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2nd District Republican Dinner, Cedar Rapids, IA, August 27, 1966

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The original documents are located in Box D20, folder "2nd District Republican Dinner, Cedar Rapids, IA, August 27, 1966" of the Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library. Copyright Notice The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. The Council donated to the United States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections. Works prepared by U.S. Government employees as part of their official duties are in the public domain. The copyrights to materials written by other individuals or organizations are presumed to remain with them. If you think any of the information displayed in the PDF is subject to a valid copyright claim, please contact the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library. Digitized from Box D20 of The Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library FOR RELEASE AT 6:30 P.M., SATURDAY, AUGUST 27, 1966 ADDRESS BY REP. GERALD R. FORD, R-MICH. At 2ND DISTRICT REPUBLICAN DINNER, CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA Iowa is a great farming state. It is fitting, therefore, that we pay our respects to the agriculture expert of the Johnson-Humphrey Administration-- Secretary of Agriculture Orville L. Freeman. I know you share the view that he is the most peculiar Secretary of Agriculture we have had for a long, long time. I cannot salute him as a trail-blazing experimen- ter or a social revolutionary, but I congratulate him for being a political phrase- maker who was born with a foot in his mouth. Secretary Freeman is the only Secretary of Agriculture who has ever asked the Department of Defense to cut down on its purchases of beef and pork produced by the American farmer. He is the only Secretary of Agriculture who has ever publicly expressed pleasure at a drop in farm prices. He is the Cabinet officer who beamed his approval of an $8 million Export- Import Bank deal to help Communist Rumania process 300,000 pigs a year with modern American-made equipment and to sell millions of pounds of Communist pork in competi- tion with American farmers. Secretary Freeman has waged an undeclared war on American agriculture which has driven parity prices from an average of 84.5 per cent under Eisenhower to barely 79 per cent this year. He, as the agriculture "boss man" on the Johnson-Humphrey- Freeman team, has helped to increase beef imports and has dumped CCC-stored grains to knock down market prices. This Democratic Administration, as you well know, also tried to scuttle the school milk and school lunch programs. This is what our fathers used to call "some punkins." But if Secretary Freeman has hurt the farmers and wounded the Democrats, he is to be thanked for providing the Republican campaign slogan for 1966. Recently, at a secret Democratic political huddle at which he brushed off the housewives and the farmers, he gave this slick advice to the desperate Democratic congressional candidates-and I quote: "Slip, slide and duck any question of higher consumer prices if you possibly can!" That's Orbiting Orville. Right out of the horse's mouth. "Slip, slide and duck!" Perhaps such advice would be helpful if the Democratic hopefuls were dodging baseballs in a carnival concession. But candidates who "slip, slide and duck!" won't (MORE -2- satisfy the American voters in 1966. In the political arena this fall Democrats will be ducking when they should be slipping, and slipping when they should be sliding. We have the opportunity to make this the year of the Elephant. Republicans are on the right side of the issues, have the best candidates, real party unity, and organization. The Democrats are saddled with higher prices, higher interest rates, higher draft calls, higher crime rates. The Great Society is the High Society. Had enough? What is the state of the Union? Not good with a war in Vietnam and NATO in disarray in Europe. At home we see prices skyrocketing to all-time highs, interest rates going out of sight, mortgage money tight and getting tighter, federal spending out of control, crime soaring and violence spreading across the land. This is the time for leadership. America needs straight-from-the-shoulder answers, not slip, slide and duck. Despite all the Johnson-Humphrey fanfare and hoopla, this nation is not getting decisive and effective leadership at a time when it's desperately needed. The "big daddy" Johnson-Democrat attitude will not solve the frankenstein mess which is damaging our prestige and power abroad, and ravaging our people at home. Democrats talk like Pollyanna. The White House blows with an uncertain trumpet, with its credibility at an all-time low. What are we to believe about Vietnam? There the stakes are high; the consequences are great. Americans are proud of our men in our armed forces. Many of you here have husbands, fathers, sons and brothers fighting for freedom half-way around the world. We must not, we cannot, we will not let them down. Republicans believe we must forthrightly and steadfastly meet the challenge of Communist terror and aggression in Vietnam, Berlin or elsewhere. It is a grim and difficult war in the jungles, swamps and rice-paddies of Southeast Asia. Already our combat losses have risen to over 30,000--including more than 4,400 Americans killed in action. But, we have the power to be successful on the battlefield and at the peace table, and we should press more vigorously for solutions on both fronts. I commend Illinois Senatorial Candidate Chuck Percy for calling for an All-Asian Peace Conference, with the Asians themselves taking the lead in seeking an honorable peace in war-torn Vietnam. This promising proposal is a Republican plan for peace. Our soldiers are performing billiantly in Vietnam. But it is tragic that more and more of our young menare being sent to fight and perhaps to die there. (MORE) -3- We are told there will be 400,000 of our ground troops in Vietnam by the end of this year. It is also reported it will take 750,000 Americans to end the Vietnam War within five years. These reports sound utterly fantastic when we recall what President Johnson told the nation just two years ago, when he was seeking election. "We don't want our American boys to do the fighting for Asian boys," Johnson the campaigner said. "We don't want to get involved with a nation with 700 million people and get tied down in a land war in Asia." National Republican leaders urged the President in December, 1965, to make more effective use of the superiority we enjoy in air and sea power to end the Vietnam War more quickly and save our manpower. But the President dilly-dallied and shilly-shallied until 6-1/2 months later when the polls told him the American people wanted to win in Vietnam and get out. Only then did the President order destruction of the oil depots near Hanoi and Haiphong. In explaining the action, Defense Secretary McNamara said the bombings would save American and South Vietnamese lives. Apparently this Democratic Administration thought the oil depot bombings would save lives in July but not in December. The war in Vietnam is costly both in lives and in dollars. Yet, the Johnson Administration persists in a spending-as-usual attitude. While pumping billions into the Vietnam War, the Johnson-Humphrey-Freeman Administration dishes out billions more in non-essential domestic spending. The result -- inflation. Inflation is a big word. But you people know exactly what it means. You find out every time you go into the market place and pay more and more for less and less. Don't let Big Daddy or any other apologist for his Administration tell you you never had it so good. That's a lot of hooey. Mr. Johnson went to Nebraska and Des Moines to tell the farmers they never had it so good. He didn't tell them the farmer is caught in a cost-price squeeze. He didn't tell them that the average parity ratio over the past five years is the lowest it has ever been for any consecutive five-year period since the big depression. He didn't tell them that farm production costs have gone up $4 billion since 1960, or that total farm debt stands 60 per cent higher than five years ago. He didn't tell them that farmers are still earning only about 65 per cent as much as non-farmers. (MORE) -4- The truth is the Johnson-Humphrey-Freeman Administration has been spending the American people silly. This is the chief reason your dollars are slipping away in line with Freeman's stip-slide-and-duck philosophy. The Democrats have been drowning this country in red ink for six long years Do you know