Plenary Session Transcripts

Governors Attending:

Guests:

Discussion Subjects:

National budget; parks; federal aid; cooperative marketing; agricultural problems; and prison labor

Points of Interest:

It was mentioned that the national budget system had been established under the administration of President Harding. General H. M. Lord, head of the federal Budget Bureau, told Governors that the federal government was demonstrating success at reducing spending, and he urged that state and local governments do the same. But Governor Al Smith of New York reminded the General that it was an easier job for the federal government to find places to cut spending than it was for state governments, given the fact that the U.S. was shifting from a war to a peacetime economy, and he presented evidence that the federal cuts of which General Lord spoke were indeed in defense spending. The Governor added that federal taxes had risen more than twice as much since 1914 as state and local taxes had.

Governors also discussed federal aid, both unconditional (including, among other things, endowment of agricultural and mechanical colleges, returns from the proceeds of the sale and use of public lands, and funding of the National Guard) and matching. Concern was expressed by Governors about the conditions attached to accepting matching grants and the control those grants gave to the federal government. Governor John Trumbull of Connecticut said that he understood why Western states wanted more aid to make up for the advantage Eastern states had enjoyed in the form of manufacturing tariffs. However, he expressed the view that it was unfair for the West to get more than its fair share of aid while the East carried a larger tax burden. Governor Nellie Ross of Wyoming responded that it was in fact to the advantage of the entire nation that money be invested in developing the West. And Governor H.L. Whitfield of Mississippi suggested that states should not begrudge any aid received by others, given that wealth generated in one state was likely to be dependent on resources coming from another state.

The view was expressed that among the benefits of cooperative marketing were to: ensure the orderly movement of goods to market so as to prevent price fluctuations; permit farmers to work in concert to secure a reasonable profit on their products; enable smaller farmers to compete with agribusiness; and help encourage rural residents to stay on farms rather than migrating to cities.

It appeared that organized labor did not object to the competition of prison labor, but there remained a question of how far the sale of prison products should go beyond an individual state's public needs.

Memorable Quotes:

Governor Ralph Brewster of Maine, referring to the presence of Nellie T. Ross, the new Governor of Wyoming, said: "This Conference is...epoch-making in that it has for the first time in its midst a representative of the womanhood of the Nation...and I do not hesitate to prophesy that the associations of this Conference will demonstrate the wisdom of the step that has been taken in admitting women on an equality to that last citadel to which they have been so long denied." Governor Ross responded: "Your generous attitude toward feminine invasion of a realm that tradition has recognized as exclusively the preserve of men is to me most gratifying. It just confirms the opinion I always have had that for chivalry there are no men in the world comparable to our American men."

Governor Ross also said, in response to the argument that western states were receiving an unfair proportion of federal aid: "The people in the East who are now paying these heavy income taxes are also participating in the development of our State...I am not sure that this assistance is not in the nature of an investment and a good one at that. It is certainly vital to this whole nation that the ...wealth of the West be developed." General H. M. Lord of the federal Budget Bureau said: "The entire program of raising money for the Treasury and spending it is based on the sane and simple realization that we can't spend what we haven't got and keep out of debt...Today the fixed financial policy of the Federal government is the policy of the balanced budget..."

Governor Albert Ritchie of Maryland said: "...the very name 'Federal aid' is a misnomer. When we talk about aiding anyone, we imply a gratuity or a gift or a charity. As matter of fact, Federal aid is the repayment by the government to the States of money which the government first collected from the States in the form of taxation."