Ask the Scholar
Document scope · 1 page
Scholar
Ask about this object, its catalog metadata, its source description, or the page inventory.
For page-specific OCR and visual context, open one of the page chats.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
4526099
label
Republican Dinner for Representative James V. Smith, Norman, OK, March 15, 1968
core
doc
dtoType
document
citationUrl
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
4526099
sourceUrl
contentType
document
title
Republican Dinner for Representative James V. Smith, Norman, OK, March 15, 1968
citationUrl
collections
Gerald R. Ford Congressional Papers
Speeches
subjects
Agriculture
iiifBase
thumbnailUrl
largeImageUrl
imageCount
1
hasImages
yes
source
import
hasTranscription
no
Source extras
naId
4526099
coverageEndDate
logicalDate
1968-03-31
month
3
year
1968
coverageStartDate
logicalDate
1968-03-01
month
3
year
1968
levelOfDescription
fileUnit
recordType
description
ocrSource
nara-archive
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
document
url
mediaId
70294847bb4ce449
ocrText
The original documents are located in Box D24, folder "Republican Dinner for
Representative James V. Smith, Norman, OK, March 15, 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States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.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.
Distribution Telephoned to Okla 3/15/68
none here in D.E.
moffice Copy
CONGRESSMAN
NEWS
GERALD R. FORD
HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER
RELEASE
--FOR RELEASE AT 6:30 P.M. FRIDAY--
March 15, 1968
Excerpts from a speech by Rep. Gerald R. Ford, R-Mich., at a Republican Dinner for
Rep. James V. Smith, R-Okla., Friday evening, March 15, 1968, at Norman, Okla.
The farmer should be the angriest man in America today.
The farmer should be angry because he is a prime victim of Johnson-Freeman
Administration inflation.
He should be angry because he is caught in a vicious Johnson-Freeman cost-price
squeeze.
He should be angry because Lyndon Johnson wants to freeze him into the farm
cost-price squeeze status quo.
Republicans are opposed to Lyndon Johnson's status quo.
Lyndon Johnson's Agriculture Department has predicted that American farmers
will be worse off at the end of 1968 than they are today.
Today a comparison of prices the farmer receives for his product and the
prices he pays for his supplies tags him as a "leftout" in terms of a fair return
for his labors. His income brings him only 74 per cent of parity--and that means
he is being cheated.
This is what is happening under present farm policy, and yet Lyndon Johnson
and Orville Freeman want to make the present farm program permanent.
To use Lyndon Johnson's favorite phrase, he and Orville Freeman are saying
"Let us continue" the policies that would continue farmer income at only 74 per
cent of parity. I want a better program; I want full parity of income for farmers.
The farmer needs more bargaining power if he is to have more purchasing
power. Lyndon Johnson has asked the Congress to study the possibility of a
Bargaining Act for Agriculture. I hope Congress will implement such legislation,
not merely study it.
There are proposals before the Congress to create a National Food Bank--a
strategic reserve of wheat, feed grains and soybeans. If such a reserve is
established, Congress must make certain it will never be used for the kind of
commodity-dumping engaged in by the Johnson-Humphrey Administration in 1966 when
they drove down farm prices and made the farmer the scapegoat of inflation.
I believe only a new Administration, a Republican Administration, will provide
the American farmer with the parity of opportunity he deserves and will so
administer our farm programs as to provide the farmer with the full benefits of
GERALD R.FORD LIBRAR,
those programs.
***
Digitized from Box D22 of The Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
-2-
Let's face it; America is in a mess. Everywhere you look you see the tragic
results produced by an Administration which has failed to perform on its promises
and has created a crisis of confidence among the American people by putting the best
possible face on its catastrophic mistakes.
Look at what is happening in South Vietnam, where the Johnson-Humphrey
Administration has bogged this Nation down in a massive land war that Lyndon
Johnson doesn't know how to end.
In Latin America the Administration's Alliance for Progress has produced
little more than a standstill and, in some cases, foreign aid scandals.
In the Middle East the Johnson-Humphrey Administration has twiddled its
thumbs while the Soviet Union has rearmed the Arab nations and extended Soviet
influence in that strategic portion of the world.
In Europe, the Johnson-Humphrey Administration has allowed a sundering of
the once-strong ties that bound the NATO nations together and has followed a
policy marked by drift and indecision.
America has suffered one humiliation after another under the Johnson-Humphrey
Administration. Look at the record and compare it with that of President Eisenhower.
Today we are at war in Vietnam. Not seven years agó!
Today serious trouble brews in the Middle East. Not seven years ago!
Today violent civil disorders ravage our cities. Not seven years ago!
Today Communists steal our ships. Not seven years ago!
Today we approach runaway inflation. Not seven years ago!
Today we have the Bobby Bakers, the Tom Dodds and the Adam Clayton Powells
and on and on. Not seven years ago!
Today the dollar is going down the drain both at home and abroad. Not seven
years ago!
Today the national crime rate keeps going up and up and up. Not seven years ago!
Today we have lost the respect America had throughout the world. Not seven
years ago!
The Democratic Party has failed the American people on almost every one of
the basic promises it made in 1960 and 1964.
The Democratic Party has failed the young men who were promised they would
never be sent to Vietnam to do the job Asian boys should be doing.
The Democratic Party has failed the farmer who was promised his fair share of
the fruits of our economy.
The Democratic Party has failed the consumer who was promised price stability.
The Democratic Party has failed the worker who was promised increased purchas-
ing power.
The American people are crying out for new leadership. Republicans will
meet the challenge and clean up the mess.
# # #