This Woman Prayed for Her 10 Children, Picked up a Bible, and Robbed a Bank. They Want to Give Her 20 Years

A Tough Legislative Year for the Aggies . . . Good News in Texas Prisons . . . Progressive Assault on the Austin City Council .. INSIDE and the True Story of the Observer vs. the Air Force .. .

THE TEXAS

13S January 16, 1981 A Journal of Free Voices ERVER 75

This woman prayed for her 10 children, picked up a Bible, and robbed a bank. They want to give her 20 years.

•

Two things in Dallas We've looked hi are certain: low, from bird c Drew Pearson's hands fish market, but we've and taxes. We'll talk found it: about the latter. Better The Best Newspaper you should watch the in Texas. former. Advance/Rod Davis

Gird Up By the time many of you receive this issue, the 67th session of the Texas Legislature will have convened. Be upon us. Afflict us, etc. By many accounts, if you thought the last session was a rotten one, you ain't seen nothin' yet. If we live in a body politic, then in 1979 the legislature sliced us up the middle. In 1981 it's going to pull out our entrails inch by inch. Then ask for a cremation fee. In preparing for a new legislature, reporters often read over accounts of previous sessions. It's depressing business. Each January there are warnings that the lobbyists for oil, or doctors, or banks, or The University of Texas, or realtors, or whatever, are going to ram through some egregious measures. By June, PUBLISHER, RONNIE DUGGER the accounts report that such measures have, indeed, been °The Texas Obsen,er Publishing Co., 1981 rammed through, give or take one or two pyrrhic victories from the loyal and limited opposition. The bastards always win. Vol. 73, No. 1 January 16, 1981 Learn it here first: nothing has changed this time around but the names. And not even all of them. In fact, the one name that didn't change is the biggest reason the session promises to be abysmal: House Speaker Billy Clayton. Having managed to squirm away from accepting what only a high-paid lawyer could convince a jury is not a $5,000 bribe, Clayton re-staked his claim to lead the House for a fourth term. It's fitting, of course — if LAYOUT: Beth Epstein, STAFF ASSISTANT: Susan the blind can lead the blind, the crooks can lead the crooks — CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: cin,‘Chandier but another Clayton term means another session of government Davidson, John Henry Faulk, Bill Helmer, Jack Hopper, Molly Ivins, Laur- of the rich, by the rich and for the rich. Not just rich, mind you, ence Jolidon, Maury Maverick Jr., Greg Moses, Kaye Northcott, Janie but rich and mean. People of power in Texas more or less Paleschic, Dick J, Reavis. Laura Richardson, Paul Sweeney, Lawrence Walsh, Alfred Watkins always have assumed they were put here to get their own way, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS: Keith Dannemiller, Roy Ham- and they do. Clayton and his dons are going to insure that one ric, Hans-Peter Otto, Alan Pogue, Bob Clare, Russell Lee mo' time. The loan shark lobby is already salivating at a chance CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS: Berke Breathed, Jeff Danziger, Ben Sar to get further dispensation to raise interest rates and put the bite gent, Mark Stinson, Gail Woods on consumer-creditors; tax "reformists" are lined up to protect the haves against the have-nots; the great West Texas water A journal of free voices importation scam will be resurrected; sundry other bills for nar- We will serve no group or party but will hew hard to the truth as we row interests will sail through carefully selected committees. find it and the right as we see it. We are dedicated to the whole truth, to Meanwhile, certain repressive measures such as Gov. Clem- human values above all interests, to the rights of humankind as the ents' crime package seem almost unstoppable. And what foundation of democracy; we will take orders from none but our own ought to be one of this agricultural state's top priorities, a bill to 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 allow collective bargaining by farmworkers, is dead at the post. spirit: Viva Poland. Writers are responsible for their own work, but not for anything they have not themselves written, and in publishing them we do not necessar- What will happen in the Senate isn't quite so clear. It's almost ily imply that we agree with them because this is a journal offree voices. impossible to predict how the 31-member club will perform without its two defeated lions, Bill Mobre and Babe Schwartz. Leadership may at last fall to Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby, now with as much seniority as anyone else. The pernicious influence of Clements will be a continual fac- The Texas Observer tor. Puffed up by Texas' landslide for Reagan, Gov. Bill and his (ISSN 0040-4519) wealthy Dallas buddies are already exerting muscle on legis- Editorial and Business Office lators, more of whom are GOP allies than ever before. Besides, 600 West 7th Street, Austin, Texas 78701 Clements and Clayton are eye-to-eye in everything except party (512) 477-0746 affiliation. It was the governor who met with Clayton on election night and, in Nixon/Kissinger style, prayed with him. Publisher's Office P.O, Box 6570, San Antonio, Texas 78209 The point of this is to inform Our Loyal Readers that things (512) 828-1044 after 4 p.m. are just as bad in Austin this year as in Washington. Pro- Published by Texas Observer Publishing Co., biweekly except for a three-week inter val between issues twice a year, in January and July; 25 issues per year Second-class gressives are going to have to work harder than ever just to postage paid at Austin, Texas. keep from losing ground, and don't believe anything else you Single copy (current or back issue) 750 prepaid. One year $18; two years, $34; three read or hear. Capitol reporters these days seem caught up with years, $49. One year rate for flill-time students, $12. Airmail, foreign, group, and bulk rates on request. the need to say how smart the governor is and how victimized Microfilmed by MCA, 1620 Hawkins Avenue, Box 10. Sanford, N.C. 27330. poor ol' Billy is and what a shame it is all this is about to happen POSTMASTER: Send form 3579 to 600 West 7th Street, Austin, Texas 78701, again. Well, it is a shame. But it's more than that. It's a crime. 7440°V` 144V? Start thinking like a victim. 0 Cover Photo: Temple Junior College 2 JANUARY 18, 1981 The Bank Job

Temple On the morning of Oct. 15, 1980, Emma Stewart decided she had to do something or blow her brains out. Sew- age was bubbling up through the shower drain in her $50-a-month rent house and

water from bad plumbing was gushing P h

under the crawl space. She was tired of ot

that. She was tired of the rats. She was o s

tired of getting her electricity from an ex- : T

tension cord plugged into a neighbor's em

house. She had ten children, three pl grandchildren and a husband who'd e J taken off. She stood five-foot-four and uni

weighed 180 pounds and she was 42 or C years old. Emma Stewart put on a red oll

and blue skirt, blue sweater and red e sandals. She had no car so, looking ge something like an American flag, she Emma Stewart walked to the People's National Bank at Belton. She arrived at 10 a.m., holding a deposit pouch in her hand and a bible in same as suicide." A Belton police officer and no repairs were made on the plumb- her purse. quickly caught SteWart. ("After all," she ing or other broken fixtures. A few days "In the name of Jesus, put some later recalled, "how fast can a chubby before she robbed the bank, Stewart re- money in this," she told a teller, and grandmother run?") calls, "My daughter was sick with a hot passed forward the pouch. The teller put She spent the next 21 days in jail. She fever and I didn't have any way to take some packets of bills in the pouch and is scheduled to go on trial in Temple for her to a doctor, so I was down by her bed Stewart said, "God bless. you." Then she robbery and theft Jan. 14, defended by a praying. I looked up and there were four walked out of the bank. court-appointed lawyer and facing pros- huge, long-tailed rats walking along the She headed to a nearby creek — only a ecution by a politically ambitious district cabinets with the food." few blocks from the bank and the police attorney who fully appreciates the ability Emma Stewart believes her troubles station — and put the money under a of local bankers to enhance a career. She stem from two problems. The first was rock. may go to prison for 20 years. abandonment by her husband in Madi- She started to walk home. She didn't son County six years ago, which left her make it. Her description was by then with ten children to support. Then their flooding the bands of police radios, and A Personal Ledger house burned down and the family before long a Texas Ranger arrested her. Emma Stewart, born in Madison moved into a trailer. She moved to First he drove her back t.e- the creek, County, moved her family to Belton in Huntsville where she got a job as a cook. where she retrieved the 4oney, a few March, 1980, after living in Temple the She was convicted (without legal coun- thousand dollars, and then proceeded to previous two years. In Temple, she had sel) of a misdemeanor in Huntsville, and jail. But at a stop sign, Emma Stewart held and lost three different jobs. also had a heart attack. After that the jumped out of the car and fled down the In Belton, Stewart and her children family moved to Temple, where street. She was ordered to halt but did found a four-room house. It had three Stewart's mother lives. not. different meters for gas and electricity, Emma Stewart's second problem was "I kept running in hope that they and she paid a deposit for electricity to the state's system of social services. She would shoot me. Then I prayed that God only one end of the structure. believes that the red tape and require- would forgive me, because that was the Maintenance problems were constant ments of social welfare in Texas, princi-

THE TEXAS OBSERVER 3

' pally the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program, destroyed her morale and kept her from obtaining a good job. It is apparent that when Stewart made her preposterous request for money at the Belton Bank, it was an act of desper- ation. What is less apparent is that her action has more the character of a "Christian witness" than an attempt to surmount material privation. For Stewart felt she had to prove to herself and her children that she was a good mother, and she demonstrated it by risk- ing her life and liberty. Moreover, she could no longer contain her outrage at what she calls "the system." Objectively, Stewart and her family are victims of the cynicism that has sub- verted America's most nobly-conceived institutions -- public education, housing assistance, the dole, the legal system. Dependent on Texas A.F.D.C. pay- still waiting. (In the more sparsely popu- ments and food stamps for her survival, lated counties served by CTHAPP, how- she is not grateful. Above, Emma Stewart out- ever, there are many openings for housing assistance.) "Welfare is nothing but a trap to keep side her $50-a-month house in you down," she says. Then there was schooling. Stewart en- Belton. The October water bill rolled some of her children in the Temple Under. AFDC, a woman like Emma middle-school, but her children lost their Stewart can do better collecting state was $175.40. books, and Stewart could not pay. Con- payments than taking a job. According to sequently, she says, the school secretary the Texas Employment Commission, told her the school could not release the Stewart could work for $2.50 per hour as children's records. Without the records, a cook, which would bring in about $150 the children were prevented from enrol- per week. But that doesn't include health ling in school when the family moved to insurance, which to a mother with ten There is a similar contradiction in the Belton. An acting administrator at the children is more important than wages. way housing assistance is allocated, be- Temple school says that a student's re- That leaves Medicaid, but to qualify for cause its purpose is not to assist those cords "would not be able to leave the Medicaid, an indigent Bell County resi- who need it, but to encourage cheap school district" until all the fees are paid. dent must first qualify for AFDC. And to labor to move to rural areas. The federal The principal, however, states, "It's receive AFDC, you can't hold a job that Department of Housing and Urban De- against Texas law to withhold student allows private health insurance pay- velopment allocates to the Central Texas records because of a fine or a fee or any- ments. Housing Assistance Payments Program a thing like that." At any rate, Stewart did definite number of available payments "What would I do if somebody got not enroll her children at the beginning of for each of several types of housing in sick? Tora (granddaughter) had the current school year because, she each of the seven counties served by the pneumonia twice," Stewart explains. says, she believed it could not be done. "She's just two years old. She's had I program. The CTHAPP housing secre- don't know how many asthma attacks. tary explains: the amount of assistance Jeremiah (grandson) was premature. He with rent and utilities for which each in- was just 3 pounds 71/2 ounces. Judy digent family is eligible is based on its Just Deserts (daughter in high school) has lead in her income. The type of housing — size, Locked in a cycle of poverty and ig- blood (from the flaking paint in the house number of bedrooms — for which each norance and shunted around by state and where she lived as a baby). Jo Ann has family is eligible to receive assistance is local agencies too hamstrung by gov- tonsilitis." based on the size and composition of the ernors and legislatures to help Texas' In the end, Stewart opted for AFDC. family. But the number of housing units more than four million persons below the She receives a total of $721 monthly of each type in each county for which aid poverty line, Emma Stewart became from the state, plus food stamps. That may be provided is "not based on need." desperate and scared. Her every' action, makes her annual income about $8,600 even going to the store to buy food, was Thus, in Bell County, there are many a humiliation. for herself and a daughter and their eight more applicants for assistance than there dependents, a working of poverty by any are payments available. The houses are "When I would get my food stamps, 1 contemporary standards. there, but CTHAPP cannot assist appli- would take my kids to the store with me Moreover, AFDC does not make it cants in renting them until already as- and buy groceries. But I quit, because possible to buy an automobile, which is a sisted families in the same categories re- when you got in line — and you have to prerequisite for seeking employment and lease their allocations for use by the tell the clerk that this was food stamps — holding it. Like most small Texas towns, waiting families. the people, it look like that they would Belton affords no public transportation. Especially for aid with large houses, hate you or get mad at you or something. As with Medicaid, there is a "catch 22" families ordinarily must wait three to six "You just start feeling lower and in employment and transportation: no months. Stewart applied for assistance in lower, til it look like you'd just want to car, no job; no job, no car. July, according to her landlady, and is crawl into the concrete, something that 4 JANUARY 16, 1981

