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to vote his conscience and not be bound by the unit rule. Plans are being made to charter a bus or plane for the liberal delegation to sons at the rump convention were named Chicago. Fund-raising events to support delegates with each having a portion of the trips are being considered. All perthe vote. G.O. Tower Controls at Corpus Corpus Christi Sen. John Goodwin Tower walked away from the state Republican convention in Corpus Christi last week with Texas’ 56 delegate votes to the national convention neatly under control “until released after consultation with the delegation.” State GOP chairman Peter O’Donnell, Jr., estimated that while twelve to sixteen of the delegates “lean toward” California Gov. Ronald Reagan and a few are undecided, the majority favor Richard Nixon for the presidential nomination. Tower guessed that Nixon has more Texas support than any other Republican, but he said the Texas delegation will “hang loose” until it gets to ‘Miami Beach August 5. He and other party leaders campaigned for a favorite son nomination for Tower on the grounds that an uncommitted delegation will wield more influence in the selection of a vice-presidential candidate and in the writing of the Republican platform. Tower and O’Donnell are believed to be Nixon supporters. Both campaigned vigorously for Barry Goldwater in 1964 and recall the heartbreak of supporting an ultra-conservative in a national race. Once Tower releases the delegates at the convention, they probably will be able to vote for any candidate they choose. The proposed 1968 GOP convention rules, which must be approved at Miami Beach, would prohibit the unit rule. Although Reagan supporters captured only a few delegates, they were by far the most visibleand volublegroup at the convention. The Corpus Christi coliseum teemed with Reagan posters, ribbons, and buttons while there was a marked absence of Nixon or Rockefeller paraphernalia. Reagan’s strength is mainly in Harris county, where five district conventions voted support of Tower on the first ballot only. Although one might expect conservative Dallas to have its fair share of Reagan supporters, the Dallas delegation has followed the lead of O’Donnell, a resident of Dallas, in favoring Nixon. At the convention, the Reaganites wanted to pass a resolution that would release the delegation to Reagan after the first ballot, but they could not get the measure past the resolutions committee. The group also was foiled in an attempt to amend convention rules so as to require a two-thirds rather than simple majority vote to stop debate. As a last resort, they decided to present the Reagan amendment on the convention floor as a minority report and then stage a demonstration on behalf of their candidate. When Tower heard of the plan, he told an aide, “You tell them they’d better call California and see if he [Reagan] wants them to do it.” When they didn’t call Reagan, Tower considered doing so himself. Instead, according to an aide, Tower approached Jim Chenoweth, a Houston steel man and leader of the Reagan forces, as Chenoweth was about to introduce the resolution to the convention. Tower suggested that they place a joint call to Governor Reagan to get his approval of the resolution. Chenoweth backed down. Someone reached into a pile of rejected resolutions and pulled out one which both Tower and the Reagan leaders could accept. Chenoweth climbed to the stage and read the handwritten resolution which urged Reagan “to take an even more active part” in national Republican politics. When he finished, approximately 300 delegates carrying Reagan placards marched through the convention, hall, tooting horns and chanting, “We want Reagan, we want Reagan.” Tower then went to the podium and tried to quiet the demonstrators. Some delegates started shouting, “We want Tower,” in an attempt to drown out the Reagan chanters. Slowly the demonstrators began to clear the aisles and return :to their seats. When the hall had quieted, Tower explained that the resolutions committee had turned down the Reagan resolution because a majority felt that it would be in conflict with the convention’s sentiment not to endorse a Republican candidate. “I, for one, find no inconsistency in it. I am appreciative of that great man, Governor Reagan,” Tower said. “I favor the [pro-Reagan] minority report and I hope it does much better than the minority reports that I support in the US Senate.” The demonstrators, unaware of the meeting between Tower and Chenoweth, cheered in surprised delight and the report passed on a voice vote over a sizeable -dongngent of “nays.” After Toiver left the podium, he called the press together to emphasize that the resolution was a commendation rather than an endorsement of Reagan. “I didn’t see any harm in it,” he said. “I imagine that with the strong Nixon sentiment here, they couldn’t have gotten an endorsement through. . .. There has been some abrasiveness here and I’m hopeful that this will put everyone in a good mood. I believe in letiing everybody have his day in court.” THE REAGAN matter seemed to be the only turbulence in an otherwise smoothly run convention. Earlier in the year Republicans had feared that O’Donnell would challenge Albert Fay of Houston for the position of national com mitteeman. In April the two met in Houston along with Tower, Cong. George Bush, and other Republican lights to discuss a compromise. Later O’Donnell announced he would not seek the position. There has been some speculation in the Texas press that Fay may have agreed to step down in favor of O’Donnell. after the election in November. Fay was reelected national committeeman and Mrs. Tobin Armstrong of Armstrong was reelected national committeewoman. In the keynote address, Tower told a receptive audience that the United States is not a sick society. “There is not a mood of violence among our people. Ours is one of the most orderly countries in the world,” the senator said. “I remember those days in 1963 when a lot of bleeding hearts and professional dogooders tried to label a great city a hate city. I want to remind you of a few things. President Kennedy was assassinated by a man who spent a great deal of time in the Soviet Union and was committed to the communist philosophy that has nothing to do with America. Martin Luther King was assassinated by a hired gun and we have yet to find out for what dark conspiracy he was the instrument. And Robert Francis Kennedy was assassinated by a Jordanian immigrant who was concerned about Kennedy’s attitude toward an in ternational situation. These assassinations were certainly not the product of the American society or the American mood.” Concerning the upheaval in the ghettos, Tower said, “I want to indict the Democratic party nationally for precipitating an angry atmosphere in cities by promising more than it can deliver, indeed more than could be delivered.” He criticized Atty. Gen. Ramsey Clark for what he described as Clark’s policy of instructing the police to do nothing more than “direct traffic for looters.” Later in the day the convention approved a resolution supporting Tower’s request that Clark “fulfill his duly appointed functions as the nation’s chief law enforcement officer or resign from office.” On gun control legislation, Tower said, “I submit to you that guns do not commit crimes, people do.” Tower did not mention vice-presidential possibilities during his speech to the convention delegates. Earlier, however, he told members of the state Republican executive committee, “the [national] convention will nominate a candidate you can wholeheartedly support, one who re June 21, 1968 3