ustxtxb_obs_1959_08_14_50_00008-00000_000.pdf

Notes on Candidates Learning To Dance: For $25,000 *A 63-year-old San Antonio widow, persuaded by the Arthur Murray dance studio to sign up for 2,000 hours of instruction early in 1959, filed suit in district court to get her money back $25,000. She asked the court for return of her money, less the value of the lessons she has received. She alleged three employees of the studio persuaded her to sign because “it was a good investment.” She said she did so because she has been lonely since the death of her husband. ,. Goliad independent school district has decided to transfer its Negro students to Cuero high school during the coming school year, as it did in the 195859 term, after a ruling by the school trustees that a petition calling for integration did not contain the full 20 per cent of qualified voters as required by state law. The petition was signed by 226 qualified electors of the Goliad Independent School District. A check of the poll tax list by school trustees established that 1,240 qualified voters reside within the boundaries of the district. Under state segregation laws passed in 1957, no school district can integrate without loss of state funds until authorized to do so by an election. called by petition of 20 per cent of the voters. *An all-male jury in Houston acquitted 31-year-old Vester L. Morris of the slaying of William Parker for “messing with my wife.” Morris had admitted following his wife, their three children, and Parker to a tourist court. He drove the children out of sight and returned to find Parker and Mrs. Morris in a car together. He fired twice through the windshield, then ordered his wife out of the car and shot Parker. Said the defendant, after the verdict: “Thank God those twelve men knew what a man must do to protect his home. I didn’t hate him, but I killed him. I was thinking of my family when I killed Parker. Bill was just like all men he had desire within him, and the desire was too much for him. … You just don’t mess with somebody’s else’s wife.” Mrs. Morris cried happily, near collapse. She said, “He was confident that the jury would free him. I don’t have as much faith as he has.” * Texas colleges prepared this fall to chalk up a first among the nation’s institutions of higher learning: the state will field 31 college football teams, more than any other state. * Magnolia Petroleum Com pany of Dallas is being re organized and will be combined with other wholly owned subsid iaries of Socony Mobil Oil Co. of New York to form a single large operating company, Mobil Oil Co. Officials announced the consoli dation involves, in addition to the Dallas affiliate, General Petrol eum Corp. of Los Angeles, Mobil Producing Co. of Billings, Mon tana, and the domestic continental operations of the parent company. Magnolia Pipe Line Co., also headquartered in Dallas, will con tinue as a separate company in the Mobil group. The Socony Oil empire . grew out of the old Cul linen Refining Company, organ /Wayne Gard, Dallas News v editorial writer, evaluated the Democratic presidential hopefuls: “Humphrey … too radical for even the average liberal; Sen. Kennedy is handicapped by ultraliberalism and a politically unpopular religion; Lyndon Johnson comes from the wrong part of the country. … Friends close to Adlai Stevenson say he soon will take himself definitely out of the running. … Some think Sen. Stuart Symington may get the nomination by default.” /Dallas Times-Herald said the v 56th Legislature could not be criticized for lavish spending. “Studying the detailed list of appropriations, it is difficult to see how the Legislature could have been more economy minded. Texas is growing rapidly, in population and economic activity. … Those who think the state government is on a spending spree are simply not realistic. The budget adopted is probably far lower than the optimum that would best assure Texas’s progress.” Concluding its evaluation of the 56th, Times-Herald said, “It has served notice in bold letters that, as now constituted, our legislature is alarmingly inadequate to its key role in fostering the wellbeing of a modern, aspiring state.” /On the teacher pay raise V question, Dallas News laid down some prerequisites for the Texas State Teachers Association: “If the TSTA is now to press its claim for a large additional expenditure for schools through a special session, the legislature should be given benefit of its advice on the source of revenue to raise the money. If the TSTA favors a sales tax to raise the money, it should say so. If it does not, it should then point out the other sources of revenue available. … Otherwise, another special session will likely result in nothing more than futile wrangling.” j San Antonio Light capitol V correspondent Stuart Long took a second look at the ‘settlement of the House-Senate dispute over the Insurance Commission, concluded that the Senate antiHarrison vie* had prevailed more than the House pro-Harrison approach. Said the Light: “The House was so impressed it passed a resolution praising its five conferees for standing fast and not letting the Senate conferees abolish the Board of Insurance. But while the House committee appears to have concentrated on the two top salary items in the appropriation bill, the Senate conferees, out to drive Chairman Penn Jackson and Harrison out of office, paid attention to the items down below … key jobs were abolished … travel expenses cut … the treasured reorganization put over by Harrison … was turned topsy-turvy in a reorganization put into the bill by Sen. Floyd Bradshaw, chairman of the Senate insurance committee … and the agency was chopped into a number of little independent kingdoms, just as it was before Harrison’s reorganization.” / Abilene Reporter-News, rev minding its readers it was one of the state’s few dailies that plumped for voter acceptance of the $7,500 annual ‘legislature pay ized at Corsicana, Texas, in 1898, later combined with the John Sealy Co. of Beaumont, and dissolved in 1911, when Magnolia Petroleum Company was formed as a joint stock company. Magnolia, in turn, was absorbed by Socony-Mobil of New York in 1925. constitutional amendment, called the 56th “an ungodly grind … the lawmakers have been through the mill. There are few loafers and time-servers among them; the big majority in both houses work hard at the job and earn every cent of their pay. … In spite of the rambunctious performance of the 56thindeed because of it the better-pay-and-bifurcated-sessions amendment that was defeated by the voters last year looks better than ever.” / In a feature story the Associv ated Press called Houston’s Bob Eckhardt the 56th’s “outstanding thored