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Fifth District Weekly Radio Reports, January-June 1971
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Fifth District Weekly Radio Reports, January-June 1971
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Gerald R. Ford Congressional Papers
Weekly Radio Reports
subjects
China
Department of Defense. 9/18/1947-
Appropriations and expenditures
Arms control
Cancer
Civil disobedience
Compulsory national service
Correctional institutions
Crime
Drug abuse
Economic stabilization
Environmental protection
Government reorganization
Law enforcement
Legislation
National security
Old age
Pension trusts
Revenue sharing
Supersonic transport planes
Taxation
United States-Soviet relations
Vietnam War, 1961-1975
Voting
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Welfare
Youth
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1971-06-30
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6
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1971
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1971
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The original documents are located in Box D36, folder "Fifth District Weekly Radio
Reports, January-June 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States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.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.
RADIO
SCRIPT TAPED WEDNESDAY, JAN. 27, 1971, FOR USE THE WEEKEND OF JII. 30-31.
This is your congre ssman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington.
With the delivery of his State of the Union Message, the President has laid
before the Congre SS an agenda for the vear a list of national priorities,
The word, "agenda," suggests a work load that is dry and unexciting. The challenge
the President has
placed before the Congress is anything but that. His program
is bold, imaginative, inmovative.
The President has set forth six great goals--full prosperity in peacetime,
welfare reform, the restoration of our environment, the best po sible health care
for all Americans, new attacks on our social problems through sharing of Federal revenue
with state and local governments, and complete reform of the Federal Government.
About some of these goals there is no controvers We all want to achieve
prosperity in peacetime, restore our environment and realize
the best possible
health care for all Americans. Where the arguments will come is in how we are to
achieve those goals.
The President has already moved vigorously to strengthen the economy, provide
jobs and boost home buying. New
jobs will be created by faster tax writeoffs
for investments in new plant and equipment.
The
Administration has cut the interest rate ceilings on FHA and VA home
mottgages.
Housing appears headed for a banner year in 1971.
There will be arguments over the President's latest move to stimula te the
economy
a
Federal budget
based on a full employment
concept. A full
employment budget
is
a spending plan drafted
with the ideat of spending the kind of revenue you would have if the economy were
running at full speed. The theory is that this is the way to
get the economy
GERA LIBRARY FORD
rollings
Digitized from Box D36 of The Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
-2-
So this is one way in which the President's 1971 program is innovative--
revolutionary, if you will.
His other revolutionary proposals are welfare reform, Federal revenue sharing
and a complete overhaul of the Federal cabinet departments.
There will be plenty of fights over these proposals. And, in the final analysis,
the verdict will depend on what the American people want.
Welfare reform passed the House easily last
year, and it probably will not have much trouble this year. The Senate--where
welfare reform foundered last year--is
the big question mark.
The first bill introduced in the House this year is one which includes
President Nixon's welfare reform proposal, improvements in the Medicare and Medicaid
programs, and a 10 per cent Social Security increase.
Speaking of Medicare and Medicaid, let me say at this point that I hope the
92nd Congre SS will be a "Health" Congress." I look for the enactment of legislation
which will put
proper health care within the reach of all Americans,
and will step up the fight against such dread diseases as cancer.
Those parts of the President's program which will run into the
greatest
difficulty are revenue sharing and overhaul of the Federa cabinets.
All of the polls indicate the American people would like to see the
Federal Government share its income tax revenues with the
states and cities.
The idea is revolutionary only because the Federal Government has never done this before
without tying all kinds of strings to the money. And yet a number of states, including
Michigan, share tax revenue with local units of government and the system works fine.
FORD
I think there will be a groundswell in favor of Federal revenue sharimg.
already
LIBRARY
I am counting on this to counteract the built-in opposition that we are encountering
-3-
in the Congress.
The question posed by the President's program is whether the American people
want more
Federal money pumped into the same old programs, operated
under the same old system, or
whether we want to build
a new
America through a return of power to the
people.
-
This is your congre ssman, Jerry. Ford, reporting to you from Washington. I'll
be talking with you again next week--same time, same station.
#######
RADIO SCRIPT TAPED FOR USE BY EIFTH DISTRICT STATIONS THE WEEKEND OF FEB. 6-7, 1971.
This is your congre ssman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from
Washington.
Congress
is
getting organized for a two-year stretch of work.
Members of both parties in the House and in the Sena have met in caucus and have
changed the rules under which they operate to give the younger fellows more of a
chance to rise to positions of power. The old seniority system has been shaken.
Under the setup adopted by House Republicans, a
GOP congre ssman is
not assured the top spot on a committee just because he has been around longer than
any one else. Seniority is only one of the criteria for the ranking a man gets on
the committee ladder. I supported this change. I think it is uch a change
for the better.
I personally have begun my fourth two-year term as Republican le aders of the
House. I was unopposed for that position and was ele cted unanimously by other Republican
members of the House. The job of
Republican House leader carries many
responsibilities with it, but I want you to know that my responsibilities to the Fifth
Congre ssional District of Michigan come first.
I
invites
your
letters.
I
want
to
know about your problems, and I want to help you with them.
One of our great national problems right now is unemployment. We must expand
the economy and bring the rate of unemployment down. That is why I am pleased to
support President Nixon's fiscal 1972 budget, which is
drawn with the idear
of
helping to promote full employment in this country.
I fully support the concept of using the Federal budget to
help bring about full prosperity in peacetime, in combination with an expansion
of the money supply by the Federal Reserve Board. It is far better
FORD
to plan a deficit with a view to achieving prosperity than to stumble into
CERVIL
deficit
with a blindfold on.
-2-
It is time for an expansionary budget and an easier monetary policy. We
have turned the corner on inflation. We will continue to make progress on this
problem while at the same time moving the economy ahead. We cannot afford to keep
a halter on the economy. Instead we must prescribe the medicine of stimulation
for it. A headline in the New York Times a few days ago stated: "Price Rise Slows
As Economy Gains." I think that is the pattern for the immediate future.
Something else that impressed me about President Nixon's fiscal 1972 budget
was its emphasis on
sharing--sharing our burdens and sharing our
St's a "fair Share budget.
ble ssings. It would provide proper health care for our citizens regardless of
economic circumstance. It would place an income floor under every family in America.
It would
strengthen
our efforts to
project the civil
rights of every American.
I was glad the President called for an extraordinary effort to find a cure for
cancer. We must provide all the funds that can be profitably spent in fighting this
fread disease.
I was pleased, too, by the budget's emphasis on additional funding to restore
and preserve our environment. I am much encouraged by the work done thus f ar by the
new Environmental Protection Agency, set up
late last year on the President's
initiative. I look for real progress on our environmental problems under this new
agency, and I hope Congress this year will
enact new legislation
to aid in the fight against pollution.
Now I would like to call your attention to some legislation I am personally
sponsoring in the new 92nd Congress. I have co-sponsored a constitutional amendment
FORD
giving 18-year-olds the right to vote in state and local elections, as welleas in
LIBRARY
Federal elections. I have also co-sponsored a
resolution which would
-3-
set up a Joint (House-Sena te) Committee on the Environment. I have personally
introduced a bill to permit suits by citizens against polluters. I call this "The
Environmental Rights Act of 1971." I have also introduced
bills to increase
from $140 to $400 a month the amount
a widow with children can earn without
losing Social Security benefits, / to provide a $25,000 Distinguished Citizens
Award for Americans coming up with a working solution to
a major national
problem, to require reflectors on railroadcars, / and to change the tariff duty on
certain leather work gloves.
This is your congre ssman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington. I'll
be talking with you again next week--same time, same station.
######
GERALD R LEVERAL FORD
RADIO SCRIPT TAPED FOR USE BY FIFTH DISTRICT STATIONS THE WEEKEND OF FEB. 13-14, 1971.
This is your congressman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington.
The House of Representatives will be buckling down to work now after getting
organized and recessing over Lincoln's Birthday. The Lincoln's Birthday rece SS is
a period when Republi can members of the Congress are busy giving speeches--because
it so happens that Lincoln was the first Republican President.
It was Abe Lincoln who said, in a time
"pilad high with difficulty,"
that we must "think anew and act
anew."
So it is today, and so it is that President Nixon
has sent the Congress
a bold Federal budget designed to help promote full employment in peacetime and a
plan that would return government to the people by letting more
Federal money be used to make local decisions. He calls his plan "revenue sharing,"
but that is a mild title for what really is a revolutionary idea.
It would reverse the tide of power that has been flowing to Washington ever since
major
the days of the New Deal. It would give the power of decision on
programs back
to people at the local level.
The President would do that in two ways-by
returning $5 billion in Federal
income tax revenue to the cities and states to use for local needs,
without any Federal S trings attached, and by taking roughly one-third of the present
Federal programs and turning them over to the state and local governments along with
$11 billion to pay the bills. The second half of this plan is called special revenue
sharing. The $11 billion would go to the cities and states for
big
problem solving connected with present
programs, but the cities and states
would decide how to spend the money on those problems.
Grand Rapids,
for instance, would continue to get as much Model Cities
RALD money. FORD LIBRARY
But the City Commission would decide how much to spend on the Model Citiesp program.
-2-
So that is how the special revenue sharing program would work. Every community
would get as much special revenue as it is getting now under programs run from
Washington
but under
the President's plan the local
governing body would decide how to spend the Federal money it got for urban development,
rural development, education, manpower training, law enforcement and transportation.
I strongly support both this special revenue sharing and a general sharing of
Federal revenue without any strings. I support it because I firmly believe we
should return to the timer when the bulk of government decisions in America were made
in town meetings across the land. I believe we should return to government by the
people.
Revenue sharing was one of the sixe great goals set forth by the President in
his recent State of the Union Message. Another of his great goals is to restore the
environment.
President Nixon wants the Congress to appropriate nearly twice as much for
environmental protection in the next fiscal year as in the current year-$2.5 billion,
as against $1.3 billion. The increase comes mostly because the Administration wants
to double Federal grants for municipal sewage plants--boost them from $1 billion to
$2 billion.
