"Of course. The French position is quite clear. The affair is yours to decide. France will not intervene or interfere. It is entirely a Canadian and American affair. I have spoken to the German, English and Italian ambassadors to the United States and their position is the same as ours. Non interference."
"Well, we're relieved to hear that. We assumed that there would be some pressure from Washington to solicit your support for the American President."
"Oh, of course there was pressure. But is was to no avail. France decides the matter of support. You have nothing to fear. But, tell me, monsieur, are you prepared for the realities of independence? It can be a difficult road to travel."
"We believe so. As you know, Quebec would have seceded sooner or later. When the opportunity arose to join the western American states, we had to take advantage of it."
"So be it. Welcome to the community of nations, monsieur."
Russia was a different matter. Browning and Jeffries did not waste their time approaching the Russians. With the breakup of their country already a fact, the Russians were not about to extend diplomatic recognition to the new western nation. What the Russians did not know, however, was that very indirect contacts had been made with the Ukrainians, Belarussians, and the Baltic states. They received very solid assurances that if the west were successful, they could expect support from those former republics of the USSR.
But the President was not aware of that. He had consistently underestimated the cunning and quickness of the leaders of the western movement. It proved to be very helpful to Adams and the others. The chess game was on....Tom Adams and his people against the vast power of the President and his army of bureaucrats. This would not be fought on the battleground. This would be fought electronically, by phone and fax, by television appearance and by the media. It would be fought by feint and counterfeint, by bribery versus integrity, by emotional spirit versus the entrenched power of a two hundred year old presidency.
The highly ballyhooed memorial service for Senator Winston was staged in Denver a week later. It was, by every measure of such events, a dismal failure. Fewer than a thousand people attended. The President had been told that over five thousand should show up. There was polite applause for the President's remarks and only a handful of people remained to shake the President's hand, normally considered a high point in such affairs. Tom Adams did attend, out of courtesy and as Governor of Colorado. He spoke a few words to the President as he was preparing to leave.
"Mister President, I apologize for the poor attendance. We thought more people would show up." Tom was lying; he knew well in advance that people had decided to avoid the service.
"Yes, I was somewhat disappointed. We were told that over five thousand might attend. They couldn't have forgotten Bob that quickly." That remark was designed to insult Tom and the memory of Bob Winston. But in the rules of political gamesmanship, Tom had to ignore it, smiling through his dislike for the President.
"Give my best to your wife, Mister President. Have a nice flight back to Washington."
"Thank you, and my best to your wife and family." The President flew back to Washington that afternoon.
Sam Brouchet was informed by an associate that the President was bringing pressure on some western companies that were heavily dependent on government contracts. He put together a task force of ten of the committee to contact every one of them that had been approached by the government. Only one of the companies showed real concern for its continued profitability if it lost federal contracts. Sam called the president of that company.
"Joe, how the hell are you? Joe, I understand that you've been getting a little pressure from Washington about lost contracts."
"Well, you might say that, Sam. How's everything in the mining business?"
"Oh, can't complain. Joe, I just called to assure you that the west could issue government contracts, too and to be patient. If you have government contracts now, there is no reason to believe that you won't continue to have contracts with the new government."
"Sam, I appreciate the call. I have to admit that I was a little worried. Some of us don't know how this will affect us."
The President was reported to be irate that this phase of the campaign was so unsuccessful.
Clearly, the pressures of the conditions in Washington, the efforts to clean it up and rebuild it, were taking its toll on the President. He scheduled a week's vacation in Camp David to refresh his spirit and rethink his strategy. That lost week was clearly won by the westerners. They successfully combatted the efforts by the President to pressure the research centers and universities into speaking out against secession. The universities showed a surprising amount of support for separatism, which pleased Tom Adams and the permanent committee staffers. They had thought that the universities might throw their support to the federal government.
It was now nearly the end of July. The group, with the help of the committee, which had now grown to over 150 staff members, had spent a month lobbying the western legislatures and governors, senators and representatives, universities and businesses. Tom Adams scheduled a meeting in Denver of the group at the committee headquarters. They would meet to plan their final campaign.
Chapter X
The Break is Made
The group met in the committee headquarters in Denver in the office provided by Sam Brouchet. Attending was the original group, along with two high level staffers who had prepared reports to deliver to the group. One report covered the form of government proposed by the research team and the other was a report on the timing of the call for separation and the method by which it should be done.
Tom Adams motioned to the first staffer to begin his report. When the young man, who held a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Colorado, began reading his 45 page report, Tom interrupted him. "John, I know you sweat blood to prepare that report, but why don't you just verbalize its contents to us, summarize it and then we can ask you questions as necessary."
