Trouble in Texas

Tall, tough Allan Shivers had always been so successful in politics that Texas politicians had come to consider him almost invincible. Shivers himself has always been supremely confident. Two years ago he defied all the political rules of Democratic Texas when he campaigned for Dwight Eisenhower, led Texas' Democratic voters into the Republican camp.

This spring he committed even greater (for Texas) political heresy: he announced for a third elective term as governor.

Last week there were signs that Shivers, for the first time in his long political career, was in trouble. He found himself in the unusual position (for him) of defending his public and private record against the assaults of his opponent, an eager, 51-year-old lawyer named Ralph Yarborough, * who lost to Shivers in 1952 by more than 300,000 votes. Yarborough has made political hay with a deposition, recently made public, showing that Shivers made a profit of $425,000 on a Rio Grande Valley land deal within seven months in 1946 when he was a state senator. (He had paid $25,000 for an option on the land.) Last week Yarborough and Shivers appeared at a big rally at the central Texas town of Belton, and Yarborough had his say about Shivers' quick profit: "This transaction is one of the most unusual business deals ever made in Texas . . .

What did the governor sell for $450,000? Was it land? No, he didn't own any land.

Was it an option? The option had already expired. Was it mineral interests? No ...

Was it water rights? No." When Yarborough finished, the crowd cheered. Allan Shivers rose to explain: "It was a legitimate business deal; I have never found anything wrong with this great American system of profitmaking." As he sat down, the only applause came from Shivers' friends on the platform.

This week Texas political observers agreed, to their own surprise, that Yarborough has a chance to beat Shivers in the Democratic primary on July 24.

*No kin to the late Earl of Yarborough, for whose family title the whist hand without honors was supposedly named.

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