Not all of the Federal money would be for new projects. Twenty-five per cent would
be set aside to pay back
states and cities for the Federal seragetreatment share of plants already
finished. This fits in with what the State of Michig an has been doing under its
Clean Waters Bonding Program-going ahead with sewage plant construction projects
FORD LIBRARD
despite the fact
all the Federal funds haven't been forthcoming. The State has
-3-
advanced roughly $100 million to cover
Federal costs, and Michigan
local
communities have advanced $80 million. The Federal Government has to reimburse
Michigan for this $180 million of . Michigan's progressive water pollution control
program is to continue. So I am very happy that the Nixon Budget provides for such
reimbursements.
This is your 6ongre ssman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from the Nation's
Capital. I'll be talking with you again next week-same time, same station.
######
DEPAND FORD
SCRIPT TAPED FOR USE BY FIFTH DISTRICT RADIO STATIONS THE WEEKEND OF FEB. 20-21, 1971
This is your congressman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington.
Congress is in recess over the Lincoln and "ashington's Birthday period. This
gives me an opportunity to talk with you about a subject which is not in the news
right now but is high on my list of important goals. That goal is prison reform.
Why should we be concerned about conditions in our prisons? The primary answers
are for humanitarian reasons and also because our prisons are supposed to be
correctional institutions. When we sends men to prison, theoretically it
is for them to do penance there--that's where the name penitentiary comes from--
and then to have them come our as rehabilitated individuals.
Nineteen out of every 20 persons sent to U.S. prisors eventually return to
society.
What happens to them while they are in prison? Are they rehabilitated?
In some cases, the answer is yes. But in far too many instances, our correctional
institutions fail to correct. Far too many of our jails and prisons corrupt rather
than correct. Alls too
often these institutions are breeding grounds for
continued criminal careers instead
of being places where convicts
are prepared for return to
a useful role in society.
Studies show that today at least 40 per cent of all offenders released from
custody eventually are re-arrested and return to prison. That's two out of five--and
it is far too many. Small wonder that it is so difficult to bring the crime rate
down!
As long as we permit this backsliding
to continue without improvement, crime will continue to increase. Improving our
reducing
correctional system is one sure way of
the crime rate over a period of
time.
GERALD R. LIBRARY FORD
-2-
Correcting criminal behavior should be the primary goal of our prison system!
Confining men under conditions which encourage idleness and brutality can only serve
to foster criminal behavior.
Unless we change the offender while he is in prison, the prospects of his
returning to society as a law-abiding
citizen are remote indeed. Instead we
have an endless cycle of arrest, imprrisonment, release and rearrest. This cycle
must be ended.
Congress has taken two very important steps to try to accomplish this goal, and
I have supported this action most
strongly.
In 1968 the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act made limited resources
available to the states for the improvement of prison facilities.
Last year Congress approved the Omnibus Crime Control Act of 1970 which added a
new section to the 1968 Act and authorized greater emphasis for corrections work.
Under this new section, the Nixon Administration is seeking a supplemental grant of
correctionalistitions
$52.5 million for the rest of this fiscal year and is asking for $97.5 million for
fiscal 1972.
These figures will increase over the coming years as the overall appropriation
for the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration increase Fifty per cent of these
funds are to be sed as block grants to State planning agencies, and 50 per cent
are for LEAA discretionary grants.
The National Council on Crime and Delinquency reports that there are 358 State
penal and correctional facilities for adults in the United States. Of these, 61 were
opened before 1900. Twenty-five of these are more than 100 years old.
FORD
Less than 10 per cent of our prison population is housed in Federal prisons.
LIBRARY
The great need is at the State and Local levels, where an estimated 10,000 separate
-3-
custodial institutions exist.
Congress will continue to help. But State and local officials must become
aware of the Shame of Our Prisons and see to it that constructive action is taken.
For the sake of justice, decency and humanity, this Nation must find a
solution to its
shameful prison conditions. We must bring our prisons and
their rehabilitation programs into the 20th century.
This is your congressman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington.
I'll
be talking with your again next week--same time, same station.
#######
GERALD LIBRARY FORD
SCRIPT TAPEDFEOR USE BY FIFTH DISTRICT RADIO STATIONS THE WEEKEND OF FEB. 27-28, 1971.
This is your congre ssman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington.
I'd like to talk with you today about health care. Let me begin by noting what
we all have recognized--our health care system is inadequate. We have severe shortages
of doctors and other medical personnel, skyrocketing hospital costs, instances of
obsolete equipment, and problems caused by the high cost of medicines. All of this
has put suitable medical attention beyond the reach of many who need it the most--
especially the poor, our rural population, and the elderly on fixed incomes. And
the threat of a catastrophic illness hangs over us all.
The Grand Rapids Area
has a well-deserved reputation for fine medical care. But even in
our area
the problems are serious.
There are those who insist the present system is sound and should be left alone.
There are others who demand that we throw out the baby with the bath water and replace
the present system with some scheme in which the Federal Government controls
everything.
Both of these points of view are wrong. We must act. We must institute a
program of thorough-going change and
reform. But
it makes no sense
at all to destroy the system we now have and to start all over
with a
program that is government-controlled from the ground up.
Sen. Kennedy and
others have proposed a
system of compulsory national
health insurance which would cover very person in the nation with benefits including
the payment of
hospital bills and physicians' fees. Sounds great, doesn't it?
Until you consider that this
radical
new program would cost anywhere
from $70 to $77 billion a year, just to start with, and would impose tremendous
FORD
new demands on medical manpower that already is in short supply. The result GERAL would
LIBRARY
certainly be a sharp escalation of costs that already are in a steep rise.
-2-
The Kennedy Plan would be supported 50 per cent by general tax revenue. I
personally think the Federal
income tax is too high now.
The plan also
would involve a payroll tax of 3.5 per cent on employers and a tax
on employes'
wages of 1 per cent for those earning up to $15,000 a year and 2.5 per cent for
those earning more.
In coming months there willi
be a great national debate involving the Kennedy
Plan and the health partnership plan advanced by President Nixon. The Kennedy Plan
would substitute a massive Federal program for all of the private health insurance
plans now in existence. The Nixon plan offers a partnership between Government and
the private sector. It would provide better health care for all Americans but it
would be paid
by the private economy instead of the taxpayer.
The Nixon Plan would require all employers to provide minimum health insurance
coverage for their workers, beginning July 1, 1973. The employers would pay 65 per
cent of the cost of the premiums initially and 75 per cent after 1976. Employes would
pay the remainder.
For the most part, the benefits
would be far higher than they are today.
The Nixon Plan would cover all maternity care with no deductions, for example.
Children's health services would be covered, including vaccinations and periodic
checkups.
Most significantly, the Nixon Plan would provide total
payments as high as
$50,000 for catastrophic illness
Some members of Congre SS have criticized the Nixon Plan, declaring it would be
a windfall for the health
insurance industry. They are ignoring the fact that
the President
wants to regulate the health
insurance industry as part of his plan. He has said he will send Congress legislation
to make sure that the premiums to be charged by the insurance industry under
GER, his LIBRARY
health partnership plan are reasonable. He will do this within three months.
-3-
This national health insurance program is only one part of a five-part Nixon
Health Package. The rest includes Government-Supported allamily insurance plan for low income
families with children not covered by the employer plan; continuation of the
Medicaid program for the aged, blind and
disabled; prepaid employer-employe
contributions for Medicare to provide one-half the cost, with general revenues
providing the other half; and establishment of private insurance pools for
risk-sharing for employers with small numbers of workers, the self-employed and
people outside the la bor force.
This is your congre ssman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington. I'll
be talking with you again next week--same time, same station.
######
ALD FORD LIBRARY
SCRIPT FOR USE BY FIFTH DISTRICT RADIO STATIONS THE WEEKEND OF MARCH 6-7, 1971.
This is your congressman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington.
The U.S. Capitol Building is still buzzing wer the bombing that took place
in the early morning March 1 on the Senate side of the Capitol. It is shocking
that any individual in this country would even entertain the idea of blowing up
the National Capitol Building. The guilty must be tracked down and punished.
Anarchistic actions of this kind cannot be permitted to continue.
I
would like to turn now to one of the messages President Nixon has sent to
the Congress, laying outt an urgent course of action.
In one of his most significant moves to date, the President has urged tough
new policies and proposals to improve this Nation's environment.
He has pointed up the need for measure S which would strengthen present pollution
control programs, control emerging problems and promote environmental quality in
land-use decisions.
The President is asking
$2.45 billion for the programs of the new Environmental
Protection Agency. This is nearly double the amounts appropriate for these
programs in fiscal 1971.
The requested funds will provide for the expansion of air and water pollution
control, solid waste disposal research, radiation and pesticide control programs.
The Administration also requests that $6 billion be authorized and appropriated
over the next three years as the Federal share of a $12 billion Federal-state-and-local
program of building waste treatment facilities. Part of this Federal money would be
used to reimburse States like Michigan which have gone ahead to build waste treatment
plants in the absence of Federal funding.
FORD
In the area of enforcement, the President would like the Environmental Protection LIBRA
y
GER
-2-
Agency to be empowered to
impose fines of up to $25,000 per day for
violation of water quality standards--and double that amount for repeated
violations.
It is also proposed that $25 million be appropriated to develop better
techniques for preventing and cleaning up oil spills and providing more
effective surveillance.
Other Presidential proposals deal with pesticide control, the recycling of
wastes, toxic substances, ocean dumping, and noise control.
One of the President's major proposals has to do with developing a
mational
land use policy.
The President recognizes that most land use decisions will continue to be made
at the local level. His proposed legislation would establish a national land use
policy which would encourage the states, in cooperation with local governments, to
plan for and regulate major developments affecting growth and the use of critical
land areas.
To do this, the President has budgeted $10 million a year for the next five
years.
The solutions to environmental problems are often complex and costly. To
help come up with solutions, the President has proposed that the Federal
Government
join in establishing an Environmental Institute. This Institute
would have the responsibility for
providing
new
strategies
for dealing with the whole spectrum of environmental problems.
It is interesting and significant that Grand Rapids already has--local lyy-an
organization which is studying and coming up with alternate solutions to
environmental problems.
GERALD
LIBRARY
-3-
non-profit
This is ar organization called the Center for Environmental Study. Peter
Wege of Grand Rapids is President of the Center. Pete recently visited with me
in my Grand Rapids office and discussed the work of the Center with me.
I was so impressed with the work the Center has been doing that I sent
its reports on solid waste disposal and the systems approach to environmental
problems to Russell Train, head of the President's Council on Environmental
Quality.
This is your congressman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington.
I'll be talking with you again next week-same time, same station.
