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Mock Political Convention, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH, May 4, 1968
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Mock Political Convention, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH, May 4, 1968
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Gerald R. Ford Congressional Papers
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The original documents are located in Box D24, folder "Mock Political Convention,
Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH, May 4, 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States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.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
MOCK POLITICAL CONVENTION AT OBERLIN COLLEGE
OBERLIN, OHIO -- 8 P.M. SATURDAY, MAY 4, 1968
FELLOW REPUBLICANS AND FELLOW
AMERICANS: AS WE MEET HERE TONIGHT IN
CONVENTION, AMERICA AND THE WORLD RESOUND WITH
ALARMS.
WE ARE MET AT A TIME OF GRAVE
CRISIS--A CRISIS NOT ONLY FOR THE AMERICAN
PEOPLE BUT FOR THE ENTIRE FREE WORLD.
THIS WILL NOT BE A TRADITIONAL
POLITICAL CONVENTION SPEECH. I HAVE NO INTENTION
OF PROMISING THE AMERICAN PEOPLE THAT THE
REPUBLICAN PARTY IF RETURNED TO THE WHITE HOUSE
WILL SOLVE EVERY PROBLEM OVERNIGHT, INCREASE
EVERY BENEFIT, EXPAND ALL EXISTING FEDERAL
PROGRAMS AND START A WHOLE FLOCK OF NEW ONES.
LET'S LEAVE THAT ONUS OF FISCAL
IRRESPONSIBILITY TO THE OTHER MAJOR POLITICAL
PARTY. THEY DESERVE IT. THEY HAVE BEEN
GERALD FORD VIBRARY
-2-
PURSUING THAT COURSE FOR THE LAST SEVEN YEARS
AND THEY HAVEN'T ACCOMPLISHED MUCH EXCEPT TO
RUN UP PRICES, RUN UP INTEREST RATES, RUN UP
THE NATIONAL DEBT AND THE INTEREST ON IT TO
STAGGERING PROPORTIONS, NEARLY RUN US OUT OF
GOLD AND RUN THE DOLLAR INTO THE GROUND.
TONIGHT I WANT TO DISCUSS WITH YOU
THE HEALTH AND WELFARE OF OUR NATION. NOT IN
THE LIMITED SENSE OF SCHOOL LUNCHES OR PRENATAL
CARE FOR INDIGENT MOTHERS. BUT THE HEALTH AND
WELFARE OF ALL THE AMERICAN PEOPLE--OF EVERY
ONE OF US WHO AS INDIVIDUALS MAKE UP THE GREAT
LIVING COMMUNITY WHICH IS THE UNITED STATES OF
AMERICA.
WE FACE MANY PROBLEMS -- PROBLEMS
THAT THREATEN TO TEAR US APART AS A PEOPLE,
PROBLEMS THAT DEMEAN US IN THE EYES OF THE
WORLD, PROBLEMS THAT THREATEN US WITH COLLAPSE
AS A NATION.
I BELIEVE WHAT AMERICANS ARE
-3-
PONDERING AS WE MEET HERE TONIGHT IS THIS:
WHICH PARTY IS BEST EQUIPPED TO RESTORE THIS
COUNTRY TO BLESSED PEACE AND WHICH PARTY CAN
BEST PROMOTE GENUINE PROSPERITY, A SOUNDLY
GROWING, JOB-PRODUCING ECONOMY WITH RELATIVE
PRICE STABILITY.
WHICH PARTY BEST UNDERSTANDS THE
FORCES AT WORK IN AMERICA AND THE WORLD TODAY --
THOSE FORCES WHICH PROMISE A BRIGHTER TOMORROW
AND THOSE OTHER FORCES WHICH THREATEN OUR VERY
EXISTENCE?
WHICH PARTY BEST RECOGNIZES THE USES
OF POWER AND HOW BEST TO EMPLOY IT IN THE
INTERESTS OF WORLD PEACE?
WHICH PARTY DOES A BETTER JOB OF
PRESERVING THE VALUE OF THE DOLLAR SO THAT A
MAN NEED NOT LEAD A PRECARIOUS CREDIT-CARD
EXISTENCE DURING HIS WORKING YEARS AND THROW
HIMSELF ON THE MERCY OF THE GOVERNMENT IN HIS
OLD AGE?
-4-
WHICH PARTY DOES A BETTER JOB OF
WATCHING OVER TAX DOLLARS AND SEEING TO IT THAT
AMERICANS GET A FAIR RETURN FOR WHAT THEY
"INVEST" IN THEIR GOVERNMENT?
WHICH PARTY OFFERS THE AMERICAN
PEOPLE THE KIND OF MORAL LEADERSHIP SO NECESSARY
TO TEACH RESPECT FOR LAW AND ORDER AND TO
PRESERVE THIS REPUBLIC AS A GOVERNMENT ORDAINED
OF LAWS AND NOT MERELY OF MEN?
BOTH MAJOR PARTIES WANT WHAT IS BEST
FOR AMERICA. WE SHARE MANY OF THE SAME
OBJECTIVES. WHERE WE DIFFER IS NOT ON GOALS
AND ENDS BUT ON THE MEANS TO THOSE ENDS.
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY NOW STANDS
BEFORE THE PEOPLE TO BE JUDGED. THE DEMOCRATIC
PARTY HAS HAD SEVEN YEARS IN WHICH TO DEMONSTRATE
THE WISDOM OF ITS POLICIES, THE BENEFICENT
FRUITS OF LEGISLATION WHICH HAS BEEN PUSHED
THROUGH ONE DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS AFTER ANOTHER.
