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Illinois State Medical Society Regional Public Affairs Meeting, Rock Island, IL, April 24, 1968
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Illinois State Medical Society Regional Public Affairs Meeting, Rock Island, IL, April 24, 1968
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Gerald R. Ford Congressional Papers
Speeches
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Civil disobedience
Race relations
Urban policy
Vietnam War, 1961-1975
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1968
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The original documents are located in Box D24, folder "Illinois State Medical Society
Regional Public Affairs Meeting, Rock Island, IL, April 24, 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States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.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.
Digitized from Box D24 of The Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
ILLINOIS STATE MEDICAL SOCIETY REGIONAL PUBLIC AFFAIRS MEETING ROCK ISLAND, ILL.
april2 4, 1968
I. THE UNITED STATES HAS FOR LONG BEEN A NATION IN CRISIS FOR MUCH TOO LONG.
II. AS MEDICAL MEN KNOW, CRISIS RESULTS IN CERTAIN INSTANCES AFTER PERIODS OF
INTENSE PAIN AND DISORDER. DOCTORS ALSO TELL US THAT AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION
IS WORTH A POUND OF CURE.
III. THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE EXPERIENCING THREE MAJOR CRISES IN NATIONAL AFFAIRS
THE CRISIS OF CIVIL DISORDER AND CRIME, THE CRISIS OF VIETNAM, AND THE CRISIS OF
FORD
THE DOLLAR. IT IS USELESS TO TALK ABOUT PREVENTION IN YOUR CONNECTION WITH ANY
RAR
OF THESE EXCEPT AS IT APPLIES TO FUTURE DISORDERS, FUTURE VIETNAMS AND FUTURE
2/ n. Med. Society
ATTACKS UPON THE DOLLAR.
IV. EVERY CRISSS HAS ITS TURNING POINT. AMERICA CAME TO A TURNING POINT IN
VIETNAM, AND PRESIDENT JOHNSON TOOK THE RIGHT ROAD. THAT OF A LIMITED BOMBING
HALT, PROJECTED DE*ESCALATION OF THE U.S. MILITARY ROLE IN VIETNAM, AND MO VES TO
GET PEACE TALKS STARTED. IT IS UNFORTUNATE THAT NOW THERE IS SO MUCH SQUABBLING
OVER THE SITE FOR INITIAL PEACE TALKS.
V. WE HAVE COME TO A TURNING POINT, TOO, IN TERMS OF THE CIVIL DISORDERS THAT
ARE TEARING AMERICA APART. WE MUST HEAL OUR DIVISIONS AND MAKE AMERICA WHOLE AGAIN.
3/ Ill. Med. Society
A. WE NOW HAVE COME TO A CROSSROADS ON THE RACE PROBLEM IN AMERICA. IT IS
A TIME WHEN EVERY AMERICAN SHOULD PONDER EN THOSE MOST
IMPORTANT WORDS IN THE DECIARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, WHICH READ: "WE HOLD THESE
TRUTHS TO BE SELF*EVIDENT, THAT ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL, THAT THEY ARE ENDOWED
BY THEIR CREATOR WITH CERTAIN INALIENABLE RIGHTS, THAT AMONG THESE ARE LIFE,
LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS.
B. WE KNOW THAT NO MAN IS A CARBON COPY OF ANOTHER. THAT EACH IS BORN WITH
SPECIAL CHARACTER IST ICS AND VARYING AMOUNTS OF NATIVE INTELLIGENCE AND INTO
DIFFERENT ECONOMIC CIRCUMSTANCES. INK THE AUTHORS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
4/ Ill. Med. Society
WERE TALKING ABOUT INHERENT EQUALITY.
THEY WERE TALKING ABOUT HUMAN DIGNITY. THEY
TENABLE
втепве
1
THE
WERE TALKING ABOUT EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW, AND/RESPECT OF ONE HUMAN BEING FOR
ANOTHER. IF AMERICANS BELIEVE IN THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, IT
SHOULD NOT BE NECESSARY FOR ANY AMERICAN. REGARDLESS OF THE COLOR OF HIS SKIN.
TO GO ABOUT WITH A SIGN AROUND HISTORY NECK, PROCLAIMING "I AM A MAN.'
GERALD
C. THIS, BASICALLY, IS WHAT THE CIVIL DISORDERS WE NOW ARE EXPERIENCING ARE
ALL ABOUT. EVERY MAN HAS TO FEELTHING THAT HE COUNTS FOREIGN SOMETHING OR HE
MAY
LASH OUT AT OTHERS. AND NO MAN WILL EVER BE SAFE IN A SOCIETY WHICH BREEDS
5/ n. Med. Society
HOSTILITY AND & HATRED.
