ustxtxb_obs_1964_06_26_50_00002-00000_000.pdf

SeilleeVect Preoerved Texas liberal Democrats conducted themselves honorably and well in Houston. They fought beside one another in very tricky terrain and emerged from a difficult, contradictory situation with their selfrespect intact and with their sense of solidarity strong for the future. Defections to Gov. Connally among labor delegates, notably the steelworkers and some of the building tradesmen, did not prevent the liberal Democrats/rom standing together and did not break the dedication of labor’s excellent state leadership to the cause of liberalism in this state. They were willing to harmonize with President Johnson, but Johnson left the convention in the control of his old crony Gov. Connally, and Connally was more interested in revenge on Cty. Cmsr. Albert Pena of San Antonio and in dictatorial control of the convention than he was in harmony. Had Connally wanted harmony, he would have shown it in Dallas, where both sides won roughly half the delegates. The loyalists offered to, split the delegates to the state convention with, the conservatives in proportion to the results of an agreedupon test vote. Instead, the “harmony” county chairman repeatedly and autocratically refused to recognize the known leaders of the loyalists and forced them to walk out to preserve their self-respect. Many of them were pro-Connally and had no wish to rump. Everyone knew Bexar County had been won by the Democratic Coalition and that the liberals had won Harris, and that those two delegations, working together, could have a powerful influence on the temper of the convention. Rather than come to terms with Democratic strength as it actually exists in Texas, Connally’s boys stole San Antonio’s votes. That’s all there was to it, really, and everybody knew it. Gazing out over the vast liberal caucus of 1,000 or more Democrats, the largest such meeting in several years, loyalist leaders knew that they had a duty to this movement that was just as real as their duty in the national situation. On the very day Texas Republicans gave the General from Arizona an apparent majority of the delegate votes for the Republican nomination, liberal Democrats were not going to bolt to Atlantic City and jeopardize the President’s prospects. Yet they also knew that if they failed to protest the betrayal of the San Antonio Democrats, the liberal movement in Texas would be ravaged, as it was after the 1960 state convention. In a spirit of honorable compromise, they offered to split all the contested delegations with the Connally forces. That would have been reasonable; there would have been no question whether Connally had all the votes he needed; harmony could have happened. The offer was re 2 The Texas Observer jected. The Harris County Democrats in the convention thereupon caucused and most, of them left the hall to join, in restrained but fraternal pride, their fellow Democrats from Bexar and Dallas standing outside in the sun. They had nothing to gain but principle, nothing in view but their determination to go on working for their ideals in this, the society where they live. This is the spirit that elected Senator Yarborough against the massed powers of the Establishment and will re-elect him against his moneyed Republican challenger, and this is the spirit that will never surrender. Texas politics to the Connally-Shivers breed. 5h a Zeader Gov. Connally’s hand-picked new Democratic national committeeman, replacing the loyalist moderate, Byron Skelton, is Frank Erwin. Erwin wrongly accused friends of Sen. Ralph Yarborough of planning the dinner for Yarborough last week to conflict with the dinner for Connally the same night. In fact the Yarborough dinner was planned weeks before the Connally dinner was known about. Erwin called the Democrats who attended the Yarborough dinner “partisans” and said those who attended the Connally dinner were the ones who wanted unity. The Houston Post estimated that by a slight margin more Democrats attended the Yar Incorporating the State Observer and the East Texas Democrat, which in turn incorporated the State Week and Austin ForumAdvocate. We will serve no group or party but will hew hard to the truth as we find it and the right as we see it. We are dedicated to the whole truth, to human values above all interests, to the rights of man as the foundation of democracy; we will take orders from none but our own conscience, and never will we overlook or misrepresent the truth to serve the interests of the powerful or cater to the ignoble in the human spirit. Editor and General Manager, Ronnie Dugger. Partner, Mrs. R. D. Randolph. Business Manager, Sarah Payne. Contributing Editors, J. Frank Dobie, Larry Goodwyn, Franklin Jones, Lyman Jones, Georgia Earnest Klipple, Willie Morris, James Presley, 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; El Paso, Mrs. Jeanette Harris, 5158 Garry Owen Rd., LO 5-3448; Houston, Mrs. Shirley Jay, 10306 Cliffwood Dr., PA 3-8682; Lubbock, Doris Blaisdell, 2515 24th St.; Midland, Eva Dennis, 4306 Douglas, OX 4-2825; Odessa, Enid Turner, 1706 Glenwood, EM 6-2269; Rio Grande Valley, Mrs. Jack Butler, 601 Houston, McAllen, MU 6-5675; borough dinner than the one for Connally. On June 11, Erwin referred to liberal Democratic spokesmen who were critical of convention plans as “the hot-heads of the radical left.” Apparently Erwin does not understand that Johnson could not carry Texas without the Kennedy Democrats. If he keeps this up, we may have to conclude he doesn’t deeply care whether the Democrats win Texas or not. There is a basis for this interpretation already: when it became clear that most of the Democrats in the state convention from Houston, the largest city in the state, were going to walk out, Erwin called them “the so-called liberals” and said he didn’t care if they left or not. Some national committeeman. 5or Senator, The list of Democrats being considered for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination in Texas in 1966 should be enlarged to include Federal District Judge Sarah T. Hughes of Dallas, Rep. Malcolm McGregor of El Paso, Rep. Bob Eckhardt of Houston, Cty. Cmsr. Albert Pena of San Antonio, U.S. District Attorneys Barefoot Sanders of Dallas and Woodrow Seals of Houston, and a man little known in publicized political circles, the noble and dedicated physi-‘ cian in McAllen, Dr. Ramiro Casso. Other readers may think of other worthy possibilities. Our point is that there is no shortage of able and dedicated leadership among the nationally oriented Democrats in Texas: there is no reason why we need settle for an anti-Ralph Yarborough compromiser like Jim Wright of Tarrant. San Antonio, Mrs. Mae B. Tuggle, 531 Elmhurst, TA 2-7154; Tyler, Mrs. Erik Thomsen, 3209 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 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 publishes 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. Unsolicited manuscripts must be accompanied by 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, under the Act of March 3, 1879. Second class postage paid at Austin, Texas. Delivered postage prepaid $5.00 a year; two yeari, $9.50; three years, $13.00. Foreign rates on request. Single copies 25c; prices for ten or more for students, or bulk orders, on request. Editorial and Business Offices: The Texis Observer, 504 West 24th St., Austin 5, Texas. Telephone GR 7-0746. Change of Address: Please give old and new addresses ond allow three weeks. THE TEXAS OBSERVER A Journal of Free Voices A Window to the South 58th YEAR ESTABLISHED 1906 Vol. 56, No. 13 7-42110. June 26; 1964