ustxtxb_obs_1989_12_29_50_00040-00000_000.pdf

MIKE SMITH resignations leave him free from any conflict of interest. Still, he might be expected to be sympathetic to the problems of his former companies. His relationship with Lockheed might be particularly sticky, since the aircraft company is in considerable trouble over its $600 million cost overrun on the military contract for the C-5A jet transport. Lockheed, which is this country’s leading defense contractor, recently asked the Department of Defense for conditional release of more than $500 million in contract disputes. Lockheed’s fmancial crisis will not be solved overnight. It is bound to be a topic of debate in the Senate next year, and so are crop subsidies, bank holding companies, insurance, oil, and gas. 0 Galbraith Backs Bush Cambridge, Mass. I would like to urge Texas liberals to vote for George Bush and to defeat Lloyd Bentsen. As prospective senators they are, so far as one can tell, equally conservative and in the Senate will be equally bad. The argument that Bentsen will vote with the Democrats to organize the Senate should detain no one. It is unlikely that his vote will be decisive. And at a time when peace and civil rights are the two great issues a decisive vote serves only to continue John Stennis as head of the Armed Services Committee and James Eastland as head of the Judiciary Committee. That is no great thing. Meanwhile a Bentsen victory will tighten the hold of conservatives on the Texas Democratic Party, force the rest of us to contend with them nationally, and leave the state with the worst of all choices a choice between two conservative parties. The defeat of Bentsen, by contrast, will show Texas conservatives that their only chance of winning and of being with the winner is to become Republican. That is how it should be and what the two-party system is about. John Kenneth Galbraith John Kenneth Galbraith wrote this letter in August of 1970, when George Bush was Lloyd Bentsen’s opponent in the race for the U.S. Senate. Bentsen defeated Bush. Bank Holding Company Act. If it had one more share, it would be required to divest itself of the bank or the insurance company operation.” At the time of the report, the company had 24.97 percent of the Edinburg bank stock and 41.28 percent of the stock of the First National Bank of Raymondville. The Raymondville stock may have been sold during 1969. The U.S. House recently passed Congressman Patman’s revised One Bank Holding Company Bill, and it is awaiting a hearing in the Senate Committee on Banking and Currency. If the measure passes, Lincoln Liberty Life may be required to get out of the banking or the insurance business. The new bill allows the Federal Reserve Board to break up bank holding companies when it can establish that a company controls a bank, even if it owns less than 25 percent of the stock. Jake Lewis of the House Banks and Banking Committee told the Observer that, if the Patman bill passes the Senate, the interlocking directorates among the Rio Grande Valley banks, Lincoln Liberty Life, and Lincoln Consolidated could lead the Federal Reserve Bank to conclude that the Bentsens do indeed control the banks. The boards of directors of the banks, the insurance company, and the parent company are saturated with Bentsens. According to the Texas Banking Redbook, Lloyd M. Bentsen \(it does not say whether it is junior to the boards of five Valley banks the first national banks of Raymondville, Mission, McAllen, and Edinburg, and the Security State Bank of Pharr. Both Lloyd Senior and Lloyd Junior are on the boards of directors of Lincoln Consolidated and Lincoln Liberty Life. Elmer Bentsen, a brother of Lloyd Senior, is on the boards of three of the Valley banks in which Lincoln Liberty has stock, and he also is on the boards of Lincoln Liberty and Lincoln Consolidated. Calvin P. Bentsen, Donald Bentsen, and Ted A. Bentsen are board members of both Lincoln Liberty and the McAllen bank. And R. Dan Winn is a member of the boards of both Lincoln Liberty and the McAllen bank. Bentsen told the Observer he will resign from Lincoln Consolidated if he is elected. “When I went to Congress before, I withdrew from my law firm and never accepted another legal fee again,” Bentsen said. “That’s the sort of ethics I think should be displayed when you enter into public office.” Bentsen also has a financial interest in the U.S. farm subsidy program. Although the candidate has endorsed a limitation of $20,000 a year in cash subsidies to individual farmers for not growing certain crops, Bentsen was one of 331 farm owners in 1967 to receive more than $50,000 a year in crop subsidies. The government paid him $108,904 that year for reducing crop Bentsen announcing for Senate, 1976 production on his property in Hidalgo County. In 1966, Bentsen received $152,352 in farm payments. The 1968 list of farmers in the over-$50,000 category does not include Bentsen, and the 1969 list is not yet available. The day before Bentsen announced his candidacy, he quietly resigned from the boards of directors of Continental Oil, Panhandle Eastern Pipeline Co., Trunkline Gas Co., Houston’s Bank of the Southwest, and Lockheed Aircraft Corporation. Bentsen said he sold 1,000 shares of Lockheed stock at the time he resigned from the board. “I resigned because I wanted to make a total commitment to this race,” the candidate said. Bentsen told the Observer that his 40 DECEMBER 29, 1989