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Speeches - Governor Ronald Reagan, 1969 [01/01/1969-04/28/1969]
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Speeches - Governor Ronald Reagan, 1969 [01/01/1969-04/28/1969]
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Ronald Reagan Presidential Library
Digital Library Collections
This is a PDF of a folder from our textual collections.
Collection: Reagan, Ronald: Gubernatorial Papers,
1966-74: Press Unit
Folder Title: Speeches - Governor Ronald Reagan, 1969
[01/01/1969-04/28/1969]
Box: P18
To see more digitized collections visit:
https://reaganlibrary.gov/archives/digital-library
To see all Ronald Reagan Presidential Library inventories visit:
https://reaganlibrary.gov/document-collection
Contact a reference archivist at: [email protected]
Citation Guidelines: https://reaganlibrary.gov/citing
National Archives Catalogue: https://catalog.archives.gov/
1969
INDEX
1-7-69
State of the State Message
1-9-69
Governor's Prayer Breakfast
1-26-69
Republican State Central Committee
1-30-69
Executives' Symposium Luncheon
2-7-69
Governor's Industrial Safety Conference
2-14-69
Newport Beach Exchange Club
3-3-69
Message to Legislature - CAMPUS DISORDERS
3-5-69
Agricultural Council of California
3-15-69
California Industrial Education Association
3-19-69
Subcommittee on Education, U.S. House of Representatives
3-27-69
Message to Legislature - TRAFFIC SAFETY
4-7-69
Message to Legislature - Employment of Minors
4-8-69
Message to Legislature - TAX REFORM
4-10-69
Message to Legislature - CRIMINAL JUSTICE
4-11-69
Bakersfield State College Groundbreaking Ceremony
4-14-69
Message to Legislature - Terms of Office (Gov. & Lt. Gov.)
4-17-69
Message to Legislature - PROPERTY TAX RELIEF
4-24-69
Third Annual Nuevas Vistas Conference
4-28-69
Municipal Analysts Forum of New York City
4-29-69
New York Industrial Luncheon
5-5-69
Message to Legislature - HEALTH & WELFARE
5-9-69
Fresno Chamber of Commerce
5-10-69
California Junior Chamber of Commerce
6-9-69
Water Quality Control Symposium
6-13-69
Commonwealth Club
7-3-69
Address to Joint Session of Legislature
(Budget)
9-5-69
Sacramento Host Breakfast
9-12-69
Sheriffs Training Academy
9-12-69
Fair Employment Practice Commission
9-17-69
California Federation of GOP Women
9-22-69
P & V Standards Boards Breakfast
(Protessional
9-24-69
State Boards of Education Convention
9-26-69
Savings and Loan League Luncheon
9-29-69
Tri-County Fundraiser
10-8-69
National Association of Certified Public Accountants
10-14-69
Eisenhower College Fundraising Dinner
10-20-69
Republican Fundraising, Knoxville, Tennessee
10-21-69
American Chamber of Commerce Executives
10-21-69
Republican Fundraising, Flint, Michigan
10-24-69
Colorado Republican State Central Committee
11-14-69
Interorganizational Water Committee Luncheon
11-17-69
Governor's Conference on California's Changing Environment
1/7
-
de
es
and
the
your
AMOUNT
OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR
RELEASE: 10 a.m., Tuesday
Sacramento, California
January 7, 1969
Contact:
Paul Beck
445-4571
1-6-69
(PLEASE GUARD AGAINST PREMATURE RELEASE)
TEXT OF STATE-OF-THE-STATE MESSAGE
TO A
JOINT SESSION OF THE CALIFORNIA STATE LEGISLATURE
by
GOVERNOR RONALD REAGAN
January 7, 1969
Our meeting is saddened by the recent passing of one of your
respected members, State Senator George Miller. He was an outstanding
legislator. He was an able political opponent tough, smart and
dedicated.
California has lost a great public servant. The Senate has lost
one
of
its
leaders
and, we have all lost a good friend.
I also want to say that Bob Finch will be missed. We all wish him
the best of success in Washington and we look forward to working closely
with him. And here in California, the business of the people goes on
under the able leadership of Senate President Pro Tem--and sometimes
governor Hugh Burns and our new Assembly Speaker, Bob Monagan.
Today I want to highlight with you some of the pressing issues which
face us, to restate some of the basic goals and objectives of the
Creative Society, and to outline some of the legislative proposals I
will be making to you during the coming year.
I have also asked my secretaries of Agriculture and Services,
Business and Transportation, Human Relations and Resources, to prepare
supporting "state-of-the-state" reports on details of their agencies
and departments which time does not permit me to get into here today.
Their complete reports will be made available in the near future.
Additionally, during the coming weeks and months, I will present a
series of legislative programs dealing with such priority areas as
education, transportation, law enforcement, conservation, tax reform,
government reorganization, and welfare and Medi-Cal reform. All of
these I will preview briefly here this morning.
Shortly I will present to you the budget for the year 1969-70. It
will outline in detail our financial plans for the year. Two years ago
we found ourselves not only in the red, but with a most serious
continuing deficit. The present situation enables me to submit a
balanced budget, and one that will permit a continuation of state-
sponsored local property tax relief, and a substantial personal income
tax reduction. At the same time we will continue to meet the needs of
At this time, too, I think it appropriate to repeat to you a pledge
I have made many times in the last year. Under no circumstances will
I support or sign into law any tax increase. I believe the taxes we
have now produce an ample income to meet our expenses, and with careful
management, they permit us to offer a substantial tax reduction.
The great bulk of our state government spending is dictated by
statute; it can be changed only by statute. I seek your help in
reforming some of those laws which account for hundreds of millions of
dollars of the taxpayers' earnings.
All of us recognize that there are certain basic needs; all of us
realize that it would be improper to make meat-ax economies. But, we
also know, for example, that a bankrupt state cannot provide humane
programs in welfare; that a bankrupt state cannot fund a strong, modern
educational system.
HEALTH AND WELFARE
In 1968, California's labor force exceeded eight million for the
first time. Employment was up to a record high in all major categories
except agriculture and construction. Unemployment dropped from a level
of five percent in 1967 to 4.5 percent in 1968, the lowest level since
1957.
Despite these encouraging trends, our social welfare and health
care services costs and caseloads continue to increase. At the end of
1968, the monthly average of individuals on the state welfare rolls
was 107,000 greater than at the end of 1967. And, the state funds
involved had increased by some $40 million. Only stringent economies
in administration and tight controls of the mandated programs kept
these costs from rising even higher. There is just so much my admin-
istration--the executive branch--can do. The bulk of these programs
are locked-in by both state statutes and federal regulations.
The taxpayers are already overburdened with the costs and excesses
of various governments. The old structures and the old systems must
give way to the new, the thoughtful, the creative and the efficient.
One example of creative change was demonstrated in the positive
and bi-partisan response to my request a year ago that we form a
Department of Human Resources Development. Today we are well on the
way to implementing that legislation; the department will be operational
well before the deadline set in the statutes. However, the new depart-
ment will be no panacea to the complex problems of poverty, discrimination
and dependency. Additional legislation is needed to make it more
fully effective.
Those who cannot be rehabilitated--those who, for reasons of age
or physical infirmity, are permanently dependent- be covered
by an automated system of administration after being so identified by
the county involved. This humane and effective use of modern computer
techniques would enable us to reduce administrative red tape and use a
greater part of the funds allocated to welfare for rehabilitative
programs. I intend to ask for such enabling legislation this year.
At the same time, I will propose that we adopt a method of closed-
end appropriations for welfare expenditures. Any expenditure in excess
of the set amount would require legislative approval.
I will again this year seek legislation to institute lien and
recovery provisions regarding welfare recipients. It seems to me that
when the taxpayers assume the responsibility for the support of the
aged and disabled, it is equitable for them to share in the recipient's
estate.
Finally, we must make it easier for our young people to find
productive employment. Our summer employment program for young people--
many of them from disadvantaged areas--reached record heights last year--
160,000 young people were employed. But we confirmed from this
experience that many of these young people are kept from working
because of existing employment barriers.
I will offer to you a legis-
lative program designed to remove these barriers.
Last year--you may recall--I requested a number of reform measures
in welfare and health care services. Those reforms were valid and
necessary then; they are valid and even more necessary now. I intend
to reintroduce such measures during this session and I seek your support
I hope we can also join to urge reforms, revisions and greater
flexibility in the federal statutes which control so many of our pro-
grams and so much of our budget.
For example, the 1969-70 budget will include expenditures of an
additional $52 million imposed on us by federal regulations and federal
court actions. These were extra costs forced on us, funds we did not
want to spend--funds we do not believe were necessary to be spent.
I hope the new federal administration will agree the states must not
be prevented by federal statutes or edicts from making necessary reforms.
- 3 -
In health care services--Medi-Cal--we must be concerned with
economic efficiency as well as the equitability, availability and
continuity of care. Therefore, we will move to institute--on a statewide
basis the concept of prepaid health insurance for the indigent those
individuals on Medi-Cal. We inaugurated a pilot project on such a
prepaid plan one year ago; the lessons learned there can help guide
us as we extend the concept.
We must also move to specifically make Medi-Cal fraud a crime
Ana
I will ask you to join with me in enacting legislation making it a crime
for the vendors of Medi-Cal services to defraud or abuse the program.
We should call upon the professional health community to police their
own house, to continue their efforts to clamp down and remove all Medi-
Cal abuses and fraud.
We are presently looking into the feasibility of a single Department
of Health to better coordinate patient-care programs and to consolidate
and improve planning, research and administrative functions regarding
health programs for all Californians.
There are other areas, such as alcoholism, drug abuse and mental
health programs on which we will seek your advice, your creative
judgment and your support during the coming year.
CONSERVATION
As we concern ourselves with the health, the well-being and the
economic progress of our people, it is important, that we also concern
ourselves with our great natural resources air, land, water
in fact,
our total physical environment.
In the last two years we have made great strides in protecting our
environment, preserving it for present and future generations. A
few examples are:
The Environmental Study Council Act,
The notable conservation efforts at Lake Tahoe and elsewhere in
the state,
--The state's role in negotiating the Redwood National Park bill,
--The Bay Conservation and Development Plan.
All these and other forward-looking conservation and environmental
quality control measures already achieved must be carried forward.
We are very much aware, for example, of the needs of Southern
California and our heavily populated Bay Area for more beach and other
recreational areas. To help fulfill these needs, we are continuing to
work toward the potential recreational use of certain military and
other federally-held coastal, beach and inland properties which may be
obtained in exchange for the three California redwood parks needed by
the federal government to complete the Redwood National Park.
I will request legislation to extend the life of the San Francisco
Bay Conservation and Development Commission.
I ask you to pass legislation to permit Congress to ratify the
California-Nevada Compact on Interstate Water. I am also urging Congress
to ratify the compact to establish a California-Nevada Tahoe Regional
planning Agency whose charge it will be to control land use for the
protection of the Tahoe environment.
Since March of last year an administrative task force, working with
the legislature and the State Water Resources Control Board, has been
working on a revision of the State Water Quality Act. This will be the
first complete revision of that act in 20 years. The task force (com-
prising representatives from conservation groups, industry and govern-
ment) has developed a legislative package that will be presented to you
in March. I urge that the legislation needed to implement these
findings be enacted at the earliest possible moment.
We must also get on with an orderly development and conservation
of our great ocean resources. Administratively and legislatively, we
will follow up a number of recommendations made by the California
Advisory Commission on Marine and Coastal Resources. And, I am calling
for the coordination and implementation of these important recommenda-
tions by appropriate action within the Resources Agency.
At this time, I also express my concern that all construction
projects undertaken by the State of California, in whatever area, give
full consideration to protecting the quality of our natural environment.
We have already made an excellent start in this direction through
the joint Resources-Highways Committee which we initiated in June of 1967
We are instructing the Resources Agency to study the feasibility of
providing long-term financing for recreational facilities in connection
with the State Water Project, the state's participation in local
pollution control, acquisition and development of recreational and park
areas near our major cities, and other environmental programs. It may
be that such long-term financing is necessary and proper so that we can
plan for and implement policies to preserve and develop our natural
resources.
LAW ENFORCEMENT AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Together during the past two years, we have made considerable
progress in the field of law enforcement and crime control.
The California Council on Criminal Justice has been established,
and for the first time we have a professional statewide planning agency
working for the development of modern techniques in the prevention and
control of crime and the treatment of criminal offenders.
We have vastly expanded the funds available to local government
for the training of peace officers to meet the difficult challenges of
modern police work. We have expanded programs in rehabilitation and
job training for the men and women in our correctional system.
Cooperating with the attorney general, we have established a pace-
setting communications and crime information network, which will enable
state and local law enforcement agencies to work together swiftly and
effectively, utilizing the most modern devices of this electronic age.
All of these are important and significant steps, but there is much
more to do this year.
Swift, fair, and unrelenting justice must make lawlessness
unattractive. We must reject the idea that when a law is broken,
society is guilty, rather than the lawbreaker. I plan this year to
suggest to you a number of legislative measures which will fix respon-
sibility for individual conduct, and which will improve our ability to
protect the safety of the public.
During the past year, dramatic events throughout our country have
drawn attention to the great number of crimes committed by the use of
firearms. Murders, assaults, and armed robberies have shown a startling
increase throughout our land. We must amend our laws to make it clear
that the criminal who arms himself with a gun will be dealt with
severely in every case. We must strengthen the penalties for the
illegal use of such weapons, without interfering with the legitimate
use of firearms by law-abiding citizens.
To assist in the fight against organized crime and the illicit
narcotic traffic, we will seek legislation for the utilization of
electronic surveillance techniques by police investigators, when
authorized by a judge.
We will call for legislation dealing with the dissemination of
obscene and harmful matter, and also will seek legislation to restore
to cities and counties the ability to enact ordinances relating to local
I will seek legislation to insure the selection of judges of proven
qualifications and integrity.
We must also take action on another serious problem--narcotics and
drug abuse, California's young people are becoming poisoned by
dangerous drugs at a shocking rate: in the past eight years juvenile
narcotics cases have increased nearly 2,000 percent.
In recent months this administration has joined with the PTA, the
California Medical Association and school and law enforcement organi-
zations to encourage the formation of drug abuse councils to serve
junior and senior high schools throughout the state. Early surveys
indicate such programs have already been formed in many school districts.
For the first time, federal and state agencies and private organi-
zations concerned with the narcotics problem have joined together in a
Governor's Inter-Agency Council on Drug Abuse. Shortly, the first
full-scale public service advertising campaign on drug abuse will be
introduced in California. This program is an outstanding example of
cooperation between the public and private sectors in attacking a
community problem.
Now I ask your help through a legislative resolution to impress upon
the federal government the need for drastic and immediate efforts to
stop the flow of narcotics and drugs into our state over the border
between California and Mexico. Estimates show that 90 percent of the
narcotics entering our state cross that border. I also hope that we
can strengthen our already cordial relations with our good friends in
Baja, California, and in cooperation with them devise effective action
programs.
AGRICULTURE
We all share with the men and women of Aerojet-General, McDonnell-
Douglas and North American Rockwell their justifiable pride in the
recent and tremendously successful round trip to the moon by Apollo VIII
Yet, even as man extends his reach through space, we must keep in mind
that agriculture--tilling the soil--is still our state's number one
industry--and that California's agri-business leads the nation. It is
to be expected that we should lead the way in agricultural labor
relations policies. If we don't, we may soon be forced to march to
yet another federal drum beat.
7 -
Therefore, it is my intention to seek and support legislation in
the area of farm labor-management relations. Such legislation will:
Protect the public, the farmers and the farm workers;
Establish ground rules for and supervise free elections to
determine, first, if the workers want to be represented by a labor
union or association and, if they do, to choose which one without
fear, intimidation or reprisal.
This legislation also should spell out what role arbitration shoul
play, and should clearly establish the prohibition of strikes and other
work stoppages at harvest and other critical times.
STATE EMPLOYEES
Over the years, California state government has generally had a
constructive and forthright relationship with its employees and their
employee organizations. I believe we need to maintain and build upon
that relationship. I look favorably on proposals to establish a more
formalized process of resolving disagreements between government manage-
ment and public employees as long as that approach is suitable to our
constitutional and statutory framework. I would, however, be critical
of proposals which would harm the cooperative spirit the state now
enjoys with its employees. The taxpayers have a right to expect con-
tinuity in the services which their tax dollars support.
And here, I want to commend the CSEA--the California State Employees
Association-- for their recent and most responsible statement regarding
the impropriety of strikes by AFT teachers on our college campuses,
It has always been obvious to me that the great majority of our state
employees are solid, dedicated, thoughtful individuals. This recent
action by their CSEA officers reaffirms my belief.
TRANSPORTATION
This month, the first California Aviation Master Plan Study gets
underway. Its purpose will be to provide the state with proper guidance
and direction to enable the aviation industry to plan and grow in an
orderly fashion--and more harmoniously with anticipated urban growth.
In the meantime, we are focusing attention on other immediate
problems facing us in the area of surface transportion in California.
While it is obviously the primary responsibility of regional
districts to build and finance their rapid transit systems, it is clearly
of major interest and benefit to the state to have fast, safe, convenient
transportation for all in all major urban areas of California.
Therefore, I believe the state government should remove any obstacles
that might exist to local financing of rapid transit, and that we should
give regional transit districts the utmost flexibility in working out
their financial problems.
I am well aware of the financial problems facing BART--the Bay Area
Rapid Transit District. For that reason I support, and hope for passage
as early in the session as possible, a bill authorizing a local sales
tax of a half cent in the three BART counties for the four-year period
which should be sufficient to eliminate the BART deficit.
We enacted somewhat similar legislation last year for Los Angeles,
and I would support such a measure for any other region that seeks it
for this purpose.
TRAFFIC SAFETY
The drinking driver is involved in nearly 50 percent of the fatal
highway accidents in our state. To protect the thousands of innocent
men, women and children who are killed or injured in such alcohol-
related crashes, we must, this session, obtain legislation to improve
intoxication testing and the prosecution of such cases.
GOVERNMENT REORGANIZATION
During the past two years, with your cooperation, I have reorganized
the executive branch of state government to make it more efficient and
more effective. The work we have done, together, has provided leader-
ship throughout the nation; many states are now copying our approach.
My authority to streamline operations and make them responsive to
contemporary techniques and needs will expire early next year. There-
fore, I will request legislation to extend that authority for another
two years.
I also plan to send to you several more reorganization programs.
These will include the elimination of certain boards and commissions
and the restructuring or consolidation of others.
Also, I will propose that we consolidate all of the major tax
collecting agencies into one Department of Revenue, organized as are
the other major departments. I am convinced this could result in
substantial savings.
And, it may well be that certain provisions for constitutional
revision, which were included in Proposition 1 on last November's ballot
should be set apart and replaced on a future ballot so that the people
can have the opportunity of a more deliberative and selective decision,
The need to streamline our state constitution remains.
To help local governments find practical solutions to some of their
problems of growth and increased demands for services, I will support
measures directed at developing modernized and acceptable annexation
statutes.
TAX REFORM
Tax reform remains one of the most important and imperative matters
facing all of us. As you know, some months ago I named State Controller
Houston Fluornoy to head a Tax Reform Study Commission. That commission
is now completing its work and the chairman has advised me that the
report will be ready sometime later this month. At that time I will
review the recommendations with Mr. Fluornoy, I will deliver to you a
message on tax reform during this session.
SECONDARY EDUCATION
Now, while we are necessarily occupied with action to protect,
preserve and build our system of higher education, we must not ignore
or under-rate the importance of elementary and secondary education.
These K-through-12 years are vital; they should be one of our top
priority items; for millions of children, these grades may contain
the total of their formal education. They must not be short-changed
by allowing other programs to siphon away money which should go to them.
In this age of technological revolution, the future will depend a
great deal more than before on the excellence of our basic educational
system.
I will establish a Governor's Commission on Educational Reform to
analyze root problems and to suggest major reforms in the areas of
financing; teacher training, standards and salaries; curriculum; and
the proper functions of schools in today's society, especially in our
urban areas.
One of the important subjects which this commission must tackle is
a new and more equitable system of state participation in school
district financing.
And, I believe, they must seriously assess the need for, and the
potential benefits in, a system of technical institutes to help prepare
the vast majority of our young people who will never go on to college.
In the decade of the seventies, California will need 2.4 million
more skilled and technically-trained young men and women to keep up
with our expanding economy. Perhaps the existing network of community
colleges would be the proper launching pad for the important task of
preparing our youth for the increasingly technical future.
HIGHER EDUCATION
No state-of-the-state message this year could fail to dwell upon
the problems of higher education.
We are all greatly concerned about the attacks on our educational
system by small groups of criminal anarchists and latter-day Fascists
those unruly few who seek to close down the campuses of our universities,
state colleges and even high schools.
Their indefensible onslaughts are not in any way to be confused with
the traditional and generally acceptable activities of students who
will always seek change through proper and constructive channels; the
latter seek to improve, to build; the former seek to tear down, to
destroy.
This session I will seek an omnibus program on the safety and
security of our educational institutions- to protect the teacher, the
student, and the public. Such proposals would, among other things,
increase the legal penalties for assaults on teachers and students,
provide for the expulsion of students or the dismissal of teachers who
interfere with the educational process, and strengthen the trespass
laws to keep troublemakers off the campus.
I have said this before and I say it again here this morning:
I will continue to use every power at my command to insure
that safety and security--and the proper academic atmosphere--is
maintained on every campus, I am determined that academic freedom
and the pursuit of knowledge will be upheld, protected and preserved.
Over the years the people of California have gone further than
perhaps any other state to make sure that political pressures will not
interfere with academic excellence. There are events which try our
tempers and there are times when we are tempted to make changes in the
system to get at the destructive and unruly few. But, we must guard
against excesses: extremes of whatever source are always dangerous--
and often self-defeating.
It is incumbent upon us, this year, to review the system carefully
to ascertain whether or not some changes and improvements should not
be made in the governance and administrative procedures of our colleges
- 11 -
and universities. We should determine, for example, whether the very
proper goal of protecting our campuses from political interference could
not be served just as well with shorter terms for the Regents and
Trustees.
And, again this year I will support measures to establish some form
of tuition or increased fees at our state colleges and universities.
As I have outlined before, I believe such an equal education plan is
necessary to achieve full educational opportunity for all qualified
students in California, to provide supplemental capital for each campus.
and to eliminate existing inequities so that low-income families will
not have to bear a disproportionate share of the cost of higher
education.
But, at the moment, the problem confronting all of us is not just
the problem of procedure or financing; our overriding problem is anarchy
and insurrection.
It is time to make it completely clear: higher education in our
state colleges and universities is not a right, it is a privilege.
It is a privilege made available by the commitment and the sacrifice
of the taxpayer. And we here in Sacramento have not only the right--
but the responsibility-- to set the standards and establish the basis
on which public higher education will be available to all qualified
students.
It is not in any way a question of interfering with academic freedom-
it is a matter of demanding professional conduct from both students and
teachers; it is a matter of living up to our responsibility to the
people; it is a matter of protecting the rights and personal safety
of our citizens, including those on the campuses.
It is a matter of making sure that no group is ever permitted to
unjustly force its will upon the people.
As long as I am governor, I will do everything I can to make
sure that this privilege of a higher education is guaranteed to our
young people in an atmosphere of safety, freedom and reason.
With whatever it takes, I will protect those students who want to
learn, and those faculty who want to teach.
Legislators of California--joir me in this commitment!
######
1/9
and
0
NEW
January 9, ,1969
GOVERNOR RONALD REAGAN'S REMARKS AT THE
GOVERNOR'S PRAYER BREAKFAST.
