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Virginia Public Relations Conference, Williamsburg, VA, March 7, 1968
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Virginia Public Relations Conference, Williamsburg, VA, March 7, 1968
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Gerald R. Ford Congressional Papers
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Civil disobedience
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The original documents are located in Box D24, folder "Virginia Public Relations
Conference, Williamsburg, VA, March 7, 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States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.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.
AN ADDRESS BY REP. GERALD R. FORD, R-MICH, AT THE VIRGINIA
PUBLIC RELATIONS CONFERENCE, THURSDAY EVENING, MARCH 7, 1968,
AT WILLIAMSBURG. VIRGINIA.
TONIGHT I AM GOING TO DO SOMETHING WHICH COULD BE
QUITE DANGEROUS. I AM GOING TO LEAVE MY OWN FIELD OF
COMPETENCE - FOR A TIME, AT LEAST--AND TALK WITH YOU ABOUT
YOUR SPECIALTY, PUBLIC RELATIONS.
I THINK ALL OF YOU WOULD AGREE IT IS DIFFICULT TO
DEFINE THE TERM, PUBLIC RELATIONS. IF YOU DISSECT IT INTO ITS
SIMPLEST FORM IT MEANS, OF COURSE, THE RELATIONSHIP THAT AN
INDIVIDUAL OR COMPANY OR OTHER ENTITY HAS WITH THE PUBLIC.
FOR MANY YEARS IT WAS THOUGHT THAT ALL A COMPANY
NEEDED TO BE LOVED BY THE PUBLIC--OR, AT LEAST, NOT TO BE
VIEWED WITH DISTRUST--WAS TO HIRE A PUBLIC RELATIONS
SPECIALIST. THE JOB OF THE" R"MAN WAS MIGHTY TOUGH IF THE
COMPANY MANAGEMENT WAS INSENSITIVE TO THE PUBLIC INTEREST.
LIBRARY
Digitized from Box D22 of The Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
-2-
SINCE THAT TIME MOST BUSINESS LEADERS HAVE COME TO REALIZE
THAT INTEREST IN THE COMMUNITIES IN WHICH THEY OPERATE AND AN
ACTIVE ROLE IN SOLVING THE PROBLEMS OF THOSE COMMUNITIES IS
GOOD FOR THE COMPANY--THAT THIS IS THE BEST KIND OF PUBLIC
RELATIONS. IN THAT CONNECTION, I BELIEVE THE BEST KIND OF
PUBLIC RELATIONS SPECIALIST IS THE MAN OR WOMAN WHO SELLS THE
DUBIOUS COMPANY PRESIDENT ON ACTIVE PARTICIPATION IN COMMUNITY
AFFAIRS BY COMPANY OFFICERS AND BY EMPLOYEES.
IF I ASKED FOR A VOTE ON THE PREMISE I HAVE THUS FAR
ADVANCED, I PROBABLY WOULD NOT HEAR ONE DISSENTING VOICE. IN
ANY CASE, I WON'T CHANCE IT. I WILL JUST SAY "SO FAR, SO
GOOD"--AND THEN TELL YOU THAT THIS IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH. THE
REASON I SAY IT IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH IS THAT BUSINESS HAS A LONG
WAY TO GO IN FULFILLING ITS RESPONSIBILITY FOR HELPING TO
SOLVE COMMUNITY PROBLEMS.
GERALO LIBRURY TORD
-3-
IT ALSO IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH BECAUSE THE AMERICAN PUBLIC
IS FAR FROM SOLD ON THE CAPABILITY OR THE DESIRE OF BUSINESS
TO SOLVE THE MAJOR PROBLEMS OF THIS COUNTRY.
the
THE UPSHOT IS THAT MOST AMERICANS LOOK TO THE
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO REMEDY ALL OF THIS NATION'S ILLS. AND
THIS IS A MAJOR WEAKNESS OF OUR SOCIETY. NOW IT IS BECOMING
INCREASINGLY EVIDENT THAT FEDERAL DOLLARS ALONE WILL NOT SOLVE
OUR PROBLEMS. AND SO I TAKE HOPE THAT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE WILL
RECOGNIZE THIS FALLACY.
THIS IS THE CHIEF FACTOR IN AMERICA'S CONTINUING
INABILITY TO SOLVE ITS MOST VITAL PROBLEMS--ITS TOTAL RELIANCE
ON FEDERAL SOLUTIONS, THE TENDENCY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE TO
LOOK TO THE FEDERAL BUREAUCRACY AND TO FEDERAL DOLLARS FOR THE
ANSWERS TO ALL THEIR WOES.
THIS OF COURSE SOUNDS LIKE OLD HAT TO MANY AMERICANS
-4-
WHO HAVE CLOSED THEIR EARS TO IT IN THE PAST. BUT THE ALARM
BELLS ARE RINGING ALL OVER AMERICA TODAY AND I AM HOPEFUL THAT
THE PEOPLE WILL AWAKE.
THE ALARM HAS BEEN SOUNDED BY THE NATIONAL ADVISORY
COMMISSION ON CIVIL DISORDERS.
WE DO NOT ALL HEAR THE SAME AND WE DO NOT ALL SEE THE
SAME. BUT THE MESSAGE FROM THE COMMISSION IS UNMISTAKABLE FOR
ALL OF US. WE ARE HEADED FOR A WAR BETWEEN THE RACES IN THIS
COUNTRY UNLESS WE ACT NOW TO MOVE THIS NATION DOWN A DIFFERENT
ROAD THAN THE ONE WE HAVE BEEN TRAVELING.
I AGREE WITH THE COMMISSION ON CIVIL DISORDERS THAT
WE HAVE BEEN MOVING TOWARD A POLARIZATION OF THE TWO RACES,
A DIVISION OF THE RACES INTO TWO WARRING CAMPS
FORD
THIS IS SOMETHING WHICH NEEDED SAYING--AND THE SAYING
OF IT IS PERHAPS THE COMMISSION'S GREATEST CONTRIBUTION TRAL TOWARD
-5-
SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM.
