Conversation with:

Orren Beaty

dialogue with the Federal Co-chairman of the Four Corners Commission - Assistant to the Secretary of the Interior (1961-1967) who worked for several years as the Administrative Assistant to Representative Stewart L. Udall

This interview, arranged and photographed by K. C. DenDooven and conducted by his editor, Gaylord Staveley, appeared in Western Gateways Magazine - Four Corners - Grand Circle Arches Bryce Canyon Canyonlands Capitol Reef Zion Grand Canyon - Issue in 1968

• Arches
• Bryce Canyon
• Canyonlands
• Capitol Reef
• Zion
• Grand Canyon
• Grand Staircase Escalante
  
  

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  Four Corners is part of the Grand Circle travel and Grand Circle tours are the mainstay of economic life in this National Park rich area
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The Public Works and Economic Development Act of 1965 authorized creation of a number of regional commissions throughout the United States, to provide planning and assistance to socially and economically stagnant areas. The four Corners area was subsequently designated as one of these. The natural beauty of the region is well known, and attracts throngs of visitors each year. But population is sparse (less than two million people live within the 92 county region of the Four Corners states) and economic bases are, as a rule, narrow. The rough terrain limits the number and quality of trade arteries. The land itself yields crops and minerals only spottily. Labor markets are seasonal and relatively few in number.

Doing something to alleviate these problems is the job of the Four Corners Regional Commission, comprised of the governors of Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico, their staffs, and a federal contingent.

Heading the Four Corners Commission is Orren Beaty, appointed to the position of Federal Co-chairman late in 1967. Beaty is a native of New Mexico who in his early years traveled the state with his father, a Department of Agriculture employee. In New Mexico, Beaty edited a small newspaper, went on to a degree in journalism, and subsequently moved to Arizona, where he covered the doings of the Arizona legislature for one of the large metropolitan newspapers.

Beaty has been in Wasington for the past twelve years, first on the staff of Representative Stewart Udall, then as Administrative Assistant when Mr. Udall became Secretary of The Interior. In August of 1967, Beaty resigned that position to accept the federal co-chairmanship of the Four Corners Commission.

His duties in that post entail considerable travel, and we were fortunate enough to stop his forward motion long enough during a recent trip to interview him at our offices in Flagstaff.

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Western Gateways: We want to ask you first about the official name of your organization. Originally it seems to have been referred to as the Four Corners Economic Development Commission; lately we read about the Four Corners Regional Commission. Has the name changed?

Orren Beaty: No, it hasn't really changed, but there are a lot of different ways of labeling it and none has been used enough for people to be familiar with it. The 92 county area is officially known as the Four Corners Economic Development region. We generally see items in the papers referring to the Four Corners Regional Commission, which refers to the people that have the responsibility. The Commission is made up of the governors of the four states that are involved, plus a federal Co-chairman. That's my job. Sometimes discussions refer to us as a "regional action planning commission". That's really just a play on words resulting from early written discussions on the concept, where it was pointed out that there has to be planning but at the same time they expect action out of The Commission, not just a lot of study.

Western Gateways: What form of participation is taken by the governors of the involved states; are they backed by staffs?

Orren Beaty: In the four states there are at least three different patterns. Each governor has an alternate. Beyond that, let me tell you how different these patterns are. In Arizona the alternate member is Stanley Wolmer, the governor's staff director, who works in the governors' office all the time, but not on this commission work all the time. He started getting experience in this area back when Howard Pyle was governor and the Arizona Development board was created.

In New Mexico the State Planning Director is on the governor's staff, with many duties. He's in charge of the poverty program, the state publications, and a professional planning staff. They have some very good people, with a lot of experience, economists, planners, and so on.

In Colorado they have a state planning department and a conservation commission completely separate from the governor's office Dwight Neil, our man in Colorado, is not on the governor's staff like Arthur Ortiz is in New Mexico, but he probably has more experience along this line than anyone else working with The commission.

In Utah we have a different pattern. There is a young professional planner on the governor's staff, but he is not the governor's alternate, rather, he works for the governor on a day-to-day basis. The alternate, D. Howell Moffat, is an attorney, has been a leader in Utah tourist and industrial development, and that sort of thing. He serves in a non-paid position as Chairman of the Industrial Promotion Commission in the state of Utah.

Western Gateways: Then these are much more than honorary positions for the governors.

Orren Beaty: They are. In fact when The Commission is to meet, the governors only agree to a date when each is certain he can attend. And they have attended. The alternates, too, when we've had meetings with them, make a point of being there and being prepared.

Western Gateways: Are the purpose and functions of your Commission similar to the so-called Appalachia program that was developed for a depressed area in West Virginia?

