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Fifth District Weekly Radio Reports, 1968
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Fifth District Weekly Radio Reports, 1968
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Gerald R. Ford Congressional Papers
Weekly Radio Reports
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Compulsory national service
Credit
Crime
Debts, Public
Federal budget
Gold
Inflation (Finance)
Legislation
National security
Obscenity (Law)
Old age
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Pueblo Incident, 1968
Taxation
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1968
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The original documents are located in Box D36, folder "Fifth District Weekly Radio
Reports, 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States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.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.
RADIO SCRIPT RECORDED JAN. 17, 1968, FOR WEEKEND USE BY FIFTH DISTRICT RADIO STATIONS.
This is your congressman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington.
The 90th Congress is now embarked on its second year of activity. This could
be a fateful session. to the countries in the free world.
It can be expected that the debate will be lively and partisan, since this is
national
an election year. But at the same time the American people are justified in expecting
that the very grave problems confronting this Nation will be dealt with in responsible
fashion.
The chief domestic problem is the high cost of living. The economists call it
inflation. The housewife calls it higher prices.
What do we do about it?
upward, wpward.
There are two ways to attack inflation. One is to hold down federal spending,
at the marketplace upward,
since exce ssive federal expenditures tend to push prices upward. The other way is
to raise everybody's taxes.
I think it is far better to bring feder al spending under control and set it at
at the marketplace
reasonable limits. This would definitely help to keep prices from going up and up and
up.
The President Johnson wants to raise your taxes. I opposed the President's tax increase
in the last session of Congre SS and at this time I am still opposed to taking a bigger
tax bite out of everybody's income.
It seems the only way to force the John son Administration to hold down federal
spending is to refuse to approve an income tax increase...refuse to give them more
of your dollars to spend.
money As it is they are spending borrowed money--and by going into the
money markets to borrow that money
they
help
to
push
up
the
interest
rates that every American buying something on time has to pay.
It's long past the time that we put our fiscal house in order. We can do that and
still
move toward the goals that all Americans see as desirable--an
end to poverty, the restoration of domestic tranquillity in this country, an
America at peace with itself and the world, genuine prosperity and not an artificial
boom based on a bloody war, city streets that are safe at any hour of day or night,
a new spiritual strength for the Nation that flows from a clear* sense of national
objectives and from inspired leadership at the highest levels.
High-sounding words and - lofty goals are not enough, of course. We must
clothe our words with actions that bridge the gapwe often see between promise
and performance on the nationall scene.
In the Congress we must continue our efforts to meet the fiscal crisis
FORD LIBRARY
generated by seven consecutive years of federal deficits. And we must dea
Digitized from Box D36 of The Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
-2-
legislatively with the new problems of 1968--pargicularly the threat to the dollar
posed by continued inflation at home and the outflow of our gold to other nations.
The terrible tragedy of the bloody land war in Vietnam continues.
We must bend every effort in 1968 to bring that war to an early and honorable
close and to build a durable peace in Southeast Asia over the long term.
We must strengthen the overallaw position of the United States
internationally, notably by improving our partnership
relationship with other nations of the Free World. We are not making
sufficient progress in Africa. We are falling short in Latin America. We must
U.S.
development diplomatic, military and economic policies which will rebuild world
as it used to be
prestige and power.
It is time to rise and use the strengths we possess, time to build
and better
a new America.
This is your congressman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from the nation S capital.
I'll be talking with you again next week, same time, same station.
#####
GERALD FORD LIBRARY
Broadcast - Misc,
National Republican Congressional Committee
Chairman's BULLETIN
CONGRESSIONAL HOTEL . WASHINGTON 3, D. C.
3
January 22, 1968
Dear Colleague:
Attached is the first of the 4-1/2-minute weekly radio-television scripts
for this session. Although this one deals with Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican
President whose birthday we will observe shortly, others will cover issues of a more
current nature to suggest possible material for broadcasts to your district stations. You
may also be able to use the contents for your newsletters and other purposes.
Since we want material sent to you by the Committee to be useful as
possible, would you or a member of your staff take a moment to complete the form
attached and return to me ? We want to make certain these scripts are of sufficient
us
value to continue sending them to you--and will appreciate your frank appraisal and
comments. Many thanks.
(Spen (See
Sincerely,
from atohdendin,
Bob
m.m.
Bob Wilson, M. C.
Chairman
pent 1/31/68
BW:pat
No. 3
FORD LIBRARY & GERALD
Radio-Television Script
NATIONAL REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE 312 CONGRESSIONAL HOTEL WASHINGTON 3. D. C. LINCOLN 4-3010
Script No. I
January 22, 1968
ABRAHAM LINCOLN--A LESSON FOR DROPOUTS
Note: The following script on Abraham Lincoln is
being sent to you in advance of Lincoln's Birthday
in order that you may use the material for radio-TV,
newsletters, speeches, etc.
This is Congressman Jerry Ford
reporting to you from Washington.
In this day and age, when our youngsters are on a rampage of so-called "individual
self-expression," it seems an opportune time to think back one of America's greatest sons and
recall what he was like as a teen-ager and young man.
The old expression, "as the twig is bent the tree's inclined," could have been
coined to explain the davelopment of Abraham Lincoln from an under-privileged youth on the early
American frontier to one of this nation's greatest Presidents. The bending and shaping of the
Lincoln twig into Presidential timber occurred when Lincoln was a teen-ager. The stories of his
early years illustrate his fundamental warmth and humanity.
Have you ever heard the story of young Lincoln and the mud-turtle?
It is very indicative, I think, of the adult Lincoln was to grow into. One day, some
of Lincoln's school-fellows came upon a large mud-turtle. As boys will, they started to tease it.
One thing led to another and finally one of them suggested lighting a fire on its back. It was at
this point that young Аb₃ passed the group. He saw the poor animal struggling to get away from
the burning twigs on its upper shell. He raged at them for the torture they were inflicting on a
poor dumb beast. That night, still wrought-up by the cruel scene, he wrote an essay against
cruelty to animals. This essay is quite possibly his first literary effort. The twig that was Lincoln
"inclined" against man's inhumanity.
Lincoln, as a teenager, was what today so many of our youngsters are trying to be--
different. He was tremendously strong, quiet and soft spoken. Buthi a He actually wanted to help the
people around him. His was an age when tying objects to a dog's tail was considered a legitimate
sport. It was only an animal after all! Lincoln went very much to the other extreme. Ha ones
saved a dog from drowning when the river into which the dog had fallen was dangerously full of
LIBRARY
ice floes.
- more -
- 2 -
Of course, you all know about Lincoln and rail-splitting. I wonder if you know the
"princely" recompense that he received for his labor? He had to split four hundred rails to earn
material to make a pair of jeans. He must have ached as he stood up to be fitted for that pair
of pants. But he must have been proud, too.
When he was 22, the twig--or should I say the limb-that was Lincoln inclined
away from the life of a farmer. A neighboring trader sent him south in command of a large flat-
boat. On this trip, he was revolted by his first sight of a slave-market in action. At the close
of this trip to New Orleans, he was put in charge of a store set up by his neighbor in New Salem.
It was while running this store that Lincoln acquired the nickname, "Honest Abe." It was in
New Salem that he made the wonderful statement--"I don't feel easy till I have turned my thoughts
all round--North, South, East and West."
In this era of "dropouts" and delinquents, it is interesting to note that although
Lincoln's total days at school did not amount to one full year--there were no schools available
in the wilderness in which he was raised--he learned the 3 R's well enough to run a store and
write letters for his less literate friends.
The experiences of Lincoln's early daySin short, shaped the mind and heart of the
man who years later was to become this nation's 16th president--a president whom we honor and
respect on the 159th anniversary of his birth this year. We could hope for much less than that
the youth of our day be inspired by the example and experience of the Great Emancipator who was
America's first Republican President.
This is Congressman Jerry Ford
reporting from Washington.
(Note: A copy of this script is available on Teleprompter in the House TV Studio.
For additional information on this script or to suggest ideas for future scripts, contact the Com-
mittee's Public Relations Office.)
###
GERALD'S R STATE FORD
SCRIPT RECORDED JAN. 24, 1968, FOR WEEKEND USE BY FIFTH DISTRICT RADIO STATIONS
This is your congressman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington.
Now that the President has delivered his State of the Union Message to
Congress and the Nation, the White House is beginning to spell out the details
of some of his proposals.
The first of these legislative messages dealt with ways to put the hard-core
unemployed to work in private industry.
I was particularly happy to see the President adopt the Republican approach of setting up
a partnership arrangement with industry to try to lick hard-core unemployment.
This is far different from the tack taken by the President in a recent
television conversation with news correspondents when he threatened that the
government would give everybody jobs if private industry didn't.
It is difficult to understand why the Johnson Administration did not move
toward an industry-government partnership years ago in an effort to reach the
hard-core unemployed in the ghettoes. Was it necessary for 120 of our cities to
explode with riots, large and small, before the wisdom of a joint industry-
government outreach in this direction could be seen by those in power?
The jobs proposal offered by the President follows to very great extent some
of the recommendations made by House Republicans for several years. For instance,
the Republican//proposed al the creation of an Industry Youth Corps, which provided
that youths without skills be trained by industry for good-paying jobs with the
Temporarily during the training period
government to pay 25 per cent of the training costs.
House Republicans also have sought for years to win majority party approval
GERALD R. LIBRARY FORD
-2-
of a plan to give industry a 10 per cent tax credit to train the hard-core
unemployed and low echelon workers who badly need upgrading in skills.
Federal law provides industry with a 7 per cent tax credit on the purchase
of new machinery and the construction of new plants. Are human beings of less
value than machines, or brick and mortar?
It strikes me that the riots which scarred the face of America last summer
and resulted in death and destruction might well have been avoided if an
several years
industry-government attack on hard-core unemployment had been launched long ago. before.
Whether the President's current plan should be adopted exactly às proposed
atthis pointe
is a question I cannot answer Congress will have to consider it carefully
before passing judgment on the specifics of it. But certainly there can be no
disagreement about the desirability of the objective. America is the healthier
to the extent that every able-bodied citizen is made productive and is able to
get and hold a good job.
an the other hand is the
(PAUSE) Other action in the House last week centered on the President's
proposal to increase income tax bills for tappayers 10 per cent. at the fed level
It is interesting to note that the President wants to increase federal
expenditures by $10.4 billion in fiscal year 1968-69--and his proposed tax
increase is estimated to bring in about $12 billion. The two figures just
about balance each other off.
It would be far better to reduce the President's spending requests by
our
$10 billion than to increase the tax burden on the people by that amount.
That's a better way to fight inflation and high interest rates.
The federal government doesn't operate in a vacuum.
GERALD LIBRARY FORD
-3-
The same people who pay the federal income tax also pay state and local taxes.
Taxes at the state and local level have been climbing steadily. In my view,
members of Congress should be looking hard for ways to avoid any increase in
federal income tax. The taxpayer is carrying a heavy enough load now.
This is your congressman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from the nation's
capital. I'll be talking with you again next week--same time, same station.
###
SCRIPT RECORDED JAN. 31, 1968, FOR WEEKEND USE BY FIFTH DISTRICT RADIO STATIONS
This is your congressman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from the Nation's
capital.
