ustxtxb_obs_1962_02_16_50_00002-00000_000.pdf

Close PASO Vote Promises Split Clayton Proposes Exchange AROUND TEXAS In Waco, delegates to the annual meeting of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas ordered the board of trustees of Saint Luke’s Hospital, Houston, to desegregate its admittance policy within one year. The order was made over protests from some Houston delegates that desegregation at this time might hurt a fund-raising program. But another Houston delegate, Gould Beech of Saint Alban’s Church, argued that the present policy is illogical in that “an agnostic can be admitted to our hospital, but a dark-skinned Christian cannot,” In Austin, the bizarre legislative textbook hearings came to an end and the investigating legislators prepared to take their show on the road, with the first stop being in Amarillo. The final Austin session found Rev. Brandoch Lovely leading several members of the Austin chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union into the chaos to plead for more scholarship and less consorship. The ideological -tug-o-war followed the same pattern set when the committee first met five weeks ago. One of the anti-textbook witnesses asked that mention of the “Abominable Snowman” should be taken out of encyclopedias used in schools because it might be accepted as some sort of evolutionary “missing link,” and this in turn would aid “militant atheism.” In Dallas, the Morning News presented the built-in conflict of News’ book critic Lon Tinkle writing up the textbook hearings as a seedy spectacle, while a News editorial writer defended the antitextbook group. Editorially the News chimed in: “When a history text teaches that the TVA experiment begun in 1933 brought cheaper electricity rates to farmers, that is the truth. But when the text neglects to say that rates are cheaper because the taxpayer is footing the bill, then it is guilty of distortion. It is propagandizing by the art of omission. It has told the truth, but only half the truth.” In Houston, Will Clayton proposed an “Atlantic Plan for Youth and Education,” in which stress would be placed on overcoming the language barriers that presently block the free-flow of knowledge between nations. Details of the Atlantic Plan are still to come. Clayton was undersecretary of state under President Truman and assistant secretary of commerce under President Roosevelt. Clayton, who recently returned from the Atlantic Convention of NATO in Paris, where he was cochairman of the U.S. delegation, said there is “nothing Utopian” about developing a literal unity of allied nations into an Atlantic community. Howard Stickney, 23, received his 14th reprieve this week as Gov. Price Daniel set his execution date off to April 20. bor and most liberals of Maverick over Gonzalez in 1961, patronage disagreements with Sen. Yarborough all figure prominently. Endorsement of a Daniel or a Connally over a Don Yarborough, many Latins reasoned, would teach a lesson where the lesson hurt most. 4.For weeks Connally seemed to have a superb chance for official endorsement. He did not come through. His appearance before the PASO screening committee Friday night made a generally poor impression. “It was the talk of the whole convention,” one delegate said. The final vote was between Daniel and Yarborough. 5.Daniel, on the other hand, was at his political best, every inch the old pro. His record on matters concerning the Latins was considered vulnerable; the questions directed to him were tough cnes. His response: he “did not know these things existed,” he had been “sleeping,” and on appointments and state patronage: “How many people in this room have applied for jobs?” 6.More important, as governor he could fulfill a good horse-trade without much delay. He offered positive action in the future. A district judgeship in Bexar County, positions in the state highway patrol, other openings for Latins were part of the pledge. Yarborough promised more, and was the only bidder who unequivocally upheld the New Frontier. But he was not governor of Texas. 