ustxtxb_obs_1969_06_06_50_00009-00000_000.pdf

Texas, “forcing more and more conservatives to go along with liberals.” He said he doubts Barnes will challenge Senator Yarborough next year because, if Barnes won, “the liberals would cut him to pieces in the general election.” Smith Running Gov. Preston Smith has said he defi nitely nitely plans to run for reelection next year. “There is not any secret to my intentions. I intend to run . . . I’m running already,” he recently said. House Speaker Gus Mutscher says he definitely will run for re-election as speaker in 1971 and probably for another term after that. He made the announcement a week before the end of the legislative session “to put an end to speculations and rumors” as to his future plans. Among those rumors were that he might resign to run for Congress or to succeed his friend and mentor, former speaker Homer Leonard, as chief lobbyist for the beer industry. Rep. Rayford Price, Palestine, chairman of the important State Affairs Committee, has started collecting speaker pledge cards from fellow House members to bind their votes to him when Mutscher steps down. Rep. Joe Ratcliff of Dallas has been campaigning for the position for months. Rep. Bill Heatly, the House Appropria tions . Committee chairman, has blamed Barnes for the spate of stories in newspapers about Heatly’s relatives being on the state payroll and the chairman’s business dealings with state agencies. Barnes has denied any role in the press reports. It is heard that candidates for future House speakershipi are pledging that Heatly will not be their appropriations chairman. There is talk that Sen. Wayne Connally, the former governor’s brother, may not seek reelection. Whenever he stands aside, Benavides Rep. Oscar Carrillo is ready to run for that Senate seat. Millard K. Neptune, who for a time appeared would be unopposed to succeed Peter O’Donnell as state GOP chairman, now is opposed by at least one other candidate, Bill Steger of Tyler, who ran for governor in 1960 and Congress in 1962, both times as a Republican. Neptune’s candidacy was not considered pleasing to O’Donnell, who has for several years run the Texas . Republican Party as almost his private property. Steger is believed to have O’Donnell’s support, as well as that of Sen. John Tower. A third possible candidate is Sen. 0. H. “Ike” Harris, Dallas. LBJ’s Park The mystery of who contributed money to develop the LBJ State Park persists. L. P. Gilvin, who last December became commissioner of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission, says one of the first things he did on assuming office was to ask to see files containing names of the contributors. Gilvin said he was told by PWC staffers that the files are in the possession of former Atty. Gen. John Ben Shepperd, who was appointed by Governor Connally to the post in late 1966 and pledged on taking the assignment to make the names available but has not. The PWC recently passed resolutions congratulating the citizens of Fredericksburg, Hye, Stonewall, and Albert for donating money to the LBJ Park. Fredericksburg people were lauded for “certain sums of money” donated for furnishings and displays in old homes being preserved in the park. Citizens of the other three towns were praised for donating “funds” to build a fireplace in the visitors’ center. Education Commissioner J. W. Edgar has asked the state attorney general whether it is constitutional to require textbook authors to sign a non-subversive oath. Although the law requiring teachers A House Message For the Congress Austin The House recently adopted a resolution asking Congress to limit the power of the Supreme Court and leave obscenity judgments up to state courts. The resolution said local courts are better qualified to “distinguish between art and pornography and to determine within statutory definitions acceptable bounds of decency within their communities.” to sign a loyalty oath has been declared unconstitutional, the State Board of Education still requires authors to sign such an oath. In Washington Sen. Henry “Scoop” Jackson, D-Wash., has introduced legislation to establish as national historic sites the birthplace and boyhood home of former President Johnson. The birthplace, near Hye, and the white frame house where LBJ grew up, in Johnson City, both are the property of the Johnson City Foundation, which LBJ heads, Jackson told the Senate. They are available for enshrinement without cost to th&government, he added. Former Texas Atty. Gen. Will Wilson, the number one crime-chaser in the Justice Department, wants a return to the “Victorian certainties” of a lawful society. Wilson, head of the Nixon administration’s war on crime as an assistant attorney general, said the nation has “hit what the stock market analysts call a bottom in the swing towards permissiveness. The trend will be back towards more rigidity in rules of conduct.” He hailed a recent Supreme Court decision approving electronic eavesdropping in some cases as a proper step toward the “refreshing Victorian simplicity” the nation needs. He made his comments in a Law Day speech. Wright Patman, the Texarkana congress man with a suspicion of banks and bigness, has called on Treasury Secretary David M. Kennedy to resign and suggested that Kennedy and Treasury’s general counsel Wichita Falls lawyer Paul Eggers were less than truthful in responding to Patman’s questions about Kennedy’s finances. Patman disclosed that Kennedy, formerly a Chicago banker, received a $200,000 “separation gift,” a $50,000 annual pension, and a fat profit-sharing benefit from Continental-Illinois National Bank when he stepped down to join the Nixon administration. Patman, in a lengthy and heated floor speech May 8, also accused Kennedy of hiding his stockholdings in the bank. He said Eggers, the unsuccessful GOP candidate for governor of Texas last fall, withheld information he had requested on Kennedy’s holdings, and also refused to appear before the House Banking Committee, which Patman heads. Cong. Gerald Ford, the GOP minority leader, tried in vain to cut Patman off several times during his speech. When Patman finished, Ford took the floor and urged that he retract his remarks. Patman left the floor without a reply. Congressman Patman’s key aide in investigating tax-exempt foundations apparently has gone over to the enemy. Patman told members of his House Small Business Subcommittee that Harry Olsher, director of the subcommittee since it was formed in 1962, has accepted a grant from Houston Endowment to form a Fund for Public Policy Research. In a dramatic gesture, Patman then told Olsher, a friend of 30 years standing, to leave the room. Houston Endowment, which administers the fortune of the late Jesse H. Jones, has come under close scrutiny by Patman’s committee. Although the amount of Olsher ‘s grant has not been made public, columnists Evans and Novak said Capitol Hill reports put it at about 5200,000. Olsher insists it is much smaller. On the Campus Black students at A&M recently pre sented their own list of demands to the university administration. The demands included dismissal of head football coach and athletic director, Gene Stallings, recruitment of black athletes, initiation of black history courses, and recognition of an “Afro-American Society.” The black students set a deadline of Sept. 3, 1969, for their demands to be met or “appropriate action” would be taken. The Board of Directors of A&M responded sternly saying that the university June 6, 1969 9