D. IT CAN BE SAID THAT THE THE ASSASSINATION
OF MARTIN LUTHER KING WAS JUST AN EXCUSE FOR THE ARSON AND LOOTING THAT FOLLOWED.
BUT IT WOULD BE MORE ACCURATE TO SAY IT WAS THE TRIGGER THAT TOUCHED IT OFF. AND
IT MAKES STILL MORE SENSE TO SAY THAT THE ARSON AND THE LOOTING ARE SYMPTOMS OF
A DISEASE WHICH IS PLAGUING AMERICA. THE DISEASE OF INEQUALITY AND HOSTILITY
BETWEEN THE RACES.
E. JUST AS AMERICA COULD NOT LIVE HALF SLAVE AND HALF FREE
SO AMERICA
6/ n. Med. Society
CANNOT LIVE WITH BLACKS HATING WHITES AND WHITES HATING BLACKS. THERE IS GREAT
Naw
NEED FOR AN ERA OF RECONSILIATION AND AN ERA OF RECONSTRUCTION, NOT ONLY IN
TERMS
OF
REBUILDING OUR CITIES BUT IN TERMS OF REBUILDING PEOPLE.
WHITES CANNOT JUST FLEE TO THE SUBURBS AND THINK THEY ARE
SHUTTING THE DOOR ON THE RACE PROBLEM. IT SIMPLY WON'T WORKS
THE
PROBLEM WON'T GO AWAY. THE SUBURBS ARE LARGELY BEDROOM COMMUNITIES. MOST
AMERICANS EARN THEIR LIVING IN THE CITIES. IF THE CITIES DIE, ALL AMERICANS
WILL BE AFFECTED.
I
TO MAKE THE CITIES HEALTHY, WE HAVE TO HEAL THE
7/ Ill. Med. Society
REAL SICKNESS OF THE CITIES. .THE SICKNESS OF DEPRIVATION BROUGHT ON BY THE
NEGLECT OF A CENTURY // THE GAP OF GENERATIONS
THE NEED FOR BETTER
SCHOOLING, TRAINING, JOBS AND HOUSING FOR THE PEOPLE OF THE C ENTRAL
CITIES MUST BE BRIDGED AS RAPIDLY AS POSSIBLE.
VI. HOW DO WE HEAL THE SICKNESS OF THE CITIES...BY POURING MORE GOVERNMENT
BILLIONS INTO SUCH PROBRAMS AS URBAN RENEWAL, WHICH DISPLACES MANY MORE PEOPLE
THAN IT HOUSES?
GERALD
LIBRARY
A. THE OLD
PROGRAMS HAVE NOT WORKED, YET THE FEDERALE PLANNERS WOULD POUR
8/ Ill. Med. Society
THE SAME KIND OF POT
MORE BILLIONS INTO
MAKE
DTSSER.
THE
POTION
The MEDICINE
WOULD BE THE SAME, AND JUST ISN'T WORKING.
B. I BELIEVE
THE ONLY WAY THE PROBLEMS OF THE CITIES WILL BE SOLVED...AND
THE SICKNESSE OF THE CITIES HEALED. IS FOR GOVERNMENT TO EMPLOY THE KIND
OF
CREATIVITY FOUND IN BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY TO EMPLOY THIS CREATIVITY BY HARNESSING
FORD
IT FOR THE PUBLIC GOOD...T0 PROVIDE THE DEPRIVED WITH DECENT JOBS AND HOUSING.
C. THAT CAN BE DONE BY OFFERING INDUSTRY TAX INCENTIVES TO BECOME AN ON*THE*JOB
TRAINER FOR THE HARD*CORE UNEMPLOYED AND THE UNDEREMPLOYED, A BUILDER OF NEW PLANT
9/ ILL. Med. Society
AND LOW*COST HOUSING IN THE CENTRAL CITIES AND IN RURAL POVERTY AREAS, AN
EMPLOYER WHO OFFERS HOPE FOR LIVES OF DIGNITY AND DECENCY TO HUMAN BEINGS NOW
OR BELOW IT.
ON THE BORDERLINE/ AS THE KERNER COMMISSION HAS POINTED OUT, THIS IS NOT EASY.
BUT I THINK IT IS THE ONLY WAY. XXEXXXEXX THE KEY THAT WILL UNLOCK
THE DOOR TO DIGNITY FOR OUR DEPRIVED CITIZENS IS A GOOD JOB. A MAN MUST HAVE
SELF*RESPECT TO HAVE THE RESPECT OF OTHERS.
