ustxtxb_obs_1962_10_12_50_00002-00000_000.pdf

The Constitution: A Muddled View “constitutional” government. Not once in more than 1,000 words did she cite the US Supreme Court’s “order” in 1954 as an interpretation of the 14th Amendment. Stating that “only a ‘court order’ . . . implements the program which has come to such a tragic impasse in Mississippi,” Miss Evans contended “there is no ‘law’ to bulwark the ‘court orde.’ Lacking this predicate, the 10th point in the Bill of Rights still pre-. vails.” Except for the last 10 lines in her editorial, one would never have guessed the situation at the University of Mississippi might involve civil rights. Only then did she acknowledge that “others believe that a problem in race relations is involved, since the man \(referring to James Meredith, whose name did not is a Negro, and that such can be solved by ‘law’ rather than the slow process of spiritual legislation to attain these many ends. “Then, and then only, will we have a ‘law of the land’.” Wes Izzard, in his Oct. 2 column in The Daily News, seemed to detect the Monday morning omission of the 14th Amendment by stating that the 1954 Supreme Court ruling was “a court order based on an interpretation” of the amendment. He held fast, however, in declaring his wisdom’s doubts that the court order “supercedes the clear and unmistakeable language of the 10th Amendment.” “There’s nothing there, about the Supreme Court or the executive branch making laws,” wrote Izzard :n reference to the Constitution. Izzard stressed the Mississippi crisis all week with editorials in his front page column, starting from the first piece which asserted that the executive branch of the federal government has too much power in relation to the legislature and concluding with his Oct. 6 column implying that civilians are making too many military decisions. Two colleges in the Amarillo area are, ironically, integrated. Amarillo Junior College abided by the Supreme Court decision of 1954 shortly afterwards by admitting several Negro students. West Texas State College in Canyon, just to the south of Amarillo, now has a Negro halfback on its football team. Last year Pete Pedro, from Lynn, Mass., led the nation in touchdowns. He put the name of West Texas State College in national magazines and on national tele, vision networks. Last week he was leading the nation in yardage gained on the ground. Neither Amarillo Junior College nor West Texas State College were cited as positive examples in the Amarillo Daily News editorials discussing the Mississippi integration issue. Mention of his feats, in fact, have been absent from the front page column of the Daily News. both last football season and so far this year. 1958-1961 by Cecil Rotsch, his chief legal counsel. Rotsch said that. when he went to work for Langdeau in 1958, “it was difficult to state exactly how many cases were pending; hut. according to our best information, there was pending on August 1, 1958, a total of 1.237 cases. Some, in which the Liquidator-Receiver was plaintiff, were dismissed because there was no merit in them.” By the beginning of this year, the case load had been worked down to one-sixth of the 1958 backlog. Langdeau was able to report to his seven superiorsthe three district judges in Austin, the three insurance board members, and the insurance commissioner, William Harrisona record for economizing which ought to bring sparkles to the eyes of enemies of waste in government. He reduced his division’s annual salaries by $72,000, to just more than $200,000, in the one year 1961. In 1960, his division spent $518,000; in 1961, $345,000. The liquidators are not only the policemen, they are the morticians of faltering insurance companies. Now and then they are able to rehabilitate a company and return it to its management, but in many cases they can only pay the creditors so much on the dollar. Of course, it depends. General American Casualty Company of San Antonio has a chasm between assets and liabilities into which $2.8 million somehow disappeared. The most recently shut down firm. Gulf Fidelity Mutual Life, is shown on Langdeau’s summary of pending liquidations with assets of $2.850 and liabilities of $6,288. Since the liquidation department began functioning in the early 1940’s, 140 Texas insurance companies have been placed in receivership. Another 163 have been placed in the less drastic conservatorship and from this limbo-state have been reinstated, receivered, reinsured, liquidated, or, very rarely, returned to their original managements. How much