Wer eee OU ON BW Lier N 31 
Report to Audubon: 
THE FIRST NATIONAL CONGRESS ON 
OPTIMUM POPULATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT 
by RAYMOND MOSTEK 
It could not have been a wedding, 
but it certainly seemed like an 
‘engagement,’ to observers and 
newsmen who attended the First 
National Congress on Optimum 
Population and Environment at the 
Pick-Congress Hotel in Chicago in 
June. The Congress ‘“‘engaged” the 
talents and the thoughts of almost 
1,200 delegates from more than 225 
ganizations as they discussed 
ways and means of improving the 
2nvironment and slowing down hu- 
man population growth. 
Delegates from the Wilderness 
Society, Zero Population Growth, 
Ypen lands Project, Salvation 
Army, Association for Voluntary 
Sterilization, Illinois Audubon So- 
iety, League of Women Voters, 
Southern Baptist Convention, Na- 
ional Farmers Union, and the 
christian Family Movement were 
oart of the diverse crowd. 
Among the famous personalities 
oresent were Dr. George Wald of 
Harvard, ex-Vice-President Hubert 
dumphrey, Stewart Udall, Sen. 
Joseph Tydings, Dr. Paul Ehrlich, 
Raymond Dasmann, General Dra- 
ser, and Dr. Philip Hauser. 
It was a hard-working confer- 
sence group. The average day began 
with films on the environment and 
Sopulation. A plenary session at 
) am. introduced a_ featured 
speaker, sometimes followed by 
inother well known _ personality. 
fhe conference then adjourned to 
2 different workshops for exciting 
discussions for about 1% hour 
sessions. After a lunch, workshops 
resumed for another 90 minutes, 
to meet again in a plenary session 
for another featured speaker or a 
panel. The conference was spread 
over five days. 
One evening panel featured Sen. 
Robert Packwood from Oregon, 
who spoke briefly on the popula- 
tion problem and his bills to pro- 
vide for a legalization of abortion 
in Washington, D.C., and his re- 
vision of tax laws to encourage 
smaller families: S.3501 would 
affirm by law a recent court de- 
cision upholding legal abortions in 
the federal city. (The affluent have 
access to hospital abortions there, 
but the poor do not.) $.3502 would 
allow a family a $1,000 deduction 
for the first child in the family, a 
sum of $750 for the second child, 
and $500 for the third, with no 
allowances for children after that. 
The tax would apply to all children 
born after Jan. 1, 1973. Some sup- 
porters of Zero Population Growth, 
advocated that only the first two 
children should be given a tax 
status. 
Sen. Gaylord Nelson (Democrat 
of Wisconsin), considered by many 
observers the foremost conserva- 
tionist in the Congress, brought 
the audience to its collective feet 
when he declared “you have the 
kind of government you deserve, 
and you deserve what you get.” 
Nelson pointed out that he re- 
