Dale Bumpers: Leadership, of course, is that mark of being able to convince people that things ought to be done simply because they are right.
Kyle Kellams: It's time to go into the Pryor Center archives again with Randy Dixon.
Randy Dixon: Hello. It's good to be here, Kyle.
Kellams: Great to have you there. Who did we just hear?
Dixon: That was our 38th governor, Dale Bumpers, who was in office from 1971 to 1975. So he had two, two-year terms, which was kind of almost traditional, I guess you'd say. Well, at least two terms.
We're continuing our series this week on modern-day governors of, I guess you'd say, the second half of the 20th century. And we kind of got Dale Bumpers into office last week. And so we want to see how he was as a governor.
It was a brief period in his full political career, I guess you'd say, seeing that he spent four six-year terms as U.S. senator, but this was certainly an indication of where he was going with his political career and life.
Kellams: He's elected in November 1970. He's not going to take office until January '71.
Dixon: Right. And that was interesting because, you know, he was from Charleston, so he didn't live in Little Rock. He didn't hold any sort of office. So he didn't have anywhere to go with his, which was his campaign staff and now his gubernatorial staff. So they found him some room in the state Capitol over by the Senate.
As a matter of fact, KATV's Claude Locke did a story on these temporary surroundings and talked to, you'll hear in this piece, gubernatorial aides Archie Schaffer and Martin Baucher.
Claude Locke: Governor-elect Dale Bumpers has been operating from his temporary office in the Senate offices since November the 9th. His temporary office is only a gavel's throw away from the permanent one that he will occupy next month.
Archie Schaffer: It's been quite an improvement over what we had during the campaign. Our headquarters during the first two primaries was rather cramped, and then during the general election we had a little more space. But the move out here has been quite an improvement over that. We have plenty of room and the facilities are very adequate and we're right in the thick of things.
Martin Baucher: Very convenient. The only inconvenience really we've had is the fact that some of us are on this floor, the third floor, and some of us are on the fourth. I think we've been able to segregate the duties of the folks on the two floors sufficiently that it really has been a minimum of inconvenience.
Kellams: You know, last week, Randy, we talked about how Rockefeller and Bumpers were both progressives and, with the distance of half a century, looked and said, well, there were a lot of similarities between them, especially with their legislative agenda.
Dixon: They were incredibly, remarkably similar in nature. The difference was Rockefeller was a Republican facing opposition, basically butting heads with a Democratic legislature. All of a sudden, Dale Bumpers comes in young, charismatic, of the proper political persuasion.
Kellams: With a bit of a drawl.
Dixon: Well, and yeah. And he was a good communicator and got along with people really well. So it was easier for Bumpers to get his agenda through.
Dale Bumpers: An area of reorganization of government. I had some misgivings three months ago myself about it, even though I talked a great deal about it during the campaign. My total purpose was simply to get 170 to 180 state boards and agencies under some sort of orderly control.
I felt during the campaign that nobody analyzed the thing or articulated it in this language, but I felt during the campaign that the people of this state and of this nation felt that somehow or other, government was really out of control.
Perhaps you've read it, perhaps you have not. It is not a particularly strong bill, but it is a beginning. And after we get some experience with it, assuming it passes. And incidentally, I have a little speaker in my office which is connected to the House of Representatives, and occasionally I dare turn it on. And this consumer protection bill was being debated yesterday on the House floor, and one representative got up and he was arguing against the bill, and he closed it by saying, "I'm telling you, the honeymoon is over."
Dixon: So I'm not really sure that that honeymoon really ended between Bumpers and the legislature.
You know, he successfully enacted that reorganization of state government. He also was responsible for income tax reform, raised funds for schools and teacher pay. And here's what the newly elected governor had to say about his first legislative session. And he was very happy.
Dale Bumpers: You're very good. I can truthfully say that I think I'm in almost any way you want to judge this legislature. They have been more responsive and more responsible than any legislature in recent history. I'm prejudiced because they've given me almost everything I've asked for, but, as I say, practically all of our legislation, I considered it to be progressive legislation. A lot of it was reform legislation. Normally it's tough to get these things through, but they've been very receptive to it.
Kellams: You mentioned education there, and it seems like if you've been alive in Arkansas at any time in the last 100-plus years, education funding is a topic.
Dixon: It was with everyone, with everyone, and it was with Rockefeller. And it was continued with Bumpers. And he always, throughout both terms, championed and defended tax increases and funding for learning.
Dale Bumpers: And I have always considered myself a fiscal conservative. And I think the budget is somewhere in between being conservative and liberal, but I think it is a realistic budget, and I think it's one that will advance education and the cause of education in Arkansas this year. I need your help. I need your good wishes. I need your devotion to your job, and I need your loyalty.
Kellams: All right. It took us an entire segment last week to get him into office. It's already time to get him into his second term.
Dixon: Well, yeah, when they had those two-year terms, you would come into office, you had that honeymoon period, you had a legislative session, and then you had to start getting ready for the next campaign pretty much. So here's where he made that decision for a second term.