Washington was spilling over with news last week--much of it unfortunably bad. One of
the few bright spots was House passage of a bill to provide additional protection
for the consumer-for the American who buys on credit.
This was the so-called Truth In Lending Bill, which I feel is badly needed.
the House
strong
I am proud to say that not only did childs bill receive bipartisan support but it
was stronger than the bill that passed the Senate last year.
The House Truth In Lending Bill was beefed up in committee with Republican
help. In addition, House Republicans offered a floor amendment to the bill
aimed at bringing federal forces into action against loan-sharking--one of the
principal sources of revenue for the crime syndicates. The Republican amendment
had a dual purpose--to zero in on the lending of money at illegally high rates
of interest and to cut off a large source of the funds which finance organized
crime.
The bad news last week came out of North Korea, South Vietnam and the
President's budget.
For the third time in our history an American ship was seized on the high
seas. North Korea, a fifth rate power, simply boarded a U.S. Navy intelligence
vessel and forced it into their port of Wonsan.
Before the White House had even indicated what this country might do in
response, I urged that we try to recover the ship and its crew through diplomatic
that we must to
means but prepareoto take military measures if diplomacy failed. I also
FORD LIBRARY & DERACT a
-2-
that the credibility of the United States was being tested and that it must be
maintained if America is not to be humiliated in the eyes of the world. For
that reason I deplored the lengthy silence at the White House which followed the boarding
the incident. Fortunately, the President finally went on radio and television
to tell the Nation what had occurred and what actions he was taking. His message
was all very too brief and not very reassuring but it was most welcome.
his words were
I felt at the time that the NorthKorean action might be part of appattern
intended to discredit the United States internationally. The rest of the pattern
was not long in emerging.
The American people, I'm sure, were thoroughly shocked to read of the latest
developments in the Vietnam War. fighting in the streets of Saigon, with the
enemy holding the American Embassy Compound for six hours!
This points up the need for the Saigon Government to build a strong South
Vietnamese Army and to win the overwhelming support of the Vietnamese people.
Otherwise our mission in South Vietnam will fail no matter how successful American
forces are against the main forces of North Vietnam.
The President's budget, sent to Congress last week, was another piece of
bad news. It totalled a record $186.1 billion.
I called it an unbelievable budget. I found it incredible that the President
should draft a budget providing for a $20 billion deficit without a tax increase
and if taxes are raised. Congress must reduce the President's requests--
deficit $8 billion of
w Pres. frankly and in
strong
substantially.
recommendations faa
the
Press.
fiscal plan next year
As I said in a statement on the budget, it contains no joy for the taxpayer.
GERALD LIBRARY FORD
-3-
Fideral
In my view, we can move America ahead without flirting with bankruptcy.
This is your congressman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington.
I'll be with you again next week over this same station.
####
GEBALO FORD
SCRIPT RECORDED FOR USE BY FIFTH DISTRICT RADIO STATIONS THE WEEKEND OF FEB. 9-11, 1968
This is your congressman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from the Nattion's
capital.
Attention focused here last week on the latest Johnson Administration
statements concerning the Pueblo incident, the impact of the Communist offensive
in Vietnam and the travel taxes proposed by the Administration as part of its
perious
efforts to stop the gold drain.
North Korea's seizure of the U.S. Navy intelligence ship, the Pueblo,
stirred fresh congroversy here when Defense Secretary McNamara said the
vessel
may have intruded upon North Korea's territorial waters. To me, this indicated that
the Johnson Administration was getting ready to accede to North
Korean demands that our government admit to such an intrusion and apologize for it
is
in order to obtain the release of the Puebl and its crew. What
most
distumbing
about this is that Administration officials earlier had told the
Congress and the American people that at no time had the Pueblo sailed into North
indonstedly
Korean waters. The impression now is that the United States will
humiliate itself by giving North Korea the "confession" the Communists demand whether
the charge is true or not. true The entire chain of events also makes it difficult for us
true
all
to believe Administration officials under any circumstances. Of course, we all want to
get
the
crew
fack we want
the ship back, but we shouldn't have to swear to a lie to do it.
Our
officials should tell the truth and stick with it--whatever the truth may be.
Apparently we'll never know what the truth is until we get the Pueblo's crew
back and have them appear before a congre ssional investigating committee.
In Vietnam it seems clear that spokesmen for the Johnson Administration
again have been guilty of over-optimism at best and of misleading the American people
LIBRARY
at worst. I don't see how anyone
(MORE)
-2-
can shrug off the effects of the Communist offensive of the recent days. Our
position prior to the Communist
onslaught was not as good as Administration spokesmen indicated, and Communist
strength is f ar greater than we had been led to believe. We must not yield one inch
in our determination to bring the Vietnam War to an honorable conclusion, however
as quickly possible and as
We must not let the latest developments in Vietnam persuade us to negotiate
This
urtamly
peace on the Communists' terms. That would be capitulation and a
betrayal
of every American who has shed blood on Vietnamese soil. But we should be ever skeptical
of optimistic statements made by spokesmen for the Administration. The situation demands
realism, not pollyanna promises.
There is no question that the Congre SS will provide every bit of support needed
our efforts to achieve
by our men in Vietnam, including every dollar needed to finance the wate our goals,
At the same time, Congress must deal with another great problem--the continuing
deficit in our balance of payments, the fact that
this
country and its citizens have been spending several billions of dollars more abroad than
have been coming in to the United States.
As one part of its program to try to balance the dollar outflow and inflow,
the Johnson Administration last week sent Congress a proposal to put a 5 per cent
tax on withing airline and steamship tickets to foreign destinations and to tax
Americans traveling abroad for every dollar they spend in exce SS of $7 a day. The tax
would be 15 per cent on the - amount between $7 and $15, and 30 per cent on the
amount in exce of $15.
We must do something about our serious balance of payments situation. If we
FORD
don't, the confidence of foreign creditors in the dollar will be
GERAL
LIBRARY
destroyed. The result would be a collapse of Free World trade and a possible
international depression. But the Administration S travel taxes raise a serious
-3-
d
question. This is ^ direct interference with a basic freedom@-the freedom of
Americans to travel anywhere they please.
The Administration's per diem travel
taxes may, in fact, be illegal. under Court some interpretations of this Supreme
This is your congressman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington.
I'll be talking with you against next week a same time, same
station.
BERRIT FORD
SCRIPT RECORDED FEB. 12, 1968, FOR WEEKEND USE BY FIFTH DISTRICT RADIO STATIONS
This is your congre ssman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington.
Tuesday
The
House of Representatives
is scheduled to take up
legislation known as the gold Cover Bill. It would wipe
out a law which now requires that all of our Federal Reserve notes and certain of
our U.S. and Treasury notes be backed by
the equivalency of 25 per cent in
gold.
The idea behind this legislation is to make the gold now being held
as
backing for our Reserve Notes available for payment to foreign governments
and other creditors who are holding American dollars and want to exchange them for
gold. Removing the gold cover requirement would free about $10 billion in gold
for use in payment of claims by foreign creditors.
Some content that there
There probably is no compelling reason to continue the 25 per cent gold
They say that
backing for Federal Reserve Notes. Our monetary system is based on confidence,
not on gold. The more
serious consideration is that the dollar is in trouble both at home and albroad
because confidence in the dollar has been fadly shaken.
Tbd
dollar
is
in trouble at home because
the Administration
has des piled up one huge federal deficit after
another, and pricess have been climbing at the rate of more than 3 per cent a year.
you know that as well as
Each year the dollar is worth considerably less in terms of what it will buy
%
The dollar is in trouble abroad because foreigners see that our fiscal
total
house
is
in
disarray.
Some foreigners think it is just a question of time
before the United States devalues the dollar in some way just as the British devalued
FORD
the pound sterling. This is why we had a run on U.S. gold last
December. ABRARY Some
foreign creditors decided they would rather have gold than American dollars.
-2-
Foreign creditors now hold more than 30 billion American dollars. This
each
huge accumulation of American dollars in foreign hands has occurred because
year we have been sending and spending several billions of dollars mare abroad than
were coming back in to the United States. At the same time, our gold holdings
have dwindled until we now have less than $12 billion in gold. It is because
roughly $10 billion of the n2 billion is tied up behind Federal Reserve Notes that
the Johnson Administration wants to remove the so-called gold cover.
Frankly
It won't do much good to remove the gold cover. That is not really the answer
to the huge deficit in our balance of payments the difference between the
number of dollars that winds up in foreign
hands each year and the dollars that flow back in. Freeing the $10 billion in
gold cover to pay the claims of foreign creditors will just buy time, not solve the
fasic
both at home and abroad
problem. The gold cover bill just points up the seriousness of our dollar troubles
We must make an affirmative attack on our balance of payments problem. To do
that we must all engage in some belt-tightening right at home. We must put our domestic
fiscal house in order if we are to plug the balance of payments gap and restore
overseas
confidence in the dollar Confidence in the dollar can be restored only by
correcting the 1 financial mismanagement which has brought about our balance of
payments woes.
You can be sure we would not be witne ssing steady erosion of the dollar if
Administration
the
had been following the advice of Abraham Lincoln, whose
birthday we recently marked. Lincoln said: "The legitimate object of government
is to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done, but cannot do
FORD
at all, or cannot so well do, for themselves, in their separate and individual
LIBRARY
cap,cities. If "In all that the peopule can individually do as well for
-3-
them
selves," Lincoln said, "government ought not to interfere."
I believe those words of Lincoln's are just as true today as when he
spoke them 113 years ago.
That is why I say the CASH top priority of the Congress this year is to
revise our fiscal policies and to move promptly toward putting our financial house in
order R right here at home.
This is your congre ssman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington.
I'll be talking with you again next week over this same station.
####
BERALO, FORD LIDRARY
Radio Television Script
NATIONAL REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE
312 CONGRESSIONAL HOTEL
WASHINGTON 3, D. C.
LINCOLN 4-3010
Script No. 4
February 12, 1968
WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY--1968
Note: The following script on Washington's Birthday is being sent to
you in advance of February 22 in order that you may use it in your
newsletters, speeches or on radio-TV programs.
This is Congressman
reporting to you from Washington.
In his Farewell Address, his last great warning to America, George Washington--
whose birthday we celebrate next week--said these words: "Avoid the accumulation of debt
not only by shunning occasions of expense, but by vigorous exertion in time of peace, to dis-
charge debts which unavoidable war may have occasioned."
These words are so applicable today, they might have been written especially for US.
We have been led gradually and easily in recent years into accepting debt as an al-
most natural, national phenomena. It all started with the sly suggestion that the national debt
was "only something that we owed ourselves, so why worry about it?"
The answer to that, of course, is "then why don't we just cancel it out now?" Even
the most rabid spenders haven't the gall to suggest anything so far-fatched. There would, of
course, be a worldwide financial crisis and the whole financial structure of our country would
be shaken and perhaps collapse.
For the fact is that the national debt is a debt just like any other. It will eventually
have to be paid--and our children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren will be the sufferers.
"Avoid the accumulation of debt by shunning occasions of expense." It is as if
George Washington foresaw that one day the country he had founded would be bogged down with
debt. Well, we have ignored this warning and we are bogged down.
