ustxtxb_obs_1962_11_09_50_00002-00000_000.pdf

.a ,,, Three New Regents 16 HARD-CORE GOP COUNTIES Liberal Vote Boosted John HOT TEMPERS AND THE DALLAS NEWS Soda Pop for GOP With isolated exceptions, especially the Tyler-Longview-Kilgore area, which becomes more Republican with each election, he ran well in brasscollar East Texas, though not quite as strongly as liberal Democrats generally do. He dominated the rural West Texas vote, which Cox direly needed. The arch along the Gulf Coast, which turned out strongly for Kennedy-Johnson and Don Yarborough, was an important source of Connally strength. He controlled the boss counties along the border. An exception to the usual huge majorities was in Starr County, where the GOP is well-organized. Cox got 1,800 votes to Connally’s 2,500 in the unofficial counting in Starr. Harris County was one of the crucial factors. Cox needed to emerge from Harris with a hefty lead, but Connally fought him to a virtual standstill. Out of 220,000 votes in Houston and the county, Cox finished with a mere 3,000-vote margin. Houston Analysis The Houston results are symptomatic of Connally’s successes and Cox’s troubles. Connally’s excellent showing there, indeed, was partly due to the fact that liberal-labor-minorities precincts turned out heavily for the Democratic nominee to offset the exodus of conservative Democrats to Cox. Ernest Bailey of the Houston Press, in a penetrating post-election survey of key boxes, underscored the conservative surge to Cox in silk-stocking constituencies. In Houston’s precinct 129, for instance, Connally had defeated liberal Don Yarborough in the Democratic run-off last June, 534108. In Tuesday’s general election he lost the same precinct to Cox, 1,351-228. In precinct 234, Connally beat Yarborough in the run-off, 591-116. He lost there to Cox, 1,231 to 253. The story was much the same in other conservative areas. The extent of Houston’s growing GOP movement is illustrated by a comparison of Cox’s showing in Harris County in 1960, when he ran as a Democrat against Price Daniel, and this week’s results. Cox polled only 52,000 votes in 1960, losing to Daniel by almost 2-1. Against Connally two years later, he got better than 110,000. But his narrow margin in Harris was a far call from Towers 79-000-40,000 majority over Blakley in 1961. A casual examination of the Blakley figures in 1961 and Conwas a far call from Tower’s 79 nally’s in 1962 shows the extent to which the Democratic left-wing returned to the Democratic fold. Connally carried some 95 percent of the total Negro vote in Houston against Cox. Against Yarborough last June, he got only about one-third of Harris’ Negro vote. The only Negro precinct Connally carried over Yarborough was Number 85, and then he won by a mere 268-265. Against Cox, Connally carried the same box, 818-32. In precinct 66, a labor box, Yarborough led Connally in the Democratic run-off, 329-86. The same precinct went for Connally this time, 476-150. Connally received endorsements from Houston Negro organizations, the AFL-CIO, and the local PASO, Latin political g r o u p. Many independent liberals in Houston either voted for Cox or scratched both candidates, but Negro, labor, and Latin drives to get out the vote had a telling effect. GOP Forever? Sixteen Texas counties gave majorities to the GOP in the races for governor, lieutenant governor, and congressman-at-large. These counties, so staunchily Republican they withstood the Dem-. ocratic trend even with such a large record turnout, can just about be written off, so it would seem, by the Democrats, at least in all but some local elections. The sixteen: Dallas, which gave Cox a 25,000 margin over Connally and elected six GOP state legislators in the process. The German counties of Gillespie, which went for the ticket 2/1, Kendall, and Mason. The far. Panhandle counties of Gray, Hansford, Hutchison, Ochiltree, Randall, Roberts, Sherman, and Lipscomb, only a few dozen miles from Republican Kansas. conservative East Texas oil country. Midland, which was almost 2-1 for the Republican ticket. AUSTIN I The Daily Texan, student newsI paper at the University of Texas, this week ran an interesting postelection appraisal: “The new governor has a job of particular interest and importance to the University: the matter of appointing three new members of the Board of Regents. “In the campaigning both candidates were eager to express their concern for the state of’ public education in Texas and their willingness to see that state schools, such as the University itself, get comfortable working budgets. “Neither went into particulars about the kind of Regents they would appoint. “Texas is not unique in having Regents who are appointed by the governor, although in some states they are popularly elected and in others, selected by both appointment and election. “Because our Regents are appointed by the governor, their selection is quite remote from the interests and pressures of the electorate, save in cases where the candidates have made open statements on the matter or where public opinion on the appointments is strong and loud. “Despite their understandable interest in such matters as the trial de novo amendment, the Cuban crisis, and the Sino-Indian border war, Texas newspapers have had little or nothing to say about these important appointments. “Customarily, oil lawyers, physicians, and ranchers have stood an excellent chance of getting appointed to the Board; educators, whether because of their comparative poverty or their lack of involvement in partisan politics, have stood about as much chance as a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. “Each governor faces a terrible dilemma when making these ap Uvalde, home of John Nance Garner. A seventeenth county, Potter both Cox and Barry, but went for Democrat Preston Smith over Hayes by some 700 votes. Smith is a West Texan. As we go to press, results in Tarrant County, Connally’s home, are still in doubt. Unofficial and incomplete results on the constitutional amendments: Workmen’s compensation approval 446,461, against 438,056. Welfare increase approval 549,836, against 363,566. Hospital districts \(four