Reviving Hatfield's Test for Good Governance

May we ever be mindful there is a distinct difference between appeasement and constructive compromise.

Kevin Frazier

Mar 25, 2021

Editor’s Note: Do your part to Sustain the Way!

We’ve raised more than $600! Keep the momentum going!

Donate here or subscribe below to create a part-time editor position. Thank you! - kevin

Give a gift subscription

Kevin Frazier edits The Oregon Way and attends the UC Berkeley School of Law.

When resources are scarce and needs are high, Oregonians deserve leaders who place their “spirit of duty,” in the words of Governor Mark Hatfield, “above personal interests and party alliance.” Hatfield directed the State Legislature in 1959 to meet that challenge by applying a test, “The Pioneer’s Test,” to every question. Here’s an excerpt from his inaugural address:

To our plateau of time, with its social and technological enlightenment, let us bring an achievement worthy of the Oregon pioneer.
His trail was long and hazardous and he had to travel light. He learned quickly to economize, to abandon the frills for the sake of the materials and tools he needed to build a new country.
The question he continually asked himself as he necessarily lightened his wagon was: “Is this essential or merely desirable; and, if it is only desirable, can I afford it?” The West from Mississippi to the Columbia was bedecked with items which brought the answer, no.

Today, Oregonians need their leaders to embrace Hatfield’s spirit of duty and to apply his test. Thankfully for our State senators and representatives, DHM Research already answered the first part of the Pioneer’s Test—what people regard as essential. From a recent survey, sixty percent of Oregonians have idenitifed the five key issues for the legislature (% ranking that issue as the first they think the legislature should address):

homelessness/poverty (17%)
environment/climate change (13%)
COVID-19/vaccinations (12%)
economy/re-opening (9%), and
education/schools/sending kids back (9%)

These five issues deserve the full attention of our officials. On these five issues, Oregonians should expect nothing less than action. Yet, these five issues have proven too politically fraught for the state to progress as far as the people had hoped. The good news is that there’s still time for Oregon’s officials to revive Hatfield’s spirit of duty and to apply his test.

Hatfield acknowledged that using the Pioneer’s Test would require focusing on policy-making, rather than politicking. Every state legislator should read Hatfield’s advice on how to differentiate between scoring political wins and advancing important policy:

Let us . . . be willing enough, keen enough, frank enough to project our imagination ahead toward future needs. Let us be tolerant enough to bow to our colleagues’ ideas, and humble enough to change our solutions when they fail to serve.
May we ever be mindful there is a distinct difference between appeasement and constructive compromise.

On the five aforementioned issues, Oregonians deserve constructive compromise. Requiring those sorts of deals will only be possible if officials are, in Hatfield’s words, “tolerant,” “humble,” and future-oriented.

The political incentives in place make it hard for any official to live up to those big words. Tolerance is often derided if it at all looks like listening to the other side. Humility is penalized if it requires admitting that you may not have all the answers. And, a focus on the future will likely come at the cost of votes in the next election.

That’s precisely why Hatfield called it the Pioneer’s Test. If it were easy for the pioneer to traverse a continent, then this test would never have been necessary. Achieving the Oregon we all aspire to requires sacrifice from all parties: sacrificing our political goals for the public’s wellbeing, sacrificing our individual preferences for those of the collective, sacrificing an insistence on being right for a commitment to making progress for all of Oregon.

Back in 1959, Hatfield did not doubt that he and his colleagues were up to the task:

I believe we are willing enough, keen enough, talented enough to accomplish these things and many more in this first year of our second century of statehood.
I am confident there will be found a cooperative coalition in this body—a coalition which thinks first in terms of programs and the people we serve. You will hear from those—and there are many—who insist on economy at any price; you will hear from those—and there are many—who plea for advanced appropriations at any cost.
It is not the easy trail we are traveling. It is the trail of sacrifice and service. If we are to choose new services and expanded programs, we must be prepared to sacrifice. May we discover the way to meet the problems of progress with solvency.

Where, today, is Oregon’s cooperative coalition? This is the coalition that Oregonians need, demand, and deserve on poverty, on climate change, on COVID, on the economy, and on education.

Count me as a member of that coalition. I hope you’ll join me and I hope you’ll convince your senator and representatives to join us.