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House Torpedoes LBJ on 14-B Austin When President Johnson endorsed repeal of 14-B of the Taft-Hartley lawgiving his go-ahead to the repeal, by Congress, to the right-to-work laws of Texas and other statesthe House labor committee in Austin immediately came under pressure from Texas Manufacturers Assn. lobbyists Jim Yancy and Bill Walker to do something. The question was whether to report out a bill seeking to secure the right-to-work law or to run with a resolution against repeal of 14-B. One came to understand, from the members’ comments, that Gov. Connally decided the resolution against repeal would be the best thing. The torpedoes were fired last Friday. “Fire one” was a short press announcement by Governor Connally that he had wired every Texas congressman asking him to oppose repeal of 14-B. “No Texan has been harmed by our Right to Work Law,” this release said. \(For its text and related comment, see political intelligence this A couple of hours later the House took up Rep. Bill Clayton’s resolution declaring that “the right-to-work law in Texas and other states has served as the single greatest stimulant to economic growth since World War II, resulting in prosperity unprecedented in history.” It also says, “People of Texas believe in man’s Godgiven right to earn his daily bread through honest toil, with free choice in accepting or rejecting artificial restrictions which may be imposed by labor or other forces.” 10 The Texas Observer FUN TO READ! The IDLER is a lively, individualistic liberal monthly that entertains as it informs. Warm humor and cold facts mixed into a pleasant, personal and personable journalistic pot. Send $3.00 today for a year’s subscription. Money back if not satisfied. Discover THE IDLER and you will have made a new friend. THE IDLER 125 Fifth St., N.E. Washington 2, D. C. Please send me a one year’s subscrip tion to THE IDLER. Enclosed is $3.00. Name Address Zip Each Texas congressman is asked to save 14-B and the right-to-work law. Rep. Carl Parker, Port Arthur, said the law never gave anybody a job”I doubt anybody would allege that it did on their application for one.” All it does is give people a free ride on the benefits unions win for them, he said. Support for it, he said, comes not from people who work for a living but in “coolly reasoned letters written by people in skyscrapers in Dallas.” Instead of resulting in a closed shop or union shop, he said, it causes “a closed union.” He thought memorializing Congress against 14-B’s repeal might “possibly insult the first Texan to hold office in the White House.” Reps. Frank Cahoon, the Midland Republican, and Cameron Hightower, Liberty, asked questions defensive of the right-towork law, Cahoon’s tending to argue that industrialization is faster in states with such laws, Hightower’s that Parker did not really know if the law hurt unions in Texas. The resolution “will embarrass . . . our own native son, Lyndon Baines Johnson,” said Rep. Jake Johnson, San Antonio. The House was 149-1 Democratic, he said, but was “letting the Republican Party and the will of Berry Goldwater rule over our acts,” Johnson said. Rep. Bill Clayton, Springlake, sponsor of the resolution, read Connally’s wire against 14-B’s repeal, and this was applauded. Rep. Bob Eckhardt, Houston, asked: “Mr. CahoonI mean, Mr. Claytonhow many resolutions do you have prepared in opposition to the Democratic Party program in Washington? . . . We’ve had one on the poverty program, and now this one. Is this the end?” “I’m proud to be a Texan and I think it’s wise to let all the nation know how Texans stand,”’ Clayton declaimed, and there were rebel whoops. “Fire two” was the House vote, 99 to 35, against President Johnson’s recommendation that 14-B of Taft-Hartley be repealed. THE RECORD VOTE The 35 House members who voted against asking Congress to uphold the right-to-work laws were Alaniz, Bass of Houston, Bernal, Berry, Brooks, Caldwell, Canales, Cherry, Eckhardt, Green, Guffey, Hale, Haring, Harris, Harrison, Haynes, Johnson of San Antonio, Johnson of Houston, Kilpatrick, Kothmann, Lack, Lee, Ligarde, McDonald of Henderson, Miller of Burkeville, Montoya, Murray, Parker, Peeler, Rapp, Richardson, Smith, Stroud, Vale, and Whitfield. Not recorded as voting were Bass of DeKalb, Burgess, Carpenter, Cowden, Dickson, Fletcher, Gates, Hinson, Isaacks, Muniz, Roberts, Scoggins, Stewart, Weldon, and Wieting. The other members voted for the right to work laws. 0 Planes and a Limonsine Austin The 1966-’67 appropriations law authorizes Land Cmsr. Jerry Sadler “to maintain and operate one airplane.” The Land Office and Veterans’ Land Board are authorized to operate no more than two motor vehicles. The Texas Department of Public Safety is authorized to own and operate three aircraft, but cannot buy airplanes “without the specific approval of the Governor.” The D.P.S. is also appropriated $10,000 “for the purchase and maintenance of a limousine for the exclusive use of the Governor. Specifications for such automobile shall be provided by the Governor, and the wheelbase specifications may exceed limitations set forth elsewhere in this Act. The Department of Public Safety shall furnish storage and maintenance as requested by the Governor.” Friday last the House passed a bill by Rep. Jake Johnson of Houston to buy two airplanes for the governor, who could let the attorney general, lieutenant governor, House speaker, or any other state official use them. Amendments were accepted that these planes “shall be restricted to use for official state business only” and “shall not be used for solely political purposes.” Apparently the word “solely” was added as the amendment was improvised. Johnson reasoned that letting top state officials have two airplanes will stop them from asking big companies to fly them around and thus reduce their dependence on such companies. Johnson said he used to work summers for a natural gas company as a pilot, and he recalled one occasion of many, he saidwhen a certain state official telephoned, said he was going to Dallas, and asked “if youall have anything going that way.” They didn’t, but they decided they did and flew him up in a plush twin-engine plane that costs $278 an hour to fly. Then they waited for him a day and a half and flew him back. The cost of this one flight, Johnson recalled, was about $1,200 plus the wages of the personnel involved. Johnson thought it would be better if high state officials were obligated to ten million people for their airplane flights rather than to such companies as the natural gas company he used to work for. “What we have in mind,” he said, “is something like Super Aero Commanders, which cost about $150,000 apiece. They’re cheap to operate, $75 an hour or Jess. It’s so damn little for the insurance you get. None of us up here don’t have a subtle obligation to some group. This brings ’em back toward neutrality.”