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    "title": "Michigan State College Young G.O.P., East Lansing, MI, October 1948",
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        "Gerald R. Ford Congressional Papers",
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    "ocrText": "The original documents are located in Box D13, folder \"Michigan State College Young\nG.O.P., East Lansing, MI, October 1948\" of the Ford Congressional Papers: Press\nSecretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.\nCopyright Notice\nThe copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of\nphotocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. The Council donated to the United\nStates of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.\nWorks prepared by U.S. Government employees as part of their official duties are in the public\ndomain. The copyrights to materials written by other individuals or organizations are presumed to\nremain with them. If you think any of the information displayed in the PDF is subject to a valid\ncopyright claim, please contact the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.\nspeed by Representative Gerald R. G.O.P. Ford Jr.\nMichigan state College Young\ncast Lansing michigan Oct, 1948\nFriends of the Young Republican Club,\nIt may surprise you to hear me say I'm not here to give a political\nspeech. I'm not going to talk about this specific piece of legis-\nlation or that, although later I'd be glad to answer any questions\nyou may like to ask. Rather, I'm going to turn this into a sort\nof glorified bull-session and shoot my punches as straight as I\ncan aim them.\nFreshman - that's what they call me. If I go to Congress in\nJanuary it'll be my first hitch and I'll be as green as they come.\nStill, I hope to find my way around before too long and then put\ninto action some of the fundamental thoughts which you'll hear me\nexpress tonight.\nFirst of all, I'd like to ask this question. If you're a Republican,\nwhy are? If you're not, I'd like to bring out some reasons why I\nam. Let's just assume for a moment that none of us have any party\nFORD i LIBRARY GERALD\nDigitized from Box D13 of The Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library\naffiliation. Let's assume that we're average Americans, interested\nin the welfare of our country, and the way we vote depends on what\nwe think is right for the nation.\nFrankly, I think the day is gone when a man is a Republican or a\nDemocrat just because his father or grandfather happened to vote\na certain ticket. Today, I believe that young people make up their\nown minds - especially coblege students who have the benefit of all\nthe educational facilities of a great institution like Michigan\nState,\nTherefore, I say let's assume that we're just open minded voters.\nWhen we go to the poles in November we're going to cast a ballot\nfor the best man and the best party because after careful considera-\ntion that's the way we want to vote.\nNow if we are average free-minded Americans there is a great deal\nwe know about the world of 1948. We know that in the past 15 years\nwe have lived through the worst depression in history, the most\nbrutal war, and today we face a threat to world peace that seems to\n2\nFORD i LIBRARY GERALD\nbe even more serious than the one just recently removed. Because\nwe know all this, we won't cast our ballot without a lot of thought.\nWe won't be sold by mere slogans. Whether it's an elephant or a\ndonkey, we won't just let ourselves be stampeded into a decision.\nPAUSE\n***\nFor just a moment I'd like to say a word or two about history.\nToo often we think of history as so many dates in a text-book,\nisolated facts without any bearing on the problems facingous head on.\nBut what is history after all? History is a river of circumstance\nwhose currents and eddies take us through the present and drive us\ninto the future with irresistable momentum. History is the con-\ntrolling channel through which the present runs, and its twistings\nand turnings are bound to affect the plans of our leaders and parties.\nTherefore, it behooves us to ask first of all, where does our nation\nstand in the broad sweep of history?\nJust for a moment imagine that we are able to get above\nthe commonplace events of each day and view the present in terms\nof the broader vista of history.\n3\nFORD i LIBRARY GERALD\nThinking back a few dozen decades we see the past and present in\nstark contrast. A hundred years ago society was a simple affair,\nlargely agricultural and only losely bound together by the slow\nand laborious transportation facilities of sail-boat and ox-cart.