• • . was impossible to do, but your spirit would be just beat down." So she walked into a bank with her bible. After her arrest, she appeared without counsel before District- Ju.dge J. F. Clawson, an ex-banker, who set her bond at $25,000. But that wasn't all. She also owed a fine stemming from a second misdemeanor conviction (also without counsel), for checkwriting, in Belton. Tax Fight She didn't have enough money to pay it, so the judge ordered her to sit in jail one day for each $5 she owed. She remained in jail 16 days. In the Sunbelt She was indicted on one count of robbery and one count of theft by a grand jury which included three bankers. It included no poor black women. In fact there was only one woman — an By Laurence Jolidon Proposition 13 movement in California. The thoughtless tax-reduction-at-all-cost upper-middle class housewife — and one Dallas black, a postal administrator. mentality of segments of that movement After the Candy Montgomery story, in Attorney Gerald Brown was appointed are also present here. which an adulterous housewife gave her The tax reforms, called a "tax im- to defend Emma Stewart on Oct. 29 — close friend and lover's wife 47 whacks fourteen days after her arrest. He visited provement program," are aimed at get- with d' hatchet and convinced a jury it ting all personal property on the city's her the next day, Oct. 30. On Nov. 3 he was an act of self-defense, and The Great filed a motion to reduce bond, and Judge tax rolls at 100 per cent of market value, Peanut Oil Scam, in which the folks at down to the last glass-sided bank and Clawson re-set the amount at $5,000. Frito-Lay cornered the government- Stewart's family arranged for the bond Spanish-tiled swimming pool, just as surplus peanut oil market and sent prices state law dictates. to be paid through a bonding firm and — and their profits — into oily orbit, the also raised $150 to pay for the bond and best reading in this city's newspapers The steps include: the remainder of her misdemeanor fine. lately has been about a topic that nor- • An immediate increase in home- She was released Nov. 5 and returned mally puts readers — and editors — to stead exemptions for the elderly and dis- home — to find her water and electricity sleep: property taxes. abled from $22,000 to $30,000; cut off and a water bill of $175.40 for the Among the whispered arguments often • Scrapping an earlier decision to month of October. used to lure executives and new corpora- begin collecting property taxes on au- On Nov. 14, at a pre-trial hearing, tions to this Sunbelt mecca during the tomobiles more than seven years old, Brown asked the staff of District Attor- past decade, in addition to an agreeable which were previously exempted; ney Cappy Eads to drop the robbery climate, a sluggish organized labor struc- • Completion of an audit of the city's charge in exchange for a guilty plea to ture and business-minded city councils, 2,500 largest firms' inventories, ordered theft. The request was refused. has been low taxes. by the City Council last summer but The refusal might be compared to a You can buy a house for $100,000, never carried out; willingness by prosecutors to plea- prospective corporate chieftains were Adding any newly discovered value bargain for probation last year with a • advised, but it will only be assessed at a from the audits to the 1980 tax roll, Temple schools food service director fraction of that, so your tax rate will be which has already been prepared, and re- (who was white) charged with stealing comfortably low. Why, you can take that turn this windfall directly to all property $10,000 from the district. money and just dig a new swimming taxpayers in the form of tax credits; But for Emma Stewart there is likely pool, if you like. • Ordering a review of the city's tax to be no probation and no acquittal. But But in 1980 that argument went down department's appraisal methods by an there never was. the drain. outside consultant; Fueled by citizens' neighborhood as- • Making all tax records available to sociations that began to breed like rab- the public, except those covered by state Ignored by local media, the facts of bits in a warm barn around pocketbook privacy law; issues and prodded by aggressive news the Emma Stewart case were first re- Creation of a 22-member citizens' coverage, particularly in the Dallas • vealed by Leopard Tales, the newspaper committee to advise the council on taxa- Times Herald, the City Council in De- published by Temple Junior College tion, ways of improving the appeals pro- cember approved a tax reform program journalism students. cess, and other tax matters. John Gibson.is the journalism instruc- that, if implemented, will bring a new tor at TCJ, and he credits this article to measure of equality to a system rife with Their approval marked a clear victory his students, especially to tapes student built-in privilege. for the Dallas Taxpayers' Leasgue, a Billy Atkins made of her interviews with The tax reform program, which for the citywide coalition of citizens' groups that Stewart. first time will place accountability for had filed suit against the city and ob- Gibson also credits legal records re- ensuring equal taxation with the council, tained a court order demanding that city search by Kay Schuetze and writing by through a 22-member citizens' advisory officials take steps to correct the long- Debbie Thomas. committee, was approved under the standing inequities in its tax setup. The pressure of a threatened taxpayers' re- League agreed to drop the suit after the volt not unlike the one surrounding the council approved the tax reform agenda.

THE TEXAS OBSERVER 5 NIP

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— - • :I !

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Coupled with the election last spring

of a new city council that includes a

third minority member, some community evi fu activists are tempted to believe that the tax reform program brings with it a definite whiff of democracy for a city known Bregy e far and wide for its boardroom-style i government. w "It's high time," observed Charlie em Young, the drawling but deft leader of ep the Bois D'arc Patriots, one of the community groups that provided resources, data and street savvy for the Taxpayer's "The nearest equivalent I can think of were getting away with monetary mur- League's tax-equality movement. for the TEA Party people are the der. What earned the support of the Pa- Know-Nothings," says Young. "They Business property assessments were triots and other 'neighborhood/ want their tax bills reduced, without re- based on largely unchecked inventories pocketbook interest groups, Young says, gard to services that will be lost or to submitted by the owners. Many busi- was the fact that the League's demands, current inequities in the tax system. And nesses were dragging their feet in com- which later became the city's program, their proposal freezes the inequities in, plying with the inventory reports and a "will bring direct and immediate relief' by locking in a five percent increase. If city statute calling for $200-a-day crimi- by altering the 1980 tax rolls as new val- you find a company that should be pay- nal penalties for late reporting was never uations are set. ing ten or fifteen percent more in taxes, invoked. Some businesses were even you can't put it on the rolls under their City officials simply hope the tax re- supplying the city tax collectors with one plan." form plan is enough to sidetrack a set of figures and the school district's tax Jarvis-type group known as the TEA The amount of taxes paid by business office with another. (Tax Equality Association) Party, whidh owners in Dallas played a significant role An alarmed City Council hired some gathered enough petition signatures to in the property tax soap opera that has independent auditors to look at the busi- force a tax-cut referendum this month taken shape here. ness firms' reports and, in a less than (Jan. 17). If approved, the TEA Party's After eight years and about $5 million exhaustive search, found more than $1 referendum would mandate an across- in municipal expenses, the city tax office billion in personal property owned by the-board reduction in the city's tax rate, gave birth last spring to what it called an businesses that had not been reported. from 56.6 to 40 cents per $100 of as- equalization program that was supposed The auditors never even got around to sessed valuation, and put a 5 percent to bring all property up to full market the nearly 40,000 smaller businesses limit on annual increases or decreases in value. whose holdings make up more than half taxes on each parcel of property. But homeowners in North and East of the $5.3 billion in business property The tax-rate cut would subtract an es- Dallas were shocked by the increase in inventory now recorded. timated $39.35 million from the city's their tax notices and demanded an ac- Noller's juggling of assessments, for projected budget of $325.45 million, or counting of all assessments. some reason, always ended up favoring about 16 percent. The loss in services City Manager George Schrader and big business, but the taxpayers' organi- would be immediate, dramatic and, says tax director Max Noller defended the zations had already gotten the message: Young, devastating to those in the new assessments, but the Times Herald if anyone at City Hall did anything about poorer sections of the city" who already revealed what the homeowners had sus- high taxes, it was going to have to begin receive minimum services for their city pected all along: their homes were being at the grassroots. tax dollars. assessed at 400 per cent but businesses (continued on page 17)

6 JANUARY 16, 1981

What? Still Trying to Make The World a Better Place?

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The Texas Observer • 600 West 7th • Austin, Texas 78701 • (512) 477-0746 1 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 7 The Power and the Gory The Toast of the Coast By Rod Davis

Rockport House Speaker Billy Clayton and U.S. He was a raconteur, itinerate jack-of- Try to imagine a newspaper with the Sen. John Tower. all-trades (including a stint as a reporter intellectual weight of News of the World, Improved browsing is found in the at the San Antonio Light in the '20s) who the sense of grace of The National En- columns. "Better Fishing" and "Wanda" in his latter years holed up near Rattle- quirer, the editorial perspective of The and, until recently, "Out Copano Way" snake Point on Copano Bay, where he ran Dallas Morning News and the esthetic are sheer delights, while for sterner stuff a marina and fishing pier. His column taste of The San Antonio Express-News. there is "The Overview" by publisher frequently took to task the beer-swilling Then put all that in the context of the Fred (Pat) Mullins, Who refers to draft oafs who sully the coast each summer. Texas coastal bend, a compelling, leath- resisters as "castrates" whose mothers He invented the "fershins," creatures ery, no-quarter-asked answer to any are "onanistic harpies." Mothers get a who looked "sort of like a sea horse" and other shoreline in America. Add a retired tough time from Mullins (he apparently who punish those who pollute the bay. Army first sergeant who doesn't know, believes only in Apple Pie); the entire The only way to give you the impact of or care, a damn about journalism or what anti-war impetus, he figures, emanates the strange things he wrote is to reprint anybody thinks about what he knows or from "Mother, the supreme egotist." one of his columns [see box]. Is there doesn't know. Let this ferment under a This is the kind of guy who could put anything more macabre in a weekly pile of gulf coast flotsam and dead Paul Harvey on the spot. newspaper than the tale of a drunken cabbage-heads for a few years and veterinarian who has taught his dogs to No tabloid would be complete without you've got The Toast of The Coast lug dead animals to the gulf on a cart? Is girlie shots, but those in Herald, a Rockport tabloid which in 40 The Toast of The the tale true? "Nobody knows," says Coast pages each week manages to reach jour- are, truly, beyond comparison. Emma Mullins. "He was a real story- Remember the shots of your high school nalistic lows heretofore unbreached even teller." A newspaper column and nobody sweetheart, circa 1954, taken with a in Texas. But which — and I'll hate my- knows if it's true? Still, I've often won- self for saying this — has a certain engag- Brownie? Suppose you'd had bad film dered the same about Evans and Novak. ing, seat-of-the-pants flair and, arguably, and she turned into the shade just as you is shaking up the otherwise deadly dull snapped? By now you'd be the David In the world of high camp, in latitudes of small town newspaper scene. Chan of Rockport. About the girls, let's idiot savant, The Toast of The Coast is be kind and say all of them are eating a find. It is to the daily lives of the very The essence of the Toast of the Coast, regularly. And girls is correct. Many are ordinary what Private Pictures, a photo really, is that it is offensive. The photos teenagers, one was only 16. But all ages collection out this fall, is to the daily that splatter its cover and run page after are exposed. In November, in what lives of the very un-ordinary. This is not page inside are a barrage of auto wrecks, promised to be the last bit of cheese until life, warts and all. It is just the warts. The traffic arrests and brushes with the law warm weather returns, was a women Toast of The Coast is so outrageous it that leave a reader stupefied with disbe- very much the other side of 30 in a, who doesn't even know it, and if it did, it lief. One edition last April featured a knows, but it looked like a leopard skin wouldn't care, and if it did care, it would photo of a young woman who had been sheath. only get worse, which is better. It's a arrested for DWI. The caption, in inch- superior read to The Valley Morning high type, read: "Picks Nose," an activ- And the captions: "Connie Sue Helms, 19, of Rockport, cheerfully man- Star, and it doesn't make you want to ity the woman seemed to have been en- kill. gaged in as officers led her away. aged several nice poses for the Herald on Another photo, that of a car wrapped November 15, despite a strong and chilly around a palm tree, was tagged, "Spare north wind. Connie said she likes to Roots Parts." There was also a cover shot of a dance, meet people, is a member of an Pat and Emma Mullins came to man arrested by smiling policemen, with exercise club, and is a hairdresser/ Rockport five years ago. Pat, a Dallas the caption, "Amiable Drunk." cosmetologist." This has the subtle tex- native, had retired after 23 years in the The news items in the paper are really turing, the attention to detail, of the later Army and they were looking for a home. supplements to the photos and captions, work of Stars and Stripes. But salaci About a year after they arrived, a but they cover the same ground: acci- ous? No. Prurient would be pressing it. wretched little weekly in Rockport went dents, from fender benders to fatalities, The most redeeming feature in The up for sale. Circulation was only 628, far arrests, from vagrancy to drunk driving. Toast of The Coast, alas, isn't there below that of the other local, The There's some occasional reporting of anymore. It was "Out Copano Way," a Rockport Pilot. Mullins, saying he local government meetings, but nothing column by the late Pouzee (real name "hated to see second class mailing you could call political reporting. The Frank Joseph) Fohn. Fohn, 76, died in privileges go to waste," bought the paper closest to that are the ultra-right syndi- October. A striking man with a full white for a song. Then, as now, it was called cated editorials from Liberty Lobby beard and head of hair and a tanned, The Toast of the Coast Herald. News Service, Public Research, Inc., granite-chiseled face, Fohn took to The Mullinses and their sons, Ed and and fellow-travellers. There are also column-writing after a life as full as any- Mac, worked around the clock to make a canned "reports" from politicians like one could have arranged. go of it. They had absolutely no idea 8 JANUARY 16, 1981 Thy Toast of The Coast

