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With regret Writing this letter is painful for me. I’ve been thrilled by many items in The Texas Observer over the years and have felt no Texan could really be well informed politically without it. I still feel this way and face the future with bitterness. My problem is my own fault. I should have renewed for three years the moment I got my notice. I didn’t. And, then the most recent issue arrived, and it seems the editorial style is to remain earthy. I don’t complain. I don’t remonstrate. I don’t try to tell its editorial personnel how to handle the copy. But since I have this lousy hang-up on language, I’ll just quietly fade away. Let me wish the Observer many years of vigor, clear sightedness and uncompromising coverage of Texas politics with all its ramifications. The staff is talented and totally capable of continuing to do an outstanding job. I wish all of you nothing but the best in the years ahead. Texas needs its Observer. T. L. Smith, Houston, Tex. Austin snobbism Anent your snob-hill comments relative to the Barefoot Sanders campaign stopover at the TV station in that “grubby little oil town forty miles southwest of Odessa” Your comments should have earned you some points with the Mutual Admiration and Corruption Society that headquarters in Austin. You’re a corner, no doubt about it. 16 The Texas Observer You don’t remember me, but I “knew you when” was your mother a bitch, too? You’re pretty bold and brassy in expressing your opinions of and reactions to others do you have the guts to publish this opinion of you? Tom Nesmith, Box 1058, Monahans, Tex. 79756. Neglect of Fort Worth Sometimes we wonder if the Observer has a map of Texas which does not include Tarrant County. There were Democratic conventions in Districts 10 and 12. In District 10, Don Gladden led a small McGovern force to coalesce with a large, but inexperienced Wallace group. They took the chairmanship away from the incoming Establishment county chairman and made the most of liberal weakness. In District 12, the McGovern contingent was the strongest and toughest of the four factions, outmaneuvering stacked committees that met in closed door sessions to get almost its share of state convention strength. There was some Confusion in both conventions. \(Reporters for the dailies document confusion when they know no more than Evans and Novak tell about casual about Establishment setbacks. They recognized that Carrin Patman’s rules were requiring them to make room for all active elements in the party. Statewide communications for the McGovern effort were managed in the Fort Worth office, by a contributing editor of the Observer whose considerable competence is exceeded by her exorbitant modesty. The one sure woman passed over lightly in the Observer’s legislative resume was Chris Miller from Fort Worth, who performed a minor vote getting miracle while openly supporting both Farenthold and McGovern. At her precinct convention she confronted her congressman, who had just escorted Humphrey on his whirlwind tour through Texas, and firmly joined the McGovern caucus. If Chris had lived in Dallas or Houston, or Austin or Waco or Corpus Christi, or Lubbock or San Marcos oIPalestine, you would have heard. Margaret Carter, 2816 Sixth Ave., Ft. Worth, Tex. We thank Ms. Carter for providing this information, which should indeed have been in the last Observer But the Observer’s editorial staff is not precisely vast and in addition our last deadline came at an awkward time, while returns were still dribbling in from around the state. We were more catholic in our slights than Carter has indicated. For example, some of John Hill’s staff members have acidly pointed out to us that we failed to even mention the fact that Hill will be the next attorney general of Texas Observer hasn’t changed I’ve known the T.O. since R. D. was just beginning to splifflicate himself on Frank Dobie’s Jack Daniels black label on the lawn by the banks of the Waller Creek and Willie Morris was a brash young editor of The Daily Texan. I’ve fought in the precincts against Shivers by the side of Jean and Russell Lee; I’ve worked for Ralph Yarborough’s unsuccessful and successful campaigns and listened to the returns in R. Y.’s front parlor, drinking his bourbon. I’ve seen both while I was in Texas and since I left, 12 years ago. The T.O. continues the same kind of reporting and feature writing and editorial writing it began to do under Ronnie Dugger and that’s why I quit subscribing. Things have changed in the U.S. and the world meanwhile, but the T.O. hasn’t reflected those changes; instead it sits there and lets its old liberal knee jerk and jerk. Thus you’ve helped to rip this society up the middle and you get no support from me. Not all bigotry and illiberality comes from the right; the T.O. has more than its share. Dick Underwood, Syracuse University Press, Box 8, University Station, Syracuse, New York 13210. Reform rules no help Enclosed find check for the amount of $7.35 for a renewal of my subscription, I rather like your paper in spite of some your writers’ juvenile bent for coarse language. They may grow up and reach some degree of maturity some day. I have been classified as a liberal Democrat for forty years, and I am thoroughly disgusted with the new rules for conventions, there is nothing wrong with the method of majority rule that we have had in the past. Now it is minority rule. We lost as often as we won but then it was accepted as a loss. This method will insure our defeat in November L. W. Oliver, 1804 Ball Avenue, Apt. No. 101, Galveston, Texas 77550. Stabbed You will find my check for $4.20 to cover my sixlmonth subscription to your newspaper. It is a wonder I even replied to the bill it was dull, unimaginative and sloppy. Surely not a reflection of the paper it represents. Or is it? Please excuse the brevity of this letter, but my back is hurting from the stabbing. Darla Klaus, Pacifica staff member, 618 Prairie, Houston, Tex. 77002.