\nWhen Adam Smith published the Wealth of the Nations in 1776 he\nclearly saw some of the trends that were beginning to take shape,\nbut even Smith would be astounded at the extremes to which we have\nbeen brought by technological progress. For example, Smith points\nout how specialization in the nail-making trade had increased the\nproductivity of one laborer many times, but even this great economist\nwas unable to foresee that some day nails would be manufactured so\nautomatically that one man could superintend a dozen machines and\nnails would be worth scarcely more than the metal from which they\nare wrought.\nTear\nTechnological progress, then - that is one of the principal currents\nof the immediate past that effect the present.\n4\nFORD i LIBRARY GERALD\nNext, we have the overwhelming trend of what I call the integration\nof society. In less than a hundred years a world which was broken\ninto a thousand parts by mountains, oceans, deserts, and wilderness\nbecame integrated into one, and the result is we have all become\ndependent on one another. This integration of society has taken\nplace so rapidly even today we hardly realize how far it has carried\nus from the world of yesterday.\nGoing back for a moment to Adam Smith and his Wealth of the Nations,\nwe are struck by the fact that his famous economic study was pub-\nlished in the very year that the United States declared its inde-\npendence. 1776. That was a significant year in more ways than one.\nSo here we are in 1948 in an age which is the product of vast histori-\ncal changes: from a losely-knit world in which men lived within their\nown narrow bailiwicks to one in which the whole world is our backyard;\nfrom a world in which nails were made through tedious application of\nsweat and muscle to one in which they spew forth from a machine at a\nrate of thousands per minute. These changes could not have taken\n5\nFORD i LIBRARY\nplace without presenting us with complicated problems. You and I\nare the inheritors of both the blessings and the dilemmas of that\ntransformation. In 1948 we are not only reaping the benefits of\nthat vast historical change. We have also been presented with its\nthorny problems.\nA few moments ago I mentioned the great depression of the 30's. The\ndepression of the 30's was more than an economic collapse - it was\none of the great spiritual crises of all history. For the first\ntime, economic adversity was not merely a problem of one nation.\nIt was a world affair. In the remotest regions men were affected\nand they turned their heads in bewilderment to ask, \"Why? What has\nhappened? Has society become so complicated the machine has become\nthe master of its inventor?\"\nThis question brought a rude awakening Sudenly all the peoples\nof the world awoke to the realization that great changes had taken\nplace. They became acutely aware that a new reality had to be faced.\n6\nFORD i LIBRARY SERVID\nIdealogies that had been for centuries accepted as a matter of fact\ncame into question. Doctrines and creeds were looked upon askance.\nPanaceas and bread-and-butter theories stemmed from the brains of\ntroubled thinkers and the whole world rocked with the reverberation\nof the spiritual show-down. Look, they cried, we are hungry in the\nland of milk and honey! See, they exclaimed, something has gone\nwrong - our dream is a myth and we know not where to turn!\nWe may as well face the fact frankly, that our party - the Republican\nParty, had the misfortune to get caught in this historical dilemma.\nWe were certainly not in any sense the creators of the problem; we\nwere merely the victims of it, and as a result the Democrats rode\ninto power on a wave of protest that was so violent for more than a\ndecade our opponents had a virtual momopoly on the affairs of state.\nA Republican in Washington was an unhappy man. His voice was not\nheard above the braying of the donkey and his protests were of little\navail. With rare exceptions the New Deal was free to experiment, to\nerr, to spend freely and to fumble along promising a better world\n7\nFORD i LIBRARY GERALD\nwith any accounting either in terms of money or fundamental values.\nThe \"outs\" were \"ins\" and vice-versa. At that time the fortunes\nof the Republican party dropped to the lowest ebb in history. The\nDemocrats could do no wrong and we could do no right. That was the\nsituation. Those were dmrk days for party members. They had to\nswallow their pride and take it.\nIn times of crisis like those of the 30's, a great deal had to be\ndone in a short time. There was a wild rush to solve all the problems\nof accumulated history that previously were not apparent. Conse-\nquently, we witnessed some of the most radical departures from\ntraditional methods that were ever suggested and we stood by and\nwatched practices that in looking back emaze us by their naivete.