ustxtxb_obs_1964_04_17_50_00015-00000_000.pdf

million. He is supported in this contention by Mrs. Elizabeth Blessing, a member of the city council who has also been critical of the purchase price in the transaction that socialized Dallas’ bus system. C ABELL’S UPHOLDERS among the Democrats recite his courageous fight against the Dallas power structure for slum clearance. But Bryant has been able to make hay out of the same field, Cabell’s record as mayor, because of Cabell’s opposition to pay raises for the city’s garbage collectors. Some Democrats are not going along with Bryant because they remember the compromises he made with “downtown,” that is with the Dallas power structure, when he ran for Congress in 1962. Bryant says frankly he thought he’d play the game with them in 1962, but now he realizes you have to stand for. principle. Perhaps the main pitch for Cabell is the “unity” argument: that Dallas Democrats are on a unity program, that Cabell is the unity candidate, that Cabell has the better chance to beat Alger, and that Bryant would lose. At the start of the campaign Cabell was strongly favored to beat Bryant. Now the outcome is very much in doubt. R.D. Observations A NEW START IN THE STATEHOUSE We rue a certain indefiniteness in Don Yarborough’s campaign so far. He has not yet made his affirmative program clear enough. He told reporters he favors a natural gas tax, but he also opposed a corporate income tax, which opposition he should reconsider. Yet we also know from observation of his previous campaigns and from his many general and specific statements that he would be a far better governor for Texas than John Connally has been. Connally has been a caretaker governor; he has been holding the fort for the tory Democrats and big business. He did so little to ruffle the feathers of the Republicrat legislature of 1963, they paid him practically no attention. He talked big about education, vetoing $12 million he said he was going to guard for the colleges ,like a “Mother Hen,” but the egg never hatched, you notice: he called no special session to give this money to the colleges. He watched pacifically as the legislature cut taxes on the banks, the sulphur companies, and other big businesses and increased them on the people through the sales tax. He explicitly declared that redistricting was not a part of his must program; and then, when a Houston court ordered it at once, he accused the judges of behaving as Republicans, a clear violation of the lawyers’ code, in the name of which he himself recently became so incensed against Melvin Belli. He never even asked the legislature to ratify the federal poll tax repeal amendment: asked directly about this at a press conference, he said he was not pursuing that course. Instead, he said, he wanted the Texas poll tax repealed, only. Thus spared a real test, the legislature submitted the amendment; and then what did its champion, the governor, do? He gutted it by saying it might lead to bloc voting. Behind this was his own opposition to the Kennedy Administration’s fight for public accommodations legislation, medicare, and federal aid to education; his own snub of Negroes; the increasing alien EUR O P E An unregimented trip stiessing individual freedom. Low cost yet covers all the usual plus places other tours miss. Unless the standard tour is a “must” for you, discover this unique tour before you go to Europe. EUROPE SUMMER TOURS 255 Sequoia, Dept. JPasadena, California ation of Texas Latin-Americans from his administration. In fiscal policy, spending, election reform, redistricting, party politics, and the governor’s role as a leader for his national party’s. cause in Texas, Connally played the same doubledealing game we have had in recent years from Coke Stevenson, Allan Shivers, and Price Daniel. Little wonder Shivers has endorsed Connally. Don Yarborough, on the other hand, can be counted upon to lead a struggle for statehouse populism and to stimulate a new look into the causes of the profound sickness of our state government. It is very difficult to get hold of what’swrong in Austin. We’ve been thinking about it for a decade and still haven’t got it well formulated. In a campaign it is necessary to simplify; Don Yarborough offers the best simplification available when he says the state is “lobbycontrolled.” But why? Why have the people stopped paying attention to state government? In what ways have the lobbyists actually reshaped the very procedures of government in the statehouse to condition everything to run their way? How has it come to pass that most of the state’s vital research, in tax policy, in the shape and responsibilities of the agencies, in public spending, is actually financed by the biggest corporations of Texas through the Texas Research League? What can be done about these things? The really important issue in the governor’s race is this large issue: the philosophical corruption of the state government. The governor must be willing to undertake and encourage really organic examination of what has happened, what is happening, and what can be made to change. Thre is no hope of this kind of Group Subscriptions b A message for the special attention of liberal groups or union locals: Subscriptions to the Observer can be bought by groups at a cost of $4 a year, provided ten or more subscrip tions are entered at one time. If you belong to a group that might be in terested in this, perhaps you will want to take the matter up with the others. change of direction under John Connally, who is himself a rich man’s lawyer and has served as a yeoman in rich men’s politics all his political life. We very seriously predict that if Connally is renominated and reelected, he will advocate much higher college tuition and legislation to authorize a city sales tax. Instead of moving toward the free college tuition California enjoys, Connally can be counted on to protect big business from the higher taxes for them that this would entail. Instead of trying to repeal the general sales tax, he can be counted upon to broaden itif not to increase its rate, as Don Yarborough has not convincingly predicted, then to increase its coverage again, as he increased it in 1963. Readers of the Observer know that the signs have become unmistakable that the business power structure is preparing for a major push in 1965 to give the cities the power to levy sales taxes, and we all know where Connally will stand on thatwe know without him saying; we know from knowing who he is. There is a real chance for a real change under Don Yarborough. It will not, right off, be a New Day, but it will be a New Start. And brother, it’s time for that!. On Jesse Owens We wish to enter a special plea that Texas liberals extend as much energy as they can spare to help nominate Judge Jesse Owens of Wichita Falls to the Texas Railroad Commission. Owens is the first liberal Democrat to seek the job of regulating the Texas oil April 17, 1964 15 J. W. “TOMMY” TUCKER Appraisal of Real Estate 3317 Montrose Boulevard Houston, Texas 77006 JAckson 4-2211