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    "title": "Speeches - Governor Ronald Reagan, 1971 [06/25/1971-12/31/1971]",
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    "ocrText": "Ronald Reagan Presidential Library\nDigital Library Collections\nThis is a PDF of a folder from our textual collections.\nCollection: Reagan, Ronald: Gubernatorial Papers,\n1966-74: Press Unit\nFolder Title: Speeches - Governor Ronald Reagan, 1971\n[06/25/1971-12/31/1971]\nBox: P18\nTo see more digitized collections visit:\nhttps://reaganlibrary.gov/archives/digital-library\nTo see all Ronald Reagan Presidential Library inventories visit:\nhttps://reaganlibrary.gov/document-collection\nContact a reference archivist at: [email protected]\nCitation Guidelines: https://reaganlibrary.gov/citing\nNational Archives Catalogue: https://catalog.archives.gov/\n50/9\nSacramento, California\nJur\n25, 1971\nContact:\nPaul Bec\n445-4571\n6-24-71\nEXCERPTS OF REMARKS BY GOVERNOR RONALD REAGAN\nAMERICAN LEGION STATE CONVENTION\nLos Angeles, California\nJune 25, 1971\nThroughout our country's long history, America has greeted its\nreturning servicemen with the consideration and all the honors a grateful\nnation should bestow upon soldiers home from the wars.\nToday, we have a new generation of young men returning from an\nunpopular war. They are coming home at a difficult time because the\nnation is slowly shifting from a war to a peacetime economy. And their\nunemployment rate is disappointingly high.\nDespite the bitter debate over the whys and wherefores of the\nSoutheast Asia conflict, several million of our finest young men have\nserved gallantly and honorably during the Vietram conflict.\nThey deserve every assistance our society can provide for them as\nthey make the transition to civilian life. And we are determined that\nthey will receive that assistance.\nOnly two weeks ago, President Nixon ordered a new and more intensive\neffort to expand the national Jobs for Veterans Program. To coordinate\nche State of California's efforts in opening up more jobs for veterans,\nI am appointing a statewide task force that will include businessmen,\nveterans and other state leaders.\nThe chairman of this group will be a distinguished gentleman whom\nyou all know and who is with us here today---Mr. Gordon Elliott, Director\nof the U.S. Veterans Administration Regional Office in Los Angeles.\nThis task force will work with businessmen, industrial leaders and\ngovernmental agencies to actively promote additional job opportunities\nfor our young veterans, particularly those in the 20 to 29 age group who\nserved in Vietnam.\nEfforts also are being undertaken to expand on-the-job training\npositions and to increase and improve the counseling and placement program\nhe Defense Department operates for servicemen about to be released from\nactive duty.\nCalifornia is vitally interested in augmenting the national veterans'\nprograms at the state level. For many years, we have had the nation's\nmost comprehensive program of assistance to veterans and we are determined\nto maintain this leadership.\n- 1 -\nAmerican Legion\nOne of our current goals is to assure that the housing needs of the\nhalf a million California Vietnam veterans will be met. To accomplish\nthis, Director Frank Nichol of our Department of Veterans Affairs has set\na goal of 100,000 new low-cost home loans during the next 10 years.\nA new $250 million veterans bond issue is now before the legislature\nto provide funds to continue the Cal-Vet farm and home loan program, a\nprogram, I might add, that has become a model for other states.\nIt does not cost the taxpayers a cent because it is entirely self-\nsupporting. But we will need authority for this new bond issue to\ncontinue an orderly program of financing to assure the money to provide\nfor the housing needs of Vietnam veterans.\nDuring these next ten years, we want to double the amount of\navailable low interest rate loan funds and to double the number of home\nloans available to veterans.\nI know we can count on the American Legion for the same kind of\ndedicated support you have given us in the past in securing the necessary\nvoter approval for this well-deserved state program for veterans.\nIn addition to job preference rights provided by law for veterans,\nwe also must continue our efforts to assure that the young men returning\nfrom Vietnam service have an opportunity to continue their education.\nLastyear, the legislature passed and I signed into law a bill which\ngives veterans first call on admission to all state campuses. Although\nnot every veteran has gotten his first choice, all have been granted\npreference in their application for admission to our system of higher\neducation.\nThere may well be an additional benefit in this. Some of our\nstudents who have been learning how to tell it like it isn't should\nbenefit from mixing with a group of mature young men who know more\nintimately than anyone what Vietnam is all about.\nPerhaps their presence may assure a more balanced presentation of\nrecent history.\nA few history lessons might also be in order for some of our elected\n(\nficials. Not only are they content to allow America to slip into second\nplace in space and technology---they don't even want us to try harder.\nTwo weeks ago, the Soviets put into orbit what is purported to be\nthe world's first manned space laboratory. They have two rockets racing\nour own Mariner to Mars and there is speculation that theirs may attempt\na landing on that distant planet.\n- 2 -\nAmerican Legion\nI know it is diff\\ ilt for the layman to full comprehend the\nfantastic possibilities of deep space exploration.\nIt may be even more difficult to understand the full potential of\nthe Soviet Union's unrelenting effort to achieve a massive nuclear\nfirst-strike capability. Despite America's long-expressed willingness to\nnegotiate an end to the arms race, the Soviet Union continues a massive\nbuild-up of nuclear and conventional power.\nDuring almost 20 months of negotiations, they have added to their\narsenal of SS-9 rockets, a missile 25 times as powerful as our own\nMinuteman.\nThey have extended their influence and military power into the\nMiddle East, the Mediterranean and the Indian Oceans and they still hold\na tight grip on Eastern Europe.\nAll these developments pose a potentially dangerous threat to the\nUnited States and to the freedoms you fought to preserve.\nWe faced a similar challenge after Sputnik more than a decade ago.\nBut the response then was quite different. Instead of settling for\nsecond place, we put America's scientific and productive genius to work.\nAnd it was an American who first walked on the surface of the moon.\nNo man now living can really calculate the ultimate benefits that\nmankind will reap from space and from the technology that our space\nprogram is producing.\nNo man now living can say with certainty that it is not absolutely\nvital to preserve and enhance the nation's technical capacity in aviation\nand space technology. Many of our own planners believe that those who\ncontrol space may hold an unbeatable military advantage.\nThe Soviets are placing a high premium on gaining that advantage.\nYet, today we hear a chorus counseling retreat turning away from the\nnext great frontier. And some of the loudest voices belong to those who\nwould claim the mantle of leadership in America.\nTheirs is a disturbing example of hypocrisy. They vote against the\nSST (supersonic transport) an action that doomed thousands of California\nerospace workers to joblessness and then bewail the unemployment that\nhas occurred in our aerospace industry.\nYet they do not propose to abandon them entirely. In the same week\nthat one senator voted to scuttle the SST, he proposed a government\nprogram to lend unemployed aerospace workers their monthly mortgage\npayments while they are out of work.\n3 1 I\nAmerican Legion\nLittle men\nwith little dreams for America tell us we should not\nreach out to the stars, but should build a subway instead\nand\nsubsidize the fares.\nBecause of our aerospace industry, America leads the world in\ncommerical aviation, with 85 percent of the market for civilian airliners.\nThis leadership has helped our balance of payments, provided productive\nemployment for our skilled work force and it has kept America ahead\nin first place---in the technology a modern nation must have to compete\nand even to survive,\nBut they say we should turn backward. They seem not to care that the\nnext great fleet of commercial airliners may well bear the Soviet star\ninstead of the insignia of an American manufacturer.\nThey seem unconcerned about the tragic waste of talent and the\nunemployment created by their votes to downgrade our aerospace in\nThey are not willing to make the investment necessary to keep\nAmerica moving foward, to keep the greatest scientific teams ever\nassembled working on productive programs that will provide lasting\nbenefits for mankind.\nBut they are willing to vote welfare benefits for the scientists,\nengineers and production workers who suffer most by this short-sighted\nattitude.\nSome say we are spending too much on aerospace and that we need a\nre-ordering of priorities, that we should devote more of the nation's\nbudget to social welfare programs.\nHow much more?\nTen years ago, defense consumed 48 percent of the total federal\nbudget. This year defense costs are down to 37 persent and still\ndeclining. The budget for social programs housing, income security,\ncommunity development, education has continued to climb, to more than\n$80 billion.\nThe space budget this year is only $3.5 billion, about 1.7 percent\nof total federal spending, and considerably less than the billions of\ndollars proposed for increased welfare spending.\nNo one denies that America must invest a proper proportion of its\nresources in social programs that are important to our people. But it\nis also essential that the United States maintain the technical capacity\nthat gave us the world's highest standard of living and which may one\nday be called upon to produce the productive miracles that could assure\nnational survival.\n- 4 -\nAmerican Legion\nSomehow, this ill dvised retreat from reali brings to mind an\nold American refrain popular in frontier days:\nMr. Finney had a turnip\nAnd it grew behind the barn,\nAnd it grewand it grew,\nAnd the turnip did no harm.\nToo many Americans in positions of elective responsibility obviously\nfeel the Soviet technical and missle threat is a development as harmless\nas Mr. Finney's turnip.\nAnd I suppose they will want to hide behind the barn if we ever are\nforced to concede that a 25-megaton nuclear missile is not a harmless\nturnip.\nWe cannot afford to accept the counsel of those who reject the\nfuture. A nation which keeps its eyes rooted firmly on the past is\ndoomed to perish.\nInstead, we must heed the lessons history has taught us about the\nfolly of appeasement and being unprepared for defense. Our generation\nhad to learn that lesson the hard way on the beaches of Normandy and on\na hundred Pacific atolls.\nIt is a mistake peaceful societies have made many times.\nSeveral weeks ago, I spoke at a dinner here for wives and relatives\nof the almost 1600 Americans who are missing or held prisoner in\nSoutheast Asia. It was sponsored by a group of airline pilots men who\nfeel a special empathy for downed airmen they want to keep the prisoner\nissue in the spotlight, to make sure that America does not forget them.\nThe Communists have held many of our prisoners for four and five\nyears. And they have tried to use them as pawns in negotiations while\nHanoi was violating or ignoring every principle of the Geneva Convention.\nWe should be united in our demands for a quick and safe return of\nthese brave men.\nYet some Americans feel a stronger bond with the enemy. They say\nthat if America will only fix a final date for withdrawing all its forces,\nthe peace-loving Communists will cease the killing and return our men.\nWe are urged to lay down our arms and by so doing, bring peace to\nSoutheast Asia.\nBut what if they are wrong\nas they were wrong about how quickly\npeace would come if only the bombing were stopped? What if Hanoi causes\nan American Dunkirk over running and killing or capturing our remaining\nforces ?\n- 5 -\nAmerican Legion\nWhat if there is only a thousand-to-one chance they are wrong?\nWhat a terrible price we would pay. Of course, those who parade for\npeace would not have to pay that price. But, our troops would.\nThe President cannot afford to take even a thousand-to-one chance\nwith the life or freedom of even one young man.\nHe has to remember that this particular enemy may still hold 300\nFrench prisoners who surrendered in 1954.\nThe President is bringing our troops home on an orderly basis.\nBut he has declared that we will not attempt to buy peace by abandoning\neven one American.\nIt is a difficult position to hold at a time when there is a\nnatural yearning for peace after almost a decade of war.\nAbraham Lincoln faced a similar time of trial more than a century\nago. And the words he spoke on the greatest moral issue of his time\nstill echo through the years.\nHe called on all Americans to stand by what they know to be their\nduty, fearlessly and effectively.\n\"Let us have faith that right makes might, \" he said, \"and in that\nfaith let us to the end dare to do our duty as we understand it.\"\nThose of you who are gathered here today know well what he meant\nby those words.\n#####\n(NOTE: Since Governor Reagan speaks from notes, there may be additions\nto, or changes in the above text. However, the governor will\nstand by the above quotes).\n- 6 -\n101/2\nOFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR\nRELEASE: 2 P.M.\nSacramento, California\nContact:\nPaul Beck\n445-4571\n7-19-71\nEXCERPTS OF REMARKS BY GOVERNOR RONALD REAGAN\nCONSUMER FRAUD TASK FORCE MEETING\nJuly 19, 1971\nThe basic strength of America is the competitive free enterprise\nsystem and the opportunity it offers to every citizen, however humble\nhis origin.\nUnder this system, we have built the most prosperous society the\nworld has ever known. We have provided the individual with more freedom\nand a greater variety of choice, from consumer goods to vocations, than\nany other society in history.\nTen years ago, Premier Nikita Khrushchev boasted that the Soviet\nUnion would bury us economically. Well, he was wrong.\nThis year, the gross national product for the United States soared\nabove the trillion dollar mark for the first time. The sum total of the\ngoods and services produced by our people is twice that of the Soviet\nUnion.\nCalifornia alone produces more than 11 percent of that total. If\nour state were a nation, we would rank seventh among the world's economic\ngiants--behind the United States, the Soviet Union, Japan, West Germany,\nFrance and the United Kingdom.\nThe 20 million people of California produce and consume more goods\nand services than Mainland China, a country with 35 times our population.\nWe have a bigger economy than India, Italy and all the remaining nations\nin the world.\nAmericans have more disposable income after meeting the basics of\nlife than the annual income of citizens in most countries.\nThe secret of this success, the driving force behind this prosperity\nis the free enterprise system. Despite attempts to centralize and\ncontrol our economic destiny, our free enterprise system encourages the\nbusinessman, industry, the inventor and the merchandiser to provide\nbetter and more efficient goods and services.\nImagine, if you will, what would happen to the individual\nentrepreneur under the regimentation and the red tape of a rigidly\ncontrolled economy.\n- 1 -\nConsumer Fraud Task Force\nWhat would the economic ministers in the Kremlin say to a man in his\nsixties, who had less than a grammar school education, if he walked in\none day and said he wanted to start a new multi-million dollar industry\nan industry that would provide thousands of jobs, generate millions of\ndollars in individual income and produce a product that people wanted?\nSuppose, too, this man's only major asset was a special recipe for fried\nchicken.. a recipe he wanted to market on a mass production basis.\nWould government bureaucracy give him permission to try out this\nidea? Would he be able to build a multi-million dollar business with\nsuch limited assets?\nEven if he could have obtained a travel permit to go there to present\nhis idea, Colonel Sanders would have been laughed out of the Kremlin.\nBut in America, he achieved his dream and by doing so, created a new\nindustry.\nThe freedom to try a new idea, to market a new product, to offer a\nnew and needed service is a precious part of the competitive free\nenterprise system.\nThere will always be a few who would exploit the free market system\nthrough unethical and dishonest business practices and government has a\nproper, indeed, an essential role to protect the consumer's interest.\nIn fulfilling this responsibility, government must guard against\nunreasonably stifling competitive free enterprise through undue regulation.\nCompetition itself is one of the greatest safeguards for the buying\npublic because under our system, the consumer is king.\nMost businessmen are interested in giving the consumer a fair deal\nbecause if they don't, they will lose their customers to those businessmen\nwho do.\nTo protect both the interests of the consumer and the honest\nbusinessman, California has developed over the years the nation's most\neffective consumer protection laws and regulations.\nMore than 60 state agencies and departments with licensing and\nregulatory powers are concerned in one way or another with protecting the\nconsumer.\nThe Department of Agriculture has the task of seeing that the food\noffered to the buying public is wholesome and correctly labeled, that\nthe weights and measurements of various products are accurate.\nThe Department of Justice maintains a Consumer Fraud Unit whose\nprimary goal is to eliminate false and misleading advertising and unlawful\nbusiness practices.\nConsumer Fraud Task Force\nThe Department of Corporations protects the public against\nquestionable practices in the sale of securities and other investments\nand the Department of Housing and Community Development serves the public\nby protecting the consumer against the health and safety hazards of\ninadequate construction and maintenance of housing.\nAs our society becomes more complex and sophisticated, new programs\nre necessary to strengthen the state's ability to protect the consumer's\ninterest.\nDuring the past 4½ years, we have added a number of new programs\nwe have enacted laws designed to protect the buying public:\n-against being forced to pay for unrequested goods and services\ncharged to lost or stolen credit cards,\nagainst unethical land promotions.\nagainst unscrupulous swimming pool contractors.\n-against unsafe automobile tires.\nLast year marked a milestone in our efforts. The legislature passed\nand I signed into law a bill creating the nation's first State Department\nof Consumer Affairs.\nThis law went into effect July 1 and formalized the expanded consumer\nprotection program which we had implemented earlier by an executive\nreorganizational plan.\nOur goal is to provide a more effective direct link between the\nconsumer and those state agencies which have the responsibility for\nprotecting the consumer's interests. Instead of being referred from one\ndepartment to another, we wanted to provide the individual citizen with a\ncentral place where he could seek and get prompt action on his complaints.\nThe Division of Consumer Services is now operating. It handles more\nthan 4,000 consumer requests for information and complaints each year.\nBy providing this one-stop information service, the individual consumer\ncan readily determine his rights under the law and the most effective way\nof resolving his grievance. The department publishes a consumer complaint\nandbook which advises the citizen of the protective services available\nto him.\nQuite often, the problem is a lack of communication between the\npurchaser and seller. I think it is significant that the Better Business\nBureau's report that a majority of the complaints referred to these\nprivately-sponsored agencies are satisfactorily resolved by simply\nbringing the two parties to a dispute together. The business community\nitself is keenly aware of the need to strengthen consumer protective\nservices, to protect the honest businessman and the public from the\nunscrupulous.\n- 3 -\nLast week, we t k another major step. I appointed a Consumer\nAdvisory Council to make recommendations for legislation to help maintain\nCalifornia's national leadership in the field of consumer protection.\nThe members of this group include representatives of private consumer\norganizations, labor, business and the legislature.\nYour participation on the Consumer Fraud Task Force is another part\nof this overall effort.\nTo effectively protect the buying public, we must constantly be\nalert to new types of fraudulent practices and we must also determine\nwhether present laws are adequate.\nYour task is to sift through the fact and the fiction about consumer\nfraud to classify the various types of fraudulent practices in various\nbusinesses and to determine whether present consumer fraud protective\nservices are adequate.\nWe must know whether law enforcement agencies have the necessary\nlegal tools to detect, investigate and prosecute those who prey upon the\npublic.\nWe want to learn whether there is a need for and how we can achieve\ngreater cooperation between state, local and federal enforcement agencies\nin guarding against consumer fraud.\nBy participating in this effort, you are in good company. The task\nforce approach to problem-solving has been the single most important part\nof this administration's effort to bring government closer to the\npeople to strengthen government's ability to serve the needs of our\npeople without creating unnecessary and costly new bureaucratic structures.\nA citizen's task force produced recommendations that saved the state\nmore than $200 million through improved management techniques.\nA task force on drug abuse provided the stimulus for a greatly expanded\nprogram against drug abuse, including educational efforts to warn our\nyoung people against the danger of addiction.\nAn educational reform task force came up with recommendations to\nimprove the state's system of public education in the 1970s. And it was\nan administration task force which produced the comprehensive welfare\nreforms we are now seeking to improve benefits for the most needy while\neliminating those abuses which have caused our people to lose confidence\nin public assistance programs.\nI am confident that the recommendations and the information the\nConsumer Fraud Task Force will produce during this year-long study will be\na valuable addition to California's nationally recognized consumer\nprotection program.\nThe creative participation of citizens in government is essential if\ngovernment is to determine and meet the needs of our people.\n# # # # #\n(NOTE: Since Governor Reagan speaks from notes, there may be additions to,\nET/2\n87\n72\nOFFICE OF THE GOVERN\nRELEASE:\nURDAY A.Ms.\nSacramento, Californ.\nJuly 24, 1971\nContact:\nPaul Beck\nPLEASE GUARD AGAINST PREMATURE\n445-4571\n7-23-71\nRELEASE.\nEXCERPTS OF REMARKS BY GOVERNOR RONALD REAGAN\nREPUBLICAN DINNER\nSan Diego, California\nJuly 23, 1971\nAdmiral Gehres and distinguished guests:\nAfter the last week in Sacramento, it is great to be in San Diego\nwith a friendly audience.\nThis is the first time I have had an opportunity to attend a\nstrictly Republican gathering since I made a brief visit to Boston and\nNew Hampshire last month. Anyone visiting New Hampshire these days has\nto carry a program to keep all the Democratic presidential candidates\nstraight. I am probably the only office holder from outside New Hampshir.\nwho has been there and who is not a candidate for anything- I just went\nthere looking for the Mayor of Los Angeles.\nIt seems like we just finished the last election and here we are\nknee-deep in the next one. We already have a Muskie doll you wind it\nup and Teddy Kennedy starts running. Then there is the Humphrey doll\nyou wind it and you never have to wind it again. We already have a\nTeddy Kennedy watch it doesn't have the regular numbers on it just\n72 or 76, 80 or maybe 1984.\nIn the Senate the Democrats are using the free substitute rule\nHughes of Iowa goes out but Harris of Oklahoms takes his place.\nThe only time you can get a quorum in the Senate these days is when\nthe Democrats fly back to Washington to vote against an aerospace\nappropriation. I have been thinking of asking Governor Williams of\nArizona since we share water with them if we can't share their Senators---\nsomeone ought to represent the people of California in the United States\nSenate.\nIt is hard to understand how someone can cry bitter tears for the\nunemployed and then vote to downgrade an industry that has achieved the\nreatest scientific and engineering feats in all of man's history the\nindustry that allowed an American to be the first man to walk on the moon.\nMost of our opponents are against the anti-ballistic missile defense\nprogram; they are against helping the nation's largest defense contractor\nthrough a difficult economic period, even though their attitude means\nmore aerospace unemployment. They scuttled the SST (Supersonic transport)\nplane program.\n- 1 -\nRepublican Dinner\nThey are willing to see America become second best and they don't\neven want us to try harder. How easily they repudiate the words of one\nof their own young leaders who, only a decade ago, challenged America to\nmaintain its leadership in the newest frontiers of science and technology,\non earth, on the seas and in space.\nInstead of encouraging America's scientific and industrial capacity.\nour opponents offer as candidates for the highest office in our land\nthose who would have us retreat from excellence, from the leadership that\nour country has given the free world these past 30 years.\nThey have a curious double-standard when they consider governmental\neconomic activity.\nIn the same week that Senator Cranston voted to scuttle the SST\nsentencing thousands of workers to the unemployment lines---he proposed\na special government loan program- to lend jobless aerospace workers thei\nmonthly mortgage payments while they are out of work. This nation once\nhad a slogan \"millions for defense, not one cent for tribute. \" Today it\nis billions for welfare and take them from defense.\nTen years ago 48 percent of the total federal budget went for defense\nNow it is 37 percent and still declining. Less than 2 percent of the\nbudget is for the exploration of space and even this is begrudged by\nthose who have increased spending for social programs to more than $80\nbillion.\nCertainly, we must continue to improve social programs. But it also\nis essential for us to maintain the technical capacity a modern nation\nneeds to survive in the market place and in a world still threatened by\nthe nightmare prospect of nuclear and missile warfare, perhaps to survive\nat all. They try to outshout each other in denouncing the nation's\naerospace/defense industry, so much of which is California-manned. But\nlet them consider just how crucial this technical leadership has been to\nour country. Eighty five percent of the commercial planes in the world's\nskies are American made.\nThis productive capacity has helped our balance of payments, provided\nemployment for hundreds of thousands of our most skilled technical talent\nand provided America with the modern defense it must have to protect our\nnation's security. But somehow this seems inconsequential to some of our\nmost vocal opponents in Congress. If they had had to vote on that first\nflight at Kitty Hawk, the Wright brothers would never have gotten out of\nthe bicycle business.