ustxtxb_obs_1961_11_10_50_00004-00000_000.pdf

Haw It Happened WHO WILL HE BE? 5h e cLoJon in Rexar Man on Horseback We congratulate Henry Gonzalez on a well-deserved and symbolic victory in San Antonio. We hope the lesson of that victory is not lost on liberals throughout Texas. There can be no doubting that the Bexar Republicans, on election eve; were confident of success. Riding the crest of a statewide upsurge, they had organized to what seemed perfection, worked diligently on the basics of electioneering, imported Eisenhower. Yet they lost by 10,000 votes. Why? They lost because, in a bitter ideological battle, the liberals and most of the moderates stayed together. The internal wrenchings that divided the liberal community only a few months before had vanished. They lost, even more crucially, because the liberal coalition and the old pro’s who knew its eccentricities con The regents of the University of Texas are expected in some quarters to make some concessions on segregated dormitories and varsity athletics this weekend. They will have to do something if they are going to quell mounting indignation about their defense of these last two official barriers to the acceptance of Negro students as full, equal members of the educational community. Last summer they declared that having implemented what is summarized around the University as “classroom integration,” they had placed the University in the forefront of Southern universities on the question and well ahead of Texas public opinion. They seemed unconcerned by the fact that within the University of Texas System over which they rule, college athletics are already integrated at Texas Western and dormitories are integrated at the nursing school in Galveston. Presumably they were not aware that the University of Georgia has a Negro staying in a student dormitory with whites, that the University of North Carolina has integrated varsity sports, and that Louisiana State University has not only integrated athletics, but to some extent dormitories as well. Now they have before them evidence they cannot, if they are responsible to the community for which they make the rules, ignore. The students, in the largest turnout in University history, voted solidly for integration of college athletics. The quibble that those voting for integration were not an absolute majority of the total student body, voting and not voting, is beneath serious consideration. The faculty, by a counted hand vote of 308 to 34, called for the nullification of dorm rules which openly, formally discriminate against Negro students. The regents also know that a lawsuit is scheduled to be filed within about a week on behalf of several Texas is about the sixth most industrial state in the country. To many Republicans and most Republicrats too timid as yet to make the Big Leap and participate in what their more sturdy tempters call “the great revolution in Texas,” it is the greatest of them all, more perfect yet because it stands four-square against that bumptious modern outlawry, federal aid. The figures have been released, and Texas ranks no less than 35th thanks principally to the less vocifer centrated even more diligently on the lackluster mechanics: work on the poll tax lists, in the precincts, on the blocks, and from house to house. Oldtimers from Austin, Houston, and Dallas returned from San Antonio Sunday, and their terse description of the work that turned out the votes was invariably “fantastic.” We have witnessed here the barest beginning of two-party politics : a campaign fought mainly on the living issues, a meaningful contest stressing significant differences, a local election geared sufficiently to genuine modern divisions to carry national importance. This trend in Texas will continue, though gradually and more imperceptively in other areas. In the . meantime, Democrats devoted to the goals of the national party would do well to memorize the happy lesson in Bexar. University students who will seek admission to University dorms on an integrated basis. Dr. Smiley, the University President, it is now evident, sought the lifting of the disciplinary probation imposed on the Negro students who demonstrated against the discriminatory dorm rules. He took the matter up in a meeting of an administrative group of which Dr. Ransom, the chancellor, was a member and obviously senior. It seems correct to believe that -Ransom did not support lifting the probations. They were not lifted. Ransom did take up general issues of desegregation with regents who were in town for a football game. An announcement has been made that the regents are going to take a new look at the situation this weekend. The chancellor is obviously in a difficult position. The main lesson to be learned from this latest episode for the long run is a lesson for the next governoror the present one, if he is re-elected. For many years appointments to the college and university governing boards have been regarded as plums for the governor’s wardheelers. In many of the smaller schools, this has led to obtuse decisions and policies which have not attracted much attention but which have damaged the quality of higher education in the state. In the case of the University of Texas, the result has been a series of national educational scandals Rainey, Dobie, Daily Texan censorship, Barbara Smith, and now this one. If the governors must go on appointing their supporters regents, at least let them be people who are interested in education first and politics second. No amount ,of piety about “the welfare of the university,” no tonnage of rhetoric about 75th anniversaries and standards of excellence and “a university of the first class,” can overcome the damage that is done by these recurring humiliations for higher education in Texas. ous components of the Old Confederacyin total expenditures per school pupil. Alaska, the highest, spends $585. Texas spends $330. Ralph Yarborough has said : “A recent survey in my state showed that of all the management jobs in the state of Texas, 65 percent were filled by people educated beyond the borders, and only 35 percent by people educated in Texas. We are the cutters of wood and the haulers of water because of deficiencies of education.” MARSHALL