Former Governor of Texas John Connally
Former Governor of Texas John Connally
MS former Governor of Texas JOHN CONNALLY speaking at press conference: "I think they're operating from an emotional & erroneous basis. They're refusing to load wheat w/o thinking about what they're doing to the agricultural base of this country, w/o thinking about what they're doing to the balance of payments to this country, w/o thinking about the stability of the dollar which affects them. You can't deny the farmers a market. If you can't sell these products at home & you can't sell them overseas, pretty soon you're going to quit producing & then you're not going to have the average factory worker in this country spending 16% of his disposable income for food. You'll be back up to where you're spending 25-30% of his disposable income for food." CU John Connally dragging hand across face while listening to off-screen reporter ask question, then speaking: "I don't know whether your question is a reflection of your own feelings or whether you're baiting me, maybe a little of both. I question that the political leaders have given themselves enormous increases. I think they did, frankly, act in a cowardly fashion, recently, when they gave themselves a backdoor increase. I think if they want to raise their salaries they ought to have the courage to do it right out in public & announce it. But they haven't had a raise since 1969. That's 6 years. There's not a working man in this country that hasn't had a raise since 69." Off-screen reporter chimes in about the permanent raise clause added to the bill. "I think that's wrong. I don't think they should have built that in. I don't think they ought be increasing their staff to the extent that they are. I don't think they ought be talking about a new office building. There are a lot of things I can be critical of them for but by & large-- last year I suspect that the average wage earner in this country lost ground on inflation." "I'm happy doing what I'm doing. I hope I can be effective doing what I'm doing."