ustxtxb_obs_1963_04_04_50_00002-00000_000.pdf

ppoininiento We commend Gov. Connally for nominating a Negro to be a member of the_state prisons board. We regret that, as we go to press, Rev. C. A. Holliday’s approval by the Senate is in very serious doubt. Members of the prison board have threatened to resign if he is confirmed. We would not make too much of Connally’s nominating a Negrowhat, after all, is so special about it, save the single fact it has not been done bef6re?but we would hope that it is only a harbinger of things to come. We wonder that Connally, who promised so emphatically that he would not make political appointments to the boards of regents, has named his political alter ego, Frank Erwin, to the University of Texas board. But we have no reason to assume Erwin will not make a good regent. We are concerned, however, about Connally’s reappointment of Harold Hinn to the Texas Tech board. Hinn was on the board when it dismissed Byron Abernethy and two other professors on what appear to have been blatantly political grounds. Texas Tech is still on the censure list of the American association of university professors because of these firings. When, in 1957, the Observer asked Hinn if he had made the motion to fire the professors in a closed session July 13 of that year, Hinn replied, “Frankly, I don’t remember” Editor and General Manager, Ronnie Dugger. Partner, Mrs. R. D. Randolph. Business Manager, Sarah Payne. Contributing Editors, Bill Brammer, Chandler Davidson, J. Frank Dobie, Larry Goodwyn, Franklin Jones, Lyman Jones, Jay Milner, 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: Amarillo, Mrs. Imogene Williams, Rte. 3, Panhandle \(Williams HO 5-1805; Dallas, Mrs. Cordye Hall, 5835 Ellsworth, TA 1-1205; Fort Worth, Mrs. Jesse Baker, 3212 Greene St., WA 7-2959; Houston, Mrs. Shirley Jay, 10306 Cliffwood Dr., PA 3-8682; Lubbock, Doris Blaisdell, 2515 24th St.; Midland, Eva Dennis, 4306 Douglas, OX 4-2825; Rio Grande Valley, Mrs. Jack Butler, 601 Houston, McAllen, MU 6-5675; San Antonio, Mrs. Mae B. Tuggle, 531 Elmhurst, TA 2-7154. The editor has exclusive control over the editorial policies and contents of the Observer. None of the other people who are associated with the From the report of the A.A.U.P. on the Rupert Koeninger case, incidentally, it is apparent that Sam Houston state college is bound for that same, academically damaging list. Let us hope that the authorities in Huntsville will repair their policies and offer to restore Koeninger to his job to forestall that lamentable probability. CaJt Auotin Recently about 20 students at the University of Texas, gathered in the U n i v e r sit y Presbyterian Church, heard about the plight of a poor Negro family in east Austin whose house was practically falling down. They decided to go over and help the family repair it. With a will they painted the walls and hung curtains and installed a new front door, spending the night during their weekend of work camped on the basement floor of a Negro church. The project had an uncomfortable aspect, that of charity; yet also it was Christianity in practice. It made one wonder why people wait for laws to be passed to authorize them to go and help their neighbors. QueJtion We would ask our readers to reflect upon this question: Do we not, as Texas people responsible for the poli 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 necessarily imply that he agrees with them, because this is 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. Please enclose return postage. 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. Second class postage paid at Austin, Texas. Delivered postage prepaid $5.10 a year for subscribers living in Texas \(this includes sales and $5.00 a year for subscribers living elsewhere in the U.S. Foreign rates on request. Single copies 25c; prices for ten or more for students, or bulk orders, on request. Editorial and Business Offices: The Texas Observer, 504 West 24th St., Austin 5, Texas. Telephone GR 7-0746. Change of Address: Please give old and new addresses and allow three weeks. ticians we send into the affairs of the nation and the world, need to consider whether we want Lyndon Johnson to represent us again in the vice presidency? Johnson is a powerful force, within the administration, for the equivocation of the economic liberalism of the president, and despite all the vice president’s work on equal employment opportunities, \(let us hope it has substance, and be grateful if opposed to direct legislative remedies for some of the situations in the South. We cannot know to what extent he is involved in the militarism of the government ; it seems to us he has been rather a meticulous second fiddle to the president, as he takes it to be his duty to be; but we do not, for the life of us, look equably upon the possibility of his presidential succession. In these times the vice presidency might better fall to a fellow like Senator Joseph Clark of Pennsylvania, whom we could be certain would carry on, if he had to, in the great traditions of Democratic liberalism. Yet we are not sure that these reflections are right, nor that they could be carried into a feasible course of action. Our point is that it’s none too soon to be thinking about this. of a *ginger The evidence increases that Governor Connally does not intend to try to deliver on his platform pledges for a voter registration system that will encourage maximum voter participation ; an industrial safety law that will reduce accidents and deaths on the job ; or a department of labor in the state government. He may yet, he still has two months; but neither he nor his aides have lifted a finger so far. From the Amarillo Globe Headline: “CONSERVATION SAID THREAT TO SECURITY” Story: “Theologian Paul Tillich says conservatism threatens American security, [saying], ‘Communism is not a danger here at all but conservatism is. What is called conservatism here seems to be a nice name for fascism.’ “Dead Woman Met Lover at British Legislator’s Villa” Headline, Corpus Caller, March 23 Well, at least it couldn’t happen here. THE TEXAS OBSERVER An Independent Fortnightly Vol. 55, No. 9 706110’reiss. April 4, 1963