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
4526128
label
Republican Dinner, Houston, TX, May 24, 1968
core
doc
dtoType
document
citationUrl
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
4526128
sourceUrl
contentType
document
title
Republican Dinner, Houston, TX, May 24, 1968
citationUrl
collections
Gerald R. Ford Congressional Papers
Speeches
subjects
Crime
Economics
Federal budget
Legislation
iiifBase
thumbnailUrl
largeImageUrl
imageCount
1
hasImages
yes
source
import
hasTranscription
no
Source extras
naId
4526128
coverageEndDate
logicalDate
1968-05-31
month
5
year
1968
coverageStartDate
logicalDate
1968-05-01
month
5
year
1968
levelOfDescription
fileUnit
recordType
description
ocrSource
nara-archive
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
document
url
mediaId
6ef9ea2f945c572e
ocrText
The original documents are located in Box D24, folder "Republican Dinner, Houston, TX,
May 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States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.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 D24 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 RELEASE AT 6:30 P.M. FRIDAY--
May 24, 1968
Excerpts from a Speech by Rep. Gerald R. Ford, R-Mich., House Minority Leader,
at a Republican Dinner Friday evening, May 24, 1968, at Houston, Texas.
America is suffering through a crisis of violence today--growing violence
that takes the form of a steadily rising wave of crime, burning and pillaging that
have wrecked parts of more than 100 of our cities, and destructive revolutionary
activity by student activists on the campuses of some of our universities.
Law-abiding Americans--people who respect the law and believe change should
come through peaceful means--are wondering what is happening and what can be done
to halt the destruction and disorder.
We all want to build a better society in America. We can build a better
society only if we have a lawful society.
This means that every law enforcement agency in the land--federal, state and
local--must make it unmistakably clear to every would-be law-breaker that he will
be brought to justice and will be punished whether his crime is car theft or armed
robbery, arson or looting during a central city riot, or seizure of a university
building.
At the same time, government at all levels in partnership with business,
industry and the rest of the private sector, must launch a new and massive assault
on the social problems which have defied the efforts of Washington bureaucrats
dispensing billions of federal tax dollars.
There will be a national crackdown on crime in this country despite the
resistance of misguided liberals who are so excessively concerned with the rights
of the accused that they sin against the injured.
The clear-headed individual--be he a liberal or a conservative--recognizes
that government must provide security for the law-abiding American and his
property--and that failure to do this endangers the rights and liberties of us all.
We have had just this kind of failure under the Johnson-Humphrey Administra-
tion, and that is why all law-abiding Americans are in danger today both as
to
their persons and their property, their families, homes and business.
What have Republicans been doing to halt the crime wave? Despite the limi-
tations on the minority party in the Congress, we shaped a National Law Enforcement
(more)
-2-
Assistance Act which passed the House last August 8 and is now nearing final enact-
ment. We sponsored and won passage by the House of an Anti-Riot Act on July 19,
1967, which became law last April 10 only after President Johnson finally embraced
it. We initiated legislation which will enable federal agents for the first time to
go in hot pursuit of loan sharks with crime syndicate stripes--and this legislation
has just passed both houses of the Congress.
The facts are plain. Republicans have moved on anti-crime legislation in the
Congress. The Johnson-Humphrey Administration and mistaken liberals have dragged
their heels and fought us--fought us because we are determined to get really tough
with law-breakers in this country. We must have law and order in America--with
justice--and we're going to get it.
The crisis of violence plagues us at the same time that a financial crisis
of great dimensions threatens us.
Like the crime crisis, the financial crisis has been building up due to
Johnson-Humphrey Administration inaction.
The dollar crisis had its start in 1966 when President Johnson and the huge
Democratic majority in the Congress refused to practice restraint in domestic
federal spending despite repeated Republican pleas and votes in the Congress for
economy.
Now we are paying the price for the fiscal excesses and neglect of the
Johnson-Humphrey Administration and the Democratic majority in Congress. We are
paying the price in a steady increase in the cost of living and an inflationary
spiral that has settled into the dangerous pattern of a price rise followed by a
wage increase followed by a price rise.
Republicans have sought to hold down federal spending. The Johnson-Humphrey
Administration demands a 10 per cent increase in income tax bills. And let me
emphasize right now that if there is a tax increase it will be one that the Johnson-
Humphrey Administration forced on US.
The Johnson-Humphrey Administration is spending the Nation into a $20-billion-
plus deficit this fiscal year--and there will be a deficit of $25 to $30 billion
next year unless we act. So we must act, and Congress's tax writers have put
together a package containing the President's tax increase, a cut of $6 billion in
fiscal 1969 spending, and cuts in future spending authority.
