The Aspermont Star (Aspermont, Tex.), Vol. 60, No. 17, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 3, 1957 Page: 2 of 6
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Page Two
The Aspermont Star. Aspermont, Texas
Thursday, January 3,
4-H Members Back the Attack on Highway Deaths
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TOP WINNERS IN THE 4-H FARM AND HOME SAFETY PROGRAM use a battering ram to
dramatize the decision of the two million 4-H members to smash the barricade of 42,000 fatal
accidents which annually blocks safe motoring on America's highways. Urging them to "Back the
Attack" is A. G. De Lorenzo (right), Public Relations Director of General Motors, awards donor
for the nation-wide safety program. Each of these national winners received $300 college scholar-
ships from GM. In addition, they and the other 42 state winners received all-expense trips to the
35th National 4-H Club Congress in Chicago from General Motors. Left to right are: LoRetta
Hales, Spanish Fork, Utah; Richard Parsons, Parsonsburg, Md„ Anita Mae Wenger, Powhattau,
Kansas; Marjorie Rauwerdink, Sheboygan Falls, Wis.; Ella Lou Hembree, Braman, Okla.; Rich-
ard Mitchell, Denver, Colo., and Clyde Templeton, Olin, N. C.
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By VERN SANFORD
Texas Press Association
AUSTIN, Tex.—Conflict, com-
plication s and suspense t. fcde
1856 One of Texas' newsiest
stories didn't run out with the
calendar. They're marked "to
be continued in 1957".
These were some of the head-
line-makers:
POLITICS wore everyone to a
frazzle. Gov. Allan Shivers took
his first political tumble when
Sen. Lyndon Johnson won con-
trol of the May Democratic
convention. Price Daniel won
his historic seven-year tenure as
leader of the again-triumphant
Democrats for Eisenhower.
DROUTH, in its seventh year,
grew steadily worse. Crops
burned up. Streams stopped
flowing. Reservoirs dwindled.
State Water Board had its hands
full trying to referee squabbles
over water rights. Agricultural
groups banded together in the
over Ralph Yarborough for the Texas Drouth Emergency Corn-
Democratic gubernatorial nomi-
nation in a narrowest-ever mar-
gin of a little more than 3000
votes. Daniel gained shaky
party control by getting a most-
ly-friendly executive committee
at the September Democratic
convention. But he held on to
the Senate seat too long. Gov-
ernor Shivers wouldn't buy the
election-now, resign-later plan.
mittee finally gained expanded
federal relief. All but five of
Texas' 254 counties were desig-
nated disaster areas. Texas
Water Resources Committee, a
legislative study group, put in a
lot of overtime readying a
state-wide water Drogram for
the next legislature. Sugges-
tions: a $100,000,000 bond pro-
gram to help finance local pro-
buy water storage space in fed-
eral reservoirs, "rainmaking"
research at Texas colleges.
FEDERAL LEGISLATION had
Texas repercussions. Eisenhower
supporters groaned when he ve-
toed the natural 'gas bill. But
the federal highway building bill
passed. It means $57,000,000 a
year more for Texas road build-
ing. Texas Highway Depart-
ment started using it at once,
predicted an era of unparalleled
. progress. To move things faster,
I it reversed its long-time policy,
I is now buying right-of-way for
interstate roads. This brought a
new headache—a hue and cry
from the county officials fOT
help- in buying land for state
highways.
INTEGRATION VS. SEGRE-
GATION made news on many
fronts. Voters overwhelmingly
approved three pro-segregation
interposition referendums in the
July primary. But no one was
sure what would come of them.
At Mansfield and Texarkana,
citizens blocked efforts at fed-
eral court-ordered school inte-
gration, and Governor Shivers
sent Texas Rangers to maintain
order. Atty. Gen. John Ben
ShrnDerd took on the NAACP in
a Tvler district court and won a
temporary order banning the
organization in Texas.
INVESTIGATION by legisla-
tive committees into US Trust
and Guaranty Company's $7,-
000,000 downfall brought de-
mands for new lobby laws, con-
trols on legislators' dealings with
state agencies. US Trust's many
creditors are still unpaid. It's
all tied up in their numerous
lawsuits for priorities.
INSURANCE INDUSTRY un-
derwent a statewide solvency
check. Seven per cent, out of
more than 1300, failed to qualify
for new licenses.
POLIO VACCINE restrictions
were completely removed in late
summer. But with plenty for
everyone, an indifferent public
let vaccine supplies pile up.
Some 80 per cent went unvacci-
nated. Unless interest increases,
Texas will h2"e to return nearly
half of the state b ?U,u"J0,000 fed-
years. Many of the biggest And Shivers came to the end of jects, fishing and boat taxes tr
This is the first in a series of fen articles by New York newspaper re-
porters Frederick Hodgson and Franz Rosenwald, who recently spent
several weeks in Duval Co. and South Texas, gathering facts for this series.
