ustxtxb_obs_1959_08_01_50_00006-00000_000.pdf

Alonso Alvarez de Pilieda First Explorer of the New Land of Liberty and if so Texas had one of the very earliest settlements in what is today the United States. Although Alvarez returned to Jamaica, and the colony at the river’s mouth was abandoned, his expedition opened a new and exciting vista to freedom seekers the land of promise that would one day be called Texas. Today Texans still demand and get their right to choose the way they want to live. In this vigorous and freedomminded homeland . . “Beer Belongs” and this is why the United States Brewers Foundation works constantly, in conjunction with brewers, wholesalers and retailers, to assure the sale of beer and ale under pleasant, orderly conditions. Believing that strict law enforce At the mouth of a river they called merit serves the best interest of Texins, Rio’ de -las Palmas a stop was made, the Foundation stresses close co-opera and later a settlement was established. tion with the Armed Forces, law en Many historians believe that the Rio forcement and governing officials in de las Palmas was the Rio Grande, its continuing Self-Regulation program. Texas Division, United States Brewers Foundation, 206 VFW Building, Austin, Texas Little is known about the bold Spanish adventurer, Alonso Alvarez de Pifieda, but his place in Texas history is unique. He is believed to have been the first white man on Texas soil, and he came not as a conquistador, but as an explorer and scout for the governor of Jamaica. Governor Francisco Garay wanted “living room,” liberty and no doubt loot, as well for Jamaicans. Alvarez was commissioned in 1519, only 27 years after Columbus’ discovery of America, to map the coast of the Gulf of Mexico from Florida to Yucatan. In August of 1519 he reached Vera Cruz and found Hernando Cortes there. Cortes attempted to capture the party, but they escaped to sail north again. YARBOROUGH’S GI SCHOOL BILL STALLED Sen. Ralph Yarborough, who last week. negotiated through the U.S. Senate his first major piece of national legislation, a billion-dollar program of educational grants and loans to peacetime veterans, may be thwarted on it by a fellow Texan in the House for the rest of this year. Rep. Olin Teague, Bryan, chairman of the U.S. House veterans’ affairs committee, says no such bill will pass the House, his committee’s report would be unfavorable, and he is not going to have a committee hearing on it, anyway. Rep. Wright Patman, Texarkana, who was to handle the bill in the House, said he asked Teague for a hearing but did not hear from him. A presidential veto would be expected, were the bill to clear the House. The bill passed the Senate, 57 to 31, both Texas senators voting aye, after a plan for ten-year interest free loans rather than grants was replaced by a combination program of grants, and then grants for good students and loans for slower students. Yarborough supported the combination program. As enacted, Yarborough’s bill, the “Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act of 1959,” provides for veterans, including those now cut off from the GI bill if they entered the service after Jan. 31, 1955, pre-college vocational training; direct grants for the first year of college; after that, direct grants for students who stay in the upper 50 percent of their classes scholastically, and loans for students who do not. The bill also includes provisions for vocational rehabilitation for vets with service-connected disabilities and loan guaranties for the purchase of homes and farms. pearing on Yarborough’s radiotelevision broadcast in Texas, said the bill is “one of the most important” of the session and applies to nearly four million veterans, perhaps a third of whom would use the educational parts. The Senate’s economy bloc fought the bill, maintaining it would cost, eventually, about $500 million a year, or $2.6 billion through 1965. The combination program adopted reduced the figure through 1965 by about $.9 billion. the bill provided for children educating their parents. Sen. Sam cost too much and would call for new taxes. Sen. Barry Goldwater go to all if to any. said the premise was that veterans should have a fair chance at the rewards of the way of life. ing the straight loan program, said it would penalize a poor boy who has ability. Sen. Wayne put a price tag on a trained mind.” In presenting the bill, Yarborough said “our sense of equity,” which expects equal national service from all, has to cope with the fact that less than half the young men in the U.S. will ever be compelled to serve in the military. The GI bills, he said, improved “our society as a whole.” All veterans need “the readjustment aids,” and they deserve them; peacetime veterans now bear the major burden of the cold war, he said. Split on Loyalty Oaths Sens. Lyndon Johnson and Yarborough split on every vote concerning the requirement that college students receiving benefits under the National Defense Education Act take loyalty oaths under criminal penalties. Johnson voted for the oaths, Yarborough against. Johnson did not take part in the debate. Yarborough at one point explained that the course he favored, requiring \(as asked by Sen. Jacob \\only that such students take the oath of allegiance to the U.S., put the same burden on students getting $500 loans as U.S. senators who are paid $22,500 a year. said he was “shocked” by anyone objecting to the proposal that students take oaths of allegiance and be held criminally liable. “We need more patriotism in this country, not less,” he said. pared the amendment to the Salem witch hunt, the era of the alien and sedition laws, and the McCarthy period. He called the issue “an attempt by the antiintellectual elements of the country to cast doubt on the loyalty of the students of the nation.” On tabling the Javits amendment to require only the oath of allegiance, Yarborough voted no, Johnson aye; the motion lost, 5439. On passing the Javits amend ment, Yarborough voted aye, Johnson no; the amendment carried, 46-45. moved to recommit the bill on the education program because, he said, under the Javits amendment, “any communist” who took the oath could not be prosecuted. said he saw no reason why college students should take the oath when other beneficiaries of government aid did not. The bill, however, was recommitted, 4942. Johnson voted aye, Yarborough no. Yarborough at U. of Md. Sen. Yarborough took over a podium at the University