THE PEOPLE WILL DECIDE WHETHER TO LEAVE THE
-5-
NATION IN THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY'S HANDS.
LYNDON JOHNSON RECENTLY SAID THAT
HIS PARTY'S CANDIDATE IN 1968 -- WHOEVER HE MAY
BE -- MUST DEFEND THE RECORD OF THE JOHNSON-
HUMPHREY ADMINISTRATION. I AGREE.
I URGE EVERY AMERICAN TO LOOK AT
THE RECORD -- TO LOOK, AND COMPARE.
WHAT DOES THE RECORD REVEAL?
OUR NATION HAS SUFFERED GRIEVOUSLY
UNDER DEMOCRATIC PARTY POLICIES.
IN VIETNAM A DIVIDED DEMOCRATIC
PARTY GRADUALLY ESCALATED A SMALL EISENHOWER
AID COMMITMENT INTO A MAJOR LAND WAR, CONTRARY
TO ALL SOUND MILITARY ADVICE. IT WAS THE LATE
GENERAL DOUGLAS MAcARTHUR, YOU WILL RECALL, WHO
SAID: "ANYBODY WHO COMMITS THE LAND POWER OF
THE UNITED STATES ON THE CONTINENT OF ASIA
OUGHT TO HAVE HIS HEAD EXAMINED."
HAVING COMMITTED U.S. LAND POWER
TO THE VIETNAM WAR, THE DIVIDED DEMOCRATIC
-6-
PARTY THEN FOUGHT THE WAR ON THE BASIS OF A
LIMITED OR MEASURED RESPONSE, A STRATEGY OF
GRADUALISM WHICH WAS DOOMED TO FAILURE FROM
THE OUTSET AND ESCALATED THE DANGER TO THE
LIVES OF AMERICAN FIGHTING MEN.
VIETNAM IS NOT AMERICA'S ONLY FOREIGN
POOL OF DESPAIR UNDER A DIVIDED DEMOCRATIC PARTY.
IN LATIN AMERICA, THERE IS NO REAL
ALLIANCE AND THE PROGRESS IS INSIGNIFICANT.
WHERE ARE THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL REFORMS OUR
STATE DEPARTMENT HAS SO BRAVELY MAPPED FOR OUR
LATIN NEIGHBORS? THE REFORMS ARE BURIED UNDER
SHINY NEW IMPLEMENTS OF WAR WHILE SOUTH
AMERICAN LEADERS BOLSTER THEIR PERSONAL WEALTH
AND POWER.
IN AFRICA NATION AFTER NATION WHICH
HAS ACCEPTED OUR ASSISTANCE FALLS AWAY FROM
POPULAR RULE AND INTO THE CULT OF PERSONAL
DICTATORSHIP. VICE-PRESIDENT HUMPHREY'S ANSWER
IS TO CALL FOR A TRIPLING OF A FOREIGN AID
-7-
PROGRAM THAT HAS REPEATEDLY BEEN EXPOSED AS
SHODDILY -- AND, IN SOME INSTANCES, CORRUPTLY --
RUN.
IN EUROPE. NATO HAS STEADILY ERODED
INTO A LOOSE, LIP-SERVICE ALIGNMENT OF NATIONS
WHICH FORCE AMERICA TO PAY THE BILL FOR MILITARY
ARRANGEMENTS THEY DO NOT CONSIDER IMPORTANT
ENOUGH TO FINANCE ON THEIR OWN. SUPREME
HEADQUARTERS OF THE ALLIED FORCES HAS BEEN
PUSHED OUT OF FRANCE BY PRESIDENT DEGAULLE AND
FORCED TO TAKE REFUGE IN BELGIUM, LEAVING A
FORTUNE IN BUILDINGS BEHIND. BRITAIN, SQUEEZED
BY EXTRAVAGANT WELFARE PROGRAMS INTO DEVALUING
THE POUND, HAS PULLED BACK FROM THE WORLD AND
THRUST A GREATER PEACE-KEEPING BURDEN ON
AMERICA. THE JOHNSON-HUMPHREY ADMINISTRATION'S
ERRATIC POLICY IN THE MIDEAST FEEDS GUERRILLA
WARFARE BETWEEN THE ARABS AND ISRAEL AND BLUNTS
THE PROSPECTS FOR PEACE WHILE ENHANCING SOVIET
INFLUENCE AMONG THE ARAB NATIONS.
GERALD
LIBRARY
-8-
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE SUFFERING
AT HOME UNDER DEMOCRATIC PARTY POLICIES.
THE U.S. LABOR DEPARTMENT HAS STATED
FLATLY THAT THE WAGE GAINS AMERICAN WORKERS
THOUGHT THEY HAD MADE IN 1966 AND 1967 WERE
WIPED OUT BY INCREASES IN THE COST OF LIVING.
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY BRAGS ABOUT MORE
THAN 80 MONTHS OF "UNINTERRUPTED PROSPERITY"
BUT THE NAME OF THE GAME IS INFLATION, NOT
PROSPERITY. INFLATION IS A BIG WORD. THE
HOUSEWIFE KNOWS WHAT IT MEANS -- HIGHER AND
HIGHER PRICES.
JOHNSON-HUMPHREY INFLATION HAS HURT
THE POOR MORE THAN ANYONE ELSE, BECAUSE THEIR
INCOMES DO NOT RISE IN LINE WITH PRICES.