I SAY THAT BECAUSE THE COMMISSION HAS NOT HELPED IN
ONE VERY VITAL AREA OF CONCERN. THE COMMISSION IN FACT HAS
ERECTED BARRIERS TO SOLVING PROBLEMS OF INEQUALITY BETWEEN
THE RACES BY FALLING BACK ON THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AS THE
FOUNTAINHEAD FROM WHENCE ALL SOLUTIONS FLOW.
THE PRIMARY EMPHASIS IN THE REPORT IS ON FEDERAL
DOLLARS, AS THOUGH THEY WERE IN INEXHAUSTIBLE SUPPLY AND AS
THOUGH ALL OF OUR RACIAL PROBLEMS WOULD VANISH IF ONLY CONGRESS
APPROPRIATED UMPTEEN BILLIONS OF DOLLARS TO DEAL WITH THEM.
FOR ALL OF THE GOOD ASPECTS OF THE REPORT-AND THERE
ARE MANY-THIS IS A SERIOUS FLAW. THERE IS EXAGGERATED EMPHASIS
ON THE ROLE OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AND INSUFFICIENT
ATTENTION PAID TO THE PRIVATE SECTOR.
TONIGHT I WOULD LIKE TO SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT
GERALD R.FORD VIBRARY
-6-
CERTAINLY THE CONGRESS AND THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT MUST ACT
TO HELP REPAIR THE NEGLECT OF DECADES AND TO HELP THE
DISADVANTAGED BECOME USEFUL, FULLY COMPETITIVE CITIZENS. BUT
is gwen the Mortints of does
UNLESS THE BUSINESS COMMUNITY, ASSUMES THE LEADERSHIP IN THAT
EFFORT IN PARTNERSHIP WITH GOVERNMENT AT ALL LEVELS, EVEN THE
MOST MASSIVE INJECTIONS OF FEDERAL AID ARE DOOMED TO FAILURE.
I SUBMIT THAT AMERICA WILL REMAIN DIVIDED AGAINST
ITSELF AS LONG AS THE NATION'S TOP LEADERSHIP PREACHES TOTAL
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SOLUTIONS AND AS LONG AS THE BUSINESS
COMMUNITY FAILS TO MEASURE UP TO ITS RESPONSIBILITY.
I THINK IT IS UNFORTUNATE THAT THE REPORT BY THE
COMMISSION ON CIVIL DISORDERS TENDED TO PERPETUATE RELIANCE ON
ifnothynami
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SOLUTIONS BY, IN EFFECT ENDORSING PRESENT
AND PROPOSED JOHNSON ADMINISTRATION PROGRAMS. TO THAT EXTENT,
AT LEAST, THE REPORT WAS A POLITICAL DOCUMENT.
-7-
IT IS IRONIC THAT THE COMMISSION CONTINUES TO PREACH
A PRE-EMINENT FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ROLE IN THE SOLUTION OF
AMERICA'S SOCIAL PROBLEMS AND YET MAKES IT UNMISTAKABLY CLEAR
THAT ONLY A SMALL FRACTION OF THE NATION'S NEEDY ARE BEING
REACHED BY THE FEDERAL BILLIONS ALREADY SPENT OR
APPROPRIATED.
IS THE COMMISSION INDICTING THE JOHNSON ADMINISTRATION
IN ITS CATALOG OF FAILURE OR LAYING THE GROUNDWORK FOR
GREATLY EXPANDED DEMANDS UPON THE FEDERAL TAXPAYER?
TO ME IT READS LIKE A LISTING OF NEAR-HITS AND MOSTLY
MISSES BY THE FEDERAL BLUNDERBUSS IN THE HANDS OF THE PRESENT
ADMINISTRATION.
CONSIDER THESE FACTS COMPILED BY THE KERNER COMMISSION:
THREE MAJOR RIOT CITIES--DETROIT, NEWARK AND NEW
FORD RAILD LIBRARY RAIL
HAVEN--RECEIVED SUBSTANTIAL FEDERAL FUNDS IN 1967. YET MOST
OF THE PROGRAMS REACHED LESS THAN HALF OF THOSE FOR WHOM THEY
WERE INTENDED.
IN DETROIT, WHOSE MAYOR CAVANAGH WAS ALWAYS IN ON THE
GROUND FLOOR FOR FEDERAL AID, LESS THAN HALF OF THE UNEMPLOYED
WERE HELPED BY THE $19.6 MILLION IN FEDERAL JOB-TRAINING
FUNDS OBLIGATED FOR THE FIRST NINE MONTHS OF 1967.
THE HOUSING SITUATION IN DETROIT REVEALS AN EVEN MORE
INEFFECTIVE RESULT. ONLY 758 LOW-INCOME HOUSING UNITS WERE
BUILT WITH FEDERAL AID IN THE LAST DECADE. BUT SINCE 1960
ABOUT 8,000 LOW-INCOME UNITS HAVE BEEN DEMOLISHED IN THE NAME
OF URBAN RENEWAL.
HOW MUCH MORE SENSE IT MAKES TO CUT LOW-PRIORITY FEDERAL
PROGRAMS AND TO PUMP ADDITIONAL FUNDS INTO THE REPUBLICAN
FORD
RENT CERTIFICATES PROGRAM AND TO FULLY FUND
REPUBLICAN
LIBRAR
BILLS TO STIMULATE AND EXPAND CONSTRUCTION OF LOW-COST HOUSING
-9-
UNDER A SPECIAL PROGRAM TO MAKE HOME OWNERSHIP POSSIBLE FOR
SLUM FAMILIES!
HOW MUCH BETTER WE COULD COME TO GRIPS WITH HARD-CORE
UNEMPLOYMENT AND UNDEREMPLOYMENT IN THE CENTRAL CITIES IF TAX
CREDITS WERE USED TO MOBILIZE INDUSTRY IN A DRIVE TO PROVIDE
MEANINGFUL TRAINING AND JOBS WITH DIGNITY !
THE IRONY IN THE KERNER COMMISSION S REPORT DEEPENS
AS THE COMMISSION PROCEEDS TO RECOMMEND THAT BILLIONS UPON
BILLIONS OF FEDERAL DOLLARS BE POURED ON TOP OF THE BILLIONS
THAT HAVE FAILED TO REACH THE POOR UNDER GREAT SOCIETY PRO-
GRAMS.