A CURE FOR THE COMMON NEWSPAPER COASTAL BEND NEWS 254

*A******WEEK

FULTON WRECK P. 5

HUFF PUFF ARREST P. 8 CYCLE WRECK P. 12

TANKER COLLISION P. 18

"TOO MANY ARE CRAZY" P. 16

LETTERS A.P. WRECK P.18 P 26

SINTON POLICE P,32 • hyn: Nay k Ssz.>. ItO,15A . Ant. tf; fur,..x0*

what they were doing. They taught plentiful, taking 50 percent of the news they want to be the sedate cottonmouth themselves their own brand of photog- hole. newspaper, that's what they'll be . . . if raphy and writing and layout and news The publication has moved into new they want to be blood and guts that's coverage. Mullins settled on a motto, "A quarters — an old sanctuary which for- what they come out . . . or a National Cure for the Common Newspaper," and merly housed the fundamentalist Church Enquirer . . . that's what they'll be. proceeded to create an antidote to all of Christ. The building is just up the • "We just want to say what happened things both sacred and sensible. Ed and street from the sheriff's office and a few in the previous week, and make it enter- Mac chased police cars and ambulances blocks inland from the beach. Frankly, taining. We don't assign any values. We day and night. Pat, gruff, bearded, self- there is something weird about a leave that to the discretion of the deprecating, cornball and as naively newspaper working out of a former readers. guileless as any cub on a metropolitican Church of Christ, especially this • "What would make us run around daily — cranked out editorials lambast- newspaper. On the other hand, it all singing on Tuesday morning (deadline ing Aransas County for having no emer- makes sense. The Toast of The Coast is a day) would be a wreck . . . and a ribbon gency paramedical system and popped fundamentalist paper. It is direct, unre- cutting, if the mayor was cutting the rib- off here and there about What's Right fined, gut-level. That's the way people in bon and also at the same time cut the and Wrong with the U.S. of A. He fig- the area tend to like their religion, and commissioner's tie. ured, he says, that while in the Army, if that seems to be the way they like their • "Three months after we started, we he walked through the company area and news. somebody said, " 'Hey, Top, let's go get didn't know what we were doing. Now I a drink,' that I wasn't doing my job .. . feel like we could give lessons to 99 per- but if I walked through and heard people Hell-Raising cent of the so-called journalists in the calling me an s.o.b. or worse, I could • "We try to give 'em their 35 cents United States." sleep good.' " That's pretty much the worth. We feel like we give 'em their All this, and more, comes from Pat way he looks at the newspaper business. money's worth. Most weekly Mullins, whose office is behind and to As such, he sleeps well. newspapers don't give 'em their money's the left of the now vacant altar and pul- In four years, the paper has prospered. worth. If I'm out somewhere and I see pit. It isn't quite what surrounds Mrs. Circulation has grown to 6,000, there is somebody in a market buying another Pynchon in Lou Grant. Off to the side of talk of expanding the market to Corpus paper, I'll whip out two bits (and a dime) Mullins' office is an ersatz darkroom, Christi, and Mullins employs a staff of out of my pocket and buy 'em my paper. and one door over is a cubicle which 18, including production crew (printing is • "It's a matter of attitude. Some pa- passes for a city room. It has two desks, Ads are pers take themselves so seriously. If radio monitors, and some maps. done by the Victoria Advocate). THE TEXAS OBSERVER 9

-moiosi.r.rekokose,rwslow...4..t. Out Copano Way By Pouzee Fohn There was a time before the suburb was gobbled up by the city that Dr. Burrows had an animal clinic only a half-mile from the bayou. He had an office, a garage where he kept a wagon, and in back he had a shed lined with cages and an enclosed run-around. The wagon in the garage was custom-built and pulled by Midnight and Miss Dark-Dark, two black Doberman pinschers. Late one afternoon when the black dogs pulled the wagon past Joe's Place, where the beer glasses tinkled, a customer yelled at Joe. "Hey! What's with the dogs? They don't even have a driver." "Don't need one," said Joe. "I saw Dr. Burrows train 'em. He had electric collars around their necks. If they stopped, he Pouzee Fohn pushed a button on a battery and it shocked 'em." "Hussy! Thief!" yelled Dr. Burrows. He tried to run to the "But what's the wagon for?" asks the customer. garage where he knew an iron bar leaned against the wall. He "If an animal dies," explained Joe, "Dr. Burrows puts it on grabbed it, staggered sideways into something soft and warm, the back end of the wagon. The dogs haul it to the bayou. He and fell. "Hussy!" he yelled and struck. taught them to make a U-turn and to back up to a long log on the He got to his knees and saw Miss Dark-Dark trying to stand bank where the water is deep and the bank is high. Did you with a broken hip. The dog had no love for this man who had notice that yellow wooden handle in front of Midnight, the male not fed her for two days and who now had broken her bones. dog? He grabs it and snap opens, the wagon bed rises and the She saw the bar in his hands and silently snarled. dead animal slides into the water." "Attack me?" yelped Dr. Burrows. He struck with the bar, "Ain't that against the law?" crushing Miss Dark-Dark's skull. One eye popped out just a "Who cares?" said Joe. little bit. Midnight stared at his dead and bleeding mate, then Dr. Burrows was short, dark and wore a thin moustache. He turned unblinking eyes on the doctor. considered himself to be irresistible to women and thought "My God!" cried Dr. Burrows. "What have I done? If they of himself as being a two fisted drinker. Lately his drinking had find out I killed my own dog, I'm done for. I'll have to move!" grown into a full-fledged problem. He had made so many drun- He took two quick drinks of liquor and poured himself an- ken passes at his long time receptionist and secretary that she other stiff drink to sip on as he thought. With hands numbed by walked out, never to return. Just today he had hired a heavyset alcohol, he slowly harnessed Midnight to the wagon. It was woman who looked like a dock worker. dusk. If he could get Miss Dark-Dark's body in the wagon — He Dr. Burrows walked over and put an arm around her ample lifted, pushed and shoved but it wouldn't go. He crawled into waist. the wagon, lay down and reached a leg. He heaved but his "How're you doin?" hands slipped because of blood. He landed on his back and Good," said Mary. "You go get another bottle and I'll join stared at the ceiling. you." "I'll res' just a minute," he said. The next second he was Dr. Burrows left and returned with a quart. Mary poured, snoring in the wagon. making sure that the man received twice the volume as her own. Midnight cast one look at his dead mate and slowly started She let him kiss and fool around and fed him more liquor. Then the wagon towards the bayou. Dr. Burrows was about to leave

Mary opened the cash drawer, took all the currency, said the neighborhood. ❑ "Thanks," and walked out. The Toast of the Coast Herald, July 23, 1980.

Mullins likes to talk to you eyeball to inclined to like Rembrandt's "Man with a have no new horizons if her son is sent eyeball, direct but not aggressive. Be- Golden Helmet" and anything by Kip- away from her to conquer new horizons hind his desk, on a wall, are three objects pling. What this says is that here sits a of his own." This is the world-view of a which do not seem to fit, yet do. Two of servant of certain values. The values are barbarian. the objects are reprints of Frank Frazet- determined and bear the weight of a reli- I point this out because the Pat Mullins ta's hero-fantasies, which are sort of the gion. It does not matter that the assump- who raises hell in Rockport can also other side of the cultural coin from tions of the values are, at best, homilies; serve up a big dose of venom, which Rosamond paintings. The other object it matters that they seem to have been brings us to the so-called larger question on the wall is a framed motto which passed down and, therefore, require pro- about The Toast of The Coast — its role reads: tection. among the people it serves. It could be Probably this is how Mullins comes to For I hold as a simple truth argued that the Toast, under the Mul- write the bitter denunciations of draft re- there's no denying. linses, has performed a useful function. sisters and even more bitter denuncia- The life of a soldier's Mullins points to several examples of the tions of women, as in: "When Son stops the only life worth living. paper's effect on the community, but his listening to Mother, he will be his own The death of a soldier the favorite is the campaign he waged "al- man, and that is the one thing she cannot only death worth dying. most single-handedly" for an emergency have. Having already conquered the man medical system, with paramedics, to re- I've seen this sort of thing in the Army, she married, by reducing him to a pile of place the service provided by the ambu- and my guess is that Mullins would be sexless rubble, easily handled, she will lance of a local funeral home. Now, Mul- 10 JANUARY 16, 1981 lins says, there is a quality EMS service he says. "We have acted as a community lease. Of course, this is metaphysics and from Rockport to Corpus Christi, and he forum all along. It took a lot of prodding it's not up to Pat and Emma and Ed and is thinking about agitating for one in to get people to write letters," he says, Mac Mullins to resolve a plague of the Corpus, too. Mullins himself is among but now the pages are routinely full. cosmos, if there is a cosmos. But neither the beneficiaries of his EMS crusade. He "And," he says, "we won't withhold a is willful ignorance a defense. had a heart attack this summer, and says letter if we disagree . . . getting people if paramedics hadn't treated him stirred up in the coastal bend is impor- This is getting pretty far from the promptly he'd have been dead at 47 tant in itself." sledge-hammer nuances of publishing a years. newspaper in Rockport, Texas. Nobody Mullins feels the paper also has served here cares very much about the finer That is the heart of the value of The points of libel or whether layout is to put some pep in local affairs, that it Toast of The Coast. But the heart has has "smashed a few icons." But politics zoomy or if the stories are much beyond defects, all of which might generally be legible. Journalism! Hell, you couldn't is not really the sphere of the Toast, for lumped under the heading of pandering. which there is much to be thankful. "I'm find six people on the jetty who've heard It is a truism that sex and violence sell of the word. Woodward and Bernstein an ultra-conservative and proud of it," best, even if watered down and home- he says. "I've been characterized as might be a steak sauce, or a Houston law spun and not particularly mean-spirited. firm. being nine yards to the right of Genghis So, if the evolution of The Toast of The Khan." Coast has been from a miserable little It's really beside the point in this The incessant coverage of accidents, nothing to a misery-inducing something, milieu to raise matters of taste, or of pro- too, may even have a point. Mullins what has been lost and gained? What has fessionalism. You might as well shake a thinks about auto carnage the way most been lost is a chance to return to the fist at the gulf for being dirty. This is a reporters think about government cor- community perhaps more in the way of hard part of Texas, where mobile homes ruption. He wants to write about it all the guidance than titillation. There is a poig- squat among the mesquite, lean-to bars time. But is this a departure from the rest nant validity in the complaints of hunker off the oyster shell roads, where of the media? After spending an after- Rockport burghers that the Toast gives a man hid from police by taking refuge noon at the Toast, I watched the Corpus the town a bad image. It does make it with the alligators on his alligator farm, Christi six o'clock news. Two stations seem as if every week consists of nothing where the tourists are never Beautiful led with auto accidents. Since the au- but wrecks and arrests and maybe a People but always people who are stuck tomobile is one of the major killers of all "beautiful" shot of a sunset. When Mul- in Texas or Missouri or Iowa and need a time, it is impossible to argue that lins says the paper should record every- coastline, where boarding up for hur- wrecks aren't news, especially for a thing that happens, he enters a pretty ricanes is as natural as looking out for paper whose goal is "to tell what hap- rugged battleground, and I'm not sure he snakes and scorpions and vile things in pened last week as straightforwardly and realizes it. What "happens" in a week? the gulf. honestly as we can." This is not to advo- Is it a two-car collision? The death of an cate extensive wreck coverage for every old man? The baptism of an infant? The The Toast of The Coast simply mirrors paper, but for a local, well, it is local making of a sandwich? The motion of a its surroundings. It's a working class news, and people do want to know. sandcrab? The exchange of real estate? paper run by a working class family, Besides EMS, Mullins says the Toast The merger of businesses? The thoughts lately petty bushwa, who more or less can claim one more achievement: the of a sixth-grader? The . . . the . . . the figure this is what journalism is up to. A creation of a sense of community in the . . . what "happens" depends on in- little higher up on the professional scale coastal bend. "In sticking to our guns terpretation, subjectivity. this once was codified as printing the and persisting, we have made it where The Toast of The Coast reports some news and raising hell, and it very much the little towns here are not so isolated things that happen; but certainly there depends on how you look at it. . . . we're all in the coastal bend boat are broad strokes of reality that do not rather than isolated little communities," come from a police radio or a news re- Looking at it. That's what people around here are doing. They're reading the paper. Not as anything authoritative — it's, a total lark — but as something with a little pizzazz. By comparison, The Rockport Pilot comes on like the instruc- tion sheet in an aspirin bottle. Nobody Ikert4 lurid) but the Toast, see, dredges the dreck. No, no, not "investigative reporting," Austin's only open-air dance floor is now open just the dreck, real dreck, because no- every day and night for live music and home- body else wants to wade into the dreck. style meals. Come enjoy our laid-back tropical There, in the dreck, is where The Toast garden atmosphere. — Fine wines & beers of The Coast lives, rather happily, an un- pretty creature in an unpristine ecol- 405 West Second Street 477-0461 ogy. 0

