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“BOW” WILLIAMS When Your Home Policy Expires, Check With Us About Special Savings On Our Homeowners’ Policy GReenwood 2-0545 624 NORTH LAMAR, AUSTIN Let’s Abolish the Poll Tax! State Library Shake-Up Stirs Cross-Fire AUSTIN Various forces protesting the dismissal of Mrs. Bess Ann Motley as head of the Texas Rural Library Service gained two strong allies and a plan of attack this week. Rep.-elect Ronald Roberts of Hillsboro and Rep. Lloyd Gaffey of El Campo warned the Texas Library Commission they will introduce legislation at the next session that “just might clean house” in the commission. They claim 41 votes “assured” already. Their warning was sounded at the commission’s special meeting which saw the state board, with surprising unanimity, agree to bring the federally-supported rural library service under the statesupported extension division and approved a budget that dropped from the payroll these persons: Mrs. Motley. Robert E. Lee, head of the extension division. Earnest Barth, assistant director of the rural program and “technical specialist.” William H. Banks, information officer. Mrs. Marie Tongue, head of acquisitions for the rural program. A week earlier the board had voted 3-2 against accepting either the consolidation or the budget, a vote that prompted Professor Guy B. Harrison of Waco to resign as chairman of the board. He was not present at this session. Walter Long, a member, said he approved the move “with reservations” because of fears of federal enroachment. “I had the assurance of the Governor and numerous others that this would not happen. We think an excellent service has been rendered by Mrs. Motley in . Our area. Reading has been increased 40 per cent by the bookmobile program. I don’t know if you people think that’s an improvement, but we do.” And Warren Hughes, a businessman from San Marcos, hotly added: “Five hundred of my relatives will be adversely affected by your decision. I will ask for a full and complete investigation of this meter, having in mind and hoping that the entire commission system will be re-arranged.” Going to Mr. Sam Hughes later said he meant to take the matter personally to Speaker Sam Rayburn in an effort to have federal aid to Texas libraries cut off until the state commission “is brought in line.” Rep.-elect Roberts, claiming to represent most of the librarians in Hill County, who recently held a special meeting and appointed him their legal spokesman before the commission, said: “The whole thing is utterly disgusting. This is wholly a matter of personalities. You are replacing a woman who set up the Dal THE TEXAS OBSERVER Page 8 Dec. 16, 1960 “THE SPARE RIB” Best Barbecue in Texas 3112 Johnson St. GL 5-9098 Greenville, Tex., Dewey Fitz patrick, Prop. “we reserve the right to serve anyone.” k Jim Tucker Insurance Agency Home . . . Business 6511 South Park Blvd. Houston, Texas Phone MI 4-1641 las County library system and in ten years brought it into the first ranks before joining the state library system and bringing IT toward the top among states . . .” Mrs. Motley, a school teacher since 1928, became assistant librarian in Dallas County in 1946 and was made county librarian in Dallas two years later. She held that position until W. B. Harwell, state librarian who retired last October 1, recruited her in 1957 to take over the rural library program for the state. She has worked in only two library systems in her career. Her duties will be assumed by Mrs. Rosalyn T. Shamblin, now acting assistant state librarian. Roberts said Mrs. Shamblin has worked in ten library systems in the past 22 years, this being her record: WPA supervisor, Amarillo, 19381939; bookmobile and branch assistant in Harris County, 19401941; county librarian, Wharton County, 1941-1943; circulation section, U.S. Army Medical Library, 1945-1946; special bibliographic assistant, AIA International Relations Office, Oct. 1946-Jan. 1947; in Latin America from 1947 to 1950; medical librarian, M. D. Anderson Hospital, 1950-1952 and 1953 to 1955, having dropped out from 1952 to 1953 to study in the University of Texas library school; reference librarian, Mary E. Bivins Memorial Library, Amarillo, 1955-1956; librarian, Artesia, New Mexico, public library, 19561957; field consultant, Texas State Library, Jan. 1958-Aug. 1959; New Mexico State Library, 1959-summer, 1960. Mrs. Shamblin told the Observer: “I am not replacing Mrs. Motley except insofar as the state librarian will assume her duties and I am his assistant. I have a bachelor’s degree library science from the University of Oklahoma, a master’s degree in library science. from UT, and a reputation and record that is open to the public. As for my moving around, much of that was from my following my husband, who was with the government.” Acting State Librarian William K. Peace and members of the state library commission have encouraged publicity to the effect that they are making this move in an effort to get rid of personnel who are not “trained librarians” and bring onto the staff in their place people with such training. Talk, About Degrees On October 7 the Houston Post carried a story stating: “The Texas Rural Library Service, established in 1957 with federal and state funds, will be restudied and revised before it enters its second five-year period next June, Acting State Librarian William K. Peace said Thursday. “A part of the revision will be the replacing of some employees with trained librarians. “Peace said six or seven employees of the rural library service had been given notice of dismissal .. . Among them are Robert Lee, director of the state library’s extension service and Mrs. Bess Ann Motley, director of the rural library service. These two jabs will be combined under a trained librarian \(emphasis sup” ‘Our staff has been thin in trained librarians,’ Peace admitted. ‘The library !commission feels we should have more of them, especially in key positions.’ ” Acting State Librarian Peace does not himself hold a degree in library science, as he confirms. He holds a master’s degree in education from UT. Mrs. Motley, whom he is discharging, holds both the bachelor’s and the master’s degree in library science from Texas Women’s University, and a bachelor’s degree in literature from SMU. Robert Lee, like Peace, does not have a degree in library science, but he holds a master’s degree in history from UT and is only three courses short of having a Ph.D. in history from,,the university. His thesis for the master’s degree was “Texas Library Development: Its Relation to the Carnegie Movement, 1898-1915,” and he has nearly five years’ experience in library extension-more experience in such work at his level than anyone else in the state library system. Ph.D. Not So Good He is being let out, he says, because the job classification adopted by the commission requires the person in his position to have a degree in library science. He said that when he was hired he talked with four members of the commission who told him he would not have to have a library degree, ever. Of the others being let out, however, Barth describes himself as “an experienced car dealer” and Mrs. Tongue says she got the job “because I explained to Mr. Harwell that I was a widow and needed a job, and had a little library experience, though I certainly didn’t set myself up as a librarian.” Barth admitted: “When Harwell went, I knew I would go.” When Mrs. Motley left her Dallas COunty position, the commissioners there passed a resolution praising her “leadership” as “unequalled for its accomplishments, as well as for unselfishness of purpose.” Praise for her work in the rural library service has come. steadily, but most recently from Sen. Lyndon Johnson, who wrote on Oct. 3 \(two days after she received noti”You should feel proud of the progress you have made. Certainly I am proud of the part I had in the passage of the Library Services Act and I feel good to learn of the work that is being done in our rural sections under your directorship. Congratulations to you.” She has other letters of praise for her work from such leaders in Texas library work as Harriet Dickson Reynolds, director of the Houston public Library, Mrs. Lucille W. Riley of Waco, consultant in library services and a . prominent member of the Texas Library Association, Sister Jane Marie, CDP, head of the department of librarianthip at Our Lady of the Lake College and a member of the TLA executive board, and John G. Lorenz, director of the Library Services Branch of the U.S. Department of Health, EduCation and Welfare. State Ranking Up Mrs. Motley claims that during the three years she directed the rural services, the ‘rural division has risen from third from the bottom among states to the rank of no. 14. She says that in three years her division has given bookmobile service to 43 counties, a service which has so stirred interest in library work among county officials in these areas that on the average there has been an increase of 35 per cent in county funds appropriated for library purposes. Her staff has received $657,000 in four years, 40 per cent of which went for salaries and traveling expenses \(the latter no small item books and five bookmobiles, five per cent for supplies and two per cent for bookmobile maintenance. What, then, is the commission’s complaint with Mrs. Motley’s work? It is not clear for the simple reason that the commission has not made much effort to clarify its complaint. MARTIN ELFANT Sun Life of Canada Houston, Texas CA 4-0686 One reason given for dismissing her is that the rural library service “duplicates” the work of the state extension division. Another reason given is that salaries under the federally-backed rural library program are higher than under the state extension services, that much jealousy and rancor arises as a consequence and, to put it in Peace’s own words, “the morale problem is devastating.” Unquestionably some of the conflict is a hangover from the reign of Witt Harwell as state librarian, for the dismissals were made immediately on Peace’s assuming his post on Oct. 1. Harwell was a cracker-barrel type of official who ran the state library with a free-wheelinness that offended some librarians and often made appointments by whim. All those being discharged were hired by him. Whatever his faults, Harwell came up with a clever assist to the state when he got the federal government to credit money already being spent on libraries by the counties as matching funds toward federal aid. He knew the state, already financially in the hole, was not likely to put up more money to get the federal aid, so he got around the extra money this way. He was one of the first state librarians in the country to pull this maneuver, and others in financially-pressed states soon followed his lead. Rep.-elect Roberts says his legislation will trim the library commission’s powers. “As it exists now, this commission is one of the few in the state that are both policy-making and policy-administering bodies,” he explained. “I want to reduce it to a policy-making body only, and thus avoid such arbitrary actions as it has taken in this case.” BOB SHERRILL Subscribers Please show our advertisers in your city you appreciate their appearance in the OBSERVER by communicating with them. ant is able to contribute a reasonable amount to support of said child; plaintiff alleges that no community property was acquired during this marriage; plaintiff prays for a judgment of divorce from defendant, that plaintiff be awarded custody of minor child, Roxanne Allen, and for a suitable provision be made for the support and maintenance of said child, and for such other and further relief as the Court Shall deem proper to grant; All of which more fully appears from Plaintiff’s Original Petition on file in this office, and which reference is here made for all intents and purposes; If this citation is not served within 90’ days after date of its issuance, it shall be returned unserved. WITNESS, 0. T. MARTIN, JR., Clerk of the District Courts of Travis County, Texas. Issued and given under my hand and seal of said Court at office in the City of Austin, this the 16th day of November, 1960. 0. T. MARTIN, JR. Clerk of the District Courts, Travis County, Texas. By A. E. JONES, Deputy. answer the petition of plaintiff in Cause Number 120,156, in which Henry A. Townsend is Plaintiff and Blanche Minnie Townsend is defendant, filed in said Court on the 30th day of November, 1960, and the nature of which said suit is as follows: Being an action and prayer for judgment in favor of plaintiff and against defendant for partition of the following described property situated in Travis County, Texas, to-wit: the Woodward Industrial District Resubdivision, Travis County, Texas, according to the map or plat of record in Vol. 6, Page 104 of the Travis County Plat Records. Plaintiff alleges that plaintiff and defendant are the joint owners of the above described property in fee simple, and that plaintiff and defendant were divorced in the 126th District Court of Travis County, Te3cas, in Cause No. 115,368; plaintiff alleges that since the divorce from the defendant, plaintiff has protected the property by payment of $531.00 to the Austin Savings and Loan Association; plaintiff alleges that the value of the above described property in $9400.00, and that plaintiff is entitled to partition of said property; plaintiff alleges that