AND THEN THE COMMISSION QUITS SKIRTING THE MARK AND
COMES IN ON TARGET IN ITS DISSECTION OF THE ANATOMY OF THE
1967 RIOTS. THE PIECES FALL INTO PLACE WHEN THE COMMISSION
DESCRIBES WHAT THEY CALL "THE TYPICAL RIOTER."
-10-
THE TYPICAL RIOTER IS A NORTHERN-BORN TEENAGER OR YOUNG
ADULT WHO HAS HAD HIS HOPES AROUSED BY ALL THE FEDERAL
BETTERMENT PROGRAMS AND THE ORATORY OF ADMINISTRATION
SPOKESMEN--AND THEN HAS HAD THOSE HOPES DASHED. HE MAY HAVE
A JOB BUT IT IS PROBABLY MENIAL AND TEMPORARY. IN SHORT, HE
IS UNDEREMPLOYED. HE IS PROUD. HE IS HOSTILE TOWARD BOTH
WHITES AND MIDDLE-CLASS NEGROES, AND HE HAS NO USE FOR THE
"SYSTEM."
HOW DO YOU REACH THIS TYPICAL RIOTER? HOW CAN HIS
BASIC ATTITUDES, HIS HOSTILITY, BE ALTERED?
I THINK THE ANSWER IS ONE THAT REPUBLICANS HAVE BEEN
SEEKING TO IMPRESS ON THE AMERICAN PEOPLE FOR THREE LONG
YEARS--AN ANSWER THAT HAS BEEN SMOTHERED UNDER THE
ADMINISTRATION'S TOTAL GOVERNMENT SOLUTIONS UNTIL THE RIOTS FORD
GERALD
RARY
BLEW THE LID OFF.
-11-
THE PRIMARY ANSWER IS JOBS. GOOD-PAYING JOBS. JOBS
THAT REQUIRE TRAINING--TRAINING THAT ONLY INDUSTRY CAN GIVE.
JOBS THAT GIVE A MAN A STAKE IN OUR SOCIETY. JOBS THAT GIVE
A MAN PRIDE IN HIMSELF.
FOR THREE YEARS HOUSE REPUBLICANS HAVE URGED THAT
INDUSTRY BE ENLISTED THROUGH A SYSTEM OF TAX CREDITS TO TRAIN
THE HARD-CORE UNEMPLOYED AND THE UNDEREMPLOYED AND PLACE THEM
IN GOOD JOBS. FOR THREE YEARS THE JOHNSON ADMINISTRATION AND
THE MAJORITY PARTY HAVE SIMPLY IGNORED THIS PLEA.
AS A COROLLARY TO THIS PROPOSED HUMAN INVESTMENT ACT,
HOUSE REPUBLICANS HAVE SOUGHT TO REVAMP THE ANTI-POVERTY
PROGRAM WITH PRIMARY EMPHASIS ON JOB TRAINING AND JOB PLACE-
MENT THROUGH CREATION OF AN INDUSTRY YOUTH CORPS. THIS
FORD
PROGRAM OFFERED A DIRECT FEDERAL OUTLAY TO HELP PAY FOR JOB
LIBRAR
TRAINING BY INDUSTRY. IT WAS AIMED RIGHT AT THE GHETTO YOUTH
-12-
NOW TICKETED BY THE KERNER COMMISSION AS THE TYPICAL RIOTER--
THE YOUNG MAN PROUD OF HIS RACE AND SUSPICIOUS OF THE
SYSTEM, EMPLOYED AT MENIAL TASKS AND RESENTING EVERY MINUTE
OF IT. BUT THE JOHNSON ADMINISTRATION AND THE MAJORITY PARTY
IN THE CONGRESS RODE ROUGHSHOD OVER REPUBLICAN ATTEMPTS TO
GIVE THE ANTI-POVERTY PROGRAM THIS PRIVATE INDUSTRY JOB
ORIENTATION.
NOW--AND THIS RECOMMENDATION BY THE COMMISSION ON CIVIL
DISORDERS HAS BEEN LARGELY OVERLOOKED--NOW THE KERNER COM-
MISSION MAKES A STRONG PITCH FOR THE REPUBLICAN APPROACH.
THE KERNER COMMISSION URGES THAT THE FEDERAL
GOVERNMENT INSTITUTE A SYSTEM OF TAX INCENTIVES TO GET
PRIVATE INDUSTRY TO HIRE AND TRAIN THE HARD-CORE UNEMPLOYED,
GIVE THEM MEANINGFUL JOBS AND ASSURE THEM FAIR OPPORTUNITY
FOR ADVANCEMENT. IF CONGRESS FAILS TO ADOPT THE TAX CREDIT
-13-
APPROACH THE COMMISSION DECLARES, ANY LARGE-SCALE JOBS
PROGRAM WILL BE BADLY BLUNTED.
I DON'T LIKE SAYING "I TOLD YOU SO," BUT I MUST.
AND I WOULD ADD THAT CONGRESS ALREADY IS THREE YEARS BEHIND
SCHEDULE ON VOTING TAX CREDITS FOR JOB TRAINING AND JOB
PLACEMENT.
ALL AMERICA SHOULD KNOW THAT THE JOHNSON ADMINISTRATION
AND THE MAJORITY PARTY IN CONGRESS HAVE CONSISTENTLY AND
REPEATEDLY BLOCKED EVERY REPUBLICAN ATTEMPT TO LICK HARD-
CORE UNEMPLOYMENT IN THE GHETTOES THROUGH TAX CREDITS.
I AM FULLY CONVINCED, THEREFORE THAT AMERICA WILL
CONTINUE TO FALL SHORT OF SOUND SOLUTIONS IN THE AREA OF
UNEMPLOYMENT AND EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY UNTIL A CONGRESS
which
AND A NEW LEADERSHIP WHICH THOROUGHLY BELIEVESIN THE FREE
ENTERPRISE SYSTEM ARE VOTED INTO OFFICE.
