ustxtxb_obs_1960_02_05_50_00001-00000_000.pdf

0:64 A o 01-Q”:.04Ce’ x ee ‘,q 41\\ e ” , eekly Newspaper A`c _ EBRUARY 5, 1960 Proxmire’s for Ralph As Texans’ President AUSTIN Sen. William Proxmire of Wisconsin thinks that Ralph Yarborough would be a fine candidate for president of the United States from Texas. Someone sent Proxmire a copy of the Observer for Jan. 15 which included a column by Franklin Jones entitled, “Nick the Knife vs. L. B. Brownrooter,” \(a speculation on the prospects for a presidential race between Dick and a column by the editor on Sen. Yarborough’s vote with Proxmire and ten other senators for the Gore resolution which would have clipped Johnson’s Senate power. Proxmire, on January 23, sent the Observer a letter, which he has subsequently approved for publication. He wrote: “Thanks for sending me the copy of your wonderful ‘Texas Observer.’ I especially liked your editorial entitled, ‘Nick the Knife vs. L. B. Brownrooter.’ I also enjoyed your personal report on Yarborough. I think that Ralph is the real hero in all this. He deserves a world of credit for standing up to what must be tremendous pressure. It is easy for those of us in the North to make this kind of a fight, but for Ralph Yarborough it takes the strongest kind of courage, dedication to his conscience and his convictions. There’s a Texan who would make a great President of the United States. “Sincerely, “Bill Proxmire.” Proxmire told his Wisconsin constituents in a newsletter that he will go on with his fight against Johnson’s power over the Senate for as long as necessary. “By long I mean several year sperhaps years or more \(Wisconsin votThe one great rule of composition is to speak the truth. THOREA U The Tex 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 10c per copy No. 44 FOR JOHNSON A FREE RIDE Bank Probe Asked, Killed AUSTIN Sen. Lyndon Johnson drew a free ride back to six more years in the United States Senate Monday when no one filed and paid up to run against him. Thus he is freed for a free-wheeling drive for convention strength for the presidential nomination at the Democrats’ Los Angeles convention. Up to the last hour liberals engaged in anguished debate whether Johnson should be opposed. In the last analysis counsels prevailed which warned that liberal’s bad loss to Johnson would hurt liberalism in the state more than might be gained by opposing him. On Monday an application was filed for the candidacy of Paul S. Rogers of Amarillo, who listed his occupatiOn as real estate. He enclosed no filing fee, and Jake Pickle said at state Democratic executive committee headquarters that Rogers had not been heard from after having been adOrganized labor’s political lead:,rs a:. to meet ir Austin Feb. 1213 to decide what to do about various elections. The Democrats of Texas Clubs. hold a state convention Feb. 20 in Houston with Sen. Wayne Morse as the speaker. Without a candidacyagainst Johnson for the Senate seat, liberals opposed to Johnson will probably resort to a standoffish attitude with respect to his candidacy, holding out a threat of “blowing his convention” should events occur of which they do not approve. On the other hand, Johnson’s friends will argue that the failure to oppose Johnson for the Senate is a confession of weakness by anti-Johnson forces. In Dallas, Robert Clark, secre1 tary of the Johnson-for-President ; clubs, said that signatures on petitions for Johnson now number 5,500 and active clubs are working for Johnson in 40 precincts, with : clubs extant in each of the 187 precincts. Liberal and labor people were still holding off from the Johnson clubs. In San Antonio pro-Johnson county chairman Jimmy Knight won approval of his nominees for twelve vacancies for precinct chairmen by a 52-36 vote, strengthening Johnson’s hand in Bexar. Congressional Q u a r ter 1 y reported that Johnson continues to gain strength among members of Congress. A year ago he had only 14 percent of the first-place votes among Democratic members of Congress for the presidency; his total in the current poll, 37 percent, gave him first-place, ahead three-fourths of Johnson’s votes came from the South and border states; he also led the West. The poll included answers from 170 Democratic members of the House and Senate, 49 percent of the total Democratic membership. In Austin, Sen. Johnson told about the help of his wife, mother, and Mrs. R. Max Brooks in his political ascent and said a Texan can rise from shoe shine boy to the Senate “if he has a lot of girls to help him.” He said it is not a detriment to be from Texas. “Texas didn’t hurt the Democratic ticket in 1932. And Eisenhower was born in Texas. Ike was a wonderful baby,” he said. In Houston, Congressman Bob Casey said Johnson has “an excellent chance” for the presidency. John Kennedy’s forces “have suddenly realized,” Casey said, “that Johnson has made amazing gain’s and have started a stop-Johnson movement.” Don Yarborough `DAVID’ TWIRLS A SLINGSHOT AUSTIN “I feel this is .a David and Goliath race. I’ve got the slingshot. I will use my youth and zeal to give us a better state government.” So said young Houston attorney and civic leader Don Yarborough as he announced against one of the most formidable politicians in Texas, Lt. Gov. Ben Ramsey. Is Yarborough a liberal or a conservative? He disapproves of labelsmany of his friends “say I’m a middle-of-the-roader.” Does he subscribe to his namesak U. S. senator’s philosophy? “I don’t subscribe wholly to any man’s philosophy of government,” he said, but Sen. Yarborough is “a close personal friend” and “a fine man.” The young attorney campaigned for Sen. Yarborough when he was a candidate against Gov. Allan Shivers. Yarborough’s basic line will be an attempt to identify himself in the public mind with Gov. Price Daniel and to dissociate Ramsey from Daniel. Daniel considered running against Ramsey himself before announcing for re-election as governor. Daniel, he said, has done “a