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Remarks of the President at the Public Rally for Senator Dole, Century II Convention Center [Ford Speech or Statement]
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Remarks of the President at the Public Rally for Senator Dole, Century II Convention Center [Ford Speech or Statement]
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Digitized from Box 4 of the White House Press Releases at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NOVEMBER 2, 1974
OFFICE OF THE WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY
(Wichita, Kansas)
THE WHITE HOUSE
REMARKS OF THE PRESIDENT
AT THE
PUBLIC RALLY FOR SENATOR DOLE
CENTURY II CONVENTION CENTER
8:37 P.M.
CST
Thank you very, very much, Bob, Larry Winn,
Garner Shriver, Keith Sebelius, Bob Bennett, other
distinguished office holders and candidates, wonderful
Kansans:
It is great to be here despite the weather. I
love you. Thank you.
You know, it just came to my attention as I
was sitting here that I have been at a good many cities,
communities, in the last several months as I have tried
to get out and meet people and talk to the American
people. And we have had abnormally wonderful weather,
until tonight. There were only two places where we had
any rain -- one in Tucson, Arizona, where they are never
supposed to have any, and the other in my home of Grand
Rapids, Michigan, when I went back for a homecoming last
week.
Well, they were great in both Tucson and Grand
Rapids, and you are superb here in Wichita. And I thank
you for your warm, friendly, enthusiastic welcome.
As Bob was going through the process of making
the introduction, I tried to think of how many times,
how many places I have been in Kansas in the last 25-plus
years as a Member of the House, as Minority Leader,
as Vice President and President.
And I wrote down, I think, most of them -- I am
sure I missed some -- but we went out to Great Bend.
Wasn't that wonderful out there last year? It rained
there too, but that was all right. But I have been in
Dodge City, and you know what they do to you in Dodge
City.
And I have been in Kansas City, Kansas, just
recently, and I have been in Wichita here several times.
Well, I like Kansas.
MORE
(OVER)
Page 2
I like Kansas because of the people, but I have
another good reason. It has been the home of one of the
finest Presidents this Nation has ever known, the great
Statesman from Abilene, Dwight D. Eisenhower.
As you look at the history of Ike Eisenhower,
you know that he set a standard of integrity, achievement,
that iseverlasting, both to his country and to his State.
Ike's record was unblemished and I pledge to you that
I will do the very best of my ability to follow the
path and the footsteps of that great American. If I
can achieve just a bit of what he did, it will be worth
every hour, every day of anything I can do in the years
ahead.
I have another reason to enjoy coming to Kansas.
The campaigns here always seem to have a little more fun
than other States. You know, take the race for Governor.
Somebody just told me the latest Republican slogan. It
goes something like this: "Let's put Bob Bennett in the
driver's seat and keep Vern Miller in the trunk." (Laughter)
It is obvious from the reaction that you have
a great candidate in Bob Bennett. His honesty, reliability,
complete and total integrity -- the only thing that Bob
has ever covered up is his chin.
But speaking of things that, you know, get
a little different perspective once in a while -- a
long time ago when I was at the University of Michigan
I played center on the football team and normally, of late
at least, I have been getting some very stately and
dignified introductions. But I can remember quite vividly
an introduction I got about a month ago from an old team-
mate of mine. He was a quarterback and in the process of the
introduction he said, "I played center on the same foot-
ball team with Jerry Ford. I was a quarterback, but I
want you to know I got a little different perspective
of the President than most of you. " (Laughter)
Well, as I have looked at the great Republican
slate that the party has put up here for the Senate,
State offices, Congress, I must say I am proud to be a
Republican and I hope you will all support me.
Having said that, let me add this as a post-
script. I am not here just because of party labels and as
Bob said, I suspect there are many in this audience who
are here who are Democrats, Independents, Republicans,
but I am here to say a word of personal support for
those individuals that I know and who I know, over the
past years, have done a super job in working in the
Congress for Kansas, for you, for our country.
MORE
Page 3
I come because of a personal affection that I
have for everyone whose name I mentioned and a respect
for a group of people that I have known since all of them
came to the Congress because I came before any one of them.
And I have seen them come. I have seen them
grow. I have seen them assume great responsibilities
far beyond that of others in comparable seniority.
Bob Dole, for example, I got to know Bob when he
came and spent eight years in the House of Representatives --
all of it I was not the Minority Leader, but a part of it
was and the rest of the time I was a senior Member of
the House Committee on Appropriations. And I learned then,
in that capacity, in these responsibilities, that Bob
was smart, hard-working, independent, and I can assure
you that when he disagrees with you, it is firm; it is a
little friendly, but it is firm.