what the deficit for those six years adds up to? Thirty billion -- an average of $6 billion a year. The last time the Federal budget was balanced was in 1960 under a Republican Administration. President Johnson pretends to be an economizer. I say "pretends" because I've got the figures to back up what I say. Mr. Johnson is planning to spend 47.5 per cent more in fiscal year 1967 than the federal government spent in 1960. Since fiscal 1965 -- in just two years -- federal spending is up 17 per cent. That's the great economy record compiled during Mr. Johnson's time in office. It's this kind of reckless spending, the doling out of dollars by the Johnson-Humphrey-Freeman Administration and its blank-check Democratic Congress, which is the prime cause of inflation. In their 1960 platform the Democrats promised to maintain price stability, Have they kept this promise? In 1960 the Democrats promised to place farmers on the same economic level as automobile workers and the teamsters. What happened to that promise? Like all the others, it was for the Democrats to get in on, not to deliver on. And I ask you. Why does the Administration and its captive Democrat Congress act as though there is no problem under the sun which can't be cured by spending billions of taxpayer dollars? Why, in short, does the Administration pretend that we can fight an all- out war in Vietnam and still pay for any and every sociological brainstorm hatched by the kept economists of the Great Society? We're bogged down in Vietnam. We're in a mess with inflation. And now we're getting kicked around by high interest rates. Do you know that the Democrats in their 1960 platform had the unmitigated gall to attack the Eisenhower Administration as a high-interest administration? Well, after barely five years of Democratic control, interest rates in this country have hit a 40-year high--that's right, a 40-year high--and they're still going up. This may be news to you, but the Adminsitration can't even be honest about interest rates, much less keep them from going sky-high. (MORE) -5- Here in my hand I hold a United States Savings Bond. My children and your children are buying these bonds. So are farmers and industrial workers, people who are demonstrating their faith in America. The U.S. Treasury pays them about 4.15 per cent interest for the use of their money. But that's only when it comes to taking candy-money from school kids. In contrast, when the Treasury turns to the big investors, it talks another language. Here I hold a Participation Sales Certificate, which is an interest in various mortgage assets that the federal government owns. Its issuance was authorized by the Participation Sales Act of last May, another Democratic Congress blank check. Anyone who can afford the $5,000 minimum can buy one of these certificates and will draw interest not at the rate of about 4.15 per cent but 5-3/4 or more. That means the Democratic Administration pays over 40 per cent more to the rich than it pays to the great number of Americans who don't have $5,000 in cash lying around for a safe investment. This is Democrat policy - low interest returns for the poor; high interest returns for the rich. That's Robin Hood in reverse. He stole from the rich to give to the poor. The Administration takes from the have-nots and gives to the haves. What do we have today in the Democratic Party? We've got the Party of Big Business, the Party of Big Government, the Party of Big Bureaucracy, the Party of Big Spending, the Party of Big Deficits, the Party of Big Cost of Living, the Party of Big Labor Troubles, the Party of Big Home Foreclosures, the Party of Big Scandals, the Party with Big Riots in the Streets, the Party of Big Promises. Riots in the Streets. The Democratic Party promised big but failed to deliver. There is an atmosphere of lawlessness in this country. It springs from the attitude that Americans should only obey the laws that please them. It stems from the feeling that if you've got more than I have, I can take from you whatever I want. It's the old attitude of theeworld-owes-me-a-living gone wild. You read about the riots, the arson, and the looting in our great cities and you wonder if America has gone mad. This disregard for law and order breeds anarchy. I have said it before and I say it again. When high-ranking public figures like Vice President Humphrey talk about leading a revolt themselves, they are encouraging a defiance of the law which is inexcusable in a civilized society. Is this a Great Society? Some of our big cities are rapidly reverting to the jungle. Lawless elements are threatening to make guerrilla warfare with the police a familiar pat- -6- tern of American life. How long are we going to abdicate law and order--the backbone of any civilization--in favor of a soft social theory that the man who heaves a brick through your window, or tosses a fire bomb into your car, or snipes at firemen is simply the misunderstood and underprivileged product of a broken home? Vietnam. Inflation. High interest. Violence. These are the issues of 1966. We did not create them. They are simply there. We would prefer that the Administration had not let them develop. But that is where the two-party system comes in. Winston Churchill once said that democracy had many and serious faults but was better than any other system of government man had devised. Democracy in America depends on two-party politics. One-party government leads straight to tyranny. A vigorous two-party system is the simplest way of bringing about necessary changes in our government without wrecking the country or resorting to revolution. Today we do not have two nearly-equal-in-strength political parties. Lopsided government, if allowed to continue, leads only to disaster. Competition is the secret of American economic freedom and social progress. Competition between the two major political parties has been good for America. In 1966 this competition will be re-established. The Democrats' stranglehold will be broken at the polls in November. The easiest and quickest way for the people of this country to clean up Vietnam, stop inflation, bring down interest rates, and protect the lives, rights and property of us all-including all minorities--is to vote Republicans in and Democrats out. It's just as simple as that. It's not a matter of intrigue in government, or of contributing $10,000 to the President's Club, or lobbying on Capitol Hill. Often when I ponder the great land that is America, I think of that day in Philadelphia when Benjamin Franklin left the Constitutional Convention. "Which have you given us," a bystander asked him, "a monarchy or a re- public?" "A Republic," Franklin answered, "if you can keep it." That republic has endured for 177 years because in every age there have been Americans who gave of their time, of their treasure, and of their faith to keep it. It is for us, the living, to re-dedicate ourselves to that high purpose. And it is my deep conviction that you--all of you--will pass on the torch of freedom to your children because you dare stand up and be counted for America. Thank you and God bless each of you. ### FOR RELEASE AT 6:30 P.M., SATURDAY, AUGUST 27, 1966 ADDRESS BY REP. GERALD R. FORD, R-MICH. At 2ND DISTRICT REPUBLICAN DINNER, CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA Iowa is a great farming state. It is fitting, therefore, that we pay our respects to the agriculture expert of the Johnson-Humphrey Administration-- Secretary of Agriculture Orville L. Freeman. I know you share the view that he is the most peculiar Secretary of Agriculture we have had for a long, long time. I cannot salute him as a trail-blazing experimen- ter or a social revolutionary, but I congratulate him for being a political phrase- maker who was born with a foot in his mouth. Secretary Freeman is the only Secretary of Agriculture who has ever asked the Department of Defense to cut down on its purchases of beef and pork produced by the American farmer. He is the only Secretary of Agriculture who has ever publicly expressed pleasure at a drop in farm prices. He is the Cabinet officer who beamed his approval of an $8 million Export- Import Bank deal to help Communist Rumania process 300,000 pigs a year with modern American-made equipment and to sell millions of pounds of Communist pork in competi- tion with American farmers. Secretary Freeman has waged an undeclared war on American agriculture which has driven parity prices from an average of 84.5 per cent under Eisenhower to barely 79 per cent this year. He, as the agriculture "boss man" on the Johnson-Humphrey- Freeman team, has helped to increase beef imports and has dumped CCC-stored