The Canadian Record (Canadian, Tex.), Vol. 68, No. 8, Ed. 1 Thursday, February 21, 1957 Page: 2 of 8
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Canadian, Hemphill
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• • •
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... That's Now a $265Question
On the theory that a public question de-
serves a public answer, we have gone to some
pains to supply answers in detail to the head-
lined question asked last Saturday by The
Hemphill County News . . . "Was Fred Spruell
Fired?" The answers will be found on page
one of this issue of The Record.
For the thinly-veiled suggestion by The
News, under the guise of reporting a rumor,
that Fred Spruell "was fired for voting the
•wrong way," however, we have only the ut-
most contempt.
This was a totally unwarranted sjur on the
character and integrity of the men who make
up the Canadian City Commission . . . and
particularly and pointedly, on the character
and integrity of the man who has served the
City as Mayor for the past four years . . . and
served it honorably and well.
It is a serious charge to be made ... or
implied . . . that city officials have "fired" a
THE CANADIAN RECORD
Canadian (Hemphill County) Texas
National Award Winner
19 56
C<ilU*ial AuockMoM Annml
BEN EZZELL Editor
TESS WILKINSON Society Editor
TED ROGERS . Foreman
contests
NEWSPAPER
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I I
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NfW TOM • CMCAOO • OftlOB
Entered as second class matter December 20,
1945, at the Postoffice at Canadian, Texas,
under the act of March 3. 1879. Published
each Thursday afternoon at Canadian, Texas,
by the Lockhart Publishing Company, a Texas
corporation.
The Public Can Take It . . .
. . . And Also Dish It Out
(From The Wall Street Journal)
For 16 years the New York police followed
a "no publicity" polU*j- about the activities of
George Meteskv, who bombed public places
because of a grudge against a former em-
ployer.
About two months ago the policy was
changed and the public was told all about
the Mad Bomber. The result was that the
public (newspapers, radio and television
pitched into the search and today George Me-
teskv is in confinement.
We never did think very much of the idea
that the less the public knows about public
affairs the better of fthe public is.
"■3t) « •
Money talks all right, but In these days a
dollar doesn't have enough cents to say any-
thing worthwhile.—Exchange.
* * ♦
Many a harmless little worry is petted and
humored until it becomes hi# enough to lick
you.
* * *
i?" seven wonders of the modern world are
,thefairplane, radium, antiseptics, antitoxins,
X-fa^ tádio and the telephone.
An acorn was frequently used as a design
on Colonial furniture because it was consul-
érort a SyThbol of hospitality.
city employee because of the way he voted in
any election.
To make such an implication publicly, in
any guise, when it not only has no foundation
in fact but can be readily checked and dis-
proved is irresponsible, at best.
If The News did" not know that Fred Spruell
had reached retirement age on February 5 . . .
one week prior to his alleged "firing" . . , and
was unwilling to accept Mayor Abraham's
statement as fact, then the records could have
been checked easily at City Hall.
If The News did not know of the resolution
adopted by the City Commission a year ago
concerning employer - employee relations
which explicitly set out retirement policies,
then it could have read that, too, from the
records at City Hall. Certainly Fred Spruell
knew of it, as did all other city employees,
because it was presented to them at the time.
Perhaps The News did not know that Fred
Spruell's impending retirement was mention-
ed, in a report on city affairs by Mayor Abra-
ham, at a public meeting more than a month
ago . . . but many people did know it.
If The News did not know these things, it
should have made a point of learning them
before asking that embarrassing question.
Fred Spruell was not "fired" at that post-
election meeting of the City Commission . . .
he was offered rather generous retirement
terms in accordance with policies outlined a
year before. But thanks largely to that in-
temperate outburst in last Saturday's News,
the City Commission on Tuesday of this week
took the logical position that Mr. Spruell . . .
with the help of The News . . . had rather
effectively "fired" himself and, under terms
of that same statement of policy, withdrew
the proffered extra month's pay which the
City had planned to pay as a retirement
"bonus."
