ustxtxb_obs_1969_02_07_50_00007-00000_000.pdf

ganizing liberals in the precincts. So the Observer is advised by State Rep. Curtis Graves, Houston, who is chairman of the Texas Coalition. Don Gladden, former Fort Worth liberal House member and a candidate last year for lieutenant governor, is head of the Coalition’s legislation committee. He says he plans a series of four workshops in Austin for members interested in lobbying for the liberal viewpoint at the Capitol during the legislative session. Of particular interest, Gladden says, will be election law reform and the teachers’ pay increase. Those participating in the workshops will be briefed on these issues, among others, and given some idea of the workings of the Legislature. Then participants will be sent to confer with legislators. “This is the first time such a thing has been done in the liberal community,” Gladden tells the Observer. “Before, we’ve always relied on organized labor.” He says it is probable that the Coalition will develop and circulate a voting record for the 1969 Legislature based on issues of liberal, as distinguished from labor, interest. Texas Coalition leaders plan a me morial banquet in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in Austin sometime in mid-April, Graves says. Big-name speakers and entertainers are being sought. Graves says the national Coalition plans a $100-a-plate “Chicago Revisited” dinner in that city in mid-April to raise money to finance operation and permanent staffing of several task forces now being organized on such matters as party reform, civil rights poverty and peace. What of TLD? v The status of TLD, the other state wide liberal organization, remains up in the air. The group has not met since early 1968, and a meeting required by its constitution last summer was not held. Most TLD members probably consider the organization dead now and feel that they are Coalition members, or, in some cases, members of the New party, a group which is being organized as a fourth party in Texas. Texas Coalition people hope to take over the state Democratic party; New party people, a fewer number than the Coalition at this point, have given up on the Democratic party and have formed a fourth party as the best way for liberals to proceed. V There is some sentiment that TLD be kept alive and that it be aligned with the Americans for Democratic Action. The idea would be that TLD could develop issues and let the Coalition be primarily a nuts-and-bolts political organization that need not face the potential divisiveness of confronting issues. Issues, particularly the Vietnam war, led to the present moribund state of TLD, many liberals believe \(Obs., Aug. There will be a regional Coalition meet ing, involving people from several states, in March or April at Houston; perhaps at that time TLD people will decide about the future of their organization. Senator Yarborough Sen. Ralph Yarborough, elected chair man of the Senate Labor and Public Welfare Committee, assigned himself to head the health subcommittee. Asked why he chose the health unit instead of one of the other five standing subcommittees, he said, “Because the great need is there. Five or 10 years ago, I would have chosen education. But we haven’t moved as fast in health legislation as we have in education.” V Apprehension among those concerned about the plight of the migrant worker in Texas and the nation was eased last week by Senator Yarborough’s announcement that the migratory labor subcommittee will be retained and, indeed, put on permanent status for the first time. Earlier it had appeared that the senator had decided, as the new chairman of the Senate labor and public welfare committee, to do away with the committee’s subcommittee on migrant labor. Yarborough’s announcements of his subcommittee chairmen included no mention at all of that group. On Jan. 21, as Yarborough was in the rotunda of the Austin Capitol, he was asked about ‘the subcommittee’s status by liberal Representative Graves. Houston. “I confronted him about it and was greatly concerned because the migratory labor subcommittee was a window to airing the grievances of migrant workers,” Graves tells the Observer. Graves says it remains his impression that the senator had, at that time, determined to do away with the subcommittee in the belief that its aims would better be served through activities of the whole labor and public welfare committee. A week or so before, Graves had attended a meeting in New York City and Newark of the steering committee of the Demo Coalition. He said a number of national Coalition leaders “were all raising hell about the migrant subcommittee’s apparent abolition. “This became the subject of discussion for half the morning,” says Graves. A resolution was passed by the steering committee urging the subcommitte’s retention. Senator Yarborough’s office has lately told the Observer that the subcommittee is to be retained, that its being changed to permanent status \(now not having to ed for the delay in announcing its chairman. The chairman will be Sen. Walter Mondale, Minnesota. He succeeds Sen. Harrison Williams, New Jersey, who has served as the subcommittee’s chairman since its inception. Williams has moved to the chairmanship of the larger subcommittee on labor but remains a member of the migratory labor group. Other migratory subcommittee members are Ted Kennedy, Alan Cranston, Harold Hughes, George Murphy, Henry Bellmon, Richard Schweiker and William Saxbe. A Williams staff member tells the Observer that it can be anticipated that the migratory labor subcommittee’s effectiveness will be enhanced by its permanent status and the expected cooperation between the labor and migratory labor subcommittees. V In commenting on Yarborough’s new position, The Machinist, a union newspaper, described the Texas senator in glowing terms: “Although he comes from a state with the worst anti-union laws in the nation, Yarborough has not been afraid to stand up fo his trade union friends. The Machinist’s report card on the 90th Congress shows Yarborough with a 100% “right” voting record. Other Matters v Yarborough voted to end the filibus ter and Tower voted to retain it in the Senate. Yarborough voted aye both times as the Senate gave a 51-47 majority vote to a motion to shut off debate on the liberals’ proposed filibuster rules change and as only 45 senators voted to uphold then outgoing Veep Hubert Humphrey’s ruling that this majority carried the change because a majority was sufficient to change the Senate rules at the beginning of a new Congress. Humphrey’s ruling failed .of approval by a vote of 53-45, Tower voting against it, as he had against cloture. Thus the cloture vote was insufficient to cut off debate under the old rule that a two-thirds vote is required. V Yarborough’s vote in the Democratic caucus for Senator K e n n e d y over Sen. Russell Long for majority whip has been criticized obliquely in Texas press accounts as jeopardizing the state’s hopes of bringing Mississippi river water into the state. It is said, Senator Long of Lousiana, might now be inclined to ex ert influence in his home state to cripple February 7, 1969 7 Art . Auction Sunday February 16th 2-5 P.M. 810 WEST ROSE BUD TRAIL AUSTIN, TEXAS Artists & writers are donating their work in aid of the Conference on Legal Services for Political Dissidents. $1 admission may be used as payment on any purchase.