-00000_000.pdf

Over $ 1 20 Million Insurance In Force e JI/i, Erie rA eJ INSURANCE COMPANY P. 0. Box 8098 Houston, Texas H. B. 158 & L. B. J. Sir: In the May 30th Observer it is reported that the majority leader of the United States Senate is under the mistaken impression that Dave Shapiro, lately -of Senator Yarborough’s Austin staff and now with the U. S. Army, was the author of the resolution recently adopted by the Young Democrats of Texas state convention concerning the majority leader. You will recall that this resolution merely called for a return to democracy in the United States Senate and asked the Democratic majority leader to pay some heed to the 1956 Democratic Party platform as well as legislative suggestions by the Democratic Advisory Council. Obviously the majority leader missed reading all of the Texas daily papers and the Observer account of the Y. D. convention naming the true author, so I wish to step forward once again and proclaim to the world as well as the majority leader that I wrote this resolution in my own old “scrawly” handwriting. This is significant since some forces opposing the resolution kidnapped the original handwritten copy after it had passed the resolutions committee, thinking I did not have another copy, but fortunately I had retained one for just such an emergency. I certainly must give proper credit to Dave Shapiro and to the many other Young Democrats who worked so diligently for the resolution’s passage despite the threats and pressures brought by local henchmen of the majority leader, but I must accept with modest pride full responsibility for authoring this “blow for democracy.” Speaking of resolutions, I also had the privilege of writing the resolution concerning the infamous House Bill 158 that was adopted by the recent third annual Democrats of Texas convention. In accepting the kudos or blame for this masterpiece I must also give credit to three of the legislature’s most distinguished members as well as numerous other helpful patrons of that lovely little refreshment spot across the street from the Stephen F. Austin hotel. To the dismay of some of our stalwart band, this D.O.T. resolution did not mention the majority leader by name. However, I feel that it left no doubt that it was directed not only at the numerous errors and inequities of H. B. 158, but also at the ruthless and tyrannical tactics employed by the unregistered lobbyist and the majority leader, whom the bill personally benefited to the exclusion of eight million other Texans. My sincere belief is that you cannot separate H. B. 158 and L. B. J. Any criticism of 158 is necessarily criticism of L. B. J., and this is the way I intended my resolution …. Thanks to you and your staff for the only newspaper in Texas worth reading cover to cover. Jack Matthews, Secretary, Harris County Democratic executive committee, 2703′ Main St., Houston. Shapiro Also Replies Sirs: Senator Johnson, let me assure his letter-writing friend, has reason to rejoice because I didn’t write a resolution in his honor. I should also like to point out that the Young Demos’ convention was on a Friday night, a Saturday, and a Sunday. I don’t work for anyone on weekends. Weekends are my own leisure time. This may be difficult for Sen. Johnson to understand, as THE TEXAS OBSERVER Page 6 June 13, 1959 he made a speech in Central Texas about a year or so ago in which he attacked the 40 hour week. Pvt. Dave Shapiro, US 54215987, Co. D, 2nd Bn., 3rd Tng. Regt. Basic, Ft. Leonard Wood, Mo. \(In his accompanying demand that his letter be published, Shapiro said, “Hell, Lyndon is on the Senate armed services committee, and he just might vote to abolish the draft when he reads my letQuoted Sirs: I am pleased to tell you that seemingly your editorials are more frequently quoted by Suburban Editor Jack Nunnery of Star Telegram, Fort Worth, than any other liberal paper, which reflects a lot of credit on your publication. M. M. Johnson, 1419 So. Tyler, Dallas. Books for Gatesville Sirs: Permit me to crow a bit, THE SMILE ATt THE FOOT OF THE LADDER, by Henry Miller, New Directions, $2.25. HOUSTON In 1941 after returning from Europe, and before settling down in California, Henry Miller took a trip around the United States with his friend, the French artist Abraham Rattner. During the course of this trip he met Fernand Leger, who asked him to write a text to accompany his drawings and paintings of some clowns. This he did. He wrote a story in surrealistic style of a French clown who has become famous for the ecstatic smile he wears in the ring as he sits at the bottom of a ladder contemplating the moon, at the top. This clown, Auguste, feels that he assumes identity only when he enters the arena, and for that reason he sets out to find out just who is the man beneath the mask. Through a series of tragedies and dreams, he discovers that he and the clown are one and the same per’son. With that staggering truth facing him, he dies, in obscure and mysterious fashion, with the please. After reading about the trip you and Rep. Don Kennard