Mr. Chairman, Reverend Clergy, Mr. President, Speaker,
Ladies and Gentlemen:
I would like to join my words of thanks to those for
Mrs. Sanderson. With religion, of course, we realize that
wherever we are, in whatever surroundings, we should be in
God's house. Yet, we have learned down through the ages,
by building churches and temples, that atmosphere helps man
to turn his mind and emotions to God. The structure, the
decoration and the lighting are not wrong. They are, indeed,
helpful. I, again, thank Mrs. Sanderson and her group. Last
year the theme of the decorations were of the plenty of
California. This year, she and her group have continued with
another kind of plenty of this state we are so blessed to live
in. I am most grateful to her.
Mr. Chairman, I think you should know that I am sorry
that Ed Reinecke couldn't be here, but in keeping with the
economy of this administration I did suggest that he try to
make arrangements with the Flying Nun.
We have heard some wonderful, simple words of wisdom from
the gentlemen who have spoken here, who have prayed with us,
and for us, this morning.
A very prominent American, who I shall not name, was
conversing with an equally prominent citizen from the continent
to the south of us a few years ago. They were both commenting
on the development of the two continents. They talked of our
great technological development and our advances in living
standards. This was contrasted with the primitive conditions
that still exist in so much of South America. As they tried
to understand these two continents, peopled mainly by colonists
who came from Europe at about the same time, the question arose
as to how we have reached this point in history with such a
difference in the level of development. It was the South
American who answered the question. He said: "Well, perhaps
it is because the people who colonized South America were men
who came in search of gold. The men who came to North America
came in search of God.
This idea, of man searching for God, coming to America,
was carried out, Jefferson tells us that in that little hall
in Philadelphia, when they were debating heatedly whether to
sign the Declaration because to sign it was literally an
act of treason to the King while they were debating the cost
and the penalty, he tells of a mysterious man who rose up to
speak, a man whose eloquence carried the day when he had
finished speaking. This man's words were such that the men
in that hall rushed forward to sign the document and as
Jefferson tells it, when they turned to thank him for his
timely eloquence, he was not to be found. No one knows to
this day who the man was, how he came in or how he went out
through the lock and guarded doors. He wound up his oratory,
words which so swayed the delegates, by admonishing them to
"Remember this one thing, God meant America to be free."
Since that day we have carried this message with us. Only
recently, three men of courage, courage almost impossible
for the rest of us to appreciate, three men in space humbly
turned to the recognition of the presence and the existence
of God. There were some who found that bothersome, some who
thought that this was, in some way, a violation of our
traditional separation of church and state. I wonder some-
times if the people who are so concerned with that today aren it
really advocating the separation in this country of the state
and God, and of religion in general.
We are faced with many complex problems that seem over-
powering. It seems as though there is no answer to be found
for many of them. I have been accused many times of simpli-
fication. Yet, I believe there is a simple answer. I think
the problems will only grow more complex, more troublesome,
and more impossible of solution if we try to face them with
just our own human resources. If we go in company with God
I 'am quite sure those problems will be easy to solve. Perhaps
not easy, but at least possible of solution.
Now, if you doubt that, if there are any who, perhaps,
as the days go on, don't think enough of it, who are inclined
to believe in that something we cannot see and cannot feel,
which we can only think of and hold in our hearts, I say it
can be of help.
You have heard a group of young people sing here today.
They have told you how many groups there are like this in
our state and throughout the world. Let me tell you just
another little story that has to do with our state.
Another group exactly like these fine young people, who
have very simply taken the talents they have, their youth and
their energy, and haven't asked for something they don't have,
are doing this by saying: "What can we do to carry forward
God's will with what we have to offer?". Such a group has
been in San Quentin. Some months ago a group in Bakersfield
asked for permission to go and sing in Tehachapi Prison.
Then, a few months later they were invited to come back.
This time they found they were in the audience. A three-time
loser stepped out on the stage, reminded them of their previous
visit and said "When a group of American kids came and sang to
men like us of freedom, you started thoughts we haven't had in
our minds for a long time. You started feelings and emotions
- 2 en
we haven felt for a long time. We wanted to thank you
and thought that the only way we could thank you was in
the same language you brought to us. This three-time
loser at Tehachapi Prison then turned, as the Director of
an "Up with People" group. They had written six original
songs, changed some of the lyrics to be appropriate for men
who had lost their freedom, as they sang of freedom. Rules
were such that they could not go out in public. But they
did begin to go out to some of our other institutions. Just
a short time ago they were finally invited, and permitted, to
sing to an outside-the-wall audience in Bakersfield, sponsored
by the Bakersfield Press Club. It was most impressive. A
young man, a negro, who for two years was filled with such
hatred and resentment, that he had not spoken to his white
cell-mate - the soloist - and the group sang "I'll never
walk alone. 11 Another three-time loser is proud of the fact
that he is the soloist who sings the National Anthem. The
entire group have now become such trusted inmates that they
live without guards in a separate dormitory and they continue
on together as an "Up with People" group. Yes, all of us do
have an ability and power to use what we have.
I am reminded of so many fund raisers and political
affairs where, at the end, the chairman gets up and says
"Please don't take these center-pieces with you. There is
something you can take from this place today. You needn't
go away empty handed.
Most of us here will go directly across the street.
I know of no building, no temple in all the world, where it
is more important to have God's presence than in that building.
All of us can take Him with us as we leave, as, say, our table
or door prize, or whatever you want to call it. I think we
will all be better off if we do that, if we keep Him with us
in the days ahead, within that temple of freedom.
3
1/26
OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR
RELEASE: 10:30 A.M.
Sacramento, California
Sunday, January 26
Contact: Paul Beck
445-4571
1.25.69
EXCERPTS OF REMARKS BY GOVERNOR RONALD REAGAN
Republican State Central Committee Meeting
Sacramento Memorial Auditorium
January 26, 1969
Just three years ago, you and I and hundreds of thousands of
Republicans started a grass-roots revolution in California politics
and California state government. Call it what you will, the Creative
Society, the California commitment, or just common sense reform
the
fact is, we set out to rebuild, revitalize and reshape state government
so that it would once again be of and by, as well as for, the people
of California.
And, just a little more than two years ago the voters of
California sent us here to do that job---to reform the business of
government, to restore it to its proper purpose and its proper balance.
During that time--between then and now--we have made some real
accomplishments. We have brought this state from the brink of
insolvency to the point where we will--the week after next--present
a budget with funds sufficient to provide for both tax relief and tax
reduction in the areas of property tax and personal income tax.
We have cut and squeezed and trimmed we have saved the people's
money and we have taken the first steps toward essential reforms in
welfare, Medi-Cal, government organization and operation.
No one pretends that the job has been completely accomplished, or
that we should be anywhere near satisfied with everything we have done.
Given the situation that existed, it is not feasible to overhaul and
redirect in two years what it took eight years to compound.
There are those who say we should forget the mistakes of the
past the errors of the years from 1959 through 1966. I say we must
never forget them
that we should continue to remember them not as
political escape hatches, but as a lesson of things not to be repeated.
We can often find the best way to the future by judging and avoiding
the mistakes of the past.
We have instituted major reforms and we have curtailed many of
the fantasies of government which were rampant when we arrived.
-1-
In comparing the last three fiscal years of the previous
administration with the first three fiscal years of ours, we find that
we have reduced by 50 percent the rate of increase of civil service
employees as compared with population. We are determined to prove
that the number of government employees does not have to grow at the
same rate as the population.
And, in the area of reducing the cost of government, we are also
making progress.
You know, up here in Sacramento we have a man named Alan Post who
is hired by the legislature. His title is legislative analyst and his
job is to find the fat in the governor's budget. Over the years he
has become a highly respected public servant--and expert--with the
reputation of being a tight-fisted, hard-nosed protector of the public
purse. He has saved the people of California millions of dollars.
I was interested to see, recently, that during the last four years
of the previous administration, Mr. Post generally recommended
reductions and policy options in those budgets of about $100 million
a year. After we got up here and got finished with the 1967-68 budget
(which we inherited), our recommended reductions actually exceeded
Mr. Post's by some $2 million.
Now, don't get me wrong: we're not trying to say we have found a
way to repeal one of Professor Parkinson's law the one that says
"expenditures rise to meet income." We are just saying we are making
it harder for some people to put it to work.
The important thing is that we have done these things without
losing any efficiencies as a matter of fact, while increasing
efficiencies and without curtailing any of the necessary and proper
services of state government.
There are those who will always scream that all we care about is
dollars that we don't care about people. They seem to forget that
the dollars we care about are the people's dollars and that you can't
separate the two
although over the years the opposition has done a
rather fantastic job of separating people and their dollars.
The hard fact of life is that unless we make these economies,
unless we safeguard the people's money and make every dollar buy more
than dollar's worth of necessary and efficiency programs
unless we
do these things, we will not be able to attend to human needs and the
humane programs. An insolvent state cannot finance a welfare program;
an insolvent state cannot assist in the funding of an education system.
-2-
We will continue to cut and squeeze and trim. But from here on
out, it will be a lot like the guy who went on a diet to lose 10
pounds the first eight pounds are easy, but those last two pounds
are really rough.
I will not go into a long recital on these things here this
morning; I know that you are eager to get on with the business of this
convention. And, most of these things are detailed in the State-of-the-
State message which I delivered to the legislature on January 7. Copies
of that message are available at the office and I would urge you to
review this, for you are the salesmen the field forces which can
spread the word of what we have done and what we are planning to do.
The important thing is that these achievements of the past two
years were done while the Assembly was still under the domination of
the opposition party.
Now, thanks in large measure to your efforts last year, we have a
strong Republican team here in Sacramento
with Speaker Bob Monagan
and his "fearsome forty" in the Assembly and Don Grunsky and his
"tough twenty" in the state Senate. Together, we have a solid and
strong Republican team and I expect that we will be able to accelerate
our achievements in these coming two years.
The point is, we have made a start toward changing the direction
of government
together we have changed the attitudes here in
Sacramento. And, at the same time, more Californians than ever before
are involved in government not just through boards and commissions,
but through Creative Society programs which are drawing the private
sector into a positive, innovative partnership.
Two years ago we came up here to reform state government; the
new Republican team--and the private sector is working in harness and
harmony to get on with that reform.
And in the coming months there will be special elections in several
parts
of
the
state in Contra Costa County, and probably in Los Angeles
County. My request of you: send us more Republicans SO that we can
get on with the job.
Now, just for a short moment, let me say a few words about a
subject which is of the utmost concern to all of us
the situation on
some of our college campuses.
The weight of my office and the power of the executive branch of
government supports the expressed will of the great majority of the
people of this state on the matter of anarchy and fascism on our campuses
-3-
I want to make it perfectly clear that I, as governor, will
support and assist local authorities in maintaining law and order and
carrying out their responsibilities to the campus and the surrounding
communities.
I would hope that I may count on the support of the legislative and
judicial branches as well to make certain that the rights of those who
wish to learn and those who wish to teach are not trampled by the
insurrectionists.
I wonder, for example, how many of the four hundred some so-called
"demonstrators" arrested at San Francisco State College Friday were
either on parole or have records of previous arrests for prior
activities of a similar nature at our various university or college
campuses?
I believe we--and by "we" I mean the people of California--have
exercised great patience. We have done everything possible to assure
that the long-range interests of our institutions of higher learning
are not damaged in reaction, suppression or over-reaction to the
anarchists. And we will continue to exercise every necessary care
that we don't make the mistake of destroying the structure in order
to correct the problems. That is the goal of the anarchists. It is
not ours.
Rather, ours is the protection of true academic freedom. To
achieve this, we must first insure that our universities and colleges
are still standing.
We intend to preserve, protect and maintain our great educational
system in every way. I will have more to say on this in about a week
in my forthcoming television Report to the People on February 4. The
subject will be the budget. It will include what we intend to do--
financially and in other ways--in regard to education in California,
kindergarten through the 12th grade and in our university and state
colleges.
But until that time, let me just say this:
I have run out of give and I'm sure that is true of the people of
this state.
It is obvious that a few-of criminal and subversive intent--are
determined to wreck these great institutions. They will not succeed.
There will be no compromise with violence, no capitulation to
threats.
-4-
In closing, let me talk to you as a Republican about our Republican
Party for it is the political vehicle that has primarily enabled us
to be here to serve all the people of this state,
We have come a long way together since the lean years since
1965, for example, when we had just 31 Republican assemblymen and only
14 Republican state senators, and only one Republican state constitu-
tional officer, Frank Jordan, secretary of state.
Little by little, over these years, we have made the long climb
back
election by election, step by step, precinct by precinct.
We made progress in 1966 when we elected 38 Republicans to the
Assembly, 20 Republicans to the state Senate and five state constitu-
tional officers.
Now, in 1969, we have a paper thin majority of 41 Republicans in
the Assembly and 20 state Senators, plus Lieutenant Governor Ed Reinecke.
And last year, we carried our state for Dick Nixon.
I do not cite these successes to crow about them or to say we
can rest on our laurels. I cite them to show that when we stand
together as an attractive and united party we can win elections.
Many of our successes in the Assembly races in the 60s have been
due in large measure to the Cal-Plan. It has taken us from 28
Republicans in the Assembly in 1963 to the 41 seats we hold today. It
has proved its value and its winning ways.
But, the Cal-Plan was not designed to stop in 1968, regardless of
success. The Cal-Plan was conceived, put into action, and pursued
through all these years to make sure that we Republicans would have a
majority in the State Assembly in 1971. That is the target date of the
Cal-Plan a majority in 1971.
I need not remind you that 1971 is the year of redistricting-
1971 is the year the lines of the Assembly and Congressional districts
are redrawn on the basis of the 1970 census.
The lines drawn in 1971 the districts established in 1971 are
the political facts of life we will live with for the decade of the
70s
for ten long years.
That will be the big decision of the elections of 1970, not just
the election of one man or several men, but the election of a Republican
majority in the California State Assembly. It will be the decision as
to whether we are to continue positive, responsible, and responsive
state government or we are to fall back into the days of boss rule
and big spending, and irresponsible and insolvent government.
-5-
That is the decision which will be made on election day, 1970.
And there can be no question as to what that decision must be.
So, as you meet here this weekend and as you engage in the
contests for state party offices- choose your man or woman, but don't
wreck your party.
There is too much at stake, there is too much to work for, to allow
petty personalities and emotional differences to weaken our party and
weaken our opportunity for victory in 1970.
Have your contests disagree without being disagreeable-- your
ballots, but accept the vote and join together to work together, to
build together, to win together.
And right here and now I want to exact a pledge from every candidate
running for party office. (I do this not as governor but as a member
of this party and a member of this convention.)
I ask each candidate to pledge to me and to this party--and to
this convention- that he or she will support, wholeheartedly and without
reservation, the winning candidate and to pledge that he or she will
join together and work together to unite our party and to build our
party for victory in 1970.
Before we vote today, I believe we have a right to exact that
pledge from all who would seek the honor of holding office in this
party.
Not one of us in this room can afford the misbegotten luxury of
removing ourselves from the common cause or the uncommon tasks which
confront us. There is no petty jealousy, no personal ambition, which
can rank with the high purpose of this party the purpose of serving
the people of this state through the best and most creative government.
There is nothing more important today----or at any time in the
future
than standing together for individual freedom, justice, order
and progress.
Let no one in this great hall ever have to answer the question:
"Just what in heaven's name was more important (in that convention)
than uniting-- and working together- for California and the Republican
Party?"
# # #
(NOTE: Since Governor Reagan speaks from notes, there may be additions
to, or changes in, the above. However, Governor Reagan will
stand by the above quotes.)
-6--
s
OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR.
RELEASE: Immediate
Sacramento, California
Contact:
Paul Beck
445-4571
1-30-69
EXCERPTS OF SPEECH BY GOVERNOR RONALD REAGAN
Executives' Symposium Luncheon
St. Mary's College, Moraga
January 30, 1969
During this Seminar you will hear and discuss the dimensions
of our state's business climate with various experts.
Without trying to be an expert, let me preview with you some of
the facts and figures which I will soon present in my Annual Economic
Report.
First, as you realize, our population continues to increase; it
grew by some 304,000 during the year ended June 30, 1968. And, although
this rate of increase was significantly higher than the national average,
it continued the decline in our rate of population increase which
started in 1963.
The California labor force also grew--increasing 259,000 over the
previous year's level. Our civilian employment also registered a gain
of 282,000 or 3.8 percent--over 1967. And, unemployment declined
substantially to an annual average rate of 4.5 percent, as compared with
5 percent for 1967. This is the lowest annual rate in more than a
decade, and the December 1968 rate of 4.1 percent was the lowest rate
on record since July of 1957.
The employment growth between 1967 and 1968 was one of the largest
relative increases in the 1960s, and the number of jobs in most major
industries reached new heights. Two major agriculture and
construction- which have been characterized by employment downtrends
during recent years, reversed their patterns by adding workers last year.
Approximately 68 percent of our unemployed were covered by unemploy-
ment insurance. Those who weren't were primarily new entrants into the
labor force, or persons who are not covered by this type of insurance--
farming, government, non-profit enterprises, and domestic service.
Average hourly earnings of production workers in manufacturing
reached $3.45 for 1968, an increase of 16 cents an hour over 1967.
Weekly earnings averaged $139.38, up 4.9 percent from the year before.
This relative gain in weekly earnings was the largest in the last dozen
years. But the cruelest tax of all--inflation--cortinued to take its
toll so that even in the face of these earning gains, the single worker's
- 1 -
(
purchasing power remained about the same as it was in 1967.
Corporate profits attributable to California operations rose
11.4 percent from 1967, and only real estate and non-bank financial
institutions registered a decline during the year,
The increase in consumer prices-- constant companion of infla-
tion was up sharply during 1968. The consumer price index for the
State the weighted average of the San Francisco and Los Angeles
indices was up 4. 4percent from the 1967 level,
These are enough statistics for me, today--and I suspect for you.
I cite them basically to make the point that California's economy
and business climate is generally good. More of our people are employe
more of our people are earning more, and fewer of our people are
unemployed than in recent years.
But I leave the analysis and the dissection of our economy and
its tides and currents to those who are here with pertfolios of data
I want to talk to you today about some long-term factors which will
have an overriding impact on our business climate, our economy, and
the overall state of our state.
Three years ago, when I was a candidate for this office, I aut
lined what I believed to be the proper roles of government, the
people, and the private and independent sectors during these times
of triumph and trouble, peril and potential. At that time I stated
it was high time ordinary citizens brought common sense to bear on
the problems we face as a people, that government must be of and
by, as well as for, the people. What I presented was the blueprint
for a Creative Society.
Today I want to re-state, briefly, those basic principles and
to highlight some of the things we are doing throughout to bring this
concept of government to reality. And, when I say "we" I am not
simply referring to those in government-I am referring to the
people and the institutions and organizations throughout this State
who are working in partnership public and private sectors joined
common quest of an uncommon goal. What we must seek is not more
government but better government which applies those solutions which
will not add to bureaucracy, which will not unbalance the budget or
centralize power, and which will require from the people only that
minimum amount of their earnings and resources to do the job their
government should properly do.
2 -
A government which is mindful of its trust, responsive to the
dynamics of society and which leads people to constructive action--
a government which unleashes the dynamic forces of business and
labor through free enterprise, a government which involves its
people in the search for excellence this is the essence of the
Creative Society.
Government can lead the way, but the people must act; otherwise
we are in danger of becoming people of the government rather than a
government of the people--and there is a vast difference.
We have led the way in Sacramento. We began putting state
government in order. One of the first things we did was to establish
the Governer's Task Force on Rfficiency and Cost Control: This six-
month's volunteer work of 250 business and industrial experts came
up with some 2,000 recommendations. Almost 700 of those recommenda-
tions have been put into action so far, with a pctential annual
savings to the taxpayers of $150 million.
We are not satisfied, we are not through; there is still much
to be done; we will continue to cut, and trim, and squeeze the
greatest value out of your tax dollars. We, like you, have a trust
to the people of California--the stockholders in this great corpora-
tion--and we are determined to be worthy of that trust. Government
is not a business--but there is no reason why government cannot be
run on a business-like basis.
These economies and these reforms and reorganizations over the
past two years have enabled us to pull state government back from
the brink of insolvency. It has placed us in the position where,
in our 1969-70 budget which will be presented next week, we not only
will live within your income but also--and most importantly--provide
for sizeable tax relief in both property and personal income taxes.
- 3-
Pride, if it is ( be meaningful, must be ba nd on achievement
and we are naturally proud of these accomplishments- but we are
certainly not satisfied. We will continue to cut and squeeze and trim
as well as create, with you and other membersof the private sector,
a dynamic environment--a better business climate- in California.
And, as a matter of fact, one of the things which gives us the
greatest amount of pride is the tremendous way the private sector has
responded to the call of the Creative Society. Community action prog
ms
of a non-governmental nature are springing into being throughout the
state.
Just over the hills, in Oakland, Kaiser Industries is making
community action a way of corporate and employee life. Last summer
Kaiser "adopted" a high school, providing a large portion of the funds
needed to train and teach so-called unemployables in a special program.
The Kaiser Volunteers, a group of 250 company employees, have joined
together, donating time, energy and skills to community projects in
the East Bay.
Safeway, another corporate resident of Oakland, saved a co-op
market in Hunters Point from going out of business by lending its
managerial know-how and buying power. Because Safeway went out of its
way to help, that co-op market, operated by minority residents, is now
on its feet financially.
In Los Angeles, the Joint Council of Teamsters is administering
TOPS--the Transportation Opportunity Program-- in cooperation with the
Institute of Industrial Relations at UCLA. TOPS offers automobile
and truck driving training, mechanical instruction and remedial studies
to minority and low-income citizens. So far, more than 800 persons
have graduated from the program.
I
could go on---I could tell you about the aerospace company in
San Diego which has formed a non-profit corporation to design and build
low-cost housing
or, about Hewlett-Packard which has started a
completely new electronics plant in East Palo Alto which is manned
entirely by minority group employes and which someday will be owned
by them.
The University community, with its reservoir of talents and vigor,
is also in the action. At Berkeley, for example, a number of student-
faculty programs are helping to lessen some of the poverty and
unemployment in that area. At Stanford, the students and faculty in
the School of Business Administration are helping minority businesses
in the area.
And, one of the n t exciting ventures is th program now
developing between my office and the California Jaycees to form a
statewide Service Alliance which would function at the local level.
These young men, throughout the state--and long noted for their public
service efforts--can become a tremendous force in building civic and
personal involvement through such an alliance.
It is is here--in the hearts and minds of our citizens, individuals
and organizations, companies and labor unions, students and faculty--
that we find the great genius of America. There is nothing that
government and the private sector-working together--cannot accomplish.
As we anticipate the business climate in our state--not just for
this year or next, but for the decade ahead--it should be of great
concern to all of us that, during recent years, we have had to "import"
skilled workers for our sophisticated and even some of our not-so-
sophisticated---industries.
Since World War II, something like 40 percent of our skilled labor
force has been brought in from other parts of the nation---and, in
fact, from other parts of the world. Now it is estimated that during
the decade of the seventies we shall be required to "import" another
2.4 million skilled men and women to meet the job openings in our
growing businesses and industry and to keep pace with our expanding
economy.
Yet, at the same time, we do have a measure of under-employment
and unemployment, and we also witness a sizeable increase in the
number of persons on welfare rolls.
In recent years the federal government has been spending money,
and expanding programs, at the annual rate of more than $200 million
to increase the employability of disadvantaged persons. It is an
indictment of such programs and such policies that their impact has
largely been lost in a maze of bureaucracy, inefficiency, duplication
and misdirection. We have been losing the war on poverty mainly
because it has been fought on the wrong fronts, with the wrong weapons,
by the wrong generals.
The answer to poverty is incomes, not hand-outs; the answer to
unemployment is employment, not politics.
The greatest force for winning the war on poverty comes not from
the halls of Congress or the corridors of Sacramento, but from the
offices, and the factories and the shops of American business and
industry.
