Oral History Interview with David Allred, August 9, 1967 Page: 23
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Allred
23
I really have the feeling that people respect you a little
more if you don't jump every time they pull your string. If, as
I say, you really honestly hold a conviction and stand up for it,
I think they respect you more.
The speaker is a very busy man. There are a lot of people who
are after his ear. I have discovered that once people begin to talk
to somebody that they think is a "wheel" they tend to ramble. Ben
appreciated brevity. He commented to me a couple of times about
that. We'd be at places like a breakfast, or a dinner, and these
would go on interminably. Everybody from the third vice-president
in charge of pouring water glasses has to get up and make a five
minute oration. All the while, you're sitting there fidgeting and
you know visitors are stacking up in your office, and work is
stacking up. You can't very well leave.
But I knew that Ben appreciated brevity. So when I had
something to say to him, I went in, I said it, and I got out. I
don't think in my whole career in the House so far I've spent more
than about three minutes in the Speaker's office. And I think Ben
really appreciated it more than if I'd gone in and bent his ear,
and patted him on the back, and this type of thing because a back
slapper is recognizable, I think.
But in any event, under this new seniority, you Can retain
membership as long as the rule is in effect. Now the "fly in the
ointment" is that the House adopts a new set of rules each session
and should some future speaker for one reason or another want tochange this, he can do so with no problem because all he's got to
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Marcello, Ronald E.; Kamp, H. W. & Allred, David. Oral History Interview with David Allred, August 9, 1967, book, November 20, 1968; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth223569/m1/24/?q=%22%22~1: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Oral History Program.