\nRepublican Dinner\nIf our opponents' attitude didn't mean more unemployment in\naerospace, their double-standard would be amusing for its inconsistency.\nBut it is not amusing to Americans concerned with keeping this country\nfree and prosperous. And it is tragic for those whose jobs are sacrifice\nbecause of this short-sighted attitude.\nOur freedom and our prosperity need a strong defense and a vigorous\neconomy. Our opponents would weaken both.\nSPACE SHUTTLE DEVELOPMENT\nFortunately they are not unopposed in their folly. We have a state\nadministration and a national administration strongly interested in\nmaintaining America's leadership in space using California talent and\nskill when they are best for the job.\nOnly ten days ago, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration\nannounced that the Rocketdyne division of North American Rockwell\nCorporation is the probable recipient of a $500 million contract to build\nengines for the space shuttle program.\nThis will mean about 2,000 additional direct jobs in Southern\nCalifornia and even more indirect employment because half of the\nsubcontracting work will be done here, too.\nThis guarantees California a prominent role in the $10 to $12 billion\nprogram designed to create an American capacity for man to travel into\nspace and return with re-usable rocket engines and space vehicles.\nLed by Lt. Governor Ed Reinecke as co-chairman of the California\nSpace Shuttle Task Force, Republican legislators in Sacramento and\nWashington have been working with California's space industry to persuade\nWashington of the advantages of locating this major part of the space\nshuttle program in our state. Many of our legislators, including State\nSenator Robert Lagomarsino of Ventura and Assemblyman Don MacGillivray of\nSanta Barbara, have also provided strong leadership to the space shuttle\ncampaign.\nVandenberg and Edwards Air Force Bases are still in the running for\nthe launch and retrieval sites for the space shuttle program. And\nCalifornia companies also are bidding for the contracts to design, build\nand test the space vehicles that will be used.\nAmerica must have a strong space program. And California's\naerospace industry can help assure that America will lead man's\nexploration of this new frontier. We cannot afford little men with little\ndreams who would trade supremacy in sky and space for a subway.\n- 3 -\nRepublican Dinner\nMany of you who have worked so hard for our cause, to elect\nresponsible and responsive representatives to public office may sometimes\nwonder whether it is worth it, whether there is any difference in the\nphilosophy and attitudes of the two major parties. I would hope the\nconfrontation in Sacramento over the budget and taxation these past W\ns\nhas made plain the ideological difference between our two parties.\nDIFFERENT PHILOSOPHY\nLooking back on the crises of these past few years it is easy to\nrecall how the great attacks on our policies were always of one kind.\nOur opponents objected to every effort at economy and cried doom\nwe were\nbringing progress to a halt and taking the state into a stagnant back\nwater of regression.\nECONOMY IN GOVERNMENT\nFour and one-half years ago, California had the largest budget of\nall the states second only to the federal government. In these four\nand one-half years we have become the nation's largest state in population\nbut we have dropped to fourth in budget size behind the federal\ngovernment, New York State and even New York City.\nNeedless boards and commissions have been eliminated; major areas\nof government reorganized, creating new and expanded services while\nresisting efforts to expand less essential functions.\nIn these four and one-half years, I have vetoed more than $825\nmillion of new or higher spending. This was not one time spending. The\nmeasures vetoed were for ongoing programs and had they passed the annual\ncost of government would be almost a billion dollars higher.\nFour and one-half years ago, there were 102, 465 full-time Civil\nService employees on the state payroll. At the last count in May there\nwere 101, 862---603 fewer than when we started. And what destruction have\nall these streamlinings and economies brought about in our State?\nCertainly not death on the highway. While we have decreased the overall\nemployee total, we have doubled the highway patrol and reduced the\nslaughter on our highways. Last year we reached an all time record low\nof 4.2 deaths per 100 million miles of travel. We have added more than\na thousand miles of freeway and expressway and completed 970 highway\nsafety projects that are now being copied all over the land.\n- 4 -\nRepublican Dinner\n1\nThese four and one-half years have seen more progress in protecting\nthe environment than in any period in the state's history. Our water\npollution controls are the toughest in the nation and our smog control\nlaws are stronger than even the federal standards. Yes, much remains to\nbe done but we are doing it, we are not continuing to go down hill.\nEvery 1971 car rolling off the assembly line onto California's\nhighways has the most sophisticated smog control system ever developed.\nThey emit 85 percent less hydro-carbons than the new cars of a few years\nago and this year we put into effect the first new car controls ever\nimposed anywhere on oxides of nitrogen the stuff that makes the sky\nturn brown.\nOur long range efforts to provide more parks, beaches and other\nrecreational facilities near our cities were not hurt a bit by the recent\nnews concerning those 3100 acres of Camp Pendleton beach property.\nThe rate of increase in the seven major crime categories has been\ncut in half. So has the percentage of parollees who wind up back in\nprison. Other states still have the problem of prisons bulging and over\ncrowded not California. We have fewer prisoners now than we had back\nin 1962.\nI am sure you have heard of our ecology camps for conscientious\nobjectors. The idea is new but the camps are not. They once held\njuvenile offenders but they are no longer needed for that. Our\nrehabilitation and probation program is so successful we no longer have\nenough juvenile offenders to man the camps.\nProfessionals who four years ago criticized the changes we proposed\nin our treatment of the mentally ill now acknowledge that California is\nnumber one in the nation in its mental health program. Hospitals for\nthe mentally ill that once held 31,000 patients now have less than 12,000.\nFour and a half years ago we learned our great water project was\nunder funded by more than $300 million. Now we can assure you the project\nwill be finished on schedule and will only require an additional $89\nmillion which can be realized from the sale of electric power.\nDepartment after department is serving Californians better with fewer\npeople and at lower cost. Typical is the Department of Motor Vehicles.\nBy the standards of four years ago the workload increase would have\nrequired 200 additional employees there has been, instead, a reduction\nof 450.\n- 5 -\nRepublican Dinner\nNow, however, let me change the tune. We are faced with making\neconomies we would rather not make. These are stringent times for our\ncitizens, unemployment is high and inflation takes a cruel toll.\nEarnings are down as is evidenced by the reduction in state tax revenues.\nSome in government and among the citizenry, dedicated to the\nphilosophy of big brother government, insist the economic setback should\nnot be allowed to interfere with government growth or activity. They\nwould have us maintain government activities at a normal level even at\nthe cost of imposing new taxes on our people.\nI find I cannot accept their premise. For four years we have\nweighed comparative spending priorities against each other and against\nan additional priority, namely: is the government service more important\nto the people than having the cost returned to them in reduced taxes? Maybe\nI have read you wrong, but until you convince me otherwise, I believe\none of your highest priorities is reduction in the high cost of government.\nJust as there is a widespread lack of knwledge about some of the\nsuccessful innovations I have mentioned, there is little understanding\nof the success we have had in easing the tax burden at least a little.\nIndividual tax relief by way of the property tax exemption to\nhomeowners, double standard deductions for renter relief, the income tax\nrebate and a senior citizens property tax relief total $835.6 million\nsince 1967. Inventory tax relief for business amounts to $130.1 million\nover the same period. There is, in addition, another almost $80 million\ntax relief for both individuals and business in a variety of smaller\nprograms. All told, more than 40 tax relief measures have been passed\nin these last four years.\nNow we have come upon stringent times and the seeming confusion in\nSacramento is not confusing at all if you see it for what it really is.\nWe are engaged in a confrontation brought about by the difference in\nbasic philosophy between our two parties. We have been 4½ years in\ncoming to this moment.\nOur approach to the economic slump and the resulting fiscal crisis\nis that government cannot be immune to the self-denial and belt tightening\nof its citizens. Government, too, must forego or postpone some of the\n/billion\nthings it would normally do. We submitted a budget of roughly $6-3/4\nin this spirit---a budget which admittedly put off certain construction\nand maintenance needs, held the line in some areas where expansion was\ndesirable and a 20 percent increase in retirement benefits,\nRepublican Dinner\nIn addition, about 40 percent of our employees will get their\nregular merit pay increase.\nEven more important there will not be widespread layoffs and salary\ncuts such as are taking place in a number of states and cities where\neconomies have not been practiced these past four years.\nThis year, possibly more than at any time since we have been in\nSacramento, we have the most difficult task we have ever faced. We are\ntrying to achieve four major goals: welfare, Medi-Cal and tax reforms,\nincluding withholding---and a balanced state budget without higher\ntaxes. For us a tax increase is a last resort. For our opponents it is\na sought after goal. Even our stringent budget was out of balance more\nthan $400 million. The reforms we asked would have balanced it. Those\nwho have a different philosophy responded by adding more than $500 million\nin new spending---$503 million of which I vetoed. This was not simply\nto give me a little exercise with the blue pencil.\nUnlike the federal government, our state constitution does not\npermit us to go into deficit spending or to print money.\nOur budget still is $108 million short if welfare reforms are not\nadopted and another $124 million deficit is possible unless the\nlegislature approves reforms in Medi-Cal, plus $200 million because of\nthe decline in tax revenues. This can be made up by adopting withholding.\nOnly one of the three steps has been even partly accomplished.\nMedi-Cal reforms have passed in the Assembly and are now before the\nSenate. Welfare has not fared so well in spite of a Herculean effort on\nthe Senate side led brilliantly by Senator Burgener. Withholding is a\ntotal question mark even though our opponents have claimed they wanted\nit for more than ten years.\nTime is truly money. Without the reforms spending goes on at a\nrate of $1.2 million each day more than we are taking in. This cannot\nbe recovered by the reforms--it means increased taxes in spite of our\nefforts. As of now this grant total cost for this delay is $27.6 million,\ntomorrow it will be $28.8 million.\n######\n(NOTE: Since Governor Reagan speaks from notes, there may be additions\nto, or changes in the above text. However, the governor will\nstand by the above quotes).\n- 7 -\nSpeech continues\nADDENDUM TO REMARKS BY GOVERNOR REAGAN AT SAN DIEGO REPUBLICAN DINNER\nJu'y 23, 1971\nThirty-five years ago a President of the United States said that\nour generation had a rendezvous with destiny. It is possible\nthat we are living in that time of destiny right now. Our sons\nand daughters in this particular moment of history are coming\ninto their inheritance a few years early. We are proud and happy\nto have these young people here with us. But I wonder sometimes\nif we are really as disturbed and concerned as we should be\nthat the great majority of our young people seem to be registering\nwith the opposition party. Oh I know that a great many of them\nhave been indoctrinated in over a thousand classrooms. I suppose\nthe miracle really is the number who are still on our side\nwhen you consider the power of their peers at that age and the\nindoctrination to which they have been subjected. I wonder how\nthese young people who are here have managed to hold out the way\nthey have. Certainly they must have an extra strength of character\nand willpower that would make them a very valuable ally in the\ndays ahead. But right now you and I should be seeking them out\nand asking what have we done or what have we said, if anything,\nthat has helped them choose this course or stay on this course.\nor did they do it all by themselves. We have a story as Republicans\nto tell and we haven't done a proper job of selling that story.\nIf we had, I think the majority of young people would be going\nour way. Hasn't the complaint of those younger generation in\nthese last few years of unrest been that they're against materialism,\nthey're against big impersonal government that's beyond their reach,\nthey 're against regimentation and imposition on their individual\nfreedom. They have a great idealism about the course a nation like\nX\n9\n-\nours should follow. But what do they think we have been against\nfor these last four decades. Materialism? Materialism that thinks\na full belly is excuse enough to justify keeping people on the dole\nfor the rest of their lives. Our opponents have built this giant\nbureaucratic government where regulations are spawned in multitudinous\n/\nagencies, regulations that seem to have even more power than the laws\npassed by Congress. It is our opponents who built the cavernous\nhalls of government where the voice of the citizen echoes unheard\nand unheeded. Our sons and daughters have let us know they are\nagainst the establishment. Well, so are we. But can we make them\nunderstand that the establishment we are opposed to is a government?\nA government that is capable of great tyranny. That unless we control\nthis establishment, we shall become a nation of timid sheep dependent\non a shepherd. We're on the eve of another election and I wonder\nsometimes if we are approaching this challenge as we should or are\nwe as Republicans once again beset by doubts? Confused about our\nown leadership, wondering whether we've chosen correctly. I have\ntalked of the economic slump in our state but you all knew that\nthis economic slump is nationwide. But what has been its cause.\nVery simply, the transition from a wartime to a peacetime economy.\nA transition that has come about because for 2½ years a new President\nhas been winding down a war that was growing larger for eight years\nbefore he took office. Two and a half years ago we were talking\nabout long hot summers. We were accepting, even though we feared\nthem, the riots that were almost commonplace in our cities and on\nour campuses. Now, and in recent days, the President has made an\nannouncement that is disturbing to a great many of us. May I offer\nsome thoughts for your consideration before perhaps misgiving becomes\n-1/3\nRed China\nmistrust. With this announcement the President put himself where\nthe loud mouths of his potential opponents have been for quite a\nfew months in fact, for most of these two and a half years.\nWith his announcement he preempted the field worldwide. The President\nhas taken center stage as the one man who is trying to do something\n/\nbesides talk about peace. All of those peace-loving Senators have\nbeen very quiet for just about a week. They were busy revising\ntheir campaign speeches, but now they have discovered that in his\nannouncement the President made it plain that he had no intention\nof abandoning an old friend and ally, and suddenly they re beginning\nto make their noises again. I don't believe that if he were willing\nto abandon this ally, this would fit with the idealism of the young\npeople we would like to appeal to. I think we all, before we becom\ndisquieted, should remember that Dick Nixon among all the leaders\nof this nation has known perhaps better than most that the enemy is\nwhere he always has been, in Moscow.\nAnd, there is some evidence of this in the fact that the Kremlin\nhas been strangely quiet since that announcement. They can't make\nup their mind whether to send over a bomb or the Bolshoi ballet.\nWell, I have no information that the rest of you don't have but I\nwould like to offer some possibilities out of this new development\nbased on, I think, some knowledge of the men and knowledge of the\nsituation. For ten years, bullets and rockets and mortars and booby\ntraps made in China have been killing young Americans. The President\nhas made it plain that not only will we not abandon an ally\nwe\nwill\nnot disengage from this war if the price means leaving even one young\nAmerican as a prisoner of the enemy. China holds prisoners of ours,\nairmen shot down in the air war over Laos who came down across the\nChinese border.\n- A\nChina has boasted that it is going to continue to hold those men.\nHas anyone suggested a better way to get them back than the President\nhas suggested by simply going there and at least getting into a\nconversation about getting them back? For decades we've heard\nconflicting voices talking about the inevitable Armageddon and other\nvoices on the other side saying that we should give in better Red\nthan dead, slavery of surrender. I think the President, cutting\nthrough the confusion, has made a bold and decisive move with no\nsuggestion or no hint that he has any intention of asking this\nnation to abandon either honor or principle. I believe that we\nshould insure that when the time comes, and the President goes there\nand in my own heart I believe that when that time comes, we will\nfind that all the matters of prisoners of war and cease fires, and\nan end of the killing in Vietnam have been tied together with this\nRed\nchina\nvisit I think that it would be well if he went there with the\nknowledge that he has the prayers of two hundred million in his\ncountry. I 've taken the liberty of suggesting that perhaps these\nyoung people are here with us because they have made a decision. I\nthink it would be well if we recognized that perhaps these young\npeople are here looking us over. They are about to make a very\ndecided choice and it is up to us to prove by our actions that\nthere is much to love in this land very much to be proud of.\nTo those who say there is a communications gap, I will say to these\nyoung people that there has never been a time when an older generation\nwanted more to understand and be understood by its own sons and\ndaughters. This older generation has paid a higher price for\nfreedom than any people have ever paid in all man's history. And\nI think with some pride we can say we have done more in our lifetime\n-1/2\nto advance the dignity of man than any other generation that\never lived. And, now very frankly we will tell you young people\nwe would be very proud to have you look us over look over our\nprinciples and decide whether you wouldn't rather join us than\njoin those who believe that mankind is incapable of governing\nitself that a little chosen elite can be picked and sit in t\nnation's capitol and make the decisions in our every day living\nthat we should make for ourselves. Or, whether you would like\nto go along with us who would like to see America become in your\nlifetime and ours, if possible, a place where every man is free\nto be whatever God intended him to be.\nyou!\n9/3\n9\nof\n-\n-\nyour\nOFFICE OF THE GOVERN\nRELEASE: FRI Y P.Ms.\nSacramento, California\nContact:\nPaul Beck\nPLEASE GUARD AGAINST PREMATURE\n445-4571\n9-2-71\nRELEASE.\nEXCERPTS OF REMARKS BY GOVERNOR RONALD REAGAN\nSACRAMENTO HOST BREAKFAST\nSacramento, California\nSeptember 3, 1971\nI look forward each year to this occasion as an opportunity to\ndeliver a kind of State of the State report to you as a cross section of\nCalifornia citizenry. This year, however, let me spend a few moments\ndiscussing a larger issue on a wider scene.\nAn American President has asked us to work together to defeat\na new but familiar array of enemies.\nThe targets of the President's new economic policy are\nunemployment, inflation and the difficulties caused by international\nmonetary speculation.\nWe, who have paid such an awesome price to preserve freedom for\nourselves and for the Free World, should not find this too difficult a\ntask. Since World War II, America has been a generous benefactor to\nalmost every free country in the world, pouring out almost $150 billion of\nour resources and wealth to rebuild war-shattered nations, to feed\nthe hungry, to help fight disease and to assist our allies in defending\nthemselves against aggression.\nWe have championed the freest possible trade policy and worked\nfor a fair, stable and efficient world system of monetary exchange to\nfinance this partnership in prosperity.\nIn doing this we have eroded our own position in world trade.\nLast year, the difference between what we spent abroad and what we\nearned was almost $4 billion dollars. On top of this was an almost run-\naway inflation brought on by the ill advised attempt in the '60s to\nfight a war on a guns and butter basis.\nNow, with the winding down of that war, we are faced with the\nproblem of absorbing two million workers released from the armed services\nand from defense production, while millions of younger workers are\n,oining the nations labor force for the first time.\nThe difficulties involved in making the transition to a true\npeacetime economy after almost 30 years of war and crisis are monumental.\nThey will not become less monumental if we delay an all out\neffort to create more and better jobs for our people while halting the\ninflationary increase in the cost of living at the same time we protect\nour dollar in the international money market.\nLet us hope that our friends overseas will be cooperative and\nunderstanding if after a generation of economic self sacrifice in their\nbehalf we indulge in a little economic self interest. Many Americans\nthink it is high time we quit playing Uncle Sugar and went back to teing\nUncle Sam.\nIt is important, too, that we cooperate. The President has asked\nfor that. Certainly voluntary cooperation is preferable to the vast,\nincompetent bureaucracy and the corruption and black market which\ncharacterized our World War II attempt at controls.\nBut there is much\nmore--we have been dangerously adrift in\nrecent years forgetful of the dream that made us a nation, forgetful of\nour own capacity for greatness. Now the President has suggested a\npurpose worthy of our best effort---a lifetime of peace for our children.\nCalifornia's state government has paid a costly price for the\ninflation of the past few years. More than a billion dollars of our\nbudget is a direct result of inflation. We stand to benefit not only\nfrom the national effort to curb inflation, but even more from the\nprogram to create job opportunities---particularly for those who have\nbeen displaced in the aerospace and defense industries. Lieutenant\nGovernor Ed Reinecke has been devoting a major portion of his time to\nthis problem. I wish it were possible to tell in some detail all that\nhe has been doing but such a recital might possibly be counter productive\nat this time. Let me just say the result of his effective effort is\ncontinued employment for thousands of aerospace employees who might\notherwise be part of the unemployment problem.\nIn adjusting to the economic slump and now in cooperating with\nthe new economic policy, we in California have been spared some of the\ntraumatic shock suffered by some states and even some local governments\nwithin our borders. Our past four years of cut, squeeze and trim may\nhave been hard on the typewriter ribbon business, but they are saving us\na lot of headaches now.\nFive years ago our state budget was second in size to the federal\ngovernment's. Today, we are fourth--behind the federal government, Ne\nYork State and New York City. In fact \"Fun City's\" budget is $2 billion\ngreater than the budget for this largest state in the union.\nFive years ago there were 102,465 full time civil service\nemployees on the state payroll. When we ended the fiscal year in June\nthere were 101,399--1,066 FEWER than when we started. This is just one of\nthe dividends resulting from the effort to introduce private enterprise\ntechniques, efficiencies and cost saving measures into state government.\nSacramento Host Bre fast\nI have been able, as a result, to veto more than $800 million\nin measures calling for new spending. These actions have not been\ngreeted with universal and unrestrained joy. And I will not deny there\nwas merit in some of the proposals. Certainly, I wish we could reward\nour fine state employees with a raise, but higher taxes contribute to\ninflation and Californians right now are bearing the second highest tax\nburden in the nation for state and local government.\nI am not revealing any secret when I say that the chorus of\ncriticism over these past years has been consistently directed against\nthe effort to economize. I doubt if anyone can recall a single instance\nof any great outcry because we wanted to spend some money. There were\nplenty of doom criers charging that the state was moving backwards,\nservices declining, California's great promise and progress grinding to\na halt. It is difficult to glean the facts amid the clamor of such a\ncrescendo of complaint.\nWell, just let me say economy in government needs no\nexplanation or apology, But it goes without saying that government at\nthe same time must perform its legitimate functions. During these 4½\nyears, California's record of progress has been as great or greater in\nmore major areas than in any comparable period in its history.\nI spoke of our success in halting and even reversing the growth\nof government. This was not at the cost of reduced service.\nWhile we were reducing the overall number of state employees,\nwe were completing a program to double the strength of the highway\npatrol. And this was because we were adding more than a thousand miles\nof freeways and expressways incorporating 970 highway safety projects\nthat are now being emulated all across the land. This was more than\njust a convenience for the motoring public. Ours is the only major\nstate with such a dramatic declining rate of fatal accidents. While the\nnational average continues to go up, last year the slaughter on our\nhighways was reduced to an all time record low of 4.2 deaths per 100\nmillion miles of travel.\nLaw and order is an obscene term in some circles, but more\nthan 40 anti-crime measures adopted by the legislature have helped cut\nthe rate of increase in the seven major crime categories more than half.\nsacramento Host Breakfast\nThe percentage of parolees who wind up back in prison has been\ncut in half and this plus our success in rehabilitation finds us with\nfewer inmates now than we had back in 1962. In juvenile offenses a\njoint county, state probation system has been so successful we are\nclosing down a number of institutions we no longerneed.\nOur hospitals for the mentally ill--which once were crowded\nwith more than 31,000 patients--now have fewer than 11,000 because we\nhave increased the state funding for local community health programs\nfrom $18 million in 1967 to more than $104 million this year.\nCalifornia is the only major state with all its state hospitals\nfully accredited as meeting prescribed national standards.