ustxtxb_obs_1965_10_29_50_00010-00000_000.pdf

… and ‘assure a stronger judiciary for Texas. Providing for the automatic retirement of District and Appellate Judges at age 75, creating the State Judicial Qualifications Commission, defining its functions; and empowering the Supreme Court, upon recommendation of said Commission, to remove District and Appellate Judges for misconduct and to retire such Judges in cases of disability. tive Committee. Labor has put out 100 billboards stressing an anti-politician theme in calling for the defeat of four and ten. Leaflets, some of them in Spanish, are being distributed by the anti-four-year-term group. So are editorials from the Tyler Telegraph and the Observer. A related development is the “Publishers’ Committee to Stop Amendments 4 and 10,” composed of Houston Thompson of the Kountze Pine Needle, Charles Jetty of the Travis County Citizen, and Bob Barton of the Hays County Citizen, who have put out a letter to editors and publishers op. posing four and ten. In Texarkana, Roy Evans, Texas AFLCIO Secretary, -told the local labor council that amendments for and ten could make a governor a dictator. “Texas needs more democracy rather than less,” he said. He charged $250,000 has been allocated to brainwash the people for the four-year term and criticized Connally for using his staff and the Democratic machinery of the state for the campaign to pass it. Evans said the longer terms would make officeholders less responsive to the will of the people, double patronage, and let the governor appoint every member of every board and commission whose offices have six-year staggered terms. He said Birchcontrolled counties_ will go heavily for the four-year term. As for organizational activity on other amendments, the Dallas chamber of commerce opposed amendments 2, 7, and 10, and favors the others. The Rio Grande Valley chamber of commerce opposed 6, 7, and 10; “tabled” 9; and set aside 3 for further study. The Texas State Teachers’ Assn. announced support of 1, 5, and 6. The Texas Social Welfare Assn.’s directors endorsed 3. The Travis County Democratic Women’s. Cmte. suggested voting no on all of them. `Party Harmony’ Houston The chairmen of both the Republican and Democratic parties in Harris County have jointly declared against four-year terms for governors. Amendment four, said Jim Mayor of the GOP and Democratic chairman Bill Kilgarlin, would be “detrimental to government and honest politics in Texas” and would be unwise without prohibiting “excessive continuation in office by one person or one party.” Other four-year-term states limit how long a governor can serve or have highly-developed two-party systems, they said. The President is limited to two fouryear terms, they said. After No. 4 is defeated, they said, the legislature could draft a new proposal for fouryear terms “with adequate safeguards against the indefinite ‘perpetuation of one man in office.” The two chairmen noted that neither of their party’s state committees has taken “a formal position” on No. 4. 0