The young man blushed noticeably for a moment, then regained his composure. "Basically we are proposing a parliamentary form of national government and leaving each state or province free to create whatever form of state government they like, or change nothing about what they have now. In the parliament, or what we call the Legislative Assembly, there would be only one house, a unicameral form of legislature, such as is found in Nebraska. We considered the plight of the presently elected senators from the western states and concluded that they should retain their positions in the national government, but as 'at large' members of the body. In five years, those seats would be phased out, and they would have to run in their own districts."
"This would insure that all those senators would continue in the new government. All presently elected House members would automatically sit in the assembly representing those districts that they now represent. The terms of all members of the assembly would be five years, including the at large former senators, no matter when they were originally elected."
"That should please the hell out of Benny Watkins of Utah," interjected Bill McKay. "He was scheduled to run again next year and wasn't considered too sure of winning. Go ahead, young man. Sorry I interrupted."
"Oh, that's quite all right. Feel free to make comments of any type throughout my presentation. Now, since it is a parliamentary form of government, the presiding officer is selected from among its members, just as Premier Jeffries is now. We have not come up with a title for this post. But he would be the head of government. He would run the government on a day to day basis. But since the people are used to electing a President by popular vote, we concluded that the President ought to be elected by the people and would serve as head of state, as is the case in France. His role would be largely ceremonial in that he would preside over state functions, would greet foreign dignitaries, somewhat like the Queen of England. If the government failed, he would direct the Prime Minister to call elections."
"What do you mean, fail? How are you using that term?
" asked Sam.
"In a parliamentary form of government, the term 'fail' means that the assembly no longer supports the premier. He has lost a 'vote of confidence' and thus has no majority to rule with," the young man explained. "So what it means is that the President would have the power to formally notify the premier that new elections would have to be called. The premier knows it anyway, but this makes it official."
"So these people who were just elected for a five year term have to get out on the stump and campaign for re election?" asked Sam.
"Exactly," answered the young Ph.D.
"Why not just have a senate and a souse and a president like we have now? The people are used to that and I would think they would be more comfortable with it," continued Sam, playing the devil's advocate to see how the young man would handle the question.
"Well there are two good reasons, Mister Brouchet," answered the reporter. "First, the parliamentary form of government is functionally advantageous, in that every member of the premier's cabinet is an elected member of the assembly, so the people know who they are. The second reason is that it would certainly attract the Canadians, who already have the form in place."
"You mean that the premier selects, let's say the head of the Defense Department, from the assembly, or the head of the Treasury, or whatever? I can see that it would have certain advantages. Go ahead, you're giving me a good lesson in government, and God knows, I need it," said Sam laughing softly.
"Another concept that we really found almost unanimous support for is limited central government. The powers that the US government has would not appear in our government. In effect we would start with a clean slate and build government regulations from scratch. There would be no EPA and Consumer Protection, no OSHA. All that would be left to the states. The main reason for the central government would be to provide national services such as a sound currency and banking system, a national defense system, and so forth. No postal system, mind you. We felt that if people want to mail a letter, that it should be done by business, not government. And certainly no subsidy for business mail. Another concept that we proposed is that the central government should act as a contractor and bid out government services to private business."
"I think you best elaborate on that a little," said Robert Jeffries. "I don't want to misunderstand you on this one."
"Well, what I am talking about is this. Why keep a government bureau in operation for thirty years after its reason for existence is finished? If we contract out government services, then when the need for that is over, the contract just expires. You don't have a thousand civil servants sitting around with nothing to do. The FAA is a good example. If the airlines want to stay in business, let them provide air controllers. Why should the government pay the salaries of air traffic controllers? The airlines should provide them."
"But what if the air traffic controllers are unqualified and cause deaths and accidents?" asked Hal Browning, half suspecting what the response would be.
"Then the airline will go out of business. The government does not provide the pilots, but they do provide the controllers. The incentive for the airlines is to make a profit and the only way to do so is to provide good traffic control."
"OK, I get the point. Maybe air traffic control is not the best example. But I think I get the drift of what you're saying, and I think I agree with you," said Bill McKay. "Use the example of the Social Security Administration. How would that work under your proposal?"
"A very good example, Governor McKay. Under our concept, the SSA would not exist. Instead, we would give citizens the option of having Social Security or a private plan. Even if they chose Social Security, we would simply contract the administration out to a company who would keep track of the accounts, collect the money, etc. The entire staff of our 'SSA' would be, say, no more than a few hundred people, in order to provide management of the plan."
"Another idea that we had was not to have a central single site of government, but instead to have different parts of the government spread out over the entire nation. For example, the Defense Department might be located in New Mexico, but the Treasury in Alaska, and the Justice Department in Idaho. That way each part of the nation would feel some part of the government. Besides, with modern day computers, and high speed fax and video conferencing, it really doesn't matter where the government is located."
