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American Association of University Women, Lindwood, NJ, October 16, 1971
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American Association of University Women, Lindwood, NJ, October 16, 1971
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The original documents are located in Box D31, folder "American Association of University
Women, Lindwood, NJ, October 16, 1971" 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States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.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 D31 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 6:30 p.m. SATURDAY--
October 16, 1971
Excerpts from a Speech by Rep. Gerald R. Ford, R-Mich., before the American
Association of University Women, at Mainland Regional High School, Lindwood, N.J.
The early Seventies may well go down in history as the years when Americans
experienced the greatest reform of their political and social system since the
first administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
The present Administration has sent Congress some of the most far-reaching
reforms ever dispatched to Capitol Hill.
Many of these reforms have already been enacted. Others are halfway through
the Congress. Others are marking time, and still others have been carried out
administratively.
These reforms are timely and urgent. They are part and parcel of a
comprehensive strategy aimed at eliminating the most critical problems facing this
country.
When we speak of critical problems we immediately think of the economic
crisis which the present Administration inherited as a result of the Vietnam War--
and we think, of course, of the war itself.
The Administration has wound down the war. We are getting out of it. We
will be down to 184,000 men in Vietnam by Dec. 1, and the President will announce
a new schedule of troop withdrawals in mid-November. We will end our combat role
in Vietnam completely by next spring.
In that connection, let me say that congressional efforts to force a
Vietnam termination date on the President are mistaken though well meant. The
President is the only man who can end the Vietnam War in a way that will help us
avoid future Vietnams. He is the only man who can end the Vietnam War in a way
that will help South Vietnam survive as a viable, non-Communist state.
With the winding down of the war have come massive economic problems--
unemployment brought on by a reduction of two million men in our Vietnam fighting
force and our defense plant work forces. This has accompanied persistent inflation
built into the economy in the late Sixties through refusal of the previous
FORD
Administration to pay the dollar costs of the Vietnam War and reluctance to put a
lid on spiralling production costs.
(more)
GERALD
LIBRARY
-2-
As part of its reform program, the present Administration sought to halt
inflation gradually. This effort met with some success but it wasn't good enough.
The President then used the powers voted him by the Congress to impose a price-and-
wage freeze and coupled this action with moves to stimulate the economy, strengthen
the dollar, and force fair treatment of the United States in international trade.
I am elated by the success of this program to date but the sternest tests
are yet to come. Fortunately, organized labor has pledged its support of Phase 2
of the President's price-wage stabilization program. Without this support, the
program could not succeed. The outlook now is bright. With the cooperation of
all the people, we will find the path to new high growth in the economy marked by
price stability and the creation of half a million new jobs.
We are reforming the exercise of both our domestic and international power
through a transformation of our policies.
The President has reformed American foreign policy. He has clothed it with
a new spirit of partnership and a new spirit of negotiation, a new spirit of
willingness to go anywhere in the interest of world peace. And so we have his
plans for summit meetings in Peking and Moscow, and all the world is applauding
his actions. Let me point out that these are carefully planned meetings aimed at
solid accomplishment, not grandstand plays designed simply to attract world
attention.
The present Administration has brought order to the handling of our foreign
policy and has brought order to this country. In short, Mr. Nixon has brought
order to the Presidency.
We have seen proposals for a great array of reforms as we seek new directions
for the Seventies.
We have already achieved many reforms--draft reform to make the Selective
Service System as fair as possible until we can establish a truly volunteer Army;
postal reform which has created a Postal Service Authority with broad modernization
powers; a strengthened and broadened anti-crime program to make our streets safe
again; expenditure reform which has reordered our priorities so that for the first
time in two decades we are spending more Federal dollars on human needs than on
defense; poverty program reform which has kept the Office of Economic Opportunity
as an innovative agency but has spun off successful experimental programs to
old-line Government departments; tax reform which has taken millions of poor
citizens off the taxrolls, has given a long-deserved break to middle-class
(more)
-3-
individuals, and has prevented the most wealthy from escaping taxation; and an
anti-pollution crusade in which the Council on Environmental Quality and the
Environmental Protection Agency are working to restore to our land the beauty
it once knew.
Other reforms are on the way. The House has approved the Administration's
welfare reform program, with the aim of substituting Workfare for the scandal of
welfare. We are continuing our tax reform efforts, and have a bill halfway
through the Congress. The House Ways and Means Committee has completed hearings
on the Administration's revenue-sharing plan--a program which would give the
cities and States the dollars to solve their own problems as only they know how
to solve them.
There are other reforms on which Congress has not really made a start--
revamping of our labor laws for improved handling of national emergency labor
disputes in transportation; reorganizing of the Federal Government's cabinet-level
departments; consolidating of Federal manpower training programs.
One of the proposed reforms I feel most strongly about is major overhaul
of our welfare system because this is a common-sense approach to the crisis of our
cities. The accent is on the solid American ethic of working for a living. It
calls for a hand up instead of a handout. It is based on the idea that a man never
stands so tall as when he stands on his own two feet.
And through all of the proposed reforms now before us runs a challenge--to
make the Seventies a time when we as a people will live our lives better. This is
the challenge: To improve the quality of our lives. I feel sure we will meet it.
