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Speeches - Miscellaneous (including scripts), 1964-1974 [1964-October 1967]
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Speeches - Miscellaneous (including scripts), 1964-1974 [1964-October 1967]
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Ronald Reagan's Governor's Papers of the Press Unit
Governor Ronald Reagan's Speeches
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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 - Miscellaneous (including scripts),
1964-1974 [1964-October 1967]
Box: P20
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/
-
.
1961
1964
A TIME FOR CHOOSING
1963.2
An Address By
RONALD REAGAN
James Madison, one of our founding fathers, said, "Ve base all
our experiments on the capacity of man for self-government." The
practice of self-government entails free discussion between men of
good will in an effort to solve differences of opinion.
Today it seems impossible to debate legitimately the means of
solving our problems. There is a growing tendency to substitute name-
calling. On the one hand, a small group of people see treason in any
philosophical difference of opinion and apply the terms "pink" and
"leftist" to those who are motivated only by humanitarian idealism
in their support of the liberal welfare philosophy. On the other hand,
an even greater number of people today, advocates of this liberal
philosophy, lump all who oppose their viewpoint under the banner of
right-wing lunacy, charging that these right-wing lunatics or extrem-
ists pose the only internal threat to our national security. One has
to wonder how long we can afford the luxury of this family fight
while we are at war with the most dangerous enemy mankind has ever
known.
Savings and loan associations deal with investment risks, evalu-
ating past records, future potential, company policy, management
balance sheets. Well, I think it is high time that we all do some
unemotional evaluating of our most important holding, including a
check on the future plans and policies of its management.
Not long ago, two friends of mine were talking to a Cuban busi-
nessman who had escaped from Castro. He was telling pretty horrible
tales of his experiences. One of my friends turned to the other and
said, "Ne don't realize how lucky we are." The Cuban exclaimed,
"How lucky you are! I had some place to escape to." It is just
as simple as that.
If this way of life of ours is lost, where in the world do men
who desire freedom find an escape? I think it is time to ask ourselves
if we still know the freedoms intended for us by the creators of the
only true revolution that has ever taken place in man's history. Here
in this country our revolution was the only one that did not merely
exchange one set of rulers for another set of rulers. We lighted a
torch 200 years ago that said to the downtrodden of all the world,
not that we had decided on a more benevolent ruler, but rather that
for the first time man had decided his rights were God-given, the
people were sovereign and government could do only those things per-
mitted by the people.
By unleashing the individual genius of every man, a mere 6% of
the world's population occupying only 7% of the world's land surface
has created and owns 50% of the world's wealth. We have distributed
that wealth more widely among our people than has ever been done in
any society heretofore created by man. We have proved man's capa-
city for self-government. Yet today, under the unremitting pressure
of the cold war, we have adopted contrary measures in the apparent
belief that our proven system is unable to meet the challenge of the
cold war.
THE LIBERAL PHILOSOPHY: PLANNED ECONOMY
A White House adviser, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., sees the cold
war disappearing "through a peaceful transition into a not undemocra-
tic socialism." Another government adviser, Ted Sorenson, in his
book Decisions in the White House, says that public opinion is often
erratic, inconsistent, arbitrary and unreasonable; that it is fre--
quently hampered by myths and misinformation, by stereotypes and by
innate resistance to innovations. For these reasons, he says, "the
President must not be bound by public opinion; he must not only reign
in Washington but he also must rule."
Howard K. Smith of television tells us that "the distribution
of goods must be effected by a planned economy; that the profit motive
must be replaced by the incentives of the liberal welfare state."
Today there are millions and millions of people in our land who cannot
see a fat man standing beside a thin one without automatically coming
to the conclusion that the fat man got that way by taking advantage
of the thin one. They' seek an answer to all the problems of human
need through government.
One of the articulate voices of the liberal philosophy, Senator
Clark of Pennsylvania, defines liberalism as "the program of meeting
the material needs of the masses through utilizing the full power of
centralized government.' It is disturbing when a representative of
the people uses what heretofore has been a foreign term and describes
you and me as "the masses." But, more important, the "power of cen-
tralized government" was the very thing the founding fathers sought
to minimize. They knew that the government cannot control things.
The government cannot control the economy without controlling people.
Plutarch warned that "the real destroyer of the liberties of the
people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits."
Mankind has known only a few moments of freedom in all the long
climb from the swamp to the stars, and most of those moments have
been ours. Strangely enough, all of them have been under a system of
private ownership. and capitalism. But freedom is never more than one
generation away from extinction. The late Judge Learned Hand said,
"Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no
constitution, no court, no law can save it."
I think we have come to a time for choosing. Two contrary philo-
sophies divide us in this land of ours. Either we believe in our tra-
ditional system of individual liberty, or we abandon the American
Revolution and confess that an intellectual elite in a far distant
capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them our-
selves.
In our adult lifetime we have seen the government lay its hand
on health, housing, farming, industry, commerce, education and commu-
nications. In so doing, regardless of good intentions, it has created
a permanent structure of government which has become so big and so
complex that it virtually entraps the President and the Congress,
regardless of which party is elected to power.
There are today 2½ million federal employees, and the present
budget calls for an increase of 40,000 this year. In 1942 there was
one top-salaried government executive for every 89 employees; by
1961 there was one for every 17. Federal, state and local governments
employ one out of every six people earning a living in this country;
five of us are paying the full salary of a sixth employee. If the
present rate of increase continues, in six short years one-fourth of
the total work force of the nation will be employed by the government.
Today 48 million Americans receive some form of direct cash pay-
ment from government; 38 million of them receive it from the federal
government.
Secretary of Commerce Hodges recently said, "The sad thing about
government is that you really don't know what is going on most of the
time." He probably said it right after he announced that he could
run his department with 10% fewer employees and then discovered that
in one month 1,600 new ones had been hired.
-3-
Probably no one in government knows exactly what everyone does
do, but one congressman found an indication. He uncovered a man
whose job in Washington is to sit and scan documents that come over
his desk. He reads them, initials them and sends them on to the pro-
per agency. One day a document came his way that he was not supposed
to read. Nevertheless he read it, initialed it and passed it on.
Twenty-four hours later it came back to his desk with a memo: "You
were not supposed to read this. Erase your initials and initial the
erasure.
11
GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS SELF-PERPETUATING
Government programs take on a weight and momentum of their own.
Federal welfare spending today is ten times greater than it was in
the dark depths of the depression, when there was so much real need.
Federal welfare spending in the last ten years has multiplied eight
times as fast as the increase in population. In my home region of
Los Angeles County, 44% of the total budget is for welfare. This is
more than all the money collected from real estate taxes in our county.
All of us probably are familiar with the practice of government
agencies in hurrying to spend all their money before the end of the
fiscal year so they can go to Congress with clean hands and empty
pockets. But is it not going a little overboard for one of the
United States travel agencies to spend 87% of its budget in the last
two days of the fiscal year?
There is a seeming indestructibility to government agencies. A
government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life that we shall
ever see on this earth.
The Farm Home Mortgage Bureau was created in the depths of the
depression. Today it is bigger than ever. It is not lending money
as it was originally set up to do, that is, to enable tenant farmers
to own their own cabins. It is now in the business of lending money
for recreational agencies, golf courses and--you name it.
The REA, or Rural Electrification Administration, was created in
1936 to aid in bringing electricity to rural homes. It did just that,
and today more than 98% of the farm homes in the country have electric
power. In 1936 the sponsors of this legislation declared it was not
their intent to let government-subsidized, tax-exempt utility groups
compete with private industry, but today the REA is bigger than ever,
with a budget of nearly half a billion dollars a year. Four out of
-4-
five of all its new customers are nonfarm users. It borrows money
from the Treasury at 2% for such nonfarm uses as a ski lift, complete
with artificial snow machinery, in northern Illinois; and that money
must be borrowed by the Treasury at 4 to 4½.
The Tennessee Valley Authority was started as a flood control
project. Periodically the Tennessee Valley had been ravaged by
flood. The TVA cured that; it flooded the whole area permanently.
Then it was suggested that with the electricity generated by the
waters impounded behind the dams, the TVA go into the power business.
But today three-fourths of all the electricity produced by the TVA
is generated in steam plants.
Some people say government spending is necessary to stimulate
the economy. There has been no greater spending anywhere in the
country than in the Tennessee Valley, yet the Labor Department today
officially lists over 50% of the 169 counties in that region as perma-
nent areas of poverty, distress and unemployment.
This brings us to the most serious threat to freedom: the extent
to which policy is determined by these permanent bureaus rather than
by those we elect to office with our ballots. Last year, while Con-
gress was debating whether to lend the United Nations $100 million
to bail it out of its financial difficulties, the State Department,
without asking anyone's permission, handed the UN $217 million, part
of which was used to pay the delinquent dues of Castro's Cuba.
Last year Congress passed a law prohibiting our foreign aid
bureaus and agencies from giving aid to any nation selling oil to
Cuba. Yet, in the first six months of this year, four nations selling
oil to Cuba have received $145 million.
Since 1933 the Congress of the United States has passed laws that
fill eleven thick volumes. In that same period the bureaus of govern-
ment have adopted regulations effecting us that fill 39 such thick
volumes, and many of these regulations are "final and not subject to
review by any court."
You and I have lost the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution,
our protection against search and seizure. Today federal agents, if
they suspect a citizen of violating a regulation, can invade his
property without a warrant; can levy a fine without a formal hearing.
let alone a trial by Jury; and can seize and sell his property at
auction to enforce payment of that fine.
-5-
HOW WELL DOES THE FARM PROGRAM WORK?
The Farm Program is a classic example of how government must
resort to force and coercion when it attempts to control the economy.
If we were surprised when the wheat farmers last spring voted against
Santa Claus, we might be interested in the case of one wheat farmer.
Ten years ago he was operating independently, without help from the
government, and he was getting $2.05 a bushel for his wheat and pay-
ing 20$ a loaf for bread. With the government helping him for ten
years, he is now getting $1.89 a bushel for his wheat and bread costs
36$ a loaf.
The government has been so zealous to preserve the family farmer
that it has declared Louisiana State Penitentiary a family farmer and
sends it $45,000 each year. But after thirty years of helping, there
are only half as many family farmers in America as there were thirty
years ago. One-fourth of farming has seen a reduction in the per
capita consumption of everything it raises. That one-fourth of farm-
ing is regulated and subsidized by the federal government.
Three-fourths of farming in the free market governed only by the
laws of supply and demand have seen a 21% increase in the per capita
consumption of everything it raises.
There is today in the Department of Agriculture one employee
for every sixty farmers. Yet with all that help it does not know
what happened to sixty-six full shiploads of grain that disappeared
without a trace while en route to Austria.
The federal grain program today is prorated at $43 for every dollar
bushel of corn that is not raised. We authorize hundreds of millions
of dollars for new irrigation projects to reclaim desert and wastelands
and put them into fruitful farm production, but we are paying $300
million a year to take fruitful farmland out of production.
EVILS OF URBAN RENEWAL AND PUBLIC HOUSING
Meanwhile, back in the cities, we adopt programs of urban renewal
Granted the desirability of refurbishing rundown areas in our cities
so they can once again be a source of tax revenue, we have so diluted
private property rights under urban renewal that "public use" is any-
thing a few government planners decide it should be. It is this
ability to force the sale of private property, more than federal
money, that is the real attraction of urban renewal.
-6-
same
time,
are many. In one key city in the United States a man owning a run-
down section in the heart of the city sold it to urban renewal for
several million dollars and them submitted his own plan for renewal.
His plan was approved and the government sold him back his own land
for 22% of the purchase price.
Officials of federal housing, disturbed as they realize belatedly
that all who cried "doom" were not crying falsely, discovered that a
whole generation growing up, getting married and raising children is
taking for granted as a way of life the living on a subsidy contri-
buted by their neighbors. But they do not suggest going out of
business. No, they have a new approach. They are now discussing in
Washington taking advantage of the condemnation features of urban
renewal, buying homes in scattered neighborhoods and putting tenants
from public housing into these individual homes in the hope that a
sort of good neighborliness osmosis will occur that will enable them
to take their place among the productive people of the community.
In New York City the maximum income for living in public housing
is $7,500 per year. I do not have to tell you that is pretty well
above the national average right now. A man is suing the public
housing authority for the right to continue living in public housing
even though in his new job he and his wife have a combined income
of $14,000 a year. The basis for the suit is his new job. He has
been elected to the New York State Assembly, and he says, "How do I
know I will get re-elected in the next election?"
CONDEMNS METHODS, NOT HUMANITARIAN GOALS
Government programs usually start with humanitarian goals and in
answer to some great emergency. To question the extent of the crisis
or the suggested cure is to be charged with being opposed to the
noble motive. This is a dishonest evasion of legitimate debate.
It is possible to fulfill our responsibilities to a needy neighbor,
to be our brother's keeper, without totally replacing human compassion
ith the coercion of taxation.
Could any of us be charged with being opposed to the noble pur-
pose of the Peace Corps? Since the inception of this country we have,
through our various religions, contributed voluntarily to send mission-
aries to every corner of the world, so of course we are not opposed
-7-
to the noble purpose. One religious order today can send and
keep a volunteer overseas for one year for $900. What we object to
is that the Peace Corps prorates at $9,000 for each volunteer per
year.
Because we have a problem with school dropouts and juvenile
delinquents, it has been suggested that we adopt or revive something
like the CCC to help these youngsters. The program that is proposed
prorates to $7,000 a year for each young person to be helped. You
can send a boy to Harvard for $3,000 a year! Do not get me wrong--
I am not suggesting Harvard as the answer to juvenile delinquency.
DILEMMA OF THE SENIOR CITIZEN
Right now the crisis we are hearing about has to do with the
health of our senior citizens, and we are told that a compulsory
government program of medical insurance will resolve it. Ignored
is the revolutionary increase in private health insurance in the
last ten years, which has matched the growth of the savings and loan
business. Today, 141 million Americans, 76% of our population, have
some kind of private medical or health insurance, and the coverage
(
is increasing at the rate of four million a year. Yet we are told
that the private sector of the economy cannot solve the problem.
Nine percent of the people in this country are over age 65. They
cannot be entirely destitute, because that 9% is collecting 8% of all
the personal revenue in the United States. As nearly as we can deter-
mine, about 10% of our senior citizens require outside help for medi-
cal needs. Legislation enacted in the Kerr-Mills Bill provides
federal funds for state administration for this needy 10%. One state
has found an excellent solution, using the funds to buy Blue Cross
insurance policies for its needy senior citizens--paying in part or
in full, depending on individual need.
In the state of California the private insurance companies have
obtained permission to pool their resources and their risks and to
provide low-cost policies which will cover an additional number of
our senior citizens and for which no medical examination is required.
However, when the insurance companies of New Jersey asked their state
legislature for the same right, they were turned down. In turning
them down, the governor said that if this legislation were passed it
would be more difficult for the federal government to get its program
of compulsory health insurance.
-8-
It would seem that government for government's sake is wanted.
No responsible person would suggest that a senior citizen should suffer
destitution because of unemployment by reason of old age, but should
the responsible citizen not be able to question the soundness of Social
Security as a solution to the problem without reaping a whirlwind?
SOCIAL SECURITY: INSURANCE PROGRAM OR TAX?
The Social Security agency has told us in more than 100 million
pieces of literature since 1939 that this is an insurance program, that
each one of us and our employers pay into the fund and thus in our
nonearning years we call upon our own money to see us through. Is it
not strange, then, that the Social Security authorities appeared before
the Supreme Court and denied that it is an insurance program? They
used the term only to sell it to the people. They said that Social
Security dues are a tax for the general use of the government, and the
government has used that tax money.
The Social Security fund is some $20 billion worth of government
bonds. Now, you know batter than anyone else that if you and I hold
a government bond it is an I.O.U. and an asset, but how in heaven's
name does the government give itself an I.O.U. and consider it an
asset? The money has been spent. The plain truth is that Social Se-
curity today is, by its own admission, $298 billion in the red. And
who pays for this? Just take a look at your son.
A young man going to work today, earning an average salary in his
early '20's, will find that he and his employer are now paying to Social
Security $1.69 for every dollar the government promises to give him
back. He can go into the open market today with the same amount of
money and buy a retirement insurance program that will guarantee
him $220 a month at age 65. The government promises him $127.
Are we suggesting that we suddenly deny a generation of senior
citizens an income? No., But is it beyond reason that we should look
at this program and see where it can be put on a voluntary basis;
where people who can buy a better deal from private industry should
we allowed to do so; and where those of us who can take care of our
brothers in need when the time comes, should ask them to participate
in the program in the meantime and contribute toward their own welfare?
-9-
FOREIGN AID: COST VS. ACCOMPLISHMENT
Earlier I mentioned foreign aid. All of us agree, on humanitarian
grounds if upon no other, that, blessed as we are with material means,
we should help our needy neighbors. But I do not believe that Christian
charity or charity of the God of Moses demands that we go into debt
to see that a needy neighbor has an egg in his beer.
Since the end of World War II, the original 19 countries that we
set out to help have become 107. And to those foreign countries and
to international agencies we have handed over $148 billion. We hear
howls of protest when Congress suggests cutting the present foreign
aid appropriation by half a billion dollars at the same time Senator
Harry Byrd of Virginia reveals that foreign aid today has $21 billion
of unexpended funds from previous appropriations.
The Prime Minister of Liberia told Dr. Howard Kirschner recently
that his country has no deficits, balances its budget every year, has
a modest tax rate, has increased its gold earnings as much as $170
million each year and has no inflation. To which Dr. Kirschner replied,
"Mr. Prime Minister, my country has not balanced its budget in 26 of
the past 32 years. We have a public debt that is greater than the
combined debt of all the other nations of the world. We have galloping
inflation, and we have lost gold to the extent that the solvency of
our currency is in danger. Do you think we should continue to give
your government millions of dollars every year?" The Prime Minister
smiled and said, "No, but if you are foolish enough to do it, we are
going to keep on taking the money."
So will Nasser keep on taking it, for Egypt is purchasing $100
million worth of arms annually from Russia. Half of Brazil's total
budget is made up of our money, and recently we appropriated half a
million dollars for research and study in Brazil to find out whether
that country can use additional funds. Does it surprise you to find
out how much it costs to determine where we can spend money? We sent
foreign aid to Bolivia, and with our money it nationalized private in-
dustry, confiscated the tin mines, doubled the number of employees,
cut production in half. And the cost of living went up 250% in a
single year.
THE DAY OF RECKONING: HOW SOON?
Representative Weston of Washington asked an official of the
Federal Reserve System how long we can postpone the day of reckoning
by reserves. The answer was. "We are getting to
line right now. 11 As of October 12, the United States gold at Fort
Knox totaled $151 billion. Foreign claims against that gold are $27.3
billion, so we are $12 billion in the hole with respect to our gold.
Yet we are attempting to finance the world.
One-fifth of our total industrial capacity is fully controlled,
planned or owned by government. One-fourth of all the construction
in this nation is done by government. One-third of all the mortgages
-n this country are financed or guaranteed by agencies of the federal
government. The interest on our national debt takes the entire per-
sonal income tax paid by 41 million Americans reporting earnings up
to $6,000 a year, but our real debt in legislation already enacted into
law is in excess of $11/4 trillion! This is greater than the assessed
valuation of all the real estate and tangible property in the United
States. The last fiscal year closed with a $6 billion deficit, but we
are not to worry; a $10 billion deficit is planned for this year.
We have a budget of $99 billion, we are told. But when you read
the 1,600 pages of our fiscal budget you find, concealed in the fine
print, some bookkeeping practices which I am sure you would all
decry. You find public enterprise funds listed in the budget at $31
billion; but if you read carefully, you discover that $231 billion is
00 be used in back-door spending. Yet we are told we wallow in luxury
in the private sector of the economy while the public sector is starved
for funds.
The problem is not that liberals are ignorant; it is that they
know so much that is not SO. History tells us that as a country
approaches a tax burden of 20%, evasion begins and breaks down respect
for law and order. Economists claim that our country is so solid it
can afford a rate of 25%, but no nation in history has ever survived
a tax burden that reached a third of its national income. Today, 35¢
out of every dollar earned in this country is the tax collector's
share; 24 goes to the federal government, leaving 11¢ to be divided
among the county, the local community and the state.
Is it any wonder that, whatever we need, we turn to the federal
government for grants-in-aid? One Congressman described federal aid
as the case of a man giving himself a transfusion in the right arm
by taking blood from the left and spilling half of it on the way
across.
-11-
WARNING FROM THE PAST: PRESERVE THE CONSTITUTION
Professor Alexander Fraser Tytler wrote that "a democracy cannot
exist as a permanent form of government. It can exist only until the
voters discover they can vote themselves largesse out of the public
treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the
candidate promising the most benefits, with the result that democracy
collapses over a loose fiscal policy, always to be followed by a dicta-
torship." This is not a theoretical speculation on our future; it is a
warning from our past, for it was written while we were a colony of
Great Britain. The professor was explaining what had destroyed the
Republic of Athens more than 2,000 years before. We cannot pass reso-
lutions on economy and then send committees to Washington to get federal
spending for our home town.
Tytler's warning reminds us that democracy is mob rule unless we
have some ground rules protecting the rights of the individuals and
putting them beyond the vote of the majority. You and I have such
ground rules providing for the most equitable and limited government
ever known to man--the Constitution.
Of course, this stamps me as a Neanderthal man; the Constitution
has been ruled obsolete by our intellectual elite. Senator Fulbright,
speaking at Stanford University, said that the President is hobbled
in his actions by the restrictions of power imposed on him by an anti-
quated document, a constitutional system designed for an 18th century
agrarian society. One man says that to talk of the Constitution today
is to talk of taking the country back to the days of McKinley. I think
that is not a bad idea, for under McKinley we freed Cuba.
Daniel Webster said, "Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution of
the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands.
Miracles do not happen. What has happened once in six thousand
years may never happen again. Hold on to your Constitution, for if
the Constitution shall fall, there will be anarchy throughout the world.
It has been said that if we lose this way of life of ours, history
will report that those who had the most to lose did the least to pre-
vent its happening. And we can do something about it. There are,
perhaps, some among us today who are concerned about taking a stand.
They fear reprisal--retaliation from customers or clients or even
government agencies. But we can no longer afford to sit on the side-
lines; to practice such aloofness today is to go on feeding the croco-
dile, hoping he will eat you last. But eat you he will, Once you
make the decision that this is your battle, you will find a million
things you can do.
A businessman in Virginia, concerned because his 200 employees
paid no heed to the increasing cost of government, decided to make
all deductions from their pay-checks on the fourth payday of each
month. On three paydays they received their full salary; on the fourth
payday the entire deduction came out. It took only about two months
to make conservatives out of those 200 employees! The Internal Reve-
nue Service is trying to force this man to give up his practice, but
what he is doing is perfectly legal. Besides, it saves him $3,500 a
year in bookkeeping costs.
The percentage of money that government is taking from the private
sector of the economy must be reduced. Unfortunately, the promised
tax legislation of today begs the question. Tax reform is still direc-
ted by those who see taxation as a social reform. Through it they can
get restrictions on the people that the people would not knowingly
vote upon themselves if presented in their true light. They talk of
this tax legislation stimulating the economy. They could do a great
deal toward stimulating the economy if they just released the average
businessman from some of the manhours he has to spend filling out
overnment forms and acting as the government's tax collector. It
costs the American Association of Railroads $5 million a year just to
make out ICC forms and papers.
GRADUATED TAX NOT A PROPORTIONATE TAX
Let us have the courage in tax reform to look squarely, once and
for all, at the myth that our graduated income tax has any resemblance
to proportionate taxation. The entire structure was created by Karl
Marx. It has no justification in getting the government needed reve-
nue. It simply is a penalty on the individual who can improve his own
lot; it takes his earnings from him and redistributes them to people
who are incapable of earning as much as he can.
Let me give you an example of what progressive taxation has done
the American dream in just 30 years. That dream, of course, is that
wealth is denied to no one in this land--that any American can go
around the corner and find the pot of gold. Thirty years ago Babe Ruth
hit 60 home runs a season, and the Yankees rewarded him with the
biggest salary ever paid in baseball, $80,000 a year. Thirty years
go by, and Roger Maris hits 60 home runs in a season. But in 30 years
-13-
there have been some changes in the value of the dollar and some
greater changes in the income tax laws. To match the take-home purchas-
ing power Babe Ruth got from his $80,000, Maris would have had to be
paid $960,000 for the season.
WHAT HAVE WE DONE TO FREEDOM?
It is time we questioned what we have done to freedom. Federal
agencies hold what amounts to life-and-death power over businesses,
even those not legally subject to regulation. They can exert this
power through the various bureaus, through the control of hundreds
of billions of dollars of spending, through the use of the tax power
as a policing power. In addition to a reduction in taxes, we must
demand that any tax reform be simplified so that the citizen of
modest means need not employ legal assistance to find out how much
he owes his government.
At the same time we must demand an end to deficit spending and
provision for payments on the national debt. It does not take much
arithmetic to figure out that there is a basic dishonesty in a govern-
ment that talks about an $11 billion tax cut over a two-year period
and at the same time knowingly, openly and admittedly pursues an
inflationary policy as an aid to prosperity that will in the same two-
year period reduce the purchasing power of the people by $27 billion.
Finally, in this election year--regardless of the party of our
choice, because this transcends party lines we must pin down those who
solicit our votes as to where they stand with regard to fiscal respon-
sibility, individual freedom and limited government. We cannot stop
the advance of socialism by electing to office men who just happen
to be taking a little longer in arriving at socialist goals. Socialist
goals can be achieved without the overt seizure and nationalization
of private property. It matters little that you hold title to your
business, if government can dictate policies and procedure in that
business.
PEACEFUL CO-EXISTENCE': DANGEROUS FOLLY
This all relates to the world struggle, because there can be no
security anyplace in the free world if there is not fiscal and economic
stability within the United States. We are told that if we avoid a
direct confrontation with the enemy and pursue a policy of accommo-
dation, the enemy will discover that his system is based on a false
premise and he will move to the right, adopting more of our democracy
and freedom. If this is true, and certainly it is possible, then does
it not make more sense to let his system come unglued than to bail him
out every time he gets sand in his gears and is threatened with a break-
down? Or are we trying to prove that Lenin was right when he said,
"When we get ready to hang the capitalists, they will stupidly vie
with each other to sell us the rope."
At the same time we are told that the enemy will moderate, that we
must move to the left into a government-planned and controlled economy
and that as we accept a "not undemocratic socialism" the enemy will
lose his fear and distrust. Every morning we are treated to bulletins
reporting on Khruschev's smile as an indication of our safety from
the threat of the bomb. To those who say Mr. Khruschev promises peace,
co-existence and friendship, the answer was given 2,000 years ago by
Demosthenes, standing in the Athenian market place, "What sane man
would let another man's words rather than his deeds tell him who is
at peace and who is at war with him?" Is it too much for us to ask
just one deed as evidence that the enemy is moderating?
Are we warmongers if we suggest that the Poles and Czechs and the
Hungarians and all those others enslaved behind the iron curtain in
direct violation of signed treaties ought to have a free election?
Are we warmongers if we suggest that any meeting with Khruschev regard-
ing the Berlin crisis should take place after "the Wall" comes down?
One thing our well-meaning liberal friends refuse to face is that their
whole reasonable, civilized, "let's talk this over" solution to the
threat of the bombs is appeasement. Appeasement does not give us a
choice between peace and war, but only between fight and surrender.
We do not want to send other people's sons to war. We have sons
of our own. It is precisely because we do want peace that we heed all
the lessons of history regarding the dangerous folly on the evil road
of expediency. Of course there is a risk in taking a firm stand.
There is no way to live without a certain amount of risk, but at least
let us take the risk standing up for those things we believe to be
morally right and sound.
BETTER TO PERISH THAN LIVE AS SLAVES'
Winston Churchill summed it up when he said to his own people:
"If you will not fight for the right when you can, without bloodshed;
if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly;
you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the
odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may
-15-
be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no chance of
victory because it's better to perish than to live as slaves."
You and I are face to face with our destiny. We must stand firm,
or we shall trail in the dust the golden hopes of mankind for genera-
tions to come. I believe that freedom has never been so fragile, so
near to slipping from our grasp, as it is at this moment, and this did
not come about through an outside aggressor. It came about through
our own sincere efforts to solve problems of misery and human need
through exchanging freedom for security.
If we do not accept the challenge, our children may well be the
generation that takes the first step into another thousand years of
darkness. Lincoln's words of 100 years ago are so appropriate they
could well be spoken today: "The fiery trial through which we pass
will light us to the latest generation. We here hold the power and
the responsibility; we shall nobly save or meanly lose the last best
hope of man on earth."
#
#
#
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SEAL OF OF THE * CALIFORNIA GOVERNMENT SECTIONS
XXXIII
"Our nation is founded on
a concern for the individual
and his right to fulfillment,
and this should be the
preoccupation of our schools
and colleges."
Ronald Reagan
Fellow Californians:
of tomorrow, they are throw-backs to a darker age, a dismal time
of Hitlerian holocausts, savagery and inquisitions.
Alfred North Whitehead once wrote, "In the conditions of modern
The future will not be built by those who destroy; it will be built
life, the rule is absolute: The race which does not value trained
by those who have not only the courage to dream big dreams but
intelligence is doomed."
also the tenacity to perform big deeds. Much of the greatness of
We Californians put an enormous amount of energy and resources
tomorrow will come from our schools-from those splendid young
into our educational system; we spend more of our tax dollar on
men and women who are now applying themselves to the lessons
it than on any other public activity; we are justifiably proud of its
and the love of life. What is tomorrow for most of us will be "now"
heritage and its promise.
for them-and learning is their launching pad into a new age where
Yet, despite our efforts, and despite our pride, we can have reason-
the spirit of man can soar higher than the rockets.
able doubts concerning its effectiveness, its equity and its viability
To help these young people-and to build and preserve society -
in some areas. Learning is a living experience yet in too many areas
it is vital that we create and maintain the very finest of educational
there seems to be a widening gap between learning and education.
systems. A system which is responsive to the times and relevant to
Should we not boldly investigate possible changes in some of the
the times to come. A system which takes advantage of the great
basic structures of our system? For example, should more of our
innovations of society-thus to provide a learning which is mean-
resources and energies go into the earlier grades? Can basic sub-
ingful, which makes every taxpayer's dollar count for progress.
jects be more effectively taught? Will the basics of today be mean-
The Reagan administration's posture on education is based on these
ingful basics tomorrow? Schools in the urban areas can their
fundamental convictions:
needs be more effectively met; is there a better way; are there
- A free society, to remain free, must provide quality education
new concepts that might prove better? What are the real causes,
appropriate to the capabilities and motivations of its citizens. In a
and the cure, for rebellion on some of our campuses? What can
democracy it is decreed that free men shall judge. Men may be
we do to revamp, equitably and realistically, the system employed
born free, they are not born wise. Education in our society should
to finance our total public education program?
help free men judge well.
This paper addresses itself to this range of questions, and more.
- Our public educational institutions have been established, and
It attempts some answers; it makes some suggestions. It seeks to
are financed, by the people. They are vehicles for the expression
stimulate. Most of all, it calls for recognition that new techniques,
of cultural values and goals of the people. The members of the
new times, new challenges call for a great commitment to excel-
various education Boards are all agents of the people, and the
lence if education is to help create tomorrow.
school administrators are employees of the people; through these
instruments the people have not only a voice but also account
ability and recourse.
