Plenary Session Transcripts

Governors Attending:

Guests:

Discussion Subjects:

Remarks by David Lawrence on equal housing opportunity; international trade development; science, technology and research; expanding employment opportunities; civil rights; and corrections and rehabilitation

Points of Interest:

In his address welcoming Governors to Florida, Governor Farris Bryant said with regard to Cuban refugees that while his state would continue to accommodate those seeking freedom in the United States, he hoped that a Cuban Peace Brigade might be established to use the skills of refugees in helping to raise living standards in other Latin American countries.

The civil rights debate that had begun in 1962 carried over to this annual meeting. In accordance with the decision one year earlier to study whether the consideration of resolutions should be abolished, the Executive Committee recommended that all resolutions be delivered to the association not less than three weeks prior to the annual meeting and that a unanimous vote be required for their adoption. While some Governors expressed understanding that the proposal would stop the kind of filibuster that had occurred in 1962 during the civil rights discussion, and that it would stop what had become an excess of resolutions that did not permit serious and thoughtful consideration, they were nonetheless concerned that the proposal constituted what Governor Mark Hatfield of Oregon called a gag rule. Several amendments were then offered to liberalize the Executive Committee's proposal, but the Executive Committee version prevailed.

There followed a special session on civil rights, during which Governors spoke about the progress that had been made in their individual states. Again, motions to suspend the rules were offered in order to consider resolutions regarding the subject. One of those was a motion offered by Governor John Dempsey of Connecticut proposing that the association give top priority to civil rights. Both the motions for suspension and for adoption of Governor Dempsey's proposal prevailed.

Also with respect to civil rights, Governor George Wallace of Alabama complained that National Guard troops in his state had been federalized without his being notified. And Vice President Johnson presented an urgent message that civil rights for minorities were a top priority for his administration.

During consideration of the Public Health and Welfare Committee's report, it was noted that Democrats and Republicans on the committee disagreed with respect to a number of issues. For example, while Republicans agreed with Democrats on the idea of a National Service Corps, they disagreed as to its methods, believing that a program compensating volunteers would discourage other uncompensated volunteer work. In contrast to Democrats, they also felt that the Youth Employment Act was ill-conceived and that its beneficiaries, after serving in the new Youth Conservation Corps, would have insufficient skills to be employable in the general labor force. And they urged that no public or private agency receive funding under the Act—nor any medical facility be authorized to furnish medical services under whatever program of “Medicare” was enacted—if it was found to have discriminated on the basis of race, creed, color, or national origin. In the end, it was agreed that both the majority (Democratic) and minority (Republican) reports of the Public Health and Welfare Committee would be published.

Memorable Quotes:

David Lawrence, former Governor of Pennsylvania and now assistant to the President and Chairman of the President's Committee on Equal Opportunity in Housing, noted: "...I am not the only Former Governor...who now carries the responsibilities of a federal assignment. A Former Governor of Illinois [Adlai E. Stevenson] now leads our delegation at the United Nations, while the Former Chief Executive of New York [Averell Harriman] has the difficult and challenging duty of attempting to negotiate a test-ban treaty in Moscow. One...colleague...in the State Department, who headed the affairs of the State of Michigan for many years [G. Mennen Williams], is this nation's Chief Foreign Service Officer for the emerging nations of Africa. Still another one-time Governor, Chester Bowles, has just arrived in New Delhi to serve as our Ambassador to the world's largest uncommitted nation. Former Governors Hodges of North Carolina and Orville Freeman of Minnesota sit in the Cabinet of the President [as Secretaries of Commerce and Agriculture, respectively]...while Christian Herter of Massachusetts is devoting his great talents and abilities to working out problems of world trade and the Common Market. And aside from the Executive Branch, we have Former Governors sitting in the Senate Chambers and on the courts, including the august post of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court [Earl Warren of California]."

Governor Grant Sawyer of Nevada, addressing the proposal regarding consideration of resolutions, said: "The decision we reach today will be whether the Governors' Conference will continue to be a national forum on the important issues of the time, whether the members will be brave enough and strong enough to allow any idea of a fair hearing, or whether we will be allowed to disintegrate into just a club which meets regularly for tea parties, shunning controversy and responsibility. Indeed, the question is whether the Conference will continue to exist at all...The public looks to us for leadership. If, for any reason, we turn away from the challenges of the day, then we abdicate the responsibility and trust placed in us...Is unanimity the answer...Do we wish to retreat to a safe, sheltered harbor where we may live calm and serene, away from the currents and responsibilities of leadership?...It is not necessary that we attempt to bind all members of this Conference to any specific position. It is essential, however, that this forum should be such that our respective views can be weighed and evaluated and eventually judged by the American people. I have unhappily come to the conclusion that the existence of a Resolutions Committee in this particular body short-circuits the ends which I have indicated."

