The Boerne Star (Boerne, Tex.), Vol. 43, No. 46, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 28, 1948 Page: 6 of 16
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THE BOERNE STAR
Thursday, Oct. 28, 1948
TO THE anZENSHP
Kendall County
THESE ARE THE FACTS:
On Tuesday of last week in the AUSTIN-AMERI-
CAN, on the radio last Friday and again today, Mon-
day, October 25th, my opponent charged me with re-
flecting on the good name of the Moursund family, as
being a liar, and as a double-crosser of Mrs. Tom Mar-
tin; in effect he says the same thing in his letter to
the voters. Last Monday he also stated that he was
through saying any more against my character unless
I said something about his. In other words, he ex-
pects me to turn “the other cheek after he has three
times slapped me. Manifestly, if I did this my oppo-
nent’s friends would say “You see, Petsch doesn’t deny
anything Moursund says about him — Moursund told
the truth.” But as Mr. Moursund did not tell the
truth, I am forced to reply.
THAT’S WHAT I’LL DO
Everybody hates -a personal political controversy,
but as Mr. Moursund personally attacked my charac-
ter, I hope that you will do me the justice of reading
In the first radio announcement advising the voters
of Moursund’s intention to broadcast, the statement
was made that Mr. Moursund would answer the slan-
ders I had uttered against the Moursund family. How-
ever, in the Saturday broadcast, he did not cite a single
word even suggesting any slander against him or his
family; but on October 24th, Mr. Moursund again inti-
mated that I had slandered his family without saying
how. Then he proceeded to tell the audience what fine
folks the Moursunds were. I am equally proud of my
hard-working farmer ancestors—there has not been a
“black sheep” in the whole group. They were all good
people as were all the pioneers of this section. The
Moursunds have no corner on the honor of excellent
citizenship. But that has nothing to do with the is-
sues in this campaign. Only an idiot candidate would
slander an opponent’s family.
I have no personal criticism against my opponent;
he is an ambitious young lawyer and deserves every-
body’s consideration so long as he conducts himself
with propriety. All I am going to say against my op-
ponent is that he has been playing on the wrong team.
I am required also to make a few comments about the
political company my opponent has been keeping, as
political associates of a candidate furnish the best in-
dex of what to expect from a candidate after his elec-
tion. My opponent chose his company. It is only fair
that I discuss the picture—not of Mr. Moursund by
himself—but of the whole group. That’s what I’ll do.
WICKED AND RECKLESS CHARGE
Mrs. Martin’s statement dated October 18th hereto-
fore published in every newspaper in the District ought
to be a complete answer to Mr. Moursund’s charge of
my having double-crossed Mrs. Martin. However, be-
cause of the seriousness and the repetition of the
charge of Mr. Moursund, I am forced to go into details.
Not weeks before (as Mrs. Martin has twice charged
Moursund in her public statements) but only on the
morning after Tom Martin was buried, three friends of
mine, for three hours circulated a petition asking me to
become a candidate for the Legislature. When, how-
ever, I learned that Mrs. Martin wanted to run, I at
once asked these friends to stop the petitions. By this
time 198 citizens had signed the request to have me go
to the Legislautre—not a bad recommendation.
On the night of the same Friday I was informed by
Tom Schmidt, Gillespie County Chairman, that Mr.
Moursund had slipped over to Boerne where he was
attempting to secure the Democratic nomination over
Mrs. Martin. Immediately, Mr. Schmidt and I went to
Boerne for the purpose of protecting—not my candi-
dacy—but Mrs. Martin’s. The next morning I made a
second trip to see Colonel George Rozelle, the Kendall
County Chairman. He came with me to Fredericks-
burg, was introduced to Mrs. Martin and as result of
the conference between her, Colonel Rozelle, Tom
Schmidt and myself, the Colonel became and remained
a loyal supporter of Mrs. Martin. Additionally, I made
at least a half dozen calls by long distance to various
influential persons in Texas in Mrs. Martin’s behalf. I
studied the law so my advice to the two Chairmen fa-
voring Mrs. Martin would prevent their support from
running afoul of the law. I remained constantly on the
job of helping Mrs. Martin’s candidacy, especially in
the matter of advising her in connection with the over-
tures made over a period of several weeks by persons
representing themselves as being friends of Moursund
and promising to secure Moursund’s support in behalf
of Mrs. Martin’s nomination. And late on the after-
noon of the 18th, after a conference between myself,
Tom Schmidt and Mrs. Martin, the latter two called on
Mr. Gore, Democratic Chairman of Blanco County to
ascertain whether there was any substance to the fre-
quent offer of Mr. Moursund to withdraw in favor of
Mrs. Martin. She and Tom Schmidt were then frankly
told by Mr. Goar that he would not endorse Mrs. Mar-
tin.
