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nt tic on rs cis to: al Hard-nosed Mortgage Loans, no romance added . . . . J. W. “TOMMY” TUCKER Correspondent P. 0. Box 66103 Houston, Texas 77006 JAckson 4-2211 Campaign Cards a:. Placards & Bumperstrip & Brochures gz Flyers & Letterheads az En elopes azVertical Posters & Buttons & Ribl ons & Badges & Process Color Work tz Art Work & Forms & Newspapers & Political P rioting gz Books & Silk Screen Work az Magc a?.ines Sc Car Sions Sc No\\ cities S.Pictures 1.1 is s Sc Silk Screen Work & Political Printing Tovelties Sc Mimeograph Supplies & Convent on Badges Sc Advertising Campaigns Sc Stati , onery Sc Cards Sc Announcements Sc Invitatio lion’s share, for reasons of propinquity. But other participants came from Indiana, New York, Massachusetts, and from beyond England, Ireland, Denmark, France, and German states, Africa. Truly they were a United Nations’ force dedicated to building a social and political climate in which men could go their separate, non-conforming ways without fear. Texans then are no special breed, unless an amalgam distills a special blend. Indeed, Texans are inheritors of a past that includes Leonidas and his 300 Spartans fighting off the Persians and the Ghanson de Roland at Roncesvalles and Valley Forge; Texans are inheritors of a past that includes the questioning skepticism of such men as Descartes, Hobbes, Voltaire, Franklin, and Jefferson. Texans are preservers of a present that must make them brothers to the Hungarian Freedom Fighters and those undesignated East Germans who fought tanks with rocks and bare hands. And Texans should be progenitors of a future that includeswhat? Endorsement of Oxford and of Birmingham? Dire warnings against even the status quo? A seeking after the riches of industrialization without seeking after solutions to the urban problems automatically spawned by such success? Intuitive belief that new ideas and new approaches are inherently dangerous? Damning of intellectual reserch and the right to read because truth cannot stand examination? Outlawing of teachers and lecturers and practitioners of the performing arts because they are “controversial”? Letters so vicious that the most ultraconservative newspaper in the state cannot pririt them? Where is the faith of our fathers in those attitudes? Where the heritage of Texas? Where the tenuous but continuous thread of freedom that has woven itself through Texas, the Southwest, and the United States since Cabeza de Vaca? Must Jesus meet a payroll to be accepted as good enough for Texas? If He did return, should He be barred from speaking to the Houston school children because He is controversial? Shall we delete from the Bible all reference to rendering unto Caesar, or to the rich man sharing, or to my responsibility for my brother, or to turning swords into ploughshares? Or to forgiveness for earlier indiscretions even unto seven times seventy? ISUBMIT that such activities and attitudes deny the very core of Texas tradition. Then what is the Texas tradition which we observe by denying? The Texas tradition is the Telegraph and Texas Register, with Santa Anna on the outskirtS of town, declaring that it will continue publishing until its silence shall proclaim that there is no longer a free press in Texas. The Texas tradition is Sam Houston standing up to the extremists who would lead us into disaster, crying out: “Our country is too glorious, too magnificent, too sublime in its future prospects, to per ‘ mit domestic jars or political opinions to produce a wreck of this mighty vessel .. . let us give it in charge to men who will care for the whole people, who will love the country for the country’s sake . . . and reconcile conflicting interests for the sake of prosperity . . . and let us not despair.” The Texas tradition is again Sam Houston, on being turned out of office, declaring that though he helped create this state, “I did not make the people; and if they do wrong, the state still remains in all its beauty, with all its splendid and inviting prospectsall varied and delightful.” The Texas tradition is John H. Reagan resigning from the United States Senate to return to Texas to try to bring the most powerful corporate force in the state under the control of the people through their government. The Texas tradition is a Yucatanese becoming the first Vice President of the Republic of Texas because he is an honorable and intelligent man, despite lack of membership in any of the proper churches or clubs. The Texas tradition is J. Frank Dobie sounding off, not always on target but invariably with something to say. The Texas tradition is the University of Texas’ board of regentsbelatedly or not voluntarily removing all but one vestige of segregation and declaring without being forced that henceforth its students will be recruited for scholarship or athletics on a basis of merit. The Texas tradition is a great Texas retailer risking customers to tell his city that it must face up to its slums, purge itself of its spirit of absolutism, and forget its civic image and seek after good works, ” ‘fair play’ for legitimate differences of opinion, less coverup for . . . obvious deficiencies, less boasting . . . and more moral indignation . . . when we see human rights imposed upon.” SO IN TEXAS a President was murdered because somewhere somehow the mothers and teachers and leaders of this world failed to get through to a tortured youth. And though the price seems hardly worth it, nevertheless we did have an opportunity to take a new view of the charge that Texas is a land of vainglorious, blustering, vulgar, materialistic, illiberal clowns with more money than brains. The death of President Kennedy gave us a chance to drop our caricatured existence. Has the Texas myth ended? Or must we continue to fear the truth and shun the controversial? #00 z Since 1866 The Place in Austin GOOD FOOD GOOD BEER 1607 San Jacinto GR 7-4171 Distant Observations Northern Lights New York City In 1962 after the November elections, which saw Richard M. Nixon, like the total show-business creation he is, bid one of those customary retractable farewells to the public, I went Galluping from one Yankee associate to another to gather opinions on the outcome for the edification of you secluded Observer readers. I’ve just concluded another of those polls. This time I was after reactions to those numbing events, beginning last November in Dallas, that only recently dragged to their dishearteningly predictable end when Jack Ruby was sentenced to burn. Here, for whatever they’re worth, are opinions of three of my fellow editors, men with legal backgrounds from New York, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. The last two are liberals. I assume you’re familiar with the breed. The NeW Yorker, however, would cause a sensation in Texas. He’s a conservative for reasons that have nothing to do with opportunism, greed, ignorance, or that most sacrosanct of God’s creations, the depletion allowance; he comes to his conclusions by logic. All three of these men have been following Texas legislation in awe and wonder for years. It’s their job. I once asked them how they would characterize the behavior and interpretations of Texas officials. The May 1, 1964 13