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q uarciing the Court Governor Connally is conducting himself this spring, not like an elected official, but like a monarch of old, jealous of who is let into his court. The governor is now openly, bluntly endorsing Crawford Martin against Franklin Spears for attorney general; we gather the voters will be privileged to hear the governor’s golden words on radio, telling us all how to vote in this race. Not only this, but the word among Austin pros is that Connally is butting into as many as half of the legislative races. He is, for instance, hauling Senate candidate Jack Hightower around in his supposedly official state plane. He is even messing in the contest for county judge in Tarrant. There’s been nothing quite like it since Pappy O’Daniel tried to purge the House of Representatives because it wouldn’t pass his sales tax disguised as a transactions tax. If ever we needed convincing proof that we should not have four-year terms for governor in Texas as long as we have a one-party system, this is it. Connally must sense his own days in power are numbered. The San Antonio Express has performed an inestimable public service, reporting what the governor told the businessmen-schoolboys he had cornered in an audience down there recently. 2 The Texas Observer Incorporating the State Observer and the East Texas Democrat, which in turn incorported the State Week and Austin ForumAdvocate. We will serve no group or party but will hew hard to the truth as we find it and the right as we see it. We are dedicated to the whole truth, to human values above all interests, to the rights of man as the foundation of democracy; we will take orders from none but our own conscience, and never will we overlook or misrepresent the truth to serve the interests of the powerful or cater to the ignoble in the human spirit. Editor and General Manager, Ronnie Dugger. Partner, Mrs. R. D. Randolph. Associate Editor, Larry Lee. Business Manager, Sarah Payne. Contributing Editors, Elroy Bode, Bill Brammer, Larry Goodwyn, Harris Green, Franklin Jones, Lyman Jones, Larry L. King, Georgia Earnest Klipple, Al Melinger, Robert L. Montgomery, Willie Morris, James Presley, Charles Ramsdell, Roger Shattuck, Robert Sherrill, Dan Strawn, Tom Sutherland, Charles Alan Wright. Staff Artist, Charles Erickson. Contributing Photographer, Russell Lee. The editor has exclusive control over the editorial policies and contents of the Observer. None of the other people who are associated with the enterprise shares this responsibility with him. Writers are responsible for their own work, but not for anything they have not themselves written, and in publishing them the editor does not necessarily imply that he agrees with them, because this is a journal of free voices. He told them, listen to me or the bogeyman will get you. The people want to tax you, but we’ve saved you. Ingrates!why don’t you get more people to vote for us? The most astonishing thing the governor told them was that they could expect 80% of the new registrants to vote against them. In other words, he was making a straight This ‘is a curious year in Texas politics, one in which liberal, nationally oriented voters are not going to be very patient with the old saws that Texas politicians often get away with. Therefore, Atty. Gen. Waggoner Carr was skirting on extremely thin ice when he hinted broadly to Seth Kantor of the Fort Worth Press in Washington that the reason he should be elected senator is to give Texas strong Democratic representation in Washington. That looked like a hand slam at Ralph Yarborough, the best senator from Texas this century. If Carr wants to rip up his candidacy beyond repair, all he needs do is The Observer publishes articles, essays, and creative work of the shorter forms having to do in various ways with this area. The pay depends; at present it is token. Unsolicited manuscripts must be accompanied by return postage. Subscription Representatives: Austin, Mrs. Helen C. Spear, 2615 Pecos, HO 5-1805; Dallas, Mrs. Cordye Hall, 5835 Ellsworth, TA 1-1205; Denton, Fred Lusk, Box 8134 NTS; Fort Worth, Dolores Jacobsen, 3025 Greene Ave., WA 4 -9655; Houston, Mrs. Shirley Jay, 10306 Clifford Dr., PA 3-8682; Huntsville, Jessie L. Murphree, Box 2284 SHS; Lubbock, Doris Blaisdell, 2515 24th St.; Midland, Eva Dennis, 4306 Douglas, OX 42825; Odessa, Enid Turner, 1706 Glenwood, EM 6-2269; Rio Grande Valley, Mrs. Jack Butler, 601 Houston, McAllen, MU 6-5675; San Antonio, Mrs. Mae B. Tuggle, 531 Elmhurst, TA 6-3583; Cambridge, Mass., Victor Emanuel, 33 Aberdeen Ave., Apt. 3A. The Observer is published by Texas Observer Co., Ltd., biweekly from Austin, Texas. Entered as second-class matter April 26, 1937, at the Post Office at Austin, Texas, under the Act of March 3, 1879. Second class postage paid at Austin, Texas. Delivered postage prepaid $6.00 a year; two years, $11.00; three years, $15.00. Foreign rates on request. Single copies 25c; prices for ten or more for students, or bulk orders, on request. Editorial and Business Offices: The Texas Observer, 504 West 24th St., Austin 5, Texas Telephone GR 7-0746. Change of Address: Please give old and new address and allow three weeks. out class pitch for the rich, against the poor; for the haves, against the have-nots. He was saying, if you want to keep what you got and get more, get with it. We hope Texans who are fed up with boss government and paternal, condescending instructions how to vote will turn in plenty of protest votes and make a sound start at breaking up this unhealthy follow-the-leader tradition. We are pleased that we can agree with the governor that change is coming to Texas. Its name is democracy. base it on disregard for the value, seniority, and prerogatives of the senior Democratic senator from Texas. Meanwhile, Senator John Tower conprogram to whip up -public hysteria and war-fever. He is restive because the Department of Defense is not using a weapon Tower thinks they should. He wants Haiphong mined, Hanoi bombed, more troops sent in. And now he is outraged at West Germany, Britain, France, Switzerland, Belgium, and the United States State Department because of a plan to help Red China build a steel mill. He would drive us in a corner and push the plunger. He has no more idea what’s going on in the world than Mother Hubbard. Let him reflect that the polls show, and common sense confirms, that the American people do not want to go any further in this abortive venture that they want peace negotiated; they expect the war to end in compromise, as Korea did; they are ready for it to do so. There’s plenty of time for people to watch the events and the rhetoric and make up their minds about the Senate race. These two men will decide, by the stands they take, which of them wins or loses. a rhien Amoo Lt. Gov. Preston Smith and House Speaker Ben Barnes are among the Texans listed as sponsors of the national drive to work for the Dirksen amendment to let state senators in the 50 states represent cows and fenceposts instead of people. Now it happens that both these men have ambitions for higher office. In the cities Smith is saying strangely opaque things about the effects of redistricting, but here their names are, on record for good. How will they explain to the city voters, if and as they run for governor, that they ought not to have as much say about the State Senate as sheep raisers in West Texas? THE TEXAS OBSERVER Texas Observer Co., Ltd. 1966 A Journal of Free Voices A Window to the South 60th YEAH ESTABLISHED 1906 Vol. 58, No. 6 7`*0:Y April 15, 1966 54e .70/fiea 01 1966