- Quality education requires the dedicated services of well -prepared
teachers whose primary interest and motivation are the education
Raned Reagan
of students. The teaching profession should continue to be one of
our most respected professions. The rewards for service must be
Governor
commensurate with the importance of the responsibilities involved.
Tenure has become one of the rewards. However, if the teaching
profession chooses to use the strike as a method of gaining benefits
for itself, something must give way and immediately SO.
- This is an inappropriate time to entertain seriously argument
against the traditional philosophy of in loco parentis. The institution
as a transmitter of our culture must stand in relation to the young
as the responsible parent. At the same time the parent (or guardian)
in fact must also be held accountable for the actions of the student.
Sanity, order and good taste must return to our campuses
- There are those who press for standardization, but our value is
for diversity in education-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 lead-
ing to academic attainments and the communication of culture.
We are concerned with the future. This series of creative studies is
Training which will lead to satisfying work careers is not second
directed to the question "what kind of a California do we want in
class. Considering the dilemma of the unemployed and the un-
the future?"
employable, it is first class indeed.
There is today that small and noisy claque, usually clustered around
- In California, higher education functions within a tripartite sys-
the campus, which tags itself the wave of the future. While chanting
tem: junior college, state colleges and the University. Each has a
songs to freedom, they violate it; while raising banners to truth,
special charge: the junior (or community) college-vocational and
they smash the very ethos of academia. These are not the harbingers
technical education including the first two years toward a full col
lege degree; the state college- four-year college education with
dollars.) It is therefore mandatory that we constantly evaluate the
some limited programs for first year graduate work; and the Uni-
economic, social and political impact of that cost, and the methods
y-undergraduate work but importantly advanced study lead-
of raising those funds. We must do this on the bases of need, value
ing to the Ph.D. The University also carries responsibility for the
received and taxpayer burden.
greatest share of research and scholarly activity for society, and it
And, at this time when tomorrow beckons with its promises of
is from the University that most of our future University teachers
great innovations and its even greater expectations, it is also irn-
will come. These three segments of higher education in our State
perative that such evaluation be made boldly-with an eye to put-
must remain separate and each carry out its role. They must remain
ting the money where the need is-with an eye to revamping the
separate because each has its own job to fulfill; and because it
financial system 50 that adequate resources are available through an
would be financially impossible for the citizens to support facilities
equitable and efficient taxing structure. Today's system is neither
for research and graduate work on 98 additional campuses.
adequate nor equitable.
- Society must insure, within the free enterprise system, that no
The "quilted," frequently complex, nature of elementary and sec-
individual is deprived of higher education because of economic
ondary education financing is archaic, confusing, inequitable and
circumstances or prejudice. This is the basis of Governor Reagan's
inefficient. The system has been put together with good intentions
Equal Education Plan to insure that every qualified student has
but by piece-meal efforts. A. Alan Post, California's legislative
the opportunity for a higher education.
analyst, puts it this way: "True quality education for most or all
- It is essential to our total education system that private schools
pupils cannot or will not occur until such time as the system of
survive along with our public institutions. Private institutions serve
state and local support for the schools is drastically revised in order
as pace setters, enrich the range of possible education experience,
to reduce the disparity in total assessed valuation between school
tend to hone the cutting edge of educational excellence, make pos-
districts."
sible wider educational opportunity, and can call upon financial
We urgently need a complete assessment and overhaul of the entire
support often unavailable to public institutions.
financial system of our public schools. We must mandate a com-
- To the extent possible, the control of institutions should be at
plete evaluation leading to revenue measures which are (1) based
the local level so that the people can effectively participate. In
on equity to the property taxpayers, and (2) are more responsive
decisions affecting schools, programs or finances, other things being
to our defined educational objectives.
equal, the citizens most immediately involved should bear the great-
One measure that deserves exploration is the establishment of a
est responsibility for involvement and decision.
school district foundation program financed by an annual state-
On the following pages, we discuss some of the important areas
wide property tax levied on all non-residential (commercial) prop-
of education confronting us today; things which must be attended
erty. Each school district would receive the same amount of tax
to if we are to create the better tomorrow.
money per pupil. This would provide the financial revenue to sup-
All are important, and through them all runs the golden thread:
port basic education. Thus, all children would have the same oppor-
life is dynamic-to be fulfilled, one must grow. It is the function
tunity to learn basic educational skills in public schools. Expendi-
of education to help each individual grow to the maximum extent
tures for enriched educational programs, costing more than the
of his capabilities, to help him fulfill his great personal potential:
amount allocated through the foundation program, could be financed
This is the proper preoccupation of our schools and, this is
the
by taxes levied by a vote of the citizens on residential property
educational preoccupation of the Reagan administration.
within the district receiving the benefits of the enriched program.
This proposal could reduce the present inequities resulting from
widely scattered and generally clustered commercial properties. It
would also give the local electorates the opportunity to make well-
informed decisions as to the level of education programs they wish
to have, and pay for, in their own districts.
At the same time, the Reagan administration suggests that the use
of a "roving corps of experts" in the fields of school management,
budgetary financing, cost control and systems analysis would be of
great value. Such a program would deal strictly with fiscal and
We must reassert priorities and revamp the financial structure
management techniques and would not in any way attempt to
invade the academic province of local school districts. The experts
involved would be available to consult with representatives of school
districts on various sophisticated management techniques to make
better use of existing resources.
It is clear, certainly to the taxpayer, that government cannot and
Most Californians regard education as our single most important
should not do all things for all people all the time. California's
investment; we spend more of our tax dollar for education than
wage earners-and the State treasury, into which their taxes flow
for any other public activity. (In 1968-69, more than $2 billion will
have limited resources. What priorities will we set forth to govern
be spent by the State for all facets of education; this represents
the expenditure of those funds? The Reagan administration agrees
36.4 per cent of the total budget, and 53.2 per cent of general fund
that education should have the highest priority. But, recognizing
that priority, the question still arises: are our educational budgets
The sooner we get on with a tuition program and grants and loans,
out of whack?
the sooner we will provide equal educational opportunity in our
For example: we know that during the first few years of school
public institutions of higher learning.
the teaching of basic skills develops a child's matrix for future
learning. Yet, the highest teacher-pupil ratios are in our elementary
schools. It is a commitment of the Reagan administration to work
toward rectifying this-to spend available education dollars first
where they will result in the greatest benefit to the student and
to society the beginning grades of the learning experience.
The Reagan administration also questions whether those citizens
who send their children to private elementary and secondary schools
should be required to support public schools, through taxes, at the
same level as those citizens who send their children to those public
To reclaim the art of teaching
schools. In such cases, the parent should probably receive either a
tax credit, or a form of reimbursement based on the State's average
payment to the school district for each enrolled student.
The rapid rise in costs of higher education, coupled with the State's
revenue problems, makes it mandatory to levy a charge for tuition
as a step toward providing a portion of the funds required for the
university and state college systems. (In the budget year 1968-69,
Buildings, books, equipment-all are vital to formal education. But
the Reagan administration has budgeted some $532 million of the
teachers are the key to learning. It is the artistry of teaching-the
taxpayers' funds for higher education.)
teacher's relevant knowledge made alive through sensitive articu-
Full opportunity for higher education for all qualified students in
lation-that has most to do with the success or failure of educa-
our state does not exist because of the financial problems of poor
tion. The teacher who can make a child's eyes glow with the glee
families including some of our racial minorities. Ironically, other
of "Now I see" is the teacher, the artist, who builds a great to-
inequities also exist: California's low income families, through taxes,
morrow.
pay a disproportionate share of the cost of educating students be-
Yet teachers are too often taken for granted. Too many citizens
yond high school. As economist Milton Friedman has asked: "Why
accept the proposition that the call to teaching, at least in elemen-
should the families in Watts pay taxes to subsidize the families in
tary and secondary schools, can be handled by people who have
Beverly Hills who send their children to U.C.L.A.?"
been provided only second-rate educations and who are sometimes
This administration believes that the facts weigh heavily in favor
underpaid.
or tuition. Tuition could help rectify the inequities. It could-bring
Today, many of our teachers work under exceptionally trying cir-
about Governor Reagan's "Equal Education Plan." Part of the funds
cumstances. This is most apparent in our urban schools-large
derived from tuition would be set aside to provide grants-in-aid
classes spawned by population explosion, classes confused by the
and loans for qualified students with financial need. These would
mobility of migration, student bodies changing in ethnic and racial
help cover not only tuition but also room, board and incidental
mixtures-all with accompanying tensions, all presenting awesome
expenses. These expenses now constitute a real burden to poor
challenges. Tragically, in some schools the tensions are explosive;
students, including those from minority communities. Repayment
agressions are overt and solutions unclear. Occasional personal
of loans would not begin until the student had become an earning
injury to teachers, rising fears and calls for "combat pay" make
member of society.
appropriate the word "crisis" The people of California have a
A substantial number of state college and university students come
responsibility to the teachers who educate their youth; a safe, ade-
from families with relatively high incomes. Under the present tax
quate and meaningful environment in which to teach.
structure, neither these students nor their families are required to
Our most important investment in learning should be the educa-
contribute to the cost of their higher education in relation to their
tion of our teachers. They should be taught to teach rather than
ability to pay. This is another valid reason for tuition. At the same
subjected to endless hours of classroom trivia. Colleges and uni-
time, this administration believes that full tax credits should be
versities must get in step with the realities of this threshold age.
granted to parents, or responsible relatives paying tuition of their
Public schools must produce competent, productive citizens-the
college students.
times demand it, the economic penalties levied on the unprepared
The people of California face these choices in regard to the financ-
and unproductive are harsh and immediate. This is even more vital
ing of our state colleges and universities: we either limit the growth
now than it was in past years; today there are few escapes to the
of the colleges and universities, exclude qualified students, divert
fields or the factories for the uneducated.
monies from other public programs (such as welfare or elementary
Teachers must be motivated toward the goal of excellence. Merit
and secondary schools), or raise taxes, or charge a reasonable
pay plans, increased and meaningful career opportunities, pride in
tuition.
achievement these can help to revitalize the art of teaching.
The citizens have voiced majority support for the tuition plan,
It is imperative that our great institutions of higher learning show
coupled with an "equal education" program of grants and loans.
as much interest in their schools of education as they do in their
other professional schools, More of the resources of our colleges
go into other professions. For, in recent years some educators at
and universities should be applied to the education of teachers for
all levels have been promoting their self-interest over the needs
this is a crucial regenerative process in the life of society. Teacher
of the pupil. These have included both teachers and administrators:
training should broaden courses and give students an earlier start
teachers organized to "take over" the schools and administrators
in practice teaching, placing them in classroom situations as soon
willing to let them or too weak. to stop them. It is time for all
as practical
teachers to embrace the ethics of a great profession; it is time for
The Fisher Act of 1961, which added an extra year (beyond the
all administrators to accept the responsibilities of leadership and
bachelor's degree) to teacher training and required prospective
public trust.
teachers to study specialty subjects during that year, has by-and-
Schools exist for students; they were not built for teachers, or for
large been a failure. Though raising the level of elementary salary
administrators. Each group has its proper role in the system: stu-
scales, it has unnecessarily delayed credentialing of teachers. It has
dents to learn, teachers to teach, administrators to expedite and
deterred many students-who did not want to stay in college five
lead. In the final analysis the people, too, must be held account-
years taking up careers in teaching; and, the fifth year has
able for the schools of their society. For, in a free society, the
many times failed to provide relevant subject matter.
schools are what the people want them to be.
Teachers should receive enough pay incentive to permit them to
As a start toward upgrading the teaching profession, the Reagan
remain in the classroom. The tendency today is for the good teach-
administration offers these suggestions:
ers, particularly men, to move into administrative work where the
pay is better. But the good teachers are needed in the classroom.
1. Teaching must come of age. In this threshold age and in this
When the teaching is poor, a reduction in class size simply results
Creative Society, teaching can be the great profession-the all-
in poor teaching to fewer students at one time.
important bridge between the past and a glorious tomorrow. The
Teachers are tied to a salary system that pays the least able as
current salary schedule casts teachers into homogeneous roles; but,
much as the first rate teacher. They are "guaranteed" jobs after
teachers are not all the same. They do not all possess the same
three years of service in one district, but they pay much for that
abilities, motivations or strengths. The following staff levels are
guarantee: the flexibility to move from district to district on an
suggested as one, but not necessarily the only, means of re-estab-
exchange basis; the implementation of a meaningful merit pay plan
lishing teaching as a profession, and making education more re-
that rewards excellence, and the development of new teacher classi-
sponsive to current and future needs:
fications that will provide worthwhile goals and rejuvenate the
Educational Technician-Junior college or college graduates, in any
profession. If salvaged, the waste of inefficiency in many school
subject field, who could assume many of the clerical or house-
districts could go part of the way in providing better pay scales.
keeping tasks of the teacher. The technician would have no instruc-
The responsibilities of teachers to their pupils are to teach (not
tional responsibilities.
indoctrinate), to motivate, to inspire, to excite, to prepare for the
future, and to preserve for them what is important of the past.
Academic Assistant-The first level of a credentialed teacher. The
To the public, which establishes and maintains the schools, teach-
academic assistant would be a teacher intern. He or she could work
ers are responsible for the safe keeping of youngsters while in
with students and have some instructional responsibility in special
school, for efficient and economical use of equipment and facili-
or skilled areas.
ties and for full disclosure of the academic achievements of each
student.
Staff Teacher effect, all teachers are staff teachers. However, the
Over the years, tenure has been granted as a career reward to
full-time staff teacher would spend all of his or her school hours
with students.
teachers and faculty by the citizenry. But the costs of tenure must
be recognized. It has tended to limit the opportunities for teachers
Senior Teacher-The "teacher's teacher," primarily responsible for the
and has often stifled ambition. It was offered by the people to
application of curriculum and instructional innovations to the class-
teachers, as a protection and as a reward, who served the public
room. The senior teacher could be the expert who works to im-
well. Today, too many believe mistakenly that tenure is an inalien-
prove classroom instruction, and spends approximately half of his
able "right" which requires no responsibility. It is ironic that some
time with students.
teachers, granted job security by the public, now threaten to close
down our schools. These militants take the position that they are
Master Teacher-This teacher could spend about one-quarter of his
accountable to no one, that they are the power elite and that the
time in the classroom and the other three-quarters working to up-
people, the owners of the schools, are voiceless providers. This
grade subject matter and introducing new concepts. This person
administration's policy is clear: the rights and the best interests of
would be the specialist in curriculum and research, responsible for
the public are not negotiable.
keeping subject matter current with the times. He or she would
The urgent need for better, fuller education-and the exciting pros-
also assist in raising the level of teacher specialization in specific
pects of technological change in learning, and in the development
subject areas.
of this nation-requires that more Americans find personal mean-
This plan envisions the emancipation of the teacher. It enlarges the
ing in a commitment to teaching. It is unfortunate that the actions
role of teaching, offers career advancement, and provides a way
of the irresponsible few tarnish the reputation of the teaching pro-
for the teacher to be treated as an equal and a colleague along-
fession to the point where many who would become teachers now
side other educational personnel and administrators.
2. Most principals are overburdened with paper work and detail.
To restore reason to the campus
They do not have the time to keep up with good business-admin-
istrative techniques. A position of school manager should be con-
sidered. The school manager could be a non-credentialed person
with management training and experience. He could assume re-
sponsibility for the business functions of school operation, and
In nearly every way that can be measured American higher edu-
thus permit the principal to participate actively in the instructional
cation is the best in the world. Our physical facilities are superior,
program. The principal could also seek, from the Senior Teacher(s),
our student-teacher ratios cannot be matched elsewhere, our cur-
counsel on the selection, performance and evaluation of other
ricula offer the widest variety, the abilities of our scholars excite
teachers. Thus, the plan envisions a principal generalist and a
the admiration of their peers everywhere. And yet despite these
teacher specialist.
things we see rapid spread of rebellion and violence on our cam-
puses. Great universities have been brought to standstills. Their
Such a plan could be initiated and implemented in every school
very existence has been threatened.
district. The Temple City Unified School District in Los Angeles
Many superficial explanations have been offered, but one key point
County has moved already in this direction. The Reagan adminis-
has gone unnoticed. The insitutions which have been the targets
tration believes that establishment of position ratings for teachers
of rebellion vary widely. Some are small and rural. Others are
shows great potential foward restoring of teaching as a rewarding
great cosmopolitan institutions. Their internal structures and cur-
profession.
ricula differ. They vary geographically and socially. The grievances
of a rebellious student at a local junior college in no way resem-
3. In-service training-a continuing education-is essential for all
ble those of a student at a large university and neither institution
education personnel. The knowledge explosion mandates a contin-
has much in common with the Sorbonne or the University of Cara-
uance of teacher training in this rapidly changing world.
cas or the University of London. Yet all have felt rebellion and
violence. Why?
In-service training must be professional in scope and content, and
By its very nature, a modern college or university is uniquely vul-
related to the training of basic skills and understanding of new
nerable to the use of force. The root assumption of the academy
concepts and knowledge. Also, it must be directed toward the
is that all questions will be submitted to discussion. The institu-
challenging and rewarding tasks of dealing with children of all
tional goal of the academy is truth, and truth cannot be estab-
backgrounds.
lished by force. The use of force contradicts the very premise of
the academy. When, therefore, a rebellious and fanatical minorit
4. The teaching profession and the school districts should seek the
throws away the premise and resorts to coercion, the academy is
advice and assistance of business and industry in developing merit
ill prepared to meet the challenge.
pay plans and improving salary classifications for teachers. We
This is especially true when the disruptive elements among the
cannot expect to recruit or keep a teacher in the profession unless
student body receive moral, and even active support from irre-
his or her salary is competitive with other types of rewarding
sponsible faculty members. Such faculty members illegitimately
enterprises. For superior and bi-lingual teachers who are willing to
appeal to the principle of academic freedom even while under-
spend time and effort with the poor child or the child with a lan-
mining the academic enterprise itself. Other faculty members often
guage barrier there should be increased remuneration.
are either apathetic, or exclusively concerned with their own work,
5. Throughout the state we have fine examples of volunteer groups
and some report they are cowed by agressive and militant col-
providing tutoring for youngsters in basic educational skills. How-
leagues-and thus fail to defend themselves and their legitimate
ever, many sources remain untapped. Exchange of information is
students, against the tyranny of the revolutionary minority. Admin-
needed. A "teacher-student service corps" could become the
istrators, too, have lacked courage. Fearing to be thought "repres-
vehicle to meet this need. Education departments of California
sive" they have allowed the majority to be repressed. Worrying
colleges and universities, working in close communication, could
about their image, they have resorted to duplicity. Blind to the
coordinate utilization of teachers, former teachers, education stu-
true nature of the revolutionary minority, they have turned aside
dents and teaching assistants and others as part-time tutors for
hoping the storm would pass.
school children, particularly those in poor and minority areas.
The goal of the rebellious minority on campus is not academic,
but political. It is not truth, but power. The challenge comes in
6. Teacher time-a crucial factor in respect to quality education-
various ways. ROTC or recruiters from business or government
is inexcusably abused by the demands of an increasing variety of
may be obstructed. Those they disagree with may be harassed.
menial, ministerial chores. Housewives, former teachers, students
The norms of the community may be challenged often through
and others can find satisfaction in volunteering their time as teach-
obscenity. But such challenges are merely ways of testing, dividing,
ing aides and could handle much of the teacher's administrative
and demoralizing the unorganized majority. The real goal of the
chores, releasing the teacher for more class work. Some districts
rebellious minority is power-and control. Increasingly, its demands
already are using teacher aides, and the arrangements have met
involve control of admissions, control of faculty appointments,
with considerable success. Short training sessions for these aides
control of curriculum, degree requirements, and institutional policy.
are conducted at some colleges in the state.
But-control for what purpose?
American colleges and universities are vital institutions of the soci-
groups should be advisory to the governing boards of the institu-
ety. Part of their activity goes on in the classroom. But they are
tions rather than to the administrative officers, otherwise conflicts
also a kind of nerve center. National defense, scientific develop-
of authority and responsibility will develop.
ment, business, industry, medicine-all depend in important ways
on our academic institutions. More than 90 percent of new knowl-
edge is credited to universities in American society-knowledge
essential to keep pace with an expanding, imploding universe. It
is obvious that the goal of the campus rebels is a dangerous one
to our society: to sever the vital connections, to use the academy
as an instrument of guerilla warfare, to strike a blow at the foun-
dations of American life. Though a small minority, the rebels are
organized, effective and dangerous. They do not bother to con-
Tomorrow-the turned on school
ceal their aims. For many the heroes are Che Guevara, Regis De-
bray, Ho Chi Minh, and Mao Tse Tung.
The threat they pose is real. How do we meet it?
-The hard-core rebels must be isolated. When legitimate student
grievances exist these should be remedied, thus depriving the reb-
els of temporary allies. Procedures for communication between
In ten minutes it will be time to leave for school.
students and administration should be reviewed constantly. Rea-
The youngsters gobbles his breakfast. On television, pictures live
sonable persons can arrive at equitable decisions; recognizing that
and direct in living color, motion and sound forth the
those who come to learn do not always have the maturity and the
launching of a giant space vehicle. The capsule will circle the moon
wisdom of those who administer.
and return to earth. The boy is enraptured. It is now. Wild! His
Administration and faculty and students must refuse to tolerate
eyes sparkle. His face lives with excitement. He is turned on. He
force on campus.
is learning.
-Those assuming the student role but whose real goals are pat-
An hour later he is in school. The same boy. Now he is dull, shriv-
ently not academic must be expelled. Those who want to learn are
eled, uninspired. Bored by linear word sequences of the printed
waiting for their places.
page, the static photographs and monotoned lecture. The world
-Faculty members who betray their academic calling through dis-
speeds by outside not inside his classroom. He turns off. He
ruptive or violent activities on the campus should be dismissed
is being educated but he is not learning.
on professional grounds. This has nothing to do with political
He lives in an electronic age. He is being "taught" in another di-
views, rather it is because of actions relating to responsibilities as
mension of time.
a faculty member. Deliberate failure to meet classes, improper use
Tomorrow, perhaps, "school" will be different; it can be. For some
of the classroom, or interference with the normal functioning of the
it already is. The world of now could live in the classroom as it
university should be ample grounds for the dismissal of a faculty
does in life. The learning experience of life need not be stupefied
member of whatever rank. The procedures for such dismissal
by structure, materials or technique. Tomorrow, learning can live
should be reviewed and brought up to date to meet new tactics
for all and "school" can be exciting as well as functional, flexible
and the vacuum which exists due to the absence of the restraint
and economical.
of professional ethics.
From the practical standpoint of design, schools of the future will
-The vast majority of students and faculty members who are
feature interiors with wide areas of open space to allow classes the
loyal to academic goals must become more alert to their own inter-
freedom to adapt to a variety of learning situations. Moveable par-
ests. They must help to bring order and sanity to the campus. At
titions, sliding doors, swing-out panels will make interiors more
the same time, the rights of ordinary students and faculty mem-
flexible, more dynamic.
bers must be protected. Rights are not the exclusive preserve of
On the outside, massive pre-fabricated wall and roof sections will
dissidents and disrupters.
be easily swung into place. The structures will meld with the en-
-The public at large, as well as government, is properly con-
vironment of learning; life will be inside, a part of the process of
cerned. The academy is not an island outside the law; it must not
study. Because large components will be used, construction time
be used as a staging area for insurrection-i must not be a priv-
will be reduced-making school plants more economical for the tax-
ileged sanctuary for those who would destroy society.
payers, freeing funds for innovation and expansion.
To help reduce trouble on the campuses, priority must be given
Like many things in life tomorrow, schools of the future will make
to establishing closer contact between colleges and universities on
wide use of electronic aids to help handle teaching situations-
the one hand and citizens in communities served by the institu-
and, also, to keep pace with the knowledge explosion. Computers,
tions, on the other.
already being used for such routine tasks as taking student at-
One approach in this respect has been implemented by our state
tendance, will frequently be used for the more tedious assignments.
colleges. Citizen advisory groups, representing a cross-section of
Teaching machines and similar equipment will help to revolutionize
community thought, have been established in most areas where a
education; they will free the teacher to teach-to have time for
state college is located. To be most constructive and useful, these
more individual instruction. Electronic teaching aids are capable of
providing a great degree of personalized instruction. Properly used,
pare for-the opportunities which lie ahead. Here are a few sug-
these machines will permit the individual child to work at his own
gestions to accelerate the application of California's creative genius
pace and thus the promise of the wizardry of technology is
to our learning system:
related to one of the oldest of educational goals individual
1. Trade school centers for drop-outs. These facilities would house
instruction.
computer-era industries providing earn-while-you-learn employ-
Prototype educational parks for high school are even now begin-
ment to as many as 3,000 young people. The young worker-learn-
ning to take shape. They are, in short, "total learning" facilities
ers would attend classes for half of each day-learning what they
consisting of a number of schools built in a single, park-like set-
missed in school (closed circuit TV, films, recordings, computerized
ting. Educational parks show promise in two important respects:
instruction courses would enable each individual to proceed at his
(1) they can offer a range of subjects and educational resources
own pace, and at the same time accelerate his learning achieve-
and situations that only a large, flexible facility can provide, and
ments). The other half of each day would be spent working and
(2) they should be more economical through the saving on capital
earning in one of the industries housed in the facility. The work-
expenditures, and the shared and total use of facilities. In these
process would interact with the instruction courses so that the
parks, students might attend school eight hours a day, five days a
learning would be meaningful and practical.
week, 11 months a year; in the evenings and weekends, the park
2. A task force, comprising educational leaders, industrial leaders,
could serve as a civic center for adult education, recreation and
experts from the fields of communications and computer sciences,
other forms of community interaction.
and representatives of some of the great research institutions in
However, any advantages of such parks must be balanced by a
our State, to search for both immediately practical and also exotic
realization that education which is too centralized, and too far re-
applications of technological innovations to the field of learning.
moved from neighborhood control, risks standardization and con-
Make the findings and the recommendations of this group avail-
formity. The diversity of America is part of our national strength;
able to school districts, interested industries, and educational, sci-
it permits unity without uniformity; it is part of the viability of
entific and technological journals and societies.
our education system. As we create the great tomorrow, as we
3. Establish procedures permitting schools and school districts
apply innovation, we need not-we must not-abandon or diminish
schedule time on computers operated by industry. This would
our heritage of individuality.
allow educators to experiment with computer techniques, and put
So-called "cluster schools" also are in prospect; some are operat-
representatives of schools in close contact with experienced com-
ing today. These schools are laid out like a cluster of leaves; each
puter technologists.
leaf a large classroom. The flexible and open environment gives
4. "Loan" industry experts to school districts to provide expertise
the teachers maximum opportunity to teach and the students max-
in such areas as systems analysis, finance and electronics. For ex-
imum freedom to learn.
ample, such an arrangement could be used to have representatives
The field of educational broadcasting, especially educational
of the commercial broadcast industry-engineering, production and
television but also radio, will become a great part of the learning
programming people-consult with schools on how to increase the
process. It will range from highly sophisticated programming to
instructional applications of commercial and educational broad-
personalized "learning banks" tailored through electronic wizardry
casting.
to the individual student's quest for knowledge.
5. Provide more instructional broadcast time on both educational
Some instructional use of television is under way but the frontiers
and commercial radio and television stations. This would mean
have not really been crossed. The day is not too far off when the
devoting some morning or afternoon, public service broadcast time
message of this medium will really find its own in learning situ-
to programs beamed to classrooms. College and university educa-
ations. At that time as much attention may be given to educational
tion students also could participate in the instructional programs.
TV (for youngsters and adults alike) as is now given to commer-
6. Call on industry to make used technical equipment available to
cial telecasting. Much of the learning through television may take
schools. Equipment could include radios, TV sets, models and
place at home, as a family experience-youngsters "knowing" for
mock-ups that could apply to science studies, and a variety of
the first time, adults relearning, updating their knowledge of a
other equipment suitable for general classroom use and for voca-
fast-changing world, absorbing new ideas, new techniques, new
tional training.
information.
7. Promote wider use of mobile laboratories to travel from school
California should lead the way in the advancement of these great
to school, or to take education into neighborhoods. These units
instruments of learning-computer sciences, electronic wizardry,
could contain sophisticated educational equipment such as elec-
television. What the internal combustion engine did to give us
tronic teaching aids. They could be fully-equipped traveling labo-
mobility, the computer and the television can do to lift the spirit
ratories used to accompany students to the ocean or the mountains,
of man along his journey into tomorrow-whole men and women,
for example, where on-site activities would provide for more mean-
living and learning in a total environment, sensitive to the lives
ingful learning experiences.
of others, productive as only the infinite potential of each human
8. Build pilot educational parks in urban areas for high school
being can be.
grades only. This would preserve the concept of neighborhood
Whether it is computer technology, new construction techniques,
schools for elementary and junior high school students, while pro-
systems analysis or educational broadcasting, private industry
viding wider learning experiences for high school youngsters.
should be closely involved with educators to bring about-and pre-
9. Develop on-line TV-microfilm exchange procedures to increase
availability of educational resources. One great "library," for ex-
Today, there is controversy and concern over academic freedom-
ample, could serve many schools. While each campus still would
that commodity which is precious to the pursuit of knowledge and
have its own library containing basic materials, thousands of other
vital to the growth of a free society. Throughout generations, aca-
volumes could be ordered from the central library on microfilm
demic freedom has served free men well: it has served best, and
or on-line TV video tapes. Curriculum materials also could be
been held in highest esteem, when those who claimed it for their
obtained on microfilm from central points of distribution.
own have kept constantly in mind that they are, in fact, scholars.
10. Establish main data banks to serve many school districts or
No appeal to higher morality justifies conduct unbecoming a
campuses. The banks could be used to log information such as
scholar. Kenneth Coombs has warned "the behavior of the aca-
student enrollment, performance, attendance and other administra-
demic must never become such that continued preservation of
tive data. Existence of these data banks would help to cut down on
academic freedom becomes less likely."
administrative overhead, and provide time for teachers to teach.
Because academic freedom is a priceless property, the public and
But, with all the electronic innovations, the "turned on" school
its elected representatives have properly exercised great patience.
will always depend most on a "turned on" staff with a vision of
But patience wears thin when order is destroyed and society is
the future, with a motivation to create the future.
threatened. It is imperative that the great majority within the aca-
demic community themselves restrain those who jeopardize the
professional freedom they prize 50 highly; surely, it is up to
the responsible members to see that freedom is coupled with
discipline.
One of the great challenges of our time, and one which educators
must help us meet positively, is how to maintain individuality in
the face of an increasingly complex society with its penchant for
standardization, in the face of a growing trend which deifies ma-
A search for meaning in a worried world
terialism and conformity. The future will be a sepulcher indeed if
we ignore, or attempt to diminish, the divine nature of man. What
will it profit man if he gains the stars and loses his soul?
The greatest strides, in life and learning, can be-should be-not
50 much about outer space but about inner man. The great teach-
ers, the timeless masters, have not pointed us toward materialism.
Learning is both a find and a quest-and in the continuum of life,
They have dealt with the great truths and with the high questions.
the quest is often the more important.
