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said, that Castro has been successful “primarily because of the abject poverty of his people.” More than 90 percent of the Cuban population “didn’t own any real estate,” had existed under a kind of “indentured servitude,” and “had given up all hope of achieving a better lot under the slow and irregular democratic processes. “It isn’t good enough just to say Castro is wrongalthough he is. We must say to them that the best way to achieve economic democracy is through the framework of political democracy which historically it is, although they’ve seen no evidence of it.” Why are the large superhighways in countries like Nicaragua and Guatamala named after Franklin Roosevelt? Wright asks. “Because they identified their problems with him.” But today Americans are more noted for “the big embassy partiesthey automatically identify us as people interested only in the upper strata of their society.” To fight poverty in the underdeveloped nations, Wright proposes that the United States encourage them to make low-interest loans on a wide scale “with a government indemnification of the FHA-type, and it necessary we should join in this loan guarantee with their governments.” Before the FHA program was established in this country fewer than 30 percent of the people owned any property. “FHA has been an unqualified success without, having cost the government a penny,” he said. Wright is convinced that if an international FHA program “costs anything at all, it’ll be a lot cheaper than foreign aid programs with mare satisfying results.” He believes our ambassadors and diplomatic representatives “should no longer be chosen on the basis of the money they’ve contributed to political parties.” They should be intellectually qualified and well-informed on the countries to which they are sent. “A minimum requirement,” he said, “is that they should know the language of the state,” and he suggests the state department . emulate the British policy of giving extra pay to those who master the more difficult languages and dialects. Wright endorses two other policies: an expanded foreign ex AUSTIN Republican state chairman Thad Smith predicted this week that the race for the U.S. Senate would end in a run-off between the GOP’s John Tower and Democrat Maury Maverick Jr. He said interim Sen. William Blakley and Atty. Gen. Will Wilson will “cut each other to ribbons and will take votes from each other.” Blakley drew a public endorsement from J. Ed Connally of Abilene, state Democratic chairman. “Because he himself has been a U.S. senator, Gov. Daniel knows well the high requirements that office demands,” Connally said. “He chose the most experienced and best qualified man available, and Texans now have a fine opportunity to retain the services of this , atitstanding and able citizen. He is doing a splendid job there change program and a sliding tariff scale. He favors an exchange program which would concentrate on “opinion makers” in various countries journalists, teachers, labor leaders, businessmenand have them “come and live for two or three weeks here with their counterparts. These people we’ve ignored,” he said, “but Red China hasn’t, Russia hasn’t.” He cited the .visit of 400 Latin American leaders to Red China recently. The tariff policy he recommends “would introduce a new ingredientwages. American industry is being placed at a competitive disadvantage due to its necessity to maintain a high standard of living here and at the same time compete” with goods produced by what often amounts to “slave la bor.” To sell abroad we must buy in abundance, he said, “but this situation has been reversed in the last two years because of wage differentials.” To create an incentive for foreign countries to raise their wage scales, he advocates a sliding tariff on an inverse ratio: if a country comes close to our wage scale in an individual industry, our tariff will be small or non-existent. The greater the wage differential, the larger the tariff. “We would be saying in effect: we don’t want your tariff money. Keep it at home and pay your own people with it,” he said. Wright defends his foreign policy views vigorously and forthrightly. At a small gathering in a Bastrop cafe, asked about government spending, he said 80 cents of every tax dollar goes to defense. “Perhaps someday we can change this. But I’ve got to tell you in all honesty I haven’t seen that possibility.” Gesturing with his hands, talking in a folksy tone, Wright said “the great preponderance” of people in the uncommitted nations “are hurrying forward in one of history’s great upheavals . .. We can’t hold ’em down. To do this we’d be going against our own principles,” as well as going against the history of the rise of peoples from Rome tb the British Empire. In Latin America and other countries, he said, “Amer- for Texas and the nation.” Sen. Henry Gonzalez set up campaign headquarters in Austin this week across the street from the county courthouse. Tower, campaigning in Austin, said he was happy with poll tax registration and added, “It’s highly possible that I will win without a run-off.” Tower criticized Cong. Jim Wright for supporting Speaker Sam Rayburn in the rules committee fight. “It’s shameful,” he said, “that a majority of the Texas congressmen voted for political expediency. You know that most Texans want that committee to stay in conservative hands.” Spot checks of Texas cities this week disclosed that there was an apparent increas.. in registration as compared with other off-years. Greatest gains were in the most populous counties. cans go around in limousines and furs. Down there the people don’t even have shoes.” Domestic Issues On domestic questions, Wright adheres closely to his middle route. He has voted against the $1.25 minimum wage and federal aid to education. In the voting ratings, he is usually ranked slightly to the left between Brooks and Patman’ on the one hand and Alger on the other in the Texas congressional delegation, A Congressional Quarterly survey on key votes in the last Congress concerning the expansion of federal government rated him 50 percent. AFL-CIO rated him 11-9 in the last Congress. Wright supported Speaker Rayburn in the rules committee fight. He said he would support “most of the Kennedy program.” On medical aid to the aged: “We’ve got to have a meaningful program” to combat sudden illness and fear among the aged “whether it be by means of direct appropriations or social sething to be said for both ways. I’ve been in Congress too long to believe there’s only one possible solution. The federal-state scheme will work if the states will resume responsibilityand so far they’ve demonstrated no initiative in this fieldthen we’ll have to do it by other means.” On federal aid to school construction and teachers’ salaries: “I’ve supported every federal aid bill that didn’t have the Powell amendment. I can’t support it with the Powell amendment. It goes farther than the Supreme Court. The Court didn’t set a date for