JOHNSON-HUMPHREY INFLATION HAS
HURT THE FARMER. PRICES RECEIVED BY THE FARMER
HAVE GONE UP VERY LITTLE IN THE LAST SEVEN
YEARS BUT THE INDEX OF PRICES PAID BY THE
FARMER HAS GONE UP 44 POINTS. THE FARMER IS A
-9-
PRIME VICTIM OF JOHNSON-HUMPHREY ADMINISTRATION
INFLATION. HIS INCOME BRINGS HIM ONLY 74 PER
CENT OF PARITY. THIS IS INCONCEIVABLE IN TIME
OF WAR.
JOHNSON-HUMPHREY INFLATION HAS
FORCED UP INTEREST RATES AND CREATED A SPECIAL
BURDEN FOR HOME BUYERS AND ALL AMERICANS WHO
FIND IT NECESSARY TO BORROW. IT HAS INTERFERED
WITH MUNICIPAL AND SCHOOL DISTRICT IMPROVEMENT
PROJECTS AND HAS SADDLED TAXPAYERS WITH HIGHER
INTEREST COSTS FOR YEARS TO COME.
FED BY FEDERAL DEFICIT SPENDING,
JOHNSON-HUMPHREY INFLATION HAS ADDED TO THE
INTEREST COSTS ACCOMPANYING THE HUGE RISE IN
OUR NATIONAL DEBT UNTIL THE INTEREST ON THAT
DEBT NOW TOTALS NEARLY $15 BILLION A YEAR.
THINK WHAT THAT $15 BILLION A YEAR COULD DO FOR
OUR POOR!
JOHNSON-HUMPHREY INFLATION HAS
HURT U.S. FOREIGN TRADE TO THE POINT WHERE OUR
-10-
TRADE SURPLUS HAS FALLEN TO AN ANNUAL RATE OF
LESS THAN $2 BILLION. OUR BALANCE OF TRADE
ACTUALLY SLIPPED INTO DEFICIT DURING THE MONTH
OF MARCH FOR THE FIRST TIME IN FIVE YEARS. THIS
VANISHING TRADE SURPLUS HAS COMBINED WITH THE
JOHNSON-HUMPHREY ADMINISTRATION'S EXTRAVAGANCE
IN OVERSEAS EXPENDITURES TO PRODUCE OUR BALANCE
OF PAYMENTS CRISIS AND THE GOLD DRAIN.
THE GOLD CRISIS HAS RESULTED FROM
AN INTERNATIONAL CRISIS OF CONFIDENCE IN THE
FISCAL AND MONETARY POLICIES PURSUED BY THE
DEMOCRATIC PARTY.
IT IS ABUNDANTLY CLEAR THAT THE
PARTY IN POWER HAS MISMANAGED THIS NATION'S
FISCAL AND MONETARY AFFAIRS.
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY HAS BROUGHT ON
THIS NATION A FISCAL CRISIS WHICH THREATENS THE
AMERICAN PEOPLE WITH A MAJOR RECESSION OR WORSE.
WHILE THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY STRUGGLES
TO CLEAN UP THE FISCAL MESS INTO WHICH THEY HAVE
-11-
PLUNGED OUR NATION AND TO EXTRICATE US FROM THE
BLOODY AND COSTLY CONFLICT IN VIETNAM, THE
NATION'S LARGEST CITIES SIMMER WITH POTENTIAL
RACIAL REVOLT.
WE RECENTLY SAW PART OF MORE THAN
100 AMERICAN CITIES BURNED AND LOOTED IN A KIND
OF RE-RUN OF LAST YEAR'S CIVIL DISORDERS.
THIS IS THE CRISIS OF THE CITIES. THIS IS WHAT
HAS BEEN HAPPENING TO AMERICA SINCE THE JOHNSON-
HUMPHREY ADMINISTRATION TOOK OFFICE.
THAT GREAT REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT,
ABRAHAM LINCOLN, ONCE SAID: "THERE IS NO
GRIEVANCE THAT IS A FIT OBJECT OF REDRESS BY
MOB LAW." I AM SURE MOST AMERICANS AGREE WITH
THAT.
AMERICA MUST DO WHATEVER IS POSSIBLE
TO CLEAN UP ITS SLUMS AND HELP MAKE NEW LIVES
FOR THE UNDERPRIVILEGED. BUT I DO NOT THINK
IT IS HELPFUL FOR VICE-PRESIDENT HUMPHREY TO
SAY, AS HE DID ON JULY 18, 1966, IN NEW ORLEANS:
-12-
"IF I WERE IN THOSE CONDITIONS -- IF THAT SHOULD
HAPPEN TO HAVE BEEN MY SITUATION, I THINK YOU
WOULD HAVE HAD A LITTLE MORE TROUBLE THAN YOU
HAVE HAD ALREADY, BECAUSE I HAVE ENOUGH SPARK
LEFT IN ME TO LEAD A MIGHTY GOOD REVOLT UNDER
THOSE CONDITIONS."
WELL, WE HAVE HAD MORE TROUBLE -- A
LOT MORE -- AND WHAT HAS IT ACCOMPLISHED? ALL
AMERICA HAS BEEN HURT BY IT -- AND THE NEGRO
MOST OF ALL.
THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR SLUM
CONDITIONS, BUT NEITHER IS THERE ANY EXCUSE FOR
RIOTING.
IF NEGROES WOULD REVOLUTIONIZE TO
RIGHT THE WRONGS DONE THEM, LET THEM USE THE
BALLOT AND NOT THE BULLET, THE SOAP BOX AND NOT
THE TORCH.