These are the truths which cement our American heritage. These
In such a search, curricula must be more than a series of studies
are the truths which can sustain the future.-And, they are the
and lectures connected by long intervals of boredom. Learning must
truths which give reason to life and meaning to education for an
be a living thing, an on-going, high-peak study of the past, present
age both old and new.
and future of the human condition; brilliant with the starfire of
the good that has been-and the best that is yet to be.
One major step in this direction in California is legislation en-
acted this year which gives local elementary and secondary school
districts greater latitude to develop their own curricula. The legis-
lation sets broad minimum standards but encourages local school
districts to innovate and enrich make courses more relevant to
their students, to develop flexible approaches to both the gifted
and the disadvantaged child all to keep pace with a vital, chang-
The "Equal Education Plan"
ing world. At the same time, and at the college level, this Admin-
for higher education in California
istration is moving for program budgets rather than the inflexible
line item budgets of the past.
By its very nature learning is most concerned with tomorrow. But
there can be no tomorrow without the pedestal of the past. What
we do in the future what we do with the future - depends on
whether we preserve the best of the past and avoid its errors.
Governor Ronald Reagan's "Equal Education Plan" for
Institutions of learning, great repositories of man's knowledge, must
higher education in California has four major objectives:
help not only to conceive tomorrow but also to conserve as well
1. To achieve full educational opportunity for all qualified
as catalogue the past. These schools must not become computer-
students in California.
ized vending machines. Along with dispensing facts (of which we
2. To keep the University of California and the State
have mountains) they must stimulate a passion for wisdom, con-
Colleges fully competitive with the great private univer-
science, compassion, responsibility and patience (all of which we
sities and colleges in attracting and retaining outstanding
have too little)
reachers.
3. To provide a supplemental capital improvement fund for
that the sole criterion for eligibility be that of need, once a
each campus of the University and each State College.
prospective recipient is admitted to the University or State
4. To eliminate existing inequities, SO that low-income
College. He proposes that uniform criteria be established to
families shall not pay a disproportionate share of the cost
determine need and the amount of assistance appropriate in
of educating students.
each case. In establishing these criteria, he suggests that,
To accomplish all four objectives, Governor Reagan recom-
in addition to family income, consideration be given to other
mends the adoption of an annual tuition for full-time Cali-
factors on a formula basis.
fornia students at the University of California and the State
These factors will include the number of children in the
Colleges.
family, other family obligations, and the ability of the
Tuition revenues will provide grant-in-aid and loan funds for
student to assist himself through part-time employment.
needy students, including tuition, board, room, and other
Another factor is whether different requirements should be
expenses. These latter expenses often keep poor students
established for women and men students.
from attending the University and State Colleges.
Finally, criteria should be established for forgiveness of
In addition to providing student financial aid, tuition will
loans to encourage graduates to enter important fields of
guarantee additional teaching chairs at the University and
employment which fill a national or community need. Ex-
State Colleges at salary levels high enough and flexible
amples might include teaching, research, or military service.
enough to attract and retain the finest teaching talent in the
B. Teaching chairs. These chairs will attract outstanding
nation. Tuition also will generate enough revenue to
teachers and reward and retain recognized members of the
establish special funds for capital improvements on each
teaching faculty. The majority of these chairs would be
campus.
filled over the years by promotion from within, but the
These funds will reduce demands upon the General Fund.
program would also attract outstanding faculty from through-
The Governor's plan proposes that 50 percent of tuition
out the country.
revenues be used each year for grants-in-aid and loans, 25
It is hoped that the establishment of the chairs would serve
percent to establish and maintain the teaching chairs, and
to keep the University of California fully competitive with
25 percent for capital improvements.
other great private universities and colleges.
C. Capital improvement program. The 25 percent of tuition
revenues to be assigned for capital improvements would be
divided among the individual campuses in amounts propor-
tionate to their respective contribution of tuition revenues or
enrollment on the basis of relative size. Therefore, a signif-
icant supplemental fund would be available for the individual
Four Key Elements
capital needs of each campus, which presumably otherwise
would have had to come from the state's General Fund and
taxpayers.
D. Tuition. More than three-fifths of the students in the
University of California and more than half of the students
The highlights of the four key elements of the "Equal
in the State Colleges come from families in income brackets
Education Plan" are:
of $10,000 or higher. A substantial number come from fam-
A. Grants-in-aid and loan program. The major economic
ilies with income in excess of $15,000 or even in excess of
barrier to a college education is not tuition but, rather, the
$25,000, particularly at the University. Conversely, only
cost of more expensive items such as board, room, and trans-
12 percent of the University students and 14 percent of the
portation. Relatively few students from low-income families
State College students come from families with incomes
or minorities actually are found on our University and State
below $6,000. Inasmuch as the principal financial support
College campuses today. To correct this imbalance, the
of both the University and the Colleges comes from the
Governor recommends that half the proceeds from tuition be
General Fund, it is obvious that the lower-income families
used each year to support a full program of grants-in-aid. In
are paying to support educational institutions which are used
addition, these grants will be supplemented by a complete
primarily by the upper-income families. A modest tuition
loan program at minimum interest rates which utilizes pri-
plan-augmented by grants and loans-corrects this inequity.
vate, state, and federal funds.
The costs of a higher education should be based on need
Governor Reagan also suggests active recruiting and coun-
according to the formula described earlier. In this connec-
seling programs geared to students in the low-income neigh-
tion, the "Equal Education Plan" provides, through a
borhoods who should be encouraged to enroll in the
combination of grants and loans, the supplementary funds
University of California and the State Colleges.
necessary to give any qualified California student the funds
In the awarding of grants and loans, the Governor recommends
he needs to obtain a higher education.
The particulars of this plan are as follows:
considered a necessary expenditure in this area includes all
Once financial need is established, the grant-loan program
expenses at the University. Present estimates place this
will be administered in the following manner:
figure at $2,000 per year, which would include the student
1. During the first year the student will borrow 75 percent
tuition, fees, room and board, books, and incidental ex
and be awarded 25 percent in grants.
penses.
2. During the second year the student will borrow 50 percent
Certain objections have been raised regarding the high
and be awarded 50 percent in grants.
amount of loan required during the first year. An alternative
3. During the third year the student will borrow 25 percent
which will avoid discouraging potential students from lower
and be awarded 75 percent in grants.
socio-economic and minority groups reverses the above
4. During the fourth year the student will receive the full
formula and places the emphasis upon grants rather than
amount in grant monies.
loans. Under the plan, the student could enter the University
5. Governor Reagan recognizes the importance of attracting
on full grant-in-aid during the first year, borrow 50 percent
outstanding graduates from throughout the country. While
and receive 50 percent in grants the second year, borrow 25
tuition will be charged graduate students, it is not antici-
percent and receive 75 percent the third year, and receive
pated that this program will alter the Regents' posture
full grant-in-aid the final year.
regarding certain waivers. Full-time graduate students who
meet the identical requirements in the area of financial need
In conclusion, the Governor points out, in the case of needy
as do those undergraduates mentioned above will become a
students, tuition will be offset by grants and loans. On the
part of the grant-loan program and receive 50 percent of the
other hand, for the well-to-do family, any state tuition would
annual stipend in the form of a grant-in-aid and 50 percent in
be far below the tuition for a private university or college,
the form of a loan. The Governor also suggests that the
and would represent only a fraction of the actual cost to
Regents examine the possibility of forgiveness in the area
the taxpayers.
of these graduate loans, as is being suggested with regard
With regard to students from out of state, the plan recom-
to undergraduate loans, for selected areas of state need.
mends that the higher tuition rate be maintained and that the
It should be pointed out here that the dollar amount being
residence requirements be revised and strengthened.
One of a series of Creative Studies by the Reagan Administration
State of California Governor's Office Sacramento 95814
(Not printed or mailed at taxpayers' expense)
THE
8 SEAL * CALAMINA STATE OF CALIFORNIA
XXXIII
"to every man, regardless
of his birth, his shining,
golden opportunity-
to every man the right to live,
to work, to be himself,
and to become whatever thing
his manhood and his vision
can combine to make him- -
this, seeker, is the
promise of America."
Ronald Reagan
Fellow Californians:
in other aspects of our life, to attack and solve our public problems.
There is no magical formula for the task of designing and building
This is the first in a series of creative studies on some of the great
tomorrow - just work, and common sense, and the cooperative
issues of our day and our state. It presents some guidelines for
know-how of committed individuals.
action as we continue to work with all Californians to design the
Ours is a threshold age: we have before us either decades of great
future.
deeds or years of despair and disruption. If we are to make the
This first paper sets forth the position of my administration in the
most of tomorrow, we must shuck the encumbrances of yesterday
area of human relations. It is the result of programming which was
and develop new and valid priorities.
started in 1967, and it indicates the basic direction in which we
Californians need a new agenda.
wish to move.
Proven principles remain constant; but changing times also demand
We know that our society is in danger because the human com-
new ideas, new applications, new endeavors. "A state without the
munity is disrupted by strife. There are some who deny the spiritual
means of change," as Edmund Burke said, "is without the means
nature of man, counting him just an economic digit or a political
of its conservation." It is part of the greatness of our American
pawn. With this devaluation of man it becomes all too easy for
system that it can accommodate both the fixed and the moving.
them to ignore degradation or to excuse violence. We cannot accept
The simplistic approach that laws alone can solve all of our prob-
either extreme.
lems has shown itself to be falacious; in case after case the laws
Each of us must make a personal commitment to compassionate
are on the books but the problems remain. The valid test of good
and honest solutions. California, as a state, must make a commit-
government is not how many laws it passes, or how much of the
ment to action. Government has been attacking the evils of dis-
taxpayers' money it siphons off for public proj
true
crimination for years. But the false promises of too many politicians
whether those in office use disciplined imagina
have smashed the hopes of too many of our people. Over the years
emment of and by as well as for the people-
overn-
promising legislation has been paralyzed by bureaucracy. Some seg-
ment helps to release the energies of every man by removing the
ments of the private sector have not fulfilled their responsibilities.
obstacles to his progress. And, this is the purpose of the Creative
The result has been an "expectation gap"-a chasm between the
Society: to stimulate constructive change through a continuing joint
promise and the deed, between what is and what should be. We
venture between all sectors of the community while reaffirming the
must close that gap.
right of every man to maximum liberty and the pursuit of happi-
We must ask ourselves, as we deal with this and the other impor-
ness in an orderly society. California is concerned about human
tant issues of our society, what kind of a future we want-and what
relations. We are concerned about the problems facing many of our
is the best way for the individual and the community at large to
minority groups. There is no doubt that many of our citizens in
build it.
the minority communities have legitimate grievances. It is impera-
I believe these papers can be the beginning of a new California
tive, and it is morally right, that we attend to these grievances; that
Commitment-a new sense of purpose.
we correct the inequities; that we remove the unnatural barriers,
and that we guarantee equal rights to all, regardless of color or
creed. This must be done.
Raned Reagan
But, it cannot be done by shrill exaggerations or false promises;
Governor
and, it will not be achieved through mob action or by the torch
or the club.
It will take involvement and honest leadership on all fronts. It will
take commitments of time, skill, resourcefulness, and capital from
all sectors. This is what is required to set our house in order. With-
out this total effort on the part of individuals, of private enterprise,
of organized labor, of local and state governments, too many of our
citizens in the minority communities will continue to exist as per-
petual tenants on federalized plantations. Such an existence degrades
not only them but also California and the nation.
What is needed most today is not urban renewal but human
What kind of California do we want in the future-in the next ten
renewal.
or twenty years? What kind of a place do we want for ourselves,
This paper on human relations-and the plight of the minority
for our children - for succeeding generations? What kind of schools?
communities-is the first in a series of creative studies which have
What kind of jobs? What kind of cities and parks and highways?
been under preparation by members of the Reagan administration
What kind of government?
during the last year. Other studies will be published in the weeks
Together we can help design and invent that future. In fact, we
ahead. They will deal with such areas as law and order, education,
must if it is to be what we want it to be.
public assistance, economic growth and job opportunities, and the
California still has in its veins the limitless energies of the dynamic
quality of life in today's environment.
West. It is the most unfettered, the most imaginative state in the
The creative society places government in its proper role: govern-
union. It is time that together we used that imagination, so apparent
ment should lead, citizens must act. What we will propose here
primarily is the role the non-governmental sector the independent
a half later the architect Victor Gruen could accurately say: "We
sector-can play in building a better state.
turned our cities into doughnuts, with all the dough around the
Like those to follow, this paper does not pretend to be a master
center and nothing in the middle." Our atomic deterrent protects
lan; there are already too many master plans and too many master
our cities from enemy bombs; but we are allowing them to be
railures on the record. This paper presents instead an exploration
effectively destroyed by inner rot. And the loss is all America's.
of the dimensions of and possible solutions to the problems of our
No one needs to be told that this is a time of great danger, but a
minorities.
time of danger is also a time of opportunity. Societies grow stronger,
we are informed by Arnold Toynbee, as they respond to challenges.
We have in America, broadly speaking, two rival philosophies of
government; they may be called "from the top down" and "from
the bottom up." There is no doubt where the founders of this
nation stood. They had rebelled against government from the top
down; the first three words of the preamble to the Constitution
may be the most important of all, for they place the emphasis
For too many the American dream
where it ought to go: We, the People.
remains an empty promise
The path we follow in California turns away from any idea that
government and those who serve it are omnipotent and omniscient.
Along this path government can lead but not rule, listen but not
lecture.
Americans are not really divided. But they are deeply puzzled about
In America, the virtue of the people lies in its dynamic free eco-
how to achieve the goals of domestic tranquility, abundance, and
nomic and social system. Yet the energies of this system can be
human dignity on which we all agree. We do not, as is sometimes
frustrated and misdirected. In its dynamism the system is alien to
said, need new values; probably there are no new values. But we
the spirit of encumbering bureaucracy, and to the rigid blueprints
do need new ways of fulfilling our traditional ones. The old ma-
of remote government. But our society has become so vast that an
chinery no longer seems to work. Familiar methods suddenly seem
individual, lacking information and opportunities for communica-
inadequate to the tasks. The result has been a spreading malaise,
tion, may not know where or how to exert personal efforts for the
even among those who in material things are well off. Socially and
common good.
politically, we are experiencing a confidence gap.
In this area, therefore, government has a special role to play. It has,
But for the urban poor, for some of our minority groups, the in-
of course, its own agencies and services, but the most important
adequacy of the old methods has resulted in more than a malaise.
thing it can do is to liberate the constructive energies that exist all
TOSS the nation, riots, looting, murder and arson have been
through our society.
arked by a violent few. But for a great many others as well, the
In California we have enormous resources for scientific and indus-
American dream remains an empty promise: It cannot remain so.
trial research. Thousands of highly successful and talented men and
For whatever was true in the past, Americans today are not content
women are in our business communities. Colleges and universities
to live in poverty, or to remain cut off from the rest of society,
are rich in their potentiality for study and research. We have any
while years and generations pass. They know as well as anyone
number of philanthropic enterprises.
else that a nation which is reaching out to the stars does not have
To liberate our vast resources of energy and talent, government
to accept degradation in its midst.
can dismantle obsolescent structures, strike down inequitable laws,
The failure of familiar approaches ought to unite us all in the de-
legislate against restrictive practices. Indeed, today's bureaucratic
velopment of new ones. The lethargic bureaucracy that fails some
structures cannot remain adequate in a computerized, automated
of us fails the rest of us as well. We have found that comparatively
world of accelerating change.
little of the so-called "war on poverty" money actually reaches those
Government, of course, can also maintain its commitment to candor
who are poor. We have found that urban renewal is the real war on
and to fiscal responsibility. The inflation that wastes the middle-
the poor people. It destroys their homes and fails to provide new
class dollar pushes the poor man into despair. A good part of our
ones. (A subsequent study in this series will deal in depth with
present difficulty in racial relations comes from the fact that the
public assistance and social welfare; the need to break the chain of
atmosphere has been poisoned by false promises. The function of
dependency and to redirect those programs which institutionalize
leadership is to lead, not delude.
poverty into a kind of permanent status. This is especially impor-
Government has the responsibility for keeping order and upholding
tant to many of our citizens in minority communities.)
the law. "There is no grievance," said Lincoln, "that is a fit object
The discriminatory union wastes America's manpower and clogs
of redress by mob law." Mobs do not generate progress; they re-
the free market system. The schools that are too rigid and un-
tard it. Mobs do not establish rights; they trample them. The spirit
imaginative to reach the Negro child, the Spanish-speaking and the
of destruction cannot be allowed to prevail here. [The next paper
Indian child cannot be the best ones we can provide for our other
in this series will cover law and order-the proper responsive, re-
children. Throughout history, the great cities have been the centers
sponsible system of law enforcement and justice which is necessary
of civilization: Athens, Rome, Florence, Paris. "He who is tired of
"to keep our people safe and free")
London," said Samuel Johnson, "is tired of life." Yet a century and
Finally, the government, through its leaders, can bear continuing
witness to the American system and American values. Too often of
-A Negro was appointed director of Veterans Affairs first
late the people have been depressed by those who sell America
Negro to head a major state department.
short. The voices of defeat and despair must not be the only ones
-75 Negroes, Mexican-Americans, Orientals and other minorit,
heard.
members are among the Governor's appointees to boards, com-
But government is a tool, and like any tool is effective only if used
missions and executive positions.
for its proper purposes. Some today still talk as if government
-Governor Reagan has broken the pattern of predominantly white
should initiate and plan all of the activities of our society. Central-
membership on draft boards by recommending minority citizens
ized bureaucratic control is failing all over the world. Yet there
for appointment.
are some who urge us to turn the clock back by establishing still
For the first time, the homes of low-income persons located in
more unwieldy bureaucratic structures. The surprising thing is not
freeway rights-of-way will be re-located by the state instead of
that these systems do not work, but that anyone ever actually
demolished.
thought they would. They certainly are not the answer to the prob-
-More than 20 bills dealing specifically with the problems of low-
lems of our minority groups.
income citizens were signed into law last year.
In California we must solve the problems of racial relations. And
One of the legislative highlights of 1967 was the creation of the
what we do here we do not only for ourselves but for all of man-
California Job Training and Placement Council to develop coordi-
kind. California is a microcosm of the nation, and nothing a great
nated training and placement programs through private industry.
people does is purely domestic. We must show the world that a
Some 20,000 representatives of industry and labor, through Man-
free nation can cope with the pressing problems of modern life,
agement Councils set up in 16 cities, have taken on the responsi-
and that a free society-with its variety, flexibility, and spontaneity,
bility of making this program work.
with its willingness to experiment cope with them much more
The Reagan administration also has:
effectively than any other system. "In America," as Alexis Tocque-
-Provided guidance for a pilot summer "earn and learn" program.
ville wrote, "I saw more than America; I saw there the image of
-Trained welfare recipients to serve as family day-care parents,
democracy itself."
providing both employment for them and care for the children of
working mothers.
- Obtained pledges of support from commanding officers of mili-
tary bases to end discrimination in housing for service personnel.
- Worked with business and schools to cut the number of high
school dropouts.
-Signed into law legislation establishing occupational training cen-
ters for adults.
Unleash the power that can make us
Enacted legislation permitting school districts to use bi-lingual
instruction.
one people, united in justice and purpose
-Signed legislation prohibiting discrimination in apprenticeship
programs.
Legislation has been introduced this year to create the California
Job Development Corporation, which would pool private capital to
There are three great forces which can solve the problems of human
make loans to small businesses unable to get conventional financing.
relations; forces which can move to break the barriers of poverty
This is an extension of the Job Training and Placement Council.
and injustice and close the expectation gap.
Financial institutions, as members of the proposed corporation,
The Great and Growing Middle Class. It is the very strength of our
CAL-JOB, would pledge funds to be used for loans.
land, and encompasses individuals of all creeds and colors.
The California Home Ownership, Construction and Rehabilitation
The Dynamic and Productive Private Enterprise System. Its knowledge,
Act of 1968, would enable many low-income families to experience
resources, manpower, factories and capacity can help every indi-
the pride of home ownership. The bill calls for a $500 million bond
vidual realize his potential.
issue to finance state loans for low-income families. It would help
Creative Government. It can best meet human needs by liberating
them to build or re-construct private homes. Both the CAL-JOB and
the constructive energies that exist throughout society.
home ownership measures are supported by Governor Reagan.
These dynamic forces, acting together, can unite the hearts and
Lack of jobs, education and housing are the roots of the minorities'
minds of this land, unleashing the power that will make us one
problems. Help must come from government, business and labor
people, united in justice and purpose.
and the independent sector.
During the Reagan administration, progress has been made but
The Reagan administration has instructed heads of agencies and
there is still a long way to go to reach the goal of equal oppor-
departments that equal opportunity and fair employment laws will
tunity for all Californians.
be enforced-down the line state hiring practices and contract
Here are some of the things which have already been done:
policies. Industry and labor should do no less. Our private enter-
-Governor Reagan has held private meetings with minority group
prise system has the capacity to extend its bounties to all who want
representatives throughout the state to hear about their problems,
to make an honest effort. It is the responsibility of both management
and discuss ways to deal with them.
and labor to see that the capacity of the svstem is achieved.
We also support the "urban coalition" approach because the efforts
A California Commitment-t audit,
of the total community are needed to solve the problem. This and
galvanize and coordinate the resources
similar voluntary efforts are functioning examples of a creative
of a creative society
society.
Both education and the home have always been central aspects of
the American dream. Education opens the way to personal advance-
ment and allows ambitions to be fulfilled. And with each passing
year it grows more important, for to an ever-increasing degree our
What is needed now is an honest appraisal of the tasks required
society reserves its rewards for the educated. The home is bound
to close the gap between expectations and reality.
up with both freedom and dignity. Ownership of property and
It was this desire for facts-plus the desire to open a direct line of
acceptance of responsibility are closely linked.
communications- which led Governor Reagan to tour the state to
Though education grows ever more important, increasingly, some
meet with the leaders of minority groups.
are being left behind. Of the 5,000,000 children in California ele-
What they voiced matches the general profile of desire of minority
mentary schools, hundreds of thousands attend so-called "ghetto"
groups throughout America. Surveys tell us that more than 90 per
schools-too often dilapidated buildings with antiquated equip-
cent of our minority citizens are responsible and law abiding.
ment, in which packed classrooms make adequate teaching all but
Unfortunately, the lawless few, the troublemakers and self-seekers,
impossible. Some children are passed from grade to grade without
who use misguided and impressionable followers to fan the flames
ever learning to read. And some children from "hard-core" poverty
of violence, are covered sensationally by some news media.
areas are so far behind when they enter the first grade that they
What do the vast number of minority citizens want out of life?
never catch up.
They want the same things all other Americans want-jobs, good
The decaying neighborhood if left unattended, in time can enmesh
health, educational opportunities for their children and themselves,
an entire city. As the decay spreads, ever more money is required,
and freedom to live in pleasant surroundings. Adequate police
but ever less is available. And for those who live in the neighbor-
protection also is high on their list of priorities, along with oppor-
hood the prospect of improvement becomes ever more remote.
tunities in business and commerce. What they're talking about is
Those who are able to do so move out, removing from the area
full participation in the American way of life.
the most able and most talented. The decay of buildings becomes
Leadership is important to any good cause. In the case of Cali-
a decay of the spirit.
fornia's minorities, leadership is available. But factionalism and
In both education and housing, we must move to break these vicious
organizations working at cross-purposes can hurt their efforts. This
circles. We need more intensive training designed to prepare teachers
has been the historic trouble with government assistance programs.
who will work in the slums, an incentive system to attract talented
In the field of human relations, we've experienced a proliferation
and understanding teachers to the schools in the depressed areas,
of organizations, all competing for the chance to better the plight
and above all we need more teachers and administrators from the
of the poor. Coordination is the key to the success of any project.
minority groups themselves. The time of the teacher is valuable.
Working together, such organizations can succeed in the areas where
Much more use can be made of paid and unpaid lay volunteers.
breakthroughs are most urgently needed: consumer purchasing,
Qualified volunteer mothers could work intensively with small
political action, neighborhood improvement, development of minor-
groups of pre-school children. Others could help with playground
ity businesses and a host of other desirable goals.
and cafeteria supervision, and with other non-teaching tasks.
Thus, the first step should be an accurate statewide audit of our
We need to involve the entire community in our educational sys-
total assets and liabilities, of what is being done to solve the plight
tem. Curricula should be made more responsive to the needs of
of the minority groups, who is doing what, who can do it best, and
the core-city child. Courses and textbooks dealing with the Negro
what more needs to be done.
in America and Spanish cultures would be valuable. For teachers
Second, a coordinated effort must be developed to activate programs
in Spanish-speaking areas, we should explore the possibility of
at all levels-state and local, public and private.
teacher-exchange programs with Mexican schools, and we should
Third, and on a continuing basis, these programs should be co-
establish an incentive system for bi-lingual teachers.
ordinated and implemented into a total, sustained thrust peri-
In neighborhood renewal we must learn to use the energies that
odically evaluated for maximum relevancy, efficiency and results.
exist in the neighborhood itself. We have encouraged home owner-
All of this should be an action concept based on practicalities, and
ship through low interest loans, and through programs which allow
designed-not by some federal bureau 3,000 miles and 30 years
an individual to help build his own home. Efforts to improve a
away, but-by those here in California who are directly involved in
neighborhood, planned by the people themselves, can be coordi-
the problems and their solutions on a day-to-day basis. This is the
nated and materially assisted. Small parks can be planned and
thrust of Governor Reagan's program, "The California Commitment."
built, decaying property reclaimed, streets cleaned up, recreation
Such a California Commitment would involve both statewide re-
programs planned through cooperation among neighborhood resi-
sponsibilities and regional compacts. It would consist of represent-
dents, talented outsiders and local government.
atives from local communities, from the counties, from business
Everywhere opportunities exist for private capital and private finan-
and labor, from the academic world and the professions, and from
cial institutions to play a role, and already many have shown great
the minority groups and the state government.
readiness to help.
The Governor will take the lead in forming this Commitment, but
state government will serve primarily as a catalyst not as a force
7. Business executives and business students could offer their knowl-
of imposition or intervention.
edge and experience in competitive enterprise to help upgrade and
The first task of such a Commitment should be to conduct the state-
establish small businesses. Chambers of commerce and university
wide audit. This is necessary not only to outline the dimensions of
business schools are ideally equipped to operate such a project.
the job ahead, but also it is needed to minimize waste, inefficiency
8. California's Service Centers should provide "coaching" services
and duplication. At present, for example, there are more than 400
to minority and low-income job applicants. The purpose is to help
separate agencies, both public and private, at work in the Watts
applicants overcome fear of test situations.
area of Los Angeles. Without criticizing the good intent and dedi-
9. More industries could establish satellite companies in poverty
cation of these agencies, it may well be that better coordination
areas. The key is to find products that can be manufactured by
and delineation could achieve a bigger return for each dollar spent.
un-trained employees, then provide the facilities and equipment to
The Commitment, by being a clearing house for information,
do the job. The final objective is to provide mass employment for
could bring together these energies and talents and organizations
the under-trained and build a corps of minority management per-
which are now diffused. And, by achieving an overview of the
sonnel which later can be assimilated into the parent company.
entire situation it could better direct the energies of the community
Several California firms are either actively engaged in operating
-public and private the point of need.
satellite companies or have such plans on the drawing boards.
Upon completion of the audit, resulting in a clearer picture of what
10. Various industries could consider sharing the costs of keeping
must be done, what will be required to do it, and what resources
junior high and high schools open during summer months to pro-
and abilities are available within the all sectors, Cali-
vide recreation, training, and basic education. College students could
fornia would then be fully justified in insisting that the federal
be hired as staff to operate the schools, with hourly salaries paid
government leave within the state a substantial portion of that tax
by industries. At least one major California company already has
money which is now being siphoned to Washington. We do not
approved adoption of a high school.
need more massive federal bureaucracy imposed upon us from
11. A way is needed to provide tutoring for youngsters in educa-
afar. We can make our plans, take our actions, and guide our pro-
tional subjects and training in such areas as home economics and
grams here at the state and local levels.
personal care. A "student service corps" could become a vehicle
Here are examples of the activities such a California Commitment
for students to help people their own age. Student government at
can evoke from the independent sector:
all levels of education should organize programs and select loca-
1. Manned by representatives of both industry and labor, job re-
tions for student service.
cruiting stations could be established in low-incorne areas. This
12. Community school center programs bring the family into the
industry/union effort could include recruiters representing a variety
school and gain full use of existing educational facilities by even-
of industries and labor skills. Industrial and union organizations
tually keeping them open throughout the year. Activities to serve
should decide details of operating procedures.
all members of the family can be conducted: job training, health
2. Tools and equipment could be loaned to neighborhood groups
care, child care, recreation, entertainment -creating a concept of
to use for re-building projects. Local residents should be free to
using schools for continued activities and education for the entire
decide how and what they want to build, whether it's a park, a
family.
community center or simply a clean-up campaign. Tools and equip-
13. Education departments of California colleges and universities
ment could be made available through the cooperation of chambers
could coordinate a program to utilize former teachers, education
of commerce and service clubs.
students, and teaching assistants to provide tutoring service for
3. Union members assigned by union leadership on a voluntary
school children.
basis could donate a few hours of work a week in low-income
areas to show "how it's done" in various trades and skills.
14. In an effort to broaden the base of educational experience,
4. Trade unions should study the possibility of providing paid
attempts could be made to exchange teachers between school dis-
tricts. This approach calls for inter-district transfers and a new look
apprenticeship training during summer months. Such training could
result in a cadre of skilled young people for future union member-
at the entire concept of tenure. Increased benefits, to both students
and teachers, should result in a gradual upgrading of education and
ship. Unions could identify potential trainees by contacting com-
a broadening of experiences. Better communication and understand-
munity action groups and through referrals by union membership.
ing between the various cultural segments would be anticipated.
5. Industrial plants could remain open at night as a means of pro-
viding in-plant training. Women, for instance, could be taught how
15. Individual industries and unions in California could make yearly
to type and operate business machines to help prepare them for
contributions to a fund that would be used entirely for scholarships
clerical jobs.
for the poor. A special scholarship committee representative of the
6. A vocational and professional task force consisting of represent-
participating businesses and trade unions would decide who should
atives of the State Personnel Board, personnel departments of in-
receive the scholarships. Grants should not be limited to higher
dustries, and union officials should survey the needs and require-
education, but should be available to those who want to attend
ments of the job market for today and tomorrow. As an outgrowth
trade and technical schools.
of this activity, changes in civil service, vocational training, industry
16. Thousands of school buses in the state could be used during
hiring standards and union apprenticeship requirements would be
the summer to: transport youngsters on recreational and educational
anticipated.
trips; provide daily service to and from hospitals and health centers
inconveniently located for low-income residents; and as a shuttle
The answer will come from
service to shopping centers.
the hearts of men.
17. Patterned after the Olympic Games, neighborhood competition
in track-field and water sports events is proposed to keep youngsters
It must be clear that all of this is only a beginning. It is, however,
active and to salute 1968 as an Olympic Year. School coaches and
the foundation of an accelerated effort toward human renewal-an
recreation leaders, in cooperation with service clubs and local Y's,
effort to spur on those who are willing to help others, an effort to
are especially qualified to plan and carry out this project which can
provide opportunity for those who in the final analysis are willing
be staged at high schools. It is suggested that Neighborhood Olym-
to help themselves.
pics be held on weekends to permit maximum participation. All
This concept of a California Commitment can help to innovate and
the participants, boys and girls, would receive California Neighbor-
create; it can also help coordinate and make the most of what is
hood Olympic certificates.
already being done in all sectors of society-by men and women
18. California's great athletes, amateur and professional alike, could
and organizations of good will throughout our state.
lend their talents and prestige to the fight for equality by holding
It is fitting that this fresh commitment be made here in California,
sports clinics in poverty areas and appearing at Neighborhood
here in the West. For the West has always stood for the promise of
Olympics. Our professional sports teams, the athletic departments
America. It is appropriate that California take the lead in solving
of colleges and universities and such groups as the Fellowship of
our racial problems and that here we begin the new agenda which
Christian Athletes could cooperate.
will strengthen our entire society.