\nAlmost five years ago, we learned that California's great\nwater project was going in the hole some $300 million. Today, more than\n99 percent of the first stage facilities due in 1973 are either complete\nor under contract.\nSurely, there can be no question about California meeting the\nenvironmental challenge. When the rest of the country was just starting\nto take on the massive problems of environmental protection, California\nwas setting the pace for effective controls of air and water pollution.\nWe have the strongest controls in the land. This was recognized las\nweek when the federal government granted our request to require assembly\nline testing of every new car's smog control system before they can be\nsold in California.\nThe 1971 automobiles on California's highways have the most\nsophisticated smog control devices ever developed. They produce 85\npercent fewer hydro-carbons than new cars of a few years ago. And this\nyear we put into effect the first controls ever imposed anywhere on\noxides of nitrogen--that stuff that makes the sky turn a brownish color.\nWe do not pretend that the job is complete or ever will be.\nAssuring clean air and clean water will be a priority task from\nnow on.\nAll of us in Sacramento are hopeful that at long last we can\nagree on a restructuring of our tax system to reduce the homeowners\nburden and keep it reduced. One of the few items that was increased\nin this year's budget was the state subvention to the counties for th\nhomeowner's exemption. Although inflation tended to obscure the ben it\nand in some cases to wipe it out entirely, the state financed more than\na billion dollars in direct tax relief between 1967 and 1971. The\nproperty tax exemption for homeowners, double standard deductions for\nrenter relief, the 10 percent income tax relief and the senior citizen\nproperty tax relief program amounted to more than $835 million. The\ninventory tax relief for business, which helps keep California jobs and\nbusiness from migrating elsewhere, totaled another $135 million.\nIncidentally, that comes out to six times more tax relief for\nindividual citizen-taxpayers than business received in the same period.\n-4-\nmost Breakfast\nThis has been a trying year and the year's work has not been\ncompleted. The state constitution requires that we resolve several\nmatters before this legislative session is concluded.\nThere has been so much confusion regarding the budget whether it\ncan be balanced without a tax increase and the part played in answering\nthat question by such things as welfare and Medi-Cal reform.\nEven before the budget was submitted last January the air was full\n,E talk about the absolute necessity of a tax increase.\nEstimates as to the size of the increase ranged from $350 million to\nmore than a billion. Almost everyone was aware that the economic slump\nhad reduced our revenues, but beyond that some felt we should not\neconomize further and some believed we should go forward with new programs\nand increased spending.\nHaving access to the figures and knowledge of how hard the people of\nCalifornia had been hit by the economic slowdown, we had long since made\nthe decision that we should not impose an additional tax burden on the\npeople if there was any way to avoid it. And we felt there was a way to\navoid it. It was decided that those functions of state government over\nwhich we have administrative control would swallow inflation and work load\nincreases reflecting growth in population. And, at a time when many\nCalifornians were wondering if they would have a job, we would ask our\nemployees whose jobs were assured to forego a cost of living pay raise.\nTo a small degree, we proposed a one-time use of some funds by transfer,\nknowing as we all do that the present crisis is a one-time thing.\nFor seven months we had a task force working under one simple order:\n\"come back with a plan for a complete overhaul of welfare and Medi-Cal.\"\nThese two programs were out of control and increasing in the neighborhood\nof 30 percent a year.\nFor seven months, this task force cut through the bureaucratic jargon,\nthe overlapping and conflicting regulations of three levels of government\nand came back, not discouraged, but convinced that this gigantic, costly,\nsocialized tinker toy could be almost restored to sanity.\nWe submitted a budget technically in balance but which required\nadoption of our proposals for reform of welfare and Medi-Cal. The\nimbalance was around $250 million. The choice was reform which would save\nthat much or a tax increase in that amount.\nI I 5\nBy May, however, the final word was in on tax receipts and we were\nhit by the second half of a double whammy. We had to face a $200 million\nreduction in the revenues upon which we had based our budget. Again the\nvoices were raised demanding a tax increase. But that further decline in\ntax revenue reflected further hardship being borne by the taxpayers. We\nhad hoped that the increased revenues to be gained from a withholding\nsystem of income tax collection (by coincidence in the neighborhood of\n$200 million) could have been used to ease the homeowner property tax\nburden. But, it seemed more logical to use this to meet the new shortage\nThe legislature was informed that adoption of withholding plus the\nwelfare reforms eliminated the need for a tax increase.\nPrior to any such action, however, the budget was returned to me\nwith more than $500 million in new spending added. I line item vetoed\n$503 million, still convinced that no new spending should be adopte\nit meant an increase in taxes. I still feel that way.\nA few weeks ago, an agreement was reached on welfare and Medi-Cal\nreforms and signed into law. It was a compromise and did not achieve\nall the savings we had hoped for, but it is still the most comprehensive\nreform program of that kind ever undertaken by any state. It contains\nmany of the tools we will need to control the growth rate of welfare, to\nreduce abuses and to prosecute fraud.\nThe program tightens up eligibility requirements. It requires\nrecipients to take a job or training if offered. And, it achieves the\nbasic humanitarian goal we have sought from the beginning to\nincrease\nwelfare grants to those who need help most, the people who have no other\nincome.\nTo give some idea of why we are so optimistic, parts of the program\ndid not require legislation only administrative action, and we began\nimplementing these steps as far back as February.\nWelfare\nWefalre caseloads had been increasing at a rate of 50,000 a month.\nNow for four straight months, California's welfare rolls have been\ndeclining. We ended July with 105,000 fewer people on public welfare than\nin March.\nIn Ventura County, the first pilot project to place employable welfare\nrecipients in jobs already has resulted in a saving of $105,000 in annual\nwelfare costs. Thirty-five employable recipients were placed in jobs with\nprivate employers in the first month and the program is actively seeking\nwork for 241 welfare recipients.\n-- 6 -\nmust Breakfast\nI really just digressed and put in that cheerful news to bolster my\nown spirits. Meanwhile, back to the budget.\nThe result of not getting the total reforms we wanted leaves about\n$100 million which must be raised by new or increased taxes. I am\nhopeful that will be the total amount meaning I am hopeful the\nlegislature will adopt withholding.\nIt is necessary not only to balance the budget, but to provide the\ncash flow which is now being met through sale of tax anticipation notes.\nOur very good friends in the State Chamber of Commerce have come out\nstrongly against a tax increase and have advocated adoption of withholding\nand even a close review of the budget to see if the $100 million for\nwelfare can be found through further economies. I am afraid we have\nalready done that and the answer is that so much of the budget is mandated\nby law there is no more fat to be trimmed. But their help and yours\nin securing passage of withholding and no new spending will be\ngratefully accepted.\nI have been called stubborn, even adamant and unreasonable about the\nmatter of holding the line on taxes. Fair enough I am. Let me just\ntouch on our revenue situation and what it reveals about the problems\nDE our people.\nThis year's revenue statistics demonstrate how unreasonable it is to\nadd massive new spending burdens which would require massive new tax\nburdens on our people.\nRevenues from the personal income tax have been increasing 12.2\npercent a year. This year, it was 1.9 percent. Bank and corporation\ntaxes usually grow almost 6 percent a year. This year, they decreased\nmore than 10 percent.\nNormally, California's overall total tax revenues go up 7.63 percent\na year. This year it was 1.7 percent. These are temporary hard times\nand if we can see them through with temporary economies, we should. To\nmeet a temporary situation with a new tax is to ignore the fundamental\ntruth that taxes are rarely temporary. Once the temporary crisis is past,\nvernment will find an ongoing need for the new tax. I am reconciled\nto the necessity for an increase to meet the welfare gap. I am\nunalterably opposed to new spending funded by increased taxes.\n- 7 -\nCalifornia fac 3 problems today that are fferent from those in\nthe period of massive population growth after World War II. The\ntransition to a peacetime economy and slowdown in population mean that\nwe cannot expect rapid growth and business as usual.\nWe must take steps to improve the economy and to expand job\nopportunities so that our state will have the leading role in creating\na new era of peaceful prosperity.\nTo spur the recovery, labor, business and government must join in a\nconcerted effort to attract new business and industry to replace those\njobs which have been eliminated through aerospace and defense reductions.\nWe certainly do not agree with all the aerospace and defense\nreductions Congress has chosen to make. But we cannot afford to ignore\nthe economic impact of those decisions.\nI told you earlier about Ed Reinecke's efforts to develop a broad-\nscale program to attract new and expanding industry and business to\nCalifornia. Senator Robert Lagomarsino is sponsoring a key part of this\nprogram.\nHis bill would create a state commission for economic development\nto provide the necessary bipartisan support and guidance for California's\nlong-range economic development.\nThe commission would include labor, business, legislative and\nexecutive branch representatives and is designed to replace two existing\ncommissions Industry and World Trade and the Commission on Tourism and\nVisitor Services.\nI hope we can count on the private sector to provide leadership in\nthese efforts.\nTo continue the kind of prosperity and dynamic economic growth\nCalifornia has experienced in the past, we all will have to try a little\nharder. I am confident we can do it.\nSomeone once said the rungs on a ladder are not meant to rest upon.\nbut only to hold a man's foot long enough to enable him to climb higher.\nThat's what our system of government has meant to the individual for\nalmost two hundred years. As a state, as a nation and as individuals,\nour goal is excellence.\nWe are trying to climb higher. Working together we can extend the\nlong and noble list of accomplishments we have achieved while seeking a\nbetter life for ourselves and for future generations.\n#####\n(NOTE: Since Governor Reagan speaks from notes, there may be additions\nto, or changes in the above text. However, the governor will\nstand by the above quotes).\n- 8 -\n9/27\nOFFICE OF THE GOVA NOR\nRELEASE:\nMONDAY P.Ms.\nSacramento, California\nSeptember 27, 1971\nContact:\nPaul Beck\n445-4571\n9-24-71\nPLEASE GUARD AGAINST PREMATURE\nRELEASE.\nEXCERPTS OF REMARKS BY GOVERNOR RONALD REAGAN\nINTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF POLICE CHIEFS CONVENTION\nAnaheim, California\nSeptember 27, 1971\nIn normal times, a speaker should be content for a chance to address\nsuch a large and distinguished audience of law enforcement officials.\nAnd I do appreciate the opportunity.\nYet these are not normal times. And, with your help, I would like\ntoday to address my message not merely to those assembled here, but to all\nthe enforcement officers you represent. at whatever outpost of danger\nthey may now be stationed.\nThrough you, I would like to express the gratitude and respect of\ndecent men and women everywhere because it is upon your efforts to\nuphold the principle of law that our civilization may depend for its very\nsurvival.\nIf ever there has been a time that might be called an age of reason\nin man's long history and there are many then the period we are living\nthrough today must be described as an era of calculated unreason.\nAll of the patience, all the compassion and understanding of which\ncivilized men and women are capable is being challenged and tested in a\ncrucible of mindless violence.\nThe tragedy of Attica's prison riot is but the latest example of what\ncan only be described as a guerrilla war against our society. You and\nthose you represent are society's first line of defense in this seemingly\nendless struggle.\nYou are the point men in a prolonged battle against a cowardly array\nof enemies who strike from ambush who seek to incite hatred and\nsuspicion and who try to portray as folk heroes the terrorist bomb-thrower\nwho kills at random, the arsonist and the assassin.\nEvery person who values human life can only regret the loss of 40\nlives at Attica, especially because it stems from senseless savagery.\nBut we grieve most for the brave correctional officers whose lives were\nsacrificed.\n- 1 -\nPolice Chiefs Convention\nIt is an outrageous distortion of values that some now question the\nnecessity and even the morality of those who had the courage to act\ndecisively. The violence at Attica was triggered by an outlaw group\nwhose very presence in a prison was because of past violent crimes.\nThese self-proclaimed revolutionaries set out deliberately to kidnap and\nmurder and then tried to legitimize their lawlessness in a cloak of\nsociological and revolutionary rhetoric.\nEvery official who has any degree of responsibility for protecting\nsociety against criminal brutality knows the agony of decision in\nconfrontations where the innocent are involved.\nEvery time there is a kidnapping, every time there is a riot and it\nbecomes necessary to use force to restore order, decisions must be made\nthat involve risk to hostages or to the innocent who may be caught in\nthe crossfire of a confrontation. But there is a far greater degree of\nrisk to life and public safety in surrendering to the violent law-break\nThe decision to stand up to lawlessness is a final choice that has to be\nmade sooner or later, if society is to retain an effective capacity to\nprotect the public.\nThere can be no compromise with those who hold so little regard for\nhuman life that they would maim or kill unarmed captives. Society cannot\nnegotiate with the lawless.\nA criminal holding a knife at the throat of an unarmed captive is\nnot an ambassador with diplomatic immunity. He is a potential murderer.\nAnd any attempt to suggest otherwise can only encourage these\noutcasts to try again and again to force society to accept the law of\nthe jungle.\nAlthough the casualty list may have been smaller, the challenge to\nlaw at Attica has its counterparts elsewhere, at San Quentin\nin prisons\nthroughout the country in assaults upon police that occur almost daily\nin every act of violence directed against society and those whose\nprofessional duty is to protect society.\nIn a single week last month, there were half a dozen major\nconfrontations.\nIn New Jersey, a wave of terrorist firebombings, sniping and looting\ninjured six persons. Firemen responding to fires during this outbreak\nwere pelted with rocks by the militants.\nIn New York, hundreds of demonstrators hurled rocks and bottles at\npolicemen and passing cars.\n- 2 -\nPolice Chiefs Conv ition\nInmates of a federal correctional institution in Florida created a\ndisruption that lasted six hours. When it was over, guards confiscated\nhalf a dozen knives and assorted clubs made from broken broom and mop\nhandles.\nIn our own state, six persons died in an attempted breakout at San\nQuentin, including three guards who had been held as hostages and two\ninmates who refused to join the escape attempt.\nI am sure you have heard of that well-publicized event.\nBut perhaps you did not hear what occurred four days later. A grouj\nof demonstrators gathered outside the prison walls not to mourn the\ninnocent dead or to express outrage at brutality of the lawlessness that\nhad taken place. No, these demonstrators gathered to express support foi\nthe goals of the slain convict whose attempted escape set in motion the\ntragic events that led to the butchery.\nWhenever a policeman is killed, we never hear any words of remorse\nfrom the avowed revolutionaries, no tears for the slain upholders of the\nlaw.\nInstead, there are insults, invective and often threats of further\nviolence. If this were confined merely to the small group of avowed\nfanatics who glorify violence, it would be disturbing enough. But some\nprominent figures in the news media and others who should know better\njoined the chorus of radicals and suggested that the San Quentin tragedy\nwas not only the result of the activities of a violent few, but could\nsomehow also be blamed on society's imperfections on\nsociological\nproblems that afflict our country on the victims themselves\non\nanything but individual criminal action.\nHow far have we departed from the concept of individual account-\nability? From the teachings and legal code of every civilization that\nthe individual is responsible for his own acts and should be accountable\nunder the law? That concept is the foundation of our system of justice.\nBut we live in a strange time. Those who sin seek to shift their\nown burden of guilt to someone else, to society at large. Any excuse wil\ndo to escape the consequences of their own violent acts.\nIf carried to the obvious extreme, that philosophy of permissiveness\nwould destroy not only respect for law, but the ability of a society to\nestablish and enforce the civilized code of conduct that forbids a man\nfrom killing or harming his neighbor.\nrulice Chiefs Convertion\nThose who preach hatred and contempt for the moral values of our\nsociety have tried to spread a virus of violence in our country and 1\nother nations around the world.\nIn the decade of the 1960s, rioting and violent upheavals became\nworld-wide phenomenon, a problem for law enforcement in Japan, in\nEurope and in our own country.\nAttacks upon those who uphold the law have always been with u\nnever before in such magnitude. Even in Britain, with a long and\nadmirable tradition of non-violence, unarmed policemen have now become\nthe targets of criminals who carry and use destructive weapons in thei\ncrimes and in their efforts to escape the consequences of those crimes\nThe ideological effort to capture and subvert peace-loving societ:\ninto class and racial conflict has been going on during most of our\nlifetimes.\nThose who try to exploit racial tension, to incite class warfare\nhave tried for a generation to enlist the working men and women of\nworld to their cause. They failed.\nTerrorism did not become popular. The working men and women of t.\nworld showed a commendable capacity for separating fact from fiction\nThey knew that when bloody revolutionaries prevail, in societies where\nthe slogan \"Up Against the Wall\" is substituted for due process of law,\nthere has been an inevitable loss of liberty and the human values we all\ncherish.\nThrough propaganda and by teaching a distorted view of history and\nsocial conflicts, the revolutionary movement and its apologists sought\nto capture a whole generation in our colleges and universities, For a\ntime, it appeared they were succeeding too well. But when rhetoric turi\nto violence, when verbal threats escalated into arson, bombings and deat\nfor innocent bystanders, the inate decency of our youth caused them to\nturn against terrorism. The tide of rebellion appears to be subsiding.\nNow, they are attempting to find a receptive following inside our\nprisons among those who have by their own individual violent acts\nplaced themselves outside the law.\nSuddenly, the lawless element that exists in all societies has become\na target of agitation and propaganda. Criminals who have been judged\nguilty of one misdeed seek to mitigate the enormity of their crimes by\nbecoming advocates of a political cause. They are eager to shed the rol\nof social outcasts. They prefer the more sympathetic role of political\nmartyr\nto be a victim rather than the villain, no matter how\npreposterous the portrayal.\n- 4 -\nPolice Chiefs Conve ion\nBut their so-called revolution lacks the noble motives of political\nupheavals of the past. Their cause is not legitimate redress of\ngrievances. Their's is a brutal call to terrorism, violence and even\nmurder.\nAnd incredibly enough, they have discovered they have sympathizers\non the outside. This too, is a part of the bitter harvest of\npermissiveness. Fanatics who advocate blowing up a school would never\nhope to elicit any sympathy when judged by those acts alone. But if it\nis done in the name of a political cause, society suddenly finds that\nthere are those who are quite ready to excuse almost any kind of\nextremist conduct.\nFor some, we have to hope, trying to explain or justify violent acts\nstems from misguided compassion\nfrom the false philosophy of\npermissiveness that can find no individual guilt even in the most\nhorrible crime.\nFor others, the motive is simpler. They openly encourage every type\nof protest and violence in a frank hope that it will help tear down and\nultimately destroy our society.\nIt really doesn't matter what the motivation is. The result is the\nsame: it creates among the fanatic few the false idea that they might\nbreak the law with impunity, if they shout enough political slogans.\nThe suggestion that an individual may violate the law and get away\nwith it is a seed that is sown early. It starts the first time a child\nis allowed to break a window and escape the consequences of his vandalism.\nIt carries over into the schoolroom and is compounded every time a\nchild finds that he can mock his teacher and not worry about staying\nafter school.\nIt reaches into the very citadels of justice when the legal skills\nof those sworn to uphold the law are used not to assure a fair application\nof the law, but to thwart it.\nWe have been told by the sociologists that poverty spawns crime,\nYet in Seattle, when the unemployment rate went up to 15 percent, the\ncrime rate went down 15 percent.\nEconomic stresses do not lead inevitably to criminal activity. When\ndepression gripped the world 30 years ago, crime rates were only a\nfraction of what we have in today's affluent society.\nSociological problems cannot justify crime. And the blame for mass\nviolence today cannot be shifted to the victims of that violence, or to\nthe society in which it occurs.\nPolice Chiefs Convertion\nYet so-called revolutionary crime is possibly the single most\ndifficult problem for law enforcement today. Ironically, it comes at a\ntime when we appear to be making some progress in combating the more\ntraditional types of crime.\nDuring the first quarter of this year, the national crime rate slowed\nto less than half of last year's rate.\nThe attorney general reports that in 60 major cities with population\nover 100,000 the crime rate actually decreased in the first quarter this\nyear.\nIn our own State of California, the rate of increase for the seven\nmajor felonies has been cut in half. We feel at least part of that\nslowdown is due to some of the stricter laws that have been enacted in\nrecent years.\nWe increased penalties for rape, robbery and burglary and tou\nthe penalties for the use of firearms in the commission of a crime.\nWe passed the first anti-smut laws in eight years, cracked down on\ndrug abuse with tighter laws and with an educational campaign to acquein\nour youth with the dangers of drug abuse. In all, more than 40 different\nlaws strengthening law enforcement have been enacted.\nBut we are not satisfied with merely slowing down the crime rate.\nOne murder or one mugging is one too many for a civilized society\nto endure.\nWe know we must do more. We must do more to strengthen law\nenforcement's ability not only to deal with orthodox criminals, but with\nthe self-proclaimed revolutionaries.\nWe must do more to protect the peace officers who risk their lives\nevery day and every night to protect society or to guard society's\nlaw-breakers.\nIn the past nine years, more than 100 police officers have been\nmurdered in the United States. When you count prison guards and other\npeace officers, the toll is even higher.\nThe policeman who wears a badge of authority has become a principal\ntarget of the revolutionaries and many have died as a result of their\nviolence.\nWe are trying to do more in California. This year, I asked the state\nlegislature for three major new laws:\n--To make it a felony to specifically advocate killing or injuring\nlaw enforcement officers.\n6\nPolice Chiefs Conver.\n--To increase the amount of reward we might offer for information\nleading to the arrest and conviction of persons killing or injuring\npolice officers; and\n--To make the killing of a peace officer while on duty first degree\nmurder.\nWe want all three of these measures enacted into law, but there is a\nspecial urgency for the bill which makes the killing of a peace officer\non duty mandatory first degree murder.\nIt has been eight months since we asked for these new laws and 15\nCalifornia peace officers have been killed so far this year---nine\npolicemen and six correctional officers. How many more must die before\neveryone recognizes the urgency for more effective action against the\ncriminals who killed them?\nAttacks on policemen have become almost routine, if the repetition\nof lawlessness can ever be described by such a casual term. Sometimes\nyou must wonder whether people have seen or heard of so much violence that\nthey are becoming numb to threats, violent rhetoric and tragic death.\nThose who do not live with the daily tension, the prospect of instant\ndeath, cannot really appreciate the full extent of the challenge that\nconfronts our law enforcement system. It becomes difficult for the\naverage citizen to keep everything in perspective.\nBut we must understand the policeman's plight and give him our full\nsupport.\nShakespeare spoke of the seven deadly sins. I suggest there is an\neighth sin perhaps more deadly than all the other human imperfections.\nAnd that is the sin of indifference indifference to the difficult task\nwe have asked our peace officers to perform.\nThey need our help. One of the policemen killed during the week of\nthe San Quentin violence was a San Francisco police sergeant, gunned down\nby a shotgun blast fired into a district station house.\nHe also was a victim of the revolutionary mentality.\nWe often see and hear the fanatic ravings of the revolutionaries and\ntheir sympathizers when they strut before the television cameras and try\nto justify, excuse or explain violence, especially when it involves a\npolice officer.\nBut rarely do we really get to know in full measure the courage and\ndedication of the victims of the bombings and the shootings.\n- 7 -\nPolice Chiefs Conve. ion\nAnd yet, we must know the kind of men who are being sacrificed\nbecause only then can we truly appreciate the courageous and lonely\nbattle they are waging on our behalf.\nThe policeman killed in San Francisco was not an anonymous figure\na line on some casualty list remote from the reality of our own daily\nlives. His name was Sergeant John Young. He was 51 years old, a deepl\nreligious man who lived and died for his fellow man. Although he and his\nwife had no children, Sergeant Young spent many years working with\nhomeless young people and on behalf of church charities and civic\nactivities.