"Was Fred Spruell fired?" That may now
be aptly labelled the $265 question . . . be-
cause that's what it cost Mr. Spruell!
* * *
Those Parking Conditions . . .
. . . Are Rough A11 Over
The following "letter to the editor" was
published in last Saturday's edition of the
Amarillo Daily News. It was written by a
local man who signs himself "An Avid Cana-
dian Supporter" . . . and since some people
may have missed reading it, we're going to
take the liberty of re-printing it here . . .
with a fervent "Amen, brother!"
Once upon a time, a man from Canadian
went to Amarillo to buy a new car, and whilst
in Amarillo, he went downtown to shop, and
whilst he was shopping, the cruel old police-
man gave him a mean old ticket for a parking
meter violation, and upon his return this man
from Canadian became very belligerent. He
had been discriminated against, for. lo and
behold, he was from Canadian and he should
enjoy privileges that are forbidden to others.
They could not do this to him. He said ... "I
will go to Pampa. I will show Amarillo you
. can park cheaper in Pampa." There are his
words and true they are.
* * *
This man could go to Pampa and chancó
are that if he over-parked in Pampa, those
mean old police would give him a ticket, and
chances are that he would hit the ceiling just
as hard for two bits as he did for two bucks.
The question now . . . Where should I go
next? In Perrvton you can overpark for 10
cents, the 10th part of a dollar, a lousy dime
. . . Still he would squawk, "It ain't the
money, it's the principle of the thing."
"Woe is me," he would say. "What have I
done to deserve all this discrimination? What
wicked thing have I done?"
* * *
"Alas, it seems that I have no other choice;
I have tried them all and they have persecuted
me. Must I be forced to trade at home, where
I can park any way I like for just as long as
I like? Must I have to support my home town,
must I? Just to keep from getting a parking
ticket?"
* ♦
A day at sea is dividid into six periods of
four hours each.
Signs of Spring
pni's
STRICTLY FRESH
A MERICA: where a fellow can
call hogs one week end sell
a million records the next, using
about the samé vocal technique.
♦ • •
Tragedy of modern life: light-
ing the wrong end of a filter-type
cigaret.
* * *
If passenger cars get any
longer, they'll have to supply a
fit*
MoffUM
-1
fireman with every car to steer
the rear end around corners.
♦ • •
Trafile light: where you catch
up with the guy who screeched
by you a mile back.
• # ♦
Fellow across the desk from us
says that the surest way to re-
duce is to live on the meat con-
tent of the sandwiches vended at
the lunch counter around the
corner.
The new sound system In-
stalled at the high school
auditorium by the Canadian
Curtain Club drew enthusias-
tic praise from the first-night
audience at the Curtain Club
production of "Gaslight" last
Friday night. Patrons were in-
vited to write their comments
on their programs following
the play, and they did. A one-
word comment from one mem-
ber of the audience, "Nifty!"
seemed to sum up the general
reaction.
And J. O. Wells, a regular
play-goer at auditorium pro-
ductions, reported Saturday
morning that, "for the first
time at a play in the high
school auditorium,-1 was able
to hear every word." That's
what we've been hoping to
hear.
And therein lies a lesson
about buying-at-home. When
the Curtain Club began plan-
ning Installation of the sound
system a year ago, we con-
tracted with a well • known
Amarillo electric firm to make
the installation . . . and the
results of that fiasco are only
too well known. The installa-
tion was not only delayed sev-
eral months beyond the prom-
ised delivery date, but proved
... on trial ... to be a com-
plete flop as well, and all the
firm's experts didn't seem able
to put it right.
The money-back guarantee
under which the installation
was made turned out to have
some loopholes, too. and the
Canadian Curtain Club is still
holding the bag for a little
more than $90 worth of ex-
perience which so far has not
been refunded.
So what happened! A home-
town electrician. Bob Tipps,
has made the installation
which the Amarillo experts
assured us couldn't be done
... for approximately the
same amount of money . . .
backed it up with an airtight
guarantee . . . and has turned
out a first-class job and one
which any community could
be proud of. We think it pays
to trade at home, in more
ways than one!
