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Silver Bay Human Relations Conference, Lake George, NY, July 16, 1970
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The original documents are located in Box D30, folder "Silver Bay Human Relations
Conference, Lake George, NY, July 16, 1970" 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States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.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 D30 of The Ford Congressional Papers:
Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
AN A DDRESS BY REP. GERALD R.
FORD, R-MICH., REPUBLICAN LEADER,
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
AT THE OPENING OF THE
"
WIN DOW ON THE WORLD IE CTURE SERIES
SPONSORED BY THE KITTERING ROTARY
CLUB, 8 P.M. WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 23,x19
1970, AT DAYTON, OHIO. Tain
FOR RELEASE ON DELIVERY
FOR
RELEASE
"NEW DIRECTIONS
FOR THE SEVENTIES
But
for
the
brought
GERALD R. FORD LIBRARY the
Many
Look
Copy to Lake George only
M Office Copy
AN ADDRESS BY REP. GERALD R. FORD, R-MICH.
REPUBLICAN LEADER, U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
BEFORE THE SILVER BAY HUMAN RELATIONS CONFERENCE
AT LAKE GEORGE, NEW YORK
8:00 P.M. THURSDAY, JULY 16, 1970
FOR RELEASE ON DELIVERY
Every decade is a mixture of good and bad, and the Sixties were no
exception.
last
But for all the good that the Sixties produced, the ten years just passed
brought us an overabundance of misery and grief.
Many of us look back upon the decade of the Sixties with a tremendous sense
of relief at having put it behind us.
What do we remember most vividly about the decade of the Sixties?
It was, of course, the decade that put Americans on the moon but it was
also an Age of Assassination and an Age of Anarchy.
We saw major American cities being put to the torch and witnessed the
outbreak of convulsive violence in the Nation's ghettoes and the beginnings of
the current unrest on our college campuses.
The Sixties also brought the agony of Vietnam, when an America victimized
by violence at home crept uncomprehendingly into the quicksand of a jungle war
halfway 'round the world.
And as we lived through the decade of the Sixties, it became apparent that
the era of the New Deal had come to an end as clearly and as finally as though
someone had drawn the curtain on it.
With the demise of the New Deal came the realization that America must
move in New Directions in the Seventies, must cut new paths through the jungle
of problems that clogged the way to a quality life for our people.
This was the condition of America when its people elected a new President
in November 1968.
This was the America that cried out for new leadership when Richard Nixon
entered the White House in January 1969.
I foresaw the advent of an age of reform in America when Richard Nixon took
office.
(more)
-2-
Reform was the path to be followed. Reform was indeed thrusting itself
upon the new President and upon the Nation. And thus it was that reform became the
watchword of the new Administration.
The new Administration took stock and charted a new course. This new
course is a comprehensive strategy for attacking the most critical problems facing
this country.
The major goals of this comprehensive strategy strike directly at the roots
of the underlying crises in our Nation.
The strategy is aimed at five objectives: Ending the war; ending poverty;
making the streets safe again for the American people; reforming and ultimately
ending the draft; and giving the government back to the people.
If the Nixon Administration succeeds in achieving these objectives -- and
draft reform has been partially achieved -- I believe historians will give the
Nixon Administration a high achievement score. And if this Congress responds with
action before the end of its second session, its mark on history will be one of
the finest.
The reforms that President Nixon has proposed are manifold. He has sent
more than 40 messages to the Congress. Those messages are related to the objectives
I have just outlined and to others as well.
The top priority is, of course, to end the war in Vietnam.
President Nixon is moving vigorously to end the American role in Vietnam
and, hopefully, to end the war. He is winding down the war and is doing everything
he reasonably can to achieve a breakthrough at the peace table.
With the peace negotiations stuck on dead center because of enemy
intransigence, "Vietnamization" has become the key to disengaging the United
States from the Vietnam War. Gradually but surely we are turning the war over
to the South Vietnamese, where it belongs. Our plans are to turn the entire
combat role in Vietnam over to the South Vietnamese next by
We certainly cannot stay in South Vietnam forever. If the Saigon government
is to stand, it must learn to stand alone.
