FEBRUARY
17,1975
VOL. 1,
NO. 2
LYNDON
B. JOHNSON SCHOOL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN
EDITOR Hoyt H. Purvis
WEDDINGTON OFFERS
WOMAN'S VIEW; YARBOROUGH NEXT BROWN-BAG SPEAKER
WEDDINGTON
State
Representative Sarah Weddington of Austin provided a woman's perspective on
politics and government when she spoke at a brown-bag luncheon at the LBJ
School on February 11.
"Politics
is not yet quite geared to the involvement of women," Representative
Weddington said, "but the situation is changing. Women who want to be
taken seriously are making a difference."
She
said that "a lot of political discussions and decision making" have
traditionally taken place in situations where no women are present and that
some male politicians and lobbyists have difficulty in relating to the changing
circumstances.
Representative
Weddington said that too much importance is attached to such things as
"how a woman fixes her hair" and added that "voters have a
preconceived and stylized notion about the kind of woman they want in
office."
She
said she has not been actively involved in Democratic Party affairs because
"I had rather spend time on substantive issues than on party matters, many
of which I believe are useless."
She
predicted that the Legislature would pass a proposal calling for an increase in
the pay for legislators and also predicted that supporters of rescission of the
Legislature's ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment would not be
successful.
Representative
Weddington was accompanied by Ms. Ann Richards, her administrative assistant
and campaign aide, who commented on the tactics and organization of low-budget
campaigns. Ms. Richards stressed the importance of knowing the constituency and
its special interests and needs.
YARBOROUGH
Former
U. S. Senator Ralph Yarborough will speak at a LBJ School brown-bag luncheon in
the Student Lounge, Tuesday February 18 at noon.
Populist,
loyalist Democrat, liberal, and Mr. Chairman are all terms used to describe
Yarborough during his 13 years in the Senate. A product of the populist
traditions of Henderson County in East Texas, Yarborough was a 1927 UT Law
School graduate and was appointed a district judge by Governor James Allred in
1936. In 1938, he sought the office of Attorney General and lost. With the
outbreak of World War II, Yarborough volunteered for service in the Army.
Yarborough
made the first of three unsuccessful bids for the Texas Governorship in 1952.
Running against "corruption, corporations, and special interests",
Yarborough sought to form a populist/New Deal coalition of labor, small
farmers, minorities, professionals, intellectuals, and small businessmen.
However, Allan Shivers defeated Yarborough in the Democratic primary and later
that year Shivers supported the Eisenhower-Nixon Republican ticket rather than
the Stevenson-Sparkman Democratic slate.
Again
in 1954 Yarborough opposed Shivers and was defeated by 92,000 votes. In 1956
Senator Price Daniel returned to run for Governor and defeated Yarborough in a
hotly contested campaign by 3,000 votes out of 1.39 million cast. Before the
smoke had cleared from that bitter defeat, Yarborough made a successful effort
for Daniel's vacated Senate seat and went to the Senate in 1957.
As
Senator, Yarborough aligned himself with the liberal/labor/Southern-populist
wing of his party. He was one of only three Senators from the Old
Confederacy—Estes Kefauver and Albert Gore of Tennessee being the
others—to support Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson on civil rights in 1957.
He was involved in one of the most active social legislation periods since the
New Deal.
As a
member of the Senate's Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, Yarborough served
on the Subcommittees on Health and Education, as well as chairing the
Subcommittee on Veteran's Affairs. In 1969 Yarborough became Chairman of the
full Committee and its Health Subcommittee.
Yarborough
counts numerous legislative achievements including co-authorship of the Padre
Island National Seashore Area Act, the National Defense Education Act, and the
Cold War GI Bill. He was co-author of the Peace Corps Act and a supporter of
the Nuclear Test Ban and Food for Peace.
An
ernest conservationist, Yarborough is a major proponent of the Big Thicket Park
for East Texas. Perhaps the closing sentence of his Senate testimony for Big
Thicket in 1970 sums up his populist approach. He said, "It is pulpwood
against the people and the things people have, and rights and justice demand
that the people win."
