A WEEKLY COMMENTARY
Year Twenty-One ... Number Thirty-Three ... August 16, 1974
THE CONTRIVED EVOLUTION
OF REGIONAL GOVERNMENT
PART SIXTEEN
SOCIALISM BY ANOTHER NAME
On March 30, 1945, the United States was engaged in a war in which International Socialism (Communist Russia) was an ally and National Socialism (Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy) was an enemy. At that time the eminent economist Ludwig von Mises was attempting to explain the difference between the two forms of totalitarianism to members of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, meeting in Philadelphia. He addressed the distinguished audience, saying:
"There are two different patterns for the realization of socialism. The one pattern we may call it the Marxian or the Russian pattern -- is purely bureaucratic. All economic enterprises are departments of the government, just as is the administration of the army and the navy, or the postal system. Every single plant, shop, or farm, stands in the same relation to the superior central organization as does a post office to the office of the Postmaster General. The whole nation forms one single labor army with compulsory service; the commander of this army is the chief of state.
"The second pattern -- we may call it the German (or Italian Fascist) system -- differs from the first one in that it, seemingly and nominally, maintains private ownership of the means of production, entrepreneurship, and market exchange. So-called entrepreneurs do the buying and the selling, pay the workers, contract debts and pay interest and amortization. But they are no longer entrepreneurs. In Nazi Germany they are called shop managers or betriebsfuehrer. The government tells these seeming entrepreneurs what and how to produce, at what prices and from whom to buy, at what prices and to whom to sell. The government decrees at what wages laborers should work and to whom and under what terms the capitalists should entrust their funds. Market exchange is but a sham. As all prices, wages, and interest rates are fixed by the authority, they are prices, wages and interest rates in appearance only; in fact they are merely quantitative terms in the authoritarian orders determining each citizen's income, consumption, and standard of living. The author rity, not the consumers, directs production. The central board of production management is supreme; all citizens are nothing else but civil servants.
"This is socialism, with the outward appearance of capitalism. Some labels of the capitalistic market economy are retained, but they signify something entirely different from what they mean in the market economy." (End of quotation)
Then there was this third form of Socialism which was used so very effectively in Britain and then exported to the United States when other forms of Socialism failed to conquer. Called Fabian Socialism, one of its early disciples, the "eminent historian" H. G. Wells, described the program and exposed the machinery in a book published in 1908 and titled "New Worlds for Old." He wrote:
"It was left chiefly to the little group of English people who founded the Fabian Society to supply ... the amplifying conception of Socialism, to convert Revolutionary Socialism to Administrative Socialism .... From saying that unorganized people cannot achieve Socialism, they passed to the implication that organization alone, without popular support, might achieve Socialism....
Socialism ceased to be an open revolution, and became a plot. Functions were to be shifted quietly, unostentatiously, from the representative to the official he appointed.
They worked like a ferment in municipal politics ... the reconstruction of our legisr. lative and local machinery is a necessary preliminary to Socialization in many directions .... Scientific reconstruction of our methods of government constitutes a necessary part of the Socialist scheme .... It supplies us with a vision of a great and disciplined organization of officials. A Scientific Bureaucracy, appointed by reprepresentative bodies of diminishing importance, and coming at last to be the working control of the Socialist State, the replacement of individual action by public organization. ... " (emphasis added) .
Can you see how the citizens were deceived by the chosen few who really "knew the score"? We have been advised to build bomb shelters in our back yards, have been taught how to evacuate whole cities, and how to survive in case of invasion by hostile Socialist soldiers and airmen from across the seas. We have sent millions of men across those same seas to battle fronts in Korea and Southeast Asia, and to guardposts in half the countries of the world, in order to prevent the advance of this Socialist enemy. And we have given billions of dollars and inestimable technological aid to countries throughout the world, to help them, to build or rebuild according to the capitalistic pattern, shunning Socialism of the type Ludwig von Mises called German, or the Zwangswirtschaft system.
But here at home we have been made the unwarned victims of another form of Socialism by means of which, in the terminology of H. G. Wells, our governmental functions have been shifted gradually from the elected officials to their appointees. Citizens have been made accustomed to "city managers" and "county administrators" and appointed officials of uncounted other kinds, from citizens advisory committees to administrators of special districts and Regional Councils that dictate to State Governors and Legislators. And the final achievement in this category: As this is being written we have an appointed President of the United States who is empowered to appoint his potential successor, the Vice President of the United States.
