ustxtxb_obs_1968_08_23_50_00015-00000_000.pdf

Hmmmmm Austin I find it surprising that none of the Texas newspapers have taken up the questions raised last issue about the doctoral dissertation written by the president of Southwest Texas State College. Through the middle of this week, ten days after the last Observer came out, there had been not a word. Probably the story will break into the dailies when the state senior college regents consider the problem. But it is acts of omission such as this that make me and many others lack full confidence in our state’s leading newspapers. This was a story of significance to Texas and it is not being faced journalistically. The exceptions are wouldn’t you know it?a radical underground paper, Dallas Notes \(Box 7140, Dallas, 75209, cos’ Cedar Chopper’s Almanack. Another story in the last issue, the one about the Austin daily, has occasioned some interesting responses. Fifty copies of the article were purchased by some American-Statesman worker and circulated among its staff. A reporter who has asked anonymity tells me that a number of the American-Statesman’s staffers are paid a “student rate,” $1.75 an hour, or $70 for a 40-hour week. An Austin citizen writes to add that the afternoon Statesman “proudly displays on its flag ‘The Oldest Afternoon Newspaper in Texas Since 1871′ “; he notes that “to this statement should be added appropriately, especially during the last year`and the only one printed before 10 a.m.’ ” We forgot to mention in the story last time that the American-Statesman is generally believed in Austin journalism circles to have discovered the Liquor Control Board scandals but backed off from publishing anything on advice of their attorneys. A month or so later the Dallas Times-Herald started breaking the story. Better days may lie ahead for the Austin paper. New editor Sam Wood has authority, I hear, to hire six top-line reporters at whatever salary it takes. I understand Ken Towery, now helping the Nixon campaign in Texas, will run the editorial page after the elections. Tourists The drawing power of HemisFair in bringing tourists to Texas was dramatized for me the other day. Driving from Austin to San Antonio, 75 miles, I counted 62 out-of-state cars on the southbound lanes of Interstate 35. That’s one every minute or so. Represented were 20 states and one Canadian province. The distribution was: Illinois 11, Oklahoma 13, Mississippi 2, Tennessee 3, Kansas 6, Missouri 6, California 3, Arkansas 4, Louisiana 2, New York 1, and one each from North Carolina, South Carolina, Indiana, Colorado, Michigan, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Alabama, Ohio, Florida, and Manitoba. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s William K. Wyant, Jr. recently wrote of HemisFair, saying, ” . . . There have been reports of financial troubles, but these are endemic to such enterprises. From the spectator’s viewpoint, the thing is successful. “When you go to some fairs, you come away with sore feet, an empty pocketbook and a feeling of having been sold more snake oil than you can use. HemisFair is small, instructive and charming. You leave with a feeling that Texas and the world are going to come out all right. “I myself like Texans, very much, even though some years back they jailed my favorite author and fellow North Carolinian, 0. Henry, on an embezzlement charge. But the Texan is at his best, it seems to e, when softened by the LatinAmerican pa t of his heritage. That is one secret of San Antonio’s appeal as a city. It may also g far toward explaining the luminous quality of the fair .. . “Before there was a Texas, there was something else. The boundaries of Texas do not circumscribe the world. These are big concessions and the fair here makes them very well. Interestingly, the effect on non-Texans is that they are more im Choose Between Two Parties You will pardon me for some questions about your recent Observer reflections [Observations, Aug. 9] on the current frustrating political scene. The first question: Have we not, with few exceptions, generally had a choice of evils politically? Has there not always been a large group of people who were without credible political leadership individual or party? The basic theme of George Wallace this year is that both major political parties are too liberal”not 10c worth of difference.” So, our democracy or republican form of government is providing a way for states’ rights racists to cast ballots for their point of view. Creation of another partyfourth, fifth or sixthof “international liberals” is possible, even in 1968. But, will it not be as abortive as the George Wallace party? Don’t get me wrong! I’m for some radical changes in our system. But I feel the pressed with the sweep and drama of the state’s history .. . “I might be ashamed of heaping so much praise on San Antonio’s exposition, were it not for the fact that Ronnie Dugger, editor-at-large of The Texas Observer and a liberal who gives no quarter to the Texas Establishment, was also captivated by what he saw there,” Wyant wrote. Garrison’s Record A New Orleans citizen has written me in rebuttal to part of what I wrote in this space July 26 in support of Dist. Atty. Jim Garrison being permitted to try Clay Shaw for alleged involvement in a plot Garrison believes was hatched in his hometown that led to the death of President Kennedy. I had complained of the federal government, as I believe, impeding Garrison’s execution of his duties in the case; I mentioned, for one thing, that Garrison’s military medical records, which allegedly show Garrison to have a history of mental instability, had somehow been made available to the press, though those documents are confidential. The New Orleanian who wrote me says that Garrison’s military records “were widely published and discussed as a major issue at the time of Garrison’s last election to office. That was in November, 1965, long before Garrison, by his own account, first ‘became interested in the assassination ‘plot’.” I did not know this. Still, the Chicago Tribune \(I believe it document or documents that the paper said were Garrison’s military records. I infer from the rather vague internal evidence in that news story that the access was extended by a federal employe. G.O. changes should be aimed at making the two major parties more responsive to the wishes of the non-bosses of our society. Perhaps the creation of splinter parties can provide pressure in this direction but historically, they have not had very lasting effects on the system. Can we overlook the fact that Eugene McCarthy and Robert Kennedy, using the preferential primaries afforded in some states, have August 23, 1968 15 CLASSIFIED ANNE’S TYPING SERVICE: Duplicating \(multiPublic Notary. Specialize in rush jobs, including Sundays. Formerly known as Marjorie Delafield Typing and Duplicating Service. Call HI 2-7008, Austin. BOOKPLATES. Free catalog. Many beautiful designs. Special designing too. Address: BOOK-PLATES, Yellow Springs 8, Ohio.