Two-Yacht Governors

Seated last week beneath the huge chandelier in his paneled office, Alabama's Governor George C. Wallace gulped Coke and denounced the lavish spending of his predecessor, John Patterson. Growled Wallace: "It's criminal, it's a shame, it's a sin."

Perhaps so. But wasting public money is something of a tradition with Alabama governors. During his first term in 1947-51, James E. ("Kissin' Jim") Folsom paid $140,000 in state funds for a seagoing 95-ft. yacht, which he named Jamelle after his wife. Folsom's successor Gordon Persons apparently felt that his wife Alice was entitled to have a yacht named after her, too; anyway, he bought an 80-ft. craft for $100,000, named it Alice. Alabama, one of the poorest states in per capita income, thus earned the distinction of being perhaps the only state in the union with a two-yacht Governor.

Triple-Threat Spender. After 250-lb. Kissin' Jim returned for a second term in 1955, he made his first regime seem almost austere. During his final year in office, the food-and-drink expenses for parties aboard the two yachts came to $54,260. A sort of triple-threat spender--land, sea and air--Folsom accumulated a gubernatorial squadron of seven airplanes. Sometimes when he was putting on a really big bash, like taking friends to an out-of-state football game, he found his air force inadequate, commandeered Air National Guard planes and pilots. In 1958 he treated himself, his wife, and five of his children, plus a sizeable retinue of retainers, to a visit to the Brussels World's Fair--at state expense, of course.

Upon taking over from Folsom in January 1959, Patterson proclaimed economy. But before long he was spending state funds almost as uninhibitedly as Kissin' Jim. Not content with a press secretary. he also hired a radio-TV secretary and a personal photographer. Though he got rid of five planes, he later bought four others. Shortly before his term expired, he used $17,500 of his emergency funds to pay legal expenses for his brother Maurice, whom he had appointed state finance director. Maurice was caught up in an investigation involving the alleged misuse of Alabama funds; now he and two other ex-officials face a civil suit filed by the state to recover $950,000.

"Segregation Forever." Faced with a $2.2 million deficit in the current fiscal year. Governor Wallace has announced an austerity program. He has ordered the two yachts sold and the gubernatorial air force abolished, has even directed the highway patrol to halt cars bearing official license plates to make sure that the cars are being used solely for state business.

But in one respect, Wallace is like other Alabama Governors. He promised "segregation forever'' during his campaign, and despite his cost-cutting efforts in other sectors, he has asked the legislature to include in the budget for the next fiscal year special funds to be used for contesting anti-segregation law suits.

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