ustxtxb_obs_1964_08_21_50_00004-00000_000.pdf

in the Mark Hopkins Hotel, Goldwater’s headquarters. “I have always been proud to be a Southerner, but never so proud as I am today,” he said. “The backbone of Barry Goldwater’s strength on the platform committee was Southern delegates.” He said the South had defeated Gov. William Scranton’s leaders in efforts “to include a harsh and punitive civil rights plank, and to tie extremists to Sen. Goldwater.” A folk singing quartet improvised “Hang Down Your Head, Poor Lyndon” and “The Gallup Poll is Falling Down,” while the crowd waited for a brief appearance from Goldwater. He came in late, but drew a rousing shout when he said: “I don’t care who the nominee is, if he can’t get his foot in the South, he’s not going anyplace.” Goldwater had both his feet and most of the rest of him in the South. Only seven of the 279 Southern delegates voted for other candidatesthe waverers included three from Arkansas, two from Georgia, and two from Florida. The South had Tower to thank on the eventual civil rights plank, although he had a few tough moments convincing them that Goldwater would not sell them out and that, after all, platforms don’t mean anything. The platform in 1960 supported enforcement of right to vote laws, authorized the Attorney General to bring desegregation suits when individuals were threatened, urged federal aid for desegregating schools, and called for a commission on equal job opportunities. This year it used only 67 words pledging “For the People”: it . . .full implementation and faithful execution of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and all other civil rights statutes, to assure equal rights and opportunities guaranteed by the Constitution to every citizen ; “improvements of civil rights statutes adequate to changing needs of our times; “such additional administrative or legislative actions as may be required to end the denial, or whatever unlawful reasons, of the right to vote.” That language didn’t please all the Southerners. Privately, they preferred no statement at all. Tower admitted they were not the words he would have used. But publicly the delegates went along. Tower told the Texas caucus the platform “is one Barry Goldwater ‘can run on. It reflects the consensus of the Republican Party. Gov . Scranton and Gov. Rockefeller are not entirely satisfied with it. That might give you an indication of how good a platform it is.” policy statement any reference to rightwing extremist groups, including specifically the John Birch Society. The platform did criticise “Federal extremistsimpulsive in the use of national power, improvident in the management of public funds, thoughtless as to the longterm effects of their acts on individual freedom and creative, competitive enterprise.” A prominent Texas Republican woman from West Texas commented later, during the convention floor fight over the extremism plank, “I don’t know what all the controversy is. All the John Birchers I know are the nicest people you’d ever want to meet.” One of the hottest items in the usual batch of political material on sale around the convention was J. Evetts Haley’s new paperback book, “A Texan Looks At Lyndon.” Its subtitle is “A Study in Illegitimate Power.” Haley is the conservative West Texas rancher who, as leader of “Texans for America,” protested adoption of several textbooks in Texas public schools. book, Seguin attorney Kellis Dibrell, who investigated the 1948 election for defeated Gov. Coke Stevenson, spoke to a platform committee session in San Francisco. He warned “if progressive action isn’t taken, we may have another problem [of questionable vote counting] on our hands in 1964.” Dibrell, a former FBI agent and candidate for lieutenant governor in the 1962 GOP primary in Texas, said he has decided “there is no remedynonewhere illegal votes are cast in a presidential race in November.” He said “I honestly believe you have no recourse if the voting bosses should decide to cast illegal votes as they did in 1948 and I believe they did in 1960.” Southern leaders were ecstatic over their chances this fall, with Goldwater on the ballot. Grenier said there will be 80 Republican congressional candidates running in the eleven Southern states and more than 1,200 state and local GOP candidates. He said he “wouldn’t be surprised” to see victories in 40 of those 80 races, including the defeat of U.S. Sen. Ralph Yarborough Scranton’s platform committee manager, Penn. Sen. Hugh Scott, failed to get in the 4 The Texas Observer One frequently mentioned person in the