grains to knock down market prices. This Democratic Administration, as you well know, also tried to scuttle the school milk and school lunch programs. This is what our fathers used to call "some punkins." But if Secretary Freeman has hurt the farmers and wounded the Democrats, he is to be thanked for providing the Republican campaign slogan for 1966. Recently, at a secret Democratic political huddle at which he brushed off the housewives and the farmers, he gave this slick advice to the desperate Democratic congressional candidates-and I quote: "Slip, slide and duck any question of higher consumer prices if you possibly can!" That's Orbiting Orville. Right out of the horse's mouth. "Slip, slide and duck!" Perhaps such advice would be helpful if the Democratic hopefuls were dodging baseballs in a carnival concession. But candidates who "slip, slide and duck!" won't (MORE -2- satisfy the American voters in 1966. In the political arena this fall Democrats will be ducking when they should be slipping, and slipping when they should be sliding. We have the opportunity to make this the year of the Elephant. Republicans are on the right side of the issues, have the best candidates, real party unity, and organization. The Democrats are saddled with higher prices, higher interest rates, higher draft calls, higher crime rates. The Great Society is the High Society. Had enough? What is the state of the Union? Not good with a war in Vietnam and NATO in disarray in Europe. At home we see prices skyrocketing to all-time highs, interest rates going out of sight, mortgage money tight and getting tighter, federal spending out of control, crime soaring and violence spreading across the land. This is the time for leadership. America needs straight-from-the-shoulder answers, not slip, slide and duck. Despite all the Johnson-Humphrey fanfare and hoopla, this nation is not getting decisive and effective leadership at a time when it's desperately needed. The "big daddy" Johnson-Democrat attitude will not solve the frankenstein mess which is damaging our prestige and power abroad, and ravaging our people at home. Democrats talk like Pollyanna. The White House blows with an uncertain trumpet, with its credibility at an all-time low. What are we to believe about Vietnam? There the stakes are high; the consequences are great. Americans are proud of our men in our armed forces. Many of you here have husbands, fathers, sons and brothers fighting for freedom half-way around the world. We must not, we cannot, we will not let them down. Republicans believe we must forthrightly and steadfastly meet the challenge of Communist terror and aggression in Vietnam, Berlin or elsewhere. It is a grim and difficult war in the jungles, swamps and rice-paddies of Southeast Asia. Already our combat losses have risen to over 30,000--including more than 4,400 Americans killed in action. But, we have the power to be successful on the battlefield and at the peace table, and we should press more vigorously for solutions on both fronts. I commend Illinois Senatorial Candidate Chuck Percy for calling for an All-Asian Peace Conference, with the Asians themselves taking the lead in seeking an honorable peace in war-torn Vietnam. This promising proposal is a Republican plan for peace. Our soldiers are performing billiantly in Vietnam. But it is tragic that more and more of our young menare being sent to fight and perhaps to die there. (MORE) -3- We are told there will be 400,000 of our ground troops in Vietnam by the end of this year. It is also reported it will take 750,000 Americans to end the Vietnam War within five years. These reports sound utterly fantastic when we recall what President Johnson told the nation just two years ago, when he was seeking election. "We don't want our American boys to do the fighting for Asian boys," Johnson the campaigner said. "We don't want to get involved with a nation with 700 million people and get tied down in a land war in Asia." National Republican leaders urged the President in December, 1965, to make more effective use of the superiority we enjoy in air and sea power to end the Vietnam War more quickly and save our manpower. But the President dilly-dallied and shilly-shallied until 6-1/2 months later when the polls told him the American people wanted to win in Vietnam and get out. Only then did the President order destruction of the oil depots near Hanoi and Haiphong. In explaining the action, Defense Secretary McNamara said the bombings would save American and South Vietnamese lives. Apparently this Democratic Administration thought the oil depot bombings would save lives in July but not in December. The war in Vietnam is costly both in lives and in dollars. Yet, the Johnson Administration persists in a spending-as-usual attitude. While pumping billions into the Vietnam War, the Johnson-Humphrey-Freeman Administration dishes out billions more in non-essential domestic spending. The result -- inflation. Inflation is a big word. But you people know exactly what it means. You find out every time you go into the market place and pay more and more for less and less. Don't let Big Daddy or any other apologist for his Administration tell you you never had it so good. That's a lot of hooey. Mr. Johnson went to Nebraska and Des Moines to tell the farmers they never had it so good. He didn't tell them the farmer is caught in a cost-price squeeze. He didn't tell them that the average parity ratio over the past five years is the lowest it has ever been for any consecutive five-year period since the big depression. He didn't tell them that farm production costs have gone up $4 billion since 1960, or that total farm debt stands 60 per cent higher than five years ago. He didn't tell them that farmers are still earning only about 65 per cent as much as non-farmers. (MORE) -4- The truth is the Johnson-Humphrey-Freeman Administration has been spending the American people silly. This is the chief reason your dollars are slipping away in line with Freeman's slip-slide-and-duck philosophy, The Democrats have been drowning this country in red ink for six long years Do you know what the deficit for those six years adds up to? Thirty billion - an average of $6 billion a year. The last time the Federal budget was balanced was in 1960 under a Republican Administration. President Johnson pretends to be an economizer. I say "pretends" because I've got the figures to back up what I say. Mr. Johnson is planning to spend 47.5 per cent more in fiscal year 1967 than the federal government spent in 1960. Since fiscal 1965 -- in just two years --- federal spending is up 17 per cent. That's the great economy record compiled during Mr. Johnson's time in office. It's this kind of reckless spending, the doling out of dollars by the Johnson-Humphrey-Freeman Administration and its blank-check Democratic Congress, which is the prime cause of inflation. In their 1960 platform the Democrats promised to maintain price stability. Have they kept this promise? In 1960 the Democrats promised to place farmers on the same economic level as automobile workers and the taamsters. What happened to that promise? Like all the others, it was for the Democrats to get in on, not to deliver on. And I ask you. Why does the Administration and its captive Democrat Congress act as though there is no problem under the sun which can't be cured by spending billions of taxpayer dollars? Why, in short, does the Administration pretend that we can fight an all- out war in Vietnam and still pay for any and every sociological brainstorm hatched by the kept economists of the Great Society? We're bogged down in Vietnam. We're in a mess with inflation. And now we're getting kicked around by high interest rates. Do you know that the Democrats in their 1960 platform had the unmitigated gall to attack the Eisenhower Administration as a high-interest administration? Well, after barely five years of Democratic control, interest rates in this country have hit a 40-year high--that's right, a 40-year high--and they're still going up. This may be news to you, but the Adminsitration can't even be honest about interest rates, much less keep them from going sky-high. (MORE) -5- Here in my hand I hold a United States Savings Bond. My children and your children are buying these bonds. So are farmers and industrial workers, people who are demonstrating their faith in America. The U.S. Treasury pays them about 4.15 per cent interest for the use of their money. But that's only when it comes to taking candy-money from school kids. In contrast, when the Treasury turns to the big investors, it talks another language. Here I hold a Participation Sales Certificate, which