\nThat is not the image the revolutionaries seek to construct of all\npolice officers, the tough law man insensitive to social consciousness or\nto the disadvantaged. It is the image of a kindly man who happened to be\na police officer. And Sergeant Young was a kindly man, a man who respecte\nthe law and sought to instill respect for justice in the young people he\ncounseled.\nHow should his colleagues, how should all civilized men everywhere,\naccept the loss, the tragedy of his sacrifice?\nDifficult though it is, we cannot be swept up with reckless anger.\nInstead, we should heed the counsel of the police chaplain who delivered\nSergeant Young's eulogy.\nHe said: \"Let the so-called 'revolutionaries' scream invectives and\npromise 'to slit the throats of any who stand in their way'.\" We must\nnot be caught in the trap of vengeance.\n\"Cowards killed this man of compassion, but we will not allow them\nto strangle the compassion and sense of justice which he left us as his\nlegacy.\" We will not allow their cowardice to sully our courage. We will\nnot allow their insanity to warp our judgment. We will not allow their\ncruelty to wither our kindness.\n\"But neither will we sit meekly by and watch these psuedo-\nrevolutionaries who represent no community but the community of their own\nindolence, violence and cowardice. They claim to be revolutionaries;\nthey vow they will overthrow the government.\n\"Brave talk for people who break the arm that holds the scales of\njustice and then hide behind her skirts when held accountable,\"\n- 8 -\nPolice Chiefs Convertion\nSergeant Young gave his life upholding the principle of law\nto preserve our system of justice as a shield, to protect the weak and\nthe innocent against brutality and cowardice. Greater love hath no man.\nHowever slowly the wheels of justice turn, we must carry on his struggle\nagainst the lawless. But we must never forget his sacrifice. And we\nmust never allow the forces who caused his death to prevail.\nWhether the threat to life and liberty comes from a totalitarian\narmy or a gang of street criminals, there is only one sure way for peace-\nloving men to avoid a showdown with those bent on violence. And that is\nto surrender to their demands, to accept intimidation, violence, the law\nof the jungle. This we cannot do.\nIf civilization is to survive, we can never buy peace through\nappeasement. It is a price too great for society to consider. It is a\nprice we dare not pay. It is a price we will not pay.\n######\n(NOTE: Since Governor Reagan speaks from notes, there may be changes\nin, or additions to, the above quotes. However, the governor\nwill stand by the above quotes.)\n- 9 -\n9/29\n91\nto\n-\nOFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR\nRELEASE:\nWed esday P.M.s\nSacramento, Californ\nContact: Paul Beck\n445-4571\n9-28-71\nEXCERPTS OF REMARKS BY GOVERNOR RONALD REAGAN\nLEAGUE OF CALIFORNIA CITIES CONVENTION\nSan Francisco\nSeptember 29, 1971\nIn the decade of the 1960s, the United States set a goal for\nitself: to land an American on the surface of the moon. It was a\nvast undertaking requiring the skills and technical genius of thousands\nof people and the expenditure of billions of dollars.\nBecause the outcome could be crucial to our survival, the people\nof the United States responded enthusiastically and confidently to the\nchallenge of space.\nWe put a man on the moon---an American. And we did it ahead of\nschedule.\nInstead of wallowing in self-doubt and arguments, we charted a\ncourse to the stars. And we achieved the greatest scientific and\nengineering feat in all of man's history, a step that opens a new age\nof progress for mankind.\nIt is particularly appropriate to recall this today because another\nAmerican President has set a new goal for this great nation in the\n1970s. In a technical sense, it isn't as glamorous as a flight to the\nmoon.\nBut it is a goal well worthy of all our energies, our cooperation\nand our national determination. And if we can achieve it, we will have\naccomplished something we have been seeking throughout our adult lives,\nthrough three wars and 30 years of international crisis.\nThe new goal we seek in this decade is the start of a generation of\npeace and a generation of stable prosperity without war, without runaway\ninflation and without the disruptive impact of international monetary\nspeculation.\nIn many ways, this is an even greater challenge than space because\nthere are no computers to chart a definite path, no electronic machines\nto assure that the course we take will lead unerringly to the result we\ndesire. The steps we are taking require the cooperation of every\nAmerican because the peaceful prosperity we seek will benefit all\nAmericans.\nI am confident that we will meet the challenge of peaceful\nprosperity, just as we have met and mastered every challenge with\nunity and determination.\n-1-\nIt requires some individual economic sacrifice. But Americans are\nno strangers to sacril.ce when that sacrifice is for the good of all.\nIt means establishing new priorities, putting the national inter-\nest ahead of self-interest for a time\nsomething Americans have always\nbeen willing to do.\nIt involves the opening of a new era in our international relations.\nDuring the past generation, the United States has been a benefactor to\nthe world.\nWe have given almost $150 billion of our national resources and\nwealth to help rebuild the economic and material strength of a hundred\nnations, including some of our former enemies.\nWe have conscripted American young men to help defend other nations\nwhile our allies acquired the strength to provide for their own defense.\nWe have taxed ourselves heavily to feed the hungry, to fight\ndisease, and to help our allies rebuild their war-shattered industries\nindirectly financing machinery newer than our own industries can afford.\nWe have allowed our own trade base to erode, generously assuming\nthat we could afford it better than those we were trying to help.\nWe have seen our gold supplies depleted by more than half. While\nseeking to build a worldwide prosperity built upon the principle of\nfree trade, we have shared both our technical expertise and our\nmarkets even while other nations imposed trade barriers and tariffs\nagainst our goods and our products.\nIn brief, we have done more than any other society in the history\nof the world to be a good neighbor to make it possible for the world\nto enjoy unprecedented prosperity. Some may question the wisdom of\nour generosity, but no one can challenge our compassion.\nNow, we have reached a point in our history when we have to do more\nto assure our own prosperity. Many of us think it is about time.\nIn the last decade, we were told that America was rich enough to\nafford both guns and butter that we could fight an ugly war abroad\nwith no sacrifice on the homefront. This we did but at the price of a\nnear runaway inflation rate that doubled and tripled in a two or three\near period. Now we suffer the inevitable dislocation that accompanies\na shift to a peacetime economy with military personnel and defense\nworkers added to the labor pool. Unlike the aftermath of World War II,\nthere is no stored up demand for consumer goods because all through\nthis war they were never in short supply.\n-2-\nIn California you can add the reductions ir aerospace as the\nsecond part of a double-whammy inflation, plus the misery of unemploy-\nment all at the same time.\nIt is a tribute to the basic strength of our economy that our\nproblems have not been even greater than they are. But there had to\ncome a day of reckoning. The President's economic program is designed\nto speed up this transition from a war to a peacetime economy, to\nhasten the day of full employment without the stimulus of war.\nIndividual tax relief already scheduled to go into effect in 1973\nis being pushed ahead a year.\nWe are trying to correct the balance of payments deficit that\nresults from spending more abroad than we earn.\nAll of these moves are steps toward the goal we seek. But in\naddition to government policy, there will have to be a permanent\nrecognition on the part of all Americans that to really beat inflation,\nprice and wage increases must be balanced by increased productivity.\nI saw a statistic the other day that emphasized the task ahead.\nDuring the past 10 years, America's productivity--the output of goods\nper man hour of labor--has been smaller than that of any major indus-\ntrial nation. We increased productivity by 34.7 percent in those 10\nyears, compared to a gain of 75 percent for France, 87 percent for\nWest Germany and 188 percent for Japan.\nFor 25 years, I served the cause of organized labor--I still\nbelieve in it, but I challenge the leadership of labor today to face\nhonestly the fact that the slow increase in productivity resulting from\nwage and benefits rising faster than output is one of the major reasons\nfor inflation. It also is partly responsible for the slippage in our\ntrade balance.\nThe economic miracles of Germany, Western Europe and Japan following\nWorld War II are not miracles at all. They resulted from a combination\nof our aid and their hard work. They had no secret formula.\nAnd neither did we when we built a small, poor country of three\nmillion into the mightiest nation in the history of the world.\nDuring World War II, America produced more planes, ships and tanks\nfaster and more efficiently than anyone thought possible. The whole\nworld stood in awe of our knowhow and our ability. Our efficient\nproductivity in large measure won the war.\n-3-\nIs it impossible for us to do in peace what we did in war? We\nfought a great war even though we hated war. Surely to win an entire\ngeneration of peaceful prosperity we can work harder at our chosen jobs,\nincrease our productivity and become more competitive. We must revit-\nalize the spirit of peaceful economic competition which enabled us to\nbe first with so many of the major technical and engineering advances\nof the past 200 years. Almost half the economic activity in the entire\nhistory of man has taken place in the United States.\nIf you are wondering what all this has to do with the problems of\nstate and city government; it has everything to do with it because it\nforms the backdrop against which we in government must play our assigned\nroles.\nJust as private industry must become more efficient, we must do the\nsame in government at every level--not just during one administration\nor two--but from now on.\nDuring the same period of rising affluence when our nation's\nindustrial productivity began lagging, government took on several layers\nof administrative fat. As Americans earned and spent more, revenues\nrose proportionately and waste and inefficiency were hidden in the\nlarger outlays for various government programs.\nThose days are over.\nAt a time when the average citizen spends 13 hours and 5 minutes\nof his 40-hour work week just to pay his taxes, he is not in a mood to\ntolerate waste and inefficiency in government. And he wants his tax\nload held to a minimum.\nBetween 1957 and 1969, state and local taxes more than doubled in\nour major states.\nThroughout the country, in every state and county and city, there\nis a demand for tax relief and efficiency in government, reforms to\nslow down the tremendous rate of spending increases that have occurred\nin such areas as welfare.\nAt the state level, we recognized the necessity for all this long\nbefore the federal government began taking the same steps.\nWe introduced and accelerated more efficient ways of operating\ngovernment through streamlined administrative procedures and such\ninnovations as mass purchasing. At the end of the 1970-71 fiscal year,\nwe had a thousand fewer full-time civil service employees than were on\nthe state payroll 4½ years ago even though our growth in population had\nvastly increased the workload in many departments. Some state depart-\nments are now operating with 25 percent fewer employees than when we\nstarted and are carrying a 30 percent workload increase.\nIn 1969, the California state budget was second only to the federal\ngovernment's budget in size. Today our budget ranks fourth. Along with\nthe federal budget, the budget of New York State is higher than ours\nnov---$1 billion higher. And the proposed budget for New York City was\nalmost $2 billion higher than ours this year.\nWe have critically analyzed every new spending request. But we\nalso have kept in mind the essential services government must provide\nfor the people.\nBetween 1967 and 1971, we increased the amount of state support for\npublic schools by more than $500 million a year---the greatest four-year\nincrease in history. Many say that is not enough. But it was three\ntimes the increase in enrollment.\nWe applied the cost efficiencies selectively, never in areas where\nthe result would be to reduce essential services. During the past five\nyears, we have doubled the strength of the highway patrol and our\nstate's traffic fatality rate of 4.2 per 100 million miles of travel\nlast year is an all-time record low. So far this year, the rate is\neven lower and if it continues we will set another all-time safety record.\nAlong with the efficiencies, we also sought to reform the fastest\ngrowing area of state government costs: welfare and Medi-Cal.\nWe sought to eliminate from the welfare rolls those who didn't\nbelong there, the people with significant outside income and those who\nare able to work and support themselves. But we did not lack compassion\nfor those truly in need---the people who have no outsideincome and\nnowhere to turn for the basic necessities of life. We increased their\ngrants as much as 30 percent. Although much of the reform program\ndoesn't become operative until later this week, the results of the\nseveral administrative reforms we instituted last spring are already\nshowing. From a 50,000 per month caseload increase we now show as of the\nend of August, 109,000 fewer people on welfare than there were last\nMarch. The rate of decline in the caseload has been averaging 22,000\na month.\nWe don't know yet what the final cost savings will be. But we have\nade the most significant reform in welfare ever achieved in one\nlegislative session.\nWe are trying to reduce the amount of revenue that will be needed\nto finance welfare. And at the same time we are trying to fairly\ndistribute the welfare dollars we do spend for public assistance so\nthat those who need help most will get more aid.\n-5-\nI realize that C, ies do not have as much of 7 direct role in\nwelfare as the counties and the state. But you certainly do have a\nvital stake in these reforms. Every jurisdiction of government competes\nwith every other level for the available tax revenue.\nWhen one part of government takes a disproportionate share, all\nthe other levels have a far more difficult time finding the money to\npay for essential services that they are required to provide for the\npeople.\nWe feel the federal government has been taking a disproportionate\nshare of the fastest growing revenue sources, leaving the states and the\ncities with what is left. One example illustrates this imbalance. In\nthe 1969 fiscal year, the federal government collected more than\n$135 billion from the corporate and individual income taxes. All the\n50 states combined, tapping the same sources, collected only a little\nmore than $10 billion. In short, the federal government took more than\n90 percent of all corporate and individual income tax revenues and the\nstates took less than 10 percent.\nThat money comes from the states, the counties and yes, from the\ncities. And we never seem to get back in federal benefits the same\nproportion of money we send to Washington.\nOne of the reasons why so many mayors, county officials and even\nsome governors have wanted to turn to Washington to solve the problems\nis because that is where the money is.\nThis fact is being officially recognized at long last in the various\nrevenue sharing proposals that have been made at the federal level. We\nfully support the concept of revenue sharing. But whatever program\nWashington finally adopts to return some of the money taken from the\ncities and states must recognize the responsibility of each level of\ngovernment. It must include a realistic distribution formula.\nCalifornia already has a well established system of revenue sharing.\nMore than $600 million of our revenue this year--for the sales, cigarette\nand highway user taxes--is being returned to cities and local governments\nto help meet local expenses.\nAnd we have supported legislation to increase your sources of\nrevenue. An additional half cent of the sales tax is being collected\nnow to help pay for the Bay Area Rapid Transit System.\n-6-\n\"tippler's tax\" a bill which would allow cities and counties to levy\na local tax on alcoholic beverages consumed on the premises. It is\nspecifically designed to help provide cities with additional revenue\nsources to help meet local needs.\nBecause it will greatly relieve the burden on the local property\ntaxpayer, our own tax reform program is a major step toward achieving a\ngreater balance in the tax structure.\nThe property tax has become an intolerable burden. I know you\nrealize this because the property taxes levied by cities have increased\nat a slower rate than other major areas of local government. You have\nresisted the pressures for greater spending. Our reliance on it must\nbe reduced. Our tax reform proposals would be a major step in that\ndirection.\nIdeally, I have always favored the concept of reserving property\ntax revenues for property related services\nthings\nsuch\nas\npolice\nand\nfire protection, the very types of services which cities provide for\ntheir residents.\nThe cost of other individual services, such as garbage collection,\nshould be more directly related to those who receive the service. This\nkind of user charge is well-established in such areas as licensing fees\nand motor vehicle taxes.\nWe know that such a transition cannot take place overnight. But\nwe should look to the day when it can.\nIn the interim, we at the state level want to encourage the\ndevelopment of new revenue sources for cities to help you meet the\nincreasing costs you are facing today.\nThe tippler's tax for local government and federal revenue sharing\nyou\nare both constructive ways to provide/with some of the revenue you must\nhave to meet the increased costs of municipal government.\nWe are aware, too, of the other ways in which our operations affect\nyour costs. One area in which we both face difficulties is in salary\nlevels for employees.\nEven though you may differ greatly in size, there is a constant\ndrive for all public employees in similar jobs to receive comparable\nsalary levels.\nThis treadmill of comparability pits one city against every other\nand against the salary levels in the state government and at the federal\nlevel. When salaries go up in any level of government, there is a\nconstant and unrelenting pressure on the cost of government at every\nother level.\n-7-\nThe state government is trying always to be inscious of the impact\nof our salary levels upon other areas of government.\nWe share other problems, too, and we must try to be understanding\nand help each other to develop better ways of meeting our different\nresponsibilities.\nCertainly, we want to pay competitive salaries; we want to improve\ncivil service benefits and working conditions. But as elected officials,\nwe cannot forget that government is not like a private business and ii\nsome ways, what is permissible for private industry cannot be tolerated\nin government.\nThis is particularly true in regard to public employee strikes.\nEarlier this year I told your legislative institute my own personal\nfeelings on this matter. I would like to repeat what I said then bec\nthe issue is one that is likely to be with us for some time,\nI was an officer of my own union for 25 years and played a leading\nrole in contract negotiations with management. I strongly believe that\nthe strike is a legitimate tool in bargaining between the membership of\na free trade union and a private industry. I led our union as president\nin the first strike we ever had.\nYet, I believe just as strongly that the right to strike is some-\nthing public employees must forego.\nGovernment isn't like a private business. A city, a state and a\ncounty cannot just close down. The strike is the ultimate use of\norganizational power--the test whether the worker can afford to withhold\nhis services longer than the employer can shut down his business.\nAlways, in these labor-business contests there is the inherent\nknowledge that if at any time the public good is greatly endangered,\nthe elected representatives of the people will protect the people's\ninterest. But government, when it is the employer, cannot operate as\na private business does. It cannot refuse to provide the services and\nprotections required by the Constitution and charters of the nation,\nthe states and the cities.\nGovernment has no choice but to continue operations any way that\nit can. It must, of course, be responsive to legitimate demands, it\nshould provide the machinery for settling grievances and to try in all\nways to be fair with its employees. But having done all this, the final\ndecisions on how far government can go to meet employee needs and requests\nmust rest with elected officials. Only in this way can the public\ninterest be guaranteed the protection our laws and system of government\nrequire.\n-8-\nI would not like to leave you with the impression that the road\n(\nahead is entirely uphill and we are running out of gas. Certainly, we\nhave problems, some more acute than we have known before.\nThe demand for municipal services, for services at all levels of\ngovernment, keeps rising. It has been ever thus.\nBut we mus: critically analyze every new spending request. We\nmust insist upon efficient operations and we must do everything we can\nto hold the tas burden on our people down to the absolute minimum.\nThat will. take courage and ability and a cooperative attitude by\neveryone.\nBut we must do it.\nJust as the national government is trying to put our economic house\nin order, to achieve a balance in our trade deficit, we must fight\nagainst the threat of deficits in government. We must control programs\nthat lead to deficits because unrestrained spending postpones the day\nof reckoring, the day when the books must be balanced.\nI an confident we can meet our responsibilities and help America\nmove forward to a new era of prosperity greater than we have ever known.\nI am confident you will do your part. I know we'll try to do our\npart and I believe the people will do their part. After all, we really\nhave no other realistic choice.\n# # #\n(NOTE: Since Governor Reagan speaks from notes, there may be changes\nin or additions to the above text. However, the governor will\nstand by the above quotes.)\n-9--\nto\n-\nto\n%\nOFFICE OF THE GOVERNO\"\nRELEASE: ST URDAY P.Ms.\nSacramento, Californi\nJober 2, 1971\nContact:\nPaul Beck\n445-4571\n10-1-71\nPLEASE GUARD AGAINST PREMATURE\nRELEASE.\nREMARKS BY GOVERNOR RONALD REAGAN\nREPUBLICAN STATE CENTRAL COMMITTEE MEETING\nLos Angeles, California\nOctober 2, 1971\nAs you know, when last we met in January, the election was fresh in\nour minds (that was the election that was just past); there were many\nthings that had us unhappy.\nNow we are meeting again and a coming election fills our thoughts.\nOur Party has chosen to hold the national convention in our state,\njust a stone's throw from the Western White House.\nYou know, in the early days here in California, in the early days\nof manned flight, California was the locale for a lot of what is called\n\"free flight ballooning.\" You couldn't turn in any direction but what\nyou saw those big bags full of hot air.\nI don't know why that came to my mind because California has changed\na great deal. We are now the biggest state in the union. Now when you\nturn around every place you look you see a presidential hopeful.\nJohn\nLindsay was just out here he brought his tennis racket. Up in\nSan Francisco he said he had the second hardest job in the country. Well,\nnow that's probably true the way he does it. He reminds me of that old\nstory of the Irish hod carrier that was running up and down the ladder\nall day with a big hod full of plaster on his back, and finally one of\nhis friends said, \"Why are you working so hard?\" And he said, \"Shh, I'm\nfooling the boss; he thinks I'm working hard; I'm carrying the same load.\"\nSenator McGovern has been around testing the water probably to see\nif Teddy can walk on it. The Senator from South Dakota has travelled so\nfar around the world he ran into Sam Yorty.\nBut there's Muskie and Birch Bayh and Hubert Humphrey and Harris,\nand in political parlance, they are all trying to catch fire. And so\nfar in California we haven't seen any reason to keep them from going up\ninto our brush-covered hills. As a matter of fact, they are looking at\neach other so close, that if even one of them tries to light a cigarette,\nthe rest will beat him to death with a wet banquet napkin.\nBut, seriously, in all the campaign oratory to which we have been\nsubjected by these would-be's, there has been one recurrent theme; indeed,\nall of the candidates use almost identical language in voicing it. They\nwant to change the direction in which this country is going. They want\nto turn the country around. What they really mean is, they want to stop\nthe change in direction that is now taking place and return to the\nbankrupt policies of 1960 to 1968.\n- 1 -\nRSCC\nDuring the eight years in which this nation mired itself down in a\nland war in Asia, the budget doubled and the debt increased to a total\nof $70 odd billion more than the combined debt of all the nations of the\nworld, against Republican objections. They started a runaway inflation\nthat doubled and tripled as it eroded the value of our savings, our\ninsurance and our pensions. And they multiplied tenfold the social\nwelfare programs from 40 to more than 400 and embarked on a war agains\npoverty. And they couldn't win that one either. One thing I can say,\nthey sure may not have cured poverty, but they sure cured wealth.\nCrime, and the inability to feel safe in our neighborhood and even\nin our homes was uppermost in our minds just less than three years ago.\nIt is hard to remember that a short time back we were talking about long,\nhot summers. We had accepted street riots and burning of our cities as\na matter of course and that our educational institutions would erupt.\nAnd we were told by many of those in high office that somehow we were\nto blame. I don't recall such things being commonplace during the\nEisenhower years, and it seems they have markedly decreased since.\nWhen I addressed you eight months ago in Sacramento, I spoke of the\ndifference here in our own state between the one legislative session when\nRepublican leadership named the committees and the committee chairmen,\nand the preceding three years when so much of what we tried to do met with\nhostility and died in the various committees.\nThat one Republican year was the only year in which a Republican\nbudget was returned to me that I could sign within five minutes without\nvetoing tens of millions of dollars of excess spending. Little did I\nknow last January when I talked to you that six months from then I would\nset an all-time record for the United States by blue-pencilling more than\nhalf a billion dollars out of the one budget that was sent back by this\nDemocratic-controlled legislature. This brought my total veto score of\nbudgets to more than $825 million.