The last time we were out of the red was in 1960--President Eisenhower's last year
in office. Since then, we have had a budget deficit every single year.
The total of the yearly budget deficits from 1961-1968 will come to the colossal sum
of 69 billion dollars, This year--in spite of a promised "tight" budget--the deficit could be
well over 20 billion dollars. The budget--instead of being cut-is 10 billion dollars higher than
LIBRARY
30
- more -
- 2 -
in fiscal 1968. It is 27 billion dollars higher than in 1967 and 51 billion dollars higher than the
budget submitted to Congress in 1966.
During the same eight years, Federal spending has doubled. "Avoid the accumula-
tion of debt! If this is sound advice for the individual, and I believe it is, it is sound for the
Nation- especially during this period when a war is putting added pressure on the budget.
Better that we go without some of the fancy, new programs until the budget is brought into line
and our current expenses justify them.
In closing, let me say this: I know that to many of you the Nation's financial
future looks gloomy and you ask, "Where will it all end?" But look back a moment to the days
of the man whose birthday we are honoring. Think of Valley Forge when all seemed hopeless
and remind yourself that we will, as we have in the past, find solutions to these problems facing
US. Our whole history proves that. I only hope that, when we are on top of the world again,
we remember the lessons that the last eight years have taught.
This is Congressman
reporting from Washington.
(Note: A copy of this script is available on Teleprompter in the House TV Studio.
For additional information on this script or to suggest ideas for future scripts, contact the Com-
mittee's Public Relations Office.)
###
RADIO SCRIPT PREPARED FOR WEEKEND USE OVER FIFTH DISTRICT
706.21.1968 Zeb
This is your congre ssman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from the Nation's capital.
If there ever was a time for taking a good, honest look at the Vietnam War, this
is it. Recent events in Vietnam cry out for truth, for candor, for realism. The
American people should be given an honest assessment of what has happened in Vietnam
and what may lie ahead.
President Johnson and some of his leading aides told former President Dwight
D. Eisenhower a few days ago that they believed the enemy had been badly hurt in
recent weeks of fighting in Vietnam. They said the South Vietnamese Army and
Government might well emerge stronger than ever as a result of the testing now in
S.
VN
progress. High Administration officials also expressed doubt the Vietcong could
soon repeat the kind of attack they staged Jan. 29 on South Vietnamese cities.
now
It all very well for President Johnson to confer with a distinguished
former Republican President about the course of the war. But it is misleading to
issue nothing but optimistic statements to the press during such a visit.
indicated to
President Johnson was more forthright when he newsmen at
a White House press conference that he W ill be committing more than the previously
announced figure of 525,000 Amarkeen U.S. military personnel to Vietnam.
Vice-President Hubeft Humphrey was far more honest than the President when
he admitted to the AFL-CIO at a meeting in Florida that the Viet Cong
offensive launched Jan. 29 "did stop" the pacification program in Vietnam--the
allied drive to win the minds and allegiance of the South Vietnamese people.
There already had been ample evidence the pacification program was making
little progress--that a sizable amount of our aid was slipping
into the pockets of black marketeers, corrupt South Vietnamese officials and
speculators. Some of it even went to supply the Viet Cong.
But with the Jan. 29th Viet Cong offensive, the pacification program
GERALE went FORD LIBRARY
smash. Thus the Viet Cong scored a victory in that sense, regardless of wha their
other objectives might have been and regardless of their tremendous losses in manpower.
-2-
Years of work on the task of nation-building and pacification in Vietnam now
have been reduced to virtually \nothing. The President should be honest enough to tell the
American people it could take 20 years to rebuild South Vietnam even under the
very of best conditions.
It may be that the Viet Cong attacked the South Vietnamese cities solely with
the view of dislocating the Allied war effort and causing a breakdown of the
government. I am certain they believe that the war will be won in the minds of the
South Vietnamese people and not in the jungle and mountains. I have repeatedly
said--and I do so now-that allied military success in Vietnam will be meaningless
if we do not also succeed in the "other war, the pacification program.
The President may feel that the terrorist tactics of the Viet Cong will
very
boomerang. But the Viet Cong has carriedax out its terror campaign deliberately.
overall
This is a part of their strategy. They exectuted an stimated 300 civilians at
To try to convince
Hue. Why? texthe rest of the South Vietnamese people that no one
in South Vietnam is safe, even in the cities, and that allm who oppose the Viet Cong
in the future will be dealt with in like fashion.
Administration officials say the Viet Cong cannot repeat the Jan. 29 offernsive.
But the enemy's new rocket-and-mortar offensive continues to pin down our forces by
bringing do,ens of cities, towns and military outposts under shellfire. High
American
officials in Saigon do admit that the enemy has the
resources to continue such rocket and mortar attacks.
But of course nobody in the Administration mentions the fact that these rockets
and mortars are being supplied to the Viet Cong by the Soviet Union. Instead
FORD
Administration officials appeared on Capitol Hill last week to testify in support of
LIBRARI
President Johnson's request for expanded trade with Communist nationsx in Eastern Europe.
-3-
This is a time for us to be resolute. Americans have never run under fire.
But it is also a time for us to be completely realistic about the forces arrayed
against us in the world. There is no substitute for truth in government.
This is your congressman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington. I'll
be talking with you again next week--same time, samexx station.
#####
Recorded 2/28/68 for Fifth Destrict Stations
Radio-Television Script
NATIONAL REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE
312 CONGRESSIONAL HOTEL
WASHINGTON 3, D. C.
LINCOLN 4-3010
Script No. 6
February 26, 1968
THE TRAVEL TAX
This is Congressman
reporting to you from Washington.
I'm sure you've all heard the legend of the little Dutch boy who stuck his finger in a
dike in a vain attempt to stop the water from flooding through and inundating the surrounding
country. Well, many Congressmen think that the travel tax proposed by the Administration is
just as vain a gesture where our balance of payments is concerned. It is a finger in the dike when
what we need is a new dam to prevent further deterioration of America's financial position in the
world today.
The consensus--if I may borrow the Administration's favorite word--seems to be that
the tax will not help solve our balance of payments problem which, at present, we come out on
the short end of by more than three and one-half billion dollars annually.
very
Added to this is a strong feeling that the tax is unfdir. It will not particularly hurt
the poor, who will not be traveling abroad much anyway, nor the rich, who probably can afford
travel under all cercumetances
under the
it if they do travel, It is the middle income traveler who will really feel the pinch. administrations
trand tax limitations
This is what the tax proposes: The first seven dollars of daily expenditures will be
exempt. The next eight dollars will be taxed 15 percent. All expenditures in excess of 15 dollars
a day will be taxed 30 percent.
This will mean that a single person who spends 750 dollars to travel in Europe for 20
which is a serit
days--a fairly average amount--would pay 159 dollars travel tax in addition to a five percent tax
on a plane or steamship ticket also proposed by the Administration.
A family of four planning to spend 1,500 dollars for a 20-day European tour would
pay 186 dollars tax.
There is also this point to be taken into consideration: 75 percent of American spend-
ing in frign countries which would be affected by the proposed tax is done by businessmen who get a
tax break. Only about 500 million dollars is spent on pleasure travel. So, if foreign governments
should decide to retaliate--de Gaulle has already threatened to--the travel tax could do
con- LIBRARY
siderable harm. It could wipe out a good part of the 330 million dollars that Europeans spend
- more -
w america
- 2 -
here n every year--thereby worsening the deficit rather than alleviating it.
There is another side to America the travel tax is, extremely important. It im-
by that Presedent I think,
pinges on one of our freedoms, It limits the traditional freedom of movement and travel accorded
to all American citizens. I personally believe that one of the basic rights of a free people is the
freedom to travel. The travel tax would restrict that right to some degree and is, therefore, a
risky experiment, in my opinion.
But the basic concern which I share with many of my colleagues in Congress is that the
the basic sobition
travel tax plantisn't the answer, to the balance of payments problem. It might cut tourist spending
overseas by 250 million dollars, astimates. But this is trivial compared with total tourist
^ by thest best of
spending of about four billion dollars. And, of course, it doesn't even compare with the govern-
ment's spending abroad on foreign aid, which some estimate runs as high as eight billion dollars
a year.
The travel tax plan, as so far explained to US in Congress, seems little more than a
"stop-gap" program--the wrong remedy, at the wrong time and in the wrong way, in other words, this is
a bad proposal as was recommended by the White House,
This is Congressman
reporting from Washington.
(Note: A copy of this script is available on Teleprompter in the House TV Studio.
For additional information on this script or to suggest ideas for future scripts, contact the Commit
tee's Public Relations Office.)
###
DERALD FORD LIBRARY
NOT USED
RADIO SCRIPT RECORDED FEB. 28, 1968, FOR WEEKENB USE BY FIFTH DISTRICT STATIONS
This is your congressman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington.
Action now being taken by the Congress tells us more plainly than ever before
that the American dollar is in trouble. That action is the removal of the last
bit of gold backing for our currency.
Under present law, the federal government must keep on hand an amount of gold
equal to 25 per cent of the paper money in circulation in the form of federal
reserve notes. At Administration insistence, this law is to be repealed.
A law requiring 25 per cent backing in gold for all the currency that is issued
places a limitation on the money supply. It means that our money managers, the
Administration in power in Washington and the Federal Reserve Board, cannot say
that the sky is the limit.
The requirement of some gold backing for our currency also imposes other
restraints on the Administration since it acts as a kind of brake with regard to
fiscal and monetary policies generally.
Under pressure from the Administration, the House has voted 199 to 190 to
remove the so-called gold cover from our currency, and the Senate is expected to
follow suit.
The Administration had to ask that the gold cover be removed because they have
allowed the dollar to get into trouble overseas. They have overcommitted this
country so heavily all over the world that the United States is leaving several
billions of dollars more each year with foreigners than is coming back into this
country.
At the same time the Administration has been overspending at home borrowing
heavily to pay for new and expanding programs with money it doesn't have
and so
foreign governments have begun wondering how sound the dollar is. Some foreign
-2-
holders of U.S. dollars have decided they'd rather have gold. Some speculators
figure that eventually the United States will have to devaluate the dollar
pay more than the going price of $35 an ounce for gold and they'11 get rich in
the process. All of this uncertainty, this loss of confidence in the dollar, has
produced a run on U.S. gold. Last December, the United States experienced a record
gold outflow for a single month--more than $900 million.
With nearly all of our present stock of gold tied up as backing for our
federal reserve ndes, the Administration is in a frenzy to throw off the gold cover
and pledge that every last bar of our gold will be available upon demand by foreign
creditors holding U.S. dollars. Only in that way, they say, can confidence in the
dollar abroad be maintained.
The truth, of course, is that the fundamental fiscal and monetary problems this
country faces can be solved only by checking domestic inflation, cutting back
drastically on U.S. spending overseas, greatly expanding our exports, and
encouraging travel by foreigners in the United States. We will also have to
rebuild the world's monetary system.
One danger in removal of the gold cover from our federal reserve notes is that
the pressure on the Administration to put our fiscal house in order is reduced.