He can disagree without being disagreeable. But
what I want you to know is that his independence is predicated
on conscience and his support, when he can and does, is
based on teamwork. You just could not get a better com-
bination. So, if I were in Kansas, I know who I would
vote for.
I have talked about a personal relationship. Let
me talk to you about a very pragmatic reason why you in
Kansas should support Bob. Next year, with a new Congress,
Bob will be the senior Republican Member of the Senate
Committee on Agriculture.
You in Kansas have a great State. I won't get
into the argument of whether seniority is right or wrong.
The fact of life is that in the Senate of the United
States, they will keep that system and Bob will be in that
very influential position which has a great impact as far
as your State is concerned.
But the combination of that responsibility on the
one hand, and a Member of the Senate Finance Committee
on the other, plus the added duty under a new set-up of
being on the Senate Budget Committee -- I don't know how
Bob is going to handle all these great responsibilities,
except I know him, and I know he will do all three in a
first-class way for Kansas, and the country. So, as
a pragmatic reason, you darned well ought to vote for
Bob for the United States Senate.
MORE
Page 4
I am told Bob is in for the political fight
of his life I suspect that is true. But Bob has been
through those fights before. He did it in the service
of his country. He has done it in one political campaign
after another. And I say the test of the man is the
achievement that he has accomplished.
And when I look at his record, believe me, you
just could not do better.
So I am here to help in any way I can to say
to Kansans, whether they are Democrats, Republicans, or
Independents: You ought to keep something that is as
good as Bob is, and he is great.
I have also gotten to know all of your House
Members extremely well. After all, it was part of my
duty as the Republican Minority Leader for almost ten
years to try and corral votes to organize the minority,
to do the best job we could despite the fact that we were
outnumbered 240-something to 180-something.
The Kansas delegation always seems to have
quality, and in Garner Shriver you have got one who has
nothing but quality, and he comes from this great
community, Wichita, in this great Congressional district.
Garner deserves your support.
And let me say again, going from what I would
say would be maybe ideological reasons to pragmatic
reasons. A little over a year ago, we had a fuel oil
shortage. I can recall vividly in the process of
allocating a shortage, the initial decision was to cut
back the portion or the allocation for general aviation.
I was Vice President then. Larry Winn,
Garner Shriver, Bob Dole, Joe Skubitz, Keith Sebelius --
all of them came and knocked on my door, but the ones
who came first for good and sufficient reason, were Bob
Dole and Garner Shriver. And the result was that you got
a better break and therefore you ought to support them
just on that grounds, if not for any other reason.
Well, I don't have to say a lot about Larry
Winn, Joe Skubitz, Keith Sebelius. They all have tre-
mendous records. They have done a great job. We are not
in their respective districts. You just ought to be
darned proud of the Kansas delegation. They are responsible
and they are responsive, and how much better could you
ask a delegation than to have that kind of a reputation?
MORE
Page 5
Now let me speak, if I might, about some
issues. Our biggest problem is twofold. Our biggest
problem is to keep a strong economy, to whip the problems
of inflation, to save the energy that we have, and develop
plans and programs to produce more.
That is our domestic issue. On the other hand
we have a major responsibility of maintaining the peace
and building and broadening and expanding it, working
with our allies, trying to expand our relationship with
any potential adversaries.
Yes, those are serious problems, and I know
some have predicted that the United States is in worse
shape than some of our partners in Europe.
Others say they are far worse off than we. And
then they make allegations that the free world as a whole --
economically, militarily, diplomatically -- is in serious
trouble, and that we should be cowed by and we should
be fearful of those who have a different ideology or
political philosophy.
Let me start out by making this one strong,
categorical, firm statement. I have faith in America.
We are going to make it, and our allies and our
philosophy will prevail, both at home and abroad.
Now we have to do this with the help and
assistance of Republicans, Democrats and Independents.
I know in some instances partisanship has interjected
itself, become a principal element in some of the
Congressional or Senatorial or gubernatorial races.
Well, in the case of Bob Bennett, I don't know
why it should, because you have a great candidate and he
is going to win. I don't know why it should in the case
of Bob Dole because he has a proven record, both at home
and abroad.
I don't know why it should in the case of
Larry Winn or Garner or Joe Skubitz or Keith or your
fine new candidate, John Peterson. These are people who
ought to be supported just on the basis of their backgrounds
and experience and their dedication.
And I am not going to condemn a Democrat --
because there are some good ones -- but what I am concerned
about is the kind of strength in programs and policies.
MORE
Page 6
Let me take the problem of inflation and streng-
thening our economy, saving energy, 31-point program.
