Two-Party Texas?

In his first six months on the job, Paul Butler, the new Democratic National Chairman, has traveled more than 30,000 miles to meet party leaders and make friends. Along the way he has suffered some minor mishaps. In Georgia, just as he was beginning to read a prepared speech, he broke his glasses; at a Mississippi dinner, a waiter spilled four glasses of milk over him, and at a California rally, a leading Democrat publicly insulted him (TIME. April 4). Last week in Texas, Democrat Butler walked, with his eyes wide open, into real trouble: he made the party split --which was healing --break open again.

Sacrificial Calf. Recently some top Democrats have been working quietly to heal the breach between the National Committee and Governor Allan Shivers, who helped swing Texas to Eisenhower in 1952. Last month, during a Capitol Hill breakfast given by the Speaker of the House, "Mr. Sam" Rayburn of Texas, Chairman Butler and Governor Shivers conferred in the serving kitchen and agreed on an informal peace pact. Shivers privately agreed to choose a new national committeeman from Texas in place of his friend, Wright Morrow, long rebuffed by the National Committee.

Morrow, who heard about the arrangement, brooded about his role as sacrificial calf. Loyalist Texas Democrats, who want Shivers' scalp, were equally upset by the dealings between him and the national party. Amidst the rumbling, Chairman Butler announced.his plans for a visit to Texas. His sponsors: the violently anti-Shivers Democratic Advisory Committee. Under the circumstances, his trip, hailed as a "peace mission," was likely to be anything but.

Most Texans in Congress knew nothing about Butler's plans until it was too late. Speaker Sam Rayburn, who did know, hopefully sent word to Hilda Weinert, the state national committeewoman. one of the few Texas Democrats friendly with both Shivers and the National Committee. He wanted her to help avoid trouble "in working out Mr. Butler's schedule." She tried to arrange a meeting in Austin of party leaders from both factions. But the loyalist leadership balked, and the Shivers Democrats decided to boycott arriving Chairman Butler. Snapped Mr. Sam, "I can't make people cooperate."

Invitation to Uvalde. The day after Butler landed in Texas, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram ran a big, black headline: PARTY FEUD ERUPTS. Governor Shivers indignantly announced that Butler had refused an invitation to lunch in Austin. Drawing a bead on Butler, the governor labeled the refusal "regrettable for the future of the Democratic Party." Replied Butler: "I will be happy if the governor comes"--to see Butler.

In his six-day, fund-raising tour of the big-money, free-spending state of Texas, Democrat Butler grossed only about $25,000. At Lubbock, for his first speech ($10 a head, dinner included). 1,000 people were expected, but only 400 came. At Big Spring, he drew 150. Yet Texas was not entirely hostile territory. At Dallas, where Butler cut a three-foot cake (for his 50th birthday), 1,200 people showed up to eat and cheer. At Uvalde. former Vice President John Nance Garner, 86, who has puttered in privacy for 14 years amidst his pecan trees and chickens, surprisingly opened his gates and invited everybody to "come to my house and meet Mr. Butler." Butler aroused much enthusiasm among loyalist Democrats and got a respectful hearing from some Shivers Democrats who showed up at his rallies. Confidently, he predicted Governor Shivers' eventual return to party councils. Instead of wooing him and his conservative supporters, however, Chairman Butler had hard words for registered Democrats who voted Republican. "The sooner [they] become Republicans, the better off we all will be," he said. "In Texas today, a two-party system is beginning to emerge, and the readjustment and the realignment are proving painful."

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