SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 1009

A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

ON THE DEATH OF

PRESIDENT LYNDON B. JOHNSON

The sudden death of the thirty-sixth President of the United States, Lyndon Baines Johnson, on January 22, 1973, only twenty-eight days after the death of President Harry S. Truman, deeply saddened this state and nation. He succumbed to a heart attack at his ranch near Austin, Texas, at the age of sixty-four. He had survived several other heart attacks since the first one in 1955.

President Johnson was born near Stonewall, Texas, August 27, 1908, the son of Samuel Ealy Johnson and Rebekah Baines Johnson. Both his grandfather and father served in the Texas legislature. After high school he worked as a highway laborer. He entered Southwest State Teachers College at San Marcos, Texas, graduating in 1930. After college he taught public speaking and debate at Sam Houston High School, Houston, Texas.

In 1932 he went to Washington as secretary to Representative Richard Kleberg. On November 11, 1934, he was married to Claudia Alta Taylor, affectionately known as Lady Bird. They had two daughters, Lynda Bird and Luci Baines. In 1935 ·Representative Sam Rayburn persuaded President Franklin D. Roosevelt to appoint him director of the National Youth Administration for Texas. He was first elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1937. He ran for the United States Senate in 1941 but lost by 1,311 votes to Governor O'Daniel and he went back to the House. A reserve naval officer, he took leave from the House and served in the southwest pacific before being called back to the House in mid-1942. He was elected to the United States Senate in 1948 by eighty-seven votes out of a million cast. He became Senate minority leader before his first term ended. He became Senate majority leader in 1954, a position he held until he was elected vice-president in 1960. He succeeded to the presidency upon the assassination November 22, 1963, of President John

F. Kennedy. He was reelected to a full term in 1964 and chose not to run for a second term in 1968.

As President and senator, Mr. Johnson had a brilliant record of passage of domestic legislation through congress. The eighty-ninth congress passed eighty-six administration measures. He was credited with developing the first civil rights act in eighty years with the 1957 legislation when he was in congress. The 1964 civil rights bill he pushed through as President has been termed the most sweeping ever enacted. Among legislation passed by the eighty-ninth congress, when he was President, were:

1. A one billion, three hundred million dollar aid-to-education bill which provided aid to public schools under a formula designed to channel the aid to school districts serving needy children.

2. A seven and one-half billion dollar housing and urban development bill which included rent subsidies for low income families.

3. A medicare-social security bill which provided medical and hospital care for the elderly under social security.

4. An immigration bill which scrapped quotas that gave preference to immigrants from northern and western Europe. It fixed an annualimmigration ceiling of one hundred twenty thousand for the western hemisphere and one hundred seventy thousand for the rest of the world.

5. A two billion, six hundred million dollar higher education act which provided scholarships up to one thousand dollars a year awarded on the basis of need alone.

6. A four billion, seven hundred million dollar excise tax that affected a huge variety of merchandise.

7. Creation of a twelfth cabinet department, transportation.

8. A two-year plan to raise the minimum wage to one dollar sixty cents and broaden its coverage by eight million workers.

9. New safety standards for automobiles.

10. A three billion, seven hundred million dollar attack on pollution.

11. Requirements for fair labeling of consumer goods.

12. A three billion, eight hundred million dollar higher education bill which would help build more college buildings over the next three years.

13. Stepped-up training for health care personnel and state-developed comprehensive health programs.

14. Suspension of two tax incentives to increased business spending in the hope of stemming inflation.

15. A five hundred six million dollar pay raise for federal employees and a three hundred fifty-seven million dollar increase for military personnel.

A five-year dispute between the nation's railroads and railroad unions was settled on April 22, 1964, after President Johnson invited leaders of both sides to the White House to attempt to work out differences.

President Johnson's role in the escalation of the Vietnam war was his greatest disappointment. Following the attack by communist PT boats on American destroyers in August, 1964, at the Bay of Tonkin and a resolution by congress granting him powers to "protect our armed forces", he ordered bombing of North Vietnam military targets, followed by commitment of troops in February, 1965. By November, 1967, four hundred sixty-nine thousand Americans were in South Vietnam. On March 31, 1968, when he announced he would not seek reelection, he also announced ordering bombing of North Vietnam restricted and again called for peace talks. North Vietnam accepted and the first talks began May 10, 1968. A cease-fire finally ended hostilities five days after his death.

A governmental upheaval in the Dominican Republic in April, 1965, prompted President Johnson to dispatch four hundred United States marines to Santo Domingo to protect Americans there. An inter-American force maintained unsettled peace until the Organization of American States worked out a peace proposal that was accepted and on September 21, 1966, the last of American forces were withdrawn.

A man of driving energy, President Johnson was considered by many the most effective Senate leader in this century. He was a master of detail, knew where every Senator stood on every issue.

He was considered an expert in the art of compromise, able to get both sides to make concessions even though both sides were less than pleased with the results.

His fervent desire for his country was that it be a land "where no child will go unfed and no youngster will go unschooled; where every child has a good teacher and every teacher has good pay, and both have good classrooms; where every human being has dignity and every worker has a job; where education is blind to color and unemployment is unaware of race; where· decency prevails and courage abounds."

History will be kind to President Johnson, a great American who put his country first and adhered to principle in the face of great adversity.

Therefore

Be it resolved by the Senate of the State of Arizona, the House of Representatives concurring:

That the Legislature, saddened by the death of President Lyndon Baines Johnson, wishes to express its regret and extend condolences to the surviving members of his family.

Unanimously adopted by the Senate-January 25, 1973

Unanimously adopted by the House-January 25, 1973

Approved by the Governor-January 29, 1973

Filed in the Office of the Secretary of State-January 29, 1973