the legendary Life Insurance and Annuities RAW DEAL Martin Elfant, CLU Steaks, Chops, Chicken 600 Jefferson St., Houston, TX 77002 &AireOF CANADA open lunch and evenings (713) 659-1212 605 Sabine, Austin No Reservations

THE TEXAS OBSERVER 11

Journal 4 According to the Air Force, the EIS is strategically a "very fine site." Ac- gives environmental information needed cording to what appears to be a hastily MX Safe. for selection of a deployment area and compiled Air Force comparison of two operating bases for the 200-missile, short-term impacts of the eight alterna- for Bighorn Sheep 4,600-shelter system. There are eight un- tives, Texas/New Mexico appears en- The Air Force has released its en- ranked possible combinations of de- vironmentally better suited than it is. vironmental impact statement (EIS) ployment and operating base locations Much of this is due to the use in the EIS concerning the theoretical deployment of called "proposed action and alterna- of 36 "issue areas," which are areas of the MX missile, and although the system tives." Six are located in Nevada/Utah. general evaluation, for example, is still geared toward a Nevada/Utah "quality of life," applied to all the po- A seventh alternative cites Clovis, site, the EIS indicates that the possibility tential variations in MX basing. The New Mexico and Dalhart, Texas as of planting missiles in Texas and New problem is, the issue areas seem to have operating bases and would deploy 100 Mexico is still alive and finigling. been conceived with the Nevada/Utah missiles in each state. An eighth alterna- site in mind, so that comparison to The EIS, a bulky five-chapter docu- tive, split basing, would divide deploy- Texas and New Mexico becomes ludi- ment, was disseminated to the public via ment among Texas, New Mexico, Utah crous — or perhaps insidious. simultaneous press conferences held and Nevada with operating bases in around the country on Dec. 18. The Coyote Spring Valley, Nevada and According.to the Air Force,. Pronghorn Texas announcement was made at Clovis, New Mexico. antelope, sage grouse, bighorn sheep, Bergstrom Air Force base in Austin [see rare plants, and desert tortoises, as well box]. A 90-day public comment period is The Air Force has favored siting the as the Utah prairie dog, "do not occur" now in effect, and a final version of the MX in Nevada/Utah but refuses to dis- in the Texas/New Mexico area. Accord- EIS is scheduled for release this sum- count the possibility of a Texas/New ingly, there are "no significant impacts" mer. Mexico deployment, saying that it, too, on such issue areas.

Air Force Bombs Observer The Observer is prepared to tes- according to U.S. Senator Jesse "Oh, well I didn't see theirs," tify that America's Air Force is Helms. Mullaney replied. ready to go out and kick ass Later, Humphrey asked the Air So much for tight security. • around the world with or without Force for permission to attend the Manley and Crawford were able an MX missile system. A stalwart Bergstrom press conference. Offi- band of our men in baby blue to cover the hearing (see story in cials at Norton Air Force Base in this issue), but missed the en- fended off a determined attempt by California said he could go, but at a band of Texas Observer repor- hancement of Humphrey's de- Bergstrom, Humphrey was told ters to attend a Dec. 18 press con- tailed MX knowledge during the only the "press" could attend. ference at Bergstrom Air Force questioning period. base during which the Air Force The Observer then invited The Observer immediately pro- explained its version of the en- Humphrey to attend on a consul- tested the action to Bergstrom of- vironmental impact (others call it tant basis as one of our reporters. ficials, U.S. Sen. John Tower and devastation) of an MX tunnel sys- Use of experts in developing U.S. Rep. J. J. Pickle on grounds tem near Amarillo. stories is a frequent part of Ob- that no governmental agency has The Observer sent three repor- server coverage. the right to tell a news organization ters — staffer Paula Manley and Humphrey, Crawford and Man- whom it may send to cover a story, and that no branch of government MX experts Bill Crawford and ley went to Bergstrom with press George Humphrey. Crawford is a passes from the Observer. But at may make its own judgment as to member of the American Friends the base, a guard acting under the "bona fide" members of the press. Service Committee and Humphrey orders of Capt. Patrick Mullaney Pickle responded with a letter to is a member of the Citizens De- refused to admit Humphrey, al- Col. John W. Linihan, commander fense Watch, civilian groups trying though allowing in Crawford and of Bergstrom, asking Linihan to to block the MX. Manley. "consider the problems raised by Humphrey had atteiided an ear- Mullaney said Humphrey was the refusal to allow a member of lier Air Force briefing about the "not a bona fide representative of the press into the news conference MX in Texas in Austin Nov. 20 the media." He said Humphrey's and take steps accordingly." [Obs., Dec. 26] where he pointed press pass was not sufficient to Tower said he would investigate up discrepancies in government in- allow him in. the matter. formation about the proposed bil- "But the other two had exactly We're waiting for the next press lion dollar missile system, which the same pass," the Observer ob- conference. could run as high as $113 billion, jected. Davis

12 JANUARY 16, 1981

/e, With this sort of scoring, the Texas/ Austin bureau, stealing her from UPI. Commander Cody/Asleep at the-Wheel New Mexico location would be the least With Montgomery and Saralee Tiede, Oione Orchestra filled the stage with significantly impacted of the possible who came on in 1974, the Times Herald zanies. They proceeded to rattle off MX sites in 16 of the 36 issue areas. The had muscled its way to providing the every song they'd ever played, heard on split-basing alternative, which also best legislative coverage of any Texas the radio, or seen written on bathroom would include Texas, shows the least daily, backing up solid Austin stories walls. A tired crowd of dancers and significant impacts in 11 issue areas. with a special "State" section display in swayers didn't stagger out until after 4 One issue area, "ranches and homes," the paper. A replacement for Montgom- a.m. was omitted from the comparative ery hasn't been named. We wish him The beer-and-champagne-sotted event analysis, but did turn up in the Air luck in Reaganville and question his sar- evoked memories of the high times at the Force's 69-page summary of the EIS. ity. club for the crowd of friends, workers, According to the summary, if the MX and devotees. The up-beat delivery of were based in Texas/New. Mexico, 1,400 musicians much-loved by the 'Dillo homes and ranches would have to be re- Adios to crowd and the kissy-kissy of auld lang located — 146 relocations in Deaf Smith the Armadillo syne dispelled the lingering feeling that "It'll never be the same." County and 225 in Parmer County. All the old birds returned to roost New The complete EIS has segments of re- Year's Eve at Armadillo World Head- Craig Hattersley peated pages and occasional profundity. quarters for the Last Dance, last chance The quality of life issue area summary for the Austin chapter of misfits to exult begins, "Perceptions of quality of life are in the final ability of the 'Dillo to survive Ruiz Wins, individual and changeable and, ten years [Obs., Dec. 30, 1980]. Still Fighting therefore, difficult to illustrate:" In face of impending destruction, the Also included in the EIS is a listing of Last Dance might easily have dissolved , Attorneys in the Ruiz prison case have 250 acronyms that pop up continuously into successions of misty soap-opera until Feb. 10 to try to agree to a plan for — just check the list if you forget that scenes. A large majority of the crowd reforming.the Texas penal system in ac- PSD stands for "Prevention of Signifi- worked at or around the 'Dillo over the cordance with the landmark ruling of cant Deterioriation." last ten years; only 650 of the 1,700 tic- U.S. District Judge William Wayne Jus- Suggestions for mitigation of ground kets, $25 per head, actually went on sale tice on Dec. 10 that the state's prisons water shortages with Texas/New Mex- to the public. But the mood was de- are so bad they violate the cifjpstitutiorial ico deployment refer the reader to the cidedly up-tempo. In a style benefitting rights of inmates. proposed action for a different location, all goodtimes-past, the revelers showed On the plaintiff side in the discussions which turns out to be general enough to the country again — on a live, National are attorneys for David Ruiz, who origi- fit any of the alternatives: Public Radio broadcast and on a video nally filed the suit in 1972, and the U.S. "Import water from abundant tape to be released later — the spirit that Justice Department, which took up Ruiz' sources," the action suggests. "Establish gave birth to an Austin Music Scene. case. Defendant attorneys are from the water level and monitoring work," and And what more fitting an act for the state attorney general's office, which "eliminate the irrigation for revegetation occasion than the band that made rock 'n represents the Texas Department of Cor- of shelter sites . . ." roll believers out of country-western rections. If all of this seems too silly to worry Austin, Commander Cody and the Lost According to Justice, if all parties can- about, it may not be. According to Ed Planet Airmen (reunited just for this not reach agreement on a plan based on Miller of Henningson Durham & show). Some nine years ago, Cody and the court ruling, they must submit sepa- Richardson, the consulting firm which the then-unknown Asleep at the Wheel rate proposals on Feb. 15 and Justice will helped write the EIS, political pressure blew into town and jitterbugged the issue his own plan. could result in split region basing of the building. The New Year's Eve show did The decision is the biggest ever to af- MX, giving some of the action to all four that and more. fect Texas prisons, which house 30,000 targeted states. For a half hour, juggler-mime Turk inmates in 17 different facilities. It had Paula Manley Pipkin dazzled the audience with his long been awaited by inmates suffering wizardry and the unique sense of humor, overcrowding and brutality from guards then Asleep at the Wheel took the stage and wardens and helped shAtter the myth Capitol Press and the joint was jumpin'. Since moving that Texas has a model penal system. Dave Montgomery, Austin bureau to Austin, the Wheel has earned long- TDC Director W. J. Estelle, the man chief of the Dallas Times Herald, is leav- overdue respect nationally, with ensuing who supervised the bloodbath Aug. 4, ing his cubicle in the state capitol in Grammies and gigs in the Big Halls of the 1974 in which two female prison em- January to migrate to the Washington U.S.A. But Ray Benson and cohorts ployees were murdered by law officers in bureau of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. were never more at home than on this a fusilade directed at convicts Fred Montgomery, who's been covering the night, dishing out their hits to the fren- Gomez Carrasco and Rudolfo Domin- legislature since 1973 when he replaced zied crowd and backing special appear- guez [Obs., Sept. 6, 1974] was outraged Ernie Stromberger, has had his eyes on ances by Ken Threadgill and Maria Mul- at Justice's ruling and held a big news the Potomac for some time. His jump to daur. conference to say so, implying that Jus- the Metroplex rival Star-Telegram fits Commander Cody followed with a tice was incompetent. Estelle met with into. a recruitment pattern by the Fort rousing set of crowd-pleasers, the sheer Gov. Bill Clements, Atty. Gen. Mark Worth daily to beef up its reporting staff. exuberance of band and dancing throng White, Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby, and other Last year, the Star-Telegram hired vet- effectively masking any technical flaws state officials to try to map out Texas' eran reporter Ann Arnold to head its due to rustiness. For a grand finale, the response.

