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REMARKS OF GOVERNOR FhRRIS BRYANT AT THE GOVERNOR'S DAY
LUNCHEON, THE FLORIDA STATE FAIR, TAMPA, FEBRUARY 13, 1962
(For release after 1:00 an Tuesday, February 13. 1962)
It is with pleasure that I once again have come to Tampa
to participate in the events connected with our all-Florida Fair
and the Gaspsrilla festivities. These events rank among the
brightest Jewels in the colorful crown of sparkling entertainment
which highlights our winter tourist season.
The Florida State Fair -- and the many regional fairs which
add luster to our year -- seem to me to have a special significance
and importance to those of us concerned with the image of Florida
our guests transmit to the rest of the nation and, indeed, the
world. here we offer a panorama, not only of unexcelled attractions
for merriment and enjoyment, but emphasizing an unparralleled
display of the products and produce which go to make up the Florida
we permanent residents know best. We have put on display far more
than souvenir materials. we are showing the handiwork of our
artists and our craftsmen, and our counties are here exhibiting
the agricultural and industrial products which, spurred by recent
growth, are today providing, with tourism, a sound base for our
economic advances and a literal launching pad for new growth and
gains.
It is fitting and proper that the Fair should this year. as
it has for every year within my memory, lay claim to being 'bigger
and better than ever! It is. But no more so than Florida itself,
which in the 12 months since we last gathered here has itself made
giant strides toward leadership among the states of this nation in
a number of significant fields. We have moved up a notch in the
pepulation standings to today be ninth among the states in the
quantity of our population, a status well in keeping with what I
firmly believe to be our stature as America's number one state so
far as the quality of our citizens is concerned.
Our growth has served to lead us toward a period of stability
in which we must concern ourselves not only with the problems of
meeting the immediate needs of an exploding population, but also
those of providing the foundation for long range activities which
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will insure the young people whose talents we display with pride at
the Fair, of Jobs, cultural opportunities; of services they will
need as they mature to live in comfort and in pleasure, and of
places to play adequate for an era of affluence and leisure.
Just as in the planning of this year's Fair, you have
looked to the development of its successors. so must Florida as a
state strive to keep the demands of the present from overshadowing
our awareness of the needs of the future. So great have been the
needs imposed upon us by the great growth we have experienced that
much of the last decade was spent running hard merely to keep up.
He must now, as never before, go the extra mile to see that
foundations are laid today for the expanding future which even yet
can be only dimly seen.
In no field is our position better illustrated than in the
field of education. In years of growth since the conclusion of
World war II our constant overriding concern has been the provision
of a sufficient quantity of facilities to meet the demands of a
school population which was always larger than we had planned. The
Minimum Foundation Program brought the state government into the
business of undergirding our educational system on a scale never
before dreamed. From a state contribution of $18 million state
aid was increased to $180 million. The stable revenue of motor
vehicle licenses was loaned to local school systems so that money
might be borrowed at reasonable rates of interest to finance a
tremendous capital outlay program. Increases in teachers salaries
from state funds was a biennial occurrence. So great did state aid
become that a ratio of 75$ state aid to 255 local contribution to
minimum foundation standards came to be accepted as a proper
division of effort.
As the flood of children went up through the twelve grades
to college level. Junior colleges were expanded from five in number
to twenty-eight, even so providing less than the facilities needed.
At the level of four year institutions the beautiful and functional
University of South Florida was established here in Hillsborough
County; appropriation was made for the new university at Boca Ratcn,
which because of local support through a fund drive to spur on its
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progress, will open on schedule in September, 1964, and plans were
laid for a new four-year institution in the rich and growing
western section of Florida.
All of these steps project an image of progress, but yet
are not enough to meet Florida's needs.
From the beginning of this administration we have known
that the future of Florida depends in a very real way upon our
ability to recognize, and upon our willingness to meet, the changing
educational requirements of the age in which we find ourselves.
It has been crystal-clear to us that the industrial
development of Florida -- impressive though it has been with gains
such as the 600 new plants that were established here last -- this
industrial development has been impaired and retarded by our
failure to recognize that modern industrial development cannot and
will not take place in any area which fails to provide strong
supporting educational programs at the highest levels of learning,
or which fails to provide appropriate programs within the reach of
the professionally trained workers whose continued productivity
depends upon their continuing education.
Last September at the opening of education month at the
Florida Showcase in Rockefeller Center I announced our intention
to "begin at once on the extension of our graduate study facilities
from our university campuses to the areas of the state where industry
has blossomed and to which industry has brought technically trained
personnel."
