ustxtxb_obs_1970_04_17_50_00011-00000_000.pdf

Democratic national committeewoman. But Yarborough backed Mrs. R. D. Randolph of Houston, who was chosen. The Hidalgo County land records show many of the transfers of Lloyd, Sr., and Elmer Bentsen’s land interests to Consolidated American Life Insurance Co., which the Bentsens formed on Jan. 31, 1955. From the first, they and Lloyd Bentsen, Jr., and other of the Bentsens Calvin, Donald, later Ted and Kenneth Bentsen were directors in the insurance enterprise. The company’s annual reports to the Texas Insurance Cmsn. indicate, before and after the merger with Lincoln Liberty Life, an ordinary story of a slowly growing life insurance enterprise, paying little and sometimes no federal income tax, steadily enlarging its business gains from operations and investment income. Late in 1963 Bentsen, Jr., considered running against Yarborough in 1964, but decided not to. In 1968, with the appearance of a holding company on the scene, Bentsen, Jr., ceased being the president of Lincoln Liberty Life, continuing in his dominant official role through the holding company. This, then, is some of the background to the political and business interrelationships that have culminated this year in the candidacy of Lloyd Bentsen, Jr., against Sen. Ralph Yarborough in the Democratic primary three weeks hence. The father is not the son and the son is not the father, but the subject is perplexing, even so. R.D. NOTES 1.Donald L. Bentsen, et al., v. Robert L. 2.Prospectus, Lincoln Liberty Life Insurance Co. \(offering 632,000 shares of its common stock to holders of stock of Gulf-Southwest Capital 5, 1965. 3.Des Moines Sunday Register, May 6, 1951. 4.Testimony of Lloyd Bentsen, Sr., in Civil Action 846, federal district court in Corpus Christi, 1952. The records in the land fraud cases discussed in this article were examined at the Federal Records Center in Fort Worth. 5.Deposition, Allan Shivers, Sept. 29, 1952, in Lloyd Behringer and wife v. Lloyd M. Bentsen, Sr., et al., C.A. 754, and four other cases, S.D. Tex., Brownsville division. This historically famous deposition lies in the Behringer case file in the Fort Worth records center. 6.Alvy Polmateer and wife v. Lloyd M. Bentsen, Sr., et al., C.A. 652, and many associated newspaper stories e.g., Brownsville Herald, Valley Evening Monitor, and Corpus Christi Caller-Times. during the months of February, April, and May, 1951. The case attracted wide attention for a private suit. The Brownsville Herald on April 15, 1951, carried a five-column page one headline, “Court Rules Against Bentsens in Land Fraud,” and the decision was major front-page news as far north as San Antonio. 7.See, e.g., C.A. 752, 754, 777, 742, ‘766, in the Brownsville division of the Southern District, and C.A. 846, 847, 848, 849, and 850 in the Corpus Christi division \(Fort Worth records 8.Valley Morning Star, Dec. 22, 1951; Valley Evening Monitor, Dec. 21, 1951; Edinburg Daily Review, Dec. 22, 1951. 9.See the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, February and early March, 1952, and July 2, 1952. 10.Blackwell et al. v. et al., 203 908, 98 L ed 406; 347 US 925, 98 I. ed 1078. Of course many newspaper stories can be consulted in association with this litigation. See, e.g., Valley Evening Monitor, June 28, 1951, and Corpus Christi Caller, March 10 and 16, 1954. 11.Amarillo Globe, Oct. 11, 1951. 