had given Yarborough a payment of $50,000 on Nov. 6, 1960. But later, after a thorough
investigation, the Department of Justice had issued a statement declaring that the charges involvingYarborough were "without any foundation in fact and unsupported by credible testimony." "The
case is closed," said the Justice Department. But this did not stop Bush from using the issue to the
hilt: "I don't intend to mud-sling with [Yarborough] about such matters as the Billie Sol Estes case
since Yarborough's connections with Estes are a simple matter of record which any one can check,"
said Bush. "[Yarborough iBillie Sol Estes were as casual as he claims they were." [fn 16] In as] going to have to prove to the Texas voters that his connections with release issued on April 24, Bus (^) h
"said he welcomes the assistance of Gordon McLendon, Yarborough's primary opponent, in trying
to force the incumbent Senator to answer." Bush added that he planned to "hammer at Yarborough
every step of the way" "until I get some sort of answer."
The other accusation that was used against Yarborough during the campaign was advanced most
notably in an article published in the September, 1964 issue of Reader's Digest. The story was that
Yarborough had facilitated backing and subsidies through the Texas Area Reconstruction
Administration for an industrial development project in Crockett, Texas, only to have the project
fail owing to the inability of the company involved to build the factory that was planned. Theaccusation was that Audio Electronics, the prospective factory builders, had received a state loan of (^)
$383,000 to build the plant, while townspeople had raised some $60,000 to buy the plant site,
before the entire deal fell through.
The Reader's Digest told disapprovingly of Yarborough aon a telephone squawk box in March, 1963, telling them that he was authorized by the White Houseddressing a group of 35 Crockett residents (^)
to announce "that you are going to gain a fine new industry-one that will provide new jobs for 180
people, add new strength to your area."
The Reader's Digest article left the distinct impression that the $60,000 ihad been lost. "Because people believed that their Senator's 'White House announcment' of thenvested by local residents
ARA loan to Audio guaranteed the firm's soundness, several Texans invested in it and lost all. One
man dropped $40,000. A retired Air Force officer plowed in $7000." It turned out in reality that
those who had invested in the real estate for the plant site had lost nothing, but had rather been
made an offer for their land that represented a profit of one third on the original investment, andthus stood to gain substantially.
Bush campaign headquarters immediately got into the act with a statement that "it is a shame" that
Texans had to pick up the Reader's Digest and find their senator "holding the hand of scandal."
"The citizens of the area raised $60,000 iproject was a fraud and never started." Yarborough sn cash, invested it in the company, and lost it because thehot back with a statement of his own, pointing (^)
out that Bush's claims were "basely false," and adding that the "reckless, irresponsible false charges
by my opponent further demonstrate his untruthfulness and unfitness for the office of US Senator."
Most telling was Yarborough's charge on how the Reader's Digest got interested in Crockett, Texas,
in the first place: "The fact that my opponebanking connections enable the planting of fant's multi-millionaire father's Wall Street investmentlse and libellous articles about me in national
magazine like the Reader's Digest will not enable the Connecticut candidate to buy a Texas seat in
the US Senate." That was on target, that hurt. Bush whined in response that it was Yarborough's
statement which was "false, libellous, and hogwash," and challenging the senator to prove it or
retract it. [fn 17]
Beyond these attempts to smear Yarborough, it is once again characteristic that the principal issue
around which Bush built his campaign was racism, expressed this time as opposition to the civil
rights bill that was before the Congress during 1964. Bush did this certainly in order to conform to
his pro-Goldwater ideological profile, and in order to garner votes (especially in the Republican