######
GERALD FORD LIBRARY
SCRIPT FOR USE THEMEXKWEEEEND OF MARCH 13-14, 1971, BY FIFTH DISTRICT RADIO STATIONS
This is your congressman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington.
The House of Representatives shortly will be voting on whether to continue
subsidising development of the supersonic transport plane, known as the SST.
Congre SS must make this decision before March 30. All indications are that
the vote The in 5ST both program the House who and started Senate will by Ands. be close John Kamedy supported
by Presidents Johnson + am
My personal position is that we should complete the developmental phase of the
project. We should build the two prototypes which are contemplated and then decide
whether to go ahead with production. I will oppose production of the plane unless
I am satisfied that all
objections raised by environmentalists have been satis-
factorily answered.
Why should we go ahead with envelopment of an SST? The Russians, and the French
and English, jointly, are already building supersonic transports. The Russians test-flew
commerced flights from
their plane, the TU-144, on Dec. 31, 1968, and are now planning to institute Moscow to
Calcutta service on Oct. 23, 1971. The British and French are already testing their
Concorde at super some speeds + plan commercial service in 1972
This
means we are behind but it does not mean it is pointless
to build an American SST. The U.S.-SST would be a better plane than either the TU-144
or the Concorde and would cost about 20 per cent less to operate than the Concorde.
MITT
1972
Although we are behind the Russians and the British and the Frenhh in point of
and from 4.5.4 foreign and
time, there lready are 129 of our SST's on order. 1 If 300 are sold, the Government
will recover its entire
investment in the development
of the plane. If 500
are sold, the Government would make $1 billion net profit through the royalties it
will receive. So the SST program is
unusual among Government programs. It
-2-
is expected to make money for the Government, not taken money from it.
The program calls for the Government to invest $1.3 billion to build two
prototypes of the SST and to pay for the research and development required for their
design. Of that amount, roughly $900 million has already been spent. If Congress
ordered the program cancelled, the Government would pay up to $161 million in
contract penalties.
nearly
So the choice the Congre SS faces is the expenditure offel.1 billion, with
nothing to show for it, or the expenditure of an additional $200 million with
development of the world's finest airplane as the result.
Let me touch just briefly on a few of the environmental questions involved
in building the SST.
would
First, noise. This problem no longer exists.
The SSE prodice
half as much
noise for airport neighbors
do
present jets because the SST can approach
or leave an airport
at a steep angle rather than linger over a community.
Sideline or airport noise was a problem until
General Electric rede signed the
and
SST engine
reduce sideline noise
to a level under the Federal Aviation
operating
Administration's limit and considerably under that of present jets.
Will the SST pollute the atmosphere? There is no valid evidence that SST
There are
operations will be environmentally offensive.
theories the SST may alter the
weather or disrupt the stratospheric ozone layer which shields us from harmful solar
ultraviolet rays. The weight of scientific opinion refutes such theories. To conclu-
sively settle this question, a research program is under way
in
the
U.S.
Department
of Transportation.
FORD
Dr. William W. Kellogg, who headed up an M.I.T. Study on
Critical Environmental
RALD LIBRARY
Problems, says that "nowhere have we
indicated that we believe SST development
should be held up pending the results" of studies like that now under way.
-3-
There are those who
claim that SST operations will use up vast amounts of
the world's
oil. The truth is that in 1990, all commercial av: iation together
account for
will
some 2 per cent of the world's fuel consumption--and the world's SST's
will consume only a fraction of this 2 per cent.
Ican only conclude that the case for an SST presently is much stronger than the
case against it. I would like to keep the U.S. aviation industry preeminent in the
america much
world, generale the 150,000 jobs that are expected in connection with SST production,
we meet 65.10
production y.Smuds
the
billions in taxes that would result from the SST, and the $50 billion
1
favorable trade balance that would ensue.
This is your congre ssman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington. I'll
be talking with you again next week--same time, same station.
######
GERALD LISAVARY FORD
SCRIPT TAPED FOR USE BY FIFTH DISTRICT RADIO STATIONS THE WEEKEND OF MARCH 20-21, 1971.
This is your congressman, Jerryl Ford, reporting to you from Washington.
One of the least-noticed but most noteworthy accomplishments of the Nixon
Administration has been its crackdown on the deadly narcotics racket.
Just recently, in a well-coordinated series of raids, the Justice Department
sezied 56 of the nation's top dope peddlers and $50 million worth of narcotics, as
well as $81,000 in cash.
In another promising action, the United States and France signed a narcotics
control agreement which Attorney General John Mitchell called "a blow for liberty."
drug
This is no exaggeration when you
consider that addiction is genuine slavery.
Under this agreement, seven U.S. agents will serve in France, and two French
agents will be working in this country. France has long been known as the "crossreads
of the world drug trade."
Also,
due to President Nixon's emphasis on the drug menace, Turkey has announced
that the number of its provinces allowed to grow opium poppies has been reduced. The
Turkish govermment is stepping up its efforts to keep
there
tpoppies out of the illegal
market.
All of these actions point up the fact that the Nixon Administration is doing
everything possible to stop the merchants of hypodermic death.
The Administration has shown that it means busine SS in its war against illegal
drugs--but it needs help from all Americans.
The nation must launch a crackdown against those who purchase stolen goods.
because the war against drug abuse cannot succeed unless the
market for so-called
"hot" merchandice is dried up.
The drug busine SS in the United Statesoperates an underground economy
FORD LIBRARY & DERAIL the sums
-2-
into the billions.
A money-making byproduct of the illegal drug busine SS is
the growing number
of people dealing in stolen goods.
A team of doctors from Johns Hopkins Drug Abusen Center in Baltimore has
outlined this problem, and the figures are absolutely astounding.
In Baltimore alone, the doctors reported, hard-drug dealers are doing an $84
million-a-year business in drug sales. The addicts to whom they sell drugs steal
$313 million worth of goods a year and
sell these goods for about one-third
of their retail value.
Citing specific cases, the
team of doctors reports that one addict
averages
$150 a night by robbing pedestrians.
Another young drug user
stole equipment
off parked cars to support his $65-a-day drug habit.
Still another user told the team of doctors that in a short period he had stolen
50 leather
coats, 50
television sets, 40 radios, a mink stole and hundreds of
dollars* in cash from
private homes.
The Johns Hopkins team said the
traffic in stolen merchandise must be
halted if drug traffic is to be stopped.
The doctors' report reminds us that someone
is buying this stolen
merchan dise. Without such buyers, there would be no money for the user to
buy his drugs.
We are making headway against the drug traffic in this country, but there is
much yet to be done.
The Administration narcotics passed Congre SS last October.
bill laws
and
for
It provides for expanded programs of rehabilitation stepped-up
PRALO FORD LIBRARY
Drcement with 300 agents added to the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.
-3-
But perhaps most important, the new Drug Abuse Control
Act provides for
educational programs aimed at dissuading potential users from becoming
involved with drugs. This is the crying need today--to convince our young people that
fooling with drugs is being a fool, nothing less,
This is your congre ssman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington. I'll
be talking with you again next week-same time, same station.
######
GERALD FORD LIBRARY
SCRIPT TAPED FOR USE BY FIFTH DISTRICT RADIO STATIONS THE WEEKEND OF MARCH 27-28, 1971.
This is your congre ssman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington.
I have chosen this time to discuss foreign policy with you--although I could
have picked a time when there were rosy developments abroad.
What I want to point out to you is that there are positive developments on the
foreign affairs front despite the continued tension in the Middle East and the pounding
taken by some South Vietnamese troops as the Laotian incursion comes to an end.
The points I want to make are these: We are getting out of the war in Vietnam;
we have succeeded in averting a new war in the Mideast, and a de facto cease fire is
continuing; we have made a solid beginning in the U.S.-Soviet talks aimed at cutting
back the arms race.
We are getting out of the Vietnam War. Two years a go, there were almost 550,000
Americans in Vietnam. Today there are little more than 300,000, and by May 1 the figure
will drop to 284,000. This spring the President will announce a new schedule of
withdrawals. I repeat: We are getting out of Vietnam while giving our friends in
Southeast Asia the time and the means to defend themselves.
she prospects
now
1
are that the South Vietnemese will retain their independence and that the rest of
Southeast Asia will remain free of Communist domination.
Our eventual goal is a total withdrawal of all U.S. forces. But as long as North
Vietnam continues to hold a single American prisoner, we shall have forces in South
Vietnam. This past week, on Capitol Hill, we observed a Week of Concern for our
American Prisoners of War, Every week must be a week of concern for our POW's.
will
Theyr never be forgotten by the American people or by their Government.
Much of the progress in Indochina has been due to the success of the allied
POBD
operations against the Communist sanctuaries in Cambodia. Our decision to
clean
RALD
out the sanctuaries in Cambodia saved thousands of merican lives, And it enabled us
to keep on withdrawing our men on schedule.
-2-
The purpose of the South Vietnamese incursion into Laos, supported by the U.S. from
the air, was the same as the Cambodian incursion-to save lives and insure the success
of our withdrawal program next year.
There is no question that the flow of supplies along the Ho Chi Minh Trail has been
massively disrupted by the Laotian operation. The intensity of the fighting in Laos
is evidence of the importance of that supply line to the Communists.
I think we will see dividends from the Laotian Operation just as we did from the
Cambodian insursion. After Cambodia, out casualties dropped to half the rate they
were before Cambodia.
What is happening is that thanks to the disruption of so much of the enemy's
supplies, Americans are leaving Vietnam in safety.
In the Middle East, the United States took the initiative to stop the fighting and
start the twoy sides) talking--through Gunnar Warring of the United Nations.
&
year ago there was daily combat along the Suez Canal. There was growing danger
that the United States and the Soviet Union would be drawn into direct confrontation.
America took the lead in arranging a ceasefire and getting negotiations
started.
We know that centuries of
hatred and decades of hostility cannot be
ended overnight. There must be painful compromise on both sides before any kind of
viable agreement will be reached in the Mideast. But at least the two parties are
talking about the possibility of a peace agreement--as difficult as agreement may be.
In the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks--the so-called SALT Talks--the United States
and the Soviet Union are carefully examining the strategic competition that has grown
apace in
recent years--despite tremendous capacities for overkill on both sides.
there is reason to hope that specific agreementsm can be reached to curb the
arms race.