D. THE PRESENT ADMINISTRATION SHOWS NO INCLINATION TO MAKE THE FULLEST POSSIBLE
USE OF BUSINE S CREATIVITY AS THE BEST HOPE OF SOLVING URBAN PROBIE MS.
10/ nl. Med. Society
NOR IS THE ATMINISTRATION MAKING BEST USE OF THE FEDERAL BILLIONS IT NOW IS
SPENDING. FOR INSTANCE, A CITIZENS' BOARD OF INQUIRY INTO HUNGER AND MAINUTRITION
IN THE UNITED STATES HAS FOUND THAT FOOD PROGRAMS ADMINISTERED BY THE AGRICULTURE
DEPARTMENT REACH ONLY 18 PER CENT METXKE OF THE POOR AND THAT MALNUTRITION HAS
RISEN SHARPLY OVER THE PAST DECADE. VICE*PRESIDENT HUMPHREY BEATS THE BUSHES FOR
FROM GOVERNMENT COFFERS,
SUMMERTIME *COOL IT' JOB MONEY? BUT MOST OF THE INCREASE IN SUMMER JOBS THIS YEAR
NOT
FORD
WILL MY COME/FROM GOVERNMENT EFFORTS BUT FROM THE PRIVATE SECTOR. FROM THE
GERA
NATIONAL ALLIANCE OF BUSINE SSMEN.
11/ Ill. Med. Society
VII. GOVERNMENT DOESN'T REALLY PRODUCE ANYTHING BUT SERVICES. AND IT CAN'T GIVE
THE PEOPLENYTHING
THEM
IT DOESN'T TAKE FROM TOT IN THE FIRST PLACE.
VIII. THERE ARE TIMES WHEN GOVERNMENT TAKES TOO MUCH FROM THE PRIVATE CITIZEN,
FROM THE PRIVATE SECTOR OF THE ECONOMY. WHEN THIS HAPPENS, GOVERNMENT
JOB*TRAINING AND ANTI*POGERTY PROGRAMS AREN'T MUCH HELP BECAUSE THERE IS NO JOB
WAITING AT THE END OF THE TRAINING PERIOD. THE BEST ANSWER TO POVERTY IS A
GOOD*PAYING JOB, AND THE BEST WAY TO CREATE JOBS IS TO ENCOURAGE
SOUND
GROWTH IN THE ECONOMY. WE HAVE SOUND GROWTH WHEN WE DON'T TAKE CHEAP DOLLARS
12. Ill. Med. Society
AND PAY OURSELVES MORE THAN OUR PRODUCTION IS WORTH, AND WE HAVE SOUND
GOVERNMENT WHEN GOVERNMENT SERVES THE PEOPLE. AND NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND.
IE. IT'S OFTEN SAID THAT PEOPLE GET THEI KIND OF GOVERNMENT THEY DESERVE.
THIS
IS TO SAY THAT IF YOU WANT GOOD GOVERNMENT, YOU HAVE TO DO SOMETHING
ABOUT IT. YOU HAVE TONAL BECOME INVOLVED. AMERICANS LOVE TO GRIPE. YOU DON'T
HAVE TO JOIN THE ARMY TO FIND THAT OUT JUST GET YOURSELF ELECTED TO CONGRESS.
SERIOUSLY, IT'S A LOT BETTER TO GET INVOLVED AND TO TRY TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT
WHAT GRIPES YOU THAN TO JUST SIT BACK AND COMPLAIN.
13/ ILL. Med. Society
E. PROFESSIONAL PEOPLE, PARTICULARLY PHYSICIANS,
ARE HIGHLY REGARDED BY
THOSE OUTSIDE THEIR PROFESSION. THIS MEANS THEY AREX IN A POSITION TO TAKE
A POSITIVE APPROACH TO POLITICS AND TO MAKE A TREMENDOUS CONTRIBUTION TO GOOD
GOVERNMENT. THEY CAN HAVE A HAND IN SHAPING LEGISIATION. THEY CAN DO THIS BY
PARTICIPATING DIRECTLY IN THE LEGISLATIVE PROCESS. A DOCTOR MIGHT RUN FOR
PUBLIC OFFICE HIMSELF OR PERSUADE OTHER CAPABLE MEN AND WOMEN TO DO so. HE CAN
071
COMMUNICATE WITH OTHERS ON ISSUES AND CANDIDATES AND CONTRIBUTE TO THE PARTY OF
LIBRARY
HIS CHOICE. HE CAN BECOME A FORCE FOR GOOD GOVERNMENT AND A SOUND SOCIETY.