Here are the facts on our fiscal house. Federal government spending at an
annual rate has risen from $93 billion in 1960 to $167.5 billion in December 1967--
up more than 80 per cent. The National Debt has jumped from $290 billion in 1960
to $350 billion--up 19 per cent. The yearly interest on the national debt has
mounted from $9.2 billion in 1960 to $13.5 billion--up 46 per cent.
This is why I resisted taking off the discipline that gold backing for our
currency imposed on the Administration. If there ever was a time for discipline
-3-
in our financial affairs, it is now.
This is your congressman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from the Nation's
capital. I'll be talking with you again next week over this same station.
###
SCRIPT RECORDED WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6, 1968, FOR WEEKEND USE BY FIFTH DISTRICT STATIONS
This is your congressman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington.
The House has passed two so-called minor pieces of legislation which are
very meaningful because these bills are "people legislation."
One, just approved by the House, closes a loophole in laws aimed at
discouraging obscene, abusive or harxassing telephone calls. Although all 50
states now have laws to penalize persons making such gulux telephone calls within
their boundaries, there is at present no federal law MAK making it a crime to
make calls of this kind across state lines.
The bill passed by the House provides a penalty of a $500 fine or six months
in jail or both for persons fearnex convicted of placing obscene, abusive or harxassing
telephone calls across State lines or within the District of Columbia.
The matter of harassing telephone calls has become particularly serious now
that we are engaged in war and our servicemen are spread across the globe. The
most vicious offender calls a family with a son in the service and, pretending to
be the bearer of an official message, tells them their son has been killed.
I had personal experience with an incident of this kind fairly recently.
Last Christmas my telephone rang about 9 o'clock in the evening. It was a Grand
her
Repids mother who was hysterical, Someone had called/with a message that
her son, NNN who was stationed on Okinawa, had lost his life in an accident.
I immediately called the Pentagon but swaldxnetx there was no answer.
So I got in touch with a friend who is an
Air Force General. About three hours later I got a call back from NM a Navy
FOND
admiral who said the Grand Rapids soldier who MMX supposedly had been killed DESALTH in
an accident on Okinawa was alive and well. Itwas was midnight Christmas night
when I placed a call to the mother in Grand Rapids to assure her her son was fine.
-2-
I was happy to see the phone call bill pass the House. I feel certain the
Senate willax approve it, too. I'm in favor of all the machinery NEX necessary to
discourage telephone calls from XX mentally sick or emotionally disturbed indisiducex
individuals who bring grief to others.
The to Bell Telephone people favored the legislation. They
abusive and harassing calls.
are working hard to fight themx Last year the Bell System
received 641,821 complaints about such calls. There are effective techniques and
devices to detect and bring about the arrest of persons making such calls if the
telephone company is notified. So the laws providing punishment for offenders are
not just a lot of words on the books. They are there to be carried out, and lawmakers
intend to see that they are.
The other bill approved by the House recently is aimed at preventing
miscarriages of justice. It is a KNMXN Fair Jury Bill, designed to
provide for a more equitable selection of persons for jury duty.
It is common knowledge that in some criminal cases persons guilty of a crime
are acquitted by a jury or, conversely, are convicted
because the jury does not represent a true cross-section of the ENJR community.
And the jury does not represent a cross-section of the community because the laws
of jury selection at present do not adequately
permits
guard against jury stacking. This, of course, ** a perversion of the
American system of justice.
2
The House-approved bill attacks jury stacking by making it mandatory that
federal juries be selected from among voters whose names
are chosen at random. This should prevent any rigging or artificial manipulation
of jury selection to obtain a prejudiced verdict.
-3-
A poet once wrote: "And the truth shall ever come uppermost, And justice
shall be done."
I have always done my best to see that that ideal is realized.
This is your congressman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington.
I'll be talking with you against next week-same time, same station.
#####
SCRIPT RECORDED WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 1968, FOR WEEKEND USE BY FIFTH DISTRICT STATIONS
This is your congressman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington.
Attention was focused here last week on all of the painful problems springing
from the Vietnam War.
What all of the talk added up to was the need for President Johnson to let
the American people know just how serious our situation is in Vietnam and to come up
new
with meaningf A decisions on Vietnam strategy and the cost of the war.
There is a desperate need for the Administration to come clean with the
American people, to tell the truth about just how badly the allied cause was hurt
ns the absolute
by the Communist offensive launched in late January and to lay out our course for
the future.
to most ans
It seems obvious that Johnson-style escalation in Vietnam has not been
it should have been
successful. as. The time has come for the President to admit as much to himself and the
Nation and to make some hard policy decisions.
If the President decides in favor of greatly increased troop commitments to
Vietnam, he will run into trouble in Congress.
His own leader in the Senate,
Mike Mansfield of Montana, has said that "we should not get in any deeper" because
"escalation only begets escalation."
I permsonally
feel
that
the
shocking
revertisal
We
recently
suffered in Vietnam stems from the fact that the Johnson Administration made
the
mistake of gradually stepping up the pace of the war in Vietnam in a way that the
enemy could easily match-instead of hitting hard and overwhelmingly from the very outset.
Whatever our future course, it certainly does not help for the Administration
to talk as though the results of the Jan. 30 Communist of fensive were a vi tory for
our side.
GERALD
-2-
This has always been one of the chief difficulties in our handling of the
accurate
Vietnam situation--lack of information on which to base intelligent
decisions.
You take the cost of the Vietnam War, for instance. The Johnson Administration
has consistently underestimated the cost of the war while demanding multi-billion-dollar
awide variety of
increases on spending for domestic programs. The Congress can't really consider
properly a request for domestic spending if the cost of the war X is fogged up with
faulty estimamtes. There is even reason to wonder whether the Administration has
deliberately understindex underestimated the cost of the war so that its domestic
respending requests would get more favorable EX consideration. by the Congress
In any case, the Administration's batting record on war cost estimating is
amazingly poor.
For example, President Johnson estimated defense spending at $49 billion for
fiscal, year 1966 but it turned out to be $54.4 billion. ,with nearly $6 billion charged to
the Vietnam War.
For fiscal year 1967 the President estimated the war cost at $10.3 billion.
Instead the war cost for that period was $20.1 billion--hearly twi double the original
estimate. And, believe it or not, the President insisted when he sent the 1967 budget
to Congress that the Vietnam War would be over by June 30, 1967, the end of that fiscal
year.
For the present fiscal year, which EXES began last July 1, the President
22
since
estimated the war cost at $21.9 9 billion. He revised this up ward to
$24.5 billion. But the staff of the Senate Appropriations Committee figures it at
more than $30 billion. And this is the figure that knowledgeable members of
both Amounts and GOP'S
BER OR.FORD the LIBRARY
Congre 55 use when talking about the dollar cost of the Vietnam War.
-3-
next
The President has estimated Vietnam War costs at $25.8 billion for the 1969
fiscal year, which will begin next July 1. But that was before the Communist
offensive. And even then the Senate Appropriations Committee put the fiscal 1969 Vietnam
cost at $32 billion.
Now if the President sharply escalates our troop commitment in Vietnam, ********
At the same time, our casualties are at record levels.
this could add anywhere from $6 to $10 billion to our war costs. / It clearly is time
probably beyond what it should position that we have l mean the Congress
a complete reappraisal of our ********** in Vietnam. The President ones it to
and the American people complete the Congress and to the american
This is your congre ssman, Jerry Ford, reporting people, to you from w hat Washington. we want I'll and
be talking with you again next week over this same station.
need badly is the full
story the full facts.
######
SERALD LIQUEST FORD
RADIO SCRIPT RECORDED WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20, 1968, FOR WEEKEND USE BY FIFTH DISTRICT STATIONS
This is your congressma, Jerry Ford, reporting from Washington.
Recent days have seen some exciting developments in the Nation's capital and
elsewhere in the world.
The races for the presidential nominations of the two major political parties
have become more competitive. The extent to which national policy on issues of great
far for
has been
importance can be manipulated was made 1 evident. And the seriousne SS of the crisis
involving the American dollar and the Administration's management of our fiscal affairs
hasbeen VISE made far plain.
The fact that the nomination for the presidency will not be a foregone conclusion
in either major political party is a healthy development. Competition is good in
or in business
politics as on the playing field, n The latest entries into the presidential sweepstakes
and d that a good debate
ensure that there will be a healthy dialogue on the great issues of the day. The
people cannoting help but benefit.
the voters of this country,
But the fact that leading Democratic politicians sought to establish a presidential
advisory commission which would have been stacked to bring about a sharp change in our
policy on Vietnam is a hocking development.
It is shocking because it smacks of public deception, and we have had far too much
of that under the present Administration. The public would have been deceived because
the American people would have been led to believe that the commission was being
created to make an impartial study of the Vietnam situation with a view to offering
unbiased recommendations regarding the future course of this Nation in Vietnam. By
contrast, the scheme called for the commission to be made up of individuals who already
FORD
had their minds made up that the only way to end the Vietnam War is to make peace on
RALD
LIBRARY
terms favorable to the Communists. This is chicanery--an abuse of the public trust.
I am amazed that the President would even have considered such a proposal for one
moment.
-2-
The problem of Vietnam continues, and so does that of restoring the confidence
of other nations in the American dollar.
Recently we witne ssed a "A very fast piece of emergency action on the part of the
United States and six other "gold pool" nations when they adopted a two-price
system for gold.
The run on gold which forced the seven gold pool nations to stop the sale of
gold to individuals resulted because Europeans had lost confidence in the dollar and
expected it would be devalued. In other words, they thought the official price of
gold would be raised from $35 an ounce to perhaps $70 and they would make
a killing
upon reselling their gold. which they had bought at
very
a lower price
I was happy to see the speculators' plans upset by adoption of the two-price system
lets not kid ourselves
for gold, but this does not mean that confidence in the dollar has
been restored.
I was glad, too, to hear President Johnson call for austerity
program to plug the deficit in our balance of payments--but it
remains to be seen just what this means. in and of itself.
The President last January called his $186 billion budget for fiscal 1969 austerte--
as Re pubmitted it to the Congress and the people the President
yet it provided for NK an increase of $10.4 billion in federal spending. Now he talks of
a reduction of $8 or $9 billion in his budget requests.
It
must
be
kept
in
mind that such a reduction in the President's budget would mean actual
cuts
of only about $4 billion below spending the contemplated by the President This is last
at the trubmitted he it
hardly austerity.
I would say
Jan.
whichwould start July 1st
I feel that actual spending in fiscal 1969 should be held at a level $8
RALD billion LIBRARY
or more under that contemplated by the President when he submitted his budget in January
What I am saying is that the President should abandon the
guns-and-butter
policy
-3-
he has followed since committing large numbers of American troops to combat in Vietnam
in 1965 and should truly adopt a course of austerity.
If he had done that long ago we would not now be suffering from a constant upward
rise in prices and interest rates, steady erosion in the value of the dollar, loss of
confidence abroad in the dollar, a drain on our gold,
a
projected $20
billion deficit and the threat of an income tax increase. It is long past the time
d hope we can take this
that our fiscal house should have been put in order. now kind of affirmative action
control inflation and to
order to get under
This is your congressman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington. I will be
talking with you again next week-same time, same station.
prevent a tax
increase.
