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Summit County Republican Dinner, Akron, OH, May 16, 1968
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Summit County Republican Dinner, Akron, OH, May 16, 1968
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The original documents are located in Box D24, folder "Summit County Republican
Dinner, Akron, OH, May 16, 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States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.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 5/16/68
20 Copies Mr. Ford
M office Copy
CONGRESSMAN
NEWS
GERALD R. FORD
HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER
RELEASE
--FOR USE IN FRIDAY AM's--
May 17, 1968
Excerpts from a Speech by House Republican Leader Gerald R. Ford, R-Mich., at a
Summit County, Ohio, Republican Dinner, Thursday evening, May 16, 1968,
at Akron, Ohio.
I am especially pleased to be here with Ray Bliss because I think this
dinner is an early edition of the victory celebration we'll be having after the
people go to the polls in November.
One of the reasons we will win on Nov. 5 is sitting right here with us
tonight. I am talking about the man who rebuilt the Ohio Republican Party from
the ground up after 1948. I am talking about the man who has made a tremendous
contribution to the great national Republican comeback of 1966 and is now gearing
up the national Republican organization for a victorious performance this fall.
This is the background behind my resolution which the National Republican
Coordinating Committee recently adopted, urging the 1968 GOP Presidential candidate
to retain Ohio's Ray Bliss as chairman of the National Republican Committee.
In my book, Ray Bliss is a great national chairman--and when you've "got
yourself a winner" you go with him all the way.
I'm being a little selfish, of course. I figure that if Republicans could
make a net gain of 47 seats in the House of Representatives in '66 with Ray as
national chairman, we should be able to go over the top with him in '68 and win
control of the House on the Hill as well as the House on Pennsylvania Avenue.
And let me impress upon you that when we do regain control of the House of
Representatives, your own Bill Ayres will become chairman of the House Education
and Labor Committee and also will rank immediately behind the Republican chairman
on the House Veterans Affairs Committee.
After years of Democratic mis-rule in Washington, Republicans taking over in
the White House and the House of Representatives will face a tremendous challenge.
Consider what is happening in this country with the Democrats in charge.
The cost of living rises at an annual rate of 4 per cent or more. Home mortgage
interest rates are the highest in 50 years. The dollar is in deep trouble at home
and abroad. Billions of dollars more leave the country than come in each year--and
foreigners swap those dollars for our dwindling stock of gold. The dollar no longer
is as good as gold. In fact, our paper money has become exactly that, because the
(more)
GERALD FORD LIBRUET
Digitized from Box D24 of The Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
-2-
gold backing has been removed from it. The taxpayer carries a heavier burden than
ever before in our history--and is about to have an even greater load placed on his
back. Our farmers produce more but make less, because the cost-price squeeze has
made them prime victims of inflation.
Poverty continues to stalk our rural areas and our cities despite the War
on Poverty launched with high-sounding rhetoric by Democratic politicians just
before the 1964 elections. I say Democratic claims of success in the Poverty War
should be measured against the row upon row of tents and shanties in the Poor
People's Resurrection City in Washington's West Potomac Park.
While the problems remain and the cities simmer and fester with the miseries
of the slums, an atmosphere of lawlessness prevades the land.
In the last seven years the national crime rate has gone up nearly eight
times as fast as the population. And still the American people wait for a
Democratic-controlled Congress to act. I can assure you they would not be waiting
for action if Republicans had been in power.
There is a desperate need for new leadership in America, the kind of leader-
ship that will make our streets safe again and the kind of leadership that will
save the dollar and help make the American worker's wages fit his family's needs.
We need a crackdown--a crackdown on the criminal activity throughout America
which makes Americans hide in their homes at night and a crackdown on the fiscal
irresponsibility in Washington which raises the old specter of boom and bust.
I think the people are fed up with the Democratic Party. They're fed up
with higher and higher prices, higher and higher taxes, higher and higher interest
rates, higher and higher crime rates, more and bigger riots, and greater and
greater violence.
But that's not the only reason they will turn to the Republican Party in
November. They will vote Republican in November because the Republican Party has
fashioned a program that offers the Nation genuine progress.
That program would provide good-paying jobs for the hard-core unemployed and
the underemployed by triggering a nationwide on-the-job training program by industry,
establish a Domestic Development Bank to make investment capital available to white
and non-white businessmen alike in the central cities, and bring homes--not promises
or public housing--to the low-income poor. We would build a New America with the
best formula for progress ever devised--helping people to help themselves. We are
building-- and that's why we will win.