If there is any honest answer to improved human relations, the
19. Both the state government and the private sector own un-
answer will come from the hearts of men.
developed land throughout California; land that is not being used
It is time to stop acting like our brother's keeper; it is time to start
while it awaits development. Through the state and the action of
being our brother's brother.
local chambers of commerce, it is suggested that land near poverty
The cry from the minority group today is not a new cry. It is a cry
pockets be loaned to local communities for recreation or other
which has been uttered by man ever since his beginning:
purposes. If necessary, the land can be cleared by volunteer labor
"I am a man. I want to be recognized and accepted as a human
using loaned equipment to make it suitable for use.
being-with human dignity and independence."
This is the cry articulated in the Declaration of Independence, and
20. Child care centers to care for pre-school children of working
in the Constitutions of the United States and the State of Cali-
mothers. The facilities could be provided in the immediate vicinity
fornia. The fact that too often this cry has been ignored, or stifled,
of an industrial plant, and provide education, recreation, and health
does not invalidate its eternal truth.
services to youngsters while their mothers work. Costs of such
The time has come for each one of us to make the choice. Either
facilities could be shared by both industries and unions.
we affirm our faith in man's ability to meet his fellow man in a
21. Evidence suggests that many minority citizens are victimized
spirit of good will build together peacefully and harmoniously
-or we fail for all time.
by over-pricing, shoddy merchandise, and usury. To help stop these
abuses, consumer consultants will be located at the State Service
Many of today's problems are the result of prejudice-the prejudice
Centers. The consultants will also offer advice on "how to buy" to
which has divided mankind from his very beginning. Many reli-
gious and ethnic groups in America have experienced prejudice
low-income housewives.
and it is a tribute to them that such prejudice is now largely a
22. Several community fund organizations in California have sum-
matter of history. It will be a tribute to our minorities today-and
mer earn, learn, and play projects already planned. Limited funds
a tribute to our majority-when existing prejudice also is pushed
are available for the projects, however. More money from the pri-
into the past.
vate sector would bring greater benefits to more people, mostly
We must make sure that no American ever again will have to tell
youngsters. Business, industry, and union officials should contact
a child that he is denied some of the blessings of this land because
united fund officials in the metropolitan areas and offer to help
in some way he may be different. And, this must be a personal
expand these programs.
thing. Each individual must become involved.
The American dream which we have nursed so long in this country
23. Communications media should help to promote the concept of
-and neglected so much, of late-is not that every man must be
the California Commitment. The Advertising Council can prepare
level with every other man. The American dream is that every man
a public service promotional campaign, in cooperation with such
must be free to be himself, to be free to become whatever his
groups as the California Broadcasters Association and the Califor-
aspirations and his ability and his drive can make him to be.
nia Newspaper Publishers Association.
The restoration-the perpetuation-of that dream is the greatest
These are just a few of the ideas that can be translated into positive
challenge confronting every one of us today.
action. Implementation will depend on proper motivations, coordi-
nation and a concentrated effort. This effort must come from indi-
One of a series of Creative Studies by the Reagan Administration
viduals, from their organizations, their schools, their government
State of California Governor's Office Sacramento 95814
and from the private enterprise system.
(Not printed or mailed at taxpayer's expense)
and
I
of s
THE
STATE OF CALIFORNIA * SEAL SEAL
XXXIII
"In the final analysis
the call for law and order
and justice must come
from each citizen at every level
and on every occasion.
Only in that way can our
people be safe-and free."
Ronald Reagan
Fellow Californians:
Today lawlessness is rampant in America. Crime continues to in-
crease faster than population; juvenile delinquency increases at an
Disregard for law and order increases all around us. Crime rates
even faster rate. In too many cities few women are brave enough-
soar. The use of narcotics spreads, particularly among our young.
or, foolhardy enough-to venture out alone after dark; the streets
A violent faction would turn our campuses into staging areas for
are not safe. Campus after campus is wracked with disorder; uni-
insurrection and our streets into a no man's land; they violate both
versities are used as staging areas for insurrection.
the law and the rights of their fellow citizens.
Mass violation of the law and mob violence increasingly threaten
our communities in the guise of "civil disobedience." In reality this
We need today a revival of common sense and common decency
is deliberate and premeditated violation of the law by groups de-
rejection of the permissive attitude which pervades too many
termined to achieve their ends regardless of the cost to their neigh-
homes, too many schools, too many courts. We must reject the
bors or the effect on the total society. As a nation and as a people
idea that everytime a law is broken, society is guilty rather than
we cannot tolerate this. We must draw the line between legitimate
the law-breaker. It is essential we restore the American precept
protest and those actions which interfere with the rights of all our
that each individual is responsible, and accountable, for his actions.
citizensi to carry on their normal, daily activities. No one has the
And, it is too simple to trace all crime to poverty. Our time of
right to choose which laws he will or will not obey.
affluence is also a time of increasing lawlessness; there is a crime
The frightening increase in crime in recent years is evidence that
problem in the suburbs, as well as the slums.
our criminal justice system, of itself, cannot contain crime. What
is needed is a total, coordinated program involving all sectors of
our society-and every citizen. We must establish long-range goals
As we seek to turn the tide in favor of the responsible, law-
and design a step-by-step action program with each step consist-
abiding citizen, it is crucial that we have a total and sustained fight
ent with those goals. In addition, an improved criminal justice
against lawlessness coordinating the efforts and the resources of
system is mandatory if we are to reach the four goals set by the
individual citizens, the private sector and local organizations as
California Commitment in this area. These are:
well as government at all levels. Such an effort is necessary if we
-to guarantee each citizen the security and protection of the law;
are to give meaning and substance to the California Commitment.
-to strengthen and maintain the concept of law and increase re-
And, it is essential if we are to keep our people safe and free.
spect for it, so that we can reduce crime and maintain order and
safety in our communities;
-to emphasize that the primary responsibility for preserving law
Raned Reagan
and order rests with local government, supported and assisted by
state government, and
Governor
-to develop and coordinate the imaginative thinking of business
and industry, educational institutions, government, science and
technology and citizen leaders in order to identify and implement
both established and new methods for the prevention and control
of crime, the administration of justice and the punishment and
rehabilitation of law violators.
The vehicle to accomplish these goals was established by legislation
in 1967. It is the California Council on Criminal Justice. This group
provides a statewide team for the planning, coordination, improve-
This creative study, the second in a series now being prepared by
ment and development of law enforcement techniques, and the
the Reagan administration, deals with the need for law and order
administration of justice. Representatives of all agencies involved
in a free and creative society.
in the law and order process serve on the Council: members of
This paper outlines some of the dimensions of the twin problems
the legislature, law enforcement officers, attorneys, representatives
of crime and lawlessness and proposes measures, techniques and
of the courts and penal institutions. Education and appropriate
programs which are vital to the essential purpose of a democratic
branches of science and technology are also represented.
government-insuring individual safety and freedom for all citizens.
This paper reaffirms the right of every citizen to the full protection
The Council serves as a clearing house for crime prevention and
of the law and the responsibility of every citizen to uphold and
control proposals. It is also charged with providing information
obey the law.
service on research and development projects, and with advising
The Reagan administration is dedicated to building and maintain-
government agencies on criminal justice matters.
ing a creative society in which every person is guaranteed maximum
Many of the programs which could be instituted and implemented
freedom under just laws and is assured the right to become what-
by the Council are listed in this paper.
ever his abilities and aspirations allow him to become within the
But, most important, this study emphasizes that the individual citi
framework of these laws.
zen must do his part; he must become involved in the continui,
It is axiomatic that while society can have law and order without
fight to maintain law and order.
freedom, no society can long remain free without law and order.
It is not enough to be concerned; there must be a commitment to
action. The average citizen is quick to deplore "the crime problem"
political institutions can provide a substitute for common sense and
but all too often he is reluctant to accept his personal responsibility.
public morality."
In the midst of his journey through a hostile land, the Good Samar-
Public attitudes are vitally important. Yet in the crucial matter of
itan did not just seek the nearest emergency center, he ministered
attitude there has been an erosion of respect for law and of con-
to the victim himself-he became involved, because he cared enough
cern for order. Crimes are often spectacular, and everyone is aware
0 act.
of them, while the erosion of concern is silent and invisible. Yet if
It is the basic commitment of government that every citizen should
crime is like a house on fire, the erosion of concern is like a house
be safe-safe on the street, safe in his home, safe in school, safe
decaying. The end result is the same.
in the park. But, it is also a part of the California Commitment
In the pages that follow we will deal with both immediate and
that each individual is responsible for his own actions-that each
long-range measures to support these fundamental precepts:
citizen must accept his full share of responsibility. When the free-
Every law-abiding individual has the right to expect government
dom the Athenians wished for the most was freedom from respon-
to guard the safety of his person.
sibility, Athens ceased to be free.
Every homeowner and businessman has the right to expect govern-
ment to protect property against the criminal, the arsonist, and the
looter.
Every parent has the right to expect government to protect the
community from those who deal in narcotics.
Every student in our colleges and universities has a right to pursue
his education unhampered by the violent few. The campus is not
We face a serious breakdown in the rule of law
an island outside the law (the serious problem of campus dis-
orders and the need for stricter controls and discipline will be cov-
ered in the creative study on education which will be included in
this series of papers).
Law is more than just a set of rules; it is the gateway through which
Where laws are needed to move forward against crime we will
man passes to reach the fullness of human existence. Without law,
press for them. But active concern, throughout every sector of the
as Hobbes said, life would be "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and
community, can be mobilized right now. This is essential if we in
short." But law, in the words of Clarendon, "is the standard and
California are to reverse the trends of the last decade.
guardian of our liberty."
Yet today we face a serious breakdown in the rule of law, a break-
down which endangers our traditional American way of life.
In some quarters there has grown up a nihilistic contempt for the
very idea of law. Among some of our government officials there is
willingness to accept lawbreaking as a "right" and a timidity
As much force as necessary, as quickly as possible
about facing up to the responsibility of enforcing the law swiftly
and equally for all citizens. Pervading our society is a climate of
permissiveness. There is confusion between the rights a citizen may
have under the law and the largess a concerned and generous soci-
In 1967 California's crime laws were improved. Governor Reagan
ety may bestow on its less fortunate members.
signed into law measures which strengthened statutes concerning
The problems have many aspects and many facets, not the least of
burglary, robbery and rape, and increased the penalties in cases
which is the rapidly rising rate of major crimes.
where the criminal inflicts great bodily harm upon the victim.
The material cost of crime is staggering: over $30 billion a year.
One of the most important accomplishments of the Reagan admin-
Spent constructively this money could transform America. The cost
istration has been. the enactment of legislation establishing the
in wasted human lives and wasted human potential cannot be
California Council on Criminal Justice. As already outlined, this
measured. And this is all the more damaging because the victims
Council can be an effective statewide vehicle for increased and en-
of crime are often those least able to bear the burden-the poor
lightened law enforcement.
and the members of minority groups.
The most modern facilities available in education, scientific research,
The dramatic increase in crime is only one aspect of the problem.
and systems technology must be fully utilized in the fight against
Many citizens sense a spreading malaise in which alienation from
crime. In 1967 Governor Reagan signed legislation creating the
society and rule-breaking are commonplace. Bizarre cults spring
Crime Technological Research Foundation. This foundation is sup-
up whose behavior seems to be a calculated affront to the idea of
ported by both private and public funds and is destined to design
an orderly community and the belief in human dignity.
new concepts in crime detection and law enforcement.
There is, of course, a limit to what law alone can accomplish. The
In 1967 the California Highway Patrol in cooperation with the Fed-
preservation of order is the responsibility of the entire community,
eral Bureau of Investigation put into operation the first law enforce-
not just of government and the police.
ment computer hook-up in the nation. The Highway Patrol's crime
"There is no country in the world," wrote Alexis de Tocqueville,
information computers in Sacramento were linked to the FBI com-
"in which everything can be provided for by the laws, or in which
puter center in Washington, D.C., and connections were extended
to include the intra-state electronic communications network main-
judges out of politics. The bill would insure the appointments of
tained here in California. As a result, instant communications are
qualified men and women of proven ability and integrity to judicial
available not only between Sacramento and locations throughout the
office. At this time, when it is imperative that society take all proper
State but also between Sacramento and Washington. This greatly
steps to uphold law and curb the increase of crime, it is also im-
increased speed and information service helps our law officers to
perative that the courts be firm, fair and above reproach.
move more swiftly and more efficiently in the apprehension of
Recent proposals in the criminal justice field call for the federal
criminals.
government to appropriate large sums of money for subsequent
Governor Reagan has acted to insure immediate and effective steps
grants to state and local governments. This action would, for the
to control lawlessness and to restore order in the event of riots and
first time in our nation's history, substantially involve the national
other major disorders. At his direction an improved system of
government in the local responsibility for enforcing the law and
planning, communication and liaison was established between state
maintaining our basic system of criminal justice.
agencies and local law enforcement officials. This system will also
A more desirable alternative, which has broad applicability in
facilitate emergency assistance in cases of natural disaster.
other fields of governmental activity, would be the development of
Task forces of key state officials work closely with sheriffs and
a tax credit system for financing state and local projects in the
police chiefs to coordinate the system in the principal cities through-
areas of law enforcement and the administration of criminal justice.
out the state and to coordinate planning and procedures for state
Basically, the states and local communities would choose to retain
assistance on call, In such situations, the assistance will be instant
control over a portion of the tax base. The system leaves financing
and constant until the disorder is ended. Similarly, a 24-hour,
and decision making at the state and local level. It allows state
streamlined communications system has been established to provide
and local government to exercise maximum discretion in defining
immediate notification to all state agencies in case of potential or
and achieving public service objectives.
existing emergencies such as floods, earthquakes, and other dis-
asters.
California law enforcement has taken the firm position that mob
violence and mass criminality will not be tolerated. Immediate and
effective action will be taken to control lawlessness, to restore safety
and order, and to protect our citizens in case of rioting.
Other steps in the area of law enforcement taken during first months
Law enforcement
of the Reagan administration include:
-The Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training has
embarked on a comprehensive recruiting program to determine the
need for new law enforcement officers, and to furnish recruiting
The policeman has long been a symbol of the law to the American
information to potential candidates.
people. Through generations, both the personal and family safety
-State government has provided full support for crime prevention
of our citizens have been entrusted to the police. We have been
programs and has encouraged service clubs, fraternal groups and
taught that respect for the law means respect for the police. The
civic organizations to support local law enforcement, and to help
peace officers of this state are the most carefully selected, most
rehabilitate ex-convicts through the formation of parole advisory
highly trained in the nation.
committees.
Events of recent years indicate a deterioration in respect for both
-In cooperation with the Attorney General's office, the Governor
the law and the law officer by some elements of society. Instances
has urged the legislature to authorize a special investigative force
of disrespect, even open defiance, of the police have increased; the
to prevent the spread of organized crime in California.
situation threatens to become critical and its ultimate end would
-A narcotics education study has been established to develop the
be the total breakdown of law and order. Because of this danger,
curricula and materials for teaching our school children about the
the law-today, more than ever-must have our active support.
dangers of illegal drug use.
The era of the officer on the beat has passed. The policeman travels
During 1968 legislation was introduced to tighten state laws against
today in automobiles and on motorcycles. As a result, in too many
obscene the material to youngsters.
pornography in accordance with the latest rulings of the United
neighborhoods, he no longer is a friendly and familiar figure. This
States Supreme Court. Particular attention is being given in this
separation of the police and the public, and resultant lack of com-
proposed legislation to the prevention of widespread distribution of
munication, has probably contributed to some misunderstandings.
But it cannot account for some of the more serious aspects of the
Other administration-endorsed legislation is aimed at restoring to
breakdown in respect for the police:
cities and counties the right to enact laws relating to local prob-
-More and more, the police themselves are becoming the victims
blems of public safety. This measure would eliminate the legal
of crime.
confusion often arising from "pre-emption" when state and federal
-Even routine arrest situations sometimes threaten to erupt into
statutes abrogate local authority.
widespread violence.
A judicial selection plan, submitted by Governor Reagan to the
-Charges of brutality are being raised by a small but disruptive
legislature and supported by many prominent professional and
segment of society, which is constantly challenging the authority of
civic groups throughout the state, would take the appointment of
the law.
For the law-abiding, the policeman is a friend. For all our science
7. Establish exchange programs between agencies involved in the
and sophistication, for all our justified pride in intellectual accom-
administration of justice, providing for a cross fertilization of ideas
plishment, the jungle is waiting to take over. The man with the
and expertise.
badge helps to hold it back. Too often the only thanks he gets is
8. Increased use of miniaturized communications equipment, espe-
a charge of "police brutality."
cially by officers when they are away from their automobiles or
It is time that responsible citizens are heard from; that they act to
motorcycles. Such equipment combined with modern telecommuni-
assist the policeman, show him the respect he must have to carry
cations systems can speed the flow of crime information and in-
out his job and provide him with the cooperation necessary to
crease the officer's safety and effectiveness.
preserve the peace.
9. Greater use of closed circuit television for security of critical
Harassment, tough working conditions and low pay are making it
areas such as jail cells, bank vaults and high crime areas. Such
difficult to recruit qualified persons to serve as lawmen. On an
systems can supplement police patrol activity.
average night in a California city of 500,000 only 65 peace officers
10. Helicopter patrols, linked by radio with ground units, can im-
will be on patrol duty. To locate and employ the types of people
prove police efficiency, increase surveillance, and provide greater
who must be attracted to police work, careers in law enforcement
capabilities for emergency rescue operations. This concept has been
must be upgraded to professional status. More advantages are
successfully pioneered by the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department.
needed in terms of compensation, benefits, opportunities for ad-
11. Develop improved education and training programs including
vancement and job satisfaction.
specialist training in such fields as criminal investigation, community
Today's police officer must be better educated and better equipped
relations, and administration. The latest scientific knowledge, tech-
technically to handle modern anti-crime techniques. This is why
niques, and equipment should be utilized in such activities.
the Reagan administration has advocated establishing a California
12. Develop in cooperation with the phone companies a telephone
Police Academy to provide advanced training for local law enforce-
"help" number to be dialed in the event of an emergency. Use of
ment officers. The academy would be staffed by experts in all facets
coins at pay telephones should not be needed. Electronic equipment
of law enforcement, and use modern equipment to teach latest
would pinpoint the location of the call, and relay the information
police methods. A measure to establish the academy will be in-
to the nearest law officer.
cluded in the Governor's next legislative program.
13. Work with the Broadcasters Association to select broadcast kilo-
Following are other specific suggestions that we believe will help
cycle locations to be dialed in the event of an emergency. These
to improve conditions for law officers, to give them more tools for
would be used to transmit information to persons living in areas
the fight against crime and restore public respect for the law:
where disturbances occur, and to broadcast emergency information
1. Make every effort to put more officers back on the beat. The
to the public.
purpose is to build friendly and trusted contacts between law offi-
cers and the public. At least one major department-Los Angeles-
already doing this.
2. Upgrade salaries and opportunities for advancement to attract
the best men available. Salaries should be based on career pro-
grams. Too often departments provide no pay increases after the
third year of service unless officers move up into administrative or
supervisory positions.
3. Adopt modern management techniques. Systems analysis and
The legal system
electronic data processing should be adapted to the problems of law
enforcement.
4. Establish community relations units in all police and sheriff's
departments. Human relations training should be required for all
"Justice delayed is justice denied." Experience confirms the validity
officers. Emphasis should be placed on the officer's relationship with
of this saying, for it describes the current condition of our court
the members of the community and the efficacy of "preventive
procedures. A powerful deterrent to the potential law-breaker is
police work."
knowledge that he will have a speedy trial, and that the proper
5. Create incentives for officers to continue their education in rel-
penalty for the crime will be enforced.
evant fields. Departmental policies should adopt work schedules to
This administration believes that steps should be taken to make the
permit officers to enroll in college courses or specialized training
judiciary more efficient, and more responsive to the times. As a
programs. Men with degrees, and men who have completed their
start, the courts should consider using computers for information
legal training, often continue in police departments because they
storage and retrieval. Other suggestions are:
are attracted to this particular area of public service.
1. Re-examine bail and pre-trial release practices so that the quality
6. Establish a system of periodic leaves to permit police officers to
of justice is not measured by the quantity of a defendant's money.
spend time in research, study or teaching. This system would pro-
2. Develop a summons sytem in lieu of physical arrests for per-
vide a change from the ordinary routine of police work, and would
sons not charged with crimes of violence or moral turpitude. De-
broaden the officer's outlook, thus benefiting both the officer and
fendants could be ordered to report to court through mailed sum-
his department.
mons. Only if he failed to appear would an arrest be made.
3. Develop improved techniques for handling mass arrests. In
and coordination exist among correctional, welfare, health, educa-
these difficult situations, justice should be assured and the guilty
tional, law enforcement and rehabilitation services. Local sur
should not be permitted to escape punishment simply because a
should be taken and an analysis made of the problem areas a.
large number of persons are involved in breaking the law.
conditions that account for delinquency. The efforts of public and
4. Equip crime investigators with technical capabilities at least equal
private agencies in this field should also be audited.
to the sophisticated equipment employed by today's criminals. Legis-
lation should be enacted to allow law enforcement officers to use
Particular targets for scrutiny are:
electronic surveillance equipment under the control of a warrant
a. The programs serving families and children, especially the child
authorized by a judge. This is of special importance in the campaign
protective services;
against organized crime.
b. The efforts of the public school system to provide for those seg-
5. Provide some means whereby the constitutionality of challenged
ments of the population which have a high potential delinquency
laws can be determined without requiring that law first to be broken
risk;
-with the attendant arrests, criminal records, possibility of violence,
C. The utilization made of the job training and placement resources
etc.
for youth;
6. Urge greater cooperation between the judiciary and the police to
d. The adequacy of recreation and leisure time activities for all,
establish clearer guidelines for arrest, interrogation and search pro-
and
cedures. The guilty should not go free simply because of legal
e. The efforts being made by the organized
the
technicalities.
juvenile population.
2. Youth Service Bureaus should be organized local auspices
to provide counseling, recreational, special educational, job referral
and placement activities for youth. These bureaus would specifically
deal with juvenile problems.
3. Youth in-service programs should be established in which the
delinquency-prone are organized to provide recreational leadership
and participation in community service projects. Many students in
Juvenile delinquency
the community could be encouraged, by their schools and churches
to "adopt" a brother or sister which could mean a new and con-
structive relationship for the delinquent youth. Youth Councils in
Few areas of human endeavor exhibit more good intentions, but
every high school could be created with the responsibility of mini
show less achievement, than the battle against juvenile delinquency.
mizing delinquency by working with the police and school adm.
Here is the beginning of our crime problem. The challenge we face
istration.
is to save young people before they take the first turn down the
4. Special programs could be designed by school counselors and
road to crime. The old maxim "prevention is better than correction"
teachers to reduce the dropout rate and to provide special services
is especially true when applied to juvenile delinquency.
to potentially delinquent youth.
The main problem with delinquency prevention efforts has not been
5. Educational programs in colleges and junior and senior high
a lack of suitable programs, but a failure to coordinate existing
schools should be developed to alert young people to the dangers
activities into a concentrated statewide effort. Fragmented, piece-
of drug abuse. The curricula, materials and instructional guides must
meal approaches of limited scope have been mounted by both state
be carefully prepared by experts in such fields as medicine, phar-
and local government.
macology, law and psychology so that the ultimate product will be
A concerted effort is required. The objective of such an endeavor is
both factual and acceptable to student audiences. This group of
to define a realistic, practical, and comprehensive strategy for pre-
experts could be organized at the county level and travel and con-
venting delinquency in California. It must delineate the targets,
sult with each school district to develop a basic orientation course
identify existing and potential resources, and prescribe an organiza-
on narcotics and drug abuse for all teachers. Special training courses
tional and operational strategy.
could also be established for selected teachers at each high school
Delinquency springs from a multitude of causes. Its roots are deeply
and junior high school. This in-depth orientation by experts in the
imbedded in our society. Because of this, we obviously cannot
various professional fields associated with drug problems could
eliminate some aspects of delinquency completely. But a determined
provide a corps of instructors to present drug education programs.
commitment by citizens, the infusion of existing resources, public
6. Drug abuse committees should be set up at junior and senior
and private, and an assessment of what we are doing in the field
high schools through local PTA's. Faculty members, school admin-
should help to reduce crime among our youth.
istrators, law enforcement personnel, and health officials should
These steps should be included in a statewide drive on delinquency:
serve on each committee. It should serve to facilitate the student
1. We must identify needs, coordinate programs and implement
education program and provide information to parents about drug
efforts in a realistic approach to reducing juvenile delinquency. The
abuse and specific conditions within the school. Such committees
statewide Delinquency Prevention Commission, Public Agency Co-
could provide the means for rapid dissemination of the latest infor-
ordinating Councils and similar groups at the local level are natural
mation on narcotics and drug problems through statewide mailing
vehicles for this effort. It is essential that better communication
from a central source.
Corrections
5. Develop new approaches for the handling of chronic alcoholics.
A variety of programs could do much to reclaim lives now wasted
due to chronic alcoholism, including: detoxication centers, local
counseling programs, long term institutionalization in alcoholic re-
punishment and rehabilitation are legitimate and desirable
habilitation facilities, and work training programs. Such steps are
of a correctional system. Swift and sure punishment is recog-
also consistent with a growing trend of legal decisions which point
nized as a deterrent to criminal behavior. Effective rehabilitation is
toward the treatment of such cases as medical problems, rather than
also a good crime prevention technique; it involves the correction
as strictly criminal matters.
of anti-social conduct.
6. Provide quarters at prisons for conjugal visits between inmates
We must provide a flexible system with more options for the treat-
and their wives. This should help to alleviate instances of homo-
ment of criminal offenders. We must recognize that the over-
sexuality in the prisons, and help to keep the family unit intact
whelming majority of all inmates in prisons and other correctional
while the head of the household is incarcerated.
institutions will some day return to society. Whether their adjust-
ments both in prison and later in the community will be successful
depends upon the effectiveness of the rehabilitation program.
The prevention of recidivism (i.e., repeated criminal offenses by
persons released on probation or parole) offers a major challenge
Crime and the community
for our correctional processes. Improved prison programming which
emphasizes the prisoner's adjustment to less restrictive conditions, is
a key feature of effective rehabilitation. Today the criminal offender
Crime must be the concern of the entire community and some
is suddenly thrust from rigid institutional control to relative free-
California communities already are marshaling their forces to com-
dom as a parolee, a probationer, or a discharged prisoner. If he fails
bat crime. Such diverse organizations as chambers of commerce,
in society, he must go back to prison and start over.
neighborhood groups, "Y's" ministerial and church associations,
What is needed in the modern correction system is sufficient pro-
service clubs, real estate boards, PTA's, improvement associations
gram flexibility to permit offenders to readjust gradually to the
and news media have joined together to plan and conduct crime
conditions and requirements of normal citizenship. In such struc-
prevention activities and support for law enforcement.
tured situations, close supervision and preventive detention at the
Individual citizens have become involved by serving on neighbor-
first sign of a return to the pattern of criminal behavior would
hood patrols, speaking before schools, churches and civic groups,
increase the public safety.
raising funds and providing special talents to the campaigns.
Specific ideas which could be developed for a modernized correc-
Projects include ideas on how to reduce the number of burglaries
tional system include:
in homes, schools and stores; vandalism; auto thefts; robberies; and
1.
ablish educational programs for inmates in county jails. The
assaults. Free time and space have been donated by broadcast sta-
tra ag, conducted in conjunction with work programs already
tions and community newspapers, and stores and other businesses
under way could increase the possibilities for employment of a
have cooperated by distributing materials that provide anti-crime
prisoner upon his release.
tips to their customers and employees.
2. Expand work furlough programs at both the state and county
To be effective these community efforts must always be coordi-
level. Under these plans, prisoners are allowed to work during the
nated with local law enforcement agencies. In one area, a commu-
day, and return to jail during off-duty hours. In this way a prisoner
nity "march on crime" reduced the crime rate by one-third.
retains his gainful employment, and continues to support his family.
The Reagan administration has considered a wide variety of ap-
At the same time he is being supervised, and the work experience
proaches to community involvement in crime control prevention.
aids in his rehabilitation.
Here are some ideas for coordinated action between law enforce-
3. Utilize local treatment centers as a "half way" step between
ment agencies, individual citizens and community groups:
prison and community. At these centers, parolees could find coun-
1. Develop special activities to educate citizens in crime prevention.
seling, short term residential facilities and other assistance toward
Sound prevention efforts diminish opportunities to commit crimes.
total re-adjustment. Improved parole services could include job
Presentations designed for civic groups, churches and professional
placement units, expanded outpatient psychiatric services and addi-
organizations could teach citizens to protect themselves and their
tional community education resources, such as training programs
families against residential burglaries, child and female molestations
provided by private employers.
and similar dangers. School curricula should include appropriate
4. An important factor in improving parole successes is the avail-
educational programs concerning citizenship training, respect for the
ability to a parolee of normal contacts with individuals and groups
law, the role of police in society, and the criminal justice system.
other than former convicts. These contacts could be found through
2. Develop programs for businessmen to help them to protect their
parole advisory committees usually formed at the local level by
plants, stores and offices. Education in business practices, such as
service clubs or civic organizations. Another method of providing
location and types of safes, how to keep cash on hand, anti-crime
this type of relationship could consist of church sponsored projects
training for employees and development and use of internal security
in which a parolee is "adopted" by a family to provide a new and
systems could be included. This training could be most effective if
constructive relationship.
conducted through the cooperative efforts of all citizens and repre-
sentatives of the criminal justice system. This type of "total" in-
What has happened to the soul of America?
volvement would promote personal commitment and mutual re-
spect.
3. Formulation of model anti-crime programs by local officials, ser-
What has been presented in this study are some of the measures,
vice clubs and civic organizations. Planning councils could be
some of the tools, some of the programs, needed to keep our
organized, representing every segment of the community, to develop
people safe and free.
ways in which lives and property can be protected against criminal
Individual acts of crime, and the ravages of organized crime, an
activity.
matters which demand major concern of the citizen and his govern-
4. Designate a "project city" for purposes of pilot studies involving
ment. We must continue to press for the laws, the tools, and the
a variety of new techniques to fight crime. When a number. of anti-
citizen awareness needed to combat these forces.
crime measures are introduced into a single community, the effec-
But, these are now almost overshadowed by a new kind of crime:
tiveness of the combined effort would be more easily determined.
political lawlessness.
5. Increased participation by churches in an organized drive against
There are those today who say that each man can choose the law
he wishes to obey; that need for social change is justification to
pornography.