THE TEXAS OBSERVER 13 Journal/

Justice's 249-page order figures to re- Monthly by a ruling class opposition to liberal when I was young, but that was quire extensive restructuring of the state bilingual education), Burka demon- before I met a couple of real liberals. prison system, although the parameters strated a serious lack of knowledge of Every young man — if he has any heart remain undefined. Less than two weeks the bitter struggle MorOn faced in run- — ought to be a liberal, but he ought to after the opinion was delivered, the state ning for office [Obs., Oct. 17, 1980], a see the error of his ways by the time he is prison board announced it would pro- struggle which included attempts by 35." ceed with the purchase of 6,000 acres of Anglo powers to indict Moron on spuri- One insider pointed out that Moore's land in Grimes County in southeast ous charges. Texas to construct a new prison farm. main importance to the Aggie cause We're sorry Moron wasn't elected — came not from proposing beneficial legis- Ruiz, meanwhile, is still in his cell not because of his name, which sounds lation, but from his ability to block bills serving a 25-year stretch for armed rob- not at all like the anglo word Burka not in A&M's best interests. He was bery. When he wrote to Justice in 1972 seems to think is funny, but because reactive rather than active. complaining of overcrowding, brutality, Mot-On would've been a good man in a Kent Caperton, a younger Aggie who and lack of proper medical care, Justice bad session. As for morons, Burka defeated Moore in last year's primary joined his case with seven others and should direct his thoughts inward. then presided over a trial lasting 159 and was later elected, may be more lib- Davis days. eral and independent than the "Bull of the Brazos," but odds are he will defer to Ruiz has been subjected to numerous the wishes of A&M officials. "He has to instances of official reprisal from the work for A&M," said one observer. TDC, including denial of parole (person- "Self interest dictates that." ally approved by Gov. Clements) and the Aggies in filing of a charge alleging sexual assault the 67th The system regents threw their sup- on another prisoner. Ruiz' attorney, port behind Moore, but after he was de- William Turner, says the charge is a fab- Had the Brilab scandal felled House feated, they quickly made up with Caper- rication and is trying to get it dropped. Speaker Billy Clayton, Texas A&M offi- ton, class of '71, calling him "one of our cials could have torched their 1981 legis- own." lative strategy, since Clayton, class of Moore's old antagonist, A. R. "Babe" '50, is one of the few influential Aggies Schwartz of Galveston, also will be ab- Arroz Is left in the statehouse. sent from the legislature this year. The elections were not kind to the Col- Schwartz, class of '47 and second in Not a Rose lege Station university. During the last Senate seniority behind Moore, was a lit- session, the three most senior senators, tle too unpredictable for many university Texas Monthly editor Bill Broyles has as well as the dean of the House, were officials, but usually could be counted on settled in out in California to edit the Aggies. None of them will be returning. for support in showdowns, especially Monthly's new acquisition, New West If on top of those losses Clayton had those involving the permanent fund. magazine. This should be good news for been humbled, the year would have been the West Coast, which up to now proba- Others who won't be returning include an unqualified disaster for A&M, espe- Rep. Tom Massey of San Angelo and bly hasn't known where to find a good cially since several prickly issues will chicken fried steak. Sen. Tom Creighton of Mineral Wells. confront the maroon and white this ses- Neither ran for re-election. Creighton, Many of us had hoped New West in- sion. class of '48, was third in senate seniority, stead would be graced with the services Two in particular could cause trouble while Massey, class of '58, was a Clayton of Paul Burka, the Monthly's political re- — the biennial attack on the Permanent lieutenant. porter. In introducing an article in the University Fund, in which only the Rep. Richard Slack of Pecos, class of January issue on the upcoming legisla- A&M and University of Texas systems '38, and dean of the House, won't be in tive session, Burka cranked out a puerile share, and the question of funding for Austin for the first time since 1953. and racist word-play on the name of Joe Prairie View A&M, a predominantly Rounding out the list is Rep. W. "Tip" MorOn, a Beeville housing contractor black school in the A&M system. Hall of Denton, class of '43. who had run unsuccessfully against Re- Measures relating to those topics have publican Jay Reynolds for a House seat Senate losses were clearly the most been introduced regularly for years, but devastating, because Moore, Schwartz from the 47th district — which never has Aggie supporters always have been able had a mexicano legislator despite a pre- and Creighton held important committee to mow them down. This session, con- posts. All three were members of the dominantly Mexican-American popula- sidering A&M's decline in legislative in- tion. Burka said it was a shame Moron crucial Finance Committee, which gave fluence, there may be trouble parrying the Aggies a lift in final budget fights. didn't win because then "it would have the challenges. been official: There would have been a Moore, in addition, was chairman of the A list of those who won't be back must State Affairs Committee. Moron in the legislature." Then Burka start with A&M's longtime Senate says, "A Moron, to be technical . . . but In the House, A&M was saved from steamroller, W. T. "Bill" Moore, the potential ruin by Clayton's acquittal. If who quibbles over accents with such a "Bull of the Brazos," dean of the Senate worthy point at stake?" he had not returned as speaker, certain and class of '40. With more than 30 years key figures, such as Rep. Bill Presnal of Worthy point? A racist slander? Well, in the Senate, Moore, from Bryan, was Bryan, class of '53, might have found we quibble with it. definitely a force to be reckoned with. themselves with less influence. Presnal Aside from an unbelievable insensitiv- His political ideology was perhaps headed the House Appropriations Com- ity to the Spanish language (reflected best summed up in this quote attributed mittee last session. elsewhere in the neo-conservative to him: "I used to consider myself rather Overall, A&M's strength has derived

14 JANUARY 16, 1981 from the power of its graduates, not from A&M and UT systems lost their own County a guaranteed portion of A&M's their numbers. Last session, only 17 Ag- dedicated source of new construction permanent fund share. (Currently, A&M gies sat in the Legislature — seven in the funding two years ago. The schools, in- receives a one-third share while UT gets Senate and ten in the House. cluding the University of Houston, had two thirds. Prairie View receives bene- This term, there are even fewer defen- received money from the state property fits at the A&M regents' discretion.) ders, and they have less power. During tax, but were left without a guaranteed Schwartz indicated after the session the session, A&M will boast only 14 source when court challenges forced the that the amendment would have passed graduates — five senators and nine last legislature to nullify it. without the Prairie View provision. He House members. Even if they vote as a Attempts were made during the past blasted the A&M regents for their lack of bloc, which is far from certain, 14 is session to create a new fund for the other support in working out a compromise. hardly an imposing number. In addition, schools, but they failed. Babe Schwartz The University of Texas even offered to three of the Aggies are freshmen; six pushed such a measure, indicating that make Prairie View part of its system if have served one term or less. some action was needed, or the PUF A&M couldn't work out something, but In order of seniority, the Aggies in the would be subject to increased attacks. Aggie officials were cold to that idea. UT 1981 Senate are: Glen Kothmann of San Considering the situation of the other apparently was desperate to settle the Antonio, nine years; Peyton McKnight schools, A&M and UT have an "embar- issue and defuse future attacks on the of Tyler, seven years; Roy Blake of rassment of riches," he said after the PUF. Nacogdoches, two years; E. L. Short of legislation failed. Prairie View and its funding woes are Tahoka, one year; and freshman Kent Schwartz vowed to try again, but elec- likely to be highly visible issues over the Caperton of Bryan. tion defeat precludes that. Nevertheless, next few sessions. A strong minority The House: Bill Clayton of Spring it is still in A&M's and UT's best inter- caucus will see to that. Lake, 18 years; Bill Presnal of Bryan, 12 ests to settle quickly, before the PUF For several years, complaints have years; Susan McBee of Del Rio, six grows too large. One scenario which been leveled at A&M regents concerning years; Bo Crawford of Beaumont, two might develop is for the other schools to their treatment of Prairie View. Rep. years; John Short of Victoria, two years; bide their time for another term, waiting Senfronia Thompson of Houston said the Foster Whaley of Pampa, two years; for the permanent fund to reach $2 bil- school had received "less than a slave's Gerald Geishweidt of Mason, one year; lion. They then might suggest it be cap- share." This session, the cause is being and freshmen Clint Hackney of Houston ped and a new fund started with future championed by Rep. Wilhelmina Delco and Rollin Khoury of Waco. revenue. of Austin, who has introduced legislation With A&M on the ropes and the Uni- A complicating factor for A&M is the which would clarify the Texas Constitu- versity of Texas still reeling over Frank question of funding for Prairie View tion as to the relationship between UT, Erwin's death, serious challenges to the A&M University, part of the A&M sys- A&M and Prairie View. sacred Permanent University Fund seem to a halt. The constitution states that the PUF is inevitable. The amendment to create a new fund for UT and its branches, one of which is Pressures on the PUF have been was torpedoed in the 1979 session by a an institution for "colored youths." strong for years, but have heightened provision concerning Prairie View which Delco believes that since A&M receives since 17 state universities not in the would have given the school in Waller money as a branch, Prairie View is enti-

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THE TEXAS OBSERVER 15 Journal/ tied to a share as another branch. years with a good deal of flash. There Eastern Airlines may now become more Her proposal would give the school were the Alexander Calder planes, the possible. If that happens, it would be a one sixth of the fund, with UT and A&M orange, red, green and blue planes, and black mark against Texas' reputation for splitting the rest. then the sedate chocolate brown planes. effective management, which ought to be Aggie officials probably would prefer There were fancy hostess uniforms (but able to keep a potentially successful op- to hear little more about Prairie View or not fancy hostess pay) and snazzy inter- eration going. the permanent fund, but those issues ior decorating jobs. There were grand • The real retirement note for 1980, won't easily be quashed, especially with plans to expand during the past two however, came from quiet La Grange, the A&M legislative machinery grinding years, based on Braniff's previous where Sheriff T. J. "Big Jim" Flournoy to a halt. Roy Kleinsasser growth — impressive — from $100 mil- decided to hang up his badge at age 78: lion in revenues back in the '60s to about Flournoy was not one of your real nice $1.3 billion today. But the company gentle cops, but he did achieve a reputa- So Long overreached, its stock tumbled on the tion for keeping the Fayette County market, and Braniff has been selling Two retirements of note were an- crime rate down and for getting steamed some of its fleet and cutting pay to em- about the closing of the "Chicken nounced in Texas just before the end of ployees to pay off debts and stay in the 1980. Ranch" brothel in 1973 by then-Gov. air. But in the end Braniff, under the Dolph Briscoe. Flournoy was also a • One came from Dallas, where Hard- flamboyant management of Lawrence, Texas Ranger during the war years, ing L. Lawrence, chairman and chief has been unable to turn itself around. 1941-45, and is in the Ranger Hall of executive officer of Dallas-based Braniff Those who fly on the airline regularly International Corp., said he was quitting Fame. His replacement in Fayette may hope that a new chairman will con- County is no spring chicken himself — after 15 years of running Texas' biggest centrate less on sizzle and more on fun- Vesnate Koppman, 62, a former chief flying joke. Although Braniff denied it, damentals, like passenger treatment, deputy. the word was that Lawrence, 60, had flight safety, and prompt schedules. Now been forced to resign. Braniff has been that other Texas airlines such as losing money for about 18 months, in- Southwest and Texas International are Progressives and cluding operating losses of $113 million capable of moving passengers around in the first three quarters of 1980. Texas at lower cost and with less hassle The Austin Council Lawrence, whose wife, Mary Wells than often-arrogant Braniff, a change is Filing for the six Austin City Council Lawrence, owns the big New York clearly in order. seats doesn't begin until Feb. 3, but 23 agency which handles the Braniff adver- There's one other speculation about candidates, ranging from graduates of tising account ("We better be better") the Lawrence "retirement" — and that's the progressive council of the early '70s had tried to promote Braniff over the that a long-discussed merger with to members of Austin's conservative es-

