1978 December 1

INTRODUCTION

VEHICLE INSPECTION BILL
Scope and Content Note: Dueholm opposed; a bonanza for auto dealers because bill would have required twice a year check.

ANTI-SIN TAX
Scope and Content Note: Sales tax on cigarettes suggested for funds to buy up wild land for recreation uses. Alfonsi tried to kill the program by prohibiting more purchases until improvements had been made in existing areas.

SCHOOL AIDS DISTRIBUTION
Scope and Content Note: State money to support education to help poorer communities. Opponents, mainly Republican, fought it all the way but finally voted for it and claimed credit for it.

TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY BILL
Scope and Content Note: Allowed electric cooperatives to retain areas-they had originally opened up.

CRITICIZES ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE LOBBYISTS FOR BEHAVING LIKE PRIVATE UTILITIES
Scope and Content Note: Electric cooperatives fought Marty Schreiber in 1978 because of his doubts about nuclear energy. Example of one-issue politics.

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE HYPOCRISY
Scope and Content Note: Wanted local, not state, government control over taxing businesses, but then they wanted to exempt their own property from property taxes.

CONCERN OVER CORPORATE FARMS
Scope and Content Note: Another disappointment of legislative career was failure to enact strong anti-corporate farm legislation.

GAYLORD NELSON'S NATIONAL PROGRAM AGAINST CORPORATE FARMS
Scope and Content Note: Unsuccessful also; wealth continues to increase control over farmland across the country.

PROBATE REFORM
Scope and Content Note: Dueholm strongly in support. Remembers strong lawyer opposition. Enabled people to probate simple estates without expensive legal fees.

JUDICIAL SALARIES
Scope and Content Note: Generally opposed salary increases, but realizes some perhaps justified.

PROJECT SANGUINE IN NORTHERN WISCONSIN
Scope and Content Note: Dueholm strongly opposed, as was Gaylord Nelson.

OPEN HOUSING BILL
Scope and Content Note: Bill crossed party lines. Adrian Manders opposed it; Dueholm supported it saying what a shame it was people could not have been born color-blind. Neighborhoods varied more on the basis of income, not race.

END OF TAPE 6, SIDE 1

INTRODUCTION

SALE OF COLORED MARGARINE
Scope and Content Note: Dueholm in favor of the prohibition of sale, but it became an unpopular issue as non-farmers became more numerous throughout the state. Relates stories revealing true nature of margarine.

EVENTUAL REPEAL OF REGULATION AGAINST SALE OF COLORED OLEOMARGARINE
Scope and Content Note: Chairman of Agriculture Committee, strong Farm Bureau supporter, sponsored the bill. At the bill signing, everyone dressed in yellow, and Governor Warren Knowles signed it with a yellow pen. Repeal hurt dairy farmers.

COMPULSORY PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Scope and Content Note: A Captain Bollenbach, who supported all these patriotic bills, testified in support of the bill; supported the idea of requiring the pledge once a week instead of every day because to do it daily would cheapen it. Dueholm responded by asking that such an unpatriotic person be ejected from the hearing. One legislative supporter, Thomas St. Angelo, from Barron County, was challenged by Dueholm on the floor of the Assembly to recite the pledge; he could not.

ARTIFICIAL FOOD COLORING
Scope and Content Note: Dueholm opposed because it didn't help agriculture, only the processors.

MINIMUM WAGE
Scope and Content Note: Dueholm felt opposition to a minimum wage was ridiculous. Never hurt the farmer. Minimum wage not just for big labor; union labor was seldom involved with minimum-wage jobs.

DUEHOLM'S REPUTATION AS “DRINK WET-VOTE DRY.”
Scope and Content Note: Admits it, as he drank his share and seldom voted with the tavern industry. Supported closing taverns on Election Day, but legislature voted to keep them open.

COUNTY BOARD REAPPORTIONMENT
Scope and Content Note: Voted against own party not because he was against one man-one vote but because he was against reducing size of the board. Meant decrease in the interest in local government by citizenry.

REPEAL OF GAMBLING LAW
Scope and Content Note: Dueholm opposed the repeal even though he sometimes gambled himself. If gambling allowed, the rackets would get involved, and corruption would result.

REPEAL OF STATE MEAT INSPECTION
Scope and Content Note: Governor Lucey wanted to repeal it since it was redundant with the federal government inspection programs. Meat processors lobbied for continuation, since they used state approval as an advertising method.

CHIROPRACTOR BILLS
Scope and Content Note: Dueholm did not know whether bills were right or wrong, but physicians 90 percent anti-Democratic in their politics. Support of chiropractic bills more a shot at the “doctors' lobby” than support of principle. Notes political power of chiropractors in defeat of Governor Martin Schreiber.

LAETRILE
Scope and Content Note: Dueholm originally in favor of legalizing it, but increasing rightwing involvement changed his mind. Never saw laetrile prevent death from cancer, and Dueholm afraid people would use laetrile as substitute for regular medical treatment.

TEACHER'S BILL (SB 15)
Scope and Content Note: Dueholm always known as strong supporter of public education, but had doubts about SB 15. Not as bad as administrators thought; not as good as teachers thought.

END OF TAPE 6, SIDE 2