#####
GERALD LIBRARY FORD
RADIO SCRIPT GAPED WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 1968, FOR WEEKEND USE BY FIFTH DISTRICT STATIONS
This is your congre ssman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington.
It is only the local police, prosecutors and courts who can do something
about pornographic material made available at city newstands, but at long last the
Congre SS has made it possible for citimens to shut off the flow of such material
to their homes through the mail.
I want to take this opportunity to alert all of my constituents in the Fifth
Congre ssional District to a new federal law which will go into effect April 15. It
was sponsored by a Nebraska Republican, Rep. Glenn Cunningham.
This law will allow a householder to decide for himself whether any advertisements
he receives through the mail are obscene--and to put a stop to such mailings from that
smut peddler.
The procedure is simply this: If an individual receives a mailed advertisement
which he considers to be obscene, he writes a letter to the
local Postal Inspector
or to the Postmaster General in Washington, D.C. In the letter he requests that the
the mailer
Post Office Department send an order to the mailer
directing
to
delete
his name from the mailing list. The householder may also specifically list
the names of all members of his family at his address as individuals who do not want
to receive such material.
If the mailer nevertheless continues to send the householder
objectionable mail, the recipient may then ask the
Attorney General of the United
States to seek a court order against the smut mail advertiser.
If the court order is issued but the smut mail continues to arrive, the
mailer will be subject to contempt of court citration and a possible Jail sentence.
FORD LIBRARY GERATE
FBI Director
the mailing of
J. Edgar Hoover considers pornographic material a serious
problem.
One of the most serious we have of this kind
-2-
He
says:
"Tt
is
impossible
$
estimate
B
the
amount of
ionable
the
volume
of
erimes
to
infl extensive.
The new law to help stop the mailing of pornographic
advertisements to homes provides that a court order against
obsicene
mailings
may
either
the mail is
be obtained
in the United States District Court in the area where
received or in the area where the mail originated.
In effect, this Republican-sponsored law allows every parent to police his own
mailbox. It provides the American householder with an effective, enforceable,
Fed.
tough law against invasion of moral privacy by smut peddlers using the mails.
I would also like to report that there is some reason to believe Congress will
even
act to hold down federal spending if the President does not cooperate.
There are rumblings on both sides of the Capitbl which indicate determination
to 202 hold federal spending to the level needed to put our
fiscal house in order and to move toward a balanced budget in the new future.
The Senate has been struggling with a proposal to combine a $6 billion reduction
in the spending proposed theory by President Johnson for fiscal 1969 with the President
proposed 10 per cent income tax surcharge. The significant development is that the
Senate refused to separate the two parts of the package. The Senate want is no part of
expenditure
a tax increase without a sharp reduction in the President's budget.
Turning to another subject, we find the House Ways and Means Committee
rejecting the President's proposal to impose a per diem tax on Americans traveling
I wholeheartedly agree with the Comm's decision rejecting the Pres's
abroad. I think Americans should adopt a "See America First" attitude
to
help
LIBRARY
pupsal.
correct the serious deficit in our balance of payments but I do not think that RALD they
as recommended tythe Pres.
should be forced to do so through a repressive per diem travel tax This
violates
proposal recommended by the Pres
-3-
the traditional right of Americans to travel where they please. We should not club
Americans into staying home. It X won't be long
until we can no longer say "It's a free country" if we keep taking freedoms away from
American citizens in order to correct conditions caused
by family = Administration policy. There are better ways to solve our problems.
This is your congre ssman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington.
I'll be talking with you against next week over this same station.
####
FORD LIBRARY
Raded Script Material
From the Office of
RELEASE: Sunday, P.M.
CONGRESSMAN FRANK HORTON
March 31, 1968
STATEMENT OF CONGRESSMAN HORTON PREPARED FOR DISTRIBUTION IN
THE 36TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT THE WEEK OF MARCH 31, 1968
This week is the beginning of the 1968 Cherry Blossom Festival, and
from all signs, the blossoms will be in full bloom for the occasion.
The Nation's Capital provides an opportunity for every citizen to
see how his government operates---to visit places in which decisions are
made which affect all our lives, and to meet with some of the people who
make those decisions.
If you are planning to visit Washington this week, or any time during
the coming months and will write me of your plans, you will receive a
special visitor's packet of information about places to go and things
to see in Washington. I can also provide you with a gallery pass, which
will enable you to see the House and Senate in session, probably one of
the highlights of your agenda.
When you come to Washington, be sure to come by my office, and I can
give you directions to some of the more interesting sights. Before you
leave Capitol Hill you will probably want to visit the Library of Congress
and the Supreme Court Building, both of which have many areas open to the
public.
The Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials, the Washington Monument, the
White House and the F.B.I. are others among the more popular tourist
attractions.
A recent addition to a sight-seeing tour of the Nation's Capital is
the newly-opened Ford's Theater. My wife Margie and I were privileged to
attend the opening performance of "John Brown's Body" in February. The
theater has been carefully restored to look as it did on the tragic night
of Lincoln's assassination.
FORD LIBRARI
Within easy driving distance of Washington are Mount Vernon
the Civil
War battlefields of first and second Bull Run, and Harpers Ferry.
Baseball season begins shortly, also and the Washington Senators games
will be appealing to many of my Rochester friends who are sports fans.
A tour of the Nation's Capital is a fascinating trip---one which should
be undertaken by every American family. I hope to see you when you come to
Washington, and I will do everything I can to make your trip pleasant.
Radio-Television Script
NATIONAL REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE 312 CONGRESSIONAL HOTEL WASHINGTON 3, D. C.
LINCOLN 4-3010
Script No. II
April I, 1968
CHERRY BLOSSOM TIME
This is Congressman Jerry ford reporting to you from Washington.
Once a year, for some two weeks, the Tidal Basin here in Washington is an Eden of
delicate color. Cherry Blossoms cascade in clouds from the trees and are reflected in the water.
It signifies the real beginning of spring in the Capital. I suppose there is no sight in the world
more beautiful. It is certainly Washington at its picture-postcard best.
This week, year from April the first to the seventhy the Cherry Blossom Festival being
here was
aprilthe first to People have the come seventh. and are coming Peoplecame from all parts of the USA to see the
trees in bloom,
the pageantry that is part of the festival and, of course, the choosing and the crowning of the
strain
Cherry Blossom queen. It is a happy time in the nation's capital amid the stress and.strife of
national and international tensions.
Before I tell you something about the history and background of the festival, I'd like
to tell you what it means to me. First, it is the outward and visible sign of the friendship that
exists between two great nations-Japan and the United States. It is a symbol of peace. It has
outlasted the hatred and bittemess of a major war. The Cherry Blossom Festival means that,
in spite of the minor irritations that do exist and in spite of a bloody and devastating war, we have
forged what I believe will be a lasting friendship with a nation whose people we respect and whose
culture we admire 1
Our National Cherry Blossom Festival began 56 years ago on March 27, 1912. On
that day, Mrs. William Howard Taft, wife of the President, planted the first of 2,000 cherry trees
along the Tidal Basin in Washington (VY-COUNTESS) Viscountess Chinda, wife of the Japanese Ambassador,
planted a second tree as a token of friendship between peoples of Japan and the United States.
The little cherry trees survived and thrived--and soon, early every April, the Tidal
Basin and the Potomac Park area in the southwest part of the Capital city were splotched with a
mist of pink color.
In 1927, the sight had become so spectacular that it was decided to re-enact
the FORD LIBRARY
ceremony of the first planting. Washington school children were recruited to live the scene again.
- more-
- 2 -
From this small beginning, a three-day program was developed that grew into our present Festival.
The wook is afull week for those who attend. There are balls and concerts, lunches and dinners.
There is even a ball on a cruise boat. There is the parade of the princesses from every State of the
Union. And then, of course, there is the coronation pageant and the crowning of the queen.
Our State princess this year was is Miss Cheryl Ann Kingscott of Kalamazoo
SURE SHE HAD
a wonderful time
participating in the Festival. Many people from our Fifth Congressional District joined with
her in enjoying this splendid annual event.
If you were unable to visit Washington during this beautiful time of year, I hope you
will consider it later--perhaps next spring. For, here in our capital, the historic attractions have
the added plus of beauty of design and scenic settings, at this time of year. You must, of course,
see the White House, the Capitol and the magnificent memorials to such great men as Lincoln,
Washington, and Jefferson. As you can tell, I'm very proud of this city--which, I believe, is
truly one of the world's most attractive. No other capital city I know of can touch it for beauty.
And at Cherry Blossom Festival time, it is at its best.
you again next week--same time, same station.
This is Congressman Jerryford reporting from Washington. I'll be talking with
(Note: X copy of this script is available on Teleprompter in the House TV Studio.
For additional information on this script or to suggest 4deas for future scripts contact the Com-
mittee Public Relations Office.)
###
GERALD FORD LIBRARY
RADIO SCRIPT RESERRED WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 1968, FOR WEEKEND USE BY FIFTH DISTRICT STATIONS
This is your congressman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington.
Our Nation is passing through perilous times. We are wrestling simultaneously
with three crises--the crisis of racial turmoil, the crisis of Vietnam, and
the crisis of federal finances
gone sour.
When the men who composed the United States Constitution
put together
that historic document, they did so "to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice,
insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare,
and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity."
In recent days riots have ripped ugly holes in the faces of some of our major
cities, including the Nation's capital. I came to work at the Capitol Building
this past weekend
one morning to find American GI's sleeping on the marble floors after standing guard
you 7 this Wednesday, or for 5 days the same has been the has
duty all night. To think that American soldiers would have to guard the U.S. Capitol
a
Building against possible damage by other Americans 1 What shame
Tragidy
America was shamed, too, by the senseless murder of Dr. Martin Luther King,
a
great
believer in brotherhood, a man who dreamed that whites
and Negroes could work together for equal justice and
equal
opportunity and could live together in peace and harmony. What a blot it was on the
memory of Dr. King for rioting to scar our land as an aftermath
of his death.
"hat can we do now to "insure domestic Tranquility," " one of the national
objectives set forth in the United States Constitution? can dedicate
for outhing we we
FORD
ourselves to reconciliation and good will. We can dedicate ourselves to
hostility. We LIBRARY
Christian principles. We can cleanse our hearts of resentment and
Hum
ther men
can seek to emulate
who died on the Cross 1,968 years ago that
ellow-man
might live in
the love of the Father.
-2-
American people
Ant
hours
after
Martin Luther King's death, I urged that the
Join
in a National Day of Mourning. The President/set subsequently following Sunday for that
purpose. I urge that we now mark the entire year of 1968 as a
time of
Reconciliation and Rededication, a time for reaffirmation of
faith in
brotherhood and in equal justice for all men.
Martin Luther King was a wise man. He was an apost le of
non-violence
and brotherhood. He was an apostle because he preached the truth-the truth t hat
good
only by working together and striving together in an
atmosphere
of
can Negro and white Americans alike move ahead, and only in that way can America move
ahead.
Let us now
unite, too, in the cause of
peace in Vietnam and peace
throughout the world.
But let us not be carried away by a false sense of optimism about the
preliminaries to possible peace talks between North Vietnam and the United
States.