12.The five plaintiff groups are styled, on the face of the Shivers deposition, as Lloyd Behringer and wife; Harold Hrdlicka, et ux; Charles Landergott, et ux; S. R. Jennings and wife; and Melvin C. Sims and wife. In each case the defendants are styled Lloyd M. Bentsen, Sr., et al. The defendants included Texan Development Co. and Texan Realty Co. The Stevenson question McAllen, Harlingen Just four days after then-Gov. Allan Shivers announced for the first time that, although a Democrat, he would not vote for Adlai Stevenson in 1952, a black eight-column headline in the Valley Evening Monitor said of the Valley’s congressman at that time, Lloyd Bentsen, Jr., “Bentsen Won’t Support Stevenson.” The story reported that Congressman Bentsen had said he would go along with Shivers in not supporting Stevenson. The next morning the Valley Morning Star down the Valley in Harlingen reported the same thing. The Observer asked Bentsen about the position as to Stevenson that was attributed to him in the Valley newspapers in 1952. He said it “is not correct” and added: “I voted for Stevenson and sent a telegram to Sam Rayburn in which I said I was going to support Stevenson, and if I recall right the answers of all of us [in the Texas delegation] were published.” In 1956, as reported last issue, Bentsen, Jr., said at the May state Democratic convention that he had always voted for Democratic presidential nominees, although he had had varying enthusiasms for them. The Valley Evening Monitor is the newspaper in Bentsen, Jr.’s home town of McAllen. On Aug. 24, 1952, that paper reported, “Shivers Turns Down Adlai.” Shivers had gone to Springfield, Ill., and been told by the Democratic presidential nominee that he did not support the states’ -ims on tidelands oil. Shivers flew back to Texas the same day and told a press conference he would not vote for Stevenson. The papers were filled, the next few days, with reports of a growing “Democratic revolt” in TeXas against Stevenson. Atty. Gen. Price Daniel announced that he, too, would oppose Stevenson. In this context, naturally, reporters were confronting every prominent Democratic official they could find for comment, and on Aug. 27, Bentsen, Jr., arrived in Edinburg to attend a chamber of commerce meeting and was interviewed. The Valley Evening Monitor of Aug, 27, 1952, carried, on the front page, the eight-column headline, “Bentsen Won’t Support Stevenson.” The Observer learned this simply by going to the offices of the Monitor in McAllen and consulting the microfilmed back issues there. The sub-hed said, “Representative Hits Adlai’s Tidelands Talk.” Time has caused the type in the story beneath these headlines to blur and become difficult to read. Nevertheless, this much can be made out, under an Edinburg dateline: “Representative Lloyd M. Bentsen, Jr., of McAllen joined Gov. Allan Shivers in a split away from support of Democratic Presidential Candidate Adlai Stevnson but said he wouldn’t try to tell the rest of the people how to vote. “Interviewed by the Monitor as he arrived here to attend a Valley Chamber of Commerce … meeting . . ., Congressman Bentsen said he would not personally support Stevenson because of his stand on the tidelands issue but `I” \(at this point This appears on Microfilm Roll No. 15; Valley Evening Monitor, July 1 to August 31, 1952, prepared by Micro Photo, Inc., Cleveland 3, Ohio. The next morning, Aug. 28, 1952, the Valley Morning Star in Harlingen featured, under an eight-column headline, Shivers’ speech on the night of Aug. 27 attacking “more Trumanism,” “socialized medicine,” and other Democratic programs, along with the tidelands position of Adlai Stevenson. Also on the front page of this edition, and on the microfilm perfectly readable, was this story, under the headline, “Bentsen Breaks With Stevenson”: “Edinburg, Aug. 27 Rep. Lloya M. Bentsen, Jr., will go along with Gov. Allan Shivers and Atty. Gen. Price Daniel in splitting with Gov. Allan Shivers over the tidelands issue, but said he would ‘not attempt to tell the rest of the people how to vote.’ “Bentsen said he could not personally support Stevenson but that ‘I have every confidence in the voters of Texas to make their own choice. ” ‘I wouldn’t be presumptuous enough to try to tell the people of Texas how to vote.’ “Bensten said this morning that he had seen very little of what Gov. Stevenson had said on the tidelands question, but that he . was ‘anxious to hear the report Shivers will make in his report on the talk with the Democratic nominee.’ ” April 17, 1970 11