ustxtxb_obs_1966_09_02_50_00016-00000_000.pdf

Eke. the aisle. Political credit accrues to Tower as the Senate sponsor of the bill, and to whatever extent Yarborough is in on this latest move, the state’s senior senator seems to be working along with Tower pretty well. V Republican leaders in Washington are reportedly saying Tower would be a good vice-presidential candidate to run with George Romney, reasoning that a Texas conservative would match up well with a Northern moderate. This rumor is obviously timed to help Tower get re-elected \(as also are Tower’s frequent assignments handling legislation for his party in the Tower No. 2 is not to be discounted because there would be some appeal having a Texan on the ticket and Tower’s Goldwater connections might make him a serious prospect, depending on how the ball bounced. V Tower fought against the mass transit program for the cities, handling the opposition for the GOP, succeeding in reducing the appropriation from $225 million to $150 million a year, and voting against the entire program. He cited inflation and the need to rely on local government as his main reasons. He said he cannot support the 1966 civil rights bill “until” its meaning is clear, and in no event will he vote for it “if it violates the right for a homeowner to sell when and how he chooses.” \(Carr has said no new Tower sided with HUAC against the brief court attempt to stop its recent hearings and opposed the cut-off of Mohole funds plane’s being bought. He has taken up his party’s line that the Democrats are causing high interest. He has announced many committees for his re-election committees of dentists, real estate brokers, women \(“Woman a three-day, 3,000-mile, 22-city campaign tour Sept. 8-11. 16 The Texas Observer Carr on $1.25 v Carr topped Tower for subtlety on the subject of the Valley marchers’ demand for a $1.25 an hour state minimum wage. Not endorsing such a law, Carr told the Houston Chronicle he thinks farm workers should get wages “even above $1.25 minimum” and that “The farmers, on the other hand, are averaging less than 1.5% on their investments. This is too low and should be increased also.” Carr said he will “devote my full efforts to government agriculture programs which will raise the income of the farmers so they can pay better wageseven above $1.25 minimum. . . . I think both sides need help.” Carr told the Texas Retail Grocers’ Assn. he does not like the Senate bill on unemployment compensation that would qualify each claimant for 26 weeks’ benefits. Under this, he said, a worker “who desired to loaf for a while -could quit, cause his discharge, and then, after six weeks, draw unemployment compensation for 26 weeks.” Backing him up, his state campaign manager, Tommie Butler, said that if Tower had any power in either party he could have headed off the bill’s “bad features, including federal standards and the federalization of the state unemployment systems,” on the Senate floor. The Senate bill also dropped 175,000 of,the additional 265,000 Texas workers who would have been covered by the House bill, Carr contended. Otherwise, Carr’s policy discussion has concentrated on more proposals to crack down on crimeincluding increasing certain punishments for crimes with firearms and prohibiting persons convicted of misdemeanors or felonies involving violence from possessing firearms. To the Texas Youth Conference in Austin he condemned “selective disobedience” of laws. He identified “a new breed of crime . . . crime committed in the name of justice . . . crime committed in the name of righteousness.” Just as we are closing this issue, this clipping has belatedly come to our attention: “Galveston … Waggoner Carr … here to address the Galveston Rotary Club. . . . said he would approve dropping the atomic bomb to win the war in Vietnam if the joint chiefs of staff would recommend it. sionals. They should decide,’ he said.” Houston Chronicle, August 18, 1966 IThe pre-state Democratic convention dinner Sept. 19 in Austin will be a $25-per-plate fund-raiser for Carr. Evidently the governor has decided to sit to one side while Carr moves front and center. Previously this pre-convention banquet has centered on the governor. Watson for Carter v Cliff Carter, one of the President’s closest aides, having quit as executive director of the Democratic National Com mittee, it is now reported that Marvin Watson, LBJ’s appointments secretary, will replace Carter as the President’s proxy on the committee. . . . Byron Skelton, Demo cratic national committeeman from Texas from 1956 to 1964, has been nominated by Johnson for a seat on the U.S. court of claims that pays $33,000 a year. . .. The Dallas News’ Jimmy Banks reports that he tried to interview the President’s business trustee, A. W. Moursund of Johnson City, and couldn’t get through to him. . .. The LBJ Library at the University of Texas is to cost $11 million. . . . Having laid low five months, the Gillespie County commissioners are starting condemnation proceedings again for the LBJ state park across from the LBJ ranch. 1000 Sen. Yarborough steered through to final passage the $1.60 minimum wage bill. “There were cries of economic disaster when this law first was enacted in 1938,” he said. `Tut . . . the act has served as a foundation to establish a standard of living in this country second to none.” Yarborough voted against the prevailing Tower motion to cut the urban mass transit program by $75 million a year, and of course Yarborough favored the bill overall. While Tower opposed amendments to reduce the $58 billion military spending bill, Yarborough did not vote on them. Tower opposed, and Yarborough again did not vote on, the Senate’s authorization for Johnson to call up the Reserves \(authorizaThe President’s beautification program barely missed being shaved $493 million in the House by a vote of 175-173. For the cut were Burleson, Cabell, Dowdy, Fisher, Rogers, and Teague of Texas. On the $150 million a year mass transit bill, Texans divided this way: For, Beckworth, Brooks, Cabell, Casey, Gonzalez, Patman, Thomas, Thompson, Whit e, Wright, Young. Against, Burleson, de la Garza, Dowdy, Fisher, Mahon, Pickle, Poage, Pool, Purcell, Roberts, Rogers, Teague. Beckworth, Brooks, Burleson, Gonzalez, Patman, Thomas, Thompson, and Young also voted against the prevailing motion that cut the mass transit funds House-side by $25 million. V Cong. Henry Gonzalez, San Antonio, will be given a big testimonial dinner Sept. 9. Tickets are $10 each. The San Antonio Express reported that contractor H. B. Zachry signed up for $500 worth of them and Sheriff Bill Hauck took another $200 worth, and that state Democratic vice chairman Mrs. Alfred Negley and Good Government League people were pushing them hard and successfully. Bexar County Democratic chairman John Daniels, disregarding Republican criticism, went ahead with plans to publish a program for the dinner in which advertisements are being bought by business firms and individuals. Ads are being sold for $110 and $200 and sponsor “listings” for $25. V The AFL-CIO is not sponsoring the Bonner sympathy march from East Texas. . . . A San Antonio youth was hustled off-stage from the Texas Youth Conference when it became apparent he wanted to press for $1.25 an hour and backing for the marchers. V The A. J. Carrubbi lawsuit has con firmed that Republicans can’t vote in Democratic runoffs, but Carrubbi lost anyway.