Mrs. REID. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Speaker, I thank you for your statement today and also take this opportunity to thank you for your hospitality when our group visited Guam, particularly for the day we spent with you and representatives of the legislature. I thought it was very productive, I think, on both sides. You mentioned in your statement that while members of the Guam Legislature are answerable to the people, the Governor is not, and then to finish the sentence, "it is conceivable for a nonelective chief executive not to have the benefit of the people at heart." When I was in Guam, I had the honor to be invited to stay with Governor Guerrero and his family, to observe the Governor, not only in his official capacity as Governor, but had the opportunity to talk with him informally many times, and certainly, with your present Governor, felt a great concern for these people, and I assume you do not mean this to apply to the present Governor? Mr. TAITANO. No. I am not referring to Governor Guerrero. When I was attending school here I talked to two of our former Governors about developing some industry and their comments were that they were sent to Guam for a specific mission, one of which was not to develop something like that. That is what I mean. If there are some other instances, other instructions, from here, that will be the dominant of the two. Mrs. REID. Now, in your statement, I am sorry I wasn't here this morning, but I have read through the statement that was given this morning, it seems to me more or less that one side is presented. There are certainly always two sides to everything, a good and a bad. Now, what problems do you envision should this bill be passed? There certainly would be some, I should imagine. Mr. TAITANO. None other than as explained by the Honorable Mr. Bingham, problems of democracy. We make mistakes. But the way we look at it, it is not anything that we fear. It is part of this world's life, part of our government and for me especially, I know that perhaps you will say we have been exposed to other ways away from Guam, but, to me, it isn't like coming from a foreign place, or from some spot that is not American, and to be admitted into the club. I am already in. It is just a question of the Congress taking time out to spell it out in the organic act. It has been good for this country, electing the chief executive, and I know it will be good for Guam because Guam is part of this country. I don't look at it from the other side. Mrs. REID. I thank you very much. Mr. TAITANO. That is why, of course, it is said we get impatient. Well, maybe sometimes, because I believe in it and as pointed out by Mr. Bingham, it is long overdue and I think it would be very, very good for us in the Far East. For example, allowing the people of Guam to vote for the President and Vice President, that is not going to swing it one way or the other, although we go in first, and it is said, "As Guam goes, so goes the Nation." It is not going to affect it, and yet it is a tremendous thing for the Far East. Here is this Pacific island voting for Johnson or for some other candidate. It is a tremendous thing for this country. Mr. O'BRIEN. I might say, Mr. Speaker, that I believe that day is coming. Mr. TAITANO. Yes. Mr. O'BRIEN. It is simply a question of how rapidly and I think in this particular instance that we have waited too long before taking the next step. Mr. TAITANO. Yes. Mr. O'BRIEN. I have sat most of the day, as I said this morning, between two gentlemen who were in the thick of the fight for the organic act, which was enacted 2 years before I came to Congress. I am sorry I wasn't in the thick of it. And I have heard, from what they have said for the record and what they have said to me privately, that they are amazed at the progress made by Guam. That they had not foreseen in their fondest hopes that that much progress would be made. Well, now, when the fighters for the original causes say that, how can we, after 15 years, say, well, let's wait another 15 years? Then beyond that, there is going to be the question of voting for President and Vice President, and a delegate to the Congress. How long do we wait? Or are we coming to a point in this Government where, in order to get attention, we have to kick up our heels and perhaps be a little bit disloyal? Now, one of the things that impressed me today was the calm, considerate statement that we are all Americans. The tragedy in my mind is this, that the kind of loyalty you have expressed today would be considered on the mainland in certain places today, as corny. Mr. TAITANO. Yes. Mr. O'BRIEN. But as far as I am concerned, it represents something that I like to believe most of us stood for and I do believe most of us still stand for. But I wish some more of our own people on the mainland could have been here at these hearings today. Mr. SKUBITZ. Mr. Taitano as I said this morning this is my first day on the committee and I have seen this bill and I have been quite impressed by your statement and by the statements made by those who preceded you. Could you tell me Mr. Taitano how many people have an eighthgrade education in Guam? Mr. TAITANO. Eighth grade? Mr. SKUBITZ. Yes. Mr. TAITANO. Today everybody goes to school. Mr. SKUBITZ. Is it compulsory? Mr. TAITANO. Compulsory from 6 to 16. So all those that were old enough to go to school from 1950 are at least up to high school and maybe into college some of them. Mr. SKUBITZ. They must finish the eighth grade? Mr. TAITANO. No, no; they must stay in school until the age of 16. So by that time they are beyond the eighth grade. The only ones who have not come up to the eighth grade are the older people who were the youngsters before the war. They didn't have this opportunity. Mr. SKUBITZ. What percentage of the people would you say then has completed the eighth grade? Mr. TAITANO. 