The White House must have concluded that Halloween had come early as it heard the publisher of Texas’ greatest newspaper tell it that it and its administration were “weak sisters” and that “We need a man on horseback to lead this nation,” and many think “you are riding Caroline’s tricycle.” -Unhappily, the host did not twist the nose of the guest, which would have matched his manners and been repartee in kind. After the remark passed, a continuation of the opera bouffe would have seen the publisher singing “Old Rocking Chair Done Got You,” as Ev and Charlie made an entrance from the Republican wings in the old soft shoe routine. Somehow, the performance stopped short of this. We should, nevertheless, be allowed to speculate on the meaning of the “man on horseback,” and what he should resemble. The background of the message bearer forbids the thought that he meant less than the common connotation given the term on the American continenta dictator. So, what kind of a dictator for America? WE LIBERALS leave the list of contenders immediately ; we want no dictator, right, left, in between, or of the proletariat. May we find a symbol, a horseman, to please the “up-and-at-’em” boys and girls? Some members of the DAR and Minute Women may feel a little pique about the gender prescribed for the equestrian. I confess that I would be more intrigued by a member of the fair sex astride the mount ; nothing like Lady Godiva, mind you, but a sort of buxom Joan of Arc, without armor or mail, sitting sidesaddle in evening dress with diamonds and an orchid, and that eternal diagonal chest ribbon, preferably purple. Being forbidden a fair rider, let us fashion one from the sterner sex. Thoughts turn to our professional patriots, but the selection of a symbol, an image of the group is difficult. Considering the American Legion, we cannot but remember their disastrous engagement with the Girl Scouts in the Midwest. Somehow the vision of pranksters stopping pretty girls on the sidewalks of convention cities to their embarrassment, and the too ready finger on a water pistol trigger comes to mind. No, we can’t use a legionnaire. We have the John Birchers. No doubt they agree with the publisher that the country needs a man on horsebacktheir man. The cloak of anonymity that they permit would be a drawback that could only be overcome by a masked leader. Hot dog ! The Mark of Zorro, or the Masked Ranger. That would be exciting on TV, but there are some of us who are old enough to associate the hooded rider with the smell of tar and feathers, the burning cross, and midnight “trials” in the pasture. Nope, can’t use a Bircher, and a crying shame it is, too. There are those Minute Men in the Midwest. Within the month they trained for guerilla warfare, Browning automatic rifles, an M14, mortar, and all. Their conception runs along the small-war line, with a study of the tactics of Mao Tse-Tung and the expected need to apply them to the students and others who are certain to continue rioting. Some Florida policemen may welcome the Min THE TEXAS 741`,Pe 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. NOVEMBER 10, 1961 Willie Morris Editor and General Manager Bob Sherrill, Associate Editor Sarah Payne, Office Manager Ronnie Dugger, Contributing Editor uteers, but we really need a more ambitious type of horseman, one who inclines toward fission and fusion rather than small-arms adventures. O U R MUSHROOMING anti-communist educational associations should be considered. They are, however, dedicated to the finer arts. To educate is to draw forth, or draw out, and it would be unthinkable to remove even one of these scholars from his monk-like crypt when his reflections may well be the element that saves civilization in the end. No, leave the scholar at his desk, book in hand, brow nettled, but face shining with the yearn for learning. Then, he may get his hand out of the tar pot and cease smearing his betters, if permitted to pursue his studies. Passing by a myriad of other and less known country savers, let us come to the youngest and consequently the most virile of the group, the National Indignation Convention ; and man, it is just that. Vigor, willingness to start a preventive nuclear war, while making us secure as Fortress America ; all this and more too we could expect from one of its members as the horseman. There are some drawbacks. Its speakers have advocated a capture of Perrin Field by the Texas Rangers and Texas National Guard combined. They have also suggested that the State Department and the Executive have been treasonous in conduct since 1932. To satisfy one of them as a leader, we wouldcertainly have to liquidate the Republican and Democratic parties, and let Perrin Field become Miss Fort Sumter of 1961. This would likely take more time than the publisher feels we can afford to waste. At long last, it comes down to the military. Suddenly, it isn’t funny any more. The long shadow of DeGaulle and his troubles falls across the scene. The French Secret Armed Organization, or the OAS, is not comic; it is a nightmare come true. Like those of our Minutemen, its leaders reject, indeed, detest communism, but accept the military theories of Mao Tse-Tung. They have concluded that the civil branch of the government has deteriorated to the degree that requires military -intervention. So it has been in this calendar year in Brazil and Syria, and so it has been in most countries where it was felt that a man on horseback was needed. EVEN GENERAL EISENHOWER warned of the danger of a military clique of the far right as he left office. Good soldiers recognize the necessity of the supremacy of government by civilians, but all Army personnel are not good soldiers. Loose-lipped charges of treason in high places, if unanswered, will bring a man on horseback. A military man. FRANKLIN JONES OBSERVER fUTURA PRESS… Published once a week from Austin, Texas. Delivered postage prepaid $5.10 per annum. Advertising rates available on request. Extra copies 15c each. Quantity prices available on order. EDITORIAL and BUSINESS OFFICE: 504 West 24th St., Austin, Texas. Phone GReenwood 7-0746. HOUSTON OFFICE: Mrs. R. D. Randolph, 2131 Welch, Houston 19, Texas. n o more iclumiliationJ Anode, Ranting