It all began, of course, just as Wells explained it, at the municipal or local level. Then it spread to the State level, and at last to the Federal level; and now it is invading the international level as Regional Governance becomes universal!
Tracing its beginnings and its maturings at the local level, Maureen Heaton wrote, in "So Dangerous a Step":
"The city manager now fulfills the duties formerly the responsibility of the elected city council, who now only act on the recommendation of their appointed successor. So, too, with the county administrator, who has become the appointed supervisor of the elected Supervisors. The appointed county counsel has usurped the position once held by the elected district attorney, who is now reduced to little more than a prosecutor. This situation holds true in the schools, as well, where appointed superintendents whittle away at the functions of the elected Boards, and 'experts' appointed by the appointed superintendent really make the decisions, which are then 'rubberstamped' by the 'representatives of the people.' All this has come about piecemeal, and has conditioned acceptance of the idea of government by appointed officials, so that many who would have resisted bitterly, now seem indifferent to it all.
"Like regional government itself, these changes are always sold to the people under the label of 'progress,' or because of 'proliferating government,' 'too heavy a workload,' or 'an expert is needed.' In the case of regional government, the people are told that existing government is not 'flexible' enough; or that a regional approach is necessary to handle the growing problems; or that there are so many overlapping areas which could be simplified under Metro. This last has some truth. Compared to a totalitarian state, our historic system is quite complicated. But do we want to pay that price for simplicity?"
It was this last reason which was used to sell Metro in Dade County, Florida. There were some 26 incorporated municipalities within the county, the city of Miami being the largest. The consolidation of functions previously performed by each incorporated area independently, was supposed to bring greater efficiency, save money, insure dafety and the pursuit of happiness, etc. It did none of these things, but this was the sales pitch in 1958.
We were against Metro from the start and knew that plans called for the creation of a Tri-County Authority which would replace the existing functions cf the local governments of Dade, Palm Beach, and Broward (Fort Lauderdale) Counties . If the movement could be stopped or limited to Dade County, the final plan would have been defeated . So, we "editorialized" in our August 8, 1958 issue of Closer-Up, saying in part:
"Let's see what happened in Dade County. On May 1, 1958, the offices of county assessor of taxes, county tax collector, county surveyor, purchasing agent and county supervisor of registration were abolished and the powers and functions of these offices were transferred to the county manager, an appointive officer who was given power to appoint and remove all administrative officers subject only to Civil Service regulations.
"The so-called 'Home Rule Charter' gave the board of county commissioners the right to abolish the offices of sheriff, constable or any other county officer except the supervisor of public instruction and the judges and clerks of constitutional courts.
"In one fell swoop the greatest right that Americans have, to elect and continue to supervise the conduct of their local offices, was destroyed under the high sounding name of 'Home Rule.' Instead of giving home rule to the voters of Dade County, the charter removed home rule from the voters and put it in the hands of an appointive county manager.
"From now on out the county manager, and not the voters, will determine the nature and the character of all local officials who were formerly elected. No one, not even the Board of County Commissioners of Dade County, who will be the only important administrative elective officers of the county, can 'direct or request the appointment of any person to, or his removal from, office by the Manager.' No matter how ruthlessly the citizens may be hounded by appointed police, you the voter have no recourse and the county commission cannot 'give orders to subordinate of the Manager, either publicly or privately.'
"Instead of home rule by the voters of Dade County, the charter gives such power to one man, the manager, who does not have to be a resident of the State at the time of his appointment and who may be extremely unfamiliar with the needs of the county.
"To show you the power of the county manager, let me quote Section 4:01 : 'There shall be departments of finance, personnel, planning, law and such other departments as may be established by administrative order of the Manager. All functions not otherwise specifically assigned to others by this Charter shall be performed under the supervision of the Manager.' And to top this off, under the very next section, 'The Manager shall have the power to issue and place into effect administrative orders, rules and regulations.'
"Is this 'home rule' by the people? No, indeed. It is almost dictatorship by an appointive official who can be brought here from a distant point to run your life and mine .... This we must never do if we want home rule in the true sense of the word. Let those who would give us home rule be sure and bring home rule to you and me, and not dictatorship."