Under the present Administration we began taking troops out of Vietnam
instead of adding to our numbers there. Recently the President announced
withdrawal of an additional 150,000 men as we move steadily toward the goal of
removing all of our ground combat forces from Vietnam.
It came as a shock to many Americans, I know, when the President just
10 days after his Vietnam troop withdrawal announcement revealed that he had
(INSERT)
It's true one policy of Vicinemisation involved the ability of the
North Vie trumese to frustrate the plan. This is why the United States was forced
to make a sweep of the Communist sanctuaries in Cambodia even while a policy of
winding down the war was being followed in Vietnam itself.
The fighting in South Vietnam now has dropped to a very low level. American
casualties are at the lowest point in 32 years. We have withdrawn 115,000 men from
Vietnam and will withdraw another 150,000 by next spring. We will have ended our
front-line ground combat role in Vietnam by next spring.
Vietnamisation is not just a word. Those who wanted us to pull out
immediately have been proved MMX wrong even while they EN continue their calls for
"peace now and never mind the price."
The Cambodian@ Operation was a tremendous success despite the domestic furor
it caused. The Communists lost vast stores of supplies, a fact which is reflected
in the current low level of fighting in Vietnam. And now the Communists see a
marchalling of South Vistnamese, Cambodian and Thai forces to msist the reestablishment
of Communist sanctuaries in Cambodia while U.S. air power continues to interdict their
supply routes.
Events in Cambodia have not widened the war. It has been an Indochina War
ever since the North Vistnamese violated the neutrality of Laos
and Cambodia to pursue their designs on South Vietnam. What has been widened is the
commitment of the people of Cambodia and Thailand to resist a threat to their own
security which had been tolerated too long.
Now we must place new and fresh emphasis on attempts to gain a negotiated
peace in Vistnam.
Perhaps a cease-fire and stand-down is the best beginning point,
as proposed by a bipartism group of 14 senators. I would like to $ 00 the killing
end and the talking beginning in real earnest. Butte let us be realistic about any
cease-fire agreement entered the into with an enemy whose
word meansix nothing. We have seen what has happensied in the Mideast--how the
Egyptians and Russians took advantage of the M cease-fire with Extandx Israel to build
more surface-to-air missile sites closer to the Sues Canal. We must * theref
make certain that in any standstill unxxuf cease-fire in Vietnam there is are
adequate guarantees that the cease-fire will not be used to the enemy's advantage.
The enemy could use the cease-fire to achieve military gains unless sufficient
supervision is written into the cease-fire agreement. The cease-fire must be the
simply a pause
signal for serious discussions in Paris -not which permits the enemy
to strengthen himself
for renewed and heavier conflict
and hearier conflicts in the months ahead.
-3-
ordered a sweep of the Communist sanctuaries in Cambodia. To some, this indicated
a wider war and they rose up in frenzied protest. But to others, including me,
the President's action was a brilliant move aimed at assuring gradual thelwithdrawal of
our combat forces from South Vietnam Alle and perhaps accelerat-
ing that withdrawal.
was
I personally believe the Cambodian Operation an enormous success,
judging by the huge caches of munitions and supplies we and the South Vietnamese
captured. All of this captured ammunition is ammunition that cannot be fired at
us and our allies in Vietnam.
I believe the President's Cambodian decision save lives, and
perhaps
shorten the war.
And let me emphasize that the President did not send U.S. troops into
Cambodia to save the new Lon Nol regime, although we have reason to favor keeping
that new government in power. He sent our troops into Cambodia because an
opportunity presented itself to deal the North Vietnamese a tremendous setback in
the Vietnam War.
The majority of the American people want a sound, not a phony, settlement
of the Vietnam War. I want a settlement that will discourage further Communist
aggression, whether it is in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, the Pacific, or
in Europe.
Despite the stubbornness of the Communists in Vietnam, I am fully convinced
President Nixon will succeed in inaugurating an era of negotiation in place of an
era of confrontation. The President's appointment of Ambassador David .Bruce
as our chief negotiator at Paris may ultimately the break the impasse which exists in the
Vietnam talks.
