Government, Politics, and Citizen Involvement; John F. Collins

Ladies and gentleman and welcome to this the last in a series of lectures entitled government politics and citizen involvement. We're especially on it this evening to have as our guest lecturer is on a marriage John F.. Few men in all history of the exercise has substantial influence over their native city as has his honor for in his first term in office he was able to provide the leadership that converted a decaying demoralized and disorganized community into an all American city. In recognition of this morn you mental piece of leadership no less than seven national magazines produced feature articles on his on his picture appeared on the cover of Time magazine and fortune described him as a man with a unified mind. Architectural form in an unprecedented move devoted a complete issue to the New Boston. But perhaps his most significant tribute was the honorary degree that was awarded to him in 1964 by Harvard University. He was the first mayor of the city of Boston in the three hundred and twenty eight year history of Harvard

University ever to receive such an honor. The citation for that degree described the man as the courageous rebuilder of a noble. Lost his leadership has given the hob a new spin. There is no doubt that he deserves to be described as courageous while campaigning for the city council in 1055. He and three of his children were stricken with polio. His three children recovered completely but he was informed by his doctors that he would never walk again. Undaunted he continued his campaign from his hospital bed and when he was elected he vowed to attend the first meeting of the council. He did and he attended every meeting thereafter. Ladies and gentlemen it's my great honor and privilege to present to you distinguished and dedicated mare to the city of Boston where John F. THOMAS. It'll thank you very much Dick for that very fulsome introduction. I think it's only fair to tell you that

the institution our publication which was extravagant enough to describe me as having a universe act mine would have to be prepared to recognize tonight that the machinery is rusted and also to concede that on April 14th I had prepared for an anticipation of April 14th. I had prepared a reasonably well considered matter thoroughly documented position paper to present to you on the question of election campaigns unfortunately I was unable to be here in a very splendid like you was delivered in my absence so I have been cast in the mold of one who more or less wraps up the loose ends of this very interesting programme which has been delivered to you over the past fourteen weeks. I give it a little bit of thought as to how to organize it and I think I've come to the conclusion which you will rapidly discover to not organize it too tightly.

But to see whether or not we can cover some twenty odd years of politics involvement in public issues and particularly citizen involvement involvement and then during the question period clear up any of the fuzzy edges that remain. I think one of the things that often concerns us is the problems which confront a candidate whether the office he is seeking is Representative Senate a city council a mare governor or something beyond. And the question of finances help techniques citizen assistance confront him on whatever level he is seeking election to public office. I remember my first election after the war and I believe one hundred and forty six when I used all of the terminal leave money that was at my disposal which was somewhere around nine hundred ninety dollars which happened also to be all of my liquid assets at that time to conduct the

campaign for representative in Roxbury. My total contributions where zero the draft movement which every candidate for public office tells him has prompted him to become a candidate for office was totally absent in my case. There was no popular draft visible to May and perhaps to anyone else in the office. I ran two years later for the same office with the same net contribution zero. I was a lawyer at the time and enjoyed the practice of law and enjoyed serving in the house. I enjoyed the feeling of closeness to people and I had a neighborhood office in Roxbury and it served as a combination lock our office an area in which to see our constituents. And I served for a very happy is in the House of Representatives in 1950 I was a candidate for the

Senate. And again there was no particularly visible draft movement. But I thought that after four years in the house that I should and Devore to obtain some other form of public office in which perhaps I might have a somewhat broader opportunity to voice whatever ideas I had and I ran for the Senate. This was my first contact with more experienced and better financed opponents. I've been having considerable experience with both categories ever since that time in 1950 I was opposed by one gentleman who had been in office some 12 or 16 years. Another foremost a comparable period of time and it was conceded before the election that one of two people would win and that I was the third. Unfortunately I for the profits once again in the nearly way I know won by a very small margin of votes about one hundred fifty three votes and you wouldn't believe the amount of

