ustxtxb_obs_1966_07_22_50_00007-00000_000.pdf

Page 8

by

to obey that courtesy that other senators usually do by notifying the House member from that district” [before taking steps with political ramifications in the House member’s district]. 4 At the reception, according to reports from Washington in Texas dailies, Sen. John Tower, Atty. Gen. Waggoner Carr, 20 of the 23 Texas congressmen, and representatives of 25 LatinAmerican and European countries were in attendance. Connally said he saw “nothing whatsoever inconsistent” in his two roles, found the charges “a little amusing,” regretted that Yarborough was not present at the reception, and thought the charge did not merit “any . further consideration.” Connally said he had served as chairman of the Southern governors’ conference and the Interstate Oil Compact Cmsn., too, because “it was in the interest of Texas to do so.” 5 The Express, whose news story two years ago had anticipated that the subject of “conflict of duties” might come up, editorialized now that “All Texas was mystified” by Yarborough’s move. The Express continued: “Governor Connally’s ‘office’ as commissioner general is one to lend prestige to the fair, a ceremonial office as everyone knows. He will be the No. 1 ribbon-snipper and hand-shaker. He has been in the office for the past ten months to the obvious delight of one and all. Thus the shock at Senator Yarborough’s baffling objection . .. It embarrasses the senator’s friends, many of whom have underwritten the fair at substantial personal expense, to have him raise an issue that nobody understands.” Editorially, the Dallas Times Herald called Yarborough’s move “petty politics,” the Fort Worth Star-Telegram called it “just plain silly,” and the Houston Post called it “peanut politics.” 6 T HAS COME to the Observer’s attention that H. B. Zachry, the San Antonio construction magnate and chairman of the HemisFair’s executive board, wrote Connally on March 10, 1965, referring to “your invitation to become commissioner general.” At this time bills were pending in the legislature about state financing for Hemisfair. Zachry told Connally in this memo: “Under the 1928 Convention of the Bureau of International Expositions, the commissioner general holds broad authority as to the over-all operation and conduct of the Exposition. “In practice, however, the demands on his time and energy are quite elastic, and can be tailored to his situation. . . . “If a major difficulty should arise between . . . governmental participants and the Exposition management, the Commissioner General can initiate appropriate action to ensure an equitable solution. But otherwise he is relieved of administrative responsibilities, which are shouldered by officers of the management corporation and by the key professional staff under the executive vice president. All of the commissioner general’s travel and other expenses, of course, are paid by the management corporation.” From the latter sentence one would assume that HemisFair’s corporation will pay Connally’s expenses on his three-week Latin American tour. Yarborough, in communication to the Observer, said the Constitution is clear in requiring the governor to devote full time to his public office exclusively and prohibiting him from holding any other office of any type. The B.I.E., the senator said, contemplates that the commissioner general shall be a full-time official serving the exposition and its participants. Yarborough said his duty to uphold the Texas Constitution is quite real to him, whether newspapers think it is petty or not. “If he [Connally] took an oath of office as HemisFair commissioner, he vacated the governor’s office,” Yarborough said. He explained that the Texas Supreme Court has held repeatedly that if the governor is sworn in to one office, he then vacates the governorship. Yarborough said he had to brief such matters when he was an assistant attorney general in Texas in the 1930’s. “Which office does he hold?” he asked. Austin Backed now by a full commitment from the Texas AFL-CIO and by potent participation and endorsement by religious leaders and liberal organizations, la huelga, the Texas farm workers’ strike, has taken the dramatic form of a 56-day, 380-day march from Rio Grande City through the Lower Valley and north through San Antonio to Austin by Labor Day. In the capital, before a crowd labor spokesmen say should be 50,000 strong, the Starr County strikers and their allies plan to ask Gov. John Connally to call a special session of the legislature to enact a $1.25 minimum wage for Texas. The summer-long march also serves a practical purpose for the strikers: dramatizing their cause, it also keeps it alive during the hot summer months when many South Texas farm workers are on the migrant trail, and the Labor Day rally will serve as a platform from which Eugene Nelson’s young union can mount an organizing campaign on South Texas farms when the migrants return in the fall. The march began July 4 as what appeared to be a four or five-day walk from Rio Grande City, the strikers’ home base, to the Lower Valley. Seventy-four marchers started out and were joined the first by 40 sympathizers who arrived aboard a bus chartered in Houston by the Political Association of Spanish-Speaking Organizations. From San Juan in the Valley, then, eleven marchers, selected from 35 who had volunteered, started out for Austin. Henry Munoz of Texas labor said at that point, “The house of labor will see to it that no marcher lacks for food, clothing, shelter, or medical attention.” In Weslaco, Garland JUST FOUR NATIONS, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, and Peru, have announced participation in HemisFair so far. This is not regarded as a flying start. The Connallys, accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Negley of San Antonio and two HemisFair staffers, will visit Panama, Venezuela, Brazil, Uruguay, Peru, and Colombia, inviting officials to participate. Yarborough has not announced himself in opposition to the $10 million in U.S. money for HemisFair, waiting instead, he says, to see if HemisFair corrects the situation as he believes it should be corrected. Obviously Connally does not intend to step down as commissioner general, and HemisFair’s new public relations man is Julian Read, Connally’s PR man. 1. San Antonio Express, Sept. 14, 1965. 2. San Antonio Express, Jan. 16, 1966. 3. Press release from Yarborough. 4. San Antonio Express, July 13, 1966. 5. See S. A. Express, Dallas Times Herald, and Houston Post for July 14, 1966; 6. Dallas Times Herald and S. A. Express, July 14; Fort Worth Star-Telegram and Houston Post, July 15. Smith, president of the chamber of commerce and a liberal Democrat, spoke to the marchers about the right of workers to share in prosperity and about the respect in Weslaco for the right to protest. In Edinburg the mayor, Al Ramirez, had himself taken from the hospital to greet the marchers \(but as an individual, not as the mayThe marchers’ major planned stops: July 22, Falfurrias; July 23, Kingsville; July 30, Corpus Christi; Aug. 27, San Antonio; Sept. 5, Austin. Clerical support for the strike has been growing. Coordinators of the march, along with strike leader Nelson, are Rev. James Navarro, a Houston Baptist pastor; Father Antonio Gonzalez, a priest in the Galveston-Houston diocese; and Father Robert Pena, a priest in the Valley. The new Catholic bishop for the Valley, the Most Rev. Humberto Medeiros, publicly endorsed $1.25 an hour as a decent wage, while maintaining that the church can only mediate the strike itself. In Brownsville to install Bishop Medeiros, the Most Rev. Robert Lucey, Archbishop of San Antonio, said Valley farm workers are paid “starvation wages” and went on: “Today, Christ would say, ‘I was a campesino near Rio Grande City working ten hours a day for brutal wages. You brought me no food. Other friends brought food and you called them agitators. If you ignore the poor, you ignore me. And if you don’t love the lowly, you don’t love me’.” Labor’s backing became overt when Franklin Garcia, chief of the 1,000-member July 22, 1966 7 The Valley Strikers Are Walking to Austin