ustxtxb_obs_1969_05_09_50_00022-00000_000.pdf

TEXAS’ LEADING BUMPERSTRIP SIGN MAKER 1 FUTURA PRESS INC Hickory 2-8682 .20.Hickory 2-2426 1714 SOUTH CONGRESS AVENUE P. 0. BOX 3485 AUSTIN, TEXAS MARTIN ELFANT Sun Life of Canada 1001 Century Building Houston, Texas CA 4-0686 If Austin Liberals who have dismissed Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes as just another establishment politician must, this spring, take another look, I think. Barnes long has maintained good relations with the Texas left, and this session of the Legislature he has done a good deal more than just make gestures for the benefit of liberals, it seems to me. As may be recalled about a year ago, I was very much a supporter of Don Gladden for lieutenant governor in the Democratic primary when Gladden was running against Barnes. Faced with that choice today, I still would take Gladden. But I said at the time, realizing the support Barnes was getting from the liberal state senators, that perhaps one day I’d see the political wisdom of the senators’ support for Barnes over Gladden. Now, four months into the 1969 legislative session, I understand better what those senators were talking about Gladden didn’t have a chance against Barnes, and Barnes could be persuaded, by liberal support, to help advance liberal causes in the Senate. Clearly, this has happened this spring, as the votes on at least the minimum wage and governmental immunity bills clearly demI thought the liberal senators might be embarrassed about this point of the legislative session this spring, because of Barnes not living up to their expectations; but, on the contrary, the liberals in the Senate are most pleased with their presiding officer, and those of them 22 May 9, 1969 who chose Barnes over Gladden last year appear to me to have had their judgment vindicated by recent events. The whole question of Barnes’ relations with the liberal community of this state must be reexamined, I think. He is the first establishment politician to pay liberals the courtesy of acknowledging liberalism’s growing political power in. Texas and to pay attention to the more compelling of liberal legislative goals. I do not suggest for a moment that Barnes has acted wholly out of charity. What politician does? He has seen the liberals’ rising influence in state affairs and perceived their strength nationally. If his perception is accurate he also knows that Texas government as we have come to know it these last three decades is changing and that mossbacked conservatism won’t any longer do. Thus, without wanting to lose his conservative support, Barnes has been open to liberal overtures and has been tacitly and to a. limited degree “on the liberal program.” He is seeking to establish himself in the public mind these days as a progressive yet prudent politician on the rise, a champion_ of long-needed reform in Texas, a man Los Angeles Princeton University has $127 million worth of securities in 39 major United States corporations doing business in the Union of South Africa. A coalition of white and black students demanded that Princeton sell these stocks; the university has refused. What about the large stock portfolio of the University of Texas? It should be examined, and, if necessary, appropriate adjustments made to see that state money is not tied up in the perpetuation of the world’s most racist state. I understand that a study is now underway at UT to find out the extent and implications of military-financed research activities there. This is both fitting and overdue. The university community, faculty and students, are responsible for the continuation of such research and its corrupting effects on the actual meaning and role of the university. Students at UCLA and elsewhere are DR. LOUIS E. BUCK Veterinarian House Call Practice GR 2-5879Austin House Call Fee No More Than Office Call Fee more in tune with the times than, say, Preston Smith or Gus Mutscher. It is said around here that Barnes might seriously be thinking of taking on Smith next year in the primary, that his deeds this spring in running the Senate are aimed at forging a record to seek the governorship next year. This may be true but, somehow, I still believe Barnes won’t make another move until 1972, when Smith has said he’ll step down. Then Barnes will have the choice of seeking the governorship or trying for John Tower’s U.S. Senate seat. I don’t see Barnes wanting to risk losing the liberal support he’s beginning to get by running next year against U.S. Sen. Ralph Yarborough. I further suspect Barnes will serve first as governor before taking on a Senate race, that his time table \(if such a thing for the six years following 1972 and a race for Tower’s seat in 1978. Be that as it may, liberals, who have no likely winner ready for a gubernatorial race to succeed Smith, might do well to consider throwing in with Barnes as the best means of. “electing a liberal governor.” Barnes will have to be watched carefully, for, after all, he has extensive conservative support and is, still, an establishmentarian. But if he had considerable support from liberals and labor I believe he would become a valued ally and leader in the progressive movement of our state. We shall see. G.O. demonstrating against ROTC being an accredited part of the college curriculum. I took ROTC in college and learned practically nothing of college-level value. One thing I did learn was how to fire a rifle with moderate accuracy. I should not have been allowed to spend college time on such stuff. What’s the matter with the students at the University of Texas? Are they all sitting on their duffs waiting for S.D.S. to tell them what to fight for next? ROTC ought to be sent off-campus. While the black students’ list of demands at UT were in one or two respects outlandthat they were advanced, and the response of the administration, as voiced by Dean John Silber, has been reasonable and constructive. Silber is advocating expansion of the school’s black studies offerings and agrees with the blacks that there must be more financial aid for ieconomically handicapped black students. Said Silber at the faculty meeting this winter on the subject of the black demands, the blacks are “very well advised to argue [their] case on moral and legal grounds, because the moral case for the Negro is devastating it is overwhelming. It shames all fair-minded men.” Much else has been said, but this is the crux of the matter, and the university In My Opinion Observations