AS FOR WHITE AMERICANS, LET THEM
ALL BEGIN LIVING THE TRUTH THAT THE DECLARATION
OF INDEPENDENCE HELD TO BE SELF-EVIDENT -- THAT
-13-
ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL.
LET US HELP THE POOR AND THE
DISADVANTAGED HELP THEMSELVES UP THE ECONOMIC
AND SOCIAL LADDER -- NOT RELY ON FEDERAL TAX
DOLLARS ALONE TO SOLVE ALL THE PROBLEMS OF
POVERTY. EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS, ON-THE-JOB
TRAINING, TAX INCENTIVES FOR INDUSTRY, AND
EQUAL OPPORTUNITY FOR ALL -- THESE ARE THE
MEANS BY WHICH POVERTY CAN BE ELIMINATED.
CRIME IS THE PARTNER OF POVERTY IN
THE CENTRAL CITIES -- AND CRIME HAS FLOURISHED
IN THE LAST SEVEN YEARS. I TAKE NO SATISFACTION
IN THE FACT THAT DEMOCRATIC POLITICAL BOSSES
RUN MANY OF THE BIG CITIES WHERE FEAR OF ROBBERY
OR WORSE KEEPS OUR CITIZENS HUDDLED IN THEIR
HOMES AT NIGHT.
THE NATIONAL CRIME RATE HAS GONE
UP 83 PER CENT SINCE 1960 WHILE THE RESIDENT
POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES HAS INCREASED
11 PER CENT. THINK OF IT! CRIME HAS GONE UP
-14-
NEARLY EIGHT TIMES AS FAST AS THE POPULATION
IN THIS COUNTRY OVER THE LAST SEVEN YEARS.
AND AMERICANS STILL ARE WAITING FOR FEDERAL
HELP IN THE WAR AGAINST CRIME FROM A DEMOCRATIC
ADMINISTRATION AND A DEMOCRATIC-CONTROLLED
CONGRESS. WOULD AMERICANS STILL BE WAITING IF
THE REPUBLICANS HAD BEEN IN POWER? NOT ON YOUR
LIFE.
THERE CAN BE LITTLE PROGRESS IN
THE CENTRAL CITIES UNTIL THE RIOTS STOP. THERE
CAN BE NO REBUILDING OF THE CENTRAL CITIES UNTIL
LAW AND ORDER ARE ASSURED. LAW AND ORDER WILL
NEVER BE ASSURED AS LONG AS HIGH PUBLIC OFFICIALS
PREACH REVOLT.
WE ARE GETTING CLOSE TO THAT TIME
WHEN THE AMERICAN PEOPLE WILL CHOOSE THE KIND
OF LEADERSHIP THEY WANT IN THE CONGRESS AND IN
THE WHITE HOUSE.
I APPEAL TO ALL AMERICANS TO LOOK
AT THE RECORD BEFORE THEY MAKE THAT CHOICE.
-15-
ONE OF LYNDON JOHNSON'S FAVORITE
EXPRESSIONS DURING HIS YEARS IN THE WHITE HOUSE
HAS BEEN: "LET US CONTINUE."
TONIGHT I ASK CONTINUE WHAT?
CONTINUE TO KEEP IN POWER A POLITICAL PARTY
WHICH HAS FAILED AMERICA?
KEEP IN POWER A PARTY WHICH HAS
FAILED TO KEEP THE PEACE AT HOME AND ABROAD?
KEEP IN POWER A PARTY WHICH HAS
ALLOWED OUR CITY STREETS TO BECOME PAVEMENTS OF
FEAR?
KEEP IN POWER A PARTY WHICH HAS
DESTROYED PRICE STABILITY IN THIS COUNTRY BY
SPENDING US:INTO INFLATION?
KEEP IN POWER A PARTY WHICH
THREATENS TO DESTROY THE DOLLAR AS A WORLD
CURRENCY AND PRODUCE A COLLAPSE OF WORLD TRADE?
KEEP IN POWER A PARTY WHICH THREATENS
TO PLUNGE THIS COUNTRY INTO A MAJOR RECESSION
HARD ON THE HEELS OF RUNAWAY INFLATION?
-16-
I AM CONVINCED THAT AMERICA CANNOT
AFFORD ANOTHER FOUR YEARS OF DEMOCRATIC RULE
IN WASHINGTON.
I BELIEVE AMERICANS ARE LOOKING FOR
NEW LEADERSHIP -- IMAGINATIVE LEADERSHIP --
REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP THAT WILL MEET THE
CHALLENGES OF CIVIL DISORDER, CRIME IN THE
STREETS, THE DOLLAR DISASTER, A FEDERAL BUDGET
KNOCKED OUT OF CONTROL BY UNCONTROLLED SPENDING,
THE DECAY OF THE CITIES, COMMUNIST EXPANSION
IN SOUTHEAST ASIA, THE POWDER KEG IN THE MIDDLE
EAST, WASTE IN FOREIGN AID AND THROUGHOUT OUR
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, THE GOLD DRAIN AND THE
LIST GOES ON AND ON.
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE WILL TURN TO
NEW REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP THAT WILL OFFER NEW
APPROACHES TO DEAL WITH THE COMPLEX PROBLEMS
OF THE CITIES NEW HOPE FOR THE MILLIONS OF
AMERICANS IMPRISONED IN THE SLUMS.
NEW REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP WILL PUT
ERAD FORD LIBRARY
-17-
TO AN END THE GROPING, FUMBLING, TEMPORIZING,
EXTRAVAGANCE AND WASTEFULNESS OF THE JOHNSON-
HUMPHREY ADMINISTRATION.