\nBut those were times of crisis - again and again we were reminded\nof the fact - and there was little to be done about 1t. The world\nwas in a mess and there was no denying that.\nProbably the most conspicuous single trendmin those years was the\ntendency of young people to look at the past and say, \"Gosh, what\n8\nFORD i LIBRARY SERALD\nawful mistakes have been made!\" The old slogans of freedom, liberty,\nand equality had a hollow ring because bread became more important\nthan theoretical rights. In some countries this contrast became so\nexaggerated that sensible people were willing to exchange their\npolitical liberties for the ranting and ravings of a Hitler. But\nlest we forget, let us not overlook the fact that to a lesser degree\nwe did the same thing. We were willing to exchange freedom in\neconomic enterprise for the regulatory theories of the NRA; we were\nwilling to give up many of our states' rights and local authorities\nfor Federal subsidy and the largess of a national hand-out. For-\ntunately, our desperation was never as great as that of many European\nnations. That was our good fortune. But the trend was clearly marked\neven here in the land of freedom. It was a historical fact and there\ncould be no denying it.\nLet's be brutally frank. Let's call a spade a spade and let's see\nthis thing in its true historical perspective. It did seem absurd,\ndidn't it, that in a land that was blest with the most lavish\nresources, men were lined up at soup kitchens and there wasn't\n9\nGERALD FORD LIBRARY\njob to be found? It was paradoxical that in a nation that boasted\nof unlimited opportunity well-qualified businessmen saw the savings\nof a lifetime dwindle to nothing and even the most worthwhile invest-\nments turned to paper in the twinkling of an eye? This we can't\ndeny. At that time - and I remember it vividly, a college graduate\nwas fortunate if he got a job pumping gasoline at $15 a week. Many\nof my friends went out from their universities to walk the streets\nand pray for a pittance. It wasn't the exception - it was the rule.\nThose were frightening times and don't ever let anyone tell you\ndifferently. They were times of crisis like I never hope to see\nagain.\nBut despite all this, I still believe that regardless of what poli-\ntical party happened to be in power at that time, certain funda-\nmental problems had to be met. I personally am of the opinion that\nif fate had been a little less cruel to a man like Herbert Hoover,\nhe too would have brought about basic changes and the world would\nhave come forth radically altered. Those changes were inevitable.\n10\nFORD & LIBRARY GERALD\nThey were in the cards of history and nobody could stack the deck\nany differently. Inadvertently - and I stress that word because\nthere were very few countrymen, experts or otherwise, who could see\nthe overall historical pattern - we had allowed the cart to get in\nfront of the horse; we had allowed certain principles of individual\nproperty to become abusive and exploitative. The human factor was\nabused. The scale just didn't balance. There was an undeniable\ndiscrepancy between the rewards of capital and the just return of\nlabor. Look at 1t honestly - - boil it down to its essence, and\nwhy did we have that terrible depression? The truth is that pur-\nchasing power of the majority of wage earners had lagged behind\ntheir earning power. They could fill warehouses with row on row ofd\ngoods, but they did not have the money or the credit to consume what\nthey had manufactured. The result was the inevitable plight of too\nmuch outgo and too little income. It was essentially that simple,\nbut how to solve the situation was less easy to understand.\nLooking at the overall accomplishment of the past few years we see\nthat in general legislation has had one particular aim:\nto bring\nFORD is LIBRARY GERALD\n11\nabout a balance between consuming potential and producing capacity.\nI say that regardless of party we cannot deny that this was not only\ndesirable but it was absolutely indispensable if America was to go\nforward and avoid the pitfalls that trapped many and many a nation\nof the older World beyond the Atlantic.\nBut now we are facing a different situation. Let's consider it for\na moment and then we come to the essential question of how you and\nI will vote in November. Today we have passed the crisis when there\nwas an urgent need for experiment and more experimentation. Today\nthe nation is more prosperous than it has ever been in all its long\nhistory of privilege and achievement. True, this has come about\nlargely through the negative stimulus of the war and the hold-backs\nin production which resulted from five years of all-out military\nproduction. But the way in which recovery came about is a secondary\nquestion - the fact is, we have recovered. Our employment situation\nis better than it has ever been. Today we are turning out more goods\nthan any economist in his wildest dreams could anticipate. We are\na prosperous nation and lucky to be so. Students who go out from\n12\nFORD j LIBRARY GERALD\nour colleges go out with the promise of good jobs and excellent\nfutures. These are, in an economic sense at least, prosperous\ndays. We can be grateful for the fact.