GERALD
BRARY
-3-
We may well be inching toward a magnificent turning point in history- -- an a greement
which will add to the security of both of the world's superpowers while adding to the
world's peace of mind.
One bit of truth remains despite all efforts in the SALT Talks. We-the United
States
must remain strong until we have the kind of
strategic arms
control agreement we can rely upon.
This is your congressman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from the Nation's Capitaml.
I'll be talking t with you again next week--same time, same station.
#######
BERALD &
SCRIPT TAPED FORMS USE BY FIFTH DISTRICT RADIO STATIONS THE WEEKEND OF APRIL 3-5, 1971.
This is your congressman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington.
A drive is now under way to give youth fully participation in the nation's
political processes--and it has my full support.
The Congress has almost unanimously approved a Constitutional Amendment to lower
the voting age to 18 in state and local, as well as federal, elections.
The Constitutional Amendment states: "The right to vote, of citizens in the
United States who are 18 years of age or older, shall not be abridged by the United
States or by any State theireof on account of age." I was a cosponsor of that
amendment.
Enactment of the proposed Constitutional Amendment now requires ratification by
three-fourths of the states--38 of the 50 states.
The Voting Rights Act of 1970, passed during the last session of Congress, lowered
the voting age to 18 but the United States Supreme Court ruled the Act invalid as it
applied to state and local elections.
Our present lopsided voting law letting 18-year-olds vote only in federal elections
makes no sense at all. How can we say to our young people you're old enough to vote for
the highest offices in our land but too young to vote for governor of your state or mayor
of your city?
The states now must act to give our young people the full measure of participation
they deserve in our nation's electoral process. Only B by correcting the injustice in
the present electoral system can we give back to millions of America's younger citizens
the faith many of them have lost in the responsiveness of government.
Congress has affirmed the fitness of 18, 19 and 20-year-olds to vote in
elections. Now the states should join in to give these young people a piece
R.FORD the LIBRARY
GER
action-where they live. They can say...yes, we welcome your participation in our system.
-2-
If the states don't do this, we will have a me ss on our hands. We will have to
set up dual registratio and balloting systems in all states not allowing 18-year-olds
to vote in state andi local elections. Apart from the confusion involved, the cost is
estimated at $20 million. This makes the need to give our 18-year-old citizens the
full franchise
even more pressing.
Again on the subject of our young people, I would like to turn now to another
critical subject--the need to overcome the difficulty young people are having in financing
their higher education.
We need to help more students afford college. We must reform present programs
of financial assistance to students.
I am supporting legislation which would
provide federal assistance
so that an additional one million students could complete their education.
This bill is called the Higher Education Act of 1971. It would make it possible
for every qualified student, regardless of economic status, to get the kind of help he
needs to go to college.
I believe it is the fundamental right of every American to receive an education--
including a college education--if he has the aptitude and the intelligence it takes.
No qualified student should fail to go to college for lack of funds. If we accept
that statement--and I think every member of Congress does--then the Congress should not
fail to act this year on proposals to expand funding opportunities for prospective
college students.
Federal funds should go first and in the largest amount_s to the neediest students.
But loan money should be readily available to students from higher income families.
So
should
FORD
we
create a National Student Loan Association. This would
add LIBRARY
$1 billion for student loans. At the present time, it is almost impossible for a
-3-
prospective college student to get a loan from a bank. This situation must be
remedied, and the proposed National Student Loan Association appears to be the
answer.
In addition to supporting this college aid legislation, I am getting ready to
send out scholarship and loan assistance information to high schools in both Kent and
Ionia Counties. I am sure this information will be helpful to our students.
This is Congre ssman Jerry Ford, reporting to you from the Nation's capital.
I'll be talking with you again next week-same time, same station.
######
GERALD LISBARY FORD
SCRIPT TAPED FOR USE BY FIFTH DISTRICT RADIO STATIONS THE WEEKEND OF APRIL 10-11, 1971.
This is your congressman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington.
Congre SS has begun its Baster Race after a meet importent action by the
The House Representation betwuch approved a
House spproval of a bill which paves the way for establishment of an all-volunteer
armed forces while extending the draft for two years.
I know there is some alarm over one of the provisions of the draft bill--the
2 noo, who 2 carefully med the testruming leforethe
eliminating of
college deferments. Actually, it would be more accurate to
talk about a phasing out of college deferments, because that is what will happens
if the Senate also approves the provision.
The deferment-ending provision would be retroactive to April 23, 1970. The
President has pledged that 11 young men who were enrolled in a college or
university on April 22, 1970, would be eligible to retain deferments or apply for
them. These deferments would continue until the student graduates or fails to
pursue a full course of study.
A young man who enrolled in college after April 22, 1970, would be eligible
for call when his local draft board reaches his random selection number. If
he is called, induction could be postponed until the student finishes up a
semester, term or quarter.
had previously
The President on April 23, 1970, ordered all occupational and paternity
deferments ended.
Dr. Curtis Tarr, director of the Selective Service, regards student deferments
as the major: inequity remaining in the Selective Service Law. He says giving
college students preferential status discriminates against those young men who
lack the financial resources, the parental encouragement or the academi preparation
to go to college.
Under this legislation
GERALD FORD VIBRARY
I expect that we will gradually get to the point of zerò draft calls.
-2-
Unless there is some new and unexpected international threat to our security,
draft calls
should diminish steadily, and this major
source of
irritation to our young people will disappear from the national scene.
military
Meantime, I am hopeful that the pay increases and fringe benefits in the
House-approved draft bill will bring about an all-volunteer force.
While I don't think we can "buy" an all-volunteer army, the fact is that
present military pay is nothing short of ridiculous for the lowest grades of
enlisted men. It is absolutely shameful.
Present milittary pay scales discourage our young men from choosing the
military as a career.
This is why the House took a giant leap toward an all-volunteer armed force
by raising military pay and allowances $2.7 billion in one fell
swoop.
The Administration had recommended a two-phase increase of $987 million the
first year and $1.7 billion the next. But the House Armed Services Committee
lumped it all together into one huge increased beginning July 1, 1971.
The pay plan results in an average increase in basic pay of
68.6 per cent
for enlisted men with less than two years of service.
In addition, the basic allowance for quarters would be made mar e realistic.
At present, it is $45 a month for the first four enlisted grades, with or without
dependents. The new rate would raise the figure to $60 for those without dependents
in the first three grades and $105 for
those with dependents.
Besides these outright raises, the Defense Department will improve the living
environment of enlisted personnel by partitioning the present barracks into rooms
FORD
housing two or three men. These semi-private rooms are to be furnished with a
GERAL
LIBRARY
rug, desk, chair, and lamp. The cost of this for the Army and Marine Corps will be
-3-
$68 million, but it is expected to pay off in reenlistments.
To / men who served in World Wari II, as I did,
this seems a bit far out or even revolutionary. But this is 1971, and sparatan
living conditions just aren't conducive to attracting young people to a career in the
Navy's
military. So the open bay barracks is going the way of the hammock and the salt water
1
showers. of W.W.II of before
This is your congressman, Jerry Ford, repar ting to you from the Nation's capital.
GERALD
SCRIPT TAPED FOR USE BY FIFTH DISTRICT RADIO STATIONSIRE THE WEEKEND OF APRIL 17-18, 1971
This is your congressman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington.
Cities, counties and states are running out of money--and so the overwhelming
majority of the public servants representing these units of government favor the
President's plan to share $5 billion in Federal revenue with the states and local
units of government.
However, opposition to the President's proposal is formidable. It is
is
opposed by House Ways and Means Chairman Wilbur Mills, Democrat of Arkansas, and
by the Democratic Speaker of the House, Carl Albert of Oklahomas,
for instance.
These opponents need an answer for local
units
of
government desperate for more funds and so they are coming up with their own
alternatives to Federal revenue sharing.
In my view, this opposition and the alternatives being offered spell just
one thing--a commitment to the status quo, opposition to change.
The most talked-about alternative to revenue sharing is a Federal takeover of
welfare costs. But if your explore this alternative, you find it falls far short
of accomplishing what revenue sharing would do and is a mighty poor substitute.
We need to overhaul our welfare system from top to bottom--and we also
need revenue sharing. But Federal takeover of welfare costs is not a substitute
for revenue sharing.
Kent County commissioners recently ame to Washington and did some
missionary work among the Michigan congressional delegation on behalf of revenue
sharing. Their position is the same as mine. We need revenue sharing and welfare
reform, both, not a Federal takeover of all welfare costs.
The federalization of all welfare costs is a proposal that has significant
FORD LIBRARY
19
weaknesses in providing across-the-board fiscal relief tos tate and local governments.
-2-
It would give no recognition
to non-welfare needs and would be distributed
only on the b asis of welfare population, regardless of a state's other problems and
the state's revenue raising ability and effort.
Compared with the formula for $5 billion in Federal revenue sharing, 41 states
would be penalized under federalized welfare, with 57 per cent of the total funds
going to the 10 richest states and only 6 per cent going to the 10 poorest.
Michigan, for instance, would get $229 million the first year under general
revenue sharing, and would receive only $210 million if the same $5 billion
were used to pay welfare costs.
while general revenue sharing would provide for an average of 48 per cent
of the funds to be passed on to local governments nationwide, only 10 per cent of
federalized welfare funds would go directly to local governments.
Of that 10 per cent, three-fourths would wind up in the coffers of local
governments in New York and California.
There is another compelling reason why Federal revenue sharing is much to be
preferred to a complete federalization of welfare.
The House Ways and Means Committee is considering full federal takeover of welfare
costs over an eight to 10-year period. Federal revenue sharing would provide
massive relief to the states and local units of government the first year it goes
into operation.
a
Under
welfare bill now being considered by Ways and Means, Michigan's welfare
cost saving would be $91.1 million. Under Federal revenue sharing, Michigan would
receive $229 million the first year.
FORD
The states, cities and counties need help now--not eight or 10 years from now.
GERAL
LISSARY
Waysand Means Committee
ARY
Over all, the inmediate welfare bill calls for spending $17.6 billion in fiscal
-3-
1971-72--$5.3 billion more than under present law and $1.7 billion more than President
Nixon's family assistance plan.
All told, the states would save $2.1 billion. This falls far short of the $5
billion in relief they would get under the President's general revenue sharing plan.
Federalization of welfare is not the answer to the fiscal plight of the states and
local units of government. We need Federal revenue sharing.