WITH THAT NEW REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP
WILL COME FRESH IDEAS, CREATIVITY, AND THE BOLD
NEW THINKING AMERICA SO DESPERATELY NEEDS.
THE IMMEDIATE TASK IS YOURS, LADIES
AND GENTLEMEN OF THIS CONVENTION -- TO NOMINATE
THE MAN WHO WILL BECOME THE NEXT PRESIDENT OF
THE UNITED STATES.
AND NOW LET THE ORATORY BEGIN.
-END-
FORD
Office Copy
CONGRESSMAN
NEWS
GERALD R. FORD
HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER
RELEASE
--FOR RELEASE IN SUNDAY AM's--
May 5. 1968
An address by Ren. Gerald R. Ford R-Mich. before a Mock Political Convention at
8 p.m. Saturday May 4, 1968 at Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio.
Fellow Republicans and Fellow Americans: As we meet here tonight in
convention America and the world resound with alarms.
We are met at a time of grave crisis--a crisis not only for the American
people but for the entire Free World.
This will not be a traditional political convention speech. I have no
intention of promising the American people that the Republican Party if returned
to the White House will solve every problem overnight increase every benefit,
expand all existing federal programs and start a whole flock of new ones.
Let's leave that onus of fiscal irresponsibility to the other major political
party. They deserve it. They have been pursuing that course for the last seven
years and they haven't accomplished much except to run up prices run up interest
rates, run up the National Debt and the interest on it to staggering proportions,
nearly run us out of gold and run the dollar into the ground.
Tonight I want to discuss with you the health and welfare of our Nation. Not
in the limited sense of school lunches or prenatal care for indigent mothers. But
the health and welfare of all the American people--of every one of us who as indi-
viduals make up the great living community which is the United States of America.
We face many problems--problems that threaten to tear us apart as a people,
problems that demean us in the eyes of the world, problems that threaten us with
collapse as a Nation.
I believe what Americans are pondering as we meet here tonight is this:
Which party is best equipped to restore this country to blessed peace and which
party can best promote genuine prosperity, a soundly growing, job-producing economy
with relative price stability.
Which party best understands the forces at work in America and the world
today--those forces which promise a brighter tomorrow and those other forces which
threaten our very existence?
Which party best recognizes the uses of power and how best to employ it in
the interests of world peace?
(more)
BERALD FORD LIBRARY
- 2 -
Which party does a better job of preserving the value of the dollar so that
a man need not lead a precarious credit-card existence during his working years
and throw himself on the mercy of the government in his old age?
Which party does a better job of watching over tax dollars and seeing to it
that Americans get a fair return for what they "invest" in their government?
Which party offers the American people the kind of moral leadership so
necessary to teach respect for law and order and to preserve this republic as a
government ordained of laws and not merely of men?
Both major parties want what is best for America. We share many of the
same objectives. Where we differ is not on goals and ends but on the means to
those ends.
The Democratic Party now stands before the people to be judged. The
Democratic Party has had seven years in which to demonstrate the wisdom of its
policies, the beneficent fruits of legislation which has been pushed through one
Democratic Congress after another. The people will decide whether to leave the
Nation in the Democratic Party's hands.
Lyndon Johnson recently said that his party's candidate in 1968--whoever he
may be--must defend the record of the Johnson-Humphrey Administration. I agree.
I urge every American to look at the record--to look, and compare.
What does the record reveal?
Our Nation has suffered grievously under Democratic Party policies.
In Vietnam a divided Democratic Party gradually escalated a small Eisenhower
aid commitment into a major land war, contrary to all sound military advice. It was
the late General Douglas MacArthur, you will recall, who said: "Anybody who commits
the land power of the United States on the continent of Asia ought to have his
head examined."
Having committed U.S. land power to the Vietnam War, the divided Democratic
Party then fought the war on the basis of a limited or measured response, a
strategy of gradualism which was doomed to failure from the outset and escalated
the danger to the lives of American fighting men.
Vietnam is not America's only foreign pool of despair under a divided
Democratic Party.
In Latin America, there is no real Alliance and the progress is insignificant.
Where are the economic and social reforms our State Department has so bravely
mapped for our Latin neighbors? The reforms are buried under shiny new implements of
war while South American leaders bolster their personal wealth and power.
(more)
LIBRARY
- 3 -
In Africa nation after nation which has accepted our assistance falls away
from popular rule and into the cult of personal dictatorship. Vice-President
Humphrey's answer is to call for a tripling of a foreign aid program that has
repeatedly been exposed as shoddily--and, in some instances, corruptly--run.
In Europe, NATO has steadily eroded into a loose, lip-service alignment
of nations which force America to pay the bill for military arrangements they do
not consider important enough to finance on their own. Supreme Headquarters of
the Allied Forces has been pushed out of France by President DeGaulle and forced
to take refuge in Belgium. leaving a fortune in buildings behind. Britain,
squeezed by extravagant welfare programs into devaluing the pound has pulled back
from the world and thrust a greater peace-keeping burden on America. The Johnson-
Humphrey Administration's erratic policy in the Mideast feeds guerrilla warfare
between the Arabs and Israel and blunts the prospects for peace while enhancing
Soviet influence among the Arab nations.
The American people are suffering at home under Democratic Party policies.
The U.S. Labor Department has stated flatly that the wage gains American
workers thought they had made in 1966 and 1967 were wiped out by increases in the
cost of living.