GERALD
LIBRARY
-14-
I DO NOT, OF COURSE, SUBSCRIBE TO EVERY RECOMMENDATION
IN THE KERNER COMMISSION REPORT. BUT I BELIEVE THAT EVERY
ONE OF THE COMMISSION PROPOSALS WHICH CALLS FOR FEDERAL
IMPLEMENTATION SHOULD RECEIVE CAREFUL CONSIDERATION BY THE
CONGRESS.
THE CHALLENGE THAT IS FACING US AT HOME TODAY IS ONE
THAT SHOULD STIR EVERY AMERICAN RIGHT DOWN TO HIS TOES.
THE CHALLENGE WILL NOT BE MET--AND DISASTER WILL
ENGULF US--IF THE PEOPLE OF AMERICA FAIL TO TAKE THE RIGHT
PATH IN THIS TIME OF DEEP CRISIS.
AMERICA WILL MISS THE RIGHT PATH UNLESS THE BUSINESS
COMMUNITY STEPS FORWARD AND TAKES UPON ITSELF THE MAJOR
BURDEN OF HELPING DISADVANTAGED INDIVIDUALS IN THIS COUNTRY
HELP THEMSELVES.
LIBRAR
MANY BUSINESS CONCERNS ARE DOING THIS, BUT NOT ENOUGH.
-15-
THE STORY OF WHAT IS BEING DONE IS BEING TOLD, BUT THE
MESSAGE IS BURIED UNDER AN AVALANCHE OF WHITE HOUSE MESSAGES
DEMANDING THAT MORE AND MORE BILLIONS OF FEDERAL DOLLARS--
ALL BORROWED DOLLARS WITH HIGH INTEREST COSTS--BE THROWN AT
OUR SOCIAL PROBLEMS.
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT HAS A LARGE ROLE TO PLAY IN
MEETING THE CRISIS OF THE CITIES. BUT THAT ROLE NOW IS
GREATLY DISTORTED. IT SHOULD BE PRIMARILY THAT OF PROVIDING
GUIDANCE AND INCENTIVE AND GUARANTEES. THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD
LURE BUSINESS OUT OF THE WINGS AND ONTO CENTER STAGE.
DO SOME OF OUR BUSINESS LEADERS NEED MORE THAN TAX
INCENTIVES TO ENTER THE FRAY? LET PUBLIC RELATIONS DIRECTORS
AND OTHER PR" PERSONNEL EXERCISE THEIR CHARM AND EMPLOY THEIR
POWERS OF PERSUASION ON THEIR BOSSES. PERHAPS PUBLIC
RELATIONS PEOPLE NEED TO DO A SELLING JOB ON THEIR TOP
-16-
MANAGEMENT IF AMERICA IS TO LAUNCH AN ALL-OUT ATTACK ON HARD-
CORE UNEMPLOYMENT AND GHETTO JOB BARRIERS. T APPEAL TO YOU
TONIGHT TO LEND ALL OF YOUR TALENTS TO THE TASK
IS AMERICA DEAF AND BLIND TO THE POWER FOR GOOD THAT
LIES IN THE PRIVATE ENTERPRISE SYSTEM?
OPEN UP THOSE EYES AND EARS. TELL AMERICA HOW SOME
FIRMS ALREADY ARE GOING INTO THE GHETTO WITH MOBILE EMPLOYMENT
OFFICES, PROVIDING COUNSELING SERVICE, MAKING CONTACT WITH
MINORITY GROUPS AND PERSUADING GHETTO YOUTHS TO ACQUIRE
MARKETABLE SKILLS. MUCH MORE CAN BE DONE, MUST BE DONE. AND
THE GOOD WILL MULTIPLY AS THE STORY IS TOLD.
THERE IS A LESSON OF ENLIGHTENED SELF-INTEREST IN THE
CURRENT CHALLENGE, JUST AS THERE WAS IN EARLIER DAYS WHEN
INDUSTRY OPENED ITS FACTORY GATES TO COMMUNITY PROBLEMS AND
FOUND THIS WAS THE BEST OF PUBLIC RELATIONS.
GERALD LIBRARY
-17-
AS GEORGE CHAMPION, BOARD CHAIRMAN OF CHASE
MANHATTAN BANK, HAS POINTED OUT, BUSINESS NEEDS TO ASSURE ITSELI
OF A CONTINUING AND GROWING SUPPLY OF TRAINED MANPOWER TO MEET
BOTH PRESENT AND FUTURE NEEDS. IT THEREFORE IS SIMPLY GOOD
BUSINESS FOR INDUSTRY TO CAST ITSELF IN A MAJOR ROLE AS ON-THE-
JOB TRAINER OF THE UNEMPLOYED AND THE UNDEREMPLOYED.
IF WE UPGRADE OUR WORKERS, WE WILL BE UPGRADING AMERICA
IT NOT ONLY IS GOOD BUSINESS FOR INDUSTRY TO TRAIN
MASSIVE NUMBERS OF WORKERS IN NEEDED SKILLS, IT ALSO IS A
BUILDING BLOCK TOWARD GOOD GOVERNMENT.
ALL AMERICA BENEFITS TO THE EXTENT THAT WE CAN MAKE
TAXPAYERS OF TAX EATERS. ALL AMERICA BENEFITS WHEN WE MAKE
USEFUL CITIZENS OF POTENTIAL RIOTERS.
SOME WOULD ANSWER HOSTILITY WITH HOSTILITY. DOES THIS
HELP? IS THIS THE PATH THAT WILL MOVE AMERICA FORWARD THAT
-18-
WILL PLACE US ON THE ROAD TO TRUE NATIONAL GREATNESS AND
FULLER REALIZATION OF THE AMERICAN DREAM? I THINK NOT. AND
I M SURE YOU DON'T, EITHER.
from it
P M NOT PREACHING SOFTNESS I' M TALKING FIRMNESS--
FIRMNESS IN THE RIGHT, FIRMNESS IN PRESERVING LAW AND ORDER,
AND FIRMNESS IN DOING WHAT IS HEALTHY FOR ALL AMERICANS.
