ustxtxb_obs_1960_04_29_50_00004-00000_000.pdf

VOTE HERE Bartlett Appears Exclusively in the Texas Observer The Non-Leader Let those flatter who fear, it is not an American art.JEFFERSON `How Do You Spell Mickey Mouse?’ Jhe Sta. actiono We recommend that our readers vote for Price Daniel for governor and Don Yarborough for lieutenant governor. The extreme right wing background and policies of Jack Cox ajrgue for gagging down liberal objections to Daniel long enough to assure Cm’s defeat. This man Cox fronts not only for Allan Shivers, not only for the secret -and undemocratic \(as well as he is also actively championing the general sales tax the gas pipeline companies and Easter corporations want Texans to impose on themselves. True, Cox has been candid about his plan, but candid or not, a reactionary is a reactionary. Daniel continues to be a transitional governor, maintaining some of his links with the right wing, particularly in the state conventions, ‘ while advocating programs half progressive, half mossback in the legislature. It cannot be said, therefore, that he is entirely unrealistic about the liberal trends in the state, as Cox and his Shivers-FIA campaign crew certainly are. A liberal Democrat should have no difficulty voting for Don Yarborough. This energetic, ambitious newcomer has not demonstrate’d a firm’ grasp of the deeper issues in state politics, nor does he have experience in Austin. But Yarborough is a moderate liberal ; Ramsey is an immoderate, labor-baiting conservative.. Yarborough promises to conduct the Senate like a parliamentary body; Ramsey runs it like an autocrat’s advisory staff. Yarborough is friendly to taxation based on ability to pay ; Ramsey is a tested servant of the big business sales taxersa fact of Austin life entirely una ffected by his just-before-the-dawn conversion against the general sales tax. The freshnessof approach which would result from Yarborough’s election would contrast sharply with Ramsey’s five musty terms in office. The election. of Speaker Waggoner Carr as attorney general would be a serious setback for social progress in Texas in several respects. Carr is too friendly with the loan sharks, and as Speaker helped them stall effective regulation of usury in 1959. Yet he would be ‘called on to prosecute them as attorney general. Carr is, we estimate, politically a vassal of the continent-striding gas pipelines. Electing him the lawyer to defend the state’s new gas pipeline tax would be like electing Ed Clark to preside over a labor seminar. Carr stacked a conference committee in 1959 against a bill to protect the Gulf beaches for public use, yet he would be called on, as attorney general, to enforce the open beaches law. Carr’s tax committee appointments, his parliamentary maneuvers, and his public statements in 1959 prove he favors a general sales tax or something called something else and exactly like it. Finally, Carr is a segregationist,and appeared on a Houston platform at a Citizens Council rally. We want no such man as this advancing toward the governorship. 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 29, 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 However, Will Wilson, the incumbent, while abiding by the law on the school issue, favoring open beaches, and prosecuting loan sharksall excellent stands, and firmly to his credit has not presented to the voters the evidence they would need to trust him in politics. He is against the two-party system in state politics. Would this make him soft on Nixon? He has too consistently adhered, in his Supreme Court and State Banking Board decisions, to the economic interests of his big-business utility, insurance, oil, and bank backers in Dallas and Houston. Behind the unconvincing guise of an impartial, judge-like administrator, he has evaded the responsibility of a politician to tell the people his opinions on general social, economic, and political subjects. Men whom the people trust with legislative and executive political power are called on.,’ not merely to arbitrate disagreements and enforce,the law, but to write law : to lead morally : to stand for something. If Will Wilson stands for anything but law enforcement, we do not know what it is, and we areafraid of what we suspect it is. In crediting him with a commendable job against the loan sharksa really important job, which Carr has gracelessly sought to impugnLwe cannot fail to note that this crusade offends no big business; particularly not the banks. Wilson is going to have to become a more candid public man and manifest social ideals worthy of the liberal American heritage before he merits the support of the liberal community. Perhaps the next two years he will do this. Meantime, ‘we are leery of hint. Though we do not believe Bob Looney is qualified to be attorney general, he is a young man of some good will. We believe that a vote for either judge Bob Calvert or Judge Robert Hughes for -chief justice of the Supreme Court would be defensible. At