I think it is good. I believe it will meet the
challenges that we face. One of the important ingredients
is to hold down Federal spending. There are other parts
of it, but I know that Bob Dole, Larry, Joe, Garner, and
the others are the kind of people who will be most
effective in holding down unnecessary spending, and you
and I know that Federal spending of the magnitude that we
have had over the last 10 or 15 years has been a signifi-
cant cause of the inflation that we have today.
So when you go into that voting booth next
Tuesday, take a look at the voting record of those indi-
viduals on this issue. It is important to you if we are
going to win this battle to save our economic system from
the disasters of others historically, and to give us the
strength to meet the challenges of some of the weaknesses
in our economy.
But let us turn, if I might, to the problem
of building, strengthening, expanding peace. When I went
to the Congress 26 years ago, or almost that, a great,
great Democratic President working with a fine Republican
Congress--the Eightieth. laid the foundation for the
rehabilitation of Europe and the broadening of our free
world throughout the total globe.
It was started with the Greek-Turkish aid
and the Marshall Plan, and some of the other programs
implemented by a military capability and strength that
is aimed at deterrents, not at aggression.
MORE
Page 7
And you in Wichita have a significant part of
it with the Boeing operation here. Strength means
peace and weakness means war.
Well, anyhow, this combination of strength
in the diplomatic field and the military has given to
us in this great country, and to our allies, this kind
of opportunity worldwide. And it has given us the oppor-
tunity to open the doors of greater and broader relation-
ships with some of our potential adversaries, whether it
is the Soviet Union or the People's Republic of China.
We, at this moment, have a unique opportunity,
both at home and abroad, to do something to give us for
the next decades -- not one, two or maybe three --
a brighter America and a better world. And when you
look at this next election -- and I don't mean in a
partisan sense -- what you have to decide is, who, what
Members of the Congress, what candidates, are best
qualified to give us strength here and vision and
strength abroad.
I think you have got them in the kinds of people
I have mentioned, and I know you have because I have worked
with them. I have seen them under pressure. I have seen
them do things that might not have been popular at the
moment because they were right. I have seen them just
perform as wonderful representatives of the people of
Kansas and the people of the United States.
One of the great men of this, and any, century,
of course, was Winston Churchill. He led, as we all know,
Great Britain through a period of far, far greater danger
than anything we face today. But he, too, like myself,
was an optimist. When many, many in Great Britain, and
some of the free world back in those dark days in the
late 1930s, had given up, Winston Churchill would not
succumb to tyranny or the dark era or age of defeat.
Churchill still -- and I can recall vividly because
I was driving a car in, I think it was 1939, and I heard
that wonderful blood, sweat and tears speech -- it was
a great speech in an era, in a period, in a day of
challenge to Britain.
Sometimes, maybe we ought to go back and listen
to what Winston Churchill said in that hour of darkness
for Britain and the free world. But he said then and
not that precise day, but on another occasion, and I
quote: "Do not let us speak of darker days. Let us speak
of sterner days. There are not dark days. These are just
the great days." I say to you in áll sincerity, we are
living in great days.
MORE
Page 8
We are going to have to work maybe a little harder
and sacrifice just a bit more. But if we do our best, and
keep the faith in ourselves and our values, America and
all the other great things that we, as a country, stand
for, our Nation will emerge stronger. and better than
ever.
I know there are some who wish to have the
Government do something for everybody in massive amounts,
but as they seek to promote these kinds of efforts in the
short-haul, I do not think they really forecast what
the long-pull means.
Let me put it this way: I think it is fair
to say a Government big enough to give us everything we want
is a Government big enough to take from us everything we
have.
So, as I close my participation in this great
campaign -- and I have no apologies for traveling some
20,000 or more miles -- being away from the Oval Office,
seeing people as I did in Los Angeles, in Fresno, in Port-
land, Salt Lake, and here in Wichita, being in many other
places for the last month or six weeks -- I think the
American people have the right to see their President
and to have him discuss face-to-face with them his views
and to get from them, by one means or another, their re-
actions, their views, their expressions. This is
what I think America was built on.
The town hall concept may be a little out
of date, but the town hall concept was good enough
to take America through the Revolution and all the
other trials and tribulations that followed, and if it
was good enough in those days, I think it is good enough
for a President to participate in 1974.
And so, as we move to that fateful day next
Tuesday, not in a partisan sense, but in an objective
sense, I think we should all say a little prayer before
we go into the sanctity of that voting booth where
you and your neighbors will make some decisions that
will have a great impact on you individually and your
community, on your State, on your Nation, and some
four billion people all over this great globe.
So, do the best yourself and find literally
hundreds of others to get them to do their best under
these circumstances.
I ask you to pray, for the benefit of our
country and all mankind, and to do your duty.
Thank you very much.
END
(AT 9:05 P.M. CST)