is an interest in various mortgage assets that the federal government owns. Its issuance was authorized by the Participation Sales Act of last May, another Democratic Congress blank check. Anyone who can afford the $5,000 minimum can buy one of these certificates and will draw interest not at the rate of about 4.15 per cent but 5-3/4 or more. That means the Democratic Administration pays over 40 per cent more to the rich than it pays to the great number of Americans who don't have $5,000 in cash lying around for a safe investment. This is Democrat policy - low interest returns for the poor; high interest returns for the rich. That's Robin Hood in reverse. He stole from the rich to give to the poor. The Administration takes from the have-nots and gives to the haves. What do we have today in the Democratic Party? We've got the Party of Big Business, the Party of Big Government, the Party of Big Bureaucracy, the Party of Big Spending, the Party of Big Deficits, the Party of Big Cost of Living, the Party of Big Labor Troubles, the Party of Big Home Foreclosures, the Party of Big Scandals, the Party with Big Riots in the Streets, the Party of Big Promises. Riots in the Streets. The Democratic Party promised big but failed to deliver. There is an atmosphere of lawlessness in this country. It springs from the attitude that Americans should only obey the laws that please them. It stems from the feeling that if you've got more than I have, I can take from you whatever I want. It's the old attitude of the-world-owes-me-a-living gone wild. You read about the riots, the arson, and the looting in our great cities and you wonder if America has gone mad. This disregard for law and order breeds enarchy. I have said it before and I say it again. When high-ranking public figures like Vice President Humphrey talk about leading a revolt themselves, they are encouraging a defiance of the law which is inexcusable in a civilized society. Is this a Great Society? Some of our big cities are rapidly reverting to the jungle. Lawless elements are threatening to make guerrilla warfare with the police a familiar pat- -6- tern of American life. How long are we going to abdicate law and order--the backbone of any civilization--in favor of a soft social theory that the man who heaves a brick through your window, or tosses a fire bomb into your car, or snipes at firemen is simply the misunderstood and underprivileged product of a broken home? Vietnam. Inflation. High interest. Violence. These are the issues of 1966. We did not create them. They are simply there. We would prefer that the Administration had not let them develop. But that is where the two-party system comes in. Winston Churchill once said that democracy had many and serious faults but was better than any other system of government man had devised. Democracy in America depends on two-party politics. One-party government leads straight to tyranny. A vigorous two-party system is the simplest way of bringing about necessary changes in our government without wrecking the country or resorting to revolution. Today we do not have two nearly-equal-in-strength political parties. Lopsided government, if allowed to continue, leads only to disaster. Competition is the secret of American economic freedom and social progress. Competition between the two major political parties has been good for America. In 1966 this competition will be re-established, The Democrats' stranglehold will be broken at the polls in November. The easiest and quickest way for the people of this country to clean up Vietnam, stop inflation, bring down interest rates, and protect the lives, rights and property of us all--including all minorities--is to vote Republicans in and Democrats out. It's just as simple as that, It's not a matter of intrigue in government, or of contributing $10,000 to the President's Club, or lobbying on Capitol Hill. Often when I ponder the great land that is America, I think of that day in Philadelphia when Benjamin Franklin left the Constitutional Convention. "Which have you given us," a bystander asked him, "a monarchy or a re- public?" "A Republic," Franklin answered, "if you can keep it." That republic has endured for 177 years because in every age there have been Americans who gave of their time, of their treasure, and of their faith to keep it. It is for us, the living, to re-dedicate ourselves to that high purpose. And it is my deep conviction that you--all of you--will pass on the torch of freedom to your children because you dare stand up and be counted for America. Thank you and God bless each of you. ### Change negistration 8 L13 - Robt Johnson - Jack Miller 2ND DISTRICT REPUBLICAN DINNER--CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA guy Jim BROMWELL SATURDAY, AUGUST 27, 1966 IOWA IS A GREAT FARMING STATE. IT IS FITTING, THEREFORE, THAT WE PAY OUR RESPECTS TO THE AGRICULTURE EXPERT OF THE JOHNSON-HUMPHREY ADMINISTRATION--SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE ORVILLE L. FREEMAN. I KNOW YOU SHARE THE VIEW THAT HE IS THE MOST PECULIAR SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE WE HAVE HAD FOR A LONG, LONG TIME. I CANNOT SALUTE HIM AS A TRAIL-BLAZING EXPERIMENTER OR A SOCIAL REVOLUTIONARY, BUT I CONGRATULATE HIM FOR BEING A POLITICAL PHRASE-MAKER WHO WAS BORN WITH A FOOT IN HIS MOUTH. FORD SECRETARY FREEMAN IS THE ONLY SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE GERA CARY WASHINGTON POST - April 10, 1965 "CABBIE'S FARE TURNS OUT TO BE A REAL SLEEPER" The big man in the back seat of his cab mumbled an address to the cabbie and lost all further interest in the trip home. At the address in upper Northwest Washington the cabbie thought the big man had mumbled - nobody knew him. At the second address the cabbie thought the big man gave it was the same story. It was late in the evening of last Friday night, when the cabbie pulled up in fromt of the 8th precinct with his problem. Hatless and in shirt sleeves 55-year-old Harold D. Bowers left his desk (sergeant at front) to cope with "cabbie's problem." He tugged at the man but got no response. Down the precinct steps came Robert Donnell and Douglas C. Taylor. Bower, Donnell and Taylor tugged the cabbie's problem and helped him to his feet on the sidewalk. " Before I knew it, u Representative John Culver (D-Ia.) said at his press conference yesterday, "there were these three guys I had never seen before pulling and hauling me around." I thought I was being attaked and I resisted accordingly. Briefly, the 32-year-old former Harvard graduate recounted the factivities of a hectic week which had culminated for him on that hectic Friday. He had steady rounds of subcommittee work on Foreign Affairs and Economic Policy and after-hour meetings with constitutents had taken their physical toll kexBistre That night he had had dinner at Le Bistro - couple of drinks afterwards - then he took a cab home Red lines were drewn through his name and address in the arrest book 11I had quite a job explaining it to my wife and mother and if my career is going to bearecked by this one incident that is they way it is game going to be. It's the honest way of doing it. It is the most difficult things I have had to do in my whole life , but being in pub19 c life I must face it. BERALD FORD LIBRARY NOTES FOR CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA (Jerry: The last sentence is a reference to an incident in which the incumbent, Rep. John Culver, was arrested for drunklenness in April, 1965. See attachment. I assume you don't need anything on Ben Reifel.) One of the reasons we're going to do verywwell at the polls in November is because we have outstanding candidates. And one of those outstanding candidates is your own Mayor Bob Johnson. As a top-notch salesman, he's a natural politician. In his work as a news reporter and I'm sure columnist, he developed a great respect for the truth and the people's right to know. He's just the kind of fellow we need in running against an Administration that misinforms the public, misleads the people and thinks government has the right to lie. And the fact that he has been your mayor since 1962 underscores the great esteem and affection X in FORD is LIBRARY 076830 which he is held by everyone who knows him. I'm sure you'll never find him cruising around Washington, passed out in a taxicab.

