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Testimonial Dinner for Representative John J. Rhodes, Phoenix, AZ, January 19, 1968
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Testimonial Dinner for Representative John J. Rhodes, Phoenix, AZ, January 19, 1968
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The original documents are located in Box D23, folder "Testimonial Dinner for
Representative John J. Rhodes, Phoenix, AZ, January 19, 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States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.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.
Distribution Full + 20 Mr. Ford
mail- 1/18/67
Galleries - 1115 1/19/68
M Office Copy
CONGRESSMAN
NEWS
GERALD R. FORD
HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER
RELEASE
--FOR RELEASE AT 6:30 P.M. EST FRIDAY--
January 19, 1968
Excerpts from a Speech by Rep. Gerald R. Ford, R-Mich., at a Testimonial Dinner
for Rep. John J. Rhodes, R-Ariz., Jan. 19, 1968, at Phoenix, Arizona.
It gives me great pleasure to join with you in paying tribute to John Rhodes,
particularly because he is a most valuable member of the Republican leadership
team in the House.
John is the best of team players. He fulfills most admirably his own
important responsibilities as chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee.
I am deeply grateful for his loyalty and his constructive contributions to the
Republican team as a member of the GOP Coordinating Committee and the Joint House
and Senate Leadership.
John describes his work as House GOP Policy Chairman as a matter of "gaining
a consensus and then articulating it." He does do a superb job of steering the
Policy Committee to agreement and getting the agreed-upon party position across
to the public.
John Rhodes has been a major force in moving the Republican Party ahead in
the House and in the Nation.
I am not at all surprised that many Democrats in the First Congressional
District of Arizona cross over every two years to vote for him.
I am pleased to say that John and I think alike on the great problems facing
this Nation--the war in Vietnam, the high cost of living, crime in the streets,
the sick condition of many of our great cities, the practice of prescribing a
federal pill for every ill. There are constructive Republican solutions to the
problems the Johnson-Humphrey Administration has laid on the doorstep of the
American people.
Four years ago Lyndon Johnson promised to build a Great Society in America.
And four years ago Lyndon Johnson ran for President as a peace candidate.
Look about you in Lyndon Johnson's Great Society and what do you see? A
nation at war within itself and bogged down in a costly and bloody war with a
tiny nation halfway 'round the world. A nation which has been forced to take
upon itself nearly the entire peace-keeping burden of the Free World for lack of
the leadership needed to keep the Free World economically sound, morally
courageous and militarily strong.
(more)
GERALD FORD LIBRARY
Digitized from Box D23 of the Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
-2-
The liberals are calling Lyndon Johnson's Great Society a "sick society."
This is one time I agree with them.
But it is sick only because LBJ, the head practitioner, has failed in his
primary responsibility and his promises to the Nation--to keep America sound
in body and spirit, to minister properly to its aches and pains, to purge the
country of the malaise which has infected it.
To put it another way, the American people are sick of the Johnson-Humphrey
Administration.
They are sick of a President who promised that American boys would not do the
fighting Asian boys should do and then committed more than 500,000 of our men to
the conflict in Vietnam.
They are sick of a President who says he is on the side of law and order
but doesn't do much of anything but talk about it--and then doesn't even talk
about it very forcibly.
They are sick of a President who buys off riot-prone youth instead of
marshalling all our resources--private as well as governmental--to make them
productive instead of destructive.
They are sick of a political medicine man whose only prescription for the
country's ills is more and more federal spending and more and more taxes.
***
This Nation is in crisis. The problems are great; the choice is clear.
Let's not place all our reliance in Washington. Republicans believe that all
Americans must join hands to lift our Nation out of the mire into which seven
years of Democratic mismanagement and misrule have dumped us.
Republican philosophy is synonymous with incentive and initiative.
America can lick poverty--but not alone by turning the federal money crank,
that crank which turns the wage-earner's pockets inside out. We can lick poverty
by using tax incentives to bring private industry into the poverty war as on-the-
job trainer and ultimate employer of the unskilled, the poor and the unmotivated.
You don't do it by threatening that the government will make jobs for everybody
if industry doesn't.
