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Harry on Adlai DALLAS Harry Truman made his position on Adlai Stevenson clear as a gong here Saturday and Sunday. Jack Matthews, secretary of the Harris County Democratic executive committee and president of the Texans for Stevenson Clubs, said he was identified to Truman as a Stevenson leader. He said Truman and he then had this conversation: Truman: “W e 11, y o u’r e backing a loser.” Matthews: “No I’m not.”. Truman: “Yes you are, but go ahead.” Sunday morning, as Truman was having the downtown area for a church meeting, Matthews ran into him again. Matthews said this conversation ensued between them: Truman: “Well, he’s gonna get beat.” Matthews: “By whom?” Truman: “Me.” Matthews: “W e 11, we’re gonna keep right ahead and we’re gonna win.” The one great rule of composition is to speak the truth. THOREAU ,4<'A4 UllrEY'& V" ,o , The Observer 4 Independent-Liberal Weekly Newspaper We will serve no group or party but will hew hard to the truth as we find it and the right as we see it. Vol. 51 TEXAS, OCTOBER 23, 1959 10c per copy No. 29 THE BELL MATRIX: WHERE DID IT GO? LBJ Special Revved \(The fifth in a series on the economics of power in. Texas, this article is based on material gathered by Observer associate editor Larry Goodwyn before his departure from the staff this month. The sixth and last article, based on material prepared by Goodwyn on the electric utilities in Texas, will appear next week. The Austin City Council, in public session this summer to debate a requested citywide telephone rate increase, was informed by a Bell systern lawyer that the "only issue under discussion is the Austin Telephone Company." Judging from his testimony, some 1,500 cities and hamlets in Texas will find themselves facing Austin's problem within the next one to four years. As indicated by the testimony of Bell's attorneys in Austin, these hundreds of hearings will bear marked similarities. Each will revolve around rate increases based on the performance of the "local telephone company." Possible relationships of the local situation to the overall earnings of the Bell System, its long lines department, or its tre mendous equipment subsidiary, Western Electric, will be resisted as not germane by the Bell lawyers. If, as in the case of Austin, the city involved has the services of a utility expert such as the University of Texas's Dr. Robert Montgomery, the testimony of Bell attorneys may be characterized in rebuttal as "immoral" and "outrageous," words that econo. mist Montgomery used to describe Bell's method of cost and earning computations. Yet telephone rate hearings rarely describe a pattern of balanced antagonists, telephone experts on the one hand opposing city experts on the other. In the instance of the Austin hearing, Montgomery described the city's dilemma: "No matter how right we are, we can't do anything of any significance without going to court, and where is a city going to get $500,000 to finance a long law suit? In the first place, the taxpayers will not stand for itthey just don't understand what is involved. No, this hearing will drag on for a while, and then Bell will 'compromise' for about half of what they are askingwhich is what they had planned to do all along. DALLAS The Johnson for President special, Sam Rayburn at the wheel, was revved up last S a t u r d a y afternoon, was gunned at the Truman rally and sputtered fitfully, gained speed across the front pages of the state press Sunday morning, zoomed along the Pan-American highway Sunday afternoon, and settled into a fast, steady cruise. This was the main impact of the Truman rally around the state, but as far as rally chairman Dan Patton was concerned, the 6,000 or 7,000 Democrats who turned out to hear Truman give the Republicans hell were "a great outpouring of grass roots Democrats from the precincts" who, in 1960, will wrest Dallas politics from "the Ed Drake crowd." Drake, the Dallas County Democratic chairman, refused to attend the rally, saying it was nothing but "the ultra-liberal, ADACIO fringe of the local party" trying to create the distorted impression that "this is a 'unity' meeting sponsored by the official machinery of the Democratic Party." Guests on the rally platform ineluded Truman, Johnson, Rayburn, Ralph Yarborough, national committee members Mrs. R. D. Randolph and Byron Skelton, and state party chairman J. Ed Connally, who conveyed Gov. Price DALLAS Last Friday the Associated Press carried a story which quoted Harry Truman as saying of the Democratic presidential candidates, "Of course Lyndon Johnson is the leading candidate." The Houston Chronicle bannered, "Johnson Lea din g Candidate, Truman Says," and the quote also appeared in the San Antonio Light and the Austin Statesman. The