Box 19, Folder 1, Document 48

‘Capitol
REPORTER

Donald L. Jackson

Featuring: HON. DONALD L, JACKSON Sponsored by: DR. ROSS PET FOODS
Broadcast No. 112 Week of November 28, 1965

GOVERNMENT BY BLACKJACK

How do you do, ladies and gentlemen. I am your CAPITOL REPORTER, former U. S. Representative,
Donald L. Jackson, prepared here with Broadcast No. 112, GOVERNMENT BY BLACKJACK. The power
to tax has been called the power to destroy. It is equally true in this day of heavy federal



taxation and lavish government handouts, that the power to withhold federal funds from a lower
echelon of government is the power to render cities, counties and states impotent to conduct
their essential work at the local levels of government. To make complete the dependance of
local government upon the central federal power, it is essential to break down traditional
governmental groupments by superimposing upon municipal and county governments a form of
superior government at the grass roots level of America. We'll return to the blackjack wrap-

ped in a money bag after a brief message.
“LEAST GOVERNMENT THE BEST GOVERNMENT” Thos. Jefferson

Historically, and as a result of prolonged debate in the Constitutional convention, the
people of America have been charged with self-rule. To insure that government would not
revert to the forms from which the framers of the constitution had themselves escaped, only
certain and limited powers were assigned to the Federal agency, with all others specifically

reserved in Article 10 to the states and to the people.

This reservation of powers was not capricious. It evolved as the product of personal ex-
perience. Eighteenth Century America and the men who forged the Constitution of the United
States carried on their work ever mindful of the conditions and circumstances which had
forced an exodus from the relative security of the Old World to the forbidding and hostile
shores of the New. Uppermost in the minds of the men who labored to frame a unique, and

in fact, heretical bluepriut for Government, was the certain knowedge that powerful

central authority and freedom from the individual could not co-exist.

CONSTANT CHECK

The Government most responsive to the will of the people is that form in which elected

or appointed officials are close enough to those they represent to sense, almost in-
stinctively, shifts in public temper and opinion. The essence of the Republican form

is that those citizens who are selected by other citizens for public service must estab-






lish and maintain a rapport with the constituent element if service is to be meaningful.
Anything that tends to isolate public servants from those they represent at subordinate
levels of government, paves the way for the accretion of additional and dangerous powers
in higher echelons. The greatest protection enjoyed by a free people are public

officials immediately available for the redress of grievance. City councilmen, mayors,
supervisors, selectmen and other municipal officers elected to serve in clearly defined
areas, and charged with specific duties for which they are personally responsible,
constitute the best examples of the Republican form in practice. Sins of commission or
omission can be pin-pointed where responsibility is fixed and where there are no grey areas

of overlapping jurisdiction.

REGIONAL PLANNING

Under various guises, and using federal funds as a lever to force compliance, the federal
establishment has embarked upon a series of programs designed to "regionalize" large areas
without regard to existing geographic boundaries. One of these undertakings is called
"Metropolitan Government", Stated simply, Metropolitan Government means the superimposition
of a New administrative agency over an entire area or region. Metropolitan Government may
be restricted to a relatively small area, or it may encompass a number of communities or
municipal corporations. The problems peculiar to one area in the Metropolitan complex thus
becomes a general problem of all units. It follows that official responsibility for the
proper discharge of the duties incumbent upon a municipal officer becomes difficult if not
impossible to fix with scores or perhaps hundreds of local and federal office holders and
appointees, involved. The vital element of personal rapport becomes the first casualty to
planned confusion parading as "Metropolitan Government."

LOS ANGELES PLAN

Under continuing and growing federal pressure, coupled with a threat to reduce or cut off
federal money for other projects, the Los Angeles City Council is presently grappling with
a program called SCAG - S.C.A.G. SCAG, or the Southern California Association of Govern-
ments, is a typical example of federal intrusion into the affairs of the people, an
intrusion specifically prohibited by the Constitution. The program, presented by the
planners as a device by which future federal intervention may be avoided, is clearly the
product of Great Society planning in the area of urban affairs. If more proof is required
to establish the intensity of Washington in a matter of this kind one need go no further
than the words of Mr. Calvin Hamilton, master planner for the City of Los Angeles. On
November 10th, Mr. Hamilton said, in part, and I quote:

"The Federal Government has made it clear that they will not grant any money or
federal funds to open space until there is a regional planning program.....if the

city is to receive any federal funds, we must join SCAG."
A COUNTRY OF REGIONS

Mr. Hamilton's phrase "regional planning" emphasizes the intent of Great Society planners
to compartment the nation into a number of "regions", each of which must, under the pro-
visions of the Public Works and Economic Development Act of 1965, prepare and submit to
Washington, D. C. a comprehensive "master plan" for the region. The plan, and again we

stress, without the suggestion of constitutional authority, must be approved in Washington

in 7 tee.

by the architects of the Great Society, and the agents and officials who accompany the
federal money to the region where it is to be disbursed, will, of course, be empowered
to override and to veto any local proposal at variance with the approved blueprint. You
can get in to talk with your councilman now, but I suggest that getting an appointment
with the Secretary of Commerce or with any of his agents who will exercise final control

over "regional" matters will be considerably more difficult.

MAKEUP OF SCAG

The proposed organization of SCAG (and any of you viewers and listeners may awaken one
day to find SCAG's blood-brother on the doorstep) reminds one of the elements which

comprise the United Nations - the Security Council and the General Assembly. The

"General Assembly" organization would include delegates from six Southern California

counties, and from each of 142 cities in those counties wishing to affiliate. Los Angeles
County, as the most populous of the counties involved, would carry a proportionate share
of the non-federal financial load. The "Security Council", so to speak, would be composed
of one delegate from each of six cities in the participating counties; i Supervisor from
each county; and a permanent delegate from Los Angeles, presumably the Mayor of that city.
If you find this whole thing a little difficult to grasp, ladies and gentlemen, don't

despair. You have plenty of company!

