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65th Anniversary, National Electrical Contractors Association, Washington, DC, October 19, 1966
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65th Anniversary, National Electrical Contractors Association, Washington, DC, October 19, 1966
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The original documents are located in Box D21, folder "65th Anniversary, National
Electrical Contractors Association, Washington, DC, October 19, 1966" 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States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.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.
NECA NEWSFLASH
SATISFACTION ASSOCIATION QUALIFIED INNOLIN NECA THE
NATIONAL ELECTRICAL CONTRACTORS ASSOCIATION INC.
610 RING BUILDING, WASHINGTON, D. C. 20036, FE 8-3585
Paul
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Houston, Texas, October 19, 1966 ---- "Big government does a lot
that affects you, and government does a lot to you, " said Minority Leader
of the U. S. House of Representatives, Congressman Gerald Ford (R-Michigan)
at the 65th Anniversary Convention of the National Electrical Contractors
Association in Houston, Texas today. He adds
government must
be controlled, and only the people can control it. 11 Federal government
size will be contained by strengthening state and local governments.
Businessmen must participate in the legislative process if they would have
a hand in shaping legislation. The best way to do this is by electing a
voice in Washington through a wise choice of representatives.
The full text follows:
THE POSITIVE APPROACH - BUSINESSMAN IN POLITICS
Ladies and Gentlemen:
I am very happy to be here with you, and to demonstrate my pleasure I am
going to let you in on a new economic theory advanced by a newspaperman who
recently shared it with me.
Over a long period going back nearly to the turn of the century, this news-
paper chap has studied the length of women's skirts. By close and unceasing
observation, he came to an unshakable and unswerving conclusion.
That conclusion was that the hemline of women's shirts rises in good
times-- FORD LIBRARY
Digitized from Box D20 of The Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
--2--
you know, things are looking up, as they say--and the hemline falls in bad times.
My friend says he has charts put together by the National Geographic Society
to prove it.
The charts reveal that the skirt began sneaking upward about 1912 until it
reached the middle of the calf. In the 1920's it kept on inching up. And by
1927, girls who blush easily were afraid to sit down. My friend says those were
real good times.
Of course, when the stock market dropped into the cellar in 1929, hem-
lines on skirts fell too. The outlook was really depressing in the early 1930's.
Since then there has been an upward trend, except for some sag in skirts in
the depression years.
Is there really something to my friend's theory?
Judging by what's happened in the stock market lately, I have the feeling that
his ideas don't actually hold up. Or maybe government officials have been
keeping too close an eye on hemlines instead of watching the Dow-Jones averages.
Current developments in women's hemlines and in the economy generally make
it clear just how big a role government occupies in your life and mine.
The people who make women's skirts would like government to mind its own
business. But for other businessmen, government is a big customer, and so they
cultivate Big Brother.
When Big Government regulates, business naturally complains. When Big
Government talks, business listens. When Big Government orders, business obeys.
Is Big Government important to you men in the electrical contracting business?
You bet it is. Government does a lot that affects you, and Government does a lot
to you.
Let me cite an instant example.
You men may not have been bothered too much by the recession in the home
building industry. As I understand it, you are primarily involved in industrial
construction.
3
Investment in industrial plant is of vital concern to you. So, too, are
federal building plans, since the federal government is the largest single customer
for construction services.
As you are well aware, this nation is in the grip of a dangerous inflationary
upswing. Another way to put it is that the bloom is off the boom, and the country
is in trouble, with high prices and high interest rates.
The home building industry is in deep trouble, and so the Congress has acted
to pump more money into mortgage lending.
The American people are deeply concerned about inflation, and so Congress has
acted to dampen what the President has called a highly inflationary sector of the
economy--industrial construction. We have temporarily withdrawn the 7 per cent
investment tax credit. The President has also indicated cutbacks in federal con-
struction in a move to help cool off the overheated economy.
We know that suspension of the investment tax credit will slow down industrial
building activity. I only hope that when the full impact of it hits that it will
not cause a recession in that area of the construction industry.
