Thank you for the interest and byhusiasm you have shown your attendance and participation in the series. Foring with the candidates state office, hearing their views on the issues, engaging them in question and answer discussions helps us as responsible citizens to enfranchise ourselves productively and responsibly. It will be of interest to our guest today to know that so far in this series we have been addressed by the candidates of all parties for treasurer, controller, attorney general, and lieutenant governor, and one of the gubernatorial candidates, mr. Brown, was here yesterday. Im pleased to tell our guest [laughter] [applause] im pleased to tell our guest that there are four sponsors of this series. Company, the employee association, and the two unions that represent the genie employees. Pg e employees. In tune with the spirit of the coming season, may i say that there are only four more shopping days left for governor. It has been a long and interesting campaign. It has been an arduous one for the candidates. We are grateful that these busy candidates found time to come here, especially this week in the home stretch. It is a privilege for us to see and hear from them in person. It is my personal privilege to present to you a man who has made a meteoric rise in the political scene in our state and the nation. We have known him to the media other than politics for many years. He is more than casually familiar with our industry, having served for so long as a special representative of the General Electric company as you will recall. Ronald reagan, republican candidate for governor of our great state has a rich background in america. He might be described as the boy nextdoor who made good in about everything he undertook in life, frequently overcoming obstacles to do so. Here are the highlights of his career. He was born in illinois, worked through Eureka College during the depression of 19281932. Waiting on tables, washing dishes, teaching swimming. While earning his degree in economics and sociologist, he managed to play varsity football, captain the swimming team, and serve as student body president. While earning his degree in in his early career, he was a sports broadcaster for the chicago cubs and Chicago White sox. Big 10 Football Games and notre dame. After he became engaged in the movie career for which we know him so well, he served for 14 years as president of the screen actors guild. He also served as the board of directors for the same popup. He served two terms as president of the Motion Picture council and 10 years as a member of the motion councils board. Though he has not run for Public Office before, he has been no stranger to the world of politics and the issue at the political scene. His famous televised speech on behalf of the republican candidate at the 1964 election was so well received across the nation that mr. Reagan has been prominent in the political arena ever since. Through his career as a Motion Picture and television star, we have all known Ronnie Reagan for many years. Many of us, until recently, knew little of his long devotion to public service. As a member of the Hospital Board of directors and he operates a successful horse many years. Breeding and cattle ranch. His accomplishments, awards, and honors are many. His wife has proven to be a competent and attractive running mate for him. They have two children. With this too brief introduction, it is my pleasure to present to you, ronald reagan, republican candidate for the governor of california. [applause] mr. Reagan thank you. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Im sure all of you recognized someone who followed me into the room who has been with me, chuck conners. In case there is any question, chuck is an actor. [laughter] but he is a concerned citizen interested in the affairs and the state of the nation and its community. I am interested in what you are doing and what this meeting represents. A great many people have been concerned about an apathy among american people. We have gone through a period in which we forgot if we did not run the government, the government would run us. Thanks to companies, to organizations, to people like yourselves doing this, in a sense to participate, not think about how, but to involve yourself i think we have cured that apathy. My opponent in this race, in the last week or two, he said while he has been building california for the last eight years, he asked what i have been doing and i said i have been making movies and appearing on tv. That is correct. I have in making a living. I cannot help but wonder if there has been some question in his mind about that money that is being spent these last several years. He doesnt know that it came from people like you and me who has been making a living. [applause] i have managed to point out that all of my remarks are taped by a representative of the governor. Not just the remarks, but the speeches. He trails me as i go along with an open mic. I wont even say hello to nancy when i get home without looking over my shoulder. I have gotten used to that. Our people came to me and said why dont we do it . Why dont we have somebody take him . I agreed on one condition, that i would not have to listen. [laughter] at first, i was concerned, because while there have been remarks there are one or two magazine writers who insist on talking about whatever i say in the singular, as if it is the only speech that has been made, i have prepared my own remarks and all of the years i have traveled the mashed potato circuit. In the recent weeks of the campaign, as i have heard the governor after eight years begin talking about rehabilitation, welfare, economy, more efficiency. I have a feeling that i have in writing his too. The thing that bothers me the most is the used of the scissors. There is a quote attributed to me. It has me saying, it is a strange paradox, in a society, a system created like ours, created on individual freedom that parents should be compelled to send their children