Plenary Session Transcripts

Governors Attending:

Guests:

Discussion Subjects:

Addresses by Bishop John J. Wright, Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh and I. W. Abel, President, United Steelworkers on the integrity of American society; the states and the federal system; address by Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey; law enforcement; and news media responsibilities

Points of Interest:

Presentations on integrity in American society included an address by Bishop John J. Wright, who spoke of distinguishing between the common good and the good of the individual. I.W. Abel of the United Steelworkers talked about the effects of government programs on labor. He admonished states for losing the initiative with respect to services, and for lagging behind in the enactment of workers compensation, unemployment compensation, and the minimum wage. He argued that states had made a decided shift in transferring the tax burden to low-wage earners. In a typical state, he said, corporate taxes were down to 27 percent while consumer taxes had climbed to 57 percent. And he objected to states trying to lure industry via right-to-work laws, poor wage protection, and substandard welfare benefits.

Various media representatives spoke about the integrity of the fourth estate in reporting the news. They spoke a great deal about reporting on the Vietnam War. Among the questions they were asked by Governors was whether they should make more effort to report facts and not simply what appeared to be newsworthy.

Governor John Reed of Maine asked whether separate gubernatorial press conferences should be held for TV and for print media. News media representatives differed in their responses. One view was that spontaneity was lost with cameras on. Another was that trying to hold separate conferences would cause suspicions on the part of whichever group was excluded and have the potential for questions to be answered differently during the separate sessions. (E.g., Governors might have re-thought their answers by the second conference.)

Governor George Romney of Michigan presented the report of the association's Special Study Committee on Revenue Sources of State and Local Governments. The report suggested that states be prepared to do three things to establish stable revenue: raise additional monies, reduce expenditures, and borrow. The report also recommended federal-state consultation in the development of national programs that affected state-federal relationships and responsibilities, and that the federal government: permit greater flexibility in state-local use of federal funds; ensure that states have responsibility for local government; and increase efficiency in expending available federal revenues for public programs and in collecting revenue. Finally, the report recommended that the federal government distribute funds to states based solely on the amount of federal individual income taxes collected in those states or on the basis of a formula that took into account factors such as population, tax effort, and tax capacity.

Governor Daniel Evans of Washington suggested that states initiate a call for a national constitutional convention with the goal of ensuring the return of a share of federal income tax money to the states.

In the wake of the Supreme Court's Miranda decision, law enforcement experts briefed Governors on the effects on states of judicial interpretations of constitutional rights. [NOTE: In 1966, the Supreme Court decided in the case of Miranda v. Arizona that the constitutional privilege against self-incrimination required police to notify arrested persons of their rights prior to questioning.]

Governors held extensive discussion about a resolution to reaffirm support for the President's Vietnam policies. Governor Mark Hatfield of Oregon sought to amend the resolution to affirm support of servicemen in Vietnam rather than of the war itself, but his amendment failed prior to adoption of the original resolution.

Memorable Quotes:

I. W. Abel of the United Steelworkers of America said: "It is fact that today our state governments lag considerably in meeting the social and economic needs of the people. It wasn't until 1948 that the last of the States put a workmen's compensation law on their books...The first minimum wage law was passed in 1912 and there are still twelve States with no such laws at all. Legislation which prohibits discrimination in employment based on race, creed, color, national origin, or ancestry was initially enacted in 1945. More than twenty years later, there are still fifteen States without such laws. Unemployment compensation laws have in many ways retrogressed from their original aims and standards in the States. For instance, unemployed workers received a larger share of average weekly earnings during layoffs in the late 1930s than is the case today. The average of unemployment compensation in the United States currently is only about 35 per cent of average weekly earnings. In the area of taxation, the States have made a decided shift in transferring the tax burden from corporations to the low wage earner. A short time ago, in a typical State, corporations supplied 35 per cent of the State's taxes and consumers paid 44 per cent. Last year, in that same State, corporate taxes were down to 27 per cent and consumer taxes climbed to 57 per cent...In the face of a surging outcry on the part of the people for greater protection and service, it was only natural that the federal government began to fill the void and assume leadership in social and economic progress."

