ustxtxb_obs_1967_09_01_50_00016-00000_000.pdf

own and they characteristically revel in their unacceptability to the establishment of whatever locale they serve. There are now more than 30 such papers in the nation, many of them quite readable and surprisingly quite literate. The Rag editor, Thorne Dreyer, took his paper to Houston this summer, planning to train a staff to begin a Houston paper, Dreyer to return this fall. But, perhaps because things are getting tense in Austin for the young radicals, Dreyer has chosen, so I hear, to remain in Houston, where he is from. The Rag office, quartered in an Austin house in no worse repair than many others here, has this summer been condemned. The place doubled as a dormitory for itinerant radicals of varied persuasions and was a congenial and casual community asset. The condemnation, combined with the death er recent occurrences the young radicals consider related, are discouraging many of this sort of youngsters from returning to Austin this fall. For a subscription to the Rag, write 1001 Bomar, apt. 1, Houston. The Dallas paper’s address is Box 536, Dallas. The National Guard Texas has nearly 20,000 Air and Army National Guardsmen; of these, about 150 are Negroes. And the Guard is being charged to train itself to control riots in our cities, riots which may very well find them under orders to enter Negro neighborhoods. Wouldn’t a few more dark faces under the helmets make restoration of law and order a simpler task? Other Foot, Shoewise Oh, friends, don’t you just know that some of these farmers who last year received from $50,000 to $2,807,633 in subsidies from the federal government include many of the same people who bellow about welfare and federal spending and encrouchment \(as I heard it put in 16 The Texas Observer and all that? Shall We Pay? If Congress does enact the 10% income tax surcharge for “so long as the usual expenditures associated with our efforts in Vietnam require higher reve The War on Poverty I read with interest Sue Horn Estes’ article on the War on Poverty program in Fort Worth in your August 18 issue. I would like to say that in my opinion the poverty program is, for the most part, irrelevant to the deep-seated problems of Negroes penned up in urban ghettos. Surely we can assume that Detroit had a poverty program going; Newark, too; and Milwaukee; also New Haven. It ought to be clear by now that several millions of dollars spent haphazardly here and there over the country are about as likely to solve the problem of the approximately 18% of unemployed male Negroes as spitting into a roaring fire is likely to put out the blaze. So I hope I can be excused for feeling cynical when a Fort Worth Negro leader, brandishing the promise of $205,421 in poverty funds, is quoted in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram as telling a neighborhood meeting, “We’re no longer here to ‘waste the people’s time and give a lot of empty promises. We’re here to whip poverty.” It’s perhaps unfortunate that a reporter was on hand to preserve these words, because, if ever an empty promise was made, the promise to lick poverty in a city the size of this one with a mere $200,000 is as hollow as a sounding drum. This is not to say that I think the Connally forces are allowing federal money to be spent foolishly. On the contrary, $200,000 here, $200,000 there, throughout the state, should serve both to quiet leaders of dissident political elements and bind them hand and foot to the Connally regime during the election just around the corner in ’68. Once an organization receives $200,000 to get going, then its staff acquires a vested interest in keeping on and it looks forward to next year’s funds, and the funds for a year after that. And those responsible for its existence begin to watch their steps very closely when it comes to supporting an opponent to the man whose hand is on the pursestrings, namely John Connally. On top of this, the nature of the hiring done in these programs can so easily degenerate into an end-run around the hard-won system of federal and state civil service examinations. Another administration in power and might not we liberals be cursing ourselves for having acceded so thoughtlessly to any number of “liberal” programs where vast sums are paid out subject only to the political re nues,” as the proposed appropriations statute is worded, Americans whose consciences are troubled by our nation’s role in that war must decide whether to pay that tax. Indeed, some citizens are balking at paying their federal income taxes now, before any surcharge, because of Vietnam. G.O. quirements of the executive branch of our government? Finally, I would like to say that the penultimate paragraph of Mrs. Estes’ article strikes me as falling far below the usual objective and fair-minded reporting carried in the pages of the Texas Observer. To report on the authority of an unnamed source that unnamed “radical liberals” are out to undermine a given program “for fear of losing what power they have” is to indulge in smearing of a particularly despicable kind. It does, however, serve one purpose: It prepares in advance both an excuse and an explanation to offer the poor of our city when, this time next year, they find themselves as deep in poverty as ever. Reuben D. Jenkins, 4209 Weber, Fort Worth, Tex. Integrated in 1960 A friend of mine in my hometown, Stamford, went to Boys’ State in 1960 and brought back a picture in which he was standing in a group of 30 or 40 Boys’ Staters. There was one Negro in the group, so I know Boys’ State was integrated at least as early as 1960. [The reference is to a Political Intelligence item in the May 26 Observer in which it was speculated that a Negro boy would, in 1967, be the first of his race at Boys’ State.] As to Ronnie Dugger’s Observations it is important to distinguish between the relative dangers of different drugs. I would be more inclined to believe doctors and research scientists concerning drug dangers than to believe moral crusaders who have a drum to beat. These same crusaders on the one hand tell our young people drugs will ruin their lives and on the other hand cry for harsher prison sentences to make sure these kids’ lives are ruined. John Clay, 404-B West 15th, Austin, Tex. Thanks As a result of the article “Housewives for Huelga” I Obs., July 21], one reader contributed $500 to help the families on strike in Rio Grande City. As we push on with our drive to raise money for this, it is indeed encouraging to know the Texas Observer and its readers are behind us. Sue Randall \( for the Friends of the Austin, Tex. ‘NW ~0~~#####~# #41~~~440iNhted~~4NP 4NP1P4~~4P4410~~~1 Dialogue 4INININPNIPIP~~,e44144 #41M11#~ #0414~114.11 ,41~11~#~4~44,