VOLUNTARY COOPERATION . .. OR ELSE!

The advocates of such regional undertakings as Metropolitan Government, SCAG, Urban Renewal,
and other federally-initiated and subsidized undertakings, point out the all-too=obvious
complexities confronting local subdivisions of government. Admittedly, population explosion,
mass migration of people, diminished tax revenues at the municipal and county levels of
government have rendered infinitely more difficult the administration of the public business.
Add to these difficulties the unconcealed threat of a cut-off of federal funds unless local
officials acquiesce in the demands of the federal planners, and what sometimes appears a
‘willingness on the part of harassed office holders to jump on the federal band-wagon becomes
somewhat clearer. It is not so much that the problems confronting our people are impossible
of solution at the grass roots, however. Left to their own devices, free to exercise their
own initiative, Americans have always demonstrated a unique capacity for landing on their
feet following a social, political or economic dislocation or explosion. It is only when
they are shackled, herded, blackjacked into compliance with orders from on high that their
native judgments become confused and their traditional self-reliance falters. Mr, and

Mrs. John America are, first of all, individualists. When something goes wrong, when taxes
soar out of sight, when they think that money is being wasted, they want someone to talk

to, One can corner Mayor Smith or Councilman Brown, but even if one understands what the

Great Society is, or is supposed to be, it's hard to get it on the telephone.

SCAG POSTPONED TEMPORARILY

Before some of this Reporter's audience in other areas sees or hears this broadcast, the
matter of SCAG will have been decided as far as Southern California is concerned. It is
to the credit of the City Council of Los Angeles that they laid the matter aside for a
month in order to allow further study of a very involved proposal. It is to be hoped that
the threat of a cut-off of other federal money will not be permitted to influence a final

and irreyocable decision in the matter. Meanwhile we urge that our listeners in Southern


California communicate their opinions to their own mayors and city couacilmen, with a
reminder that they are elected to tend shop in their own communities and that if a need
for regional representation ever develops, space can be provided on election ballots to
accomodate the names of candidates for those positions. This great country isn't a

gridded series of "regions" or "areas". Much has been said and written about the main-

stream of American life, what it is, what it comprises, and where it is moving. Without

laboring these questions, ladies and gentlemen, I would suggest that its source is in the
legislative chambers of city and town halls from coast to coast. For it is there that our
people speak with authority and with a purpose born of familiarity with their peculiar and
non-"regional" problems. Federal money IS important, but even more important is the citizen's
right to confront personally his elected representatives and demand an accounting of offical
acts. This will be lost to you - and to you - and to you - when your address becomes John
Doe, Federal Region #9, Redevelopment District #4, Portland Area 8, Zip Code 99999. Remember,
ladies and gentlemen, the "least government" is still "the best government",

CAPITOL REPORTER TV-RADIO LOG

RADIO TELEVISION (cont)
Long Beach, Calif. KFOX Eureka, Calit. KIEM Sat. 4:30 PM
Riverside, Calif. KACE Fri. Fresno, Calif. KICU
Santa Barbara, Calif. KIST Sun. Redding, Calif.(2) KRCR Sat.
San Diego, Calif. XEMO Mon. Sun.
Bakersfield, Calif. KGEE Sat. Salinas, Calif. KSBW Sun. 4:30 PM
Chico, Calif. KPAY Sun. San Luis Obispo, Calif, KSBY Sun. 4:30
Eureka, Calif. KRED Sun. San Francisco, Calif KTVU Sun. 10:
Fresno, Calif. KBIF Fri. Santa Maria, Calif. KCOY Sun. 6:3
Lake Tahoe, Calif. KTHO Sat. Anchorage, Alaska KTVA Sat.
Lodi, Calif. KCVR Sun. Fairbanks, Alaska KTVE Sat.
Redding, Calif. KVIP Sun. Phoenix, Ariz. KPHO Sun.
San Francisco, Calif. KPAX Sun. Tuscon, Ariz, KGUN Sun.
Wailuku, Hawaii KMVI Mon. Yuma, Ariz. KIVA Sun.
Boise, Idaho KYME Mon. Honolulu, Hawaii KTRG Sun.
Reno, Nevada KBET Mon. Sun.
Eugene, Oregon KWFS Idaho Falls, Idaho KIFI Sun.
Portland, Oregon KPDQ Saturday Noon Las Vegas, Nevada KSHO Sun.
Salt Lake City, Utah KSEX Fri, 12:15: Pu Reno, Nevada KCRL Sun.
Spanish Fork, Utah KONI Sat, 8:30 AM Medford, Oregon KTIVM Sun.
Spokane, Wash KPEG Wed. 12:15 PM Klamath Falls, Oregon = KOTI Sun.
Eugene, Oregon KEZI Sun.
Eugene, Oregon KVAL Sun.
TELEVISION Roseburg, Oregon KPIC Sun.

Los Angeles, Calif. KCOP Sun. 9:30 PM Coos Bay, Oregon KCBY Sun,
San Diego, Calif. XETV Sun. 12:00 Noon Portland, Oregon KPTV Sun,
Mexicalli, B, Cal. XHEC Sun. 3:30 PM El Paso, Texas KELP Sun.
Bakersfield, Calif. KLYD Sat. 6:30 PM Yakima, Wash. KNDO Sun.
Chico/Redding, Calif. KHSL Sun. 10:00 AM Tacoma, Wash. KTVW Sun.

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Donald L. Jackson is sponsored on radio and television by DR, ROSS PET FOODS and permission
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