7.Negro criticism of Speaker Turman’s segregationist background carried the endorsement SAN ANTONIO The Federal Housing and Home Financing Agency is now considering the proposal of Allison B. Peery, San Antonio architect. for constructing a “planned community for migratory farm workers” somewhere in the Southwest portion of Bexar County. If the HHFA approves Peery’s request for a new method of financing, the community with low-cost houses, space for job training classes, schools, health facilities, and the usual community shopswill be built as a model to be followed in other arias which the migrants call home base. In Texas this means especially Hidalgo, Webb, Cameron, e nd Nueces counties, besides Bexar. Peery considers Bexar the locclcal place for a pilot project of this County is home-base for most of the crew leaders, and most of the South Texas migrants come through Bexar County as they en”housing conditions in this tentative site area are known to be among the worst in the nation.” In other words, besides setting up an exemplary project that would make passing migrants want to become stationary home owners, he would be getting rid of some of San Antonio’s abundant slum area. Peery’s theorywhich he readily concedes is not original with him is that if migrant laborers, most of whom are Latin Americans, are ever to be helped, they must be kept in one place long enough to be available for training and assignment to permanent or semipermanent work in the home-base community. He quotes the 1951 report of the President’s Committee on Migratory Labor: “We received strik for Secrest, who, though generally conservative, supported Gonzalez in the dramatic state Senate fight against the segregation bills of 1957, in the lieutenant governor’s race. G. J. Sutton, influential Negro leader, led the fight against Turman. The importance of the Negroes in the Bexar coalition was a decisive factor. 8.With Daniel and Yarborough due to share the Latin votes in the primary, the real loser in San Antonio was Connally. He can count on very few votes from the Latin community. Sanchez Protests The most conspicuous leaders on Daniel’s behalf were Dr. Hector Garcia, Ed Idar, and Gilbert Garcia. The most active Yarborough supporters included Bob Sanchez, Idar’s law partner in McAllen; Lalo Solis, Dr. George Sanchez, and Paul Montemayor. The Bexar Coupty delegation, under the unit rule, cast its votes for Yarborough. Dr. George Sanchez, University of Texas professor and long-time Latin leader, walked out before the vote was taken. “I am terribly disappointed at the endorsement of candidates who have done nothing for our people,” he said. “We need the kind of governor who will work to put bread in the bellies of our children.” Endorsement of Daniel, Sanchez said, was “a complete violation of the principles under which PASO was established. The vast majority of the Latin-American people in Texas are not in agreement with it.” In a later statement released by Yarborough headquarters, San ing testimony on the settling effect of decent though insufficient housing. Housing, when it consisted of nothing more than a single room in a labor camp, was found to be a significant factor in the reduction of migrancy. Housing above the camp level was found to be a stronger deterrent to rootlessness.” Peery intends for his community to be both decent and sufficient. He points out that it will defer from most so-called lowcost housing plans in that it will include shops and schools a,nd other facilities “central to the idea of stabilization.” $8,000 Maximum The pilot community would be developed around housing for 120 families. Peery says he has been assured by officials of both the Bishops’ Committee on Migrant Labor and of the Texas Employment Commission that jobs paying at least 75 cents an hour can be found at once for the heads of these families, and that within five years the minimum guaranteed would be $1.29 an hour which he considers the minimum income necessary for buying his homes. Peery says the homes will cost “at most” $8,000. “Middle income, semi-luxury, air-conditioned apartments in the San Antonio area are built year after year at a per unit cost ranging from $4,000 to $6,000,” he said. “It is apparent that many of these units are built with borderline quality materials, no architectural design, and well below minimum prevailing wages. Inasmuch as these devices, which admittedly cut costs, have no place in this project,” the per unit cost will probably be higher than $6,000, but not a great deal. He said he would use only union labor. He pointed out that many workers are being squeezed from the chez, who authored the “declaration of principles” of PASO when it was organized, said he would support Yarborough. He said he had nothing against Daniel. “I feel sorrier for my people than I do for the governor. The mediocrity and indifference of the past five years do not permit me to go along with this frankly expedient endorsement. Principles rather than petty patronage must dictate our political choices.” Similar discontent was voiced by other PASO delegates. At one point in the fight a proYarborough delegate called Daniel a “revolving hypocrite.” And a pro-Daniel delegate said: “What did Yarborough promise us? All he did was waive his hands and say he was with us.” Former House Speaker Waggoner Carr, of Lubbock, a leading candidate for attorney general, had privately made Latin leaders some impressive patronage offers. A high Yarborough