In 1900-based on he $3,000 a year income m7 :- and adjusted for
constant-dollars--90 percent of Americans were below the so-called
poverty lines. By 1920, this figure had dropped to 50 percent and,
by 1960, it had been reduced to 20 percent. In no other nation in
history had the upward economic thrust of a people been so dramatic,
so definite and so sustained, The driving force was the American
capitalistic system---free labor and free capital working together to
increase productivity, incomes, jobs and opportunities.
Since 1960-when the federal government declared "war" on
poverty--millions upon millions of dollars have been thrown into
programs to bring more individuals above the $3,000 income level
at
the same time that labor and capital, increasingly burdened by taxes,
inflation and controls, but still relatively dynamic--continued to
surge ahead. The results, after seven years of governmental
programming? a drop to 11 percent, just about the same annual rate
of progress made when the free enterprise system was doing the job
pretty much on its own.
Now, no one is saying that we should cancel all government
programs; but what I am saying is that these figures are a fairly clear
indication that it is the private sector--business and industry, labor
and management- which has the great, and the only real, capacity to
win the war on unemployment and poverty. What I am saying is that
the walls of the so-called ghettos are primarily economic---and that
the greatest potential for knocking down those walls lies with business
and industry.
A necessary companion in this immense journey is education- in
fact, education should be a lodestar for progress- both economic and
social.
Servan-Schreiber in his exciting book, "The American Challenge",
traces the origin and the forces behind economic expansion. He
examines some emerging factors which now seem to be the most dynamic
power for expansion in these threshold years of our technical age.
In the past (he points out) economic expansion was due in large
measure--and largely attributable to--growth in capital investment and
labor force; the nations which wisely applied these forces were the
nations which led the world in economic development. In the future--
while these two forces will certainly continue to be vital--the nations
with the strongest educational system and the greatest technological
innovations will be the leaders. The fact that our nation--and our
state--continue to lead the pack and, in fact, widen the gap in many
economic areas is because- to a great degree--we have managed to couple
these forces of education and technology to the mainspring of free
It is the drive these forces, for example that is making the
American business community in Europe one of the great economic powers
in the world. And, it is also largely because of the generation and
harnessing of these essential forces that our state, with its educa-
tional excellence and its technological leadership, ranks fifth among
the nations of the free world in terms of gross product.
In this state, over the years, the people have built one of the
great educational systems of the nation: universities and colleges
both public and private, community colleges and elementary and secondary
schools.
Our commitment to this system--and our resultant investment in
tax dollars--underscores our realization that education which engenders
technological innovation and application--as well as spiritual growth
and moral values--is essential to society's progress.
(And, this is one of the several reasons we are all so angry and
impatient with that small element of criminals and subversives which
seems intent upon tearing down what the people have built up.
(We will not--we cannot--permit anarchists and insolent and
juvenile guerillas to tear down our institutions. And I, as
governor, will do everything in my power to assist college authorities
and local law enforcement agencies to see that it is stopped. There
can be no compromise with violence.
But, at the same time that we move together to rid our campuses
of this disruptive element---we must also move ahead on several major
educational fronts:
First, we must make higher education available to more qualified
students, especially those from lower income families. Therefore,
I will again press for a tuition plan at our state university and
colleges. Such a plan is essential if we are to keep pace with the
growing costs of higher education.
Such a plan is necessary if we
are to equitably diffuse the mounting costs of higher education. And
such a plan is necessary to establish a system of grants and loans for
qualified students from our lower income families.
Second, we must move ahead with a system of vocational training
institutes. We must do this so that a growing number of our young
people those who will never seek a baccalaureate degree--can obtain
the training in the skills and technical abilities which are essential
to their future and ours in this electro-technical age.
- 7 -
This is surely an rea where we can work toge er--government,
private and academic sectors--to design and put into action a system
of technical training which is responsive and relevant to a rapidly
changing world.
Such a structure will not be of real consequence unless we together
project the needs and demands for skills and technical abilities in the
years ahead. It would do us little good, for example, to turn out
buggy-whip makers in an age of satellites and cybernetics.
And, third, we must move to reform our elementary and secondary
educational system- grades K-through-12. For too many of our children
in today's schools are still in the shadow of yesterday's techniques,
yesterday's programs and yesterday's drumbeat. Too many of our young
people in the so-called "turned-on" generation are turning off and
dropping out. We must design a modern system to stimulate the quest
for knowledge and preparation for these coming generations.
A responsive, creative government-- turned on private sector--
an expanding and excellent educational system: these are forces
which may not be dealt with in depth at this seminar, but they are
forces which can make the difference in the future a difference
between mediocrity and frustration, on the one hand, and greatness a
inspiration on the other.
Almost 140 years ago the French philosopher Alex de Tocqueville
wrote about us the American people. He called us "the most peculiar
people in the world.
"You won't believe it when I tell you how they behave," he wrote.
"In a local community in their country, a citizen may conceive of some
need which is not being met. What does he do? He goes across the
street and discusses it with his neighbor. Then what happens? A
committee begins to function in behalf of that need, and you won't
believe it, but it is true--all of this is done without reference to
any bureaucrat. All this is done by the private citizen, on his own
initiative."
Now, there are those who say that this might have worked, back
1830 but that it won't work today that things are too big, too
complex and besides, nobody cares anymore.
-8-
I disagree. Peor : do care. And, the very ( ct that we have
grown so large, and in some ways are so complex, demands that we
continue--that we reapply- this American character.
Either we, as individuals, and as companies and labor unions "go
across the street and discuss it with our neighbors" and organize and
get the action going, or government. will do it for us.
That is what the folks at Kaiser are doing--that is what the
people at Safeway and Hewlett-Packard and the Teamsters and hundreds--
thousands- of others are doing
going out and doing something extra,
where it counts.
This is the way we build the climate---social and economic; this
is the way we build the California character and California!
# # #
(NOTE: Since Governor Reagan speaks from notes, there may be additions
to, or changes in, the above. However, Governor Reagan will
stand by the above quotes.)
-9-
Y
2/7
w'
-
OFFICE OF THE GOVER.. CR
RELEASE: Friday P.M.s
Sacramento, California
Contact:
Paul Beck
445-4571
2-6-69
EXCERPTS OF SPEECH BY GOVERNOR RONALD REAGAN
GOVERNOR'S INDUSTRIAL SAFETY CONFERENCE
Los Angeles
February 7, 1969
It was just a year ago that I spoke to you in San Francisco, and
it is nice to see so many of you here now pursuing your efforts to
eliminate on-the-job mishaps to California employees.
When I began to think about what I should say today, I wondered
if I should even discuss safety. For one thing, I am not an industrial
safety expert. For another, the subject is being quite thoroughly
covered here at your conference, I understand, in dozens of expert
presentations on just about every aspect of industrial safety.
Believe me, I would no more try to tell Walt Alston or Bill
Rigney how to run a ball club any more than I would stand before
many of you--the experts--and try to develop a master safety plan that
would solve every problem with which you have been grappling for years.
However, I realize that in even thinking about seeking a new
topic, I am violating a sound rule: "Never take anything for granted."
So, with your indulgence, I would like to say a little about this
all-important subject in which we have a profound stake.
A constructive interest in safety is part of my job. Safe working
conditions and safe conduct on the job are essential to the well-being
of our men and women workers and, therefore, to the state's general
welfare. In addition to the pain and suffering of accidents, there
is a staggering direct financial cost---nearly one-half billion
dollars in compensation insurance premiums were paid last year to
cover the medical and compensation costs of industrial injuries in
California. This is only a part of the total loss; it does not
include indirect costs such as property damage and lost production
time that pile up when accidents occur.
Within our state government, the frequency rate for disabling
accidents was 18.4 per million man hours worked during the fiscal
year 1967-68. This figure has not changed significantly for the
past 15 years. It is a rate higher than that for comparable
operations in either the federal government or private industry,
and--in addition to the pain and suffering of those who are injured--it
is costing the people of California some $6 million a year. If the 15.
present rates are maintained, such accidents will cost us some
$12 million. a year by 1972.
-1-
So, you can see we have our safety problems too, and we are
working on them. I recently requested my cabinet secretaries and
their department heads to institute a three-year accelerated program
to reduce occupational injuries. This will involve all of our
people from administrators right through to the individual employee;
safety is and must be a full-time, everybody-concerned effort.
The tangible benefits of safer ways of doing things demonstrate
over and over again that continued attention to safety is worth the
effort. Let me cite an example that recently came to my attention.
An important railroad technical center has developed an electronic
device to stop a train should the engineer suddenly become
incapacitated. The unit is a modern substitute for the old "dead-man
control.
"
Some engineers did not like the old device because they had to
keep a foot on the same pedal all the time. Now ultrasonic waves,
too high to be heard by the human ear, are being used to increase
railroad safety.
A small cabinet placed in the cab of a speeding locomotive beams
a steady stream of high frequency waves toward the engineer. The
reflected waves, acting like radar, continually monitor his movements.
If he is completely immobile for over thirty seconds, a visible and
audible alarm occurs.
Then merely a slight movement of his hand will reset the unit.
If this is not done in ten seconds, the brakes are automatically
applied to the train.
Although it is true that industrial management has done much to
reduce hazards by providing safe working environments, it also must
be recognized that nearly every employee has contributed greatly to
injury elimination.
Everyone who holds a job has already demonstrated that he has
at least some ability to avoid and prevent accidents. Our protective
instincts, our agility, physical strength, intellect and the five
senses, all help us to avoid injury, but in this day, intellect is
most important. Intellect deserves special mention because it
provides a means for the planning, the foresight, the learning, the
training needed to master our more complex hazards those too
tough for control by nature's simpler defenses.
Above all, management, labor, and their families must keep
everlastingly at the task. Safety promotion in industry must be a
team effort. Every individual should participate just as all must
help achieve such industrial goals as high productivity and high
quality. Accidents are a continuing threat; their prevention must be
a continuing effort.
In 1967, California industry set a new record of accomplishment
in industrial safety. Out of every 1,000 workers, 970 of them went
through the year without a disabling accident. Estimates for 1968
show injury rates up slightly from 1967 although the 1968 rate is
apparently the second best in the state's history. This temporary
set-back must not be allowed to discourage you in your safety efforts,
but instead, provide the added nudge needed to continue the downward
trend next year. California is a big state with many variables to
affect its injury rate. We can accept some ups and downs along the
way as long as permanent gains are extablished in the long run.
Obviously, there is no basis for complacency in the state's
industrial safety performance. The record can and must be improved.
The difference between a .200 hitter and a .300 hitter in baseball is
just one more hit every tenth time at the plate. Not much difference,
but professional baseball players, managers, and owners will tell you
it is the difference between playing baseball in the big leagues or
the minors, or not even playing. And so it is in injury prevention.
A fractional part of a second, an inch, or any measurable force can
be, and often is, the difference between life or death, disability
or sound health, a job or no job. How few are the inevitable,
unavoidable accidents. Every one of us has had the repeated
experience in accidents to ourselves or involving others of
realizing that one silly, easily avoided slip had meant all the
difference.
We must improve our batting average. But there is a basis
for confidence---confidence that sustained, intelligent application
of sound accident prevention measures will achieve continuing progress.
There was a time, as we all know, when industrial accidents were looked
upon as part of the price of progress. Fortunately this concept has
been changed due largely to the efforts of people like you.
The organized safety movement in California is now over 50 years
old. At this age, I am sure it is capable of demonstrating considerable
maturity in meeting its challenges. At the same time, maturity must
not dull intellectual curiosity and initiative. It is too young for
senility. You know well that your basic programs, sound as they
are, can be further refined and supplemented. While rejecting the
obviously impractical, you must continue to adhere to the idea that
innovations are both possible and desirable.
There are other additional compelling reasons for working harder
than before at the safety job.
One is the fact, of which I am sure you are aware, that each
measure of improved safety performance tends to be more difficult
to achieve than the previous one. The law of diminishing re
goes to work unless efforts are constantly improved and intensified.
It is like a man going on a diet: the first ten pounds are easy; from
then on, every pound is a real struggle.
Another force demanding continued improvement of safety efforts
is that of technological progress which brings new problems as well
as benefits. Actually, solving newly created problems is simply an
inherent part of making progress through innovation.
In the case of technological advances, it would appear that the
safety programs must adjust to at least two types of people: those
who fear change because of the unknown, and those who welcome change
with excitement and enthusiasm but, sometimes, without adequate
preparation.
The competent safety leader plays a key role in technological
progress by educating both the fearful and the foolhardy. He makes
new machines and methods serve us better by showing us how to live
with them.
Along with industrial safety-- the major concern of these meetings--
are other areas of safety that affect all of us expecially home
safety and traffic safety. We are familiar with the high accident and
fatality rate in traffic and with the huge burden of home accidents.
-4-
What can you and I do to prevent ourselves and others from
becoming involved in situations at home, or on the highways, which
can lead to injuries or fatalities? What can we do to prevent
ourselves, members of our families, or our friends from being involved
in tragic situations? First, we must continue to learn as much as we
can about avoiding injuries; and secondly, we must be vigorous
salesmen at all times to assist others in avoiding the traps we are
able to foresee.
Since all accidents or injuries result from one or both of two
very simple situations: an unsafe act or the existence of a hazard,
it follows that any person with determination, intelligence and
leadership ability can do much for safety in the home.
We can never completely eliminate hazards; all of life is a
hazard to some degree. Hazards can be reduced and often quite
substantially. Industry has made and is still making great progress
in this area, partly as a result of guidance and assistance from the
Division of Industrial Safety and the Industrial Safety Board, through
the development and enforcement of industrial safety orders. California
homes need the same kind of attention, but of course, the occupants
themselves must be the safety inspectors.
In any case, we know that logic and determination, properly
applied, can do much for injury prevention, both on and off the job.
I hope you who are here today--experts in accident prevention--will
devote some of your extra time to community safety efforts.
Last December, I addressed the Governor's Traffic Safety
Conference in Sacramento. At that meeting I quoted from the congressional
record of October 9, 1968. Remarks were read into the record by
Senator Everett Dirksen: "During the past several months, much has
been said in the halls of Congress and elsewhere about violence in
the streets, violence by guns and the like, but not much has been
said nor has much attention been given to violence on the highways
and byways of America from automobile accidents. 11
-5-
Senator Dirksen went on to point out that beginning with 1961,
25,000 American boys have been killed in Vietnam, while during that
same eight-year period, 400,000 Americans have been killed and over
20 million have been injured by motor vehicle accidents on U. S.
highways and streets. And 50 percent of the auto deaths are to persons
under 30 years of age---our youth, our most precious trust.
In California in 1967, as in earlier years, vehicles combined
to represent the most frequent agency of on-the-job deaths, and of
all categories associated with non-fatal accidents, vehicles were
second only to working surfaces in the number of injuries recorded.
It is evident the operations of automobiles and trucks on the state's
streets and highways also pose a formidable problem in the industrial
safety field.
We must come up with new ways to curtail this loss of life.
We intend to pursue corrective legislation, especially in the
area of presumptive limits, to help rid the state of the drinking
driver.
But in the final analysis, government can do just so much. It
can represent your wishes, but it cannot be a substitute for citizen
action, follow-through, and determination. California's enterprisers
daily demonstrate their ability to solve the complex problems which
confront them. In the final analysis, the solution to these problems
rests largely in their hands. Government can establish guidelines
and provide stimulation, and labor can cooperate, and when all the
forces jell together, we can be assured that our injury trend will be
forced downward.
Since I am not an expert or a professional in industrial safety,
I won't presume to offer any technical suggestions. But let me close
with this statement by Thomas Henry Hurley:
"Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability
to make yourself do the thing you have to do--when it ought to be
done-whether you like it or not; it is the first lesson that ought
to be learned; and however early a man's training begins, it is
probably the last lesson he learns thoroughly. 11
-6-
I have full confidence in the ability of California men and women
in the safety movement to make progress both in the technical areas
and in mobilizing support. And you have this organization, the
Governor's Industrial Safety Conference, as a valuable mechanism
to help give direction and impetus to your efforts.
The people of California join me in commending you and wishing
you well in your great, humanitarian work.
####
(NOTE: Since Governor Reagan speaks from notes, there may be
additions to, or changes in, the above text. However,
the Governor will stand by the above quotes. )
71/2
x
2
OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR
Sacramento, California
Contact: Paul Beck
445-4571
2-14-69
TRANSCRIPT OF SPEECH BY GOVERNOR RONALD REAGAN
Newport Beach Exchange Club
Newport Beach
February 14, 1969
I am very happy to be able to participate in the launching of
Crime Prevention Week that is taking place here today.
I am grateful to Mr. DeAlphonso (sp?) for his book and am
looking forward to reading it. I have been presented another book
since I arrived here today The $20,000,000 Challenge by Kenyon
Scudder and Kenneth Dean. I look forward to reading that. The title
doesn't sound strange to anyone connected with law enforcement, because
that is just about the cost of crime in America today.
Disregard for law and order increases all around us. The crime
rate soars. The use of narcotics spreads, particularly among our
young, and a violent faction would turn our campuses into staging
areas for insurrection and our streets into a no man's land.
There are those, today, who say that each man can choose the law
that he will observe; that the need for social change is justification
enough to wreck society; that the need for reform is excuse enough to
justify the violation of the law.
Much of the lawlessness today is a sympton of the sickness of
permissiveness permissiveness in the attitudes toward right and
wrong, permissiveness in the application of justice. It is a per-
missiveness which pervades our homes, our schools, and in certain cases,
our churches
a permissiveness which invades our courts and our
governments.
Suddenly it is wrong to hold the individual accountable for his
own actions. Suddenly it is wrong to hold the parent accountable for
the deeds of his children. Suddenly it is wrong to expect college
students and faculty members to obey the rules.
-1-
What has happened to the concept of right and wrong---of the
concept of justice; of reward for virtue and punishment for vice?
What has happened when the guarantee of law, which was written to
protect the law abiding, is twisted and turned to set the criminal
free and the subversive loose? What has happened when anarchy is
given status as a bargaining agent to destroy academic freedom and
to halt the orderly process of education?
It is all too simple and it is too fallacious- to trace all
crime to poverty. There is a criminal problem in the suburbs today
as well as in the slums; there is a criminal problem on the campus
as well as the street corner. As Eric Hoffer pointed out recently,
Germany destroyed the slums of England bombed them out of existence.
But, the crime rate soared.
At the turn of the century, some 90 percent of the people in
America of our own citizens 90 percent of us in the year 1900 were
below the poverty level in adjusted dollars as is decreed today by
our government the level at which poverty begins. Today, only 11 per-
cent of our citizens live below that line, and yet, who among us could
possibly believe the crime rate in the year 1900 could anywhere near
approach the percentage of crime in relation to population that we
have in our nation today.
Our time of affluence is a time of increasing lawlessness; for
too many of our young people the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow
is turning out to be just plain pot; and the soul of America hangs in
the balance.
What is needed today is a revival of common sense and common
decency; a rejection of the permissive attitude. It is time to
reject the notion that everytime the law is broken, society is guilty
rather than the law breaker. It is time to restore the American
tradition that each individual not only counts, but is accountable for
his own actions.
My administration is committed to a creative society in which
each and every person is guaranteed the maximum freedom under just
laws; and to the proposition that the first duty of government is to
protect its citizens and to preserve law and order.
-2-
In the past two years, on the optimistic side, we can justifiably
say we have made considerable progress in law enforcement, criminal
control and prevention in California. The California Council on
Criminal Justice has been established, and, for the first time, we
have a professional statewide planning agency working for the development
of modern techniques in the prevention and control of crime and the
treatment of criminal offenders.
We have vastly expanded the funds available to local government
for training peace officers and we have expanded programs in rehabili-
tation and job training for the men and women in our correctional
system.
You know, contrary to what some people may think about the image
of our administration, we are concerned with rehabilitation. We have
taken some steps that have been called in national magazines the most
exciting in penal reform in the nation.
One of these happens to be an experiment going on at Tehachapi
which has to do with marital and family visits for offenders, particu-
larly first-time offenders who are going to be released from prison
in the near future, and we hope rehabilitated and not returned. We
have taken homes, once occupied by prison personnel--three bedroom
homes equipped with full kitchens, with television, and so forth--and
on the basis of good behavior, prisoners are allowed periodically to
have weekend visits with their entire family and to live there without
guards or prison garb and reestablish the family relationship. We
think we have a better chance of rehabilitation if they don't lose
their families while they are in prison.
Of course, we are a little concerned about this boomeranging.
When the word of this experiment went through the prison system in
California, it went like wildfire and was greeted with great joy by
all the prisoners; they wanted it to be successful. The thing that
disturbs us is that one young fellow who is a bachelor said he couldn't
wait to get out to get married so when he got back in again, he could
have those visits.
In cooperating with the attorney general, we have established a
pace-setting communications and crime information network which will
enable state and local law enforcement agencies to work together
swiftly and effectively, using the most modern devices of this
electronic age. It is a crime computer information tieup between our
-3-
local communities, the state and with the federal information crime
computer in Washington, D. C.
This year we have introduced, or will introduce, to the Legislature,
measures to increase the penalties for those who use firearms in the
commission of a crime; to give law enforcement officers necessary
tools to fight organized crime, and to curb the dissemination of the
obscene and harmful materials.
We are also taking a strong action in the area of narcotics and
drug abuse. California's young people are becoming poisoned by
dangerous drugs at a shocking rate. In the past eight years, juvenile
narcotics cases have increased nearly 2,000 percent. We have joined
with the PTA, the California Medical Association, the newspaper
publishers, broadcasters, outdoor advertising people and law enforce-
ment agencies in a statewide educational campaign on drugs and narcotics
in the schools and in the public media.
All of this is essential. But, it is not enough. The serious
the extreme proportions of the crime problem are not simply a matter
of government; they are a matter which demands the concern and the
action of every citizen. Let me put the dimensions this way: we
gathered in this room at approximately 12 o'clock. If I limit
myself and I will to the normal, respectable time for such a
luncheon speech, we will adjourn a little after 1:30 due to my being
late. But all in all, roughly this program that brings us together
takes 90 minutes in total an hour and a half together and during
this hour and a half, while we are gathered here in this room, 90
serious crimes will be committed here in our state
one serious
crime for each 60 seconds that we are here
for every 60 seconds
of every hour during the day for every day of the year.
a
While we meet here in this room, somewhere in California/woman
will be raped; five people will be robbed; another five people will
be the victims of aggravated assault; 45 burglaries will have been
committed; there will be seven cases of grand theft
and 16 auto-
mobiles will have been stolen, just in the period that we are here
in this room.
-4-
There was a time when an after-dinner stroll down the street or
through the park was an evening's enjoyment; today, in too many
places in our state and our nation, it is a nightmare an invitation
to mayhem or even murder.
There was a time when the campus was a scene of tranquility, an
academic pursuit of almost idyllic serenity; today, it is too often
the scene of violence, anguish and anarchy. The dean of one of our
institutions of higher learning in California was forced to admit
recently that he admitted students enrolled students in that
institution that were chosen by another group of students he
enrolled them while they held switchblade knives at his throat until
he agreed to take them. School rooms are firebombed and other serious-
minded students are assaulted and intimidated.
Jim Murray, a sports writer for one of our metropolitan papers,
turned from the playing field, recently, to express his concern, his
anger, at what is happening in the "violent state of America." He
wrote:
Democracy is in the cross-hairs. We quarantine the good, the
reliable, the honest. We keep a 24-hour watch on the trustworthy,
but get a habeas corpus to let anarchy run loose. Freedom is being
gunned down. The right to murder is the ultimate right in this
country. Sloth is a virtue. Patriotism is a sin. Conservatism is an
anachronism. God is over 30 years old. To be young is the only
religion as if it were a hard-won virtue. Decency is dirty feet
and a scorn for work. Love is something you need penicillin for.
Love is handing a flower to a naked young man while your mother sits
home with a broken heart. You love strangers, but not your parents." "
What has happened to the soul of America?
