ustxtxb_obs_1963_10_18_50_00002-00000_000.pdf

cueJt editorial g ottlwater Penn Jones, winner recently of the Elijah Lovejoy Award for courage in journalism, took his stand on Gov. John Connally in his weekly Midlothian Mirror : ‘I. . . it is time to make an assessment of the first year in office of Gov. Connally. He had fine advertisements in all the papers as a candidate. He had good radio and TV shows. His PR boys did their tasks well. In fact, Connally is a Robin Hood’s Friar Tuck in reverse. He totes information and does chores for the rich villains in town, but the PR boys make him appear to be Robin Hood himself. The PR boys continue to do a good job on Connally. He sat still while the legislature was hammering out the appropriations bill for 1963-’64 until the waning days of the session. Then he bestirred .himself enough to complain that not enough money was provided in the higher education budget for brains. \(His original request was not even as high as Price Daniel used vetoed the building of additional schools and hospitals. No one bothers to point out that Connally gave us neither brains nor bricks. But it was a fine slogan. Newspapers, state banks, sulphur companies, and other corporations got tax reductions to the tune of over $20 million per year. These little gifts were compensated for by removing clothing from the sales tax exemption list. Make it harder on the working man of Texas, but of course he doesn’t have a lobbyist on his payroll, either. The poll tax situation is one that rests largely with the governor. He promised to fight for a decent registration law, but 2 The Texas Observer 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, Dan Strawn, Tom Sutherland, Charles Alan Wright. Staff Artist, Charles Erickson. Contributing Photographer, Russell Lee. Subscription Representatives: Austin, Mrs. Helen C. Spear, 2615 Pecos, 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; Tyler, Mrs. Erik Thomsen, 1209 So. Broadway, LY 4-4862. The editor has exclusive control over the editorial policies and contents of the Observer. None of ‘the other people who are associated again reneged. Actually the registration proposal as now written will result in fewer, not more voters in Texas. The 25-cent amendment by [Senator] J. P. Word of this district is onerous, but the most burdensome one is the removal of the agency clause. No longer, under this proposal, can an agent sell poll tax receipts in Midlothian. . . . The proposed law to outlaw the flying of the U.N. flag on state, city, county, or school property was passed in the Senate with only a loud silence from John Connally. On the issue of civil rights, Connally proves himself to be a flank fighter, when he fights at all. He will not support a party platform. He takes the office, the plaudits, but not the duties and obligations that accompany the prize. Connally will not support the Democratic administration which so greatly honored him. His position is now secure because of the Democrats, but his loyalty is only to his long time employers, the rich oil boys of Texas. For 20 years he was a Sid Richardson lawyer drawing up to $80,000 per year. We should not be disappointed. Texas has not had a governor for the people since Jimmy Allred was governor in 1935. It has been such a long dry spell that the people can hardly dream any more. John Connally can honestly boast of only three accomplishments. He legalized the outrageous interest charges of the loan sharks of Texas which used to be made without legal sanction. He sent Texas Rangers to force a recall election in Crystal City after the Mexicans there decided to exercise their voting rights. And he has increased the automobile speed limits to 70 miles per hours.”” 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 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, tinder the Act of March 3, 1879. Second class postage paid at Austin, Texas. Delivered postage prepaid $5.00 a year. 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 t;nd allow three weeks. We find it interesting that two former Republican county chairmen in Dallas are supporting someone other than Senator Barry Goldwater for president. Maurice I. Carlson of Reliance Life Insurance Co. is supporting Nixon ; Paul O’Rourke of O’Rourke Construction Co., Romney. Apparently these two men have thought over the Goldwater craze among Texas Republicans and have concluded that national, not fanatical right-wing perspective is called for. We suggest to the Republicans who have felt doubts about Goldwater but have not wanted to buck the strong tide for him in official Texas Republicanism consider Walter Lippman’s sage reflections on the subject in the Washington Post: The core of Goldwater’s. philosophy, Lippman wrote, “is opposition to the federal government as a guarantor of personal liberty and as protector of the national welfare. To the senator the federal government is a kind of foreign power which must be reduced and distrusted. . . . “Senator Goldwater would leave the racial problem to the individual states, the federal government to cease all intervention. He would repeal the progressive income tax, a measure so extreme that it would dismantle the national defense and destroy the credit of the United States. He would repeal the welfare measures as -fast as he could, thus opening the country to vast misery and vast disorder. He would sell TVA. In foreign affairs he would cut loose from our allies and he would then challenge the Soviet Union aggressively. “These .. . things . . . are a vast confusion and they are a recipe for panic. Senator Goldwater is a more serious threat to the Republican Party than he is to the Democratic. For the odds are heavy that President Kennedy would defeat him, especially after Senator Goldwater’s radical reactionary views have been explained to the voters. But the Republican Party would be a shambles after a Goldwater nomination. The party of Lincoln would have become the rallying point of the racists. The party of Hamilton would have become the anti-federal party. The party of Theodore Roosevelt would have become the antiprogressive, sectional, and anti-national party.” Let Texas Republicans keep in mind the fact that with the possible exception of Strom Thurmond, John Tower is the exemplar of the radical right in the United States Senatethat he is even to the right of Barry Goldwater, if one takes at face value the Arizona senator’s current backtrackings toward the American middle. To follow Tower into Goldwater’s camp may result in much emotional satisfaction for Texas Republicans now, but by next November can mean nothing but alienation from the national realities. The time has arrived for non-Goldwater Republicans to begin cultivating support for other candidates in the expected preferential straw ‘vote next spring. THE TEXAS OBSERVER A Journal of Free Voices Vol. 55, No. 23 7etfaa October 18, 1963