Texas Week, Volume 1, Number 11, October 26, 1946 Page: 7
34 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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heavy nuisance industries on the Uni-
versity of Houston, his chief interest
since he resigned last summer as presi-
dent of the Houston Symphony Soci-
ety.
Threat to Riverside
And the method he took of fighting
this threat was a frontal attack on
Houston's proposed zoning ordinance,
which he charged would allow nuisance
industries next door to Houston Uni-
versity, and incidentally, though he did
not mention it, very close to swank
Riverside, one of Houston's top-bracket
residential sections.
Cullen apparently had struck in his
usual, individual, maverick fashion.
There was no indication of organized
opposition to the zoning plan, but the
Cullen letter last week had set Hous-
tonians to thinking about smells and
such. The zoning commission came
back quickly with a statement by one
of its members, Milton B. McGinty,
architect, who said that heavy industry
would be no closer than 400 feet to
Houston U. under the proposal and that
industries already established would not
be forced out of their present locations,
another complaint which Cullen had
voiced.
City Attorney Lewis Cutrer began
digging back in the city ordinances to
find out which smells are o. k. and which
are not. The Houston University vet-
erans' club endorsed the Cullen letter.
Everybody Scarce
Cullen himself, having delivered the
opening shot, was very scarce last week.
His office said he would not be in for
several days. The office would not say
wnether he was in Texas or Timbuktu.
And officials of the Champion Paper
and Fibre company were busy on the
phone or out to lunch.
Cullen clearly had attracted the city's
attention. Anything Cullen does or doesSMELL-HA TER CULLEN
....Started Houston Talkingnot do is news in Houston, because he
is the living personification of the Hous-
ton story.
Now in his mid-sixties, he had come
in 53 years of unceasing labor from a
$3-a-week job in a San Antonio candy
factory to a spreading home and a six-
acre estate at 1620 River Oaks boule-
vard, which is probably Houston's rich-
est street. He lives next door to the
River Oaks country club and next door
to Noah Dietrich, executive vice presi-
dent of the Hughes Tool company and
thus chief aide to another of Texas'
richest men, Howard Hughes.
Born on a Denton county ranch in
1881, he had arrived at 1620 River Oaks
boulevard by wildcatting activities in
fields which read like a history of
South Texas oil: Pierce Junction, Da-
mon Mound, Blue Ridge, Thompsons,
Humble, Tom O'Connor.
Two Million or Two Bits
He was president of the independent
Quintana Petroleum Corporation and
was worth unguessable millions. In the
past few years he had given million
after million in philanthropies: upward
of $5,000,000 to the University of Hous-
ton, a million to Houston's Hermann
hospital, the same to Houston's Baptist
(Memorial) and Methodist hospitals,
the same for a projected Episcopal hos-
pital.
From the hospital gift ceremonies a
reporter gleaned a now-famous Cul-
lenism:
It's just as easy to give away $2 mil-
lion as two bits."
Another Cullen gift publicized re-
cently was his contribution to Repub-
lican national campaign coffers. At the
same time, he particpates in state Dem-
ocratic politics, and both he and his
wife were named as delegates on the
Jester-controlled roster of Harris county
delegates to the state Democratic con-
vention.
Houstonians paid attention to Cullen
not only because he-as they hoped to
do-had come from nothing to millions
in one generation, but because they
knew him probably better than any
other truly wealthy Houstonian.
Often Speaks Out
As chairman of the board of regents
of his beloved, tempestuous, booming
Houston University he often spoke out.
As president for years of the Symphony
society he had been vocal in the days
when the symphony was new enough to
be front page news. And, his home
being the chief stop on Houston's an-
nual spring Azalea trail, Houstonians
had rubbed elbows with him.
"There was no telling where his anti-
zoning campaign would end, but Hous-
tonians were talking about H. R. Cullen
again, and getting a kick out of it."
Garrison Means It
From the point where U. S. Highway
80 goes out of Texas near El Paso to
the Texas termination of U. S. 90 at
Orange, Texas motorists could hear the
blast. From his headquarters in Austin,Public Safety Director Homer Garrison
was talking straight to the motorist.
Pulling no punches, he said, "Either
reckless drivers are going to kill them-
selves or the police are going to cure
them."
That was talk that Texans could
understand. But Garrison made it a lot
clearer. He said that in this latter half
of 1946, traffic law enforcement is grow-
ing out of its swaddling clothes. "The
people," continued Garrison, "seriously
concerned with traffic death and injury,
are ready for something to be done
about it. And the police are ready to do
something about it."
That something is stricter law en-
forcement against the 15 per cent (300,-
000 Texans) who cause 85 per cent of
the accidents. Said Garrison, "It's that
dangerous, reckless, drunken per cent
that we, the police and the public, are
after."
Garrison also did some wishful pre-
dicting. He said that there is every in-
dication that the Highway Patrol will
be increased to at least a minimum
workable size by the next Legislature.
Garrison knows what adequate per-
sonnel can do. He cited how, by adding
90 highway patrolmen before the war
and gasoline rationing, rural traffic
deaths were cut from 1300 to 900 in
1941.
Texas traffic officers are getting an
opportunity to hear first hand how to
"cure" the reckless driver at the Texas
School for Traffic Officers in Austin
through 26.
Texans, afraid that traffic officers will
go on an "arrest everyone spree," got
this reassuring word from Garrison:
"Strict enforcement does not mean
wholesale enforcement. Any officer who
gets 'steamed up' and picks on marginal
violators will be bringing discredit to
his organization. Arrests must be 'good'
arrests. It's harder to catch a willful
violator than an unknowing one."
r r=\
DIRECTOR GARRISON
.... Pulled No PunchesTEXAS WEEK 7
26 OCTOBE R 46
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Texas Week, Inc. Texas Week, Volume 1, Number 11, October 26, 1946, periodical, October 26, 1946; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth586547/m1/7/: accessed July 6, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Private Collection of the Raymond B. Holbrook Family.