ustxtxb_obs_1967_12_08_50_00005-00000_000.pdf

Gladden Announces Don Gladden’s announcement that he will definitely run for lieutenant governor probably means that Franklin Spears will not make that race and may keep State Sen. Joe Bernal out, as well. All three men have liberal credentials. Gladden said he has recently talked with Spears but not Bernal; he predicted last week that Spears would not run against him. V The question of whether Gladden will receive the endorsement and financial backing of the State AFL-CIO is unsettled. Labor leaders had wanted Spears to run for the No. 2 spot. Gladden predicts he’ll get the endorsement of COPE, labor’s political arm, next March. His voting record in the most recent legislative session, according to the Texas AFL-CIO, was 15 “right,” one “wrong”; in his four legislative terms Gladden was 88 and four ideology is not Gladden’s problem, with the labor people. More likely it is a question of Spears being better known statewide. Nonetheless it would be distinctly surprising if labor didn’t give Gladden its endorsement. As for money, there is an inclination among labor leaders to invest in the races that are more likely of success; Gladden therefore may not get the financial boost from the AFL-CIO that Spears would have received, but he probably expects some help nonetheless. Gladden was at labor’s Galveston meetings last weekend and may have achieved a better understanding between labor people and himself. V Money problems or not, Gladden, hav ing made his formal entry into the race, began flying around the state immediately thereafter, making public appearances and lining up support. He’ll have to fly many a mile to catch up with his only announced opponent to date, Speaker Ben Barnes. One recent day Barnes flew from Odessa to San Antonio, to Austin, to Plainview, to Amarillo. He’s averaging about eight appearances weekly. Gladden last week was in Weslaco, Edinburg, McAllen, Houston, Beaumont, Lufkin, Pampa, and Amarillo. Mostly he visited newspapers and television stations for interviews. V Gladden, an attorney, noted in his an nouncement that he, unlike Barnes, “has proven his ability to provide for himself and his family in pursuit of his nonpolitical profession ….” Gladden indicated that he will make issues of the minimum wage, independence of special interests, and political priorities based on philosophy, not on “the most pressing demands of the strongest lobby on any given matter.” State Affairs Why two Liquor Control Board work ers from Dallas have been suspended by LCB administrator Coke Stevenson, Jr., remains unclear. Evidently Stevenson thinks they may have had something to do with some handbills that were distributed at Austin and Dallas accusing his administration of wrongdoing. Lie detector tests may be conducted for the two men, both of whom deny any connection with the handbills. The LCB has been in the news for the last several weeks, ever since the Baptist General Convention of Texas called for an investigation of the board because of alleged lax or partial enforcement of state liquor laws. V Atty. Gen. Crawford Martin says he will file suits against at least five Harris county dump operators at the request of the Texas Air Control Board, raising the prospect of the first court tests of the state air pollution control act. V An accountant in Martin’s office was killed last week while flying a private plane during office hours to the Big Bend country to pick up Martin and three assistants, all of whom had been deer hunting. The plane’s expenses are paid for by private, not state funds, when used for private purposes, an official in the AG office says. The same plane is available on a partial lease arrangement for the official use of the attorney general’s department. V United Press International has report ed that about 20% of all DPS flights in fiscal 1967 were to carry state officials, including a number of legislators. Fiftyone of the flights were made at “passenger’s request,” with no other explanation logged. DPS director Homer Garrison says requests are made of other agencies but his department is called on most often “because we have better planes and better pilots.” Garrison says he leaves it to the officials as to whether the flights are for official business, since “They’re the ones who have to answer to the voters, not me.” Vietnam in Texas The Students for a Democratic So ciety have been restored to the Austin campus of the University of Texas, after having been banished last spring for conducting an unauthorized meeting on campus to organize an anti-war protest. The UT regents have denied permission for an SDS chapter to be formed on the campus at Arlington. The decision has been reported to the American Assn. of University professors, and the American Civil Liberties is looking into the matter. V Two UT-Austin students who mailed their draft cards back to their draft boards have been reclassified I-A. Maury Maverick, Jr., the San Antonio lawyer and civil libertarian, is representing the two men. V The US Supreme Court has declined to hear the cases of the “Fort Hood Three,” a trio of soldiers who refused orders to board transportation for duty in contended that the war is illegal on several grounds, among them the absence of a Congressional declaration. Two justices dissented, wanting to determine at least whether the court had jurisdiction. V “I don’t know if we can win without the use of the hydrogen bomb,” Dallas billionaire and right winger H. L. Hunt said recently of the Vietnam war. Hunt told a Chicago reporter he favors Ohio Sen. Frank Lausche for the 1968 Democratic presidential nomination. V American Opinion, a right wing or ganization, is sponsoring recorded telephone messages in Houston that attack Sen. Robert Kennedy. V Don Allford, who was formerly the Texas man for the draft-Kennedy group, has allied himself with the Dissenting Democrats, who are working for no particular candidate but simply want to replace Johnson. Allford believes that Kennedy had pulled himself out of contention for next year, so moved to the DD work. There are signs the New York Senator may be reconsidering 1968. There also is talk that the McCarthy drive would, if it shows signs of viability, be inherited by Kennedy. V Television star Robert Vaughn \(“The chairman of the DD’s, will speak in Austin in February. V The Texas DD’s have named Tom Gresham, Waco broadcaster, as their state finance chairman. Back in California Two Californians who have spent a considerable amount of time in helping lead the strike of farm workers in the Texas Valley have returned to their home state. They are Eugene Nelson and Bill Chandler. V Meanwhile, there is talk in liberal circles that Cesar Chavez, the farm workers’ national leader, may try to resuscitate the Texas strike next spring. But the situation in Starr county is very much in disarray. V Doran Williams has been named the new executive director of the Texas Civil Liberties Union. The young attorney served this past summer in legal aid work in Starr county. V The 13-weeks-long boycott of three schools in the Settegast area of the Northeast Houston school district has ended [Obs., Sept. 29]. At one time 1,200 students were enrolled in “freedom schools” set up privately for the boycot ting students. At the end of the boycott about 500 were in the freedom schools. Reports from Houston do not indicate that any concessions were won from the all-white school board, except that stu dents who participated in the effort will not be discriminated against in promo tions. The boycott was called because of promises many Negro parents said had been broken in spending bond money. V In Houston Mayor Louie Welch won re-election handily over city sales tax foe and former mayor Lewis Cutrer. In school board voting Mrs. Charles White, the liberal Negro member, was beaten in seeking a third term. December 8, 1967 5 V