The Democratic Party brags about more than 80 months of "uninterrupted
prosperity' but the name of the game is inflation, not prosperity. Inflation is a
big word. The housewife knows what it means--higher and higher prices.
Johnson-Humphrey inflation has hurt the poor more than anyone else, because
their incomes do not rise in line with prices.
Johnson-Humphrey inflation has hurt the farmer. Prices received by the
farmer have gone up very little in the last seven years but the index of prices
paid by the farmer has gone up 44 points. The farmer is a prime victim of Johnson-
Humphrey Administration inflation. His income brings him only 74 per cent of
parity. This is inconceivable in time of war.
Johnson-Humphrey inflation has forced up interest rates and created a
special burden for home buyers and all Americans who find it necessary to borrow.
It has interfered with municipal and school district improvement projects and has
saddled taxpayers with higher interest costs for years to come.
Fed by federal deficit spending, Johnson-Humphrey inflation has added to the
interest costs accompanying the huge rise in our national debt until the interest
on that debt now totals nearly $15 billion a year. Think what that $15 billion a
year could do for our poor!
(more)
- 4 -
Johnson-ilumphrey inflation has hurt U.S. foreign trade to the point where
our trade surplus has fallen to an annual rate of less than $2 billion. Our
balance of trade actually slipped into deficit during the month of March for the
first time in five years. This vanishing trade surplus has combined with the
Johnson-Humphrey Administration's extravagance in overseas expenditures to produce
our balance of payments crisis and the gold drain.
The gold crisis has resulted from an international crisis of confidence in
the fiscal and monetary policies pursued by the Democratic Party.
It is abundantly clear that the party in power has mismanaged this Nation's
fiscal and monetary affairs.
The Democratic Party has brought on this Nation a fiscal crisis which
threatens the American people with a major recession or worse.
While the Democratic Party struggles to clean up the fiscal mess into which
they have plunged our Nation and to extricate us from the bloody and costly conflict
in Vietnam, the nation's largest cities simmer with potential racial revolt.
We recently saw part of more than 100 American cities burned and looted in
a kind of re-run of last year's civil disorders. This is the crisis of the cities.
This is what has been happening to America since the Johnson-Humphrey Administration
took office.
That great Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, once said: "There is no
grievance that is a fit object of redress by mob law." I am sure most Americans
agree with that.
America must do whatever is possible to clean up its slums and help make
new lives for the underprivileged. But I do not think it is helpful for Vice-
President Humphrey to say, as he did on July 18, 1966, in New Orleans: "If I
were in those conditions--if that should happen to have been my situation, I think
you would have had a little more trouble than you have had already, because I have
enough spark left in me to lead a mighty good revolt under those conditions."
Well, we have had more trouble--a lot more--and what has it accomplished?
All America has been hurt by it--and the Negro most of all.
There is no excuse for slum conditions, but neither is there any excuse for
rioting.
If Negroes would revolutionize to right the wrongs done them, let them use
the ballot and not the bullet, the soap box and not the torch.
As for white Americans, let them all begin living the truth that the
Declaration of Independence held to be self-evident--that all men are created equal.
(more)
GERALD
LIBRARY
- 5 -
Let us help the poor and the disadvantaged help themselves up the economic
and social ladder--not rely on Federal tax dollars alone to solve all the problems
of poverty. Educational programs, on-the-job training, tax incentives for industry,
and equal opportunity for all-these are the means by which poverty can be
eliminated.
Crime is the partner of poverty in the central cities--and crime has flour-
ished in the last seven years. I take no satisfaction in the fact that Democratic
political bosses run many of the big cities where fear of robbery or worse keeps
our citizens huddled in their homes at night.
The national crime rate has gone up 83 per cent since 1960 while the
resident population of the United States has increased 11 per cent. Think of it!
Crime has gone up nearly eight times as fast as the population in this country over
the last seven years. And Americans still are waiting for federal help in the War
against Crime from a Democratic Administration and a Democratic-controlled Congress.
Would Americans still be waiting if the Republicans had been in power? Not on your
life.
There can be little progress in the central cities until the riots stop.
There can be no rebuilding of the central cities until law and order are assured.
Law and order will never be assured as long as high public officials preach revolt.
We are getting close to that time when the American people will choose the
kind of leadership they want in the Congress and in the White House.
I appeal to all Americans to look at the record before they make that choice.
One of Lyndon Johnson's favorite expressions during his years in the White
House has been: "Let us continue."
Tonight I ask continue what? Continue to keep in power a political party
which has failed America?
Keep in power a party which has failed to keep the peace at home and abroad?
Keep in power a party which has allowed our city streets to become pavements
of fear?
Keep in power a party which has destroyed price stability in this country
by spending us into inflation?
Keep in power a party which threatens to destroy the dollar as a world
currency and produce a collapse of world trade?
Keep in power a party which threatens to plunge this country into a major
recession hard on the heels of runaway inflation?
(more)
- 6
I am convinced that America cannot afford another four years of Democratic
rule in Washington.
I believe Americans are looking for new leadership--imaginative leadership--
Republican leadership that will meet the challenges of civil disorder, crime in the
streets, the dollar disaster, a federal budget knocked out of control by
uncontrolled spending, the decay of the cities, Communist expansion in Southeast
Asia, the powder keg in the Middle East, waste in foreign aid and throughout our
federal government, the gold drain. and the list goes on and on.
The American people will turn to new Republican leadership that will offer
new approaches to deal with the complex problems of the cities . new hope for the
millions of Americans imprisoned in the slums.
New Republican leadership will put to an end the groping, fumbling,
temporizing, extravagance and wastefulness of the Johnson-Humphrey Administration.