The State Board of Education and the Board of Control have
shared fully my conviction that this is a step upon which the
continued vitality of Florida's economy depends. All concerned,
including the leaders of our universities and the faculties, have
seen that we cannot sustain the high level of industry which we
already have in Florida, nor can we attract the industrial concerns
which went to come here unless we do what must be done to take
graduate study in appropriate forms to those sections of the state
where industry is new or will be located.
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Together we have moved forthrightly to furnish industry
what it must have -- the opportunity to avail itself or graduate
programs upon which it depends and to which it will provide
necessary support.
We have established a new space-age educational facility -
the Florida Institute for Continuing Studies. It is through this
agency that the state universities and cooperating private
institutions or higher learning will extend their programs and
services to off-campus locations in which these services can be
wisely utilized. The Florida Institute, like our system-wide
adoption or the trimester system, is a new educational venture and
another evidence of Florida's leadership among the states or this
nation. It will be a major unit in the university system, and its
director, who serves with the rank and status of a state university
president, is responsible directly to the Board or Control in order
that we may be certain that off-campus programs will receive full
consideration by the highest policy level bodies in the state.
As a result or the Institute's activation, there will soon
spring up at key locations in Florida off-campus centers in which
there will be such facilities as are required for instruction which
is fully creditable as residence graduate work. A key duty or the
Institute will be to foster and facilitate the provision by the
stae universities or accredited graduate programs designed to meet
the needs of personnel in the areas in which the centers are located.
Each of these ctr-campus centers will be a product of
cooperation and coordination which exists between industrialists
and educators in Florida. In this biennium almost total support
for centers will come from industry, and in the years ahead the major
burden of providing the support necessary to assure the high quality
work which is required to meet industrial needs will rest largely
on the shoulders or industry. I am confident that this will be done,
for as industrial concerns have represented their educational needs
to us they have unanimously indicated their readiness to provide
the necessary financial support if we would provide the programs.
Although it was only last December that Dr. Myron Blee was
named director of the Institute, and Just a few weeks ago that its
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operational plan was given final approval, it has already made
significant progress toward our objectives.
Later this week the Board of Control will consider, and I
anticipate approve, a program of study leading to the award of
masters degrees which is to be taken to offcampus centers of the
Institute by the College of Engineering at the University of Florida.
One or the industrial areas most interested in this program is
centered here in the Tampa Bay region where such industrial giants
as General Electric and Minneapolis Honeywell have expressed a
great desire to work with us. Next September, with the provision
of adequate staffing and facilities, I expect that they will Join
with us in pioneering this advanced program which, more than any
existing anywhere in this land, can be truly said to be in step and
keeping with the age in which we live.
These activities, and the others we will undertake in this
year, are based upon a foundation bolstered greatly by the actions
of 1961. Enlightened Legislative support resulted in an increase
of salaries at our universities which has made us competitive with
some of the best in the nation. The adoption of the tri-mester
system, under a legislative mandate, assures our professors of the
ability to harness their productivity to an extent greater than
ever before at pay scales commensurate with their abilities and the
length of their labors.
As any parent with a child in college knows, education is
costly. So is its provision. To achieve the many goals we hold
will be expensive, but need not, in my opinion, be inexorably
linked with new or greatly increased taxes for our citizens. During
this last year I have seen confirmed in dozens of different ways
the conviction I expressed during my campaign that Florida's
government had for too long run under a loose economic reign. During
1961 we pulled hard on the bit of economy and cinched tight the girth
of efficiency. How much money we saved by these practices in 1961
and will save in this and the succeeding years of this administration,
may be subject to debate, but there are few in the stats today who
will dispute my contention that by the end of this biennum we will
have saved and diverted to more fruitful purposes well in excess or
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the 50 millions of dollars I pledged to save.
Recent of my statements have been interpreted to imply
that I was renigging on my pledge to the people of Florida to attain
maximum use from each of their tax dollars and to resist to the
fullest new taxes for state purposes.
So that the record may be clear, let me here reiterate that
I am as opposed to new taxes today as I was when the people or
Florida named me to be their governor. I am also realistic enough
to know that before the 1963 Legislature we must review in detail
every aspect of our fiscal program and take those steps necessary
to assure the provision or the services our citizens must have.