integration.” The amendment sets an “immediate date.” Would he vote for a broad federal aid program without the Powell amendment? “If I can be assured there are adequate guarantees against any modicum of federal control of textbooks, curricula, faculty,” Wright said. “If the states don’t do this support in an adequate degree, we’re going to reach a real crisis in education.” The prospect of federal control, he believes, “is the most dangerous thing that could possibly happen. At this point I disagree with the doctrinaire liberals. They’re inclined to pooh-pooh it as a false fear.” In the first general education act, Jefferson warned against such controls. “That preamble ought to be read by some of the liberals of today,” he said. A fascist leader, he said, “could find no more effective an area. Any aid bill “needs clear guarantees that could not be misconstrued by the courts or an administration.” On aid to depressed areas: “There are some things in the so-called depressed areas bill I don’t think altogether prope.” On a provision to place defense ‘contracts in these regions, he said “I don’t know if that makes sense or not.” Competitive bidding on such contracts is of major importance, he said. For a legislator to say ” ‘yessir, I’m for it’ ” on a certain bill “runs afoul of some complicated things,” Wright said. “You don’t have the opportunity to vote ‘yes, but’ . or ‘yes, if.’ ” A legislator “has got to do some weighing and balancing. On the roll call, your commitment must be yea or nay, and that’s one of the reasons why a man should be careful in saying exactly what he’s going to do.” If he says he will support certain legislation, but the bill has bad things in it and he subsequently votes against it, someone will surely say: ” ‘Oh, you said you were going to vote for this, and you didn’t.’ A fellow would play havoc with his’ own sense of judgment.’ The Racial Issue On the Supreme Court school decision of 1954: “I recognize the Supreme Court is the final arbiter of what is and is not constitutional . . . There is no changing \(their amendment. I’ve taken an oath to uphold and defend the constitution. I shall not demogogue on this issue.” Wright said he was one of four members of the Texas delegation who did not sign any of the Southern manifestoes. He has supported the voting rights bills “as a matter of conscience.” “I think this is a problem,” Wright said, “with no single solutionbut hundreds, even thousands; it must be worked at with understanding on the local level. If we blunder in precipitately and try to create one sudden transformation of long-established mores, we might be like the householders who lights a match to find where the gas leak is. “I think there have been entirely too many of those who’d divide class against class, race against race, religion against religion, When one enters the political arena pledged to such division, at a time when we so desperately need our national unity, he prostitutes his talents, and in the long run serves those who would divide us, and in dividing us would conquer us.” Does continued racial discrimination harm our “national image”? “It’s extremely important,” he replied. Our views of “the equality of man and freedom of opportunity will have a hollow ring if we create the image of a nation divided by hatred. Every incident of bad race relations is blown up and exaggerated many times as typical of our behavior which, of course, it is not.” He proposes appointment of leaders of “minority racial groups” in diplomatic posts, citing men like George I Sanchez, Henry Gonzalez, Hector Garcia. How does he feel about the student sit-in movement? “I can’t see that the federal government has any proper or rightful concern whatever,” he said. “You might as well inquire of a member of Congress what he thinks of Seventh Day Adventists or flagpole sitting.” Since he was considered to be a strong liberal when he was younger, how does he think he has changed? “I’ve been exposed to information. I’ve had opportunities for observation. I’ve developed an awareness that one must look at both sides of an issue” before taking a definite stand. He paraphrased Learned Hand: the spirit of freedom is the spirit that is not quite sure it is right. The public servant, he said, must be willing to approach the future with an open mind “instead of with a closed mind and an open mouth.” Wright described himself as “an unashamed devotee of the system of free competitive enterprise. I believe in this system as the most dynamic and creative economic system that has ever been devised. I strongly believe this system of free competitive enterprise is far more able to supply the needs of employment and a good standard of living than a socialistic system.” Wright said he has been an “active opponent” of the “highinterest, hard money policy. This more than any one thing has caused the slowdown in the nation’s economy and choked off business opporunity for new and small businesses.” W.M. THE TEXAS OBSERVER Page 3 Feb. 4, 1961 ‘Don’t Even Have Shoes’ Wright’s Middle Course * GOP Predicts Seven Texans Defy Speaker In Rules Fight WASHINGTON With his own personal prestige and the effectiveness of the Kennedy administration’s legislative program squarely on the line, Speaker Sam Rayburn won a narrow 217-212 victory in his fight to enlarge the House rules committee this week. Six Texas Democrats and Republican Bruce Alger of Dallas went against the Speaker in the voting. The Democrats were : John Dowdy of Athens, Clark Fisher of San Angelo, Omar Burleson of Anson, Lindley Beckworth of Gladewater, Walter Rogers of Pampa, and Joe Kilgore of McAllen.. Reports were that pressures from the more conservative constituencies were extremely heavy, and the wavering Texas congressmen faced a crucial decision of whether to cross homestater Rayburn or the voters back home. Rayburn was supported by 195 Democrats and 22 Republicans. He was opposed by 64 Democrats and 148 Republicans. The speaker had said the plan to increase the conservative panel from 12 to 15 members was “the only way we can be sure” of enacting Kennedy’s program. The strength of the RepublicanSouthern Democrat coalition was tested to its strength in the voting. It could be a prelude to a tightening of ideological lines in the House, which might imply rough sledding for some of the administration proposals. Sen. Ralph Yarborough said this week that 137,000 Texans in 68 counties will benefit from Kennedy’s order for additional food distribution to the needy. He said public welfare officials in Texas had told him the order was badly needed, particularly for children. Praising the Kennedy directive, Yarborough said: “It violates our Christian ethics and our . civilized conscience to let any of our young and our old starve by degrees or let any human suffer from hunger.” Interim Sen. William Blakley will introduce a bill next week that would provide for leaving five percent of federal taxes in the state where the taxes are collected. Estimating that the plan would leave $100 million annually