\nNothing illustrates the difference of philosophy between the two\nparties more than the constant screams of rage and protest over these\nlast four years that have grested every economy we have proposed. You\ncan't recall when there was a single time when there was an outcry by\nour opponents because we wanted to spend more money on something. Always\nthe objection was to spending less. And we are on the right track\nbecause it has been uphill all the way.\n- 2 -\nRSCC\nYou know the record, and I have tried many times to keep you posted\non what it is we think we have been accomplishing. When we ended the\nfiscal year in June, we had a thousand full-time fewer employees than\nwhen we started five years ago. When we started, our budget was second\nin size only to the federal budget. Today it is fourth behind the federal\nbudget. It is behind New York State, and it is even behind New York\nCity. In fact, in Fun City, the budget is $2 billion bigger than the\nbudget for this, the largest state in the union. Now that happened when\nthe mayor was a Republican. What do you think is going to happen now\nthat he is a Democrat?\nBut I told you in January that the economies in government wouldn't\nbe at the cost of quality government, and they haven't been. Our mental\nhospitals, once crowded with 31,000 patients, are now down to 11,000\nbecause of the success of our local mental health care clinics. We are\nthe only major state in the United States with all of our mental hospitals\ncertified as meeting the standards prescribed by the American Hospital\nAssociation.\nI told you in January that in the one term of Republican leadership\nwe had passed the most comprehensive anti-crime legislation--- 40 measures\nin all. And that was thanks to the Republicans in the legislature. And\nnow I can tell you the result of that leadership.\nThe rate of increase in California in serious crimes is less than\nhalf what it was two years ago. Incidentally, we have been so successful\nin prison reform and rehabilitation that we have fewer prisoners in our\nprisons than we have had at any time since 1962. And the percentage of\nparolees who are returned to prison for violation of parole or committing\nanother crime has been reduced in half. But the very success in that has\ncreated new problems as you well know. Most of the men now remaining in\nour prisons are the hard core incorrigibles. Add to this the same kind\nof revolutionary rhetoric that tore up our campuses a few years back, with\nthe leaders of that revolution admittedly directing their attention to\nthe prisons as the new battleground of the revolution, and you have\ntragedies such as the recent massacre at San Quentin.\nAnd, of course, there are those who are eager to blame their misdeeds\non the sociological problems, the ills of our system, anything but the\nreal reason for their own individual violent acts. Shootings and bombings\nare not justifiable political activism; they are criminal acts.\n- 3 -\nRSCC\nKilling a policeman is murder, whether it is done by a bank robber\nor a self-proclaimed revolutionary martyr. And the real martyrs in this\nrevolutionary conflict are law enforcement and correctional officers who\nrisk their lives every day and every night to protect and preserve the\nlaw-abiding, non-violent society. They need our help and our support\nand we are determined to give it to them.\nIn the State-of-the-State Address eight months ago, I asked for\nthree new laws. I asked the legislature to make it a felony to\nspecifically advocate killing or injuring law enforcement officers, to\nincrease the reward we can offer for information leading to the arrest\nand conviction of persons killing or injuring peace officers, and to mal\nthe killing of peace officers while on duty mandatory first degree\nmurder.\nBut things have changed in Sacramento since that one brie period\nwhen the Republicans controlled the legislature. Since I asked those\nlaws, sixteen law enforcement and correctional employees have been\nkilled in the line of duty in California, and the laws have still not\nbeen passed. How many more brave men must die before our opponents will\nface the world as it really is instead of continuing to look at that\nUtopia they dream of and which they seem so unable to secure.\nI told you in January that the passage of welfare and Medi-Cal\nreforms would make an increase in taxes to balance the budget unnecessary\nAs you know, we negotiated a compromise package that gave us about 70\npercent of what we wanted. But, by forcing a compromise, our opponents\ndeliberately chose instead to leave us needing $130 million to balance\nthe budget. I think this is another example of the difference in\nphilosophy with regard to taxing and spending, because they knew, and\nwere frequently reminded in our negotiations, that each time they refused\nto accept one of the measures we had proposed, they were deliberately\nchoosing instead to impose additional tax burden on our people.\nThe program went into effect yesterday. It is the most comprehensive\nwelfare reform ever enacted at a state level. But almost before we ha\nit enacted, various welfare rights groups and their OEO-funded attorneys\nrepresenting welfare clients began their court challenges. Now it is a\nquestion of whether we can stay ahead of the judges.\n- 4 -\nRSCC\nAnd no one has had an unkind word to say about the 30 percent\nincrease in benefits to the truly needy. It seems they want the increase\nbenefits but they don't want the eligibility standards which would make\nit impossible to remain on welfare as a permanent way of life regardless\nof the size of your earnings.\nBut I can report one bit of comforting news. We started\nimplementing our reforms way back in March because there was a portion\nof the program that did not require legislation; we could do it\nadministratively. Those measures, plus what I think is just a simple\npsychology of turning a spotlight once and for all on the whole problem\nof welfare, has proven in a sensational manner the rightness and the\nnecessity of welfare reform.\nFor the past few years, California's welfare growth rate has been\naveraging 50,000 new caseloads a month. For five straight months since\nwe started implementing a part of the reforms, the caseload has been\ndeclining 22,000 a month, and we have 109,000 fewer welfare cases than\nwe had last March when we started.\nThere are other things we could talk about, and I probably will\nbefore too many more months have gone by. But, I know that all of us\ntogether have business to transact, and it is business that is important\nto the state and nation.\nOf immediate concern to us is the all-out effort to reduce the\nDemocratic majority in the Assembly by electing Bill Brophy in the 48th.\nNow you know better than anyone else that is a tough district for us,\nand we don't get any free rides anymore. Since 1958 we have won all but\none of those special elections.\nNow the Democrats are finally doing what we have been doing and\ndoing so successfully. They, too, are mobilizing. They are getting\ntheir people out walking the precincts, turning out victory squads. And\nnow we have to outdo them because no longer can we take advantage of\ntheir apathy. The day is October 19, the district is the 48th, the\ncandidate is Bill Brophy, and the troops up front need all the help they\ncan get. I am confident that we can do it, confident that when we get\nin there we can go back to that record we have had for so many years.\nBut I know this: whether you share that optimism or not, let's\nmake sure that they don't get any free rides and that they can't win\nany of these by default.\n- 5 -\nRSCC\nLast January I tvld you that the Republicans in the legislature\nand the executive branch were determined to achieve a realistic and fair\nreapportionment of California's legislative and congressional delegations\nThe disgraceful Democratic gerrymandering that occurred in the 1960s\nstill cheats hundreds of thousands of Californians. It has deprived our\nfine citizens of Mexican descent, for example, of a chance to have\nrepresentation in the state legislature and the Congress that will\nrecognize their particular problems. This is true of some of our other\nminority communities as well. We promise to correct this injustice.\nA Republican plan has been unveiled in the Assembly and the Assembly\nplan has proved that we intend to keep that promise.\nUnlike our friends over on the other side of the aisle, we have\nrevealed ours and conducted public hearings. Our legislative leaders\nwho have been doing this have a distinct feeling that the Democrats\ndon't dare come out and reveal the secret of their plan. We have to\nwonder what they are hiding.\nBut we do know that our plan does\nfor the first time\ntake\ncommunities like the large community of Americans of Mexican descent in\nEast Los Angeles and set them up as districts where they can elect their\nrepresentatives. We have not cut it up as our opponents did like a pie\nand given a chunk of what is supposed to be sure Democratic votes to as\nmany Democratic candidates or districts as possible to maintain a\nmajority.\nI cannot leave this subject without mentioning the long hours and\nhard work that our Party leaders have given to reapportionment. Along\nwith our legislative leadership and Put Livermore, we know that the only\nway to insure good government in the 70s is to guarantee that\nreapportionment this year is fair to all of our citizens. If Republicans\nstand together, we will get that kind of reapportionment.\nAnd as long as there is a veto power which we didn't have before in\nthe other reapportionment, I think we have a little more muscle to the\npoint that they will either sit down with us and work it out on a fair\nbasis or (this sounds strange coming from me) we'll kick it into the\ncourts.\nNow for some of our current business. I have been asked by the\nPresident and Attorney General Mitchell to organize California's\ndelegation to the convention. Unlike our opponents, we have a pretty\ngood idea of who our candidate will be. The President has also asked me\nto be chairman of our 96 delegates and 96 alternates. I have accepted\nwith pride and told him and the Attorney General that the criterion for\nrepresentation on that delegation will be commitment to the President's\nre-nomination and election.\n- 6 -\nRSCC\nOf course, the delegation will be acceptable to the President and\nto the Attorney General. Beyond that we have agreed that the delegation\nshould be one that provides the fairest and broadest representation to\nevery constituency within the Republican Party in California. It will\nhave a proper balance of men and women, of young and old, it will include\nrepresentatives of our ethnic minorities, and it will represent every\nwing of our Party.\nThe delegation will have on it elected Republican officials and\nthose who may be elected in the future; it will include those who are\nParty leaders and not yet Party leaders; and it will definitely include\na representation of precinct workers and volunteers those who do the\nhard work of registration and the registrars.\nBecause the delegation is to be filed in March, we have a lot of\nwork to do. We haven't yet developed specific criteria for all the\ncategories I have mentioned, and the list of potential delegates is\nwide open. So I urge you and every Republican who wants to be a delegate\nor alternate, or who knows someone else that he thinks should be, to\nsend in his or her name during the next few weeks to Tom Reed, our\nnational committeeman. I have asked Tom to be the chairman of a small\ncommittee which will be made up of our national committeewoman, Eleanor\nRing, Holmes Tuttle, Leonard Firestone, Put Livermore and Gordon Luce.\nThey will do the initial screening of all these names. The final\napproval, of course, will be in the President's hands.\nThousands of Republicans are qualified and deserve consideration,\nso I know we will have a great many names to review. We will need a lot\nof help. But let me assure you that everyone will be fairly considered\nand the final delegation will be one that truly represents all the\nviewpoints within our Party in California.\nBefore I get off the subject of nuts and bolts politics, let me just\nmention one of the basics that is essential to success. I am talking\nabout registration. Our opponents are devoting tremendous amounts of\ntime, effort and money in their own registration drives and we must do\nno less. We have heard a great deal about the 18-year-old vote, and\nits possible impact on the elections. Well, we won't get our share of\nthese new young citizens unless we reach them and tell our story.\nI think we can begin by exploding the Democratic myth myths that\nthey can only bring about prosperity and full employment.\n- 7 -\nRSCC\nI am sick of seeing these Gallup Polls that have everyone saying,\n\"Oh, yes, in times of economic stress, the Democrats are the ideal\nparty. They are the only ones who bleed for the poor and the persecuted\ntheirs is the way of true liberalism in the classic sense of the\nFounding Fathers. They evoke the spirit of Herbert Hoover and say that\ndidn't he preside over the Great Depression and that is the proof that\nthe Republicans are somehow not the party to solve economic problems.\nThey forget, of course, that Herbert Hoover had only been president\neight months when the crash came. Now, I don't think that even a very\nenergetic president could achieve that kind of a cataclysm in just\neight months in office.\nThey forget also, however, that after more than six years of the\nNew Deal and all the nostrums that were applied to cure all of the\neconomic ills that nearly 25 percent of the nation's work force was\nunemployed. And only when we geared up for World War II did we achieve\nfull employment.\nFollowing that war, the unemployment rate began to creep up again.\nAnd then came the war in Korea, and again full employment. A Republican\npresident anded that one and presided over eight years of peace and a\nstable economy. It was the only breathing spell we have known when the\ndollar held its own in value.\nIn the Kennedy years, the unemployment rate was the same as it is\nnow, but curiously enough no one called it a recession or an emergency.\nThose were the happy times in Washington. In two years of frequent\npress conferences, not one journalist ever asked President Kennedy what\nhe was going to do about unemployment.\nFull employment came, once again, with war when we escalated the\nconflict that they had started in Vietnam up to its full height. In\n1968 when the guns and butter policy loosened runaway inflation, the\nDemocratic administration sought a plan to control it.\nBut they never implemented their plan because they found that any\nplan that would curb inflation had no way of dampening the inflationar\nfires without cooling the economy and accepting a measure of unemployment.\nThe Democratic leadership, backed by the hierarchy of organized\nlabor, did not have the guts to head off the collapse they knew was\ncoming. They just hoped they could hang on and not be around when it\nhappened.\n- 8 -\nRSCC\nSo the war went on the war that they wouldn't win and they\ncouldn't end. A Republican President is ending that war and he is\naccepting the blame for a temporary economic dislocation that accompanies\na transition to a peacetime economy while at the same time reducing the\ncostly inflation.\nYes, we have unemployment and an economic slump.\nBut young Americans are not dying at a rate of 300 a week, and the\ninflation rate has dropped. If we continue the gains of the first\nquarter of this year, it will drop again.\nThere have been other charges to refute, other myths that must be\nrefuted by Republicans if we are to be successful, Let those in our\nminority communities who continue to vote almost automatically for the\nDemocratic ticket ask themselves and ask those enlightened members of\nthe minority communities who have come over to the Republican Party why,\nafter all the decades of rhetoric that they have heard about help for\ntheir problems under Democratic administrations, now, after less than\nthree years of a Republican administration, six times as many minority\nchildren are attending integrated schools in the South than were\nattending them just two and one half years ago.\nTen times as much money is being loaned through the Small Business\nAdministration to encourage businesses in the minority communities than\nwas going there in spite of all the language of two and one half years\nago.\nHere in California, the number of minority employees named to\nexecutive and policy-making positions in this administration is greater\nthan all the previous administrations in California's history put together\nAnd then, as we debunk the mythology, above all let us give our\nyoung people a perspective of history they apparently don't have. Polls\nshow that the young people prefer the Democratic Party. It is hard to\nexplain how a generation that seemingly wants more freedom, wants\ngovernment smaller and more responsive to the people, a government or\nsociety less materialistic, can repudiate the Republican Party, indeed,\nautomatically assign the blame for big, impersonal, imperialistic\n/at\ngovernment to our party. I think we tend to forget that age 18 and 19\nit was only such a very short period of time, three or four years back\nthat today's young people had no interest or concern in the social\nstructure or things of government. And so to them the Establishment\nand therefore those who must be responsible for all the things they\ncomplain about are those they see now in positions of power\nRepublican president, a Republican governor if you will.\n- 9 -\nRSCC\nGovernment is too big, too centralized. And certainly a government\nthat thinks of meeting the needs of the less fortunate while denying\nthem hope for the future disregarding the fact that human beings have\nspiritual needs is materialistic. But who is to blame for this and\nhow did it come about?\nRepublicans have only occupied the White House 13 of the last 39\nyears, and for only one two-year term in those 13 did a Republican\npresident have a Republican Congress. For 37 of the last 39 years, the\nDemocrats have been in charge, and during these years they built a\ngigantic bureaucracy.\nDid you hear about the Bureau of Indian Affairs, that vast expanse\nof desks with everyone at a desk? A fellow over in the corner at his\ndesk was sobbing, his head down in his arms, as if his heart would break.\nThey finally went over to him and said, \"What's happened; what's wrong?\"\nand he said, \"My Indian died.\"\nIn these 37 years they have been in charge, they set out to save\nthe family farmer, and there are only now about half as many family\nfarmers as when they started saving them.\nThey were going to build 26 million low-cost public housing units\nfor the poor and after 20 years they have managed to reduce by 200,00t\nthe ones we already had.\nThey tried to help the wheat farmers and wound up cutting the price\nof wheat in half and doubling the price of bread.\nSix of the Senators who would be President have, in the halls of\nCongress, introduced between them $143 billion in new spending measures.\nOne, the young Senator from Massachusetts, is going to guard our\nhealth from the cradle to the grave. He has a proposal that he says is\nabsolutely necessary, but I don't think we can afford $77 billion worth\nof Teddy-Care.\nWe have less campaigning to do and more teaching of economics and\nhistory to do. And if we do this we will find that there are millions\nof patriotic Democrats as well as our young people people who had been\ntrue to the party of Jefferson and Jackson but who are now taking a second\nlook at Muskie and Company who have decided they would be more at home\nwith the elephant than they would with the donkey that has now been made\ninto a plain jackass by the present leadership of that party.\n- 10 -\nRSCC\nTo do this, of course, we have got to be a little bit up on our\nfacts and our history, too. Right now there are a great many Republicans\ndisturbed at some of the things that they think may be happening or\nthat they don't understand.\nParticularly, and more lately, many Republicans are disturbed by\nthe President's announcement that he is going to visit Red China.\nAnd many Republicans have said, why, if Hubert Humphrey had been\nelected, and had made this announcement, we would be rising up in a\nstorm of opposition.\nWell, of course we would, and why not?\nWe have lived through a period when we saw a Democratic president\nbring back the bitter fruit of appeasement from Yalta and Potsdam. We\nhave seen a Democratic president snatch defeat from the jaws of victory\nin Korea. We have seen a Democratic president march up to the barricades\nin the Cuban missile crisis and then lack the will or the intelligence\nto take the last step to victory there.\nA Democratic president disgraced us at the Bay of Pigs, and\nDemocratic presidents lacked the will and the wisdom to exact a victory\nas a price for the young Americans who died in Vietnam.\nBut this is a Republican president. This is a Republican president\nwho has said only \"I will go and talk. I have no intention of abandoning\nold friends or allies. I will go and talk to the man.\"\nAnd this is a Republican President, who, when he was a vice president\nmet another dictator, the dictator of the Russians in a kitchen in\nMoscow, listened to his blustering threats against the United States, and\nthen said, \"Try it and we'll kick hell out of you.'\nUntil he gives some hint that he has undergone a massive change of\npersonality, which I doubt, I think he deserves our confidence, our\nprayers and our best wishes.\nI have talked of concrete things in this crusade that will begin in\nthe coming year, but may I suggest that the political activists,\nparticularly, pause in their activities to listen\nlisten to what the\npeople of this great nation are really saying--not what they say in so\nmany words to the inquiring reporter or the answer they give to a\nprofessional poll taker.\nWhat they seem to be saying in some kind of a murmur is the sound\nof restlessness that accounts for so many unexplainable election results.\nSometimes you must listen to the silence because it is more eloquent\nthan words.\n11 1 I\nRSCC\nBut we haven't found words yet to express our dreams, our hopes\nand our fears. Nor can these people in America always articulate the\npurposes that they would have government pursue, or their opposition\nto the things that government provides for them.\nThe polls tell us a variety of things but it usually depends upon\nwhen the poll is taken. Smog is the number one issue in a certain week\nwhen the air inversion results in several consecutive days of bad air.\nA few days of bickering over the budget and taxes become a number one\nconcern. Both are pushed out of the ratings if there is a trial or a\nparticularly brutal crime that makes the front page pocketbook issues,\njobs and inflation are in and out of the top spot, depending on when the\npolls are taken.\nCould it be that the problems of America are the problems of the\nspirit, that the people in this land want to believe once again in their\ncountry, their leaders and themselves?\nWhen have we heard the voices raised extolling the virtues of simple\nmanliness and love of country? If these attributes are dead in our land\nthey are not suicides; they were murdered murdered by cynics who\nstop at nothing enforcing their own purposes on their fellow men. We\nhave been told that ours is a sick society.\nBut America used its power wisely and with restraint, not for\nconquest, but to protect and preserve freedom. It was because we heeded\nthe biblical injunction that it is better to give than to receive that we\ngenerously allowed our own economic trade base to erode while we shared\nfreely our markets and our technical expertise.\nNow we find we must do more to insure our own prosperity if we are\ngoing to work for a generation of peace and peaceful prosperity.\nIt is a goal that is worthy of the best from every American. It is\na call for us to fulfill another part of America's splendid destiny.\nJust as we led the world to victory in a time of war, we can lead\nthe way to peace, the peace which we have sought for so long and for which\nwe have already paid such an awesome price.\nAgain, I would say to our young people, with their idealism today,\nto take a very definite look. I know that it is intriguing to many of\nthem to say I am going to stand aloof and be independent. that I'm going\nto choose the man and not the party.\n- 12 -\nRSCC\nBut that ignores the reality of party discipline, it ignores the\nfact that there are two basic philosophies at odds here between these\ntwo parties.\nIt is time for them to link up their ideals with the party they\nthink will advance those ideals best.\nIf they believe those who tell them we are aggressive and\nimperialistic, I would have one simple question. If that is true, when\nWorld War II ended we had the greatest military force that the world had\never known--our country was the only country that was not desolated by\nthe war, our production facilities not bombed out, and we had the bomb\nand no one else had it---then let them ask themselves if it had been\nreversed and the Soviet Union had had that power, would there be a free\nworld today.\nWe are not surrounded by a ring of satellite nations. We have built\nno barbed wires and no walls to keep our people in. We think that our\ncause is just. And I think that if we pursue the educational program\nthat we should pursue, many young people will take a second look.\nAll we have to do is show them the way\nshow them that we believe\nin an America in which men can stand proud among their peers, but humble\nin the presence of God.\n#######\n(NOTE: Since Governor Reagan speaks from notes, there may be changes in,\nor additions to, the above quotes. However, the governor will\nstand by the above quotes.)\n- 13 -\n9/01\nOFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR\nRELEASE: TUESDAY P.Ms.\nSacramento, California\nOctober 5, 1971\nContact:\nPaul Beck\n445-4571\n10-4-71\nPLEASE GUARD AGAINST PREMATURE\nRELEASE.\nSpeach is identical\nto concelled Internt'l.\nAssn. of Police\nEXCERPTS OF REMARKS BY GOVERNOR RONALD REAGAN\nChiets 9-27-71.\nCALIFORNIA REAL ESTATE ASSOCIATION CONVENTION\nLos Angeles, California\nOctober 5, 1971\nThere is one subject that is probably more crucial now than any\nother. It has a direct impact on you on your community on every\nAmerican who values the civilization we have built over these past two\nhundred years.\nI am referring, of course, to the problems of crime not just the\nburglar and the robber but revolutionary crime the calculated\ninstigation of disorder in our society by violent revolutionaries.\nLast week, I had planned to discuss the challenge this poses to\nsociety at the International Chiefs of Police Convention in Anaheim. The\ntax discussions in Sacramento prevented me from attending that meeting.\nAnd so, with your permission, I would like to share those thoughts\nwith you here today.\nOur law enforcement officers deserve the gratitude and respect of\ndecent men and women everywhere because it is on their efforts to\nuphold the principle of law that our civilization may depend for its\nvery survival.\nAll of the patience, all the compassion and understanding of which\ncivilized men and women are capable is being challenged and tested in a\ncrucible of mindless violence.\nThe tragedy of Attica's prison riot is but the latest example of\nwhat can only be described as a guerrilla war against our society. Our\nlaw enforcement officers are society's first line of defense in this\nseemingly endless struggle.\nThey are the point men in a prolonged battle against a cowardly\narray of enemies who strike from ambush who seek to incitehatred and\nsuspicion and who try to portray as folk heroes the terrorist bomb-\nthrower who kills at random, the arsonist and the assassin.\nEvery person who values human life can only regret the loss of 42\nhuman lives at Attica, especially because it stems from senseless\nsavagery. But we grieve most for the brave correctional officers whose\nlives were sacrificed.