ustxtxb_obs_1960_04_01_50_00004-00000_000.pdf

MAINIKATO FREE PRESS Mankato, Minn. Let those flatter who ear, it is not an American art.JEFFERSON Calmly and in eAgnity The PIPE-Piper of Houston 4144 MARSHALL 2:30 A.M., March 31 There are ninety-two extra policemen in Marshall tonightfour Texas Rangers, about 35 Highway Patrolmen, and the rest visiting officers from nearby towns. Eight of them are billeted on the roof of this old Hotel Marshall. They are stopping everyone. What they are really afraid of, and are deployed to prevent, is violence from whites, but hate is interracial, ‘too, and all are watched and questioned; the cab drivers say there are fewer cars on the streets than any night in a long time ; it is as though the city were in siege. With the news that firemen had turned their hoses against peacefully demonstrating students as they left the courthouse, the city suddenly became the place for reporters, photographers, and movie cameramen to beanother Nashville ; perhaps, were worst to come to worst, Little Rock of the “sit-ins. Everything downtoWn closes about 9 o’clock, and toward 12:30 this morning five of us drove to the only place open, the all-night cafe at the railroad terminal, and had coffee and ham and eggs. Being white, we were 1.served. We took that for granted just as we took for granted that somewhat clinical manner of the trade as we cautiously traded a few of our notes. But not one of us felt clinical : each of us felt a ‘need to hold back on feelings. The Shreveport Journal headlined that South Africa is in a state of emergency, and Negroes marched earlier in the day’,on the capitol at Baton Rouge, while we were custodians of the facts-of Marshall, “the banner for the ayems.” Back downtown, another reporter and I checked the police station, all was quiet, and we were glad the state police are here, for they set a standard for the locals, who reflect the circumstances of their daily lives. What has really happened here, and in East Texas, it is too early to say, both in the sense that the facts still lie in notepads and in details not traced, and in the sense that East Texas, too, has now been introduced to the new Fact of Southern Life the Negro in His Own Name, for all that he will ultimately mean. It could not last, the silence in East Texas. Negro students at Wiley and Bishop colleges planned their sit-ins last week, drew breath and sat down at Woolworth’s at exactly 10 o’clock Saturday morning, the same day were threatened, with imprisonment and abused with contempt, sat in again Monday and were arrested and warned, and finally, Wednesday ‘loon and afternoon, sat in again, were arrested and mugged and fingerprinted e by the social system they reftise, and reconciled themselvesabout 50 of 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. APRIL 1, 1960 Ronnie Dugger Editor and General . Manager Sarah Payne, Office Manager 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. We are dedicated to the whole truth, to human values above all interests, to the rights of man themto criminal prosecution for unlawful assembly. Then, in the courtroom, one of them began reading from the Bible. Out loud. Then another, and an other. An officer told them to shut up, “No more reading in the court room”; and they began singing. They sang Glory Halleluyah. They sang the Star Spangled Banner, and the officers of the court did not rise. Then they heard, around the court house, the voices of their fellow stu dents-500 to 700 of them, it is agreedand singing, too ; and in the courtroom they rose and sang with those outside. Some bungling of ficer tried to arrest some of those ,outside, and they came ‘ into the courthouse willingly, and filled the balconies. They sang together while the officers paced about and shut the courtroom; doors, hoping, per haps, the world would not hear. They sang, Let Every Voice Sing. They sang, My Country, ‘Tis of Thee. And as they sang, and the white officials talked reasonable ness to them, and tried to persuade those who were not accused to go on home, and learned that none of them would go home unless all of them went home, and promised them they could leave safely ; as these things happened, did passive resistance, the spirit of Martin Lu ther King and Gandhi before him and Thoreau before him and Christ before him and Socrates before him, come into the lives of East Texas, Negroes where it has not been be fore? Across an ocean, 15,000 Ne groes marched on Johannesburg, and they locked the gates against them ; to the South in Baton Rouge,. officers watched silently while they marched; and here in Marshall, just a few hours ago, they turned the firehoses on the young and soaked them all as they walked away, calm ly and in dignity, singing together. R.D. There’s a Long, Long Trail A-Windin’ 7 as the foundation of democracy; we will take orders from none but our own conscience, and never will we overlook or misrepresent, the truth to serve the interests of the powerful or cater to the ignoble in the human spirit. Published once a week from Austin, Texas. Delivered postage prepaid $4 per annum. Advertising rates available on reqiiest. 