ustxtxb_obs_1962_11_23_50_00008-00000_000.pdf

eittistntas tc17setiptiopts the 7exas Obsetoet, gOetiatent lottpti 9Ittl y Starting in mid-December, the Observer will appear every fourteen days on a magazine format. We will enter Christmas gift subscriptions in plenty of time for Christmas if they are received by December 10. We will enter them later than that if requested to do so. The first gift will cost $5; the second, $4.50; and each subsequent one, $4. Five gift subscriptions may be given for $20. Add two percent sales tax for subscriptions for persons who reside in Texas. The editor will send a card to each recipient, notifying him or her or them of the gift and the identity of the giver and extending the usual greetings. The Observer guarantees that all gift subscriptions ordered by Dec. 10 will start with the first issue of the new fortnightly. Of course, anyone who so wishes may specify that a gift begin with the issue that will appear at the end of the month of December. The Texas Observer 504 West 24th St. Austin, Texas Gentlemen: Please enter the following Christmas gift subscriptions: Name St reet or Box … . ……. . ………… I, City, State ,… Name 4 IP. Street or Box City, State Name .. 4 Street or Box City, State Name Street or Box City, State Name Street or Box City, State .. . Sender’s name: Name Street or Box City, Street Enclosed, AFL-CIO Lays Claim to Connally’s Gratitude George Beto, head of Texas prisons, said in Dallas he favors teaching prison inmates skills and establishing a pre-release center to retrain them for life outside. He said four out of ten Texas prisoners are persons under 24 who never learned how to work. He said the prisons’ main troubles now are low salaries, especially for custodial officers; crowded living quarters for prisoners; and inadequate industrial programs. frof Five economics textbooks currently in use in the public schools have been readopted by the State Board of Education despite criticism that they do not fairly represent capitalism. “I understand that one and possibly satisfactory,” say board member C. Ray Holbrook, Jr., in his newsletter, “hut the committee felt that none were really superior to those presently in use.” V Federal Judge Sarah Hughes has declared the legislature should provide for sentencing in state courts by the judges, not the juries. She told the Dallas Criminal Bar Assn. that a judge can get a lot of help on a man’s mental and criminal background that a jury cannot be given. The Dallas News promptly endorsed Judge Hughes’ proposed reform, rioting that a jury “usually does not have the information needed to fix a proper sentence.” V The Houston Post learned and reported that the state education commissioner, J. W. Edgar. acting pursuant to the state law that in effect prohibits integration without either a plebicite or a court order, has cut off state funds to the Benavides Independent School District in Duval County because a Freer, Texas, elementary school voluntarily entolled two Negroes without having held an election to give them permission. V Austin journalist Mary Jane B ode has figured out for the Corpus Christi Caller-Times that ight now there are only 50 women appointees on 87 state boards and commissions that have a total membership of 561. por Senator Ralph Yarborough, a colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves, is on a two-week tour of active duty that includes stops at Allied installations in Germany, Greece, Iran, and Pakistan. “The Berlin wall is a shame and an insult to the dignity of the human race,” he said. V The new Republican con gressman from Odessa, Ed Foreman, can be expected to vote with Bruce Alger against foreign aid and medicare and for rightto-work laws. He told a reporter in Washington he will. work for higher Texas oil allowables and an investigation of the State Dept.; he turned on his own coattails and said he does not want to represent any John Birchers thereon. g o or Rep. Wright Patman, the senior Democrat from Texas, becomes chairman of the House banking and currency committee the next session. He is already chairman of the House select committee on small business. Rep. Walter Rogers, Pampa, moves to f:fth place among Democrats on the House interstate and foreign commerce panel. Rep. Joe Kilgore, McAllen, is expected to get the armed services place open to a Texan, although Rep. Henry Gonzalez, San Antonio, also wants it. Foreman is interested in a seat on the armed services committee on the GOP side. goof Patman accused the Federal Reserve Board, in a speech in Detroit, of maintaining high in THE TEXAS OBSERVER Page 8 November 23, 1962 terest rates, therefore a low national growth rate, and therefore high unemployment. V .1 The regional office of the Ag ricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service in Dallas will be closed and consolidated with a Kansas City office. It is perhaps permissible speculation that Dallas would not be losing the 423 employees of the office if it had a Democratic congressman. pof The Texas Republicans came up with an interesting tabulation of 28 office-holders in Texas: Senator Tower, Congressmen Alger and Foreman \(“Now there are three,” said Allen Duckworth sentatives; county judges of Kerr, Midland, and Harrison counties; a Dallas county judge of county court at law; a district attorney at Tyler; county commissioners in Pecos, Zavala, Hutchinson, Ector, Randall, Starr, Dallas, and Kenedy counties; justices of the peace in Bexar, Kenedy, and Starr counties; a constable in Potter county, and a county superintendent of schools in El Paso. Total: 28 Republican local, state, and federal elective office-holders in Texas. g ol Or Texas labor filed a claim to Gov.