WEBVTT 1 00:00:07.560 --> 00:00:11.400 Senator, do you expect the Texas delegation to vote for you after the first ballot? 2 00:00:11.520 --> 00:00:19.200 The Texas delegation under resolution by our convention is instructed to vote for me as 3 00:00:19.200 --> 00:00:21.180 long as my name is before the convention. 4 00:00:21.300 --> 00:00:27.460 How many ballots they'll have at the convention I would not want to anticipate, and I would 5 00:00:27.460 --> 00:00:34.320 not at this stage be very prophetic about how those ballots will be cast, other than 6 00:00:34.320 --> 00:00:38.100 to say that Texas is going to vote for Lyndon Johnson. 7 00:00:39.160 --> 00:00:45.340 Well Senator, does the candidacy, does your candidacy more important than any other aspect 8 00:00:45.340 --> 00:00:48.480 of the business on the convention at this time? 9 00:00:48.740 --> 00:00:51.220 I would say no. 10 00:00:52.900 --> 00:00:53.740 What's the prospect? 11 00:00:53.740 --> 00:00:54.940 I could elaborate on it. 12 00:00:55.140 --> 00:00:58.860 The question is such that I don't think it requires much elaboration. 13 00:00:58.960 --> 00:01:03.180 Have you supported support for your candidacy among other delegations outside of Texas? 14 00:01:03.860 --> 00:01:05.500 I have heard it so stated. 15 00:01:06.960 --> 00:01:10.200 Have you any non-Texas support without seeking it? 16 00:01:10.440 --> 00:01:10.900 Yes. 17 00:01:12.980 --> 00:01:18.720 What exactly has been your activity in the convention then so far if you have not actively 18 00:01:18.720 --> 00:01:20.520 been promoting your candidacy, sir? 19 00:01:20.520 --> 00:01:28.220 Well it's been a rather healthy, steady, enduring one, about 17 to 18 hours a day, visiting 20 00:01:28.220 --> 00:01:34.360 with members of the Congress and delegates from the various states who wanted to discuss 21 00:01:34.360 --> 00:01:41.200 with me some of their personal problems, most of them the problems involved in the platform, 22 00:01:41.820 --> 00:01:44.840 and some of them their individual candidacies. 23 00:01:44.840 --> 00:01:54.200 I met with Governor Stevenson and we talked about Suez's situation for a while and then 24 00:01:54.200 --> 00:01:59.340 we talked about the problems of the convention and I'd be less than frank if I didn't say 25 00:01:59.340 --> 00:02:05.120 we talked about the problems of a would-be president. 26 00:02:06.840 --> 00:02:13.700 In what respect does Texas stand with, I'll start that one over again, how does Texas 27 00:02:13.700 --> 00:02:17.640 stand with respect to the formation of the platform, sir, on civil rights for example? 28 00:02:17.780 --> 00:02:20.660 We have a very able member of that platform committee. 29 00:02:21.600 --> 00:02:31.140 They're prudent and conscientious and a citizen of the state, Mr. Van Kennedy, and I'm going 30 00:02:31.140 --> 00:02:34.520 to leave the writing of the platform up to them. 31 00:02:35.140 --> 00:02:41.840 I learned several days ago not to try to write a platform before the committee made its report. 32 00:02:42.460 --> 00:02:50.460 I have confidence that the platform should be and I think will be, hope will be, a platform 33 00:02:50.460 --> 00:02:58.400 that the Democrats of the North and the South and the East and the West can all run upon 34 00:02:58.400 --> 00:03:06.060 with dignity and decency and I believe that under the leadership of John McCormick we'll 35 00:03:06.060 --> 00:03:11.200 have a platform that a majority of the Democrats of the convention will approve and a majority 36 00:03:11.200 --> 00:03:15.520 of the people of America will endorse in November. 37 00:03:16.320 --> 00:03:21.000 With respect to candidates for the presidency, sir, you've maintained a kind of neutrality. 38 00:03:21.320 --> 00:03:23.140 Does that position still prevail? 39 00:03:23.940 --> 00:03:25.100 It still prevails. 40 00:03:26.220 --> 00:03:35.000 I was a supporter of Governor Stevenson 52 and I stated in my LBJ Ranch at Johnson City 41 00:03:35.000 --> 00:03:40.820 when Governor Stevenson visited me last year that I support him 52 and I'd be happy to 42 00:03:40.820 --> 00:03:42.380 support him at 6 if he were the nominee. 43 00:03:42.920 --> 00:03:52.340 I have said to Governor Harriman and Senator Simonton and other possible candidates that 44 00:03:52.340 --> 00:03:57.500 I did not feel that it was my role to attempt to tell the delegates this convention or the 45 00:03:57.500 --> 00:04:00.460 people of America who their nominee should be. 46 00:04:01.460 --> 00:04:10.340 I have pursued a religiously neutral policy because I do not consider it within my province 47 00:04:12.180 --> 00:04:22.260 to select the candidates and notwithstanding the rather inaccurate kingmaker stories that 48 00:04:22.260 --> 00:04:22.960 abridge me. 49 00:04:23.400 --> 00:04:24.760 One final question, Senator. 50 00:04:25.360 --> 00:04:31.580 There's been a report that with yourself as the favorite son that your state and yourself 51 00:04:31.580 --> 00:04:37.360 might become a rallying point for Southern unity on differences within the convention itself. 52 00:04:38.940 --> 00:04:41.900 By geography, I come from the Southwest. 53 00:04:42.580 --> 00:04:45.680 Both of my grandfathers were in the Confederate Army. 54 00:04:46.360 --> 00:04:53.300 I'm very proud of my Southern heritage and the friends that I have in the South. 55 00:04:53.300 --> 00:05:03.560 I'm not a sectional leader and have known all along that in order to unify the party 56 00:05:03.560 --> 00:05:10.320 that we should try to work out the problems from all sections standpoint instead of any 57 00:05:10.320 --> 00:05:10.600 one. 58 00:05:11.000 --> 00:05:14.500 I have never sought to speak for any section including the South. 59 00:05:15.540 --> 00:05:16.760 Thank you very much, Senator.