This is your congressman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington.
GERALD R AUVUSIT FORD
SCRIPT TAPED FOR USE BY FIFTH DISTRICT RADIO STATIONS THE WEEKEND OF APRIL 24-25, 1971.
This is your congressman, Jerry For d, reporting to you from Washington.
This past week we all joined in observing Earth Week. Earth Week 1971 stands
simply
in contrast with Earth Day 1970, which was
an outpouring of confern
over the environment. Earth Week 1971 focused on grass roots action to improve the
had
environment
certainly
my vote of approval.
As the Michigan Student Environmental Confederation puts it, "It is our challenge
this year to not only educate the public on local environmental issues but to tart
to enact change to correct those problems."
I am delighted with that attitude on the part of our young people. I would
suggest, however, that not enough of our people--young and not so young--are
thoroughly aware of what is now being done to improve our environment. Much more can
and will be done, but we have made an excellent start with the creation of the Federal
Environmental Quality Council and the Federal
Environmental
Protection Agency. That these
agenties are firmly determined to take giant
steps toward improving our environment was demonstrated by the reaction of William
D. Ruckelshaus, administrator of the new Environmental Protection Agency, to criticism
voiced recently by consumer advocate Ralph Nader. Ruckelshaus welcomed the criticism
and sai
it pointed the way to remedial action.
"hat about the Environmental Quality Council? Some people think of it 85 just
another presidentially-appointed advisory group--just so much window ssing. But
this is not the case at all. The truth is that the Environmental Quality Council
has what amounts to vete power over every public development that could have an
adverse effect on our environment.
Every federal agency now must prepare a report on the effect every one of its
FORD LIBRER
GERA
public works projects might have on the environment. This, and environmental impact
-2-
reports from the cities and states, then go to the Environmental Quality Council.
The
projects do not go forward without the Council's okay.
alaskan
Take the proposed oil pipeline
for instance. Under the new procedure,
whatever decision the Interior Department may reach on the pâpeline is subject to
review by the Environmental Quality Council. It is certain the pipeline will not go
ahead without Council support.
The Environmental Protedtion Agency is a new departure, a fresh start in meeting
the challenge to reclaim the environment, to restore the delicate balance which supports
life on this planet. It is a new, integrating approach to the environmental crisis.
EPA is a coordinated attack on some of the most persistent manifestations of a
deteriorating environment.
Beyond restoring the quality of our air and water, EPA is concerned as well
with
the use of pesticides which threaten both man and animal. EPA is concerned with the
disposal of solid wastes which blight our countryside, contaiminate both air and water,
and befoul our oceans. EPA is concerned, too, with the hazard to human health and
water ecology which the increased production of radiation from man-made sources
represents.
In creating the Environmental Protection Agency, the Administration has gathered
together ins single agency the responsibility for research, standard-setting,
monitoring and enforcement with regard to all of these threats to man and nature.
EPA exercises these reponsibilities as an independent agency, an agency that has no
obligation to promote commerce or agriculture, but rather the awesome obligation to
protect and improve our environment.
FORD
There is no one source
which EPA can control that will undo the damage that
RARY
all of us have done to the environment. Our country is awakened. We must channel
-3-
this new-found awareness to constructive action for a better and cleaner America--as
Earth Week spokesmen have
urged over the past seven days.
It is EPA's job to be an advocate for the environment wherever decisions about
our common future are made. But only the efforts of every one of us will insure that
the world our children inherit will be cleaner and healthier than the one we know now.
This is
your congre ssman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington. I'll
be talking with you again next week-same time, same station.
#######
GERALD LIBRAST FORD
SCRIPT TAPED FOR USE BY FIFTH DISTRICT REDIO STATIONS THE WEEKEND OF MAY 1-2, 1971.
This is your congre ssman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington.
Washington this week is literally under seige by militant end-the-war
demonstrators, These lealers led are by radicals much defferent Rennie from Davis The and War David 2 sterans Dellenger. whomere here last wat,
Unlike the peaceful demonstrations who paraded along Pennsylvania Avenue nearly
rakicals
200,000 strong on Saturday, April 24, the Davis-Dellenger
are of the
although shut-the-government-down There there is no are question some that fine variety. the and leaders very concerned young of the current "ashington in Washington demonstrations this at this group Tome with
are Marxisteoriented radicals who are doing everything possible to promote a
have been
Communist takeover
of South Vietnam. These same individuals traveling about
the country preaching violent overthrow of the United States government.
The right of the people to peacefully petition the government for the
redress
of grievances is guaranteed Americans in the Constitution.
But I do not believe this right of peaceful petition includes such tactics as
blocking traffic arteries or disrupting the conduct of government business.
Those who would block main thoroughfares, for instance, are nothing but law
braakers. They are simply violating the law. Such action was certainly not
constemplated by the framers of the Constitution, in any form.
To put it another way: The end does not justify the means. Whatever the
motivation of those who engage in so-called civil disobedience, a violation of
the law is a violation of the law. and such transgre ssors
should be dealt
with firmly. They have no right to disrupt the lives of others simply to underscore
their beliefs.
The fact that these demonstrators want peace on the enemy's terms is ey
ERALD Ment FORD from BARD
a leaflet they have been distributing. This leaflet is entitled: "A Joint Treaty
-2-
of Peace between the People of the United States,
South Vietnam and North Vietnam."
title,
Appeal ing isn't it?
The so-called Treaty then goes on to
demand immediate and
total withdrawal
of U.S. forces from Vietnam but says nothing about withdrawal of North Vietnamese
forces from South Vietnam, Laos and
Cambodia.
The so-called Treaty also:
Obligates the United States to remove the government of South Vietnam, a government
which was constitutionally elected to office by the people of South Vietnam.
Places the Communist side under no obligation to release American
prisoners
of war and requires Hanoi only to enter into discussions about the POW question.
Contains no provinsion for ending the fighting in Laos and Cambodia, other than
a reiteration of
intentions to respect the Geneva Accords of 1954 and 1962, which
have been violated by North Vietnam ever since.
Contains no provision for international supervision of the implementation of any of
the treaty's terms.
The provisions of this
so-called "Peopless Treaty" are
essentially the
same as those put forward repeatedly over the past two years by the Communist
delegation in Paris. They have not proved acceptable to any political group in South
Vietnam except the Viet Cong.
The United States and South Vietnam have proposed a peace program which includes an
immediate ceasefire throughout Indochina under effective international supervision;
withdrawal of all outside forces; a political settlement in South Vietnam which reflects
the existing relationship of political forces; and immediate and unconditional release
of all prisoners of war held by both sides.
GGRALO FORD LIBRARY
The Communist response has been
an adamant refusal to engage in peace discussions.
AND WE ARE ENDING U.S. INVOIVEMENT IN THE WAR.
I want to end the war in Vietnam as much as do the demonstrators.
But I want
-3-
to
we can a
a way that will not SOW the seeds of future wars. I want South Victnam
nr svill get a generation 2 Place, not only m
to have a chance to S urvive as an independent nation. $ do not want 500 a
asia but thoughout The World
Communist government imposed on the Sou th Vietnamese people. I want the people of
Through a gradual withdrawal of U.S.
South Vietnam to de termine their own future.
forees we can accompl ish that objective.
This
is your congre ssman, Jerry Ford, reparting to you from the Nation's
capital. I'll be talking with you again next week-same time, same station.
######
GLRALD FORD LIBRARA
SCRIPT TAPED FOR USE BY FIFTH DISTRICT RADIO STATIONS THE WEEKEND OF MAY 8-9, 1971.
This is your congressman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington.
Here:
in the Nation S capital we have
survived in good shape the ons laught
by thou lands of radical demonstrators who tried to shut the government
Their actions was in contrast t the UN & others who presented Them who acted responsible m a
down. In their mistaken zeal, they committed a wide variety of despicable acts--
pettern their ant
memer in
pushing dozens of Volkswagens into the paths of other cars, smashing car windows, experising
frel much
puntturing tires, scattering nails on roadways, overturning vehicles, throwing rocks
at cars. Small wonder that they clashed with the police. These are acts of anarchy.
These are criminal acts.
Fortunately, Washington police did a magnificent
job of handling the trouble. Can you amagene putting The
Vist Kny flay As for over Federal your employes, capital. they are The to be is congratulated. what some ?the Last radicals Monday, for trued to do,
instance, attendance on the job was even higher than usual for a Monday morning.
So, as the President
told the Nation, the radicals intimidated noone.
I would like to turn now to a far pleasanter topical the observance of Senior
Citizens Month across the length and breadth of America. May is Senior Citizens
Month, and State conferences will be held throughout the country, including one at
Lansing on May 25.
I have had many fine meetings with
seniore citizens in the Fifth Congressional
District lately. It is time we all recognized that our senior citizens are "assets,
not liabilities," " as one of the senior citizens attending a recent forum for the
aged remarked.
The Administration is working to make
it possible for the Nation to utilize
the skills and wisdom of our older citizens, while making life better for them in
their retirement years.
R. FORD
Like the weather, everyone talks about the problems of the aged, but
until LIBRA now
-2-
little has been done. This year marks the beginning of
a turnaround--the
recognition of a national conscience about the plight of many of the aged and a
determination to establish a national policy with workable, practical programs.
Right now an intensive information-gathering operation is under way. It started
at the local level last fall with a series of forums across the Nation where the aged
got together to outline their problems. "Not being wanted" was one. Not being able to
earn money without losing some of their Social Security benefits was another. Poor
housing, lack of transportation and fear of major medical costs were others.
Then in February, March and
April a series of community
conferences were set up--at the grass roots level--in the hometowns of many of the
20 million persons 65 or older. These conferences were aimed at bringing the
complaints together and formulating suggestions for remedies.
The State conferemces scheduled for this month throughout the country are aimed
at making solid recommendations for solutions to the problems of the aged. Task
the
forces composed of aged from all walks of life nursing home administrators, research
scientists, teachers, health and welfare officials, doctors, social workers, volunteers,
and young people working with the elderly will be reporting and hashing out
practical answers.
This massive effort to obtain the views and find out the needs of our senior
citizens will culminate in the 1971 White House Conference on Aging.
This
conference will begin the week of Nov. 28 under the direction of John B. Martin of
Grand Rapids,
commissioner of the Administration on Aging. Some 400
organizations will take part.