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iffear 1 6 JANUARY 16, 1981 tablishment, already have announced. developers. vacated. His departure will leave a There's also competition from a group Another progressive candidate who council seat vacant for three months, but calling itself simply "South Austin," could tilt the city political scales is Roger his detractors remark that his seat has which seeks a candidate to represent the Duncan, who is trying to unseat conser- been vacant all along. 100,000 residents on the lower side of the vative Betty Himmelblau in Place 2. Bertha Means, who lost the county Colorado River. Duncan almost beat Himmelblau in 1979 race to Snell, and Dr. Charles Urdy from The current mayor, Carole McClellan, and, campaigning on an environmental Huston-Tillotson College, plan to run for backed heavily in the past by Austin real and anti-nuclear platform, has a very Place 6. estate interests, has announced for a good chance this year. Meanwhile, "South Austin," the group third term, setting up what may be the Former television newsman Richard headed by investor and former council hottest council race. Her opponents so Goodman, at best a moderate, is unop- member Jay Johnson, has had about as far are attorney and former city council posed for Place 4 and Johnny Trevino, much luck finding a candidate from member Bob Binder and conservative the only Mexican-American on the south of the river as if it were searching businessman Jack McCreary. McCreary council, is unopposed in Place 5. has challenged McClellan before. for an honest man. Johnson has declared In Place 3, the lamentable Ron Mul- Binder hasn't entered electoral politics himself "unavailable" as a candidate, but lens has notyet announced plans. In as a candidate since he trounced the late he might change his mind. Business peo- Place 4, Texas Instruments executive ple like Charles Goodnight, an investor Dick Nichols in 1973 to serve a two-year Lee Cooke finally confirmed that he will and former owner of Hill's Cafe, have term on the council. Since the mid-70s, not run again. the once progressive Austin council, joined Johnson in the bid to find which included Jeff Friedman as mayor, The council's only black, Jimmy Snell, someone who will speak up when the has given way to pro-growth, conserva- leaves his Place 6 seat Jan. 5 to join the council votes to delay capital improve- tive interests typified by McClellan. This Travis County Commissioners Court. • ments for South Austin which already have been approved in bond elections. year may mark a serious effort by pro- He picked that date to help the city avoid Almost a decade has passed since gressives to regain control. Binder's the expenditure of a special election. His "mayor" of South Austin, candidacy can be expected to meet with resignation leaves 89 days before the Nichols, the became the last council member from the favor of environmental and neigh- April 4 election, barely coming within a borhood groups as an alternative voice city requirement that a special election that part of the city. on a council which most often sides with be held within 90 days if a council seat is Janie Paleschic

Taxes . . . from p. 6 of civil fines for recalcitrant businesses. City Manager Schrader gives up his desk The tax revolt in Dallas and the immi- at city hall (and the highest public sal- Noller's ambiguous and evasive re- nent referendum it sparked have set the ary in the state — $80,000 per year) to go sponses to questions from the press and stage for another round of council elec- into private business, where some of his public about his "equalization program" tions in the spring. critics say his heart has been all along. City hall observers say he would have were fun to read about, but no fun when The current council — elected to a it came to paying property taxes. He has quit before now but he wanted to tack partial term following a year's delay the city managers' association pres- served notice that he will resign this Feb- caused by a U.S. Justice Department ruary, soon after he becomes eligible for idency onto his list of professional hon- challenge on the basis of the federal Vot- ors. a city pension, but denies that his leaving ing Rights Act — must stand for office is prompted by the controversy his pro- again. One reliable but unconfirmed report big business taxation policies generated. has him signed up months ago by Mayor Robert Folsom, a millionaire "No matter what you say," he said in Kerrville carpet magnate L. D. developer, has announced he will not announcing his plans to retire, "there's a seek a fourth term and the business es- Brinkman. lot more people who are knowledgeable tablishment has apparently not yet set- Bill Blackburn, an attorney and former about the Dallas tax system than there tled on its choice for a successor. city councilman who once was consid- was before." Gramatically skewed as his ered prime mayoral material, sees the tax Jack Evans, president of Cullum observation might have been, there was revolt and the noisy dissents on council Companies Inc., which owns Tom no denying the understated truth of it. as "kind of healthy . . . it's no longer a Thumb Page grocery and drug stores, rubber-stamp deal." When the tax reform plan was ap- has done everything but make a formal proved by council, it was also learned announcement for the race, including The proliferation of neighborhood that Noller's department also has yet to stepping down as chairman of the groups organized around "bread and but- finish auditing the city's largest com- Dallas-Fort Worth Airport Board. ter issues," says Blackburn, "is a mi- panies, a task the council ordered done crocosm of what we see on a national last summer. The TEA Party mad-as- Neither former mayor Wes Wise nor former council member Adlene Harrison scale now," and the city council, with hellers estimate there may be another its broadened minority representation, $10 billion in business property under the is a certain candidate, although both have discussed joining the field. "is probably more repfesentative of our wall-to-wall rugs of corporate offices pluralistic society." that a thorough auditing would disclose ., The prospects thus appear excellent the fact is, no one knows how much for another wide-open year in municipal To be a Dallas council member or business inventory there is that could — politics, similar to last year when the mayor now, says Blackburn, "you must and should — be taxed. Folsom-Big Business crowd failed to be aware of what's going on south and The new tax reform program also carry much clout with the voters. While west of the Trinity. takes a realistic approach to the never- Folsom was re-elected, two council can- Those may still be fighting words in enforced criminal penalties now on the didates he backed lost and an obscure North Dallas, or around corporate water books for delay and failure to report taxi driver steered into the big leagues by coolers, but at city hall they can put you business inventory. The tax plan ap- collecting a fourth of the vote for mayor. in touch with some very influential proved by council calls for the adoption This is also expected to be the year bureaucrats. THE TEXAS OBSERVER 17 (A d ve rt ise men t)

A Public Service Message from the American Income Life Insurance Co.—Executive offices, Waco, Texas—Bernard Rapoport, Chairman of the Board

How To Thrive as a Minnow in a Sea of Whales

By Bernard Rapoport

Text of a speech made in New York City, September 1980. thought when I began the company that if we ever got it to a million dollars in premium that I could retire. Well, the third year we went way I'm supposed to be here to tell you how I built American Income Life past that and I realized that we really hadn't gotten anywhere. So then I Insurance Company. As you listen to all of us so-called entrepreneurs thought it would have to be five million. Then as the years went on it today, I'm sure the thought will come to your mind "What are the was ten and twenty and eighty million. And now I know that there's no ingredients that are prevalent in them?" I suspect that you are going to such thing as enough. be mighty confused because we are all so different. There is one common attribute and that is that in each is a need to succeed. How this Recognition of this has accelerated our motivation not only for myself need manifests itself is what defies comparison. In my own instance. I but for all of us associated with American Income. In those early years came from immigrant parents and I was warned at an early age that we were growing at a pretty fair rate, but I pondered why we weren't being the product of Russian Jewish immigrants one needed to be twice doing a lot better. And then in a flash it came to me that what we were as good to get half as far and not to be dismayed by the challenge but to doing was emulating the big companies. Although there are some 1,800 revel in it. I would have to say that life has been not only interesting, but insurance companies in the United States, there are really only twelve far more rewarding than I deserve. or fifteen or maybe twenty that do 65 or 70 percent of all the business that is done. The reality is that once you mention Metropolitan, Pruden- I'm a populist by inclination. I have a real hatred of monopoly and a tial, Aetna, Travelers, New York Life, Connecticut General, and Con- total dedication and commitment to a competitive, free enterprise soci- necticut Mutual, you are talking about most of the life insurance in ety. I am continually lobbying for that kind of society which provides America. What you have then is some 1,750 or 1,760 companies fighting access to all those with entrepreneurial instincts. You know, when you over the remaining 20 or 25 percent of the business. are in college, you become enamored with John Locke who talks about how good man is and you sort of rebel at what Thomas Hobbes wrote So two things came to mind. One, if you are a minnow you don't go when he said man was basically selfish and greedy and suggested that a where the whales eat, so that meant we had to have a definite market reasonable society ought to acknowledge this basic nature of man and that was not being invaded by the majors, and that was the blue collar that this so-called society should incorporate those constraints that market. Second, I recognized that this generation of young people isn't would enable us to have a civilized, functioning society. Perhaps the better or worse than mine. It's simply different. I'm a depression individual who wrote this understood Hobbes: oriented person and I would go door to door to sell in order to survive. To survive, the small businessman has to bend or break This generation is the product of an affluent society, so obviously they these rules from time to time. We are told that this is a don't have the same fears and motivations as did my generation. So government of laws, not of man. Baloney! The laws are rather than try to get them to accommodate to American Income, I made by men, interpreted by men and enforced by men. decided that we would accommodate to them. So we had to come up Those who have the power use laws to subject or destroy with a marketing concept where we could employ salespeople who those who do not. So survival for the small businessman is would not have to do prospecting, who would have a definite place to keyed to how well he can operate inside or outside these go, who would have a simple, non-gimmicky product to sell, a product rules until he is large enough to benefit from them. The that people within that market really need; and, if possible, to create a key rule is don't get caught. If this sounds cynical or unique feeling between the salesperson and the prospect that there was immoral to you, you are on the right wave length. To win, a community between them . . . in our situation, the common bond you must play to win. There is another saying, "Show me would be union membership. a good loser, and I'll show you a loser." After you win, First, how we got the market. Well, I was always one of the leaders of and are on top of the heap, you can do what the IBM's, the liberal movement at The University of Texas when I was a Standard Oil's, General Motors and the rest of the big youngster, and most of my close friends either went into the labor boys do. You can write codes of ethics, make speeches movement or taught at universities. So I talked to some of my friends about morality, and at the same time kick rocks down on who were union leaders and they thought it was a pretty good idea that all the scratching, scrambling little bastards below trying their members could buy supplemental insurance from a company that to climb to the top. was empathetic to the union philosophy. So one day after finding out we Now let's get on with the American Income story. In 1951, we started could penetrate the market, I went to our actuaries and said "There's a the company with $25,000 as a mutual legal reserve company which was market of blue collar workers that we would like to work with, but we permitted under Indiana law. We began selling primarily hospitalization have to recognize that the lapse ratio is higher than normally expected along the lines of Bankers Life & Casualty, and we did pretty fair. The in the life insurance industry." They indicated that they could bring out first year we did about a hundred thousand dollars worth of premium. a policy with a suitable and fair rate that would accommodate to this The second year, about a half million dollars worth of premium. I one disadvantage of the higher lapse ratio.

18 JANUARY 16, 1981 (Advertisement)

A Public Service Message from the American Income Life Insurance Co.—Executive offices, Waco, Texas—Bernard Rapoport, Chairman of the Board