AP sent out a "kill" on the quote, but if retractions were printed the Observer did not see any of them. Truman had said the Democrats have half a dozen qualified candidates, and when asked if Johnson' was one of them, he had replied, of course. At Truman's Saturday press conference the Observer asked him if he had made the statement. Truman replied: "I made no such statement. I said he was a fine man and I still think so. I understand Sam Rayburn announced for him this afternoon. If I was in Texas I might do the same thing, but wait'll we hear from Missouri." Another reporter asked if Truman thought Johnson would make a good president. "Why there isn't any question about it," Truman replied. "Anybody the Democrats nominate will make a good candidate. He's got to get the nomination first." Sunday morning t h e Dallas News misquoted Truman, "I understand Speaker Rayburn came out for Senator Johnson today. I would come out for him, too, if I were a Texan. But I am a Mis Daniel's official greetings to Truman. Rayburn, summoning a few reporters to his hotel room, announced the Johnson for President drive Saturday afternoon. This news, timed before the early evening deadlines of the dailies, topped the Truman rally speeches in most of the Sunday morning papers. At the rally Connally endorsed Johnson and was booed; Rayburn endorsed Johnson and was applauded; Yarborough did not endorse anybody and' said he thinks the candidate in 1960 should be an uncompromising man; Johnson passed comment and introduced Truman; Truman did not name Johnson, said the 1960 nominee must be "a vigorous, fighting, genuine liberal," and also criticized those who spend their time criticizing the Democratic leadership in Congress. Truman spoke briefly at an executive committee meeting of the Democrats of Texas Clubs Saturday morning, which led to DOT jubilation that they are the "Harry Truman splinter group." DOT in effect decided not to oppose Johnson in the precinct conventions and to play the state convention as it happens. \(See various other stories on 'None of This ... Stuff' Rayburn not only announced Johnson for favorite son in his sourian and Missouri has not been heard from yet." This misquote appeared in an Associated Press story published Oct. 19 in the Corpus Christi Caller-Times and was also picked up by the Fort Worth Press Monday afternoon. At the Saturday conference, Truman said to a Dallas News reporter questioning him, "Sometimes I do foolish things. The Dallas News'll tell you I do foolish things all the time. Isn't that right?" "Yes, sir!" the News reporter responded. "Most of the people don't agree with you, thougheven in Texas," Truman rejoined. Asked what he thought of Allan Shivers, he said, "I don't think he's a Democrat, if you want to know what I think." Saturday afternoon conference; he also said, "none of this first ballot stuff." Asked if Johnson had agreed, he said, "I'm agreeing to this." He said that Johnson ought to carry every county in Texas, and that he knows other prominent Democrats in other states who are strong for Johnson. "The first thing to do is to make him a favorite son," the TimesHerald reported Rayburn said. "We want to be sure Sen. Johnson has a delegation which will support him as long as his name is before the convention. None of this first ballot stuff." Byron Skelton, the national committeeman, and J. Ed Connally, the state party chairman, concurred with Rayburn. Walter Hall, Dickinson banker and DOT leader, said, "I'll be happy to help Lyndor: Johnson in any way I can." Rayburn, asked what effect his announcement might have on his presiding at the Los Angeles convention, said he would announce Jan. 1 whether he wants to preside. Asked to comment, Yarborough told the Observer, "Only one or two candidates have announced. I have no position on it till I see who all is going to run." Mrs. R. D. Randolph, national committeewoman, reiterated her position that Johnson is not a candidate, and when asked if she would support him if he became On Gov. Price Daniel he said, "I don't know him. I'm sorry I don't. They tell me he's a very fine man. I'd figure he'd have to be to be the Governor of Texas." In his speech text he had written that the Republicans stole the tidelands and gave them to the states. Asked by the Observer how this reconciled with the Administration's present opposition to Texas tidelands claims in Washington, he said, "If they are it's the first time they've done anything right ... Texas hasn't got a Navy, how can they protect anything more than a shot from the shore?" Discussing corruption in unions, Truman said, "I notice one of your Dallas bankers" had been implicated in a shortage of several hundred thousand dollars. WADAYA GoN,N ADO ABOUT A TEACHERS PAY SEW 0 N ? 4 What Truman Did Say