It was with grave misgivings that I voted for suspension of the investment
tax credit. But because the Administration had relied almost exclusively on high
interest rates to curb inflation, there was really not much choice.
Without intending to be partisan, I feel compelled at this point to say that
a cutback in federal non-military spending as early as last January would have been
more effective and much more desirable than the investment credit suspension
Some businessmen look upon Washington as the fountain of all wisdom and power,
the proper vehicle for solving most problems, the means of keeping the competition
clean and avoiding recessions.
Others are happy to pocket whatever profits Big Government channels their way
but look upon Washington as their natural enemy.
Still others figure Big Government is too big but decide the best approach is
4 -
to play the game, tune in at the tap and try to live with the monster.
Washington is many things to many people. But that the Government is Big - of
that there is no doubt.
How big is Big Brother? He has roughly 2, 600, 000 civil service employees on
his payroll - about 280, 000 in Washington and the rest scattered throughout the
country.
He spends more than $140 billion a year, and his monthly worldwide payroll
comes to a huge $1. 5 billion a month.
For businessmen, this giant bureaucracy often means a mountain of red tape
and a steeper and steeper paperwork burden.
Let's be honest about it. Big Brother is a meddler. He calls this meddling
protecting the public interest. Many Americans agree with him. Many others feel
they are being smothered by Big Government.
The Government is a great collector of statistics, an arbiter of trends, a
publisher of business indicators. Surely no economist is more listened to than
the chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers.
But you can get hung on the law of averages. And that's why Secretary of
Commerce John T. Connor, formerly with Merck & Co., has advised business
firms to employ attorneys who are knowledgeable in economics.
"Many people have drowned in water only three feet deep. 11 Connor points out.
The tone and the amount of federal meddling are pretty much dictated by the
man in the White House, currently Lyndon Johnson. I don't have to tell you how
Mr. Johnson operates with businessmen. Of course, it's only big businessmen he
does business with. This administration has favored big business to the point
that Republicans in Congress had to mount an all-out campaign to rescue the Small
Business Administration.
It is Mr. Johnson, too, who has made the big decisions on what to do or not
to do - about inflation.
--5--
He chose to do virtually nothing about inflation until he sent his investment
tax credit suspension plan to Congress. If that works, he can claim the credit.
But if it flops, his will be the blame.
As the danger of inflation has deepened, so has the Administration's involve-
ment in business.
You are all familiar with the federal government's wage-price guidelines.
We all know what the guidelines were--I say "were", because there's no
question they're as good as torpedoed by Mr. Johnson himself. We know
that the guidelines were nothing more nor less than informal wage and price controls.
There is no such thing as voluntary guidelines not when government enforces
the guidelines by an all-out bare knuckles assault on an entire industry or on its
pace -setters. The guidelines were unworkable.
One reason the guidelines were unworkable was because they were arbitrarily
applied. It just wasn't fair to single out one industry and club it down while
allowing price increases in another area of the economy.
I won't do a post-mortem on the demise of the guidelines. It's obvious why
they collapsed. I have mentioned the guidelines only to underscore the extent of
government meddling in private business under the guise of protecting the public
interest.
I have also cited the guidelines and other areas of government-business
relations to underscore how important it is to you what kind of government you have
in Washington.
It's great to rake in federal dollars, but there's always the rub of government
regulations and sometimes the need to clear business decisions with Washington.
Getting along with the federal bureaucracy sometimes is compared to a Karate
match. You need somebody who knows the ropes to give the federal agencies a good
chop once in a while. You know, just to keep them loose. You need good, tough men
in Washington. You need congressmen and senators who don't join the club but look
6
out for the interests of all the people--and that means all the taxpayers.
I have talked of the expanding Government role in price-setting. This is done
in the name of voluntary restraint and a fight against inflation.
But the ridiculous aspect of it is that this Administration fails to set an
example. What you're hearing is a lot of doubletalk--from the President on down.
Let's put it this way. The Government preaches economy, but it keeps right
on spending money like the proverbial drunken sailor.
Now what can you do about it? I offer you what I call a positive approach
to politics for businessmen.
