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THIS ISN’T GOING TO BE EASY , It\( /ft H C IRCI:M Dar Non St0 C0Id FAY FOR LAND COMMISSIONER THE NEWS’ DILEMMA Vote lor Padre Observer Notebook The Observer this week endorses Albert B. Fay, a Republican, for State Land Commissioner. His Democratic opponent, Jerry Sadler, the snuffdipping segregationist and racist, continues to demagogue and distort the facts on the Padre Island issue, while Fay promises to do all within his power to see that the state legislature takes the requisite steps to make Senator Ralph Yarborough’s legislation a reality. Only this week Sadler reiterated his ill-founded charges that the Padre Island national seashore is a “giveaway,” making it fully clear he intends to fight any legislative authorization. There must be no mistaking the fact that Fay is a staunch conservative. He will campaignfor a GOP president in 1964. But on land matters he is a straightforward conservationist, in the best Republican tradition of Practice “No state is an island.” John Donne “The hell it ain’t.”Ross Barnett Civilization is nibbling at the fringes of the sovereign state of Mississippi. But there are grave doubts if it will ever be able to establish itself there and flourish. At least by peaceful means. So let us settle the question once and for all. There are one of two alternatives. One, we can instruct the invasion force we are sending to Cuba to stop by Mississippi en route. This is not to say Ross Barnett is a greater menace to the republic than Fidel Castro ; the detour, however, will give our troopers muchly needed Zaor o The Texas AFL-CIO deserves to be commended by the entire liberal community for its forthright statements before the platform committees of both parties. Labor leaders Hank Brown and Roy Evans did not limit themselves to platform suggestions beneficial to organized labor alone. They firmly aligned themselves with the entire drift of post-war Texas reform, stressing issues along a broad front so necessary to meaningful state government. Unfortunately, they met with only scant success in either El Paso or Fort Worth. To illustrate the extent to which Texas labor has taken the affirmative ..on liberal legislation in all areas, we cite their platform proposals not concerned specifically with labor matters: Abolition of the poll tax, to be replaced with a voter registration law providing for permanent registration up to within 30 days of an election at no fee, and with no reregistration necessary unless the voter moves from his county of first registration. Further, there should be no voter-qualification clauses. The AFL-CIO and PASO have taken the lead in warning that certain kinds of “voter registration statutes” would be the old poll tax in different clothing. Establishment of a commission to regulate intra-state utility services, Texas being one of two states which still does not have such regulation. “Much is heard these days about the need to increase tourism. If this goalwhich we heartily approveis to be gained, Texas must vastly expand and improve its ill-financed and meanly-maintained state parks system.” Equitable legislative reaportionment . should be devised before Texas is ordered to do so by the courts. Multi-legislator counties Theodore Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot. His election would not only be a boost to a two-party system in Texas, it would considerably enhance our chances for a great recreational area on the Texas Gulf. This week Fay said he had been in favor of a Padre Island park “ever since I first heard of the idea. . . “I have thoroughly checked the bill authorizing Padre Island as a national seashore area and find this is no ‘giveaway’ as my opponent is charging . . . Texas will retain full ownership and control of all minerals under the land transferred by the state to the government for the park,” he said. The election of Fay, with all its direct political drawbacks, would clearly be the lesser of two evils. We urge conservationists of both parties to support his candidacy. Seoiion practice in guerilla fighting with the Mississippi National Guard, a development which is certain to happen if the federal government persists in believing Mississippi is part of these United States. While the fighting goes on, the Negroes can make use of the schools the piltdown population has left behind, and never made much use of anyhow. The second alternative is to send Sonny Liston. The time is out of joint, as usual,, and the wheel of progress turns ever backward. In Dayton, Tennessee, Clarence Darrow decided the thesis that man descended from a monkey. Today, in Jackson, Mississippi, we have good evidence that he is one. should be divided into legislative districts. “Texas is the sixth most in.: dustrialized state in the nation . . . The state should begin now to plan for measures to reduce and regulate air and stream pollution. Older industrial states which have had to clean up after many years of pollution have found such programs costly. Acting now will save money later.” Tuition should be reduced in state-supported colleges and universities. An effective school attendance law should be enacted. The state needs a job tenure law for teachers. Special education programs for gifted children and “educable retarded children” are nee ded. “Many thousands of Texas, citizens must migrate each year to work on farms. Texas should by law provide at least the same health and safety standards for its own citizens as are required by the federal government for the non-citizen bracero whose availability forces the migration of Texas citizens in the first place.” “Texas should do everything possible to make for an orderly, frictionless transition, to total desegregation of the races.” A system of public defenders