President Nixon has taken many steps toward world peace. He has taken the
United States out of the field of germ warfare and the first use of gases. He has
made the United States a signatory to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. He has
initiated renewed talks in Warsaw with Communist China. He has formulated judicious
policies governing arms support and political constraints in the Middle East
(and has achieved a cease- fire there.
He has carefully evaluated the expressed intentions versus demonstrated actions of
the Soviet Union in mutual arms reductions agreements. He has laid the groundwork
for possible results in the SALT talks.
We are now in the midst of strategic arms limitation talks with the Russians,
and President Nixon has set forth a new foreign policy. That new foreign policy
is innovative, flexible and adaptable. Basically, it is attuned to the
(more)
& LIBRARY GERALD
:
4-
nationalistic and regional interests of Free World and Communist countries.
President Nixon no longer sees the Communist world as a monolithic enemy
alliance but as a group of nations whose common ideology is transcended by powerful
nationalistic aspirations. In line with that view, the President is adapting
United States policy to those nationalistic interests.
This new concept of U.S. foreign policy also is reflected in the new Nixon
Doctrine for Asia -- the "do-it-yourself policy" which Mr. Nixon has laid down for
the nations of Southeast Asia. This is a policy which declares to Americans and
to all the world that there will be no more Vietnams.
Under President Nixon, we have seized the initiative in foreign affairs
even in the face of Communist aggression. We have proclaimed and promoted
doctrines of international law and justice which have given the United States a
new and lofty standing in the court of world opinion.
Domestically, the Nixon Administration has launched a strong crackdown
against organized crime. The New Jersey indictments and recent nationwide
drug raid are only a beginning.
The President last year sent Congress legislation which would deal heavier
blows against organized crime and would improve the Nation's court system.
There has been special emphasis on law enforcement in each of the
Administration's anticrime measures. The President wants criminals off the streets.
He knows there is no surer way to get them off the streets than to help build up
law enforcement in this country.
The Nixon Administration has made the fight against crime one of its
central concerns. While some departmental budgets have been cut in a hold-down
on Federal spending, the Justice Department budget has been increased. The level
of law enforcement activity and narcotics control has been stepped up.
The Nixon Administration recognizes, as do all of you, that the first
civil right of every American -- black or white -- is the right to protection from
crime and violence.
I wish more of our Negro leaders throughout America would recognize that.
It is an unfortunate fact that it is primarily the poor blacks who are the victims
of violent crime in our country. All of our Negro leaders might well emulate
Sterling Tucker, vice-chairman of the Washington, D.C., City Council, who has
spoken out in support of vigorous law enforcement and has condemned those who
tacitly condone violations of the law.
(more)
BERALD FORD LIBRAR)
-5-
It is said there can be no progress without order. I subscribe to that.
I would add that there cannot long be order without progress. I believe
the Nixon Administration is promoting the kind of order and the kind of progress
which will operate together to move this country forward.
We need a responsible common-sense approach to ending poverty in America.
The primary Nixon answer to poverty and the urban crisis is job training.
The accent is on the solid American ethic of working for a living. The President's
approach is based on the idea that a man never stands so tall as when he stands
on his own two feet.
This is why President Nixon has proposed the first major reform of this
country's welfare system since it first was established. This is why the President
urges Workfare instead of Welfare. This is the way of dignity and decency. This
is the American way. A hand up instead of a handout. That's the only way to
bridge the gap between the Haves and Have-Nots in America. welfare reform has
passad the I House. think President of Nixon now pending has managed to in bring The order Sanate. to
this country. He has
managed to do so because he has brought order to the Presidency. We now find
that the days of government by crisis have given way to crisis prevention. The
scatter-gun approach is yielding to an assembling of new priorities.
We have accomplished draft reform by instituting a lottery system and we
are headed toward an end to the draft. Welfare reform has passed the House.
