856 ADDRESSES AND STATE PAPERS

that with tongue in cheek or not; and I'm certain that — knowing
Senator Dirksen's very capable adherence to the proprieties of politics
and his ability not to bruise political egos unless it's absolutely es-
sential — I can't believe that he meant this seriously to downgrade
the efforts of anyone who is working on the platform. Possibly what
he meant was that after the consensus is obtained by meetings of the
Platform Committee he could go and write a very simple, adequate
platform by himself, based on what he hoped would be a consensus.
I don't know. I can't tell, but it's not the kind of statement that I
would think he said seriously with an attitude that he was trying to
rule out the contributions of others to the platform.

Q. Have you already submitted your resignation to the Platform
Committee?

A. No, I've never been a member of the Platform Committee as
such. I indicated that I had intended to go to serve on that committee,
but I have never been put on a platform committee.

Q. When did you reach that decision, Governor?

A. Well, I guess that's been three or four weeks ago, really — sort
of falling away from that idea. Most of the other governors who had
indicated an early interest in it found themselves similarly restricted
because of their local problems and have decided not to actually par-
ticipate in the platform hearings.

Q. Wasn't a resolution adopted at the Governors' Conference that
the governors should have a strong voice in the Platform Committee?

A. Yes there was, and I suppose that it was a little ambitious — hope-
ful — that we could find the time to participate personally, but this
will not stop us from having a strong voice, because of course we in-
tend to follow very closely the participation of our State representa-
tives on those committees. But personally it's pretty difficult to go
down there and take two extra weeks at a time when there are so
many things happening at the State level.

(Republican Politics)

Q. Governor, do you have any special projects or crusades that you
will take to Tulsa this week for the Republican Governors' Confer-
ence?

A. Nothing special and I think that a great amount of what hap-
pens at Tulsa this time will be political, which seemed to have been
the general complaint of party governors' conferences in the past —