ustxtxb_obs_1963_07_12_50_00011-00000_000.pdf

Since 1866 The Place in Austin ” . . . the students and the professors, the politicians and the lobbyists, dine or drink beer in rather unfamiliar proximity.” Willie Morris in Harper’s. 1607 San Jacinto GR 7-4171 While the Migrants Are Gone . . . V Texas Democratic chairman Eugene Locke, while, refusing to affirm or deny Republicans’ allegations that urban centers are discriminated against by present congressional districting, asked for dismissal of the G.O.P. suit in Houston seeking court-ordered reapportionment of the state’s districts. Locke said it’s a political question that lies within the authority of congress. g/r John Stanford, the San Antonian ac cused by the U.S. government of being secretary of the Texas communist party, has told reporters he has refused to affirm or deny to the government whether he is a communist and will not register as the McCarran act requires. He has argued to the press that government should not tell citizens what their politics can be and that his civil rights would be violated by a requirement he register. He also says the U.S. communist party does not advocate violence and is not an agent of Russia. In 1951 the Texas legislature required registration of communists on pain of two to ten years in jail. A 1956 Supreme Court case led Texas authorities to conclude the congress had pre-empted the field of subversive control. Atty. Gen. Waggoner Carr says the Texas law has never been tested and that he will enforce it; Gov. Connally backs him up. Carr told San Antonio D.A. James Barlow he has a joint duty with Carr to enforce the law. Barlow says Carr told him that the department of public safety is presently looking into communist activity in the state. Barlow assigned an assistant district attorney to investigate U.S. Atty. Gen. Robert Kennedy’s charges against Stanford. 1/ Carr scheduled a youth conference for junior high and high school students Aug. 17-18 to discuss juvenile problems. Carr says this will be an annual event, a statement that qualifies the item as “political intelligence.” . . . Carr confirmed he told three state representatives who discussed their code of ethics bill with him that heavy fines might be levied against Texas officials who fail to report financial holdings that pose questions of conflict of interest. Sen. Walter Richter, Gonzales, has taken a part time job as executive secretary for the privately-financed committee of the governing boards of state colleges and universities. “My wife says I have a knack for getting involved with worthy organizations that are hard-pressed for funds,” Richter commented. “This is true of the committee. Other entities she had reference to are the Gonzales Warm Springs Foundation and the state of Texas.” goof Carr has ruled for Connally that Con nally’s six appointees to the new state courts of civil appeals in Tyler and Corpus Christi can come from anywhere in Texas. This may break up Speaker Byron Tunnell’s plans for a game of musical chairs among his home-district politicians, including, possibly, himself. Fred Schmidt, San Antonio Congress man Henry Gonzalez’ administrative assistant, has resigned to take a position in trade union research and teaching at the University of California. Crystal City’s migratory workers are on the road and working in northerly fields now and will not be home until November and December. This fact underlies the postelection petition maneuvering in Crystal City. First, Cty. Atty. Curtis Jackson submitted a petition signed with more than 500 names, including 68 Latin-American names, seeking to expand the council to seven members and hold a new election in October, before the migrants return. The city attorney ruled this petition invalid because it permitted election by a plurality, whereas the Texas Constitution requires a majority. The invalidity of the, petition was acknowledged, and a new one, signed by about 200 citizens, presented. Resistance can be expected to continue from Mayor Juan Cornejo and his fellow councilmen, since they must delay any new election at least until the end of the year if they are to get the votes of migratory laborers. “The most galling thing about these proposed amendments is the change of the [regular] election date from April to July,” George Ozuna, city manager, says. “July is actually the month that most all of the migrants are gone, and they know it.” The new city administration has rented a new street sweeper; bought a police car, instead of requiring the marshal to provide his own; raised the wages of common laborers on the city payroll from $30 to $40 a week, and of skilled men in the utilities departments from $40 to $70; and soon, Cornejo says, will annex to the city the California Packing Corp. plant in which the teamsters have a local and the Zavala Pump and Engine Co., owned by Cty. Cmsr. Tom Allee, leader in the anti-Cornejo petition movements and brother of Ranger Capt. A. Y. Allee. Cornejo says the teamster-P.A.S.O. combination in Crystal City will run candidates for Zavala county offices in the next election. Of Ranger Allee, against whom Cornejo has filed suit alleging Allee roughed him up, Cornejo says, “I’ll run him out when we take over the county.” Rangers escorted into the town Willie Bonilla of Corpus Christi. Bonilla was honored at a luncheon attended by representatives of local civic clubs and organized a Crystal City chapter of the league of united Latin-Amer ican citizens them Anglos. Cornejo held a rival rally MARTIN ELFANT Sun Life of Canada Houston, Texas CA 4-0686 b 10\(41 at the same time. Bonilla was associated with the revolt against the prevailing leadership of the state P.A.S.O. in San Antonio, and obviously the L.U.L.A.C. development in Crystal City is political in purpose. Dr. Hector Garcia led the Corpus chapter of P.A.S.O. out of the state P.A.S.O. organization with a 30-22 vote until, the resolution said, P.A.S.O. proves the teamsters do not control and finance it, and Albert Fuentes is removed as executive secretary. The state P.A.S.O. chairman, Albert Pena, intends to keep Fuentes on, either as executive secretary or, if necessary, \(in light of the state convention’s failure to re-elect Fuentes to his position, as his personal secretary. Fuentes says it would be an easy matter to organize a new P.A.S.O. chapter; or it may be contended that the majority in the Corpus chapter did not have the power to discontinue the local. Fuentes also says now P.A.S.O. chapters have been or are being organized in Matagorda, Willacy, Bee, Jim Wells, Brazoria, Goliad, DeWitt, Dimmit, Hunt, Ellis, and Collin counties. The Observer has received a copy of the letter Fuentes sent Cong. Henry B. Gonzalez, San Antonio, notifying_ him of the P.A.S.O. state convention and inviting him to a dance and a rally associated with the convention; but not to the convention. The letter began : “Dear Sir: . . .” Gonzalez did not go. Roy Evans, state A.F.L.-C.I.O. secretarytreasurer, told the Corpus Christi CallerTimes, “Sure we helped P.A.S.O. Where else would they get help? Those LatinAmericans are too poor to do it themselves.”