George Washington once said: "Government is like a fire which, if it is
properly controlled, will light your homes and cook your food and run your factories,
but if it is not controlled, it will destroy you. 11
I am not suggesting that the federal government be dismantled and shipped back
to the states. Although I am an economic conservative, I don't think that would be
desirable or beneficial.
But I do believe that government must be controlled, and only the people can
control it.
I also believe that the more we strengthen our state and local governments, the
less tendency there will be for federal government to grow ever-larger and more
powerful.
I further believe that the more apathetic the people are about their federal
government the more it will grow until it becomes virtually uncontrollable.
You men and women in business are important people. You are important not
only in the business field where you carry on your work; you are important in
politics.
You can do business with government, and you should do business with government.
In many cases, it's your bread and butter. All the more reason why you must become
intimately concerned with what kind of government you have.
NECA NEWSFLASH
National Electrical Contractors Association Inc.
610 Ring Building, Washington, D. C. 20036, FE 8-3585
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Houston, Texas, October 19, 1966----Following is the text of the address
given by Representative Gerald Ford of Michigan, before the 65th Anniversary
Convention of the National Electrical Congractors Association being held here
this week.
THE POSITIVE APPROACH - BUSINESSMAN IN POLITICS
Ladies and Gentlement
I am very happy to be here with you, and to demonstrate my pleasure I am
going to let you in on a new economic theory advanced by a newspapermani.cho
recently shared it with me.
Over a long period going back nearly to the turn of the century, this news-
paper chap has has studied the length of women's skirts. By close and unceasing
observation, be câme to an unshakable and unswerving conclusion.
is
That conclusion was that the hemline of women's skirts rises in good times--
you know, things are looking up, as they say--and the hemline falls in bad times.
My friend says he has charts put together by the National Geographic Society
to prove it.
The charts reveal that the skirt began sneaking upward about 1912 until it
reached the middle of the calf. In the 1920's it kept on inching up. And by
1927 girls who blush easily were afraid to sit down. My friend says those were
for instance,
real good times.
SERALD
(MORE)
NECA SPEECH
-2-
Of course, when the stock market dropped into the cellar in 1929, hemlines on
Andthe
15I
skirts fell too. The outlook was really depressing X in 1000's.
INSERT
Since then there has been an upward trend, except for some sag in skirts in
the depression years.
Is there really something to my friend's theory?
Judging by what's happened in the stock market lately, I have the feeling that
my friend's theory doesn't actually hold up. Or maybe government officials have
been keeping too close an eye on hemlines instead of the Dow-Jones averages, now
that hemlines have climbed as high as four inches above the knee.
Current developments in women's hemlines and in the economy generally make it
clear just how big a role government occupies in your life and mine.
The people who make women's skirts would like government to mind its own
business. But for other businessmen, government is a big customer, and so they
cultivate Big Brother.
When Big Government regulates, business naturally complains. When Big Govern-
ment talks, business listens. When Big Government orders, business obeys.
numbers of the Better Business Bureau?
Is Big Government important to you men in the electrical contracting business?
You bet it is. Government does a lot that affects you, and Government does a lot
to you.
ZADINSEXT
Let me cite an instant example.
You men may not have been bothered too much by the recession in the home
building industry. As I understand it, you are primarily involved in industrial
construction.
Investment in industrial plant is of vital concern to you. so, too, are
federal building plans, since the federal government is the largest single customer
for construction services.
(MORE)
GERMLO FORD TORART
ECA SPEECH
-3-
As you are well aware, this nation is in the grip of a dangerous inflationary
upswing. Another way to put it is that the bloom is off the boom, and the country
is in trouble, with high prices and high interest rates.
The home building industry is in deep trouble, and so the Congress has acted
to pump more money into mortgage lending.
The American people are deeply concerned about inflation, and so Congress has
acted to dampen what the President has called a highly inflationary sector of the
economy--industrial construction. We have temporarily withdrawn the 7 per cent
investment tax credit. The President has also indicated cutbacks in federal con-
struction in a move to help cool off the overheated economy.
We know that suspension of the investment tax credit will slow down industrial
building activity. I only hope that when the full impact of it hits that it will
not cause a recession in that area of the construction industry.
