Charleston Gazette
June 18, 1950
Governors Set To Begin 42d Parley Today
Patteson to Extend State welcome at Business Session Monday
By Charles R. Armentrout
Staff Writer for The Gazette
The men who administer government in the 48 states and the nation's four territories will meet today in White Sulphur Springs for the beginning of the 42nd annual Governors' Conference.
The 1950 session, extending through Wednesday, will coincide Tuesday, June 20, with the anniversary of the founding of the host State of West Virginia in the Civil War year of 1863.
Formal sessions of the conference proper will not start until tomorrow morning, but a luncheon meeting of the conference executive committee will be held at 1 p.m. today at the Greenbrier Hotel, scene of the gathering.
A reception and buffet supper at 7 p.m. in The Casino County Club is scheduled for tonight.
Gov. Okey L. Patteson will extend West Virginia's welcome in the opening talk tomorrow morning's initial session.
The governors then will hear Gov. Frank Carlson of Kansas deliver the annual address of the chairman of the conference.
Secretary of State Dean Acheson and Administrator Paul G. Hoffman of the Economic Cooperation Administration are the highlight personalities to appear at the conference.
Acheson and two top statesmen, Philip Jessup, ambassador-at-large and John Sherman Cooper, delegate to the United Nations, will participate Tuesday morning in a roundtable discussion on foreign affairs.
Hoffman, delivering the only formal address as an invited speaker at the conference, will appear at the annual state dinner tomorrow night.
The conference is a political organization only in the sense that government itself is political but the conference is non-partisan.
Although balance of party affiliation among the governors has varied throughout the years, the conference is never used as a theater for partisan debate or for partisan advantage.
The conference was not established as a permanent organization until Dec. 4, 1912 at Richmond, Va., but its framework was started in 1907 when President Theodore Roosevelt called the governors of the states to Washington "to consider the question of the conservation and use of the great fundamental sources of wealth of this nation."
The first conference assembled at the White House on May 13, 1908. West Virginia was host to the 1922 conference and it was held at the same site of this year's gathering.
Still a subject of paramount interest to the governors is the conservation of natural resources. The control and regulation of water resources is one of the discussion topics scheduled for a traditional roundtable session.
At the opening business session tomorrow, Gov. Alfred Driscoll of New Jersey will preside at the first roundtable on organization and re-organization of state government.
The discussion on water resources is scheduled for the afternoon with Gov. Val Peterson of Nebraska presiding.
The round table on foreign affairs at which Acheson and his aides will sit down for a free discussion of the subject will be held Tuesday morning. Gov. William Preston Lane, Jr., of Maryland is to preside.
Wives of the governors will depart from The Greenbrier Tuesday morning in a motorcade and drive to Charleston for a luncheon in the executive mansion.
Entertainment at this affair will be presented by Miss Edith Hill Brigode, talented Charleston accordionist and vocalist.
The U. S. Naval Academy Band from Annapolis, Md., will entertain the visitors at resort Tuesday evening with a concert on the hotel lawn.
The final session of the conference Wednesday will cover special ed on the largest rehabilitation project of its kind in the history studies of the care and treatment of the mentally ill in the 48 states, and highway safety and motor truck regulation. Gov. Frank J. Lausche of Ohio will preside at the session.
An executive business session that afternoon will bring the conference to a close.
Elaborate preparations were made for the governors' visit. Each was met, at airport or railroad station, by a car with state police chauffeur set aside for his personal use throughout the conference.
Sixty new 1950 Ford automobiles, each painted a distinctive "Greenbrier Green," were provided for the occasion by the Ford Motor Co. through the Roger Dean, Inc., agency in Charleston.
Sixty-six state police officers were given a special one-day indoctrination training program in preparation for the event. They learned about points of interest in the vicinity of White Sulphur Springs, the history of the area and the nature of their special duties.
A 24-page program for the conference includes pictures of all the governors; a program of events; color pictures of the state's leading industries; greetings from President Truman, Gov. Patteson and Gov. Carlson and facts about West Virginia.