As we indicated previously, the foregoing was published August 8, 1958. There is no reason to change a word of it, for all things in the Metro department are much as they were sixteen years ago; except for one sad difference: proliferation. Dade County was the first such experiment in the United States and, while this "growth" has been confined to the one county in Florida, there are many other Metros in existence today. We have a publication of the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations that carries the title: "Regional Governance, Promise and Performance." This 356-page book lists and discusses Metros that have been established in areas where the "core cities" are Miami and Jacksonville, Florida; Nashville, Tennessee; Atlanta, Georgia; Indianapolis, Indiana; the San Francisco Bay Area where nine counties are involved; the Twin Cities Area of Minnesota where seven counties are tied together; Sacramento, California; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Portland, Oregon; the New York Interstate Metro which includes counties and planning regions in a three-state area; etc.
But, as we indicated in a previous letter, since the establishment of the Ten Fedeial Regions, the ACIR planners have been far more interested in the "Substate Districting Systems" which are being developed in the fifty States.
For example, in an ACIR report on Miami Metro author Aileen Lotz (staff consultant for the joint Center for Environmental and Urban Problems, Florida International University), begins her report with the statement: "For the purpose of this paper, Dade County, Florida is defined as a 'region.' Although most of the present discussion will be confined to ... Dade County ... it is recognized that the region, under more traditional definitions, includes additional area ...."
And this is certainly true as of August 16, 1974. Because, as a result of the passage of a legislative package prepared by 1313 Planners, this "region" now includes five counties: Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Martin, and St. Lucie.
Since about the same thing has happened in all of the 50 States, and since much the same story could be told about any of the 49 other States, here is what happened in Florida, briefly and to the point:
On March 27, 1969, the President of the United States announced the division of the Nation into ten federal regions. Florida was placed in Region IV along with seven other States. Then, on February 12, 1972, the President authorized the staffing of the capitals of these ten federal regions, with Federal Regional Councils which would administer all federal programs in the multistate region.
Meanwhile, in Florida, the State Legislature was induced to pass two 1313-prepared and prepackaged legislative acts: the Florida State Comprehensive Planning Act of 1972, and the Florida Environmental Land and Management Act of 1972. These Acts authorized the establishment of substate regions, which would act as local administrative branches of the Federal Region, whose capital is in Atlanta, Georgia.
The Governor lost no time in designating ten geographic, multi-county planning regions within the State " ... for the purpose of preparing studies, reports, and plans, and all other planning, programming and budgeting activities (PP3S-Ed.), including but not limited to the activities named in (appropriate) Florida Statutes."
Protesting the progress of Regionalism in his home State, Dr. John L. Grady of the Florida Legislative and Research Committee, spoke before the Governor and the Cabinet of the State of Florida on Feb. 20, 1973, saying, in part:
" ... This is Regional Government. And, as any informed and objective citizen can see, Regional Government means control. Control of all land, business, development, utilities production, services, property and people. Control by appointed councils and committees, not be elected officials. Bureaucrats, paid by federal grants, will direct programs effecting social and physical planning and federal regulation over cities and counties and their people. Even local police and county sheriffs will be controlled through Regional Criminal Justice Planning Councils of the Governor's Council on Criminal Justice, which will administer the Federal Law Enforcement Assistance Administering program for the LEAA czar in Atlantapaving the way for a dangerously powerful national police force.
"The Governor's ten regional 'sub-states' and their respective councils dovetail very neatly with the President's ten regional provinces and their ruling councils. And should anyone question our remarks here today, let them study the record and the statements of government leaders themselves, such as Robert C. Weaver, former chief, Department of Housing and Urban Development, who said, 'Regional Government means Federal control over all property and its development regardless of location, anywhere in the United States, to be administered on the Federal Official's determination. It would supersede state and local laws.... Through this authority we seek to recapture control of the use of land, most of which the government has already given to the people.'
"And when the regional councils are soon functioning, with federal authority and federal funds, and there is no longer a need for mayors and city councilmen, and county commissioners, then the municipalities and counties will be dissolved; and unnecessary too will be state senators and representatives, many of whom did not even read, let alone understand, the enabling legislation which they passed."
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