President Nixon has ordered those arranging the Conference to come up with a
TBRAR
national policy on aging. Topics to be taken up include income, nutrition, retirement
-3-
roles and activity, housing, education, spiritual well-being, health, transportation,
employment and retirement, services, facilities and programs now in effect and those
needed, training of workers, research, and the role of Government and non-government
organizations.
to come
It's a big job up with the answers needed to help our senior citizens.
But for the first time, something is being done in an orderly, practical way to solve
the
problems of the aged.
This is your congressman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington. I'll
be talking with you again next week--same time, same station.
######
955ALB FORD LIBRARY
SCRIPT TAHED FOR USE BY FIFTH DISTRICT RADIO STATIONS THE WEEKEND OF MAY 15-16, 1971.
This is your congre ssman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington.
Today I would like to talk with you about two of my greatest concerns=-employe
pensions and citizen health.
most
Retirement is a time
Americans look forward to. Workers taking their
first job ask about the firm's retirement plan. People under pension plans feel
secure. But unfortunately for some of these people this is false security.
Labor Department figures show that about one-third of those who work under
pension plans will never draw a pension. Congress now is looking into this problem--and
it is my hope that Congre SS can pass legislation which will
make it certain that
pension plans will operate as they are supposed to. We must make sure there will be
money in the pension plan to pay the worker.
Between 1955 and 1965, 4,259 pension plans were terminated because of business
gailures. A Senate committee survey of 87 pension plans covering 9.8 million workers
revealed that only one million would draw any benefits.
atsometime during
In our economy, most workers
change jobs
their 40 to 45-year working
life
Often, they lose all pension rights when they quit.
Congre SS will have to look at several possible solutions. One is a Federal
insurance program under which firms will pay into a government corporation which will
guarantee the funding of pension programs. One problem with this plan is that smaller
firms would find it financia ly difficult to pay the premiums and would have to cut back
on already modest pension payments.
Another suggestion is to develop a program which would allow workers
to
transfer pension rights when they change jobs. This is the so-called portable pension.
This
poses a host of bookkeeping and technical
preblems. GERAL FORD LIBRARY
With the prospect that nine million of the 26 million workers now covered by
-2-
private pension plans may lose out on their pension benefits, Congress has an
obligation to straighten out the situation. We cannot allow pension plans to become
a delusion for some workers who believe they are working toward
retirement but
actually are earning nothing toward their non-working years.
Now I would like to tell you about a heal h bill I have cosponsored with the aim
of bringing better health protection to all of our citizens.
This bill is called the National Health Insurance Partnership Act of 1971. It is
designed to
provide full-scale national health protection by
building on the
successes of the present system.
It would correct the
inequities and
deficiencies in the health care protection our people now have.
This is a bill that calls for a partnership between government, the private
sector, and all of our people to improve the quality of our health care, expand health
insurance coverage, control escalating costs, and
increase the efficiency of our health
care system.
My bill would require that all employers--exclusive of government and re ligious
organizations-- provide their employes with a health insurance plan. This plan would
include inpatient hospital services; physicians' and other health services; well-baby
care; and annual eye examinations to the age of 12. It would also cover catastrophic
illness to the extent of $50,000.
During the first 2½ years of
the plan, employers
would pay 65 per cent
of the premiums and employes 35 per cent. Thereafter, employers would pay 75 per
cent and employes 25 per cent.
The bill I have introduced is different from the Administration's bill. My bill
FORD
would
assist small employers in paying their share of
LIBRARY
the health insurance costs. It is my feeling that if government did not
do this,
-3-
small some of their
mighth fores employers to forced lay off
workers.
Congre SS must act to expand and improve health c are for our people. I feel that
my bill is the best way
to do the job.
This is your congressman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from the Nation's
capital. I'll be talking with you again next week--same time, samee station.
######
GERALDA LIBRARY FORD
SCRIPT TAPED FOR USE BY FIFTH DISTRICT RADIO STATIONS THE WEEKEND OF MAY 22-23, 1971.
This is your congressman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington.
Today I want to talk with you about cancer and what is being done to fight it.
Cancer is a killer. It does not differentiate, It kills people of all colors. It
kills KII the wealthy,
the poor, the strong and the weak. Each
year cancer is among the leading causes of death in the United States. It is second only
to heart disease as a
killer.
There are few families in our Nation who have not lost some relative or a close
friend as a result of cancer. My one-time pre SS secretary, Jim Mudge, died
of cancer. His wife, Annie, died not long afterward--also of cancer.
Sixteen per cent of all deaths in the United States--the deaths of some 329,000
persons--were caused by cancer in 1970. This year--the American Cancer Society estimates--
the death toll from cancer will climb even higher--to 335,000. This is about 920 persons
dying from cancer each day-- more than one every two minutes.
The U.S. ranks 18th in cancer deaths among the 40 nations of the world reporting
mortality statistics.
If the present incidence of cancer continues, some 52 million Americans who are
alive today will contract this disease. This means that cancer will strike one out of
every four individuals in this country--and two out of every three American families.
It means that in the next 10 years alone, three and a half million Americans will die
from cancer--unless we find a cure.
In the 1970s it is estimated there will be 6.5 million new cancer cases and 10
million persons under treatment for the disease.
It has been projected that in the State of Michigan alone, there will be
deaths from cancer this year, and 26,000 new cases reported.
GERALD 13,000
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As shocking as all of these figures are, some progress has been made in the fight
against cancer. Back in 1930, the hope of survival for a person s tricken with
cancer was less than 1 in 5. Today the odds have risen to 1 in 3.
Whatever success has been achieved in fighting cancer traces primarily to early
detection of the disease, as opposed to any new "cure" or breakthrough in treatment.
But
there is new hope. The President, the Administration, and the Congress
are committed to conquering this dreadful disease. They are committed to adequate
funding of the fight against cancer--and this cannot
but help in the battle to
save lives.
The President is heading up a crusade against cancer in the hope of achieving a
cure
for and control of cancer within this decade. In this the
President has my wholehearted support.
I vigorously supported, for instance, the President's recent request for an additional
$100 million in cancer-fighting funds for
the rest of this fiscal year. This
frings
the total of cancer research funds for the current fiscal year to some $330
million. The House has approved the Presidential request.
In submitting his request, President Nixon noted that new vistas are now opening
for further research into the treatment and prevention of cancer.
We have made some remarkable advances during the past 10 years in terms of our
fundamental knowledge in the cancer field. Virus research, for example, has demonstrated
that cancer can be produced in animals by
more than 110 of the nearly 1,000
viruses that science has identified. We have also learned that animal cancers canbe
induced by over 1,000 chemical substances. Effective measures for preventing cancer have
FORD
been developed in animals, and scientists have even demonstrated that human cancers
can be prevented by avoiding exposure to certain chemicals.
GERALD
ARY
-3-
Dther advances include new surgical procedures, more effective radiation therapy,
and techniques for treating cancer with improved combinations of known drugs.
So there have been some new developments in the cancer research field--and there
is reason to hope for further advances in the months and years ahead.
You may be sure that I will strongly support every sound effort to further the
crusade against cancer. This is an enemy that we must defeat.
This is your congressman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from the Nation's capital.
I'll be talking with you again next week--same time, same station. S
#######
GERALD FORD
SCRIPT TAPED FOR USE BY FIFTH DISTRICT RAD IO STATIONS THE WEEKEND OF MAY 29-30, 1971.
This is your congre ssman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington.
I am getting the first returns from my 1971 questionmaire, and the
early response is tremendous. The returns are pouring in.
I sent my questionnaire to every household in the Fifth Congressional
District--roughly 147,000. This gives me a chance to learn the views of
every voter in the district who is interested enough in the issues to express an
opinion and mail back my questionnaire card.
The views expressed in answer to my questionnaire provide me with valuable
guidance. I--and I alone--am responsible for my votes on the bills that come before
the Congress. But it is very helpful to know what the people at home are thinking.
The results of the poll are processed by a computer firm--and every ballot
is counted, not just a sampling. So believe me when I tell you that your opinion
counts with me.
Speaking of polls, there has been some debate going on in the House of
Representatives concerning polls taken on the Vietnam War. Much has been made of the
fact that a recent Gallup Poll indicated 73 per cent of the American people want
all of our troops out of Vietnam by Dec. 31 of this year. 2 want to and the
was win more quickly and mal progress is being mall.
More recently the Opinion Research Corporation of Princeton, New Jersey, asked
the same question but with some qualifications. Opinion Research wanted to know
whether people supported the Dec. 31 withdrawal if this would result in a Communist
takeover of South Vietnam. Only 27 per cent said "yes." Fifty-seven per cent said
"no." The rest were undecided.
Moreover, on this same poll 72 per cent said they "support President FORD Nixón
RARI
in his plan to end the war in Southeast Asia" although 73 per cent had answered "yes"
on the Gallup Poll to an unqualified withdrawal.
--2--
I
think what these two olls tell us is that the American people want to end
the Vietnam War as quickly as possible but not on the enemy's terms. And that is the
position taken by the President of the United States. Therefore his answer
is to continue attempts at negotiation but meantime to strengthen the
South Vietnamese while withdrawing U.S. forces. We are withdrawing from
Vietnam; we are ending the U.S. involvement there. But we are doing so in a way that
gives South Vietnam a chance to survitive as an independent, non-Communist nation.
The problems of ending the Vietnam War cannot be solved by the pollsters any more
than they can be solved by demonstrations or debates or legislation. We can end our
involvement in Vietnam only by disengaging our forces as rapidly as circumstances permit.
This we are doing. Pres. nupar is committed is tital withouthout
As we wind down the Vietnam War, one million veter ans of that war are coming home
each year. These veterans need a job, and we must do everything possible to provide them
either with a job or with job training or schooling.
Labor statistics indicate how tough the situation is. 320,000 Vietnam veterans
are without jobs. Their rate of unemployment is double the national
average.
Part of the difficulty is that today's veteran is younger and not as well trained
as his predecessor of World War II or even Korea. When these men were released from duty
they more often than not had a place in life to return to. Such is not the case with the
Vietnam veteran#-and so the need for help is greater than before.