6. Recruit groups of clergymen of all faiths to serve during emer-
wreck society; that reform is excuse enough to violate individuals
gency situations-for example, patrolling troubled areas to exert a
and destroy property. In their perversion of the right to dissent,
calming influence. The clergymen should wear some identifiable
these revolutionary hypocrites sing songs to freedom but dance to
markings that would single them out as "peacemakers." This type
the beat of anarchy.
of group effort must be coordinated with law enforcement agencies.
Even now, as America struggles to reaffirm its commitment to a
7. Appoint "block parents" in each neighborhood to provide a
government of just laws equitably applied, there are those in high
home where any child may take refuge if he becomes lost or is
places who condone and even encourage wanton violation of the
confronted by a suspicious stranger. The homes could be identified
law. One of America's highest elected officials brags "I've got
by an appropriate sign or window decal such as a "helping hand."
enough spark in me to lead a mighty good revolt."
Service clubs and churches could take an active part in this
With such irresponsible demagoguery in high office, is it any won-
der that sparks of revolt are fanned into flames of rebellion? We
program.
8. Establish telephone warning systems among merchants, in coop-
cannot be safe, we cannot be free, if liberty becomes license; those
eration with local law enforcement agencies. This could help to
who hold otherwise are not liberal, they are licentious.
prevent business crimes, such as passing fraudulent checks, shop-
Much of the lawlessness of today is a symptom of the sickness of
lifting, confidence games and robberies.
permissiveness-permissiveness in the attitudes of right and wrong.
9. Enact local ordinances that will make auto theft more difficult.
It is a permissiveness which pervades our homes, our schools, our
Laws have been passed in some areas against leaving keys in auto-
churches, our courts and our governments.
Suddenly it is wrong to hold an individual accountable for his own
mobiles, or leaving the ignition unlocked.
10. Promote building security measures, including devices for doors
actions. Suddenly it is wrong to hold a parent accountable for th
and windows, silent and non silent alarm systems and industrial
deeds of his child. Suddenly, now, it is unfair to expect college
area planning. This could be done through merchant groups, busi-
students to obey the rules.
ness organizations and trade associations. Building security surveys,
What has happened to the concept of right and wrong-of reward
educational literature, and demonstrations by industrial security
for virtue and punishment for vice? What has happened when the
specialists could form part of this project.
guarantee of law, which was written to protect the law-abiding, is
11. Provide for more effective crime prevention by including rep-
twisted and turned to set the criminal free? What has happened
resentatives from the criminal justice system in various community
when anarchy is given status as a bargaining agent to halt the
activities. For example, the police should take part in planning and
orderly process of a university?
development of public transportation, building design, street light-
What, indeed, has happened to the soul of America?
ing, parks and recreation, street and highway planning and parking
The time has come to state that the law will be upheld-and mean
facilities.
it; to say that once again no man will be above the law-or be-
12. Form technical research and development committees at the
neath it, and that every man will know the full protection of the
community level and recruit the experts within the community.
law; to say that if the law is to be changed, the revisions will be
This could include such areas as science and technology, public
written in the halls of government, not on the streets and side-
relations, graphic arts, statistics, data processing and engineering.
walks.
Particularly in smaller cities, these persons could serve without
It is a basic part of the California Commitment that this be so.
charge as a community service, and thus increase the resources
But, government cannot do it alone; law enforcement agencies can-
available for the administration of justice.
not achieve it on their own. Government is the representative of-
13. Launch mass publicity campaigns to encourage citizens to ob-
but not a substitute for-the people.
serve and report crimes in progress, suspicious persons and sus-
picious vehicles. Pocket size information cards could be distributed
One of a series of Creative Studies by the Reagan Administration
instructing citizens as to what they should observe and how they
State of California Governor's Office Sacramento 95814
should report to the police.
(Not printed or mailed at taxpayer's expense)
1964
I
85
1964
WITH
DES
On this and following pages you will find Ronald Rea-
gan's 1964 TV speech - reprinted in full. Mr. Reagan wound
up this speech with the statement: "You and I have a rendez-
vous with destiny." The statement (the theme of his speech)
was far truer than even be realized at the time!
His speech reminds historians of two earlier speeches: In
1856 a lawyer from Reagan's home State of Illinois made of
speech for the GOP Presidential Candidate. The candidate
lost, but that lawyer (bis name was Abraham Lincoln) was
drafted to run for the U.S. Senate in 1858. And in 1860 be was
drafted to run for the Presidency.
In 1928 a little-known New Yorker delivered the nomin-
ating speech for the Democrat's Presidential Candidate. The
candidate lost. But the speech-maker (his name was Franklin
Delano Roosevelt) was drafted to run as Governor of New
York (he won). And in 1932 be was elected to the first of his
four terms as President of the United States!
APPENDIX
I am going to talk of controversial things. I make no
apology for this. I have been talking on this subject
for ten years, obviously under the administration of
both parties. I mention this only because it seems im-
possible to legitimately debate the issues of the day
without being subjected to name-calling and the ap-
plication of labels. Those who deplore use of the terms "pink" and
"leftist" are themselves guilty of branding all who oppose their liberal-
ism as right wing extremists. How long can we afford the luxury of this
family fight when we are at war with the most dangerous enemy ever
known to man? If we lose that war, and in so doing lose our freedom,
it has been said history will record with the greatest astonishment that
those who had the most to lose did the least to prevent its happening.
The guns are silent in this war but frontiers fall while those who should
be warriors prefer neutrality. Not too long ago two friends of mine were
talking to a Cuban refugee. He was a business man who had escaped
from Castro. In the midst of his tale of horrible experiences, one of my
friends turrfed to the other and said, "We don't know how lucky we are."
The Cuban stopped and said, "How lucky you are! I had some place to
escape to." And in that sentence he told the entire story. If freedom is
lost here there is no place to escape to.
It's time we asked ourselves if we still know the freedoms intended for
us by the Founding Fathers. James Madison said, "We base all our ex-
periments on the capacity of mankind for self-government." This idea
- 41 -
that government was beholden to the people, that it had no other source
In contrast, the three-fourths of farming unregulated and unsubsidized
of power except the sovercign people, is still the newest most unique
has seen a 21 per cent increase in the per capita consumption of all its
idea in all the long history of man's relation to man. For almost two
produce. Since 1955 the cost of the farm program has nearly doubled.
centuries we have proved man's capacity for self-government, but today
Direct payment to farmers is eight times as great as it was nine years
we are told we must choose between a left and right or, as others suggest,
ago, but farm income remains unchanged while farm surplus is bigger.
a third alternative, a kind of safe middle ground. I suggest to you there
In that same period we have seen a decline of five million in the farm
is no left or right, only an up or down. Up to the maximum of indi-
population, but an increase in the number of Department of Agriculture
vidual freedom consistent with law and order, or down to the ant heap
employees. There is now one such employee for every 30 farms in the
of totalitarianism, and regardless of their humanitarian purpose those
United States, and still they can't figure how 66 shiploads of grain headed
who would sacrifice freedom for security have, whether they know it or
for Austria could disappear without a trace, and Billy Sol Estes never
not, chosen this downward path. Plutarch warned, "The real destroyer
left shore. Three years ago the government put into effect a program
of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties,
to curb the over-production of feed grain. Now, two and a half billion
donations and benefits."
dollars later, the corn crop is 100 million bushels bigger than before the
Today there is an increasing number who can't see a fat man standing
program started. And the cost of the program prorates out to $13 for
beside a thin one without automatically coming to the conclusion the
every dollar bushel of corn we don't grow. Nor is this the only example
fat man got that way by taking advantage of the thin one. So they would
of the price we pay for government meddling. Some government pro-
seck the answer to all the problems of human need through government.
grams with the passage of time take on a sacrosanct quality.
Howard K. Smith of television fame has written, "The profit motive is
One such considered above criticism, sacred as motherhood, is TVA.
outmoded. It must be replaced by the incentives of the welfare state."
This program started as a flood control project; the Tennessee Valley
Hc says, "The distribution of goods must be effected by a planned econ-
was periodically ravaged by destructive floods. The Army Engineers set
omy." Another articulate spokesman for the welfare state defines liberal-
out to solve this problem. They said that it was possible that once in 500
ism as meeting the material needs of the masses through the full power
years there could be a total capacity flood that-would inundate some
of centralized government. I for one find it disturbing when a represent-
600,000 acres. Well the Engineers fixed that. They made a permanent
ative refers to the free men and women of this country as the masses,
lake which inundated a million acres. This solved the problem of the
but beyond this the full power of centralized government was the very
Boods, but the annual interest on the TVA debt is five times as great as
thing the Founding Fathers sought to minimize, They knew you don't
the annual flood damage they sought to correct. Of course, you will
control things, you can't control the economy without controlling people.
point out that TVA gets electric power from the impounded waters, and
So we have come to a time for choosing. Either WC accept the responsi-
this is true, but today 85 per cent of TVA's electricity is generated in coal
bility for our own destiny, or we abandon the American Revolution and
burning steam plants. Now perhaps you'll charge that I'm overlooking
confess that an intellectual belief in a far-distarit capitol can plan our
the navigable waterway that was created, providing cheap barge traffic,
lives for better than we CRUL plan them ourselves.
but the bulk of the freight barged on that waterway is coal being shipped
Already the hour is late. Government has laid its hand on health,
to the TVA steam plants, and the cost of maintaining that channel each
housing, farming, industry, commerce, education, and to an ever increas-
year would pay for shipping all of the coal by rail, and there would be
ing degree interferes with the people's right to know. Government tends
money left over.
to grow, government programs take on weight and momentum as public
One last argument remains: The prosperity produced by such large
servents say, always with the best of intentions, "What greater service
programs of government spending. Certainly there are few areas where
we could render if only we had a little more money and a -little more
more spending has taken place. The Labor Department lists 50 per cent
power." But the birth is that outside of its legitimate function, govern-
of the 16g counties in the Tennessee Valley as permanent areas of por-
ment does nothing as well OF as economically as the private sector of the
crty, distress, and unemployment. Meanwhile, back in the city, under
economy. What better example do we have of this than government's
Urban Renewal, the assault on freedom carries on. Private property rights
involvement in the farm economy over the last 30 years. One-fourth of
have become SO diluted that public interest is anything a few planners
farming is responsible for 85 per cent of the farm surplus. One-fourth of
decide it should be. In Cleveland, Ohio, to get a project under way, city
farming has seen a steady decline in the per capita consumption of every-
officials reclassified 8.1 buildings as substandard in spite of the fact their
thing it produces. That one-fourth is regulated and subsidized by gov-
own inspectors had previously pronounced these buildings sound. The
owners stood by and watched 20 million dollars worth of property
it
was destroyed by the headache ball. Senate Bill 628 says, "Any property,
$5,000. But beyond the great bureaucratic waste, what are we doing to
be it home or commercial structure, can be declared slum or blighted
the people WC seek to help?
and the owner has no recourse at law. The Law Division of the Library
Recently a judge told me of an incident in his court. A fairly young
of Congress and the General Accounting Office have said that the Courts
woman, with six children, pregnant with her seventh, came to him for
will have to rule against the owner."
a divorce. Under his questioning it became apparent her husband did
not share this desire. Then the whole story came out. Her husband was
Housing. In one key Eastern city a man owning a blighted area sold
a laborer earning $250 a month. By divorcing him she could get an
his property to Urban Renewal for several million dollars. At the same
$80 raise. She was eligible for $350 a month from the Aid to Dependent
time, he submitted his own plan for the rebuilding of this area and the
Children Program. She had been talked into the divorce by two friends
government sold him back his own property for 22 pcr cent of what they
who had already done this very thing. But any time we question the
paid. Now the government announces, "We are going to build subsidized
schemes of the do-gooders, WC are denounced as being opposed 10 their
housing in the thousands where we have been building in the hun-
humanitarian goal. It seems impossible to legitimately debate their solu-
dreds." At the same time FHA and the Veterans Administration reveal
tions with the assumption that all of us share the desire to help those less
they are holding 120 thousand housing units reclaimed from mortgage
fortunate, They tell us we are always against, never for anything. Well,
foreclosure. Mostly because the low down payment, and the easy terms
it isn't so much that Liberals are ignorant. It's just that they know so
I
brought the owners to a point where they realized the unpaid balance
much that isn't SO.
on the homes amounted to a sum greater than the homes were worth,
We are for a provision that destitution should not follow unemploy-
so they just walked out the front door, possibly to take up residence in
ment by reason of old age. For that reason we have accepted Social Sc-
newer subsidized housing, again with little or no down payment and casy
curity as a step toward meeting that problem. However, we are against
terms.
the irresponsibility of those who charge that any criticism or suggested
Some of the foreclosed homes have already been bulldozed into the
improvement of the program means we want to end payment to those
earth, others it has been announced will be refurbished and put on sale
who depend on Social Security for a livelihood.
for downf payments as low as $100 and 35 years to pay. This will_give
the bulldozers a second crack. It is in the area of social welfare that gov-
Fiscal Irresponsibility. We have been told in millions of pieces of liter-
ermnent has found its most fertile growing bed. So many of accept
ature and press releases, that social security is an insurance program, but
our responsibility for those less fortunate. We are susceptible to humani-
the executives of Social Security appeared before the Supreme Court in
tarian appeals.
the case of Nestor V. Fleming and proved to the Court's satisfaction that
Federal welfare spending is today ten times greater than it was in the
it is not insurance but is a welfare program, and Social Security dues are
dark depths of the depression. Federal, state, and local welfare combined
a tax for the general use of the government. Well it can't be both, in-
spent 15 billion dollars a year. Now the government has announced that
surance and welfare. Later, appearing before a Congressional Committee
20 per cent, some 9.3 million families, are poverty stricken on the basis
they admitted that Social Security is today 298 billion dollars in the red.
that they have loss than a $3,000 a year income.
This fiscal irresponsibility has already caught up with US.
If this present welfare spending was prorated equally among these
Faced with a bankruptcy we find that today a young man in his early
poverty stricken families, WC could give each family more than $4,500 a
twenties, going to work at less than an average salary, will with his cm-
year. Actually, direct aid LO the poor averages less than $600 per family.
ployer pay into Social Security an amount which could provide the young
There must be some administrative overhead somewhere. Now are we
man with a retirement insurance policy guaranteeing $220 a month at
to believe that another billion dollar program added to the half a hun-
age 65, and the government promises him $127.
dred programs and the 45 billion dollars, will, through some magic, end
Now are we so lacking in business scuse that we cannot put this pro-
poverty? For three decades we have tried to solve unemployment by gov-
gram on a sound actuarial basis, SO that those who do depend on it won't
criment planning, without success. The more the plans fail, the more
come to the cupboard and find it bare, and at the same time can't we
the planners plan.
introduce voluntary features so that those who call make better provision
The latest is the Area Redevelopment Agency, and in two years less
for themselves are allowed to do so? Incidentally, we might also Nin.
than one-half of ) per cent of the unemployed could attribute new
participants in Social Security to name their own beneficiaries, which they
jobs to this agency, and the cost to the taxpayer for each job found was
cammol do in the present program. These are not prob
leins
have you milh in workers protected by in
and survived We have
do 01:19:11 persion funds that are soundly financed by some
the solvency of our currency is in danger. Do you think that
70 billion dollars invested in corporate securities and income earning
should continue (1) give your country millions of dollars year?" he
real estate. I think we are for telling our senior citizens that no one in
prime minister smiled and said, "No, but if you are foolish enough to
this country should be denied medical care for lack of funds but we are
do it. we are going to keep on taking the money."
against foreing all citizens into a compulsory government program rc-
gardless of need. Now the government has turned its attention to our
9 Stalls for 1 Bull. And SO we built a model stock farm in Lebanon,
young people, and suggests that it can solve the problem of school drop-
and WC built nine stalls for each bull. I find something peculiarly ap-
outs and juvenile delinquency through some kind of revival of the old
propriate in that. We have in our vaults $15 billion in gold. We don't
C.C.C. camps. The suggested plan prorates out to a cost of $4,700 a year
own an ounce. Foreign dollar claims against that gold total 527 billion.
for each young person WC want to help. We can send them to Harvard
In the last six years, 52 nations have bought $7 billion worth of our
for $2,700 a year. or course, don't get me wrong-I'm not suggesting
gold and all 52 are receiving foreign aid.
Harvard as the answer to juvenile delinquency. We are for an interna-
Because no government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size, govern
tional organization where the nations of the world can legitimately seek
ment programs once launched never go out of existence. A government
peace. We are against subordinating American interests to an organi-
agency is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth.
zation SO structurally unsound that a two-thirds majority can be mastered
The United States manual takes 25 pages to list by name every Congress-
in the U:N. General Assembly among nations representing less than 10
man and Senator, and all the agencies controlled by Congress. It then
per cent of the world population.
lists the agencies coming under the Executive Branch, and this requires
Is there not something of hypocrisy in assailing our allies for so-called
520 pages.
vestiges of colonialism while we engage in a conspiracy of silence about
Since the beginning of the century our gross national produc has
1
the peoples enslaved by the Soviet in the satellite nations? We are for
increased by 33 times. In the same period the cost of Federal governs
=
aiding our allies by sharing our material blessings with those nations
ment has increased 234 times, and while the work force is only 11% times
which share our fundamental beliefs. We are against doling out money,
greater, Federal employees number nine times as many. There are now
government to government, which ends up financing socialism all over
21/2 million Federal employees. No one knows what they all do. One
the world.
Congressman found out what one of them does. This man sits at a desk
We set all 1.) help 19 war lavaged countries at the end of World
in Washington. Documents come to him each morning. He reads them,
War 11. We are HOW helping 107. We have spent 146 billion dollars.
initials them, and passes them on to the proper agency. One day a due
Some of that money bought a $2 million yacht for Haile Sclassie. We
unient arrived he wasn't supposed to read, but he read it, initiall 1 it
bought dress stits for Greck undertakers. We bought 1,000 TV sets,
and passed it on. Twenty-four hours later it arrived back at his desk
with #g-inch sereens, for a country where there is no electricity, and some
with a memo attached that said, "You weren't supposed 10 read this.
of our foreign aid funds provided extra wives for Kenya government
Erase your initials, and initial the crasure."
officials. When Congress moved to cut foreign aid they were told that
While the Federal government is the great offender, the idea filter
if they CII! it dollar they endangered national security, and then
down. During'a period in California when our population has increased
Senator Plan, Byrd revealed that since its inception foreign aid has
go per cent, the cost of state government has gone up 80s per cent and
earcly spent its llotted budget. It has today $21 billion in unexpended
the number of employees 500 per cent. Governments, state and local.
funds.
now employ one out of six of the nation's work force: 1f the rate of in-
Some time 009 Dr. Howard Kershner was speaking to the prime min-
crease of the last three years continues by 1970 one-fourth of the total
ister of Lebanon. The prime minister told him proudly that his little
work force will be employed by government. Already The have a permat
country balanced its budget each year. It had no public debt, no infla-
nent structure SC big and complex it is virtually beyond the control of
tion, a modest MAN rate and had increased its gold holdings from S70
Congress and the comprehension of the people, and tyranny inevit ably
to $180 million, When he finished, Dr. Kershner said, "Mr. Prime Min-
follows when this permanent structure usurps the policymaldag fune
ister, my country hash't balanced its budget 28 out of the last 10 years.
tion that belongs to elected officials.
My country's bi is greater than the combined debt of all the nations
One example of this occurred when Congress was debating whether to
of the world. We have inflation, and we have a tax rate that takes from
lend the United Nations $100 million. While they debated the Suc.
the private sector a percentage of income greater than any civilized
Department gave the United Nations S217 million and the United
part of that money to pay the delinquent dues of Castro's
child's prayer in a school cafeteria endangers religious freedom, but
Cuba.
the people of the Amish religion in the State of Ohio who cannot par-
Under bureaucratic regulations adopted with no regard to the wish
ticipate in Social Security because of their religious beliefs have had
of the people. we have lost much of our Constitutional freedom. For
their livestock seized and sold at auction to enforce payment of Social
example, federal agents can invade a man's property without a warrant,
Security dues.
can impose a fine without a formal hearing, let alone a trial by jury, and
We approach a point of no return when government becomes SO huge
di seize and sell his property at auction to enforce payment of that (ine.
and entrenched that we lear the consequences of upheaval and just go
along with it. The Federal government accounts for one-hith of the in-
Rights by Dispensation. An Ohio deputy fire marshal sentenced a
dustrial capacity of the nation, one-fourth of all construction. holds or
uman to prison after a secret proceeding in which the accused was not
guarantees one-third of all mortgages, owns one-third of the land, and
allowed to have a lawyer present. The Supreme Court upheld that sen-
engages in some nineteen thousand businesses covering hall a hundred
tence, ruling that it was an administrative investigation of incidents
different lines. The Defense Department runs etig supermarkets, They
damaging to the economy. Some place a perversion has taken place. Our
do a gross business of $730 million a year, and lose Sign million. he
natural unalienable rights are now presumed to be a dispensation of
government spends $11 million an hour every hour of the 24 and pre-
government, divisible by a vote of the majority. The greatest good for
tends we had a tax cut while it pursues a policy of planned inflation
the greatest number is a high-sounding phrase but contrary to the very
that will more than wipe out any benefit with depreciation of our pur-
basis of our Nation, unless it is accompanied by recognition that we
chasing power.
have certain rights which cannot be infringed upon, even if the indi-
We need true tax reform that will at least make a start toward re-
vidual stands ontvoted by all of his fellow citizens. Without this recog-
storing for our children the American dream that wealth is denied to
nition, majority rule is nothing more than mob rule.
no one, that each individual has the right to fly as high as his strength
It is time we realized that socialism can come without overt scizure
and ability will take him. The economist Summer Schlicter has said,
of property or nationalization of private business. It matters little that
"II a visitor from Mars looked at our tax policy, he would conclude it
you hold the title to your property or business if government can dietate
had been designed by a Communist spy to make free enterprise 1111-
policy and procedure and holds life and death power over your business.
workable." But we cannot have such reform while our tax policy is
The machinery of this power already exists. Lowell Mason, former anti-
engineered by people who view the tax as a means of achieving changes
trust law enforcer for the Federal Trade Commission, has written "Amer-
in our social structure. Senator Clark (D.-Pa.) says the tax issue is a class
ican business is being harassed, bled and even black jacked under a pre-
issue, and the government must use the tax to redistribute the wealth
posterous crazy quilt system of laws." There are SO many that the gov-
and earnings downward.
ernnient literally can find some charge to bring against any concern it
chooses to prosecute. Are we safe in our books and records?
Karl Marx. On January 15th in the White House, the President told
The natural gas producers have just been handed a 428-page ques-
a group of citizens they were going to take all the money they thought
tionnaire by the Federal Power Commission. It weighs ten pounds. One
was being unnecessarily spent, "take it from the have's and give it to the
firm has estimated it will take 70,000 accountant man hours to fill out
have-nots who need it SO much." When Karl Marx said this he put it:
this questionnaire, and it must be done in quadruplicate. The Power
"from each according to his ability, to each according to his need."
Commission says it must have it to determine whether a proper price is
Have we the courage and the will to face up to the immorality and
being charged for gas. The National Labor Relations Board ruled that
discrimination of the progressive surtax, and demand a return to tradi-
a business firm could not discontinue its shipping department even
tional proportionate taxation? Many decades ago the Scottish economist,
though it was more efficient and economical to subcontract this work out.
John Ramsey McCulloch, said, "The moment you abandon the cardinal
The Supreme Court has ruled the government has the right to tell a
principle of exacting from all individuals the same proportion of their
citizen what he can grow on his own land for his own use. The Secretary
income or their property, you are at sea without rudder or compass and
of Agriculture has asked for the right to imprison farmers who violate
there is no amount of injustice or folly you may not commit." No nation
their planting quotas. One business firm has been informed by the In-
has survived the tax burden that reached one-third of its national in-.
ternal Revenue Service that it cannot take a tax deduction for its insti-
come.
tutional advertising because this advertising espoused views not in the
Today in our country the tax collector's share is 37 cents of every
public interest.
dollar earned. Freedom has never been 50 fragile, so close to slipping
from our grasp. 1 wish I could give you some magic formula, but each
Alexander Hamilton warned us that a nation which can prefer dis-
of us must find his own role. One man in Virginia found what he could
grace to danger is prepared for a inaster and deserves one. Admittedly
do, and dozens of business firms have followed his lead. Concerned be-
there is a risk in any course we follow. Choosing the high road cannot
cause his 200 employees seemed unworried about government extrava-
climinate that risk. Already some of the architects of accommodation
gance he conceived the idea of taking all of their withholding out of only
have hinted what their decision will be if their plan fails and we are
the fourth paycheck each month. For three paydays his employees re-
faced with the final ultimatum. The English commentator Tynan has
ceived their full salary. On the fourth payday all withholding was taken.
put it: he would rather live on his knees than die on his feet. Some of
He has one employee who owes him $1.70 each fourth payday. It only
our own have said "Better Red than dead." If we are to believe that
took one month to produce 200 Conservatives.
nothing is worth the dying, when did this begin? Should Moses have told
Are you willing to spend time studying the issues, making yourself
the children of Israel to live in slavery rather than dare the wilderness?
aware, and then conveying that information to family and friends? Will
Should Christ have refused the Cross? Should the patriots at Concoul
you resist the temptation to gct a government handout for your com-
Bridge have refused to fire the shot heard round the world? Are we to
munity? Realize that the doctor's fight against socialized medicine is
believe that all the martyrs of history died in vain?
your fight. We can't socialize the doctors without socializing the patients.
You and I have rendezvous with destiny. We can preserve for our chil-
Recognize that-government invasion of public power is eventually an as-
dren this the last best hope of man on earth or we can sentence them to
sault upon your own business
If some among you fear taking a stand
take the first step into a thousand years of darkness. If we fail, at least
because you are afraid of reprisals from customers, clients, or even gov-
let our children and our children's children, say of us WC justified our
crnment, recognize that you are just feeding the crocodile hoping he'll
brief moment here. We did all that could be done.
cat you last.
If all of this seems like a great deal of trouble think what's at stake.
I
We are faced with the most cvil enemy mankind has known in his long
climb from the swamp to the stars. There can be no security anywhere
I
in the free world if there is not fiscal and economic stability within the
United States. Those who ask us to trade our freedom for the soup
kitchen of the welfare state are architects of a policy of accommodation.
They tell us that by avoiding a direct confrontation with the enemy he
will learn to love us and give up his evil ways. All who oppose this idea
are blanket indicted as war-inongers. Well let us set one thing straight,
The speech above contains an excellent summary of Mr.
there is no argument with regard to peace and war. It is cheap dema-
Reagan's political philosophy, derived from his own comule-
goguery to suggest that anyone would want to send other peoples' sons
to WHI. The only argument is with regard 10 the best way to avoid war.
lions. 11 represents sentiments be bas expressed publicly across
the nation since the early 1950's!
There is only one sure way-surrender.
Appeasement OF Courage? The spectre our well-meaning liberal
friends refuse to face is that their policy of accommiodation is appease-
incht, and appeasement does not give you a choice between peace and
war, only between fight or surrender. We are told that the problem is
too complex for a simple answer. They are wrong. There is no casy an-
swer, but there is a simple answer. We must have the courage to do what
we know is inorally right, and this policy of accominodation asks us 10
accept the greatest possible immorality. We are being asked to buy our
safety from the threat of the Bomb by selling into permanent slavery
our fellow human beings enslaved behind the Jion Curtain. To tell them
to give up their hope of freedom because we are ready to make a deal
with their slave masters.
1-4-66
@
(2)
the
RONALD REAGAN FOR GOVERNOR COMMITTEE
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA HEADQUARTERS
3257 WILSHIRE BLVD.
A PLAN FOR ACTION
LOS ANGELES, CALIF. 90005
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA HEADQUARTERS
46 KEARNY ST.
An Address By
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF. 94108
Ronald Reagan
-101-L
January 4, 1966
A Plan for Action
By Ronald Reagan
Ladies and gentlemen, for the last six months
I've been traveling up and down the state, meet-
ing as many of you as I could, answering questions
and asking a few. There isn't any secret as to
why I've been doing this; I have said I'll be a
candidate for Governor once I've found the an-
swers to a few questions myself-mainly about
my acceptability to you. Who'd like to be Gover-
nor isn't important; who the people would like
to have as Governor is very important.
This is a big state-it's been described as
more like a nation than a state. I've used plane,
train and automobile in these last six months.
I've been on a California street 8,000 feet above
sea level, and one a couple of hundred feet below
sea level. I've thrown a snowball and watched
water skiers all on the same day, and I haven't
begun to cover the state. Actually, I think you
could spend a lifetime just seeing and getting to
know California.
1
someone has said California isn't a place-
count the jobs that don't exist because they didn't
it's a way of life. Well, that's true, and it's a
come here, but we can count very easily the 800
good way. People have been coming to this place
jobs that disappeared in Palo Alto when an air-
and to this way of life for 100 years. They've
craft plant moved to the East Coast. I'm holding
come from every part of America and from a
a catsup bottle-a pretty commonplace item. But,
lot of other countries. Today some of us are
when the Secretary of Labor and our own state
native-born Californians descended from the
overnment finished their experiments in reform
earliest immigrants, and some of us have only
mong farm workers and cancelled out the Bra-
been Californians since this morning. Then a lot
cero program, there were 28 million fewer of
of us fall somewhere in between and even when
these manufactured in one plant in Oakland, and
we've been here 30 years, as I have, we still refer
that meant lay-offs for 200 employees. And be-
to ourselves as being from someplace. We're from
cause there is no assurance they will quit their
Illinois or Iowa, Kansas or New Jersey. But,
well-meant social tinkering before next harvest
we're here to stay and our children are native-
season-canning and packing companies are mak-
born, and California's problems are our problems.
ing plans to move South across the border, and
Some of those problems have grown faster than
with them go jobs that will no longer be held by
Californians.
the population, and in that we're number one in
the nation. All of us are concerned that in our
From the Capitol in Sacramento one answer
growth we don't destroy the very things that
is proposed. Schools, public buildings and parks
brought us here in the first place. It won't matter
are canvassed to see how many additional workers
if the sky is bigger and bluer out here if you can't
could be used doing chores if money could be
see it for smog and all our elbow-room and open
made available. The total is set at 50,000 and
space won't mean much if the unsolved problems
our Chief Executive goes to Washington, hand-
are higher than the hills.
extended, asking for $250 million to solve our
tacks have appeared in our economy. The
unemployment with this "make work" project.
unemployment rate is almost 40% higher than
Well, I don't think that's good enough for Cali-
the rest of the nation. And we lead the nation in
fornians. Jobs are wanted. Jobs are needed-
bankruptcies and business failures. We've dropped
productive jobs-jobs a man can be proud to
from 6th to 13th among the states with regard to
do, knowing he's contributing to growth and
new industries locating here. There is no way to
prosperity and that be has a chance to grow and
3
2
advance in his work. Such jobs come from private
the collection of corporation income tax one year
industry and can be made possible by an adminis-
and sales tax the next. Now they ask for the
tration in Sacramento that has faith in our free
worst gimmick of all-"Withholding" of per-
economy and will take steps to improve the
sonal income tax. This is actually a one-time
business climate so that California is once again
bundle of money for government at the time the
attractive to industry.
program is started, but from then on the experi-
Let me make one thing plain. I do not chal
e of those states where it is in force reveals
lenge the sincerity of that Administration, nor do
S a free ticket for future tax increases. In the
I charge it with a lack of concern. I'm sure there
meantime, in violation of a promise to the people,
is an earnest desire on the part of those in office
tens of millions of dollars of tideland oil revenues
to provide for the people's welfare. But their
supposedly earmarked for building our water
approach to the solution of our problems reveals
project have been siphoned off to balance the
a basic disagreement in philosophy. They are
ever-growing budget deficits. This is extremely
dedicated to a belief in rule by administrative
short sighted because this oil money is not a
edict with more and more control and regulation
permanent source of income, but only results
of the economy and of our lives.
from the sale of an exhaustible natural resource.