15 to 25 percent. It would be just the very old. Mr. SKUBITZ. Yes. Mr. O'BRIEN. You mean 15 to 25 percent have not? Mr. TAITANO. That is his question, who have not. Mr. O'BRIEN. The question was, How many have? Mr. SKUBITZ. About 80 percent or more have completed the eighth grade. Mr. TAITANO. I have been given information, but in connection with another matter, there are 17,000 schoolchildren, but that is not an answer to your question. Mr. SKUBITZ. How many students do you have enrolled in the college? Mr. TAITANO. 1,500. Mr. SKUBITZ. 1,500. And do you know what the tuition charge is per student? Mr. TAITANO. It is very small. My daughter went through the summer last year and it was just $30. I can say here that there is no reason why a Guamanian girl or boy can't go to college in Guam. It is that cheap. Mr. SKUBITZ. One other question, I would like to ask you, and that is about the term of the Governor. Do you think we should provide a 2-year term or a 4-year term? Mr. TAITANO. A 4-year term. Mr. SKUBITZ. Four years? Mr. TAITANO. Yes, sir. Mr. SKUBIT7. That is all, Mr. Chairman. Mr. BINGHAM. Mr. Chairman. Mr. O'BRIEN. Mr. Bingham. Mr. BINGHAM. To clarify the record, I want to say that, when I said that perhaps Presidents had made mistakes in appointing Governors in the past, I was of course not referring to the incumbent Governor. I think he has done an excellent job. I would also like to clarify what I had to say about the possibility of some expression of opinion. I have no doubt that the people of Guam would express an opinion in favor of an elected Governor, and in fact it is not that that I am so much interested in as the opportunity for the people of Guam to express themselves as in favor of the present system, under which they are affiliated with the United States. I still feel that it is very difficult for many people from other countries who have grown up under colonial conditions to understand and to believe the loyalty that exists toward the United States on the part of people from an island such as Guam. They just don't believe this. And they don't believe that the legislature truly reflects the opinion of the people, in spite of the fact that the legislature is elected. In order to make the record clear, and in order to establish the bona fides of the United States, I think it would be helpful at some stage to have the people of Guam given the opportunity to express their approval of the arrangements that are represented by the Organic Act. I was not suggesting, Mr. Chairman, that this should take place necessarily before the adoption of this bill. I don't think that that is necessary. But I would hope that some device could be worked out that would give the people of Guam an opportunity at some stage to say in secret ballot how they feel essentially about continuing their association with the United States. Mr. O'BRIEN. I might say to the gentleman, if he will yield, that I am convinced that even the most optimistic among us would be amazed at the outcome of such voting, but I can also see the sensitivity of putting it in the only way you could put it, squarely, without impugning to some degree the complete Americanization of Guam. If you attempted to do it let's say on an elective Governor, the bill that we have before us, you could have a substantial number of people who don't like to change any status quo, and immediately our enemies would seize on that negative vote as a vote against continued association with the United States. Now we have with the Alaskan and Hawaiian statehood bills, we wrote into the bills that they should not become effective unless the people at the first election approved of the statehood bill. Well, in Hawaii I think it was about 18 to 1, something like that, but it was about 4 to 1 in Alaska. That could not be interpreted, because of the fact that Alaska had been a Territory, as saying that 20 percent of the people of Alaska did not want anything to do with the United States, because those who voted against the statehood bill in the referendum were very loyal, just as completely loyal as any of us. But the difficulty is in finding the mechanism, and I hate to set up a referendum in a bill of this kind, where a vote against it, even a minority vote, could be misinterpreted by those who like to misinterpret those things. How we are going to get the message over I don't know. But it certainly came through today pretty loud and clear as it has in the past. Mr. TAITANO. Sir, this is the reason why we are resisting anything like that. Congressman Bingham is correct that in the world they compare us maybe with the inhabitants of Samoa or Cook Islands. There is a