ustxtxb_obs_1965_04_16_50_00002-00000_000.pdf

Stand _Aide /or pokii Only a governor drunk with power and mad for more of it could brazen as much as John Bowden Connally is brazening now. This Shivercratic governor, who berated the moderate and mild-mannered Price Daniel in 1962 with a campaign against Daniel’s “one-man rule” and a flat, oft-repeated promise to seek a limit of two two-year terms for Texas governors, is finishing out his own second two-year term now, and how his principles have changed! He gave us all clearly to believe in 1962 that it is one of his dearest principles of government that four years ought to be the limit on any one man’s service as governor of Texas, but now we see that he only meant this for Price Daniel, and definitely not for himself. He demands now of a legislature for which he obviously has utter contempt that they ask the voters to authorize four-year terms for him, with no limit on the number of terms he can have. The big lobby Oil, Gas, Insurance, Banks, Utilitiesthat spent an admitted million dollars electing Connally in 1962 handwriting on the wall for him now. In 1963 he hailed and signed into law the highest legalized interest rates for loan sharks in force anywhere in the United States. Refusing to tax anyone but the poor, and afraid to try the people’s patience any more just now by repealing the exemption of groceries from the sales tax, this “champion” of the cause of education has turned against an adequate pay raise for Texas teachers. He has turned our colleges and universities, and the content of every one of the 22,000 courses they teach, over to a political superboard every member of which he will appoint. He has sold out the old folks for whom Texans authorized higher pensions he has now denied them. He has openly fought against the $1.25 minimum wage in the Neighborhood Youth Corps, insisting that Texas wage its war on poverty at 80 cents an hour. He has stalled the re-districting to which Texans in the cities are constitutionally entitled. His “reconstituted” special-interest Parks and Wildlife Commission has thrown out the tested rules and given the shell dredgers who back him politically the goahead to strip our bays of the oyster reefs for shell they use in highway construction. Adding insult to injury, he has lately appointed a dredging company executive, an oil company president, and one of the nation’s leading oil lobbyists to the University of Texas board of regents. This hack of a governor, this front for the lobby, like a fox advocates again the repeal of the poll tax and ducks into the brush when the House hesitates on it, but he uses every trick he has to threaten and coerce good men and true to give him four full years next time! 2 The Texas Observer Let us have no more prattle about principle, governor. You know as well as everyone else that this can be no matter of principle with you when three short years ago you told us it was a matter of principle with you that we write our Constitution a four-year total limit on our governors’ tenure for all time to come. You have simply once again selected the principle, from among those you see lying limp around you, that presently serves your ambitions the best. A political editorial, this, you say? You’re damn right it is! True friends and true supporters of Senator Ralph Yarborough, the best senator this state has had in this century, will vote this amendment down in the legislature because it is probably designed in part to place Connally in position to oppose Yarborough in 1970. But that is not the main thing wrong with itYarborough could beat Connally. The truth is that Connally wants four more years to consolidate his grabby, coercive power in Texas government and education, but the sympathy for him because he was shot is wearing out and he’s going to have a hard fight to get past the real Democrats and the Republicans even in 1966. Besides, it’s expensive to buy the governor’s chair for your boy every two years, especially when he’s so much your boy. 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, Elroy Bode, Bill Grammer, Larry Goodwyn, Franklin Jones, Lyman Jones, Larry L. King, 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; San Antonio, Mrs. Mae B. Tuggle, 531 Elmhurst, TA 6-3583; Tyler, Mrs. Erik Thomsen, Let the question of four-year terms Stand Aside for Politics, for that’s what the governor’s demand for this constitutional change israw, self-serving, cynical, and contemptibly unprincipled power politics. Corrupt Jai For years Sen. Ralph Yarborough has urged cutting the “fat” out of foreign aid; the Observer has viewed this askance, for foreign economic aid, properly placed, is one way this rich country can help the poor of many other countries. Now comes Fred J. Cook’s astounding report on corruption in the U.S. aid program to Iran in the Nation of April 12, which describes it \(with ler Involving American Foreign Aid, the Shah of Iran, a Desert Chieftain, Swiss Banks, Tapped Wires, Secret Diplomacy and Some Celebrated Americans.” In the first place, now we have an idea of what Sen. Yarborough has been talking about not just fat, but corrupt fat. In the second place, while commending the Nation for its incomparable journalistic coup, we would make demand on the rest of the national press: how can it be that you have failed to find this story, much of it in public court records? And in the third place, we say to our readers that Mr. Cook’s and the Nation’s “Billion-Dollar Mystery” must be read. 3332 Lynwood, LY 4-4862; Cambridge, Mass., Victor Emanuel, 33 Aberdeen Ave., Apt. 3A. 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 is is token. Unsolicited manuscripts must be accompanied by return postage. Unsigned articles are the editor’s. During the current legislative session, unsigned legislative stories may sometimes embody or be the reportage of Capitol reporters who cover some events for the Observer. 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 years, $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 Texas Observer, 504 West 24th St., Austin 5, Texas. Telephone GR 7-0746. Change of Address: Please give old and new address and allow three weeks. THE TEXAS OBSERVER Texas Observer Co., Ltd. 1965 A Journal of Free Voices A Window to the South 59th YEAR ESTABLISHED 1906 Vol. 57, No. 8 7e1gM April 16, 1965