-Tom
Howarth
First-Year
Student
[news note]
George
Christian, former Press Secretary to President Johnson and Governor Connally,
will speak at a brown-bag luncheon Tuesday February 25. Christian now heads a
public relations and political consulting firm with headquarters in Austin.
"ON THE
RECORD"
. Congressman
Henry B. Gonzales of San Antonio spoke to the Topical Seminar on Housing and
Community Development on February 12. Gonzales offered students a Washington
perspective on recent housing legislation. On Wednesday February 19 Ben F.
McDonald, Jr., executive director of the Texas Department of Community Affairs,
will talk to the seminar about the evolving state role in housing and community
development. The seminar is taught by Vic Bach, assistant professor of public
affairs, which meets at 2 p.m. in Room 101, and interested individuals are
invited to attend on February 19.
.
Librarian Kent Talbot has announced that during the spring vacation, the LBJ
School Library will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., March 24-28. On Friday March
28 , the Library will be open from 9 a.m. to noon. The Library will be closed
on March 29 and 30.
. Gwen
Wells is the new secretary in the Office of Publications. Ms. Wells has a B.S.
in education from UT-Austin and has previously taught in the Dallas Public
Schools and was employed by the Dallas Public Library. She replaces Estelle
Miller who has taken a job in Washington, D. C.
. A
meeting was held at the LBJ School on February 12 involving representatives of
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, United Action for the
Elderly, the Texas Research Institute of Mental Health and Retardation, and the
LBJ School. Purpose of the meeting, according to Professor Jurgen Schmandt, was
to consider the possibility of utilizing space-age technology in developing a
home-delivered meal system for the elderly.
. The
Vocational Education Policy Research Project will be conducting four workshops
throughout Texas for local vocational education and manpower planners during
later February and early March. One of the discussion topics at these workshops
will be a technical assistance guide prepared for local manpower planners by
LBJ School project participants. Funded under a planning grant from the Texas
Department of Community Affairs, the workshops will by held in Del Rio (February
20), Lufkin (March 4), Midland (March 6), and Austin (March 12). Faculty
coordinators of the project are Professors Kenneth Tolo (Project Director),
Henry David, and Anthony Neidhart.
.
Recent LBJ School publications, now available from the Office of Publications,
include Energy in Texas Volume II: Policy Alternatives, a report by the State Energy
Policies Policy Research Project, Marlan Blissett, Project Director ($3.50);
and Proceedings of the 75th Institute for Tax Assessors ($3.00). Available in the near
future will be the report of The 64th Texas Legislature Pre-Session
Conference; the
Policy Research Project on Post-Secondary Education in Texas; and Proceedings of the 16th
County Auditors' Institute.
.
Sidney Weintraub, an assistant administrator of the U. S. Agency for
International Development (AID), will speak to a school-wide seminar at the LBJ
School on March 5 at 4 p.m. Other scheduled speakers include Howard Nemerovski,
a leading figure in San Francisco politics, March 12; Seyom Brown of the Brookings
Institution, March 19; Elmer B. Staats, Comptroller General of the United
States, April 2; and Joseph A. Califano, former aide to President Johnson and
Democratic National Committee counsel, April 9.
. Dean
William B. Cannon will discuss the LBJ School and its program Thursday February
20 at a meeting for minority students on the UT Austin campus. The meeting will
be from 2 to 4 p.m. in Speech Building 104, and is co-sponsored by Ethnic
Student Services.
SCHOOL
REPRESENTATIVES VISIT TEXAS CAMPUSES
LBJ
School representatives have recently made a number of student recruitment
visits to campuses around the state.
Visits
have already been made to Huston-Tillotson College, Bishop College, East Texas
State University, the University of Houston, and Rice University. Among
upcoming visits will be trips to Pan American University and Texas A&I
University on March 6.