Abel also said: "Many [states] try to entice new plants or factories on the basis that theirs is a low-wage State. Others do it with substandard welfare legislation. Still more boast they have the most regressive tax systems highly favorable to corporate entities. And among nineteen of our fifty States, there is an open invitation for union-busting, complete with a so-called ‘right-to-work' law. When any State vies for industry on a plea of exploiting human beings through low wages, sub-standard conditions or union-busting, we of organized labor believe firmly that the bounds of decency are being violated."

Vice President Humphrey said with respect to Vietnam: "There are, most basically, two options: Stay or get out. I believe that getting out could only encourage further Communist aggression in Asia and would jeopardize the integrity of the independent nations of that part of the world. There are those who suggest that we should stay, but be quiet about it; that we should fight, but not vigorously. I am not sure whether they fully support a half-war, or give halfway support to a full war. I say that we must stay and fight and work in South Vietnam until we have achieved our objectives—the halt of aggression from the north, the independence of South Vietnam, and peace in Southeast Asia."

Lawrence Spivak said this about reporting the news: "May I raise this one question which I think may be dear to the hearts of the Governors, and I am sure that when they get their chance at us we will be sitting ducks. And that is our responsibility to recognize our own fallibility, to look critically at what we say and write, and invite others to do so and correct our errors in fact and judgment. I sometimes feel that some public officials are too timid about letting us have it when we are wrong..."

Also about reporting, William Lawrence of ABC said: "You should have seen our switchboard the night w interrupted Batman to say that Gemini 8 was in trouble. And CBS really got it because they killed a canned show called ‘Lost in Space' to talk about some people who were actually lost in space."

Selected Resolutions Adopted:
(1) Urging Congress and the Administration to enact and implement measures for the adjustment of agricultural income to a level sufficient to ensure that American farmers received their rightful share of the national income; (2) urging the President and the Secretary of Labor to take action toward the continuation of negotiations between the International Association of Machinists and the air carriers involved in a strike threat; (3) requesting Congress to increase the aid program for construction of local sewage treatment facilities so as to provide 50 percent of the cost; (4) urging the federal government to require that state, regional and local government assistance programs involve review and coordination at the state level, and that where federal programs required regional, metropolitan or area-wide bodies or planning processes, coordination and review at the state level be a prerequisite for financial or other assistance; (5) affirming to the President, to the American public, to the service men and women of the military forces of the U.S., and to U.S. allies the National Governors' Conference's resolute support of U.S. global commitments, including support of the military defense of South Vietnam against aggression; (6) urging that as an important part of any highway traffic safety program, a vigorous effort be made to induce drivers to comply with existing laws pertaining to safe operation at grade crossings and to secure continued and increased cooperation of railroads and railroad employee organizations in the effort; (7) urging Congress to establish the standards and criteria for determining navigation benefits based on the historic, time proven, current freight method and that no revision to such adopted criteria be permitted except by approval of the Public Works Committees of Congress; (8) supporting pending legislation to improve cooperation and coordination of activities of various levels of government, to improve administration of federal grants to permit provision of reimbursable technical services to state and local governments, to establish coordinated intergovernmental policy and administration of grants and loans for urban development, and to provide for the acquisition, use, and disposition of land within urban areas by federal agencies in conformity with local government programs; (9) requesting the Council of State Governments (CSG) to sponsor a Governors' Conference on Juvenile Delinquency at which information and ideas about state programs would be exchanged and discussions would be held with federal officials regarding ways in which states and the federal government might work together to reduce juvenile delinquency; (10) urging Governors to establish state commissions on crime and delinquency, which would cooperate with the President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice; (11) suggesting that the President study the feasibility of instituting a uniform, nationwide, 24-hour voting period for federal elections and designation of that period as a biennial national holiday; and (12) recommending that states establish statistical coordination/standardization units, that there be a continuing national forum for developing improved statistical data, and that a policy and steering body be established to work toward implementation of these recommendations.