But
these are just two among the great array of reforms proposed by President Nixon--
reforms which I believe the American people have long wanted.
have achieved
We urgently seed postal reform -- the creation of a postal authority to
modernize our postal delivery system and run it efficiently and to remove the sticky
stain of politics from our postal operations. Final congressional action on postal
reform now appears imminent.
There are many Administration reforms that cry out for congressional
action: The President's strengthened and broadened anti-crime program; a
consolidation of manpower training programs, to be turned over to the states and
cities as they become equipped to handle them; a reexamination of Federal aid to
schools to achieve quality education; revamping our labor laws for improved handling
of national emergency labor disputes in transportation; the President's 37-point
program directed at air and water pollution and the need to expand recreational
land use; a New Federalism which provides an increasing slice of Federal income
tax revenue to cities and states on a percentage, no-strings-attached basis; a
decentralization of government authority which places greater reliance on local
(more)
FORD & LIBRARY GERALD
6-
officials and greater power in the hands of the people.
Decentralization of government authority -- flow of power back to the cities
and states, back to the people. This is a central theme of the Nixon Administration.
Power concentrated in Washington is not always effective power. It is some-
times self-defeating. The Federal bureaucracy is most complex, and it feeds upon
itself. As it grows larger, the Federal Government's ability to help solve local
problems often grows less. That is why we want to expand the city and state role
in problem-solving, apart from philosophical considerations.
That is why the Administration proposes reversing the flow of power -- turning
it back to the cities and states. That is why President Nixon wants to share
Federal income tax revenue with the states and cities. He wants to implement a
basic change which I believe the American people fervently desire.
President Nixon has made his reform theme clear. He has said: "The
legislative program of this Administration differs fundamentally from previous
administrations. We do not seek more and more of the same. We were not elected
to pile new resources and manpower on top of old programs. We were elected to
initiate an era of change."
Much change has already come about. We have acted to reorder our priorities.
Defense spending has been reduced in the President's fiscal 1971 budget to 36.7 per
cent. At the same time the President has increased human resource outlays to 41 per
cent. As the President noted in his budget message, this is the first time in
20 years -- the first time in two whole decades -- that a Federal budget has provided
more funds for human resources than for defense.
That is why I see America moving in New Directions, moving along paths that
will make the Seventies a decade that will bring new quality to American life.
I see the Seventies as a decade devoted to human betterment.
I see the American people adopting goals more difficult to reach than the
moon: Rebuilding our cities. Cleaning up the Nation's water and air. Retraining
the unskilled so that every American willing and able to master a skill is permitted
to do SO. Building vast mass transit systems. Making our airways safe and equip-
ping our airports to handle the jumbo jets now taking to the skies. Eliminating
poverty by 1980 -- literally erasing it instead of just talking about it. Ending
hunger in America -- and soon.
We will be fighting not only the problems of the cities but the problems of
all Americans. It won't be easy. But we will win more battles than we will lose.
(more)
-7-
We will see the forward march of positive programs aimed at providing jobs,
housing, quality education and first-rate medical care.
The Nation will marshal a concerted attack upon crime -- particularly the
drug and narcotics traffic, organized crime and juvenile deliquency.
I see the fight for clean water swelling into a crusade -- a crusade joined
in by young and older Americans alike. The assault weapon may well be President
Nixon's $10 billion do-it-now, pay-later bonding program. This is a crusade that
will gather great force.
We are generating the commitment and the climate for action now.
Peace is part of that climate. Peace will come. It will come as a product
of the President's do-it-yourself foreign policy. It will come because our course
is unselfishly right.
The Seventies will see breathtaking progress in America and, hopefully, the
changes needed to cleanse our Nation both in body and in soul.
# # #
Copy to Lake George only
O Office Copy
AN ADDRESS BY REP. GERALD R. FORD, R-MICH.
REPUBLICAN LEADER, U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
BEFORE THE SILVER BAY HUMAN RELATIONS CONFERENCE
AT LAKE GEORGE, NEW YORK
8:00 P.M. THURSDAY, JULY 16, 1970
FOR RELEASE ON DELIVERY
Every decade is a mixture of good and bad, and the Sixties were no
exception.