THAT' S WHY WE HAVE TO "TELL IT LIKE IT is," SOMETHING
THE PRESENT ADMINISTRATION HAS NOT BEEN DOING FOR SEVEN LONG
YEARS. THAT'S WHY EVERYONE IN THIS NATION WHO IS IN A
POSITION TO POINT OUT THE RIGHT ROAD TO PROGRESS--ONE AMERICAN
HELPING ANOTHER AND BUSINESS ASSUMING ITS RIGHTFUL BURDEN FOR
NATIONAL ADVANCEMENT--MUST TELL THE STORY SO ALL AMERICANS
WILL TAKE THE RIGHT PATH.
IT DOES NO GOOD TO FUZZ THE FACTS, AS THE VICE-
PRESIDENT DID IN QUARRELING WITH THE KERNER COMMISSION'S
-19-
WARNING ABOUT POLARIZATION OF AMERICA INTO TWO WARRING CAMPS.
LET' S TELL IT LIKE I.T IS--AND WHEN WE DO I FEEL SURE
OUR PEOPLE WILL RESPOND.
AMERICANS ARE A GOOD PEOPLE, A DECENT PEOPLE, A MORAL
PEOPLE. THEY WANT THE TRUTH. AND WHEN THEY HEAR IT THEY
ALWAYS MEASURE UP.
YOUR JOB IS TO GET THE MESSAGE ACROSS. THANK YOU.
-END-
FORD & LIBRARY 95
Distribution. Full 4:00 p.m. 3/7/68
Mailing 3/7/68 evening
M Office Copy
CONGRESSMAN
NEWS
GERALD R. FORD
HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER
RELEASE
--FOR RELEASE AT 6:30 P.M. THURSDAY--
March 7, 1968
AN ADDRESS BY REP. GERALD R. FORD, R-MICH., AT THE VIRGINIA PUBLIC RELATIONS
CONFERENCE, THURSDAY EVENING, MARCH 7, 1968, AT WILLIAMSBURG, VA.
Tonight I am going to do something which could be quite dangerous. I am
going to leave my own field of competence--for a time, at least--and talk with you
about your specialty, public relations.
I think all of you would agree it is difficult to define the term, public
relations. If you dissect it into its simplest form it means of course the
relationship that an individual or company or other entity has with the public.
For many years it was thought that all a company needed to be loved by the
public--or, at least, not to be viewed with distrust--was to hire a public
relations specialist. The job of the PR man was mighty tough if the company
management was insensitive to the public interest. Since that time most business
leaders have come to realize that interest in the communities in which they
operate and an active role in solving the problems of those communities is good
for the company--that this is the best kind of public relations. In that con-
nection, I believe the best kind of public relations specialist is the man or
woman who sells the dubious company president on active participation in community
affairs by company officers and by employees.
If I asked for a vote on the premise I have thus far advanced, I probably
would not hear one dissenting voice. In any case, I won't chance it. I will
just say "so far, so good"--and then tell you that this is not good enough. The
reason I say it is not good enough is that business has a long way to go in
fulfilling its responsibility for helping to solve community problems.
It also is not good enough because the American public is far from sold on
the capability or the desire of business to solve the major problems of this
country.
The upshot is that most Americans look to the Federal Government to remedy
all of this Nation's ills. And this is a major weakness of our society. Now it
is becoming increasingly evident that federal dollars alone will not solve our
problems. And so I take hope that the American people will recognize this fallacy
This is the chief factor in America's continuing inability to solve its
FORD
most vital problems--its total reliance on federal solutions, the tendency of the
LIBRARY
(more)
-2-
American people to look to the federal bureaucracy and to federal dollars for the
answers to all their woes.
This of course sounds like old hat to many Americans who have closed their
ears to it in the past. But the alarm bells are ringing all over America today
and I am hopeful that the people will awake.
The alarm has been sounded by the National Advisory Commission on Civil
Disorders.
We do not all hear the same and we do not all see the same. But the message
from the Commission is unmistakable for all of us. We are headed for a war
between the races in this country unless we act now to move this Nation down a
different road than the one we have been traveling.
I agree with the Commission on Civil Disorders that we have been moving
toward a polarization of the two races, a division of the races into two warring
camps.
This is something which needed saying--and the saying of it is perhaps the
commission's greatest contribution toward solution of the problem.
I say that because the commission has not helped in one very vital area of
concern. The commission in fact has erected barriers to solving problems of
inequality between the races by falling back on the federal government as the
fountainhead from whence all solutions flow.
The primary emphasis in the report is on federal dollars, as though they
were in inexhaustible supply and as though all of our racial problems would vanish
if only Congress appropriated umpteen billions of dollars to deal with them.
For all of the good aspects of the report--and there are many--this is a
serious flaw. There is exaggerated emphasis on the role of the federal government
and insufficient attention paid to the private sector.
Tonight I would like to set the record straight. Certainly the Congress and
the Federal Government must act to help repair the neglect of decades and to help
the disadvantaged become useful, fully competitive citizens. But unless the
business community assumes the leadership in that effort in partnership with
government at all levels, even the most massive injections of federal aid are
doomed to failure.
I submit that America will remain divided against itself as long as the
Nation's top leadership preaches total federal government solutions and as long
as the business community fails to measure up to its responsibility.
I think it is unfortunate that the report by the Commission on Civil
Disorders tended to perpetuate reliance on federal government solutions by in
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-3-
effect endorsing present and proposed Johnson Administration programs. To that
extent, at least, the report was a political document.
It is ironic that the commission continues to preach a pre-eminent federal
government role in the solution of America's social problems and yet makes it
unmistakably clear that only a small fraction of the Nation's needy are being
reached by the federal billions already spent or appropriated.
Is the commission indicting the Johnson Administration in its catalog of
failure or laying the groundwork for greatly expanded demands upon the federal
taxpayer?
To me it reads like a listing of near-hits and mostly misses by the federal
blunderbuss in the hands of the present Administration.
Consider these facts compiled by the Kerner Commission:
Three major riot cities--Detroit, Newark and New Haven--received substantial
federal funds in 1967. Yet most of the programs reached less than half of those
for whom they were intended.