It was with grave misgivings that I voted for suspension of the investment
tax credit. But because the Administration had relied almost exclusively on high
interest rates to curb inflation, there was really not much choice.
Without intending to be partisan, I feel compelled at this point to say that
a cutback in federal non-military spending as early as last January would have been
more effective and much more desirable than the investment credit suspension
Some businessmen look upon Washington as the fountain of all wisdom and power,
the proper vehicle for solving most problems, the means of keeping the competition
clean and avoiding recessions.
Others are happy to pocket whatever profits Big Government channels their way
but look upon Washington as their natural enemy.
Still others figure Big Government is too big but decide the best approach is
to play the game, tune in at the tap and try to live with the monster.
FORD
that there is no doubt.
Washington is many things to many people. But that the Government GREAT is Big--of
IBRARY
(MORE)
NECA SPEECH
o4o
How big is Big Brother? He has roughly 2,600,000 civil service employees on
his payroal--about 280,000 in Washington and the rest scattered throughout the
country.
Me more billion a year, and his monthly worldwide payroll
comes to a huge $1.5 billion a month.
For businessmen, this giant bureaucracy often means a mountain of red tape
and a steeper and steeper paperwork burden.
Let's be honest about it. Big Brother is a meddler. He calls this meddling
protecting the public interest. Many Americans agree with him. Many others feel
they are being smothered by Big Government.
The Government is a great collector of statistics, an arbiter of trends, a
publisher of business indicators. Surely no economist is more listened to than
the chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers.
But you can get hung on the law of averages. And that's why Secretary of
Commerce John T. Connor, formerly with Merck & Co., has advised business firms to
employ attorneys who are knowledgeable in economics.
"Many people have drowned in water only three feet deep," Connor points out.
The tone and the amount of federal meddling are pretty much dictated by the
man is the White House, currently Lyndon Johnson. I don't have to tell you how
Mr. Johnson operates with businessmen. Of course, it's only big businessmen he
does business with. This administration has favored big business to the point
that Republicans in Congress had to mount an all-out campaign to rescue the Small
Business Administration.
=2cd Invert
It is Mr. Johnson, too, who less. made the big decisions on what to do--or not
to inflation.
He chose to do virtually nothing about inflation until he sent his investment
tax credit suspension plan to Congress. If that works, he can claim the credit.
But if it flops, his will be the blame.
VERARY
(MORE)
ECA SPEECH
-5-
As the danger of inflation has deepened, so has the Administration's involve-
ment in business.
You are all familiar with the federal government's wage-price guidelines.
We all know what the guidelines were--I say "were", because there's no
question they're good & as deady-torpedood by Mr. Johnson himself. We know that
the guidelines were nothing more nor less than informal wage and price controls.
There is no such thing as voluntary guidelines--not when government enforces
the guidelines by an all-out bare knuckles assault on an entire industry or on its
pace-setters. The guidelines were unworkable.
One reason the guidelines were unworkable was because they were arbitrarily
applied. It just wasn't fair to single out one industry and club it down while
allowing price increases in another area of the economy.
I won't do a post-mortem on the demise of the guidelines. It's obvious why
they collapsed. I have mentioned the guidelines only to underscore the extent of
government meddling in private business under the guise of protecting the public
interest.
I have also cited the guidelines and other areas of government-business
relations to underscore how important it is to you what kind of government you have
in Washington.
It's great to rake in federal dollars, but there's always the rub of government
regulations and sometimes the need to clear business decisions with Washington.
Getting along with the federal bureaucracy sometimes is compared to a Karate
match. You need somebody who knows the ropes to give the federal agencies a good
chop once in a while. You know, just to keep them loose. You need good, tough men
in Washington. You need congressmen and senators who don't join the club but look
out for the interests of all the people--and that means all the taxpayers.
I have talked of the expanding Government role in price-setting. This is done
in the name of voluntary restraint and a fight against inflation.
(MORE)
NECA SPEECH
-6-
But the ridiculous aspect of it is that this Administration fails to set an
example. What you're hearing is a lot of doubletalk--from the President on down.
