ustxtxb_obs_1965_10_29_50_00009-00000_000.pdf

Largest Manufacturer of Political Printing in Texas IFFUTURA PRESS INC Hickory 2-8682′. Hickory 2-2426 1714 SOUTH CONGRESS AVENUE P. 0. BOX 3485 AUSTIN, TEXAS On Four-Year Terms Connally, Business vs. Liberals, Labor Austin The State Democratic Executive Committee, which has not taken up constitutional amendment four to provide four-year terms for governors at any of its meetings, is mobilized now for an all-out campaign to ,pass Mrs. Billie Carr, S.D.E.C. member from Houston who is opposed to the four-year term for governors, told the Observer that its endorsement was supposed to have been effected at the S.D.E.C. meeting in Amarillo at which Gov. John Connally announced for a third term, but that the matter was not taken up because she let it be known she would speak against it. There would have been no doubt about the outcome. The S.D.E.C. is firmly controlled by the governor, who is working hard with -business and other groups for the four-year term and who was expected to , go on statewide TV to speak for it. On Oct. 8, the Observer can report, Will Davis, the new S.D.E.C. chairman, Mrs. Alfred Negley, vice-chairman, and Ray Pearson, secretary, wrote all members of the S.D.E.C. telling them they had “an obligation” to work for amendment four, giving them money-raising quotas, saying “The S.D.E.C. cannot afford to fail in this effort,” and urging S.D.E.C. members to “Contact hospitals, nursing homes, and homes for the aged; get them to vote bedridden patients absentee.” The letter from the three said: “As your, steering committee we have been in conference with Governor Connally, Lt. Gov. Smith, Attorney General Carr, State Treasurer James, State Comptroller Calvert, Land Commissioner Sadler, and Agriculture Commissioner White, the statewide Democratic officials who are now elected for two-year terms of office, concerning the proposed constitutional amendment to increase the terms to four years. . . . All of us are of the opinion that this amendment is vital and necessary. . . . “All of us were greatly relieved when Governor Connally decided to run for reelection. He strongly feels that the amendment is of extreme importance to more effective and efficient government in Texas. Therefore, we have an obligation to join with him and to do all that is necessary to cause its adoption. . . . we are activating the S.D.E.C. in an all-out effort to stimulate voter interest in and support of this important ‘four-year term’ amendment. . . . You are urged to activate your organization just like any other campaign [sic] and go all out to win. Use radio, television, newspapers, speeches, civic groups, and all the other devices you have employed so successfully before. We have devised the enclosed pamphlet and recommend its use in mailings, etc. “The S.D.E.C. will act as the finance committee and we feel that contributions for this effort should come rather easily. Your quota is $*”-**”. Please send in the checks as you receive them for proper credit. For every contribution of $25.00 or more, we will send to the contributor a 331/3 LP record, ‘The Story of Mr. Sam Rayburn,’ a wonderful collection of the beloved Democrat’s speeches and historical moments. “The S.D.E.C. cannot afford to fail in this effort, so please ‘gear up’ and get the vote out for ‘4’. Let us hear from you immediately if we can count on you in this program.” A postcard was enclosed asking the S.D.E.C. members if they would work in the campaign. At no point in this Mailing were the S.D.E.C. members asked for their views on amendment four. The Harris County quota was $15,240, according to Mrs. Carr. An enclosure entitled “How to be ‘for’ 4effectively!” said, “Be for 4 publicly and vociferously; don’t be against any of them publicly. . . : [O]ther amendments . . . have appeal to certain groupspensioners who need to continue receiving . Utilize their affirmative interest . . . to be also ‘for 4’. “Call your friends to recruit workers. Say: ‘Governor Connally has asked me to ask you to help us pass Amendment No. 4 on November 2.’ If they say, ‘You bet, I’ll help,’ then ask them to call 10 of their friends and repeat the process and broaden the ‘Connally Circle’! .. . “Contact hospitals, nursing homes, and homes for the aged; get them to vote bedridden patients absentee. . . . “Call all your precinct chairmen and/or captains; this is an excellent way to start spadework for next year’s elections.” Four days after this letter went out, Davis, Mrs. Negley, and Pearson issued a statement to the press arguing for amendment four. In his formal statement for the fouryear term, Connally said it would “place our state on the same modern basis as 39 other states which have seen the wisdom of longer terms for greater efficiency and stability. Whether I am running for a twoyear term or a four-year term means nothing whatever to me personally. But I am convinced as a matter of principle that four-year terms, which are already provided for local offices, have become virtually essential if the state government is to meet its vastly increasing responsibilities.” Connally opposed more than two terms while campaigning against Gov. Price Daniel. On statewide TV he proposed a constitutional amendment to limit governors to two two-year terms an warned , that an eight-year governor could dominate every state board and that this would be one-man rule, to which he said he was “unalterably opposed.” Announcing for a third term at Amarillo this fall, he said of his earlier position that he could not have been more wrong. AS WE GO to press big guns are taking the range on public opinion on amendment four. Gen. Preston Weatherred of Dallas is the principal business spokesman in Texas on politics. In his latest “Interested Parties” newsletter he reprints a letter Connally has written for No. 4 and says of state government, “Change in its top management every 24 months runs contrary to good business sense and business experience.” He says that “the AFL-CIO, PASO, liberal, big Yarborough little Yarborough junta” sees No. 4 as a chance “-to humiliate Gov. Connally, whom they hate as their political enemy”; also, Weatherred said, “for them, there is the chilling political coincidence” that Connally’s four-year term would expire in 1970 “on the same day and hour” when Sen. Yarborough’s present term ends. The Texas Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Assn., which is the voice of the major oil companies in Texas, endorsed four-year governors’ terms. Speaker Ben Barnes is for No. 4. He was opposed to Amendment 10, to provide four-year terms for House members, but has announced now that he will vote for this, too. Forces of the liberal-labor opposition in Texas have organized as “Citizens to Keep Government Close to the People” to fight amendments four and ten. Member organizations include Texas AFL-CIO’s Committee on Political Education, the Texas Council of Voters, the Senior Citizens’ Council, the Teamsters’ DRIVE, PASO, the State Building Trades Council, the State Industrial Union Council, the railway brotherhoods, the Texas Organization of Liberal Democrats, the Farmers’ Union, and the State Democratic Women’s Execu October 29, 1965 9