made to Gatesville, the fact that stuck out to me was, no books, so I got in touch with the chairman of our Council of Jewish Women’s Book Fair and put in my ‘bid for suitable leftovers. Anyway, I now have under my piano three large cartons of books which the county probation, officer is going to haul down for us on his next trip. The power of your press! Mrs. Jessie L. Baker, 1720 Clover Lane, Fort Worth 7, Texas. W. O. W. Sirs: As citizenship chairman of our local and a member of the ciitizenship committee of our county home demonstration clubs I depend so much on information from the Texas Observer to tell the club women in my reports. It might be well for some of our legislators to know that the home unpainted face, and his sightless eyes gazing with candor at the real life moon. Only the theme and the cliches make this recognizable as Miller material. The theme is familiar, for he has long been preoccupied with salvation through. surrender, strength through self knowledge, hope through hopelessness, or what his friends in. Paris came to call his Rock Bottom philosophy. The difference is that this story is told in orderly symbolism, preserving one viewpoint, and sticking close to the tale. Herein lies its weakness, for any attempt to impose form and style on his writings is taking the Miller out of Miller. What have we then? Unoriginal ideas in which the action is obscured something for which Miller is not usually notedtold in uninspired and overly explicit prose. It is his rambling ,spontaneity which is spellbinding, the honest complusion to tell all, spill everything, save nothing. What is fresh is the effusive overflow of words tumbling over one another in the eagerness to be heard. He is what he writes, demonstration women are alert and are keeping up with their actions. If we all voted for the same candidate we could put anyone inor outof office as we so choose, as we are 33,000 strong in Texas. We are a member of the National H. D. Assn. and we are all a part of an organization known as The Women of the World. There is no way on earth to measure the power of our influence. Mrs. Roberta Farris, Voss, Tex. ‘Desire to Hurt’ Sirs: Lincoln Steffens will stir restlessly in his grave at your feeble effort to make muck of the perfectly legitimate transaction between. Bill Blakley and Joe Kilgore. Such journalistic dude make the “voice of liberalism” seem to have little to talk about. I believe you could have found more for the front page right there in Austin. If you went all the way to Washington and found no more than that to write home about I am convinced that an overzealous desire to hurt may well be more corrupting than a mere bundle of cash. B i 11 Cooper, Builder, 7122 Shook Ave., Dallas. and so he would wish it I am sure. Miller must have known that he couldn’t get away with this, a betrayal of all those years he spent worshipping formlessness, elevating ignorance to the high priesthood of wisdom, Cultivating experience while scorning learning and tradition. \(He does, however, make sufficient use of his culture to load his prose with cliches, “the fiber of my being,” After all, it must be embarrassing enough that he is writing at home now, his home in California that he shares with his wife and children, dogs and his books. There f or e, it is a relief to notice at the end of the story of Auguste and his friends an epilogue, nice and long, signed, in script, by Henry Miller. Ah yes, this is the one we know. He starts right in, explaining everything, he meant to say in the story, what he thought about when he wrote it, who influenced him, etc. He is an honest man after all. NANCY FAGG An Orderly Rock Bottom 1114 1111111 IMM =I= TINIMmmio Leader and Teacher Faith, wisdom and unremitting service won for scholarly, gentle John Kilian a place second to none , in the hearts of his people. They were the Wends, those Baltic Germans of Slavic descent, who abandoned their , homeland for a new world wilderness in the cause of religious self-determination. In 1854, 558 Lutheran Wends, refusing to obey the Prussian decree of organic union with the Reformed church, asked John Kilian to become pastor and leader in their migration to Texas. On December 16th of that year they landed at Galveston aud settled in present Lee County, naming their settlement Serbin. At Serbin, Kilian was more than pastor .. he was squire, legal advisor, doctor, consultant and teacher. He established preaching stations at New Ulm and Roeder’s Mill in Austin County, at Louis Settlement in Fayette County and in Bastrop. Through his efforts fraternal relations with the Evangeli of Courageous People cal Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and of other states, were established .. and today some 20 other congregations look upon St. Paul’s Lutheran Church at Serbin as the mother church. Texans will always honor the memory of a good and fearless man, John Kilian, champion of freedom. Today Texans still demand and get their right to choose the way they want to live. 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