money that we spent in that campaign. I don't believe that anybody conducts a house contest for the amount of money that we spend in the Senate fight. I'm merely tracing the cost of campaigns for you I ran for the Senate again was elected and some of you may or may not remember the nineteen hundred and fifty four I was the Democratic nominee for attorney general. You might be interested in the cost of campaigning in 1054. I raised and expended from the moment that I announced my candidacy through the convention through the primary and through the election. Fifty three thousand dollars I spent sixty seven thousand dollars for the conclusion of that campaign. I owed about $14000. The great bulk of which I had discharged by the following September when the circumstance which Dick is

referred to be film my family and myself. I think it's safe to say that no state campaign since has been conducted for four times that amount of money for that office saw scarcely any other. And while we're talking of financing campaigns I think perhaps I'm out of step in many ways with current political activities in the method the modus operandi of raising money. Since I entered politics in 1046 we've had two dinners. One was held in East Newton Street armory in 1950 when I was like to the Senate and the child for that dinner was $5 and the second dinner was one held in Blaine stubs for $15 when I was a candidate for mayor in 1959. There are others who find it possible or even desirable to hold the dinners for the for amounts ranging up to.

You name it every six weeks at least it seems to me that they're held every six weeks and I'm not entirely sure that it's a Saturday Terry thing to be happening in politics. I thought perhaps that we might be interested in analyzing one of the two campaigns since your purpose here is your avowed interest in politics. I suppose it would be improper if I failed to mention the Marilee campaign in 1959 because I suppose that was the most interesting and certainly the most celebrated campaign in which I was involved. Most of you remember the circumstance as you recall it at that time. My opponent who had been an opponent of Matt Hines for years previously and come rather close in the ultimate election was an odds on favorite to win. He had every degree of support from every segment of the population. Money was no object and he had a very well organized campaign. And he is a

very intelligent political figure who knows precisely what he's doing in the course of a campaign on every day during the campaign. Our principal problem is you're a member at that time was to succeed in being one of the two people nominated in the preliminary election. Having been my original theory that there was simply not enough people who desired my opponent. If it came to a two man contest I was fully prepared to admit that if this were the all style election prior to the plan a chatter in which three or four or five people are contestants from air the one receiving the highest vote is elected there would be no question of the outcome. Mr. Powers would inevitably and absolutely have been met. It was an interesting thing to notice the change in the attitude of the citizenry of Boston during the course of that campaign. I suspect that

when the campaign commenced an awful lot of people in the city including some of my close friends smiled benignly at me when I talked of mining for man but kept their Fard when they were chatting about it to their wife. Later on that night and as the as the campaign progressed I think that the first obvious sign that something was happening and the citizenry was coming to the conclusion that it was possible for more than one person to win the election was when we would stop at a traffic light. People who would be crossing the street would stop and turn and say good luck or we're with Deal or are you doing a good job. Oya trying had. In any event some three or four weeks before the primary campaign they were beginning to manifest a consciousness of the fact that there was a contest. The moment that the preliminary election was over and the two candidates were nominated I think then a crystallization of thought took

place and all of the things which transpired over the last four or five weeks probably didn't change an awful lot of votes. I often wondered too whether we fully appreciate what the people of Boston have done since 1960 and contrary to what forum our fortune or any of the other magazines may indicate. The job of running a modern city is not a job for which the credit can be taken by any one person because it's most certainly not a job that any one person and build a city is and is an urban unit which is unmanageable by any one person. I suspect that the basic ingredient for making a city a city where the of management in a city which is manageable is a realization by the people that they do have a potential for changing the

course which their city is taking. And the late 1950s those of you who were here at that time can recall that there was a feeling of hopelessness abound in Boston and that we had lost a hundred thousand people in the 10 years between 1950 and 60. There were a hundred thousand people of the kind in type when we could least afford to lose. And in the 25 years before 1960 we had lost some 500 million dollars in assessable property. That was exactly one quarter of our total assessable tax base. So that had been reduced in that 25 year period from 2 billion to 1 and 1 1/2 billion dollars. But more significantly than this more significantly than the fact that blight indicated it was proceeding at an inordinate rate was the feeling of hopelessness that was evident everywhere in the city as to the power of the