In Detroit, whose Mayor Cavanagh was always in on the ground floor for
federal aid, less than half of the unemployed were helped by the $19.6 million
in federal job-training funds obligated for the first nine months of 1967.
The housing situation in Detroit reveals an even more ineffective result.
Only 758 low-income housing units were built with Federal aid in the last decade.
But since 1960 about 8,000 low-income units have been demolished in the name of
urban renewal.
How much more sense it makes to cut low-priority federal programs and to pump
additional funds into the Republican rent certificates program and to fully fund
the Republican bills to stimulate and expand construction of low-cost housing
under a special program to make home ownership possible for slum families!
How much better we could come to grips with hard-core unemployment and
underemployment in the central cities if tax credits were used to mobilize
industry in a drive to provide meaningful training and jobs with dignity!
The irony in the Kerner Commission's report deepens as the commission
proceeds to recommend that billions upon billions of federal dollars be poured on
top of the billions that have failed to reach the poor under Great Society
programs.
And then the commission quits skirting the mark and comes in on target in
its dissection of the anatomy of the 1967 riots. The pieces fall into place when
the commission describes what they call "the typical rioter."
The typical rioter is a Northern-born teenager or young adult who has had
(more)
-4-
his hopes aroused by all the federal betterment programs and the oratory of
Administration spokesmen--and then has had those hopes dashed. He may have a job
but it is probably menial and temporary. In short, he is underemployed. He is
proud; he is hostile toward both whites and middle-class Negroes and he has no
use for the "system."
How do you reach this typical rioter? How can his basic attitudes, his
hostility, be altered?
I think the answer is one that Republicans have been seeking to impress on
the American people for three long years--an answer that has been smothered under
the Administration's total government solutions until the riots blew the lid off.
The primary answer is jobs. Good-paying jobs. Jobs that require training--
training that only industry can give. Jobs that give a man a stake in our society.
Jobs that give a man pride in himself.
For three years House Republicans have urged that industry be enlisted
through a system of tax credits to train the hard-core unemployed and the under-
employed and place them in good jobs. For three years the Johnson Administration
and the majority party have simply ignored this plea.
As a corollary to this proposed Human Investment Act, House Republicans have
sought to revamp the anti-poverty program with primary emphasis on job training
and job placement through creation of an Industry Youth Corps. This program
offered a direct federal outlay to help pay for job training by industry. It was
aimed right at the ghetto youth now ticketed by the Kerner Commission as the
typical rioter--the young man proud of his race and suspicious of the system,
employed at menial tasks and resenting every minute of it. But the Johnson
Administration and the majority party in the Congress rode roughshod over
Republican attempts to give the anti-poverty program this private industry job
orientation.
Now--and this recommendation by the Commission on Civil Disorders has been
largely overlooked--now the Kerner Commission makes a strong pitch for the
Republican approach.
The Kerner Commission urges that the Federal Government institute a system
of tax incentives to get private industry to hire and train the hard-core
unemployed, give them meaningful jobs and assure them fair opportunity for advance-
ment. If Congress fails to adopt the tax credit approach, the commission declares,
any large-scale jobs program will be badly blunted.
I don't like saying "I told you so," but I must. And I would add that
Congress already is three years behind schedule on voting tax credits for job
(more)
-5-
training and job placement.
All America should know that the Johnson Administration and the majority
party in Congress have consistently and repeatedly blocked every Republican
attempt to lick hard-core unemployment in the ghettoes through tax credits.
I am fully convinced, therefore, that America will continue to fall short
of sound solutions in the area of unemployment and equality of opportunity until
a Congress and a new leadership which thoroughly believe in the free enterprise
system are voted into office.
I do not, of course, subscribe to every recommendation in the Kerner
Commission report. But I believe that every one of the commission proposals which
calls for federal implementation should receive careful consideration by the
Congress.
The challenge that is facing us at home today is one that should stir every
American right down to his toes.
The challenge will not be met--and disaster will engulf us--if the people
of America fail to take the right path in this time of deep crisis.
America will miss the right path unless the business community steps forward
and takes upon itself the major burden of helping disadvantaged individuals in
this country help themselves.
Many business concerns are doing this, but not enough. The story of what is
being done is being told, but the message is buried under an avalanche of White
House messages demanding that more and more billions of federal dollars--all
borrowed dollars with high interest costs--be thrown at our social problems.
The Federal Government has a large role to play in meeting the crisis of the
cities. But that role now is greatly distorted. It should be primarily that of
providing guidance and incentive and guarantees. The government should lure
business out of the wings and onto center stage.
Do some of our business leaders need more than tax incentives to enter the
fray? Let public relations directors and other PR personnel exercise their charm
and employ their powers of persuasion on their bosses. Perhaps public relations
people need to do a selling job on their top management if America is to launch
an all-out attack on hard-core unemployment and ghetto job barriers. I appeal to
you tonight to lend all of your talents to the task.
Is America deaf and blind to the power for good that lies in the private
enterprise system?
Open up those eyes and ears. Tell America how some firms already are going
into the ghetto with mobile employment offices, providing counseling service,
(more)
-6-
making contact with minority groups and persuading ghetto youths to acquire
marketable skills. Much more can be done, must be done. And the good will
multiply as the story is told.
There is a lesson of enlightened self-interest in the current challenge, just
as there was in earlier days when industry opened its factory gates to community
problems and found this was the best of public relations.
As George Champion, board chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank, has pointed out,
business needs to assure itself of a continuing and growing supply of trained
manpower to meet both present and future needs. It therefore is simply good
business for industry to cast itself in a major role as on-the-job trainer of the
unemployed and the underemployed.
If we upgrade our workers, we will be upgrading America.
It not only is good business for industry to train massive numbers of workers
in needed skills, it also is a building block toward good government.
All America benefits to the extent that we can make taxpayers of tax eaters.
All America benefits when we make useful citizens of potential rioters.
Some would answer hostility with hostility. Does this help? Is this the
path that will move America forward, that will place us on the road to true
national greatness and fuller realization of the American dream? I think not,
and I'm sure you don't, either.