But for all the good that the Sixties produced, the ten years just passed
brought us an overabundance of misery and grief.
Many of us look back upon the decade of the Sixties with a tremendous sense
of relief at having put it behind us.
What do we remember most vividly about the decade of the Sixties?
It was, of course, the decade that put Americans on the moon -- but it was
also an Age of Assassination and an Age of Anarchy.
We saw major American cities being put to the torch and witnessed the
outbreak of convulsive violence in the Nation's ghettoes and the beginnings of
the current unrest on our college campuses.
The Sixties also brought the agony of Vietnam, when an America victimized
by violence at home crept uncomprehendingly into the quicksand of a jungle war
halfway 'round the world.
And as we lived through the decade of the Sixties, it became apparent that
the era of the New Deal had come to an end -- as clearly and as finally as though
someone had drawn the curtain on it.
With the demise of the New Deal came the realization that America must
move in New Directions in the Seventies, must cut new paths through the jungle
of problems that clogged the way to a quality life for our people.
This was the condition of America when its people elected a new President
in November 1968.
This was the America that cried out for new leadership when Richard Nixon
entered the White House in January 1969.
I foresaw the advent of an age of reform in America when Richard Nixon took
office.
(more)
GERALD FORD LIBRARY
-2-
Reform was the path to be followed. Reform was indeed thrusting itself
upon the new President and upon the Nation. And thus it was that reform became the
watchword of the new Administration.
The new Administration took stock and charted a new course. This new
course is a comprehensive strategy for attacking the most critical problems facing
this country.
The major goals of this comprehensive strategy strike directly at the roots
of the underlying crises in our Nation.
The strategy is aimed at five objectives: Ending the war; ending poverty;
making the streets safe again for the American people; reforming and ultimately
ending the draft; and giving the government back to the people.
If the Nixon Administration succeeds in achieving these objectives -- and
draft reform has been partially achieved I believe historians will give the
Nixon Administration a high achievement score. And if this Congress responds with
action before the end of its second session, its mark on history will be one of
the finest.
The reforms that President Nixon has proposed are manifold. He has sent
more than 40 messages to the Congress. Those messages are related to the objectives
I have just outlined and to others as well.
The top priority is, of course, to end the war in Vietnam.
President Nixon is moving vigorously to end the American role in Vietnam
and, hopefully, to end the war. He is winding down the war and is doing everything
he reasonably can to achieve a breakthrough at the peace table.
With the peace negotiations stuck on dead center because of enemy
intransigence, "Vietnamization" has become the key to disengaging the United
States from the Vietnam War. Gradually but surely we are turning the war over
to the South Vietnamese, where it belongs. Our plans are to turn the entire
combat role in Vietnam over to the South Vietnamese by July 1, 1971.
We certainly cannot stay in South Vietnam forever. If the Saigon government
is to stand, it must learn to stand alone.
Under the present Administration we began taking troops out of Vietnam
instead of adding to our numbers there. Recently the President announced
withdrawal of an additional 150,000 men as we move steadily toward the goal of
removing all of our ground combat forces from Vietnam.
It came as a shock to many Americans, I know, when the President just
10 days after his Vietnam troop withdrawal announcement revealed that he had
GERALD FORD LIBRARY
(more)
-3-
ordered a sweep of the Communist sanctuaries in Cambodia. To some, this indicated
a wider war and they rose up in frenzied protest. But to others, including me,
the President's action was a brilliant move aimed at assuring the withdrawal of
our combat forces from South Vietnam over the next 12 months and perhaps accelerat-
ing that withdrawal.
was
I personally believe the Cambodian Operation an enormous success,
judging by the huge caches of munitions and supplies we and the South Vietnamese
captured. All of this captured ammunition is ammunition that cannot be fired at
us and our allies in Vietnam.
I believe the President's Cambodian decision will not only save lives, it
will shorten the war.