We should be aware that the areas for possible agreement between North Vietnam
and the United States are quite limited, as regards South Vietnam's future. We should
also be
sobered by the fact that fierce fighting may continue while talks
are in progress--although I personally hope a cease-fire can be arranged before
lengthy negotiations begin.
[PAUSE]
We
must keep in mind what happened in Korea nearly 17 years ago. Korean
armistice talks began July 10, 1951, at Panmunjom. After that date, 20,620 Americans
were killed in battle--nearly twice the number killed before the t alks started, And
almost as many GI's were wounded after the talks began as before. It was two years and
FORD
575 meetings after Korean negotiations began--on July 27, 1953--that a cease-fire in
LIBRARY
Korea was signed. Today there is still no negotiated peace treaty for Korea, as such.
-3-
While we ponder these harsh facts in the light of today's situation in
Vietnam, we also are faced with a deepening financial crisis at home. Our
dollar continues to shrink as prices continue to climb, and it is 3 only a matter
of
time before world trade collapses unless we
put our fiscal
inamerica
in
house in order n The President and the Congress must act--and soon-if we are to
avert financial chaos.
This is your congressman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington. I'll
be talking with you again next week--same time, same station.
#####
GERALD FORD LIBRARY
RADIO SCRIPT TAPED APRIL 10, 1968, FOR FIFTH DISTRICT USE THE WEEKEND OF APRIL 19-21.
This is your congressman, Jerry Ford, reporting from Washington.
in a fewdays
Congre SS will be coming back to town next week with'a tremendous work load
facing it.
The immediate problem which must be solved by the
Congress is one of great importance to every American. It is the continuing
fiscal crisis which threatens the Nation with deep / economic
trouble
When Congress adjourned for Easter recess, the question of putting this Nation's
fiscal house in order was left completely unresolved. Congress did the bare minimum,
extending the automobile excise tax at 7 per cent and the telephone tax at 10 per cent
until April 30.
august
Now Congress must decide what to about cutting the President's $186 billion
fiscal 1969 budget and possibly raising, federal income taxes. The spe nding cut-and-tax/pot
-increase
theattention and
must be taken off the back burner and brought to a boil. One of the top money
one of the firest most responsible fiscal experts in the country
managers in the country has stated bluntly that we will be courting
financial disaster if we do not hold down federal spending and produce more federal
the nept
revenue within Asix months.
It is expected that the Democratic chairmen of the House Ways and Means
Committee and the House Appropriations Committee will come up with a package which
will do just that--throttle-down federal spending and bring in more tax money.
I will be taking a good hard look at that package when it is finally put together.
While Congress has yet to deal with our financial crisis, I have great
hope that the worst may be past in the racial strife which has stunned our Nation.
Actions taken by the Congress prior to Easter recess should (go far
to provide equal justice for all of our citizens--to guarantee them fullicitizenship ALLBRAM
-2-
in housing,
the use of public accommodations and in our courts of law. The
Congress not only acted to protect civil rights of every citizen but specifically
the
banned discrimination in the selection of and juries in federal court cases, I
applaud such action.
In other activity before the Easter recess,
The Congress also moved to provide Americans with greater protection from
riot activity. Congress made it a
teach
federal offense for anyone to manufacture or the use of firearms or
explosives to be used in a riot. Congress also approved an anti-riot
provision which originated with House Republicans- a law making it a federal
offense for anyone to cross a state line with intent to incite a riot. Incidentally,
initially
the House approved such legislation last July 19 when a bill introduced by Rep.
William Cramer, a Florida Republican, was passed 347 to 70.
But
Congress has yet to complete action on major crime legislation, although
the national crime rate has gone up 83 per cent since 1960. The House passed
a National Law Enforcement Assistance Act last year but the Senate has not yet
approved its version of the legislation.
The only significant anti-crime legislation passed by the House thus far this
sponsored
year is measure aimed at loan sharks with crime syndicate stripes--legislation which
makes it a federal crime for anyone to engage in interstate transactions involving
the lending of money at rates higher than the state maximum. The House also banned the
sending of automobile master keys through the mail to try to reduce auto theft.
loan shark
The legislation was made part of any Lexcellent new statute "Truth-in-Lending
Law" which requires that a lender or seller make fully known to a borrower or purchaser
just what a loan or credit transaction will cost in interest.
Congre SS failed to deal with the balance of payments crisis before Easter. The
basic cure for that problem is the same as for inflation-sliminating non-e ssential
-3-
federal spending and adopting a system of national priorities for the best possible
use of federal dollars. I was not sorry to see / Congress reject
the President's plan to impose a per diem tax on overseas travel because
the
President's proposal in effect interfered with Americans' right to freedom of movement.
The truth is that the drain on United States gold is not the cause of the dollar's
cheap
difficulties but the result of them--the result of inflation and magagemoney policies.
This is your congressman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington. I'M
be talking with you again next over this same station.
FORD LIBRARY & GERALD
SCRIPT FOR TAPING WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 1968, FOR WEEKEND USE BY FIFTH DIST. RADIO STATIONS
This is your congre ssman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington.
A strange kind of quiet has settled over Washington and the rest of the
Nation in the aftermath of the riots and the feelers toward a
start on Vietnam peace negotiations.
It is a deceptive kind of quiet because none of the big problems has been
solved.
Peace in Vietnam is no less a huge question mark than it was before. The central
cities still are seedbeds of potential rioting. The condition of the dollar
still is critical, and the cost-of-living continues to rise.
But these problems have taken on a different cast in view of President
Johnson's decision not to seek reelection.
By that I mean that the President's withdrawal from the 1968 presidential
contest has given him far greater freedom of action as
the Nation's chief
executive. He now is free to deal with the major problems facing the country without
worrying about the consequences of his actions at the polls in November.
I don't think this will have any particular effect on the President's future
policies regarding Vietnam.
Whether or not the peace
talks
proceed
at
this time, I doubt that the President has any intention of abandoning his objective
of making South Vietnam an indep@ndent, non- Communist nation. And for that I highly
FORD
commend him. I also applaud the fact that he obviously has decided to put
of roughly 550,000 on commitment of U.S. military personnel to RRALD to tnam, with
cellips BRARKS By
the burden we now are carrying to be shifted gradually to the South Vietnamese.
I strongly feel we should phase out bur effort and phase in
But I cannot understand the President's relucatance to do whatever is necessary
the Southwietnamesse effort
-2-
Frankly,
to put America's fiscal affairs in order.
I am baffled by the President's
refusal to
propose
spending cuts sufficient to win support in Congress for his
proposed 10 per cent income tax increase.
This attitude would be understandable in a President who was intent on
winning reelection and was afraid that spending cutbacks would alienate certain
groups of voters. But if we can believe the President S
in the White Houses
disavowal of interest in another term, the political effects of cuts in his budget
should be of no great concern to him.
The President may, of course, be concerned about the effect that spending cut
^
proposals
would have on the Presidential ambitions of Vice-President
Hubert H. Humphrey.
Apart from this political speculation, I personally feel that deep cuts in the
President's fiscal 1969 budget would be beneficial to the country in this current
crisis.
And I know this--that the Congress is not going to approve an income tax increase
without deep spending cuts because this would be just an invitation to speed up the
spending spiral in the / years 4 immediately ahead of us.
There often that is is misunder misunderstanding when spending
cuts are talked about
The truthis
simply atempo any
)
that such reductions usually are hold-down in the level of federal spending.
We should remember that the President has proposed a fiscal 1969 budget of $186 billion,
including plans, to spend $10.4 billion more in 1969 than in the fiscal year which
and must lake
harm
will end this June 30. A budget of that size can take deep cuts without
they
to
essential programs. In fact, 70 House Republicans have proposed
GERA cuts FORD LIBRARY
totalling $6.6 billion which would in no way impair our social programs.
They would redirect $2.5 billion of that sum into human renewal efforts.
-3-
what
These same House Republicans point up many of us have been trying to
get across for years. It is not just that the federal government is spending such
huge amounts but the fact that the money is not herber being spentx wisely.
That's why we have repeatedly called for a re-ordering of federal priorities,
with a fresh emphasis on meeting the crisis in the cities through on-the-job
training by industry for the hard-core unemployed and the underemplowed--training that
will mean good-paying jobs for persons who otherwise might turn to violence.
This is your congressman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington. I'll
be talking with you again next week-same time, same station.
######
BERALD FORD NORARY
Radio-Television Script
NATIONAL REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE
312 CONGRESSIONAL HOTEL
WASHINGTON 3. D. C.
LINCOLN 4-3010
Script No. 15
April 29, 1968
SOLVING.OUR FISCAL PROBLEMS
This is Congressman
reporting to you from
Washington.
Listen to these headlines: "Cost of Living Takes Another Jump"... "U.S.
Gold Supply Dwindling" "Some Interest Rates at Highest Level Since Civil Wer"
"Dollar Stability Threatened."
Like most Americans, I am concerned that the United States is heading
toward financial disaster--unless something is done to head it off at once. The
dollar is under repeated attacks in the international financial markets. Our gold
supply is at the lowest level in over 30 years. Interest rates have reached the
highest point in this century and some are at the highest level since the Civil War. And
inflation has driven up the cost of food and shelter and services to the highest level in
our history.
I can't believe that there is one adult worker who isn't sincerely alarmed
at today's inflationary attack on his pocket book and his savings. They are bewildered
that nothing constructive seems to be done about it. Most Americans, I believe, are
prepared to accept the bitter medicine of a tax raise--if they are convinced that it will
be effective. One of my constituents put it this way: "Well, at least we will be doing
something if we raise taxes, not just letting things drift."
How did we reach this critical point? What can we do about it?
To start with, the government has spent billions and hired millions presumably
to do something. The results, as you all know, have been meager in the extreme. So,
obviously, more government is hardly the answer. As I see it, we must now work through
our free competitive system, our free enterprise to try to arrive at solutions. We must
put more trust in the self reliance of the American people. We must give back to the
FORD
States and the various communities some of the responsibilities they once had. For
De
the Federal Government to pour out funds locally lacks effectiveness.
(MORE)
-2-
A greater part of the taxes raised in the States should therefore be returned to them.
We must live within our national income, Nearly all our troubles today are
the result of wild spending, wasting our substance, as the Bible puts it. We've got to
spend wisely, carefully and with an eye to the future.
We've got to reduce the tax load the workers and investors of this country are
staggering under--which means, of course, cutting spending. We've got to halt the
present inflationary trend--which goes hand-in-hand with reduced Federal spending.
Only by doing these things can we win back our financial strength and the
respect of the world.
Quite frankly, our financial affairs have reached such a pass that most of the
rest of the world thinks US somewhat financially insone, I'm sure. And it isn't as if we
hadn't been warned. Nikolai Lenin, the father of Russian Communism, in 1917 wrote:
"Germany will militarize herself out of existence, England will expand herself out of
exist ince, and America will spend herself out of exist nce."
Unless we do something about it--and quickly--thase words could be only
too true.
This is Congressman
reporting from Washington.
(Note: A copy of this script is available on Teleprompter in the House TV
Studio. For additional information on this script or to suggest ideas for future scripts,
contact the Committee's Public Relations Office.)