money, overall, have premium holders in Texas insurance companies lost? Langdeau couldn’t even guess. “I have no idea of the millions of dollars that have come in and out of this place,” he says. He is, of course, gratified by what he salvages. In 1961 his division paid out $6 million in dividends. One company, Investors’ Security Life of Lubbock. was completely rehabilitated by reinsurance and restored to business. The division even returned 81 million in assets to the stockholders in this case. “After I’ve satisfied the creditors, I’m discharged by the court as receiver, and I turn the ‘remaining assets to the stockholders,” Langdeau says. “Then they can go into the peanuts business if they want to.” Minimum Estimate Langdeau’s estimates of the assets of the 30 firms now in liquidation are probably, he concedes, conservative. Generally they do not include possible awards from pending lawsuits. In the ICT matter, for example, $15 million is being sought in various lawsuits by the Liquidator-Receiver, but the conservative Langdeau and his staff list ICT’s assets as of Aug. 31 at a mere $498,424. \(Liahas instructed his lawyers to prepare estimates of legal awards. that might be expected for inclusion in his 1962 year-end report. Langdeau was a, leading mem ber of Cavness’ staff when the state auditor was sending electric charges down the spines of certain Texas senators and representatives who had accepted “fees” from shady Texas insurance companies and then protected them in the legislature and the Insurance Commission. The Liquidator’s division has not, in recent years, uncovered recurrences of these quaint political practices. Nevertheless, Langdeau files actions against powerful men and powerful banks, as he finds it necessarynotably, for example, in the still proceeding receivership action against Lumbermen’s Insurance Corp. “Of course, I catch hell for filing suits against big people, but that’s my job,” he says. “I’m not running for anything.” Of the 30 pending receiverships, 14 involve asset insufficiencies of more than $100,000. The best known of the companies are Texas Mutual Insurance, Texas Fire Insurance, General American Casualty, U. S. Trust & Guaranty, ICT Insurance, Franklin American Insurance, Home Life Insurance, Midwestern Security Life, and Lumbermen’s. R.D.. fists in key places, “corrupt” federal government., and other issues. It was no coincidence that Seale announced shortly afterwards. Rogers, who has liberal backing, has not yet “taken his gloves off,” one local analyst told the Observer. Amarillo will probably be evenly split. This is sure to be a close one. Rutherford-Foreman The second Republican threat is in El Paso-Odessa District 16, where incumbent Democrat Slick Rutherford faces a serious fight for survival against the GOP’s Ed Foreman, Odessa businessman. The district went for Tower over Blakley by a whopping 60.5 percent. El Paso County supported Kennedy by some 5,000 votes over Nixon, but Nixon won Midland County by almost 2-1 and Ector went for General Walker in the first Democratic primary this year, then switched to Don Yarborough On the basis of protest votes against John Connally, and indirectly Lyndon Johnson, in the run-off. Rutherford, who was thought to he somewhat liberal when first elected eight years ago, \(his AFLCIO score in this Congress was 8 “right” and 7 “wrong”, while the Congressional Quarterly reported he voted 60 percent of the time with the “conservative coa with 59 percent of the vote, with the GOP candidate finishing third behind the Constitution Party nominee. Foreman, who was named Odessa’s “outstanding young man” in 1960 by the Junior Chamber of Commerce, has numerous billboards on display all over the district. He is assailing Rutherford for supporting the President on votes like urban renewal, housing, public works, and increased social security. This is Billie Sol Estes’ district, a fact which has not particularly helped the incumbent. Rutherford admitted in January he had received $1,500 from Estes, adding that it all didn’t come from Estes but was a total contribution from several individuals interested in his re-election. Rutherford is the tested ,campaigner against the energetic newcomer; this one is also expected to be extremely close. Alger-Jones Des Barry, the flamboyant and somewhat vitriolic Republican candidate for congressman-atlarge, is given an odds-on chance to upset Joe Pool, an extremely conservative Democrat. There is scant ideological difference between the two nominees, and since this is a statewide race, Barry will