of Maryland to lecture about the “miserly” attitude of Texans toward education, including the rejection of federal loan grants to students by the regents of Texas state teachers’ colleges. The senator appeared in a lecture series ‘sponsored by the University’s school of education. He spoke on the broad topic of “Education, Politics, and Politicians,” but he peppered his remarks with enough homilies from the Brazos River bottom and hard times accounts from Texas classrooms to make any Texan feel at home. Yarborough, a co-author of the National Defense Education Act, criticized the regents of the five remaining state teachers’ colleges in Texas for refusing to participate in the federal loan program for students. He said the regents considered federal money “tainted.” The regent who receives large sums of federal money for his grain elevator storage under the agricultural program “doesn’t think that money’ is tainted,” bait he does object to student loans from the federal government, Yarborough said. The denial of the loan program to students comes at a time when the state is facing a serious ,shortage of teachers, similar to the shortage that caused the teachers’ colleges to be established in the first place, the senator pointed out. While urging teachers to set an example for their students and become active in politics, he warned that it “isn’t a bed of roses.” Professors in Texas, he said, are fired for their political beliefs. He told of the dismissal of Dr. Byron Abernathy after the Texas Tech professor had made two speeches before liberal Democrats within one year. “In Texas they seem to fire the teachers who are Democrats, not those who make Republican speeches,” he commented with a laugh. The formal schoolteacher said that one of the reasons he turned to politics was to remedy the “niggardly, miserly” support of teachers and schools in Texas. The state couldn’t offer enough to keep “Bull” Elkins, University of Maryland president, from leaving the presidency of Texas Western at El Paso. It also can’t keep surrounding states from “stealing” its teachers and future teachers by offering higher salaries, Yarborough said. He explained that Arkansas is the only nearby state where Texas salaries for teachers compare favorably, and he cited an example of one Texat teachers’ college that gave up 90 percent of its graduating teachers to California scohols. Johnson on Leadership Johnson presented his role in the Senate as leader of the entire Senate, not just the Democrats, and promised again to work with the Republicans, in a broadcast in Massachusetts, part of which was replayed in Texas. The majority leader, Johnson said, “must, in effect, try to be a leader of the Senate, not just the Democratic Party.” Legislation that Congress passed, he said, “will do all that a majority of the Congress and the President will agree can be done now,” and “we won’t be able to do everything that I would like to do.” Johnson said he hopes a civil rights bill will pass. “I think it’s very important that_ we have understanding and we have tolerance, but that we make progress,” he said. Terms can be worked out between his and the President’s bill, he believed. \(These remarks were not included in the Texas play-back, which was only onethird as long as the Massachusetts there will be a “good” labor reform bill. He did not mention overriding the Eisenhower veto of the housing bill and reportedly may not try to override the wheat and tobacco bill vetos from Eisenhower, though he said Democrats will not hesitate to take another look at the last two. Sen. Leverett Saltonstall \(R.son, told Johnson, “I’ve always admired the way in which you have carried out your responsibilities as a leader.” Johnson said he always confers with Republican leaders in the Senate. “I do not believe we should have paralysis in government,” he said. “… you can either do something or you can do nothing,” “You’ve got to do something,” Saltonstall rejoined. Johnson said the people elect politicians to “do our jobs rather than to make issues or to play politics. And you’re the kind of a senator that doesn’t play it,” he told Saltonstall on the broadcast. The Peace-Pipe Parley Although it was heard after ward, the Johnson Saltonstall broadcast was recorded in advance of the peace-making parley between Paul Butler, the Democratic National Chairman, Johnson, and Speaker Sam Rayburn. “We agreed that no one of the three of us is trying to be divisive,” Rayburn said after the meeting in his office. Butler, emphasizing he had predicted a good final record for the Democratic congress, said, “I feel we have a very able and devoted leadership.” Rayburn said “I’ve taken no stock, said nothing about removing Mr. Butler,” Rayburn said. “Nor have I,” said Johnson. “Butler,” said Rayburn, “says he has not criticized me or Mr. Johnson.” Butler said Congress is in the hands of “able leaders, devoted Democrats, and we’re going in the long run to satisfy most Democrats.” Had Butler, who sought the conference, mentioned his complaint that the leadership had been watering down bills to avoid vetoes? Rayburn said he and Johnson told Butler that they do not do this: “We pass what we think is right and let the chips and vetoes fall where they may,” Rayburn said. George B. Parr gave up his attempt to become sheriff of Duval County, taking a non-suit and thus confirming J. P. Stockwell as sheriff. The county commissioners had ousted Stockwell . and appointed a Parr ally. Parr also filed suit for back pay as sheriff. Two infants died in Robert B. Green hosiptal in San Antonio after they were fed sodium nitrite pills instead of Vitamin C pills. Four others were saved. Attorneys for Lone Star Gas argued in their rate hearing that while the nation’s ten biggest gas companies have had at least one rate increase since 1952, Lone Star has not had ‘a rate change since 1942. and then it was a reduction. They asked Dr. Robert Montgomery, professor of economics and witness for 320 cities, if his recommended rate of return of 5.5 to 6 percent a year was not “rather niggardly and miserly”? “I do not or I should not have given it,” he replied. Leslie G. Burnett has been named education director of the state AFL-CIO, replacing Hank Brown. Burnett was Beaumont labor representative on the Texas Employment Commission before. THE TEXAS OBSERVER Page 6 August 1, 1959 1== .11111/11 RELIABLE REAL ESTATE SERVICE Arthur Hajacate METROPOLITAN REALTY CO. 4340 rrelophone Road HOUSTON, TEXAS