We are upside down. We are upside down when a short time ago at
a meeting in Washington, D.C., an elected official of our government,
and incidentally, a representative from our own state, was heard to
say several tables away during the invocation
"and I suppose when
this is over, I have to salute that damn flag." And a pall and a
hush fell over the room. The Chief is deified and that of lasting
value is downgraded, thrown into the garbage can along with virtue,
reason, idealism, sanity and used hypo needles. We build monuments
to the sky, but we stand knee-deep in the garbage of empty and
eroded morals.
-5-
General of the Armies Omar Bradley put it this way:
"We have many men of science; we have too few men of God. We
have mastered the theory of the atom, but we have rejected the Sermon
on the Mount. Ours is an age of nuclear giants and ethical infants.
We have achieved brilliance without wisdom and power without conscience."
I suppose, to some degree, we could blame some of our courts.
We could point, for example, to the case where a superior court
on the grounds
judge revoked the suspension of a drunken driver's license/that at
the time of arrest, the driver was too drunk to know his constitutional
rights.
We could, and we should. But, it is too easy to blame the
courts, and let it go at that.
We could, to some extent, blame government. We could point, for
example, to important, necessary laws which have been killed in
committee laws to help our peace officers to deal with crime,
with assaults with deadly weapons, with narcotics and with pornography-
bills which were killed in committee and victims who were killed on the
streets, or in some back-alley room from an overdose of drugs.
We could, and we should. But, it is too easy to blame government
and let it go at that.
We must become angry enough to demand that the courts and the
legislators act responsibly and courageously. But, with all of this,
we must do more.
More than this, we must call on you today, call on you first for
integrity, personal and individual integrity, integrity in our personal
lives, the slate on which we write examples for others to see our
beliefs and our values, integrity in our family life so that our
children have strong patterns to see, and solid examples to follow--
integrity in our business affairs integrity in our community activities.
We can hardly expect the younger generation to come shining through if
those who go before are splashed with hypocracy. A double-standard
and rubber yardsticks will not attract and will not capture the
acceptance of today's young people.
So, my call to you today is a call for integrity. And, it is a
call for involvement personal involvement
caring enough to do
something about it
being concerned enough to go out of your way to
give a helping hand to someone who might be getting off on the wrong
foot
starting off in the wrong direction.
Government can do just so much. Our laws and our courts, when
correctly drawn and equitably and consistently applied, can do just
so much. The rest is up to us, to each one of us. It must be up
to us, or it will never be left up to us. If we don't care enough
to act, to help stand firm, to set an example, to lead the way, then
we will surely become a people of the government rather than a
government of the people.
Just a few days ago something happened which gives me cause
for concern, and it should serve to illustrate just what I mean about
people caring and getting involved, getting on with the splendid
American tradition of people-to-people, person-to-person help.
After the recent floods, I made a tour of the state assessing
damage. The various government agencies were already on the job
working to repair the roads, working to repair the public buildings
and facilities necessary for a smoothly working society. In many
areas, the private and independent agencies were already on the scene
trying to help those families, and those individuals, who had been
hurt by floods and mudslides. At that time I called for the application,
of the acceleration of neighbor-to-neighbor tradition of our American
Society.
Organizations such as the California Jaycees responded immediately
and went about setting up a "sister city" operation so that its members
throughout the state could work with members in the flood-damaged
areas to bring help to the needy.
And in the course of time, it was made plain to me by some, as
I urged this throughout the state, that this concept of person-to-person
help was not only out of date, it was prehistoric. It was even made the
subject of a bitter cartoon that I should have suggested anything so
foolish as to ask people to help each other.
Have we really strayed so far into the Orwellian maze that the
state is really our shepherd, and that all that is necessary is a
social security number, a few paper forms, and a phone call or a
visit to the local governmental agency?
You wonder what it would have been like if the Good Samaritan
had acted on this basis. Rather than stopping and getting involved,
getting his hands dirty in helping the Pilgrim, taking him on with
him, what if he simply looked down and said, "Cool it, bud; as soon as
I get to the next oasis, I'll get in touch with the welfare office and
Caesar will send someone else."
Now, let me make this all crystal clear. I am not suggesting
that government assistance is not needed and is not proper. We have
spent much time and money to develop through the years a system
which can help many in times of disaster and need. This must be
honed and made effective and efficient so that it works rapidly,
so that it responds quickly and expertly. And we have been doing
that honing for the last two years. And I am happy to say that a
State Disaster Plan, which we have put into effect, has come into
immediate action as it did in the last several days of flood, and
everywhere I went there was no complaint about the manner in which
every state agency had come to the rescue.
But let me tell you that no system, no agency, no department,
can ever take the place of person-to-person concern, cooperation,
individual assistance, and just plain "lending a helping hand."
I think, in large measure, this is one of the things which is
bothering so many of our young people. The system-the governmental
superstructure--too often seems to make individual involvement
unnecessary. And, these young people are trying to say to us, "We
are not unnecessary." Each one of them is saying, "I am important,
too. I want to be involved. I want to help. I want to do something."
You, here in this community, know something about that. A couple
of years ago, when high tides were undermining the homes down at the
beach
I wonder how many of you stayed as I did at the television
during the night, watching as some of the local stations stayed with
this struggle during the night
and you saw teenagers in bathing
trunks out there at two o'clock in the morning
cold, loading sand-
bags and bringing them to shore up the homes, and finally there came
a point (and maybe some of you heard me tell this incident or you
saw it yourself) when a television news commentator grabbed a kid.
Sure, he was cold; he was wet; he was tired; he had been there since
the middle of the afternoon; it was two o'clock in the morning. No,
he didn't live in one of those houses. And the inevitable question
came---well, why? And the answer should be on a billboard; it was so
poignant. The kid stopped for just a second, and he said, "Well,
I guess it's the first time we've ever felt really needed."
-8-
Well, they are needed. We need them; we need you to get
involved
to be important and to become necessary. If the time
ever comes, when the system makes individual effort unnecessary,
then the only difference between the United States and Red China
will be the different style of architecture between their communes
and ours.
And what has this all to do with crime prevention? Just this.
Several years ago we all know the story of Kitty Genovese who
was murdered while neighbors looked from behind drawn shades and
darkened doorways; they didn't want to get involved. They watched
her assailant track her as she screamed from house to house, doorway
to doorway, for more than 30 minutes. They watched and did nothing,
because, perhaps, they believed the system had obviated the need for
individual assistance.
Just recently, a few days ago, the horrifying story of a young
boy of 19 occurred. He ran down a crowded freeway, filled with stalled
automobiles, pounding on car windows, crying for help and most people
locked their doors. No one let him in
until his attacker, who
was pursuing him, caught up with him and in full view of hundreds
of "don't get involved" motorists, deliberately shot him in the chest
and gunned him down and killed him there on a crowded freeway. Nobody
opened the car door; nobody went to his aid; no one wanted to get
involved. Another crime statistic was type on another form for
another effort.
A violent society? A sick society? No, an uninvolved society
because a system obviates the need for individual involvement.
Like charity, law and order must begin at home and it must begin
with the individual. All the laws and all the law enforcement offi-
cers and all the courts--essential as they are--will never be the
final answer to a law-abiding society. A law-abiding society depends
upon law-abiding people; it depends upon the spirit of a people who,
by example, by daily conduct, and by determination, establish and
preserve justice, tranquility and order.
What is needed, perhaps, is thinking our way. back to Wednesday,
of the anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln, thinking our way back
to that spirit which caused a young man, young Lincoln, to walk miles
to return a few pennies to a customer he had inadvertently over-
charged a spirit, a conscience, which demanded that he go now--right
now--to return the money, not to wait until tomorrow, not to wait
until maybe the customer came by again in a few days.
What is needed most in America today, in the field of crime
prevention, is that crusading spirit which will set new standards
and revitalize imperishable values. Not a vigilante--not a rule
of force--but a spirit of concern, of solid standards, of respect
and integrity. And here aal of us can start anew today. We your
fellow citizens can lead the way.
Now, lest you think the task too difficult, too impossible,
listen to the words of Edward Everett Hale written almost 100 years
ago. They could become a hallmark of what we are trying to do in
California:
"I am only one--but still I am one. I cannot do everything--
but still I can do something. And because I cannot do everything,
I will not refuse to do the something that I can do."
# # #
-10-
and T I and
85
of
3/3
3
/3
3
OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR
RELEASE: Immediate
Sacramento, California
Contact:
Paul Beck
445-4571
3-3-69
To the Members of the Legislature of California:
CAMPUS DISCRIBERS
During the past several months, many of our campuses, including
the University of California at Berkeley and San Francisco State
College, have been the scenes of acts of violence, disorder and
intimidation caused by a coalition of dissidents and criminal anarchists.
They have attempted to close down these institutions and have inter-
fered with the educational activities of faculty and students.
During this period, students have been assaulted and severely
beaten as they attempted to attend classes. Streets and sidewalks
providing access to the campus have been physically blocked. Classes
have been disrupted. Arson and fire bombings have occurred. Property
has been destroyed.
These conditions have resulted in clear and continuing violations
of the law and disruption of the orderly educational process.
On many occasions, local police and the sheriffs' departments
have been called upon to assist campus police in controlling riotous
conduct and restoring order. The threats and demands of the dissidents,
combined with intelligence information obtained by law enforcement
authorities, indicate that these students and off-campus revolutionaries
intend to continue their lawless activities.
Top law enforcement officials have reported that such campus
disorders have seriously depleted the law enforcement resources of
surrounding cities and counties, particularly in view of the serious
crime situation already existing in those communities. Local law
enforcement officials therefore have requested that State assistance be
provided to support and reinforce local police and sheriffs' departments
in maintaining order on the campus.
It is imperative that an educational atmosphere be maintained if
the orderly educational process is to go forward. It is equally
important that the lives and safety of students and faculty, and the
property of our educational institutions--paid for and maintained with
taxpayers' dollars--be protected. These campuses must be free of violence
threats and intimidation.
- 1 -
To assist in achieving these goals, I strongly urge the passage of
legislation to accomplish the following:
1. Provide that any student who is suspended or expelled from a
state university, college, junior college, or high school, and who
thereafter enters the property of a public educational institution
without permission of the chief campus officer, or his representative,
is guilty of criminal trespass.
This proposal will help to assure that those students responsible
for disruption will be separated immediately from the campus. Without
access to campus property, it will be much more difficult for a
rebellious minority to exercise coercive or disruptive tactics. This
proposal makes possible the granting of permission to students to enter
school property at the time of a disciplinary hearing and could be given
to all students suspended or expelled for nondisruptive conduct.
2. Provide that any student of a public educational institution
who is convicted of a criminal offense arising out of a campus disturbanc
shall be dismissed from that institution and shall be ineligible for
admission or readmission to any state school or college for a period
of at least one year.
This proposal will assist in isolating the hard core rebels. Those
actually convicted in a criminal court of crimes associated with a
campus disturbance will not be allowed to use the cloak of student status
to cover their nonacademic involvement on any campus in the state. One
year's forced absence will guarantee peace to the school and a time for
meditation by the student.
3. Provide that any faculty member or other employee of a public
educational institution who is convicted of an offense arising out of a
campus disturbance shall be dismissed and shall be ineligible for
further employment in a state school or college without specific review
and authorization by the governing body of such institution.
This proposal will apply the same standard of conduct to teachers
who betray their academic calling through disruptive activities as is
applied to disruptive students. The requirement of review and authorize
tion by the governing body prior to rehiring will guarantee that no
force will be tolerated and that professional standards are maintained.
- 2 -
4. Provide that no person may bring or possess a loud-speaker
system or voice amplifier on the premises of an educational institution
without the permission of the chief campus officer or his representative.
This proposal will do much to restrict the ability of a disruptive
group from bypassing campus authorities. Now, by use of portable sound
equipment, any group can hold a mass rally at any time and in any place.
The use of such equipment in the past to gather crowds has resulted in
a frequent base for mass disorder.
In brief, this combination of proposals is intended to:
a. Immediately separate disruptive forces from the campus;
b. Isolate the hard core rebels;
C. Deter participation in violent and unprofessional activities
by the faculty; and
d. Restrict the ability of rebellious leaders to form mobs for
disorderly and violent conduct.
Legislation on some of these subjects has been introduced. The remainder
is prepared in the form of bills or amendments to bills. I am asking
that all of these proposals be enacted as urgency measures, so that they
will take effect immediately upon passage and approval by me. Let me
encourage each of you as legislators to consider seriously the many bills
now pending and to use your knowledge and initiative to propose additional
remedies either as regular bills or as urgency measures.
These actions will clearly indicate that the State of California
is determined to exercise its responsibility to maintain law and order
and preserve an academic atmosphere on the campuses of our University
and colleges as well as all other educational institutions. Academic
goals must be pursued through legitimate educational channels without
force of violence. Nonacademic goals must not be allowed to destroy
the educational process. But law enforcement agencies cannot accomplish
this alone. This dilemma and these proposed remedies have been discussed
with educational officers and members of the Legislature, and represent
a variety of viewpoints and suggestions.
Assisted by this legislation, the combined action of state and local
officials and the administrators of educational institutions will
guarantee that every campus will be fully restored to the educational
purpose for which it is supported by the people of California.
########
Social
*
3
3/5
S
OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR
RELEASE:
"oon, Wednesday
Sacramento, Califo a
March 5
Contact:
Paul Beck
445-4571
3-5-69
EXCERPTS OF SPEECH BY GOVERNOR RONALD REAGAN
Agricultural Council of California
Sacramento Inn
March 5, 1969
California agriculture has always been a "can do" operation, and
it comes as no surprise that your particular movement--marketing through
farmer-owned cooperatives--continues to lead the nation. I understand
that California, once again, gained the number one ranking in the volume
of business handled by these farmer-owned co-ops. That volume was $1.9
billion for the year ending June 30, 1967, an increase of six percent
over the previous year.
Congratulations. Now if you can only figure out a way to handle
the problem of weather, California will be eternally in your debt.
Administrative and legislative action doesn't seem to be the answer,
except to help the flood victims in every way we can.
I've been close to California agriculture for quite a while now,
and I guess its accomplishments should no longer surprise me. The
fact that we've been the leading agricultural state for over 20 years,
that we have over 200 commercial crops, that our productivity rises
even as the number of farmers drops by five or six thousand a year,
that we supply about one-quarter of the nation's table food,
/that we lead the nation in food processing as well as producing--these
are achiev ments all Californians can be proud of.
"Pointing with pride" " is good for the ego. "Viewing with alarm"
is something else again. But it may be healthier in the long run,
because unless we face our toughest problems and work hard toward
solutions, we may some day have a lot less to which we can point with
pride.
The economic health and success of California's farmers are vital
to the total economy of the state. The record $4.35 . billion in gross
farm income recorded by California growers in 1968 expands into about
$16 billion as this production spreads through the economy and is
processed, handled, packed, shipped and sold. Agriculture provides a
solid foundation for the growth of many allied industries and engenders
a host of jobs for the state's increasing population. So I feel it is
encumbent upon the state administration to do everything in its power to
help, to guide, to research--in short to be a working and creative
partner in the agricultural economy.
- 1 -
The California farmer is well aware of the need for government
understanding and assistance, and he has demonstrated that he not only
wants it but is willing to pay for it, Some of agriculture's most
important self-help programs are those within the framework of govern-
ment but administered and financed by agriculture itself.
Many of these self-help projects are in the form of Marketing Order
in which the state serves as an aid for producers, handlers and
processors of a given commodity to pool their resources and finance
projects of research, advertising, promotion, quality control and other
activities that lead to a wider, better market for that product. Some
ten million dollars annually is currently spent by agriculture and its
allied industries through these Marketing Orders.
A different kind of self-help is exemplified in the millions of
dollars agriculture contributes to the University of California for
agricultural research each year, in addition to the many millions they
spend in private research. This investment by agriculture pays off in
new and better varieties of crops, an explosion of technological
improvements, and more effective methods of cultivation and plant pest
control.
There is one area in which I believe state government should help
California agriculture more than it has in the past. This is in the
field of foreign trade.
The capacity of the California farmer to produce in greater
abundance than is needed for domestic consumption is well known. As a
result, Californiaagriculture, largely through its own efforts, has
built up an annual export business amounting to a half billion dollars.
This is about 35 percent of the state's total foreign trade volume.
About 90 percent of these foreign sales are made for cash, in
dollars. This is new money entering the economic arteries of California
and the nation and our entire economy becomes that much stronger.
The establishment and maintenance of trade relations with foreign
countries is of course a Federal responsibility. In California, howev
we have had World Trade Authorities set up specifically to aid California
producers and manufacturers with their exporting problems. From all
accounts, agriculture has never received its share of attention from
these Authorities
- 2
So we've chand things, and I'd like to ( 11 you about these
changes, because it is my hope and expectation that the new system will
be of great help in improving the export picture for California's
agricultural producers.
For a number of years, the state's world trade program has been
operated by three largely autonomous groups: a World Trade Authority
in Los Angeles, another in San Francisco, and a World Trade Authority
Coordinating Council.
Last year, new legislation enabled us to set up a single statewide
California World Trade Authority. Accordingly, we have closed the two
offices in Los Angeles and San Francisco and set up one statewide office
in Sacramento under our new Department of Commerce.
The state also had world trade offices in Tokyo and Frankfurt.
They too, were closed. In their place, we are proposing to open an
office in the New York World Trade Center, where we can be in close and
constant touch with foreign traders from many foreign nations.
Our new World Trade setup will place emphasis on increasing the
export of California's agricultural products. We made sure of that
by giving agriculture good representation on the newly appointed nine-
man California World Trade Authority.
The work of the new World Trade Division in the Department of
Commerce will be varied, far-flung and, we hope, effective for California
agriculture. The Division will aid export-import activities in any way
it can, it will research new opportunities for foreign trade, it will
act as a clearing house for trade leads from both the public and private
sectors, and it will refer those leads to those Californians in a position
to follow through.
In addition, this Division will make continuing studies on the
complex restrictions and regulations that some foreign governments have
established and that are, in effect, trade barriers that hamper the sale
of many California agricultural products overseas.
We cannot negotiate with foreign governments, but we certainly can
recommend courses of action to our own Federal government, and we intend
to. The freest possible system of world trade would be of enormous
advantage to California because of the high quality of our products.
That is the system that we and, we hope, the Federal government will be
working toward.
- 3 -
In that respect, we are fortunate that our former Director of
Agriculture, Dick Lyng, has been appointed an Assistant Secretary of
Agriculture in the Nixon Administration. Dick has an intimate knowledge
of the foreign trade problems of California agriculture, and his voice
in our behalf cannot help but be of great benefit to us.
In a way, we might say that our future agricultural exports have
no place to go but up. I'm sure you are all aware of the spectacula
rise in the air shipments of California fruits and vegetables to all
parts of the world in just the past few years.
We have some figures on this that make for a pretty dramatic
comparison. In 1960 only 100 carlot equivalents of California fruits
and vegetables were flown to market. Last year, 1968, this volume
increased thirty-fold, with about 3,000 carlot equivalents flown to
destinations around the world.
We can look for a continued increase in the use of air transport,
and this is bound to have a tremendous effect on California's export
potential.
Just the other day, I read where one of our western airlines
has begun an all-cargo freighter service between Los Angeles and Seattle,
stopping at San Francisco. This airline already operates similar all-
cargo flights from Los Angeles and San Francisco to Minneapolis-St. Paul.
The facilities on these cargo planes will handle highly perishable fruits
and vegetables as well as other commodities.
Agriculture's great stake in the improvement of air transportation
for its products will be highlighted in a conference entitled "Food by
Air," to be held in San Francisco on April 8 through 10. At this meeting
the eleven western states plus Alaska and Hawaii will explore the
potentials and problems of moving perishables by air. A conflict in
schedule will keep me from attending, but I look for some interesting
results from that conference. I hope those of you who can attend will
be there. Our California Department of Agriculture is one of the co-
hosts and can give you all the details.
With these new developments in transportation, with the added
assistance we plan to give you, and with the famed resourcefulness of
you people in agriculture, I think we can look forward to the day when
California-produced foods will be familiar in more and more overseas
markets and in greater abundance.
- 4 -
A while back,
)
mentioned that University
search
is
helping
along what some people call the technological revolution in agriculture.
This is reflected in greater productivity of better crops using fewer
people, and we all know this is necessary at a time when many scientists
and demographers are predicting a worldwide food shortage and mass
starvation or malnutrition in many areas in the years ahead.
I'd like to go back and take another look at some of the implications
of this technological revolution, because it touches on some of the
difficult problems we face today.
Perhaps the most immediately obvious problem is that faced by the
farmer. To stay afloat in this highly competitive world, he has to have
the financial resources to buy or lease the sophisticated farm machinery
that is coming into use. This takes money and plenty of it. A mechanical
tomato harvester costs about $30,000. And within the past couple of
months we have had farm machinery exhibits in Colusa and Tulare Counties
that featured machines that cost even more than that.
And yet today's farmer has a difficult time trying to make any
kind of decent profit, let alone accumulate the cash to finance the
capital investments that must be made. His gross income is good, but
his net lags far behind because of the skyrocketing prices of the equip-
ment, labor, materials and taxes he must pay.
This is the familiar cost-price squeeze about which we hear SQ much
these days. You people live with this problem, and I doubt that I can
tell you anything new about it. But answers must be found, and I think
are being found to the dilemma. The California Land Conservation Act
should give many farmers a break in the form of reduced property taxes.
This is only fair--farm land should be taxed as farm land, not as a
potential subdivision.
A stronger position at the bargaining table when it comes time to
talk price for your crops will also help; and, through farmer co-ops
and bargaining associations, I believe this is coming about and will
continue to show progress.
I suspect that maybe the biggest help of all would be to put an end
to the inflationary spiral in which this nation seems to be caught; and
that, of course, involves the policies that are made in Washington, D.C.,
more than it does any action we take in California. If inflation could
be halted, or at least slowed down, maybe prices would stabilize to the
point where the farmer could afford the things he needs to run an
efficient and productive operation. And he could also keep his own prices
down where he can compete more effectively in the markets of the world.
The scientific advances in agriculture have implications that go
beyond the farmer, too, As technology enables the grower to produce his
crops with fewer field workers, we will surely continue to encounter
social and economic problems that I suspect are beyond the power of
agriculture to solve.
- 5 -
Displaced workers must have somewhere to
somewhere
to
find
work and raise their families. So, with no farm work available, they
go to the cities; and because they often lack the skills and training
to do city-oriented jobs, they become one more factor in an already
explosive urban problem.
Clearly, there is a need for a good retraining program for the
displaced farm workers; and just as clearly the workers who remain on
the farm must be trained in the use of the scientific machinery that
is becoming standard on all efficient farms.
On the latter score, our California Department of Employment
conducts a sound, continuing training program that teaches farm workers
how to use, maintain and repair the new types of farm equipment,
principles of good farm operation, and other subjects designed to fit
them into today's highly developed agriculture.
There is no need to restate my position on agricultural labor laws
in California and the nation. Let me just read a wire I sent to
President Nixon:
"I note with great satisfaction your urgent request of Secretaries
Hardin and Schultz to study and advise concerning whether the Taft-
Hartley Act should be extended to farm workers.
"The availability of food is vital to all of us. Your concern
with its production and distribution is, of course, shared by me.
"The present national agricultural labor controversy requires the
attention you are giving to it. I respectfully suggest that the problem
requires more than the study of the applicability or non-applicability
of the Taft-Hartley Act--it warrants an in-depth study of the problems
facing the producer and farm labor and a search for a dispute settling
procedure for agriculture which goes beyond the industrial concept.
"I believe that applying the principles of the National Labor
Relations Act to farming is unwise. It is self-evident that such
factors as crop perishability and weather require an approach that
will achieve a balance of union and farmer bargaining power so necessary
to reach fair decisions and avoid loss of food and fibre in the public
interest.