Just recently a report of the Commission
At the same time this is a betrayal particularly
on California State Government Organization &
of Californians in the Northern part of our state
Economics admitted there is no way to count the
who were told these oil revenues would offset
Boards, Commissions and Bureaus in the Execu-
dollar for dollar bonds which would be used to
tive Branch. The legislative analyst made a partial
create power and recreational facilities to give
count and listed 276-53 appointed in the last
their area-the area furnishing the water for the
few years. We are told every increase in govern-
rest of us-a chance to grow and prosper.
ment is because of the increase in population.
Now with a budget higher than any in the
But, government has increased four times as fast
history of our 50 states, we are told we need an
as population and total state expenditures are up
additional $200 million in taxes. There is un-
ten times as much.
certainty and unease in financial circles over
Budget deficits are not met by sound fiscal
the way we've stretched our credit and bonding
changes, but by one-time windfalls-sweeping the
capacity, but we are told we must borrow another
problem under the rug with gimmicks-advancing
$260 million for school construction. If you are
4
5
a. average family of four-husband, wife, two
is much more we can do for children with hearing
children-your share of the state and local tax
problems. Facilities in special schools for the deaf
burden is $1,396 this year and your family's share
are so limited that many children are on waiting
of state debt is $1,320. The portion of that which
lists, unable to begin their education. In addition
goes for public welfare has doubled in these
to facilities, we need specially trained teachers.
eight years, and in spite of so-called prosperity,
California also leads in some things that
the number of people receiving welfare has
fortunately give us no sense of pride. The
creased since the end of World War II from two
only thing that's gone up more than spending
out of every 100 citizens to more than 15 out
is crime. Our city streets are jungle paths after
of 100.
dark with more crimes of violence than New
Don't get me wrong-no responsible person
York, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts combined.
would suggest we abandon our concern for those
Narcotics arrests among youngsters under 18 are
fellow human beings who, unable to make pro-
up 40% over last year. These aren't delinquents
vision for themselves, must depend on us. Nor
-these are our children, inquisitive as puppies
do any of us think we can fulfill our responsibility
and filled with the spirit of adventure. They are
by grudgingly offering bare subsistence. Human
no match for that character leaning against a
compassion and simple brotherhood demand that
lamp post down the block from the school. They
where there is need we should do our utmost to
need more help than just our love and lectures,
provide some of the comforts that make life
and they can have such help if we'll untie the
worthwhile. But this should be in response to
hands of our local law enforcement officers.
real need, and where the need is temporary, the
Legislation is needed to permit local ordinances
help should be temporary, aimed at restoring
that will restore to the police the flexibility and
self-sufficiency. Working men and women should
power in making arrests they once had so they
not be asked to carry the additional burden of
can take on that character by the lamp post.
I
riding for a segment of society capable of
Such legislation has been proposed time after
caring for itself, but which prefers making wel-
time by our hard-working and dedicated legis-
fare a way of life, free-loading at the expense of
lators in Sacramento. A 12-point program was
more conscientious citizens. There is so much real
introduced in the last session. It was buried in
need, so many things still to be done, we cannot
committee, pigeon-holed, or vetoed in the execu-
afford extravagance. For example, right now there
tive office.
6
7
Back at the turn of the century, we embarked
cost estimates have had to be revised upward
on a master plan of education. It was truly a
again and again.
bi-partisan effort above political rivalry and dif-
Now I know that in presenting these prob-
ferences. Its principal architects were a Democrat
lems I've probably sounded overly critical, but
Assemblywoman and a Republican Assemblyman.
Abraham Lincoln said, "A man may be loyal to
Believing in that plan, Californians taxed them-
his government and still be opposed to the pecu-
selves at a rate higher than any other America
r principles and practices of the administration
to build a great University. But it takes me
power.
than dollars and stately buildings, or do we no
longer think it necessary to teach self-respect,
A big brother or paternalistic government can
self-discipline and respect for law and order.
solve many problems for the people, but I don't
Will we allow a great university to be brought
think we'll like the price it charges-ever-increas-
to its knees by a noisy, dissident minority? Will
ing power over us and ever-decreasing individual
we meet their neurotic vulgarities with vacillation
freedom. A great society must be a free society,
and weakness, or will we tell those entrusted
and to be truly great and really free, it must be
with administering the University we expect them
a creative society calling on the genius and power
to enforce a code based on decency, common sense
of its people. Legislation alone can't solve our
and dedication to the high and noble purpose of
problems, nor will they disappear under a shower
of tax dollars. The Gold of the Golden State is
the University? That they will have the full
support of all of us as long as they do this,
to be found in its people-the greatest pool of
but we'll settle for nothing less.
technical skill, talent and ability in all the world.
Look at us, can we possibly believe that anyone
Our great water project, given impetus in the
can manage our lives better than we can manage
administration of Earl Warren, and further re-
them ourselves? We have the ability to prove we
fined and perfected during the administration of
are first in more than sheer numbers of people.
Governor Knight, must be carried on more effi-
There is more at stake than just good government
ciently and economically than at present. The
in California. We can demonstrate to our sis-
people are entitled to explanations of the 14
ter states-to an entire nation-that government
month delay in building power facilities at Oro-
should be of and by, as well as for the people.
ville, as well as other delays, and work supposedly
That this way of ours is still the greatest adven-
finished, but then redone repeatedly until original
ture, the newest experiment in man's relation to
8
9
man, and those who call it outmoded and old-
requirements for establishing welfare eligibility?
shioned-who offer what they say is something
Today a newcomer to the state is automatically
cw-are in reality taking us back to the age-old
eligible for our many aid programs the moment
concept of rule over the many by the few.
he crosses the border.
There are those who'd give up state sovereign-
The time has come for us to strengthen both
ty and make the state an administrative district
representative government and self-government.
of the federal government. Over and over the
: two are not the same, but they go hand in
tell us our problems are too big-that only federal
hand. The executive branch of our state govern-
aid can provide an answer, but with federal aid
ment has grown dangerously top heavy, and it
goes federal control, and as the administration
seeks more and more to bypass the legislature to
in Sacramento relinquishes state sovereignty to
give more and more power to bureaus and agen-
Washington, at the same time it takes more
cies who are not elected by the people, but are
power from those who have been elected to run
beholden to the man who appointed them. We
our towns and cities. Control over local school
have a great many talented and knowledgeable
districts is tightened until we can see looming
men representing us in the Assembly and Senate
ever larger on the horizon the specter of state-
-some of them have become outstanding special-
controlled education, and eventually a national-
ists in particular phases of state problems. They
ized school system. Welfare becomes needlessly
are handicapped, though, by an old-fashioned
expensive as red tape regulations prevent adminis-
concept harking back to an earlier day when
tration at the county level from putting sensible
representatives only served part-time. Well, it's
procedures into practice.
a full-time job now at part-time prices, and some
Certainly we have a rightful claim on federal
of these men make unbelievable sacrifices simply
funds. It's our money in the first place. California
because they are dedicated to public service. They
deserve better and California deserves and needs
is one of the so-called rich states which not only
pays into the kitty everything it takes out, but
a full-time legislature with compensation as nearly
commensurate to the service rendered as we can
puts in a share for other states. It's time we made
greater protest about the strings attached to
1
make it.
our money before we are allowed to use it. How
As for self-government, I am not proposing
many of us realize that in order to get federal
an aimless hit or miss approach with government
welfare funds, our state had to cancel all residence
sitting back hopefully waiting for a volunteer to
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11
recognize a problem and think of a solution. I am
The time has come also to review our thinking
suggesting setting up a statewide program on a
on the matter of property tax to see if we might
systematic basis with government providing lead-
not be clinging to an archaic and outmoded idea
ership and mobilizing the full creative abilities
that never envisioned millions and millions of
of the people which, in my opinion, is the meaning
homemakers saving to build or buy and then
of the phrase 'government of and by the people.'
finding themselves paying an increasingly high
With the state government working to secure
nt to live in their own home.
maximum return of our tax money to the state
Years ago, the original concept of property
for local administration as a workable alternative
tax was in reality a form of income tax because
to a massive federal bureaucracy imposing more
land was the source of wealth. I'm sure no one
and more restrictions on local and state rule. Then
could have anticipated a credit structure in which
a truly creative society stamps as acceptable only
most of these homes are mortgaged, and the
those programs which help California, but which
owner in reality only owns a limited equity in
do not increase our own bureaucracy, result in
his home-but he's taxed on the basis of actually
more centralization or power, or greatly unbalance
owning real estate to the full value of the
the budget.
property. And what happens when we reach our
We can ask business, labor, the financial world
non-earning years? When we retire on our
en-
and the campus for the best brains available to
sion, social security or savings-that fixed income
modernize our government structure, eliminate
that can't keep pace with inflation? Do we just
waste and duplication. In the same way an ap-
ignore the tragedy of elderly citizens discovering
proach can be made to "in depth" study of the
they can no longer afford to live in the homes in
tax structure. It's time we recognize that only
which they've grown old? Study and tax reform
people pay taxes. There is no way to pass them
will take time and this problem requires an answer
on to some impersonal organization-eventully,
now. Tax forgiveness would unfairly burden other
every dollar government spends must come from
home owners, but isn't it possible we could declare
the pockets of each one of us, and we must have
a moratorium? Assess, but not collect the tax until
a clearer understanding and a greater voice in
such time as the home was no longer needed and
what we buy. It's just possible that we can't
then collect the accumulated tax from sale of the
afford everything that is presented to us as another
estate.
free government service.
A creative society mobilizing the business and
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13
industrial community to pinpoint who is unem-
tion, but there is a limit to what can be accom-
ployed, where and why, and then how to make
plished by laws and regulations, and I seriously
a place for them in our productive free economy
question whether anything additional is needed
in fight a war on poverty 1000 times more
in that line. What is needed is for government
effectively than government. We can call upon
to mobilize the decent people of goodwill from
the best minds in our legal profession to work
every group to come together in a search for
out a plan to remove, once and for all,
man understanding to establish channels of
appointment of judges from the influence
Ommunication and to make it plainly evident
partisan politics.
that those few who choose to walk with prejudice
There is no problem we cannot solve by a
will walk alone. Never again should any parent
cooperative effort using government and the full
know the heartbreak of explaining to a child that
creative talent of our people. This is true above
he must be denied some of the good our country
all in the problem which is, or certainly should be,
has to offer because in some way he is different.
of greatest concern to every one of us. There must
Our problems are many, but our capacity for
be no lack of equal opportunity, no inequality
solving them is limitless and the task of govern-
before the law, no differing standards with re-
ment is to discover, and harness those latent
gards to constitutional rights for any American,
solutions by calling upon the people to participate
and we are all Americans. It's high time we
actively in government.
stopped hyphenating ourselves into blocs, Irish-
Americans, Negro-Americans, Italian-Americans,
Now I'd like to mention one problem that
Mexican-Americans, Oriental-Americans, and on
goes beyond the scope of purely state issues and
and on. Those blocs were set up for political
one which, without doubt, crosses party lines.
expediency so cynical men could make cynical
Our two-party system is endangered more today
promises in a hunt for votes. If taxes are too
than at any time in our history, and it cannot
high, they are too high for all of us. If streets
survive a long-time continuation of the present
are unsafe after dark, everyone's family is men-
imbalance of power. Party competition keeps both
aced. If prices go up, all our pockets are a little
parties honest and respectful of the people's
emptier.
wishes. Without that competition one-party rule
becomes one-man rule, and the subsequent loss of
Certainly, there are problems in our differences
freedom will apply to Democrats and Republicans
and government must take the lead in their solu-
alike.
14
15
I was a Democrat most of my life until I
F.D.R. was elected. Look again at its promises
found I could no longer follow the leadership
which were so overwhelmingly approved by
of that party as it turned from the traditional
Americans of both parties. The promise to reduce
precepts of Jefferson, Jackson and Cleveland. I
the cost of government by 25%-to restore those
believed then, and still believe, that anything,
rights and powers which even then it was claimed
whether it be management, labor or government,
had been unjustly seized from the state and the
which imposes unfairly on the freedom of th
19 vidual by the federal government and its
individual, is tyranny and must be opposed. TA
planise of restoration of constitutional limits on
choice is not between left or right, but rather
the power of that government. Ask yourselves
between up or down. The founding fathers knew
which party would be most at home with those
this and they set our course upward toward the
promises today.
ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law
and order. They had known the other choice and
I.am not a politician in the sense of ever
turned from it because, whether we call it empire,
having held public office, but I think I can lay
kingdom, dictatorship, or the folly of Marxism,
claim to being a "citizen politician. I have always
it leads only downward to the ant heap of totali-
had an interest in politics and been an active
tarianism, and even those earnest humanitarians
participant. As a Democrat, I worked and cam-
who'd trade some measure of man's independence
paigned for that party, and now, believing as I do
for security or material welfare are embarked on
that the Republican party is the party of limited
that downward course.
government, individual freedom and adherence to
I believe there are millions of Democrats
the constitution, I have worked for that party as
today devoted to the cause of freedom, and torn
actively as I could in the campaigns of 1960, 1962
between loyalty to party and concern for their
and 1964. In those campaigns, I supported all the
own deeply held beliefs and principles. Well,
party nominees because the choice today is not
Winston Churchill, who made a change in his
one of men, but of basic and widely differing
own political affiliation said, "Some men change
philosophies.
principle for party and some men change party
Now I have come to a decision that even a
for principle."
short time ago I would have thought impossible
To those of you who are Democrats, may I
for me to make, and yet I make it with no linger-
suggest you take the 1932 platform upon which
ing doubts or hesitation. As of now, I am a
16
17
candidate seeking the Republican nomination for
background statistics on me. My education was
Governor.
in Economics and Sociology. I never attended
In the months ahead, I will present a number
dramatic school, but most of you have found that
of specific proposals for solution to the problems
out. During World War II, I was called to active
I've discussed here tonight, and for others that
duty as a Lieutenant in the Cavalry Reserve and
weren't mentioned because of limited time. I'll
ended up a Captain and Adjutant of an Air Force
do my best to meet as many of you as poss
allation. As many of you know, that was an
and to explain clearly and completely my philoso-
administrative post. I believe I've had administra-
phy and beliefs. On those occasions I'll welcome
tive and executive experience possibly to a greater
your questions and do my best to answer them so
extent than many businessmen, and perhaps of a
you'll have no doubt of where I stand on the
type more akin to politics. For some 20 years, I
served on the Board, and was six times President
issues important to you.
of a working union, the Screen Actors Guild. This
I've discovered already there is more gossip
involved negotiating the basic contracts covering
in this business than the one I've been in. Modern
minimum wages and working conditions for some
political dialogue isn't based on legitimate debate
15,000 performers, dealing with the upper echelon
anymore, or disagreement on views. There's a
of organized labor because of our affiliation with
great deal of false image-making and an effort
the A.F.I and with governmental agencies and
is made not to dispute the views you really hold,
legislative committees. During the same period,
but to invent some and hang them on you with
I was on the Board 10 years and twice President
the hope the false image will appear real.
of the Motion Picture Industry Council-a body
In my opinion, the issues are too important
made up of some 30 odd unions and the manage-
for that kind of gameplaying. You are entitled
ment and ownership groups in our industry. In
to a discussion of those issues and to know where
this capacity, I had occasion to represent the
any candidate stands, to have a direct confronta-
entire industry before legislative committees in
tion of the differing philosophies without name-
Washington, and on one occasion at a White
calling or personalities. If in the coming primary,
House Presidential meeting.
ou choose someone else to be the party nominee,
In addition, I have served on charitable boards
ne will have my wholehearted support.
and been a director of a business company and a
In the meantime, you are entitled to some
trustee of Eureka College.
18
19
Now I don't in any way suggest this exper-
ience is comparable to the enormity of California's
S4 billion dollar government, but on the other
hand, a California election is not like a banana
republic revolution. We don't start building a
government from scratch-it is a going concern
with a legislature, constitutional officers in
of
tion to Governor and prescribed duties for eacn.
No one man runs the State of California, and no
one man should try-but one thing a Governor
must do is use the power and prestige of his
office to see that men and women receive adminis-
trative appointments on the basis of integrity and
ability, not as political favors.
I have no commitments to anyone but you
and to my belief that the safety of our state and
our nation should be entrusted to the care of the
people. To all of you who have worked in my
behalf to make these past few months possible-
You have done me great honor and made me
very proud-yet even as I thank you, I must ask
for your continued help, and I do SO with a prom-
ise to do my utmost to deserve it.
20
4-19-66
the
that
"THE CREATIVE SOCIETY"
University of Southern California
April 19, 1966
Each generation is critical of its predecessor. And as the day
nears when the classroom and playing field must give way to that
larger arena with its problems of inequity and human misunderstanding,
it is easy to look at those of us already in that arena and demand to
know why the problems remain unsolved. We, who preceded you, asked
that question of those who preceded us, and another generation will
ask it of you. I hope there will be less justification for the
question when it becomes your turn to answer.
Don't get me wrong! When the generation of which I am a part
leaves the stage, I think that history will record that seldom has
any generation fought harder and paid a higher price for freedom.
We have known three wars in our lifetime--a cataclysmic, worldwide
depression--end these events toppled governments and re-shaped the
map. pt the same time, as a result of this, or perhaps just because
of human frailty, we have downgraded our performance with an attitude
sometimes apathetic--sometimes cynical--toward the conduct of public
affairs.
We are confused and we have confused you with a double standard
of morality. We try to keep alive a moral code for our individual
conduct "don't cheat," "promises are sacred, "your word is your
bond," "serve your fellow men"--but at the same time, we accept
double-dealing at government levels, and we have lost our capacity to
get angry when decisions are not based on moral truth, but on political
expediency. When small men are granted great rewards for political
favors, we excuse it with the expression: "Well, that's politics."
I have already established myself now as not of your generation,
but I am aware there are those who go even farther and place me as
far back as the Ice Age, or even farther than that--in the period
of McKinley. I realize that modern political dialogue concerns
itself largely with false image-making, rather than with legitimate
debate over differing viewpoints; and no candidate can hope to engage
in a political contest without experiencing the deliberate distortions
of his positions and his beliefs. But I sometimes wonder if we haven't
reached one of those moments in time when the stakes are much too
high for this kind of middle-aged juvenile delinquency.
-1-
Public officials are elected primarily for one purpose--to solve
public problems. You have a right to ask any candidate about his
understanding of the problems facing us, his acceptance of responsi-
bility for solving those problems, and whether he has a fresh approach
or just offers the same old bargain-basement politics--' "We will do
everything the other fellow's been doing, only we will do it cheaper
and better.' You have a right to know--and I am obligated to tell you
where I stand and what I believe.
To begin with, I am not a politician. I am an ordinary citizen
with a deep-seated belief that muchof what troubles us has been
brought about by politicians; and it is high time that more ordinary
citizens brought the fresh air of common sense thinking to bear on
these problems. We have had enough of the wheeling and dealing, and
enough of schemers and schemes. I think it is time now for dreamers
practical dreamers willing to re-implement the original dream which
became this nation
the idea that has never fully been tried before
in the world
that you and I have the capacity for self-government
the dignity and the ability and the God-given freedom to make our
own decisions, to plan our own lives and to control our own destiny.
Now it has been said that nothing is more powerful than idea
whose time has come. This took place some 200 years ago in this
country. But there is another such idea abroad in the land today.
Americans, divided in so many ways, are united in their determination
that no area of human need should be ignored. A people that can
reach out to the stars has decided that the problems of human misery
can be solved and they will settle for nothing less. The big question
is not whether-but how--and at what price.
We can't accept the negative philosophy of those who close their
eyes, hoping the problems will disappear, or that questions of unemploy-
ment, inequality of opportunity, or the needs of the elderly and the
sick will take care of themselves. But, neither should we unquestion-
ingly follow those others who pass the problems along to the federal
government, abdicating their personal and local responsibility.
The trouble with that solution is that for every ounce of federal
help we get, we surrender an ounce of personal freedom. The Great
Society grows greater every day--greater in cost, greater in
inefficiency and greater in waste. Now this is not to quarrel with
its humanitarian goals or deny that it can achieve those goals. But,
I do deny that it offers the only--or even the best--method of
achieving
mools
The administration in Sacramento is guilty of a leadership gap.
Unwilling, or unable, to solve the problems of California, it has
reduced this state to virtually an administrative district of the
federal government. This is not to deny the rightful place of the
federal government; but state sovereignty is an integral part of
the checks and balances designed to restrain power and to restrain
one group destroying the freedom of another. We can do more by
keeping California tax dollars in California than we can by running
them through those puzzle palaces on the Potomac only to get them
back minus a carrying charge.
Federal help has neither reduced the size of the burden of our
state government nor has it solved our problems. In California,
government is larger in proportion to the population than in any
other state and it is increasing twice as fast as the increase in
population. Our tax burden, local and state, is $100 higher per
capita than it is in the rest of the nation, and the local property
tax is increasing twice as fast as our increase in personal income.
What is obviously needed is not more government, but better
government, seeking a solution to the problems that will not add to
bureaucracy, or unbalance the budget, or further centralize power.
Therefore, I propose a constructive alternative to the Great
Society which I have chosen to call " A Creative Society." While
leadership and initiative for this Creative Society should begin the
governor's office, it would be the task of the entire state government
to discover, enlist and mobilize the incredibly rich human resources
of California, calling on the best in every field to review and revise
our governmental structure and present plans for streamlining it and
making it more efficient and more effective.
There is no major problem that cannot be resolved by a vigorous
and imaginative state administration willing to utilize the tremendous
potential of our people. We have the greatest concentration of indust-
rial and scientific research facilities of any state in the Union.
Tens of thousands of successful and highly talented men and women
are in our business communities; colleges and universities are rich
in possibilities for study and research; charities and philanthropic
enterprises are many, and there are innumerable people of creative
talent in the professions.
-3-
We have attracted the most youthful, the brightest and the best
trained people from every state and every nation. We have untapped
resources in the retired men and women with lifetime records of
achievement in every conceivable area of endeavor. Probably there
is more talent prematurely retired in California than in any other
state. And these people, I believe, would welcome a chance for
meaningful personal fulfillment in community service--if only someone
would ask them.
And that is the basis of the Creative Society--government no
longer substituting for the people, but recognizing that it cannot
possibly match the great potential of the people, and thus, must
coordinate the creative energies of the people for the good of the
whole.
Now this is not some glorified program for passing the buck and
telling the people to play Samaritan and solve the problems on their
own, while government stands by to hand out Good Conduct ribbons.
There is a definite and active role for government, but as our numbers
increase and society grows more complex, the idea of an economy
planned or controlled by government just doesn't make sense. No
matter how talented, government is, it is incapable of making the
multitudinous decisions that must be made every day in the market
place and in our community living. Big business has already replaced
autocratic rule from the top with decentralization, and government
must do the same thing.
This means the Creative Society must return authority to the
local communities--give them the right to run their own affairs.
The people in San Francisco know better than anyone in Sacramento
where a freeway in San Francisco should go.
A skyrocketing crime rate has given California almost double
its proportionate share of crime--crimes of violence--simply because
the state, as a result of certain judicial decisions, denies local
governments the right to pass ordinances for the protection of the
people. Time after time, legislation has been introduced to correct
this. Much of it died in committee in Sacramento; but eventually,
when it did pass the Assembly or the Senate, it was vetoed by the
governor. The legislation will, and must, be reintroduced and
signed into law to give our police the power to make our streets safe
again. At the same time, government must call upon the best minds
in the field of human relations and law and penology for a creative
I propose and urge the adoption of a plan whereby a joint
committee of laymen and members of the Bar Association will choose a
panel of individuals, based on their personal character and on their
legal experience and ability. And then the governor would be forced
to appoint all judges from this panel, taking judicial appointments
once and for all out of politics.
A confidential survey of industry reveals that by all the
criteria used to establish economic health, California comes off
looking like that fellow on TV before he takes the pill. We lead the
nation in population increase, but we lag far behind the national
average in growth of personal income, retail sales and gross product.
When home construction fell off last year in the country, it declined
five times more in California than it did in the rest of the nation.
Five years ago, we were sixth among the states in our ability to
attract new industries; today we have fallen to 13th. And running like
a thread through this survey are the reports of government's unfriendly
attitude toward business, evidenced by the harassing regulations,
needless paper work and regressive tax policies.
The present administration's approach to our deteriorating business
climate is always another pill out of the same old bottle--build
another bureau, add another tax, put the unemployed on the public
payroll. The Creative Society will, instead, turn to those who
truly have the capacity to create jobs and prosperity. Ask the best
brains of industry and the community: What is needed to make
California once again attractive to industry? Ask them to evolve the
plans for creating job opportunities and a program of on-the-job
training--because in the last analysis, employment and prosperity are
the function and responsibility of private enterprise. It is
government's responsibility to end the harassment, road blocks,
regressive taxation and to offer, wherever practical, tax incentives
which will help to provide jobs and a friendly business climate.
-5-
No small part of the heavy tax load that is borne by the working
men and women of our state is a welfare load which doubled in the
last five years and is. increasing faster than our spending on education.
Those who administer welfare at the county and local levels have
their hands tied by excessive regulations and red
tape imposed by both Washington and Sacramento. A Creative Society
would call upon their experience and the thinking of the campus
researchers and others experienced in philanthropy and public service
to make a study to establish that we are doing all we can, first of all,
for those who are disabled, aged and who, through no fault of their
own, must depend on the rest of us. Our goal should be not only to
provide the necessities of life, but those comforts such as we can
afford that will make their life worth living.
Then, such a commission must turn and investigate that part of
welfare having to do with those who need temporary help--who are
being helped through an emergency period only until they can again
play a productive role. We must determine that this is still our
purpose and that we have not, instead, settled on a program of
perpetuating poverty with a permanent dole. We see today a second
generation, and even a third generation of citizens, growing up,
marrying, having children, accepting public welfare for three generations
as a way of life.
The 11th Century Hebrew physician and philosopher, Maimonides,
said there are eight steps. in helping the needy. The lowest of
these is the handout; the highest is to teach them to help themselves.
By contrast, our State Department of Public Welfare has a book out
and they explain the guiding philosophy of welfare at the state
administration level is redistribution of income. Well, this is a
reversal of the carrot and stick philosophy, penalizing the
industrious and rewarding the unproductive. Redistributing income
does not increase purchasing power or prosperity; only increased
productivity can accomplish that. Much of welfare spending could beco
investing, if we would direct some of that spending toward education
and training to prevent people from becoming public dependents in
the first place.
I have been told there is work in our public institutions, some
of which could be performed by unemployables, even illiterates--
enough to give jobs to 50,000. Such work should be part of a welfare
Somewhere, every problem that faces us is being solved economically
and efficiently by citizens who did not wait for the slow growth of
bureaucracy. The Creative Society would encourage the expansion of
these voluntary efforts instead of competing them out of existence
with free federal handouts which turn out not to be very free at all.
A Californian concerned with needy college students and their
problems aroused the interest of bankers and other interested citizens
and today, through the United Student Loan Fund, some 65,000 students,
on 700 campuses, have borrowed $35 million from banks which will be
repaid after graduation. Every dollar is underwritten voluntarily
by private citizens with government playing no part whatsoever.
Following the tragic disturbance in Watts last summer, the Los
Angeles Chamber of Commerce mobilized hundreds of industrial concerns
in this area and they agreed that unemployment was their responsibility.
Working with a committee of fine, responsible Negro businessmen in
that area, they set out to establish an employment and job training
program and so far, they have put 5,000 of the citizens in that area
to work or in on-the-job training spots. This is almost as many
people as there are poverty program administrators in the area.
A businessman in Taxas, brought up in poverty--now successful--
founded a boys ranch. He and his wife worked tirelessly--just the
two of them--and they have developed what J. Edgar Hoover has called
a "blue print for the prevention of crime." Three hundred boys,
ranging in age from 4 to 17, are cared for at a per capita cost of
about $1,600 a year. Compare this with the $3,600 a year it costs us
to maintain a boy in juvenile hall.
Here in California, a B'nai B'rith Lodge adopted one of our
youth probation camps. Just by lending a helping hand, showing an
interest, being willing to listen to these young men, they have reduced
the period of time the boys must stay in this camp by a full one-third.
It would be easy to establish what that means to the taxpayer in dollars
and cents. And all it took was a little time and a little human
compassion.
Have we in America forgotten our own accomplishments? For 200
years we have been fighting the most successful war on poverty the world
has ever seen. We built the West without waiting for an area
redevelopment plan. San Francisco, destroyed by fire, was rebuilt
by Californians who did not wait for urban renewal. We have fought
our wars with citizen-soldiers and dollar-a-year-men.
-7-
At the end of World War I, American citizens cooperated with
government in a voluntary program of Belgian relief that saved
millions of lives. As World War II drew to a close, Jesse Jones,
secretary of commerce, alarmed at the plans he saw on bureaucratic
drawing boards in Washington, appealed to corporation heads and
businessmen and asked them, instead, to plan the transition from
war-time to peace-time economy. The Council of Economic Advisors was
born. Fifty thousand business leaders, through 2,000 community
organizations, performed what is still viewed as an economic miracle--
and no tax dollars changed hands.
Farming is California's greatest industry, responsible, directly
or indirectly, for one-third of our employment and 70 percent of all
the cash business transactions that take place in the state. We
produce a greater variety on California farms than any other state--
some 200 crops--and 98 percent of our farming is out on the free
market, unsubsidized by the federal farm program. But our farmers
have very little voice in our state capitol of Sacramento. Last
year they were made into guinea pigs for a sociological experiment
by the federal government, aided and abetted by our state government.
They, and representatives of associated industries, should be called
in and they should be asked, in a Creative Society, for common sense
answers to their problems and the voice of California government
should be raised in their behalf.
Control of education should remain, as much as possible, at the
level of the local school boards and unwanted unification should
not be imposed from above, but should only take place if it represents
the will of the people directly involved. Increased autonomy should
be granted to our state colleges and universities and the management
of the people's affairs should be kept, as much as possible, at the
local level.
The Creative Society, in other words, is simply a return to the
people of the privilege of self-government, as well as a pledge for
more efficient representative government--citizens of proven ability
in their fields, serving where their experience qualifies them,
proposing common sense answers for California's problems, reviewing the
governmental structure itself and bringing it into line with the
most advanced, modern business practices.
-8-
Those who talk of complex problems, requiring more government
planning and more control, in reality are taking us back in time to
the acceptance of rule of the many by the few. It is time to look to the
future. We have had enough talk -disruptive talk--in America of
left and right, dividing us down the center. There is really no such
choice facing us. The only choice we have is up or down--up, to the
ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order, or
down, to the deadly dullness of totalitarianism.
Do we still have the courage and the capacity to dream? If so,
I wish you would join me in a dream. Join me in a dream of a
California whose government is not characterized by political hacks
and cronies and relatives--an administration that doesn't make its
decisions based on political expendiency but on moral truth. Together,
let us find men to match ourmountains. We can have a government
administered by men and women who are appointed on the basis of
ability and dedication--not as a reward for political favors. If
we must have a double standard of morality, then letit be one which
demands more of those in government, not less.