Participating
in the recruitment effort have been Dean William B. Cannon, Associate Dean
Keith Arnold, and Elizabeth Hall, director of student affairs, plus LBJ School
students Irma Honda, Diana Zuniga, Julius Whittier, Francine Pegues, and James
Mitchell.
DR. DAVID APPOINTED
NAS ASSEMBLY MEMBER
Dr.
Henry David, professor of public affairs, has been appointed by the President
of the National Academy of Sciences, Philip Handler, to a five-year term as a
member of the Assembly of Behavioral and Social Sciences. The Assembly is one
of eight constituent bodies of the National Research Council, which is the
working arm of the NAS.
The
Assembly is composed of some 250 members who are recognized as leaders in
social and behavioral science disciplines and related fields.
Before
coming to the LBJ School in September 1974, Dr. David served as Executive
Director of the Assembly. He had been at the NAS since December 1966, when he
was appointed Executive Secretary of the Division of Behavioral Sciences, which
subsequently became the Assembly of Social and Behavioral Sciences. The vast
majority of the work of the NAS-NRC involving social and behavioral sciences is
conducted under the auspices of the Assembly.
In
addition to his work at the NAS, Dr. David has extensive academic and public
service experience. He was formerly President of the New School for Social
Research, where he had also served as Dean of the Graduate Faculty of Political
and Social Science. He has also served as Head of the Office of Science
Resources Planning of the National Science Foundation and as Executive Director
of the National Manpower Council. During World War II he was Director of
Research for the North American Division of the British Broadcasting
Corporation and later served as Adviser on American Affairs to the BBC. In
1969-70, while on leave from the NAS-NRC, he served as Pitt Professor of
American History and Institutions at the University of Cambridge and was a
Fellow of Emmanuel College.
Dr.
David is the author or editor of numerous books and articles in the fields of
history, labor, manpower, education, science policy, and futures research. He
was a member of President Kennedy's Commission on the Status of Women and later
served on the Citizens Advisory Council on the Status of Women during President
Johnson's Administration. In 1972 he was a U. S. alternate delegate to the
General Conference of UNESCO.
ERVIN SCHEDULED TO
SPEAK MARCH 3
Former
U. S. Senator Sam J. Ervin will speak to LBJ School faculty and students at I
p.m. March 3 in the East Campus Lecture Hall. At 3 p.m. he will deliver a
public lecture in the Lyndon B. Johnson Auditorium as part of the Distinguished
Lecturer Series sponsored by the LBJ School and the LBJ Library.
The
North Carolina Democrat retired at the end of 1974 after 20 years in the
Senate. Ervin, who long ago earned a reputation as a constitutional lawyer and
advocate of civil liberties and press freedom, became a national folk hero
during his chairmanship of the televised hearings of the Senate Select
Committee to Investigate 1972 Presidential Campaign Activities (the Watergate
Committee).
Ervin
said his service in Congress was dedicated to "trying to preserve the
fundamental rights of people". He has, however, drawn the criticism of
some groups for his opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment.
The
78-year-old Ervin is currently serving as a special commentator for ABC
Television.
SYMPOSIUM ON WOMEN
PLANNED FOR MARCH
Next
month at the LBJ School there will be an important gesture to an idea that has
crept into American history—"woman as professional." The LBJ
School is sponsoring a symposium on "Women in Government" on March 7.
The morning program will include two keynote speakers and a panel discussion on
selected topics. The afternoon will be filled with workshops on specific topics
to be discussed in depth.
The
purpose of the symposium is to present problems confronting women entering
public careers with an eye to constructive suggestions and solutions.
Despite
what the most conservative person may say, sexism has existed and continues to
exist in all sectors of American life. Of particular interest to those at the
LBJ School are attitudes toward women on the federal, state, and local levels
of government. The symposium will address all three levels. Women from out of
state as well as from Texas will share views so that geographic differences may
be noted.
All LBJ
School faculty, staff, students, alumni, and spouses are invited to attend.
