ustxtxb_obs_1962_08_17_50_00004-00000_000.pdf

‘On this historic occasion we proudly unfurl our nation’swhoops, wrong flag! Valiant 5ig h. terJ Texas people ought to be proud that when confronted with President Kennedy’s endorsement of giving away the sky to a profit-making corporation, Senator Ralph Yarborough’s loyalty to his idea of the public interest superceded his loyalty to President Kennedy. Yarborough has joined with that gallant group of Senate liberalsKefauver, Morse, Douglas, Neuberger, Gore among themwho have condemned the Kennedy bill as the greatest giveaway in American history. When, this week, the Senate, that bastion of unlimited debate, shut off these senators’ filibuster, it was the first such event in 35 years. At first the significance seems merely ironic: the Senate’s devotion to its sacred principle is steadfast when it protects Southern racism, but not when it protects the public interest against a fearful rape, a gigantic giveaway to the AT&T monopoly. But in fact the cloture vote had a more depressing meaning. Without Kennedy’s backing, cloture could not have been invoked. The President decided to shut up his own best men. The real frontiersmen are being driven out of the Kennedy wagontrain. The “New Frontier” was it just a public relations gimmick ? Certainly it looks mighty like Madison Avenue this week. Again and again Kennedy has Agents of a discount store in Fort Worth, angry that their store, Atlantic Mills Thrift Center, has been filed against for selling prohibitkl items on Sunday, fanned out and bought other such items at other places of business to prove they are being discriminated against under the new Sunday nosales law. This law was conceived in hypocrisy and delivered in sanctimony in the first place. Everybody in the legislature knew that the point was not to sanctify the Sabbath but to make things tough for the cut-rate discount houses for the enrichment of more conventional merchants. Yet many members of the legislature voted for the bill out of fear of religious reaction if they did not. trimmed his sails. His was supposed to be a noble period in American government. It is ,turning into a mechanic’s tinkering with a bunged up motor. Medicare, that supposedly greatest of all the Democrats’ domestic causes, is in fact a sorry retreat from the systematic compulsory national health insurance Truman proposed in 1948. Where is the “consumer’s counsel” the President promised on his staff? It doesn’t exist. \(A “committee” doesbut it reports to President’s support for Kefauver’s insistence on controlling drug prices? It’s vanished, if it ever existed. When such domestic compromises are considered in the context of continued nuclear testingan abomination against mankind Kennedy has admitted in public press conference to be contrary to our military security one looks in vain for the strength of conviction Kennedy told us he had. Win or lose, the Democratic senators who crossed Kennedy on the space giveaway have performed their nation a great service. They will also have done their party a great service if they force Kennedy to realize that the United States is not Boston, Massachusetts, and the national interest needs a President who isnot a mediatorbut a leader. \(ntaui In the law’s application, therefore, citizens rightly show their contempt for its mummery. An executive of the Fort Worth discount house took to TV with a model wearing a bathing suit that had been bought, contrary to the law, at a place against which he said officials refused to file charges. In inappropriate indignation against this “using the sex approach,” D.A. Doug Crouch said he would file against “every last clerk” of the discount house for its alleged violation of the law. Respect for law is having enough difficulty in the United States these days without being burdened by nonsensical legislation and its rather humorless prosecution. AUSTIN Atheism, lack of incentive, and liberalism among the aged will be the main targets of the newly-formed Old Folks’ Crusade for Mom and Country, the Observer learned Wednesday in an exclusive interview with J. R. \(Jimand moderately well-known Austin resident. “The old folks in this fine land of ours have gone to the devil,” Fenwick postulated. “They are physically un fit, morally slack, and entirely too progressive for people of their age. Many of them, in their seventies, eighties, and nineties, having accepted New Deal social theories, sit around all day and loaf, preferring to accept a government dole rather than get out and do an honest day’s work.” FENWICK, who at 16 is an Eagle Scout and tireless church worker, has grown up around old people, and claims that he knows their aspirations and needs better than most of the oldsters themselves. The idea for such a movement came to him one day while making church visits to old people’s homes. “There were all those old people, watching television or reading or just doing nothing. ‘What a waste,’ I said to myself. ‘Why, these people could be out mowing lawns, digging ditches, working on farms in place of the migrant laborers who are getting too uppity to depend on.’ “The effects would be unparalleled in the history of mankind. Think of it : a labor force of hundreds of thousands of old people, living in work camps, being indoctrinated with youthful reactionary ideals, and attending gospel seminars before breakfast and after supper. Isn’t it magnificent?” What are the gospel seminars? “They are little get-togethers at which the oldster will be explained the connection between. the Holy Scriptures and our present-day idealistic, youth-oriented, reactionary political movements.” Fenwick explained , that after talking with several aging acquaintances of his, he realized that some of them were not practicing, professing Protestant fundamentalists, and a few did not even adhere to modern American reactionary principles. “It’s shameful and shocking,” Fenwick said. He was then asked whether the movement would have a definite religious or political bias. “Certainly not! We believe in individualism and defend to the death a man’s right to hold any opinion he wants. Atheists, Catholics, ‘ Hindus, even, will be admitted to our club. Our crusade is for all the oldfolks. Our only requirement is that they be 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. AUGUST 17, 1962 Willie Morris Editor and General Manager Chandler Davidson, Associate Editor Sarah Payne, Office Manager Ronnie Dugger, Contributing Editor right-wing Republican White Prot estant Fundamentalists. That’s all.” FENWICK EXPLAINED that he had recently been offered several million dollars by the 18-yearold son of a Dallas oil man, to be used for the Crusade. “Our movement is getting off the ground with a bang,” he said. “We have prevailed upon several state agencies to send out peppy, enthusiastic letterson agency stationeryto all owners of homes for retired people asking them to form feathers dnd wings among their charges.” “Feathers and wings?” the Observer asked. “You heard correctly,” said Fenwick, chuckling. “Those are the names of the basic and the intermediate groups within the Crusade. Feathers consisting of six memberswill be the basic group. Fifteen feathers will form a wing. Clever, isn’t it? The idea of feathers and wings, I mean. You see, feathers are part of wings on a bird, and a bird is a symbol of freedom and high hopes and purity and so forth, in a sense.” Just exactly who will be working with Fenwick in the role of indoctrinating and channelling the old folks’ activities? “Several young idealist friends of mine, who are as gravely concerned as I am about the shameful state our oldsters are in. Most of them come from my Scout troop or my Sunday school class. Almost all of them have had wide experience with old people. Many of them even have grandmothers, grandfathers, etc.” Does Fenwick think the idea will catch on_ among the aged? “Not a doubt in the world! Why, look what Hitler did with them ! He called them forth from involuntary retirement and sent them off .to protect the banner of the Reich. It gave them a purpose in lifea feeling of pride and usefulness. Of course we would channel their energies into more pacific lines. We would have them build bigger and better banks, country clubs, drive-in churchesthat kind of thing. They would make excellent scabs, too. No one would dare strike them, out of respect for their age.” I N A MEMORABLE peroration, Fenwick described the forthcoming Rehabilitation Rally which he is planning for our elder citizens at Memorial Stadium here in December. “It will be a glorious and heartwarming occasion,” he said. “Thousands upon thousands of our oldsters making their way down to the speaker’s platform to reaffirm their faith in free enterprise and all its implications, including Christianity. They will sign pledges turning over their government pensions to the Crusade, for its world-wide evangelistic project among the aged. There will be singing and rejoicing that night. Patriotic hymns. Fireworks displays. Marching bands led by idealistic, lovely young drum majorettes. Free soft drinks. Testimonials. Everything. Can’t you just see it now?” Fenwick cut off the Observer’s intended reply, indicating that the question was rhetorical. He explained that he would have to terminate the interview due to pressing obligations at the Scout hut. CHANDLER DAVIDSON 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 39, Texas. COUNTER-THRUST LAUNCHED News Flash! 5hoJe Sunday THE TEXAS OBSERVER 7 e41 S2 Fpr ,