to school. I said that, to a meeting of teachers. Lets take the scissors out and finish the quote. I said that is a paradox we gladly put up with, because we know we cannot have a free system unless we have an educated citizenry. It comes out differently when you finish the quote. The governor is concerned that i have never held Public Office and he has never held any other kind of job. [laughter] my experience has not been in public life. On the other hand, i dont know of anyone who was born holding Public Office. I believe that experience can come in a number of ways. I believe the people of michigan think that George Romney has had experience with his job by reason of having run an automobile company. You were told in my production, my experience was in the field of a National Labor organization. I was president for six terms of my union. Throughout most of my 20 years on the board, i was in charge of participating in negotiations across the table. Representing our performers with regard to their wages and working conditions. I think that we have a record to be proud of. One thing that i learned, we asked ourselves i dont mean to sound noble, but we asked ourselves three questions before we went to the bargaining table. We look to our demands and said, is it fair to actors . Number two is it fair to the other fella on the other side of the table, and number three, is it fair to the public . Neither management nor worker, has a right to negotiate a deal over that table that results in a product beyond the price public should reasonably pay. [applause] now, my experience has turned me inevitably toward the people for the answers to the problems. I put my faith in the private sector of the economy. A belief in the peoples right and ability to run their own affairs. Instinctually, my opponent 60 answers through government seeks the answers through government. There are those today who are telling you that because society has grown so big and so complex, that we no longer can afford our traditional system of freedom. That Big Government is the only answer to the big problems of this big nation. I say this is based on a false premise and is completely untrue. You have proven it. Big business is decentralizing because it has gone through the period of trying to run things with one man at the top and a board of directors, and everything for a requisition from paperclips on down has to go through proper channels, and it will come down hopefully and eventually. Businesses are to capitalize on the abilities of the individuals. To take advantage of their knowledge close at hand, facing the immediate problem. I believe that if we properly analyze this thing being forced on us, we must come to the conclusion that the very reverse of what they are saying is true. That, as we grow bigger and more complex, and crowd in on each other, the only way we can make this system work is to return the authority to the echelon of government closest to the people. I dont believe that anybody in sacramento knows as well as the people in San Francisco knows where a freeway should go in San Francisco. [applause] as the governor turns toward government as the answer to the problems, he centralized more power in State Government, and in turn, he has been willing to pass that authority on to the Central Government in washington. More and more, we see them getting on the hotline to washington asking for the answers to the problems. I have articles on my desk written by my opponent. They expressed the belief that the problems are too big for individual states. Only can a Strong National government do this. If you analyze it again, you cannot envision a government, national or statewide, that can possibly gather together the people with the genius and the talent to make the multitudinous decisions that must be made every day in the running of peoples affairs. I stand by the philosophy i have just expressed. As the State Government has usurped the authorities from these communities, it has grown great in bureaucracy, and in cost. We have the highest debt of any of the nations, or any of the states of the nation, the highest debt of many of the nations also. We have taxes. Your tax burden is 100 per capita higher than the National Average. Property tax in california is double the National Average and increasing twice as fast as your increase in personal income. It brings you to the realization that unless something is done, when the day comes that we retire on the fixed income of Social Security or pension, we likely will be able to live in our own homes because that tax burden continues to rise with the inflationary spiral. I believe that something must be done that is based on a sounder basis than helping. At the government will do what the governor has resisted doing, which is to earmark money all these years and your marked some money and give it back to us. I have been preaching that story. Earmark the money for hours ending without running it through the puzzle palaces on the potomac to give it back to us minus a carrying charge. There is no such legislation introduced. The man who first suggested this was mr. Heller, the Economic Advisor to the president. After he suggested this, he was no longer Economic Advisor to the president. For this great size and cost of government, we are leading in all the wrong things. We have doubled our proportion and share. We have 17 of the crime in the nation here in california but only 9 of the population. Weve twice 7 of all of the Bank Robberies in the United States committed we have 27 of all the Bank Robberies in the United States committed in california. I apologize, i did goof. It did not begin with his first term as governor. It began when he was attorney general. [laughter] [applause] beginning with his first term as attorney general, there has been an increase in crime in california that is roughly three times or more the increase in population. We have a crime right per 100,000 of population that is more than 2. 