people. The change is the direction in which the city was heading. I think the most significant thing that happened in early 1960 was the taking of stock by various segments of the population not only the business community by any means although there's been much more reference to the business community than to any of the neighborhood groups which which participated in the basic decisions to remake the city. It was a stock taking. There was a decision that Boston deserved this one last clear chance to remake itself or to disappear forever as one of the foremost cities of America. And the phrase working with people which has been scoffed at by many people is something fine more important than a catchphrase because where organisations did not exist they were created and in a variety and a series of meetings in many parts of the

city where health and during those meetings the revival of the Spirit. Was enhanced and together many decisions were made and I think they have borne fruit and I don't think they have to be elaborated. I'd like to point out to you here and it's not my purpose to talk too much about current issues but I would like to merely mention to you that those of you who love Boston and those of you who love Massachusetts shouldn't take too much comfort and solace in the fact that the Prudential Center has been completed that this morning we were raised one of the traditional fir trees to the top of one cent a plaza signifying at least the outside completion of one of the segment of government center and that were in the middle of a 2 billion dollar building boom. All of these things would seem to indicate that all is well.

That's certainly not true. The city has made great strides. We've stabilized our tax base. We've retrained. We've cut expenses. We've reorganized departments. But we are still faced with an enormous imbalance that is so huge that it makes it almost impossible for anyone to translate the sense of urgency that exists in this state. If the imbalance were small. All responsible people would say well it's only a small amount of money let's throw the additional money on the additional weight on the other side of the scales. Let's put our fiscal house in order. The difficulty here however is that it has been neglected for so long and citizen participation has been so nonexistent for the last 50 years that we find ourselves with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts where the public school system started

last 50th in this nation in the per capita state aid to local education. We in Massachusetts receive a statewide average of 8 percent is state aid to local education. The national average is 40 percent. Twenty seven states in America have long since come to the conclusion that the factors and the causes which create a welfare load are either national or regional in origin and certainly do not originate with in Chelsea or Boston or Winthrop on Newton of Brooklyn and they've come to the rather intelligent conclusion that as a result the costs for welfare should be borne between the federal and the state government. Not so Massachusetts Boston's share of the welfare load last year was some 19 million dollars. We have a state system of jurisprudence here. At least it's referred to

as the Massachusetts system of jurisprudence. It cost the city of Boston nine million dollars a year to maintain the courts in Suffolk County. There are these three items alone. A brain up to somewhere close to away don't ask us to get to the median. We don't ask to go to the 40 percent which is the national average. But perhaps if we could go to 25 percent to have the Commonwealth assume the cost of welfare and to assume the cost of the operation of the court system this would give the cities of Massachusetts an opportunity to remain solvent. Want to become solvent. Whichever the case may be and to become competitive with cities and other sections of the country particularly in the eastern seaboard. When you think of the private investment that has come forward to build in Boston it is nothing short of miraculous when you

consider that first if you were a group of private real estate investor laws or trustees considering where you were going to put your risk capital you could take a look down the Eastern Seaboard and you could see Philadelphia with an effective real estate tax of between forty and fifty dollars and you would not concern yourself with the fact that Philadelphia has a gross receipts tax a payroll tax and five other sources administer revenue. All it would concern you will is the property tax because it is that tax which determines the return on your investment. If you didn't like Philadelphia despite the presence of the bell with a crack in it you might go you might look further you might go to New York you might remember that New Yok as a minister told sales tax 49 other sources of municipal revenue plus a property tax and the only thing that would