And let me emphasize that the President did not send U.S. troops into
Cambodia to save the new Lon Nol regime, although we have reason to favor keeping
that new government in power. He sent our troops into Cambodia because an
opportunity presented itself to deal the North Vietnamese a tremendous setback in
the Vietnam War.
The majority of the American people want a sound, not a phony, settlement
of the Vietnam War. I want a settlement that will discourage further Communist
aggression, whether it is in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, the Pacific, or
in Europe.
Despite the stubbornness of the Communists in Vietnam, I am fully convinced
President Nixon will succeed in inaugurating an era of negotiation in place of an
era of confrontation. The President's appointment of Ambassador David K.EBruce
as our chief negotiator at Paris may now break the impasse which exists in the
Vietnam talks.
President Nixon has taken many steps toward world peace. He has taken the
United States out of the field of germ warfare and the first use of gases. He has
made the United States a signatory to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. He has
initiated renewed talks in Warsaw with Communist China. He has formulated judicious
policies governing arms support and political constraints in the Middle East crisis.
He has carefully evaluated the expressed intentions versus demonstrated actions of
the Soviet Union in mutual arms reductions agreements. He has laid the groundwork
for possible results in the SALT talks.
We are now in the midst of strategic arms limitation talks with the Russians,
and President Nixon has set forth a new foreign policy. That new foreign policy
is innovative, flexible and adaptable. Basically, it is attuned to the
GERALD FORD LIBRARY
(more)
-4-
nationalistic and regional interests of Free World and Communist countries.
President Nixon no longer sees the Communist world as a monolithic enemy
alliance but as a group of nations whose common ideology is transcended by powerful
nationalistic aspirations. In line with that view, the President is adapting
United States policy to those nationalistic interests.
This new concept of U.S. foreign policy also is reflected in the new Nixon
Doctrine for Asia -- the "do-it-yourself policy" which Mr. Nixon has laid down for
the nations of Southeast Asia. This is a policy which declares to Americans and
to all the world that there will be no more Vietnams.
Under President Nixon, we have seized the initiative in foreign affairs
even in the face of Communist aggression. We have proclaimed and promoted
doctrines of international law and justice which have given the United States a
new and lofty standing in the court of world opinion.
Domestically, the Nixon Administration has launched a strong crackdown
against organized crime. The New Jersey indictments and the recent nationwide
drug raid are only a beginning.
The President last year sent Congress legislation which would deal heavier
blows against organized crime and would improve the Nation's court system.
There has been special emphasis on law enforcement in each of the
Administration's anticrime measures. The President wants criminals off the streets.
He knows there is no surer way to get them off the streets than to help build up
law enforcement in this country.
The Nixon Administration has made the fight against crime one of its
central concerns. While some departmental budgets have been cut in a hold-down
on Federal spending, the Justice Department budget has been increased. The level
of law enforcement activity and narcotics control has been stepped up.
The Nixon Administration recognizes, as do all of you, that the first
civil right of every American - black or white -- is the right to protection from
crime and violence.
I wish more of our Negro leaders throughout America would recognize that.
It is an unfortunate fact that it is primarily the poor blacks who are the victims
of violent crime in our country. All of our Negro leaders might well emulate
Sterling Tucker, vice-chairman of the Washington, D.C., City Council, who has
spoken out in support of vigorous law enforcement and has condemned those who
tacitly condone violations of the law.
(more)
BERALD FORD LIBRARY
-5-
It is said there can be no progress without order. I subscribe to that.
I would add that there cannot long be order without progress. I believe
the Nixon Administration is promoting the kind of order and the kind of progress
which will operate together to move this country forward.
We need a responsible common-sense approach to ending poverty in America.
The primary Nixon answer to poverty and the urban crisis is job training.
The accent is on the solid American ethic of working for a living. The President's
approach is based on the idea that a man never stands so tall as when he stands
on his own two feet.
This is why President Nixon has proposed the first major reform of this
country's welfare system since it first was established. This is why the President
urges Workfare instead of Welfare. This is the way of dignity and decency. This
is the American way. A hand up instead of a handout. That's the only way to
bridge the gap between the Haves and Have-Nots in America.