14/ nl. Med. Society
XI. OUR FORM OF GOVERNMENT, AS MOLDED BY THE FRAMERS OF THE FEDERAL
CONSTITUTION, IS A MOST PRECIOUS GIFT. YOU AND I MUST DO E VERYTHING WITHIN OUR
(Pause)
POWER TO PRESERVE IT.
11
WHEN THE MEN WHO WROTE THE CONSTITUTION COMPLETED THEIR
TASK, THEY GATHERED UP THEIR NOTES AND DEPARTED FROM CONVENTION HALL. AS HE LEFT,
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN WAS STOPPED BY A BYSTANDER. "WHICH HAVE YOU GIVEN US," THE MAN
ASKED, "A MONARCHY OR A REPUBLIC?" #A REPUBLIC," FRANKLIN ANSWERED, "IF YOU CAN
KEEP IT."
15/
n. Med. Society
THIS IS A
TO PRESERVE AND NURTURE OUR REPUBLICAN FORM OF GOV'T.
XLI.
RESPONSIBELITY WE ALL BEAR AND SHARE THAT IS THE HIGH
PURP OSE TO WHICH WE MUST CONSTITUTLY REDEDICATE OURSELVES, so THAT OUR GREAT
(Pause)
FORM OF GOVERNMENT MAY CONTINUE TO LIVE. IT IS MY DEEP CONVICTION THAT
YOU--ALL OF YOU-WILL MEASURE UP TO THAT RESPONSIBILITY. THAT ALL OF YOU WILL
DARE TO STAND UP AND BE COUNTED FOR AMERICA.
######
Distribution Full 12:10 4/24/68
20 capies Mr. Ford
maffice Copy
NEWS
CONGRESSMAN
GERALD R. FORD
HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER
RELEASE
--FOR RELEASE AT 7:30 P.M. WEDNESDAY--
April 24, 1968
Excerpts from a Speech by Rep. Gerald R. Ford, R-Mich., at a Regional Public Affairs
Meeting of the Illinois State Medical Society, at Rock Island, Ill.
We have come to a turning point in terms of the civil disorders that are
tearing America apart. We must heal our divisions and make our country whole.
We have come to a crossroads in race relations in America. It is a time
when every American should turn to and ponder those most important words in the
Declaration of Independence which read: "We hold these truths to be self-evident,
that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
We know that no man is quite like another--that each is born with special
characteristics and varying amounts of native intelligence and into different
economic circumstances. The authors of the Declaration of Independence were speak-
ing of inherent equality. They were talking about human dignity. They were
talking about equality before the law, and the respect of one human being for
another.
No citizen of this Nation should feel compelled to go about with a sign
around his neck, proclaiming "I am a man."
This, basically, is what the civil disorders we have been experiencing are
all about. Every man has to feel he counts for something or he may lash out at
others. No man will ever be safe in a society which breeds hostility and hatred.
It can be said that the assassination of Martin Luther King was used as
an excuse for the arson and looting that followed. It would be more accurate to
say it was the trigger that touched it off. It makes still more sense to say that
the arson and the looting are symptoms of a disease which is plaguing America--the
disease of inequality and hostility between the races.
Just as America could not live half slave and half free, so America cannot
live with blacks hating whites and whites hating blacks.
There is a great need now for an era of reconciliation and an era of
reconstruction in America, not only in terms of rebuilding our cities but in terms
of rebuilding people.
Whites cannot just flee to the suburbs and think they are shutting the door
(more)
GERALD FORD LIBRARY
-2-
on the race problem. It simply won't work. The problem won't go away.
The suburbs are largely bedroom communities. Most Americans earn their
living in the cities. If the cities die, all Americans will be affected.
To make the cities healthy, we must heal their real sickness--the sickness
of deprivation brought on by a century of neglect. The gap of generations--the
need for better schooling, training, jobs and housing for the people of the central
cities--must be bridged as rapidly as possible.
How do we heal the sickness of the cities--by pouring more government
billions into such programs as urban renewal, which displaces many more people than
it houses?
The old programs have not worked, yet the federal planners would dump
additional billions into the same kind of pot just fill it up a little more. The
resulting potion would be the same, the medicine that just isn't working.
I believe the only way the problems of the cities will be solved and the
sickness of the cities healed is for government to employ the kind of creativity
found in business and industry to employ this creativity by harnessing it for
the public good to provide the deprived with decent jobs and housing.