###
SCRIPT FOR TAPING MAY 1, 1968, FOR WEEKEND USE BY FIFTH DISTRICT RADIO STATIONS
This is your congre ssman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington.
Last week the "Committee of One Hundred," the leaders of the Poor People's
March, visited Washington and talked with cabinet officials, congressional
leaders and members of the Congress. They also testified before the Senate
Poverty Subcommittee.
Their message, with slight variations, was generally this.
"We don't want handouts. We're sick of handouts. We want jobs."
This is a message that I have been trying to get across for a long long time.
The best answer to poverty is a good-paying job.
Congress has been trying to provide that answer. I don't think we have been
doing enough. I think we have not been doing everything we should have been doing.
the Congress
I think our basic approach has been wrong.
More than three years ago the Administration launched a War on Poverty. In
fiscal -1964-65--
the first may Congre SS authorized the spending of $800 million; the second
year, $1.5 billion; the third year, $1.6 billion; and for the current fiscal
year, $1.75 billion.
smade
Some local programs, notably our own in Grand Rapids, have been marked FOR
success ful Proper leadership has been the key.
& LIBRARY OERALD
But nationally a clear sense of
direction did not
hurried
several at years the
emerge from all the fine rhetoric that accompanied the launching of the program.
too many
As a result, there has been great waste in Some instances and meager results in others.
for instance
Much has been learned from the Poverty Program at great cost. We know that the
-2-
individual programs are important. Head Start, Work Experience, Upward Bound,
Community Action, legal services, the Neighborhood Youth Corps, the Job Corps
and others can be successful if properly administered.
But we should be doing much more--and the key to what we should be doing is
jobs. We should be actively
recruiting and training the hard-core unemployed,
the potential rioter, the people who are tax eaters and not tax payers.
In recent speeches I have been saying that America's businessmen should become
socially conscious--as socially conscious, let us say, as a college student burning
with a desire to remake the world.
I have been saying this because I believe that only business and industry, with
an assist from government, can cure what ails our cities--and, specifically, the
people of the central city.
The problem of the cities is complex. The Boverty Program won't solve it. The
Urban Renewal Program won't solve it. The Model Cities Program won't solve it.
The problem ranges from lack of jobs to bad housing, and from faulty education
to inadequate police protection.
The civil disorders of this year and the last several years have brought the
problem to a head, so that we now speak of the crisis of the cities.
The riots actually involve only a tiny fraction of The
one four own
slums were there before the riots--and they must be erased if America is to be
healthy and truly prosperous.
GERALD FORD LIBRARY
alone
Government c annot solve the problem. It needs the help of business and industry.
Business can put its influence and special skills behind sorely needed changes in
-3-
city school systems. Busine SS could turn the huge need for low-rent city housing
into a big and profitable market--if some government-imposed rules now regulating
were
housing
changed. And busine SS alone holds the one key to
breaking the poverty cycle. That key Irepeat, is jobs. that key
1
What Congre SS should provide--and has thus f ar refused to provide--is
push a massive program of
tax credits as an incentive for industry to on-the-job training and jobs
which d think thats will be for more meaningful Than
for the hard-core unemployed. d strongly favor this approach
anything This your congre been ssman, done Jerryl before. Ford, reporting to you from Washington.
#####
FORD LIBRARY & GERALD
SCRIPT RECORDED MAY 8, 1968, FOR WEEKEND USE BY FIFTH DISTRICT RADIO STATIONS
This is your congre ssman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from the Nation's
Capitall
The Democratic-controlled 90th Congress now is moving toward passage of
legislation which will add 10 per cent to personal and corporate income tax bills
a tax increase I feel Congress would not even be considering if
federal spending had been held down beginning in early 1966.
The lesson that this teaches us is that an affluent society cannot meet
all of its needs at the same time. It also tells us that what this
Nation's leaders should have done long ago was to lay down a set of
needed
could
national priorities- decide what most to be done, how it best be
done , how fast it could be done, and how much it would cost
and how to finance it.
This is the only sensible practicle conduct the government's busine SS and
to solve the people problems. It's the way a responsible family runs its affairs.
Father and mother budget according to their income, deciding what they need most
and what they can afford. They finance some items again only in terms of
what they can afford.
But what do we find happening in Washington at the seat of national government?
The federal government will wind up the fiscal year ending this June 30 with FORD
,RALD LIBRAR
deficit of about $20 billion. That's a fancy way of saying the government
will go $20 billion in the hole, adding that much to the national debt and increasing
greater Than
the interest on the debt. The interest on the national debt already 10 close to
each 12 months
$15 billion years
-2-
Looking at the spending that the Johnson Humphrey Administration has
planned for the new fiscal year starting this July 1, we find the federal government
would go about $25 billion in the hole. So economy-minded members of Congress-and
I am one of them--try hard to make deep cuts in the President's fiscal 1969 budget.
And
the
President demands an income tax increase. So now these two attempts to
avoid a crushing $25 billion deficit in fiscal 1969--reduce it to manageable
propor are being combined in a compromise package aimed at attgacting
votes! by cutting spending and raising more revenue.
The President contends that spending cuts of $6 billion in his $186
billion fiscal 1969 budget ould hurt some of our
social welfare programs.
or perhaps some of our
The answer is a setting of priorities to make sure the most effective and
most meded programs get all the funds required for them to function well. The
fadly needed
Johnson-Humphrey Administration has done nothing to set forth such priorities--and
neither has the Democratic leadership in the House.
Recently Some 70 House Republicans have therefore come up with a proposal to
cut federal spending by $6.6 billion 23 areas of the
President's budget and to redirect $2.5 billion of this amount into areas of
urgent human need, The $2.5 billion would supplement existing funds for certain
social welfare and educational programs and would constitute what Republicans
call a Human Renewal Fund.
FORD DERALD LIBRARY SERALD
It was in line with this re-ordering of national priorities that
Republicans prevailed upon the House of Representatives to cut $338 million from
leaving it at roughly $4 billion the next 19 mmiths
the President's dollar request for the space program in fiscal 19693 These
-3-
cuts will not delay the Apollo man-on-the-moon program or affect our military
space effort. I have always been and still am a strong supporter of our space
program. But other demands on the federal dollar are forcing Congress as to establish
new priorities during this current fiscal crisis.
It is time that Congress put this country's fiscal house in order.
It is time that Congress launched a human renewal program which will yield
meaningful results. It is time to establish definite national goals and to move
toward those worthy objectives.
reporting
This is your your congressman, Jerry III Ford, to you from
Washington.
#####
ALD CRALDR FORD
RADIO SCRIPT FOR TAPING WEDNESDAY, MAY 15, 1968, FOR WEEKEND USE BY 5TH DIST. STATIONS
This is your congressman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from the Nation's
capital.
President Johnson has designated the month of May as Senior Citizens Month.
I think it is highly appropriate that we
take time to give special
attention to the problems of the elderly in America. And it is especially fitting
that this be done during May since Mother's Day is observed during that month.
The elderly are now a very large group in this country. Of the estimated
224 million Americans, nearly 20 million are over 65 and another eight million are
between 60 and 65.
As we all know a major problem for the elderly.
lack income of is sufficient spocing
Of the 20 million senior citizens, one-third of those with a spouse or family
have less than $2,500 a year to live on, and two-thirds have less than $5,000.
For
those elderly who are single the situation is even worse, with 71 per cent having
incomes of less than $2,000.
Today the biggest problem the elderly have in relation to income is inflation.
While Congress generally takes two or more years to adjust Social Security
payments, the cost of living keeps climbing higher and higher. Prices go up but
the income of most elderly persons stays the same. This is cruel and it should not
be permitted to continue.
What can be done about it?
A Republican task force headed by John B. Martin of Grand Rapids has made some excellent
seek to
recommendations recommendations I would implement if my party were in control of
the Congress.
FORD LIBRARY is GERALD
First of all, inflation must be slowed down and price stability restored. This
can be accomplished only if the federal government puts its fiscal house in order and
-2-
stops spending far more than it takes in. A spending cut-tax increase package soon
ferotedon
to
1040 in the Congress will
help
to
slow down
inflation
I
don't want a tax increase. Nobody wants a tax increase. But
Congress must act because the monetary and fiscal policies followed by the party
in control for the past seven years have created a terrible fiscal
crisis for this country. It is perhaps the greatest financial crisis I have witnessed in
the 20 years I have been privileged to represent the Fifth District in Congress.
This means Congress must follow the right course-and that course is a policy of
fiscal responsibility.
If inflation can be slowed down and relative price stability restored, this
will benefit all Americans and particularly the elderly on fixed incomes.
There is more we can and should do for the elderly.
I have long urged that Social Security payments be tied to the cost of living.
This would make it possible to keep the payments at a level sufficient for the
needs of the elderly - in times when the cost of living is rising. Without
such
a
provision,
the elderly must wait too long for the Congress to act.
Our task force also would increase the earnings limitation for Social
Security recipients, increase widows benefits, provide special job placement
services for older workers, and share federal income tax revenue with the states
to bring about improved old age assistance benefits the state level.
Another recommendation would restore to the elderly who pay taxes the
right to deduct all medical expense on their income tax returns. This would include
the cost of drugs. The majority party removed this privilege when edicare
was enacted. The result has been hardship for many of the elderly whose out-of-
hospital drug costs are an expensive item.
GERALD LIBRAR
-3-
Meantime the special premium that the elderly pay for the voluntary portion
of Medicare benefits is going up as a result of the inflation
fed
by
federal government extravagance.
This is a good time-when we are observing Senior Citizens Month--to consider
what must be done to
assure the elderly of the respect
they deserve and to help them lead useful and dignified lives.
This is
your congressman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington.
######
GERALD FORD
SCRIPT TAPED WEDNESDAY, MAY 22, 1968, FOR WEEKEND USE BY FIFTH DISTRICT STATIONS
This is Congressman Jerry Ford reporting to you from Washington.
As Memorial Day, 1968, approaches, it seems appropriate to think a bit
about this great nation of ours and the men who
fought
to make it great.
The early pioneers, for instance, battled against tremendous odds. But
they persevered and they began the building of a mighty nation. They came:
the American people must practice
to know that eternal vigilance against the foes of freedom
if freedom is to survive.
Because of the eternal vigilance of the Americans who have gone before us,
America was born and lived on and grew great. On Memorial Day, 1968, we will
be
thinking deeply about this *eternal vigilance" to which we
owe so much.
We will be t hinking, too, of the American dream and all it encompasses.
We will pledge renewed - determination that those who died for the
American dream shall not have died in vain.
As the flags flutter and the bugles sound, we may ask ourselves what we-now--
can do for our country. The answer is that we all can serve, we alli can
participate in the ongoing making of America and the shaping of its future whether
we
proudly wear the uniforms of the Nation we love or simply
live the
andmust
lives of honest, hard-working citizens. We can become involved. We can be a
part of America, and not just a bystander. We can all be players and not just
spectators. We can be keenly aware of America's problems, share in working out
the
solutions, exercise the great privilege of voting on Election Day
GERAL and FORD make LIBRARY
democracy work a little bit better.