"Social and labor management problems are basic issues in the
present grape boycott activity. This is a national problem which
justifies the national attention you are giving to it. I respectfully
suggest you use your influence to request all parties involved in the
present agricultural labor controversy to withhold all activities until
the facts become available from your study group and recommendations
for solutions are available."
Finally--and this is why I am addressing these remarks to you--I
have called upon each major farm organization, national or local, to
establish written codes of conduct for its members which define minimum
employment standards, including, but not limited to, wages, hours, rest
and meal periods, housing and sanitary facilities; and to establish
committees designed to police such standards and hear complaints.
-6-
And so now we evert again to the phrase, self-help." Government
alone cannot solve the labor-management problems of agriculture by
passing laws. The active cooperation of agriculture is essential.
I ask you, the Agricultural Council, as a reputable and important
segment of California agriculture, to lend your support, and your best
thinking, to this type of program. You owe your existence to the need
for farmers to get together and act in concert to solve their problems.
There is such a need, now, in the field of farm labor.
# # #
(NOTE: Since Governor Reagan speaks from notes, there may be additions
to, or changes in, the above text. However, the governor will
stand by the above quotes.)
-7-
the at
was
the the the
3/15
OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR
RELEASE: SATURDAY, P.M.S.
Sacramento, California
MARCH 15, 1969
Contact:
Paul Beck
445-4571
3-14-69
EXCERPTS OF SPEECH BY GOVERNOR RONALD REAGAN
California Industrial Education Association
Fresno, California
March 15, 1969
One of the most important and difficult tasks facing any Governor
in California is to weigh the competing demands for funds for legitimate
public services and to strike some kind of reasonable balance among them.
In California one of the heaviest demands for a share of the tax dollar
is in the field of education. As citizens and taxpayers, we have come
to regard education as our single most important investment. We spend
more of our tax dollar for education than for any other public activity.
In many countries of the world, education is regarded as a luxury
reserved for a select few. However, we in this country have continually
taken steps to provide certain educational opportunities for all people.
This heavy emphasis on education in the allocation of our public resource:
stems from a basic belief that life is dynamic to be fulfilled, one
must grow. It is the function of education to help each individual grow
to the maximum extent of his capabilities, to help him fulfill his
great personal potential.
It seems to me that it might be appropriate
in describing our
educational efforts to equip our young people with the skills and
knowledge necessary for tomorrow's jobs
to
employ a new phrase,
"technical education." This would include those programs which, over
the years, have been developed in this area industrial arts, vocational
training, industrial education, etc.
I venture to suggest this for two reasons:
First, because it would seem to be especially apt in today's
technical world, and
second, because I think it might be smart to repackage and
revitalize give new impetus, new style to the total program.
Such a new thrust and a new package might help in the important
task of developing a new public attitude toward the entire field of
technical education. Until recently, technical industrial and/or
vocational education has been too often regarded separately from an
academic high school education; it was in the minds of too many a dead
end rather than an open road. The assumption by too many educators
that vocation programs were some sort of dumping ground for academic
failures led, in many cases, to their being just that.
1
And, in such a situation, one can hardly blame students for
turning off and dropping out.
We must, together, develop a new relationship between technical
education and general education. Both are vitally important, both have
a tremendous contribution an essential contribution to make; they
are not competitive, they are complementary and compatible. And, a
great deal of the answer as to whether we can match our people to the
mountains of tomorrow will depend on this new relationship and this
complementary operation.
If the war on poverty is to be won and it must, for the sake of
the poor and the sake of the poor taxpayer it will be won in the
factories, the shops, the offices, the stores and the vehicles of
business and industry
and won, in the first stages, in your classrooms
and shops and training programs.
Preparing students for the transfer from school to work requires
a greater variety of educational preparation for work and demands new
levels of integration of general and technical knowledge and skills.
Similarly, expansion of programs for employed and unemployed adult
workers, including re-training, must take into account the personal
needs of individuals as they attempt to adjust to the occupational change
created by technology.
In planning educational programs and expenditures, we often lose
sight of one essential fact--that 80 percent of our high school young
people will not pursue and complete a Baccalaureate Degree.
Moreover, in California, 40 percent of all persons between the ages
of 18 and 35 who enter the labor force do so with a high school educa-
tion or less. Viewing the nation's educational system as a whole, it
appears that a gross imbalance has developed, with attention concentrated
on the 20 percent of the students who go to college. The need for
training and upgrading in skilled and semi-skilled occupations is
obvious. There is today at the high school level, in many instances,
an over-emphasis on college preparatory programs. What we need is
strong education programs for all students, regardless of their
ultimate educational objectives.
- 2 -
More and more, technical education programs are placing as much
emphasis on learning how to learn as on the acquisition of specific
goals and this is essential. There is an old Chinese proverb which
says: "If you give a man a fish, he will have a single meal. If you
teach him how to fish, he will eat all his life." And, for this
reason, more and more technical education programs are placing emphasis
on both the acquisition of certain specific skills, and also how to
learn so that as technology continues to develop into new areas, the
individual will be able to cope with and stay on top of changing
techniques and methods.
We have entirely too many people--high school drop-outs, high
school graduates, junior college graduates and drop-outs, and college
drop-outs--who can't do anything that the labor force wants to buy.
The economy of California does provide jobs, but this does not
mean that youth are qualified to take the available jobs. It is in
this area, that of providing appropriate training for youth so they
can qualify for employment, that our primary respensibility lies. It
is an obligation that public education must accept and do something
constructive about.
And here, I believe, California's business and industry must take
a more active part. There should be an even closer and more constant
communication between the companies which are going to hire the
students and the institutions which are educating them. Such
communication can better assure that the schools are preparing
students for the skills which will find a ready demand in tomorrow's
market place; and, such coordination can better assure that our
growing business world will have the types and numbers of skilled
employees who are essential to the quantities and quality of production
demanded by our total population.
Somewhere in the total educational structure--as well as in the
home and in the various community entities of our culture--we must once
again develop a respect and a motivation for work. This should start
in the lower grades, but it should be continued and accentuated through
all the years and all the grades. All of the exciting techniques and
machines and electronic wizardries, and all of the exotic products of
the technological age, have not done away with--will not do away with--
the good, old, self-motivated, dignified respect for individual
effort---work. It is imperative that we add a more effective technical
education component to our school system--but it is just as imperative
that we reintroduce the desire, the incentive, the drive for individual
effort, otherwise there will be fewer technological advancements, and
a stunted future for all concerned.
-3-
To put it another way with all the marvels of today and tomorrow--
we have yet to see a button push a button, or a machine conceive and
create and improve a machine; and, even if we could do it, the worst
possible thing that could happen would be to let the machine replace
or make useless the individual. The system that obviates the individual,
and his effort, is the system which destroys the person. Therefore,
it is essential that technical education as well as all education--
be relevant to the whole man, to the complete student
to the
individual who will enter the world of work with a keen sense of the
dignity and an awareness of importance of labor.
We need to develop better information on the skilled manpower
requirements of both industry and government and see that these
requirements are reflected in our technical education programs. We
need to provide more technically oriented counselors in our high
schools, rather than having most of the counseling geared to the needs
of the college-bound student. We need to establish a closer working
relationship between the schools and the employers so that there is a
job waiting for the student rather than a bitter disappointment at the
end of a training period. We need to be alert to rapid changes in
technology and make appropriate adjustments in our technical training
programs. We need to reexamine the requirements that we have
established for teachers to qualify as instructors of technical
subjects, to insure that we have a proper blending of practical
experience and theoretical knowledge. We need to put back into the
field of technical education the kind of creative drive that will
enable us to find better answers than we have been able to come up
with so far. And finally, we need to create a new attitude toward
technical education on the part of students, teachers, and the
public an attitude of respect and dignity.
This is the challenge. This is the opportunity before us.
# # #
(NOTE: Since Governor Reagan speaks from notes, there may be changes
in, or additions to, the above quotes. However, the governor
will stand by the above quotes.)
-4-
3/19
OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR
RELEASE: Immediate
Sacramento, Californ
Contact:
Paul Beck
445-4571
3-19-69
STATEMENT OF GOVERNOR RONALD REAGAN TO THE SPECIAL
SUBCOMMITTEE ON EDUCATION OF THE COMMITTEE ON
EDUCATION AND LABOR OF THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
(DELIVERED BY DR. ALEX C. SHERRIFFS, SPECIAL ASSISTANT
FOR EDUCATION TO GOVERNOR REAGAN, ON MARCH 19, 1969)
MADAM CHAIRMAN AND MEMBERS OF THE SUBCOMMITTEE:
To attempt to analyze in a brief time the significant factors which
have brought about our current campus problems must do an injustice to
the complexities of the situation, However, one of the main factors of
our dilemma is a general lack of information and understanding of the
total problem by much of the public. I wish to commend this committee
on its endeavor to shed light on these problems and to assess the means
for resolving them. Our educational institutions are the key to
individual growth and to the progress of our society. Your efforts are
particularly appropriate at this time because it is only through the
cooperative efforts of public officials at all levels of government, as
well as campus administrators, faculties, and students, that our
educational institutions will be guaranteed the ability to carry on their
responsibilities for teaching, research and service.
As I am sure you are well aware, there is a wealth of misinformation
and the widest range of interpretation of the causes of coercion and
violence spreading to campuses throughout the land. We are faced with
circumstances which have never before confronted our society. People
are groping for explanations without experience to guide them and it is
too easy to make generalizations. We also have the added confusion of
"Mythologies "--some developed by well-meaning apologists for the anti-
social behavior of a few, and others apparently put forth by those in
revolt, who seek to make their excuses acceptable through sheer
repetition.
Today's situation did not come about overnight. In California it
is the culmination of activities which have transpired over the past
ten years. At first there were occasional episodes of mass disruption.
The protests against the House Committee cn Un-American Activities in
1960 in San Francisco were followed by months of romenticizing the role
of the protestors in literature, speeches, recordings, and conferences.
- 1
In 1963-64 there were mass sit-ins in hotels, automobile agencies, and
banks over alleged discrimination in employment practices. In 1964-65
there were similar disturbances at newspaper offices and restaurants.
During these years, the campuses were used as "launching pads" for action
in the surrounding community. The Berkeley campus of the University of
California was most frequently involved.
Beginning in 1964, rather than serving as the launching pad, the
campus itself became the focus of attack. In September and October,
1964, a floor of the Berkeley campus administration building was
"captured." The staff of the Dean of Students' Office was forced to flee
over the roof of the building. A few days later, a police car was
captured and held for 32 hours, one of the longest episodes of mass
interference with due process of law. The police car and its occupants
were finally released after negotiations and major concessions to the
mob by University officials. In December, the entire administration
building was occupied by more than 800 persons, and was held until police
cleared the building by making mass arrests. The pretext for these major
disorders was first related to the demand to use campus facilities for
collecting funds for political purposes; later the slogan "free speech"
was introduced.
Since 1964, the tempo of disruption has rapidly increased until
there is rarely a day that a campus somewhere in California is not in
difficulty. Two campuses have seen constant turmoil: the Berkeley
campus of the University of California, and, during the past few years,
San Francisco State College.
Certain trends are evident. There has been a shift in tactics from
nonviolence to planned and announced violence. There has been a shift
from mass confrontation to guerilla tactics with beatings, the disruption
of classrooms, shootings, bombings, arson and general vandalism and
destinction. Initially, the participants in these incidents were
primarily from the campus although they represented only a small minori
of students and faculty. More recently, their ranks have been swelled by
large numbers of outsiders who have no legitimate connection with the
campus. Mobility between campuses has increased and just recently in
California even high schools have become heavily involved in disorders.
- 2 -
Following a half million dollar fire on the University of California
campus in Berkeley, an editorial appeared in the San Francisco Examiner
of January 24, 1969. I quote:
"The arsonist-set fire at Wheeler Hall Auditorium on the U.C.
Berkeley campus sets a new high in the wave of criminal violence
perpetrated during current strikes and attacks against bay area
educational institutions and educators.
"Here is a partial catalog of recent crimes, including some
involving potential murder:
"February 9, 1968: four firebombs damaged naval ROTC building at
U.C. Berkeley.
"February 19, 1968: flammable liquid set fire on porch of naval
ROTC building at Stanford, causing $35,000 damage.
"May 7, 1968: naval ROTC building at Stanford destroyed. Will
cost $70,000 to replace.
"July 15, 1968: a $100,000 fire destroyed the office and
irreplaceable effects of former Stanford president Wallace Sterling.
"August 6: two fires were set in the Stanford student activities
office.
"September 14: a bomb blasted the naval ROTC building at U.C.
"December 11: a firebomb was hurled at the administration building
at San Francisco State College.
December 13: College of San Mateo students smashed windows and
broke crockery in the college cafeteria.
January 5: shots were fired into a San Mateo home in the mistaken
belief it was the residence of a college trustee, endangering life.
"January 7: the home of Philip C. Carlington, Sr., former Dean
of Instruction at the College of San Mateo, was severely damaged by
firebombs. He and his family were lucky to escape with their lives.
January 10: firebombs were thrown into the home of Edwin Duerr,
coordinator of internal affairs at San Francisco State. One failed to
go off. If it had, Duerr, his wife and three children would have been
killed or gravely injured.
"January 16: a firebomb was defused in the state administration
building. It would have killed anyone within 25 feet.
"January 17: a mob of strikers smashed windows and crippled the
sprinkler system in a rampage at San Jose State College.
"January 20: two firebombs exploded on the U.C. campus.
- 3
Those who see nothing but high moral purpose behind the current
campus violence are invited to re-read the above. "
Just as there have been trends in militancy there have also been
patterns of response to destructiveness. Campus administrators have
typically been slow to act and quick to concede. Often they belatedly
call in the police only when real danger becomes all too apparent.
In California today, there is continuous concern at all levels of
government, including the governing boards of the universities and
colleges, about campus problems and violence. The concern of all is for
the protection of students, for the integrity of the learning process,
and for society itself. It is tragic that the campus, which has
represented a forum for expressing differences of opinion, for the
pursuit of truth, and for the peaceful resolution of problems, has now
become the arena for oppression by revolutionaries, vandals and arsonists.
It may seem incomprehensible that a portion of our population--
including some students, some faculty members, and outsiders--are
attempting to overthrow our democratic way of life. It is equally
incomprehensible in a democratic society--which is the pinnacle of man'
dream for self-government and dignity--to find so many of its citizens
standing mute and helpless while their basic values and processes are
assaulted. Students of Plato and other political philosophers should
today recognize a condition long anticipated: when the majority does
not function, our society falls into the hands of the most cunning or
the most powerful.
For some time, the climate of our society has not been conducive to
the most responsive and responsible citizenship. I need only cite the
letdown which followed World War II, as such periods follow all wars
a sort of recess from social responsibility following a time of total
commitment to a cause larger than ourselves. The prosperity which then
followed led to affluence for the great middle class that group which
historically has set our basic standards of behavior and attitude.
Affluence often leads to self-centered behavior and a smaller chance of
experiencing maturity and good judgment. It weakens pride in meeting
challenges and lessens cooperation among individuals.
- 4 -
Also, the recent advocacy of so-called "right" and "wrong" ways
for rearing children has had profound effects. Parents, who since the
dawn of history found in their hearts what was right and found in their
heads what made sense, were undercut and lost confidence in their
relationships to their children. Who can estimate the effect on a child
who finds his parents consulting a book to make decisions instead of
confidently and directly stating what they believe?
The knowledge explosion, which has brought us some great benefits,
also has a hidden cost. There is too much to know: specialization
follows, and people become less sure of their own opinions. Those
values that human beings need--and indeed what our culture requires--
have been challenged. When moral standards become doubtful, values
become negotiable. When even some clergy question the existence of
God, mere mortals become anxious.
In the past few decades, progress in agriculture, business and
industry has led to the replacement of men by machines. It also has
reduced the opportunities for youth to discover the gratifications of
real work with real purpose. Consider the opportunities for positive
work experience when, in the first decade of this century, 90 percent
of our young people lived on farms. Now only six percent have these
opportunities. Consider the shortage of labor supply in 1900 when it
was necessary to pass child labor laws to protect our youth so they
could stay home or go to school. In wisdom and compassion, we passed
those laws. But today it is the fortunate seventeen-year-old who can
find a job during summer vacation, let alone find full-time work.
All of these changes--and there are more--have operated to make
people less sure of themselves. When unsure, it is natural to withdraw.
It can be no surprise that we speak of a "silent generation, " that we
find a growing distaste by youth for competition, that we find
individuals less willing to stand apart from the crowd.
A democratic society depends upon an active majority of "civilized"
individuals, who express, each in his own way, the values of the culture.
In this way, traditions of fair play, of freedom of speech, of equal
opportunity to learn, even of the right of life, are protected. A
democratic society develops laws largely to protect individuals from the
extreme behavior of those who are not bound by the cultural values and
who are not persuaded by the normal expressions of approval and
disapproval by their peers.
- 5 -
It is obvious--but so important that it bears repeating--that as an
increasing number of citizens refuse to become involved, society for its
survival must depend increasingly upon law enforcement. Law enforcement
becomes a substitute for the moral suasion previously exercised by the
people themselves.
There is general agreement that a small percentage of our society
is responsible for coercion, threats and violence on our campuses.
There is agreement that the behavior of a relative few infringes daily
upon the rights of the many. There is agreement, too, that quality
education--the pursuit of the truth wherever it may lead, of the
opportunity to hear the widest variety of viewpoints on issues--has
suffered terrible damage in the past six or seven years. That dis-
turbances have occurred more on some campuses and in some states than
others provides no reassurance, because the spread is rapid not only
nationally but also locally from colleges into high schools and junior
high schools and out into surrounding communities.
Those who speak and write about the increasingly coercive minority
reveal their own confusion, and add to the confusion of others, by the
descriptive terms they use: "protestors," "demonstrators, and
"activists". These terms suggest those persons are engaging in
activities normal to American life. Is this normal dissent? Just
listen to the words of their leaders:
Devereaux Kennedy, student body president of Washington University,
said:
"I want student power to demand 'revolutionary reforms' that can't
be met within the logic of the existing American system.
"I'm going to say loudly and explicitly what I mean by revolution, "
he continued. "What I mean by revolution is overthrowing the American
government, and American imperialism, and installing some sort of
decentralized power in this country.
"This," he added, "is going to come about by black rebellions in our
cities being joined by some white people. People in universities can
do a number of things to help it. They have access to money, and they
can give these people guns, which I think they should do. They can
engage in acts of terrorism and sabotage outside the ghetto. Negro
people have trouble getting out because they cordon those areas off, but
white activists can go outside, and they can blow things up, and I think
they should.
- 6 -
"But, D he concluded, "that's just a minor part of it. We must
start up fifty more Vietnams. The major thing student activists can do
while all this is going on is to completely demoralize and castrate
America. 11
Ewart Brown of Howard University said:
"I think we agree that the revolution is necessary, and that you
don't conduct a revolution by attacking the strongest enemy first. You
take care of your business at home first, and then you move abroad.
Thus, we must make the University the home of the revolution
"
Our confusion has been deliberately planned: the banners under
which militancy moved were, first, "Abolish HCUA"; then, "Fair play for
Cuba, " then, "Free speech" at Berkeley; next, anti-US-Vietnam policy
(often indistinguishable from pro-Viet Cong). Now, we have demands for
autonomy in determining staffing, admittance to campuses and all matters
relative to students of ethnic minorities. Yet, throughout this sequence
we learn that much of the leadership is the same. After the assassinatio
of President Kennedy, the "Fair play for Cuba" Committee disappeared and
new groups, with the same leadership, were formed.
When Mario Savio was the spokesman for "free speech" in California
he was also referring, in a New York publication, to the issue of free
speech as somewhat a pretext--the silver iodide you put in the clouds
to make the rain fall:
The Vietnam "teach-ins"-- and who is against teaching?--were in
fact, almost uniformly a series of provocative speeches presenting only
one side.
We have noted that there has been a rapid shift in tactics from
nonviolent coercion to the advocacy of and the use of violence. There
also has been a corresponding increase in openness in word and deed--
the success of violence has bred arrogance.
It is apparent that there is also a roving leadership which appears
on campus after campus and in close relationship to accompanying disorder
National publications of SDS, Black Panthers and other new groups exhort
the closing of institutions, destruction of facilities, and the silencing
of opposing viewpoints.
Instructions for constructing bombs and how to place them are now
commonplace.
- 7 -
In a situation with the majority of students and faculty all too
silent, and with a relentless minority of students and faculty (now
with outside reinforcements) becoming increasingly effective in harass-
ment and in distortion of the academic environment, we have prevalent
college administrations who have proved themselves consistently
ineffective.
Typically, we find negotiation, compromise and concession--usually
without reference to, or even in the face of, the expressed desire of
the majority of students or faculty.
It is argued that there is danger of "escalation" when campus
authorities assume their responsibility to enforce laws and regulations.
There is fear that in response to authority, other students and faculty
will join the participants. To rationalize their permissiveness and
appeasement, administrators themselves often promote myths which confuse
those both on campus and off. They speak disparagingly of "generation
gap" at a time when too many parents are in awe of, and tend to imitate,
their own children. They speak of a "new breed with wisdom and con-
science" at a time when research has clearly indicated a social and
emotional immaturity of youth to a degree previously unknown (although
linked with better scholastic preparation).
Administrators speak of "freedom" when they are describing license.
And whereas a few years ago they insisted that, for the protection of
institutions of higher learning, partisan politcal activity not be
launched from within academic facilities, they now rationalize the use
of these institutions by militants for highly partisan purposes as
"relevant education."
A few years ago, administrators and faculty members jealously
guarded the schools' entrance requirements. They now-under pressure
and with good intentions--admit a number of students so underprepared
that they can only fail. It should be no surprise that those facing
failure react with hostility and frustration, and seek radical change
in curriculum in an attempt to remove the threat posed by their inability
to attain even minimum standards of performance.
One cannot fault administrators who use tact, whose responses are
determined in part by a sense of timing and circumstance, and who
recognize fully that irrational, forceful response without explanation
and fairness can have only unfortunate results. One must fault,
however, total abdication of leadership.
Failure of administrative leadership silences further a majority
which is unsure and which is seeking support and guidance. On our
campuses with the most turmoil the percentage voting in student body
elections is SO low that student publications and student government have
become the possessions of the militants--the silent majority has no
representation.
I might interject here, however, that there have been in recent
weeks a few responsible efforts to find voice for the moderate majority.
These efforts should be given every encouragement. Sadly we must also
note, however, that there have been a few examples of "vigilante-type"
conduct by extremists. Continued nonsolution will result in new forces
on the scene, some of them dangerous.
It is true that regardless of social climate or social change,
basic human nature remains the same. Unless limits are set, unless
adults provide models for youth to emulate, unless there is reasonable
discipline which with experience becomes internalized and leads to "self-
discipline, " man will become once again only an animal. A culture will
revert to a jungle if there are no traditions, values and laws which are
respected and defended. Without these, only might will make right.
These tragic circumstances have continued too long. On some
campuses it may be too late for a sure solution even if thoughtful and
courageous administrators are found. It has already become necessary in
California to pass new laws and to rely on law enforcement to a degree
not expected and never desired.
In considering laws to govern campus behavior and the use of law
enforcement in our campuses, it is important to recall the words of
Dr. Hayakawa, who stated: "In a democratic society, the police are there
for the protection of our liberties. It is in a totalitarian society
that police take our liberties away. "
One of the purposes of these hearings is to inquire into the
effectiveness of provisions of the higher education amendments of 1968,
and in various appropriation acts directed at the elimination of federal
aid to students who violently disrupt the functioning of a college or
university.