If you hear a new voice on
the line when you call 69
these days, it's probably Betty
Goode, who has temporarily
taken over the duties of So-
ciety Editor Tess Wilkinson
on The Record staff. Betty will
be on the staff for several
weeks while Tess takes some
necessary sick leave . . . and
she'll appreciate your calling
in when you have guests in
your home, entertain at a par-
ty, go visiting yourself ... or
have any tiews of any kind
to report. So will we all.
In the event that you have-
n't met her, Betty is the wife
of Coach Dunny Goode. She's
a native of Pampa, where, she
says, her father is a "wheat
planter" . . . and aren't a
lot of people these days . . .
and attended Hardin - Sim-
mons University. If you have-
n't met the gal, drop in and
get acquainted . . . visitors
are always welcome at The
Record office, except those oc-
casional ones who come in
with blood in their eye and
horsewhip in hand!
"Freedom of speech," ob-
serves the Second Street Phil-
osopher, "doesn't mean much
to the man who is afraid to
express himself."
Tomorrow is George Wash-
ington's Birthday. We'd glad-
ly send cherry pies to all the
members of the "Committee
on Truth" if they'd only come
in and publicly identify them-
selves. That offer doesn't in-
clude "Juno."
One of our favorite weather
prophets, chiefly because he
is generally optimistic, is our
old boss, Jimmie Gillentine of
The Hereford Brand. Jim re-
ported last week that one
Hereford forecaster had as-
sured him that rain was on
the way because "there have
been some large circles
around the moon on recent
nights."
"My own system la not so
scientific," Jimmie reports. "I
go strictly by intuition. Rings
or no rings, wo an going to
have a wot spring . .. for as,
that Is ... end 1957 will par-
DUVAL COUNTY, USA
This is the seventh in a series of ton article* by Now York newspaper reporters
Frederick Hodgson and Fran* Rosenwald, who recently spent several
weeks in Duval Co. and South Texas, gathering facts for this series.
Duvél "Refugees" Cut Population
By 43 Per Cent in Fifteen Years
By-FREDERICK HODGSON
SAN DIEGO. TEX.--In Duval
County there has existed "an al-
most indestructible machine of
theft, secrecy and terror." So
states John Ben Shepperd, Attor-
ney General of Texas.
If Shepperd be right is it any
wonder that Duvalans flee to free-
dom through the Mesquite Cur-
tain?
Between 1940 and 1955, in-
clusive. Duval County lost 43 per
cent of her population.
In 1940 there were 20,565 peo-
ple living in the County according
to the U. S. Census.
By 1950 the population had
dropped officially to 15,563.
By 1955 the population had
dropped to an estimated 12,000,
give or take a hundred or so
either way.
This figure is based on a usual-
ly accurate barometer, on the
school population which varies
directly as the total population.
In 1950 there were 5,077 child-
ren attending public schools in
Duval. By 1955 the number of
children in school had dropped
.ipec
to 4,150, a loss of 927 in n*e
years. The 1940 figure was 6,213.
All of the above figures are
taken from the authoritative Tex-
as Almanac—except the per cent
ages.
Seven other Texas counties
touch on the borders of Duval.
These are Brooks, Jim Hogg, Jim
Wells. La Salle, Live Oak, Webb
and McMullen.
All but two of these counties
show population increases for the
same period; the exceptions are
Live Oak and tiny McMullen—and
their losses are small.
In sharp contrast Brooks gained
44.5 per cent; Jim Wells, 38.3 per
cent and Webb gained 22.3 per
cent. These figures are for 1940-
50. School population jumped in
these three counties between 1950
and 1955, indicating a proportion-
ate population gain.
Ask a Parr proponent to ex-
plain the exodus from Duval and
he has a ready answer, the long
drought and the trend to the big-
cities.
It isn't explained how the
drought affects Duval more than
her seven neighbors.
