ustxtxb_obs_1960_07_01_50_00004-00000_000.pdf

`Mirror, Mirror on the Wall …’ Bartlett Appears Exclusively in the Texas Observer et uenwe elueJ Sen. Ralph Yarborough’s refusal to endorse Lyndon Johnson for the Democratic nomination is an unusual demonstration of political courage in a year in Texas not distinguished for that attribute. It is generally understood in Texas that Yarborough has a higher regard for Adlai Stevenson as presidential timber than he does for his Texas colleague. A Texan’s convictions about the presidency, however, are not supposed to be a germane consideration in Texas this year. What one really believes about the welfare of the country and the world is supposed to yield to a hypocritical-ifnecessary jingoism. We cannot, however, extend our enthusiasm to Yarborough’s recent explosions of provincialism on foreigi policy. The first was his assumption of leadership in the campaign for new shrimp import quotas. Now, shrimp from Mexican waters taste just as good as those from Lone Star brine. The Mexican competition is healthy and gives us cheaper shrimp. Protectionism for shrimp, like protectionism for oil, is as short-sighted as it is make-shift. Are the Mexicans supposed to ,believe we have p a good neighbor policy when we erect such barriers ? Worse, we think, is Yarborough’s support of Eisenhower’s request for authority to reduce the Cuban sugar quota. As the Dallas News has reported, if this is clone, Castro will trade even more of his sugar for Russian crude or sell it at better prices elsewhere. We cannot cripple Ca lf to A provisional committee has been formed to bring to an end capital punishment in Texas. Harold Kilpatrick of the Texas Council of Churches is chairman and Mel Zuck of the Friends group is secretary. “It is our purpose,” they say, “to form a statewide association to work actively to abolish capital punishment in Texas, recognizing that some persons should be imprisoned for life for the protection of society. We shall have the task of showing Texas citizens that capital punishment should be abolished for theological reasons, that it fails utterly as a deterrent, that the death penalty has already been abolished except for those without money OP friends, that capital punishment, is on the way.. out in most of the western nations, and that the death penalty closes all possibilities of redemption.” They want to hear from Texans who favor abolition of the death penalty in Texas “with the understanding that there will be adequate safeguards to prevent early release of those committing heinous crimes and those deemed incapable of being rehabilitated.” The Observer advocates the abo 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. JULY 1, 1960 Ronnie Dugger Editor and General Manager Sarah Payne, Office Manager In most cases, it has. Yarborough’s absence from the state convention does not have a better face on it than anyone else’s absencp. On the other hand, he has been subjected to stinging political pressures, directly from many supporters of his and Johnson’s, indirectly from insistent reporters’ questions ; he has been the target of veiled intimations that Johnson might back an opponent against him in 1964. These things considered, his refusal to join the herd of Texas officialdom following Johnson is reassuring evidence to independent Texan -s that he is still the man they elected in 1957. Cuba by this sanction. And should we? How in imperialism’s name have we permitted to develop situation in which the neurotic Castro has been driven further and further away from his -U.S. neighbor? If our blundering government cannot befriend leftists along our own shores, how then can we be stupid enough to become righteous and punitive when they trade with who will trade with theM? As Nixon, of all people, said in FIouston, we should not try to punish Cuba, for this will only drive, not only Castro, but all of LatinAmerica, further from us. We hope that Yarborough will study a while longer the theory of free trade, listen to Houstonian Will Clayton on the need for economic as well as political internationalism in’ the Western world, and retire from these unseemly provincial crusades. Mercy lition of ,capital punishment and hopes its readers who wish to assist, morally or any other way, a statewide effort to this end will write the Texas Assn. for Abolition of Capital. Punishment at 504 West 24th St., Austin 5, Texas. ame now Lost somewhere in the fast shuffles of the Dixiecrat-GOP coalition under the Capitol Dome in Washington is Sen. Paul Douglas’ simple little bill to require all moneylenders, finance companies, anyone