ustxtxb_obs_1978_06_09_50_00013-00000_000.pdf

Is there no limb-it? Texas may have the world’s largest drum, a larger-than-life-size statue of Popeye, and the Judge Roy Bean Museum, but Illinois has Santa Anna’s leg. Actually, it’s the Mexican general’s artificial leg, and it’s going on permanent display in Springfield this summer, despite numerous attempts to send it southincluding a 1942 resolution of the Illinois Legislature that it be bestowed on Texas or Mexico. Illinois has itand the army’s adjutant says the Yankees get to keep the thingbecause Illini soldiers were its captors when the general abandoned it during an 1847 battle of the MexicanAmerican War. \(They also captured part of a chicken he was eating for lunch, but they didn’t take the disgusting carcass You’re probably wondering what happened to Santa Anna’s real leg, and we have the answer. The flesh-and-blood original was a casualty of the French Pastry War, an 1838 set-to with France that grew out of a Mexican army raid on a French patisserie . The officers locked up the baker and ate all his pastries. Congress takes stock Members of Congress aren’t often likened to the Founding Fathers these days, but they undeniably resemble their august predecessors in one respectour national lawmakers still tend to be a landed, well-to-do lot, and the Texas contingent in the 95th Congress is no exception. Nearly all our stalwarts in Washington hold interests in oil and gas ventures, real estate, banks, insurance firms, agriculture, and major U.S. corporations. According to the first round of financial disclosure statements from Congress, four of the Texans are certifiable millionaires: Sen. Lloyd Bentsen and D-New lionaire, filed only an abbreviated statement that reckoned his worth at about half a million in stocks and dividends alone. The financial statements were made public under the new ethics code Congress enacted last year in an embarrassed response to the Tongsun Park influence-buying scandal. Holdings were reported as of December 31, 1977, but the reports are something less than comprehensive. Senators and representatives didn’t have to divulge the value of their homes, personal property, or expense allowances. The values of holdings reported are also hard to calculate because the lawmakers were free to use such broad categories as “over $100,000.” But the reports nonetheless contain some interesting tidbits. For instance, Collins, Bentsen and Krueger are revealed as our delegation’s premier corporate coupon-clippers. Collins, former president of Fidelity Union Life Insurance Company of Dallas, listed Republic Steel, Goodrich, Woolworth, Champion International, Gulf & Western, SCM Corporation, Bell & Howell, Singer, National Can, and National Gypsum among his major holdings. Bentsen has substantial interests in Proctor and Gamble, DuPont, Colgate Palmolive, and Allied Chemical. Krueger owns’ sizable blocks of shares in Allied Chemical, American Motors, Beatrice Foods, General Motors, A&P, Norton Simon, Eli Lilly, and White Consolidated Industries. Lufkin Democrat Charlie Wilson has more than $100,000 worth of stock in Time, Inc., whose Temple-Eastex lumber subof Columbia Pictures and Houston Oil & Minerals common stock. tiring from the House this year \(Krueger, Poage, George Mahon of Lubbock, Tiger Teague of Bryan, and Barbara Jordan of congressional disclosure form. Not all the Texans appear to be wealthy, however. Jack Hightower of Vernon claimed no outside income, no stock, and only one investmenthalf interest in a Memphis, Texas, house he inherited and sold last year, netting him less than $15,000. Hightower also listed debts of $29,000 to two banks. And one man who has spent his career defending the interests of the rich reported little personal wealth to show for itJohn Tower disclosed himself to be among the least well-off members of the U.S. Senate. Then there’s San Antonio’s Henry Gonzalez, who listed three savings accounts worth $27,000 and substantial debts to nine financial institutions. In a handwritten note attached to his report, Gonzalez assured the world that “I have no other sources of income, property, tangible or intangible, corporeal or incorporeal . . . neither does my spouse or any relative to the tenth degree of consanguinity.” Christy Hoppe Oil and gas holdings \(including stock, ported by Bentsen, Krueger, Hall, Brooks, Wilson, Jake Pickle of Austin, Bill Archer of Houston, Dale Milford of Dallas, Jim Mattox of Dallas, and Bob Eckhardt of Houston \(Eckhardt claimed his wife holds $50-75,000 worth of Exxon $100,000-and-up class are Pickle \(958 of Houston \(an office building in Harris Richard White of El Paso \(apartment pine tree land unreported lobanks and bankholding companies are Bentsen, Brooks, Gammage, Hall, Krueger, Pickle, Roberts, Kika de la Garza of Mission, Bob Poage of Waco, and Jim Wright of Fort Worth. The longest, most thorough filing from any of the 435 members of the U.S. House was made by Jim Mattox, who voluntarily submitted a copy of his 1977 income tax return along with the required financial report. Other Texans were less forthcomingfive who are re 13 THE TEXAS OBSERVER