ustxtxb_obs_1966_09_16_50_00013-00000_000.pdf

THE TEXAS OBSERVER Waggoner Carr has not held a responsible position in Texas public life since 1959. Much, therefore, has been forgotten. The Observer wishes to review the record of Carr’s support of big business, racism, and the enemies of Senator Ralph Yarborough, relying on back issues of this newspaper with dates cited in parentheses. Carr owed his election as speaker of the House of Representatives in 1957 to moderates and liberals, to whom he made assurances of fair play. He had been a member of the old “Gas House Gang” in 1951, and his assurances were taken on trust. He at once appointed reactionary W. S. Heatley chairman of state affairs, to which he sent bills he wanted killed. Heatley stuck four lobby control bills in a pro-lobbyist subcomconference committee on lobby legislation 4-1 against the stricter conception of the bill advocated by Gov. ensuing bill, a sham, through the House. Carr attended a meeting of Houston’s White Citizens’ Council, which paid his expenses there. A picture taken during the meeting showed Gov. Marvin Griffin waving, a Confederate flag in the background, and Carr advancing behind Griffin, smiling slightRep. Joe Pool, Dallas, introduced a bill to require any organization to register and furnish a list of its members to any county judge who told it to do so. This was the anti-NAACP bill. Carr said, “This is a bill designed to ferret out sneaky, nefarious agi Carr ZOyakieJ tators who are most likely to provoke trouble.” Carr also hailed the bill to close schools rather than integrate, if there was any threat of violence, as a bill making it clear that the legislature “had rather have no public schools at all than to have their children march to classrooms with bayo\(Tom Reavley, whom this newspaper has endorsed for attorney general, told the Texas Press Assn. the NAACP registration bill was “nothing but a restriction upon freedom of Pool introduced a bill in 1957 requiring a run-off for the Senate election. A hundred votes were necessary in the House. One day, the bill had only 90; the next, 103, with which it was rammed through. The switches were caused by pressure from Carr and his floor leaders. \(“I did it as a personal favor to the Speaker,” said server editorialized, “Everybody knew on the face of it the bill was meant to gut Ralph Yarborough.” \(February, With Carr’s full support, the 1957 session doubled state college tuitions In 1959, Carr’s revenue and tax commit tee was overwhelmingly weighted for the sales tax, and he himself endorsed a “gross receipts” tax which looked very much like a general sales tax and which, the Observer editorialized, “Gov. Daniel well named a ‘gross deceits’ tax.” Meeting with the appropriations committee in secret, Carr tried to forestall all increases in state spending until they Carr subsequently met secretly in the Commodore Perry with businessmen and lobbyists, including Herman Brown, Ben Bolt, and S. J. Hay, the Observer reported the next week. Daniel’s tax bill, including business taxes, passed the House in a 1959 special session despite Carr’s efforts to juggle the rules so it could not come House conferees on taxation 3-2 against the House’s own bill and did not even appoint its author, George Hinson of Mineola, as required by time-honored custom in the House. His conferees gutted the bill for the gas lobby by striking out the taxes, approved by the House, on natural gas pipelines and interstate corporaCarr’s tax bill was defeated by his own House, 121-27. The House was disgusted with him and rebellious. The Observer editorialized, “Carr betrayed his own House, sided with the Texas Senate and the gas lobby” of impeaching him, Carr histrionically told the House, “If it be your desire to oust me, then be at your work,” left the chamber, and minutes later returned to a standing ovation from roughly a third to a half of the memThe Observer has now fulfilled its duty of reminding voters that as Speaker of the House, Carr served the gas lobby, the supporters of the general sales tax, the lobbyists who were watering down the lobby control law, and the segregationists. Arthur M. Schlesinger quotes JOHN F. KENNEDY: “SOMETIMES PARTY LOYALTY ASKS TOO MUCH” .. . He spoke gloomily about the Massachussetts Democratic Party: “Nothing can be done until it is beaten . . . badly beaten. Then there will be a chance for rebuilding.” Free copies of this editorial available upon request. Also free upon request, our bumper sticker \(This Car NOT for Carr/ Contributions, large or small, to carry on the work of THE REBUILDING COMMITTEE will be appreciatedand put to good use. THE REBUILDING COMMITTEE Archer Fullingim, Kountze, Chairman