###
LIBRARY
CONGRESSMAN
NEWS
GERALD R. FORD
HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER
RELEASE
--FOR USE IN FRIDAY AM'
May 17, 1968
Excerpts from a Speech by House Republican Leader Gerald R. Ford, R-Mich., at a
Summit County, Ohio, Republican Dinner, Thursday evening, May 16, 1968,
at Akron, Ohio.
I am especially pleased to be here with Ray Bliss because I think this
dinner is an early edition of the victory celebration we'll be having after the
people go to the polls in November.
One of the reasons we will win on Nov. 5 is sitting right here with us
tonight. I am talking about the man who rebuilt the Ohio Republican Party from
the ground up after 1948. I am talking about the man who has made a tremendous
contribution to the great national Republican comeback of 1966 and is now gearing
up the national Republican organization for a victorious performance this fall.
This is the background behind my resolution which the National Republican
Coordinating Committee recently adopted, urging the 1968 GOP Presidential candidate
to retain Ohio's Ray Bliss as chairman of the National Republican Committee.
In my book, Ray Bliss is a great national chairman--and when you've "got
yourself a winner" you go with him all the way.
I'm being a little selfish, of course. I figure that if Republicans could
make a net gain of 47 seats in the House of Representatives in '66 with Ray as
national chairman, we should be able to go over the top with him in '68 and win
control of the House on the Hill as well as the House on Pennsylvania Avenue.
And let me impress upon you that when we do regain control of the House of
Representatives, your own Bill Ayres will become chairman of the House Education
and Labor Committee and also will rank immediately behind the Republican chairman
on the House Veterans Affairs Committee.
After years of Democratic mis-rule in Washington, Republicans taking over in
the White House and the House of Representatives will face a tremendous challenge.
Consider what is happening in this country with the Democrats in charge.
The cost of living rises at an annual rate of 4 per cent or more. Home mortgage
interest rates are the highest in 50 years. The dollar is in deep trouble at home
and abroad. Billions of dollars more leave the country than come in each year--and
foreigners swap those dollars for our dwindling stock of gold. The dollar no longer
is as good as gold. In fact, our paper money has become exactly that, because the
(more)
-2-
gold backing has been removed from it. The taxpayer carries a heavier burden than
ever before in our history--and is about to have an even greater load placed on his
back. Our farmers produce more but make less, because the cost-price squeeze has
made them prime victims of inflation.
Poverty continues to stalk our rural areas and our cities despite the War
on Poverty launched with high-sounding rhetoric by Democratic politicians just
before the 1964 elections. I say Democratic claims of success in the Poverty War
should be measured against the row upon row of tents and shanties in the Poor
People's Resurrection City in Washington's West Potomac Park.
While the problems remain and the cities simmer and fester with the miseries
of the slums, an atmosphere of lawlessness prevades the land.
In the last seven years the national crime rate has gone up nearly eight
times as fast as the population. And still the American people wait for a
Democratic-controlled Congress to act. I can assure you they would not be waiting
for action if Republicans had been in power.
There is a desperate need for new leadership in America, the kind of leader-
ship that will make our streets safe again and the kind of leadership that will
save the dollar and help make the American worker's wages fit his family's needs.
We need a crackdown--a crackdown on the criminal activity throughout America
which makes Americans hide in their homes at night and a crackdown on the fiscal
irresponsibility in Washington which raises the old specter of boom and bust.
I think the people are fed up with the Democratic Party. They're fed up
with higher and higher prices, higher and higher taxes, higher and higher interest
rates, higher and higher crime rates, more and bigger riots, and greater and
greater violence.
But that's not the only reason they will turn to the Republican Party in
November. They will vote Republican in November because the Republican Party has
fashioned a program that offers the Nation genuine progress.
That program would provide good-paying jobs for the hard-core unemployed and
the underemployed by triggering a nationwide on-the-job training program by industry,
establish a Domestic Development Bank to make investment capital available to white
and non-white businessmen alike in the central cities, and bring homes--not promises
or public housing--to the low-income poor. We would build a New America with the
best formula for progress ever devised--helping people to help themselves. We are
building--a that's why we will win.
# # #