Let's put it this way. The Government preaches economy, but it keeps right
on spending money like the proverbial drunken sailor.
Now what can you do about it? I offer you what I call a positive approach
to politics for businessmen.
George Washington once said: "Government is like a fire which, it it is
properly controlled, will light your homes and cook your food and run your factories,
but if it is not controlled, it will destroy you."
I am not suggesting that the federal government be dismentled and shipped back
to the states. Although I am an economic conservative, I don't think that would be
desirable or beneficial.
But I do believe that government must be controlled, and only the people can
control it.
I also believe that the more we strengthen our state and local governments, the
less tendency there will be for federal government to grow over-larger and more
powerful.
I further believe that the more apathetic the people are about their federal
government the more it will grow, until it becomes virtually uncontrollable.
You men and women in business are important people. You are important not only
in the business field where you carry on your work; you are important in politics.
You can do business with government, and you should do business with government.
In many cases, it's your bread and butter. A11 the more reason why you must become
intimately concerned with what kind of government you have.
The best way to demonstrate that concern is through concerted legislative
action. You must give yourselves the voice you want in Washington--through wise
choice of your representatives.
If you are to have a hand in shaping legislation, you must participate in the
(MORE)
NECA SPEECH
-7-
legislative process, I understand that the slogan of the National Electrical
Contractors Association is: "To benefit, participate."
That is an excellent slogan. Legislative action is not something you can
push off onto somebody else. You have to become personally involved.
One of the ways you should become involved is to persuade capable, attractive
men and women to run for public office--or run for office yourself.
There are many other less dramatic ways, of course.
You can communicate on issues and candidates, through your publications, your
forums and your advertising.
You can circulate public affairs information to your employees through news-
letters.
You can urge your employees to make contributions to the political party of
their choice.
You can discuss legislation and issues and their importance to the business
community and your local economy.
You can personally communicate your views to your elected representatives in
gobernment--or convey those views through your association's Washington spokesmen.
Through your NECA Chapter, you can arrange political education and training
sessions.
Through your NECA Chapter, you can organize a speakers' bureau and provide
speakers on economic and political education to civic, fraternal, church, educational
and other groups.
You can engourage women, especially your own wives, to become active in politics.
And this suggestion has nothing to do with the length of hemlines or the health of
the economy.
As employers, you can give your employees time off to vote on Election Day.
Labor has made itself a force in American politics by engaging in political
LIBRARY
action. You can do the same.
(MORE)
NECA NEWSFLASH
National Electrical Contractors Association Inc.
610 Ring Building, Washington, D. C. 20036, FE 8-3585
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Houston, Texas, October 19, 1966 Following is the text of the address
given by Representative Gerald Ford of Michigan, before the 65th Anniversary
Convention of the National Electrical Congractors Association being held here
this week.
THE POSITIVE APPROACH - BUSINESSMAN IN POLITICS
Ladies and Gentlemen:
I am very happy to be here with you, and to demonstrate my pleasure I am
going to let you in on a new economic theory advanced by a newspaperman who
recently shared it with me.
Over a long period going back nearly to the turn of the century, this news-
paper chap has studied the length of women's skirts. By close and unceasing
two
observation, he cême to an unshakable and unswerving conclusion.
That conclusion was that the hemline of women's skirts rises in good times--
you know, things are looking up, as they say--and the hemline falls in bad times.
My friend says he has charts put together by the National Geographic Society
to prove it.
The charts reveal that the skirt began sneaking upward about 1912 until it
reached the middle of the calf. In the 1920's it kept on inching up. And by
In
1927 for girls who blush easily were afraid to sit down. My friend says those were
instance,
FORD
real good times.
GERAL
IBRARY
(MORE)
4ECA SPEECH
-2-
Of course, when the stock market dropped into the cellar in 1929, hemlines on
skirts fell too. And the The outlook was really depressing in
15I
INSERT
Since then there has been an upward trend, except for some sag in skirts in
the depression years.
Is there really something to my friend's theory?