the so-called open beaches Political Intelli\(gence bill … overcoming stern opposition in conference committee to acknowledged leader of liberal forces, he guided a one time 30member, stringy band into a tight 47-vote bloc … the mainstay against general sales taxes and a worked between the House and Senate for passage in the third called session of a 1.5 per cent severance beneficiary tax aimed at natural gas pipelines.” The story quoted Eckhardt, “The lineup would be best set as those who voted for a higher tax on pipelines and against an amendment that would have gutted the open beach bill. Both dealt with whether you were with the public or the private interests. That was the test.” / Where are we on who’s run/ ning for what? In the usual state of extreme post-legislative confusion, too early for announcements but in plenty of time for trial balloons. On the state level much depends, of course, on whether Gov. Daniel seeks re-election, and whether Atty. Gen. Wilson runs for governor or re-election. If the attorney generalship opens up, most frequently named possibilities are Speaker Waggoner Carr; Sen. Charles Herring; Tom Reavley. Houston DA Dan Walton is considering running. Dallas DA Henry Wade is mentioned less and less. Liberals have not come forward with a likely opponent against Daniel should he run; they may wind up supporting him for reelection if his protagonist is conservative. On the lieutenant governor’s level, Lt. Gov. Ramsey may try for railroad commissioner, \(as likely also will Judge the No. 2 spot in state government open to possible challengers like Sen. William Fly, Victoria, Herring, or any of many others. Rep. Bo Ramsey, tax conservative, says he may run against Comptroller Bob Calvert. Sixteen senators come up for re-election, and though they get only two-year terms because of mandatory redistricting, most plan to run for re-election. Sen. Gonzalez says he will run for re-election. or retire, removing himself from the state wide picture. Among the firmer shape-ups for Senate races: Rep. Zbranek vs. Sen. Colson; Rep. Kennard and City councilman Tom Thompson vs. Sen. Willis; Rep. McGregor vs. Sen. Qwen; Reps. Jamison and Cotten vs. Sen. Bradshaw, or for his seat if he vacates; Rep. Bates vs. Sen. Hudson; Rep. Strickland vs. Sen. Gonzalez. Talk has been launched in Dallas that C. B. Bunkley, Negro attorney who drew 18,000 votes in the mayor’s race and evidently switched a number of votes in the runoff, may run for the legislature. This may be designed to get Negroes to pay their poll taxes, or it may be serious. A bitter dispute is shaping in Houston over tax collector Carl Smith’s new rules for poll tax payingpersons paying in person sign affidavits; poll tax agents may not move from place to place but must be stationed where Smith establishes stations. Houston Chronicle editorialized “No Shackles Put on Voting” in defense of the rules, noting also that Smith has for years sent poll tax forms with the annual tax bill to property owners. Houston Post jumped Rep. Johnston for criticizing the new rules. Johnston hinted he may run against Smith. JJDallas News concluded the growth of liberalism in Texas will be gradual, not revolutionary. The News said editorially, “Rep. Robert C. Eckhardt of Houston, liberal leader in the legislature, has reassuring words for conservatives in Texas. He sees the expansion of liberal power \(continuing the apparent progress they ,made during the recent session. But he does not think it will be revolutionary. He sees slow progress. Probably he is right. The future expansion of liberal progress in Texas will have to come as a co-operative effort of urban labor and farm interests. The farmer is often radical, but he is not usually radical on the same issues that get labor support.” / The Observer is advised that V in the course of competition for liberal votes in the hot race for Speaker of the 1961 House of Representatives, conservative Wade Spilman agreed substantially to the four “conditions” of House procedure that moderate Jim Turman agreed to. OCAW Scores At Baytown AUSTIN The oilworkers’ international union’s first breakthrough into Standard Oil of New Jersey territory occurred in Baytown last week when O.C.A.W. won a union election, 1,621 votes to 1,196, which will result in the establishment of an O.C.A.W. local at the Humble plant in Baytown. The 3,300 workers at the refinery have been functioning as members of an independent union. State AFL-CIO officials in Austin demurred at designating the former union as a “company union,” since its policies had been more aggressive than those usually associated with a company union. The victory for O.C.A.W. was the first time in history an international union has won an election at a major installation of Standard Oil of New Jersey. Humble is an almost wholly owned subsidiary of Jersey Standard. The vote to affiliate with O.C.A.W. was the largest unionwon election in Texas this year. Four times before since 1943 the voters of the Humble plant at Baytown were asked to approve an international union, and each time they refused. The last vote was a 2-to-1 rejection of the metal trades department of the AFL-CIO in 1956. In a very minor sideplay, the five brfckmasons at the Humble refinery voted 4-1 to affiliate with the bricklayers’ international union. Direct Approach To Dallas AUSTIN With J. Ed Connally of Abilene, the Daniel-oriented state Demorcratic chairman, turning in $25 for ten tickets to the Truman rally in Dallas Oct. 17, and with the county commissioners court siding with the liberals on precinct redistricting, one can’t be sure who is what and what is who in deeply conservative Dallas. Dan Patton, the liberal chairman of precinct 441, who just upped and wrote Harry Truman when none of the county Democratic officials would get things going \(“I’m tired of going around liberals will elect a county chairman and the Dallas delegation to the state convention in May. To Texans who have seen Dallas go conservative year after year and who understood Bill Blakley’s exasperation when he carried the county against Ralph Yarborough by less than 20,000 votes, this may seem like stead: fastly denying that the Mississippi flows toward the sea. Why does Patton think so? “Statistics!” he replies. “Yarborough carried 130 of 184 precincts in Dallas County,” he says. “In the primary against Blakley he carried 97 of the 184. Drake” \(Ed Drake, the county, Democratic chairman, who supported Eisenhower in 19h2 and tive committee since it was elected because he is not in control. Numerically, of the 184 precinct chairmen, there is not , a liberal majority, but we have a Democratic majority, with conservatives who will not go along with