Thereupon, Mrs. Martin returned to Fredericksburg,
told me what had happened and endorsed my candida-
cy. That is when I stopped working for Mrs. Martin,
and accepted her endorsement and the petition of my
friends to become a candidate.
This is the whole record of which my opponent
charges me with double-crossing Mrs. Martin. Do you
believe the charge is justifiable. If so, I do not deserve
your support. But the record of Mrs. Martin’s state-
ment are to the effect that I was always her true and
loyal supporter. Definitely, my opponent’s double-
crossing charge is both reckless and wicked.
DUST IN VOTERS’ EYES
In the radio broadcasts Mr. Moursund also charged
me with lying in connection with the statement given
by me to the Editor of the STANDARD on Oct. 20th
to the effect that I had not received Moursund’s letter
offering to withdraw. A smart man said a long time
ago that the worst kind of falsehood is one founded on
half-truth.
Of course, I got Moursund’s letter on October 20th
and I knew he had my receipt for it. But October 20th
was also publication day of the paper, and at a certain
time before the paper goes to press, all forms are closed
so that printing can begin. While I received Mr. Mour-
sund's letter on the 20th, it came at least two hours
after the Editor asked me if I had gotten the letter and
after STANDARD forms had been sealed and printing
had begun.
I hope nobody will consider me fool enough to tell a
lie relative to a matter where the other side had the
written evidence against me and which at the same
time is immaterial to any issue in the campaign. At
the time of the STANDARD’S publication everybody
knew what was in Moursund’s letter as he had himself
previously given it out. What purpose could I have had
in making a statement to the STANDARD to the ef-
fect that I had not received the letter excepting just
to answer the Editor’s question as to whether I had
received it? Thus the statement was true when it was
made. Furthermore, by the time that the STANDARD
went to press, Mrs. Martin—who received her copy of
the letter from Johnson City—(mine came from Aus-
tin) "had already given out her statement rejecting
Moursund’s last minute “repent” proposition as ap-
pears from her letter set out in a later paragraph.
In view of these record facts, why would Mr. Mour-
sund make so much ado about matters of such little im-
portance? Is he just naturally given to slander? Or
does he consider it necessary to throw dust in the vot-
ers’ eyes?
GOVERNOR STEVENSON SPEAKS
Mr. Moursund also stated I was lying in my claim
of having supported Mrs. Martin because sometime be-
fore she withdrew I had ordered a Poll list from Blan-
co County. Yes, I did that and purely in anticipation
of what would probably happen. You see I knew the
character and nature of my opposition. I just got
ready.
Moursund also attempted to leave a false impression
about Ex-Governor Stevenson’s support of my candi-
dacy. Doubtless on that subject it would be well to let
Stevenson speak for himself:
“Hon. Alfred Petsch, Austin, Texas,
Fredericksburg, Texas. 2:35 p. m. Oct. 25,1948
You have always rendered honest service as a
member of the Legislature and I hope you are
elected to that position again on November 2nd.”
(Signed) Coke R. Stevenson.
SOME PEOPLE ARE TOUGH
Mr. Moursund actually surprised me with his care-
less and reckless charges. However, due to the utter
falsity of the charges, they never worried me for a
minute. I prophesied to start with these falsehoods
would kick back and probably hit the ambitious Mour-
sund right in the face, And that is exactly what hap-
pened when Mrs. Martin issued her statement, (after
she had received a copy of Moursund’s offer on Octo-
ber 20th) in which she coldly rejected his offer to let
her become the nominees:
“There is no justification for A. W. Moursund’s
charge of bad faith on the part of Alfred Petsch’s sup-
port in my behalf for the nomination of the Demo-
cratic candidate for Representative of this District.