President Nixon has launched a Jobs for Veterans Program nationally--and I and
others have initiated a Jobs for Veterans Program in the Greater Grand
now
Rapids Area. We know tha jobs are practically non-existent right now, but we want
FORD
to give the veteran an edge as the economy improves and jobs open up. We also want to
Inthatconnection
LIBRARY
Hit steer him into on-the-job training or advanced schooling. / Congress is going to
-3-
have to take a looks at G.I. Bill benefits to see if they should maybe be
increased.
whowere
We have an obligation to make certain that these young men sent to fight in
a strange land halfway around the world are given every opportunity to make a decent
life for themselves now that they are civilians.
This ist your congre ssman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from the Nation's
capital. I'll be talking with you again next week--same time, same station.
#######
GERALD FORD
SCRIPT TAHED FOR USE BY FIFTH DISTRICT RADIO STATIONS THE WEEKEND OF JUNE 5-6, 1971.
This is your congre ssman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington.
One of the big dividends from my annual questionnaire is the mail it generates,
because this mail gives me a good idea what problems are most on people's minds.
For instances, the subjects most frequently mentioned in the letters I now
am receiving are Vietnam, welfare and taxes.
It's clear that people in Kent and Ionia Counties most ardently want the United
States to end its involvement in Vietnam. I want this, too. The only question
over which there is disagreement is how we end our involvement in Vietnam. Do we end
it while suppling saying we don't care what happens to South Vietnam. Or do
we end it in a careful way, doing our best to give South Vietnam a chance to survive
as an independent, non-Communist nation?
It's true that seven out of 10 Americans want us out of Vietnam by Dec. 31 of
this year. But when the Opinion Research Corporation of Printceton, New Jersey,
whether
asked
they favored a pullout by Dec. 31 if this meant a Communist takeover
in Saigon, only 27 per cent said "yes." 55 per cent said "no," and the rest were
undecided. So there is a difference when you consider the consequences.
On the welfare question, there is deep feeling. Every one of my constituents
who comments on welfare says it is unfair for anyone who is able-bodied--able to work--
to be collecting public assistance checks while others who are willing to work earn
their money.
I agree with these complainants that anyone who is able to work should
work or, if a job isp not available, take job training.
That
is one reason I am so strongly in favor of President Nixon's
FORD
&
welfare reform program--because it requires that
assistance
GERA
recipients who are employable must register for work or training or forego all benefits.
-2-
I am pleased that the House Ways and Means Committee has repar ted out a bill
which substanti tially carries out the Administration's welfare reform program.
This b ill is H.R. 1. Besides the work or training requirement, it provides
coverage for the working poor, so that no longer will it pay somebody to be on
welfare instead of working. It also provides increased child care and job training
opportunities in a way which ensures that work and training opportunities are relmated
to the recipients' needs.
The bill further provides a basic payment of $130 a
month for assistance to the needy aged, the blind, and
the disabled. This increases to $150 a month after two years.
The new welfare reform program also would have the Federal Government take over
a larger share of welfare costs. This will ease the pre ssure of mounting welfare costs
on State budgets and relieve the pressure for higher local
taxes.
Speaking of taxes, I find there are many Americans who are unaware that the Tax
Reform
Act of 1969 provided Federal income tax relief which carries forward into
1971 and beyond.
In 1969, for instance, the personal exemption was $600 for each taxpayer and each
of his dependents. In 1970 this became $625. For 1971, the personal exemption
is $650. In 1972 it will become $700; and in 1973, $750.
In 1969, the standard deduction for those who do not itemize deductions on their
Federal income tax return was 10 per cent. In 1970, the the standard deduction
became 13 per cent with a ceiling of $1,400. In 1971, it becomes 14 per cent with
a $1,500 ceiling; in 1972, 14 per cent with a $2,000 ceiling; and in 1973 and
thereafter, 15 per cent with a $2,000 ceiling.
FORD
Single persons also get a big tax break in 1971. In fact, the relief formition
ARY
single persons will take a lot of the tax profit out of getting married. Under the
-3-
old rules, the tax 5 gain from marriage was especially big for persons with large
incomes.
arises
The discrimination against single persons from the fact that a married
couple can avoid the full impact of the progre ssively higher tax rates. A married
are
the ir
couple filing jointly allowed to compute rincome tax on one-half of their
income and then double the result.
Under the new rule, starting this year, single persons will not
have
to
pay in Federal income taxes more than 120 per cent of the amount paid by married
couples with the same taxable income.
This is your congressman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington. I'll
be talking with you again next week-same time, same station.
######
SCRIPT TAPED FOR USE BY FIFTH DISTRICT RADIO STATIONS THE WEEKEND OF JUNE 12-13, 1971.
This is your congre ssman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington.
It's offici: now. The new agency, Action, which brings together seven or more
Federally-sponsored volunteer agencies, has come into being under President
Nixon's
first reorganization plan of the year.
Action is
headed by Joseph Blatchford, the man who has done such a
ma gnificent job of running the Peace Corps.
The Peace Corps now is just one of seven organizations under Joe Blatchford's
direction.
The others are Volunteers in Service to America, which had been in the Office of
Economic Opportunity, the Service Corps of Retired Executives and the Active Corps of
Executives, which had been in the Small Business Administration, Foster Grandparents
and the Retired Senior Volunteer Program, which had been in the Department of Health,
Education and Welfare, and the Office of Volunteer Action, which had been in the
Housing and Urban Development Department.
A reorganization plan proposed by the President goes into e ffect unless either
within 60 days.
House of the Congress votes to reject it
In the case of
the new volunteer
agency, Action, moves were made in both the House and Senate to sidetrack the
reorganization, and both attempts were defeated.
I supported the
reorganization because I believe it will bring a bout a
great improvement in the operation of the various volunteer organizations. It should
lead to a more effective use of volunteers and permit easier movement of volunteers
from one organization to another.
I believe Action will provide fresh impetus for voluntary activities throughout
the Nation and overseas. Action will work through existing programs and will
L also FORD LIBRARY
seek to develop innovative ne W programs aimed at helping to solve America's problems.
-2-
In the current Federal budget the volunteer agencies now consolidated under
Action are funded at roughly $169 million-actually higher than their previous
combined total budget--and comprise an active volunteer force of about 276,000
persons.
To help assure the success of Action, the President is seeking an additional
$20 million for the new agency in the fiscal 1972 budget. If these funds can help
Americans find new and better ways to help themselves through increased volunteer
efforts, it will amount to some of the best spent money in the budget.
The President also has another reorganization plan, which is pending in the
Congre SS. This plan would nearlythere reorganize the Federal government. It would coordinate
seven of the existing cabinet departments plus a host of assorted agencies into four
new
departments.
This,
hopefully, would e ase the citizen'
task in dealing
with his government.
The proposed new Department of Natural Resources would deal with our physical
environment and accommodate the demands of a growing population, increased per capita
consumption, and the need for restoring and protecting our environment. The pressent
Department
of
Interior
and
segments of the Department of Agriculture would
be
absorbed into the Department of Natural Resources.
The proposed Department of Community Development would encompass the present
Department of Housing and Urban Development and various agencies such as the Rhral
Electrification Program. This new department would offer a bread range of programs--
transportation, housing, rural and urban community facilities and services aimed at
total
community needs.
FORD
The proposed Department of Economic Affairs is designed to deal with the
health
BRARI
and
growth of our economy-with our jobs, our businesses and our farms. It would
include the present Departments of Commerce, Labor, Agriculture and Transportation.
-3-
And the proposed new Department of Human Resources would bring together all programs
directed at the development and well-being of individuals and families--income security,
health and human development. This would consolidate the present Department of Health,
Education and Welfare, and major programs from the Departments of Labor and Agriculture
and the Office of Economic Opportunity.
This is a plan which will bring about meaningful changes and move us toward better
government. It is worthy of the most careful study.
This is your congressman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington. I'll be
talking with your
again next week--same time, same station.
FORD LIBRARY is GERALD /
SCRIPT TAPED FOR USE BY FIFTH DISTRICT RADIO STATIONS THE WEEKEND OF JUNE 19-20, 1971.
This is your congressman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington.
President Nixon is following up with appropriate caution on the crack in the door
One of the american train wm from G.R.
with Red China which was opened up by the American table tennis team. This followup is
a delicate balancing act in American diplomacy. The right moves must be made if
genuine progre SS is to be made toward world peace through improvement in
Sino-American relations.
The President stated the need for an improved relationship in his "State of the
World" Message when he said: "It is a truism that an international order cannot be
secure if one of the major powers remains largely outside it and
hostile
toward
it. In this decade, therefore, there will be no more important challenge than that
of drawing the People's Republic of China into a constructive relationship with the
world community, and particularly with the rest of Asia."
we should be realitic
At the same time the President warned that no headlong rush toward detente should be
ofwould be undertaken that could undermine our own security or that of our allies.
The Present stated "T1 he
evolution of our dialogue with Peking cannot be at the expense of international
order or our own commitments," be said. "Our attitude is public and clear. We will
continue to honor our treaty commitments to the security of our Asian allies. An
honorable relationship with Peking cannot be constructed at their expense."
The U.S. Defense Pact of 1954 with the Republic of China on Taiwan and the
American program for winding down the war in Indochina must be taken into account
in the thawing relations between this country and Red China. Certainly the policy
adjustments the United States make in these areas should not jeopardize the goals for
which America has sacrificed so much.
Hope for better relations with Red China is real and is justifiable. But there
FORD LIBRARY & PERALD
are clearly potential pitfalls--and so we must be most careful. The important thing is
-2-
not to go so
fast that our options are foreclosed.
things has
The President acted, I think, with appropriate caution in his recent announcement
relaxing restrictions on trade with Red China. The removal of most
barriers to
trade with Red China was a move which should reduce tensions between the United
Sitates
and Red China and is therefore most welcome. It will, I believe, lead
to improved Sino -merican relations.
It
will be helpful in
achieving an improved relationship between the U.S. and Red China.
But at the same time we must not forget that Red China has been the only major
outside power to consistently and openly oppose any efforts for a negotiated settlement
of the Arab-Israeli conflict in the Middle East and to urge Egypt to engage in protracted
struggle. Peking hopes to turn the Middle East into the second great theater of a
revolutionary people's war of liberation after Vietnam--and in
the process to
We must walk a
embarrass
both the United States and the Soviet Union.
tight rope, a namman path but of will grating world peace can be enhanced
I would like to turn now to another matter--a
question completed (unrenlated
to foreign affairs. I speak of the recent rise in the number of police killings in our
Nation. Some of the se killings seem to be the work of organized groups determined to
use terror for political purposes.
