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15th Congressional District Lincoln Day Dinner, Dearborn, MI, February 24, 1968
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4526091
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15th Congressional District Lincoln Day Dinner, Dearborn, MI, February 24, 1968
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Gerald R. Ford Congressional Papers
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The original documents are located in Box D23, folder "15th Congressional District
Lincoln Day Dinner, Dearborn, MI, February 24, 1968" 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States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.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 D23 of the Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
CONGRESSMAN
NEWS
GERALD R. FORD
HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER
RELEASE
--FOR SUNDAY AM's RELEASE--
Excerpts from a Speech by Rep. Gerald R. Ford, R-Mich,, at a Michigan 15th
Congressional District Lincoln Day Dinner Saturday Evening, Feb. 24, at
Dearborn, Mich.
With an amazing lack of modesty, President Johnson recently compared himself
to a great Republican president, Abraham Lincoln.
Speaking at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D. C., Lyndon Johnson said:
"We live in a time that Lincoln would have well understood. Sad, but steady.
always convinced of his cause...he stuck it out. Sad, but steady, so will we."
Since Lyndon Johnson has invited comparison with Abraham Lincoln, let's oblige
him.
Would you attach an "honest Lyndon" name-tag to the man whose protege was the
notorious Bobby Baker of Senate influence-peddling fame, the man whose Administra-
tion has produced an ever-widening Credibility Gap?
As Lincoln once said: "If you once forfeit the confidence of your fellow
citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem. It is true that you can
fool all of the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all
the time; but you can't fool all the people all the time."
How fittingly those words describe what has happened in America under the
Johnson Administration!
We have seen a crisis of confidence develop in this country from the time
peace candidate Lyndon Johnson told the American people in 1964 he would not "send
American boys to do the job that Asian boys should be doing" to recent weeks when
the Viet Cong seized the initiative in Vietnam and smashed the pacification program
there while the Johnson Administration described these events as an allied victory.
How does "Lay-it-on-the-line Lyndon" sound to you? Does anyone really believe
that Lyndon Johnson has been candid and forthright with the American people?
The chief reason there is a Credibility Gap between the Johnson Administration
and the American people is that the people have been misled nearly every step of
the way on Vietnam, and the same can be said about a number of other issues.
The American people simply are not getting truth in government from the
Johnson Administration. Without truth in government, there can be no confidence
in government. Without confidence in government, the Nation finds itself in great
peril.
BERALD FORD LIBRARY
(more)
-2-
Are the American people interested in honesty in government? They're not
getting it from the Johnson Administration.
Take a look at the record. There is a stench in the Agency for International
Development that emanates from acceptance of kickbacks from foreign contractors and
favors from party girls, falsification of travel vouchers, purchase of $260,000 of
worthless battery additive for South Vietnam, allowing a Minnesota firm to unload
nearly $4 million of junky gearmaking machinery in India, and other cases In the
Small Business Administration we find special handling of a bidding eligibility
certificate so that a $13.3 million Post Office Department contract went to a
now-defunct firm, again located in Minnesota, in a deal that went sour and smacks
of favors returned for political favors received.
The smell of scandal now enveloping the Johnson Administration is seeping out
from high places--in fact, a place right next to the ultimate seat of power.
The Johnson Administration has done a lot of explaining. It has a lot more
explaining to do.
Why does the President brag about 84 months of what he calls uninterrupted
prosperity when it is splashed with the blood of Vietnam and when his own Labor
Department reveals that inflation has robbed the American worker of every so-called
wage gain he made during the past two years?
Why did the President do nothing about inflation in 1966 when demand was
running wild and why does he now seek to ram an income tax increase down t e tl oats
of the American people after the price spiral damage is done?
Why does the Administration carry out its spy ship operations so carelessly
that this Nation is humiliated by a fifth rate Communist power?
President Johnson has compared himself to Lincoln. Let him ponder the words
of Lincoln when he said: "History is not history unless it is the truth."
Lincoln and the Republican Party led this Nation through the soul-rending
crisis that was the War Between The States. Now we are threatened with a second
civil war-between the forces of law and order in this country and the black
militants.
Remember Vice-President Humphrey saying he might lead a revolt himself if he
had to live under slum conditions? There is no excuse for the conditions he spoke
of. But there also is no excuse for a Vice-President of the United States encourag-
ing rioting by his words.
