ustxtxb_obs_1960_02_05_50_00003-00000_000.pdf

HONESTY IN POLITICS CORPUS CHRISTI They almost had a Republican candidate for the Democratic nomination for state representative down here and it might have been a lark of a campaign. Roy Scott, a local attorney, announced for a House seat, saying: “If elected, I promise I will do absolutely nothing, because everything they do up there in Austin costs us a lot of money. When Coke Stevenson retired as governor we had about $25 million in the Treasury. Now we are about $80 million in the red. “As to politics,” Scott said, “I’ve run as a Democrat in the primary in order to have a voice in local government, and I’ll vote the Republican ticket in Novpmber as I have done ever since Franklin Delano Roosevelt ran for a second term.” However, Scott withdrew. His explanation was as straightforward as his announcement. He said: “I asked a prominent Republican friend of mine to lend me $75 for my filing fee. He wouldn’t lend it to me. Therefore, I am withdrawing from the race for representative.” U.S., Texas Legislators Challenged AUSTIN The legislaturefrom lieutenant governor, the Senate’s presiding officer, through the Senate and the Houseplus a goodly portion of the members of the Texas delegation in the Congress stand challenged to vigorous contest in the wintertime elections now beginning. A 34-year-old Houston lawyer, Don Yarborough former president of the Houston Jaycees, champion speaker and college debater, friend and supporter but not relative of Sen. Ralph Yarborough, and an utter political novice announced against Ben Ramsey, Marshall F or m b y, Plainview, said he thought Gov. Daniel could be defeated, but it would take a bitter campaign he did not want to conduct, and he wished Daniel and his only opponent, Jack Cox, well. Cox, campaigning in Abilene, said he played the guitar in a hillbilly band in high school and might start playing again. He told Kiwanians he is in favor of the family, against communist brainwashing, and believes the only common denominator which can bring families closer together is God. Bob Looney, son of the promient Austin attorney, announced as a darkhorse for attorney general in the race already including incumbent Will Wilson and challenger Waggoner Carr. Looney said he is going to campaign through the state on his black horse, Shoelace. An attorney, formerly special counsel on Sen. Johnson’s preparedness s u b committee, Looney is given only an outside chance. Unopposed state office-holders are Sen. Lyndon Johnson; Agriculture Cmsr. John White; State Treasurer Jesse James; Railroad Cmsr. Ernest 0. Thompson; and associate justices Clyde E. Smith and Joe Greenhill of the Texas Supreme Court. In Houston, state GOP chairman Thad Hutcheson said the Republicans will have candidates for U.S. senator and governor in the November general election. He said the GOP could not in good grace fail to nominate someone against Johnson. Other statewide races: for land commissioner, Bill Allcorn, the incumbent, vs. Rep. Jerry Sadler, Palestine; for comptroller, incumbent Robert S. Calvert vs. Rep. Bo Ramsey, Beckville; for chief justice, Supreme Court, associate justice Robert W. Calvert vs. Robert G. Hughes, associate justice, Austin court of civil appeals; for judge, Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, incumbent Lloyd W. Davidson vs. Jim D. Bowmer, Temple, and W. T. McDonald, Bryan. Congressmen Opposed A brace of challengers, some of them serious threats, lined up against Texas congressmen. Behind this development in part was the determination of organized labor’s forces to exact some political penalties for the passage of the Landrum-Griffin labor law. Dudley Tarlton Dougherty, Beeville oilman and rancher who once opposed Sen. Johnson, will probably have labor support against Congressman John Young of Corpus Christi, even though Dougherty is generally regarded as a conservative. He announced for -election against Young on a platform of water conservation. Dougherty recently bought and became publisher of La Prensa, a San Antonio newspaper. State Sen. Bill Moore, Bryan, announced against Rep. Olin Teague, Bryan, after having decided not to make the race against Ben Ramsey. Moore is certain to get labor backing. A Baptist minister, Bill Crook of Nacogdoches, is opposing John Dowdy of Athens; a Pan-American college professor, John Westburg of Edinburg, is opposing Joe Kilgore of McAllen; a district manager of Financial Industrial Fund, a mutual fund