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. AUSTIN Obviously it does not sit well with country people to realize that some lobbyist named Weatherred, writing from “Adolphus Towers, Dallas,” or some other lobbyist named Burris, writing from “P.O. Box 1194, Houston 1, TeXas,” are collecting business money to be spent telling them who to send to the legislature. The worst goof in Ed Burris’s letter was the fact that he sent it. The next worst goof was the statement that he wanted it returned, “since I am fearful of having it circulated too extensively.” Business has been pouring money into rural legislative races all over the country for years, but this is the first time in modern Texas history their agents have let the public find out about it. Although on a smaller scale, labor doubtless does the same thing, but hasn’t been caught. Business money is also pouring into some of the big-city races like ocean water into a stoved-in ship. We have received .a reliable report from a lobbyist who should know that Weatherred and Burris have appropriated $12,500 against each of the Houston incumbents in the House except ‘Criss Cole. Despite heavy business spending in San Antonio, the Franklin Spears group has an excellent chance of prevailing. Evidently Weatherred has no hope of defeating Sen. Henry Gonialez in San Antonio; or maybe he’s just waiting, hoping for a runoff. The Austin talk is that Sen. Bill Fly, Victoria’s gift to the Eastern corporations, was running well behind challenger Bill Patman of Ganado, and Zeke Zbranek of Liberty was seriously challenging Sen. Neville Colson of Navasota, though he had not yet overtaken her. This may explain why Weatherred, in his plea for money, footnoted plaintively : “We need to work on Senators Fly and Colson’s races first, so please send these in at the earliest possible time, even though you may delay slightly on some of the Representatives’ races.” WEATHERRED’S GOOF apart from the fact that he wrote down and mailed out what he is doingwas his assertion, in his March 7 letter to business persons, that his group has engaged “field help” for the rural races. He warned that liberals -are within four Senate and six House seats of legislative control. “This has prompted 1’1 ly t \(lq `” us to engage field help to go into grass roots areas for the purpose of gathering together leaders from all business segments for a coordinated campaign on behalf of selected candidates in a number of key races. . .. You will note that we have eliminated all large cities, because effective organizational work is being carried on within them outside of this effort.” In his “personal and confidential,” don’t-tell-anybody memorandum, Burris said the $65,000 raised would be spent. in rural campaigns because “rural campaigns are less expensive” and big-city areas are “to a substantial degree already organized.” There is a liklihood that Weatherred and Burris are both fronting for the same fund-raising program, but this was not established as true or false. Weatherred singled out seven House incumbents for defeatReps. Neil Caldwell, Alvin ; Lloyd Guf fey, El Campo; Tony Korioth, Sherman ; A. J. Bishop, Winters ; Herman Yezak, Bremond ; Tony Fenoglio, Nocona ; and Max Carriker, Roby. In so doing, he stirred up about 70 members of the House against him; and if what we hear is true, he can expect demands for legislative inquiry into what interests he , represents at the address he lists simply as “Adolphus Towers.” Weatherred also specified, as his choices in House races, twelve incumbents. As Stuart Long observed this week, eight of these voted for all three general sales tax proposals last session. Rural candidates who can expect to be offered big-city business money or already have itare Reps. Ben Jarvis; Tyler ; Byron Tunnell, Tyler; William Winston, Lufkin ; John Huebner, Sr., Bay City ; R. H. Cory, Victoria ; Vernon Stewart and Jack Connell, Wichita Falls ; Leon Thurman, Jr., nson; Will Ehrle, Childress ; Bob Bowers, Brownfield ; Wesley Roberts, Lamesa ; and Richard Slack, Pecos. THIS WEEK’S AFL-CIO report says that “corporation spokesmen like Brown, Busby, and Burris, aided by Weatherred and Germany,” are pushing the panic button: they are about to lose their control of the 1?gislature. But they may have panicked the wrong push and blown up their own conning-tower. R.D. THE TEXAS OBSERVER 0\(00 Rows e -cerrny-kr….. 1′ Bartlett Appears Exclusively in the Texas Observer PANICKY GOOFS