This is a practical dream. It is a dream you can believe in.
It is a dream worthy of your generation. Better yet, it is a dream
that can come true, and all we have to do is want it badly enough.
#
#
#
#
-9-
5/15/67
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All Pritteses copyright and permission are right of add ence of of This transcript and System, in be for \ the Inc.
TOWN MEETING OF THE WORLD
"The Image of America and the Youth of the World"
as broadcast over the
CBS TELEVISION NETWORK
and the
CBS RADIO NETWORK
Monday, May 15, 1967
10:00 - 11:00 PM, EDT
With CBS NEWS Correspondent Charles Collingwood
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Don Hewitt
STEPHEN MARKS: Senator Kennedy, I'd like to ask you what you think
of Dean Rusk's recent claim that the effect of anti-Vietnam war
demonstrations in the States may actually be to prolong the war rather
than to shorten it?
SENATOR ROBERT KENNEDY: The war is going on in Vietnam, being extended
in Vietnam, really because of the determination of those who are our
adversaries, the North Vietnamese, the Vietcong, National Liberation
Front. I don't think a particular action takes place - military
action takes place in South Vietnam because of the protests here in
the United States. I think that if all the protests were ended, and
even if all of the objections to the war came to an end here in this
country, that the war in Vietnam would continue.
I'm sure to some extent the fact that there are some protests gives
some encouragement to Ho Chi Minh and to others. But I don't - I
certainly don't think that that's the reason the war is continuing,
and why the casualties are going up.
GOVERNOR REAGAN: Well, I definitely think the demonstrations are
prolonging the war in that they're giving the enemy, who I believe
must face defeat on relative comparison of the power of the two
nations, they are giving him encouragement to continue, to hold out in
the hope that division here in America will bring about a peace
without defeat for that enemy.
Many of the demonstrations now taking place in this country could not
legally take place if there was a legal declaration of war, SO we, I
think, are faced with a choice here. But again, and I'm sure the
Senator agrees with me, America will jealously guard this right of
dissent, because I think the greatness of our country has been based
on our thinking that everyone has a right even to be wrong.
CHARLES COLLINGWOOD: I'm Charles Collingwood and this is TOWN MEETING
OF THE WORLD, the latest in an occasional series of trans-Atlantic
confrontations that's been going on ever since communication
satellites made them possible. With me here in the studio of the BBC
in London are a group of young people, university students from - one
from the United States, but the rest of them from Europe, Africa and
Asia. They are all attending universities in Great Britain. They have
ideas, all of them, sometimes provocative ones, about the United States,
its role and its image. For the next hour, via the Atlantic
communications satellite, they will be participating in a global
dialogue with Senator Robert F. Kennedy, Democrat of New York, and
Governor Ronald Reagan, Republican of California.
ANNOUNCER: This is another in the CBS NEWS series, TOWN MEETING OF
THE WORLD. Tonight's subject: "The Image of America, and the Youth
of the World. 11 We'll be back in a moment.
(ANNOUNCEMENT)
ANNA FORD: I believe the war in Vietnam is illegal, immoral,
politically unjustifiable and economically motivated. Could either
of you agree with this?
2
COLLINGWOOD: Who wants to start? Senator Kennedy?
KENNEDY: I don't agree with that. I have some reservations as I've
stated them before about some aspects of the war, but I think that
the United States is making every effort to try to make it possible
for the people of South Vietnam to determine their own destiny. I
think that's all we want - no matter how - how we - what reservations
we have about the conduct of the war. I think that we're all agreed
in the United States that if the war can be settled and the people of
South Vietnam can determine their own destiny and determine their own
future, that we want to leave South Vietnam. That's the stated
governmental policy, certainly what I would like to see, and I think
that's backed by the vast majority of American people. The fact is
that the insurgency against - that's taking place in South Vietnam is
being supported by North Vietnam. If both of us withdraw and let the
people of South Vietnam determine and decide what they want, what kind
of government they want, what kind of future they want, what kind of
economic system they want to establish, I think that's all we're
interested in, that's all we're interested in accomplishing. So I
think it's quite different than you've described it.
COLLINGWOOD: Governor Reagan, what about you?
REAGAN: Well, I think we're very much in agreement on this, that
this country of ours has a long history of non-aggression but also a
willingness to befriend and go to the aid of those who would want to
be free and determine their own destiny. Now, I think all of us are
agreed that war is probably man's greatest stupidity and I think peace
is the dream that lives in the heart of everyone wherever he may be
in the world, but unfortunately, unlike a family quarrel, it doesn't
take two to make a war. It only takes one, unless the other one is
prepared to surrender at the first hint of force. I do believe that
our goal is the right of a people to self-determination and to not
have a way of life, a government or a system forced upon them.
DAVID JENKINS: Mr. Reagan, just five minutes ago on this program,
you said every man has the right of dissent and I believe that every
man has the right to be wrong. No doubt you'd also support the
American ideal of freedom. Now, while on this I want to ask you
whether you'd support the people who at the moment you say are
dodging the draft, and whether you. will go on record as supporting
people who claim to be conscientious objectors as a means for not
joining the war in Vietnam?
REAGAN: Oh, now wait a minute! I thank you for giving me a chance,
if I left the wrong impression. We agree in this country of the
right of people to be wrong, but as I said before, taking advantage of
the technicality that we are not legally in a state of war, we have
people doing things with which I am in great disagreement. I do not
believe in those who are resisting the draft. Now, we draw a line
between the conscientious objector on religious grounds. With our
great belief in religious freedom in our country, we have always said
those whose religion specifically prohibits them, such as our Quakers,
from taking human life, we offer them military service in a noncombat
3
role such as being medics and so forth, and they have a great and
honorable history, people of this kind, of serving in our wars in
that capacity. But I believe if government is to mean anything at all,
that all of us have a responsibility, once the action has been decided
upon and supposedly by the majority will, that we then, while
reserving our right to disagree, we support the collective or the
unified effort of the nation. Otherwise, all law and order and all
government breaks down, because we might have a citizen who has a
conscientious objection to paying taxes, and if we allow our citizens
to voluntarily quit paying taxes, the government breaks down - or
obeying the law, or anything else that may come along. We give up
certain individual freedoms in the interest of - well, I suppose it
comes from our own Constitution, our idea that every American or
every person has the right, is born with the right to life, liberty
and the pursuit of happiness. But my pursuit of happiness, if it
comes from swinging my arm, I must stop swinging my arm just short of
the end of your nose.
COLLINGWOOD: Senator Kennedy, is there anything you want to add to
that?
KENNEDY: Well, I expect I disagree somewhat with the Governor. I
don't think that we're automatically correct or automatically right
and morality is on our side or God is automatically on our side
because we're involved in a war. I don't think that the mere fact
that the United States is involved in the use of force with an
adversary makes everything that the United States then does absolutely
correct. So I - the idea that we're involved in this kind of a
struggle, if there are those within the United States that feel that
the struggle could be ended more rapidly with less loss of life,
that the terror and the destruction would be less if we took a
different course, then I think that they should make their views
known. I don't think they're less patriotic because they feel that.
In fact, I think that they would be less patriotic if they didn't
state their views and give their ideas, just because the United
States is involved in this kind of a conflict as we are at the present
time. Not to state any opposition, or say that we can't state an
opposition because of the - the fact that we're involved in a struggle
I think is an error. This is a difficult period of time, but the
mere fact that we're shooting one another across the world doesn't
make the United States automatically right. I think it should be
examined. It doesn't make the course that we're following at the
present time automatically right, automatically correct and I think
that those who have a different point of view, no matter what their
point of view might be and whether they are in favor of using increased
force, or in favor of lessening the force, or even - some - of pulling
out unilaterally - I happen to disagree with that - but I think they
have a responsibility and a right to state those views, even though
we're in a difficult period of time.
COLLINGWOOD: Would you draw the line at draft-dodging though. Yes,
Mr. Reagan?
REAGAN: Well, I just - again apparently I haven't made myself clear.
Senator, I want to make it plain, this. No, as I say, we reserve the
right of dissent, but when that dissent takes the form of actions
that actually aid the enemy, the enemy that is engaged in killing our
forces, such as avoiding the draft, refusing service, blocking troop
trains and shipments of munitions as we've had here in this country
by some demonstrators, this is going beyond the dissent that is
provided in our present governmental system, whereby any American
can stand up, protest, can convey his feelings to the legislature or
to the duly organized government in an effort to get the government
to change its course; but again, it must stop short of lending comfort
and aid to an enemy that is presently engaged in forceful activities
against our country.
COLLINGWOOD: Arshad Mahmood of Pakistan.
ARSHAD MAHMOOD: Both of you a moment ago defended the right of self-
determination of people and the right to dissent. I was wondering,
given the assumption that North Vietnam and South Vietnam can be
brought to the conference table, would you advocate that the National
Liberation Front be given a place in the con - in the negotiations or
in the conference?
KENNEDY: Is that - who is that directed at?
COLLINGWOOD: Well, why don't you start, Senator?
KENNEDY: I've said before that I'm in favor of the National
Liberation Front being represented at the conference table, that they
come to the conference table, that they take place - that they take a
part in the discussions. They have been involved in the struggle
for a long period of time. I don't think that we can arrive at any
meaningful peace - I don't think we can have any negotiations that
are really going to be very productive unless the National Liberation
Front is represented and I would therefore be in favor of the National
Liberation Front, who is the political arm of those who are providing
most of the troops, most of the force, most of the effort in the
south, being represented at the conference table.
COLLINGWOOD: Governor?
REAGAN: Well, here we're in disagreement. I believe if there is
any negotiation involving the Vietcong, that that is between the
Vietcong, and the South Vietnamese government, in a negotiation of their
own, because the Vietcong is in a position of being a rebellious
force, an illegal force, fighting against the duly authorized
government of its own nation, and to sit them down at a negotiating
table between two nations, North and South Vietnam, who are engaged
in a conflict, is tipping the scales. I doubt if we - if we wanted
to draw a parallel
KENNEDY: Do you think the United States, should be represented then?
ARSHAD MAHMOOD: Surely, Governor
REAGAN: No, if you're going to have a negotiation between North and
South Vietnam
5
KENNEDY: But if you're going to have negotiations to end the war,
and North Vietnam, South Vietnam, is going to be represented, shouldn"t
the United States and the National Liberation Front be there?
REAGAN: I don't think you can have a rebel force that is engaged
in criminal activity having the distinction of sitting at the table
as - as one of the representatives.
JEFF JORDAN: I'm sorry, but you say that you believe in self-
determination and in this lovely idea of let everybody decide for
themselves. Yet, in Vietnam, in 1954, you refused to sign the
Geneva Convention, you refused to allow independent elections in
Vietnam, you forced the Diem regime on the Vietnamese people, it was
hated by the Vietnamese people, it put six million in forced prison
camps. This was your puppet regime, and you supported it. You've
refused to come to the negotiations with the Vietcong, and you've
shown every time you ask for a peace talk, all you do is escalate the
war. This is only one example in Vietnam. You've got the example of
the C.I.A. overthrowing the Jagan government, you've got the example
of it giving 104 million pounds' aid, military aid to Greece. There
are SO many examples of America refusing to allow a people to
determine for itself what government it would have.
REAGAN: Now, are you talking about a people determining what
government they'll have, or are you talking about a faction within a
country that wants to take over and dictate the system to a country?
Now, I disagree, I disagree.
JORDAN:
the Diem regime. Would you say the Diem regime was a
popular one, or was it one which you imposed on a people and which
the people then rebelled against?
REAGAN: I doubt that you could make much of a case, I challenge your
history. In 1954
JORDAN:
the history of the Diem regime, sir?
REAGAN: I do. Because there was a referendum taken in 1954, in which
90 per cent of the people voted, in a referendum, for Diem to take
the position that he took. He was subsequently endorsed in two other
elections, a few years apart, in which they elected both the General
Assembly for his government that was preponderantly pro-Diem; they
re-elected him to his position. We could hardly have installed a
puppet regime at a time when we had less than 700 unarmed military
advisers, many of them non-commissioned officers, helping to teach the
South Vietnamese how to organize an army for protection against
guerrillas in their own country.
JORDAN: I'm sorry, are you saying that you approve of the activities
of the Diem regime?
REACAN: What activities?
JORDAN: Do you approve that they put six million in forced prison
camps and that the American advisers did nothing but help them in this?
6
REAGAN: I challenge your history again. There is absolutely no
record that six million people were put in concentration camps. They
only have 16 million to begin with. Now, I'd also like to challenge
something else about the supposed evils of the Diem regime. I do
approve of Diem's land reform in which he took from the great mandarin
holdings, and began to make land available to the peasants and to the
people of Vietnam, who had never owned land before. But also, I
would like to call to your attention that a team from the U.N. was sent
to Saigon, Vietnam, to investigate the charges made against Diem's regine
They did investigate those, but as they returned to this country,
Diem was assassinated, which I think was one of the great tragedies
of this whole conflict; and the United Nations report, which they
declined to make official because they thought why bring anything up
now that he's been killed, has on the other hand, been published,
there has been public access to it, and the United Nations report
completely cleared the Diem regime of any of the charges that had
been brought against him.
COLLINGWOOD: Governor, let's get Senator Kennedy in on this. We
haven't heard from him in a while. What about your answer to Jordan's
question, Senator?
KENNEDY: Well, why doesn't somebody ask me a question, and then
I'll answer it specifically?
JORDAN: Can I - can I ask you the question then?
COLLINGWOOD: Hands sprout up again. Go ahead, Jordan.
JORDAN:
self-determination, the principle of which Mr. Reagan
made use, seems to me to be violated by America's record in Vietnam,
by its refusal to allow free elections which was the suggestion of the
Geneva Convention, by its supporting of
KENNEDY: O.K., I understand that. I understand. I would say that
there, as I've said before, I think that there were mistakes that
were made over the period of the last 10 years. There were mistakes
in which I was involved - excuse me.
JORDAN: Do you regard it as a mistake that a million civilians have
been killed?
KENNEDY: If a million civilians have been killed, I would regard it
as a mistake - I think that the civilians being killed in North
Vietnam, or South Vietnam, I think that the terrorism that existed in
North Vietnam was a mistake: I think that the terrorism - the killings
that took place in Hungary during the 1950's were a mistake; and I
think that some of the actions of President Diem in South Vietnam were
a mistake. I think that the United States at various times have
been associated with governments which do not represent the will and
the wish of the people, and I think that that is most unfortunate, but
I don't go on this program, and I don't think Governor Reagan goes on
this program, saying that we never made a mistake and that we never
erred, because I think we have. But if we look at the present times,
if I might say to you, if we look at the present time, the fact is,
the United States is willing to have elections in South Vietnam,
7
willing to abide by the result of those elections, willing to permit
an outside group to come in and supervise the elections, and it's
the North Vietnamese that are unwilling to accept that.
Let me also say, if you want to criticize President Diem, I think
that at the same time, I would suggest that perhaps you could also
criticize North Vietnam. When did they last have a free election?
When did they last have a free election in any of the countries who
are our adversaries? I agree that our standard that we hold up to
the rest of the world might be higher and might be different, and
therefore we have a greater responsibility to adhere to it. And at
times we have not in our relationships with some of the countries of
Latin America, Asia and Africa, and I'd be glad to go into what I
think the explanation of that is. But I don't say that we are
without fault, I don't say that even the administration that I was
involved with - President Kennedy - was without fault, in our policy
towards Vietnam; but nor has North Vietnam. And the other important
point is, which I think you should accept, and have to accept, is the
fact that we are willing at the present time to abide by elections.
We've stated it quite clearly, and that we were willing to permit
an outside group to come in and supervise it.
JORDAN: I don't know who you mean by "we." But President Johnson
and certainly Governor Reagan isn't prepared to have realistic
negotiations with the Vietcong, who you agree ought to be at the
conference table. While they're spending 20 billion dollars a year
destroying the country, and while your government refuses
KENNEDY: You're wrong in your figures again - it's about 25 billion.
JORDAN: Oh, splendid, 25 billion dollars
KENNEDY: But I wouldn't say - let me just say this - let's also -
it doesn't do any good for any of us to get into exaggerations. We're
not spending 25 billion dollars to destroy the country. We feel very
strongly in the United States - you can smile if you wish - but we
listen to you, just listen to us for a second. We want the people of
South Vietnam - again, Governor Reagan and I have some differences and
I have perhaps differences with others, but - and - but the fact is
that we do agree that we will abide by the results of elections in
South Vietnam. That's all we're interested in, in South Vietnam -
that people make their own determination. President Johnson has said
publicly that he is willing to abide by the elections, and even if
the Communists take over the country, that the United States will
withdraw. Now if the North Vietnamese were to make a public
statement now, "We'll abide by the elections, and we'll have elections
there in 60 days, and we'll have the I.C.C. come in and supervise the
elections, 11 then I think that - and then we back down - then I think
there's more point to your statement. We held out the challenge, that
we're willing to abide by the election if that's where you put your
emphasis. I think it's much more complicated.
JORDAN:
if it doesn't come about in 60 days - can we take it that
I'm right?
KENNEDY: Excuse me?
8
JORDAN: You said, sir, that if this doesn't happen in 60 days
there's a point to my question.
KENNEDY: No - but will the North Vietnamese agree to elections?
Can you deliver the North Vietnamese?
STEVEN MARKS: Senator Kennedy, can I ask you something about those
elections because what I understand from reading the American press,
is that in elections that have recently been held in South Vietnam,
no one that the government considered in its own opinion was either
a neutralist or a Communist, was allowed to stand.
KENNEDY: Yes, that's right.
MARKS: And, there was also considerable intimidation. Now, it
seems to me that if you - you accuse us being inconsistent, that if
you're going to accuse North Vietnam of not holding free elections,
then you should condemn the South Vietnam government that President
Johnson is supporting for holding elections that are equally as
farcical as anything that ever happened in a Communist country.
KENNEDY: Well, let me just say this, I said in the beginning that
there were mistakes and things done that I would disagree with in
South Vietnam. I'm just saying - and I don't think - and I agree with
your criticism of the elections of South Vietnam. As I have said
before, I don't think that's the point. The point is that we have
said that we'd be willing to abide by the result of elections, and I
don't say that the elections that have been held have been free
elections. You're absolutely right. The government of South
Vietnam has not permitted neutralists or Communists to - or people
from the National Liberation Front, to participate in the elections
that it held in the past. But we said, the United States policy has
been that if the North Vietnamese will agree to it, the National
Liberation Front will agree to it, that we will agree to hold
elections in which all parties will participate in South Vietnam
and let the people themselves determine their own destiny. I said
that I'm sure we'd be willing to do that in 60 days, if you can get
Mr. Ho Chi Minh and the head of the National Liberation Front to
participate with us. That is the challenge I'm offering to you.
COLLINGWOOD: Mr. Graziani of Italy.
GRAZIANI: Yes. I mean, I think this very relevant. I think what we
want to know is what the Americans are doing in Vietnam. I think
what we want to know is what right they have to be there. By going
there, they have breached the U.N. Charter, the U.S. Constitution,
and the Geneva Agreements. What can you say about that?
REAGAN: Well, I don't think they have breached any of those
agreements. As a matter of fact, by the Geneva Agreement, two
countries were created, with the 17th Parallel dividing them
STUDENTS: No, no, a temporary division.
REAGAN: A million people - a million people fled across the border
to South Vietnam. Now
9
GRAZIANI: Can I quote you a passage from the Geneva Agreement?
"The 17th Parallel dividing North from South Vietnam is mere
provisional military demarcation line, and should not in any way
be interpreted as constituting a political or territorial boundary.
The introduction into Vietnam of foreign troops and military
personnel, arms and ammunitions is prohibited." Don't you think
that this is abridged?
REAGAN: Oh, Mr. Graziani, I - just a moment. When I said this,
I'm not talking about the fact that Geneva set this up as a separate
country, but once the demarcation line was set, was it not Ho Chi Minh.
and the North Vietnamese that closed that border after a million
refugees had fled from the Communist regime that was imposed in North
Vietnam - had fled to South Vietnam? Did they not make this a country
themselves, and did they not create or start the aggression with
regard to a South Vietnam in violation of that treaty? (Several
voices)
COLLINGWOOD: Let's hear Senator Kennedy on this, Mr. Graziani.
Let's hear Senator Kennedy on this.
KENNEDY: Well, first, I - I think probably I've some differences
with Governor Reagan regarding communism at the moment. First, I'd
say
GRAZIANI: Answer my question first.
KENNEDY: Well, I don't know
GRAZIANI: I'm sorry. You should. You should give the legal right
for America to be in Vietnam.
KENNEDY: I'll come around to it. I think I can answer it the way
I want. I don't think that communism is a monolithic political system
at the moment. I think there are very major differences between the
Soviet Union and Communist China, and I think that that's recognized
in the United States, as I think it's recognized in Europe and
recognized elsewhere around the globe.
I agree that I don't think that the Communist system wishes us well,
but I think that it's recognized that - that it's a different system
than it was 20 years ago, that we're going to make every effort
within the United States, our governments, our people make every
effort to try to reach an accomodation, particularly with the Soviet
Union, that we recognize the danger from China, but that as President
Johnson has said, that we're going to make every effort to try to
reach an accomodation also with Communist China, if that's possible.
Perhaps out of the internal struggles that are taking place within
China at the present time, out of that might come a government which -
with which not only the United States, but the Soviet Union and other
countries around the globe could deal. That's what we're hoping.
COLLINGWOOD: Let's see what some of the others
GRAZIANI: You did not answer the question.
KENNEDY: I will be glad to answer the question.
10
GRAZIANI: I asked you already, what are the legal rights for the
America to be in Vietnam?
KENNEDY: I'm going to answer that. I'll just say that other people
have raised points. And I think that it's interesting that they've
raised them and that we're going to discuss them. But in any case,
we were invited to come in, in 1955 by the government at that time
to give help and assistance. It was after - in -- during 1959, 1960,
1961, 1962, when there were indications that North Vietnam was
supporting some insurgency within the South, and it was to struggle
against that insurgency that the United States sent greater numbers
of people. We have had the same agreements in Western Europe. We
sent troops to Western Europe and kept them there with NATO after
the end of the Second World War to insure that there wouldn't be
an overthrowing of the governments of those countries and that the
people themselves could determine their own destiny and their own
future.
COLLINGWOOD: TOWN MEETING OF THE WORLD will be back in 2 moment.
(ANNOUNCEMENT)
11
COLLINGWOOD: Well, we're having a brisk argument about whether
DI not the National Liberation Front should be represented, and
among the students there are all sorts of hands up. Steven Marks.
STEVEN MARKS: Well, first of all, I'd like to ask Governor Reagan
how he thinks that his attitude towards legitimacy and the
principle of no negotiation with rebels, had it been applied
in the 18th century, I'd like to know how he thinks his country
would ever have achieved independence?
REAGAN: I think we have to be pretty realistic about these
supposed wars of liberation; the legitimate uprising of a people
who rose as did the Americans a couple of hundred years ago
against what they considered a tyranny and invasion of rights,
beginning with the line of the Declaration, "When in the course
of human events." We must be realistic enough today to ask
ourselves, are these truly wars of liberation and the uprising of
a people, or are these being instigated by someone outside as a
part of the great ideological conflict which still seems to be
going on in the world today?
Now, this is what I - if the Vietcong and the South Vietnamese
sit down and negotiate out whatever differences have caused the
Vietcong to rebel, I think we might be surprised to discover that
the Vietcong - I wouldn't be surprised, is a very tiny minority
instigated by an outside force, namely North Vietnam, but it
hardly constitutes an uprising of the people of South Vietnam.
RENNEDY: And I think that it's important that the United States
associate itself with - with those forces within a country who are
in favor not just of change for change's sake, but - but for a
better life for the people of these nations, not with the prince in
his palace or the general in his barracks, but with the peasant
in the field, and with the student and with those who want to
lead a better life, and lead their country in a better life, not
to turn over to one tyranny, however, for another tyranny, not for
one kind of dictatorship to another kind of dictatorship.
GELLA SKOURAS: Would you like to see the United States dissociate
itself from the military regime which is now in Greece?
KENNEDY: Greece. Well, I think it's unfortunate whenever a -
the military takes over from a democratic system in a country.
I think it's particularly unfortunate when it takes place in
Europe where the other countries look to for *** other countries
of the world look to for some kind of guidanc , and I think,
particularly, because democracy began in Greece, began in Athens,
that it's particularly unfortunate that it should happen there.
I think the United States must make it clear that we - that our
relationship with Greece is going to continue to be strained
unless the country returns to democratic processes, and I, for
one, would be opposed to giving any military aid or assistance to
Greece until it's made quite clear that the people themselves
are going to determine their future, not a military junta.
12
COLLINGWOOD: Do you agree with that, Governor Reagan?
REAGAN: Well, this is a pretty cloudy situation over there, and
I'm not sure that I agree completely that - well, I'm not sure
that the forces that the military junta rose up to put down were
completely dedicated to Greece's welfare, or whether they perhaps
were again a part of this instigation of uprising and violence
on the part of people who have a prior allegiance to an economic
and political theory that they believe should dominate the world.
VLADIMIR PERENOSOV: We think the Communists will be all over the
world, because it is a very good system. You believe that
another system will be all over the world, but we shouldn't
quarrel, we shouldn't fight against each other and instead of
saying such things as you said, we would like to negotiate and
we would like to have it in Vietnam nowadays, and we would like
to negotiate now in Vietnam and not - not to see American troops
in Vietnam now. And we know that over 50,000 people, American
soldiers, are going to Vietnam, and we think that it will create
a new world war, because the Chinese Prime Minister said that if
Americans landed in North Vietnam, they will have to send their
volunteers there. And you know that the Soviet Union in the open
said about that, that it would like to send volunteers, too, and
so it might create a new dangerous world war. And I think instead
of sending American troops to Vietnam, it's better to negotiate
and to stop this war in Vietnam, and to negotiate between the
Soviet Union and America, and to create a very good atmosphere.
BRADLEY: This discussion is now sounding like many I've had at
Oxford, and many I've had in Europe. It's one in which discussions
on Vietnam somehow degenerate into polemical accusations and
disputations of facts, etc., etc. I think there is a basic under-
standing that must be had in any kind of discussion here, and
that is that the United States is not out to achieve a position of
power in land or economic force in the world. And I think that
there are other things that we should debate here. When you talk
about negotiations which seem to be the main advocation of
everyone here, well, what - so we have negotiations, and we bring
the people from NLF and we bring the people from North Vietnam,
and we bring the people from South Vietnam and the United States.
Then, what do we negotiate for? Do we negotiate for a stable
Asia and what does a stable Asia mean? Does this mean that the
United States should be present in Asia, or does it mean that
the United States should be absent, and let the revolutionary
forces take their course?
I think these are more important questions that could be asked,
and I'm sure, for example, that Mr. Singh from India, if we
asked him if the Chinese happened to attack India, to whom would
he first go for help? Would he go to the Soviet Union, or would
he go to the United States? I think that there are certain
considerations here about stability in Asia that haven't been
answered.
COLLINGWOOD: Well, let's see, I called on Mr. Delvaque of France
before.
13
DELVAQUE: Bill has mentioned recently the necessity of the
presence
- or the choice of the presence of the United States
in Asia - I think the best presence of any country in any other
country is a diplomatic presence. And President Johnson has
mentioned the necessity of, say, normalizing the relationship
between the United States and China. Governor Reagan, do you
think this normalization is desirable?
REAGAN: Well, the only objection that I've had with some of the
building of bridges that has been attempted by this country, is
very frankly, we haven't been hard-nosed enough in getting - now
when I say concession, I don't mean that they have to buy their
way but in getting concessions that would also help build the
bridge from the other end.
For example, I think when we signed the Consular Treaty with the
Soviet Union, I think that there were things that we could have
asked in return. I think it would be very admirable, if the
Berlin Wall, which was built in direct contravention to a treaty =
if the Berlin Wall should disappear, I think that this would be
a step toward peace, and towards self-determination for all the
peoples if it were. And so, I think that what you're bringing
up here, and this ties in with something that Bill Bradley said,
and it's very significant - Among people of good will in the
world today, there is too much of a tendency to argue challenging or
suspecting the other fellow's motive, when perhaps what we're
challenging is only the method that has been suggested. Let's
start with the premise that all people want peace, and not
suspect that anything that someone else suggests is a plot.
For example, we don't want the Berlin Wall knocked down so that
it's easier to get at the throats of the East Germans. We just
think that a wall that is put up to confine people, and keep
them within their own country instead of allowing them the free-
dom of world travel, has to be somehow wrong.
DELVAQUE: I don't think you are really answering my question.
I - I asked you whether you consider that the normalization of
the relationship between the United States and China was desirable.
REAGAN: Well, well I thought I had. I guess maybe I was too
general in that. When you say the normalization, what do you
mean? Do you mean that the United States should
DELVAQUE: That's what I want you to tell me
REAGAN: All right, the United States, we'll say, has wheat and
China is undergoing a great famine. And we could help with that
wheat. Should we stand over here and give that wheat to the
government of the Red Chinese who, incidentally, have never proven
that they are the choice of the Chinese people
WARUHIU: Do you think Chiang Kai-shek is a better choice?
REAGAN: Wait a minute, wait a minute. Just a minute before my
young English friend smiles - there - aloud. What if we said,
in an effort to bring friendship between the two peoples, that
14
we be allowed to provide this wheat in such a way that we are
sure that the Chinese people, those who need it, can get it, at
the same time that we ask in return for the Red Chinese to sit
down with an effort toward giving up some of their hostile
utterances which openly announce their aggressive intent. Is
this wrong?
WARUHIU: Governor Reagan, you're on record as having supported
Senator Goldwater when he was running for President. One of the
things he said was extremism was about - was about extremism and
liberty. Now, how do you - do you see any essential difference
between saying this and a Stokely Carmichael saying to hell with
the laws of this country? Aren't those two saying as extreme -
I mean, as each - aren't they both extreme? And when you talk
about Red China giving up some of its hostile sayings, would you
give up this saying which is patently hostile?
REAGAN: Well, I don't think there was anything hostile in what
he said. Actually, I could have questioned whether that was the
time and place to say it. He was paraphrasing a very famous
remark that goes back, I guess, to Cicero. And what he was
paraphrasing - he was paraphrasing in that statement the idea
of all-out defense of virtue - all-out defense of liberty, and
that there was - I would think that a soldier who died in
World War II fighting Hitlerism had gone all the way out in his
defense of what we believe to be right and moral, virtuous, and
certainly in defense of freedom. Now, to turn this
WARUSHIU: Excuse me, sir, could you substitute communism
for virtue and you see the deadlock which it would produce. You
think something is good; he thinks something else is good. You
want him to give up some of his hostile views. You are not
prepared to move back one inch from yours.
REAGAN: May I ask, all right, wait a minute. Let me ask you
one question. I could almost guess the answer, but I know
what the answer is in my own heart, and that of people who will
really weigh this. At the end of World War II, one nation in the
world had unprecedented power, had not suffered any damage to
its industrial complex, had the greatest military force the
world had ever seen put together, the United States. The rest
of the world was war-weary. The United States also had the
only bomb that had been demonstrated. We had the atomic
bomb, that great weapon. Now, the United States disarmed, the
United States made no effort to impose its will on the rest of
the nations. Can you honestly say in your he rt that had the
Soviet Union been in a comparable position with that bomb, or
today's Red Chinese, in a position with that bomb, and with that
great military force, that the world would not today have been
conquered by that force? But this country did not.