investment company, Roy Skaggs of Abilene, has announced, on a conservative platform, against Omar Burleson of Anson; and Walter Rogers, Pampa, Albert Thomas, Houston, and Bruce Alger, Dallas, also have opponents. So it may be a hot time in the old Texas delegation. Two Stricklands In the State Senate, too, some races sure to heat up the frosty winter air are in the books. In San Antonio, ex-Sen. Ozzie Stricklands, including the state representative, have announced against incumbent Sen. Henry B. Gonzalez, whose motto is, “Vote for Gonzalez and avoid the confusion.” The second Strickland said he is against a general sales tax and wanted to get in the race against Representative Strickland to say so, since, said the second LONE STAR As foreseen from Lone Star Steel president E. B. Germany’s recent denunciation of the big serious impasse has developed be tween the company and the steelworkers’ union here. The company says it sees no further point in negotiations with the union. The possibility of another bitter strike immediately presented itselfbut was not discussed openly by either side. Germany denounced the “agency shop” aspect of the U. S. steel agreement whereby, in right-towork states, non-union members working in union steel plans will not be required to join the union, but will be required to pay the same dues and assessments union men pay. Howard Jensen, a vice president of Lone Star, said the company offered the union two plans, one along the line of the big steel settlement plus seven cents an hour more, another for ten-cents-anhour plus union financing of half the cost of the insurance program. The union rejected both plans, asking for abolition of preferred seniority for men who did not strike in 1957, a contract termination date of June 30, 1962, \(the of union dues by non-union men in the bargaining unit. “Lone Star is not willing to begin negotiations all over again. If the union persists in rejecting our offers, there is no point in continuing talks,” Jensen said. The union has been working without a contract since last Sept., Strickland, Rep. Strickland favors a general sales tax. Rep. Zeke Zbranek, Hull-Daisetta, has announced on a water conservation platform against Sen. Neveille H. Colson, who seeks reelection on a platform of the good roads legislation she has sponsored. Of course this is a liberalconservative fight. A brawl between two liberalsSen. Doyle Willis and Rep. Don Kennard of Fort Worthfailed to materialize when Kennard filed for re-election. The young Kennard was stymied by Tarrant County labor, which pledged to Willis on grounds that Willis has voted with them. Kennard has too, but he is not the incumbent. The son of Congressman Wright Patman of Texarkana, Bill Patman of Ganado, has leaped into a race against the conservative ictoria senator, Bill Fly. Patman is married to the daughter of the late Sen. Fred Mauritz. Sen. Bill Wood,. Tyler, drew an opponent from Tyler, Galloway Calhoun, Jr. Sen. Hubert Hudson, Brownsville, has been filed against by Rep. Jim Bates, Edinburg. Os 7. J. E. Ward, representing the steel workers’ international, and Jim Smith, coordinator for the local here, said the company “broke off negotiations” and “told us there was nothing further to discuss.” They said it is hard to understand why “the most profitable steel company of 1959” would not grant the union the same benefits as other U. S. steel companies of the Texas Bureau for Economic Understanding last summer in Corpus Christi, include acknowledgements of “thanks” and “obligation” to T.B.E.U. “for providing materials and for financing certain aspects of this study.” Williams emphasized that Corof their own teachers in preparing the guides. T.B.E.U. financed the travel and other costs of teachers from other districts who converged in Corpus Christi for the planning. T.B.E.U. is an all business grodp. T.E.A. of Fort Worth is a group financed by a few conservative men. They work together in encouraging and assisting with money the development of “Americanism” or “American Heritage” education in Texas public schools. T.B.E.U.’s executive director, Bob Lawrence, has boasted that “we are geting into the curriculum,” and late in 1959 Lawrence said that 205,000 Texas students have been reached by the efforts of T.B.E.U. A T.B.E.U. circular earlier in 1959 had stated that car D. Salinas, farmer and engineer, was to oppose Sen. Abraham Kazen, Jr.. Laredo. Sen. Floyd Bradshaw, Weatherford, drew the scheduled opposition