ustxtxb_obs_1961_02_11_50_00003-00000_000.pdf

Texas Observer Ltd. In association with the House of Books, Houston Now Available r The Inaugural Edition of Profiles in Courage the Pulitze Prize winning book by the President of the United States, John F. Kennedy. Harper $3.95 The Strategy of Peace by John F. Kennedy. Foreign policy speeches and statements on defense, peace, national security and related domestic issues are edited by Allan Nevins. Hardcover ..$3.95 Harper Paper $ .95 Harper Send your order for ANY book to DEPT. B, Texas Observer, 504 West 24th St., Austin, Texas. AUSTIN Maury Maverick Jr., candidate for the Senate seat vacated by Vice-President Lyndon Johnson, commented this week on statements made by State Sen. Henry Gonzalez, another candidate, in a front-page Observer interview January 28. Gonzales had told the Observer: “I would hate to think a name like mine and my children’s gives me absolutely no chance to be in the United States Senate.” “Nobody with a Mexican name bothers me,” Maverick said in response. “My legislative assistant for a while I was in the House was Carlos Cadina. He’s city attorney in San Antonio now, and I think he ought to be on the Supreme Court of the United Stateshe’d be another Brandeis. “I’ve found a great affection for Henry in Anglo-Saxon circles all over the state, and deservedly so, in his capacity as a symbol,” Maverick said. In reply to Gonzalez’ statements that “some of these fellas, mostly because of the ADA association with a nostalgic name,” are indicating a Mexican-named person has no chance, Maverick . said, “My father will be remembered by thousands of Mexicans for whom he fought, and who fought with him. It’s true he had some friends in ADA. “As a matter of fact, two days before he died in the hospital he told me he was going to join ADA.” A prominent eastern politician had just denounced the organization and said it should disband. This prompted his father to join the organization., Maverick said. “He had a letter on a table by the hospital bed. He was going to mail it, but he died. “So I guess the Maverick family is guilty of this association with the ADA,” he added. What about the comments being made that Maverick’s candidacy is damaging the cause of Negro and Latin minority groups in electing one of their number to the US Senate? `T`here are some people supporting me for the wrong reason because I’m an Anglo-Saxon,” Maverick s a i d, AUSTIN Texas labor’s committee on political education voted to endorse Maury Maverick Jr. over Sen. Henry Gonzalez by a narrow vote last Saturday, February 4. The count was 44-37. In the morning before the afternoon endorsement, Gonzalez charged that labor leaders had been unfair in preparing cumulative voting records on him and Maverick and that they “stacked the cards in Maverick’s favor.” He said Don Ellinger, COPE director for five states, state AFLCIO secretary treasurer Fred Schmidt, and former president Jerry Holleman were all for Maverick. Labor leaders stoutly denied that the comparative voting records, showing Maverick with an 80-0 score and Gonzalez with 42-5 over the course of their political careers, were rigged. They said the records were lifted in their entirety from the published ratings in the respective years. The COPE resolution urged union members to support Maverick “because of his extraordinary record in the legislature, his courage in espousing causes in which he believes, his ability to influence others, and his all-out “and there are some people supporting Henry for the wrong reason because he’s a Mexican. “Many Negroes and Mexicans have told me that a man should be judged as a human being regardless of his racial origins. This is the thing they’ve taught me more than anything else. I ask that they now judge me on that basis. “I’m not a bad man because I’ro. an Anglo-Saxon, nor is Henry a good man simply because he’s a Mexicanand vice-versa,” Maverick said “Henry is an important man to the Latin people,” Maverick said. “I love Mexicans. They were my father’s friends, they’re my friends. If they quit me teinporarily now, my only hope is that they come back and be my friends later on.” Maverick said he started working “years ago” with men like George Sanchez, Gus Garcia, Carlos Cadena, and Dr. Hector Garcia. He denied a statement made by Gonzalez that he has not cam , paigned for Gonzalez in past elections. “When I campaign I am telling people this: ‘you can’t kick a Negro in the guts in Dallas simply because he’s a Negro and then have people pay attention to us all around the world when we talk about our American democracy. You can’t treat a Mexican migrant like a dog on wages and living conditions’ and expect those millions around the world to turn to us. , ,t Gonzalez told the Observer he told Maverick before he \(Gonwould support Maverick if he filed, that he had told Maverick several days after GonZalez entered that he would still defer, but that Maverick waited until it was too late. “When I got into this thing,” Maverick said, “I really honestly didn’t thInk Henry would stay in. He’d written me he’d defer to mehe’d told me that ten days before at the courthouse. “I guess, in all honesty, though, Henry and I have been prima donnas with one another, and God only knows what the truth is anymore.” * * dedication to the liberal program of president Kennedy . . . We know that some of our members feel so strongly for Sen. Gonzalez that they will not accept our recommendation.” In a joint statement, Ellinger and Schmidt said: “We decided a hard question of political judgment between two very good men and obviously did not rig the results, as the very closeness of the vote itself should prove. This has been our Gethsemane and we only pray we acted wisely. We know we acted fairly.” Besides Maverick and Gonazlez among the major candidates, Cong. Jim Wright and Republican John Tower addressed the meeting prior to endorsement. Wright asked that no endorsement be made, that “if they should determine they want someone who would give them a blank check, 100 percent support, or a rubber stamp, they should not support me.” Tower outlined his anti-union stands \(see sepaRep. Dan Struve of Campbellton, a Gonzalez supporter, also charged that support of labor leaders made an endorsement of Maverick “a foregone conclusion.” First Step Sirs: Another January has gone, and for my fourth year as a poll tax deputy, I have seen scores of citizens regretfully pass up the chance to buy their right to vote. “Not today,” they’d say; “Maybe next week.” We who are interested in representative government should not rest until all Texans, regardless