aide was approached by Carr’s forces and offered a state “ticket” that included Yarborough, Turman, Carr, and Bean. They were turned down. A Latin from Bexar County \(not ticket of Yarborough, Secrest, Carr, and Bean. When this was refused, he commented: “You want to keep your cake and eat it too.” Pledges Made Daniel told the convention he learned in the last week that no Latins are in the highway patrol. A Latin was currently enrolled in a cadet course, however, and would be sent to the drivers’ li migrant stream, whether they want to quit or not, because of the recent influx of farm machinery. In the Valley, the percentage of cotton picked by machines has increased in the last couple of years from six percent to 75 percent. Six thousand giant pickers have recently been put in use by Valley farmers. On the Panhandle, where an estimated 30,000 stripping machines are now used in the cotton fields, there is a comparable rise in machine dominance. Solid Backing Machines are also taking over in the beet and snapbean fields of the northern states. As one official of the Commission on Migrant Labor recently expressed it, “Our Texas migrants are having to go farther and farther away for less and less work.” Many of the migrants displaced by machines are moving to Texas cities, swelling the slums. Espedaily has this been noticed in San Antonio. As for the new financing wrinkle, Peery asks that two sections of the National Housing Act be linked and that the sponsor of the planned community \(which is the Bishops’ Committee for the “borrow the replacement cost of the project at 3 and 118 percent interest for a 40-year term . . . end sell the dwelling units, without profit, to the migrant family at 5 and 1/4 percent interest for a 40-year term.” The planned community project has the support of county commissioner Albert Pena, state Sen. Franklin Spears, Richard Jones, executive director of the Housing Authority of San Antonio, Reps. Jake Johnson and John Alaniz, and Dr. William R. Elizondo, president of the League of United Latin American Citizens. cense division when he graduated, the governor said. He stressed his work with Good Neighbor Cornmission and his efforts as attorney general to open jobs for Latins in the attorney general’s office. He said he issued opinions as attorney general holding segregation of Latins to be illegal. Connally said if he became governor “I will know how many Latin Americans are on the various state boards, are members of the board of regents and are in the Department of Public Safety . . . I won’t be running for any fourth term when you tell me.” He pledged to work for education in the conviction that “education and economic opportunity go hand in hand.” Latin-Americans, he said, “are not set apart in my heart. I don’t see Latin-Americans I see Americans and I see Texans.” Yarborough, promising Latin representation in government and consultation with PASO on appointments, said: “We have a great opportunity to win with real Democrats and we don’t have to compromise to do it.” The poll tax, he said, must be abolished; when it is “we are going to move.” He said he would help find solutions to problems for bracero workers. migrant laborers, and other low-income groups and that he supported Kennedy’s programs, especially medical care to the aged. Wilson promised to end discrimination in state employment and appointments, urged expansion of vocational, language, and adulttraining programs for Latins, and said equal opportunity in jobs and education is “by far the greatest need in Texas t6dai.” Texans, he said. “cannot preach freedom, justice, and equality without practicing it.” Another Surprise Cong. Henry Gonzalez of San Antonio did not attend the convention, saying he was too busy in Washington. One of the interesting sidelights of the convention was the occasional difficulty some candidates had on pronunciations. A number of them said Gan-SAIL-ez for Gonzalez, Mar-ti-NEZ for Martinez, and Daniel referred to Pena as “Pina,” which is the Spanish work for pineapple. Except for the Daniel endorsement, one of the biggest surprises was the speech made by Harry Republican Diehl, a GOP candidate for governor. Describing himself as a Catholic with a FrenchSpanish wife, he presented his program as “a progressive Republican” who urged a $1 minimum wage law for everyone in the state “bar none.” He called himself a new symbol of the Republican Party. He spoke strongly for organized labor and predicted it would only be “a matter of time” before Texans became a closed-shop state. He said he opposed the labor policies of John Tower and made a bid for run-off support “if your candidate loses in the first Democratic primary.” He favored bars remaining open until 2 a.m. on week nights and 3 a.m. on Sun