STORY NO. I
Ballots, Bullets, Beatings, bob./:
That's The Story of Duval Coimi/
By—FREDERICK HODGSON
NUEVO LAREDO, MEX.-We,
Franz Rosenwald and I, have just
been looking over the parking lot
where a dark, baby-faced pis-
tole™. Alfredo Cervantes, aban-
doned his big green automobile,
Texas license EL2340, a few
hours after he'd killed young
Jacob Floyd in Alice, Texas, 86
miles away.
Cervantes must have had a wild
ride that night almost four years
ago, and his knuckles must have
been white on the wheel as he
drove onto the Rio Grande bridge
from Laredo.
What if the Rangers were
ahead of him?
What if they'd caught his fel-
low killer, Mario "The Turk"
Sapet, and El Tiirco had talked?
Cervantes breathed easier per-
as he recalled that El Turco
wouldn't dare talk. The life of El
Turco, the braggart, the hired
usassin, wouldn't be worth a
plugged centavo if he uttered a
word that would lead to the men
"higher up," or to Cervantes. It
was a comforting thought.
The center of the span was
nearer now. The two officers
there, one American and one
Mexican, were talking, paying lit-
tle attention to the approaching
automobile. In a second he was
past them. He was in Mexico. He
was safe.
Here in Nuevo Laredo Cervan-
tes had a couple of quick tequilas
at the International Gardens,
Ricky Callione's place, to steady
his nerves. Then he paid his three
pesos — twenty five cents—and
vanished.
And to this day El Turco, now
serving 99 years in Huntsville
Prison, hasn't talked. He wouldn't
live long, even in Huntsville, if
he did. And The Turk knows it.
What's all this got to do with
Bos.i George Berham Parr, the
tottering Duke of Duval?
Tho answer, mister, is plenty,
but pl.nty!
Dictatorships, whether they'i :
red L3 in Russia, black as in
Mussolini's Italy, brown as in
Hitler's Germany, or red, white
and b!'.ie cs in Parr's Duval, fol-
low the same pattern—ballots,
l eatings, bullets and booty. The
ballots are phony but the others
are real. All four figure in the
ctory of Duval County, Texas.
To non-Texans looking in, to
observers such as Franz Rosen-
wald and myself, tho political
situation in Duval County is ut-
terly fantastic—and frightening.
That it can happen here, in
America, the home of the free,
brings one's thinking up with a
jolt.
Dictatorship developed in Duval
because the right set of political
circumstances existed. And, with
Attorney Genera! John Ben Shep-
perd operating the battering ram,
it's now being broken up—because
the right set of circumstances
exists.
Being outsiders, we are not
presuming to point out that cir-
cumstances favorabl* to a clean-
up of Duval County could have
been brought about any time dur-
ing the last 50 years, but weren't.
Let's just say that the feet that
Attorney General Shepperd dared
to take on George Parr after 50
years made this series of articles
possible.
What if the right set of politi-
cal circumstances for dictatorship
were to come about in other coun-
ties, in Texas or anywhere else?
Or in whole states? Or even in
the entire United States?
That idea isn't intended to be
funny. Hitler rose to power be-
cause of "the right set of political
circumstances." So did old Archie
Parr, founder of the dynasty in
the Duchy of Duval.
Franz Rosenwald was born and
raised in Berlin, and he watched
the ridiculous little man with the
Charlie Chaplin moustache de-
stroy the V/eimar Republic and
set up the Third Reich. His per-
sonal tragedy under the Hitler
terror was great.
Like myself, Rosenwald didn't
believe that such a place as Duval
County could possibly e:;ist in the
Western world, until he came to
Texas and saw for himself. Until
he talked to liu!. poop!' who R-.d
been beaten ard rained the little
pcepl ' whose narr.'j:, do not ap-
pear in the par Until fiftl
talked to ti • famiii. . of who
had Iron killed.
Until he talked face to face
with one of the killers, a pro-
fessional murderer, a hired pif,-
tolero.
Rosenwald, who has lived under
the red shirts and under the
brown shirts, and who doesn't like
either of them, has written sev-
eral pieces in this series. And he
shows the startling similarity be-
tween the methods of Boss Parr
and the methods of Hitler's bully
boys.
Back in April of this year Ros-
enwald and I called John Ben
Shepperd long distance from New
York and talked about a book,
and possibly a motion picture,
about the Duval story. Then he
sent us a long telegram, reading
in part "The Duval story is a
sordid one that America should
know, not because of what's hap-
pened there but to prevent a re-
occurrence anywhere in the coun-
try. Our office will cooperate in
every way."
Later we met Mr. Shepperd in
Atlantic City, New Jersey, and
heard him address a session of
the National Association of At-
torneys General, of which he is
president. We were talking in his
hotel room when he received word
that Boss Parr had "given back"
the 55,000-acre Dobie Ranch, a
piece of real estate that Parr had
bought for himself with Duvel
County funds.
The Duval story looked pretty
grim even from that distance, just
how grim we didn't realize until
we hopped an airplane to Austin.