Judging by what's happened in the stock market lately, I have the feeling that
my friend's theory doesn't actually hold up. Or maybe government officials have
been keeping too close an eye on hemlines instead of the Dow-Jones averages, now
that hemlines have climbed as high as four inches above the knee.
Current developments in women's hemlines and in the economy generally make it
clear just how big a role government occupies in your-life and mine.
The people who make women's skirts would like government to mind its own
business. But for other businessmen, government is a big customer, and so they
cultivate Big Brother.
When Big Government regulates, business naturally complains. When Big Govern-
ment talks, business listens. When Big Government orders, business obeys.
wombers of the Better Business Bureau'
Is Big Government important to you man Ln the electrical contracting business?
You bet it is. Government does a lot that affects you, and Government does a lot
to you.
ZADINSEXT
Let me cite an instant example.
You men may not have been bothered too much by the recession in the home
building industry. As I understand it, you are primarily involved in industrial
construction.
Investment in industrial plant is of vital concern to you. So, too, are
federal building plans, since the federal government is the largest single customer
for construction services.
(MORE)
ECA SPEECH
-3-
As you are well aware, this nation is in the grip of a dangerous inflationary
upswing. Another way to put it is that the bloom 1s off the boom, and the country
is in trouble, with high prices and high interest rates.
The home building industry is in deep trouble, and so the Congress has acted
to pump more money into mortgage lending.
The American people are deeply concerned about inflation, and so Congress has
acted to dampen what the President has called a highly inflationary sector of the
aconomy--industrial construction. We have temporarily withdrawn the 7 per cent
investment tax credit. The President has also indicated cutbacks in federal con-
struction in a move to help cool off the overheated economy.
We know that suspension of the investment tax credit will slow down industrial
building activity. I only hope that when the full impact of it hits that it will
not cause a recession in that area of the construction industry.
It was with grave misgivings that I voted for suspension of the investment
tax credit. But because the Administration had relied almost exclusively on high
interest rates to curb inflation, there was really not much choice.
Without intending to be partisan, I feel compelled at this point to say that
a cutback in federal non-military spending as early as last January would have been
more effective and much more desirable than the investment credit suspension....
Some businessmen look upon Washington as the fountain of all wisdom and power,
the proper vehicle for solving most problems, the means of keeping the competition
clean and avoiding recessions.
Others are happy to pocket whatever profits Big Government channels their way
but look upon Washington as their natural enemy.
Still others figure Big Government is too big but decide the best approach is
to play the game, tune in at the tap and try to live with the monster.
Washington is many things to many people. But that the Government is Big--of
that there is no doubt.
AMORD
NECA SPEECH
-4-
How big is Big Brother? He has roughly 2,600,000 civil service employees on
his payrodl--sbout 280,000 in Washington and the rest scattered throughout the
country.
He $100 billion a year, and his monthly worldwide payroll
dispensessiverly.,200
comes to & huge $1.5 billion a month.
For businessmen, this giant bureaucracy often means a mountain of red tape
and a steeper and steeper paperwork burden.
Let's be honest about it. Big Brother is a meddler. He calls this meddling
protecting the public interest. Many Americans agree with him. Many others feel
they are being smothered by Big Government.
The Government is a great collector of statistics, an arbiter of trends, a
publisher of business indicators. Surely no economist is more listened to than
the chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers.
But you can get hung on the law of averages. And that's why Secretary of
Commerce John T. Connor formerly with Merck & Co., has advised business firms to
employ attorneys who are knowledgeable in economics.
"Many people have drowned in water only three feet deep," Connor points out.
The tone and the amount of federal meddling are pretty much dictated by the
man is the White House, currently Lyndon Johnson. I don't have to tell you how
Mr. Johnson operates with businessmen. Of course, it's only big businessmen he
does business with. This administration has favored big business to the point
that Republicans in Congress had to mount an all-out campaign to rescue the Small
Business Administration.
=2cd Invert Insert
It is Mr. Johnson, too, who has made the big decisions on what to do--or not
to about inflation.
He chose to do virtually nothing about inflation until he sent his investment
tax credit suspension plan to Congress. If that works, he can claim the credit.