- 9 -
I welcome such provisions if they be fair and effective. On some
of our campuses we are informed that a disproportionate number of
students receiving federal aid have been involved in disruption. This
probably results in part because militants have been using demands for
ethnic studies as the vehicle for confrontation and disruption. With-
holding federal monies would surely serve as a deterrent and would
hopefully redirect protest into appropriate channels. Also of importanc
is that public confidence in such programs will be further reduced if
they are, or are believed to be, the source of disorder.
May I suggest that it would be helpful if there were greater
uniformity among various programs concerning the procedures for with-
holding aid to those who disrupt. Also, it may be necessary that such
provisions be absolutely mandatory SO that they will not be thwarted
because of pressures on administrators or by current administrative
style. Since the withdrawal of government assistance will often be
tantamount to removal from the campus, in the interest of fairness as
well as of responsible administration, campus officials should be urged
to be equally concerned about those who commit violence who are not
receiving aid.
I stated earlier my support of these provisions if they are
effective. Too often students have heard threats which are not followed
through. This leads to disrespect for appropriate authority, including
the authority of government. An escalation of threats with no sub-
sequent action leads to an escalation of violence with no concern for
results.
Again, my gratitude to you and to your committee. I wish to offer
you the complete assistance of the State of California in your pursuit
of our common goal.
It is my heartfelt wish that your action will be of help in
protecting students and faculty, as well as all of our educational
institutions, in their vital mission or serving our society.
#########
- 10 -
727
3/27
3/
3
OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR
RELEASE: Immediate
Sacramento, California
Contact:
Paul Beck
445-4571
3-27-69
To the Members of the Legislature of California:
TRAFFIC SAFETY
For the first time since 1946, California's traffic fatalities
declined during 1968.
Last year we experienced fewer deaths caused by motor vehicles;
4,853 as compared with 4,883 in 1967. During the same period, the
total number of motor vehicle miles travelled in the state Increased
by 9,000,000,000; from 101,000,000,000 in 1967 to 110,000,000,000 miles
in 1968. This indicates that while our state's motor travel was
increasing at a rate faster than the national average, California's
traffic fatalities decreased by .6 percent while national fatalities
increased five percent.
Even though there is reason to be pleased at the downtrend in
highway fatalities, the death rate per 100,000,000 vehicle miles is 4.4.
A tragic number of our citizens are still dying on our streets and
highways; there is no room for complacency. We must continue a positive,
determined program of traffic safety.
A prime factor in the reduced number of deaths was minewed emphasis
on safety in construction. Some 1,100 "high-accident" locations in the
state highway system were corrected. Another safety factor has been the
increase in manpower of the California Highway Patrol from 4,250 in
1967 to 6,800 in 1968 with increased enforcement by local police
agencies, resulting in a dramatic increase in arrests for traffic
offenses.
Drunk driving arrests made by the Highway Patrol in 1968 totaled
45,210, an increase of 17 percent.
A major traffic safety problem is the drinking driver. Studies
have proved that in more than half of the traffic deaths last year,
alcohol was involved. Stronger drunk driving laws are needed.
- 1 -
A presumptive 1 its bill, which would set 0 percent as the blood-
alcohol concentration level at which a driver's ability is presumed to
be impaired, was introduced early this year as the focal point of our
traffic safety program. Its enactment will modernize prosecution of
drunk drivers, and relieve our judiciary of some of the burden and
expense involved in trials.
Other drinking driver legislation introduced this year includes a
bill which would allow peace officers to arrest persons on "reasonable
assumption" of driving while drunk; and a bill providing for control of
laboratories making tests of blood, breath, or urine specimens used as
evidence.
In spite of increased enforcement practices, too much speed still
contributes to California's highway death rate. Radar, or a similar
speed computing device, must be authorized for use by the California
Highway Patrol in order to assist in detecting violators. States where
similar devices are used have reported an immediate reduction in highway
deaths, some by as much as one-third.
A major deficiency in traffic safety is the lack of well-coordinated
emergency medical services. About one-fifth of the lives lost in all
types of accidents in California could be saved by modernizing emergen
medical care.
At the present time, this problem is being attacked on three fronts:
emergency medical care committees at the county level, an advisory council
to the Assembly Public Health Committee, and a study on the state of the
art and the extent of the need by our Department of Public Health. These
findings and recommendations will be utilized as the basis of landmark
legislation in the 1970s.
A number of safety research projects are being conducted within the
departments charged with implementing traffic safety. These include
studies to determine methods to improve driver testing and licensing
techniques; a study by the Highway Patrol of vehicles involved in fatal
accidents to determine the extent to which component failure contributes
to accidents; research into the use of helicopters in highway surveillance
and an in-depth study of the drinking driver, which is being conducted at
the University of Southern California.
To provide a continuing source of revenue to expand traffic safety
research projects, legislation is being drafted now which would create
the California Traffic Safety Research Fund. Money for the fund would
come from fines collected on citations issued by the Highway Patrol.
Enactment by the legislature of the measures I have outlined should
greatly assist the efforts of state and local officials and private sector
groups to provide greater safety for the people who drive on California's
streets and highways.
#######
-2-
THE
4
4/7
Sacramento. Californ
Contact:
Paul Beck
445-4571
4-7-69
To the Members of the Legislature of California:
EMPLOYMENT FOR MINORS
Education and employment are keys to progress; the former is needed
but the latter is mandatory. Barriers to employment should be lifted
especially if those barriers have the potential of preventing youth from
going to school or continuing their education.
Legislation I will submit requests four important changes which
reflect this administration's continuing interest in the area of
employment for youth.
Each proposed bill asks for updating of laws in order to reflect
the changes in technology and society.
For example, one bill I will have introduced encourages part-time
employment for minors by extending the current eight-hour limits for
employment including school time to provide that students who attend
school not more than six hours per day can work for an additional four
hours.
Another bill proposes to exclude minor students, who are employed
during summer vacation, from coming under the unemployment insurance law.
This bill will require a change in federal law to achieve full effective-
ness.
A third bill we propose will lift the restriction against 16-18
year olds to drive vehicles for employment. Job opportunities are
excellent in this area for young people.
And, finally, we will seek legislation which allows minors to
operate certain equipment such as domestic laundry machines which
currently are categorized as hazardous.
I believe California and the other states should take the lead in
not only amending state legislation in the area of employment to minors,
but recommending legislative action on the federal level where current
laws bar employment for our young people. In this regard, I intend to
ask U.S. Senator George Murphy (R-California), to introduce three
measures in Congress which will expand employment opportunities for our
young people.
- 1 -
a.
A bill to relieve employers from having to pay unemployment
tax on the earnings of students;
b.
A bill to relieve both employers and minors from social
security deductions; and
C.
A bill to provide for a minimum wage of $1.35 per hour for
students working while attending school.
The hope for all of us depends upon the opportunities available
to our young people. If we ignore their problems, we ignore our
future.
########
EJG
- 2 -
4/8
OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR
RELEASE: 5 p.m. April 8, 1969
Sacramento, California
Contact:
Paul Beck
PLEASE GUARD AGAINST PREMATURE
445-4571
4-8-69
RELEASE
To the Members of the Legislature of California:
TAX REFORM PROGRAM
Few among us would question the need for tax reform. The problem
is that tax reform means different things to different people. One
thing is clear; we will not achieve any real or lasting tax reform if
we dodge certain basic issues. We will not achieve reform by simply
adding more patchwork to the existing crazy-quilt pattern of taxation.
The need is to simplify--and to make more honest and more equitable--
the tax structure of our state.
In addition, one of the very great factors in this whole
problem--and the one we at the state level can do the least about---is
the fact that the federal income tax accounts for nearly two-thirds of our
whole tax bill, federal, state and local.
As a matter of fact, of the $1,350 which each Californian annually
pays in taxes, $840 goes to the federal government. Nevertheless, about
one-third of the total tax bill does go to state and local government in
California, and we can do something about that.
Our immediate objectives, which we seek to achieve through the
tax reform program, presented in this message, are:
-- to establish a simplified, equitable and balanced tax system;
-- to provide relief from the inequitable and inelastic residential
property tax,
-- to shift greater taxing responsibility and increased authority
for public services to the local level and to strengthen
governments at that level,
-- to bear, at the state level, the primary responsibility for
equality of educational opportunities through the public school
system--while providing for increased flexibility at the local
school district level, and
-- to do this without increasing the aggregate total of the tax
burden in California.
This administration proposes to achieve these objectives through a
reform program firmly based on certain cardinal rules which are compatible
to our form and philosophy of government:
---
Equity The burden of taxation should
.11
equally
on
all
taxpayers, in proportion to their income, and should be applied in
such a way as to leave the production and distribution of goods and
services in relatively the same position as before taxation.
Visibility --- Taxes should not be "hidden" the taxpayer should
always know when and how he is being taxed and there should be a
minimum of shifting or passing the tax along to someone else.
Efficiency - The costs and complexities of government must be
reduced to a minimum so that the greatest possible percentage of the
public funds taken from the taxpayer go directly to the programs for
which they were intended and not to the expenses of overhead and
bureaucracy.
Elasticity -- Tax sources should be realistically established so
that adequate revenues are maintained without constantly returning to
the taxpayer for more money through new guises and gimmicks.
These principles may seem so basic that they beg the issue.
But it is important to frankly recite them here because over the years
they have too often been ignored or violated. As a result our existing
tax structure is neither equitable nor efficient. It is not always
visible and too often it has not proved elastic enough to keep pace wi
the growth and changes in our economy or our priorities. What is
presented through this tax reform program contains the seeds and the
root structure of a system that can fulfill these requirements and meet
these principles.
Minimum Disruption
The first facet of tax reform is the design of the program. The
second is the way in which it is implemented. Tax reform measures must
be invoked and applied in such a way that they cause a minimum of
disruption to our economy and a minimum of hardship to our citizens.
A minimum of hardship is crucial because, over the years, our tax structu
has become encrusted with add-ons and offsets. Most of these have been
precariously balanced like a teeter-totter, SO that an attempt to correct
one fault or one evil sometimes results in setting off a complicated
chain of harmful disruptions. Therefore, any practical major tax reform
program must be phased into operation over a period of years to give the
economy and the taxpayer time to adjust to the changes.
-2-
In view of this, the administration's proposal envisions a multi-
phase reform program to be implemented over a period of years, starting
with specific legislative measures which should be enacted during this
1969 session. Additional long-range and more far-reaching proposals
are embodied in a proposed Constitutional Amendment, which should be
placed on the ballot in 1970. Since this tax reform program will have
an impact on every citizen and every segment of our economy, it should
be given sufficient time and proper discussion, and the electorate
should be provided with the opportunity to vote on its major aspects.
There is no pretense that these measures presented today are,
in themselves, a Utopian tax reform program. Many legislators, and--
certainly--the members of the Flournoy tax reform commission and its
predecessors, know the problems and the intracacies involved in this
complex subject. And, incidentally, members of those bodies will
recognize various of their recommendations which have been incorporated
in this tax reform proposal. The fact that no one report was incorporate
in toto does not diminish the importance of that work nor the fact that
the people of California owe the men and women who gave so freely of thei
time and talents a great debt of gratitude.
$100 Million Rebate
Finally, before setting forth in detail the various parts of this
tax reform proposal, one thing should be made perfectly clear:
The administration's proposal to provide a rebate of $100 million
in personal income taxes is totally separate and in addition to this
overall tax reform package. The one-time rebate is designed to return
to the taxpayer a surplus, produced by our economies and by national
inflation, rather than spending it here in Sacramento. The multi-phased
tax reform program which follows is an effort to achieve a long-term
overhaul of our tax system on a relatively permanent basis. There
should be no confusion or distortion on this particular detail.
-3-
Specifics of Tax rm Program
I am pleased to announce that Assemblyman Craig Biddle of Riverside
will introduce today on behalf of the administration a series of land-
mark tax reform proposals. These proposals are designed to achieve the
objectives and are based on the principles set forth in the preamble to
this message.
In order to move in an orderly and responsible manner, we are
submitting a two-part tax reform package. The first part would be
immediately implemented upon enactment of the various bills by the 1969
legislature. The second part will require a Constitutional Amendment
which, if approved by the legislature in 1969 or 1970, would be placed
on the ballot in 1970. If approved by the voters, it would become
effective in 1971.
PART ONE - THIS YEAR
First, we are proposing that the homeowners property tax exemption
be increased to $1,000. This is an increase of $250 above the $750
exemption provided by the passage of Proposition 1-A in 1968.
(The total cost to the state for this increased exemption would be
$102 million, including $49 million in additional monies for the
counties replacing revenues previously lost because of the veterans'
exemptions. )
Second, we propose that the counties use the revenues realized from
the elimination of the counties' need to provide the veterans' exemption,
plus $26 million in additional revenues realized from removal of various
sales tax exemptions, to reduce the business inventory tax by an
additional 23 percent. (The state revenue necessary for the implementa-
tion of this proposal would be approximately $77 million.)
Third, The current payment schedule for the Bank and Corporations
Tax should be maintained rather than deferred as is scheduled in 1970-71.
The one-time cash flow resulting from this (revenues: $60 million in
1969-70 and $30 million in 1970-71) should be used to finance another
15 percent reduction in the business inventory tax for a two-year
period. This additional 15 percent business inventory tax reduction
would be financed after 1971-72 by some less onerous business tax than
the inventory tax.
(It should be pointed out that these proposed reductions in the
business inventory tax rates are in addition to the 15 percent reduction
authorized by the voters in 1968. The reduction in the business
inventory tax rates, therefore, will total 53% by 1970, an achievement
no one thought possible last year. Future replacement revenues for these
reductions would be limited to the 1969 inventory level with an annual
incremental percentage to allow for economic growth.) This business
inventory tax relief will benefit our entire economy and help provide
many more jobs for California's labor force.
Eliminate Unwarranted Sales Tax Exemptions
An additional $103 million will be required to provide local
government with the replacement revenue needed to finance the balance
of the property tax relief measures.
We propose the elimination of unwarranted sales tax exemptions
on containers, repair services and magazines. These exemptions tend
to make the sales tax less equitable than it should be. The revenue
which would be realized by state and local governments through the
elimination of those exemptions are:
Item
Revenue
State
Local
Containers
$ 45.0 million
$ 11.3 million
Repair Services
50.0
12.5
Magazines
8.5
2.1
$103.5 million
$ 25.9 million
Other 1969 Proposals
Several other items are included in this Part One, 1969, of the
total tax reform package. While they would have little or no revenue
effect, they would simplify and improve our tax collection system.
We are proposing a return to the use of personal exemptions on the
state income tax, thereby relieving the extra heavy burden on large,
middle income families;
We are proposing that all counties be authorized to permit property
tax payers topay their property taxes on a quarterly basis; and
We are restating our proposal that a Department of Revenue be
established through which the bulk of state tax-collecting functions
would be consolidated and coordinated. This department would be
organized as are all major departments. We have every reason to
believe that very substantial sums can be saved annually in adminis-
trative costs, as well as eliminating much of the harassment of the
taxpayers now caused by the unwarranted number of agencies presently
administering the various taxes.
AB 2 (Bagley) would accomplish this desirable result.
The foregoing proposals comprise Part One of our total tax reform
program. They are important in themselves. They are also important
as the initial steps of a long-range tax reform program. I respectfully
seek your support for these measures.
-5-
PART TWO LONG-RANGE PROGRAM
This second portion of our tax reform propotal is related to the
first in its emphasis on achieving a more balanced tax structure through
a reduced reliance on property taxes. The long-range program will
require amendment of the Constitution and a series of legislative bills.
Equality of Educational Opportunity
The first proposal in this category is the most far-reaching not
only in tax reform but also in its salutary impact on our public school
system. Its approval and application would be a giant step in the
direction of equality of educational opportunity for all children in
the state's public school system. It would reduce the far too heavy
burden now borne by the residential property tax payer. It would shift
the tax incidence from the inelastic and regressive property tax to the
more equitable income tax. It would provide for greater flexibility and
home rule for the local school district. And it would provide an
effective guarantee that property tax rates would not be raised at the
local level to offset the reductions proposed under this plan.
There is widespread agreement that we must overhaul the taxing
structure used to finance our public school system. Certain changes
in this area were proposed last July in the administration's creative
paper on education. Further studies have reaffirmed our conclusion
that the existing financing program for elementary and secondary schools
in California does not provide equal education opportunities for all
children in this state. Elementary school district expenditures, for
example, range from as little as $289 per average daily attendance to
as high as $2662 per ADA. Some low wealth districts struggle under an
intolerable property tax burden while some high wealth districts are
not so burdened. And, in various parts of the state, specially
incorporated areas have become virtual "tax havens," thus escaping a
fair share of the costs of education while benefiting from the economic,
sociological and industrial byproducts of the school system.
We propose to correct these situations in the following manner:
--80 percent of the residential property tax, now levied by the
local school districts, would be replaced by a statewide Educational
Opportunity Tax of one percent on adjusted gross personal income. This,
plus the increase in the homeowners' exemption, would reduce the
average residential property tax throughout the state by well over
50 percent.
-6-
We would hope, and will certainly urge, that the federal government
permit California taxpayers to allow this school opportunity tax as
credit against their federal income tax payments.
We also are proposing that landlords be required to notify their
tenants of that portion of the monthly or annual rent which can be
directly attributable to reduced property tax costs. Such a
notification, we feel, will stimulate the free play of the rental market.
We anticipate this will encourage the landlord to share his property tax
reductions with the tenant through reduced rent.
For many generations, the primary support of local government has
been the property tax which years ago was a reasonable measure of income
and ability to pay taxes. That is no longer true in most cases, and
far too heavy a share of the total tax burden is now borne by the
homeowner and the owner of residential property. This has meant
increasingly heavy payments both by owners and renters to the point
where actual home ownership in many cases is being discouraged by
government policy, despite the fact that home ownership should be
encouraged to preserve the stability and enjoyment of both urban and
rural life.
On the other hand, an income tax properly administered with a
minimum of exemptions and with a requirement that all bear a fair
share, but no more, in proportion to their ability to pay, offers a
much better hope of achieving tax equity than continued reliance on
the residential property tax.
At the same time, a statewide educational opportunity tax on
nonresidential property would be established, replacing 80 percent of
the nonresidential property taxes now collected by the local school
districts. This statewide nonresidential property tax rate would be
approximately $3.50 per $100 assessed valuation.
The funds from both of these statewide educational taxes--the tax
on adjusted gross personal income and the nonresidential property tax
would be deposited in an education fund and would then be distributed
to the various school districts on the basis of average daily
attendance. These funds (which this year would total approximately
$1.6 billion) would be in addition to the existing $1.3 billion in
state subventions to school districts.
The funds would be subvened to the various school districts on
the basis of a flat dollar amount per ADA, thus eliminating the
extremely complex financial structure, and undesirable state mandates,
-7-
currently employed. The only requirement that would be attached to
the distribution of these vastly increased state funds would be a
constant review of the effectiveness of such expenditures. Cost
effectiveness yardsticks would be devised and instituted to evaluate
the performance of our educational system- in effect, we would require
that "report cards" be given for our schools and our school systems.
In that way the people of California could be assured that they were
getting a full measure of results for each dollar spent.
--This flat dollar ADA amount subvened to the school districts
would increase at various grade levels, from kindergarten to junior
colleges, in recognition of the higher educational costs involved
as the student progresses through the school system.
The proposed subventions, by grade level, range from $500 per ADA
for kindergarten through the sixth grade; $600 per ADA for grades
seven through nine; $700 per ADA for grades 10 through 12, and $725
per ADA for junior colleges (13-14). An average $400 ADA also would
be subvened for adult education courses. The proposed subvention
levels would be adjusted annually to reflect reasonable changes in the
cost of living index.
Local Option Overrides
These state subvened funds totaling approximately $3 billion
should help to provide true equality of educational opportunity
throughout the state, and to provide virtually every school district
with a solid foundation program.
In addition, under the terms of this proposal, local school
districts would have the ability to enrich their programs through
additional expenditures should they decide to do SO.
-8-
However, to assure property owners that their tax rates do not
creep back to absorb the proposed 50 percent reduction, the property
tax rate levied by the local school board would be limited to $1.10
per $100 of assessed valuation for all grades, kindergarten through
14, or the current level, whichever is lower. Bond redemptions as
previously authorized would, of course, be continued.
Should a school district wish to exceed this tax rate, such a
permissive override would require the approval of 60 percent of the
voters.
Over the years, each time more state revenue has been raised to
ease the burden of residential property taxpayers for the support of
the schools, the result has simply been a higher total tax burden for
each of us. This 60 percent voter-supported requirement is designed
to protect the taxpayer from just such an occurrence.
City, County and Special Districts
One of the major objectives of this reform proposal is to reduce
the present heavy burden carried by property tax payers. And, to
assure the property owner that his taxes will not be increased to
negate the relief provided through this reform proposal, we are asking
that counties, cities and special districts be required to retain their
present property tax structure with an established maximum limit which
vould be based on their existing rates plus 10 percent.
As provided for the school districts, there would be an option
allowing that set maximum to be exceeded and this, too, would require
the approval of 60 percent of the voters. We believe it is essential
to assure property tax payers that their tax will increase only if
60 percent of the voters so decide.
-9-
Responsible local government representatives should not object
to the electorate having a voice in determining the level of spending
their own money, What we are proposing for local governments we also
advocate, in substance, for state government: that the people themselves
pass on this proposal, by approving a Constitutional Amendment, which
would provide that any increase in taxes at the state level thereafter
require a two-thirds vote of the Legislature. (At present, only the
Bank and Corporation Franchise tax and gross premiums insurance tax
requires a two-thirds legislative approval.)
In a further effort to insure the integrity of local government,
we are proposing legislation as part of this package which will require
that any future mandates from the State to local government for new
programs carry with them sufficient revenue or revenue sources for local
government to finance the programs involved. The state must not force
upon the local governments costly programs without also making the
necessary funds available. This habit, too often practiced by the Federal
government in its relations with the states, is one of the reasons why
state expenditures are constantly forced upward. We should not compound
this inequity within California.
Since this total tax reform program represents a partial shift from
property taxes to personal income taxes, we are also proposing a volunt
Y
prepayment plan, with four options : for those taxpayers who had filed a
state income tax return the prior year:
- The employer can withhold the income tax payments at the employee's
request and remit these funds to the state, receiving a credit to make
up for the cost of the employer's added accounting expenses. The employee
also would receive an annual tax credit of two percent for voluntarily
participating in such a program.
- The individual taxpayer can pay his state personal income tax on
a quarterly basis, in advance, basing his payments on the previous year's
tax. For this he would receive a two percent credit on his taxes at the
end of the year.
- The individual employee could make his own arrangements, with the
cooperation of his employer, to deposit in an account under the employer's
control, the monthly amount necessary to pay the estimated tax at the end
of the year.
- The individual taxpayer need not participate in any form of tax
withholding, but could continue to pay the tax annually or semi-annually
as he does at the present time.
-10-
The provisions for these voluntary options would simply be a
convenience for the taxpayer. The state would not make money on any of
these plans, and if any "windfall" were realized, this would be placed
in a special tax relief fund and be returned to the taxpayers as a one-
time rebate, as we are advocating be done with the $100 million next
spring.
Additional Proposals
The remainder of our long-range tax reform proposals, which will
also require voter approval, are important but less far-reaching. Each,
however, seeks to achieve certain significant goals and each is important
to the overall reform program:
- In order to alleviate the double misery of figuring separate tax
returns every April, the state income tax return should be essentially
a "carbon copy" of the form used in making out the federal individual
income tax return;
- In order to achieve greater equity, insurance companies should be
taxed as are other companies, rather than on the basis of their gross
premiums;
- In order not to encourage land speculation, the capital gains
treatment of the sale of unimproved property held less than 10 years
should be removed and such tax paid on a straight personal income basis.
- The revenues realized by the state through such a modification
should be used to help finance open space programs in and around our
growing urban areas. Also, to retain California's competitive position,
under our proposal agricultural property would be taxed solely on its
agricultural use. The legislation also would provide that if the land
is converted from agricultural to non-agricultural use (such as a sub-
division), counties would be given the means of recapturing lost tax
revenues.
