ustxtxb_obs_1963_02_07_50_00002-00000_000.pdf

il ere to Slay Griffin’s Article Congratulations to John Howard Griffin and the Texas Observer for the thought provoking article, “The Shine Boy Has The Dream” [Obs. Jan. 241. Any man who disguises himself as a Negro to learn the facts of life as Negroes experience them in the deep South must be tremendously courageous. Mr. Griffin has proved that he is that and more. The white South has no one to blame but itself for the increase in membership in the Black Muslim and other race hate organizations. However, there is a lesson to be learned here. . . . The thought that one can sow human denial, discord, and hate and reap peace and understanding is simple-mindedness of the worst sort. In spite of the dim and flickering concern in some quarters over the continuing conflicts and contradictions between what some Americans say about democracy and what they do about it, unless this country fully awakens to the explosive potentials of its racial situation, we could yet Editor and General Manager. Ronnie Dugger. Partner, Mrs. R. D. Randolph. Business Manager, Sarah Payne. Contributing Editors, Bill Brammer, Chandler Davidson, Larry Goodwyn, Lyman Jones, Willie Morris, Charles Ramsdell, Roger Shattuck, Bob Sherrill, Dan Strawn, Tom Sutherland, Charles Alan Wright. Staff Artist, Charles Erickson. Contributing Photographer. Russell Lee. Subscription Representatives: Dallas, Mrs. Cordye Hall, 5835 Ellsworth, TA-. 11205; Fort Worth, Mrs. Jesse Baker, 3212 Greene St., WA-72959; Houston, Mrs. Shirley Jay, 10306 Cliffwood Dr., PA-38682; San Antonio, Mrs. Mae B. Tuggle, 531 Elmhurst, TA-27154; Austin, Mrs. Helen C. Spear, 2615 Pecos, HO-51805. The editor has exclusive control over the editorial policies and contents of the Observer. None of the othcr people who are associated with the enterprise shares this responsibility with him. Writers are responsible for their own work, but not for anything they have not themselves written, and in publishing them the editor does not ,essarily imply that he Dear Readers: I think the Observer is here to stay. It’s too early to be sure, but things look pretty good. Subscriptions have been increasing slightly. Since keeping our present subscribers was the requirement for our survival, it looks as though we will survive. I don’t know quite what to make of a liberal publication that pays its own way, as, God forgive us, we seem about to do. There must be some principle against it, but not having had it called to my attention, I am not going to think about it long enough to figure out what it is. The new format is as new to me as to you. I dOn’t regard it as a set thing; to the contrary. The journal gives more compliment to our stories than the format did before, and I know it makes writers write harder, ‘and reporters assume more responsibility than reporters are usually expected to. Charles Erickson’s extraordinary art work has made a viable form handsome. Other artists’ work and Russell Lee’s photographs complete a prospect for a very good looking thing. I still have not got all the Observ agrees with them, because this a journal of free voices. The Observer solicits articles, essays, and creative work of the shorter forms, having to do in various ways with this area. The pay depends; at present it is token. Unsigned articles are the editor’s. The Observer is published by Texas Observer Co., Ltd., biweekly from Austin, Texas. Entered as second-class matter, April 26, 1937, at the Post Office at Austin, Texas, under the Act of March 3, 1879. Re-entry application pending. Delivered postage prepaid $5.10 per annum for subscribers living in Texas \(this in-for subscribers living elsewhere in the United States. Rates for delivery to foreign countries available on request. Single copies, 25 cents each; special prices for orders of ten’ or more are available on request. Bulk rates are usually lower if orders are placed in advance of an issue’s publication. Editorial and Business Offices: The Texas Observer, 504 West 24th St., Austin 5, Texas. Telephone, GR 7-0746. Change of Address: Please specify present as well as new address and allow three weeks, er’s services meshed in with their counterparts in the new format. The practical problem is a tension between space in the 16 pages and stuff I would like to publish, a tension that has caused me to experiment a little again this issue with some smaller type. The basic solution, however, would be more pages. For mechanical reasons, it would cost us just about as much to add even two or four more pages, as to add 16 more. I would like to ‘go to 32 pages, at least periodically, but I am being very conservative on costs and hesitate to do this until our progress definitely justifies it. It would not take many more ads and new subscriptions to finance an occasional 32-pager. I feel a little thwarted about the current issue because I am not used to letting so much go unremarked. I have had to change some habits both in how I think about the Observer and how I work for it, but I hold to the determination that we not lose, in the journal, any of the weekly’s principal values. In judging whether we have, perhaps you will join us in taking a longer-run view than you were accustomed to from the weekly Observer. I’ve got lots of hot files going, and projects, and things that will move us, and angles to shoot, and writers are writing, and reporters are on the lookout, and everything is open and possible and free. I am glad, readers, that you decided we should go on with it. R.D. eace …_CeeLerJ The nations seem to drift stubbornly, pridefully, into a nuclear holocaust. Fewsometimes it seems, no voices are raised in Congress intelligently to protest ; to inquire; to challenge. A number of Texans, scattered ‘here and there, are concerned to do all they can to prevent humanity’s nuclear incineration. We propose that they form a state study committee of individuals and organizations to formulate minimumly decent positions of policy and to interview all Texas congressional candidates and their principal opponents in 1964 with opposing those who are unacceptable. THE TEXAS OBSERVER An Independent Fortnightly Vol. 55, No. 5 70480 February 7, 1963