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Are for Lyndon Johnson’ Bartlett Appears Exclusively in the Texas Observer Lyndon’s Regency Let those flatter who fear, it is not an American art.JEFFERSON ‘Of Course, Suh, All of Us Westerners PerJecution Ra y The collisions officials of the new teachers’ unions have had with school boards in Houston and Edgewood, San Antonio, have become so frequent they are approaching the status of persecutions. The Houston school board has fired one teacher, Charles Strange, -vice president of the union, for tiffs with a student similar to others it has tolerated amonc , non union teachers. One Edward Alazeika, an English and journalism high school teacher and secretary of the union, became chairman of the defense fund for Strange, and wham !—he was suspended because he drank one bottle of beer at a journalism banquet in a public restaurant. In San Antonio, the president of the Edgewood union was suspended for We trust the Corpus Christi school board will now fulfill its duty to the tradition of the American public school and reject the $5,000 grant offered by the propagandist Texas Educational Assn. of Fort Worth. Concerned citizens of Corpusalerted to the dangers of the program by the Observer and by articles and an editorial in the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, one of the best dailies in the statehave stated their surprised objections to taking businessmen’s money to help them decide what kind of economics the public schools will teach. Once again we repeat that no group, business, labor, agriculture, or any other, has a right to buy any part of the public school curriculum. We warn our readers in Bishop, Orange, Amarillo, Lubbock, and Wichita Falls ..700 Bad Neither Texas senator voted up to snuff on the clean elections bill. First Senator Johnson voted to exclude Southern primariesan outrageous vote in which the “Western” Johnson showed his political dependence on the South for his bloc of votes at the Democrats’ national convention. Senator Yarborough, in a very fine vote, agreed to include the primaries. A few days later, however, Yarborough voted against including the expenditures of intrastate campaign committees under the law, while Johnson voted to include them. The law should require that all political contributions be a matter of public record. However, the discussion is probably academic, because Texans on the House sidenamely Rayburn and Burlesonare crouched behind their seniority ready to club the clean elections bill into shapeless hypocrisy. How long before the arrogant squires of the South are driven from their high and mighty Congressional carriages? Published by Texas Observer Co., Ltd. Entered as second-class matter, April 26, 1937, at the Post Office at Austin, Texas, under the Act of March 3, 1879. JANUARY 29, 1960 Ronnie Dogger Editor and General Manager Sarah Payne, Office Manager leaving the school grounds during an off period without permission \(some “profession,” this teaching spect of the school board.” Meanwhile, the secretary of the Edgewood local was relieved of a night class which had been, in effect, a bonus to her. Then the president of this union was reinstated and reassigned from high to junior high school without a n y explanation The anti-union elements on these school boards seem to think the way to bust the union is to bully the teachers who are the union leaders. Some of the teachers doubtless have been intimidated ; others in justified anger redouble their efforts. Persecution is risky, gentlemen. Perhaps fair play would be safer. and every -where else in Texasto be on the lookout for this unwelcome money in their public schools. .Again We hear another honest Republican voice in Texas. It’s refreshing after eight years of “Democrats for Eisenhower.” Jack Morris is one of six Republicans who ran as Republicans for the legislature in Dallas in 1958. He said up there the other day that he had been approached about filing in the Democratic primary as ahere we go again “Nixon Democrat.” He refused, saying Republicans ought to run as Republicans. Unfortunately, the significance of his statement is less the probability that many Republicans will take his adviceas it is a warning to Democrats to be on the lookout for “Democrats for Nixon” while they can still be rejected as candidates for office. Vi h ant tng The New York Times has warned that forces of “expansion and destruction” are pressing in on the American domain. “Almost all of the great wilderness has disappeared, the forests have been cut, the rivers polluted, the mountains defaced, the grasses burnt, the game decimated, the long, clean, white miles of ocean beach contaminated and exploited.” The Times calls for legislation to establish “a national wilderness system” to preserve “the best of such areas that still exist,” including “an island off Texas,” Padre Island. But “the exploiters are, as usual, a major stumbling block.” Will the present Congress set aside Padre and other still virgin areas for the future? We pray the Congress will not be so busy with politics, they fail to act for posterity. 