-2-
Although olence shakes the country, we must never despair. We mus pray
and work for peace at home and abroad. And we must not fear change in our
domestic affairs because everything is actually the product of change.
We can only devoutly wish that the proponents of violent change would
consider that democracy and representative government are dynamic, not
static. And the proper channels of change in a democracy are peaceful and
responsible dissent--debate, deliberation, a dialogue
between those of differing views, and thoughtful decisions by the people
and those in positions of public trust.
The American people do have a common purpose. It is perhaps best described
in the term, "The American dream." From that dream flows the many things that
unite us. We can all agree on such goals as peace, social justice, and equal
opportunity. We can forget for the moment the debates
over how best to achieve those goals withmin our ava ilable means and resources,
Perhaps we can also agree on other things. That the easy political
promise to solve complex problems through a federal program or a federal law is
often very mislèading. That respect for the law is just as important as reliance
upon it. That though our Nation's historic reliance on Divine Guidance may no
longer be observed with prayer in our public
schools, it nevertheless gives
matt
us dignity and courage in times of national turmoil and orisis. That if
Hiller Muscline
yesterday's generation had not fought the Axis powers, during world War 2 or
might
gone to the defense of South Korea, today's generation
not know the freedom
which some of them have chosen to disgrace. That the power and the glory and
the bright promise of our heritage remains essentially untarnished in the hearts
ALD LIBRARY
and minds of most Americans. That Stalin's daughter not only fled from her
-3-
country to ours, but she gave us a
testament as to why when she said:
"....I have come here in order to seek the self-expre ssion that has been denied
me for so long in Russia Also, religion has done a lot to change me I found
that it was impossible to exist without God in one's heart.
This speaks to all Americans. And as we prepare to observe Memorial Day, 1968,
I take comfort in the certain knowledge that faint hearts have not shaped our
destiny in the past, nor will they in the future. We can be proud that love of
God and country still reign in the
hearts of Americans.
This is your congressman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington.
GERALD FORD LIBRARY
SCRIPT TAPED WEDNESDAY, MAY 29, 1968, FOR WEEKEND USE BY FIFTH DISTRICT STATIONS
This is your congressman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington.
This is a hectic time. All of us are caught up in the cautious hope of
the Vietnam peace talks in Paris, the chaos of the student violence at colleges
and universities in America and around the world, the oratory of the presidential
primaries, and the tenseness of the "Poor People's Campaign."
Here in Washington, sweeping anti-crime legislation appears on the way to
final enactment after Senate approval of a much broader measure than that passed
by the House last August.
Differences between the House and Senate bills must be resolved by a
specially appointed committee of congressmen and senators and then brought before
both the House and Senate for final approval.
I hope there is no long delay in the final enactment of this legislation.
Any sticky points must be cleared up Manager through compromise- and quickly.
Nation does faces a crime
We can build a better society only in an atmosphere of law and order. Our
crisis. The problem is of the greatest urgency. It
demands immediate action and certain solution. The American people are fed up
with crime and criminals. They want an end to lawlessness. They want the
law
enforced. but firmly
I believe the National Law Enforcement
Assistance Act about to be
help enlist
implemented by the federal government through action of Congress will
every
in the country
law enforcement agency in a national crackdown on crime.
Every community, every state and the Federal Government cooperating
with all of their joint force--must put an end to the crimem wave which is reaching
FORD
alarming proportions in many areas of America. No greater problem faces us
LIBRARY BRARY BERALD today,
-2-
We must of course seek to build a better society at the same time that we
move to restore law and order in America
I believe the war against crime can only be won by getting business and
industry to work closely within all levels of agovernment on plans for community
progress in jobs, education and housing.
Industry, through voluntary efforts like the Nationial Alliance of Busine ssmen,
can make a meaningful contribution by providing
summer jobs for central city youth. But what we really need powever 1 are permanent jobs--
the kind that would be created by new legislation ) which I am supporting.
This bill would provide tax credits to employers to provide on-the-job
training for the hard-core unemployed; community employment for those who cannot
be employed by private enterprise; creation of a noneprofit, non-governmental
corporation to coordinate programs and provide technical assistance to private
businesses, and an examination and evaluation of all federal manpower training
programs by the General Accounting Office. I think this is the way to provide
thousands of permanent new jobs for the hard-core unemployed--a way to make them
taxpayers instead of tax-eaters.
Speaking of taxes, one of the compelling reasons why Congress and the
President must cooperate to reduce the
$25
to $30 billion deficit
facing us in fiscal 1969 is that interest rates are going sky-high.
Interest rates are so high now that for many families home ownership is
out of the question. For others, it means taking on a fantastic obligation
in
future interest costs.
The higher interest costs go, the harder it is for debers to repay
their FORD LIBRARY
GER
debts, the less likely it is they will do so, and the
greater
the
-3-
chance they will
default.
If interest rates keep going up, debtors will find it
impessible to get out of debt at all. This is the trap that high interest rates
may
leadi
many Americans into.
For this and other reasons, we must put the Federal Government's fiscal
house in order right now
This is your congre ssman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington.
######
GERALD FORD NBRARY
Radio-Television Script
NATIONAL REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE
312 CONGRESSIONAL HOTEL
WASHINGTON 3. D. C.
LINCOLN 4-3010
Script No. 20
June 3, 1968
OUR LAGGING DEFENSE
When President Eisenhower left office in January, 1961, he left America
with the strongest defense in the world.
Since 1961, we have steadily been slipping. What has happened to our
defenses?
Because of the importance of this subject, I want to spend the next few
minutes discussing with you the state of our national security.
First, I believe the problem can be summed up in one sentence: There
has not been one new start on any advanced strategic or nuclear weapon since 1960--
since General Eisenhower left the Presidency.
And what has the Soviet Union been doing? Plenty !
The Russians have built and deployed an anti-ballistic missle system.
They admit they are developing an orbital bombardment system.
They are building at least three new fighter aircraft systems, a super-
sonic transport and an aircraft capable of vertical takeoffs and landings.
Their tactical forces are being equipped with new intermediate range
ballistic missiles.
Their surface fleet has a new class of surface-to-surface missile.
They are building and stockpiling very high-yield nuclear weapons--of the
20 to 50 megaton range.
And their nuclear submarine fleet is overtaking ours in quality and
quantity.
If a third world war should come, we would probably be caught with
our nuclear defenses down.
I do not believe I am overstating the case, I don't think people realize it,
but we were certainly caught unprepared when we entered the war in Vietnam. To
support this statement, let me quote Dr. Eugene G. Fubini, Deputy Director of
Defense Research and Engineering from 1962 to 1965. He said. -quote- "Because
the many weapons requirements for the Vietnam war had not been anticipated, the
(more)
-2-
United States was forced to wage the war, not as it ought to be fought, but
according to the weapons available. " Let me quote that last line again, "not as it
ought to be fought but according to the weapons available."
It is a tragic thought that our boys, when we first went into that war,
didn't have the finest weaponry available in the quantities needed, but instead were
armed only with what was available.
No wonder Defense Secretary McNamara's oft- repeated predictions that
we were winning the war, that our boys would be home by Christmas, failed to
:
come true. They were fighting a limited war with limited weapons!
What must be done to overcome this defense lag which now faces us?
First, I believe we must adopt an over-all policy that will assure the
U.S. of military superiority.
Second, we must establish priorities for the development of needed
weapon systems and they must be adequately financed.
Third, we must restore responsibility and initiative to responsible
commands of the military departments.
And fourth, we must encourage research and development.
The great businesses of America set aside a large proportion of their
earnings for research and deveolpment of new and better products, They know
that this is essential to their survival. Research and development in new weapons
of war is, in my opinion, absolutely essential to our survival as a Nation. And
for eight long years we have neglected, to a large degree, both these eseentials.
We must reverse this trend before it's too late.
(Note: A copy of this script is available on Teleprompter in the House TV Studio.
For additional information on this script or to suggest ideas for future scripts,
contact the Committee's Public Relations Office.)
###
SCRIPT FOR TAPING WEDNESDAY, JUNE 5, 1968, FOR WEEKEND USE BY FIFTH DISTRICT STATIONS
(Seatement about Senator Kennedy erased)
This is your congressman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington.
At this time when militant students are creating an
uproar
on
some
college campuses, it seems
appropriate to take a look at all of our
youth. We know that the violent activists are just a fraction of our youth, and
that mahy of them are mistaken idealists.
Certainly there must be firm action to restore order to our campuses--and
also to our city S treets.
But it seems to me we might also consider--those of us who are adults--whether
the old answers and approaches--good for other eras--are adequate for the
problems of youth today.
As I have watched and talked with young people over the past few years, I
them
have found eagera to share in the real life of this country.
It is
important to provide them with that opportunity--an opportunity to become part of
the decision-making process in America.
I am convinced a greater effort must be made to determine the root causes of
youth problems in modern American society. To
that end, it might be well to a establish a National Commission on Youth
Problems to study and come up with recommendations. Such a group could come up with
some judgments on how well "Our traditional legal and social
structure fits today's
youth; how effective our educational system is in preparing today's youth for the
chal lenge of living in a modern world; whether our laws regarding voting age, the
age of legal majority, and other laws regulating youth in our society are effective
FORD
as
and relevant. I think it is urgent that we act to bridge what is common] DEBALES known
BRARY
"the generation gap."
-2-
Certainly one of the great clouds that hang over our young people today
is the Vietnam War. I hope and pray that the peace talks in Paris
ultimately
will bring about an honorable settlement of that bloody conflict.
Meantime, I think we should look to the day when we
might end the
draft.
It is unrealistic to end the draft while the Vietnam War is going on, but
a)
peacetime army might very well be a professional army and not a conscription
force.
Not long ago a distinguished panel headed by Rear Admiral Lester E. Hubbell
issued
a report containing a formula to end the draft.
Unfortunately, the
Administration has never made the report public.
The Hubbell Panel believes that peacetime Selective Service could gradually
be abolished--because
many
young Americans would take up military S ervice as
a career if it was made attractive enough.
The Federal Budget Bureau has rejected the propesal on the ground that the timing
is bad--that this is a tight money year.
It's true thats the federal government gaces a
fiscal crisis. but I think Congress nevertheless could begin laying plans
for
a gradual phaseout of the draft.
In that connection, five Republican congressmen recently praised the Defense
Department for taking the first steps toward a program which will restructure the
armed forces pay system. This was a move toward a salary structure of military ay.
It is a first step toward an all-volunteer army and an end to the draft.
GERALD FORD LIBRARY
Unfortunately, the Pentagon failed to include first-hitch recruits in the
program.
This
is
a serious defect and works against the
purpose of attracting
-3-
Army volunteers.
If we make military pay
I would like to see an early end to the draft.
commemisurate with civilian pay scales, I am sure many young men who would like
to serve then would find it possible to volunteer.
This will be the last of my reports from Washington for this year. The reason
is that I will shortly be filing my
petitions as a candidate for reelection
to Congress. The "equal time" provision
of the broadcast laws then will apply--and so I will say goodby until--hopefully--next
January. 2 with In Thank the statum for its cooperation in making
This time available each week an a public smile feature + Thank mh interning for
This is your congre ssman, Jerry Ford, reprorting to you from Washington.
####
FORD MERARK