\nBut remember, and this is the fact I wish to stress, that in going\nthrough the crisis of war and depression, we have moved closer and\ncloser toward a centralization of authority. Today our Federal\ngovernment is the biggest business in the world. It employs over\n2' million persons, or one out of every thirty workers in this country\ntoday. Its debts and its obligation are so tremendous it is hard to\nconceive how they will ever be paid - and yet they must be paid. In\norder to meet the challenges of our age, the necessities of national\ndefense and world recovery, our national government has grown to\nsuch fantastic proportions it overshadows the activities of our\ngreatest private business - more than that - it overshadows all the\ngovernments of the world. I say that we have now reached the stage\nwhen the increasing cost of the government threatens to rob wage-\nearners of the very gains they have made in the past ten years.\nWe can have another depression - a kind of depression that has never\n13\nFORD i LIBRARY GERALD\nbefore been thought of by our economists and 1t isn't in the text-\nbooks you study. It vill be a depression in which not capital takes\ntoo great a share of our earning capacity so that we lack the where-\nwithal to purchase the goods, but government itself takes too great\na share! That is perfectly conceivable. It can happen and it might\nhappen! And that, my friends, would be a much greater tragedy than\never happened in the '30's because we would be totally bankrupt.\nThe national government would itself be without credit, and then\nwhere would we turn?\nToday out of every dollar you earn, 31 cents of it goes to support,\nstate, local, or federal government. Think of it - 31 cents out of\nevery dollar of national income! Just to take an oversimplified\nillustration, let's assume that in this way approximately 1/3 of\nyour income is diverted to government. If this increases, how\nthen can wage-earners purchase the goods they produce? Oh, yes,\nyou can say that the 31 cents out of every dollar isn't totally\nwasted. It comes back to you in terms of services by those govern-\nmental units - that is partially true, but that depends entirely on\n14\nFORD i LIBRARY GERALD\nthe efficiency of those governmental functions and we all know\nthat the wastes and dissipations of government are far greater than\nthose of private industry. Eventually the discrepancy will come\njust as inevitably as the discrepancy of the past between capital\nand labor came. Yes, there is a new animal in the circus and that\nanimal is the government itself! - a very dangerous breed, to put\nit mildly.\nPersonally, I don't think that the Democratic administration has any\nconception of this threat. They have served their purpose under a\nphilosophy of pump-priming and today with their leadership enfeebled\nby the loss of Franklin Roosevelt and the derelictions of brain-\ntrusters, they are incapable of understanding the times in which we\nare now living. Just as other parties have in the past gotten\ncaught in the swim of history, so now have the Democrats. Truman\nhas neither the mental capacity nor the historical perspective to\nunderstand what is going on. He continues to talk the language\nhe learned from his predecessor, who is now the subject of history\nbooks. The times move ahead, and it's never the danger of the past\n15\nFORD i LIBRARY GERALD\nthat counts - the known and evaluated factors. It's the unpre-\ndictable, the unforseen, and this requires young leadership, vision,\nand imagination.\nWe are living in an age in which the inevitable trend toward centrali-\nzation is thrusting us forward at a pace that is breathtaking. Look\nat your map! See how distance has been whittled down to nothing at\nall, and whether we like it or not we are rubbing elbows with the\nHottentots just as in another era we rubbed elbows with our next\ndoor neighbors.\nAnd how may I ask you, in the face of this overwhelming tide of\nhistory do the Democrats propose to guard your individual liberty\nand mine? How do they propose to assure your security and make this\na world in which we can hope to live peacefully!\nAs near as I can see, the Democratic party has only one way to\nsolve any problem: impose regulation and authority from above.\nThey are a lot like the militarists you and I know so well who\nsolve problems by issuing an order or imposing a restriction.