This can be done by offering industry tax incentives to become an on-the-job
trainer for the hard-core unemployed and the underemployed, a builder of new plant
and low-income housing in the central cities, an employer who offers hope for
lives of dignity and decency to human beings now at the borderline or below it.
As the Kerner Commission has pointed out, this is not easy. But the
commission endorsed it, and I think it is the only way. The key that will unlock
the door to dignity for our deprived citizens is a good job. A man must have
self-respect to have the respect of others.
The present Administration shows no inclination to make the fullest possible
use of business creativity as the best hope of solving urban problems. Nor is the
Administration making best use of the federal billions it now is spending.
Government job-training and anti-poverty programs are not much help if
there is no job waiting at the end of the training period. The best answer to
poverty is a good-paying job.
Of course, jobs alone won't end the rioting. We found that out in
Washington, D. C. Perhaps the violence will stop only when we begin living the
Declaration of Independence.
###
Office Copy
NEWS
CONGRESSMAN
GERALD R. FORD
HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER
RELEASE
--FOR RELEASE AT 7:30 P.M. WEDNESDAY--
April 24, 1968
Excerpts from a Speech by Rep. Gerald R. Ford, R-Mich., at a Regional Public Affairs
Meeting of the Illinois State Medical Society, at Rock Island, Ill.
We have come to a turning point in terms of the civil disorders that are
tearing America apart. We must heal our divisions and make our country whole.
We have come to a crossroads in race relations in America. It is a time
when every American should turn to and ponder those most important words in the
Declaration of Independence which read: "We hold these truths to be self-evident,
that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
We know that no man is quite like another--that each is born with special
characteristics and varying amounts of native intelligence and into different
economic circumstances. The authors of the Declaration of Independence were speak-
ing of inherent equality. They were talking about human dignity. They were
talking about equality before the law, and the respect of one human being for
another.
No citizen of this Nation should feel compelled to go about with a sign
around his neck, proclaiming "I am a man."
This, basically, is what the civil disorders we have been experiencing are
all about. Every man has to feel he counts for something or he may lash out at
others. No man will ever be safe in a society which breeds hostility and hatred.
It can be said that the assassination of Martin Luther King was used as
an excuse for the arson and looting that followed. It would be more accurate to
say it was the trigger that touched it off. It makes still more sense to say that
the arson and the looting are symptoms of a disease which is plaguing America--the
disease of inequality and hostility between the races.
Just as America could not live half slave and half free, SO America cannot
live with blacks hating whites and whites hating blacks.
There is a great need now for an era of reconciliation and an era of
reconstruction in America, not only in terms of rebuilding our cities but in terms
of rebuilding people.
Whites cannot just flee to the suburbs and think they are shutting the door
(more)
-2-
on the race problem. It simply won't work. The problem won't go away.
The suburbs are largely bedroom communities. Most Americans earn their
living in the cities. If the cities die, all Americans will be affected.
To make the cities healthy, we must heal their real sickness--the sickness
of deprivation brought on by a century of neglect. The gap of generations--the
need for better schooling, training, jobs and housing for the people of the central
cities--must be bridged as rapidly as possible.
How do we heal the sickness of the cities--by pouring more government
billions into such programs as urban renewal, which displaces many more people than
it houses?
The old programs have not worked, yet the federal planners would dump
additional billions into the same kind of pot
just
fill
it
up
a
little
more.
The
resulting potion would be the same, the medicine that just isn't working.
I believe the only way the problems of the cities will be solved and the
sickness of the cities healed is for government to employ the kind of creativity
found in business and industry to employ this creativity by harnessing it for
the public good to provide the deprived with decent jobs and housing.
This can be done by offering industry tax incentives to become an on-the-job
trainer for the hard-core unemployed and the underemployed, a builder of new plant
and low-income housing in the central cities, an employer who offers hope for
lives of dignity and decency to human beings now at the borderline or below it.
As the Kerner Commission has pointed out, this is not easy. But the
commission endorsed it, and I think it is the only way. The key that will unlock
the door to dignity for our deprived citizens is a good job. A man must have
self-respect to have the respect of others.
The present Administration shows no inclination to make the fullest possible
use of business creativity as the best hope of solving urban problems. Nor is the
Administration making best use of the federal billions it now is spending.
Government job-training and anti-poverty programs are not much help if
there is no job waiting at the end of the training period. The best answer to
poverty is a good-paying job.
Of course, jobs alone won't end the rioting. We found that out in
Washington, D. C. Perhaps the violence will stop only when we begin living the
Declaration of Independence.
###