ustxtxb_obs_1968_10_04_50_00002-00000_000.pdf

course on whom one talks with. Almost no one believes . he’ll fail to get at least 20% of the vote. John Hurd, Laredo, Nixon’s state chairman, says he believes the figure will be 15% to 18% but Hurd is virtually alone among state political leaders in placing the figure that low. The most recent Belden poll says Wallace is the choice of about 25% of 1,000 Texans interviewed; Nixon and Humphrey were the choice of about 30% each, Belden says. Union Support v Widespread support for Wallace among rank-and-file union members has led to deep concern among labor leaders nationally and in Texas. Nixon clearly is not a threat to win many labor votes from Humphrey, but Wallace assuredly is. Wallace is said to command between 40% and 60% of the labor vote in Texas, columnists Evans and Novak say. “This has been,” they write, “the natural result of the race revolution and the bitter politics of protest, coupled with the growing conservatism of union rank and file, who have become the conservative wing of the Democratic party.” V National and state campaigns have been mounted by union officials to fight the Wallace support and divert it to Humphrey. Texas AFL-CIO leaders say they’ll seek to raise several thousand dol lars to fund such an effort. A mailing of Incorporating the State Observer and the East Texas Democrat, which in turn incorporated the State Week and Austin Forum-Advocate. We will serve no group or party but will hew hard to the truth as we find it and the right as we see it. We are dedicated to the whole truth, to human values above all interests, to the rights of man as the foundation of democracy; we will take orders from none but our own conscience, and never will we overlook or misrepresent the truth to serve the interests of the powerful or cater to the ignoble in the human spirit. Editor, Greg Olds. Associate Editor, Kaye Northcott. Editor-at-large, Ronnie Dugger. Business Manager, Sarah Payne. Associate Manager, C. R. Olofson. Contributing Editors, Elroy Bode, Winston Bode, Bill Brammer, Lee Clark, Sue Horn Estes,’ Larry Goodwyn, Harris Green, Bill Helmer, Dave Hickey, Franklin Jones, Lyman Jones, Larry L. King, Georgia Earnest Klipple, Al Melinger, Robert L. Montgomery, Willie Morris, James Presley, Charles Ramsdell, John Rogers, Mary Beth Rogers, Roger Shattuck, Robert Sherrill, Dan Strawn, Tom Sutherland, Charles Alan Wright. The editor has exclusive control over the editorial policies and contents of the Observer. None of the other people who are associated with the enterprise shares this responsibility with him. Writers are responsible for their own work, but not for anything they have not themselves written, and in publishing them the editor does not necessarily imply that he agrees with them, because this is a journal of free voices. Unsigned articles are the editor’s. pamphlets to the State AFL-CIO membership was planned. The current issue of the Texas AFL-CIO includes a cartoon showing a working man with a knife in his back, the knife labelled “Wallace labor record.” Adjoining is a brief resume of Humphrey’s good record of support for organized labor. State AFL-CIO secretary Roy Evans in a recent newsletter referred to Wallace as “mean,” “cynical,” and “outright deceitful.” V Two Corpus Christi Mexican-Ameri cans have organized a Viva Jorge movement to push the Wallace candidacy among Texas chicanos. By way of explanation, one of the two men says Mexican-Americans should vote for Wallace “because this man has never promised anything, and Latins are tired of promises.” V Texas Republicans believe most of the Wallace vote can be attracted to Nixon between now and Nov. 5. They say a survey shows, tentatively, that about 70% of Wallace’s support in Texas is not finally committed to him. The “leaners” are to be wooed by a “dramatic” turn in the campaign a bit later on, according to Ken Towery, Nixon’s Texas campaign director. Towery says the plan is for something as dramatic as it would be on the Democratic side if Sen. Edward Ken nedy became active in the Eastern me tropolitan areas in Humphrey’s behalf. Towery would say no more; the Observer guesses he may mean that South Caro The Observer is published by Texas Observer Publishing Co., Inc., biweekly from Austin, Texas. Entered as second-class matter April 26, 1937, at the