coun385,107. Water storageapproval 508,405, against 353,677. approval 431,994, against 416,010. Retirement benefitsapprovl 489,758, against 384,532. Emergency succession approval 547,005, against 304,719. Disability paymentsapproval 487,788, against 372,172. Hospital districtshomes for aged approval 413,972, against 426,356. State employee consultants approval 387,650, against 462,182. Veteran land resaleapprovEll 473,330, against 372,638. Coastal zoning approval 433,544, against 403,059. Dallas school districtsapproval 439,647, against 377,872. Trials ‘ de novoapproval 299,303, against 571,397. pointments: the conflict between loyalty to his party and the men who were responsible for his election and loyalty to the principle of education as something which stands far above petty meddling and patronage. “Undoubtedly, each governor has resolved the dilemma by appointing men he feels to be decent educational administrators as well as good party members. “This year, perhaps more than ever before, it is terribly important that the governor be truthful with himself when making these appointments. “The University stands at the door of greatness. The men who guide it in the next decade have the opportunity to make or break its reputation as an educational institutiona reputation that depends on things like faculty salaries, travel grants, library books, and the quality of the English 601a teachers. “People and books make great universitiesnot just air conditioned classrooms and a football team that wins -and wins and wins. The new Regents should be men who neither flinch when they pay a professor more than the football coach nor brag about it after they do so. “They should be men who care more about what kind of people teach freshmen than what kind of room the freshmen are sitting in. They should be men who care more about the greatness of this University than about the political successes of the governor and the party responsible for their position on the Board. “The students of the University, through responsible action in the Student Assembly and through the simple act of sitting down and writing the new governor a letter, have a chance to express the opinion on Regental appointments which voters in other states have, and we do not.” AUSTIN The right-wing rallying cry of “too little and too late” was echoed in varying degrees by Cong. Henry Gonzalez and Senator Ralph Yarborough in regard to President Kennedy’s Cuban blockade during the height of the crisis. Gonzalez said he would have preferred to have heard the President say the government had received “communications from the first beach-head commander that he had blown up the first base and was blowing up others.” Yarborough said he , had been publicly demanding forceful action for quite some time. Political Intelligence g o or The racial issue popped to the surface in the waning days of the Houston school board raceone of the bitterest in years. Mrs. Charles E. White, the sole Negro incumbent, and the sole liberal as well, charged that the far-right Committee for Sound American Education, a campaign organization, was appealing to bigotry in its electioneering tac- tics. . . . Howard Moon, backed by the CSAE, made references to Mrs. White as a “representative” for the NAACP in a spot TV advertisement, but so many protests, were received that he withdrew the reference. Moon said that there was no racial issue involved, but he went on to denigrate the “stated objective” of the NAACP of “forced integration of the schools.” Moon’s efforts went for nought, however, as Mrs.. White trounced him Tuesday by more than 10,000 votes. Incumbents J. W. McCullough Jr., and Mrs. H. W. Cullen, ultra-conservatives backed by CSAE, also swamped their opponents, thus retaining the school board’s conservative complexion. IThe NAACP made news on another front in Houston, attacking the Independent Metal Workers Union at the Hughes Tool Co. for its alleged discriminatory policy. The NAACP requested of the National Labor Relations Board that the union be stripped of its federal certification as exclusive collective bargaining agent. frof The Dallas News had grave misgivings right up to election time as to the wisdom of their no-endorsement policy of candidates. Putting one foot tentatively on the Democratic band wagon, the News in an editorial last Sunday painted a bleak picture of what might happen if the Dallas legislative delegation to Austin became part Republican and part Democrat. The News spoke of “the serious dangers that confront Texas if enough conservative Democrats defect and possibly turn control of the state’s dominant party over to the Yarborough liberals.” . . In a post-election editorial, however, the News had regained its peace of mind, rejoicing over the election of Connally, whose “lifelong hope of public service is in full flower.” Liberal readers, however, spotted in the editorial what seemed to be a major concession to their views: “Every chief executive of a state,” said the News, “must work with the federal government in some matters.” por In the wake of the Cuban crisis, the United Nations was both vilified and praised by Texans. The Harris County Citiz ens to get the United States out of the United Nations published a large ad in the Houston Chroni cle, which included a picture of Adlai Stevenson and another of the mangled, bloated corpse of a Negro child. The latter was en titled “Little Victim of United Nations ‘peace’ bombs in the . . . Congo operation.” The UN was called a “communist-planned, communist-run uncomic opera.” . . . The Baptist General Convention of Texas, meeting at Fort Worth, approved a resolution commending the UN for its role in the Cuban crisis and asked that its people pray for the UN as it “seeks to avert nuclear disaster in this troubled world.” I, The Baptists also condemned the recent integration crisis in Mississippi, noting that Christians share in “the blame for a sinful silence.” They also called for renewed Christian witness in the face of slanted oil wells and the Billie Sol Estes business scandals. I, An East Texas grand jury last week indicted 14 men in connection with the multi-million dollar hot oil scandals. Included