The Arkansas Rockefeller

IX: Years of Reform

CHAPTER IX Years of Reform he true reformer, according to Tom Murton, must accept each challenge with the knowledge that ultimately he would be consumed in the process. If Rockefeller had any fear of being "consumed in the process " ofreform, he didn't evidence it. Almost every day of the Rockefeller years, something was going on to change things. Rockefeller looked for chances to tear down the old and build the new. At times, many felt he oversteppedhis authority in pursuit ofhis objectives . He perhaps lost more battles than he won, but he either set the stage for reform or achieved it in many areas—insurance, alcoholic beverage control, governmental efficiency, game and fish management, stock investment regulation, freedom of information. He was able to restrict political contributions with strings (more like heavy chains) attached and to drive away party leaders and functionaries with their hands near or in the till. Improvements in penologyand race relations as well as imposition of some needed taxes were among his accomplishments . Rockefeller was, of course, harshly criticized for presuming to involve himself in the sacred institutions of Arkansas, but he persisted. In January of 1967, a suit was filed in Pulaski County Chancery Court requesting an order to stop the Arkansas Loan & Thrift Corporation (AL&T) from representing itself as a bank trust company or savings and loan association . That was the first step in a slow but eventually successful move to shut down this company which existed under false and corrupt pretenses. In September of 1968 Federal Judge John A. Miller ordered liquidation of the T Years of Reform 145 firm and its subsidiary company, so that the two thousand depositors might collect whatever was left oftheir savings. The corporation's liabilities exceeded its assets by about $3.2 million. The names of several well-known politicians were among the organizers and inside stockholders of the company. Among those losing money in the organization were two churches in Booneville, as well as some cemetery associations that had invested money.1 Faubus was never directly linked to the scandal, but it became clear later that he had been urged toact against it, or at least investigate it. When Joe Purcell succeeded Bruce Bennett in the office of attorney general, he immediately filed a lawsuit against AL&T. John Norman Harkey, an aggressive attorney from Batesville and the new insurance commissioner, was also committed to insurance reform; he sent the AL&T house of cards tumbling when he ruled that Savings Guaranty Company,insuror of AL&T deposits, didn't have sufficient assets to supply the protection it claimed to have for the AL&T deposits .2 Eventually the AL&T case reached Judge Miller's court, and he declared the company insolvent. He ordered assets of it and two affiliated companies distributed to the depositors , who eventually got back roughly 60 percent of their investment. Many were indicted in the scandal, including Bruce Bennett. Several were convictedand served prison terms, but Bennett's trial was delayed because of illness. On May 20, 1977, the 27-count indictment against the former attorney general was dismissed.3 Reasons given by United States Attorney Robert Johnson in asking Judge Oren Harris for the dismissal were Bennett's poor health and difficulty in locating possible witnesses. The charges had been pending since January 30, 1969. "I'd like to thank my friends and attorneys for their continued faith in me," Bennett said as he left the federal court. The "Game and Fish controversy,"in whichRockefeller 146 The Arkansas Rockefeller sought to remove some of the commissioners for what he considered a flagrant abuse of office, is another example of his determination to change things and the correspondingly determined resistance to change that he faced repeatedly. The conflict began quietly enough. Joe Gaspard , a GOP fieldman, was denied access to expense vouchers, bid records, and cash receipts for the sale of surplus equipment by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission . Gaspard's requests were passed off by the commission as "harassment" and nothing more.4 The new Republican governor, who had been hearing reports for months about wrongdoing in the Game and Fish Commission, was ready to take action. He drafted a letter of protest to all commission members, expressing his disapproval of their refusal to cooperate. In reply to WR's letter, the commission assured him it wished towork with the executive branch but did not desire to be harassed .5 This commission was more independent than...