concern you is the latter. And even though I read in The New York papers this weekend that there was a two hundred and fifty million dollar gap between male Wagner's proposed budget and the money available to pay for it. That really wouldn't concern you if you're a real estate investor or is because you're quite confident of the fact that the greater freedom given to cities and towns in New York to levy taxes would spare your real estate property and it would go somewhere else. The fact that the spite those things and the similar illustrations could be given of cities up and down the Eastern Seaboard. The fact that real estate investor has come to Massachusetts and invest in Boston with $100 tax rate in imminent danger of becoming much higher certainly underscores the fact that we have some assets here of which perhaps not all of us are aware. Perhaps it's our sense of history. Perhaps it's our varied recreational area. Perhaps this is the caliber of our people. Perhaps it's some intangible

but whatever it is. Thank the good Lord fart because the degree of responsibility which has been manifested by political leaders and I suppose people those in many cases political leaders do exactly what people tell them to do. As said no examples for the nation. And I think that the debate which is going on. I don't think it can be called a debate as yet because I get the impression that there are several people talking on different wavelengths on any event on different railroad tracks and they are passing like trains in the night without without ever making metal contact. But ultimately it will become a debate. It will become a dialogue and I think the thing that we have to concern ourselves with as citizens and as people who are concerned with the solvency of the cities and towns as well as the Commonwealth that we have face briefly with a very

dire fiscal crisis the state owes 65 million dollars now must raise 65 million dollars in order to meet its payroll. As of June 1. There are expansion items which will no doubt be voters so that perhaps 75 to 80 million dollars will be needed for state purposes. The bill which is currently the subject under discussion Governor of Opie's bill. Takes cognizance of one basic fact that there is more to discrimination than discrimination because of race and creed and color discrimination by accident of locus of birth is discrimination which works perhaps even a greater economic hardship on the people of this commonwealth. Then does any other kind. The mere fact that a child happens to be

born to parents in Newton or Wellesley or Brookline or Weston or many of the other more well-to-do communities in this in this Commonwealth does not entitle him to a better education by virtue of the fact that he was born in that area and he does receive a better education even though less of a percentage of the total available wealth of that town is spent for education more R per capita. However a spend per student then can possibly be expanded by Boston or Fall River on Newton. All lines or any of the other older cities of the state and the basis of the governor's tax program is a recognition that a state collected system of taxation and a distribution for educational purposes in inverse ratio the ability of the cities and towns to pay is proper.

It's equitable and it's necessary. Over and above that without being as clearly stated to date as it might be is an expressed intent for the Commonwealth to assume the inflationary costs of welfare and for the Commonwealth to assume the cost of the administration of a court system. The overall need is two hundred twenty five million dollars. The details of the governor's tax program are not of the greatest consequence. I happen to think it's a reasonably responsible package of mine which I can and do support. The thing the way John said of those of Massachusetts who care about the future of the state and cities should address themselves is the need. The need is for two hundred twenty five million dollars the need is to prevent cities from having tax rates of one hundred twenty five and a hundred fifty

dollars in a few years. The need is to afford equal educational opportunity to everyone in the state and to have the state assume its fair share of its responsibility. And if it's necessary for us the alleged leaders of this commonwealth and the people together to grab day Massachusetts and drag her screaming and kicking into this century then this perhaps is the only way it can happen. But legislate as a human being is and you've seen some of them here and they look for a convenient reason not to have to vote for taxes any tax. That doesn't make any difference where the tag is the package that was originally presented as an income tax or a sales tax. Any one of us if we set about picking flaws in it could find something wrong with it. We have to tell our

legislators that we accept the fact that there is the need for a basic provision of our tax structure. The details of it we can leave up to them. You're going to advise them what you think best. But we cannot settle for any piecemeal solution which will balance the state budget and then say to the man as the school committees of Massachusetts. Well Mr. Marron members of the school committee we can't implement the Willis Commission report this year anyway. Is there just isn't time. Why don't we study a little bit more. And why don't we find the distribution formula just a little bit. And by nine thousand nine hundred sixty seven will be ready and able to give you a clearer picture as to just how much assistance these cities and towns can anticipate. Well therefore let's pretend that this fiscal crisis doesn't exist if that happens. The building boom which is underway in metropolitan Boston will grind to a halt. The ambitious plans of many people for construction of new facilities in