Dale Bumpers: I believe that in this society, which often seems to reward the con man, the pretender, people want and need their spirits reinforced. Man wants to live in peace and dignity. And he trusts and identifies with those leaders who present programs and plans which he believes to be fair, progressive and more nearly apt to ensure justice. With those plans, which will provide him a decent job, a decent home.
In recent years, a new practice has become commonplace in politics. For lack of a better name, I would call it rhetorical violence. The art of convincing people that anyone who disagrees is not only wrong, but positively evil. It is an insidious practice, calculated to destroy confidence, which in turn erodes the effectiveness of the system.
I have decided to seek a second term as governor of this great state, not only because it's a rare privilege to serve in this high office, not only because I want to see our programs and future plans carried out, but because I want to reassure our people that the system can and is working, and that the new awakening in Arkansas can and is producing those results in which we can all take pride.
Kellams: All right. As you've mentioned, it was generally the tradition that a two-year first term governor was almost returned for a second two-year term. Dale Bumpers.
Dixon: Usually.
Kellams: Usually.
Kellams: Yeah. Dale Bumpers is a Democrat. He's charismatic. He's had a great legislative session. Does he have anyone wanting to challenge him for the Democratic nomination?
Dixon: You know, he had a couple, Q. Byrum Hurst and a state rep. It was not much of a primary. And, you know, he would win it without a runoff. So Bumpers is now in the general election and he's pretty much just running on his record.
Dale Bumpers: I think the principal issue is that we have done more in a short 15 months than has ever been done in the history of the state. We've created more jobs, almost as many jobs the first four months of this year as we've created all of last year. We've signed over 102 communities for our mental retardation programs and other programs since the special session ended. We've done more from the form of prison reform, and our financial structure is the best ever in the history of this state. So good that we will not have to ask for a tax increase in the next session of the legislature. That in itself is a new precedent.
Kellams: All right. So there weren't a-
Dixon: General election was a breeze. You know, it was a landslide victory over Republican Len Blaylock. Bumpers had more than 75% of the vote. So here I did find some live inaugural coverage from KATV in 1973. Here's a little bit of that live coverage.
KATV anchor: Jim, it's nice to have you with us tonight. What do you think is going through Governor Bumpers at this moment on the just minutes before his second inauguration?
KATV reporter: Well, probably a great deal different thoughts than two years ago when he was an incoming governor. At that time, he certainly was awed by the office that he was elected to. This time, he seems to have grown used to it. And when eight out of 10 people vote for you, he shouldn't be too excited about it, except that he's going into a second term.
KATV anchor: The ceremonies at the Capitol are scheduled to get underway in seven or eight minutes.
Dixon: One national issue that had a major effect on Arkansas during the early '70s was the energy crisis.
Kellams: Oh, yeah.
Dixon: And that was something that, you know, it was an unexpected issue that the Bumpers administration had to deal with. And they were really, I guess, proactive and the actions to address, you know, wise use of fuel and even possibly rationing.
Dale Bumpers: I am going to go to this conference in the morning. I've been advised that the president will talk about it, will discuss with us what action he plans to take, what action he's going to request of the Congress, the Middle Eastern crisis. And finally, the role of the states in whatever future course the country may take, so far as the energy crisis is concerned.
I'm hoping that all of us will have a good, firm idea of how much energy is going to be available to us. More importantly, how much is not going to be available to us so that we can make our plans accordingly.
If we, in fact, are going to have something like a 15% to 17% shortage of crude oil in this country of petroleum products, it occurs to me that rationing is the only way to cope with that. I'm sure most of you have seen my comments on that. If we're talking about something substantially less than that, then it's something we might all be able to combine forces and in a spirit of cooperation and concern for each other, solve ourselves.
Kellams: All right. Earlier we said, you know, some things are always seemingly the same. Talk about education, spending and learning. Let's go back half a century when things were a little bit different. And we were trying to get everyone vaccinated.
Dixon: Vaccination was a good thing.
Kellams: Yes. Then.
Dixon: And there wasn't enough of it in Arkansas. And so first lady Betty Bumpers took it upon herself to launch a campaign called Every Child by '74. And the plan was to have all the childhood diseases children in Arkansas immunized. Kind of a no brainer. And they were successful during those two terms. Are they vaccinated? 90% of Arkansas children.
Kellams: It was just something you did as a child. Back then, you went to the doc, the clinic, and you got your shot, and then you went to school.
Dixon: Yeah. And oh gosh, a long time. You had the little scar? Little circular scar on your arm.
Kellams: The program was wildly successful.
Betty Bumpers: The reason for its success was that it was an action program. We were doing something. We were not compiling statistics. We were not looking into it and checking to see what could be done or what we had to do before we could do anything. We were doing something. And this is why we had such a tremendous response to it, because we were doing something.
Kellams: Right.
Dixon: So we are in the second term again. And of course, now we're looking ahead at another race. And the talk is a national seat. And that would be the U.S. Senate. J. William Fulbright, and that's who he would have to go up against.