7 Published once a week from Austin, Texas. Delivered postage prepaid $4 per annum. Advertising rates available on request. Extra copies 10c each. Quantity prices available on orders. EDITORIAL and BUSINESS OFFICE: 504 West 24th St., Austin, Texas. Phone GReenwood 7-0746. HOUSTON OFFICE: 1010 Dennis, Mrs. R. D. Randolph. MARSHALL The past week has evidenced the pussyfooting approach of Lyndon toward the nomination in Los Angeles. Interested observers should have no trouble in discerning his stealthy acquisition of delegates ; the solid South group on purely provincial principles, and the case-hardened pros through trade, countertrade, and the unhealthy yearning of these gentry . for a share in his party power. None of them have ever expressed the thought that they had rather their man be right than president ; nor have they let the belief that it would be better to lose than to mislead the people temper their affection for Pussyfoot Johnson. While the writer prefers the man most fitted for the job, Adlai Stevenson, he must nevertheless pause to draw a parallel between Lyndon and jack Kennedy. It is granted that Jack was late, far too late, in questioning the canonization of St. Ike, but he did, at long last, say what must have been obvious to any thinking and reading b person : Ike has been a hopelessly inept president. If history ever emerges from the fog of newspaper disguise of his shortcomings, his administration will be known as the one that permitted the United States to become a second rate power. The point now made is that he did not achieve this alone. He had the valiant aid of Pussyfoot Johnson. There may have been some excuse for our failure to enter the missile race before 1957, but there can be none for our dilly-dallying since Sputnik I went into orbit. This last event did not trouble Ike “one iota,” and it seems to have bothered the Great Manipulator even less. He muf fed the ball in the beginning by piously saying in public that the question was too important for politics to be considered and -proceeded as chairman of the Senate Space Committee to make reports without fixing specific blame or making specific recommendations. Indeed, private reports such as the Rockefeller and Gaither findings were far more reliable and enlightening than anything that has come from any of the Johnson chaired committees. Last May he came up with a classic in the field of comment on the obvious. He found “confusion” in the defense program that he concluded was “far from corn forting.” In the ‘meanwhile, rather than making a realistic evaluation of defense spending; where we stood in the missile race, and what we should do about it, he and Czar Rayburm tried to outdo Ike in their “me tooism” on the subject of budget balancing. His rampant statement of almost a year ago that “a searching investigation” would be made to show whether the U.S. or Russia was ahead in military strength has yet to bear fruit. ALL THIS makes one wonder if the Democrats are going to adopt the Republican standards for a candidate : Run someone who can win, a Harding, a Coolidge, or an Eisenhower, and then establish a regency to hold the real reigns of government. This may sound harsh, but what background has Pussyfoot to qualify him for the presidency ? He is not nearly so well travelled as was Ike at the time of his ascent, and likelyGod forbid! has less background and . less understanding of international affairs. He has been in the driver’s seat for the Democratic Party and has chosen the padded foot approach rather than the firm tread of intelligent opposition. He has lain low on most questions that called for advanced pronouncements by leaders, and he has frittered away the great advantage the Democratic party achieved in the liberal landslide of 1958 by out-moderating Ike. Coming back to Senator Kennedy, he has taken another bold step in entering the Wisconsin primary. The politicoes admit he could take a severe setback if he loses, even though the primary is being held in Sen. Humphrey’s back yard. He could have stayed out .of the fight, and may later wish he had, but at least he came out in the open and made a choice. Can anyone of my readers fancy Lyndon playing with a political deck that was not stacked in advance? True, Jack became a washroom liberal to avoid voting to censure Gentleman Joe McCar thy, but there is reason to believe he has had cause to regret this step on many occasions. NOMINATE and elect Lyndon, then with will make up the regency? Will it be a Sherman Adams, a George Humphrey, or a Bob Anderson ? My guess is that Lyndon’s will be from the admirers among his membership of the National Association of Manufacturers and the United States Chamber of Commerce. No eggheads, thank you; the senator prefers mut ton. FRANKLIN JONES Unwelcome Money THE TEXAS OBSERVER