\n- 1 -\nPolice Chiefs Convention\nIt is an outrageous distortion of values that some now question the\nnecessity and even the morality of those who had the courage to act\ndecisively. The violence at Attica was triggered by an outlaw group\nwhose very presence in a prison was because of past violent crimes.\nThese self-proclaimed revolutionaries set out deliberately to kidnap and\nmurder and then tried to legitimize their lawlessness in a cloak of\nsociological and revolutionary rhetoric.\nEvery official who has any degree of responsibility for protecting\nsociety against criminal brutality knows the agony of decision in\nconfrontations where the innocent are involved.\nEvery time there is a kidnapping, every time there is a riot and it\nbecomes necessary to use force to restore order, decisions must be made\nthat involve risk to hostages or to the innocent who may be caught in\nthe crossfire of a confrontation. But there is a far greater degree of\nrisk to life and public safety in surrendering to the violent law-breakers\nThe decision to stand up to lawlessness is a final choice that has to be\nmade sooner or later, if society is to retain an effective capacity to\nprotect the public.\nThere can be no compromise with those who hold so little regard for\n(\nhuman life that they would maim or kill unarmed captives. Society canno\nnegotiate with the lawless.\nA criminal holding a knife at the throat of an unarmed captive is\nnot an ambassador with diplomatic immunity. He is a potential murderer.\nAnd any attempt to suggest otherwise can only encourage these\noutcasts to try again and again to force society to accept the law of\nthe jungle.\nAlthough the casualty list may have been smaller, the challenge to\nlaw at Attica has its counterparts elsewhere, at San Quentin\nin prisons\nthroughout the country\nin assaults upon police that occur almost daily\nin every act of violence directed against society and those whose\nprofessional duty is to protect society.\nIn a single week last month, there were half a dozen major\nconfrontations.\nIn New Jersey, a wave of terrorist firebombings, sniping and looting\ninjured six persons. Firemen responding to fires during this outbreak\nwere pelted with rocks by the militants.\nIn New York, hundreds of demonstrators hurled rocks and bottles at\npolicemen and passing cars.\n- 2 -\nPolice Chiefs Convention\nInmates of a federal correctional institution in Florida created a\ndisruption that lasted six hours. When it was over, guards confiscated\nhalf a dozen knives and assorted clubs made from broken broom and mop\nhandles.\nIn our own state, six persons died in an attempted breakout at San\nQuentin, including three guards who had been held as hostages and two\ninmates who refused to join the escape attempt.\nI am sure you have heard of that well-publicized event.\nBut perhaps you did not hear what occurred four days later. A group\nof demonstrators gathered outside the prison walls---not to mourn the\ninnocent dead or to express outrage at brutality of the lawlessness that\nhad taken place. No, these demonstrators gathered to express support for\nthe goals of the slain convict whose attempted escape set in motion the\ntragic events that led to the butchery.\nWhenever a policeman is killed, we never hear any words of remorse\nfrom the avowed revolutionaries, no tears for the slain upholders of the\nlaw.\nInstead, there are insults, invective and often threats of further\nviolence. If this were confined merely to the small group of avowed\nfanatics who glorify violence, it would be disturbing enough. But some\nprominent figures in the news media and others who should know better\njoined the chorus of radicals and suggested that the San Quentin tragedy\nwas not only the result of the activities of a violent few, but could\nsomehow also be blamed on society's imperfections\non sociological\nproblems that afflict our country\ncn the victims themselves\non\nanything but individual criminal action.\nHow far have we departed from the concept of individual account-\nability? From the teachings and legal code of every civilization that\nthe individual is responsible for his own acts and should be accountable\nunder the law? That concept is the foundation of our system of justice.\nBut we live in a strange time. Those who sin seek to shift their\nown burden of guilt to someone else, to society at large. Any excuse will\ndo to escape the consequences of their own violent acts.\nIf carried to the obvious extreme, that philosophy of permissiveness\nwould destroy not only respect for law, but the ability of a society to\nestablish and enforce the civilized code of conduct that forbids a man\nfrom killing or harming his neighbor.\n- 3 -\nPolice Chiefs Convention\nThose who preach hatred and contempt for the moral values of our\nsociety have tried to spread a virus of violence in our country and in\nother nations around the world.\nIn the decade of the 1960s, ricting and violent upheavals became a\nworld-wide phenomenon, a problem for law enforcement in Japan, in\nEurope and in our own country.\nAttacks upon those who uphold the law have always been with us. B\nnever before in such magnitude. Even in Britain, with a long and\nadmirable tradition of non-violence, unarmed policemen have now become\nthe targets of criminals who carry and use destructive weapons in their\ncrimes and in their efforts to escape the consequences of those crimes.\nThe ideological effort to capture and subvert peace-loving societies\ninto class and racial conflict has been going on during most of our\nlifetimes.\nThose who try to exploit racial tension, to incite class warfare\nhave tried for a generation to enlist the working men and women of the\nworld to their cause. They failed.\nTerrorism did not become popular. The working men and women of the\nworld showed a commendable capacity for separating fact from fiction.\nThey knew that when bloody revolutionaries prevail, in societies where\nthe slogan \"Up Against the Wall\" is substituted for due process of law,\nthere has been an inevitable loss of liberty and the human values we all\ncherish.\nThrough propaganda and by teaching a distorted view of history and\nsocial conflicts, the revolutionary movement and its apologists sought\nto capture a whole generation in our colleges and universities. For a\ntime, it appeared they were succeeding too well. But when rhetoric turne\nto violence, when verbal threats escalated into arson, bombings and death\nfor innocent bystanders, the inate decency of our youth caused them to\nturn against terrorism. The tide of rebellion appears to be subsiding.\nNow, they are attempting to find a receptive following inside our\nprisons---among those who have by their own individual violent acts\nplaced themselves outside the law.\nSuddenly, the lawless element that exists in all societies has becom\na target of agitation and propaganda. Criminals who have been judged\nguilty of one misdeed seek to mitigate the enormity of their crimGs by\nbecoming advocates of a political cause. They are eager to shed the robe.\nof social outcasts. They prefer the more sympathetic role of political\nmartyr\nto be a victim rather than the villain, no matter how\npreposterous the portrayal.\n& I ,\nPolice Chiefs Convention\nBut their so-called revolution lacks the noble motives of political\nupheavals of the past. Their cause is not legitimate redress of\ngrievances. Their's is a brutal call to terrorism, violence and even\nmurder.\nAnd incredibly enough, they have discovered they have sympathizers\non the outside. This too, is a part of the bitter harvest of\npermissiveness. Fanatics who advocate blowing up a school would never\nhope to elicit any sympathy when judged by those acts alone. But if it\nis done in the name of a political cause, society suddenly finds that\nthere are those who are quite ready to excuse almost any kind of\nextremist conduct.\nFor some, we have to hope, trying to explain or justify violent acts\nstems from misguided compassion\nfrom the false philosophy of\npermissiveness that can find no individual guilt even in the most\nhorrible crime.\nFor others, the motive is simpler. They openly encourage every type\nof protest and violence in a frank hope that it will help tear down and\nultimately destroy our society.\nIt really doesn't matter what the motivation is. The result is the\nsame: it creates among the fanatic few the false idea that they might\nbreak the law with impunity, if they shout enough political slogans.\nThe suggestion that an individual may violate the law and get away\nwith it is a seed that is sown early. It starts the first time a child\nis allowed to break a window and escape the consequences of his vandalism\nIt carries over into the schoolroom and is compounded every time a\nchild finds that he can mock his teacher and not worry about staying\nafter school.\nIt reaches into the very citadels of justice when the legal skills\nof those sworn to uphold the law are used not to assure a fair application\nof the law, but to thwart it.\nWe have been told by the sociologists that poverty spawns crime.\nYet in Seattle, when the unemployment rate went up to 15 percent, the\ncrime rate went down 15 percent.\nEconomic stresses do not lead inevitably to criminal activity. When\ndepression gripped the world 30 years ago, crime rates were only a\nfraction of what we have in today's affluent society.\nSociological problems cannot justify crime. And the blame for mass\nviolence today cannot be shifted to the victims of that violence, or to\nthe society in which it occurs.\nPolice Chiefs Convention\nYet so-called revolutionary crime is possibly the single most\ndifficult problem for law enforcement today. Ironically, it comes at a\ntime when we appear to be making some progress in combating the more\ntraditional types of crime.\nDuring the first quarter of this year, the national crime rate slowed\nto less than half of last year's rate.\nThe attorney general reports that in 60 major cities with popula. on\nover 100,000 the crime rate actually decreased in the first quarter this\nyear.\nIn our own State of California, the rate of increase for the seven\nmajor felonies has been cut in half. We feel at least part of that\nslowdown is due to some of the stricter laws that have been enacted in\nrecent years,\nWe increased penalties for rape, robbery and burglary and toughened\nthe penalties for the use of firearms in the commission of a crime.\nWe passed the first anti-smut laws in eight years, cracked down on\ndrug abuse with tighter laws and with an educational campaign to acqueint\nour youth with the dangers of drug abuse. In all, more than 40 different\nlaws strengthening law enforcement have been enacted.\nBut we are not satisfied with merely slowing down the crime rate.\nOne murder or one mugging is one too many for a civilized society\nto endure.\nWe know we must do more. We must do more to strengthen law\nenforcement's ability not only to deal with orthodox criminals, but with\nthe self-proclaimed revolutionaries.\nWe must do more to protect the peace officers who risk their lives\nevery day and every night to protect society or to guard society's\nlaw-breakers.\nIn the past nine years, more than 100 police officers have been\nmurdered in the United States. When you count prison guards and other\npeace officers, the toll is even higher.\nThe policeman who wears a badge of authority has become a principa'\ncarget of the revolutionaries and many have died as a result of their\nviolence.\nWe are trying to do more in California. This year, I asked the state\nlegislature for three major new laws:\n--To make it a felony to specifically advocate killing or injuring\nlaw enforcement officers.\n- 6 -\nPolice Chiefs Convention\n--To increase the amount of reward we might offer for information\nleading to the arrest and conviction of persons killing or injuring\npolice officers; and\n--To make the killing of a peace officer while on duty first degree\nmurder.\nWe want all three of these measures enacted into law, but there is a\nspecial urgency for the bill which makes the killing of a peace officer\non duty mandatory first degree murder.\nIt has been eight months since we asked for these new laws and 15\nCalifornia peace officers have been killed so far this year\nnine\npolicemen and six correctional officers. How many more must die before\neveryone recognizes the urgency for more effective action against the\ncriminals who killed them?\nAttacks on policemen have become almost routine, if the repetition\nof lawlessness can ever be described by such a casual term. Sometimes\nyou must wonder whether people have seen or heard of so much violence that\nthey are becoming numb to threats, violent rhetoric and tragic death.\nThose who do not live with the daily tension, the prospect of instant\nleath, cannot really appreciate the full extent of the challenge that\nconfronts our law enforcement system. It becomes difficult for the\naverage citizen to keep everything in perspective.\nBut we must understand the policeman's plight and give him our full\nsupport.\nShakespeare spoke of the seven deadly sins. I suggest there is an\neighth sin perhans more deadly than all the other human imperfections.\nAnd that is sin of indifference indifference to the difficult task\nwe have sked our peace officers to perform.\nmney need our help. One of the policemen killed during the week of\nthe San Quentin violence was a San Francisco police sergeant, gunned down\nby a shotgun blast fired into a district station house.\nHe also was a victim of the revolutionary mentality.\nWe often see and hear the fanatic ravings of the revolutionaries and\ntheir sympathizers when they strut before the television cameras and try\nto justify, excuse or explain violence, especially when it involves a\npolice officer.\nBut rarely do we really get to know in full measure the courage and\ndedication of the victims of the bombings and the shootings.\n- 7 -\nPolice Chiefs Convention\nAnd yet, we must know the kind of men who are being sacrificed\nbecause only then can we truly appreciate the courageous and lonely\nbattle they are waging on our behalf,\nThe policeman killed in San Francisco was not an anonymous figure\na line on some casualty list remote from the reality of our own daily\nlives. His name was Sergeant John Young. He was 51 years old, a deeply\nreligious man who lived and died for his fellow man. Although he and h\nwife had no children, Sergeant Young spent many years working with\nhomeless young people and on behalf of church charities and civic\nactivities.\nThat is not the image the revolutionaries seek to construct of all\npolice officers, the tough law man insensitive to social\nor\nto the disadvantaged. It is the image of a kindly man who happened to\na police officer. And Sergeant Young was a kindly man, a man who respect\nthe law and sought to instill respect for justice in the young people he\ncounseled.\nHow should his colleagues, how should all civilized men everywhere,\naccept the loss, the tragedy of his sacrifice?\nDifficult though it is, we cannot be swept up with reckless anger.\nInstead, we should heed the counsel of the police chaplain who delivere\nSergeant Young's eulogy.\nHe said: \"Let the so-called 'revolutionaries' scream invectives and\npromise 'to slit the throats of any who stand in their way'.\" We must\nnot be caught in the trap of vengeance.\n\"Cowards killed this man of compassion, but we will not allow them\nto strangle the compassion and sense of justice which he left us as his\nlegacy.' Vie will not allow their cowardice to sully our courage. We will\nnot allow their insanity to warp our judgment. We will not allow their\ncruelty to wither our kindness,\n\"But neither will we sit meekly by and watch these psuedo-\nrvolutionaries who represent no community but the community of their own\nindolence, violence and cowardice. They claim to be revolutionaries;\nyow they will overthrow the government.\n\"Brave talk for people who break the arm that holds the scales of\njustice and then hide behind her shirts when held accountable.\"\n- 8 -\nPolice Chiefs Convention\nSergeant Young gave his life upholding the principle of law\nto preserve our system of justice as a shield, to protect the weak and\nthe innocent against brutality and cowardice. Greater love hath no man.\nHowever slowly the wheels of justice turn, we must carry on his struggle\nagainst the lawless. But we must never forget his sacrifice. And we\nmust never allow the forces who caused his death to prevail.\nWhether the threat to life and liberty comes from a totalitarian\narmy or a gang of street criminals, there is only one sure way for peace-\nloving men to avoid a showdown with those bent on violence. And that is\nto surrender to their demands, to accept intimidation, violence, the law\nof the jungle. This we cannot do.\nIf civilization is to survive, we can never buy peace through\nappeasement. It is a price too great for society to consider. It is a\nprice we dare not pay. It is a price we will not pay.\n######\n(NOTE: Since Governor Reagan speaks from notes, there may be changes\nin, or additions to, the above quotes. However, the governor\nwill stand by the above quotes. )\n- 9 -\n41\n4/01\n101\n%\nyou\nand\n(7)\nOFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR\nRELEASE:\nT\nRSDAY P.Ms.\nSacramento, Califor à\ncober 7, 1971\nContact:\nPaul Beck\n445-4571\n10-6-71\nPLEASE GUARD AGAINST PREMATURE\nRELEASE.\nEXCERPTS OF REMARKS BY GOVERNOR RONALD REAGAN\nA.D. Edmonston Pumping Plant\nCalifornia Water Project\nThursday, October 7, 1971\nYou and I have the rare privilege of taking part today in a\nmilestone event in the history of our state. When the first pump of this\nA.D. Edmonston Pumping Plant begins moving water across the Tehachapi\nMountains to Southern California, it will mark an engineering achievement\nnever before attempted on such a grand scale.\nFor the first time in the history of California, this state will be\nunited north and south with a water transportation system that truly\ndistributes one of the state's most important resources to all areas of\nCalifornia and to all of the people who live here.\nWe are one state and one people. We have separated ourselves too\nlong on the basis of a post office address. We are Californians.\nConquering the traditional geographic barrier of the Tehachapi Mountains\nthrough the sharing of our water resources may be the first effective step\nin erasing our Mason-Dixon line. The water that flows through this site\nay bring us together in harmony.\nThe pumping plant we are dedicating today is a major phase of the\nCalifornia State Water Project and a vital link in the largest and most\ncomplicated engineering feat of our time. It in an achievement that\nepitomizes the kind of creative vision that made California the most\nproductive agricultural area in the nation and the fountainhead for the\nmost sophisticated technical society in the world.\nSome of man's greatest triumphs have been realized over the\nopposition, even the ridicule of those who are afraid to look beyond the\nnearest horizon; who do not dare to dream great dreams; and who find\nsatisfaction only in the known, the status quo.\nCalifornia was built by the dreamers of the past and it will go\nforward on the imagination of today and tomorrow. But only if we realize\nthat the short-sighted view of man's capabilities is not a phenomenon that\nbelongs to the Middle Ages. Some of that same short-sightedness is still\nwith us today in the doom-criers and the nay-sayers who are just as vocal\nand just as lacking in vision as they were hundreds of years ago.\n- 1 -\nPumping Plant\nLike every vast and bold accomplishment, the California State Water\nProject has been an object of controversy and dispute. It has also been\nan object of great accomplishment and it has probably been subjected to\nmore audits, more legislative investigations, and more public debates\nthan anything ever built by man.\nIt is too bad and a little ridiculous that some of the recent\nopposition has been linked to the legitimate desire of all of us to\nprotect and preserve the magic of California. One of the major benefits\nof the water project has been the protection and the enhancement of man's\nenvironment whenever and wherever possible. I know this to be true\nbecause one of my first moves upon assuming office was a task force to\nre-evaluate the effect of the project on the California environment.\nThe project is an excellent example of California's pioneering\nefforts to improve the quality of the life of her citizens and to insure\ntheir prosperity. In this respect, California has also been a national\nleader in halting the destructive practices which destroy or unreasonably\nalter the ecology. We have taken strong, effective action to control and\nultimately to permanently stop, the threat of pollution wherever it\noccurs.\nMan himself is the most guilty offender in the pollution of his ai\nand his water, and it is both unfair and unwise to lay the burden of\nguilt upon any public works project for which man has created a demand.\nA New Mexico newspaper publisher has written a succinct paragraph which\nif followed would do more for environment than all the proposed programs\nand government agencies combined. He has written a pledge for each one\nof us: \"I will not desecrate the landscape. In all my activities I will\never be mindful of my stewardship of the land. I will keep my private\nproperty in a neat and orderly appearance. I will respect the private\nproperty of others. I will not damage my interest in public property\nthrough acts of vandalism, carelessness, or neglect.\"\nWe have a commitment to protect the environment and we are going to\nkeep that commitment. Our actions have shown the seriousness of our\nconvictions. California has enacted, and is enforcing, the stiffest\nwater quality control laws in the nation. Every one of our major public\nworks projects from water, to highways, to power plants must pass\nstrong environmental ocean standards. We have adopted legislation to guard\nagainst, 011 spills and oil well leaks from the ocean floor. We have\nestablished a California Ecology Corps which serves a double purpose. It\nprovides a new and creative source of manpower to work in our forests and\nmountain areas, to fight destructive fires and to undertake other tasks\nthat will enhance and protect the environment. And, it gives the\nvolunteer conscientious objectors a constructive alternative to their\nmilitary draft obligation.\n- 2 -\nNo, we are not bohnny-come-latelys in environmental protection.\nOur legitimate cause is the preservation of an ecological balance which\nis necessary to avoid permanent environmental damage. But the sound of\nthis effort is too often drowned cut by the critics and the voices of\ndoom who are, at best, guilty of misguided overstatement and, at worst,\noutright exaggeration. As another journalist has written: \"There are\nthree kinds of pollution---actual, political and hysterical.\" Hysterical\npollution leads to political pollution and does nothing at all for actual\npollution.\nThere are no valid arguments to justify halting or delaying the\nState Water Project. Abandoning this project would, in fact, create a\nfinancial catastrophe for the State of California. The costs of the water\nstorage, power production and water supply features of the project, as\npresently designed and operating, are paid for by the water and power\nusers who benefit from the project not by the general taxpayer.\nIf the project were to be halted, at this point in time and for any\nreason, the repayment of $1.75 billion in general obligation bonds, with\ninterest over a 75-year period, would become the obligation of the state\nand would have to come from the General Fund rather than from the project\nusers. And the full faith and credit of the State of California would\nsuffer so badly in the world financial market that every other financing\nprogram within this state would be affected.\nThis project is not a boondoggle foisted upon an unknowing public,\nas strangers to our state have most recently tried to make us believe.\nThis project has been tested and retested by the most democratic process\nof all the vote of the people.\nThe people of California originally approved and authorized the\nproject by a majority vote at a general election. They ratified that\ndecision again last year through the approval of Proposition 7 and again\nthe same year with Proposition 20, which provided a $60 million bond\nissue for the State Departments of Parks and Recreation and Fish and Game\nto use in constructing onshore recreational facilities at State Water\nProject reservoirs.\nOur people know today, that a beneficial distribution of natural\nwater supplies is the most effective way of assuring the prosperity and\nthe quality of life for the next generation of Californians.\n- 3 -\nPumping Plant\nBut that legitimate, desirable, and necessary public priority has\nsometimes been obscured by the false charges and overstatements of certain\nwould-be protectors of the public good who do not live in California and\nwho do not vote in California yet, who feel no qualms in arrogantly\nsuggesting that their judgment be substituted for the judgment of a\nmajority of the people who do live and vote in California and who know\nhow important the State Water Project is to the present and future\nprosperity of this state.\nI would like to express myself on some of the criticism that has\nbeen directed not only toward the whole idea of the State Water Project,\nbut at those who have the responsibility for making it work.\nI appointed Bill Gianelli, Director of Water Resources, virtually\nthe same day I took office. He has met more dragons than I knew existed.\nAnd, he has conquered every one of them. He has kept the project on\nschedule and within the financial limitations which have threatened it\nevery step of the way. Today, as the first water goes across these\nmountains into Southern California, the 1973 facilities of the State Wate\nProject are 99 percent complete or under construction. When the names\nof those back through the years who had a major role in this great\nundertaking are listed, none should be in bolder type than Bill Gianel\nWe are fortunate to have him directing the greatest engineering achieve-\nment in our state's history.\nWhen our administration arrived in Sacramento in 1967, the State\nWater Project was well underway, but its financial integrity was in\nconsiderable doubt. That led to my second task force. A group of\nbusiness leaders to investigate and determine the exact fiscal situation.\nThey found that if the project continued on course it would be $300\nmillion in the hole by 1972 and an astounding $600 million by 1980.\nWe took immediate steps to bring these deficiencies out in the open\nand to rectify them wherever possible. Some facilities of the project\nwere deferred until a later date, additional financing was obtained throw\nlegislative appropriation of additional tideland funds and through\nelimination of the offset provisions of the bond act. Now, only months\naway from the completion date, and with $2 billion having been expended,\nthe financing necessary to carry us through to mid-1973 will be available\n- 4 -\nPumping Plant\nIn the financial climate which has existed in the United States\nsince 1967, we can consider this a major victory. Despite a 25 percent\nincrease in construction costs in just the last four years, we are very\nnear to coming out even. We are also hopeful that revenues generated\nthrough the sale of electric power at the project's Southern California\nfacilities will meet the remaining financial needs. This is a financial\nachievement matched only by the sheer magnitude of the project itself.\nA few minutes from now, when we give the command to \"Start the\nPump,\" a new age of California's development will begin. We will be\nputting into operation the largest pump in the United States and the only\none of its kind that has ever been installed in this country. Standing\nsix stories high and weighing 430 tons it still is engineered to two\nthousandths of an inch accuracy. And it is the first of 14 pumps.