ustxtxb_obs_1968_10_04_50_00004-00000_000.pdf

torial entry. The planks were based on position papers Eggers has issued during the course of the campaign. The only sign of possible trouble during the platform hearings occurred when GOP legislative candidate John K. Paden plugged hard for support of a state minimum wage. The party adopted a plank calling for the head of a household to have a “chance of earning a decent living wage.” Eggers is said to favor a minimum wage. The subcommittee turned aside some half-dozen requests for lowering the voting age to 18. State Rep. Chuck Scoggins of Corpus Christi, subcommittee member, was reported to have had a strong hand in moderating the language on some planks whose words he is reported to have felt reflected a view too far to the right on such matters as welfare and law and order. When the final document was delivered to the convention late Tuesday afternoon, it contained a few surprises and some wording considered slightly progressive. For example, the law and order plank, which is headed Civil Order and Justice, clearly contains a warning to both the police and would-be demonstrators and rioters: “In a riot situation, while the isolated act of the individual, be it murder, arson, theft or assault, should be treated individually and neither the criminal’s sentence nor his method of apprehension should be altered from traditional practice because of the group nature of the incident, the police must still be enabled to use force for apprehension, and the act of participation in a riot must be punishable.” The plank dwells equally on law, order and justice, and the emphasis on justice was the result of work by Joe Kirven of Dallas, a Negro legislative candidate who made a strong plea for this inclusion, and by Eggers, who is known to be strongly in favor of social justice as well as in law enforcement. Stress in Houston Republican unity is undergoing stress in Houston because of O’Donnell’s decision to establish a Nixon-Agnew campaign organization independent of the Harris county party machinery. There is talk in Houston that George Wallace might win the county anyway \(One long-time Democratic courthouse employee who has a history of being attuned to the grassroots believes Wallace will carry the the separate Nixon organization are exerting could impair Nixon’s promising chances to carry Texas. O’Donnell is believed first to have conferred with Nixon’s national staff before deciding to proceed as he has in Houston. Further adding to Republican discomfort in Houston is the belief held by some that the Nixon campaign leader in the bacher is politically inexperienced, and the fact that GOP fund-raisers appear to 4 The Texas Observer be taking what money they can for the Nixon campaign, leaving Eggers and other statewide candidates wrestling for crumbs. Mosbacher hired Jim Waters, former county chairman, who decided that telephone canvassers would solicit support only for Nixon, making no mention of state or local candidates. On Sept. 19 newsmen were excluded from a $1,000-a-plate fund raising dinner, a fact the press was not apprised of until that morning. The Chronicle reporter was turned away at the door as he didn’t have a $1,000 ticket. Chronicle people were most unhappy the next day when the Post revealed it had a reporter present, who described what transpired at the gathering. The reporter, the only newsman present, said only that he had been given a ticket. “I was there and they knew who I was,” he said. V The Harris county GOP has issued a public apology for an article in its publication that contained two anti-Semitic references. The article, an account of a contributing editor’s trip to the national convention, made references to “filthy-rich Hebrews with tall, willowy blondes on either arm” and ‘wealthy Jews.” The editor, Mrs. Marjorie Shepherd, will no longer serve on the paper’s staff, it was announced. The AG Race V The attorney general’s race, which heretofore has attracted only mild attention, may prove to be a lively affair this year as the candidatesincumbent Democrat Crawford Martin and Republican challenger Sproesser Wynnsee who can out-Law and Order whom. Wynn, whose only other political campaign was his work for John Tower in 1966, is reported to have thrown a sizeable scare into Martin and Democratic circles for the tough stand he took at the GOP state convention in his hometown of Fort Worth. Wynn’s stand was so well received and was given such wide play by the press that Martin reportedly had to pressure Democratic officials to pump $100,000 into his campaign coffers immediately in anticipation of a bitter battle. Wynn, another converted Democrat, hit hard and heavy on the recent Liquor Control Board scandals and Martin’s “donothing attitude” about them. He also is hammering away at alleged Mafia connections in the state and undercover control of Texas taverns by the vending machine industry, which Wynn links to a series of tavern bombings in the Fort Worth-Dallas area. In what may be his strongest point, Wynn is promising an anti-rackets division of the attorney general’s office, if elected. In order to overcome his handicap of being almost a political unknown in Texas, Wynn embarked on a four-day flying tour of the state, but despite early publicity and work on the part of local parties, his airport crowds were sparse \(sample: 30 persons, mostly county party workers and candidates, turned out at a remote hangar at Houston for Wynn’s 30 paid accommodations to the state’s news media to fly in his chartered DC-3, but despite the fact he had room for seven newsmen, only the Fort Worth Star-Telegram sent a reporter along. Still, Wynn’s campaign statements are said to be worrying the Democrats, who had hoped not to have a costly attorney general’s race to carry. Miscellaneous Notes The Mental Health and Mental Re tardation Board has decided not to conduct a public hearing to reconsider the firing of the former head of the Richmond State School, Dr. Floyd E. McDowell \(Obs., ing in New York, tells the Observer he plans to do what he can to bring public attention to his case and to what he believes are weaknesses in Texas’ mental health system. McDowell was fired after protesting the admission of the son of State Sen. Wayne Connally, contending political influence had been exerted improperly. The Connally boy was admitted several weeks after McDowell was fired. V Governor Connally no doubt didn’t want to, but he went ahead and appointed liberal Franklin Spears to a Bexar county district judgeship. Spears is unopposed on the November ballot for that job. When the incumbent, Solomon Casseb, resigned as of Oct. 1 Connally had virtually no choice but to go ahead and appoint Spears. Spears, who served in the state senate and ran a close race for attorney general in 1966, recently joined the San Antonio law firm of Secy. of State Roy R. Barrera. g/ State Sen. Babe Schwartz says the Texas Rangers should be abolished. V A hearing was held at Texas A&M before a faculty committee to consider dismissal charges against Dr. Leon W. Gibbs. The Gibbs case has led to the American Assn. of University Professors censuring the A&M administration \(Obs., V Henry Sterzing, fired earlier this year for alleged insubordination while teaching at Richmond, fears his teaching career is finished. Sterzing was vindicated by Texas Education Agency head J. W. Edgar \(Obs., Edgar said the Fort Bend school board had no grounds for the firing. However, that does not mean Sterzing must be reemployed. And his lack of a recommendation from his former employers evidently will preclude his getting a teaching job elsewhere. V The Texas College Coordinating Board will face one of its toughest prob lems on Oct. 11 when it meets to decide how to proceed on staff recommenda tions that an urban university system be formed in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Denton area. Under the plan the University of Texas at Arlington, North Texas State and Texas Woman’s University would continue their undergraduate programs but graduate degrees would be awarded by a new combined board that would