ustxtxb_obs_1965_05_14_50_00009-00000_000.pdf

cultural interests tends to sweep social problems under the rug. Testimony indicates that the weight of this elite is arrayed against the economic and political weakness of minority groups and of the poor generally. The press, with certain exceptions, reflects the views of the elite and reinforces its dominance. The press also exhibits a persistent suspicion of social causes and the people involved in them, thus promoting a regional antagonism to coordinated family assistance, suspicion of private philanthropy for social causes, and resistance to public planning. It proclaims that social planning properly resides in the private sector, but it supports only minor endeavors by private agencies. 4 National attention to this region is obviously overdue. First, the openness of our international border must be reviewed. Steps must be taken to regulate and reduce the flow of “border commuters.” . . . [P] overty in the Southwest cannot be separated from poverty in Mexico while the international border remains no more than an inconvenience to commuters. The problem is international in scope and should be approached internationally, even to the Murphy Moves Up V Charles S. Murphy, as undersecretary of agriculture, accepted much of the responsibility for the appointment of Billie Sol Estes to the Cotton Advisory Commit tee when the Department of Agriculture was investigating Estes for his dubious practices. President Johnson has appointed Murphy administrator of the Federal Aviation Agency, calling him a “judicious and able man who has served in government for 21 years.” V Conservative columnist John Cham berlain says that 20 of the 23 Texas congressmen are committed against labor’s much-wanted repeal of Section 14-B of Taft-Hartley \(all but Brooks, Thomas, and of the 20, repeal can’t pass. V Americans for Democratic Action is fighting the . confirmation of Carl Bagge, conservative Republican, to the Federal Power Cmsn. on grounds that he is a segregationist and opposed an integrated housing subdivision. Bagge denied he had done this, and a swearing match is in progress. V Texans in Congress are harmonious behind Johnson’s Viet Nam and Dominican Republic policies, except that Cong. Gonzalez, San Antonio, was fearful that the $700 million Viet Nam appropriation might be construed as a validation of an undeclared war. c The Rights of Hoodlums’ V Atty. Gen. Waggoner Carr, in another speech against crime, took a stand against the trend in the protection of the extent of contemplating some kind of specific joint Mexico-U.S. aid to northern Mexico and establishing a minimum wage to the Mexican citizens’ service here. 4 We urge that public welfare agencies, instead of wasting dollars trying to ferret out chiselers, apply that energy and more to rehabilitating the poor and reducing their dependency. The federal government must insure that the will of Congress is honored, particularly in Texas and Arizona. We call upon the Southwestern agricultural states, notably California, Arizona, and Texas, to bring farm workers under the protective canopy of state labor laws. These should include minimum wage laws, laws securing workers in their rights to organize, laws against discrimination, and the like. 4 Perhaps most important of all, we plead for a new regional attitude toward social programming, not only for, but subject to the ideas of the less fortunate. Perhaps a privately funded regional entity should be created to give voice to the impoverished. rights of accused persons, according to the Dallas Times-Herald. Carr was quoted telling the 19th annual police awards dinner, “Since this nation has become more concerned with the right of hoodlums, the police officer has almost had to become a lawyer if he is to carry out the duties we expect of him.” V The Dallas federal center was axed by a key House subcommittee, probably killing it this year, and blood-curdling howls filled the Dallas press. “We’re furi ous!” said the Times-Herald’s editorial; the News, speaking of “our federal center,” wanted more explanation. Many Texas congressmen lined up against the one responsible, Cong. Albert Thomas of Houston, whose position was that Dallas doesn’t need a new federal center when a new one is going in 35 miles away at Fort Worth. Thomas admitted his cutting out of a starter-appropriation for a new VA hospital in San Antonio was based on a misunderstanding and will restore it. But \(left hand, is still scheduled for closing. V Sen. Ralph Yarborough took the occa sion of the President’s sending troops to the Dominican Republic to plug again for his Cold War GI Bill. Yarborough argues that such dangerous service there, in Viet Nam, and elsewhere entitles servicemen to veterans’ education benefits. Johnson is not supporting the bill. . . . Yarborough attended the North Dallas Democratic Women’s “Political Paranoia III” in Dallas and laughed heartily throughout it, including through the skit “King Lyndon I.” V The Johnson-Yarborough stalemate on the vacancies on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans \(Yarbor ough is pushing L.N.D. Wells of Dallas; a second vacancy opened up April 3 when a of U.S.D.A. for Northern Texas is now.. attracting national attention. The Wall Street Journal said “Johnson wrestles with Tex. Sen. Yarborough over patronage” and “resists” the idea of Wells. “Johnson even read Yarborough the Constitution’s section specifying that the President makes ap pointments; with the Senate simply advis ing and consenting,” the Journal reported. Fort Worth D.A. Doug Crouch is now among possibilities for the U.S.D.A. post. V The item here last issue quot ing Yarborough criticizing Labor Secretary Willard Wirtz on bracero policy was wrong. That was Sen. John Tower speaking, not Yarborough. . . . Wirtz has announced a new federal scheme to put high school boys to work on farms and ranches, including in Texas, to replace the Mexican braceros at whatever wages the boys and their supervisors work out with each farmer and rancher. V Sen. Tower, facing re-election next year, said in Austin he has no objection to the four-year term for statewide officials. He called on Connally but the governor was out. Meanwhile, the Texas GOP’s other lead horse in Texas for ’66 if he runs, George Bush, told U.T. Young Republicans in Austin that right-wing extremists should leave the GOP and “the air’s going to be a lot cleaner.” Tower and Bush both support Johnson all-out on Viet Nam. Bush favors voting rights for Negroes; Tower does, too, but opposes the Johnson voting rights bill in Congress and has introduced a milder one of his own. . . . The new Republican national committeewoman from Texas, Mrs. J. C. Man Jr. of Wichita Falls, the pretty wife of an oilman, was co-chairman of the Texas Draft Goldwater Committee in 1963 and was an area coordinator for Goldwater during the 1964 campaign. Money In Politics V A $100-a-year club has been formed to keep Cong. Earle Cabell in Congress by helping pay for his newsletters, bring ing him home for more reports to his dis tricts, and costs of such reports, presum ably on TV. The members include James Aston, Cliff Cassidy, Jim Choate, Mike Mc Kool, W. W. Overton, Jr., Troy Post, and John Stemmons, president of the Dallas Next Step: 1970 “Texas’ Connally plans his future far ahead. Politicians suspect the governor aims to run in 1966 for a fouryear term: Texans vote this fall on his proposal to shift from a two-year term. Next step: Connally would shoot, for the Senate in 1970, challenging liberal Sen. Yarborough in the Democratic primary.” The Wall Street Journal, May 7. May 14, 1965 Political Intelligence