But the whole package is endangered because the Johnson-Humphrey Administra-
tion doesn't want the $6 billion cut. In fact, some Administration officials have
launched a scare campaign against it. Let's get the truth out in the open. The
President wants a tax increase but no spending cuts. He wants to follow the old
New Deal formula in this election year: Tax and tax, spend and spend, elect and
elect. He is inviting financial disaster.
###
M Office Copy
CONGRESSMAN
NEWS
GERALD R. FORD
HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER
RELEASE
--FOR RELEASE AT 6:30 P.M. FRIDAY--
May 24, 1968
Excerpts from a Speech by Rep. Gerald R. Ford, R-Mich., House Minority Leader,
at a Republican Dinner Friday evening, May 24, 1968, at Houston, Texas.
America is suffering through a crisis of violence today--growing violence
that takes the form of a steadily rising wave of crime, burning and pillaging that
have wrecked parts of more than 100 of our cities, and destructive revolutionary
activity by student activists on the campuses of some of our universities.
Law-abiding Americans--people who respect the law and believe change should
come through peaceful means--are wondering what is happening and what can be done
to halt the destruction and disorder.
We all want to build a better society in America. We can build a better
society only if we have a lawful society.
This means that every law enforcement agency in the land--federal, state and
local--must make it unmistakably clear to every would-be law-breaker that he will
be brought to justice and will be punished whether his crime is car theft or armed
robbery, arson or looting during a central city riot, or seizure of a university
building.
At the same time, government at all levels in partnership with business,
industry and the rest of the private sector, must launch a new and massive assault
on the social problems which have defied the efforts of Washington bureaucrats
dispensing billions of federal tax dollars.
There will be a national crackdown on crime in this country despite the
resistance of misguided liberals who are so excessively concerned with the rights
of the accused that they sin against the injured.
The clear-headed individual--be he a liberal or a conservative--recognizes
that government must provide security for the law-abiding American and his
property--and that failure to do this endangers the rights and liberties of us all.
We have had just this kind of failure under the Johnson-Humphrey Administra-
tion, and that is why all law-abiding Americans are in danger today both as to
their persons and their property, their families, homes and business.
What have Republicans been doing to halt the crime wave? Despite the limi-
tations on the minority party in the Congress, we shaped a National Law Enforcement
(more)
--2-
Assistance Act which passed the House last August 8 and is now nearing final enact-
ment. We sponsored and won passage by the House of an Anti-Riot Act on July 19,
1967, which became law last April 10 only after President Johnson finally embraced
it. We initiated legislation which will enable federal agents for the first time to
go in hot pursuit of loan sharks with crime syndicate stripes--and this legislation
has just passed both houses of the Congress.
The facts are plain. Republicans have moved on anti-crime legislation in the
Congress. The Johnson-Humphrey Administration and mistaken liberals have dragged
their heels and fought us--fought us because we are determined to get really tough
with law-breakers in this country. We must have law and order in America--with
justice--and we're going to get it.
The crisis of violence plagues us at the same time that a financial crisis
of great dimensions threatens US.
Like the crime crisis, the financial crisis has been building up due to
Johnson-Humphrey Administration inaction.
The dollar crisis had its start in 1966 when President Johnson and the huge
Democratic majority in the Congress refused to practice restraint in domestic
federal spending despite repeated Republican pleas and votes in the Congress for
economy.
Now we are paying the price for the fiscal excesses and neglect of the
Johnson-Humphrey Administration and the Democratic majority in Congress. We are
paying the price in a steady increase in the cost of living and an inflationary
spiral that has settled into the dangerous pattern of a price rise followed by a
wage increase followed by a price rise.
Republicans have sought to hold down federal spending. The Johnson-Humphrey
Administration demands a 10 per cent increase in income tax bills. And let me
emphasize right now that if there is a tax increase it will be one that the Johnson-
Humphrey Administration forced on US.
The Johnson-Humphrey Administration is spending the Nation into a $20-billion-
plus deficit this fiscal year--and there will be a deficit of $25 to $30 billion
next year unless we act. So we must act, and Congress's tax writers have put
together a package containing the President's tax increase, a cut of $6 billion in
fiscal 1969 spending, and cuts in future spending authority.
But the whole package is endangered because the Johnson-Humphrey Administra-
tion doesn't want the $6 billion cut. In fact, some Administration officials have
launched a scare campaign against it. Let's get the truth out in the open. The
President wants a tax increase but no spending cuts. He wants to follow the old
New Deal formula in this election year: Tax and tax, spend and spend, elect and
elect. He is inviting financial disaster.
# # #