There we hired an automobile
from Avis and covered more than
4,000 miles of South Texas and
Mexico and had a good look at
the Duval story for ourselves. We
weren't prepared for what we saw
and heard.
Texans have lived so close to
the Duval story for the past half
century that it's old hat by now.
Sometimes in the papers there is
a story about a killing, the story
told out of focus, without relation
to the background. Or a spot news
story about an indictment, a trial,
or a sentence—again, told out of
focus, because that's the way
newspapers have to work. Some-
times Boss Parr hits the front
pages with a political pronource-
ment when he endorses a candi-
date, or damns a candidate, for
reasons of his own.
But, by ar.d large, the fu'l
story of Duval hasn't be i ;-a!ly
and fully told, lias never boen
pulled together alt in ore place
and in compute focus so tiiat the
| whole picture, chur and sharp,
can be seen at one time.
That's what Franz Rosenwald
and this writer propose to do.
And we'll tell the atcry in terms
of real, live people, the people
who, like the men of the Alarr.o,
of San Jacinto, of Goliad, are
fighting — and dying — for the
right to be free.
eral vaccine allocation when the
fiscal year runs out next June.
XXX
Business Level Holds
Capital expansion, the build-
ing of new and growth of old
industries, has kept Texas' 1956
business index at its 1955 high.
University of Texas Bureau of
Business Research reported the
1956 11-months total as the
same as 1955. Rapid industrial
expansion has kept the average
up, says the Bureau.
It offset declines in residential
building, consumer spending and
farm employment.
XXX
Crop Value Down
Valut of Texas' 1956 crops is
estimated at $1,100,000,000—nine
per cent below last year and the
10-year average.
U. S. Department of Agricul-
ture said reduced . production is
due to drouth, acreage restric-
tions and the soil bank plan.
Increased irrigation accounted
for some bright spots. Per-acre
yield of cotton was the highest
on record—278 pounds. But
dryland farming reached new
lows. Corn crop of 27.4 million
bushels was the shortest since
1873. Sorghum, with half th°
total acreage irrigated, produced
124 million bushels. fourth
largest crop in history.
Other reports* R'ee. smallest
eron since 1949; wheat, double
last year's eron. but half the
10-year average: peanuts, the
smnlles* eror) since 1934; oats,
ip nor c°nt under last year:
barley, about averaee: hay and
about two-thirds of av-
r>r;ipv>- r ">Ti'>r,r.rpjqi vegetables.
up 16 per cent from last year.
XXX
Oil Record Predicted
An all-time production peak
in 1956 and continled heavy de-
mands for the first quarter of
1957 are foreseen for the Texas
oil industry.
Texas Railroad Commission
pegs 1956 production at 1,-
075,820.000 barrels, an increase
of more than 54 million barrels
or 5.3 per cent over 1955.
A Commission report said
closing of the Suez Canal seems
BROCK'S
SERVICE STATION
Carrying a complete line of
• Magnolia Gasolines and Oils
• Tires - Tubes - Accessories
Harold Brock - owner
*
Your social security card is the symbol of
your social security account. Show it to
your employer, and be sure he has your
name and account number copied right
in his records. It's important for your
family's future.
likely to be reflected in two
ways: (1) decreased importing of
oil into the U.S.; and (2) in-
creased demand by other coun-
tries for U.S. oil. Both would
mean heavier demands on the
Texas industry.
But, it noted, above-ground
storage of gasoline stocks is .:,UK
"quite excessive".
XXX
Whodunit?
Austin city otticiais promise
every effort to find out who, if
anyone, set fire to O. Henry's
Honeymoon House.
People over the state and na-
tion took sides in the local fight
over the house where the famed
short-story writer took his bride.
History lovers moved it to a
residential-area park, planned to
make a shrine.
But nearby home owners howl-
ed. They called the 80-year-old
frame cottage a "pile of junk".
Suit was filed to have it re-
moved from the neighborhood.
Then a swift, night-time blaze
completely destroyed the house.
It wasn't likely accidental, said
Austin's fire marshal, but prob-
ably set by some mischief-maker
taking advantage of the already-
heated controversy.
XXX
Short Snorts
Leonard Mohrmann has been
rained public information offi-
cer for the Texas League of
Municipalities. For the past
four years, Mohrmann has been
administrative assistant to Lt.,
Gov. Ben Ramsey.
Texas Employment Commis-J
sion's latest report shows many 1
of the state's industrial workers !
taking home bigger pay checks.
Some weekly averages: in ap-
parel and fabrics, $41.06; stone,
clay and glgass, $69.97; metal
products, $76.43; chemicals.
$98.52; petroleum and coal pro-
ducts, $106.27.
.the Classifieds.
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IF WE HAVEN'T GOT IT—
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Welch, Lowell C. The Aspermont Star (Aspermont, Tex.), Vol. 60, No. 17, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 3, 1957, newspaper, January 3, 1957; Aspermont, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth200345/m1/2/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Stonewall County Library.