- In order to assist the old-age property owner, we are proposing
that needy individuals over 65 be permitted voluntarily to postpone
payment of the taxes on their property if they authorize the county to
secure eventual payment of those taxes, following the transfer of the
property, and that this be counted as a lien against the property.
- 11 -
As I stated at he outset, the details of 11 of these proposals
both Part One and Part Two are spelled out in the bills being
introduced today by Assemblyman Biddle. We believe that these bills
merit careful consideration and thorough examination by the members of
the legislature, and by the taxpayers.
In no sense are these proposals intended as unalterable or unchange-
able. We must work together to achieve a practical, honest and common
sense tax reform program. If modifications or other proposals will hel
us achieve our goals particularly in the important matter of providing
assurance against further property tax increases without voter approval.
such modifications will be given thoughtful and thorough consideration
by the members of this administration and, I am sure, by the legislature.
As I said at the beginning, the principal part of total tax reform
can be enacted only by the federal government since it has such a major
role in the total tax picture. I am encouraged by the amount of dis-
cussion in the present federal administration about the need for tax
reform. I think ultimately the only true tax reform will be that which
involves a major reliance upon a more fair and more equitable income
tax in which various exemptions are virtually eliminated, a much lower
total tax rate is imposed, and a great many of the existing inconsis-
tencies and loopholes are terminated.
In far too many cases our tax policy is at direct variance with the
other policies of sound economics and good business. For example, our
tax system puts a tremendous premium on business failure that is, a
company with a large loss record has many very desirable advantages under
our present curious tax system.
Another example is that there are far too many instances in which
income is taxed at least wice. I agree with the Carter Commission of
Canada that a corporation income tax should not have to be paid again by
those receiving dividends.
As another example, I do not believe that we should put such a
penalty on the young and middle-aged who now have little or no opportunity
to save.
The result of all this would be that there would be a substantially
broadened definition of taxable income, but a far lower income tax rate.
Furthermore, the federal government must share some of the income
tax revenues that our citizens send to Washington each year, by returning
to the states a portion of these revenues, without strings attached, just
as we propose to return state revenues to school districts.
- 12 -
At present federal, state and local taxes take about 30 percent of
our total national product a figure that has been increasing far too
steadily for far too many years.
We see the effect of incipient taxpayer revolts in the defeat of
school tax overrides, bond issues and other similar issues. We must act
and act now. The immediate and long range proposals that I have made
offering the opportunity to hold down our State and local tax burden,
to shift it so that it would be more equitably borne by all, to improve
the quality of education throughout the state, and to simplify tax
problems
for
us all these should be enacted now so that we can assure
our taxpayers that California is doing its part in what must be a nation-
wide effort to reform the whole tax structure.
Economics
But, with all of this, there is one irrefutable, unyielding fact
of government life which must also be faced squarely and coped with
constantly:
there is only one way to reduce taxes and that is to reduce
government spending. One is impossible without the other,
especially under our State Constitution which prohibits deficit
spending.
I do not mean to minimize the accomplishments of economy during
the past two years. In fact, I commend those members of our management
team who have reduced costs and increased efficiency throughout the
executive branch. But, there is still a great deal more to be done
and we are determined to do it.
I feel so strongly about this that, within a few weeks, I will
announce specific steps which will be taken to add additional limitations
on government spending in those areas over which the administration has
direct control.
At this time, when our citizens witness their spendable income being
whittled away because of mounting inflation, increasing interest rates
and rising taxes at various levels of government, it is mandatory that
we here in Sacramento do everything possible to reduce the cost of State
government.
Only in this way can we have tax relief as well as tax reform.
Working together we can achieve both these objectives.
#########
4/10
4
Sacramento, Califory a
Contact:
Paul B.k
445-4571
4-10-69
To the Members of the Legislature of California:
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Crime is America's most important internal problem. Crime
statistics show a continual increase during the past ten years which
will extend into the foreseeable future.
No one could deny that there is now a national demand for public
order, which has focused the attention of citizens and public officials
on our criminal justice system.
A recent national survey reveals that one-third of all Americans
believe it is unsafe to walk alone at night in their own neighborhoods.
More than one-third of all Americans state that they have firearms in
their homes for protection against criminals.
Last month, the FBI released its 1968 crime statistics. They
showed that crime increased a full 17 percent over the previous year.
We in California have reason for great concern. Our crime rate is the
highest in the nation. In fact, it approaches a rate almost twice that
of the national average.
All this becomes especially important when one takes into account
that only a very minor portion of all crimes are reported to the police.
Furthermore, crime solutions continue to decline.
I recognize that a successful attack on crime must come through
a multi-discipline approach. A victory in the war on crime will be
achieved only through a coordinated attack by all agencies of government,
supported and assisted by concerned citizens.
Together, during the past two years, we have made considerable
progress in the field of law enforcement and crime control. I hope
that 1969 will be a year of even greater progress.
The California Council on Criminal Justice is now in operation
and for the first time we have a professional statewide planning agency
working for the development of modern techniques in the prevention and
control of crime and the treatment of criminal offenders.
- 1 -
A comprehensive plan for the total field of criminal justice has
just been completed. It includes a substantial contribution of ideas
from local government, Implementation 1S scheduled to begin very soon.
This will require the coordinated efforts of the executive, legislative
and judicial branches of government.
Other developments have been described in my State-of-the-State
Message. Many citizen groups have undertaken subjects of crime control
as priority projects. Foundations are pouring millions of dollars into
schools of law, criminology and related fields to fund criminal justice
studies.
While all of this is important and helpful, new laws are also
necessary. We must fix responsibility for individual conduct. We must
improve our ability to protect the safety of the public.
Members of this administration have been working very closely with
legislative leaders to develop proposals intended to prevent and control
crime and rehabilitate criminal offenders. I, therefore, urge you to
consider and enact measures to accomplish the following:
1. Prohibit the sale or distribution of harmful pornographic
matter to juveniles. This will assist in keeping objectionable
material out of the hands of persons under the age of 18.
The publication and production of obscene and harmful pornographic
matter is big business. California is one of the principal areas of
origin and distribution. Experts indicate, and experience would
corroborate, that this filth poisons the minds of our youth.
This proposal would establish a new standard for determining
obscenity for children. It would stop the peddling of smut which may
have little effect on adults, but which is harmful to juveniles. This
is the area in which the courts have said legislation is not only
permissible but "legitimate and indeed exigent." With this obvious need
and with this directed invitation by the judiciary, the Legislature
should be quick to respond.
2. Provide that in obscenity prosecutions, evidence may be
introduced concerning the circumstances of presentation, sale or
distribution, when that evidence indicates the material is being
exploited commercially for the sake of prurient appeal. This
evidence may be considered with respect to the nature of the
material and may justify the conclusion that the matter is
obscene.
- 2 -
This would help to eliminate any false defense by distributors
that they do not know the nature of the material. Methods of sale,
advertisement, and other business practices would be used to show
knowledge and to prove obscenity.
This proposal would conform California statutes to federal law and
permit the state to use evidence of pandering which the United States
Supreme Court declares relevant and admissible.
3. Provide that matter which appeals to deviant sexual interests
can be prosecuted, This would allow a jury to consider whether or
not such material is obscene, when directed to specific vulnerable
groups, even though it may not affect the average person.
More and more material is directed toward deviant groups such as
homosexuals, sadists, etc. The average person may not be attracted to
such matter; others may be specially susceptible to such an appeal.
Obscenity should be judged with reference to its intended recipient.
This has been indicated by the United States Supreme Court and is similar
to the approach in the juvenile bill.
4. Permit law enforcement to utilize modern technical methods of
surveillance, when authorized pursuant to a judicial warrant,
to investigate serious crimes. This would implement the federal
"Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968" with regard
to its electronic surveillance provisions.
Organized crime uses the best and most modern scientific devices
to rob, cheat and destroy. Vice operations, including narcotics traffic,
make widespread use of communications services. With proper safeguards
against the invasion of personal privacy, there is no sound reason why
law enforcement should not be able to utilize modern technological
advances in waging war against organized crime the biggest single
industry in America.
5. Authorize the admission of evidence concerning information
communicated to a peace officer by an informant who will remain
confidential. This evidence must be for the purpose cf showing
reasonable cause for making an arrest or search. Confidentiality
cannot be maintained if the informant is a material witness to the
guilt or innocence of the accused.
This would extend the protection of confidentiality which is now
guaranteed to informants in narcotic cases or to those who furnish
information in any criminal case.
- 3 -
In the investigation of crime, police investigators must use
informants, particularly in cases relating to serious crimes, including
vice and organized criminal activities. This source of information is
destroyed when informers are revealed. When an informant is disclosed,
he becomes subject to possible violence and retribution; he also is no
longer in a position to gain information. His usefulness is ended.
The procedure protecting confidentiality of informants, when their
authenticity and reliability is demonstrated to a judge, has worked well
with regard to hard narcotic prosecutions. It is, therefore, appropriate
to use this procedure in other types of offenses.
6. Restore to cities and counties the ability to enact ordinances
relating to local problems of public safety. This would define rules
of statutory construction to remove confusion concerning the
application of state preemption.
A great deal of confusion and consternation has resulted from a
series of judicial decisions attempting to determine legislative intent
on the question of state preemption. The decisions are both inconsistent
and irrational. The judicially imposed doctrine of "implied preemption"
has become a symbol of concern and frustration. There is no need for
this situation to continue. It can be corrected by a simple process,
in which the legislature clearly specifies those areas within which it
intends to "occupy the field, so that entities cannot enact ordinances
on such subjects.
The ability of organized society to conduct and regulate its affairs
in an orderly fashion is dependent upon the foreseeability and clarity
of its law. The Constitution empowers local governments to legislate
on a wide variety of subjects so long as there is no conflict with
state laws. The Legislature is the proper forum to debate whether any
given area should be preempted. But this should be done by express,
rather than implied, preemption. No longer should a city or county
have to speculate as to what an appellate court may guess the intent of
the legislature to have been.
7.
Provide effective control of the use of firearms by criminals.
Any person armed with a firearm during the commission of a crime
or at the time of his arrest should not be granted probation.
Exceptions would be made in unusual cases only, and then only with
the consent of the district attorney, and only after the judge in
open court states the reasons for the exception. Both the reasons
and the consent must be entered in the court minutes.
- 4 -
This will make it clear that the criminal who arms himself with a
gun will be dealt with more severely in every case. The penalties for
illegal use of weapons are thus strengthened without interfering with
the legitimate use of firearms by law-abiding citizens.
8. Strengthen our laws concerning riot control by removing
restrictive language which inhibits action against those who incite
riots and disorders.
The present law prohibiting the urging of a riot was enacted in 1966.
It was requested by the City of Los Angeles after the Watts riot. The
initial draft did not contain the present restrictive language which
requires proof of "specific intent." Such language has prevented law
enforcement agencies from taking positive action against persons who are
inciting to riot.
Presently, there are persons in California engaging in activities
which are inflammatory and which directly cause riots. Yet police and
prosecutors cannot act because they cannot prove the subjective intent
lurking inside the mind of the activist.
Removal of the requirement will permit the bringing to justice of
those terrorists who are now in fact engaging in conduct which encourages
rioting and disorder.
9. Request the federal government to take all possible steps to
stop immediately the flow of narcotics and other drugs over the
border from Mexico into California.
Effective action at the California-Mexican border could stop about
90 percent of the narcotics and drugs from entering our state.
The juvenile delinquency problem is tied closely to use of narcotics
and drugs. In fact, the sudden rise in the rate of major juvenile arrest
is entirely due to the drug problem. In 1966, a total of 4,824 juvenile
cases involved drug law violations; in 1967, these cases rose to a total
of 13,911, showing an increase of 183.4 percent. In the first half of
1968, more than 15,000 youngsters under 18 were arrested for drug law
violations; this is three times the figure for the first half of 1967.
This administration is working very hard to control drug abuse.
Programs are now operating in the departments of Corrections, Education,
Mental Hygiene, Rehabilitation and the Youth Authority. The Council on
Criminal Justice has established a task force on this critical problem.
- 5 -
We are also receiving assistance from the private sector. The
Inter-Agency Council on Drug Abuse has been formed in cooperation with
the California Medical Association to coordinate and develop the efforts
of federal, state and local governments, the various professions, and
citizen groups in the war on dangerous drugs.
Another approach is a public education campaign scheduled to begin
soon in the state. One of the country's leading advertising agencies
has volunteered to conduct the program, and the communications media
have pledged their strong support. It will be the first full-scale public
service advertising program on drug abuse in the country.
10. Increase the penalties for attacks on campus police. This
would bring the penalties for attacks on campus police into
conformity with the present aggravated penalties for attacks on
other law enforcement officers.
There has been a significant increase in the number and the serious-
ness of attacks on campus police officers. The criminal anarchists now
on our campuses have used mass disorder situations to assault these
law enforcement officers. Such criminal conduct should be treated
severely on the same basis as are attacks on other peace officers.
11. Continue and broaden the local probation subsidy program for
the rehabilitation of criminal offenders.
The probation subsidy program was created in 1966. This state-
county cost-sharing program now provides the best public protection and
the most effective supervision of probationers in the history of
California's correctional system. Without an extension, this program
would terminate in 1969. New legislation is needed to provide for the
continuation of this method of rehabilitation. In addition, we should
eliminate restrictions currently placed on special supervision programs
so as to make it applicable to certain misdemeanants and also broaden
other provisions to make the program more flexible.
The need for this comprehensive extension and revision can be seen
in the history and current projections of the program. Presently, 41
counties representing 94.9 percent of the total state population,
participate in the subsidy program. Over 26,650 probationers will be
served in the current year under this method. Counties have added over
530 probation officers to provide special supervision as a result of
this program.
- 6 -
THIS legislation will extend the protective and preventive features
of the program, without requiring additional state appropriation of
funds.
12. Provide work furlough programs for Youth Authority wards.
This will authorize the Youth Authority Director, with approval
of the Youth Authority Board, to assign wards to counties which
currently have work furlough programs.
Presently, the Youth Authority may establish work furlough
rehabilitation programs only within its own institutions. This procedure
will permit wards to be placed in county facilities in the very community
into which that ward will be returned.
This will provide much more flexibility for the Director. A growing
number of California communities already have adopted work furlough
programs for adult and juvenile inmates in county detention facilities.
This proposal will allow those counties to accept Youth Authority wards
for those programs.
13. Provide work furlough programs for narcotic addicts
who are. civilly committed. This proposal would permit the temporary
removal of residents of the California Rehabilitation Center for
necessary work in connection with their rehabilitation and in
connection with the institution program.
Present law permits work furlough programs for narcotic addicts
who are serving time in our prisons for felony convictions. This
proposal would extend the availability of such programs to narcotic
addicts who have been civilly confined in the California Rehabilitation
Center. The advantages of a work furlough program are at least equally
applicable to a civil commitment as they are to a criminal confinement.
The assignment of civil addicts to conservation camps and other
programs will relieve serious overcrowding in the California Rehabilita-
tion Center and permit meaningful training while these addicts are in
confinement.
These proposals on criminal justice cover the areas of principal
concern where legislative action can be very helpful. It is imperative
that legislative action keep pace with the efforts of local government
and law enforcement agencies in the war on crime.
7 -
-
I note with pleasure that the legislature has already acted
favorably on some of these proposals; I am confident that all of these
measures will receive your careful consideration and support.
I believe we can work together to make California a safer and
better place for all. We must if our people are to be safe and free.
########
- 8 -
4/11
4
OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR
RELEASE: Friday P.M.'s
Sacramento, California
Contact: Paul Beck
445-4571
4-11-69
EXCERPTS OF PREPARED REMARKS BY GOVERNOR RONALD REAGAN
Bakersfield State College Groundbreaking Ceremony
Bakersfield
April 11, 1969
To help our young people--and to build and preserve society--it
is vital that we create and maintain the very finest of educational
systems
a system which is responsive to the times and relevant to
the
times
to come...a system which takes advantage of the great
innovations of society--thus, to provide a learning which makes sense
to both the individual student and the taxpayer--whereby every dollar
counts for positive achievement. I would like to suggest to you some
of my basic convictions regarding education, believing that they mirror
the convictions and concerns of most Californians:
--A free society, to remain free, must provide that education
which is appropriate to the capabilities and the motivations of its
citizens. Men may be born free, but they are not born wise. The
purpose of education in our society is to help free men judge well.
--Our public educational institutions have been established and
are financed by the people. They are the vehicles for the expression
of cultural values and goals of the people, as well as the repository
of knowledge and the distributor of truth. The members of the various
education boards are all agents of the people, and the school adminis-
trators are employees of the people. Through these instruments the
people should have not only a voice but also accountability and recourse.
--Quality education requires the dedicated services of well-prepared
teachers whose primary interest and motivation are the education of
students--for the student is what teaching is all about. The teaching
profession should continue to be one of our most respected professions
and the rewards for service must be commensurate with the importance of
the responsibilities involved. One of these major responsibilities is
to accept the notion, I believe, that little attention should be paid
to the political or ideological belief of the faculty, and competence
should always be based on the ability to keep bias from destroying
teaching and scholarship. Personal bias and prejudice should be kept
out of the classroom as violence should be kept out of campus. We ask
a great deal of our teachers and professors. And, they have a signifi-
cant obligation to society, for they are dealing with young minds and
unfettered spirits. We therefore look for learning, not indoctrination--
for truth, not propaganda. This is the true nature of academic
freedom.
-There are those who press for standardization, but our value
is for diversity in education diversity in content, methods and
objectives. We are committed to vocational and technical programs in
education in the same strength to which we are committed to programs
leading to academic attainments and communication of a culture. Even
while we stand here at the site of what will be a splendid state
college, we know that some 70 percent of our young people will never
seek a baccalaureate degree.
--No individual should be deprived of the opportunity for higher
education because of economic circumstances or prejudice.
--It is essential to our total educational system that private
schools survive along with our public institutions. Private
institutions often serve as pace setters, enrich the range of possible
education experience, tend to hone the cutting edge of educational
excellence and make possible wider educational opportunities they are
partners in the pursuit of knowledge.
It is the function of education to help each individual to grow
to the maximum extent of his capability, to help him fulfill his great
individual potential. This is the proper preoccupation of our schools
and colleges.
Today's system of higher education is expected to be all things
to all people. Governments subsidize it to solve social problems;
industry pays to conduct research. Spreading itself too thin, more
and more of the university's time and money, talents, buildings and
equipment is used for purposes not consonant with its proper functioning,
which is teaching and learning. Teaching and learning easy words
to say, but difficult to achieve.
If a school is to transmit the intellectual and cultural heritage
and develop in students a proper sense of morality, it must begin by
teaching them to think not necessarily what to think, but how to
to think.
Conversely, if we would help our young people to think, we must
provide a cultural and moral framework within which their intellectual
capacities may be exercised. Yet, this disciplined thought is pre-
cisely what is lacking in the home and in the school. You. ladies and
and gentlemen have an opportunity to change that.
-2-
We laugh at honor, patriotism and even brotherhood. Many say
that God is dead; he is not dead. He is merely forgotten. Once God
is dead, then man begins dying, and the machine begins to take his
place.
You here are about to embark on a noble venture---an institution
of higher learning can be one of the great hopes for free men. However,
at the same time it can also be an Achilles Heel of society. By its
nature, a modern college or university is uniquely vulnerable to the
use of force. The use of force contradicts the very premise of the
academy. When, therefore, a rebellious and fanatical minority throws
away that premise and resorts to coercion, the academy is ill prepared
to meet the challenge. We, here, can learn from past mistakes. Here,
you can meet the challenge.
The institutions which have been the targets of rebellion vary
widely. Some are small and rural. Others are great cosmopolitan
institutions. Their internal structures and curricula differ. They
vary geographically and socially. The grievances of the rebellious
student at a local junior college in no way resembles those of a
student of a large university and neither institution has much in
common with the Sorbonne or the University of Caracas or the University
of London, or Tokyo. Yet, we all have felt rebellion and violence by
a small minority who do not conceal their aims and who are well
organized, effective and dangerous.
-3-
The threat they pose is real. How can we meet it?
The hardcore rebels must be isolated. When legitimate student
grievances exist, these should be remedied, thus depriving the rebels
of temporary allies. Procedures for communication between students and
administrators should be reviewed constantly. Reasonable persons can
arrive at an equitable decision; recognizing that those who come to
learn do not always have maturity and wisdom of those who administer.
Administration and faculty and students as well as citizens
must refuse to tolerate force on campus.
-Those assuming the student role but whose real goals patently
non-academic must be expelled. Those who want to learn are waiting for
their places.
-Faculty members who betray their academic calling through
disruptive or violent activities on the campus should be dismissed on
professional grounds. This has nothing to do with political views,
rather it is because of actions relating to responsibilities as a
faculty member.
--The vast majority of students and faculty members who are loyal,
to academic goals must become more protective of their own interests;
they must help to bring order and sanity to the campus. Rights are not
the exclusive preserve of the dissidents and the disrupters. The
minority have the right to be heard it does not have the license to
prevail. The academy is not an island outside the law; it is not to be
a privileged sanctuary for those who would destroy society; it must not
be used as a staging area for insurrection.
To help reduce trouble on the campuses priority must be given to
establishing closer contact between colleges and universities on the
one hand and citizens and communities served by the institution on
the other.
In California today, there is continuous concern about campus
problems and violence at all levels of government, including the
governing boards of the universities and colleges. The concern of all
is for the protection of students, for the integrity of the learning
process and for society itself. A democratic society depends upon an
active majority of civilized individuals who express each in his own
way the values of culture. In this way the tradition of fair play,
of freedom of speech, of equal opportunity to learn, even of the right
of life, are protected. The democratic society develops laws largely
- 4 -
1
to protect the individuals from the extreme behavior of those who are
not bound by the cultural values those who are not persuaded by the
normal expressions of approval and disapproval by their peers. It is
obvious but so important that it bears repeating that as an increasing
number of citizens refuse to become involved, society, for its own
survival, must depend increasingly upon law enforcement, Laws
and
thus
law
enforcement
keep the peace and keep men free. However, there
is no reason that laws or law enforcement become a substitute for the
moral suasion exercised by the people themselves.
In considering laws to govern campus behavior, and the use of law
enforcement on our campuses, it is important to recall the words of
Dr. Hayakawa who stated: "In a democratic society, the police are there
for the protection of our liberties. It is in a totalitarian society
that police take away our liberties."
Let me, here, make one thing clear regarding our liberties and
academic freedom. Recently there have been some gross, indeed
deliberate, misinterpretations of my remarks about faculty balance on
some of our campuses.
I am happy to say that most who heard those comments understood
them and reported them accurately. Another, however, not only coined
the term "political test" but claimed that I advocated such an approach.
Lot me make it perfectly clear, once and for all; that term is foreign
to my vocabulary; it does violence to my personal philosophy
the
idea is opposite to my way of thinking and, indeed, such a test would
be illegal. Distorted reporting of this nature does a tremendous
disservice to the academic community and to the citizens of California.
My dismay is at an existing political test. My plea is for
removing such a test not adding one.
Twice in formal press conferences and several times in impromptu
meetings with the press, I have expressed my dismay at reports from
campus officials and from members of the faculty that in some departments
on some campuses the faculty itself has been selecting its members on
the basis of political or ideological position.
Dr. Hayakawa has stated: "I think I know what the governor was
driving at. At some departments, one point of view prevails. For
example, in certain psychology departments, experimental psychologists
prevail over phenomonologists.
- 5 -
"And actually, there are political tests in certain departments
of the state colleges now. If a man is not far enough left, he doesn't
get hired. This is true if you have a leftist clique in the department.
You almost never have a rightist clique.
"The answer is to make the department responsible to the outside
intellectual community and how to do that I do not know."
