ustxtxb_obs_1965_06_11_50_00019-00000_000.pdf

And Finally, As to John F. Kennedy Austin Had he lived John Kennedy would have been 48 years old Saturday, May 29. That day the Texas House of Representatives defeated on a record vote a Senate-passed bill that would have renamed the state school for the mentally retarded in Richmond in honor of the late President. The Senate had approved the bill by a vote of 27 to 0. It was sponsored there by Sen. Babe Schwartz of Galveston, in whose district the school is located. At a House hearing on the bill, two Fort Bend County residents, Andrew Briscoe, Jr., of Rosenberg and Mrs. S. E. Thompson of Richmond, opposed it. Briscoe said changing the name might cause many local people to withdraw their support of the school. Mrs. Thompson said she did not believe the name change would enhance support for the school. Schwartz, who was present, said Fort Bend County is “filled with hate groups.” The House sponsor, Rep. Neil Caldwell of Alvin, decided to bring the bill up on Kennedy’s birthday. He was assured by Speaker Ben Barnes that he would get a run with it that Saturday, but Barnes put it off a number of times as the House waited around for the final congressional redistricting bill. Meanwhile, Caldwell said, he learned that Rep. Steve Burgess, Nacogdoches, and Rep. Milton J. Schiller, Cameron, were “working the floor” against it. Barnes let Caldwell have his run with the bill in the Saturday night session just after 11 o’clock. The Alvin representative said quietly: “This is the anniversary of President Kennedy’s birth, and I can think of no more fitting memorial for a man who did so much[a memorial on] this day particularlyfor the mentally retarded.” Caldwell said no memorials to Kennedy had been raised in Texas, although they had been in Berlin and at Runnymede, “and he died here.” At this point Rep. W. S. Heatly of Paducah, the conservative chairman of the House appropriations committee, asked Caldwell from the back microphone if he was aware that it is “the policy of the hospital system” that such hospitals are named for their localities. “Now you know that they have a policy,” Heatly said; yet Caldwell was proposing to “tell them what to do.” “I want to do something fine for the family of President Kennedy,” Caldwell said. “That’s fine, but you’d change” Heatly began. “I’m not through talkin’,” Caldwell said. Leaving the back mike, Heatly called out to Barnes that he wanted to speak against the bill. “There’s nothing wrong with adjourning in the memory of this fine and illustrious deceased President that we have,” Heatly said, but if the legislature passed Caldwell’s bill to rename the Richmond school for him, Heatly said, it might as well “abolish the board and let the legislature set all the policies. I don’t think we should rebuffand certainly it’s an affront to actually force them to do something after they have already set policy,” Heatly said. From the back mike now, Caldwell asked, “Will the gentleman yield?”that is, would he yield for a question? “Yes,” said Heatly, “I yield the floor.” Caldwell then sought to pose his question as a parliamentary inquiry to Barnes, with Heatly \(while returning to his seat at the “He’s out of order.” Caldwell’s inquiry was, “Have any presidents of the United States been assassinated in Texas except President Kennedy? Is this a departure?” The board was “red” as the House refused to take up Caldwell’s bill. “Happy Birthday,” Caldwell said bitterly into the front microphone. The vote was announced: 72 to 52 not to take it up. Rep. Wayne Connally, the governor’s brother, was among those voting against taking it up. I I THINK THIS is a sad day in the history of Texas,” said Rep. Howard Green, Fort Worth, on personal privilege. He said it was “all but inconceivable that there could be any question”; he was sure that “the overwhelming majority of the people would have approved” the name change. It was “honorable, correct, and decent,” he said. “Tonight we have written a disgraceful chapter in the history of Texas,” Green concluded. Rep. W. S. Dick Cory, Victoria, who was walking by the press table, said aloud, “Why don’t you resign? Why doesn’t he resign?” Green’s speech was in part prepared in advance, and he delivered it aggressively. Caldwell, also rising on personal privilege, spoke without spirit. “I really don’t know what to say because of the action you’ve just taken,” Caldwell said. “He died in Texas a death most foul at the hands of an assassin. This school received a grant of $1,500,000 in Hill-Burton funds. The only opposition [to the name-change] there was until Mr. Heatly rose . . . was some folks in Richmond whose politics are extremely conservative. “He’s dead and I don’t suppose he can be abused, but I suspect that his name and his family have been tonight and I say shame on you.” THE HOUSE then went on with its business until the early hours of the morning, passing the congressional redistricting bill. Just before adjournment, Rep. Connally asked the House for permission to change his vote on the Kennedy bill, but one objection is enough to prevent this from being permitted, and in this instance five or six objections were heard, includ ing those of Rep. J. Ed Harris of Galveston and John Alaniz of San Antonio. The Observer asked Rep. Caldwell what reasons members of the House gave him for their no votes. “With most of them it’s the politics of the manthe dead man,” Caldwell said. “They think enough things have been named for him. ‘Just wouldn’t be popular back home.’ Not well though of.’ Don’t want to get hurt politically.’ Some of ’em say, ‘I didn’t like him.’ ” R.D. THE RECORD VOTE The .House clerks prepare copies of record votes for the press and for members of the House on request immediately after such votes occur. Later members of the House may obtain, permission of their colleagues to change their record votes; such later changes are incorporated in votes published in the House Journal. Here is the way the members voted on the Kennedy renaming bill according to the record prepared by the House clerks immediately after the vote was taken: Voting with Caldwell to take the bill up Caldwell, Cherry, Eckhardt, Edwards, Field, Finney, Fletcher, Floyd, Foreman, George, Green, Guff ey, Hale, Harris, Harrison, Haynes, Hightower, Hinson, Hollowell, Holmes, Jamison, Johnson of San Antonio, Johnson of Houston, Jungmichel, Kilpatrick, Kothmann, Lack, Lee, Ligarde, Longoria, Mcllhany, Markgraf, Miller, Parker, Peeler, Price, Quilliam, Rapp, Richardson, Roberts, Schiller, Smith, Stewart, Stroud, Vale, Wieting, and Wilson. Voting against Caldwell and against taking ‘Atwell, Atwood, Birkner, Blaine, Blankenship, Brown, Burgess, Cahoon, Cain, .Cavness, Clayton, Connally, Cory, Cowles, Crain, Crews, Dungan, Gibbens, Grover, Haines, Hallmark, Harding, Hawkins, Heatly, Hendryx, Howard, Isaacks, Ivy, Johnson of Temple, Jones of Lubbock, Jones of Abilene, Klager, Knapp, Lewis McDonald of Edinburg, McDonald of Henderson, McKissack, Mann, Mobley, Muniz, Mutscher, Neugent, Newman, Nugent, Parsley, Pendleton, Pickens, Pipkin, Richards, Rosson, Satterwhite, Scoggins, Joe Shannon, Sherman, Simpson, Slack, Slider, Solomon, Thompson, Thurmond, Townsend, Wade, Ward, Wayne, Whatley, Wheeler, Williamson, and Wright. Four members were “present” and 22 were “not voting.” Now They Are Gone Again June 11, 1965 19