With that new Republican leadership will come fresh ideas, creativity, and
the bold new thinking America so desperately needs.
The immediate task is yours, ladies and gentlemen of this convention--to
nominate the man who will become the next President of the United States.
And now let the oratory begin.
###
M Office Copy
CONGRESSMAN
NEWS
GERALD R. FORD
HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER
RELEASE
FOR RELEASE IN SUNDAY AM's--
May. 5 1968
An address by Rep. Gerald F.. Ford R-Mich. before a lock Political Convention at
8 p.m. Saturday May 4, 1968 at Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio.
Fellow Republicans and Fellow Americans: As we meet here tonight in
convention America and the world resound with alarms.
We are met at a time of grave crisis--a crisis not only for the American
people but for the entire Free World.
This will not be a traditional political convention speech. I have no
intention of promising the American people that the Republican Party if returned
to the White House will solve every problem overnight increase every benefit,
expand all existing federal programs and start a whole flock of new ones.
Let's leave that onus of fiscal irresponsibility to the other major political
party. They deserve it. They have been pursuing that course for the last seven
years and they haven't accomplished much except to run up prices run up interest
rates, run up the National Debt and the interest on it to staggering proportions,
nearly run us out of gold and run the dollar into the ground.
Tonight I want to discuss with you the health and welfare of our Nation. Not
in the limited sense of school lunches or prenatal care for indigent mothers. But
the health and welfare of all the American people--of every one of us who as indi-
viduals make up the great living community which is the United States of America.
We face many problems--problems that threaten to tear us apart as a people,
problems that demean us in the eyes of the world, problems that threaten us with
collapse as a Nation.
I believe what Americans are pondering as we meet here tonight is this:
Which party is best equipped to restore this country to blessed peace and which
party can best promote genuine prosperity, a soundly growing, job-producing economy
with relative price stability.
Which party best understands the forces at work in America and the world
today--those forces which promise a brighter tomorrow and those other forces which
threaten our very existence?
Which party best recognizes the uses of power and how best to employ it in
the interests of world peace?
FORD
(more)
LIBRARY
- 2 -
Which party does a better job of preserving the value of the dollar so that
a man need not lead a precarious credit-card existence during his working years
and throw himself on the mercy of the government in his old age?
Which party does a better job of watching over tax dollars and seeing to it
that Americans get a fair return for what they "invest" in their government?
Which party offers the American people the kind of moral leadership so
necessary to teach respect for law and order and to preserve this republic as a
government ordained of laws and not merely of men?
Both major parties want what is best for America. We share many of the
same objectives. Where we differ is not on goals and ends but on the means to
those ends.
The Democratic Party now stands before the people to be judged. The
Democratic Party has had seven years in which to demonstrate the wisdom of its
policies, the beneficent fruits of legislation which has been pushed through one
Democratic Congress after another. The people will decide whether to leave the
Nation in the Democratic Party's hands.
Lyndon Johnson recently said that his party's candidate in 1968-whoever he
may be--must defend the record of the Johnson-Humphrey Administration. I agree.
I urge every American to look at the record--to look, and compare.
What does the record reveal?
Our Nation has suffered grievously under Democratic Party policies.
In Vietnam a divided Democratic Party gradually escalated a small Eisenhower
aid commitment into a major land war, contrary to all sound military advice. It was
the late General Douglas MacArthur, you will recall, who said: "Anybody who commits
the land power of the United States on the continent of Asia ought to have his
head examined."
Having committed U.S. land power to the Vietnam War, the divided Democratic
Party then fought the war on the basis of a limited or measured response, a
strategy of gradualism which was doomed to failure from the outset and escalated
the danger to the lives of American fighting men.
Vietnam is not America's only foreign pool of despair under a divided
Democratic Party.
In Latin America, there is no real Alliance and the progress is insignificant.
Where are the economic and social reforms our State Department has so bravely
mapped for our Latin neighbors? The reforms are buried under shiny new implements of
war while South American leaders bolster their personal wealth and power.
(more)
BERALD FORD LIBRARY
- 3 -
In Africa nation after nation which has accepted our assistance falls away
from popular rule and into the cult of personal dictatorship. Vice-President
Humphrey's answer is to call for a tripling of a foreign aid program that has
repeatedly been exposed as shoddily--and, in some instances, corruptly--run.
In Europe, NATO has steadily eroded into a loose, lip-service alignment
of nations which force America to pay the bill for military arrangements they do
not consider important enough to finance on their own. Supreme Headquarters of
the Allied Forces has been pushed out of France by President DeGaulle and forced
to take refuge in Belgium. leaving a fortune in buildings behind. Britain,
squeezed by extravagant welfare programs into devaluing the pound has pulled back
from the world and thrust a greater peace-keeping burden on America. The Johnson-
Humphrey Administration's erratic policy in the Mideast feeds guerrilla warfare
between the Arabs and Israel and blunts the prospects for peace while enhancing
Soviet influence among the Arab nations.
The American people are suffering at home under Democratic Party policies.
The U.S. Labor Department has stated flatly that the wage gains American
workers thought they had made in 1966 and 1967 were wiped out by increases in the
cost of living.
The Democratic Party brags about more than 80 months of "uninterrupted
prosperity but the name of the game is inflation, not prosperity. Inflation is a
big word. The housewife knows what it means--higher and higher prices.
Johnson-Humphrey inflation has hurt the poor more than anyone else, because
their incomes do not rise in line with prices.
