ustxtxb_obs_1969_03_07_50_00009-00000_000.pdf

se -….,…**AstilasMageftitym , 2,0,11diaimatio*Nme.41;t: servative chairman of the Senate State Affairs Committee, said he doubts that a finance bill could pass either house without some sort of business tax. Key House leaders, however, seem satisfied with the governor’s consumer taxes. House Appropriations Chairman Bill Heatly called Smith’s tax program “generally sound,” criticizing only the $10 surcharge on traffic violations. Rep. Ben Atwell, chairman of the House Committee on Revenue and Taxation, also approves expansion of the sales tax. In fact, his committee laid the groundwork for such a recommendation when it released an interim report a few weeks ago contending that the sales tax actually falls heaviest on basic industry, which must pay the fee on all equipment it buys. With visions of campus riots dancing in their heads, House members last week rushed to pass a bill designed to quell “disruptive activities” at the state’s public and private colleges. The Criminal Jurisprudence Committee, meeting on the floor while the House was in session, passed a committee substitute for a bill drafted by Rep. Joe Shannon of Fort Worth. Shannon immediately asked the House to suspend its rules to take up the bill as an emergency measure. He explained that the state has no laws to handle campus disturbances since Texas’ disturbing the peace statute has been declared unconstitutional by a federal court. It is now before the U.S. Supreme Court which is expected to uphold the lower court’s decision. Liberal legislators tried to stall consideration of the bill, arguing that no one had seen it and that copies were not available. “They are trying to run something through on us,” Rep. Curtis Graves of Houston insisted, but members voted 113 to 32 to bring up Shannon’s bill for immediate consideration. After being amended eight times, it passed 135 to 12. The measure, which now goes to the Senate, provides misdemeanor punishment for any person or group of persons who “willfully engage in disruptive activity or disruption’ of a lawful assembly on a collegeor university campus. Disruptive activities are specifically defined as: Obstructing or restraining the passage of persons in an exit, entrance or hallway of any building without the authorization of the administration of the school; Seizing control of any building to inter fere with any administrative, educa IN A PRESS conference last week, the governor said he had not selected sponsors for his tax measures, an admission that lent strength to the theory that he is not terribly serious about getting his recommendations passed. Smith told legislators he will sign whatever they pass. Few legislators have as yet come up with tax proposals of their own. In the House, which by law must originate all tax bills, Rep. Jim Clark of Houston has a bill to increase the tax on alcoholic beverages. Rep. John Hannah wants to levy a one cent tax on each disposable container used in the sale of soft or alcoholic beverages in the state. tional, research, or other authorized activity; Preventing or attempting to prevent by force or violence or the threat of force or violence any lawful assembly authorized by the school administration; Disrupting by force or violence or the threat of force or violence a lawful assembly in progress; Obstructing or restraining the passage of any person at an exit or entrance to the campus. Persons convicted of a disruptive activity can be punished by a fine from $25 to $200 or by a jail term of from 10 days to six months, or both. Under an amendment introduced by Rep. Bob Salter of Gatesvile, any student convicted a third time under the act would be prohibited from attending a state-supported school for two years. Rep. Bill Bass of Ben Wheeler threatened to read the House the English riot act, since House members could not agree on how the measure should be worded. The riot act has not been amended since 1714. A handful of liberals put up a spirited if futile fight against the bill. “This is the kind of legislation that causes a backlash,” Graves warned. “If this bill passes, I predict that the same kind of violence we are trying to prevent may come to this state. I’m not threatening anybody. I’m not encouraging riots, but I want you to know this.” Shannon replied that the bill should be passed to show “this House is ready to stand up and say to the people and the taxpayers of this state that we will not condone what has taken place on other campuses.” Many members applauded him. Voting against final passage of the measure were Tom Bass, Rex Braun, and Lauro Cruz, all of Houston, Mrs. Frances Farenthold of Corpus Christi, Graves, Ed Harris of Galveston, Jake Johnson of San Antonio, Dick Reed of Dallas, and Arthur Vance of Houston. Guy Floyd of San Antonio abstained. As the Observer went to press, the Senate State Affairs committee passed the disturbance bill and it was ready to go to the floor for Senate consideration. Several distinctly conservative House members were heard, in informal -conversation in the House clerk’s office a day or two after HB 141 was shot through the House, remarking along the general lines that. demonstrations of strength are necessary to stem domestic disorder; there were remarks to the effect that a few shots might be a necessary complement to legislative acts such as HB 141. It was mentioned, in this same conversation, that an amendment had been in the process of being prepared to revoke the contract of any teacher convicted of participation in a campus disorder, but a motion to cut off further amendment of the bill had prevented the amendment’s introduction. Governor Smith has recommended a package of our “anti-riot” measures which Atty. Gen. Crawford Martin has put forward. Martin proposed these laws last summer but Gov. John Connally declined to put them before the 1968 special session of the Legislature. The bills would permit officers to go _to adjoining towns to help put down disorders, let cities impose a 72-hour curfew and halt the sale of intoxicants, firearms, gasoline, and other combustibles, ban loitering in public buildings or grounds, and prohibit disruption of public meetings. The disruption on the campus of Wiley College in Marshall and certain rumblings on the University of Texas at Austin campus likely prompted legislators to suddenly get busy with HB 141. Black students at UT-Austin, a few days before the bill was rushed before the House, had presented a list of demands to the university president. Two weeks was announced as the deadline for the president to respond. Among the demands were that the LBJ Library be renamed the Malcolm X Black Studies building, that 2,000 minority group students be admitted in the next year, that Prof. Larry Caroline be rehired, regents Chairman Frank Erwin, Jr., be fired immediately, other regents be turned out in the next year, and that a black studies department be instituted that would be completely controlled by black students and black workers of East Austin. Sen. Charles Herring of Austin has introduced a bill to make it illegal to interfere with policemen and firemen who are answering emergency calls. March 7, 1969 9 House Prohibits ‘Disruptive Activities’