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    "ocrText": "The original documents are located in Box D20, folder \"2nd District Republican Dinner,\nCedar Rapids, IA, August 27, 1966\" of the Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and\nSpeech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.\nCopyright Notice\nThe copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of\nphotocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. The Council donated to the United\nStates of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.\nWorks prepared by U.S. Government employees as part of their official duties are in the public\ndomain. The copyrights to materials written by other individuals or organizations are presumed to\nremain with them. If you think any of the information displayed in the PDF is subject to a valid\ncopyright claim, please contact the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.\nDigitized from Box D20 of The Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library\nFOR RELEASE AT 6:30 P.M., SATURDAY, AUGUST 27, 1966\nADDRESS BY REP. GERALD R. FORD, R-MICH.\nAt\n2ND DISTRICT REPUBLICAN DINNER, CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA\nIowa is a great farming state. It is fitting, therefore, that we pay\nour respects to the agriculture expert of the Johnson-Humphrey Administration--\nSecretary of Agriculture Orville L. Freeman.\nI know you share the view that he is the most peculiar Secretary of Agriculture\nwe have had for a long, long time. I cannot salute him as a trail-blazing experimen-\nter or a social revolutionary, but I congratulate him for being a political phrase-\nmaker who was born with a foot in his mouth.\nSecretary Freeman is the only Secretary of Agriculture who has ever asked the\nDepartment of Defense to cut down on its purchases of beef and pork produced by the\nAmerican farmer.\nHe is the only Secretary of Agriculture who has ever publicly expressed\npleasure at a drop in farm prices.\nHe is the Cabinet officer who beamed his approval of an $8 million Export-\nImport Bank deal to help Communist Rumania process 300,000 pigs a year with modern\nAmerican-made equipment and to sell millions of pounds of Communist pork in competi-\ntion with American farmers.\nSecretary Freeman has waged an undeclared war on American agriculture which\nhas driven parity prices from an average of 84.5 per cent under Eisenhower to barely\n79 per cent this year. He, as the agriculture \"boss man\" on the Johnson-Humphrey-\nFreeman team, has helped to increase beef imports and has dumped CCC-stored grains to\nknock down market prices. This Democratic Administration, as you well know, also\ntried to scuttle the school milk and school lunch programs.\nThis is what our fathers used to call \"some punkins.\" But if Secretary Freeman\nhas hurt the farmers and wounded the Democrats, he is to be thanked for providing the\nRepublican campaign slogan for 1966. Recently, at a secret Democratic political\nhuddle at which he brushed off the housewives and the farmers, he gave this slick\nadvice to the desperate Democratic congressional candidates-and I quote:\n\"Slip, slide and duck any question of higher consumer prices if you\npossibly can!\"\nThat's Orbiting Orville. Right out of the horse's mouth. \"Slip, slide and\nduck!\" Perhaps such advice would be helpful if the Democratic hopefuls were dodging\nbaseballs in a carnival concession. But candidates who \"slip, slide and duck!\" won't\n(MORE\n-2-\nsatisfy the American voters in 1966. In the political arena this fall Democrats will\nbe ducking when they should be slipping, and slipping when they should be sliding.\nWe have the opportunity to make this the year of the Elephant. Republicans\nare on the right side of the issues, have the best candidates, real party unity, and\norganization. The Democrats are saddled with higher prices, higher interest rates,\nhigher draft calls, higher crime rates. The Great Society is the High Society. Had\nenough?\nWhat is the state of the Union? Not good with a war in Vietnam and NATO in\ndisarray in Europe. At home we see prices skyrocketing to all-time highs, interest\nrates going out of sight, mortgage money tight and getting tighter, federal spending\nout of control, crime soaring and violence spreading across the land.\nThis is the time for leadership. America needs straight-from-the-shoulder\nanswers, not slip, slide and duck. Despite all the Johnson-Humphrey fanfare and\nhoopla, this nation is not getting decisive and effective leadership at a time when\nit's desperately needed. The \"big daddy\" Johnson-Democrat attitude will not solve\nthe frankenstein mess which is damaging our prestige and power abroad, and ravaging\nour people at home. Democrats talk like Pollyanna. The White House blows with an\nuncertain trumpet, with its credibility at an all-time low.\nWhat are we to believe about Vietnam? There the stakes are high; the\nconsequences are great.\nAmericans are proud of our men in our armed forces. Many of you here have\nhusbands, fathers, sons and brothers fighting for freedom half-way around the world.\nWe must not, we cannot, we will not let them down. Republicans believe we must\nforthrightly and steadfastly meet the challenge of Communist terror and aggression\nin Vietnam, Berlin or elsewhere.\nIt is a grim and difficult war in the jungles, swamps and rice-paddies of\nSoutheast Asia. Already our combat losses have risen to over 30,000--including more\nthan 4,400 Americans killed in action.\nBut, we have the power to be successful on the battlefield and at the peace\ntable, and we should press more vigorously for solutions on both fronts. I commend\nIllinois Senatorial Candidate Chuck Percy for calling for an All-Asian Peace\nConference, with the Asians themselves taking the lead in seeking an honorable peace\nin war-torn Vietnam. This promising proposal is a Republican plan for peace.\nOur soldiers are performing billiantly in Vietnam. But it is tragic that\nmore and more of our young menare being sent to fight and perhaps to die there.\n(MORE)\n-3-\nWe are told there will be 400,000 of our ground troops in Vietnam by the end\nof this year. It is also reported it will take 750,000 Americans to end the Vietnam\nWar within five years.\nThese reports sound utterly fantastic when we recall what President Johnson\ntold the nation just two years ago, when he was seeking election.\n\"We don't want our American boys to do the fighting for Asian boys,\" Johnson\nthe campaigner said. \"We don't want to get involved with a nation with 700 million\npeople and get tied down in a land war in Asia.\"\nNational Republican leaders urged the President in December, 1965, to make\nmore effective use of the superiority we enjoy in air and sea power to end the Vietnam\nWar more quickly and save our manpower.\nBut the President dilly-dallied and shilly-shallied until 6-1/2 months later\nwhen the polls told him the American people wanted to win in Vietnam and get out.\nOnly then did the President order destruction of the oil depots near Hanoi and\nHaiphong. In explaining the action, Defense Secretary McNamara said the bombings\nwould save American and South Vietnamese lives.\nApparently this Democratic Administration thought the oil depot bombings would\nsave lives in July but not in December.\nThe war in Vietnam is costly both in lives and in dollars. Yet, the Johnson\nAdministration persists in a spending-as-usual attitude. While pumping billions into\nthe Vietnam War, the Johnson-Humphrey-Freeman Administration dishes out billions more\nin non-essential domestic spending. The result -- inflation.\nInflation is a big word. But you people know exactly what it means. You find\nout every time you go into the market place and pay more and more for less and less.\nDon't let Big Daddy or any other apologist for his Administration tell you\nyou never had it so good. That's a lot of hooey.\nMr. Johnson went to Nebraska and Des Moines to tell the farmers they never\nhad it so good.\nHe didn't tell them the farmer is caught in a cost-price squeeze. He didn't\ntell them that the average parity ratio over the past five years is the lowest it\nhas ever been for any consecutive five-year period since the big depression.\nHe didn't tell them that farm production costs have gone up $4 billion since\n1960, or that total farm debt stands 60 per cent higher than five years ago.\nHe didn't tell them that farmers are still earning only about 65 per cent as\nmuch as non-farmers.\n(MORE)\n-4-\nThe truth is the Johnson-Humphrey-Freeman Administration has been spending\nthe American people silly. This is the chief reason your dollars are slipping away\nin line with Freeman's stip-slide-and-duck philosophy.\nThe Democrats have been drowning this country in red ink for six long years\nDo you know what the deficit for those six years adds up to? Thirty billion --\nan average of $6 billion a year. The last time the Federal budget was balanced\nwas in 1960 under a Republican Administration.