I'm not preaching softness; I'm talking firmness--firmness in the right,
firmness in preserving law and order and firmness in doing what is healthy for
all Americans.
That's why we have to "tell it like it is," something the present
Administration has not been doing for seven long years. That's why everyone in
this Nation who is in a position to point out the right road to progress--one
American helping another and business assuming its rightful burden for national
advancement--must tell the story so all Americans will take the right path.
It does no good to fuzz the facts, as the Vice-President did in quarreling
with the Kerner Commission's warning about polarization of America into two
warring camps.
Let's tell it like it is--and when we do I feel sure our people will respond.
Americans are a good people, a decent people, a moral people. They want
the truth. And when they hear it they will measure up.
Your job is to get the message across. Thank you.
###
CONGRESSMAN
NEWS
GERALD R. FORD
HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER
RELEASE
--FOR RELEASE AT 6:30 P.M. THURSDAY--
March 7, 1968
AN ADDRESS BY REP. GERALD R. FORD, R-MICH., AT THE VIRGINIA PUBLIC RELATIONS
CONFERENCE, THURSDAY EVENING, MARCH 7, 1968, AT WILLIAMSBURG, VA.
Tonight I am going to do something which could be quite dangerous. I am
going to leave my own field of competence--for a time, at least--and talk with you
about your specialty, public relations.
I think all of you would agree it is difficult to\define the term, public
relations. If you dissect it into its simplest form it means of course the
relationship that an individual or company or other entity has with the public.
For many years it was thought that all a company needed to be loved by the
public--or, at least, not to be viewed with distrust was to hire a public
relations specialist. The job of the PR man was mighty tough if the company
management was insensitive to the public interest. Since that time most business
leaders have come to realize that interest in the communities in which they
operate and an active role in solving the problems of those communities is good
for the company--that this is the best kind of public relations. In that con-
nection, I believe the best kind of public relations specialist is the man or
woman who sells the dubious company president on active participation in community
affairs by company officers and by employees.
If I asked for a vote on the premise I have thus far advanced, I probably
would not hear one dissenting voice. In any case, I won't chance it. I will
just say "so far, so good"--and then tell you that this is not good enough. The
reason I say it is not good enough is that business has a long way to go in
fulfilling its responsibility for helping to solve community problems.
It also is not good enough because the American public is far from sold on
the capability or the desire of business to solve the major problems of this
country.
The upshot is that most Americans look to the Federal Government to remedy
all of this Nation's ills. And this is a major weakness of our society. Now it
is becoming increasingly evident that federal dollars alone will not solve our
problems. And so I take hope that the American people will recognize this fallacy
This is the chief factor in America's continuing inability to solve its
FORD
most vital problems--its total reliance on federal solutions, the tendency of the
LIBRARY
(more)
-2-
American people to look to the federal bureaucracy and to federal dollars for the
answers to all their woes.
This of course sounds like old hat to many Americans who have closed their
ears to it in the past. But the alarm bells are ringing all over America today
and I am hopeful that the people will awake.
The alarm has been sounded by the National Advisory Commission on Civil
Disorders.
We do not all hear the same and we do not all see the same. But the message
from the Commission is unmistakable for all of us. We are headed for a war
between the races in this country unless we act now to move this Nation down a
different road than the one we have been traveling.
I agree with the Commission on Civil Disorders that we have been moving
toward a polarization of the two races, a division of the races into two warring
camps.
This is something which needed saying--and the saying of it is perhaps the
commission's greatest contribution toward solution of the problem.
I say that because the commission has not helped in one very vital area of
concern. The commission in fact has erected barriers to solving problems of
inequality between the races by falling back on the federal government as the
fountainhead from whence all solutions flow.
The primary emphasis in the report is on federal dollars, as though they
were in inexhaustible supply and as though all of our racial problems would vanish
if only Congress appropriated umpteen billions of dollars to deal with them.
For all of the good aspects of the report--and there are many--this is a
serious flaw. There is exaggerated emphasis on the role of the federal government
and insufficient attention paid to the private sector.
Tonight I would like to set the record straight. Certainly the Congress and
the Federal Government must act to help repair the neglect of decades and to help
the disadvantaged become useful, fully competitive citizens. But unless the
business community assumes the leadership in that effort in partnership with
government at all levels, even the most massive injections of federal aid are
doomed to failure.
I submit that America will remain divided against itself as long as the
Nation's top leadership preaches total federal government solutions and as long
as the business community fails to measure up to its responsibility.
I think it is unfortunate that the report by the Commission on Civil
Disorders tended to perpetuate reliance on federal government solutions by in
(more)
-3-
effect endorsing present and proposed Johnson Administration programs. To that
extent, at least, the report was a political document.
It is ironic that the commission continues to preach a pre-eminent federal
government role in the solution of America's social problems and yet makes it
unmistakably clear that only a small fraction of the Nation's needy are being
reached by the federal billions already spent or appropriated.
Is the commission indicting the Johnson Administration in its catalog of
failure or laying the groundwork for greatly expanded demands upon the federal
taxpayer?
To me it reads like a listing of near-hits and mostly misses by the federal
blunderbuss in the hands of the present Administration.
Consider these facts compiled by the Kerner Commission:
Three major riot cities--Detroit, Newark and New Haven--received substantial
federal funds in 1967. Yet most of the programs reached less than half of those
for whom they were intended.
In Detroit, whose Mayor Cavanagh was always in on the ground floor for
federal aid, less than half of the unemployed were helped by the $19.6 million
in federal job-training funds obligated for the first nine months of 1967.
The housing situation in Detroit reveals an even more ineffective result.
Only 758 low-income housing units were built with Federal aid in the last decade.
But since 1960 about 8,000 low-income units have been demolished in the name of
urban renewal.
How much more sense it makes to cut low-priority federal programs and to pump
additional funds into the Republican rent certificates program and to fully fund
the Republican bills to stimulate and expand construction of low-cost housing
under a special program to make home ownership possible for slum families!
How much better we could come to grips with hard-core unemployment and
underemployment in the central cities if tax credits were used to mobilize
industry in a drive to provide meaningful training and jobs with dignity!