Well, now we had the market and we had a product that could be gives us an opportunity to serve unions and their members in a more profitably sold. Then we were ready to go. So we started out selling meaningful way, but at the same time increases some tenfold the disability insurance. We sold lots of it. Then came 1972. Well, for a number of prospects that our agents have, and provides a base from moment or two during that year I thought the world was coming to an which we can hopefully expand our marketing and sales operations end. We were just writing lots of business and we had our six months exponentially. We are just now beginning to see some meaningful in- report coming out and this was prior to GAAP accounting and we creases in our new business production. We are approaching some showed a very substantial loss. Well, what really unsuspectingly hap- other new marketing techniques. We are in too early a stage to make pened to us was that the mores of our society were changing as the any predictions. I do want to indelibly impress on you that there isn't result of the radical reorientation resulting from the malaise of the '60s. any company anywhere that is more committed to searching out new The commitment to the work ethic had diminished. The claims on disa- marketing opportunities than American Income. bility insurance rose dramatically. Our stock went from $26 to $12 in If I had to pick out American Income's most valuable asset, I would one day. I will never forget that day and I resolved that I would try to do have to say it's not its Chairman of the Board or its officers, but rather something that had never been done in our industry; to wit, to convert its sales force. We have a thousand person sales force that is strong and an accident and health sales force into a life insurance sales force. probably one of the most productive on average in the entire insurance I know it sounds almost impossible to believe, but we really accom- industry. We really are a company of opportunity unlimited. Most of plished this almost overnight. There's an old proverb that in order to our state general agents earn well in excess of $100,000 a year, a few give light to others, one-must first set fire to himself. I can tell you quite even a half million dollars and, yes, one even earns one million dollars frankly that as the largest stockholder in the company, I was really on annually. Our general agents' and our agents' average earnings are con- fire. And I guess it radiated throughout our entire sales force because siderably above industry average. we successfully made the conversion. Well, you can see up to this point that we were able to build a market and to gather a bunch of great salespeople under one roof. This is what Our relationship with the labor movement is a very interesting one, it seems to me the entrepreneur has to do. What he can't do, or at least and I want to explain it. We do not sell health and welfare or pension generally can't, is to delineate what his strengths and his weaknesses plans or group insurance. We sell supplemental insurance. In other are. It's because he is generally strong in the marketing and sales area words, our agents sell individual policies to those union members who that he gives too little attention to the real object of the business which want additional insurance to supplement what is provided for them in is to make money. Subjectively speaking, I recognize that it takes peo- their health and welfare program. In our manner of doing business, we ple like me to build companies, but that the professional managers are go to the president or business agent of a Local and say to him "You far more adept at running them for profit. have negotiated a fine health and welfare plan for Our members. The truth is that your members do buy supplemental or individual insurance So I went out and employed Charles Cooper as President of our additionally, and wouldn't you prefer that they buy it from a union company. And while I am obviously prejudiced, he is in my mind the company rather than from a non-union company?" That answer is usu- most competent manager I've ever met. Our Executive Vice President ally yes, and then we ask them to put out a mailing to their membership is Ken Phillips who is also our Financial Officer and Director of our indicating that if the member is interested in supplemental insurance he computer operations. So under Cooper's leadership and with Ken's can have it with a union label company. Well, generally we will get back great talent, our company is so mechanized that it's really indescriba- anywhere from a four to fifteen percent response. We average selling ble. You would have to come down and take a look to see how effective about half of the responses. the systems that Cooper and Phillips have implemented really are. They've got me using one of those terminals — something I thought I In other words, American Income's growth is the result of having the would never do — and today I would be at a loss to run the company privilege of dealing with 18,000 or 19,000 Locals throughout the United without this terminal or without all the new systems that have been States and the fact that we will in most cases have a continuous rela- brought into play in our company. We have grown four or five times in tionship with the Local for these mailings. We are very supportive of size since Cooper has been our Chief Operating Officer, and we have causes which are of interest to unions, and this comes naturally to me fewer people employed in our executive office than we did five or six because of my personal philosophy which succinctly stated recognizes years ago. Operating costs, that is, our total cost of doing business in that essential to a free democratic society is a free competitive business terms of net revenue, have continually decreased, and we expect this community, a free labor movement, and, of course, a free government. trend to continue for some time. To make sure that this will in fact be a We have a Labor Advisory Board and many of the most important fact, we recently hired Fred Hudson as our Executive Vice President in international union presidents are members of this Board. Their mem- charge of agencies. So except for myself, I guess American Income has bership does not constitute either an endorsement of our company or its one of the youngest management teams in American business. Our products, but it is an acknowledgement that American Income is a President is 42 and our two Executive Vice Presidents are in their union label company. These members share with us the benefit of their middle 30s, so we have a lot of continuity and aggressive youth in this thinking on how American Income can best serve the union member- management team of ours. ship and union causes. So to tie it all together, we have the market, the product, and the In addition to the union market, we have made some significant in- people that are all in place. I am euphoric about the future because roads into the credit union market. So marketingwise, we always try to underlying these essential ingredients is a commitment and a very deep remember that what built American Income is the fact that we had commitment that American Income is a company made up of union places for our agents to go. We can contract a person who has never people dedicated to serving the common folk, serving them with sen- been in insurance previously, train him or her for a period of ten days, sitivity and a deep sense of responsibility. In this cynical and increas- and really and truly have him or her nearing $400 or $500 a week right ingly skeptical world in which we live, this may sound a little maudlin. If from the very first week following their training. The reason is simple. it does for you, it will just have to. It's what we believe in at American We give our people thirty places to go each week. Now I don't mean Income. It's right for us. And our success is definitive proof that we do just a name and an address, but a place wherein the salesperson will be believe it and that we have been able to get lots of other folks to share calling on someone who knows that the agent is coming, knows why, this philosophy. and generally understands that there is a community of interest between I think one of the reasons that we have such flexibility at American the two inasmuch as they are both union members. It is for this reason Income is because of this philosophy. We have a need to survive, a need that American Income's salespeople have one of the highest closing to not only be successful, but to be outstandingly successful. We never ratios relative to interview in our industry. get bogged down or enamored with what we are doing if we are per- We are constantly improving our marketing techniques. For example, suaded that by changing we can do better. So long as we adhere to this we recently introduced a new accidental death program which enables philosophy, I believe that you will find American Income to always be Locals to provide an additional benefit for their members. This not only among America's fastest growing companies. 0

THE TEXAS OBSERVER 19 C011traband/Laurence Jolidon Reagan and The Truth About Hams Ronald Reagan, who seems to shuffle (usually to the right) his jaw until he makes it over the Department of Energy. An when he talks in that shy, head-down and smiling way of his but orthodontist will be in charge, and the only drilling they will is said to wear steel spurs on his ideological heels, is finally on know or care much about will be the kind where the patient gets his way to the White House and the pains and privileges of the gas and the biggest holes are filled in, rather than kept open. holding the highest office in the land, next to being President's But if he is to have any chance of success, Reagan will need Brother. to be told the whole truth about what's going on in his govern- No matter where they're coming from politically, most ment, and on his staff, down to the hams. pundits and politicians appear to be wishing the governor well, The story about Jimmy's Missing Ham is one of those classic hoping he will take a firm grip on the problems of state and illustrations of what can go wrong in a well-intentioned adminis- begin to quickly straighten out some of the mess the country tration like Carter's when the head man commands so much finds itself in, from hostages abroad to infinite interest rates at respect and deference from his staff that small matters like the home. truth are forgotten. He'll find, naturally, that it's not all cookies and milk and The story, as revealed long after the fact by some reporters worrying about plum blight back on the ranch. There will be who either didn't think it was worth telling when it happened or solutions that bring with them their own subsequent problems. only tumbled to it after Carter's crushing defeat, involved a ham There will be problems without solutions. And, thanks to years that a governor gave to Carter when he was visiting the gov- of liberal sway in Washington, there will be a backlog of great ernor's state. solutions with no earthly chance of making it past the Lincoln The governor told Carter that the smoked ham was prime Memorial and out here where some of the problems sit. eating, the best-tasting ham available anywhere, and said he The Democrats, it seemed for the past several years, didn't sure hoped the President would enjoy it. Carter thanked the care whether the problems got solved as long as the Washington governor and, to save his public image of proper decorum, press corps got the facts straight about who should get the promptly handed the ham to an aide for safekeeping. credit fOr coming up with the solutions. When he got back to the White House, Carter let it be known The Republicans, it is feared, now that they have control of that he would enjoy nothing more for dinner that evening than the White House and the Senate, and are greedily eyeing con- the gift ham. Word was passed back to the White House mess, trol of the House in 1982, won't care about coming up with where the staff went into a hamless fit. solutions to any of the real problems as long as the Washington A quick check revealed that the ham never made it back to press corps gets the facts straight on who should get the credit Washington. Someone on the president's staff had given it to for saving the taxpayers the cost of all the solutions. the volunteers who had been on hand to help with Carter's visit Most of us don't care who gets the credit as long as all this and, with the usual gusto of political volunteers, they had con- fighting between Democrats and Republicans doesn't make it sumed it, presumably with a great smacking of lips. any tougher for the banks and the department stores and the Fearful of upsetting Carter, the White House sent a ham- pharmacies to extend us some credit. search party flying back to the state where the gift ham origi- I'm neither a pundit nor a politician, and if I had to describe nated and managed to deliver an identical one to the White my politics in three words or less they would probably be Radi- House kitchen just in time for the evening meal. cal Progressive Conservative, but I, too, wish Reagan well in his Carter, so the story went, never knew that the ham he dined new task. on that evening had been provided at such great trouble and I, too, want Reagan to preside over a land of the free and a effort. home of the brave. I, too, want to live in a country where What would have been the gravest fallout from letting the someone as important as Willie Nelson can screw up the words president know the truth about his devoured gift ham? to the national anthem and not be dragged off to an isolated Obviously, he would have had to choose between a local ham prison for corrective surgery on his vocal chords. (are there not hams suitable for a presidential palate in the I, too, want every lanky actor and loose-throated sports an- great, nearby states of Virginia and Maryland?) and some other nouncer to be able to plausibly dream of one day becoming main dish. president of the United States. By then, maybe Harvard or the If, learning his gift ham was gone, the president could not LBJ School of Public Affairs will have created a summer ses- forgive an aide for letting it slip into the gullets of his hungry sion for presidential candidates to attend between the conven- supporters and fired him or her for gross negligence of ham tions and the elections. security, then the voters of this republic ought to be permitted For me, at least, one of the most troubling aspects of last year to know this about the man who dines on the White House was not the prospect of Reagan becoming president, because china. that seemed more certain every day. It was the thought that A man who would fire an underling for giving away a ham and nobody was doing much to prepare him for the job. yet defend a Bert Lance for writing lines of credit for himself is Too many of us were willing to sit around and make smart not a person who deserves re-election, in my view, and I think cracks about his newspaper clipping files, where he turned for the sooner we know such matters about a president the better expert advice and statistics, instead of seeing that the man got a the nation is served. graduate degree in government. The better he is served too, of course. He may retire, if he Presumably, Reagan is in the process of refiling his old clip- wishes, to a post-presidency cabin in the ham-giving state and pings in favor of consulting his Brooks Brothers Cabinet. And, smack his lips over the local bacon to his heart's content. of course, if he has any sudden dental problems he can just hold (continued on page 23) 20 JANUARY 16, 1981 tional journal? I didn't want to take on the job because I was running way late on a book and this would throw me at least a month later. The kind of money I could get for the piece wouldn't make it worth my time, under the circumstances, and besides I knew it would be damned hard to stay objective when writing Dialogue/ about somebody I had known for as long as I have known Eckhardt. But as a favor I took it on, and I persuaded the Charming little Let me give you an example of the editors at the New York Times Magazine piece way his staff let him down: I was sitting that Eckhardt was a story that surpassed in his office last summer getting poop regionalism. After two drafts I still had That's a charming little piece Laur- about the situation in the Eighth District 8,000 words. By that time the piece had ence Jolidon did on Bob Eckhardt in the and this staff person informed me that become downright torture and I wanted November 28 issue ("Last Day of the Eckhardt hadn't got the support of the to throw it out the window, but by that Lion"). But I think the sentimentality of union at Exxon in 1978. Eckhardt, who time Eckhardt's campaign was falling the piece — an understandable sentimen- was listening in on the conversation, apart and a piece in the national press tality; all Texans are Irishmen in the said, "They didn't? I didn't know that." seemed all the more important so I kept sense that they love a good political Needless to say, the reason he didn't at it, and the editors at The Times kept at wake — permits your readers to avoid know was that he hadn't been told. it, and together we slashed 2,000 words. considering some of the realities of the I'm sure Eckhardt didn't especially And the piece was printed. situation. enjoy getting out and shaking hands and Jolidon says "there were some who keeping the ties bound, but I'm sure he Eckhardt was very grateful. (I should said Eckhardt never did learn to like the didn't especially dislike that routine add that Eckhardt himself has great rela- necessary chores of incumbency, the either. Eckhardt, in fact, would just as tions with individual newsmen.) But stroking and chin-chucking that are part soon explain a piece of legislation to a somebody very close to Eckhardt, not on of most politicians' lot back home. The casual passerby as he would to the presi- his staff but an advisor, phoned and complained about a one-letter typog- brilliant, scholarly and eloquent Eck- dent of Exxon. He does like people, he hardt, it was said, "would rather argue respects the intelligence of the masses, raphical error in the piece. with a colleague in Congress than shake and he is not aloof in any way. But he is a That's the kind of people who were the hand of a constituent." bit lazy and he is extremely set in his "helping" Eckhardt. Man oh man, he Since Jolidon does not disagree with ways, stubborn, and to get him off his ass was bound to lose. and out doing the kind of fence-mending that appraisal, and since Jolidon is a man But let's not be too sad, folks. Thanks of opinion, I presume he agrees with it. he should have done would have taken the kind of effort and concern and intelli- to the U.S. taxpayer, Eckhardt will retire And he is quite right to do so. But by on a pension of about $24,000 for his 13 implying that "most politicians" do in- gence that his staff simply did not, in my opinion, possess. They certainly did not years in Congress (his World War II mili- deed "learn to like" that sort of thing, I tary time also counts). And he will get think he is dead wrong. Congress may be have what it took to pinch-hit for him in these duties. something for his time in the Texas legis- full of thieves, connivers and scoundrels, lature. So I would say we've been very but most members of Congress are not It goes without saying that one of the generous in tossing bones for the "lion," dumb. They don't like to spend their most efficient ways to keep in touch with as you call him, to munch on in his sun- time making simpleminded smalltalk the public is through the press. Eck- set cage. with people they don't know. So they hardt's staff was extraordinarily in- hire staffs who are competent to do competent in dealing with the press. Eck- Bob Sherrill much of the "stroking and chin- hardt was chairman of one of the most Baltimore chucking" for them; they hire staffs who, news-bountiful subcommittees in Con- when they are confronted with a public gress — the special investigating sub- relations situation that the staffs can't committee of the Commerce Committee. Right handle, hound their congressmen into From that seat, any pro-consumer con- On getting out and doing the dreary but ab- gressman can make the paper every day. To be "A Journal of Free Voices" you solutely essential contact work them- Eckhardt's predecessor, Rep. Moss of certainly are trying to destroy the free- selves. California, was a genius at it. He was dom of the free enterprise system and I think Eckhardt had one of the most also surrounded by a very sharp bunch the constitution of the U.S.A. with your incompetent staffs on Capitol Hill. They of workers who got in there and dug out pro communist newspaper. I sincerely did not keep in touch with the people and stuff like crazy and they shoveled it to hope you get the message from the vot- organizations in his district who were the newspapers. Eckhardt was no genius ers that we are tired of the government vital to his survival; worse, they didn't at dealing with the press, believe me; and controlling our lives; tired of destroying force him to keep in touch with these his staff was hopeless. He did some patritism (sic) to our great land of free- people. I can say from personal knowl- first-rate investigations that got hardly dom; and tired of secular humanism edge that, amazingly enough, Eckhardt's any notice. being substituded (sic) for the belief in 'ties with a group that he had built his Let me give you one more personal God that our forefathers prayed to as whole career on — labor — had been experience to show the mentality of the they wrote our constitution. May God allowed to deteriorate so badly that labor people who surrounded Eckhardt. A few Bless American again and may the pro couldn't, or at least didn't, put together months ago I was approached by socialists and pro communists move to much of a strike force to man the phones somebody on his staff and told that big Russia. and knock on doors when the going got oil money was about to wash them away, Mrs. Joe Hersey tough in this campaign. and could I do a piece about it for a na- Texline THE TEXAS OBSERVER 21 ._\,r1 and Associates Good books in every field Lennon, handguns, E 502 W. 15th Street JENKINS PUBLISHING CO. Austin, Texas 78701 The Pemberton Press double binds REALTOR Representing all types of properties John H. Jenkins, Publisher I in Austin and Central Texas feel anger, frustration, hurt, loss, ■••• • .I••••• Interesting & unusual property a specialty. grief at the death of John Lennon. I am CO 477-3651 Box 2085 ES Austin 78768 also caught in a double bind. The proba- bility of that creep shooting Lennon would have been diminished substan- tially, perhaps to nearly zero, had he not been able to obtain a handgun. Possibly he would have found another way of committing the same crime. But possibil- ginnysCOPYING SERVICE ' ity should not be confused with probabil- ity. Possible is a binary word; it either is Copying • Binding or it ain't. Probable is a continuum all the way from just this side of impossible to Printing •Color Copying the limit of certainty. It is possible that Graphics 'Word Processing he could have killed Lennon with a club, but not probable. He could have pushed Austin • Lubbock • Son Marcos a piano out of an upper story window but it's not probable that he could kill Len- non in this fashion. He could have attacked Lennon with a knife, but it is not nearly so probable that he would have succeeded in killing him as it was with a .38 caliber revolver. They are so easily concealed and you get five more chances if you don't do it right the first time. A handgun is a very specialized tool, that is A Texas Tradition Since 1866 why it works so well. There are no com- promises. It has but one function, to No games, no gimmicks, no loud music. poke holes in people. It has no other Just good conversation with the most utilitarian value at all. It's no good for interesting people in Austin. And hunting, it doesn't have the range, power the best of downhome cooking. or accuracy. There is, as I well know, some marginal recreational value to be 1607 San Jacinto Closed Sundays 477-4171 had in shooting at paper targets or bot- tles. I should know, I grew up going out to the range and shooting with my father. I even had some illusions about becoming an olympic class competitor as I became more proficient. But that value is more than offset by the destructive potential which the device has. It kills people! As a race we have been unable to effectively cope with this potential. The over 10,000 deaths effected by handguns in 1979 attest to the fact that there are thousands of people out there who cannot own a gun without using it to hurt someone else. Even if one discounts all of the premeditated, intentional homicides committed with handguns, there remain thousands of victims every Simply the best record shop in the state of Texas—try year. The typical case involves a us first for hard-to-find, local and regional records, handgun, alcohol, a close friend or family lowest prices member, an argument and, BOOM! "Oh My God, what have I done, I just wanted to scare him." The N.R.A. may call me a pinko but I am against killing human beings and I am against anyone else, the government and "good, honest upstand- ing Americans" included, killing human beings. But that is only one-half of the double 24th austin, texas • 472-9459 bind. The other is that I am a Jew. I live in Houston, Texas and I am told by a 22 JANUARY 16, 1981