5 times what it was at the end of his first four years as attorney general. First in business failures and bankruptcies. We have more than the other five states next in line put together. There is a slump in the country with regard to the building trade. Im sure you are familiar with that. It is true that the slump is five times greater in california than the rest of the nation. We have declined 49 in building permits, up 38 in mortgage foreclosures, and we have the highest the link once he tax rate in delinquency tax rate i have tried to talk the issues. Im going to talk the issues. One of the issues is the record of this administration. The governor has shown a reluctance to run. The governor says he has done all that can be done for smog. With all of the divisions between the north and south of california, im happy to find in the last couple of days that we have this in common. Smog. In los angeles, lewis fuller, our air pollution control officer estimates that 90 of the smog comes from automobiles. That is not a startling statement. He warns that the control of exhaust emissions must be intensified and accelerated if smog is to be controlled by 1980. Because smog knows no city limits or state boundaries, the same ancestor responsibility rests with the state and federal governments. I believe that. The governor takes great credit for making small devices smog control devices mandatory. But the word is out that the devices are not doing the job. The clean air quarterly, a state publication, admits that from january 1 to september 30, surveillance results indicate a higher emission level for cars in actual use by the public than the improving ground tests by automobile manufacturers. Reliable sources reveal that 50 of the devices are admitting pollutants in excess of the limits and they further believed that certification of these devices should be revoked. They cost us an average of 45 each, and they are on more than 600,000 new cars. This means that a new car buyer, or the buyers put together, have paid more than 30 million for devices that are not doing the job. It is the public that pays. The situation has reached a point where the supervisors in our county have passed a resolution asking mr. Fuller to look into the device effectiveness it is i believe effectiveness it is i believe that this must be some thing that coordinates the efforts of all levels. To bring into play something to solve this problem. Anyone who commutes by air, as i have been doing, knows what it is like to see even in the open areas of our state this 30, brown this dirty brown blanket. Contrary to what you may have heard, i have made specific recommendations. Oh, actually [laughter] lest you think i am being too partisan, its actually kind of a brownish green. Contrary to what you have heard, contrary to what you have heard, i have made specific recommendations to other problems. I have proposed and actual plan for implementing our labor policies, for management and Labor Relations problems, where there is a no mans land in this state. I have made specific proposals for taking judges out of politics. Specific recommendations for cutting cost of government. To improve the business climate. Public officials are elected for one purpose,. To solve public problems. You have a right to know where anyone of us stand, to ask what we propose, to ask what our positions are. In that context, i believe that there is no point in me trying to correct some of the mistakes, or misstatements, that have been made with regard to my positions. I would like to suggest that the time has come when you and i have the right to a legitimate discussion, between candidates on where they stand and what they propose, that we can no longer afford the middleaged juvenile delinquency that goes along with trying to build a strawman, and pretend that someone believes something else, so the people should be against him on the basis of that invented believe. You have a right to make your choice based on what we actually propose. I will not take more time. I have been making speeches for several months. In this context, i could Start Talking about the issues, and perhaps miss something that is of great concern to you, or something you have been told that you have more desire for information about. Why dont we get right to that question and i can tell you about more specifics if you fire away . Why dont we how do we handle this . Thank you, thank you, mr. Reagan. It is our custom here, from this time, to permit the audience to ask any questions that they may wish to direct to our distinguished speaker. I respectfully request that our friends of the press withhold their questions during this period, reserved for those in the audience. The ground rules. If you wish to ask a question, raise your hand and weight to be recognized. When you are, mrs. Kathy mebach, or any of these ladies will hand you a cordless microphone. Then please stand and ask your question as briefly and clearly as possible. The first question. Right here, please. It will be a long time for the mic to get there. They have several. I am wondering about your beliefs. Will you be able to provide your beliefs without being influenced by the rest of the politics behind you . Mr. Reagan if i heard that correctly. What i be able to implement my beliefs without being influenced by what . The rest of the politics. You have your beliefs. Can you carry your beliefs out . Do you believe that you can without being pushed the other way . Mr. Reagan one of the advantages of not having an engaged in politics, is that i can present myself to you and there are no political ious out for collection. I dont offer a new deal, i offer a no deal government. [applause] no one so far has sought to in any way influence or change my philosophy, or what i believe. I have proposed throughout this campaign what i call a Creative Society in which i believe in turning to the people, and the people with the most knowledge of the problems for their thinking, and their answers to them. Having mentioned business climate,