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4525988
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Dinner for John Hoellen, GOP Candidate, 11th District, Chicago, IL, October 23, 1966
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4525988
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Dinner for John Hoellen, GOP Candidate, 11th District, Chicago, IL, October 23, 1966
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Gerald R. Ford Congressional Papers
Speeches
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Civil disobedience
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1966-10-31
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1966
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1966-10-01
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The original documents are located in Box D21, folder "Dinner for John Hoellen, GOP
Candidate, 11th District, Chicago, IL, October 23, 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States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.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.
Digitized from Box D21 of The Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
CONGRESSMAN
NEWS
GERALD R. FORD
HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER
RELEASE
FOR RELEASE AT 7:00 P.M.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1966
EXCERPTS FROM SPEECH BY REP. GERALD R. FORD, R-MICHIGAN, AT DINNER FOR JOHN HOELLEN,
GOP CANDIDATE, 11TH DISTRICT, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
The men who drafted our Federal Constitution set forth their aims in an elo-
quent preamble to that document. Listed high among those objectives was this one:
"To insure domestic tranquillity."
Do we have domestic tranquillity in this nation today? NO! We see mobs tear-
ing at the social fabric of the nation. We see a kind of madness sweeping the
land
...
arson, sniping, looting
scarring some of our great cities.
The rule of law is one of the cornerstones on which this nation stands in the
civilized world. Without it we are reduced to savagery. And this is what we have
witnessed in recent months.
One of the great fallacies of our time is that rioting in the streets is
directly due to unemployment. I say this 1 a fallacy because a study of the Los
Angeles Watts area riot has shown that the typical male involved there was not a
jobless drifter. He was employed.
Riots? What are they? They are an explosion of emotione' an unreasoning out-
burst which can result from an accumulation of frustrations and bitterness. The
frustrations and itterness may have a basis in truth or arise from mistaken feel-
ings of injustice done. But they are fed by promises that cannot be quickly kept
and by the arousing of great expectations. When these are dressed up with a
poverty war label and performance falls far short of promise, cynicism, anger, and
an F'll-take-it-for-myself attitude can be the product.
Why riots? The answer is tied closely to a government which seeks to provide
all Americans with more material things while ignoring the ideals which made
Americans a free people. Our government today is concerned with things, not with
people and national causes. This is the sickness which afflicts modern America.
We have strayed from the rule of law. Our governmental leaders, by dealing
in half-truths and misinformation, lead us to believe that honor and justice are
just words. The message is that the end justifies the means.
They encourage the idea that if an individual considers a social objective
desirable, then he is justified in employing any means to attain it even if this
involves breaking the law and trampling upon the lives and property of others.
I maintain that the riots we have seen this year have little genuine relation-
ship to the civil rights movement. They are tragic because they have resulted in
LIBRARY
- 2 -
a regrettable setback for the legitimate rights of 22 million Americans -- a setback
resulting from the misguided zeal of a few mistaken leaders.
Our internal security has been established through a long history of justice
under law. If our jury system isn't working properly, let's determine what is wrong
and make it right. If our cities have become asphalt jungles, let's work together
to remedy their ills.
We must restore respect for law and order in our land. Of course, this is not
easy when the Vice-President of the United States thoughtlessly makes the remark
that he has "enough spark left in (him) to lead a mighty good revolt under (certain)
conditions."
We need a rebirth of reverence for the rule of law from top to bottom in this
country. We need leaders who speak out consistently for law and order, not men who
deplore riots one minute and encourage them the next.
Let's have progress in this country but let's have it under law. Let not
Americans who feel downtrodden believe that the way to obtain redress is to riot in
the streets. We don't need Molotov Cocktail throwing. We don't need top administra-
tion leaders who are willing to "lead a mighty good revolt." We need leaders who
will discourage, rather than encourage, criminal actions.
During this last session of Congress I strongly supported legislation which
would make it a federal crime for anyone to travel in interstate commerce or use the
facilities of interstate commerce with the intent to incite a riot or other forms of
violence. We need that kind of federal law to deal with irresponsible leaders and
professional agitators. The Johnson-Humphrey Administration failed to support efforts
to gain passage of an anti-riot law.
I have deliberately refrained from speaking of this nation's monumental crisis
in crime in the same breath with street riots. I do not place the street rioter in
the same category with the professional criminal. We will perhaps always have pro-
fessional criminals. But we need not have riots.
Nationally, we look to our leaders to provide us with example, not with exhorta-
tion and rhetoric. While the front line in any war against crime must be the local
community, it is imperative that the national administration set a tone that com-
mands respect for law and order. That tone is lacking in this nation today. We
hear the right words, but the words are meaningless because they lack substance.
We have traveled farther and farther down the road toward becoming a complete
welfare state -- and yet the crime rate continues its frighteningly swift rise. Some
contend that crime springs mainly from conditions of poverty. But I say that economic
security from the cradle to the grave is not the answer to the problem of crime.
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