Republicans are offering America the right medicine for what ails her.
Republicans will cure our dollar defects by putting the Nation's fiscal
house in order. Republicans offer America the assurance that we will win the
peace in Vietnam.
I say tonight to every American: Put your trust in the Republican Party and
we'll make you proud of your country again.
###
CONGRESSMAN
NEWS
GERALD R. FORD
HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER
RELEASE
--FOR RELEASE AT 6:30 P.M. EST FRIDAY-
January 19, 1968
Excerpts from a Speech by Rep. Gerald R. Ford, R-Mich., at a Testimonial Dinner
for Rep. John J. Rhodes, R-Ariz., Jan. 19, 1968, at Phoenix, Arizona.
It gives me great pleasure to join with you in paying tribute to John Rhodes,
particularly because he is a most valuable member of the Republican leadership
team in the House.
John is the best of team players. He fulfills most admirably his own
important responsibilities as chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee.
I am deeply grateful for his loyalty and his constructive contributions to the
Republican team as a member of the GOP Coordinating Committee and the Joint House
and Senate Leadership.
John describes his work as House GOP Policy Chairman as a matter of "gaining
a consensus and then articulating it." He does do a superb job of steering the
Policy Committee to agreement and getting the agreed-upon party position across
to the public.
John Rhodes has been a major force in moving the Republican Party ahead in
the House and in the Nation.
I am not at all surprised that many Democrats in the First Congressional
District of Arizona cross over every two years to vote for him.
I am pleased to say that John and I think alike on the great problems facing
this Nation--the war in Vietnam, the high cost of living, crime in the streets,
the sick condition of many of our great cities, the practice of prescribing a
federal pill for every ill. There are constructive Republican solutions to the
problems the Johnson-Humphrey Administration has laid on the doorstep of the
American people.
Four years ago Lyndon Johnson promised to build a Great Society in America.
And four years ago Lyndon Johnson ran for President as a peace candidate.
Look about you in Lyndon Johnson's Great Society and what do you see? A
nation at war within itself and bogged down in a costly and bloody war with a
tiny nation halfway 'round the world. A nation which has been forced to take
upon itself nearly the entire peace-keeping burden of the Free World for lack of
the leadership needed to keep the Free World economically sound, morally
courageous and militarily strong.
(more)
FORD LIBRARY
-2-
The liberals are calling Lyndon Johnson's Great Society a "sick society."
This is one time I agree with them.
But it is sick only because LBJ, the head practitioner, has failed in his
primary responsibility and his promises to the Nation--to keep America sound
in body and spirit, to minister properly to its aches and pains, to purge the
country of the malaise which has infected it.
To put it another way, the American people are sick of the Johnson-Humphrey
Administration.
They are sick of a President who promised that American boys would not do the
fighting Asian boys should do and then committed more than 500,000 of our men to
the conflict in Vietnam.
They are sick of a President who says he is on the side of law and order
but doesn't do much of anything but talk about it--and then doesn't even talk
about it very forcibly.
They are sick of a President who buys off riot-prone youth instead of
marshalling all our resources--private as well as governmental--to make them
productive instead of destructive.
They are sick of a political medicine man whose only prescription for the
country's ills is more and more federal spending and more and more taxes.
***
This Nation is in crisis. The problems are great; the choice is clear.
Let's not place all our reliance in Washington. Republicans believe that all
Americans must join hands to lift our Nation out of the mire into which seven
years of Democratic mismanagement and misrule have dumped US.
Republican philosophy is synonymous with incentive and initiative.
America can lick poverty--but not alone by turning the federal money crank,
that crank which turns the wage-earner's pockets inside out. We can lick poverty
by using tax incentives to bring private industry into the poverty war as on-the-
job trainer and ultimate employer of the unskilled, the poor and the unmotivated.
You don't do it by threatening that the government will make jobs for everybody
if industry doesn't.
Republicans are offering America the right medicine for what ails her.
Republicans will cure our dollar defects by putting the Nation's fiscal
house in order. Republicans offer America the assurance that we will win the
peace in Vietnam.
I say tonight to every American: Put your trust in the Republican Party and
we'll make you proud of your country again.
# # #