Nor what big cities exist in
those seven counties. The only
"big city" is Webb's Laredo with
an estimated 59,000 people.
There can be but one answer
for the Duval exodus. Too many
people found life there unpleasant,
unbearable, unsafe or unprofit-
able. So they packed up their
families and vamoosed.
I was sitting in a restaurant
in Jourdanton, the Atascosa coun-
ty town, when a man came over
and wanted to know what was
going on at the courthouse He
thought I was a lawyer, and vis-
iting lawyers are celebrities in
Jourdanton.
I told him that Judge Barrow
was hearing a case having to
do with Parr's 55,711-acre Dobie
Ranch.
"Use'ta live in San Diego
onc't," the man said.
I asked him why he left the
place.
"Couldn't raise my kids there
proper," he saiA "I got beatened
up onc't and we didn't want our
kids to see their daddy get beat-
ened up."
When I pulled out my note T>ook
to jot down his name the /man
added this: "Nope, Nope. I got a
married sister still livin' there."
The list of people forced to
leave Duval County for one rea-
son or another, frightened out or
ordered out, is as long as your
allel 1937. This is the year the
drought starts to break. Get
ready for bumper crops in
1959 and 1960." See what we
mean . . . Jim Gillentine is a
weather prophet after our own
heart! Power to him.
arm, people whose names are on
the raconl.
Let's consider a speech by Ri-
cardo Barton, wealthy Duval and
Jim Wells rancher, former Paijr
stalwart and now a foe of the
Machine.
It takes courage to face up to
one's past and obey the dictates
of conscience. Bartffn, over the
protests of his fearful family,
showed up at an anti-Parr elec-
tion rally and made a speech.
This, in part, is what he said:
"I've been with the Duke in
stealing from the school kids.
Sixteen years ago Parr ran my
own brother out of the county ...
I could tell you a few things
about an unsolved murder or two
... I want you all to know the
truth about the Possum (the La-
tins' nickname for Parr, El Tla-
cuache—the Possum) even If I
have to go to prison for it."
The exodus is not only from
Duval. People are deserting the
Parr camp in droves.
Most important of the defec-
tions, of course, is the present
District Judge C. Woodrow
Laughlin, a former Parr man
who was once unceremoniously
tossed out of office by the Texas
Supreme Court. Duval County
up
Judge Dan Tobin is another. Yet
another is Manuel Marroquin, now
editor of the anti-Parr bi-lingual
tabloid newspaper "New Duval."
Marroquin, the man described
by Assistant Attorney General
Sidney Chandler as having "more
intestinal fortitude than any other
man in the county," gives an in-
teresting sidelight on the Duke of
Duval—and it's by the sidelights,
the little things, that we under-
stand people. Here's Marroquin's
story, taken directly from a tape
recording:
"I started to sell milk in my
store and George Parr came in.
I said 'George, will you do me a
favor, take a bottle of milk and
go outside with it, let people see
you with it?'
"George said to me, he said
'Meme' — he always called me
Meme, that's short for Manuel
you know—he said *^leme, you
know I don't clrlnk milk' and he
started to go out.
"I said, 'George, I know you
don't drink milk, but if people
see you with my milk they'll buy
it from me.'
"He said, 'Sure, Meme, give me
a bottle of milk.'
"And I said, 'I won't charge
you anything.' He put the money
down anyway and I said 'If you
want to throw the bottle away
after the people see you with it,
then throw it away. Just let the
people see you with my milk and
they'll buy my milk.'
"He went out of my store and
held up the bottle of milk and
he waved it and before he got in
his car he told everybody what
fine milk 1 had. And he waved
the bottle of milk out of the win-
dow of his car after he got in his
car and drove off.
"For three days everybody in
San Diego buys my milk. Every-
body in San Diego's drinking milk,
then... Wham! Nobody at all
buys my milk. I had all my milk
and it went bad. I lost plenty of
money. You know what that
blankety blank so and so did?
His pistoleros found out they
could make money with milk so
George gave the milk business to
a deputy sheriff."
