put away or should we say murdered? We admit speculation, but we plead there has been nothing to indicate otherwise. Gentlemen of the Rules Committee, were you to recommend the confirmation of this nomination, we fear you would be placing your trust in a bruised reed, one who cannot, does not command the respect of the majority of the people of the United States. Among other reasons for the denial of this nomination, we speak with a deep feeling about the electoral process that makes America the great democracy she is and we refer to a paramount fact inherent in the background of each of you who sit here before me. Each of you were elected to a national office, representing a segment of this country; a position you sought, one to enable you to bear true faith and allegiance to our Constitution. A position that gives to you an opportunity to express your feelings and the opinions of those you represent here in this Congress of the United States. This is what democracy is all about. This is why you would allow someone like me to be here and to speak my feelings and the feelings of those we represent. We respectfully submit, gentlemen, has Governor Rockefeller stood for election to a national office? Has he ever been a part of the finding out what the rank and file voter really feels about his country? Our answer is no-to a point. Our response is; look at his record in primaries, it is only when he needs the people that he discards his aloofness and comes to the voter. The very fact of his financial status removes him from those who need his help most. For us the answer is plain. He just is not presidential material. The people know and this knowledge has been reflected in his past performances. We wonder, too, is this nomination a result of political expediency? Be it political expediency, then this nomination is that much more suspect. We have had too much expediency and too little honesty. It is time that we, you and I, and all Americans have political leaders who put the cause of America first; a time that our leaders think of all the people and do what is right and just, and not what is necessary to maintain a political party. Again turn to New York State and consider the waste of Federal and state funds in the welfare programs administered under the direction of the Rockefeller Administration. Here we admit lack of knowledge, but if the news media bears any credence, then the whole country knows the embarrassment of the waste in welfare funds in New York State. In summation, we ask you to recall, if you will, the reflections of Justice Story of the Supreme Court, wherein he was appalled at the shortness of the lives of Republics and commented, "should we fail, probably ours will be the last experiment in self-government." The question here for your consideration is, "how shall you and I comport ourselves so that our government shall not terminate and perish from this earth?" The answer is plain: if men are guided by conscience in the discharge of their public duties, if men will learn from the voice of religion what are public and what are private rights, and bend their wills to respect them, to respect authority, to reverence and obey just laws, and above all, if they will protect the purity and integrity of society, then undoubtedly our country will survive. If we, you and I, believe this government is best suited to the needs of our people, if we believe that through it, under God, we can best realize the ends for which our civil society was established, then we let all who might call themselves patriots ever keep uppermost in his mind those great principles of virtue and morality that forms the foundation of republican government. Remember, Gentlemen, the Constitution was a protest of an outraged people against the violation of our rights as freemen. The structure of our country was reared by men of consumate skill and fidelity, its foundations are solid and its defences are impregnable from without, it may, nevertheless, perish in an hour if its keepers, you and those who administer the laws of this country, are negligent. Republics fall when wise men are banished from public counsels because they dare to be honest, for the profigate are rewarded because they flatter the people in order to betray them. So we say to Gov. Rockefeller, and to you, Members of the Senate Rules Committee, stand to your duty, the valor we ask of you is the morality of the Constitution wherein all, the young, the old, the born and unborn, have this one chance to live and die as freemen. We ask you to reject one who does not cultivate a strong moral virtue, a virtue that constitutes the natural dignity of man. If Gov. Rockefeller does not stand for justice, temperance and the subjection of the purely animal, and abortion is purely animal, we say if Gov. Rockefeller is confirmed, our country really does rest on a bruised reed when she looks to this man as Vice President. Thank You. STATEMENT OF RONALD F. DOCKAI, NATIONAL CHAIRMAN OF YOUNG AMERICANS FOR FREEDOM Gentleman, I am here this morning to represent the views of tens of thousands of Young Americans for Freedom, a conservative student organization which while generous in spirit, has not been characterized as a zealous supporter of former Governor Rockefeller. Frankly, this is true. As the leading youth opposition to the political and social radicalism of the last decade, Young Americans for Freedom sees this New Left movement as the logical extension of the relativist Liberalism Mr. Rockefeller's political works have symbolized over the years. Leaving our ideological preferences aside, however, the brief testimony being presented to you this morning is concerned with Mr. Rockefeller's qualifications for Vice President, not his potential membership into the ranks of the young conservatives. We appreciate the special role of your committee--special in the sense that by the process of your judicious proceedings, you are also determining the electoral preferences of the American people who have not had the privilege of voting against Mr. Rockefeller in a national election. We hope you will not let us down. The American people have experienced a decade of Vietnam and what appears to have been a century of Watergate. We are tired, and we have grown more skeptical about government and its tenants. There lies beneath the surface of our skepticism the nagging feeling lately that some of our Presidents have been governing less and ruling more; that as our highest national offices have been exalted, the hunger for influence and the other sacraments of power has increased. In short, we need to be reassured and not frightened by political leaders free of the image of special privilege and influence. It is in this regard that we hope you find the candidacy of Nelson Rockefeller for Vice President unacceptable, and that you request the President to nominate an individual whose personal fortunes do not pose a similarly irrevocable conflict with the public interest. Mr. Rockefeller has assured us that he would be able to perform his duties as Vice President without