Mr. Petsch has been my true and loyal supporter from
the very time he found out that I would like to have
gone to the Legislature. On the other hand, A. W.
Moursund began his campaign to go to the Legislature
many weeks prior to my husband’s death, and from
the time of his death, Mr. Moursund did everything he
could to prevent me securing the nomination. In this
effort he even attempted to by-pass Gillespie County
completely. Therefore, I again state I hope that all
my friends will support Mr. Petsch’s write-in campaign
for Representative.”
(Signed) MRS. TOM MARTIN.
This statement would have knocked any ordinary po-
litician out of ever bringing up the subject again, but it
apparently did not even cause candidate Moursund to
give himself a good body shake—some people are real-
ly tough.
SOUNDS LIKE, READS LIKE, IS LIKE
The truth is that Mr. Moursund’s activities in the
campaign of Lyndon Johnson and the other Truman
and CIO flunkies had been of a nature which would
make anyone callus and tough. First of all, this group
of cold blooded politicians ( posing in the garb of simon-
pure Democrats) stacked and bull-dozed the Texas
Democratic Executive Committee to the extent this
Committee denied Texas Democratic voters any voice
on whether they wanted Texas Democracy to stand
for the election of Truman—Barkley or Thurmond--
Wright. Of course, these political manipulatiors knew
that Texas Democrats would never approve the im-
possibly outrageous Truman Civil Rights Plan — ap-
parently copied from the “All-Race” decree in the Code
of Moscow. So this Johnson-Truman combination also
decreed “to hell with the voice of Texas voters—they
will vote for the men we name on the ticket.” Sounds
like Stalin, reads like Stalin and actually is like Stalin.
STINKS TO HIGH HEAVEN
When this group of Pendergrast schooled politicians
were confronted in the Fort Worth Convention—A. W.
Moursund was one of them—of naming Coke Steven-
son (who had actually received a several thousand ma-
jority of the votes of Real Texas) or Lyndon Johnson
(whose political racketeers had enabled him to build up
a phoney 87^majority by means of the way “they” us-
ed to “do it in Kansas City”) it was once more decreed
“we Penrergasts must stick together.” Thereupon, the
Convention (which had first kicked out the real Demo-
crats including the Gillespie County delegation) issued
its final decree and gave the Democratic Senatorial
nomination to Lyndon Johnson in spite of the record
odor of vote-stealing, stinking to the high Political
Heaven.
PROFIT ON CORRUPTION
Lastly, when poor Coke Stevenson—simple enough to
believe he could get political justice in the Courts of his
country—took his case before an honest Judge in Un-
cle Sam’s Court, and while this Court’s machinery was
making an honest attempt to ascertain the truth con-
cerning the election frauds, Johnson’s lawyers (Mr.
► Moursund was one) by means of a legal technicality in
the New Deal Supreme Court stopped the inquiry to
learn the truth.
It certainly is high time we are having a political
house cleaning. If our elections are not kept scrupul-
ously honest, the average citizens—the back bone of
the Nation—lose their voice in the Government. There
is only one step between political disfranchisement and
the firing squad.
Mr. Moursund says all this has nothing to do with
the Representative race. But it does and simply be-
cause by opponent dare not say anything against this
Penergast-Parr et al election rottenness—Moursund
has made himself a part of that political gang of high-
binders. Undoubtedly our District wants no one in the
Legislature who may be controlled by those who glorify
and profit on political corruption.
BEWARE OF THE LATE ONES
Judging the close of the opposition campaign by
the charcter of its opening and the “know-how” of the
opposition, we are confident 'that the last minute will
bring forth charges which the opposition could afford
to make only when I could no longer reply. Just put
it in your pipe and smoke: “If they had anything on
me, they would have told it early and over and over.”
Beware of the late ones—they will probably be more
unfounded than the first.
On this statement and my personal and Legislative
record, I rest my Cause. If you believe I can serve
you best, join our team.
Alfred Petsch
yj
'V
CANDIDATE FOR REPRESENTATIVE
(Paid Political Adv.)
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Davis, Jack R. The Boerne Star (Boerne, Tex.), Vol. 43, No. 46, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 28, 1948, newspaper, October 28, 1948; Boerne, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth856265/m1/6/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Patrick Heath Public Library.