Orren Beaty: Our enabling legislation was passed about a year after the Appalachia Commission was set up. There are five such regional commissions, called Title Five Commissions. I'm not sure of the order in which hey were created, but the first two were the Upper Great Lakes Commission and the Ozarks Commission. The Upper Great Lakes area is in trouble because the good timber has been cut off and the high grade iron ore depleted. And of course the Ozarks area has never been very prosperous, as everyone knows.

The whole of New England also comprises one of the regions, the only one that includes complete states. Of course this simplifies the research and statistics because you don't have to derive figures for parts of states. Another of the regions is the Gulf Coastal Plains, the area from the fall line of the rivers in North and South Carolina and Georgia.

Western Gateways: What factors go into qualifying a region for this sort of designation?

Orren Beaty: It's a matter of employment rates, worker migration. Many times the population of an area won't show a decline, yet the births are just taking place of the deaths and the people moving away. It's a stagnant situation. Other considerations are drastic changes in industrial patterns, shutting down of big plants, the abandonment of government installations. For instance in planning their participation, New Mexico was leaving out Chavez County, which includes Roswell. Roswell is one of the bigger towns in the state and has always been a trade center for southeastern New Mexico. During the planning of regional commission boundaries the Air Force shut down Walker Air Force Base, which has become one of the major factors in the area, so Chavez county was added to the region. Now all of Eddy County, just south of Chavez, wants to be included, and although the governor doesn't want to start a boundary-changing situation right away, New Mexico is inclined to bring in Eddy County. The potash deposit down there has been quite productive, but it's playing out now; one company has shut down completely. These are just illustrations of how and why areas are included.

Western Gateways: There will probably be revisions, then, as time goes on, and those are at the volition of the states?

Orren Beaty: That's right. These have to be approved by the joint federal-state group; no one does anything without the approval of the others. But I don't think the federal government is going to throw up roadblocks if one state wants to do something and the other states in the region aren't opposed to it.

There are some other things that qualify an area for inclusion. One has to do with education; there are many cases of sub-standard education for Indians and it's partially because of language problems. Another is condition of housing, for instance how many houses are so many years old, whether they have the right kind of facilities, how far is it to the outdoor toilet, and so on.

Western Gateways: Would Indian participation in the Commission be through the Governor's offices?

Orren Beaty: No, it would be separate. There is the Indian Development district of Arizona - - the IDDA -- which includes a number of Indian reservations. The Navajos are the only tribe in the state that hasn't joined. The Arizona governor's office has a directional role in getting this going, but eventually IDDA will be independent, not directly responsible to the governor's office. It will be responsible to the Economic Development Administration (EDA) in Washington. The back-up organization in EDA that takes care of IDDA also provides our commission with administrative and technical back-up, so we are very closely inter-related. But IDDA couldn't participate directly in the Four Corners Commission without going through EDA in Washington. And our functions are different. IDDA's program is mostly studies followed by attempts to lure other government agencies or industry into doing things with them. Our commission, on the other hand, will eventually make expenditures and have a more direct connection with other government agencies that have programs in this area. For example when we find something we think is helpful on an Indian reservation we can work with the Bureau of indian Affairs, and when we get funds, supplement what they have available.

Western Gateways: Do you have any figures available comparing Indian unemployment with that of the region as a whole?

Orren Beaty: Yes. Nationally, 39% of the population participates in gainful employment. That is from the 1960 census. At the same time this figure was only 33% in the Four Corners region. The Four Corners state with the best rate was Colorado, with 34.4%. Only 6 countries in the 92 country region had median incomes larger than the national median. the median income in the region was $5,060 annually compared with $55,625 nationally. More than 25% of the families had a median income below he $3,000 a year poverty level, compared with 21.4% nationally.

Western Gateways: Governor John Love of Colorado was the first state Co-chairman, wasn't he? When does the Co-chairmanship change?

Orren Beaty: We have done this on a fiscal year basis. Each of the state co-Chairmen will serve through June. Every other quarter of the fiscal year the state co-Chairman presides and the alternative quarter the federal co-chairman presides. But by presiding neither loses his voting rights or his rights to make motions or anything else. It is a full participation type of chairmanship.

Western Gateways: How was the first state co-Chairman chosen and how will his successor be chosen?

Orren Beaty: Well, the governors themselves do it. I have no vote in that. At the opening meeting somebody nominated Governor Love and they all agreed he was the logical choice, I think partly because he doesn't have to run for election this year. Then they nominated Governor Rampton of Utah for alternate co-chairman. He declined and somebody nominated Governor Williams. He declined and then he nominated Governor Cargo of New Mexico and he said he would be happy to serve.

Western Gateways: It's taken some time to choose the headquarters location. Would you tell us what was involved in doing that?

Orren Beaty: You know it took so long to make a choice that someone wrote Governor Rampton and suggested we put the headquarters in a Greyhound Bus, so we could spend a week in Farmington, a week in Cortez or Durango, a week in Moab.

