ustxtxb_obs_1967_09_29_50_00003-00000_000.pdf

,lega authorities and educators \(Dr. Carey Croneis, Rice University chancellor; Storey; Butler; T. C. Chadick, chief justice of the Texarkana Court of Civil Appeals; James P. Hart, Austin, former associate justice of the State Supreme Court and former UT chancellor; and Jerre Williams, professor of constitutional law at UT; three Senators somewhat at variance with the governor, sometimes, \(HazAmericans; and, but for Brown and Kennard, no state liberal leaders. Lest there be any confusion about the proclivities of the commission several of Dr. May’s remarks elicited revealing responses. At one point during the discussion of financing the commission’s work she mentioned that federal funds are available for studies of state and local relationships under the Model Cities Act. After a pause, Storey said, “We should go ahead on our own.” Judge Chadick said “I think the state should pay its own way and not go to the federal government on this.” “That’s my feeling,” Storey rejoined. Dr. May said she hoped that the commission would consider a conventionas a means of changing the constitution, should it prove that the commission method is unworkable. “That would give us broader fpublicll support,” she said. No one responded to that. Another time Dr. May said the commission should. consider not only what is in the present constitution when planning the new constitution, but also those things that are not in the present constitution, such as the initiative system. That idea just kind of rolled around on the table for a moment and then dropped off one edge. No one seemed to notice. G.O. A PROPOSED DRAFT Austin Something decidedly suspicious is going on here. The Connally Democrats who dominate the governor’s committee to re-write our Texas Constitution put two Republicans and just one of their own kind on the subcommittee to meet in secret and select five , senators to work with them. Here we have it, Peter O’Donnell, the Republicans’ high muckety-muck, and Mayor Walter McAllister, the Republican mayor of HemisFair, in a position to outvote Rep. Dick Cory of Victoria, who has almost never failed to do what the oneparty Establishment has hoped that he would resolve, after exercising his independent judgment, that he would do. If I were a Republican I’d be experiencing a definite tightening up of the physiology about now. After all, they could not have gotten more than the one more Republican on the committee, since Henry Grover is the only one in the whole Texas Senate, yet they must accept the blame for adding five new people to the governor’s own committee. They are going to be hard put, are they not, to take an independent attitude toward the outcomes of the governor’s friends’ deliberations. I have experienced a rush of sympathy for the committee. After all, it’s our Constitution, and here they are, handicapped in their studies by the fact that the liberals among the citizenry are certain to be outvoted on every point that comes up among the governor’s friends. This is a handicap no group of Founding Fathers and Mothers shouldhave to bear. In a modest but firm determination to be helpful, I have prepared my own draft of the new Constitution, worded carefully to appeal to the conservative mind while at the same time exemplifying the deepest values of our state and nation. I could accept the defeat of my draft in good spirit, I believe, but only if I was convinced that the members of the governor’s committee had not chosen to recommend the substance of my proposals while denying me credit for them by concealing that substance behind a lot of technical language. Here, then, is my draft constitution for the Great Society of Texas, 1969 or soon thereafter: W E, THE PEOPLE who matter, having suffered the yoke of tyrannical majority long enough, do hereby ordain and promulgate this Constitution. The right of dissent shall be inviolate, except for criticism of duly elected officials. All political campaign contributions and expenditures shall be reported in full to the candidate’s next of kin. No architect on a state-funded project may kick back less than 25% of his fee to the political party to which he is indebted for the work. No agency of the state, including colleges and universities, may engage in research on any subject for which any agency of the state has sub-contracted for research by a private agency, such as the Texas Research League. In the interest of government indepen :. dent of corporate influence, the state shall not accept any further contributions from private corporations in the form of natural resources taxation. No insurance company operating under the laws of this state may collapse. Pursuant to the state’s official war against poverty, neither the state nor any political subdivision may enact a personal income tax that applies to incomes of $10,000 a year or more. Freedom of speech and assembly shall be protected, except that picketers, demonstrators; and other rabble may not gather in groups of more than one closer together than 50 feet. The Texas National Guard shall not fire upon the people, unless they are violating a provision of this Constitution. No one may practice his profession in Texas without a license from the appropriate state licensing board, but any union that requires a membership fee shall be illegal. No state game warden may enforce the game laws of the state against any state official while engaged in his official duties, except that the game laws of the state shall always apply to the governor when he is hunting in Africa. No governor of this state may serve more than eleven consecutive four-year terms, or life, whichever is longer; except that, if the President shall so decree, the governor may serve forever. No governor of the state may be paid for rendering any services except by the state for so long as he is governor; but he may render services to private parties while governor, and his relationships with them after he is governor shall be his own business. No member of the legislature may make any money from any interest required to register under the lobby control law, provided that the legislature shall repeal the lobby control law at the next regular session of the legislature after this Constitution shall be adopted. ALL ELECTED public officials shall’ be required,to make a full and public disclosure, at the end of every fiscal year, of all fees, salaries, dividends, stock options, oil and gas leasing revenues, gambling winnings, .gifts, bribes, or any other type of income that they have received from labor unions or the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee. No corporation may contribute less than $1,000 at any one time to the political campaign of any incumbent state office-holder or other candidates approved by same, provided that in the case of candidates for governor and the Texas Railroad Commission, the minimum contribution from corporations extracting from the soil of our beloved state our precious and irreplaceable oil and gas shall be $5,000. Riparian rights, Spanish, French, American, Chinese, Tanganyikan, and all other laws and arrangements to the contrary notwithflowing, all rivers, lakes, and ponds in the state are declared to be the property of the state, and the legislature shall promptly enact a Water for Free Enterprise statute allocating to all growth industries and factory farms as much water as they shall need for their next 1,984 years of operation. The laws of the state shall be evenly applied, and they shall be especially evenly applied, without regard to race, creed, or color, against Negroes and Mexicans. September 29, 1967 3