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Rep. Joe Kilgore Kilgore, A Fiscal Conservative the House, is supporting Lyndon Johnson for the 1960 Democratic nomination. He said that Johnson has a great deal of “latent popular support, and has a good chance unless Kennedy emerges quickly with a sweep.” In 1958, Kilgore endorsed and campaigned for William A. Blakley in his race against Sen. Ralph Yarborough. Kilgore, who survived a bitter contest with Hubert Hudson in 1954 to win the seat, has done little campaigning this year. He appeared at a dedication of a civic center at McAllen recently and appeared to help dedicate the new airport in Harlingen last weekend. These apparently will be his major appearances. Basically Conservative Essentially the contest is a race between a conservative and a liberal. Kilgore declines to apply a definite political label to himself, but describes his philosophy as “probably conservative in fiscal matters, and liberal in human areas.” His overall voting record reflects strong conservatism. Only once on the Americans for Democratic Action chart for 1959 does a plus sign appear by his name. On this occasion he voted against barring direct Treasury financing for public housing in urban renewal. Eight other times the ADA marked him minus on important legislation. He voted to recommit a bill allowing the TVA to sell revenue bonds, against ‘admission of Hawaii, against foreign aid, and against establishing a food distribution plan for needy persons in the United States. Kilgore scores only slightly better on the liberal chart in earlier years. The ADA scored him right twice in 1958, once in 1957, three times in 1956, and five times in 1955 \(11 “right” votes out of 38 The McAllen congressman voted for the Landrum-Griffin bill in 1959 and admits it will hurt him “with some, but not all, of organized labor.” He said he was placed on Jimmy Hoffa’ socalled “purge list” because of his vote, but he said he believes this is advantageous in South Texas. He said he believes that a great majority of the people in the Lower Rio Grande Valley were in favor of the bill. He does not view the bill as “union-busting” and said organized labor will be stronger because of it. “It will take the racketeering out of labor, and make it more vitalized and acceptable to the public,” he said. . Kilgore is noncommittal on another important labor question the minimum wage. He said he would have “to take a look” when the bill comes up. As far as the migrant farm laborer is concerned, Kilgore was “hesitant” to see the minimum wage extended to this area and said, “I don’t plan now to vote for it.” He reasoned that the small to medium land owner “has not been making money,” and if the land owners had to pay the dollar-anhour minimum wage, “we would see an intensification of the move toward mechanization of farm work.” Kilgore, however, said that something should be done’ for the plight of the nation’s migratory labor force. He said that in the Valley there just isn’t enough year-round employment to keep the migrant labor there. He said he is not too happy with the bracero program but that it is necessary under present conditions of Valley farming. He THE TEXAS OBSERVER Page 3 May 6, 1960 foresees the -bracero eventually fading out of the picture as farming becomes more mechanized and as the citrus industry grows, thus providing more ,year-round employment for the domestic labor force. He ‘listed a couple of reasons why the bracero program is not advantageous: “The money the braceros make is not spent in the Valley, but goes back to Mexico. Also, it creates great problems in education and other areas for our domestic migrants.” Leery of Federal Aid Kilgore’s views vary as to how much federal assistance is needed for the migratory workers. He states that the federal government, under interstate commerce, should regulate transportation standards. Housing and public welfare program’s he sees as essentially state functions. He said he had not yet studied the proposals for crew leader registration. Kilgore generally has opposed federal aid to education; he said he would delay a decision on this year’s bill until he has talked to the Texas Education Agency and the. people in his school districts. He voted against the last school construction bill in 1957. In 1958 MARSHALL The last time my dear friend Ham Lowe assumed the armed harness of misguided Macbeth in the lists against me was in the early forties that saw the replacement of a Supreme Court judge by Gordon Simpson. The court needed new blood then as badly as nowand got it. Mr. Dooley’s celebrated conclusion that the national Supreme Court follows the election returns was well-illustrated for years thereafter. We are not in such deadly embrace today; for Ham’s candidate can’t lase. At worst, he will hold his present seat on the court, and a seat or so on the same court at the same salary. Here lies the distinction between the desires of Judge Robert G. Hughes to be promoted from his’ present position, and the efforts of his op ponent to keep a new member out of the , cluba club that should not operate as smoothly as depicted, and one in which Judge Calvert distinctly, does not have the “wholehearted support of his Associate Justices,” in at least one respect. ‘\(This, Ham can learn by polling its present memberAs Ham says, an earlier resignation by Judge Calvert would have brought an appointment, but only to the time of the general election at which the appointee would have had to enter the lists. As it is, should Calvert win, theappointee will have two years to acquire a tenure’ of office, before standing for election. I have no crystal ball to tell me whom the Governor may put on the court; but have learned to expect the worst, and am seldom disappointed. May I demur to the charge that my approach is negative; destructive, yes, but not negative. Constant readers of the Observer neither desire nor read pieces done in the manner of Norman Vincent Peale. Their eyes do not roll heavenward when the main handle on the Chamber of Cornmerce exhorts them to “sell your hammer and buy a horn.” The subject of my alleged negativism might be dropped with the remark that I invited defense of specific attitudes of the Judge, House bill to provide loans to college and graduate students. He has opposed federal aid to federally impacted areas. He said that his stand on federal aid to education is part of a philosophy that he applies generally to areas of federal appropriations: “I would be as reluctant as is reasonably consistent with good thinking to add any areas of federal responsibility. I look with considerable caution on any new federal aid.” Favors 1954 Decision Kilgore is not listed among the leaders in the fight for civil rights, but he takes a more liberal stand than most of his Texas colleagues. “I