\nPresident Johnson pretends to be an economizer. I say \"pretends\" because\nI've got the figures to back up what I say. Mr. Johnson is planning to spend 47.5\nper cent more in fiscal year 1967 than the federal government spent in 1960. Since\nfiscal 1965 -- in just two years -- federal spending is up 17 per cent. That's\nthe great economy record compiled during Mr. Johnson's time in office.\nIt's this kind of reckless spending, the doling out of dollars by the\nJohnson-Humphrey-Freeman Administration and its blank-check Democratic Congress,\nwhich is the prime cause of inflation.\nIn their 1960 platform the Democrats promised to maintain price stability,\nHave they kept this promise?\nIn 1960 the Democrats promised to place farmers on the same economic level\nas automobile workers and the teamsters. What happened to that promise? Like all\nthe others, it was for the Democrats to get in on, not to deliver on.\nAnd I ask you. Why does the Administration and its captive Democrat\nCongress act as though there is no problem under the sun which can't be cured by\nspending billions of taxpayer dollars?\nWhy, in short, does the Administration pretend that we can fight an all-\nout war in Vietnam and still pay for any and every sociological brainstorm hatched\nby the kept economists of the Great Society?\nWe're bogged down in Vietnam. We're in a mess with inflation. And now\nwe're getting kicked around by high interest rates.\nDo you know that the Democrats in their 1960 platform had the unmitigated\ngall to attack the Eisenhower Administration as a high-interest administration?\nWell, after barely five years of Democratic control, interest rates in\nthis country have hit a 40-year high--that's right, a 40-year high--and they're\nstill going up.\nThis may be news to you, but the Adminsitration can't even be honest about\ninterest rates, much less keep them from going sky-high.\n(MORE)\n-5-\nHere in my hand I hold a United States Savings Bond. My children and your\nchildren are buying these bonds. So are farmers and industrial workers, people\nwho are demonstrating their faith in America. The U.S. Treasury pays them about\n4.15 per cent interest for the use of their money.\nBut that's only when it comes to taking candy-money from school kids.\nIn contrast, when the Treasury turns to the big investors, it talks another\nlanguage. Here I hold a Participation Sales Certificate, which is an interest\nin various mortgage assets that the federal government owns. Its issuance was\nauthorized by the Participation Sales Act of last May, another Democratic Congress\nblank check.\nAnyone who can afford the $5,000 minimum can buy one of these certificates\nand will draw interest not at the rate of about 4.15 per cent but 5-3/4 or more.\nThat means the Democratic Administration pays over 40 per cent more to the rich\nthan it pays to the great number of Americans who don't have $5,000 in cash lying\naround for a safe investment. This is Democrat policy - low interest returns\nfor the poor; high interest returns for the rich.\nThat's Robin Hood in reverse. He stole from the rich to give to the poor.\nThe Administration takes from the have-nots and gives to the haves.\nWhat do we have today in the Democratic Party? We've got the Party of\nBig Business, the Party of Big Government, the Party of Big Bureaucracy, the\nParty of Big Spending, the Party of Big Deficits, the Party of Big Cost of Living,\nthe Party of Big Labor Troubles, the Party of Big Home Foreclosures, the Party of\nBig Scandals, the Party with Big Riots in the Streets, the Party of Big Promises.\nRiots in the Streets. The Democratic Party promised big but failed to\ndeliver.\nThere is an atmosphere of lawlessness in this country. It springs from the\nattitude that Americans should only obey the laws that please them. It stems from\nthe feeling that if you've got more than I have, I can take from you whatever I\nwant. It's the old attitude of theeworld-owes-me-a-living gone wild.\nYou read about the riots, the arson, and the looting in our great cities\nand you wonder if America has gone mad. This disregard for law and order breeds\nanarchy.\nI have said it before and I say it again. When high-ranking public figures\nlike Vice President Humphrey talk about leading a revolt themselves, they are\nencouraging a defiance of the law which is inexcusable in a civilized society. Is\nthis a Great Society?\nSome of our big cities are rapidly reverting to the jungle. Lawless\nelements are threatening to make guerrilla warfare with the police a familiar pat-\n-6-\ntern of American life.\nHow long are we going to abdicate law and order--the backbone of any\ncivilization--in favor of a soft social theory that the man who heaves a brick\nthrough your window, or tosses a fire bomb into your car, or snipes at firemen\nis simply the misunderstood and underprivileged product of a broken home?\nVietnam. Inflation. High interest. Violence. These are the issues of\n1966. We did not create them. They are simply there. We would prefer that the\nAdministration had not let them develop.\nBut that is where the two-party system comes in.\nWinston Churchill once said that democracy had many and serious faults but\nwas better than any other system of government man had devised.\nDemocracy in America depends on two-party politics. One-party government\nleads straight to tyranny. A vigorous two-party system is the simplest way of\nbringing about necessary changes in our government without wrecking the country\nor resorting to revolution.\nToday we do not have two nearly-equal-in-strength political parties.\nLopsided government, if allowed to continue, leads only to disaster.\nCompetition is the secret of American economic freedom and social progress.\nCompetition between the two major political parties has been good for America.\nIn 1966 this competition will be re-established. The Democrats' stranglehold will\nbe broken at the polls in November.\nThe easiest and quickest way for the people of this country to clean up\nVietnam, stop inflation, bring down interest rates, and protect the lives, rights\nand property of us all-including all minorities--is to vote Republicans in and\nDemocrats out. It's just as simple as that. It's not a matter of intrigue in\ngovernment, or of contributing $10,000 to the President's Club, or lobbying on\nCapitol Hill.\nOften when I ponder the great land that is America, I think of that day in\nPhiladelphia when Benjamin Franklin left the Constitutional Convention.\n\"Which have you given us,\" a bystander asked him, \"a monarchy or a re-\npublic?\" \"A Republic,\" Franklin answered, \"if you can keep it.\"\nThat republic has endured for 177 years because in every age there have\nbeen Americans who gave of their time, of their treasure, and of their faith to\nkeep it.\nIt is for us, the living, to re-dedicate ourselves to that high purpose.\nAnd it is my deep conviction that you--all of you--will pass on the torch of\nfreedom to your children because you dare stand up and be counted for America.\nThank you and God bless each of you.\n###\nFOR RELEASE AT 6:30 P.M., SATURDAY, AUGUST 27, 1966\nADDRESS BY REP. GERALD R. FORD, R-MICH.\nAt\n2ND DISTRICT REPUBLICAN DINNER, CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA\nIowa is a great farming state. It is fitting, therefore, that we pay\nour respects to the agriculture expert of the Johnson-Humphrey Administration--\nSecretary of Agriculture Orville L. Freeman.\nI know you share the view that he is the most peculiar Secretary of Agriculture\nwe have had for a long, long time. I cannot salute him as a trail-blazing experimen-\nter or a social revolutionary, but I congratulate him for being a political phrase-\nmaker who was born with a foot in his mouth.\nSecretary Freeman is the only Secretary of Agriculture who has ever asked the\nDepartment of Defense to cut down on its purchases of beef and pork produced by the\nAmerican farmer.\nHe is the only Secretary of Agriculture who has ever publicly expressed\npleasure at a drop in farm prices.\nHe is the Cabinet officer who beamed his approval of an $8 million Export-\nImport Bank deal to help Communist Rumania process 300,000 pigs a year with modern\nAmerican-made equipment and to sell millions of pounds of Communist pork in competi-\ntion with American farmers.\nSecretary Freeman has waged an undeclared war on American agriculture which\nhas driven parity prices from an average of 84.5 per cent under Eisenhower to barely\n79 per cent this year. He, as the agriculture \"boss man\" on the Johnson-Humphrey-\nFreeman team, has helped to increase beef imports and has dumped CCC-stored grains to\nknock down market prices. This Democratic Administration, as you well know, also\ntried to scuttle the school milk and school lunch programs.