But if it flops, his will be the blame.
839
ARV
(MORR)
ECA SPEECH
-5-
As the danger of inflation has deepened, so has the Administration's involve-
ment in business.
You are all familiar with the federal government's wage-price guidelines.
We all know what the guidelines were--I say "were", because there's no
question they're us good as deade-torpedoed by Mr. Johnson himself. We know that
the guidelines were nothing more nor less than informal wage and price controls.
There is no such thing as voluntary guidelines--not when government enforces
the guidelines by an all-out bare knuckles assault on an entire industry or on its
pace-setters. The guidelines were unworkable.
One reason the guidelines were unworkable was because they were arbitrarily
applied. It just wasn't fair to single out one industry and club it down while
allowing price increases in another area of the economy.
I won't do a post-mortem on the demise of the guidelines. It's obvious why
they collapsed. I have mentioned the guidelines only to underscore the extent of
government meddling in private business under the guise of protecting the public
interest.
I have also cited the guidelines and other areas of government-business
relations to underscore how important it is to you what kind of government you have
in Washington.
It's great to rake in federal dollars, but there's always the rub of government
regulations and sometimes the need to clear business decisions with Washington.
Getting along with the federal bureaucracy sometimes is compared to a Karate
match. You need somebody who knows the ropes to give the federal agencies a good
chop once in a while. You know, just to keep them loose. You need good, tough men
in Washington. You need congressmen and senators who don't join the club but look
out for the interests of all the people--and that means all the taxpayers.
I have talked of the expanding Government role in price-setting. This is done
in the name of voluntary restraint and a fight against inflation.
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But the ridiculous aspect of it is that this Administration fails to set an
example. What you're hearing is a lot of doubletalk--from the President on down.
Let's put it this way. The Government preaches economy, but it keeps right
on spending money like the proverbial drunken sailor.
Now what can you do about it? I offer you what I call a positive approach
to politics for businessmen.
George Washington once said: "Government is like a fire which, it it is
properly controlled, will light your homes and cook your food and run your factories,
but if it is not controlled, it will destroy you."
I am not suggesting that the federal government be dismantled and shipped back
to the states. Although I am an economic conservative, I don't think that would be
desirable or beneficial.
But I do believe that government must be controlled, and only the people can
control it.
I also believe that the more we strengthen our state and local governments, the
less tendency there will be for federal government to grow ever-larger and more
powerful.
I further believe that the more apathetic the people are about their federal
government the more it will grow, until it becomes virtually uncontrollable.
You men and women in business are important people. You are important not only
in the business field where you carry on your work; you are important in politics.
You can do business with government, and you should do business with government.
In many cases, it's your bread and butter. A11 the more reason why you must become
intimately concerned with what kind of government you have.
The best way to demonstrate that concern is through concerted legislative
action. You must give yourselves the voice you want in Washington--through wise
choice of your representatives.
ALD
LIBRA
If you are to have e hand in shaping legislation, you must participate in the
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legislative process. I understand that the slogan of the National Electrical
Contractors Association is: "To benefit, participate."
That is an excellent slogan. Legislative action is not something you can
push off onto somebody else. You have to become personally involved.
One of the ways you should become involved is to persuade capable, attractive
men and women to run for public office--or run for office yourself.
There are many other less dramatic ways, of course.
You can communicate on issues and candidates, through your publications, your
forums and your advertising.
You can circulate public affairs information to your employees through news-
letters.
You can urge your employees to make contributions to the political party of
their choice.
You can discuss legislation and issues and their importance to the business
community and your local economy.
You can personally communicate your views to your elected representatives in
government--or convey those views through your association's Washington spokesmen.
Through your NECA Chapter, you can arrange political education and training
sessions.
Through your NECA Chapter, you can organize a speakers' bureau and provide
speakers on economic and political education to civic, fraternal, church, educational
and other groups.
You can encourage women, especially your own wives, to become active in politics.
And this suggestion has nothing to do with the length of hemlines or the health of
the economy.
As employers, you can give your employees time off to vote on Election Day
Labor has made itself a force in American politics by engaging in political
action. You can do the same.