The irony in the Kerner Commission's report deepens as the commission
proceeds to recommend that billions upon billions of federal dollars be poured on
top of the billions that have failed to reach the poor under Great Society
programs.
And then the commission quits skirting the mark and comes in on target in
its dissection of the anatomy of the 1967 riots. The pieces fall into place when
the commission describes what they call "the typical rioter."
The typical rioter is a Northern-born teenager or young adult who has had
(more)
-4-
his hopes aroused by all the federal betterment programs and the oratory of
Administration spokesmen--and then has had those hopes dashed. He may have a job
but it is probably menial and temporary. In short, he is underemployed. He is
proud; he is hostile toward both whites and middle-class Negroes and he has no
use for the "system."
How do you reach this typical rioter? How can his basic attitudes, his
hostility, be altered?
I think the answer is one that Republicans have been seeking to impress on
the American people for three long years--an answer that has been smothered under
the Administration's total government solutions until the riots blew the lid off.
The primary answer is jobs. Good-paying jobs. Jobs that require training--
training that only industry can give. Jobs that give a man a stake in our society.
Jobs that give a man pride in himself.
For three years House Republicans have urged that industry be enlisted
through a system of tax credits to train the hard-core unemployed and the under-
employed and place them in good jobs. For three years the Johnson Administration
and the majority party have simply ignored this plea.
As a corollary to this proposed Human Investment Act, House Republicans have
sought to revamp the anti-poverty program with primary emphasis on job training
and job placement through creation of an Industry Youth Corps. This program
offered a direct federal outlay to help pay for job training by industry. It was
aimed right at the ghetto youth now ticketed by the Kerner Commission as the
typical rioter--the young man proud of his race and suspicious of the system,
employed at menial tasks and resenting every minute of it. But the Johnson
Administration and the majority party in the Congress rode roughshod over
Republican attempts to give the anti-poverty program this private industry job
orientation.
Now--and this recommendation by the Commission on Civil Disorders has been
largely overlooked--now the Kerner Commission makes a strong pitch for the
Republican approach.
The Kerner Commission urges that the Federal Government institute a system
of tax incentives to get private industry to hire and train the hard-core
unemployed, give them meaningful jobs and assure them fair opportunity for advance-
ment. If Congress fails to adopt the tax credit approach, the commission declares,
any large-scale jobs program will be badly blunted.
I don't like saying "I told you so," but I must. And I would add that
Congress already is three years behind schedule on voting tax credits for job
(more)
-5-
training and job placement.
All America should know that the Johnson Administration and the majority
party in Congress have consistently and repeatedly blocked every Republican
attempt to lick hard-core unemployment in the ghettoes through tax credits.
I am fully convinced, therefore, that America will continue to fall short
of sound solutions in the area of unemployment and equality of opportunity until
a Congress and a new leadership which thoroughly believe in the free enterprise
system are voted into office.
I do not, of course, subscribe to every recommendation in the Kerner
Commission report. But I believe that every one of the commission proposals which
calls for federal implementation should receive careful consideration by the
Congress.
The challenge that is facing us at home today is one that should stir every
American right down to his toes.
The challenge will not be met--and disaster will engulf us--if the people
of America fail to take the right path in this time of deep crisis.
America will miss the right path unless the business community steps forward
and takes upon itself the major burden of helping disadvantaged individuals in
this country help themselves.
Many business concerns are doing this, but not enough. The story of what is
being done is being told, but the message is buried under an avalanche of White
House messages demanding that more and more billions of federal dollars--all
borrowed dollars with high interest costs--be thrown at our social problems.
The Federal Government has a large role to play in meeting the crisis of the
cities. But that role now is greatly distorted. It should be primarily that of
providing guidance and incentive and guarantees. The government should lure
business out of the wings and onto center stage.
Do some of our business leaders need more than tax incentives to enter the
fray? Let public relations directors and other PR personnel exercise their charm
and employ their powers of persuasion on their bosses. Perhaps public relations
people need to do a selling job on their top management if America is to launch
an all-out attack on hard-core unemployment and ghetto job barriers. I appeal to
you tonight to lend all of your talents to the task.
Is America deaf and blind to the power for good that lies in the private
enterprise system?
Open up those eyes and ears. Tell America how some firms already are going
into the ghetto with mobile employment offices, providing counseling service,
(more)
-6-
making contact with minority groups and persuading ghetto youths to acquire
marketable skills. Much more can be done, must be done. And the good will
multiply as the story is told.
There is a lesson of enlightened self-interest in the current challenge, just
as there was in earlier days when industry opened its factory gates to community
problems and found this was the best of public relations.
As George Champion, board chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank, has pointed out,
business needs to assure itself of a continuing and growing supply of trained
manpower to meet both present and future needs. It therefore is simply good
business for industry to cast itself in a major role as on-the-job trainer of the
unemployed and the underemployed.
If we upgrade our workers, we will be upgrading America.
It not only is good business for industry to train massive numbers of workers
in needed skills, it also is a building block toward good government.
All America benefits to the extent that we can make taxpayers of tax eaters.
All America benefits when we make useful citizens of potential rioters.
Some would answer hostility with hostility. Does this help? Is this the
path that will move America forward, that will place us on the road to true
national greatness and fuller realization of the American dream? I think not,
and I'm sure you don't, either.
I'm not preaching softness; I'm talking firmness--firmness in the right,
firmness in preserving law and order and firmness in doing what is healthy for
all Americans.
That's why we have to "tell it like it is," something the present
Administration has not been doing for seven long years. That's why everyone in
this Nation who is in a position to point out the right road to progress--one
American helping another and business assuming its rightful burden for national
advancement--must tell the story so all Americans will take the right path.
It does no good to fuzz the facts, as the Vice-President did in quarreling
with the Kerner Commission's warning about polarization of America into two
warring camps.
Let's tell it like it is--and when we do I feel sure our people will respond.
Americans are a good people, a decent people, a moral people. They want
the truth. And when they hear it they will measure up.
Your job is to get the message across. Thank you.
# # #