"But what if the premier wanted to call a cabinet meeting? Where would they meet? And look at all the cost of travel, not to mention lost time," asked George Brazleton.
"Oh no, the Legislative Assembly would be situated in one place and all the cabinet members are present in that city. They would administer the department they direct through a deputy, who hopefully would be a career civil servant. The deputy would be located in the site of his department."
"Makes good sense to me," said Sam. "Might keep the government from getting too big and bureaucratic. Hell, I run my business out of Denver, but most of it is in Nevada and Montana. Incidentally, John, do you work for me or did we hire you for this project?"
"No, sir. I work for you over in the Legal Department," answered the young man, feeling a little like Ensign Pulver in the play 'Mister Roberts' after the Captain of the ship discovers that he has a young officer aboard.
"But you're not a lawyer. Why are you in the Legal Department?" asked Sam, a little embarrassed.
"Well, sir, I do historical and political research, which frees the attorneys for purely legal work in preparation of their cases. It has proven to be very cost effective."
"Was this my idea, or the Legal Department?, asked Sam, now intrigued by this young man.
"No, sir, it was your daughter's idea. You didn't think much of the idea as she explained to me during the interview," answered John.
"This was my daughter's idea?" asked Sam, a small smile crossing his face. The other men around the table were obviously enjoying this. They were watching the expression on Sam's face as it changed from gruff to proud and back to gruff. The young man was holding up to Sam's questioning with a steadiness that belied his youth. Sam's daughter had recently received a Masters in Business from UCLA and Sam had given her a branch of the business to operate. Sam was beginning to appreciate his daughter's business sense.
This was a case study in male bonding. The scene in the room had been played out a million times in the past 50,000 years. The young man was the initiate enduring the rites of passage into the tribe. The group were the Elders, interrogating the initiate, testing his mettle, his courage. Though only dimly aware of it, the older men were merely responding to their genetic predisposition. They were acting as their forebears had done since the Neanderthals and Cro Magnon man. The young man had passed his first test easily; he showed courtesy to his elders. He passed the rite of questioning, to test his courage. He was now almost accepted by the group because he was an acquaintance of Sam's daughter. This was the twentieth century version of civilized man's tribal ritual. There were no bears to kill, no lions to trap, no act of physical courage such as the Lakota Sioux might require. This was all mental in nature. And the young man was doing very well.
"John, I have a question of some importance to a new nation," posed Bill McKay. "What about taxation and the means of collecting it? Is that included in your report?"
"Yes, it is Governor. Our recommendation is that the central government would have no power of taxation. Their revenue would be derived from the states only. Each state would direct a percentage of its taxes to the central government, based on population and economic posture. In event of catastrophe or war, the central government could require the necessary funds be given above their regular operating budget, but only in these cases. In addition, a majority of the states would have to approve the budget of the central government. This would be done in the legislatures of the states. And of course there would be no provision for deficit spending as is the case now in the Federal government. If they don't have it, they don't spend it."
"OK, thank you John," said T
om, signalling that the time allotted for the report was over. "I think your staff did a super job on that. We'll all read your report tonight in detail. Who helped you on this report?"
"Well, one of the staff was Tom Adams, Junior, sir. Your son." It seemed to be a day for surprises around the table concerning the accomplishments of the group's offspring.
"Tom Junior works for the committee? When did you hire him, Sam. He didn't tell me about this."
"Hell, he was afraid to. He made me promise not to say anything about it. He didn't want anybody to think he was getting preferential treatment."
"Your turn to be surprised," chided Bill McKay, laughing full out.
After the young Ph.D. left, the group discussed the report in some detail. Bill McKay was not convinced that a parliamentary system would be acceptable to the people of the west. Hal Browning expressed solid support for such a system. Of course Robert Jeffries was very much in favor of it. Jeffries said, "I am not so sure that people really care what form the government takes as long as they remain convinced that the people running it know what they are doing, that they are competent." Bill McKay agreed with that point. Besides, they concluded, the constitutional convention would have to decide that issue, as well as a hundred other issues.
"As much as I personally like the idea of states providing revenues to the central government, in reality, do you fellahs think it will work?" asked Sam.
"It is an interesting concept. It's a step backward in time to the early days of this country. I'm not sure if it will really fly, though," George said.
"Why couldn't we put forward a combination of a national sales tax and state contributions?" offered Sam.
"I think that would have a better chance of working than the idea proposed," said McKay. "Realistically, governments need money to operate on. They have to get it from somewhere. I don't know how the mechanics of state supported central government would work." "It could cause a whole level of bureaucracy to be created. We better take a hard look at that one," said Sam.
The Second Declaration Page 14