Post Office at Austin, Texas, under the Act of March 3, 1879. Second class postage paid at Austin, Texas. Delivered postage prepaid $6.00 a year; two years, $11.00; three years, $15.00. Foreign rates on request. Single copies 25c; prices for ten or more for students, or bulk orders, on request. Editorial and Business Offices: The Texas Observer, 504 West 24th St., Austin, Texas 78705. Telephone GR 7-0746. Houston office: 1005 S. Shepherd Drive, Houston, Texas 77019. Telephone 523-0685. Change of Address: Please give old and new address and allow three weeks. Form 3579 regarding undelivered copies: Send to Texas Observer, 504 W. 24th, Austin, Texas 78705. Subscription Representatives: A r lingt o n, George N. Green, 300 E. South College St., CR 70080; Austin, Mrs. Helen C. Spear, 2615 Pecos, HO 5-1805; Corpus Christi, Penny Dudley, 1224 1/2 Dallas, Mrs. Cordye Hall, 5835 Ellsworth, TA 1-1205; El Paso, Philip Himelstein, 331 Rainbow Circle, 584-3238; Ft. Worth, Dolores Jacobsen, 3025 Greene Ave., WA 4-9655; Houston, Mrs. Kitty Peacock, PO Box 13059, 523-0685; Lubbock, Doris Blaisdell, 2515 24th St.; Midland, Eva Dennis, 4306 Douglas, OX 4-2825; Snyder ; Enid Turner, 2210 30th St., HI 3-9497 or HI 3-6061; San Antonio, Mrs. Mae B. Tuggle, 204 Terrell Road, TA 6-3583; Wichita Falls, Jerry Lewis, 2910 Speedway, 766-0409. Washington, D.C., Mrs. Martha J. Ross, 6008 Grosvenor Lane, 530. 0884. lina Sen. Strom Thurmond will take to the stump in Texas. Towery says East Texas, in particular, will be the focus of this late-blooming phase of the Nixon campaign in the state. V Texas’ two gubernatorial candidates both claim that the Wallace supporters will back them. This will mean split ticket voting, of course, as Wallace will be listed under the American party column, which will have no statewide candidates. Both Republicans and Democrats in Texas worry that they’ll lose the support of a considerable bloc of voters, that the Wallace people simply will vote for Wallace and not bother to then move to the two major party columns and vote in the state and local races. The Belden Poll showing Humphrey and Nixon with “about three out of ten votes” and Wallace with “about a fourth” gave no figures, nor did it state the question that was posedat least, in the form in which it appeared in the Austin American. Why, Austin politicos asked, did Belden fail to give his figures? Work for HHH I/ There now is noise and some action in Texas with regards to the campaign of Hubert Humphrey for president. For a time there it appeared the conservative state Democratic party would do virtually nothing for the liberal they helped nominate at Chicago. For three weeks after the convention there was nothing done by the Connallycrats. Suddenly, of late, some plans have been announced, some headlines generated in the state press and a campaign headquarters opened in Austin. V The reasons for the sudden burst of energy in behalf of Humphrey is the object of speculation. Probably there are four reasons that best explain the situation. First, the conservative Democrats who run the regular party realize they will be challenged by liberals at the 1972 convention over the issue of who the state’s “real” Democrats are. If the Connallycrats turn their backs on Humphrey, they will be vulnerable four years hence to losing their recognition by national party officials. Second, a Humphrey disaster in Texas might possibly sweep some Republicans into state office. Third, Humphrey has sought not to embarrass President Johnson about Vietnam, so possibly Johnson has lately urged Connally and his people to do something for HHH in Texas, a state which Humphrey figures to be crucial to his chances. Fourth, a Humphrey loss nationally will turn the party over to the Kennedy-McCarthy-McGovern wing. V For a time it appeared the president was going to do almost nothing for Humphrey. Then Johnson sent a telegram to the state Democratic convention prais ing Humphrey and urging Democrats to work hard for him. The telegram won na tionwide attention as it was Johnson’s first significant move in support of the Humphrey candidacy. Still, there is doubt that the Connally people are very serious THE TEXAS OBSERVER The Texas Observer Publishing Co. A Journal of Free Voices A Window to the South 62nd YEARESTABLISHED 1906 Vol. LX, No. 19 7e0W October 4, 1968