I have repeatedly urged the academic community to recognize this
problem because it is a problem that only they---in their proper role---
can solve. It is dangerous- and sad that in some departments on some
campuses the faculty has failed to uphold their professional ethics and
to exercise that self-discipline that is so vital to quality education
a self-discipline which is essential if we are to be equal to the
opportunities and the problems of tomorrow.
To freely discuss on all sides of all questions, without standards,
without values, is to insure the creation of a generation of uninformed
and talkative minds, a living demonstration of the decline of the
intellect.
St. Thomas Aquinas always warned students never to leave any
difficulty unresolved in their study, to always fully understand
whatever they read or heard, and to avoid speechifying on anything
whatsoever. He also warned teachers that they must never dig a ditch
in front of a student that they failed to fill.
St. Thomas knew that to doubt---to forever seek and never to find--
was, when carried to the extreme, the enemy of both education and
thought and thus, progress.
The challenge is to search for meaning in a worried world, but
the obligation is to help young people find truth and purpose, to
find an identity.
#######
(NOTE: Since Governor Reagan speaks from notes, there may be changes
in, or additions to, the above quotes. However, the governor
will stand by the above quotes.)
- 6 -
4/14
OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR
RELEASE: Immediate
Sacramento, California
Contact:
Paul Beck
445-4571
4-14-69
To the Members of the Legislature of California:
TERMS OF OFFICE
GOVERNOR AND LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR
I have often urged that the governorship of California be limited
to two consecutive four-year terms.
I have also urged, on numerous occasions, that candidates for
governor and lieutenant governor of a particular political party
run as a team in general elections, just as the president and vice
president run on a single ticket at the national level.
You have been sent proposed constitutional amendments (ACA-43,
Conrad, and ACA-42, Conrad) which would allow the people of California
to express their views on these two important issues.
I urge strongly, therefore, that you give thoughtful attention and
consideration to both of these proposals. I am, of course, hopeful that
you will concur with me that they are deserving of bi-partisan support
in both houses of the legislature.
The voters of this state should be given the opportunity to express
their will on these issues at the ballot box in the November, 1970,
general election.
As governor, I am dedicated to the proposition that any chief
executive of California state government should step aside after eight
years in office. This would insure new blood, new vigor, new ideas,
and renewed sense of urgency combining new approaches and innovations to
meet the challenges facing the state.
Certainly, after eight years, the incumbent governor should be
willing to step aside and permit others within his own party as well
as the opposition to express their ideas and present their platforms
in order that the people have a meaningful choice.
With respect to the other issue, I believe that the governor and
lieutenant governor should be a team before they are elected in order
O make certain that they function as a team after they are elected.
The constitutional amendment pertaining to this issue would correct
a problem area which now exists in the line of succession and the close
working relationship which must be present between the governor and
lieutenant governor.
- 1 -
Message to Legislature TERMS OF OFFICE
The lieutenant governor is only a heartbeat away from the governor-
ship. He acts as governor when the chief executive is out of state,
with every power, and every responsibility vested in the governor, until
the chief executive returns.
Of course, in the event of the governor's death, the lieutenant
governor is immediately sworn in as governor to serve out his
predecessor's total remaining term of office.
In both cases, I believe the lieutenant governor should continue to
carry out the goals and objectives of the governor, either during the
absence of the chief executive or, in the event of his death until
the end of the term. For, the lieutenant governor assumes the office
of the man whom the people have chosen as their chief executive, on the
basis of commitments to, or reforms of, programs and approaches to the
operation of state government.
However, under current California law, a weak link exists in this
vital line of succession and continuity. Because candidates for governor
and lieutenant governor now run for office separately, and are elected
separately, it is possible for a governor to be elected from one party,
and the lieutenant governor from the other.
Even though none of us may wish to contemplate the possibility of
someone, elected to such high office, taking undue or improper advantage
of such a situation, the possibility, nevertheless, does exist. The fact
is, it is possible for a lieutenant governor of an opposing political
party to act to undermine the work of a governor even while serving as
acting governor when the chief executive is out of state.
I do want to emphasize that the proposed constitutional amendment
would, in no way, change the present primary election process which
assures the voters an opportunity to select whomever they wish as
nominees for the offices of governor and lieutenant governor, from each
party. It would provide, however, that after the nominees were selected
from each party, the candidates for governor and lieutenant governor was
be united on a single ballot, as a team and elected as a team just as
the president and vice president on the national level.
Again, I urge you to give strong and favorable consideration to both
these measures in order that the voters may have an opportunity to make
the final decision.
########
EJG
2
4/17
4
OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR
RELEASE: Immediate
Sacramento, California
Contact:
Paul Beck
445-4571
4-17-69
To the Members of the Legislature of California:
PROPERTY TAX RELIEF
It has come to my attention that many thousands of Californians
apparently have failed to file applications to receive property tax
relief to which they are entitled.
As you know, the filing deadline to make such applications
to
enable homeowners to individually receive a $70 property tax relief
refund and to be eligible for a future yearly $750 exemption on the
assessed value of their homes was April 15.
This was made possible by our joint action at last year's special
session of the legislature, and subsequent approval of Proposition 1-A
by the voters in the last general election.
The Los Angeles County Assessor has advised me that, as of April 15,
he had received less than one million forms of the more than 1,600,000
which were mailed in that county alone. We believe that this situation
is indicative of many other counties around the state.
I, therefore, want to take this opportunity to urge each of you
to act favorably, and at the earliest possible time, on emergency
legislation which has been introduced by Assemblyman George Milias
(R-Gilroy) which would extend the deadline for filing these applications
to May 30, 1969.
Again, I want to emphasize, and I am confident that you will agree,
that the taxpayers of this state are entitled to the refunds which were
made available to them, and which they themselves approved last November.
With your help, we can all assure that they are given every possible
opportunity to claim these benefits, which are rightfully theirs, and
which they should take advantage of.
#######
EJG
and
the
4/24
OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR
RELEASE: Friday A.M.'s
Sacramento, California
Contact:
Paul Beck
445-4571
4-24-69
EXCERPTS OF PREPARED REMARKS BY GOVERNOR RONALD REAGAN
Third Annual Nuevas Vistas Conference
Biltmore Hotel, Los Angeles
April 24, 1969
Since the first Nuevas Vistas Conference two years ago, the
efforts of a great many educators, public officials, legislators and
concerned citizens have been devoted to identifying the special problems
that confront the Spanish-speaking youngster in our schools. Many of
you here tonight are leaders in these efforts to stimulate a new
awareness of the instructional needs of thousands of youngsters who
enter California schools from non-English speaking homes each year.
And while we in state government would be the first to concede
that much more needs to be done, we have made some significant progress.
Within a month after your first Nuevas Vistas conference, I was
pleased to sign into law Senator Short's bill permitting bilingual
instruction in California schools. This measure, which had bipartisan
support, has made it legally possible for local school districts to
develop new and effective programs to help the Spanish-speaking
youngster make the difficult transition to English-language instruction.
Everyone here is aware, I am sure, of the tragic social and
individual consequences that have resulted in the past from our
failure to recognize the language barrier as a major educational
problem for California youngsters of Mexican descent. This language
barrier is one of the reasons for the dishearteningly high drop-out
rate among Spanish-speaking students. It is a source of frustration
from the time they start school because they begin their educational
experience with a double handicap. The California student from a
Spanish-speaking background is attempting to master basic subject
matter that is difficult enough even for the English-speaking student.
And he is trying to accomplish this learning process in a language
that is often totally unfamiliar to him.
Bilingual instruction is one of the major efforts to eliminate
this handicap SO that the Mexican-American youngster will have a fair
opportunity to succeed in school.
The State Department of Education is participating in this
effort in a variety of ways. Under the leadership of Dr. Gonzales,
the department has initiated a number of pilot projects to promote
bilingual instruction.
-1-
Nuevas Vistas Conference
It has sponsored demonstration projects to reach the children of
migrant families. It has produced a series of video tapes in Spanish
to explain the various state educational programs to this community.
And it is working to develop texts and supplementary materials to
help California students of Mexican descent understand their native tongu
and the rich cultural legacy of their early California ancestors.
Along with these varied and ongoing projects, the State Department
of Education also is helping implement the federal program of
financial assistance for bilingual instruction.
We must also recognize the educational problems that confront the
Spanish surname youngster do not all stem from his different cultural
sbackground. Overcrowded classrooms, inadequate local school financing
and insufficient educational programs, unfortunately, cause students
of all races and cultural backgrounds to suffer equally from these
deficiencies.
One of the most critical problems affecting the ability of the
schools to overcome these deficiencies is simply one of finances.
For too long, local school districts have been too dependent on
local property taxes for too great a share of the revenue needed to
finance the school program.
It has been obvious for some time that something must be done
to relieve the massive burden on the local property taxpayer.
Between 1958 and 1968, overall property taxes levied by all taxing
jurisdictions in California rose by an average of almost 10 percent
a
year from a total of $2 billion to more than $4 billion.
As a result of this tremendous increase, the property taxpayer
has become increasingly resistant to school bond issues, over-rides or
any other proposal that might add to his financial burden.
The property tax has been regressive in other ways, too. It
has become a factor that is discouraging home ownership at the very
time when every community needs from every citizen the sense of
commitment and belonging, the stability that comes with owning your
own home. Moreover, the present school financing system is inequitable
because it does not provide equal education opportunities for all
children, whether they live in a low wealth district or a high-income
area.
-2-
Nuevas Vistas Conference
We found, for example, that elementary school district
expenditures range from as little as $289 per average daily attendance
to as high as $2,662 per ADA. Some wealthy districts have a
relatively low property tax burden while others--located in areas
with a static or declining tax base--struggle to find operating
revenues although the residents of those areas pay an intolerably
high property tax rate.
That is why this administration has made property tax relief
and tax reform a major goal. It must be accomplished if the state is
to provide the quality education and the variety of educational
opportunities that our young people deserve.
That is why this administration has made a massive commitment
to equality of educational opportunity.
In addition to the present level of financial support, which
totals some $1.284 million in 1969-70, the budget I submitted to the
legislature this year would provide an additional $105.5 million
for support of the kindergarten through grade 12 school program.
--$76.5 million of that is intended to help those districts
with the most serious current financial problems.
--$9.5 million would extend the state's compensatory education
program.
--$16 million is earmarked for the Special Elementary School
Reading Instruction program.
The Spanish-speaking youngster would benefit from all of those
programs. So would thousands of Anglo and black students in low
wealth districts.
But we realize that even with this additional support, many
districts face critical fiscal problems. There must be a completely
new approach to school financing. The state must assume a greater
and fairer share of the financial burden if equality of educational
opportunity is to be achieved in every school district in California.
That is what this administration is attempting to accomplish
with the tax reform proposals that were announced earlier this month.
While the major emphasis of this program is one of tax reform,
the impact of this readjustment would have a widespread and tremendously
beneficial effect on education---particularly in improving the educationa
opportunities for students from low-wealth districts or from districts
already taxed to the limit.
-3-
Nuevas Vistas Conference
The statewide educational opportunity tax would permit the state
to increase its share of state school financing from the present $1.3
billion a year to nearly $3 billion a year. This tax shift would allow
local taxing districts to reduce the average residential property tax
throughout the state by well over 50 percent.
These proposals represent an effort to make a massive overhaul
of California's school financing system, a realignment of responsibility
that must be made if we are to make certain that every student has an
equal opportunity to realize his maximum educational potential.
To give you an idea of what this would mean in terms of equalizing
educational opportunity, the proposed tax reform would mean that the
state would be assuming most of the basic foundation support for local
school districts. By grade level, this support would range from $500
per average daily attendance (ADA) for kindergarten through the sixth
grade; $600 per ADA for grades 7 through 9; $700 per ADA for grades
10 through 12, and $725 per ADA for junior colleges (13-14).
This would give every school district in California a solid
foundation program, primarily financed by the state.
Although money is such a central part of the educational dilemma,
it is not the only part.
Those who are vitally concerned with education public officials,
professional educators, parents and legislators--- must join in asking
some searching and fundamental questions about the overall direction of
our educational programs.
Are we doing the best we can for the greatest number of students?
Is the nation as a whole devoting a disproportionate amount of emphasis
(and educational dollars) to the 20 percent of young people who will go
on to complete a college degree? Should we not now take a hard look at
our priorities and determine whether we might profitably upgrade and
refine the educational opportunities that we offer to the majority of
students who will enter the job market without finishing college?
This is a particularly timely question today when there is a
desperate demand for trained technical experts in a variety of occupations
and skills. In the past, schools too often have viewed technical
education and vocational training as the stepchild of education. There
has been a patronizing attitude toward preparing students to directly
enter the job market from our secondary schools.
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Nuevas Vistas Conference
The result is that schools send inadequately prepared youngsters
off to compete for a job on their own. This occurs at all levels of
education. There are entirely too many high school graduates and
dropouts; junior college graduates and college drop-outs who haven't
been sufficiently trained to do anything that is immediately marketable
in the job market.
The non-college bound youngster is thrust on his own into an
increasingly technically-oriented labor market without the foundation of
thorough preparation and education that his college-bound counterpart
receives from the public school system. These are more "push-outs" from
our educational system than drop-outs.
We must question the priorities of a system that produces such an
imbalance. We must begin a serious effort to provide within our public
schools a far broader and more effective variety of educational oppor-
tunity for those students who prefer a technically-oriented public school
program. The doctor's son in Bel Air may want to become a skilled
television technician or a racing car mechanic instead of following his
father into medicine. The Spanish-speaking auto mechanic's son in East
Los Angeles may wish to study for a Ph.D in physics. The black student
in Watts may want to pursue a program that could qualify him to be an
astronaut.
Here, I would like to stress once again the importance of adequate
financial support to the total concept of equality of educational
opportunity what this administration's tuition plan for higher education
can mean to the student who is qualified but financially unable to go to
college. The Equal Education Plan which I outline in the "Creative
Society" study program proposes to set aside up to 50 percent of all
tuition revenues and use it each year for scholarships and loans to
deserving students who otherwise would not be able to attend our state
colleges or the University of California.
At the present time, the student population in all our institutions
of higher learning is heavily dominated by students from above-average
income groups. But why must the mailman in Watts or East Los Angeles
subsidize the operation of higher educational facilities which he knows
has not always been available to his youngster? Under the scholarship
program that would be part of my Equal Education Plan, the doors of
higher education would be opened wider
to a far greater number of
deserving youngsters from all cultural and ethnic backgrounds.
6
Nuevas Vistas Conference
The point of all of this is that we must make it possible for all
youngsters to pursue their different educational goals within the public
school system. The educational program that is offered must be
sufficiently broad in all districts to permit a student to prepare for
whatever professional or occupational field he desires. That can only
be done if the financial base that supports the local school district is
sufficiently broad to provide the necessary revenue on an equal basis.
That is what we are trying to do.
Equality of Educational Opportunity is not just a slogan.
It must become a fact.
You can help make it a fact.
More than any other group, the educator who himself is of Mexican
heritage is uniquely equipped to help government and our overall society
learn how to most effectively motivate students from a Spanish cultural
background.
Besides teaching the formal academic subjects, I'm sure that everyo
of you is involved every day in the effort to rekindle among Spanish
surname youth a strong sense of identity with their proud Hispanic
culture.
Throughout history, this culture has been one that expressed both
in thought and deed a great respect for learning.
This respect for learning that is so fundamentally a part of your
heritage can be constructively enlisted in helping youngsters of
Mexican descent to realize their full educational potential.
And here, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to frankly issue a
challenge to you as educators and as representatives of the two million
Californians of Mexican descent.
I call upon you to tell us what we can do to help. We in governmen
look to you to counsel us on the most effective ways to reach the
youngster from a Latin cultural background and motivate him to make the
adjustment into our competitive, English-speaking society.
We must find ways to preserve among those of Spanish heritage a
proud sense of cultural identity, yet at the same time equip the
youngster from a bilingual home to compete and to succeed in the
pluralistic melting pot society that we call American.
Every day, each of us mixes comfortably within and as a part of
several communities.
- 6 -
Nuevas Vistas Conference
Doctors of all races work with doctors in the medical profession
and become, in the process, not representatives of any particular
ethnic group or culture. They are just doctors. Teachers of many
cultural backgrounds meld together to become simply teachers during
the school day. Every cultural group must find ways to retain its own
distinct identity and yet adjust to living with and within a number of
other communities at the same time.
I ask you---as educators of Mexican descent to help us help
youngsters from your cultural community make this adjustment.
I call upon you to tell us what texts we need to adopt. Tell us
what additional programs are necessary to help more Spanish-surname
students complete high school and college. Tell us how we can
preserve the best of the Spanish cultural influence upon your young
people and yet teach them how to adjust easily to the competitive,
English-language society in which most of them will live and work.
I call upon you to tell us. And I promise you that we will listen.
No one pretends that this job of motiviation and education will be an
easy task.
More than two thousand years ago, Seneca, the first great Spanish
philosopher, put into a few short words the challenge that confronts
us today:
"It is a rough road, If he said, "that leads to the heights of
greatness."
We can reach the heights of greatness in California, ladies and
gentlemen, if we travel that road together in the same spirit of
togetherness that has made California the confluence of two great
cultures.
NOTE: Since Governor Reagan speaks from notes, there may be additions
to, or changes in, the above text. However, the governor will
stand by the above text.
########
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86/
86/7
4
But physical plants provide merely the setting for education.
What goes on inside these plants 15 just as important.
Because we are in a swiftly-changing period of our history, serious
questions are being raised about both the quality and the content
of the education we offer to our young people. To help analyze the
root problems of education, I am establishing a Governor's Commission
on Educational Reform. Among other things, I am asking this group to
seriously assess the need for, and the potential benefits of, a.
system of technical institutes to help serve the needs of the vast
majority of our youth who will never complete college. In the seventies,
California will need 2.4 million more technically-trained young men and
women. We must begin now to determine whether our existing educational
system is best geared to provide the non-college bound youngster with
skills that are in demand in the job market.
While I'm on the subject of technical training, I'd like to point
out that our concern is not just with the young people now in school.
We are just as concerned with a variety of programs to reach the hard-
core unemployed and help them learn a marketable skill. We have
established a Department of Human Resources Development to coordinate
job training and development programs that previously were administered
by four separate agencies.
The aim of these programs is to get people off our welfare rolls
and onto job payrolls. This two-edged approach will produce double
benefits for the state. Every person placed in productive employment
will add one more taxpayer and subtract one tax consumer. Each
newly-trained worker will increase our net tax revenues and reduce our
welfare costs.
The second major area of investment is our water program. I am
sure most of you are familiar with California's ambitious system
to transport water.
It may be of interest to you that when our astronauts land on the
moon, the two man-made structures they will be able to trace from
there will be the California Water System and the Great China Wall.
Incidentally, much of the scientific and technical "know-how" that will
help land the astronauts on the lunar surface also is a product of
California's research and development capability.
-5-
Municipal Analysts Forum, NYC
This remarkable water system begins in the foothills of the Sierra
Nevada in Northern California and winds for 600 miles through
virtually every region of the state. By 1990, it will be moving
more water, further, than any other distribution system on the face
of the earth.
Not only does this program transport water to Southern California--
where the majority of our population lives--it also supplies thirstin
new agricultural fields along the way. Only a few years ago, there
were dire forecasts that California's massively-productive agricultural
industry was on the decline. Urban encroachment on rich agricultural
lands, high-cost labor crops and outside competition were cited as
contributing factors. But the transport of water to new and potentially
rich areas changed this forecast.
As a result of the aqeduct system through the Sacramento and
San Joaquin valleys, thousands of acres never before utilized in
irrigated farming will now be available for producing food and fiber.
By 1990, our estimates show that about 350,000 acres of land on the
west side of the great central valley will be irrigated by the state
water project. And 250,000 of those acres will be land never before
under irrigation. This will assure a tremendous increase in
productivity.
Most of the 50,000 acres of new land, irrigated for the first
time this year by the project, is within Kern County, in the southernmost
part of the San Joaquin Valley. Here the average cotton yield in 1968
was two bales to the acre. On the 22,000 acres of "new lands," the
cotton yield was 2½ to 3 bales to the acre.
The sugar beet yield from newly irrigated land demonstrated a
similar trend. Up to 30 tons of sugar beets were harvested from every
acre of "new land" while the county average was 23 to 25 tons per acre.
That leads us to the third profitable investment that we are
making in California's future--our investment in agricultural research.
A great part of the credit for the remarkable productivity of our
state's agricultural industry must go to the innovations associated
with research programs conducted by the University of California. Let
me just cite a few of many, many examples.
-6-
In a matter of only a few years, research has increased the
production of tomatoes from 18 tons per acre to almost 40 tons per
acre. To accomplish this, it was necessary to invent and perfect a
mechanical tomato picker and to culture a new strain of tomato plant
adaptable to mechanical harvesting. Through these developments, the
cost of harvesting tomatoes has been cut in half from $20 to $10 per
ton.
Mechanical harvesting of fruits is also advancing rapidly, with the
promise of similar savings.
Yet the dollar benefits from agriculture cannot be measured only in
gross farm income. The effects multiply in related projects and
services.
Agriculture is California's No. 1 industry. In 1968, the gross farm
income was $41 billion. But the agri-business industry associated with
such a vast enterprise is closer to being an $18 billion industry. Both
are growth industries.
Now, how does all this relate to your business--the bond
business? Your business is very important to this development
because it is through California bonds that we have been able to
make this vast investment in our state's future.
Because of the inflationary fiscal policy and the inflationary
psychology that developed during the previous national administration,
there was a move away from bonds as an investment corporate bonds as
well as municipal bonds.
We have been experiencing the results of that inflationary psychology.
Current yields on corporate bonds are nearly 8 percent and municipal
bonds are almost 6 percent. The past year has been a difficult one
for floating new issues. Recently, I signed legislation raising the
maximum permissible interest rate on state water revenue bonds from
5.5 percent to 6.5 percent. Several weeks ago, Blyth and Co. headed
an underwriting with many others of the firms represented here today for
the issuance of $94 million in water bonds with a net interest rate of
5.76 percent. In view of the subsequent market change, we consider this
to be good financing.
-7-
Municipal Analysts Forum, NYC
Yet with a new a .inistration in Washington ting to bring
monetary restraint and fiscal responsibility to the national
government, we are confident there will be a renewed interest in
bond investments.
We expect California bonds, always highly-regarded by investors, to
be an object of this heightened interest. While most of our current
revenues come from sales, corporate and personal income taxes, the
majority of our long-term financing is done through state bonds. As
of April, 1969, California had a total of $4.8 billion in state bonds
outstanding. Of these, 60 percent are self-liquidating. The total
bonded indebtedness of California, including local cities and counties,
was $13.4 billion.
How does this rank with other states? New York is the best
example for comparison. Your bonded indebtedness is $18.4 billion--
of which $4.8 billion is state and the remaining local.
Since our populations are about the same (20 million) and our
assessed valuation is comparable (at about $52 billion), it is clear
that our total bonded indebtedness compares quite favorably with
New York' $13 billion versus $18 billion.
We also rank well in terms of debt per capita.
Our future plans for additional state bonds, of course, depend
upon market conditions. The state has approximately $1.3 billion
in authorized but unsold bonds at this time. The timing and the
amount of their sale is under the capable direction of State Treasurer,
Ivy Baker Priest--a lady who is no stranger in this forum.
Our fiscal experts are exploring suggestions to improve our
ability to market California bonds by such means as shorter maturity
dates, smaller issues and increasing the interest ceiling.
But we tend to view the sluggish bond market these past months
as a temporary situation. The new fiscal atmosphere is already having
an impact on the market. We are confident that the bond market is
going to continue to recognize
the greatest value in the world
an investment in California's future,
####
(NOTE: Since Governor Reagan speaks from notes, there may be changes
in , or additions to, the above quotes. However, the governor
will stand by the above quotes.)
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