probably receive a number of liberal protest votes and bene other and have four kids, then you will have a great groundswell of people who have not had an opportunity to learn the principles which made this country great,” Kerr said. In his talks, Kerr continued, he tells young people, “You have been challenged by people your own age who say you are lazy, yellow, and aren’t able to defend yourselves. The time has come when it is necessary for the youth of America to have an overwhelming cause to live and if necessary die for. Just to hold God up as window dressing is not enough. Our young people must be shown that God’s way has provided the finest way of life ever known.” fit as well from a widespread liberal boycott of the two. But this race is “down on the ticket” and Pool, an opponent of foreign aid, the UN, and organized labor, will have the advantage of brass-collar party support. Both PASO and the state AFL-CIO have taken neutral positions. A fourth race could be closer than most observers are now predicting. That is in Dallas, traditional GOP citadel, where Republican Cong. Bruce Alger, one of the most conservative congressmen in the nation, faces Democrat Bill Jones, who is just about as conservative. Jones is getting hefty financial hacking. A large number of Dallas businessmen have become increasingly critical of Alger for what they consider his “ineffectiveness” in representing the district. “The Dallas position in Washington,” Jones argues, “has sunk to a new low in the last eight years.” Alger has yet to begin campaigning in earnest. But already he has attacked Jones with some irony for pushing other members’ voting buttons as a member of the Texas House. “We don’t have the push-button system in Washington,” Alger warns. The Alger-Jones race, in the absence of real ideological divisions, is largely a personal one, based on the issue of “what’s good for Dallas.” Other Races In other interesting races, conservative Democrat Bob Casey of Houston’s District 22, a vigorous opponent of the Kennedy administration, is being challenged by Republican Ross Baker, son of the former Humble Oil counsel. Casey is a definite favorite, and Kennedy’s action last month in not inviting him along on the NASA inspection trip to Houston has probably helped him in this comfortably conservative constituency, which supported Tower more than 2-1 over Blakley last year. An upset win by Baker, of course, would have little effect on voting. In District 10, Democratic incumbent Homer Thornberry of Austin, who was rated 10 “right,” and one “wrong” on the AFL-CIO ledger, is the solid favorite, but his GOP opponent, Jim Dobbs, has been waging aggression on a major scale. Dobbs, a former Church of Christ minister and lecturer to junior executives on ultra-conservative politics, has attacked Thornberry’s liberal record in frequent radio and television talks. He may do well in Austin, but is expected to fare poorly in the strongly Democratic rural areas outside the city. The other congressional races, where Democrats are almost assured of re-election: District 1: Cong. Wright Patman, Democrat, vs. James A. Timberlake, Republican. District 2: Cong. Jack Brooks, Democrat, vs. Roy James Jr., Republican. District 3: Cong. Lindley Beckworth, Democrat, vs. William Stege, Republican. \(The GOP calls District 4: Cong. Ray Roberts, Democrat, vs. Conner Harrington, Republican. District 6: Cong. Olin Teague, Democrat, has no opponent. District 7: Cong. John Dowdy, Democrat, vs. Raymond Ramage, Republican. District 8: Cong. Albert Thomas, Democrat, vs. Tony Farris, Republican. District 9: Cong. Clark Thompson, Democrat, vs. Dave Oakes, Republican. District 11: Cong. Bob Poage, Democrat, has no opponent. District 12: Cong. Jim Wright, Democrat, vs. Del Barron, Republican. District 13: Cong. Graham Purcell, Democrat, vs. Joe Meissner, Republican. District 14: Cong. John Young, Democrat, vs. Lawrence E. Hoover, Republican. District 15: Cong. Joe Kilgore, Democrat, has no opponent. District 17: Cong. Omar Burleson, Democrat, has no opponent. District 19: Cong. George Mahon, Democrat, vs. Dennis Taylor, Republican. District 20: Cong. Henry Gonzalez, Democrat, has no opponent. District 21: Cong. Clark Fisher, Democrat, vs. E. S. Maer, Repub lican. W.M. I ‘I CATCH HELL’ Langdeau Reform THE TEXAS OBSERVER Page 2 October 12, 1962 DALLAS Dr. Walter Herr of Tyler, organizer and director of the controversial Youth Crusade for God and Freedom, told the Dallas Salesmanship Club this week that he is extremely concerned about American young people. “If we