Plenary Session Transcripts

Governors Attending:

Guests:

Discussion Subjects:

Rural credit; state control of natural resources; uniformity of workplace health and safety laws; extradition; gubernatorial recommendations in bill form; and uniformity of laws relating to foreign corporations

Points of Interest:

The rural credit/cooperatives committee reported that the President had spoken to a joint session of Congress on the need to facilitate credit to farmers, resulting in the introduction of legislation. If states rather than the federal government were to incorporate land mortgage banks, greater uniformity would be required with respect to state laws on such issues as registration of titles and conveyance of lands. Resentment was manifest on the part of western Governors over the issue of conservation, and it was made clear that they felt former President Theodore Roosevelt had been overzealous about natural resources in his initial call for the Governors to gather in 1908, and that federal control of lands meant a loss of tax potential for the West. With respect to uniformity of workplace health and safety laws, Governors discussed the issue of employers objecting to the degree to which their competitiveness was hampered in states with stronger laws as against states with weaker laws. Governors disagreed over whether they should merely consult with legislatures or present their ideas to state legislative bodies in bill form. Governors also made clear that despite their desire to be cooperative with one another--particularly now that they had formed a Governors' Conference--they held proprietary views on extradition. Concern was expressed, for example, over whether one state might have ulterior motives (e.g., debt obligation) for seeking someone's extradition from another.

Memorable Quotes:

Governor William Spry of Utah said: "...states wherein the public domain as yet lies practically in its virgin state are deprived of that benefit that accrued as to direct asset to the other states through the disposal of the public domain and the utilization of the public resources thereon."

Governor F.M. Byrne of South Dakota said: "...the governor is often held responsible and blamed for the failure of measures which he may have earnestly urged on the legislature, while on the other hand, a member of the legislature may be blamed for failure to support a popular executive proposal when in fact it did not come with understandable clearness and precision...By presenting to the legislature his recommendations on important public questions in...specific form by means of carefully drawn bills, the governor may do much to bring legislative proceedings into the open..."