ustxtxb_obs_1968_11_29_50_00007-00000_000.pdf

Judgeship for RY? V Rumors of an impending federal judgeship. for Sen. Ralph Yarborough are increasing as._ the number of days remaining in the Democratic administration of Lyndon B. Johnson decrease. And the number of denials of the rumor one of them coming from the senator himself .are just as strong and just as numerous. V The senator generally is credited with saving Texas for the Democrats, and, as a result, Johnson is, to a degree, indebted to him. It is reported the president said before the election he did not care if the Democrats lost the nation as long as they carried Texas, and Ralph Yarborough’s liberal forces did the job, virtually without help from Gov. John B. Connally’s conservatives. Yarborough’s reward will be the offer of appointment as a federal district judge before Jan. 20, sources say. V The sources say the senator, who now is 66, realizes he faces probably the toughest political fight of his life in 1970 when he is up for re-election. Whether the senator, at the age of 68, will want to engage in that sort of:figlit remains to be seen, say the sources. Those who do not accept the idea of an offer of a judgeship for Ralph Yarborough say the scrappy politician has never ducked a good fight and that he has much to lose by not staying in the senate. V It is interesting that those talking most about Yarborough accepting the judgeship, provided it indeed is offered, are Republicans, and those discounting it are Democrats \(mostly liberV But what cannot be overlooked here are the motives of Lyndon B. Johnson. If he does decide to reward RY’s service with the offer of a judgeship and it is accepted, Johnson will clear the way to reward Connally simultaneously. In all likelihood, after Yarborough’s resig nation to accept the post, Connally would arrange to have himself appointed as successor immediately \(or he will have to call a special election within five days to the special election would leave the way open for a Republican challenge as well as other challenges from within Democratic ranks. V It is thought generally that Lt. Gov. Preston Smith, who would ascend to the governorship earlier than expected, would agree to appoint Connally as Yar orough’s successor if for no other rea son than to thwart Barnes’ designs for higher office. There is no love lost be tween Smith and Barnes, who is reported widely to be using the lieutenant gover norship as a stepping stone for other of fices and has no intention of remaining in state government as long as has Smith. Not only would Johnson be rewarding Yarborough with a soft lifetime appoint ment and be rewarding Connally, he ef fectively would remove Yarborough as leader of the opposition forces that are making increased gains in Texas Demo cratic circles at a time when Lyndon Baines Johnson is coming home to run things again. V A reliable source on Hubert Hum phrey’s campaign staff says that the appearance of Sen. Ralph Yarborough and Gov. John Connally on the same platform during HHH’s Texas tour was the result of steady telephone calls and negotiations by Laurence O’Brien. O’Brien reasoned with both the senator and the governor, but it was Gov. Connally who had to be reasoned with the most. Brutality Charges V Charges of mistreatment of prison ers have been cropping up like crab grass in the daily press. A US district judge has ordered a federal investigation into charges of brutality in the Galveston county jail. The order was made on the basis of testimony of two New York youths who said they were struck by a jail trusty as they awaited transfer back to their’ home state. V Forty inmates of the Nueces county jail held a week-long hunger strike earlier this month reportedly in sympathy for five prisoners who were put on a bread and water diet for complaining about jail food, cleanliness and cockroaches in the cells. A sheriff’s department spokesman claimed the harsh diet was ordered because the five had been bullying other inmates. V Robert Edward Akridge, told a Hous ton district judge recently that Newton county officers harrassed and beat him until he falsely confessed he was hired to slay Dr. Robert Pendleton. Akridge claims the officers kneed him in the stomach and genitals, kicked him in the knees, stepped on his toes, used a judo chop on him and threatened to take him into some woods and shoot him earlier this month, reportedly in sympathy unless he confessed. Akridge was given the death penalty after a Houston jury found him guilty as charged. V During his campaign for governor, GOP candidate Paul Eggers said as governor he would investigate reports of brutal mistreatment of youngsters at the Gatesville school for boys. He was referring to a $75,000 damage suit filed in a Houston court alleging a Houston youth, Edward Kellar, Jr., was beaten “without just cause or provocation.” Eggers said testimony in the case indicated Kellar spent 46 days in a Galveston hospital after the beating. Schluinberger Rebuked v The Texas Supreme Court has dis missed a $7 million damage claim against . Schlumberger Well Surveying Corp. of Houston for allegedly conspir ing in the drilling of slanted oil wells in East Texas. But the court criticized the prominent well servicing company, ob serving that the company knew four wells it logged for the plaintiff, Nortex Oil and Gas Corp. of Dallas, were deviated be cause of the length of the bore hole. “When the official investigation of deviated wells in East Texas began, Schlumberger advised its employees to have poor memories,” the opinion stated. “It also destroyed a valuable library of logs more than two years old which would have shown the depth of many East Texas wells. . . . The evidence in the record leaves little doubt that Nortex was the victim of a fraud perpetrated on it by the sellers of the leasehold estates,” the court said. “We nevertheless conclude that it [the evidence] is not legally sufficient to raise a fact issue that Schlumberger was a conspirator.” V Dallas has appointed a Negro insur ance executive, George Allen, to fill the new South Dallas-South Oak Cliff seat on the city council. Allen, who ran unsuccessfully for the council in 1963 and 1965, was nominated by a Negro group. The city’s other new councilman is Henry Stuart, president of Addison Airport. V The Houston city council outraged Republicans, Negroes, Mexican-Americans and white liberals by appointing Dr. Albert D. Love, a Democrat with no governmental or political experience, to the council. Love will replace Republican Councilman Bill Elliott who was elected to the Harris county commissioners court. The Houston council met in an unannounced, closed-door session to choose Love. Mayor Louie Welch admitted the meeting was held so as to head off controversy and relieve pressure on the council. The city has never had a black or latino council member. V The Republicans are organizing a committee to find .GOP .candidates for the city council election next year. of important building contractors, who insist upon remaining anonymous because they have valuable city contracts, are hacking the GOP committee. V Houston Mayor Louie Welch, speak ing before the Texas Municipal league, urged Texas cities to abandon dual standards in the services and facilities provided in rich and poor areas. He said that within two years Houston will have eliminated its own double standard in paved streets, sewer and water services. Highway Quandry V Texas Highway Commission Chair man Jack Kultgen and Texas Cong. Jim Wright, J. J. Pickle and George Mahon are among the strongest opponents of proposed guidelines which would give the federal transportation department greater control over highway location and design. The proposed guidelines would require two public hearings on any highway project involving any federal funds. Protests made at the hearings would be referred to the federal highway administration. Kultgen charged recently that the guidelines are an attempt by the trans Nov. 29, 1968 7