haven’t voted for all of the civil. rights bills that have come up, but I have voted for all those that passed,” he said. His votes for civil rights include the 1957 bill, the extension of the Civil Rights Commission in 1959, and this year’s voting rights bill. Asked about the 1954 Supreme Court decision on school desegregation, Kilgore said that “the court couldn’t have reached any other decision.” Virtually all of his district has wholly integrated its schools without any problem. Kilgore said that the declining farm income is evidence that and none has been forthcoming. The answer has been one Of confession and avoidance. A few opinions, it is argued, may be chosen to tarnish an angel. Are many needed, when they show: encouragement of notorious carelessness, with the burden of negativing it on the injured; a harsher and more technical rule against victims of negligence than against any other suitors; and the treating of jury verdicts with the suspicion that jurors are not as honest as the Courts? Even one decision may forever characterize its author, witness Dred Scott and Baker v. Bolton adoption by the American courts of the ridiculous position in the latter that recovery could be had for personal injuries but not for death, gave rise to the unfounded legend that this was the reason passengers, in pullman berths rode with their heads to the front. “Also that fire axes in railroad coaches were provided to enable the conductor to deal efficiently with those who were merely injured.” \(Prosser, Torts, 2d ed., p. More apt than Ham’s ‘closing quote are these from the lips of the troubled Lady Macbeth: “Out damned spot!The thane of Fife had a wife; where is she now? all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.” NONETHELESS, an answer to I the’ challenge to elucidate on the opinions of Judge Hughes: Perhaps his most outstanding trait is that of independence of thought and action, with a strong affinity for reasonable results that make for simplicity in judicial proceedings. He never takes an artificial or expedient course if it cannot be justified within his conception of logic, reason, and policy. In May of 1954, and before the press disclosed the unhappy stuation in the Texas Insurance Department in the early fifties, a praiseworthy effort of the state liquidator to’ assess policy holders of an insolvent insurance company was considered by the Austin Court of Civil Appeals. In a concurring opinion, Judge Hughes spelled out in great detail what he properly termed the Ponzi-like something is wrong with U.S. farm policies, but he does blame all of them on the Administration. He offers no specific solutions, but suggests direct subsidies in place of the commodity credit program, particularly for cotton. One of the big projects in Kilgore’s district is the proposed Amistad Dam on the Rio Grande River. Kilgore now foresees that the dam will be authorized in a form “that will be reasonably acceptable to the whole district.” \(The REA co-ops have protested that as proposed, the dam’s electric power would be turned over “If I the Amistad Dam is approved, we will have done almost everything that can be done for conservation along the Rio Grande,” he said. “Great strides also have been made in rehabilitation loans for water districts.” He also listed improvements at the Agricultural Research Center at Weslaco, port improvements at Brownsville and Port Mansfield, and airport developments as accomplishments of his congressional career. Kilgore believes that the current proposal of the Secretary of Interior for an 88-mile Padre Island national seashore a r ea “would please everyone,” but he expects the final length of the financial manipulations of the company, its conception in fraud, employment of a member of the legislature as counsel, and the tender treatment of the company on official appraisal when an evaluation of a building at $436,000 was not questioned; although the company had bought ‘it on credit for $100,000 a short while before. It was the hand of Judge Hughes, again in 1954 when the stand may not have been popular, that struck down as ‘unconstitutional the Texas law against racially mixed boxing exhibitions. It was not that his conclusion on constitutionality was not amply justified; but it was one of the relatively few decisions from Texas civil courts that extended the protection of the Fourteenth Amendment to citizens other than corporations. Nevertheless, it is refreshing to read an opinion that so clearly states that equal protection of the laws means just that. TWO INSTANCES of his respect I for the jury system, as opposed to the view of the Supreme Court, may be given. The injured victim of an automobile accident lost his case because one juror misled others to believe that a verdict for the victim would amount to convicting the other party of “malicious murder.” Reluctantly, Judge Hughes reversed the case. On appeal, the Texas Supreme Court reversed Judge Hughes, giving this glimpse of the variance between its conception of trial by jury and that of Judge Hughes: “Throughout the development of our present method of jury submission, the emphasis has been placed upon the use of a form of charge which will satisfy certain legal requirements, including ‘separate submission of each relevant and ultimate issue, proper placing of burden of proof, avoiding cornments on the weight of the evidence, concealment from the Jury of the legal effect of their answers, the use of definitions and instructions which are technically correct from a legal standpoint. The clarity of the charge from the standpoint of the jury has occupied a subordinate role.” area to be between 55 and 88 miles. He favors a road the length of the island. “It can be built on the Laguna side and still leave the island in its native state,” he said. Kilgore and Rep. John Young of Corpus Christi have introduced companion bills on Padre Island. Although they do not designate Padre Island as a park, they call for a park on the Gulf Coast, and one each on the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts. Padre Island is the only one of the Gulf that has been surveyed and recommended by the Interior Department. JAKE AND ANNE LEWIS \(285 S.W. 2d 364, 367, emphasis In short, Judge Hughes does not subscribe to the odious doctrine of judicial concealment and subordination of clarity in presentation of a case to a jury, and the Supreme Court does. In 1958, Judge Hughes concurred with Judge Archer in applying the same rule to a trial judge for measuring a verdict as being so big as to show passion or improper motive in a jury as had been applied to appeals judges. This rule was that unless the verdict was out of the bounds of reason, and such as to suggest improper motive, the courts should not molest it. In 1959 the Supreme Court reversed, erecting a different stand