\n16\nGERALD R.ISORD LIBRARY\nthat the kind of world you and I want to live in? I for one say\nemphatically \"No\". That is the worst way possible to get at the\ntrouble. It's appealing - I'll admit that because of its apparent\nsimplicity. But I submit that good government never was a simple\nmatter and it won't start now.\nThe trend toward centralization today is the greatest single problem\nwe face. Now 1s the time for a real Republican idealogy - not an\nidealogy of empty platitudes and threadworn phrases. It is not a\ntime for the old opportunism of the 20's or the laisez faire theories\nof weary editorial writers. Our nation today must have youthful\nleadership! It must have men who have lived through the troubled\ntimes of the past fifteen years and who understand the tide, Gentle-\nmen, as you all know very well, there's a vast difference between\nintelligence and wisdom. Today we are in crying need of that rare\nthing called wisdom in our leadership.\nSometimes amid the clamour of a noisy age, certain facts become\ncompletely obscured. Recently I heard Congressman Judd of Minnesota\nmake this statement, and it impressed me as profoundly wise:\n17\nFORD i LIBRARY GERALD\n\"Some people seem to regard the first ten\namendments to the Constitution, the so-called Bill of\nRights, as guarantees that our government will do this\nor that for the citizen. Rather they are guarantees\nthat the government cannot do this or that to the\ncitizen. Each is a guarantee to the individual citizen\nagainst the powers of his government.\"\nThat kind of thinking is refreshing in this day of totalitarian\nabuse. There is the fundamental distinction in philosophy between\nour party and the Democrats. They have completely abandoned the\nprinciple that there are and should be limits within which good\ngovernment should operate.\nPersonally I think it's high time we go back to fundamentals. We go\nback to the original wisdom of those men who wrote the constitution\nof the United States. I'm not saying they were oracles, I'm not\nsaying they had some mysterious power to see into the future and\nto anticipate every technological change that has since taken place.\n18\nFORD is LIBRARY GERALD\nBut they had something which is very applicable in our day and age:\nthey understood one fundamental that we now must take into considera-\ntion. They knew that of all enterprises the enterprise of government\nis subject to the most drastic diminishing returns imaginable. They\nmore\nknew that one private laborer produces three times as much, in a given\nthe ordenary\nperiod of time as three government bureaucrats. They knew that the\ndignity of man, the exercise of the sacred right of personal choice,\nis after all the most valued possession that any man in any age can\nhope to attain. Economic security? Yes, of course it's important.\nWe must do everything in our power to make sure the present prosperity\ncontinues for years to come. But when the stomach is filled and when\nwe have roofs over our heads, what is the next thing that all men yearn\nfor - whether it's in America, or Europe, and even in Russia where\nfor the time being the light of personal freedom has gone out.\nLIBERTY - that's still a big word, the word that gives meaning to\nlife itself and that means the possible achievement of what you and\nI are always striving for, namely, personal happiness.\nGentlemen, I wish there were time to go deeper into the philosophyforo\n19\nGERALD LIDRANY\nof modern Republicanism which after all is not the easiest thing\nto describe because it is not over-simplified like some doctrines\nwhich today threaten the very spirit of mankind. True Republicanism\nnever will be a doctrine or a panacea that can be written down in\nsimples phrases or explained in terms of one, two, three. Modern\nRepublicanism is a spirit of living. It is a deep understanding of\nthe times in which we live, of the historical trends that brought\nus to this age and the patterns which are likely to follow.\nYou ask me, gentlemen, why I am a Republican? You ask me why I\nthink you should be?\nIn plain words I can put it this way: I am a Republican because I\nbelieve in the essential dignity of mankind. I am a Republican\nbecause I believe that out of the traditions of that party alone can\ncome the wisdom and perception that will guide us along the perilous\npaths of the unwritten history of the future. I am a Republican\nbecause to me there is no greater challenge in the world today than\nto prove to the lost and bewildered peoples of the earth that\n20\nFORD & LIBRARY GERALD\nFREEDOM is essentially the hope of mankind and the very essence of\nLIFE and HAPPINESS on earth!\nThat is why I am a Republican! I think that these are reasons\nenough.\nThank you. Goodnight.\n21\nFORD i LIBRARY GERALD"
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