ustxtxb_obs_1971_04_23_50_00011-00000_000.pdf

GM’s committee Ta ra, to ra! Gus M. Mutscher, speaker of the House of Representatives, rose at last and stood before the podium to make his long-awaited, much-heralded, clear-the-air speech. The members gave him a standing ovation, the TV cameras whirred and he began speaking. It was April Fool’s Day. The speech was a re-hash of Mutscher’s testimony before the SEC, revealed no new information and failed entirely to address itself to the pertinent questions raised by the passage of House Bills 72 and 73. The speech contained a number of protestations of good faith and some curious distortions. suit alleges in general terms, unsupported by any factual information, that the introduction and passage of House Bills 72 and 73 . . . were designed to enhance the value of National Bankers Life Insurance Company stock.” The SEC suit alleges no such thing. It alleges that those bills were designed to remove the Sharpstown State Bank from federal banking regulations. Having brilliantly rebutted non-charge number one, Mutscher went on to say, in words underlined in the printed text of his speech, that the state deposit insurance corporation proposed in House bills 72 and 73 was a non-profit corporation. “None of were non-profit corporations and therefore could not qualify or benefit from the passage of these two bills.” Mutscher also said, in another underlined passage, “At no time was there any connection in .my mind between any legislation and my private stock investments.” An interesting and probably irrefutable point. The only people who ever seem to get convicted for their state of mind in this country are the likes of the Chicago Conspiracy. ‘ Mutscher dwelt at some length on the financial beating he took from his investment in NBL stock. He made no mention whatever of the evidence in the SEC testimony that NBL stock was manipulated through the Sharp-Osorio nexus via Ling & Co. Mutscher got another standing ovation at the end of his speech, although a few members remained seated, staring stonily into the distance. After the dive Mutscher-appointed members of the House General Investigating Committee were announced April 7, Curtis Graves guffawed for two minutes, a few other members chimed in with a titter or two and everyone else maintained an embarrassed silence. All five members of the committee, which will Political intelligence presumably look into Mutscher’s involvement in the SEC case, are committee chairmen and stalwart members of Mutscher’s team. House liberals were apparently honestly surprised that Mutscher had not named even one member of the “ethics minority” the group that has pushed for investigation to the committee. Felton West of the Houston Post kindly inquired of Menton Murray, chairman of the committee, “Ah, given the fact that all the members of this committee are committee chairmen, don’t you think people are going to call this a set up for a whitewash?” Murray told reporters he thought it would be unfair to criticize the committee before it even starts work. Murray also said he could not guarantee that the committee would look into the SEC allegations at all. The elections Municipal elections in Texas during the past week produced few surprises and no coherent pattern, since most of the elections hinged on local issues. In Fort Worth, incumbent R. M. “Sharkey” Stovall was re-elected with a hefty majority over his closest opponent T. D. “Tommy” Thompson, a real estate broker. Stovall was backed by the “downtown Establishment” and Thompson by the real estate developers. The third man in the race, Asen Dodov, a naturalized Bulgarian, became quite popular ‘on the Lions Club circuit with his speeches charging the other two, with being nothing more than “vealer-dealers.”.. One of the issues in the race was change in the form of city government to allow greater minority representation on the city council. Stovall favors having four of the councilmen elected from districts and the other four plus the mayor elected city-wide. All councilmen are now elected city-wide. In Dallas, the oligarchy’s candidate Avery Mays wound up in a run-off with Wes Wise, an independent and former TV sportscaster and newsman. Albert Lipscomb, the first black mayoral candidate in Dallas history, ran a poor third in a field of seven. Law’n’order was a big issue, with all candidates registering support for it. In Amarillo, the incredible J. Ernest Stroud was turned out after two terms by L. Ray Vahue, a billboard executive who was backed by that city’s establishment. Stroud, a right-wing populist in the Lester Maddox mold, has provided Amarillans with much free entertainment during the past four years. He voted against the other four members of the council on every single issue and was fond of sending congratulatory telegrams to Southern Rhodesia on its independence day. The big issue in Amarillo was wafer ever since the city switched from well water to lake water a few years ago, house plants have been losing leaves, water pipes corroding, live bait dying in the tanks, and citizens complaining, of constipation. In Austin, Roy Butler, an auto dealer, took the mayoralty from incumbent Travis :LaRue: both men were considered to be in much the same downtown-businessoriented mold. In San Antonio the Good Government League made a pretty clean sweep, taking eight out of nine places on the city council with the ninth spot up in a run-off. The mayor there is elected by the council and John Gatti, an investment banker, is expected to get that post. Exit W. W. McAllister, the mayor who thrilled the nation with his observations on the nature of chicanos \(“They like to sing and dance a lot, but they’re not ambitious and have La Raza Unida, which already controlled the city council in Crystal City, made it unanimous by winning all five seats and re-electing their mayor Francisco Benevides. La Raza also won a majority on the school board. The Texas Judicial Qualifications Commission after an investigation has concluded that there is no basis for further proceedings concerning a complaint filed against Dist. Judge Joe N. Chapman of Sulphur Springs. The complaint was filed by Sulphur Springs attorney J. Kearney Brim last summer. April 23, 1971 11 ATHENA MONTESSORI SCHOOL integrated, non-sectarian creative non-graded program 1.= 7500 Woodrow Austin 4544239 #ripitz’ ‘Since 1866 The Place in Austin GOOD FOOD GOOD BEER 1607 San Jadnto GR 7-4171