ustxtxb_obs_1961_02_11_50_00001-00000_000.pdf

The one great rule of composition is to speak the truth. Thoreau 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. The Texas Observer An Independent-Liberal Weekly Newspaper A Window to the South Vol. 52 TEXAS, FEBRUARY 11, 1961 15c per copy No. 45 AUSTIN Two Houston conservatives were soundly defeated this week in their efforts to give the House Permanent Investigating Committee an antiCommunism emphasis. The State Affairs Committee, which threw out that suggestion by a unanimous vote, was scheduled Monday to face two more anti-Communism programs: one a resolution by Lloyd Martin of Normagee to memorialize the U. S. Congress to continue the House Un-American Activities Committee, the other a resolution by Sam Parsons of Henderson aimed at giving the state legislature a veto power over U.S. Supreme Court decisions. The circular distributed by Parsons to win committee support for his resolution says, “It is felt by many that the Supreme Court decisions with regard to communism have not been received by the people as in the best interest of our government.” His resolution would . ask the U.S. Congress to propose a Constitutional Amendment to allow the legislatures of the states the same veto power over the Supreme Court decisions as they now have over Constitutiontal amendments. Upon application of one-fourth of the states, a Supreme Court decision would be invalid until it was put to a vote of all the states for a three-fourths ruling. Martin’s resolution says the Muse Un American Activities Committee should be perpetuated because the Communist Party wants to abolish the committee and “through such arguments as ‘due process’ and ‘civil liberties’ has provoked the aid of many innocent and patriotic citizens to aid these efforts.” Rep. W. T. Oliver of Port Neches drafted the original bill to establish the general House investigating committee with the same powers given to the temporary investigating committee which, through its activities in Beaumont and Port Arthur, has kept its vice-chairman, Tom James of Dallas, and to a lesser extent its chairman, Minton Murray of Harlingen, in the headlines for weeks. Reps. Don Garrison and W. H. Miller, both freshman legislators from Houston, had said earlier that they would write their own bill to establish a Texas UnAmerican Activities Committee. Subsequently they decided they would have a better chance if they rode Oliver’s bill, so they came in as co-authors. Their addition to the bill was small but highly significant. At the end of the ninth paragraph they changed a period to a comma and inserted the phrase “including covert and overt subversive activities,” making the statement of the powers of committee read: “It shall have the power to examine into the expenditure of public funds at any and all levels of government within the state, and all other matters and things considered by said committee to be needed for the information of the legislature and for the welfare and protection of the citizens of this state, including covert and overt subversive activities.” Miller and Garrison have said they are more worried about “the professor of philosophy who might be teaching treason and sedition covertly” than they are in overt acts of treason. ,For nearly three hours, while the committee heard witnesses who talked exclusively about how sinful the sin of Beaumont and Port Arthur is and how much the general committee is needed, the closing phrase was not mentioned and it looked like the Oliver bill as re-written by Garrison and Miller would be the one sent to the full House. Then Rep. DeWitt Hale of Corpus Christi, who said that that meeting was the first time he had seen Oliver’s bill with the “subversive” phrase tagged on, introduced his sweeping amendment. Ostensibly written to remove the “whereas” paragraphs in Oliver’s bill that referred to the Jefferson County investigation Hale said he didn’t like a general bill to have particular references it also wiped out the six words introduced by Miller and Garrison. Hale Ec2″ d his amendment copied verbatim the bill setting up the temporary investigating commit A small, bland young man, whose self-styled “consistent conservatism” adheres closely to the resurgent Goldwater philosophy among the nation’s Republicans, was an unknown government professor in an obscure West Texas college less than six months ago. By most calculations, including his own, he has an excellent chance to reach a second primary in the current campaign for the U.S. Senate. “My conservatism,” John Tower says, “is a matter of philosophical conviction. I’m. not a wealthy man, I don’t come from a wealthy family. I think it’s wrong for many liberals to brand those of us who are conservative simply as agents of the ‘special interests.’ It should occur to a man who’s a liberal by honest conviction that some people could be conservative by honest conviction.” Taking off , an evening from campaigning last week, the 35year old Republican elaborated upon his adamant conservatism in a lengthy interview with the Observer. He “catagorically opposes medical aid to the aged, federal aid to education, further extension of the minimum wage” and other issues in the Kennedy program. He believes “we should return to the states the tax sources pre-empted by the federal government.” He attacks the Eisen Moral Leaders Urge Extension Of Probe Panel 1AUST IN “Aroused,” “united,” and otherwise agitated, Jefferson County moral leaders appeared before the House state affairs committee to urge the continuation of the House general investigating committee which exposed gambling, prostitution, and public corruption in their area. Rep. W. T. Oliver, Port Neches, presented petitions with 2,500 signatures for the extension of the committee. S. L. Bates, representing the county ministerial alliance, said, “We’re not the only county in Texas that has a bad situation.” Rep. Neil Caldwell, Alvin, noting that Bates had said many area residents had not been surprised by the