\nThis is what our fathers used to call \"some punkins.\" But if Secretary Freeman\nhas hurt the farmers and wounded the Democrats, he is to be thanked for providing the\nRepublican campaign slogan for 1966. Recently, at a secret Democratic political\nhuddle at which he brushed off the housewives and the farmers, he gave this slick\nadvice to the desperate Democratic congressional candidates-and I quote:\n\"Slip, slide and duck any question of higher consumer prices if you\npossibly can!\"\nThat's Orbiting Orville. Right out of the horse's mouth. \"Slip, slide and\nduck!\" Perhaps such advice would be helpful if the Democratic hopefuls were dodging\nbaseballs in a carnival concession. But candidates who \"slip, slide and duck!\" won't\n(MORE\n-2-\nsatisfy the American voters in 1966. In the political arena this fall Democrats will\nbe ducking when they should be slipping, and slipping when they should be sliding.\nWe have the opportunity to make this the year of the Elephant. Republicans\nare on the right side of the issues, have the best candidates, real party unity, and\norganization. The Democrats are saddled with higher prices, higher interest rates,\nhigher draft calls, higher crime rates. The Great Society is the High Society. Had\nenough?\nWhat is the state of the Union? Not good with a war in Vietnam and NATO in\ndisarray in Europe. At home we see prices skyrocketing to all-time highs, interest\nrates going out of sight, mortgage money tight and getting tighter, federal spending\nout of control, crime soaring and violence spreading across the land.\nThis is the time for leadership. America needs straight-from-the-shoulder\nanswers, not slip, slide and duck. Despite all the Johnson-Humphrey fanfare and\nhoopla, this nation is not getting decisive and effective leadership at a time when\nit's desperately needed. The \"big daddy\" Johnson-Democrat attitude will not solve\nthe frankenstein mess which is damaging our prestige and power abroad, and ravaging\nour people at home. Democrats talk like Pollyanna. The White House blows with an\nuncertain trumpet, with its credibility at an all-time low.\nWhat are we to believe about Vietnam? There the stakes are high; the\nconsequences are great.\nAmericans are proud of our men in our armed forces. Many of you here have\nhusbands, fathers, sons and brothers fighting for freedom half-way around the world.\nWe must not, we cannot, we will not let them down. Republicans believe we must\nforthrightly and steadfastly meet the challenge of Communist terror and aggression\nin Vietnam, Berlin or elsewhere.\nIt is a grim and difficult war in the jungles, swamps and rice-paddies of\nSoutheast Asia. Already our combat losses have risen to over 30,000--including more\nthan 4,400 Americans killed in action.\nBut, we have the power to be successful on the battlefield and at the peace\ntable, and we should press more vigorously for solutions on both fronts. I commend\nIllinois Senatorial Candidate Chuck Percy for calling for an All-Asian Peace\nConference, with the Asians themselves taking the lead in seeking an honorable peace\nin war-torn Vietnam. This promising proposal is a Republican plan for peace.\nOur soldiers are performing billiantly in Vietnam. But it is tragic that\nmore and more of our young menare being sent to fight and perhaps to die there.\n(MORE)\n-3-\nWe are told there will be 400,000 of our ground troops in Vietnam by the end\nof this year. It is also reported it will take 750,000 Americans to end the Vietnam\nWar within five years.\nThese reports sound utterly fantastic when we recall what President Johnson\ntold the nation just two years ago, when he was seeking election.\n\"We don't want our American boys to do the fighting for Asian boys,\" Johnson\nthe campaigner said. \"We don't want to get involved with a nation with 700 million\npeople and get tied down in a land war in Asia.\"\nNational Republican leaders urged the President in December, 1965, to make\nmore effective use of the superiority we enjoy in air and sea power to end the Vietnam\nWar more quickly and save our manpower.\nBut the President dilly-dallied and shilly-shallied until 6-1/2 months later\nwhen the polls told him the American people wanted to win in Vietnam and get out.\nOnly then did the President order destruction of the oil depots near Hanoi and\nHaiphong. In explaining the action, Defense Secretary McNamara said the bombings\nwould save American and South Vietnamese lives.\nApparently this Democratic Administration thought the oil depot bombings would\nsave lives in July but not in December.\nThe war in Vietnam is costly both in lives and in dollars. Yet, the Johnson\nAdministration persists in a spending-as-usual attitude. While pumping billions into\nthe Vietnam War, the Johnson-Humphrey-Freeman Administration dishes out billions more\nin non-essential domestic spending. The result -- inflation.\nInflation is a big word. But you people know exactly what it means. You find\nout every time you go into the market place and pay more and more for less and less.\nDon't let Big Daddy or any other apologist for his Administration tell you\nyou never had it so good. That's a lot of hooey.\nMr. Johnson went to Nebraska and Des Moines to tell the farmers they never\nhad it so good.\nHe didn't tell them the farmer is caught in a cost-price squeeze. He didn't\ntell them that the average parity ratio over the past five years is the lowest it\nhas ever been for any consecutive five-year period since the big depression.\nHe didn't tell them that farm production costs have gone up $4 billion since\n1960, or that total farm debt stands 60 per cent higher than five years ago.\nHe didn't tell them that farmers are still earning only about 65 per cent as\nmuch as non-farmers.\n(MORE)\n-4-\nThe truth is the Johnson-Humphrey-Freeman Administration has been spending\nthe American people silly. This is the chief reason your dollars are slipping away\nin line with Freeman's slip-slide-and-duck philosophy,\nThe Democrats have been drowning this country in red ink for six long years\nDo you know what the deficit for those six years adds up to? Thirty billion -\nan average of $6 billion a year. The last time the Federal budget was balanced\nwas in 1960 under a Republican Administration.\nPresident Johnson pretends to be an economizer. I say \"pretends\" because\nI've got the figures to back up what I say. Mr. Johnson is planning to spend 47.5\nper cent more in fiscal year 1967 than the federal government spent in 1960. Since\nfiscal 1965 -- in just two years --- federal spending is up 17 per cent. That's\nthe great economy record compiled during Mr. Johnson's time in office.\nIt's this kind of reckless spending, the doling out of dollars by the\nJohnson-Humphrey-Freeman Administration and its blank-check Democratic Congress,\nwhich is the prime cause of inflation.\nIn their 1960 platform the Democrats promised to maintain price stability.\nHave they kept this promise?\nIn 1960 the Democrats promised to place farmers on the same economic level\nas automobile workers and the taamsters. What happened to that promise? Like all\nthe others, it was for the Democrats to get in on, not to deliver on.\nAnd I ask you. Why does the Administration and its captive Democrat\nCongress act as though there is no problem under the sun which can't be cured by\nspending billions of taxpayer dollars?\nWhy, in short, does the Administration pretend that we can fight an all-\nout war in Vietnam and still pay for any and every sociological brainstorm hatched\nby the kept economists of the Great Society?\nWe're bogged down in Vietnam. We're in a mess with inflation. And now\nwe're getting kicked around by high interest rates.\nDo you know that the Democrats in their 1960 platform had the unmitigated\ngall to attack the Eisenhower Administration as a high-interest administration?\nWell, after barely five years of Democratic control, interest rates in\nthis country have hit a 40-year high--that's right, a 40-year high--and they're\nstill going up.\nThis may be news to you, but the Adminsitration can't even be honest about\ninterest rates, much less keep them from going sky-high.\n(MORE)\n-5-\nHere in my hand I hold a United States Savings Bond. My children and your\nchildren are buying these bonds. So are farmers and industrial workers, people\nwho are demonstrating their faith in America. The U.S. Treasury pays them about\n4.15 per cent interest for the use of their money.\nBut that's only when it comes to taking candy-money from school kids.