STATES & CITIES: Governors’ Party

STATES & CITIES

Like most occupational groups in the U. S. the Governors of the States and Territories have a formal trade association—the Governors’ Conference with headquarters and an executive secretary in Washington. And Governors have conventions. Last week they assembled in a traditional convention spot, Atlantic City, for their annual two-day outing. Only 22 went in person, some of the rest dispatching representatives. New Jersey’s Hoffman played host, greeting the guests with a band, a claque of uniformed veterans, a platoon of State troopers, a motorcade of ten cars with gubernatorial license plates (“N. J. 1”) and a convivial “get-together” dinner for early arrivals in the Hotel Traymore.

Throughout the serious daytime sessions the dominant theme was the historic conflict of State and Federal authority—a conflict in which the Governors and their predecessors for 150 years had been reluctantly giving ground. Wyoming’s Miller urged interchange of State data to eliminate gasoline-tax evasion. Handsome Governor Allred of Texas delivered a thoughtful appeal for closer co-operation between State parole boards. The rest of the speeches, almost without exception, were devoted to encroachment of Federal power. Topics of discussion and typical ejaculations:

Education. One bitter theme was Federal aid for local schools. South Carolina’s Johnston: “We should be as jealous of individual liberty in education as we are of individual liberty in religion. . . . South Carolina will always demand its right to segregate the whites and the blacks. . . . We would not condone anything which approaches racial equality.” North Carolina’s Hoey: “In my State the municipalities accepted State funds and the burden of education gradually shifted to the State. The same thing will happen in the Federal Government.” Maine’s Barrows: “I most certainly fear control of education by the Federal Government. . . .” Only dissenter was Indiana’s Townsend, who cracked back: “The Federal Government certainly never did the State of Indiana any harm when it meddled with roads. . . .”

Floods & Power. From George Aiken of Vermont came a bitter blast at Federal intervention in flood control. The whole Connecticut River flood-control program has been held up by New Deal insistence that, in return for Federal aid, all reservoir and power sites be turned over to the Federal Government—which Vermont refused to do. Vermont’s Aiken: “Shall the Federal Government have the authority to take from a State without its consent and with or without recompense the natural resources [reservoir and power sites] upon which the industry, the income and the welfare of the people may depend? … If the water power of Vermont can be taken without its consent, then the same right would exist for appropriating any natural resource of any other State.”

Food & Fun. On their second night at Atlantic City the Governors frolicked at a big “Circus Fun-Fest” in the Hotel Traymore’s main dining room, which was decorated like a circus tent, overrun with clowns, fake policemen, a menagerie of men in animal skins and three brass bands. All guests sported gaudy paper hats and the Governors wore huge paper-plate buttons identifying them as their State’s “big shot” (see cut). Connecticut’s 75-year-old Wilbur (“Uncle Toby”) Cross beamed on a pretty “gypsy girl,” who escorted a “polar bear” on a leash. When a “monkey” beat up a “lion,” Maine’s Barrows observed dryly: “We always handle Democrats that way.” South Carolina’s Johnston danced with Host Hoffman’s secretary. Utah’s Blood was attentive to the wife of North Carolina’s Hoey. Neither the Governor of North Carolina nor the Governor of South Carolina took a drink. Alabama’s Bibb Graves and his lady, Dixie Bibb Graves, the new Senator from Alabama, were harassed by newshawks seeking statements about Associate Justice Hugo Black (see p. 10). Only Florida’s Cone, who talked long and earnestly to Indiana’s Townsend, seemed bored by the entertainment.

Taxation. Only tangible understanding reached was a high resolve to do something about conflicting taxation. Thumping the same theme as other Governors, New York’s Lehman declared that the Federal Government was “almost monopolizing” some of the best tax fields, that if State income taxes were hiked to Federal levels the total tax bill in the higher brackets would exceed actual income. Eight of the ten tax sources from which New York gets more than four-fifths of its revenues were also tapped by the Federal Government. Since the Federal Government tends to win in all such conflicts, the time may come when the States can no longer finance themselves. “They would,” said Governor Lehman, “become vassal states and their importance as units of government would disappear.”

With that unpleasant thought in mind, the Governors voted for a national conference to lay down a comprehensive, simplified tax program for local, State and Federal Governments. Most of the Governors forthwith boarded a special train to Washington, put their proposition to President Roosevelt at a White House luncheon (see p. 9). Maryland’s unhappy Nice was rushed home in a New Jersey State Police ambulance for an emergency operation (rectal abscess).