\nThe pump and motor that will start here will push water from\nNorthern California almost 2,000 feet up the face of these mountains and\non an ll-mile journey through the mountains into Southern California.\nThe A.D. Edmonston Pumping Plant is the only pumping plant of its\ntype that has ever been built anywhere in the world.\nWhen completed, its pumps will lift more water a higher distance\nthan has ever before been attempted by man---120 million gallons per\nhour, more than 450 miles from the mountains of Northern California,\nthrough the California Aqueduct and up the sheer rock face of these\nsouthern mountains.\nUltimately, the project will be delivering more than four million\nacre-feet of water a year to all areas of California north, central\nand south. It is designed to assist in meeting the state's water needs\nthrough the turn of the century, but water supply is only one of its\nmany benefits. The State Water Project provides flood control in the\nnorth, irrigation water in the Central Valley, and, in the south, much-\nneeded fresh water recreation areas. All along the route it will be a\nsignificant source of smog-free electrical power to light the homes and\nfuel the industries which employ our people. The revenues from the sale\nof this power are earmarked to help pay for the construction of the\nproject.\nThe lakes and other water recreation areas developed through the\nState Water Project have been in operation in Northern and Central\nCalifornia for many years now. Within the next 18 months, project lakes\nwill be opening in Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside Counties.\nThese are state-produced recreation facilities being brought directly into\nthe areas of use where they will be readily available to the largest\nsegment of our population, available to the user at a small cost and a\nshort travel distance.\n- 5 -\nPumping Plant\nIt is a tribute to the foresight of the people of California that\nthey had the vision and the daring to undertake a project of this\nmagnitude. But the people of California have always had that pioneering\nspirit that made them do a little more, a little better. Guided by a\nfaith in God and in themselves, the first Californians crossed the\nmountains and made the deserts bloom. And, from that day to this,\nirrigated agriculture has made us great and provided the firm foundatic\nof our economy and our lives.\nWe only have about 3 percent of the nation's farm units. Yet we\nproduce nearly one quarter of the nation's table food and we account for\nabout 10 percent of all farm income.\nNearly three of every ten Californians who are employed derive their\nlivelihood from agriculture or agricultural-related businesses. And\ntheir employment in turn generates other jobs throughout our diversified\neconomy.\nWater development made all this possible, just as it helped turn\nSouthern California into an oasis where other industries could flourish\nand grow and provide jobs for our people and the technical capacity to\nbuild exotic new products and whole new industries.\nCalling a halt to water development in this state would not protect\nour environment. The cause of conservation is not served by watching\ncrops wither and die, or by allowing the fertile soil of California to\ndry up and blow away.\nTurning off the water faucet to the richest agricultural regions in\nthe world would not improve the environment. Putting an embargo on the\nconstruction of all dams might retain a more natural state, but it would\nalso threaten some of us with destructive floods.\nDescribing California's problem is easy. More than 70 percent of\nour natural water supplies are located in the northern part of the state,\nand 80 percent of our people live from Sacramento south.\nThe State Water Project will help assure a beneficial distribution\nof these waters; it will help correct nature's imbalanced blessings; it\nwill harness our natural resources for the good of everyone.\nMan himself is part of the natural ecological cycle and his survival\nhas been assured only because he has been able to harness the destructive\nelements of nature which have threatened his existence.\n- 6 -\nPumping Plant\nFloods, famine an.4 disease are part of the natural ecological cycle,\nbut so is man and man found he could not co-exist with destructive\nfloods. So he built dams to protect his homes, his farms, and his family.\nHe conquered the threat of mass starvation by turning to irrigation\nto become more efficient in producing food and fiber for himself and for\nexport to other areas where the hostile natural environment or lack of\ndevelopment prevented his neighbors from growing a sufficient variety\nof food.\nDiseases whose names we are fast forgetting once threatened the\nhuman species. They killed and crippled by the millions, and that, too\nwas once regarded as part of the natural ecological cycle.\nBut through the creative and compassionate genius of the species,\nman developed vaccines and sanitation standards to wipe out many of the\ndiseases that used to kill millions.\nWe cannot be deterred by those who consider this to be upsetting the\nnatural ecological cycle. We cannot and will not return to a dark age\nof ignorance, where death, destruction, poverty and famine were accepted\nas inevitable, or even natural.\nBack in the 1930s when I first came to California, America was\nwitnessing one of the saddest mass migrations in our history. Lack of\nwater and lack of the knowledge or capacity to wisely use water turned a\nhuge area of our country into a dust bowl. That was before most areas\nof our country had learned how to conserve the rich natural resources that\nexist in abundance, but are not always evenly distributed. It was before\nthe days of soil conservation and mass irrigation and it was a time of\ntragedy and human misery.\nMany of those migrant farmers who left a dying land came West, to\nCalifornia. Sharing the same vision as our first pioneers. They had the\nforesight to appreciate what the ordinary man can do if he has the courage\nto cry. They had the strength to see beyond the next mountain.\nThat is still true of the people of California. The project we are\ndedicating today is an enduring monument to man's stubborn, daring and\nburageous effort to tame the elements and create an environment in which\nhe can prosper and which can be a lasting legacy to his children's\nchildren.\n#####\n(NOTE: Since Governor Reagan speaks from notes, there may be changes in,\nor additions to, the above quotes, However, the governor will\nstand by the above quotes.)\n- 7 -\nNO\n/\nOFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR\nRELEASE: TUESDAY P.Ms.\nSacramento, California\nNovember 16, 1971\nContact:\nPaul Beck\n445-4571\n11-15-71\nPLEASE GUARD AGAINST PREMATURE\nRELEASE.\nEXCERPTS OF REMARKS BY GOVERNOR RONALD REAGAN\nAMERICAN PETROLEUM INSTITUTE\nSan Francisco, California\nNovember 16, 1971.\nIt seems only yesterday we were hearing a great hue and cry about a\nscheduled underground nuclear test on a remote Alaskan island.\nThere were dire predictions that great earthquakes and tidal waves\nwould create havoc as far away as Hawaii and Japan. One could not help\nbut think of those groups who on occasion take to a hilltop to await the\nend of the world. Only these latter day doomcriers are knowledgeable\nand seemingly responsible citizens who offered their dire predictions of\nan almost mortal blow against the environment without one shred of\nscientific evidence to prove their claims. The test went off on schedule\nwithout earthquake or tidal wave. Officials monitoring the scene have\nyet to detect any radiation in the atmosphere.\nBut there has been a strange silence from those who objected most\nvigorously and vociferously. I have yet to read or hear of any of them\nholding a press conference to announce that they were wrong, that it is\npossible for America without causing environmental ill-effects- to\ntest an anti-missile defense system that may someday prove crucial to\nthe nation's survival.\nIf we let our memory go back a little farther to a place called\nBikini when that was an island in the Pacific, not a mini size bathing\nsuit, we recall some genuinely alarmed citizens who thought that test\nwould blow a hole in the bottom of the ocean and let all the water drain\nout.\nThe recent Amchitka controversy is another example of something that\nmight be called the Doomsday syndrome so prevalent in our country in\nrecent years. There is of course a new awareness of nature and our\nresponsibility to preserve the beauty and the wonder of this spaceship\ncalled earth. I know few, if any, who don't feel this way.\nProtecting the environment now receives a high priority in almost\nevery industrial and individual activity, yet the Doomsday crowd is not\nsatisfied. Their exaggerations hurt the cause of the sincere and\ndedicated conservationists who have done on much to alert us to the need\nfor environmental safeguards.\n- 1 -\nAmerican Petroleum Institute\nTheir pervasive pessimism is anti-technology, anti-industry and\nincludes opposition to the defense program we must have to maintain the\nvery freedom that allows them to speak their minds and stage their\ndemonstrations. From all this has come a downgrading and even a reviling\nof the most prosperous and advanced society in the world.\nA free enterprise system that has given America the highest standard\nof living in the world is portrayed as a conspiracy against the poor.\nA technology that allows the average American to live better, longer\nand with more conveniences than the wealthiest monarch could afford 50\nyears ago, is denounced at worst as a tool of the so-called \"military-\nindustrial\" complex at best, as an evidence of our crass materialism.\nEnergy sources that fuel our homes, our transportation systems, the\nindustries employing our people, are attacked as massive threats to the\nenvironment.\nOur system of government is accused of repression, of denying either\neconomic or social equality to minorities and of not caring about\ninjustice or the poor and hungry.\nWe have always had prophets of doom and gloom with us. But their\nranks have proliferated.\nAnd because of television and other technological advances which some\nof them regard as socially menacing, they are able to spread their\npessimistic view of things to every corner of the globe.\nWe seem to live in an age of simplistic overstatement and false\npropaganda.\nWe used to have problems. Today, we have crises.\nWorry about over-population is twisted and projected into a threat\nof imminent mass starvation.\nEducation, the effort to end discrimination, our health needs, almost\nevery valid concern of a forward-looking and humanitarian society become\ncauses around which the Doomsday crowd rallies to spin their tale of\ncalamity.\nSomehow, they always seem to ignore the very real progress we have\nmade in meeting the needs of our people.\nYour industry has been plagued by the Doomsday syndrome as much or\nmore than most. Yet, those of you who produce the nation's oil and\npetroleum products share the determination of our people to end air and\nwater pollution and to stop destructive environmental practices.\n- 2 -\nAmerican Petroleum Institute\nOur own state has led the nation, indeed the world, in efforts to\nprotect the environment against everything from smog to offshore oil\nspills.\nWe have enacted and are enforcing the nation's strictest water and\nair pollution controls. And, we are convinced that industrial progress\ncan be made compatible with the necessary efforts to protect the\nenvironment. Petroleum is California's Number One mineral commodity.\nIts annual value of $1.2 billion exceeds the value of all other mineral\nproduction combined. More than 600,000 of California's 20 million people\nderive their livelihood directly from the petroleum industry.\nOil and petroleum products fuel the cars, trucks, tractors, buses\nand airplanes we use to ride to work, and produce our food. Oil products\nprovide part of the power for the industries which give employment to our\npeople and for the hospitals which heal them when they are sick.\nIt has been said that a modern economy literally runs on oil and\nCalifornia is no exception. Yet I am told that paying compliments to your\nindustry is not the smartest thing politically a fellow can do in today's\nclimate. As a matter of fact, you are almost aspicked on as actors used\nto be.\nWell, take heart---if worst comes to worst, you can always try\npolitics.\nCalifornia consumes about 1.4 billion barrels of oil every day. And\neven though we are the nation's third ranking oil producing state, we\nstill must import almost a third of the oil we use. This has created new\nenvironmental hazards.\nWith tankers having a capacity of more than two million barrels, the\nconsequences of an accidental oil spill must be contemplated, and steps\ntaken to provide the greatest possible degree of protection against\noffshore pollution.\nBut this does not mean a total moratorium on oil production or oil\ntanker traffic.\nTo provide and maintain the kind of environmental safeguards we must\nhave, your industry we know will display the kind of constructive attitude\nit has demonstrated during environmental problems of the past. Too often,\nyour costly and commendable efforts have been ignored by critics eager to\ncast the oil industry as the Number One environmental villain.\n- 3 -\nAmerican Petroleum Institute\nFollowing the off-shore oil blow-outs on federal leases off Southern\nCalifornia two years ago, the firms involved did not wait for government\norder. Without hesitation, they started to clean up the beaches at\nan\nestimated cost of $10 million.\nWhen our State Department of Fish and Game noted a loss of wildlife\nin oil sumps in the Southern San Joaquin Valley, the oil industry without\nany government coercion started a massive cleanup campaign. More than\n800 sumps have been filled or covered at a cost of about $750,000.\nWhen the U.S. Navy accidentally spilled 5,000 barrels of oil in a\nrefueling operation off Southern California this year, the industry sent\nadvisors to assist in the clean-up.\nYour response to the public demand for environmental safeguards has\nnot been limited to a reaction after the problem occurs.\nYou have invested millions of dollars for new and more effective\nequipment to control air and water pollution and to make refinery and\nother operations compatible with the natural environment.\nStandard Oil of California, headed by Chairman Otto Miller, has\nremoved more than 3,000 advertising billboards to help enhance and preserv\nthe scenic beauty of our rural landscapes in California. Other firms have\ntaken similar steps. Since the Doomsday myth-makers rarely mention this,\nI thought I would.\nBut you will be hearing from the experts about the problems affecting\nyour industry. I would like to spend a few moments examining a few widely\naccepted Doomsday myths to see how they stand up to a few facts.\nMaybe it is hard for us to recall some of our childhood fears and\nhow very real they were in the dark of night. I receive a great many\nletters from children sometimes from a whole class telling me of their\nbelief that unles someone does something they will die before they can\ngrow up because there will be no air---or the water will be poisoned.\nThey ask if it is true that all the trees will be gone in a few years.\nOne whole class was convinced we would be making plastic trees to replace\nour once great forests. The Doomsday myth-makers produce a peculiar smog\non their own.\nPopulation control is one of their popular causes. Zero population\ngrowth is the rallying cry. The spectre of mass starvation, of people\nstanding\nelbow-to-elbow\nis raised as the frightening prospect if we\ndo not take drastic steps to curb the birth rate. Some of the steps\nproposed involve a kind of regimentation Americans have always found\nunacceptable.\n- 4 -\nAmerican Petroleum Institute\nNever mind if the plain, unvarnished truth about our population\ngrowth makes their rhetoric sound a little melodramatic and downright\nsilly. Despite all the furor, the United State is not producing a\nbumper baby crop every year.\nIn fact, after reaching a peak of 3.8 children per average family\nin 1957, the birth rate in America has been declining steadily ever\nsince. It is now estimated at 2.3 children per family.\nBut things like excessive population growth and decline have a way\nof balancing themselves out to avoid the Doomsday predictions.\nActually, the United States still has a long way to go before it\neven approaches the population problems of other countries. There is\nstill plenty of wide open space in America.\nIf you put America's total population in the land area of only two\nstates\nCalifornia and Texas you would have a lower population density\nthan any country in Western Europe. And 48 empty states left over.\nA faster way to achieve the mass starvation the Doomsday prophets\nworry about might be to do one of the things they advocate abandon the\nuse of agricultural chemicals and pesticides. With all our vaunted\ntechnology the world is never more than 90 days away from starvation.\nWe cannot produce more than a 90-day supply.\nNow this does not mean that we should ignore potential problems of\nover-use of pesticides. As a matter of fact, California has been\nsteadily phasing out the use of DDT. The amount being used today is only\n2 percent of what it was just ten years ago.\nNow many prominent scientists are expressing alarm about what they\nfeel is a greatly exaggerated myth about the possible harmful effects of\nDDT. The other day, a Nobel Prize Winner (Dr. Norman E. Borlaug)\ndenounced those who cry wolf and predict doom for the world through\nchemical poisoning.\nDr. Borlaug is used to dealing with facts. And one of the facts he\npointed out was the remarkable safety record of DDT and its role in\ncontrolling malaria and increasing the world's foodsupply. DDT helped end\nthe threat of malaria for more than a billion of the world's people.\nWithout a wise use of pesticides, Dr. Borlaug estimated that crop losses\nin the United States would probably reach 50 percent and food prices\nwould go up four or five times what they are today.\n- 5 -\nAmerican Petroleum Institute\nOn another front, we are told that we have a sick society, riddled\nwith racism. Young whites raised in the most affluent society the world\nhas ever known rail against what they call materialism. But the\nestablishment they would tear down has conducted the most successful war\non poverty in man's history. Curiously enough, one of their complaints\nis a lack of affluence among our minorities. Their concern for others is\ncommendable but the facts present a different picture. There is no\nquestion but our minorities have some catching up to do but in the last\nquarter century that cathing up has been at an accelerated rate.\nIn 1970, the median family income in America was $9,870, an increase\nof almost 300 percent over 1950. Even discounting inflation, the average\nfamily had almost double the purchasing power last year than it did 20\nyears earlier.\nWith a smaller population, the United States sends three times as\nmany of its young people to college than all the countries of Western\nEurope put together.\nOne of the greatest humanitarian efforts in history has been our\neffort to ensure that our minority citizens share in this affluence.\nSince 1960, the number of Negro families earning more than $7,000 a year\nhas more than doubled. In a mere four years, the number of Negro citizens\nhired for professional jobs climbed35 percent.\nMore minority citizens are serving as judges, in Congress, in the\nstate legislatures and occupying important positions in our society than\nin all the Communist countries combined.\nThe average young Negro in America has a better chance of going to\ncollege than the average citizen of any color in Germany, Italy, Spain,\nBelgium or England. Indeed a higher percentage of our young Negro men\nand women go to college in America than the percentage of whites in any\nother country in the world.\nStill the Doomsday crowd talks about misplaced priorities and lack\nof progress in meeting social needs.\nA favorite target is the spending many of us think is necessary to\nmaintain our defensive forces. The complaining critics see each and every\ndollar as one that could better be invested in social welfare. Twenty\nyears ago, America devoted two-thirds of the federal budget for defense.\nToday, defense spending is down to a third and still they are not\nsatisfied.\n- 6 -\nAmerican Petroleum Institute\nIt is true that defense spending between 1952 and the 1972 budget\nincreased 66 percent. But spending for education, welfare and health\nincreased 1, 346 percent.\nRight now, health is an issue much in the news. And the doom\npeddlers would have us believe we face a crisis as dangerous as the\nplague.\nOne young Senator is proposing a nationalized medicine program at a\nmere $77 billion figure. By any standard of measurement you want to use,\nmedicine as practiced in the United States is the best in the world.\nYes, we need more physicians, but we have been doing something\nabout it.\nTen years ago, we had 86 medical schools with an enrollment of a\nlittle over 31,000. Today, we have 108 medical schools with more than\n43,000, and another 20 schools are in various stages of planning.\nIn 1960, the United States had one physician for every 712 Americans\nToday, we have one for every 632.\nOne of the chief problems is that of distributing available health\nmanpower. The doctors are not spread around on an even basis. Some rural\nstates may have only one physician for every 1,000 or 1,200 people. Some\ncities have one for every 350.\nAgain we can say the health profession is conscious of this. A\nnumber of programs are underway to encourage doctors to locate in areas\nwhere the need is greatest. Medical student scholarships are offered by\nfoundations and even some small towns to pay part of a student's medical\ntraining expenses in return for a commitment from him to practice in a\ntown which needs a physician.\nWhile some of the socially conscious talk hunger and deprivation as\na threat to health, an objective appraisal reveals that affluence and our\nhigh standard of living is the main cause of health problems. Up to the\nmiddle 40s in ago, the leading killer in America is accidental death\nin cars\nat home\nor on the job. After that heart disease becomes the\nnumber one health menace. And that we all know, is closely linked to\nliving high off the hog. Cassius might have had a lean hungry look, but\nhe had low cholesterol.\nStatistics are the major way of measuring our effectiveness in\nmeeting social needs and that is too bad for statistics tell only part of\nthe story. Water never freezes on a seasonally adjusted basis and a\nfellow can drown trying to wade across a river whose average depth is\nthree feet.\n- 7 -\nAmerican Petroleum Institue\nWe did not wipe out malaria by increasing the number of hospital\nbeds; we drained the swamps and got rid of the mosquitoes.\nWe are making a transition from the inflated wartime boom of the\n1960s, to a peacetime economy where hopefully we will have prosperity\nwithout ruinous inflation, full employment without war.\nAnd we are making progress. In mid-1961, the national unemployment\nrate was higher than 7 percent but no one called that a recession. Today\nit is 5.8 percent and the atmosphere is one of gloom and crisis.\nIt is time for us to be reminded of the inherent strength of the fre\nmarket place. Right now the American economy is providing jobs for more\nthan 94 percent of its people.\nTake a look at what we have accomplished in a single lifetime. Fort\nyears ago, only two of five Americans had radios. Today, the figure is\nmore than 99 percent. Fewer than 1 in 25 families had a refrigerator.\nToday, 99.8 percent of the nation's families have this basic appliance as\nwell as electric or gas ranges and electric irons; 95 percent have TV sets\n92 percent clothes washers and vacuum cleaners. Most of the things we use\nevery day were developed in our lifetime.\nThe anti-technology myth-makers raise a hue and cry about $3½/2 billion\nwe spend on exploring the new frontiers of space and would add even to the\n$80 billion of public funds dedicated to social welfare and education.\nIf they had been around in the time of Columbus, he would never have made\nit through the pickets on the dock.\nSome of our young people use figures such as I have just cited to\nprove their charge that we are materialistic. Yet there are more symphony\norchestras in America than in the rest of the world. We support more\ncommunity operas and theatres and publish more books. What they call\nmaterialism has also made them the biggest, healthiest generation with the\nlongest life expectancy of any generation that ever lived.\nSeven of every 10 prescription drugs were unknown 12 years ago. We\nhave virtually wiped out polio and other diseases which for centuries\nkilled or maimed millions. Furthering our technology will conquer other\nkillers and will provide the tools to preserve and enhance our environment\nTo listen to those who would lead a technological retreat would be to\nturn backward to disease, famine and mass unemployment. You know better\nthan anyone else that business the free enterprise system is under\nattack for the second time in this century.\nThere is, for example, much loose talk about excessive profits. Yet\nmanufacturing profits are lower now than they have been in a decade. In\nthat same decade by contrast, government has flourished. The federal\npayroll has gone from $13.6 billion to $29.9 billion.\n- 8 -\nAmerican Petroleum Institute\nMay I suggest to you gentlemen it is high time that business in this\nhighly regimented society of ours reviewed its own position in relation-\nship to government. To resign yourself to the supposed inevitability of\never more spending and government controls may or may not make you\nhealthy, but certainly it will make you less wealthy and sadly wiser.\nToday you are blamed for many things, none of which you have done and\nyou are denied credit for those you have done very well. Government\npreempts field after field of human endeavor as logically part of its\ndomain on the bland assumption that group compulsion is the only road to\nUtopia. And slowly, silently, inch by inch, the goal becomes economic\nsecurity not personal freedom. The state is a smiling escalator\nperpetually going up to Social Justice.\nEnvironmentalists delight in quoting Thoreau to bolster their case.\nI hope they won't mind my using him for the same reason. He said, \"Yet\nthis government of itself never furthered any enterprise except when it\ngot out of its way. The character inherent in the American people has\ndone all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat\nmore if government had not sometimes got in the way.\"\nGovernment and business working together each in its proper place--\nmakes for an irresistible force. One half of the economic activity of\nthe entire human race has been conducted under American auspices. No\nother system can even begin to match our abundance. But government is\ntoo important in your life to leave it to politicians. You must\nparticipate not just in lobbying but in the practice of a kind of\nmodern day \"noblesse oblige.\"\nIt has worked in California these past few years. Business made its\nexpertise and its manpower available and government is smaller and far.\nmore efficient.\nWe have a story to tell and we had better start with our own sons\nand daughters.\nThis is the most dynamic, humane, forward-looking society in the\nworld. We do care about the oppressed, the disadvantaged, the minorities.\nFreedom and individual dignity are as important to us as the technology\nthat made them possible.