in the ‘business of extending retail credit, to disclose the price of the credit to the customer in writing before the transaction is consummated. “Is the American consumer entitled to the truth about credit rates and chargeS? The ethical question is basically as simple as that,” Sen. Douglas says. Oh yeah ? Listen to the people’s newspaper, the Houston Chronicle, on the issue. “Another of those federal regulation bills which appear noble enough in purpose . . . “Now it is true,” the Chronicle 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. It D. Randolph. The blue-nose tradition in Texas breeds more hypocrisy than a political convention: This is a broad statement, but it’s a broad situation. In the 140-odd. dry counties of the state the distance from sobriety to inebriation is the nearest oasis by four-lane, highways built specially for the heavy traffic. Or perhaps around the corner into the alley, where the bootlegger socks away his loot when he’s not in court taking the rap for the town’s hypocrites. Ah, but for hypocrisy, how could society hold itself together with such stupid rules ? We have advocated local option on mixed drinkS, seduced as i’Are were by the simple extension of the logic of local option on the sale of beer and liquor. This, clearly, would be too civilized, and might attract unde NEW WAVERLY Like most Other old people I . like the old songs best. They seem to have more meaning than some of our “rock ‘n roll” gems. So having nothing better, to do I will just sit .here and recall some of the old ones and , dedicate them to some of our currently popular characters. Take, for instance, “Will you love me in November as you did in May ?” That one is a natural for dedication to LB J and his . frantic followers. And “Rock me to sleep Mother, rock me to sleep !” No explanatory words are needed in the dedication to Labor, though nearly a whole page of the House Organ indicates it is uneasy slumber. “The Old Folks at Home” who proCeeds, “that many persons do not bother to learn what the rate of interest or carrying charges is, and many are paying a higher rate than they realize. But in most cases the store or lender will state it on request. Besides, it is not difficult to figure for oneself .. . “Why should not compulsory labeling laws be left to the states?” No problem, you seestates’ rights are more important than people’s rights, and besides, all those bureaucrats .. . \(Turn to the Chronicle’s pages filled Nv i t 11 retail ads for fuller comsirable kinds of tourists. Better to swill the w hole bottle in the kitchen than be seen tippling in a public saloon. San Antonio voters elected V. E. “Red” Berry their state representative because they preferied legalized Horse racing to a general sales tax. Forced to the choice, we do too. Though horse racing siphons off a tremendous amount of purchasing power, sometimes ruining the lives of whole families, it’s diverting, and there is probably some element of progressive taxation in the system, since the rich will_lose more than the poor. We prefer, defectors to Dr. Galbraith, the personal income tax. We begin to doubt, however, the efficacy of the merely intelligent solution in /Texas these days. \\never get to Walter Reed and other government hospitals get this dedication. But of course the Forand bill wouldn’t doit’s AMA-cursed as socialized medicine. “Whither , So Swiftly Flies the Timid Swallow ?” La Golondrina goes to the iBexar County Democrats. “Sweet Adeline,” always sung in close harmony, goes to Mister Sam, Nv h o will have harmony in the Democratic Party if he has to elect a Republican president every four years to get it. “After the Ball Is Over” is dedicated with no superfluous words to the recent state convention. And “She’s Only a Bird in a Gilded Cage” must he for the delegates who bought the $100 tickets to pay on the multimillionaires’ 1959 S.D.E.C. deficit. “Backward! Turn Backward ! 0 Time in Your Flight” is for all Texas voters who on May 7, 1960, voted their special interest and hoped the Nation would “do all right.” Then in Correct sequence we have our “darling Nellie Gray” gone, with our hope while we were “sitting by the river.” And “Sweet Alice, Ben Bolt.” Remember that touching line, “Of all the boys who were school mates then there’s only you and I.” This is dedicated to Ed and Bob and Chris and Alex and and.. . . But any likeness to any person living or dead is ever so very coincidental, with a special appeal to the Fifth Amendment.M.F.C. Let those flatter who fear, it is not an American art.JEFFERSON Ralph on Anion Rut Ral p h on THE TEXAS OBSERVER The Old Songs