marvelous job” as governor and “has taken a sound approach to state government.” His opposition to ,a general sales tax has been “exceedingly courageous.” D o n Yarborough campaigned for Ralph Yarborough when Shivers, not Daniel, was the foe, the candidate noted. Yarborough said that unless there is a new lieutenant governor, “I feel like you are going to have a lot more special sessions”; the office should be “returned to the people”; the incumbent “has not supported the ideas of the people of the state.” “The governor and the legislature can’t do it alone. No chair can stand on only two legs. I propose to be the third leg.” As fOr his own program, Yarborough mentioned teachers’ pay, attacking tax problems on every front while keeping in mind the need to “retain a favorable tax climate for industry,” water conservation, and constitutional revision. Yarborough was born in Louisiana, went to Houston at 12, graduated in law at the University of Texas in 1950, and campaigned for Yarborough in 1952 and 1954. A bachelor, Yarborough and Miss Kay Edwards, a Houston Press ‘reporter, will be married Feb. 25. CORPUS CHRISTI Corpus Christi has become the second school district in the state to reject the money of Fort Worth-Dallas business groups for “Americanism” education in the schools. The trustees of the public schools of the city voted Monday to give up the local share of the $5,000 check received from the Texas Educational Assn. of Fort Worth to help finance an American Heritage teaching program. “Speaking as one member of the board,”. Ted Browne, board president; said, “I hope that in the future the school board will not accept any money from any source outside of regular school district revenues for developing the curriculum.” R. L. Williams, superintendent, who asked T.E.A. for the money in the first place, recommended that the Corpus portion. of the check be rejected. He said he decided on this course “after conferring with local teachers, principals, central . office administrators, and superintendents of the other schools involved.” The Corpus trustees acted in the and, if any, their speculations in the bond and securities markets. Nevertheless, those portions of the audit reports dealing with more routine operations of the banks and with the conduct of the lower echelon personnel revealed some almost unbelievably shocking things.” Scouring through the Federal Reserve’s audits of its own banks, Patman alleged extensive waste and some fraud. Out of taxpayers’ money, he said, the banks have developed welfare programs, subsidized cafeterias, and “amusements, entertainment of all kinds, and banquets. They pay for gifts to people who are not even employees of the bank; they send employees to school and pay for their training.” His indictment of the Federal Reserve on the basis of the audits he had examined ran to 30 legal single-spaced typed pages. His point was simple: an investigation was justified. “The last time there was a full , investigation and study of our monetary system,” he said, “the Federal Reserve System was set up. Nearly half a century has passed since that inve.:,,,igatiun was made . . . new types of financial institutions have come into being. Other types which then handled only unimportant amounts of savings and investments now handle gigantic sums. Many of these, such as the insurance companies, the investment trusts, and the savings banks appear to have close working relationships in and among themselves, and with the commercial banks and the -investment bank \(Continued on Page , context of a mounting controversy in the city. Alan Lohse, geologist, had protested before the board, and the Corpus daily had editorialized against accepting the money. In a letter to the Caller, Lohse declared, “The fundamental principle that no private organization should be allowed to buy its way into the public school system has been violated in Corpus Christi,” and another correspondent had suggested that the board move its next meeting to a huge hall, “because a great many more citizens are going to be there.” By the time these letters came out, the board had rejected the money. Wililiams said he did not know the plans of the other five districts which were to cooperate with Corpus Christi in the use of the $5,000 for Americanism plans. The districts are Bishop, Orange, Wichita Falls, Lubbock, and Amarillo. Williams recommended that the director of instruction be told to “delete erroneous acknowledgements, if any, in the American Heritage guides.” These guides, prepared with the financial help \(Final in a series of articles, this one traces Rep. Wright Patman’s demands for an investigation of the banks, charges of a $10 billion bankers’ theft from the taxpayers in 1958, crusade against high interest rates, and finally, the standing of his ideas with some Democrats in the Congress. AUSTIN, WASHINGTON Patman first proposed an investigation into the nation’s money and debt systems in 1955. The Republicans made ‘a party issue of the matter and defeated the resolution with the help of some Democrats. Only one of the 203 Republicans in the House voted to investigate. In 1957, Patman tried again. Speaker Rayburn stepped down to pay tribute to Patman and ask the House, “Why should not the great House committee on Banking and Currency be given the authority to make this study?” The House voted no, 225 to 174. Only two Republicans voted to investigate; only 38 Democrats opposed investigating. Last year Patinan contented himself with putting his arguments in the Record. “This administration has mobilzed all of its forces to prevent an investigation,” he said. Federal Reserve chairman William McChesney Martin refused, Patman said, to let him inspect certain “crucial” parts of the Systern’s internal audits. “These,” Patman said, “are the .portions of the reports dealing with the conduct of the officers and directors of the banks, their financial interests Corpus Rejects Disputed Money