I think President Nixon has managed to bring order to this country. He has
managed to do so because he has brought order to the Presidency. We now find
that the days of government by crisis have given way to crisis prevention. The
scatter-gun approach is yielding to an assembling of new priorities.
We have accomplished draft reform by instituting a lottery system and we
are headed toward an end to the draft. Welfare reform has passed the House. But
these are just two among the great array of reforms proposed by President Nixon--
reforms which I believe the American people have long wanted.
We urgently need postal reform the creation of a postal authority to
modernize our postal delivery system and run it efficiently and to remove the sticky
stain of politics from our postal operations. Final congressional action on postal
reform now appears imminent.
There are many Administration reforms that cry out for congressional
action: The President's strengthened and broadened anti-crime program; a
consolidation of manpower training programs, to be turned over to the states and
cities as they become equipped to handle them; a reexamination of Federal aid to
schools to achieve quality education; revamping our labor laws for improved handling
of national emergency labor disputes in transportation; the President's 37-point
program directed at air and water pollution and the need to expand recreational
land use; a New Federalism which provides an increasing slice of Federal income
tax revenue to cities and states on a percentage, no-strings-attached basis; a
decentralization of government authority which places greater reliance on local
(more)
GERAL FORD LIBRARY
6-
officials and greater power in the hands of the people.
Decentralization of government authority -- flow of power back to the cities
and states, back to the people. This is a central theme of the Nixon Administration.
Power concentrated in Washington is not always effective power. It is some-
times self-defeating. The Federal bureaucracy is most complex, and it feeds upon
itself. As it grows larger, the Federal Government's ability to help solve local
problems often grows less. That is why we want to expand the city and state role
in problem-solving, apart from philosophical considerations.
That is why the Administration proposes reversing the flow of power turning
it back to the cities and states. That is why President Nixon wants to share
Federal income tax revenue with the states and cities. He wants to implement a
basic change which I believe the American people fervently desire.
President Nixon has made his reform theme clear. He has said: "The
legislative program of this Administration differs fundamentally from previous
administrations. We do not seek more and more of the same. We were not elected
to pile new resources and manpower on top of old programs. We were elected to
initiate an era of change."
Much change has already come about. We have acted to reorder our priorities.
Defense spending has been reduced in the President's fiscal 1971 budget to 36.7 per
cent. At the same time the President has increased human resource outlays to 41 per
cent. As the President noted in his budget message, this is the first time in
20 years the first time in two whole decades -- that a Federal budget has provided
more funds for human resources than for defense.
That is why I see America moving in New Directions, moving along paths that
will make the Seventies a decade that will bring new quality to American life.
I see the Seventies as a decade devoted to human betterment.
I see the American people adopting goals more difficult to reach than the
moon: Rebuilding our cities. Cleaning up the Nation's water and air. Retraining
the unskilled so that every American willing and able to master a skill is permitted
to do 80. Building vast mass transit systems. Making our airways safe and equip-
ping our airports to handle the jumbo jets now taking to the skies. Eliminating
poverty by 1980 literally erasing it instead of just talking about it. Ending
hunger in America - and soon.
We will be fighting not only the problems of the cities but the problems of
all Americans. It won't be easy. But we will win more battles than we will
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We will see the forward march of positive programs aimed at providing jobs,
housing, quality education and first-rate medical care.
The Nation will marshal a concerted attack upon crime -- particularly the
drug and narcotics traffic, organized crime and juvenile deliquency.
I see the fight for clean water swelling into a crusade -- a crusade joined
in by young and older Americans alike. The assault weapon may well be President
Nixon's $10 billion do-it-now, pay-later bonding program. This is a crusade that
will gather great force.
We are generating the commitment and the climate for action now.
Peace is part of that climate. Peace will come. It will come as a product
of the President's do-it-yourself foreign policy. It will come because our course
is unselfishly right.
The Seventies will see breathtaking progress in America and, hopefully, the
changes needed to cleanse our Nation both in body and in soul.
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FORD & LIBRARY GERALD