I believe that Florida will be in sound fiscal condition at
the end of this biennium and, that barring untorseen circumstances,
new basic taxes will not be needed. Local Government needs, and
should have, some additional assistance and this assistance should
properly come through wise utilization of the taxing authority of the
state. If my remarks have served to stimulate review and discussion
of our finances, then they have served a worthy purpose, for this
is the time for all who advocate new spending to lay before the
people of Florida their case that it may be fully and well
evaluated.
we must provide, not only for our young, but for workers
displaced from their Jobs by automation and events beyond the control
of either employers or employees, such as the embargo recently
announced by the President on products from Cuba, which directly
affects the cigar industry of Tampa.
In visiting this morning with some of Tanya's cigar workers
at a factory where I saw first hand their activities and their
problems, I expressed my firm belief that the national administration
as does my own, reels keenly its responsibilities toward the skilled
cigar workers now apt to be left Jobless by the end of the year.
Positive and direct action needs to be taken now to assure them of
a continuation of employment and I should like to share with you
the text of a letter I last week sent Secretary of Labor Arthur
Goldberg on this subject.
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"Dcar Mr. Secretary:
We are grateful for the concern of the Administration for
Florida workers affected by the Cuban embargo as exemplified by
your action in sending Mr. Jack Hurt to Florida for a survey
of their problems.
I am advised by A. worley Brown, Chairman of the Florida
Industrial Commission, that his conferences with Mr. Hurt and
a personal discussion of the problem with leaders of the Tampa
Cigar Industry has caused him to conclude that even under
optimum conditions there will be severe repercussions within
that industry as a result of the cut-off of Cuban tobacco.
The state feels keenly its responsibilities to these workers.
I know, from the careful consideration given this aspect of
the embargo order, that the President and those of you
associated with him share our feelings.
Relief measures for the workers we can anticipate will be
laid-off are stop-gap measures at best, and certainly not
desirable for either the state or national economy.
These workers, by virtue of their years of hand-forming
fine cigars, are possessed of a high degree of manual dexterity
which would be valuable in any one of a number of our modern
industrial operations, especially those in the electronics
area essential to national defense.
I would prOpose to you, therefore, that we Jointly enter
into an exploration of the establishment in the immediate
Tampa area of industrial opportunities that will serve not
only as a current relief for unemployment, but as a continuing
and growing stimulation to the economy of the community and
an offset to the loss of the quality cigar manufacturing
industry. It is our feeling that direct Federal participation
in such an effort would be appropriate and proper,
A committee of Floridians familiar with all aspects of this
problem will be promptly named to work with any individuals
you might designate to represent the Administration, if you so
desire. In any event we stand ready to cooperate with you to
the fullest and appreciate your interest and obvious desire
to assist."
I am confident that out of the President's concern and his recog-
nition of the potential hardships imposed by his order will some
quick and decisive action to assure a continuation of the prosperity
of Tampa and her citizens.
Your circumstances here, and what comes of the changes the
embargo will bring to Tampa, links directly with the programs and
activities we have underway in other areas of government. I have
touched on the interconnection of education and industry and I but
wish that time would permit me to discuss with you the way in which
the development of industry is linked to the development of our
highway system which in turn is of benefit to tourism and serves
further to link all areas of Florida into a closer working relation-
ship of benefit to all citizens.
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Our time, though, is gone and I have much to see and do at
the Fair this afternoon. I cannot, however, leave this hall
without noting that in our surge of development we in Florida must
be ever cautious lest we lose sight or the heritage that is ours
and the backdrop of history before which we build today. The
emphasis on the history of Florida's growth and the display of
artistic works at the Fair is a fine example or the continuing
interest in our heritage and growing emphasis on the cultural
aspects of our way or life that I find in every section of the
state. I urge you to maintain and strengthen your interest in that
which is past as it affects that which we do today. Thank you.
PAGE 1
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ons of dollars I pledged to save. ent of my statements have been interpreted to imply enigging on my pledge to the people er Florida to attain from each of their tax dollars and to resist to the t1kn ,ttb .oe h 1963Le be e-lear, let me here reiterate that ay as I was when the people of ernor. I am 1180 realistic enough islature we must review in detail an And take those steps neaessary ervinna our eitizens must baye. will be in sound fiscal condition at at barring unforseen circumstarces, ed. Local Goveranent neede, and istance and this assistance 91 ould zation of the tixing authority of the We~~~~~~. ......t .rvdro nyfroryug u o okr dlaplaced ~ ~ ~ ~ ........ -rmterjb yatmto n vnsbyn h oto .... .ih .mp.y.. ... ..p.ye .u. .steebrorcnl .none .y......... nprdca rm uawic ircl
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