of Thomas Creighton of Mineral Wells. In the House, too, many members faced challenges for re-election. In Fort Worth, in fact, two beatniks filed. They seemed to have authentic credentials. One, “Big Mike” Callaway, 23, resides in the rear of a coffee house, “The Kismet,” where he reads poetry. The other, “The Hero,” Peter Gill, has a beard, works at “The Cellar” \(poetry reading, bouncing, written a poem which goes, “I am nothing/ You are nothing/ Everything is nothing.” Poll Taxes; DOTC Meets The people seem to want to vote for some reason this year perhaps presidential politics. In Houston more than 400,000 have paid their poll taxes, and the total is not complete; in Dallas, the tentative’ figure is 300,000; in Bexar, 155,000; in Fort Worth, 150,000; in El Paso, 52,000. These are record figures. There is no race for U.S. senator and few think the contest for governor is serious, but politics seems to have some attraction to the voters this year, even so. Labor’s COPE meets in Austin Feb. 12-13 to discuss politics. The liberal-labor Democrats of Texas Clubs convene to hear Sen. Wayne Morse and others in Houston Dec. 20. About this meeting Mrs. R. D. Randolph, chairman of DOT and the national committeewoman, said, “Despite some premature obituaries which have appeared in the press concerning DOTC, we anticipate the largest statewide meeting we have ever had. DOTC has continued to grow and is here to stay.” have granted. Smith said the issues are seniority, working conditions, and job assignments. Smith and Ward expressed confidence that “Lone Star, at some future date, will be willing to agree that East Texas steel workers are entitled to equal rights with big steel,” but they did not say what was going to change the company’s mind. 8,047 teachers had been included in T.B.E.U. projects. Abilene public schools withdrew from the T.B.E.U. program at midterm, rejecting thereafter the unreceived portion of a $10,000 grant with which supplements to teachers’ salaries had been financed. The state commissioner of education, J. W. Edgar, endorsed the activities of the Abilene schools financed by T.B.E.U. in an interview with the Observer before Abilene decided to cut off the program. Sweetwater public schools continue to accept $10,000 from T.B.E.U. Learning of the Corpus decision, private citizen Lohse told the Caller-Times: “I believe the board certainly did the right, thing, as I knew it would when this matter came to their attention. And I hope they will continue to investigate how this special interest group was able to get into the curriculum in the first place, so as to avoid any repetition of it from any other group in the future.” In his letter to the daily, Lohse No Opponent `Boosts’ LBJ g o or Allen Duckworth, in the Dallas News, said Sen. Johnson’s renomination without opposition gave his “national prestige” a “big boost” for president and leaves him “free to line up support in the June state convention.” 1# The Corpus Christi Caller Times, arguing against “states’ rights on the poll tax,” said the poll tax limits the rights of Negroes to vote and declares: It cannot be said that one of the most fundamental of democratic rights, the right to vote, can be left to the discretion of any group of men or any state. . .. If states are unwilling to guarantee the right to vote . . . then the federal government eventually will intervene.” g o o0 Reports reaching the Ob server confirm that Speaker Waggoner Carr will have a surprisingly well financed campaign for attorney general. Much of the money is coming from gas pipeline sources. Political Intelligence g o or The Texas Manufacturers’ Assn. \(“Confidential Letter, distributed a map of legislative districts in Texas showing the districts whose members’ votes it disapproves “shaded,” those with middling records “striped,” and those which voted as T.M.A. ap’ proved more than 60 percent of the time “white.” por As far as the Observer has been able to see, only four Texas newspapers supported Senator Yarborough’s vote on the Gore motion, the Tulia Herald, the Kountze News, the Observer, and the St. Mary’s University Rattler. Dailies which have commented generally have criticized Yarborough. The Lubbock AvalancheJournal condemned Yarborough’s alignment with “other left-wing dissenters.” The Tulia Herald could not recall any obligation Yarborough owed Johns6n and asked who was demanding “conformity and even compromise.” g o or Johnson-for-President head quarters have distributed a