ustxtxb_obs_1963_11_01_50_00008-00000_000.pdf

CALHOUN’ CiltiNTYi PORT LAVACA NEWEST PORT .1k , CALHOUN COUNTY CARAVAN Photograph by Russell Lee The Crowd at the Salute to Yarborough Yarborough Clan Girds for 1964 The Yarborough party were greeted at Austin airport -by a goodly crowd and the press. Yarborough’s movement away from Southern ways was symbolized in his shaking the hand of a Negro greeter there \(as well, later, as by the program of his supMike Manatos, special White House assistant for senatorial relations, “comes to represent the White House,” Yarborough told the press. The senator also introduced the four Senate colleagues who had come to join in saluting him, describing them as the largest group of U.S. senators ever to visit Texas at one time: Sens. Frank Church, Idaho ; Ernest Gruening, Alaska, perhaps Yarborough’s closest friend in the Senate since Estes Kefauver’s death; Daniel Inouye, Hawaii; and Lee Metcalf, Montana. Not introduced, but in the party, were two staff members of the Democratic senatorial campaign committee. Yarborough stressed, at the airport, Senate passage, and his support, of legislation to build more medical schools, create a youth conservation corps and a domestic service corps, give funds to depressed areas, build more public works quickly, and construct school classrooms. He said put together these can mean more for the people than either of the two most-discussed bills, civil rights and the tax cut. The senators said glowing things about Yarborough’s effectiveness and courage. A reporter asked Yarborough about the civil rights bill, and he said, “I cannot tell you any more than you have read in the press. It is probably the best reporting we have had in the press on any subject.” Had the Vice-President been invited? Yarborough had called his office, but had not got him; but he was sure the VicePresident got the message. He assumed Johnson was in Boston at a New England rally, where the President was also. Gov . Connally had said he had not been invited; this did not come up. During the afternoon there was a reception for larger contributors. Manatos was exposed, then and later, to anti-Connally remarks. Cliff Carter, the Vice President’s man, stuck close to Manatos at the reception. In a hotel lobby, Carter was advised by a leader in the Democratic Coalition in the presence of a number of people to get the message to Kennedy and Johnson that if Yarborough is opposed by someone such as Cong. Jim Wright, they should brace for a hellacious fight in Texas next year, which would not benefit them. THE ATTENDANCE at the salute to Yarborough was impressive. The caterer told reporters 3,800 places were set, and since only about 200 places were vacantway back in the municipal auditorium, the diners stretching out across the huge hallthe crowd was set at 3,600. This seemed lower than expected for two reasons. Somebody had predicted 6,000, a boo 8 The Texas Observer boo. Also, the figure 5,000 was bandied around for the recent Daniel and Connally dinners in the same hall. Leaders of the dinner for Yarborough conceded the caterer’s figure was correct, but observed that the caterer’s figures for the Daniel and Connally dinners were several hundred below those for the Yarborough dinner. Some inflation of the crowd by speakers is normal; U.S. Postmaster General John Gronouski said 5,000 were at the Yarborough dinner, and the same figure was freely used at the earlier dinners. But it appears that if theretofore the Connally dinner was the largest seated meal in Texas history, as state Democratic chairman Eugene Locke said it was at the time, the Yarborough dinner can now claim that designation. The Rev. John Barclay of Austin’s Central Christian Church opened the dinner with a prayer giving thanks for Yarborough’s “courage to speak, vote, work, and struggle for causes that are just” and praise of God that Yarborough “speaks for many of those who are not articulate.” Mayor Lester Palmer of Austin, who had led the city council into designating Oct. 19 Yarborough Day, welcomed the crowd and spoke well of the senator. The chairman of the salute, Walter Hall, said opposition was expected for Yarborough next year, in the primary and from business and Republicans in combination in November, but that Yarborough would win. Mrs. R. D. Randolph, Houston, the co-chairman, was given an ovation, and did not speak. Dr. Richard 0. Albert, president of the Texas Ornithological Society, gave Yarborough an award from the society for successfully sponsoring the legislation creating Padre Island national seashore area. Only two members of the Texas delega tion in Washington were present, Cong. Jack Brooks, Beaumont, and Henry Gonzalez, San Antonio. Wires had been received, Dickinson said, from Cong. Thomas, Thompson, Roberts, Thornberry, Rogers, Casey, and Poage of Texas \(as well as cabinet members Hodges, Udall, and Celebrezze and U.S. Sens. McGee, Clark, McGovern, Cong. Brooks said, “We have a man among us now who lives and works in the proud, the valiant, the progressive tradition of Houston, of Hogg and Allred. This man’s name is Ralph Yarborough.” Helping re-elect him will be “one of the proudest investments that we can make in the future . . . [He] doesn’t need us half as much as we in this country need him.” “It has always been a pleasure to be for Ralph Yarborough,” Gonzalez said. “You know, that senator talks like he’s from East Texas, but he acts like he’s from West Texas, and he rides tall in the saddle like we like ’em in Texas. . . . We know what we have to do in ’64 for Sen. Yarborough.” MONTANA’S, METCALF spoke highly of Yarborough’s knowledge in education and the orderly development of natural resources. “The nation needs Sen. Yarborough,” he said. Alaska’s Gruening, once editor of the Nation, said there’s no excuse for the Democratic Party “unless it’s a liberal party, a progressive party, and concerned with the welfare of all Americans, and not just a few.” Yarborough, he said, is “a man of rare courage, of absolute integrity, of compassion, an indefatigable worker for every good cause,” and legislative creator of “the greatest national seashore which we have and which we’ll ever have.” His record is