certain amount of nationalism. You can be very, very Americanized and you wouldn't want to make a decision moving out of the Nation. It might help, it might be for the best interests of the United States to put that out. However, the people of Guam would resent that because it is inferring that they are not within the confines of the United States. Mr. O'BRIEN. What you are saying is that we don't want fellow Americans using as guinea pigs the people of Guam to prove some international point, would that be correct? Mr. TAITANO. If it is important, some very important mission of the United States or program of the United States, perhaps. But if it can be done without it, we would prefer it. Mr. O'BRIEN. We know what Mr. Bingham has in mind. Mr. TAITANO. Yes. Mr. O'BRIEN. And I would like to see it too. I would like to be able to pick up the paper a year from now and read a dispatch that in such a vote it was 98 to 2. It is always that 2 percent of the people are nuts anyway. But to accomplish that you would have to do something that would cast just a little reflection. Mr. TAITANO. Yes. I have just been handed a note that in the last election both parties had the elective governorship program in their platforms. So we were elected to the present legislature on this program, both parties. So there is another indication of the will of the people. Mr. O'BRIEN. Yes. Well, I don't think that we here, including Mr. Bingham, have any doubt that you speak for a majority of the people. Mr. TAITANO. Yes. Mr. O'BRIEN. I know what he has in mind. He would like to give a firm and final and ringing answer to some people who claim that, well, Guam doesn't really like the mainland and so forth. We know it isn't true and, if we confound that particular lie, there will be another one. I can't see any mechanism that we can put in this bill that wouldn't be self-defeating. Thank you very much, sir, for your fine testimony. Mr. TAITANO. Thank you. Mr. O'BRIEN. Forgive us your lengthy questioning, but we are interested. Mr. TAITANO. Thank you very much. Mr. O'BRIEN. Do all the members who are here from the legislature desire to testify, or does your presence in and of itself reflect support? Let me put in this way. Unless each and every one of you wants to testify, may I assume if you do not, and may the record show, that you agree substantially with the statements that were made by the Governor, the speaker, and Mr. Won Pat? But I do think that, in view of the request that was made this morning, that we should place in the record at this point, presented by Mr. Lamorena, who is chairman of the convention, the report of the Organic Act of the Guam Revision Convention on the bill to establish the Guam Elected Governor Act. Unless there is an objection, that report will be made a part of the record at this time, as offered by Congressman Lamorena. (The document referred to follows:) REPORT OF THE ORGANIC ACT OF GUAM REVISION COMMISSION ON THE BILL TO ESTABLISH THE "GUAM ELECTED GOVERNOR ACT" Public Law 8-78, Eighth Guam Legislature, approved August 21, 1965, created the Organic Act of Guam Revision Commission for the purpose of examining the organic act to discover any defects and anachronisms therein and to recommend needed reforms. The Commission consists of three members appointed by the Committee on Rules of the Guam Legislature and seven additional members appointed by the Governor with the advise and consent of the legislature. The commission, upon organization, determined that it would be wise to confine initial studies to those changes proposed in the organic act by the elective Governor bill (H.R. 11775) pending before the Congress of the United States. The commission met a number of times in executive session to consider the bill and on January 21, 1966, held a public hearing thereon. The commission, taking into account the testimony offered by members of the public and its own studies, generally recommends passage of the bill but offers particularly the following recommendations: 1. Under section 1 of the bill the term of office of the Governor would be 4 years, except that the initial term be for 2 years. Recommendation: (a) The commission recommends limiting the possible terms of office to two consecutive full terms. This, of course, would be in general conformity with the Constitution of the United States as it applies to the President. 2. Section 2 of the bill provides that any Governor or Acting Governor might be removed by the President for cause or through a recall procedure. Recommendation: (a) The commission recommends deletion of the power of removal by the President. It was felt that this authorization is too similar to the present appointed Governor situation and that the recall provision alone should be sufficient protection. 3. Section 4 of the bill which refers to a deletion of the first three sentences of paragraph (b) of section 9 of the Organic Act of Guam apparently is a typographical error and the correct reference is to paragraph (a) of section 9. 4. Section 5 of the bill would amend section 26 of the Organic Act of Guam so as to entirely delete subsection 26(c) which deals with the furnishing by the United States of transportation and housing for government of Guam employees whose homes are outside Guam. |