WARUHIU: Don't forget that the Soviet Union which fought
the war is not the Soviet Union mich is here now. And in any
case, there is no comparison really. How can you give an answer
to such a purely hypothetical question?
15
REACAN: No, I am saying this, as an evidence of the proof.
We're talking - we were supposed to - on this program - we
were supposed to be talking about the image of America, and I
would like to point out how consistent this was with our past,
of no aggressive intent, at. a chance when for the first time,
perhaps in all of the world's history, there was a nation with the
power to have done it. You know, perhaps one day, history
might record that we goofed, that that was the time when the
United States should have said to everyone, lay down your arms,
and then we'll lay down ours.
COLLINGWOOD: We have a representative of the Soviet Union here.
Vladimir Perenosov, what about that?
PERENOSOV: It seems to me that it is very strange to hear
from you that America, the only country who used an atomic bomb
and didn't use it against another country. It seems to me that
it isn't a very good idea to say SO. We now have a lot of
armaments. We now have a lot of people, but we are not going to
use this armament, these people against America, or against another
countries. And it seems to me that America, who did take part
in the last war, and the Soviet Union did take part in the last
war, and if we say for example about America who gave a lot to
finish the war with Hitler, with Germany, we can speak about
that, from the - from the Soviet point of view, but we don't
boast about that. It isn't necessary to do that I think so
COLLINGWOOD: We'll get back to this in a moment, as we continue
with TOWN MEETING OF THE WORLD.
(ANNOUNCEMENT)
COLLINGWOOD: Now the lovely blond girl from England.
JEAN SOLOMON: I'd like to change the subject to civil rights.
In England there is a growing movement for legislation against
racial discrimination. I believe that many states have
experienced this legislation. Would those candidates like to
comment on this and perhaps other countries may learn from
America's experience.
COLLINGWOOD: Senator Kennedy, you were Attorney General when
the civil rights legislation was in a crucial phase.
KENNEDY: Well, I'm not familiar with the exact kind of
legislation being proposed within your own C untry. We passed
some major bills in 1964, 1965, 1966 which gave some guarantees
to individuals in the field of education, in the field of using
public accomodations such as hotels and restaurants, and in
the field of job discrimination. Some of the legislation has
been more effective than other parts of it. But there was an
effort by the United States to try to deal with the problem,
not completely successfully, but at least we started to make the
effort. If you want to talk about some particular piece of
16
legislation - I think it was extremely important that we pass
the legislation. I think it was extremely important that we
recognized the problem and began to deal with it, but I would
say to you quite frankly we've by no means made this very
difficult problem that affects the United States disappear, and
we're going to have a lot of problems including some of the
disorders that have happened in the past over the period of the
last 6 years, we're going to continue to have those within our
own country for some years to come. We're dealing with a heritage
of 150 years - we've been unjust to our minority groups, and
particularly the Negroes - as well as some other groups - the
Mexican-Americans, the Indians, and we've just begun to recognize
it and now we're starting to deal with it. And I think we're
going to have to continue to deal with it in the form of
legislative action as well as personal activity on the part of
all of us.
COLLINGWOOD: Governor Reagan, what do you think as a governor
of a great state of the effectiveness of American civil rights
legislation?
REAGAN: Well, I think with all of the disorders we've lost
sight of some of the progress that has been made. There can be
no question that in this country, well, I guess in all the world -
there is the heritage of those people who mistrust those who are
different, and when you have - and history tells us, when you've
had a people enslaved, you have a much harder time. It is not
just a racial or ethnic or religious difference. There is a
prejudice that remains. Now, I happen to believe that the greatest
part of the problem lies in the hearts of men. I think that
bigotry and prejudice is probably the worst of all man's ills -
the hardest to correct. And in addition to legislation which
guarantees and enforces our constitution - and our constitution -
and it differs from the constitutions of many of the countries
represented there by the young people. Many constitutions promise
their people the same things that ours does, but there's one
subtle and yet very great difference. Those constitutions in
many other countries say the government grants to the people
these rights and our constitution says you are born with these
rights just by virtue of being a human being, and no government
can take them from you. Now we've found it necessary to legislate,
to make it more possible for government to exert its responsibility
to guarantee those constitutional rights. At the same time, we
have much more that can be done in the area of just human
relationships. I happen to bridge a time span in which I was
a radio sports announcer for major league sp rts in our country,
in athletics, many years ago. At that time the great American
game of baseball had a rulebook whose opening line was: "Baseball
is a game for Caucasian gentlemen. 11 And up until that time,
up until World War II, there'd never been a Negro play in
organized major league OT minor league baseball in America. And
one man defied that rule - a man named Branch Rickey of one of the
major league teams, anu today baseball is far better off and
our country is far better off because he destroyed that by hand-
picking one man and putting him on his baseball team, and the
rule disappeared. Now I don't say this is the only answer, but
17
we must use both, and I think the people in positions like ourselves -
like the Senator and myself, like the President of the United
States, can do a great deal of good, perhaps almost as much as
proper legislation, if we take the lead in saying those who
operate their businesses or their lives on a basis of practicing
discrimination and prejudice are practicing what is an evil
sickness. And that we would not knowingly patronize a business
that did such a thing, and we urge all right-thinking people to
join us and not patronize that business. Soon we will make those
who live by prejudice learn that they stand alone, that they're
COLLINGWOOD: Excuse me, Governor, Andrew Verzar, our Swiss student,
hasn't been on yet.
ANDREW VERZAR: Through this rather irrelevant rhetoric, to my
mind, how does Mr. Reagan explain the fact that there is a very
much higher percentage of Negro soldiers in the Vietnamese - in
the American forces in Vietnam than there is a percentage of
Negroes in the States. Is it perhaps due to the fact that Negroes
have more difficulty still and will continue to have more
difficulty in finding jobs in America?
REAGAN: I don't think anyone could deny that because of this
heritage of prejudice which the Senator referred to, there has
been, and among our minority groups, a greater percentage who
did not go on through our educational system - did not qualify
themselves for the better jobs, and so therefore there perhaps
is a higher percentage who find the army or the military a
suitable job and a good job in the face of lack of opportunity
in other lines. And this could be true.
COLLINGWOOD: Senator Kennedy, what about your views?
KENNEDY: I think his point is well taken. The gentleman,
I think, from Switzerland - there are a higher degree - a higher
rate of Negroes serving in Vietnam than the population as a
whole, and the casualties in Vietnam amongst Negroes is higher
than the population as a whole. I think that's partially due
to what he mentions.
Secondly, I think it's also the fact that the draft has been
unfair here in this country, and has discriminated against those
who are poor and those in the lower economic groups which we're
trying to remedy now.
But these are some of the problems and we've recognized it and
we're trying to do something about it. Some legislation was
passed in the United States Senate just this past week, which
will at least partially rectify the situation. But the Negroes
and the lower economic groups a larger percentage of them
as a population as a whole have been drafted, taken into the
Army, and have been serving in Vietnam and have suffered casualties.
And I think that it's most unfortunate.
18
COLLINGWOOD: Senator, Governor Reagan, gentlemen and ladies of
our university group, I'm afraid that our time has run out. I
know you didn't get a lot of questions in that you would have
liked to have done, and I suspect that the Governor and the
Senator didn't get some answers in that they would have liked, but
thank you very much for being with us on this TOWN MEETING OF THE
WORLD.
KENNEDY: Could we just say a word, please?
COLLINGWOOD: This is Charles Collingwood - yes, say a word.
KENNEDY: Just how much we've enjoyed, and I'm sure Governor Reagan
has, and obviously we don't agree on all of these matters. But
it's so extremely important within our own country that we have
a dialogue. We make major mistakes within the United States. We
recognize that. Perhaps we don't remedy them as rapidly as you
would like to see us remedy or deal with them, but there are
people. Even though Governor Reagan and I represent different
political parties and perhaps a different point of view on some
of these matters, we've recognized the fact that we are obviously
far from perfect.
But the world is so close together now because of technology,
because of a lot of different things, that it's SO important that
we have these kind of exchanges, and particularly as the world
belongs to you, that what we do and the decisions that we make
have an effect on your lives, that you continue where you see
that we make mistakes, that you continue to criticize. But, as
I said earlier, that you examine the facts. And that all of us,
whether we here in the United States, or elsewhere, examine the
facts and try to deal with them.
Plato once said that all things are to be questioned - and all
things are to be examined, and brought into question - there
is no limit set to thought, and I think that has to apply for
all of us, particularly those who have the advantage of an
education. Thank you.
REAGAN: Mr. Collingwood, is there time for just a word of
farewell?
COLLINGWOOD: Governor, I'll let you second that.
REAGAN: Well, I do second it. The very fact that we have
discussion and differences, I think, brings me to the point -
being the oldest one here, I can take the liberty of giving a
little advice to the young people.
I believe the highest aspiration of man should be individual
freedom and the development of the - of the individual, that
there is a sacredness to individual rights. And I would like
to say to all of the young people as they pursue their way, and
this has been very stimulating, I think you should weigh
everything that is proposed to you, everything in the line of
government and law and economic theory, everything of that kind
and weigh it on this one scale - that it should at all
19
times not offer you some kind of sanctuary or security in exchange
for your right to fly as high and as far as your own strength and
ability will take you as an individual, with no ceiling put on
that effort. Plenty of room for a floor underneath so that no
one in this world should live in degradation, beneath that floor,
but you reserve the right for yourself to be free.
COLLINGWOOD: Thank you very much again. This is TOWN MEETING
OF THE WORLD. This is Charles Collingwood. Good night.
(ANNO UNCEMENT)
ANNOUNCER: This has been another in the CBS NEWS series, TOWN
MEETING OF THE WORLD. Tonight's subject was "The Image of America
and the Youth of the World.
11
TOWN MEETING OF THE WORLD was recorded earlier today for
broadcast at this time and was edited under the supervision
and control of CBS NEWS.
CBS NEWS wishes to acknowledge the cooperation of the British
Broadcasting Company and Television Station KXTV, Sacramento,
for their help in providing facilities for this broadcast. The
participants in London were linked to the United States via the
Atlantic communications satellite.
-
10/15/67
PLEASE CREDIT ANY QUOTES OR EXCELPTS FROM THIS ABC RABIO
24
MI PROGRAM to "EBO'S # is ISSESS AdD ANSWERS:
ISSUES AND #
Produced by Paggy Wherion
October 15, 1 1967
000
GIZST:
nos. RONALD REAGAN, Governox of California
ENTHRROGADED BY:
John Komen, ABC New York Correspondent
Pill Lawrence, Inc Political Editor
000
2
4R. LAWRENCE: You have often stated you are not
an active candidate for the Presidency, but are you now
willing to declare ES dirmly as Governor welson Rockefeller
has done this week-end that you ao not wish to become
involved or have your friends get you involved at this
5
Presidential Conference?
G
GOVERNOR REAGAN: Bill, I have been saying that over and
7
over in this thing going on in New Hampshire. Not
0
only have I asked a personal friend going into that area to
9
carry a message for me to people who are suggesting this
10
kind of involvement, but we have just recently sent is letter
11
to every paper in New Hampshire, disavowing the efforts
that are being made in my behalf and urging that such
2
efforts be stopped.
14
MR. LAWRENCE: Well, now this friend you sent to New
15
?
Hampshire, that was Leland Kaiser, is that right?
16
GOVERNOR REAGAN: Yes.
17
MR. LAWRENCE: I understand he reported back to you that
13
there was such building sentiment that ne just coulon't
BY
overcome it,
20
GOVERNOR REAGAN: ite didn't report that to me Dut I
21
have heard he said that publicly. I didn't send him to
New Hampshire, what had happened is that ne is a nember
23
of the Republican National Finance Committee and I knew
24
that he and his wife were planning, they were coming east
ingland States. a driving trip, at NOTOR trip, and I
Sent air a letter and saie if at any time, E uidn't ware to
ont him out, but if he ned the opportunity and would Le
5
seeing any of the Republican leadership who might be involved
3
in this thing, would be convey that message to them, and
7
he not only graciously did tais and took the letter, but I
am sure die go out of his way to carry that word to a number
of them.
10
MR. LAWRENCE: Well, I travel a lot, Governor, and
in my experience as I travel around the country there due a
12
lot of rising "Reagan for President" sentiment, Do you
13
detect it in your travels away from home - Illinois, Wisconsin,
14
South Carolina, an last night, Kentucky
15
GOVERNOR REAGAN: Well, Bill, I have to De conscious
16
of that But I have made no eifort 6b find out now deep is it.
17
You know it is very easy to get impressed at an airport
$8
with a welcome and a group of people who are expressing
19
this sentiment, but when you stop to think how big the
20
alley is, that group at the airport is relatively small.
31
dow whether that group is the Exam total of that feeling
32
or whether it is deener I have made no effort to fine
23
and Let the say here lest it sound as if I am disparaging
24
those who are doing this, anyone would have to be tremenously
20
hondred and grateful that anyone would think of nin in
4
connection with this office, regardless of what his inter
on:
WASHINGTON CO., of course, this is something that down inside
as 100 3 have got to feel water and good about, but it
does not change my position. I am not a candidate.
ER, KOMEN: Governor, if you are not an active candidate
for President, why do you move out of your nome base,
and particularly into some states which are counted for forme
Vice President Richard Nixon?
GOVERNOR REAGAN: Well, John, I know this is the taing
that you fellows can find and it serms to be an Achilles
hael in this whole position, but let me cite my own
background before I ever held office. I have been on the
mashed potato circuit for a number of years. I have been
speaking publicly - fund raising, dinners and so fortn,
13
for, I suppose, about 20 years. And it is true in the Party
16
once you are an office holder, I think you have certain
17
chores that you should do for the Party. This is part
16
of the job. It is also true that each one of us improves
IS
hils box office the farther away from nome he gets. Thus
20
you go 2, Long way from home and there is a curiosity about
you and therefore you are better box office in selling
22
the tickets to the fund raising dinner. The same is
true in our state, We have a great many people from the
East and the Midwest who come to California and do funu
25
raisert. We have left the selection of the places I go
5
to be determined by the Chairmen of the Senate and
Congrassional Compatgn Committees in Washington - Benrge
durphy for the Senate, Bob Wilson for the Congressional
Committee. and the priorities are established on those
5
areas where the Republicans think we have tile best
chance, where we should put the most effort in
How, for exemple last night I spoke at a Fund raiser,
?
a gubernatorial campaign of Louis Nunn in Kentucky,
but I would also like to call to your attention Senator
10
Dirksen, Senator Murphy, Senator Pannin, have all been in
there, Governor Kirk of Florida has been in there.
18
This is a good key area for our party. This is the
13
only explanation fox the engagements that I have the
1.8
invitations I have accepted,
15
MR. KOMEN: To bolster the Republicans' campaign chest.
to
GOVERNOR REAGAN: Yes, and they are kind of concentrated
17
now because I had to refuse virtually all of those
18
invitations for the months from last January up through late
10
summer because of our legislative session. New our
logislature is not 16 seasion and I was able to crem
21
some of these dates into these few months before they meet
22
again.
28
MR. LAWRENCE: Covernor, are you in any trouble at
24
home or are you getting any heat are home because you are
getting away moin? Do you think Le Is entirely safe to go
6
off OD child Conference craise this week with the
expectation of scouble 1n San Francisco and Oakland
in this anti-Vietnes Wair thing?
GOVERNOR REAGAN: Wall, Bill, this is something we
really did some soul-searching about. There is no question
but that there is going to be trouble in California. But
we had to face this - I had to face this one
thing: The threat of this kind of trouble created by
a little minority that has to be less than one percent ---
they are 59 percent of the noise, but they are one percent
of the people - 1.£ we are going to continue to abandon and
leave the regular functions of the office - not do the
things that are normally required, simply because of this
kind of threat, than you are going to find that pretty
soon the constitutional officers of a state are going to
be sitting there spending most of their time waiting to
17
react to the next threst.
Now we have a great system that has been working on a
personent and a 24-hour basis, We have organized completely
our disaster office, our Attorney General's office,
21
the California State Highway Patrol, and the National Guard.
We have almost a permanent liaison in the leading cities
of California with Local Naw enforcement. We have a
system whereby at even the hine of trouble, long before any
of the state aid is called for, We are in actual physical
7
1
liaison in the local police headquarters with comparable
enlogatos AS Sacramento in the Governor's office.
Now this system 10 see up to operate in this next
2
week and Bob 3. Finch, who 1: Lieutenent Governor, has been
an
in on all the briefings - unlike what might have happened
6
in the past in California, our Lieutenant Governor knows what
7
is going on in the Governor's office,
8
MR. LAWRENCE: Governor, is there any way you could get
a
off this cruise ship and get back if they needed you?
10
GOVERNOR REAGAN: Yes, Bill, this is the other thing.
11
And not only myself but a number of Governors actually
12
bid to facia and sit doun with those who have planned this
13
Governors Conference as to what our problems might be
14
and the result is they tell us we are insured of constant
15
comunication, plus the ability to ba taken off the snip by
16
holicopter at any point in the entire trip and delivered
17
back for a flight to our own capitals.
18
So assured of that, and with perfect confidence in
19
Bob Finch 3 ability and understanding of the situation
20
and our own forces. I felt that I had an obligation.
21
I have never been to the Governors' Conference, completely.
22
This is En important Governors' Conference and I falt I
23
had an obligation to go.
24
MR. KOMENE To get back to the Presidential race,
Governor, have you any favorite now - you say you are not
25
8
a candidate - do you have any favorite now among those
various persons Valo appear to be running?
GOVERNOR REAGAN: so, and it wouldn't be proper for 104:
to answer that, John, because if I am going to be, as
St
I stated I will be) a favorite son candidate, with the idea,
$
to explain to those who might not understand, that at
2
favorite son candidacy is not as we know actually a
6
candidacy, it is technically so, but it is in order to
hold a delegation together SO that your state can make its
presence fult better in helping determine the issues in
choosing candicates, if I am going to do that, it certainly
wouldn be proper for me now, even before I have chosen a
13
slate of delegates to make 3 cecision or announce that I
14
favor someche.
15
*****
16
MR. KOMEN: Governor, resuming our discussion about
17
possible Presidential candidates, can you see a consensus
18
developing among the Republican Governors over a single
3
contender, perhaps restoring the power or strength
20
of the Republican Governors as a political force?
23
GOVERNOR REAGAN: Not at the moment. I would doubt
22
that, Y know there have beer some who suggested this, but
23
I can't believe that the Governors in advance would have
24
any more tendency to go together CI
25
unite as = force than any other members of the Party. I
10
do think, however, that It is going to be different than
it has been in the past. 1 think the Party has learned
sease Lossons and that we can expect. a consensus benind
the chosen nominee.
MR. KOMEN But that would be after the Convention?
$
GOVERNOR REAGAN: After the Convention.
6
7
MR. LIMRENCE: Governor, there has been a lot of
a
newspaper talk about a Rockefeller-Reagan ticken or a Rommey-
Reagen ticket. Is this even remotely possible?
3
GOVERNOR REAGAN: No.
10
MR. LAWRENCE: Well, what about a Reagan-Rockefeller
11
ticket?
12
GOVERNOR REAGAN: No, I said I am not a candidate for
13
that either, On the other spot I have great respect for
14
the office, but I didn't choose to have a political career
15
and I am doing what I am doing because of some strong
16
beliefs in things that I thought had to and should be
17
tried at least in government. I just happen to believe there
18
is more opportunity to do those things in the position I
19
hold than there would be as Vice President. But I am not a
08
capdidate for either one.
Till
22
MR. LAWRENCE: Could you be drafted for either?
33
GOVERNOR REAGAN: 1 don't foresee that having to
24
be a question --
25
MR LAWRENCE: I don't think that is quite responsive,
10
though, Governor, The question is, could you be, not
will you be?
GOVERNOR REAGAN: Well, now, Bill, here again you get in
a hypothetical situation and I got in trouble answering
this trying to answer it once before at the Western
Governors' Conference.
The question of this gets down to the Sherman statement,
and would someone make the Sherman statement. Well, I like
to remember what former President Eisenhower said to me one
9
to
day on a golf course about the Sherman statement. He said
"IE is a foolish statement that even Sherman shouldn't have
made." It calls into being does anyone have a right,
12
If there is a legitimate call on the part of their
citizens for them to serve, does any citizen have a right
to refuse that? But again, I say, I don't anticipate that.
TO
16
12
18
19
20
27
22
23
11
?
MR. FORED: Det 3 curn, now, to Victora, Governor. You
have beer mutted as saying you would give the generals a freer
and in curring the war. Do you think this is safe from a
3
vorldwide point of view or from a civilian-control-of-the-
military point of view?
152
GOVERNOR REAGAN: Nell, I would like to comment on that
6
because I have seen/ myself quoted, and perhaps it is my own fault.
27
Maybe I didn't tie it together or make it clear enough but,
6
muoted to the extent that it looked as if I am one who would
a
out everything in the hands of the military and say, "Take
10
picks: Go ahead. 0
11
No one in this country with any reason or common sense
12
would ever give up our philosophy or our belief in the control
13
of the military by the civilian. This is inherent in our whole
14
system and we will preserve it. But when you talk about giving
15
more attention to the military, or heeding their recommenda-
16
tions more, you ere talking about it in the context and the
17
framework of those responsible for national policy. In a
16
combat or a conflict such as we are in, taking the generals
19
into their confidence as to what are the goals, what are we
20
trying to achieve, what are our fears, what are the things we
21
are worried about, and chen saying to the generals, "With
22
that framework in mind, within that framework, you, as
23
tophnicians in the field, you) as experts in the field, what
24
are your recommendations as to how to achieve these objectives?"
25
12
MR. SCHEN: You don't think that is being done, now?
GOVERNOR REACKS: Apparently not, from the number of
military men who, in testifying before Congressional committee
2
have expressed dissatisfaction. One of two things is im-
portant. Either they have not been taken into the confidence
6
of the administration with regard to the goals or they feel
the and eve military decisions that could be made that would do
B
a better job of schieving those goals.
Now I would hate to think that the civilian administra-
10
tion has kept those entrusted with the fighting of the war
11
in the dark. So I have to assume that, aware of the objective
12.
aware of the risks, they have advocated certain things the
th
13
believe would bring those objectives to completion sooner
2
and one that seems to be the most general, of course, is the
15
constant and almost unanimous recommendation of the military
16
that we should have long since stopped the flow of traffic
ZIP
in and out of the port of Haiphong because that is where 85
52
percent of the materiel is coming in that is killing American
10
men.
20
MR. LAWRENCE: Were you correctly quoted, Governor, as
21
saying that if the military favored invasion of North Vietnam,
22
you would Cavor it?
29
GOVERNOR REAGAN: Again in this context of them also
26
being privy to the objectives end the information that the
administration has. This, of course, touches on what I
18
3
think is one of the key issues in this whole situation: the
credibility gap. The fact that not only the people but
3
others who should be informed, representatives in Congress
and the Senate and in the, perhaps, military, are not privy
5
to what is creating national policy, or what is dictating
national policy.
I'm
I think the people of the country have the wisdom to
&
know more than they have been told, and it is very difficult
@
for any of U.G to sit here and give an answer or speculate on
10
Vietnam, as we are always asked to do, until we know, and
11
unless we know more than we have been told, and I certainly
12
think that our representatives in the Congress should know
13
reduce
14
MR. LAWRENCE: Well, there is certainly a lot of dis-
13
satisfaction with the President's policy across the country,
13
and in California we hear that a Democratic Peace Slate
17
might just beat the President in the primary out there
18
next year. Do you think this is true, and is there any
19
kind of organized opposition in the Republican Party on that
20
issue?
21
GOVERNOR REAGAN: I don't think there is any organized
22
opposition in the Republican Party. The faction that is
23
back of the peace move out there is the same CDC faction, the
HA
California Democratic Council, which has been pretty extreme
in its positions for the last several years, and you know
14
pay
recently on this issue for the first time there seems DO be
3
splitting of their ranks and they are having trouble. People,
$
local chapters, are dropping out, enmass, dropping their
membership. At the same time there is no question but that
5
the CDC has attracted some of the anti-Vietnam factions and
a
the more radical groups to their ranks.
I wouldn't be able to evaluate whether they could or could
C
not defeat the President. I wouldn't know.
s
MR. KOMEN: As you said a moment ago, the Republicans are
10
just as divided on this as the Democrats are.
11
Do you think the Republicans can come up with a uni-
12
fied stance, either for a stronger policy than the Presiden
13
is carrying out, or a weaker policy and where do you stand in
14
that spectrum?
15
GOVERNOR REAGAN: I think it could be, the Republicans
16
don't have the same problems at all as the Democrats because
17
the CDC position, that peace-party position, is one of
18
complete withdrawal. Withdraw, now. Just simply quit and
3:
get out. And I think there are some, at least, not all, as the
20
there are many people, who are sincerely misguided but I think
21
there are some in there who obviously must have someone else's
22
interests other than the United States at heart when they
23
make these recommendations.
24
In the Republican Party IN think there is unanimity on
25
the bel eff of ending the war, the desire for peace. There may
15
be some disagreement ns to the alternatives to end it but I
have heard very few Republicans, and I doubt if the Republi-
can Party would seriously consider that radical alternative
of ending the war by simply packing up with your tail be-
tween your legs and running for home.
MR. KONEN: How do you feel it should be approached,
should the Republican stance be stronger than what the
President is doing, or should there ba a weaker stance?
9
Where do you stand?
10
GOVERNOR REAGAN: Well, right at the moment, I have as
feeling that I have been critical in the past of the
gradual escalation and the fact that it didn't seem we were
13
making the Immediate effort we should. As long as we were in
14
combat and men were being killed. But reading between the
13
lines and from some of the indications - all of us have
16
access to some contacts with that - I have a feeling that
17
perhaps we are doing much better in the war than we are
of
being told. I have a feeling that a corner has been turned and
19
that very possibly and probably we are winning. And we are
20
not being told that and very frankly I think that we will
21
possibly be told when 12 is politically advantageous to the
N
present administration to tell us, with an election year
29
coming up.
24
MR. LAWRENCE: Well, Governor, let's talk a little bit
about domestic affairs, How de you stand on President
16
Johnson's ten cercent surtex to finance the war in Vietnam?
GOVERNOR REGISTS Weis, now, you ask 20 pretty tough
question for a fellow who has just asked for the biggest tax
hike in any state's history, but I would also point out that
before VAS ever got around to that we did everything we could,
and reduced the cost and the size of government in our state
as far as we could, and then, faced with a deficit we had
inherited, and 2. debt that was unconstitutional to maintain,
we had to turn to taxes, finally, to finish solving the
20
problem.
I don't see any evidence of that in Washington. Washington
12
seems to, and this administration seems to turn automatically
13
to more revenue from the people as the answer to the problems,
14
with no effort on the part of government to reduce its cost, and
15
I think that there are many areas where the cost could be re-
16
duced. I think the federal government is engaged in a number
17
of luxuries that the people can't afford and that the people
18
have had very little chance to decide whether they want to
19
afford them or not.
20
21
22
23
34
25
17
1
MR. КОМВИ: On that point about budget cutting, could
WD have some specifics? And for example, what about the
supersonic transport program, a very expensive program,
by the way, do you think that is one area in which the
5
federal government could cut? The SST?
3
GOVERNOR REAGAN: Well, actually I am not qualified to
7
answer on that. I will be frank to admit I have been too
8
busy with the problems I am confronting in California to try
9
to find the answers for myself on a number of these
10
things, particularly things where I wouldn't be able to
11
influence the outcome anyway, But I think there is a well,
12
we have vetoed a number of OEO programs. The state governor
13
has the opportunity in a 30-day period to - the OEO
14
programs in the state come across my desk. You can veto them.
15
At the end of 30 days it is true the federal government can
13
override your veto, We have found a number that we have
17
vetoed. And I never kept track and never tried to count up
18
until I read in the press someone else had counted up that
19
California has vetoed more than any other state.
20
But more than that, of all that we have eventually
23
signed, we held them up to where we got drastic changes
22
in more than half of them. Let me give you one example
23
of the kind of fat I mean can come out of government. when
24
you suddenly turn loose billions of dollars of money and
25
scatter it out, you open yourself up to a lot of people who
18
have ideas, and the ideas may not be good. Now one came
across our desk from a county for a grant of some tens of
thousands of dollars and it was to salvage the hard core
unemployed by putting them to work in this area, in
beautifying and clearing open-space parkland. Now this sounds
pretty good. You would think it would fit my philosophy
exactly that those people on public assistance if able shoul
be contributing something back to the public good, should
be either training for work, or working, But when we
10
looked at the program closely we found that the hard core
unemployed they were going to help numbered 17, and over
12
half of the budget they wanted approved was for seven
18
administrators to administer to the 17. And we thought
14
it was a little out of proportion and vetoed the program.
15
When you veto those, the federal government doesn't
18
override your veto I have found because they don't dare let
17
the spotlight of publicity in any open controversy reveal
18
to the people what is going on, We vetoed another more
19
expensive program out there that actually would have
set up a training course for picketers and demonstrators.
21
Now demonstrators are a kind of native California product.
We don't need to train any new ones out there.
MR. LAWRENCE: While we are talking about California,
there has been a lot of criticism of your use of convicts
to pick crops in labor-shortage areas,
19
GOVERNOR REAGAM: Yes.
MR. MARRENCE: What motivated that decision?
GOVERNOR REAGAN: That decision was motivated the
2
same as it was when my pradecessor, Governor Brown, did the
to
same ching. No one of us likes to do it. I wish there was
$
Enother answer to it. Here is che strange situation - and
-
again perhaps this touches on the economy factor. Bill,
City
here is at state. California, with the highest unemployment
9
rate - well, at least it is above the national average.
10
Este is & state that has had an increase in the number of
il
recipients getting welfare in the last four years of 54.6
12
partent. That is the increase in a four-year period.
13
But we had, in our home of unusual weather, unusual
14
weather this spring. Suddenly in this harvest season
15
E number of crops that normally ripen one at a time
16
so that a work force in the fields can go from one crop
17
to the other, ripened all at once because of the late start
18
of the season, We didn't have the work force. We appealed
19
to the Secretary of Labor for supplemental labor from across
10
the borde live Mexico, He, who is no friend of this, and
21
certainly has been no friend of the California farmer, he OKed
22
0100 of the supplemental laborers to come in. So the
38
situation xave been, as we described it, and desparate,
24
for him to do this.
25
NOW, there was is delay due to some legal action in the
20
importation of the supplemental labor. We couldn't get
them fast enough, The crops were beginning to rot in the
fields. When farmiers come to you, and in one area around a
small town, and show you a half million dollars worth of fruit
that is going to rot right there on the trees unless
someone comes to pick it, we figured that we had to do what, a
I say, my predecessor did, And we OKed the use of several
hundred prisoners. Now these prisoners are being paid
the full amountthat is being paid to any laborer, They are
not taxing the state for board and room because while they
are earning they are paying their own board and room.
2
The growers are paying for the guards out there in the fields
13
MR. LAWRENCE: Governor, I am sorry to have to interrupt.
Our time is up. We want to thank you, Governor Reagan,
15
for being with us on ISSUES AND ANSWERS today.
16
17
16
20
21
22
23
24