ustxtxb_obs_1969_01_10_50_00016-00000_000.pdf

he replied, “I learned how to hate.” Rep.-elect Joe Gorman, Dallas, asked about homosexuality at Gatesville, and the TV newsmen said they had received reports of it, but decided to concentrate on the brutality reports. Mrs. Helen Loiseaux of Austin, a former employee of the Houston Legal Foundation, had told the committee that while she was with the foundation, she had received complaints that new girls at the Gainesville state reform school for girls were held by other girls while they were attacked sexually. SATURDAY afternoon six members of the house committee flew unnounced to Gatesville for an inspection trip. Looking through the windows of solitary cells at Mountain View, Rep. Curtis Graves, Houston, saw the beaten faces of boys and demanded entry. The members of the committee talked to the boys and were told of beatings by guards. One of the boys had black eyes and a swollen mouth, and another one showed the committee members a bruise on his leg where he said he had been kicked. Early Sunday morning Barnes himself turned up. It was his position that the Department of Public Safety, not the legislative committee, should be conducting the investigation. Thtla it was that these randomly singled out boys were given lie detector tests by Texas Rangers. The tests were represented to reporters as having showed that, while the boys had been hit by guards, the guards had only used their hands. One of the affidavits contained a statement that three of the boys, while trying to escape, had homemade knives and had intended to hurt or kill a guard, if only one caught them, so they could get out of Mountain View and be sent to Huntsville. Graves, sensing what he called a “whitewash,” says he has about 30 cases of al leged brutality, involving Gatesville “graduates” who are now in Houston. A private national association may be brought in to investigate the state’s youth detention system. Barnes says he favors higher pay for the guards, but is confident the TYC will make any necessary changes in practices at Mountain View. Rep. Stewart said he would have a statement critical of the TYC. “I think it is pretty serious; I think it will be very critical of the department,” Stewart said. Barnes said, “One boy was beaten pretty bad … I tried to get the FBI but couldn’t get them,” Barnes told reporters. “I feel this [legislative] committee’s responsibility ended when this information was turned over to the Department of Public Safety. I didn’t feel like it was the committee’s responsibility to investigate …. I wanted the investigation done by the DPS, not by the legislature.” There the matter, last Monday afternoon, uneasily rested. R.D. Political Intelligence V When it became apparent that Sen. Edward Kennedy was a candidate for assistant majority whip of the senate against the incumbent, Sen. Russell Long of Louisiana, friends of Sen. Ralph Yar borough, hearing from Washington that he had agreed to support Long against Sen. Edmund Muskie’s possible candi dacy, made urgent efforts by phone and wire to persuade him to support Ken nedy. Yarborough kept his counsel, but listened. Reports reached Texas that Sen. Kennedy and Sen. Yarborough were to meet in advance of the vote. Yarborough voted for Kennedy. Yarborough said afterwards he ‘ voted for Kennedy because of knowing his ability through committee work in the senate, adding he never has served on a committee with Long. “It was a hard choice for me because of my friendship with both men,” Yarborough said. An AFL-CIO official said he contacted Yarborough, among others, in Kennedy’s behalf. A regional issue conference of the New Democratic Coalition is sched uled March 1-2 in Houston. It is one of six scheduled in the United States by the reform movement, spawned out of the McCarthy and Kennedy candidacies after the Chicago convention of the Democrats. The Austin unit of NDC has voted to try to establish a county-wide political organization, much like the Harris County Democrats or the Bexar county liberal 16 The Texas Observer organization. A planning session held Jan. 5 in East Austin, attended by about 30, created study committees; voted to inquire into sponsoring a Kennedy-King memorial dinner this spring; and contributed some hands and money to the current voter registration drive in minority precincts in the city. At a meeting Feb. 2, again in East Austin, Austin NDC will fish or cut bait. V Former State Rep. Don Gladden of Fort Worth has been named head of the legislative information committee of Texas’ New Democratic Coalition. The group will lobby during the next legislative session to revise the election code by: Abolishing the unit rule in state, county and precinct political conventions; Lowering the voting age to 18; Establishing permanent voter registration; Establishing proportionate representation at political conventions \(so that if a county convention is split 60-40 over two candidates, delegates to the state Setting up a national presidential primary in Texas in 1972. V Approximately 65 persons attended the NDC’s council meeting in San Antonio recently. They passed resolutions repeating their opposition to the Vietnam war and criticizing President-elect Nixon’s cabinet for its lack of representation of Negroes, Mexican-Americans and poor. goor Cong. George Bush, Houston, has as signed his former campaign director, James Allison, Jr., to survey Bush’s chances of successfully challenging Sen ator Yarborough for his senate seat in 1970. Allison, who lives in Orlando, Fla., is president of Allison-Treleaven, Inc., a political campaign consulting firm. His partner, Harry Treleaven, was advertising director for Richard Nixon’s campaign. The company will open a Houston office Feb. 1. I\( Gov. John Connally appointed Leon Will Odom as chairman of the state Parks and Wildlife Commission. Both Odom and Gilvin are in the highway contracting business. Gov .-elect Preston Smith commented that Gilvin’s appointment was okay with him, but Smith is expected to increase the controversial three-man P&W board to six members. No reason was given for Odom’s resignation. The term runs through Feb. 1, 1971. V Lt. Gov.-elect Ben Barnes has retained a representative, Bill Munn, to see to his personal investment. V A national meeting of the Association of Wallace Voters is scheduled Feb. 1-2 in Dallas. Approximately 250 persons from 45 states are expected to attend the meeting which is designed to bring together various feuding factions that supported George C. Wallace’s bid for the presidency. V San Antonio reports have it that liberal Charles Grace may challenge SA Mayor W. W. McAllister for the city’s top office this spring. Grace would be expected to attack McAllister and the reigning Good Government League on the basis that the city administration, after assurances to the contrary, left tax payers with responsibility for paying some of HemisFair’s debts. 0