# # #
Distribution Golleries (HOUSE) 12:30am 10/15/71
20 copies to Mr. 2nd
affice Copy
CONGRESSMAN
NEWS
GERALD R. FORD
HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER
RELEASE
--FOR RELEASE AT 6:30 p.m. SATURDAY--
October 16, 1971
Excerpts from a Speech by Rep. Gerald R. Ford, R-Mich., before the American
Association of University Women, at Mainland Regional High School, Lindwood, N.J.
The early Seventies may well go down in history as the years when Americans
experienced the greatest reform of their political and social system since the
first administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
The present Administration has sent Congress some of the most far-reaching
reforms ever dispatched to Capitol Hill.
Many of these reforms have already been enacted. Others are halfway through
the Congress. Others are marking time, and still others have been carried out
administratively.
These reforms are timely and urgent. They are part and parcel of a
comprehensive strategy aimed at eliminating the most critical problems facing this
country.
When we speak of critical problems we immediately think of the economic
crisis which the present Administration inherited as a result of the Vietnam War--
and we think, of course, of the war itself.
The Administration has wound down the war. We are getting out of it. We
will be down to 184,000 men in Vietnam by Dec. 1, and the President will announce
a new schedule of troop withdrawals in mid-November. We will end our combat role
in Vietnam completely by next spring.
In that connection, let me say that congressional efforts to force a
Vietnam termination date on the President are mistaken though well meant. The
President is the only man who can end the Vietnam War in a way that will help us
avoid future Vietnams. He is the only man who can end the Vietnam War in a way
that will help South Vietnam survive as a viable, non-Communist state.
With the winding down of the war have come massive economic problems--
unemployment brought on by a reduction of two million men in our Vietnam fighting
force and our defense plant work forces. This has accompanied persistent inflation
built into the economy in the late Sixties through refusal of the previous
Administration to pay the dollar costs of the Vietnam War and reluctance to
GERAL put FORD a LIBRARY
lid on spiralling production costs.
(more)
-2-
As part of its reform program, the present Administration sought to halt
inflation gradually. This effort met with some success but it wasn't good enough.
The President then used the powers voted him by the Congress to impose a price-and-
wage freeze and coupled this action with moves to stimulate the economy, strengthen
the dollar, and force fair treatment of the United States in international trade.
I am elated by the success of this program to date but the sternest tests
are yet to come. Fortunately, organized labor has pledged its support of Phase 2
of the President's price-wage stabilization program. Without this support, the
program could not succeed. The outlook now is bright. With the cooperation of
all the people, we will find the path to new high growth in the economy marked by
price stability and the creation of half a million new jobs.
We are reforming the exercise of both our domestic and international power
through a transformation of our policies.
The President has reformed American foreign policy. He has clothed it with
a new spirit of partnership and a new spirit of negotiation, a new spirit of
willingness to go anywhere in the interest of world peace. And so we have his
plans for summit meetings in Peking and Moscow, and all the world is applauding
his actions. Let me point out that these are carefully planned meetings aimed at
solid accomplishment, not grandstand plays designed simply to attract world
attention.
The present Administration has brought order to the handling of our foreign
policy and has brought order to this country. In short, Mr. Nixon has brought
order to the Presidency.
We have seen proposals for a great array of reforms as we seek new directions
for the Seventies.
We have already achieved many reforms--draft reform to make the Selective
Service System as fair as possible until we can establish a truly volunteer Army;
postal reform which has created a Postal Service Authority with broad modernization
powers; a strengthened and broadened anti-crime program to make our streets safe
again; expenditure reform which has reordered our priorities so that for the first
time in two decades we are spending more Federal dollars on human needs than on
defense; poverty program reform which has kept the Office of Economic Opportunity
as an innovative agency but has spun off successful experimental programs to
old-line Government departments; tax reform which has taken millions of poor
citizens off the taxrolls, has given a long-deserved break to middle-class
(more)
-3-
individuals, and has prevented the most wealthy from escaping taxation; and an
anti-pollution crusade in which the Council on Environmental Quality and the
Environmental Protection Agency are working to restore to our land the beauty
it once knew.
Other reforms are on the way. The House has approved the Administration's
welfare reform program, with the aim of substituting Workfare for the scandal of
welfare. We are continuing our tax reform efforts, and have a bill halfway
through the Congress. The House Ways and Means Committee has completed hearings
on the Administration's revenue-sharing plan--a program which would give the
cities and States the dollars to solve their own problems as only they know how
to solve them.
There are other reforms on which Congress has not really made a start--
revamping of our labor laws for improved handling of national emergency labor
disputes in transportation; reorganizing of the Federal Government's cabinet-level
departments; consolidating of Federal manpower training programs.
One of the proposed reforms I feel most strongly about is major overhaul
of our welfare system because this is a common-sense approach to the crisis of our
cities. The accent is on the solid American ethic of working for a living. It
calls for a hand up instead of a handout. It is based on the idea that a man never
stands so tall as when he stands on his own two feet.
And through all of the proposed reforms now before us runs a challenge--to
make the Seventies a time when we as a people will live our lives better. This is
the challenge: To improve the quality of our lives. I feel sure we will meet it.
# # #