regard to his "personal savings," more accurately described as the wealth of nations. However, you cannot put America in a blind trust nor can you entrust the office of Vice President to any man whose economic interests touch nearly every sphere of American life. The problem was ably posed by the Washington Post1as follows: "If President Ford wants oil prices held down, he could speak to the Veep who could talk to his family. They control the largest bloc of Exxon stock and have a substantial presence in three other major oil companies: Mobil, Amoco, and Standard of California. "If 'Vice President' Rockefeller tours the Middle East, he may find tracks in the sand left by his brother David, who, as chairman of Chase Manhattan, the family bank, has been consulting the Arab sheikhs on where to invest their money-the bulging forune from their oil wells. "If 'President' Rockefeller asks the CIA for intelligence on the Soviet Union or China, he could take comfort in the knowledge that the spy-plane reconnaissance photos were taken with Rockefeller-made electronic gizmos-by Itek. "If he wants to check on conditions in Latin America, the stomping ground of his youth, he can do it through his own personal company-IBEC, or International Basic Economy Corp.-now run by his son Rodman. It's a miniconglomerate with affiliates in 30 countries and sales this year of more than $300 million-housing and supermarkets, mutual funds and coffee marketing, poultry and canned fish. "If the television networks give 'Vice President' Rockefeller a bad time, he might turn to a friend at Chase Manhattan. According to a Senate subcommittee's study of corporate ownership, the bank controls respectable minority blocks of stock in CBS, ABC and NBC, not to mention modest bites of The New York Times and Time-Life Inc. "Taxes, the environment, government regulation of business, prices, interest rates, overseas diplomacy, war and peace-Rockefeller interests are enhanced or hurt by government policy-making in practically every major area of American life." If Mr. Rockefeller were St. Francis of Assisi, we could bestow his bank stocks to David and the rest of the world to the working poor, many of whom assumed 1 William Greider, Washington Post, Sunday, September 22, 1974. that position as New York State taxpayers under the Rockefeller administration. As fleible as the former governor has been, however, we do not expect this to happen. And as long as it does not, as long as he remains the national economy's chairman of the board, it will make any government claim to fair and impartial policy-making in, for example, the field of anti-trust frivolous. The risks of a conflict of interest are too great, a conflict for the young insurance claims adjuster of our government's insurance system (OPIC) whose boss is the Vice President and who must deal impartially with any claim made by any one of the multitude of Chase Manhattan interests abroad. Attendant to the problem of a conflict of interest is Mr. Rockefeller's bad administrative record as steward of New York State's economy. It has been reported to this committee during previous testimony that from 1959 through fiscal 1974, New York State's budget increased from $1.9 billion to nearly $9 billion, while real earnings in New York State failed to keep up with the national index, a function of overtaxation. As reported in Barron's: 2 "Under Rockefeller, taxes were imposed or increased at least every other year: in 1959, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1971 and 1972. During his tenure in office, the maximum rate on the personal income tax more than doubled, from 7% to 15%. Over the same period, the state gasoline levy advanced from four to eight cents a gallon, the cigarette tax from three to fifteen cents per pack. A 4% state sales tax went on the books. All told, in fifteen years the tax load nearly quadrupled, to the point where according to the Citizens Public Expenditure Survey, Inc., taxpayers in New York State are the most overburdened in the land." In short, at a time when inflation and an anemic stock index needs a prudent and frugal leader at the helm of our political economy, the President is recommending a man whose name symbolizes burgeoning taxation. Finally, we must not forget that the election of 1972 is our only legitimate proof of a discernible, national mandate. That mandate prescribed a governmental policy of conservative economic policy, of traditional social values which are not representative of Mr. Rockefeller's noted positions in favor of abortion. If we are able to be true to that mandate and faithful to the American people, we cannot afford to have Nelson Rockefeller as Vice President of the United States. August 19, 1974, Robert Bleiberg. NOMINATION OF NELSON A. ROCKEFELLER OF NEW YORK TO BE VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1974 U.S. SENATE, COMMITTEE ON RULES AND ADMINISTRATION, The committee met, pursuant to call, at 10:01 a.m., in room 318, Russell Senate Office Building, Hon. Howard W. Cannon (chairman), presiding. Present: Senators Cannon, Pell, Robert C. Byrd, Allen, Williams, Hugh Scott, Griffin, and Hatfield. Staff present: William McWhorter Cochrane, staff director; Chester H. Smith, chief counsel; Hugh Q. Alexander, senior counsel; Joseph E. O'Leary, professional staff member (minority); John P. Coder, professional staff member; Jack L. Sapp, professional staff member; Peggy Parrish, assistant chief clerk; James H. Duffy, chief counsel, Subcommittee on Privileges and Elections; James F. Schoener, minority counsel, Subcommittee on Privileges and Elections; and John K. Swearingen, staff director, Subcommittee on Computer Services. Also present: Richard D. Casad, chief investigator; and Harry Claiborne, special consultant. OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. HOWARD W. CANNON, CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE ON RULES AND ADMINISTRATION The CHAIRMAN. The committee will come to order. This morning, our purpose is to resume open hearings on the nomination of Nelson A. Rockefeller of New York to be Vice President of the United States, and to face up to certain important public policy questions that have arisen in recent weeks since we recessed. To recapitulate, this committee began its hearings on former Governor Rockefeller's nomination on September 23, shortly after it was received by the Senate from President Ford. To support our committee's acute awareness of its heavy responsibility that the Office of the Vice President be appropriately and expeditiously filled under provisions of the 25th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, the nominee testified and was questioned by this committee for 21/2 days. Subsequently, the testimony of six distinguished Senators and three Members of the House of Representatives was heard. Thereafter, 15 public witnesses testified. During the 4 days of our hearings, various implications of the nominee's possession of great wealth and his prospective service as Vice President were examined. Additionally, multiple aspects of his |