\nWhatever the Doomsday myth-makers say, this is the brightest hope of\nmen who seek a brighter tomorrow.\nThe next time you are told how much better government can make things\nif only government had a little more power and resources, refer them to\nthat great nation which has practiced total government control without\ninterference for more than half a century.\nWe can, if we are willing to expend the effort, match the economic\nachievements of the Soviet Union. It would mean moving 60 million\nAmericans back to the farm, abandoning 60 percent of the steel industry\nand 2/3 of the oil industry. We would junk 90 percent of our cars and our\ntelephones, rip up 2/3 of the railroad tracks and tear down 70 percent of\nour houses.\nThere would be only one thing left to do then to match their\ngovernment run paradise; give up 100 percent of our freedom.\n#####\n(NOTE: Since Governor Reagan speaks from notes, there may be changes\nin, or additions to, the above quotes. However, the governor\nwill stand by the above quotes.)\n9\nMr. Chairman, my \"fellow traveler\" Consul General Hara, Ladies and Centlement\nI want to tell you that on this trip we found nothing but warm hospitality and\nthe opportunity to see what should be seen, to meet people, to confer with the\ngovernment heads, and it was all marvelously and miraculously handled by Consul\nGeneral Hara, who was with us on the trip. If he ever decides to change countries,\nI think a place could be found in Sacramento for Consul General Hara.\nLet me just reminisce for a moment about this trip. I've been asked a number\nof times - and there's been some confusion just how did this happen and there was\nthe fact that I was an emmissary for the President - but let me make it plain.\nAs Governor of California, through Consul General Hara we had been invited to Japan\nbecause of the ties between California and Japan. It was the President who \"hitch-\nhiked\", because it was the President who tied on to that trip several other countries,\nI'm happy to say, and also several errands on his behalf. While we were in Japan\nwe were emmissaries for the United States government - for the President - in Taipai,\nin Singapore, in Thailand, a brief stop in Saigon and Vietnam, then on to Korea,\nand then for the week in Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto. But the whole trip, of course, was\ntaken during the period of time in which the Peking trip had been announced by the\nPresident, and also the trade changes had been announced. I wasn't quite sure whether\nI had been sent as combat scout or just what the mission was, but it all turned out\njust fine. Let me tell you that in Japan the meetings that we had with the Prime\nMinister of Japan, with the Foreign Minister, and then the very great thrill we had\nin having an audience with the Emperor and Empress of Japan and their graciousness and\nthe warmth of a visit, the cordiality and of their great joy about having been met in\nAlaska by our President on the recent European trip that they took - it was just a\ntrip that we will never forget.\nCalifornians have a great feeling of kinship with the people of Japan. We have\nmore than a thousand miles of coast line here, and we have always looked to the West.\nI think that most of us have always thought that our destiny was linked to our\nneighbors around the Pacific basin. Added to that is the fact that our state has\nbeen enriched by some 200,000 to 250,000 of our citizens whose heritage is Japanese.\nIn the days of the clipper ships we were trade partners with Japan, and we hope to\nsee even a greater expansion of that trade. I'm grateful to the government and the\npeople of Japan for the fact that they invited us on that trip. We took our son with\nus. I must say for twelve years old, he was quite a tourist. He's come home with\nsome very cosmopolitan tastes in food. I don't know how to explain it because we\ncan't get him to eat breakfast at home, but he didn't miss anything on the trip. It's\nbeen educational and enlightening to have the meetings that we had, to meet with the\n10\ngovernors of the prefectures there.\nI don't know the answer to that old American joke of what the governor of\nSouth Carolina said to the governor of North Carolina, but I can tell you when\nmodern day governors meet, they try to top each other with regard to their troubles,\nand I had plenty of ammunition in that particular regard. I could best illustrate it\nby telling about the man who once had a race horse, and he was standing at the track\nwatching it buried back in the pack as they went down the backstretch. Finally a\nhole opened up in the pack of horses and he waited for the jockey to take his horse\nthrough and he didn't do it. After the race, he said to the jockey, \"When the hole opene\nup, why didn't you go through?\" and the jockey said, \"Because that hole was going faster\nthan we were.\"\nBut as I indicated there was a great concern and speculation about America's\nintentions and their meaning for our allies in Japan, as well as in the other Asian\nstates that we visited. And so it was wonderful to be able to reassure, on many fronts\nand many counts, things that they were worrying about. In 1853 and 1854 Commodore\nPerry carried a letter from the President of the United States to the Emperor of Japan.\nIn that letter the President said, \"I have no other object in sending him to Japan\nbut to propose that the United States and Japan should live in friendship and have\ncommercial intercourse with each other.\" And today, more than a century later, a few\nweeks ago, I bore a message from another president. I think it was fitting that a\nCalifornian should have carried that message from another Californian because California\nfigured in that first letter sent by an American president. He had written, \"Our great\nstate of California produces about 60 million dollars in gold every year, besides silver,\nquick silver, precious stones and many other valuable articles. Japan is also a rich and\nfertile country and produces many valuable articles. I am desirous that our two countrie\nshould trade with each other for the benefit of both Japan and the United States.\" The\nmessage that I bore expressed the same desire, that our two countries should live in\nfriendship and trade with each other for the benefit of both.\nNow the next few years, I think, are going to witness a growth of Japanese influence\nthat is correspondent with her dynamic economic growth. Japan-American cooperation is\na most fundamental factor in a stable, peaceful and prosperous Pacific. For either of us\nto seek separate solutions to common problems in Asia would not only be impractical for\nboth of us, but unfortunate for the entire Pacific area, We of the West Coast understand\nfrom this tradition that began when the 19th century clipper ships first linked Californi\nwith Japan, that the basis of our friendship will always be in trade. Today Japan and th\nUnited States enjoy the largest overseas trade between any two countries in all the\nhistory of mankind. And more than a third of that trade makes its way to the United\nStates through California ports. It's vital that we continue to seek conditions which\nallow free, open and competitive trade with one another, with our Pacific neighbors and\n2\nwith the world. Two and a half years ago President Nixon called for a greater self\nreliance on the part of other countries, and a new approach as equal partners secking\nsolutions to common problems. Two joint Japanese-American activities illustrate the\nspirit of this Nixon doctrine. First, the Okinawa Treaty, then the Asian Development\nBank. As of today, Japan is the largest single contributor to the bank and has taken\ngreater interest and involvement in the problems of the less developed countries of\nAsia. The Okinawa Treaty symbolizes a reaffirmation of common political interests\nbetween our two nations. While I was there, there was political disturbance in\nJapan about that treaty, and those who marched and demonstrated oppose the philosophy and\npolicy of their own government as well as that of the United States. It is hard to\nbelieve the charges of those opposing the treaty, that somehow the United States is\nretaining some hidden control. I have to believe that they're deliberately distorting\nthe facts, because all of history indicates that it would be out of character for the\nUnited States to hold a territory which is historically linked with Japan and whose\npeople have chosen to rejoin Japan. The United States does not forcefully hold\nsatellite nations or people, but we must go forward if we are to meet the needs of today\nand to lay the foundation at the same time for a modern monetary and trade system of\ntomorrow. For decades following the war, the United States had the strength to assume\nresponsibility for a major share of the reconstruction of Europe as well as the new\ndevelopment of the third world. There was a time of unprecedented expansion of world\ntrade, international investment, full employment and all around well-being. Put no\nnation has inexhaustable resources. The guns and butter policy of the Vietnam War,\nthe costly social tinkering here at home, and now the dislocation and unemployment as\nwe wind down the war and move to a peace-time economy - all of this has served to\ndiminish our ability to continue carrying the same share of the international burden.\nSo the President, some weeks ago, proposed new economic policies to help us overcom\nthe balance of payments problem and to move once again toward a balance in world trade\nand the payment system. Now this does not portend a change in philosophy or a retreat\ninto isolationism, and I was happy to be able to carry this message, and to assure the\ngovernment leaders that I met with, of what the philosophy really means and to tell\nthem also of the strong domestic measures that were being taken here, and that they were\nbeginning to bear fruit. We've had the smallest annual rise in the price index in three\nyears. Last year's more than seven per cent inflation rate in America is now down to\n4.2 per cent. The working man's purchasing power is up two per cent over a year ago.\nIt is the first time in several years that even the great wage increases they have\nnegotiated have been able to keep up and actually get ahead of inflation. Now, we\nseek a realignment of the dollar against the other currencies, including the yen, in\norder to establish a realistic exchange rate structure. Some of the measures, there\nwas no question, were disturbing to trade partners like Japan; but at the same time\n3\nI sensed that there was no real animus. In fact, Mr. Kennedy was there signing the\ntextile agreement while we were there. There seemed to be a great understanding of the\nproblems that we faced and recognition that, in the long run, what we are doing will\nprove mutually beneficial because it will keep the United States on a sound fiscal\nfooting.\nThey realize that it will not serve either Japan or the United\nStates, and certainly not the cause of freedom, if the U. S. should be so economically\ndistressed that it could no longer engage in world trade as either an exporter or an\nimporter.\nOur two countries, Japan and the United States, are the greatest economic powers in\nthe free world. Our ties are indissoluable. Our destinies lie in taking a path togethe\nnot as a leader and a follower, but as co-equals in a partnership based on friendship,\ntrade and commerce. We are both heavy investors abroad. We can learn a great deal\nfrom each other. The U. S. is looking at such things as joint ventures, minority\ninterests and local ownership with foreign management. We're exploring the advantages\nof participation with Japan in joint ventures in third countries. All of this means\naccepting a cooperative economic action as a two-way street. There's going to be some\ntough bargaining ahead, but in the long run, the readjustment to new realities will\nhelp us both. It's time that both of us correct whatever distorted image we have of\nourselves and of each other. And I would think, at the risk of being presumptuous, that\nthis means Japan recognizing its place as a major world power and accepting the leader-\nship responsibilities that go with such a position. For both nations it means\nrecognition of the profound importance to the world, and particularly to Asia, of close\nJapanese-American cooperation and the necessity of both nations pledging themselves to\nthe development and maintenance of a Pacific that is free and competitive as well as\npeaceful and prosperous.\nOn this trip, meeting the leaders of the Republic of China, Singapore, Thailand,\nSouth Vietnam, Korea and the great Prime Minister Sato of Japan, and the other governmer\nofficials, I say I was aware, also, of their concern about what meaning might lie behind\nPresident Nixon's announcement of the visit to Peking. I was again proud and delighted\nthat I was able to speak with the authorization of the President of the United States\nand say that, yes, the President wants to open communications, to see that if by so doir\nwe can move the world a step closer to peace, but that there would be no lessening in\nthe strength of our alliances with our old friends and allies; and that the President,\nin these coming meetings in Peking, has no intention of giving anything away; that the\nfree nations of Asia are our friends and allies. They are not pawns to be moved around\nin some giant chess game. I was also able to say, as I have been told directly by the\nPresident, with reference now to the subsequent speech at the introduction to the U. N.\nof the mainland Chinese government, that if there should be a move to take Taiwan by\n4\nforce, this country is still pledged to the protection and defense of Taiwan.\nI spoke a moment ago about feeling that there was an understanding on the part\nof some of our economic problems in Japan, and the Foreign Minister, I think, put it\nvery nicely while I was there. He said, \"Japan and the United States have been on a\nhoneymoon. On the honeymoon, as on all honeymouns, we spoke politely to each other.\nWe had no differences. But,\" he said, \"the honeymoon is over. Now we are proving we\nhave a very happy wedding because we can afford to quarrel and say unkind things now\nand then to each other, but we are still happily married.\"\nBut there is a contest going on in the world. It's a deadly serious contest and I\nthink the stakes are man's right to dignity and freedom. We've referred to ourselves\nso long as the free world that sometimes I think it's become a cliche, and we've\nforgotten that we've done so, because there is a part of the world that is not free.\nWe need to be reminded that it is not the free world that seeks to impose its way on\nothers. One of the national leaders that I was privileged to meet was the King of\nThailand. This young man said there was an infection threatening all of us, and I\nthought the term was well chosen because there is an infection spreading through the\nblood stream of the world. Rapists and murderers in a New York prison take the role of\nrevolutionary martyrs and extoll the virtues of a new order in which government owns\nthe means of production and would distribute the fruit thereof. Dilletante revolution-\naries in select salons echo the line. Young people on the campuses in Korea and Harvard\nassail something they call the Establishment. The rhetoric, whether it was in Korea\nor Tokyo, or Paris or here on our American campuses, has been the same. Trade this\nsystem we call free enterprise or capitalism or private ownership for some promised\nutopia that would be delivered some day some way. The exact particulars aren't always\nexplained in detail, and that's strange too, because some very distinguished and knowledg\nable educators have participated in this same pleading for change. We who defend our\nsystem must admit, as we defend it, the defects and imperfections because we are talking\nabout a real world, a world in which man has climbed from the swamp to the stars and yet\nstill has unrealized dreams. There is still poverty and hunger in our establishment\nand our system, and sometimes men can find no market for their willingness to work\nor their skills. But still, in all of those places where man has been free to choose,\nfree to own, and free to work at a calling of his own choice, men have achieved a\nstandard of living which could only be afforded by the very wealthy or royalty alone\na few years ago. The dignity of man has been advanced under the system of capitalism\nmore in a single century than in all the centuries before under whatever systems we've\nhad before. We've distributed our wealth more widely among our people than any system\nthat's been tried now or in the past. And you wonder why such a system should be under\nthreat right now. Perhaps it's because those who would destroy that system, when they\ntalk of their ideas, don't talk of a real world. They match our cold, hard reality,\n5\nall the imperfections of our system, with theory; and they talk of a promised utopia\nthat they predict will result if we buy their regimented world where men would live\nwithout competition in a placid existence dictated by an all-wise and generous\ngovernment. They talk of a rule by the people, of all men being equal, of owning and\nsharing the means of production and all property; and there would be no misery in that\nworld, and even human nature would be changed for the better. But I think it's time,\nin these discussions, with all due respect to other men's opinions, to remember that\nutopia, the very word, means \"nowhere\". And to ask them in future discussions to match\ntheir reality with ours. And they do have a reality. It is no longer necessary for\nthem to argue with us on the basis of theory, of a dream of the future, because for more\nthan half a century there has been a trial going on in a great nation that is rich in\nnatural resources, tremendous in size, with millions of capable, energetic and talented\npeople. For more than half a century without interference they have practiced the theor\nthat these others talk about and you have to ask, could we match the utopia that they ha\nachieved in this half century? And we could, by dint of a great deal of effort. We\nwould have to tear down about two thirds of our homes, scrap three quarters of our auto-\nmobiles, tear up seventy per cent of our highways and two thirds of our railroad track,\ndisconnect ninety per cent of our phones, and the only thing left, then, would be to\ngive up one hundred per cent of our freedom and we would have matched their fifty year-o\nutopia. And these figures would be pretty comparable with those of Japan. I spoke to a\naudience of our Japanese hosts and recited some of these figures to them. - Incidentally\nwhile we were there, great demonstrations were going on world-wide, and in Tokyo I told them\nthat I had absolutely no fear and felt very secure because I had a friend over here\nnamed Dr. Hayakawa, and if they got too rough with us, I'd call on him. -\nWell, the price would be pretty high that I've just outlined. No people that have\never known freedom in all the world's history and then lost it have never known it again\nIt can't be inherited by succeeding generations. It has to be fought for, worked for an\ndefended, and then we have to teach each successive generation to do the same thing.\nI know that we have a tendency sometimes to think that we've gone down a road so\nlong, and so much has happened to curb our freedom and to interfere with the free\nmarket place, and that we're just hanging on as long as we can, but that inevitably\nfreedom as we have known it in the past would be gone. Let me just remind you that it\ndoesn't have to be true. Things can be done. In England following the Napoleonic wars\nthey had a debt that was larger in proportion to their resources than our present\nnational debt. The taxation was confiscatory. Wage, price, production and exchange\ncontrols existed and they were so restrictive that only black marketeers and smugglers\nkept the people from starving. And two men, two single Englishmen, one named John Brigh\nand the other Richard Cobden, who understood freedom, began speaking and writing and\n6\ntraveling around England talking to whoever would listen. And there followed one of the\ngreatest reform movements in English history. They brought about the repeal of all\nrestrictive law. The Corn Laws were repealed, and in our country that would be the\nequivalent of repealing all of our agricultural regimentation laws. The Poor Laws were\nrepealed and they were almost identical to our present welfare structure. In short,\ngovernment gave the people freedom and the English people expanded all over the earth.\nThe British Empire on which the sun never set, was the result. It operated successfully\nuntil along about post World Wan I days and then the old disease returned.\nWell, to preserve this freedom is not a task for government. It can only be done\nby men and women like yourselves, meeting together and wanting freedom badly enough.\nThe young people who marched in those capitals all over the world were our sons and\ndaughters. I think they were terribly and tragically wrong. They claim to see hypecris\nin all of us, but they see no hypocrisy in marching under a banner of peace while they\ngo out to beat a policeman's head off with a club. I know that every generation thinks\nof itself as the first in the world and that the world has been mismanaged. The young\ntend to challenge all the mores and customs of the past, and I think that's all right;\nwe did it too. But no generation has a right to just discard all the truth and all the\ntradition that man has accumulated, simply because it's old. There's an old legend of\nan island where there was an old wiseman who lived high on a mountain. He was of such\nwisdom that everyone said he never made a mistake, he was always right. There was a\nyoung man who was determined to challenge him. He figured out that he would take a\nbird in his hands and he would approach the old man on the mountaintop, and he would\nask him if the bird he held in his hand were dead or alive. If the old man said dead,\nhe would release it and it would fly away; if he said alive, he would crush it with his\nhands before he opened his hands and the old man would be wrong either way. So he\napproached the old man and he said, \"Is the bird dead or alive?\" The old man looked him\nin the eye and said, \"That, my son, is up to you.\" I think freedom in the world, as\nwe've known it, is up to us.\nWhile we're waiting to see if there are questions, let me just tell you an\nimpression. Staying in the top floor of the hotel in Tokyo you couldn't help but be\noverpowered by the drive, the energy and the progress that you can see is being made.\nDuring the noon hour we discovered from our vantage point, that every building in\ndowntown Tokyo was fenced in around the top, and people working in the buildings would\ncome pouring out on to the roof tops to exercise. Everything from volleyball to paddle\ntennis to doing calisthenics, - everything you could name was going on. And then back\ndown to work. I came home with one distinct impression for us as Americans: We had\nbetter start taking a shorter lunch hour and get to work.\n7\nquestion: (Joan Tomika, Sumitomo Shoji) Governor Reagan, do you forsee the abolition\nof the surcharge on imported goods in the near future, and are you personally\ndoing anything toward that effort?\nAnswer: Well, unlike the city of Los Angeles, California doesn't have a foreign\npolicy - But let me say that I reported all the things I saw to the\nPresident; and I have a very distinct impression from conversations with\nthe President and others in Washington, that all of the things we are doing\nnow are temporary. A great many of them are contrary to basic American\nphilosophy. We believe in free trade; we would like to see the day when\nthere could be a totally free exchange of trade. We don't believe in\npermanent wage and price controls. I know that the President is opposed to\ninstitutionalizing those things. And I am quite sure that such things as\nthe ten per cent surcharge are simply to get back into a balance and to let\nthe U. S. compete on more even terms than we have been able to. One of the\nthings we're up against: Last year Japan's increase in productivity per\n1\nman hour worked was 14.4 per cent. Last year the increase in productivity in\nour country was 1.9 per cent. Now we had better start turning our more goods\nin shorter time.\nQuestion: (Joan Tomika) I was wondering since California is involved because of the\nshipping, if you are doing anything personally?\nAnswer: Well, yes. Here again, the federal government has been involved, but we have\nmade it plain to our own government and to all parties involved, that if there\nis any place where the state can take a hand and bring a solution to this,\nthat we are ready willing and desirous to do SO. I might say I was kind of\ndisappointed to find that the issues had not all been resolved, because when\nI left there had just come the invoking of the Taft-Hartley Law and the\nshipping had opened and this was one of the reasons for great joy in Japan.\nEveryone there had not caught up with the news that all was still not well.\nThey had been actually suffering, and Californians should take note that one\nof the first things the Foreign Minister said to me was, \"Now maybe we can\nget some California grapefruit.\"\nQuestion: (M.M. Smith, San Francisco) You mentioned that Mr. Kennedy had signed a\ntextile agreement while you were there; would you identify that Kennedy?\nAnswer:\nYes, that was David Kennedy, the former Secretary of the Treasury. -\nIncidentally, in Osaka we visited the shipyards there where they're mass\nproducing those great tankers. I tell you, we're spoiled as Americans from\nthinking that we export American know-how, believe me, we could bring some\nhome. It was one of the most fantastic things that I have ever seen in\nshipbuilding.\nQuestion: In your travels do you think the port of Sacramento can compete with the\nport of Stockton?\nAnswer:\nWell, I just hope that you will have the same friendly trade relationships\nwith us that we have with Japan.\nQuestion: What was the date of the U. S. - Japan wedding, was it 1853 or 1945?\nAnswer:\nWell, let me answer that seriously. One of the most moving experiences I\nhad during the trip was a rather small dinner party which had been arranged,\nnot with government officials, but with private citizens of Japan and it\nincluded some older gentlemen, industrialists who had been part of the\nrebuilding of Japan after the tragedy of World War II. They sat me down in\na corner, and they wanted to talk; we had to talk through an interpreter.\nOne of these men had been the man that General NeArthur had put absolutely\nin charge of restoring industry. We were high up in a hotel in Tokyo,\nlooking over that vast, modern city, and they gave me a contrasting picture\nof what it looked like then. There was no bitterness. But they told me,\nand I think Americans would have been proud to hear, of those reconstruction\ndays and of McArthur; of that first two billion dollars that this country\nimmediately made available at the cessation of the war for rebuilding. And\none of the men spoke up - he has flour mills - and said he will always\nremember the first American ship that sailed in with a load of flour for his\nmills to get going again. Their warmth and their feeling toward America - well\nfor one thing, it made you realize how stupid war is; and the second thing,\nas an American I am very proud to say, what other nations in the world have\nlaid down their arms at the end of a war, and had the history that our nation\nhas had in holding out a hand to an erstwhile enemy? These men recognized\nthis. Their generosity and feeling toward us was such that I will remember\nthat if all other memories go.\n9"
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