What we did was to set several criteria over a period of time. One was that the headquarters city would have to be in the development region, not just anywhere in the four states. That eliminated Denver, Salt Lake City, and Phoenix. Albuquerque and Santa Fe are within the region and both were interested in it, but another criteria was that it should be in the Four Corners area so it wouldn't drop down a well in a larger town where there are other federal agencies and that would be the last you'd hear of it. Location near the heart of the region would have a better psychological effect. That cut it down to the towns nearby that showed interest. Cotez and Durango in Colorado, Farmington, New Mexico, Page and Flagstaff, Arizona. Three towns in southeastern Utah tried. Blanding, which is pretty small and isolated, Monticello, which is a little larger but also doesn't have commercial air service, and Moab, which has air service. To get a decision there has to be a majority vote of the governors. When they vote two-to-two then they let me cast the deciding vote.

Western Gateways: Who wrote it that way?

Orren Beaty: Congress did. I guess they didn't want anyone cramming anything down the states' throats. And in effect if the federal Co-chairman can consult with two of the governors he may persuade the other two to go along on an issue. Each governor of course feels obligated to support his own state, and they did at first. They weren't quite sure the law read like it did, so we got an opinion from the General Counsel's Office of the Department of commerce. It stated very clearly that the majority of the governors had to vote, and that I had to actively vote, I couldn't just pass.

Cortez made a real good case for itself and conducted, I thought, a good hard-headed campaign to get the site, offering us free office space. Durango met all the standards we laid down as to size, transportation, and college to provide some back-up for the commission. Page was just a little bit out of it. In the end it really got down between Moab and Farmington. I thought that Farmington was a better choice and that is where it wound up. It is a little larger, has excellent air service, and a small college, a branch of another college. There is an agricultural experiment station set up to take care of planning and preparation on the Navajo Irrigation Project.

Western Gateways: Having been on Secretary Stewart Udall's staff, you're familiar with the Golden Circle (Grand Circle) concept. How is your organization related to this?

Orren Beaty: The Golden Circle (Grand Circle) is still more of a concept than a concrete thing. What is the Golden Circle (Grand Circle), after all? It's not a perfect circle, but things that are in here and there. I am sure there will be interest and controversy over how many paved roads you put into an area and how much of it you leave inaccessible and unspoiled.

Western Gateways: Do you expect the Four Corners Commission to be involved in the promotion of Golden Circle (Grand Circle) routes, or is the machinery geared up on them to he point where you will just be aware of what is happening and watch it develop?

Orren Beaty: I regard this as part of our responsibility. If the governors and I working together determine that lack of roads has held back development then this is an area that we ought to attack. The state highway commissioners and engineers of the four states put together a plan and I hope to have a map on it before long. This will propose all kinds of new roads. There are two or three in southern Utah going through the Ute Mountain country. There are two roads from Farmington south through Chaco Canyon and Crownpoint.

Western Gateways: Would you tell us how your office in Washington is set up?

Orren Beaty: We are authorized a staff, and I have nine people including myself. Ultimately we will try to get by with about seventeen, which will include about three stenographers. These are federal people, a separate staff, but the Commission staff will not be federal people. The whole thing will work under a staff director.

We are looking for people in each of the states who are well known and have had more than just casual experience. The staff director will be operating in our headquarters in Farmington, but will probably average a week out of each month in Washington, and I will be out in the regional office in the same way.

Western Gateways: Then you'll have what? . .about fifteen people in Farmington?

Orren Beaty: I think so. The authorization is for twenty-five, but no one expects it to get to that. At this point we don't have the work for them to do, and of course we don't have the funds. nobody will be assigned specifically to say New Mexico, or to Arizona, but there will of course have to be a certain amount of specialization. There will be two working on each state, plus a staff director, and three or four girls -- a total of twelve or thirteen, then. I think we can borrow people from the state universities if we need them. The Dean of the School of Agriculture at New Mexico State has already said he would make someone available to us.

Western Gateways: Well, we thank you for taking the time for this interview. The work you are doing for the Four Corners area and for the Grand Circle is important and necessary. We wish you success.

Biographical Information on Orren Beaty, Jr.

Born June 13, 1919 in Clayton, New Mexico

He served in the U.S. Army and Air Force and in the Department of the Interior under the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations.


He was the Administrative Assistant to Representative Stewart L. Udall (Arizona) in the United States Congress. He retained his role as administrative assistant when Udall was appointed Secretary of the Interior (1961), and continued working in that position until Udall left office (1967).


He served as the federal co-chairman of the Four Corners Regional Commission and continued his involvement with state, local, and national politics, working as an editor for Congressional Digest (1969-1970).

Orren Beaty received the Golden Spike Award for his "work on balanced transportation.