Boston will hand and will establish a record of fiscal responsibility which will equal Mr. Mann and whims of the state of Michigan. I just don't think we can permit that to happen. And when we talk of citizens action it's all well and good for us to become visibly upset about constitutional reform about voter registration and about many of the glamorous things that seem to have sex appeal to all of us calling for involvement in every day political activity. But with the successful conclusion of constitutional reform it will still be several years before the effects are felt unless the fiscal imbalance is removed in the interim. Reform will be will be practiced on something which is approaching the status of a corpse.

I would hope that we can get to and we can come to grips with some of the basic questions of this era and do it now and do it before the last clear opportunity escapes us how to do it. And someone suggested that one of the things that I might mention here today before the question period commences is the kinds of pressures which are constantly upon a public officeholder I suppose that no one sees them more clearly than the man because if the weather is good. Father Joyce took care of that with a good lot. If the weather is bad the med and that same thing is true of all beneficial and adverse elements within our community. If. If desirable aspects of the city call for recognition the man may have had a minor part to play in it but some department head or some

business organization perhaps was primarily responsible. But if we have a situation of blight in a neighborhood life which is built up over 50 60 70 years a very sponsible avaricious landlords and in some cases at least irresponsible tenants and constant neglect perhaps by municipal as well as state officials someone comes to the office pounding the desk and says Mr Mack 60 days get rid of the blight. Well that's wonderful. Again Father Joyce I think that's your department. I don't and I don't think I can accomplish that kind of America. But there are ways of encouraging officials instead of threatening them. And I think in the main in this city people have been very very responsible and very very decent in the way they approach their elected officials. I've been

chastised by experts in the newspaper verbal and just about every other way. And this despite the fact perhaps that more as happened in five years than any 50 and I deserve it because every one of us deserves to be caught up occasionally have the halo tipped to one side and have the part of his epidermis that meets the chair kicked occasionally because it does us all a little bit of good. And I am very very pleased to acknowledge the support that we've received in every section of the city from people who are upset properly upset properly impatient and I couldn't help thinking when I was considering the aspects of the Economic Opportunity program today and their effect on some of the problems which exist in America that I'm not entirely sure whether the economic opportunity for the program which was an act that was enacted as a result of.

They finally acknowledged a sense of embarrassment because of procrastination with problems which everyone conceded to exist. But most everyone tried to sweep under the rug or whether it really is a spirit of charity and concern for our fellow man. It is a bold procedure which sets an example for the country. There are a few public officials like to turn over the reins of the program to the people for whom you're trying to do something to the people for whom you're trying to do it. I think this is an attitude that has to be changed and I think that in this case we're going to afford the people an opportunity to make some decisions by themselves that they've made with some guidance in the past. I don't think any of us should believe and I certainly don't. That six

months of night school is going to make an unskilled male member of a family with a variety of social problems suddenly become a responsible member of society becomes a tax payer instead of a tax consumer. I don't think any of us should think that poverty is going to be overcome at a price less than many times the billion dollars that has been discussed today. But in any event it's a start. It's an acknowledgement that we have failed and our failure in the past our failure in conducting a welfare program for 35 years which has really only perpetuated a series of welfare recipients. This failure has been an embarrassment. Been a barrister into this whole country of ours. But to fail again when we now have the money available the knowledge and the program

be more than embarrassment it would be in agony. These next two years are going to be very interesting four or five years the four of them equally so I don't know whether I'll be observing the second time sequence the four years which follow them from that side of the table or this one. In any event I'm going to be a most interested spectator. Thank you very much. Uhm.