of economic status, may qualify to vote. Representative Stanford Smith of San Antonio has introduced an anti-poll tax amendment to the Texas Constitution in the state legislature. Representative Smith has taken a much-needed first step; now the rest of us should contact our legislators and express interest in the anti-poll tax measure. Mrs. Bernice Carter, 7623 Belgard Street, Houston 33. Pro-Income Tax Sirs: Is this payroll tax plan, which is worse than a sales tax, devised and being pushed to try to put over the sales tax as the lesser of two evils? The financial fix of Texas is the delinquency of past legislatures controlled by the lobbyists for special interests. This state needs an income tax. H. E. Harpin, 902 East Murray, Victoria. No Burial, Please Sirs: Not all liberals north of Austin share Mr. Elton Miller’s defeatist skepticism about the chances of Henry Gonzalez in the Senate election. Although a defeatist attitude on the part of liberals in Dallasor Lubbock is certainly understandable, we should try to remember that President Kennedy, for all the Shiverian gibes about his “naked liberalism,” did carry Texas. The choice for liberals is not between Wright and Blakley or Tower; it is between Gonzalez and the field. Let us applaud any sincere attempt to praise Henry Gonzalez, but let us reject any premature efforthowever wellmeaningto bury him. Keneth Kinnamon, 2312 15th Street, Lubbock. Wright’s Record Sirs: . . . In frequent and consistent public statements, and in his voting record, Jim Wright has supported federal aid to education. . . . On increasing the minimum wage, Wright has supported every proposal on which he could cast a vote, up to and including the proposal to raise the rate to $1.15. If, having gone down to defeat with the minority on ‘a record vote when the proposed rate was $1.15, he thought it was unrealistic to push immediately for $1.25, this judgment ‘did not place him in the ranks of the enemies of increasing the minimum wage .. . It is important to consider that for six years Wright has been in a position to cast a vote for the liberal measures he favors. It seems to me that the primary strategic consideration in the current Senate campaign should be to find and support the most liberal candidate who has a chance to win ‘the runoff . . . If Texas voters will support in the runoff an avilable candidate who is more liberal than Wright, it is a mistake for liberals to support Wright. If by opposing Wright we shall assure the victory of Wilson, or Blakley, or Tower in the runoff, it is a mistake for liberals not to support Wright…. 2816 Sixth Avenue, Fort Worth. AUSTIN Tensions building up in the legislature over tax proposals are nothing now compared to what they promise to be from this week forward, as schemes for raising new money run the committee gauntlet and increasing pressure is put on legislators from powerful outside interests. One of the heaviest lobbying bombardments is coming from the “Citizens for a Sales Tax,” a group of businessmen, bankers, and oil men, headed by Midland attorney Tom Sealy. Former State Senator Searcy Bracewell is the group’s legislative representative. Sales tax ‘pressure is also corning from the Texas Industrial Conference, a business and industrial organization headed by T. E. Jackson, regional manager for Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company, and from numerous local business groups such as the Corpus Christi Board of Realtors. UPI bureau chief Pat Conway has likened the intensity of the present conflict to that of the campaign by Gov. W. Lee O’Daniel in 1939 to push a sales tax through the legislature, only to be blocked by the “Immortal 56,” the ‘group of lawmakers who refused to go along. This time the anti-sales taxers have the governor on their side, but Price Daniel is meeting with little success so far in pushing his alternate program for a payroll tax. He hasn’t finished drafting the bill, though he says the finish is near, and no sponsor for the bill in the House has yet come forward, though Daniel will probably have no trouble getting a volunteer. The House constitutional amendments committee by a vote of 12 to 5 adopted an amendment proposed in several past sessions by conservative Marshall 0. Bell of San Antonio to prohibit the enactment of any income or payroll tax in Texas. The proposal will likely be ‘countered with the same crippling amendments of previous sessions. While men aligned with Speak ‘Covert, Overt’ tee. “If you can name anything on God’s green earth a commit tee with the powers of this amendment can’t investigate, I’d like to know what it is,” he said. Rep. Criss Cole of Houston pressed: “Is there authority to investigate subversive organizations or individuals? If this committee is set up and it is furnished with leads as to subversive activities, would your amendment empower them to go into it?” “Absolutely,” said Hale. “These six words \(the Garrison-Miller committee’s powers.” Hale’s amendment passed the committee of 21 without a dissenting vote and the following day skipped easily ‘through the House after a brief debate over Dallas Rep. Bob Hughes’ proposal to require the committee to give a full report of its activities ten days before the 58th legislature rather than leave it up to the committee as to when it reports. The proposal was killed. Turman immediately announced the membership of the general investigating COMM ittee : Charles Ballman. of Borger, chairman; Bill Hollowell of Grand Saline, Hale, Murray, and W. H. Pieratt of Giddings. B.S. THE TEXAS OBSERVER Page 3 Feb, 11, 1961 er James Turman control most of the key committees, lawmakers who backed losing speaker candidate Wade Spilman showed signs of fight on the committees they dominate. The majority of the House committee on commerce and manufactures are Spilman men. This week they voted against letting chairman Charles Whitfield, a Turman appointee, set the time for committee meetings or allow him to appoint the subcommittees. Harsh words came from both sides. When the Spilman group tried to have the meeting adjourned, Whitfield countered by putting the committee on a “stand at ease”, basis instead, which means he can control the length of recess and he has threatened to make it extend the length of the session if the Spilman group maintains its antagonism toward his chairmanship. In the Senate, Martin Dies Jr. of Lufkin, whose father has said he might like to enter the U.S. Senate race if he could keep the expense limit down to his level, lost in his effort to get a vote on a bill that would limit campaign expenditures in the current race