Today the American people are looking to the Republican Party to reuntee 0.0
country--a nation torn apart by stresses and strains at home and bloody strife
abroad. I believe the people long for a new leader who will
in Lincoln's words
"rise with the occasion." We will meet the challenge.
# # #
CONGRESSMAN
NEWS
GERALD R. FORD
HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER
RELEASE
--FOR SUNDAY AM's RELEASE--
Excerpts from a Speech by Rep. Gerald R. Ford, R-Mich,, at a Michigan 15th
Congressional District Lincoln Day Dinner Saturday Evening, Feb. 24, at
Dearborn, Mich.
With an amazing lack of modesty, President Johnson recently compared himself
to a great Republican president, Abraham Lincoln.
Speaking at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D. G., Lyndon Johnson said:
"We live in a time that Lincoln would have well understood. Sad, but steady.
always convinced of his cause...he stuck it out. Sad, but steady, 80 will we."
Since Lyndon Johnson has invited comparison with Abraham Lincoln, let's oblige
him.
Would you attach an "honest Lyndon" name-tag to the man whose protege was the
potorious Bobby Baker of Senate influence-peddling fame, the man whose Administra-
tion has produced an ever-widening Credibility Gap?
As Lincoln once said: "If you once forfeit the confidence of your fellow
citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem. It is true that you can
fool all of the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the peo Le all
the time; but you can't fool all the people all the time."
How fittingly those words describe what has happened in America under the
Johnson Administration!
We have seen a crisis of confidence develop in this country from the time
peace candidate Lyndon Johnson told the American people in 1964 he would not "send
American boys to do the job that Asian boys should be doing" to recent weeks when
the Viet Cong seized the initiative in Vietnam and smashed the pacification program
there while the Johnson Administration described these events as an allied victory.
How does "Lay-it-on-the-line. Lyndon" sound to you? Does anyone really believe
that Lyndon Johnson has been candid and forthright with the American people?
The chief reason there is a Credibility Gap between the Johnson Administration
and the American people is that the people have been misled nearly every step of
the way on Vietnam, and the same can be said about a number of other issues.
The American people simply are not getting truth in government from t 3
Johnson Administration. Without truth in government, there can be no confidence
in government. Without confidence in government, the Nation finds itself in great
peril.
(more)
GERALD LIBRARY
-2-
Are the American people interested in honesty in government? They're not
getting it from the Johnson Administration.
Take a look at the record. There is a stench in the Agency for International
Development that emanates from acceptance of kickbacks from foreign contractors and
favors from party girls, falsification of travel vouchers, purchase of $260,000 of
worthless battery additive for South Vietnam, allowing a Minnesota firm to unload
nearly $4 million of junky gearmaking machinery in India, and other cases. In the
Small Business Administration we find special handling of a bidding eligibility
certificate so that a $13.3 million Post Office Department contract went to a
now-defunct firm, again located in Minnesota, in a deal that went sour and smacks
of favors returned for political favors received.
The smell of scandal now enveloping the Johnson Administration is seeping out
from high places--in fact, a place right next to the ultimate seat of power.
The Johnson Administration has done a lot of explaining. It has a lot more
explaining to do.
Why does the President brag about 84 months of what he calls uninterrupted
prosperity when it is splashed with the blood of Vietnam and when his own Labor
Department reveals that inflation has robbed the American worker of every so-called
wage gain he made during the past two years?
Why did the President do nothing about inflation in 1966 when demand T. .S
running wild and why does he now seek to ram an income tax increase down the throats
of the American people after the price spiral damage is done?
Why does the Administration carry out its spy ship operations so carelessly
that this Nation is humiliated by a fifth rate Communist power?
President Johnson has compared himself to Lincoln. Let him ponder the words
of Lincoln when he said: "History is not history unless it is the truth."
Lincoln and the Republican Party led this Nation through the soul-rending
crisis that was the War Between The States. Now we are threatened with a second
civil war--between the forces of law and order in this country and the black
militants.
Remember Vice-President Humphrey saying he might lead a revolt himself if he
had to live under slum conditions? There is no excuse for the conditions he spoke
of. But there also is no excuse for a Vice-President of the United States encourag-
ing rioting by his words.
Today the American people are looking to the Republican Party to reunite our
country--a nation torn apart by stresses and strains at home and bloody strife
abroad. I believe the people long for a new leader who will
in Lincoln's words
"rise with the occasion." We will meet the challenge.
# # #