Johnson-Humphrey inflation has hurt the farmer. Prices received by the
farmer have gone up very little in the last seven years but the index of prices
paid by the farmer has gone up 44 points. The farmer is a prime victim of Johnson-
Humphrey Administration inflation. His income brings him only 74 per cent of
parity. This is inconceivable in time of war.
Johnson-Humphrey inflation has forced up interest rates and created a
special burden for home buyers and all Americans who find it necessary to borrow.
It has interfered with municipal and school district improvement projects and has
saddled taxpayers with higher interest costs for years to come.
Fed by federal deficit spending, Johnson-Humphrey inflation has added to the
interest costs accompanying the huge rise in our national debt until the interest
on that debt now totals nearly $15 billion a year. Think what that $15 billion a
year could do for our poor!
(more)
- 4 -
Johnson-ilumphrey inflation has hurt U.S. foreign trade to the point where
our trade surplus has fallen to an annual rate of less than $2 billion. Our
balance of trade actually slipped into deficit during the month of March for the
first time in five years. This vanishing trade surplus has combined with the
Johnson-Humphrey Administration's extravagance in overseas expenditures to produce
our balance of payments crisis and the gold drain.
The gold crisis has resulted from an international crisis of confidence in
the fiscal and monetary policies pursued by the Democratic Party.
It is abundantly clear that the party in power has mismanaged this Nation's
fiscal and monetary affairs.
The Democratic Party has brought on this Nation a fiscal crisis which
threatens the American people with a major recession or worse.
While the Democratic Party struggles to clean up the fiscal mess into which
they have plunged our Nation and to extricate us from the bloody and costly conflict
in Vietnam, the nation's largest cities simmer with potential racial revolt.
We recently saw part of more than 100 American cities burned and looted in
a kind of re-run of last year's civil disorders. This is the crisis of the cities.
This is what has been happening to America since the Johnson-Humphrey Administration
took office.
That great Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, once said: "There is no
grievance that is a fit object of redress by mob law." I am sure most Americans
agree with that.
America must do whatever is possible to clean up its slums and help make
new lives for the underprivileged. But I do not think it is helpful for Vice-
President Humphrey to say, as he did on July 18, 1966, in New Orleans: "If I
were in those conditions--if that should happen to have been my situation, I think
you would have had a little more trouble than you have had already, because I have
enough spark left in me to lead a mighty good revolt under those conditions."
Well, we have had more trouble--a lot more--and what has it accomplished?
All America has been hurt by it--and the Negro most of all.
There is no excuse for slum conditions, but neither is there any excuse for
rioting.
If Negroes would revolutionize to right the wrongs done them, let them use
the ballot and not the bullet, the soap box and not the torch.
As for white Americans, let them all begin living the truth that the
Declaration of Independence held to be self-evident--that all men are created equal.
(more)
- 5 -
Let us help the poor and the disadvantaged help themselves up the economic
and social ladder--not rely on Federal tax dollars alone to solve all the problems
of poverty. Educational programs, on-the-job training, tax incentives for industry,
and equal opportunity for all-these are the means by which poverty can be
eliminated.
Crime is the partner of poverty in the central cities--and crime has flour-
ished in the last seven years. I take no satisfaction in the fact that Democratic
political bosses run many of the big cities where fear of robbery or worse keeps
our citizens huddled in their homes at night.
The national crime rate has gone up 83 per cent since 1960 while the
resident population of the United States has increased 11 per cent. Think of it!
Crime has gone up nearly eight times as fast as the population in this country over
the last seven years. And Americans still are waiting for federal help in the War
against Crime from a Democratic Administration and a Democratic-controlled Congress.
Would Americans still be waiting if the Republicans had been in power? Not on your
life.
There can be little progress in the central cities until the riots stop.
There can be no rebuilding of the central cities until law and order are assured.
Law and order will never be assured as long as high public officials preach revolt.
We are getting close to that time when the American people will choose the
kind of leadership they want in the Congress and in the White House.
I appeal to all Americans to look at the record before they make that choice.
One of Lyndon Johnson's favorite expressions during his years in the White
House has been: "Let us continue."
Tonight I ask continue what? Continue to keep in power a political party
which has failed America?
Keep in power a party which has failed to keep the peace at home and abroad?
Keep in power a party which has allowed our city streets to become pavements
of fear?
Keep in power a party which has destroyed price stability in this country
by spending us into inflation?
Keep in power a party which threatens to destroy the dollar as a world
currency and produce a collapse of world trade?
Keep in power a party which threatens to plunge this country into a major
recession hard on the heels of runaway inflation?
(more)
GERALD FORD
- 6 -
I am convinced that America cannot afford another four years of Democratic
rule in Washington.
I believe Americans are looking for new leadership--imaginative leadership--
Republican leadership that will meet the challenges of civil disorder, crime in the
streets, the dollar disaster, a federal budget knocked out of control by
uncontrolled spending, the decay of the cities, Communist expansion in Southeast
Asia, the powder keg in the Middle East, waste in foreign aid and throughout our
federal government, the gold drain. and the list goes on and on.
The American people will turn to new Republican leadership that will offer
new approaches to deal with the complex problems of the cities new hope for the
millions of Americans imprisoned in the slums.
New Republican leadership will put to an end the groping, fumbling,
temporizing, extravagance and wastefulness of the Johnson-Humphrey Administration.
With that new Republican leadership will come fresh ideas, creativity, and
the bold new thinking America so desperately needs.
The immediate task is yours, ladies and gentlemen of this convention--to
nominate the man who will become the next President of the United States.
And now let the oratory begin.
###