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Show Clyde Reports . . . THE GOVERNOR'S COLUMN The Conference of Western Governors, Gov-ernors, h:-ld in Colorado Spring's last week, was productive of many things. Most of all, I think it showed show-ed that the States of the great West have a common understanding understand-ing of common problems, and a desire to cooperate in solving them. This understanding and this cooperation co-operation are impreative if the comparatively sparsely-populated Went is t, hold its rightful place in the national picture. The Western Governor's Con-f Con-f rences both this year's affair at Colorado Springs and the 1957 edition edi-tion at Reno-have been impressive impres-sive in their concentration on productive pro-ductive work. The social side of the conferences has been difinitely secondary sec-ondary to the serious purpose of the meetings. I believe the National Nation-al Governors' Conference could Ieam something from the western group in this regard. Here are some of the highlights that emerged from last week's meetings in Colorado Spring's. The problems of interstate institutions. in-stitutions. In all of our Western States, except California, there is a real problem in dealing with women prisoners, defective delinquents, delin-quents, sexual psychopaths and other special groups who are disruptive dis-ruptive influences when placed in our state prisons. The smaller states cannot afford to construct and maintain -separate institutions for each of these problem groups, but it may be possible to construct one specialized institution in each of several states and operate them on a cooperative basis. I realize there are many problems involved in such a program, but the discussions discus-sions at Colorado Springs cpened the way to a full study oT the situation, which should be highly beneficial to all of the states concerned. con-cerned. In this regard, we found that Oregon was further advanced in the field of specialized institutions institu-tions than any of the other Western West-ern States California excepted, of course and Governor Holmes of Oregon made a generous offer of cooperative -assistance during the study period, which will be fully explored. Western mining problems; The Western Governors unanimously reiterated tne stand taKen -a year ago at Reno, urging the feredal government to give adequate support sup-port -to maintain a healthy domes-tim domes-tim mining industry as essential to national security. The National Guard. The Pentagon Penta-gon plan to reduce the strength of the National Guard would affect every state and many communities within each state, as well as weakening weak-ening our national defense. I Introduced Intro-duced a resolution, which was unanimously un-animously approved by the West-em West-em Governors at the very beginning begin-ning of the conference, urging that the present unit and numerical strength of the Guard be preserved. The resolution was immediately sent to Washington, where hearings hear-ings were In process on this vital subject. The highway program : The Western Wes-tern Governors urged that the original or-iginal schedule for the Interstate (so-called Superhighway) Program which would bring it to completion in another thirteen years, be maintained main-tained and that there be no reduction re-duction in construction standards. Any other program would be both short-sighted and costly and would give us a highway system that would be outmoded before It was completed. During the Western Governors' meeting, the Governors of the four Upper Colorado River Basin States took the opportunity of being together to-gether to hold a number of meetings meet-ings of their own toi discuss the Colorado River Storage Project. The meetings reaffirmed the complete com-plete solidarity of the four states on the subject of this vital program. pro-gram. We called Senator Watkins by telephone and received a full report cf his discussions with the President, and all of the Governors agreed to contact their states' Congressional Delegations to assure as-sure a four-state united front in Washington in the effort to obtain approval for an accelerated program pro-gram this year. This would be 'effective 'ef-fective in combatting the national problem of rising unemployment, as well as providing the most efficient ef-ficient and economical program for completing the Colorado River Storage Project -itself. |