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Oh, Don, Won’t You Please Come On Home? V The central imperative before the lib eral movement of Texas these days appears to be finding a way to lure apparent gubernatorial candidate Don Yarborough back to the western hemisphere. Yarborough left the state early this year for Europe, where he has been on tour in several countries. He first was reported to have planned to return in June, then later this past summer, then Sept. 20. Now the Observer hears by post card that he went to England on Sept. 20 for three weeks. No mention is made of a return to Texas. It is understood that Yarborough has some non-political business that will require his return to the state during the first half of October. V There are two interpretations of Don’s absence. One view is that, since Sen. Ralph Yarborough has not closed the door on running for governor next year and won’t decide finally until Congress adjourns, should Don return before adjournment, he would then be pressured to declare himself as to the governor’s race. And, with the Senator not having announced his plans that could prove embarrassing, given the protocol of liberal Texas in which the Senator’s wishes are paramount. Of course there appears to be little prospect that the Senator will run for governor, but until he does announce himself, the situation could be sticky for Don. So, this theory goes, he for the time being remains in Europe, which is a pleasant place to visit, anyway. The opposing interpretation of Yarborough’s absence holds that he should have returned by now to begin putting together his campaign organization, seeing to fund raising, and the other details that precede an election. There is some talk that, perhaps, Don doesn’t really want to run. So far as the Observer can tell, he does intend to run. But his absence from the state at this time, with Gov. John Connally, Lt. Gov. Preston Smith, and House Speaker Ben Barnes getting all the press play in discussion of 1968, is perplexing to some of Don’s supporters. V Stuart Long, among the most reliable of Austin’s Capitol press corps, wrote in a column that Connally may be quite serious about not running. This drew some people up short and caused some rethinking of the assumption that Connally is in the race next year. A mi nority view of this is that Connally peo ple put this word out to Long hoping to create speculation that Barnes will lead the Establishment’s ticket next year and, this opinion goes on, then put out the word that organized labor has made some sort of deal to support Barnes, in ex $ Texas Observer change for the Establishment not opposing Franklin Spears for lieutenant governor, as one example. Then, Connally would run after all, facing a divided liberal cornmunity, some of whose members would be angry with labor for having gone for Barnes. Such is the convoluted thinking that pre-election campaigns engender. IV Chill Wills, the movie actor, is talking again about running for governor next year, saying he sure hates to run against Connally and Smith, but thinks he must. Wills, a month or two back, was told that he couldn’t make the race because of a Texas requirement that holds that a gubernatorial candidate must live in the state the five years immediately preceding the general election. Wills is talking of going to court to win a place on the ballot. He is a conservative, having helped out in the Gordon McLendon campaign against Sen. Yarborough in the 1964 primary. V The same residence requirement would apparently stymie a campaign for governor by Dan Blocker, a liberal, who has been mentioned in newspaper speculation as considering a political career. However, if either Wills or Blocker has maintained a voting residence in Texas in the past five years they would have been in compliance with the residence requirement. V There is still some talk in Houston that William P. Hobby, Jr., the editor of the Houston Post and son of a former governor, is pondering a race for lieutenant governor next year as a Democrat. The Republicans are busy seeing to it that there are no hot races in their primary election next spring \( See “GOP ,V Peter O’Donnell, the State GOP chair man is denying recurring rumors that he is to join Richard Nixon’s staff. O’Donnell, though he has maintained a public stance of neutrality as to the 1968 presidential nomination, is generally understood to favor Nixon. V At a meeting in Austin of the State Republican Executive Committee Sen. John Tower made a statement which, if accurately reported by the Austin paper, will do the GOP no good in its efforts to improve on its increasing support in Mexican-American precincts. Tower, in attacking the Johnson administration for its laxity in meeting the racial crisis and dealing more effectively with the riots, reportedly said, “It is high time that we have an administration in this country that re-inspires the traditional Anglo-Saxon respect for law and order.” Negroes probably would not be expected to appreciate this quote, either. V O’Donnell, also at the executive committee meeting, quoted Sen. Yarbor ough’s earlier statement that the presence of Connally on the Texas ticket “will reduce the chances of Johnson carrying Texas next year.” Of Johnson, O’Donnell said, “Here is a man who would dump Hubert Humphrey from the ticket for Bobby Kennedy, a man he personally dislikes, if it meant winning the election.” V Sen. Yarborough has predicted that Johnson will be “renominated without meaningful opposition . . . and will sweep Texas again.” V Yarborough’s Senate speech on Vietnam, published in the Sept. 1 issue of the Observer, was praised by Sen. J. W. Fulbright, the nation’s leading dove. Catholic Archbishop Robert E. Lucey was flown back home to San Antonio in Air Force One after observing the recent Vietnam elections. Two days later he declared that war is morally correct as a tool of peace in the protection and defense of rights. “You cannot have peace unless you use force on the evil men in the world,” Lucey said, adding, “The man who does not believe in force today will soon be enslaved.” The doves, he went on, “are prolonging this war . . . Take the ones who say ‘Negotiate now,’ how are you going to get the Viet Cong to the negotiating table? None of these people explain how we’re going to negotiate. If the doves would just shut their mouths we’d be OK.” V The San Antonio Archbishop has moved another of the priests whom he has disciplined this year out of San Antonio, The Rev. Joseph Deane was one of three San Antonio priests quoted in a local newspaper article earlier this year that was critical of Lucey and of the Catholic Church. All three now are at posts outside San Antonio. Four other priests who were mentioned in the article, but not quoted, are also out of San Antonio now. The archdiocese extends from San Antonio to the Rio Grande, excluding the Gulf Coast. V High-up figures in the one-party Es tablishment of Texas are attorneys on opposing sides of a bank charter dispute in Austin. The Texas State Bank is located in the University of Texas area, but is moving downtown. A group including several U.T. staff members have requested a charter for a new, University State Bank at the location of Texas State. Obviously this would tempt many customers of Texas State to transfer their accounts to University State. Joe Kilgore, former congressman from McAllen now practicing law in Austin, is attorney for University State. Counsel for Texas State Bank include Frank Erwin, who called University State’s application