revelations, elicited from him the assertion that some people were surprised “when the thing was put into one package.” Rev. Charles Williamson, representing the Beaumont General Ministers Assn., said the committee was needed for control of “the people who would like to see the status remain quo.”Rep. DeWitt Hale, Corpus Christi, established that Rev. Williamson had never been before a grand jury to testify about vice and corruption. Williamson said the committee could “mobilize public opinion” in any event. Supporting the committee’s extension, Rep. D. Roy Harrington, Port Arthur, said in defense of hower administration for being “too conciliatory” toward communion and the Soviet Union, and urges foreign economic aid only, when it is “very limited.” What does he consider the chances of such a vehement brand of conservatism succeeding in the Senate race? “I view them with far more optimism than in the general election,” he said, when he received over 40 percent of the votes against a dual-campaigning Lyndon Johnson. The first Belden poll, taken * John Tower ‘Lot of Hell Ahead’ AUSTIN 0. B. Ellis, head of the Texas department of corrections, warned the House appropriations committee this week that if something isn’t done to improve the salaries and working hours of guards in state prisons “there’s going to be a lot of hell ahead of us.” “This situation is going to change,” Ellis told the panel, “or we’re going to lose a lot of the gains we’ve already made.” The committee, chaired by Rep. Jim Cotten of Weatherford, heard Ellis’ somber testimony that the department of corrections is $625,000 short to carry on for the rest of the biennium, that operating expenses in Texas prisons are less than one-third of the national average, and that the building program requested by the department “is merely a catch-up proposition and is not in anticipation of future needs.” , Ellis’ department, which oversees the state prison at Huntsville and the eleven prison farms throughout the state, requested $24.8 million for the next biennium. Gov . Price Daniel’s recommendations were $1.1 million below the request; the legislative budget board pared the figure by $5.2 million. “Our request only covered the bare essentials without padding,” Ellis testified. The request for new buildings from the agency was $7.6 million, in November after the election, showed him well ahead of the field. “I apparently started off leading the pack, and I think we pick up strength as we go along,” he said. “I’m the only candidate who has an organization reaching down to the precinct and the block level.” Atty. Gen. Will Wilson’s organization is primarily composed of lawyers and businessmen, he said, and “is not a political organization” in the real sense. “I’m the only candidate who didn’t support the New Frontier,” he said, “so I think ‘that makes me the only consistent conservative in this thing.” Most of the other major candidates “have made formidable political enemies. I haven’t been around long I haven’t stepped on anyone’s neck.” Isn’t there a case for saying that he and interim Sen. William Blakley are almost exactly similar ideologically? “That’s not entirely true,” Tower said. “I don’t think Blakley was true to his principles when he supported the New Frontier.” He is an opportunist, “too much beholden to Mr. Johnson and Mr. Rayburn to cast an independent vote. I’ll be able to vote my convictions. I won’t be subject to those pressures.” improved in its entirety by the governor. The budget board recommended less than half. “In spite of all the construction which has been done during the past decade, we are more crowded than we were in the beginning,” Ellis said. “The population today is at an all-time high, 11,517, as compared with 5,074 in 1947. “If you could have given us every cent of what we asked for construction, if we could build what we need overnight, tomorrow we could fill up the new buildings completely.” Rep. B. H. Dewey of Bryan, vice-chairman of the committee, asked for figures on the cost of maintenance per day in the prison system. “The average cost in the United States exclusive of the federal system,” Ellis answered, “was $3.60 per prisoner per day in 1959. Our average cost the same year was $1.23. Of this, 24 cents was for depreciation, not reported in other states. So actually, the net cost through the taxpayers was 99 cents. The taxpayer in this state is paying less than one-third of the national average. “Why is that?” Dewey asked. “There are three reasons,” Ellis said. “One we’re proud of, the other two we apologize for. No other state in the Union feeds and clothes its own prisoners from its own resources \(farming, manu \(Continued on Page What about Republican chairman Tad Smith’s prediction that he and Maury Maverick Jr. will be second-primary opponents? “With labor endorsement Maury will be a formidable opponent,” Tower said. He would welcome such a run-off. “People will then have the chance to make a clear ideological choice,” he said. On Cong. Jim Wright, Tower said, “I don’t think he has the nerve to campaign as a liberal.” He is “straddling the fence,” conservatives have complained he is too liberal and liberals that he is too conservative. “It’ll come as a shock to these congressmen,” Tower said, “but they’re not very well known outside of their districts.” As for Wilson, “He’s been too opportunistic. He shows ’em the line he considers to be the most expedient. He’s interested mostly in mounting the political ladder as fast as he can. I’ve found all over the state complaints that he’s used” the attorney-generalship “to run for something else. Too many people feel it’s like a game of musical chairs they’re playing,” Tower said. . , Sen. Henry Gonzalez, Tower believes, “is no major contender. I’ve found he’s alienated most of his past supporters by his attacks on Maverick.” He can ‘Covert and Overt’ Subversion Committee Omits Crucial Clause AUSTIN His Case: ‘Consistent Conservatism’ Prisons Present Somber Warning Republican Tower Says He’s Ahead