-elect John Connally’s political appreciation on behalf of a coalition of people AFL-CIO state chief Hank Brown described as “Organized Labor, Latin-Americans, Negroes, independent liberals.” Brown said Connally’s margin of victory came in large part from the votes and work of those groups. In evidence, Brown cited, in the current labor newsletter, figures from 20 selected counties “where we have the best working coalitions.” In these, \(exclusive of DalConnally had a margin of 85,139 over Cox; his overall margin was 128,289. Most interesting Connally margins: Bexar, 60,681-42,039; Galveston, 16,196-9,693; Jefferson, 27, 765-19,060. Brown also said Texas now “has an infant two-party political system” and made it clear labor is politically independent by adding that both Texas Democratic and Republican parties “will grow more responsive to the people than either of them is now as the two-party system moves toward adulthood.” t o of Archer Fullingim, editor of the Kountze News, gave everybody what-for because of the Connally victory. Fullingim, who endorsed Cox, said Cox spent his time trying to convince the Birchers he hated Kennedy more than they did while Connally was try, ing to persuade Republicans he hated Kennedy and Democrats that he liked the President. Fullingim also laid into labor and the Observer for their positions in the election. V Ex-Gov. Allan Shivers went to an Austin civic club luncheon and rebuked Ike and JFK for not clamping down on Cuba sooner, but said Kennedy should be supported now. If Shivers ran against Sen. Yarborough in 1964, he would run as a Democrat. V Merrill Connally, one of John Connally’s four brothers and the state co-ordinator for him in his campaign, told Bill Gardner of the Post that he was somewhat suprised by Price Daniel’s not making the Democratic runoff and Don Yarborough’s showing such strength in the second primary. g o of Expense reports showed Cox spent $261,072 on the general election and Connally, $205,640. Including the primaries, Connally spent $644,512 to win the contest for the governorship and Cox $310,976 to lose it. Connally’s re port listed his contributors by an initial and last name, making reporters wary of specifying them by their full names. vsr Harris County Democratic chairman Bill Kilgarlin called for the re-election of Kennedy, Sen. Yarborough, and Connally. 1,00 The United Political Organi zation of Texas, newlyformed, with Rev. H. Rhett James, Dallas, executive secretary, announces its intention of signing up 500,000 Negro voters in 1963. James is former president of the Dallas N.A.A.C.P. g o of Some liberal Democrats were angry not to have been invited to the informal meeting of the liberal coalition in Austin two weeks ago. We are told by one participant that Connally’s name was not mentioned in the openah, secretthat is, open discussion at the secret meeting. This would qualify the Observer’s previous report on the concensus as to the group’s stance toward the governor-elect. 140, Railroad Cmsr. Ben Ramsey announced that various arrangements for the dinner honoring Gov. Price Daniel Dec. 12 will be handled by James Taylor, Mrs. R. Max Brooks, Warren Woodward, W. W. Price, Jr., Edward Clark, W. W. Heath, H. H. Coffield, Jake Jacobsen, George Christian, J. J. Pickle, and Allen Duckworth. poor Speaker James Turman an nounced, pursuant to an attorney general’s ruling, that new legislators would be sworn in Nov. 22 and go on the payroll the next day, knocking off the lame ducks. All, that is, except Speaker Turman, who wants to stay on to fill out his duties as speaker, and can, according to the attorney general. The ceremonies came off Thursday. The inevitable comparisons between the former lieutenant governor, Ben Ramsey, and the new one, Preston Smith of Lubbock, have already started. In the Star-Telegram Sam Kinch speculates that the Senate will be a third pro-Smith, a third antiSmith, a third neutral and alternating; Stuart Long expects Smith to go by the calendar, reducing the power Ramsey used to enjoy by recognizing whom he pleased for what he approved. The East Texas Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring a lobbying luncheon for legislators Nov. 27 in Houston at the Rice. frof The San Antonio Express began a series on the neglect of the state parks. The Houston Post continued its series of editorials, “Agenda for the Legislature.” The Dallas News began a series on Texas welfare services. The Poor in Levelland Eighteen citizens of Levelland met at the courthouse annex in the town Nov. 10 to talk about their underprivileged citizens. According to the Hockley County Herald, Sgt. T. A. Cowan of the local National Guard armory read this scripture: “Thou shalt love the Lord th, God . . . and thy neighbor as thyself.” “There are people in town who are in need,” Cowan said. “As a group of citizens we can do something about itor close our eyes to it.” He said one family of 19 lives in Levelland in a house with no partitions and no furniture. He said in one instance, children ate from garbage cans behind a restaurant. A preacher suggested a survey of conditions in other towns. A church worker suggested beginning a program of adult educa, tion. Cowan proposed collecting food and clothing for the poor. A county commissioner offered to try to get a building for storage. Cowan was made their chairman. All these will be noted when the Observer takes up these subjects in due course. g o of The Corpus Christi Caller Times calls for “One man one vote” as a theme in legislative consideration of redistricting to end rural domination in 1963. Stuart McGregor in the News said the legislature should do something about itself, namely, cut itself in half or so, thus reducing “conflict of opinion, confusion, and delay.” V In the current Texas scan dals, suspended probate judge Clem McClelland of Hous ton got ten years in prison from a jury in Belton on a conviction of converting money from an es tate to his own use. House Speak er James Turman announced the