-Peggy
Wilson
First Year Student
VON HOFFMAN QUIPS ON
POLITICS, GOVERNMENT
Syndicated
columnist Nicholas Von Hoffman entertained, possibly enlightened, and probably
enraged some of those in attendance at a brown-bag luncheon on February 5 at
which he responded to questions on a wide variety of subjects.
Sometimes
humorous and frequently sardonic, Von Hoffman quipped about political figures
and Presidential hopefuls, government, international relations, school
desegregation, and his difficulties with CBS radio and television, which
recently "fired" him.
On the
presidency, Von Hoffman commented, "I don't think anybody could do the job
well. It must be restricted and fundamentally changed. You have to go down 12
echelons from the President to find someone with substantive knowledge on
various important matters."
He
suggested that "federal government should be more or less peeled back to
the essential functions" citing foreign policy, defense, treasury, and
justice, with most of the executive departments and operations abolished, and
other problems being handled on a local level or a least on a reduced scale.
He
favors creation of a third elective body, a "Council of Tribunes",
which would have "a suspensive veto over Executive acts" and also the
power of confirmation now delegated to the Senate. He said that having little
else to do, this third body might be expected to do a reasonable job on
confirmation of nominees for government positions and in watching the
President. It would also free the Congress to spend more time on other matters.
Von
Hoffman touted former Senator Fred Harris as a man to watch among Democratic
Presidential hopefuls. He said, "Harris may end up being a very serious
competitor. He is working hard and is in touch with people with creative
ideas."
LBJ SCHOOL GRADUATE
HEADS CARPOOL PROGRAM
Linda
Kay Cherrington, a 1974 graduate of the LBJ School, has been appointed carpool
director for the city of Houston. Cherrington, 25, was appointed by Mayor Fred
Hofheinz to direct a two-year federally funded program to match applications
for carpools throughout Harris County. Her salary will be $14,000 a year.
She set
up a similar program last year for San Antonio and Bexar County.
In an interview
with the Houston Post, Cherrington said the first and easiest task in a carpool program is
to let people know of others who live in the area and go to work at the same
time.
The
results of the San Antonio program have been significantly more successful than
a previous experiment in Houston. Of 17,000 persons contacted in San Antonio,
3,400 wanted to carpool and 2,300 were matched during the first six months of
the program. Computers were utilized, as they will be in Houston, to match
possible carpool participants.
"If
employers will provide priority parking spaces for carpoolers, it will
help," she said.
Cherrington
is a native of Harlingen and attended Rice University before enrolling at the
LBJ School. She also is a former research analyst for the State Legislative
Budget Office.
VIDEO COLLECTION
LISTED
In
addition to video tapes of speeches and question-answer sessions of
distinguished visitors to the LBJ School, the LBJ Library has a growing
collection of video tapes of important television documentaries.
Here is
a list of tapes currently available for viewing:
Speakers:
1971—Sargent Shriver, Representative J. J. (Jake) Pickle, Prime Minister
Harold Wilson, Senator Hubert Humphrey.
1972—Wilbur
Cohen, James MacGregor Burns, James Hagerty and George Christian, General Lyman
Lemnitzer, James Webb (NASA), Governor Pat Brown, Senator George McGovern and
Sargent Shriver (Press Conference), Edwin Cole (General Motors), Senator
William Renton, Ambassador Averell Harriman.
1973—John
Gardner (Common Cause), Justice Tom Clark, Governor Preston Smith.
1974—Gardner
Ackley, Elliot Richardson, Senator Gale McGee, Representative Martha Griffiths,
Governor G. Mennen Williams.
1975—Dean
Rusk, Nicholas Von Hoffman.
The TV
documentaries include: "The Selling of the Pentagon" (CBS), 1971;
"The Missiles of October" (ABC), 1974; "The U. S. Postal
Service" (NBC), 1975; and "The Regulators: How They Cost You
Money" (ABC, a report on the Civil Aeronautics Board and Interstate
Commerce Commission), 1975.