So the young man who is, and this is, I guess, sort of a spoiler alert, he became known as the giant killer, Dale Bumpers, and he was about to go up against the giant. So speculation was so high that KATV had Steve Barnes address the issue in this report from the Capitol.
Steve Barnes: Reporters looking for indications of the governor's political plans have noticed a sudden change in the rumor quotient. Three days ago, one could still hear both theories in plentiful quantity. But for the last 48 hours, most all the predictions have been of the Senate variety.
Still, none of the governor's aides nor legislators who have been close to Mr. Bumpers express anything but uncertainty. As close to the chief executive as anyone, appointment Secretary Archie Schaffer said today, quote, to my knowledge, the governor has not made a decision.
It is, of course, within the realm of possibility that Mr. Bumpers has made the decision and is keeping it to himself. It would not be the first time, but there is some discussion as to whether such a tactic is wise.
In the event that a Senate primary is the governor's choice, some argue that the delay is giving the Fulbright organization extra time to advance its candidate, while others counter that the governor's political popularity is such that he would not be seriously damaged by biding his time.
Whatever the decision, aides to the governor predict an announcement within a week, 10 days at the most. It could come sooner. Steve Barnes, KATV News, the state Capitol.
Kellams: Well, it turns out there is a race for the Democratic nomination for U.S. senator. Bumpers, the governor, Fulbright, the longtime senator.
Dixon: And it drew national attention even to the point that there was a televised debate on ABC network. It was broadcast a couple of days before the election, and it was broadcast from Little Rock.
Kellams: And we know what happened.
Dixon: Well, the debate itself, there were really no sparks because. And Fulbright pretty much agreed. Much like, I guess, Rockefeller and Bumpers. Agreed. You just had a new approach.
Kellams: A fresher face.
Dixon: Yeah, exactly. So on primary election night, Bumpers beat Fulbright, 65% of the vote. And the next day, the U.S. senator-elect had this to say about his worthy opponent.
Dale Bumpers: Not that the people of this state had honored him for 32 years by electing him to the Congress. And they have indeed reposed their confidence in him during that period of time. And additionally, he offered his support to me in this coming campaign this fall.
And sometimes when elections are over, people who are on the losing end have a very difficult time being charitable and magnanimous in defeat. I think it's always very easy to be magnanimous in victory, but it's much more difficult in defeat.
Kellams: Okay, so now you've won. You're going to go to Washington, D.C., but the calendar.
Dixon: Yeah, it got a little challenging, the whole scheduling of everything. So the actual transition of power between Bumpers' governorship and his Senate seat required some timing to avoid a vacancy in the state's executive branch. So Bumpers resigned as governor on Jan. 2 of '75, was sworn in as U.S. senator on Jan. 3 of '75.
Here's KATV's Jim Pitcock with a report on Bumpers' last day in office.
Jim Pitcock: The governor arrived at the Capitol about an hour before the resignation was to become effective. He met with a small group of newsmen in his office and reflected on his four years as chief executive. As he said many times before, reorganization was the major accomplishment of his administration.
Later, friends and well-wishers started filing into the office to offer him their congratulations. A group of teenage boys from Dumas came by to have their picture taken. Mrs. Bumpers and two children arrived shortly before 11 o'clock to be present for a ceremonial presentation of the flag that flew over the Capitol this morning. The governor then made his way out of the office to an area near the Capitol Rotunda.
Dale Bumpers: And thank you for being cooperative during the administration, this administration. I suppose this would be a good time to say that serving as governor of the state, of course, is certainly the highest honor I have ever enjoyed, and it's been one that I have based on trust of the people of the state who gave me their trust when they put me here.
And I leave now with some nostalgia and feeling rather melancholy and contrasting the leaving with the arriving four years ago. But to all of those who are assembled here and do all of the people of Arkansas on behalf of Mrs. Bumpers and our family, I want to say a very profound thank you very much. And the key.
Dixon: So after that, I don't know if you remember, we've played it a couple of times, but Jim Pitcock on the steps of the state Capitol with Orval Faubus as he's walking down the stairs on his last day in office. Well, eight years later, in '75, Pitcock did the same thing with Dale Bumpers, and he got some final parting thoughts from the senator-elect.
Dale Bumpers: Knowing that I'm going to the Senate to face other challenges and other problems helps. I think the greatest sickness there is is boredom. And I've always had to have something to stimulate me. And I think the massive national problems that I'm going to be confronted with in the Senate will really be a great challenge. And I hope I can keep faith with the people. And certainly I'm going to do my very best.
Kellams: But as you mention, there's a gap. There's 11 days now before the next governor takes over, well before the next elected governor takes over. And that would have been David Pryor.
Dixon: But you have to have someone in there. And that's where we have Bob Riley. Next week, we look at the short gubernatorial career of Bob Riley, but also look at his interesting life. He was quite a fellow.
Kellams: He was. All right. Randy Dixon is with the David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral History. Thank you, Randy.
Dixon: See you next week.
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