should be established. Capitol punishment should be abolished. And on taxes, now that the legislature has imposed a general sales tax “upon its individual citizens,” it should in equity levy a tax on corporate net profits. “Much of these profits now flow to non-Texan owners of ,corporations.” . . . “Before the natural resources with which Texas is uncommonly blessed are totally depleted, Texas should levy a fair and equitable natural resources tax.” AUSTIN THE UNIVERSITY of Oregon, playing the University of Texas in the season’s opening football game Saturday night, displayed a distinctly non-Caucasian halfback named Renfroe who was swift enough to sidestep just about anyone Texas could throw against him with the possible exception of lonesome end Thornton Hardie, who wasn’t suited out. At one point just before a Texas kickoff, the Observer overheard this exchange in the stands: “Don’t kick it to that colored boy.” “Damned right. Kick it to that white boy.” AN INTERESTING comment this week by Red Harris, Democratic nominee for the legislature from Dallas, at a Democratic coffee: “For over 50 years the Dallas delegation in the Texas legislature has been the spearhead of conservative legislation. This Democratic delegation has been the backbone of opposition to enactment of liberal measures that are contrary to Texans’ concepts of sound, solvent government.” WHAT, PRAY, is our spritely colleague, the Dallas News, going to do in this election ? Will it endorse Connally or Cox? Its editorialists took a subtle backhanded poke at Cox last week by complaining that the Republicans made a “bold bid” for the labor vote, despite the fact that they “claim to be the real conservative party.” Does this portend an endorsement of Connally? Or is The News making an effort to keep us confused ? A source close to the Observer in The News’ editorial offices who does not wish to be identified publicly, or privately either for that matter, tells us this : The News has a hard-core very conservative readership which it would hate to alienate in any conceivable way. This loyal hard-core prefers Cox. The News, however, being part and parsel of Texas’ immense financial establishment, wants to go for Connally. In fact, after much verbal anguish and rhetorical heartburn, The News will come out for Connally as the more apt caretaker of Texas conservatism against the increasingly frenetic byplay of the liberal-labor leftists. In the process, however, our source reveals, The News’ editorials will be characterized by an intense schizophrenia, giving way eventually to acute paranoia and, in the end, the firing of Ted Dealey, mercy killings of all white horses in Dallas County, and bankruptcy. 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. SEPTEMBER 28, 1962 Willie Morris Editor and General Manager Chandler Davidson, Associate Editor Sarah Payne, Office Manager Ronnie Dugger, Contributing Editor WE NOTE with dismay another case of fl a g r ant discrimination against the poor which occurred in Abilene Wednesday. A Mr. Billie Sol Estes, recently declared bankrupt, was fined $50 on a charge of driving without a license. His lawyer was able to beat one rap for him, however charges that he had run a stop sign in his late-model Cadillac. Mr. Estes would have willingly carried his license with him if the pesky state of Texas had allowed him to have one; but it wouldn’t, claiming Mr. Estes had had too many previous traffic violations to warrant his being allowed to drive. Humbug! A man’s got a right to make a living, and how can Mr. Estes get back and forth to work if he can’t drive his Cadillac? If the Department of Public Safety were out catching more burglars and communists and rapists, etc., instead of picking on bankrupt citizens in their latemodel Cadillacs, this state would be a much better place in which to live, sell tanks, and deviate. REP. BOB ECKHARDT of Houston conducted a citizens’ meeting in the Harris County Courthouse last week, and it was fairly generally agreed that legislation is necessary to make corporations responsible for air pollution. Recently hundreds of homes in Houston became spotted with stains ; such a bill would govern such conditions. Present pollution laws, Eckhardt said, apply mainly to individuals and usually carry jail terms, but the principal need is to provide for punishment of corporations by fines. Among the citizens present was Dr. L. D. Farragut, county health officer, who said pollutions are definite health hazards. Eckhardt introduced a set of anti-pollution bills in the last legislature. They passed the House but were too late for the Senate. On another front, the Texas Water Commission lodged a vigorous criticism of the Railroad Commission for what it .called laxness in preventing pollution from oil and gas field brine. The Water Commission’s report cited “inadequate policing” and drilling techniques which’ have not been approved by the Railroad Commission at all. It was recommended that the legislature say firmly to the oil and gas industry that “continued avoidable pollution is not to be tolerated.” HOMER B I G A R T, two-times Pulitzer winner with the New York Times, has been in Texas more than two weeks doing stories on politics, the University, and our multitudinous scandals. The influx of Yankee newsmen has set in. A Wall Street Journal man assigned to Texas general election trends decided after a few days here that an outsider could solve a lot of knotty adjustment problems “by deciding once and for all that Texas isn’t the United States,” a position the Observer would’ve taken long ago .had it not been for our second-class mailing permit. W.M. 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 7-07,46. HOUSTON OFFICE: Mrs. R. D. Randolph, 2131 Welch, Houston 19, Texas. ZiieratiJni THE TEXAS OBSERVER