the same time, Calvert’s election would vacate the Supreme Court seat he now holds arid require his replacement by a Daniel appointee. We would like to see both Calvert and Hughes on the Court; we do not believe it makes much difference who is chief justice. A vote for Calvert now is a vote for a Daniel appointment \(per, therefore, a vote for Hughes, whose election would leave Calvert safely on the court until 1962, when he could attain the re-election he has earned. We do not feel qualified to remark on the candidates for Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. The other statewide races are too farcical to bother with. Lyndon Johnson is unopposed for the Senate. We suggest that Democratic voters write in somebody they likeCreekmore Fath, say, J. Frank Dobic, or Otto Mullinax. 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 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. WASHINGTON Now that the “great debate” over civil rights is concluded, we may expect a revival of the Johnson-forpresident movement which has been relatively immobile these last few weeks. All the big oil men, the private power utilities lobbyists, and the other -special interest groups to whom LB J has given so much can be expected to return his favors. The simple fact is, these groups have two choices for the presidency. Their Democratic candidate is Johnson; . their ‘Republican \(favorite is Richard M. Nixon. It is difficult to determine which of the two they like best, but if the electorate must choose between them, many will go fishing Election Day. Has Johnson been a successful leader, as his friends claim ? I think not. He has not led on anything. What he did on civil rights he has done on many other issues; he has taken the lowest common denominator and made sure that what finally emerged would neither injure nor alienate the members of the Dixiecrat-Northern Re As a liberal I am, I believe, r i or an independent Democrat, but-I could not agree to support the Democratic nominee if he was Lyndon Johnson. Johnson’s nomination would mean to me that the Democratic Party liad ceased to. be the national liberal party, and would be the signal to form a new one. I am willing to defer to the belief of many brass collar Democrats that such a reservation morally bars a person from voting in Democratic primaries and going to precinct conventions. Liberal Democrats who could not support Johnson for president may :need to weigh this consideration in their consciences against what -chance they think Johnson has to get the nomination ; for the primary ballot includes a pledge to support the nominees. As I do not wish to discourage liberal Democrats from participating in the party’s of fairs, I do not commend my decision to othersI regret it, for I would like to work as a ‘citizen for the nomination of such men as Stevenson and Bowlesbut I wish to preserve a full sense of moral freecalamitous possibility of Johnson’s nomination. publican coalition. At the same time he has kept the Northern backroom boys happy with all sorts of local legislation. It’s good technique for a political boss, but is this what we want in a President ? No matter what liberal words his ghost-writers put in his mouth nor what a small claque of easily-impressed newspaper columnists write, Johnson plays the conservative game. He plays it with great skill ; but what passes for “success” in Washington may look awfully dismal in the rest of the country. JOHNSON has found a number of Northern and Western Democrats whose liberalism is se much of the “centrist” variety that they would rather kow-tow than stand up to him. They are grateful for crumbs. Many of these let’s-not-rock-theboat Democrats came to the Senate in the Class of ’58. While they have helped swell the party majority, they have done little to improve the party image. The result : what Lyndon wants, Lyndon still gets. Some of the new senators even make apologies for his course of action. The weakness of these new members and some old ones like O’Mahoney of Wyoming has -made life easier by LBJ, but whether it makes life easy for some other Democrats who might become the party standardbearer is another question. Suppose the nominee is Sen. Stuart Symington. What is there in the Senate’s record this session or last to which he -can point with convincing pride? The same goes for Sens. Kennedy and Humphrey. In the way both have been campaigning up to now, it is apparent that subconsciously they know they must distinguish themselves in the public’s mind -from Johnson’s standstill sort of “leadership.” Humphrey, as a matter of fact, has been quite aggressive on disarmament, farm prices, and other issues which seem to make Johnson yawn. ADL A I STEVENSON’S criticism of the “lassitude” of the Eisenhower tears, expressed so eloquently at the -University of Virginia, applies equally to LBJ. The times call for daring leadership, not explanationS of why it is impossible to move. ROBERT SPIVACK THE TEXAS OBSERVER cl eSP D7