Nr. around the White House, and was not just some grinning fig- Contraband . . . from page 20 urehead waiting to be put through the media meatgrinder and salted and peppered to the voters' taste for re-election. I prefer to think that Carter would have thought the matter a I have solved the great ham problem, he could have said to small nuisance, rather than a major crisis necessitating a special us. And many, thinking the president meant he had finally got- flight to bring back a twin ham, and would have quickly re- ten rid of Ham Jordan, would have sighed with relief and ap- verted to worrying about the problem of Jerusalem, or how to proval. get more jello into the free school lunch program, or some other We can only hope that when one of President Reagan's hams worthy matter of state. comes up missing, his staff will have the courage to tell him it If nothing else, telling the president of a problem such as The has been eaten. Missing Ham Crisis and letting HIM come up with a solution on Because if the president of the U.S. is dining on false pre- his own could have added immeasurably to his sense of self- tenses, the rest of the country is surely living by the skin of its esteem, a feeling that he was actually in charge of matters teeth. El

Dialogue .. . number of reliable sources that less than foreclose that option? Louis F. Linden 50 miles from here the Ku Klux Klan is Ten years ago I was discharged from Executive Director training people to kill "Jews and Nig- the Army as a conscientious objector be- National Asibciation of gers." I have similar reports from around cause I refused to have anything to do Criminal Defense Lawyers the U.S. and the world for that matter. It with killing people. Last year I found Houston was only a few months ago that French myself taking solace as I loaded my En- synagogues were being attacked. The field, knowing that its sole use was to be wonders of modern media have made it the utter and ultimate destruction of Workers and possible for me to actually see these anyone 'who entered my home and at- stockholders smug, self-righteous bastards with the tempted my undoing. If I have evinced a It is clear from the text of Bernard AR-15/M-16 rifles. I know from my per- willingness to breach the commandment, sonal experience that they are capable of Rapoport's commercial for the American "Thou Shalt Not Kill," can I logically re- auto industry [Advt. in Obs., Dec. 30, carrying out their intentions. fuse to own and, if necessary, carry a 1980] that he is unaware that the "fuel handgun? I have been in situations with the Klan efficient domestic cars" marketed by before and it is a fairly well known fact And there is the double bind. Chrysler are in fact manufactured by that there is no love lost between us. The Handguns have caused more death, mis- Mitsubishi in Japan. No wonder they last time I found myself openly opposing ery and destruction than any other hand show "little or no difference in the base the Klan I received between three and tool in the history of man. Today, one of price" with honestly Japanese cars! five threats on my life every day for al- them in the hand of some heretofore un- most four weeks. I very seldom went to known snuffed out the life and genius of The Chrysler stockholders get the ad- my own home and when I was there I a person who touched the whole world vantage of bamboozling the public into was never more than two steps from a and made it better. How much better I thinking they are buying American cars, very lethal Enfield Jungle Carbine don't know. That is irrelevant. Is it any while taking importers' profits and es- loaded with 180-grain, soft-point ammun- less heinous to kill a grocery clerk than a caping the UAW. Chevrolet is doing the ition. Several friends offered the loan of John Lennon or a Robert Kennedy, or a same thing, because the American buyer handguns to keep with me for self- Martin Luther King? Yet, I wonder if I is not smart enough to recognize the dif- protection, but I demurred. I don't even too ought not own one. Have I become a ference between American-made and trust myself. They are so easy to use. I hypocrite or do I justly intend on surviv- American-controlled. The difference is wonder now whether there will come a ing, and, is the price of the security that between workers and stockholders. day in my life when I will have to start which I seek the deaths of John Lennon J. Derral Mulholland carrying a gun, a handgun. Do I dare and thousands of other human beings? Austin

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who get elected by a total of 1,200 votes, or candidates who often run unopposed? Educating undocumented children is too vital an issue to allow it to become political. As Carl J. Megel, past president of the American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO, said recently to teachers during his visit to Brownsville in September: "The education of a child Ogue/from page 23 cannot wait" until all political battles are Dlal fought. Classic tainly not the kind to encourage support. There are no simple answers. When it comes to politics, Mexican-Americans in Lennon found New York the only The front page this week [Obs., Nov. Texas are still practicing, as Gonzalez 28] is the best any periodical has ever place he could be comfortable in. Do you exemplifies, the old "ley del cangrejo" at suppose the killer would not have fol- had. Classic! its best; they are still showing an irra- Rus Purefoy lowed him to Chicago, Atlanta, Houston or Austin? tional fear of Anglo reaction to radical Odessa positions and militant approaches. "Give peace a chance now," you say. In the end, we will have to take a With whom are you making war? A little hope closer look at history and the Mexican I thank you for your beautiful, sensi- Morris R. Morrison and American revolutions. History tive story of John Lennon in the De- Austin never fails to enlighten. cember 26th Texas Observer. Maria S. Valdez Fisher, President I came from a long family of people Politicians Brownsville Federation of Teachers who believe in peace. My mother who care AFT Local 3877, AFL-CIO marched up Fifth Avenue in 1961 for "The Politics of Patricide" [Obs., Dec. Brownsville peace and my father voted for Eugene V. 12] have redeemed you. I had grown Debs every four years if he was in prison tired of the perspective given to "Gon- or free. zalez of San Antonio" by the Observer. Your story of the people who came to As a newcomer to the Rio Grande Val- Zilker Park to give Peace a chance ley in 1976, I discovered with surprise moved this old man to tears. In this and initial glee that Valley politicians world filled with despair a little hope were mostly Mex-American or of His- helps to carry on — and your story did panic descent. EAT that. Back in California where I came from, DOWNTOWN! PEACE. there was a general consensus that the Salmon R. Halpern, M.D. main reason Chicanos were oppressed,• Dallas discriminated against and generally vic- BREAKFAST tims of racism was due to the fact that we AND were not represented in politics by "our Assassinating own people." If only we elected "our LUNCH New York? own people" to political office, all our OPEN 7:30 AM 'til 4 PM My feelings at this point range from problems would be solved. I somewhat fury to outrage — stirred by your piece, shared such belief. "Death of Lennon" in the Dec. 26 issue After living in the Valley for four of your journal. Your reference to New years, after experiencing the political York as a city "of maddened obscenity" system that prevails, after observing the that killed Lennon "like it kills every- poverty, discrimination, racism, thing else good and decent" sounds like nepotism and lack of sensitivity that the ravings of a lunatic — like the lunacy exists among Mexican-American politi- of the felon who arrived with a hand gun cians, I have concluded that, even from outside New York and, no New though it does help some, race, ethnic Yorker himself, did his monstrous thing. background, etc. make little difference. According to your account, he had his What matters in reality is politicians that "statement" to make. The statement of a care; politicians that will fulfill their psychotic. What's behind your state- campaign promises; elected officials that ment, your wretched attempt at assassi- are sensitive to the people's needs. Across from the Alamo National Bank 135 East Commerce nation of a city — whose greatest crime Sensitivity to social issues, however, 225-0231 is to play host to the millions who've is hard to find in the Valley in particular, lived off its bounty? and in Texas in general; this has recently New York, you continue to insist, took been shown in Brownsville, the city "On John Lennon's life. It is a "vile place," the Border, By the Sea" with the un- Personal Service — Quality Insurance you don't mind saying. I can think of no- documented students issue. ALICE ANDERSON AGENCY thing more vile than this irresponsible School Board members in Brownsville INSURANCE & REAL ESTATE slander. At a time when the cities of the seem to have lost perspective of what North are in a life and death struggle for 808A E. 46th, Austin, Texas their true role in the education system is. 459-6577 survival, your unhappy remarks are cer- But what can you expect from people 24 JANUARY 16, 1981