\nIn contrast, when the Treasury turns to the big investors, it talks another\nlanguage. Here I hold a Participation Sales Certificate, which is an interest\nin various mortgage assets that the federal government owns. Its issuance was\nauthorized by the Participation Sales Act of last May, another Democratic Congress\nblank check.\nAnyone who can afford the $5,000 minimum can buy one of these certificates\nand will draw interest not at the rate of about 4.15 per cent but 5-3/4 or more.\nThat means the Democratic Administration pays over 40 per cent more to the rich\nthan it pays to the great number of Americans who don't have $5,000 in cash lying\naround for a safe investment. This is Democrat policy - low interest returns\nfor the poor; high interest returns for the rich.\nThat's Robin Hood in reverse. He stole from the rich to give to the poor.\nThe Administration takes from the have-nots and gives to the haves.\nWhat do we have today in the Democratic Party? We've got the Party of\nBig Business, the Party of Big Government, the Party of Big Bureaucracy, the\nParty of Big Spending, the Party of Big Deficits, the Party of Big Cost of Living,\nthe Party of Big Labor Troubles, the Party of Big Home Foreclosures, the Party of\nBig Scandals, the Party with Big Riots in the Streets, the Party of Big Promises.\nRiots in the Streets. The Democratic Party promised big but failed to\ndeliver.\nThere is an atmosphere of lawlessness in this country. It springs from the\nattitude that Americans should only obey the laws that please them. It stems from\nthe feeling that if you've got more than I have, I can take from you whatever I\nwant. It's the old attitude of the-world-owes-me-a-living gone wild.\nYou read about the riots, the arson, and the looting in our great cities\nand you wonder if America has gone mad. This disregard for law and order breeds\nenarchy.\nI have said it before and I say it again. When high-ranking public figures\nlike Vice President Humphrey talk about leading a revolt themselves, they are\nencouraging a defiance of the law which is inexcusable in a civilized society. Is\nthis a Great Society?\nSome of our big cities are rapidly reverting to the jungle. Lawless\nelements are threatening to make guerrilla warfare with the police a familiar pat-\n-6-\ntern of American life.\nHow long are we going to abdicate law and order--the backbone of any\ncivilization--in favor of a soft social theory that the man who heaves a brick\nthrough your window, or tosses a fire bomb into your car, or snipes at firemen\nis simply the misunderstood and underprivileged product of a broken home?\nVietnam. Inflation. High interest. Violence. These are the issues of\n1966. We did not create them. They are simply there. We would prefer that the\nAdministration had not let them develop.\nBut that is where the two-party system comes in.\nWinston Churchill once said that democracy had many and serious faults but\nwas better than any other system of government man had devised.\nDemocracy in America depends on two-party politics. One-party government\nleads straight to tyranny. A vigorous two-party system is the simplest way of\nbringing about necessary changes in our government without wrecking the country\nor resorting to revolution.\nToday we do not have two nearly-equal-in-strength political parties.\nLopsided government, if allowed to continue, leads only to disaster.\nCompetition is the secret of American economic freedom and social progress.\nCompetition between the two major political parties has been good for America.\nIn 1966 this competition will be re-established, The Democrats' stranglehold will\nbe broken at the polls in November.\nThe easiest and quickest way for the people of this country to clean up\nVietnam, stop inflation, bring down interest rates, and protect the lives, rights\nand property of us all--including all minorities--is to vote Republicans in and\nDemocrats out. It's just as simple as that, It's not a matter of intrigue in\ngovernment, or of contributing $10,000 to the President's Club, or lobbying on\nCapitol Hill.\nOften when I ponder the great land that is America, I think of that day in\nPhiladelphia when Benjamin Franklin left the Constitutional Convention.\n\"Which have you given us,\" a bystander asked him, \"a monarchy or a re-\npublic?\" \"A Republic,\" Franklin answered, \"if you can keep it.\"\nThat republic has endured for 177 years because in every age there have\nbeen Americans who gave of their time, of their treasure, and of their faith to\nkeep it.\nIt is for us, the living, to re-dedicate ourselves to that high purpose.\nAnd it is my deep conviction that you--all of you--will pass on the torch of\nfreedom to your children because you dare stand up and be counted for America.\nThank you and God bless each of you.\n###\nChange negistration 8 L13 - Robt Johnson - Jack Miller\n2ND DISTRICT REPUBLICAN DINNER--CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA\nguy\nJim BROMWELL\nSATURDAY, AUGUST 27, 1966\nIOWA IS A GREAT FARMING STATE. IT IS FITTING, THEREFORE,\nTHAT WE PAY OUR RESPECTS TO THE AGRICULTURE EXPERT OF THE\nJOHNSON-HUMPHREY ADMINISTRATION--SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE\nORVILLE L. FREEMAN.\nI KNOW YOU SHARE THE VIEW THAT HE IS THE MOST PECULIAR\nSECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE WE HAVE HAD FOR A LONG, LONG TIME.\nI CANNOT SALUTE HIM AS A TRAIL-BLAZING EXPERIMENTER OR A\nSOCIAL REVOLUTIONARY, BUT I CONGRATULATE HIM FOR BEING A\nPOLITICAL PHRASE-MAKER WHO WAS BORN WITH A FOOT IN HIS\nMOUTH.\nFORD\nSECRETARY FREEMAN IS THE ONLY SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE\nGERA\nCARY\nWASHINGTON POST - April 10, 1965\n\"CABBIE'S FARE TURNS OUT TO BE A REAL SLEEPER\"\nThe big man in the back seat of his cab mumbled an address\nto the cabbie and lost all further interest in the trip\nhome. At the address in upper Northwest Washington the\ncabbie thought the big man had mumbled - nobody knew him.\nAt the second address the cabbie thought the big man gave\nit was the same story. It was late in the evening of last\nFriday night, when the cabbie pulled up in fromt of the\n8th precinct with his problem. Hatless and in shirt sleeves\n55-year-old Harold D. Bowers left his desk (sergeant at front)\nto cope with \"cabbie's problem.\" He tugged at the man but got\nno response. Down the precinct steps came Robert Donnell and\nDouglas C. Taylor. Bower, Donnell and Taylor tugged the cabbie's\nproblem and helped him to his feet on the sidewalk. \" Before\nI knew it, u Representative John Culver (D-Ia.)\nsaid\nat his press conference yesterday, \"there were these three\nguys I had never seen before pulling and hauling me\naround.\" I thought I was being attaked and I resisted\naccordingly. Briefly, the 32-year-old former Harvard graduate\nrecounted the\nfactivities of a hectic week which\nhad culminated for him on that hectic Friday. He had steady\nrounds of subcommittee work on Foreign Affairs and Economic Policy\nand after-hour meetings with constitutents had taken their\nphysical toll\nkexBistre That night he had had dinner\nat Le Bistro - couple of drinks afterwards - then he took a cab\nhome\nRed lines were drewn through his name and address in the arrest\nbook\n11I had quite a job explaining it to my wife and mother and if my\ncareer is going to bearecked by this one incident that is they\nway it is game going to be. It's the honest way of doing it.\nIt is the most difficult things I have had to do in my whole\nlife , but being in pub19 c life I must face it.\nBERALD FORD LIBRARY\nNOTES FOR CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA (Jerry: The last sentence is a reference to an\nincident in which the incumbent, Rep. John Culver, was arrested for drunklenness\nin April, 1965. See attachment. I assume you don't need anything on Ben Reifel.)\nOne of the reasons we're going to do verywwell at the polls in\nNovember is because we have outstanding candidates. And one of those\noutstanding candidates is your own Mayor Bob Johnson. As a\ntop-notch\nsalesman, he's a natural politician. In his work as a news reporter and\nI'm sure\ncolumnist, he developed a great respect for the truth and the people's right\nto know. He's just the kind of fellow we need in running against an\nAdministration that misinforms the public, misleads the people and\nthinks government has the right to lie. And the fact that he has been your\nmayor since 1962 underscores the great esteem and affection\nX\nin\nFORD is LIBRARY 076830\nwhich he is held by everyone who knows him. I'm\nsure you'll never find him cruising around Washington, passed out in a taxicab."
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