If that isn't a whimsical switch
on old-style Bossism I'd like to
know what it is. If the men who
bossed Chicago in the days of Al
Capone ever hear of it they'll be
doing a dervish act in their
graves. Milk!
Later Marroquin opened a tor-
USE VITAMINS for better
health. ABDOL Vitamins, with
minerals, are good for the
whole family. Ask your phar-
macist. Canadian Pharmacy.
4-tfc
Trade in Canadian
tilla bakery. Parr put him out of
business. \
Marroquin today is one of the
Duval emigres. The Ave members
of the Marroquin family have
helped swell the census of neigh-
boring Jim W e 118 County.
"Meme," with his Winchester si-
waya at the ready, lives just
across the county line on High-
way 44. *
Take the case of another refu-
gee, Jose Serna, brother of Dona-
to Serna, now the Duval County
auditor. Jose owned a cafe in San
Diego and incurred the displea-
sure of the Boss. Here's how Do-
nato tells the story;
"George Parr drove my brother
out of the County, out of San Di-
ego. Deputy sheriffs blocked the
entrance to his place of business.
They'd arrest customers who had
one beer and charge them with
drunken driving whether they
owned automobiles or not. They
didn't press any charges, just
scared them so they wouldn't go
in my brother's place any more.
"I went across the street with
a loaded camera to take a pic-
ture for evidence and George Parr
grabbed his pistol and ran across
the street to me, cursing in Span-
ish. Tried to grab my camera.
Amaya (Manuel Amaya, then
deputy sheriff and now chief of
police in San Diego) hit my cam-
era with the barrel of his gun.
"Amaya said 'You're both (Do-
nato and Jose) under arrest. Get
in that car.' We got in and I
said 'All right, arrest me but
don't hit me.' They took uf to
the courthouse. George put his
gun in its holster and hit me hard
on the head wit|i a five-cell flash-
light. I sat down on the jailer's
bunk. He was beating me up
when Amaya took the flashlight
away from him. Amaya put the
camera on the table and they tore
it to pieces. Then George told us
'Get the hell out of here.' We
went."
Donato Serna stayed in Duval
to fight.
In Duval these days a man
either fights for Parr or fights
against him. The days of "inactive
subversion" are over. In Duval
it's physically impossible to sit
on your hands and straddle the
fence at one and the same time.
I first heard that term "inactive
subversion" a few weeks ago in
Austin as I sat and talked about
Duval with John Ben Shepperd,
who kno^s more about the county,
probably, than any other person
outside the immediate vicinity.
Shepperd's knowledge has grown
out of his early, undercover vis-
its to Duval back in 1953, when
he waited in a dark ranch house
to talk with anti-Parr citizens
who he said came stealing out of
the bushes in the dark after park-
ing their cars a mile away. Some-
times, he tells, they changed cars
two or three times on the way to
the rendezvous to keep from be-
ing followed by Parr men.
Months of this undercover in-
vestigation gave Shepperd enough
information to sustain a frontal
attack on the stronghold of Parr.
When the Parr dictatorship was
first battened down on Duval, con-
solidating itself into "an almost
indestructible machine of theft,
secrecy and terror," the people
were ignbrant, miserable, exploit-
ed and politically inexperienced.
Perhaps they cannot be blamed
for letting themselves get caught
in the coils. Today they're still
miserable, still exploited and the
illiteracy rate is among the very
highest in the State of Texas.
But they've had political exper-
ience thrust upon them.
Quien sabe? Who knows, per-
haps with upsurge of real democ-
racy in the county that catas-
trophic population drop will be
halted, even reversed.
Thanks to men like Serna, and
Marroquin, and Shepperd and
many, many others, Duval may
yet come into its 4>wn.
HAYDON
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IV '
v '•
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Ezzell, Ben. The Canadian Record (Canadian, Tex.), Vol. 68, No. 8, Ed. 1 Thursday, February 21, 1957, newspaper, February 21, 1957; Canadian, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth183839/m1/2/: accessed April 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Hemphill County Library.