Governor George Wallace of Alabama took this position: "I am tired of hearing about civil rights...And I do not see why the Conference does not move on to discussing matters of interest to the respective Governors within their own states, such as highway programs and workmen's compensation...Because the civil rights issue, so-called, is a pure political issue, some are trying to make the Governors' Conference a forum on which to run for President. The talk of civil rights has about brought this nation to the brink of civil warfare anyway...This is the first Conference I have ever attended, and, if it is going to turn out to be a civil rights debating society, it is going to be the last one that I am ever going to attend. In my judgment, you are going to destroy the Governors' Conference if you use this Conference for the purpose of protecting certain political elements in the civil rights issue and not others."

During the Conference's extensive civil rights discussion, Governor Otto Kerner of Illinois, in response to the argument of Southern Governors that states should not impose their views on one another or succumb to federal encroachment on their rights, said: "I believe it is within the power of every Governor to help create a climate in his state in which no man must take to the streets in protest of injustice, in search of rights which are inalienable. Each of us should expect of the other the wisdom and leadership designed to erase injustice and obviate protest. Although our states are sovereign, they are not isolated fortresses. There should be no reason for people of one state to have freedom at home only to lose it on vacation."

Governor Richard Smylie of Idaho said during the discussion on civil rights: "On the floor of the very first Conference, the presidential ambitions of the great Governor of New Jersey, Woodrow Wilson, were brought to light. In 1932 this Conference was used as a forum by our good friend, Jim Farley, to further the ambitions of the then Governor of New York...In 1959...there was resolution after resolution criticizing the administration of President Eisenhower...And by some strange coincidence they were sponsored by Secretary Freeman, Secretary Harriman, and Ambassador Williams [Democrats in the Kennedy administration who were Governors in 1959]...I really do not despair for the Conference simply because we expect to play politics and there are presidential ambitions. I think one of the great things about this Conference is that this does exist. I think the Conference has grown in stature out of this conflict."

In his speech, Vice President Lyndon Johnson said: "If we are to meet the tests of our future, our foremost challenge is to face and dispose of the problem of human rights which has burdened and compromised our society for one hundred years—the problem of the inequality of our Negro citizens...it is wrong that tax-paying, arms-bearing, vote-casting Americans should be unable to find a bed for the night or meals for their children along the highways of our free and decent society...it is wrong that Americans who fight alongside other Americans in war should not be able to work alongside the same Americans, wash up alongside them, eat alongside them, win promotions alongside them, or send their children to sit in schools alongside children of other Americans...Let us recognize this one thing: while the Negro has long been the object of studied neglect, many of the conditions he protests today are blind to color. If the Negro is now the first victim, he will not be the last if we fail to cure the ills within our society—of under-employment, under-education, under-development of our potential, under-use of our productive capacity."

With respect to science and technology needs, Dr. James Killian of MIT said: "...the rapid emergence of new technologies introduces a much higher rate of professional obsolescence, especially among engineers, applied scientists and physicians...The half-life of an engineer, it has been said, is now about ten years...This 'prevalence of newness' which marks our time poses wholly new demands for education continuing through the practicing life of almost all kinds of professional men."

Selected Resolutions Adopted:
(1) Reaffirming the resolution adopted the previous year urging passage of a constitutional amendment permitting free and voluntary participation in prayer in public schools; (2) urging, among other things, that states initiate programs to instruct state employees with respect to civilian protection and post-attack recovery, that the Governors' Conference Committee on Civil Defense and Post-Attack Recovery give special attention to the development of programs for increasing recovery capability, that states act to require incorporation of fallout shelter space, and that legislation be enacted to provide an incentive for shelter construction in schools, hospitals, and other nonprofit institutions; (3) expressing support for the principle of state ownership of lands naturally formed off the coasts of the coastal and Great Lakes states; and (4) endorsing the principle of returning mineral royalties of 50 percent to the states in which federal land ownership occurred.