ustxtxb_obs_1973_03_30_50_00004-00000_000.pdf

Editorial and Business Offices: The Texas Observer, 600 W. 7th St., Austin, Texas 78701. Telephone 477-0746. 7.4810.1f “1,04*-.44iverloliV airik A L…44,4`4,6;01.1006018.111111,00101.1111.111114P0Mcir order to make his own life in his own way, coming West on the train to the border country, taking as his wife a young woman fro m Chihuahua City, Chihuahua, publishing under a pseudonym so as not to trade on Dad’s name, riding the rails from time to time for personal reasons reasons that the viewer would learn toward the end. \(Pan here to closeup of Dan Dailey-Seltzer, battered suitcase in hand, stepping off the Southern Pacific and sniffing the dry, clean desert air, then idling down San Francisco Street toward the cluster of transients standing in front IDID RETURN to the Seltzer home several times and the Amado Muro mask began to fade as the Chester Seltzer features continued to take definite shape: Chester graduated from Cleveland’s University School High School in 1935 and after a trip to Mexico with a friend entered the University of Virginia. He played guard on the freshman football team and was considered a promising athlete. \(An anecdote about the University of Virginia years: Chester was majoring in journalism instead of English which was considered more prestigious . and as a consequence some of his fellow students tended to look down their noses at him. One day, to shake up the stiff-necks, he matter-of-factly ordered mashed potatoes with scrambled eggs on top while he was going through the university cafeteria line. There were incredulous stares at first, then a giggle or two, finally a good-humored, appreciative He transferred from the University of Virginia to Kenyon College, where he continued to play football and where he also studied creative writing under John Crowe. Ranson, who wrote as a critique of Chester’s first autobiographical sketch: “It is a strange combination of genius and illiteracy.” Chester was on the advisory committee of H I K A, the undergraduate literary magazine Robert Lowell was an associate editor of the magazine. \(Charles Seltzer said that his father often spoke of Randall Jarrell, who was also at Kenyon and who roomed at Ransom’s house in Chester’s first job after college was working as a sports reporter for the Miami Herald covering regattas, swimming meets and up-and-coming boxers like the Yucatan Kid. In 1942, when Chester was 27 and working on the San Antonio Express, he refused to enter the military service on the grounds of being a conscientious objector. \(Incident : One night government investigators came to his apartment in San Antonio and began to quiz him, telling him he knew, didn’t he, that being a conscientious objector was about the same thing as being a Communist. Where did he get his weird ideas? Seltzer said that although his conscience was his own, he did believe in the teachings of Leo Tolstoy. The government man thereupon took out his note pad and asked: “Where can we get AS A RESULT of his not complying with the Selective Service Act, Chester served three years in various federal prisons. He worked as a hospital attendant in Chicago, in a labor camp in Colorado. \(Charles said that in one prison in Pennsylvania his father met Dave Dellinger also serving a sentence as a conscientious objector who impressed him greatly. Charles feels that his father’s experiences in prison marked him deeply and that his father never fully recovered In 1946 Chester began working in El Paso. According to Chester Chope, retired former managing editor of the El Paso Herald-Post, Louis Seltzer arranged with the then editor of the Herald-Post, E. M. Pooley, for Chester’s job. Mr. Chope remembers Chester as a “quiet, self-effacing young man who never raised his voice and had a pleasant smile.” He remembers Chester most of all, however, because of the following occurrence: Mr. Chope was sitting one morning in the slot at the copy desk; Chester was sitting on the other side. Suddenly Chester rose from his seat and said: “I have to go to Albuquerque.” He left the office and Mr. Chope never saw him again. \(Mr. Chope says that he read the works of Chester’s grandfather with great pleasure his grandfather, it turns out, being Charles Alden Seltzer, the author of over 200 magazine articles and 49 Zane Grey-type books about the West such as Valley of the Stars, Treasure Ranch, During the years after his marriage Chester sometimes with his wife and sons, other times by himself worked on newspapers in Bakersfield, Las Cruces, San Diego, Dallas, New Orleans, St. Louis, Galveston and Prescott, Ariz. In 1965, while at Bakersfield, he wrote hard-hitting editorials against the John Birch Society, American involvement in Vietnam, the Ku EDITOR Kaye Northcott CO-EDITOR Molly Ivins ASSOCIATE EDITOR John Ferguson EDITOR AT LARGE Ronnie Dugger REVIEW EDITOR Steve Barthelme Contributing Editors: Winston Bode, Bill Brammer, Gary Cartwright, Sue Horn Estes, Joe Frantz, Larry Goodwyn, Bill Hamilton, Bill Helmer, Dave Hickey, Franklin Jones, Lyman Jones, Larry L. King, Georgia Earnest Klipple, Larry Lee, Al Melinger, Robert L. Montgomery, Willie Morris, ‘Bill Porterfield, James Presley, Charles Ramsdell, Buck Ramsey, John Rogers, Mary Beth Rogers, Roger Shattuck, Edwin Shrake, Dan Strawn, John P. Sullivan, Tom Sutherland. , We will serve no group or party but will hew hard to the truth as we find it and the right as we see it. We are dedicated to the whole truth, to human values above all interests, to the rights of man as the foundation of democracy; we will take orders from none but our own conscience, and never will we overlook or misrepresent the truth to serve the interests of the powerful or cater to the ignoble in the human spirit. The editor has exclusive control over the editorial -policies and contents of the Observer. None of the other people who are associated with the enterprise shares this responsibility with her. Writers are responsible for their own work, but not for anything they have not themselves written, and in publishing them the editor does not necessarily imply that she agrees with therh, because this is a journal of free voices. Vol. LXV, No. 6 Mar. 30, 1973 Incorporating the State Observer and the East Texas Democrat, which in turn incorporated the Austin ForumAdvocate. THE TEXAS OBSERVER The Texas Observer Publishing Co. 1973 Ronnie Dugger, Publisher A window to the South A journal of free voices BUSINESS STAFF Ernest G. Boardman Jr. Joe Espinosa Jr. C. R. Olofson David Sharpe The Observer is published by Texas Observer Publishing Co., biweekly from Austin, Texas. Entered as second-class matter April 26, 1937, at the Post Office at Austin, Texas, under the Act of March 3, 1879. Second class postage paid at Austin, Texas. Single copy, 25c. One year, $7.00; two years, $13.00; three years. $18.00; plus, for Texas addresses, S% sales tax. Foreign, except APO/FPO, 50c additional per year. Airmail, bulk orders, and group rates on request. Microfilmed by Microfilming Corporation of America, 21 Harristown Road, Glen Rock, N.J. 07452. Change of Address: Please give old and new address, including zip codes, and allow two weeks. Postmaster: Send form 3579 to Texas Observer, 600 W. 7th St., Austin, Texas 78701.