I am greatly concerned about these recent occurrences. I believe they must be
strongly condemned by all Americans as repuganant to our
principles of decency
and the ideals of a democratic society.
The law enforcement officials of this nation need the support of all Americans.
Without officers to enforce the laws, there eventally would be no laws and our
Republic would be destroyed.
FORD
There are proposals pending before Congress which would take
meaningful GERAL LIBRARY
action against police killers. I have cosponsored a bill which would make it
&
-3-
Federal offense for anyone traveling in interstate commerce or using a facility of
interstate commerce to conspire, attempt or solicit to assault, injure or kill any
law enforcement of ficer, fireman or judicial officer because of his official position.
The passage of this legislation would allow the full force of Federal law enforcement
agencies to be brought to bear to help prevent and solve organized attacks on
local police officers.
This is your congressman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from the Nation's capital.
I'll be talking with you again next week-same time, same station.
######
GERALD LIB8891 FORD
SCRIPT TAPED FOR USE BY FIFTH DISTRICT RADIO STATIONS THE WREKEND OF
JUNE 26-27, 1971.
This is your congressman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington.
In roughly a week's time we will all be celebrating the Fourth of July,
the birthday of our nation, the day that in a sense is the birthday of every
one of us in the United States-for we, the people, make up this wonderful
nation of ours.
We'll be shooting off some fireworks, of course, and maybe engaging in
some patriotic talk. But it just seems to me most natural, since the Fourth
of July this year falls on a Sunday, that we take time off from our
fun-making to think about the religious sources of this great country in which
we live.
America didn't grow strong just because of material wealth alone. It
was faith in a Supreme Being that gave early Americans the courage to fight
the wilderness and all of the terrors it held for mortal man and to eke e
living out of the soil.
Throughout our country's history, most of our leaders have been
influenced by Judaeo-Christian ethics, the source of the Ten Commandments.
Anyone familiar with American tradition knows that the concept of divine
guidance was never far from the minds of those who have played significant
roles in shaping the destiny of the United States.
But let us go back to the very beginning of this nation. On the day of
this country's birth, our Founding Fathers spoke in the preamble to the
Declaration of Independence of how men were "endowed by their Creator with
certain unalienable Rights." In otherwords, these Rights came from God.
In concluding the Declaration of Independence, our forefathers affirmed their
"reliance on the protection of Divine Providence." They looked to God for
the strength to carry them through the ordeal that separation of the colonies
from England would subject them to.
We speak also of our divine heritage when we recite the Pledge of
Allegiance to the Flag. It was a Michigan congressman, the late Louis Rabaut,
who proposed that the phrase, "under God," be inserted in the pledge. And the
Congress agreed. So now we say, "I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the
LIBRARY
United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation
under God."
-2-
We have senn the motto, "In God We Trust," so frequently on our money
that we have virtually forgotten it exists.
On the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery,
across the Potomac River from this National Capital in which I am speaking to
you, there is carved the inscription, "Here rests in honored glory an American
soldier known but to God."
So the idea of a religious observance on the Fourth of July weekend is
a natural one.
Both Church and State today are confronted with new perplexities that
the Founding Fathers never dreamed of. Consequently, religious groups today
are assuming increasingly activist roles.
The questions leap out at us. What can we do about peace in Vietnam
and the world? What about threats to our environment? What about drug
addiction and disillusioned youth? What about disadvantaged minorities? What
about unemployment, poor housing, hunger, educational problems?
These problems cry out for innovative approaches and for hard work
directed toward a solution. Maybe you hold the magic key to some of the
solutions.
There is an ironic footnote to current religious activism. Communism
claims to be the wave of the future and the answer to all problems for peoples
of the earth.
Karl Marx contended that religion was "the opiate of the masses". that
it diverted man's attention from the problems at hand. Yet today in America
we find the churches injecting themselves increasingly into national problems.
The churches are concerned with priorities, just as the national administration
is.
And on thismmatter of priorities, let's make a list of our own. Putting
first things first, alloting some time for relggious contemplation on Fourth of
July weekend ought to be tops on the schedule.
This is your congressman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from the nation's
capital. I'll be talking with you again next week--same time, same station.
###
GERALD FORD
SCRIPT TAPED FOR USE BY FIFTH DISTRICT RADIO STATIONS THE WEEKEND OF
JUNE 26-27, 1971.
This is your congressman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington.
In roughly a week's time we will all be celebrating the Fourth of July,
the birthday of our nation, the day that in a sense is the birthday of every
one of us in the United States--for we, the people, make up this wonderful
nation of ours.
We'll be shooting off some fireworks, of course, and maybe engaging in
some patriotic talk. But it just seems to me most natural, since the Fourth
of July this year falls on & Sunday, that we take time off from our
fun-making to think about the religious sources of this great country in which
we live.
America didn't grow strong just because of material wealth alone. It
was faith in a Supreme Being that gave early Americans the courage to fight
the wilderness and all of the terrors it held for mortal man and to eke a
living out of the soil.
Throughout our country's history, most of our leaders have been
influenced by Judaeo-Christian ethics, the source of the Ten Commandments.
Anyone familiar with American tradition knows that the concept of divine
guidance was never far from the minds of those who have played significant
roles in shaping the destiny of the United States.
But let us go back to the very beginning of this nation. On the day of
this country's birth, our Founding Fathers spoke in the preamble to the
Declaration of Independence of how men were "endowed by their Creator with
certain unalienable Rights." In otherwords, these Rights came from God.
In concluding the Declaration of Independence, our forefathers affirmed their
"reliance on the protection of Divine Providence." They looked to God for
the strength to carry them through the ordeal that separation of the colonies
from England would subject them to.
We speak also of our divine heritage when we recite the Pledge of
Allegiance to the Flag. It was a Michigan congressman, the late Louis Rabaut,
who proposed that the phrase, "under God," be inserted in the pledge. And the
FORD
Congress agreed. So now we say, "I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the
United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation GERRA
LIBRARY
under God."
-2-
We have sean the motto, "In God We Trust," so frequently on our money
that we have virtually forgotten it exists.
On the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery,
across the Potomac River from this National Capital in which I am speaking to
you, there is carved the inscription, "Here rests in honored glory an American
soldier known but to God."
So the idea of a religious observance on the Fourth of July weekend is
a natural one.
Both Church and State today are confronted with new perplexities that
the Founding Fathers never dreamed of. Consequently, religious groups today
are assuming increasingly activist roles.
The questions leap out at us. What can we do about peace in Vietnam
and the world? What about threats to our environment? What about drug
addiction and disillusioned youth? What about disadvantaged minorities? What
about unemployment, poor housing, hunger, educational problems?
These problems cry out for innovative approaches and for hard work
directed toward a solution. Maybe you hold the magic key to some of the
solutions.
There is an ironic footnote to current religious activism. Communism
claims to be the wave of the future and the answer to all problems for peoples
of the earth.
Karl Marx contended that religion was "the opiate of the masses" ...that
it diverted man's attention from the problems at hand. Yet today in America
we find the churches injecting themselves increasingly into national problems.
The churches are concerned with priorities, just as the national administration
is.
And on thismmatter of priorities, let's make a list of our own. Putting
first things first, alloting some time for religious contemplation on Fourth of
July weekend ought to be tops on the schedule.
This is your congressman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from the nation's
capital. I'll be talking with you again next veek--same time, same station.
###
FORD is LIBRARY
SCRIPT TAPED FOR USE BY FIFTH DISTRICT RADIO STATIONS THE WEEKEND OF JUNE 26-27, 1971.
This is your congressman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from Washington.
In roughly a week's time we will all be celebrating the Fourth of July, the
birthday of our nation, the day that in a sense is the birthday of every one
of us in the United States=for we, the people, make up this wonderful nation of ours.
We'll be shorting off some fireworks, of course, and maybe engaging in some
patriotic talk. But it just seems to me most natural, since the Fourth of July
this year falls on a Sunday, that WO take time off from our fun-making to think about
the religious sources of this great country in which we live.
America didn't grow strong just because of material wealth alone. It was faith
in a Supreme Being that gave early Americans the courage to fight the will terness and
all of the terrors it held for mortal man and to eke a living oub of the soil.
Throughout our country's history, most of our leaders have been influenced by
Judaeo-Christian ethics, the source of the Tenn Commandments. Anyone familiar with
American tradition knows that the concept of divine guidance was never far from the
minds of those who have played significant roles in shaping the destiny of the
United States.
But let us go back to the very beginning of this nation. On the day of this
spoke in
to
country's birth, our Founding Fathers the preamble it the Declaration of
of
Independence how men were "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.
In other words, these Rights came from God. In concluding the Declaration of
Independence, our forefathers the affirmed their "reliance on the protection
of
Divine Providence. They looked to God for the strength to:carze carry them
through the ordeal that separation
of the colonies from England would subject them
to.
GERALD R. LIBRARY FORD
We speak also of our divine heritage when we recite the Pledge of No Allegiance
to the Flag. It was a Michigan congressman, the late is Louis Rabaut, who
proposed that the phrase, "Under God," be inserted in the pledge. And the Congress
of the United States of America
agreed. So now we say, "I pledge allegiance to the Flagland to the republic
for which it stands, one nation under God."
We have seen the motto, "In God We Trust," SO (mm/dd/yyyy) frequently on our money
that we have virtually forgotten it exists.
On the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery, across the
Potomac River from this National Capital in which I am speaking tc you, there is carved
the inscription, "Here rests in honored glory an American soldier known but to God."
So the ideal of a religious observance on the Fourth of July weekend is a natural
one.
Both Church and State today are confronted with new perplexities that the Founding
Fathers never dreamed of. Consequently, religious groups today are assuming
increasingly activist roles.
The questions leap out at us. What can we do about peace in Vietnam and the
world? What about threats to our environment? What about drug addiction and
disillusioned youth? What about disadvantaged minorities? What about unemployment,
poor housing, hunger, educational problems?
These problems cry out for innovative approaches and for hard work directed toward
a solution. Maybe you hold the magic key to some of the solutions.
There is an ironic footnote to current religious activism. Communism claims to
be the wave of the future and the answer to all problems for peoples of the earth.
If
FORD
Karl Marx contended that religion was the opiate of the masses that it
diverted
RAR
man's attention from the problems at hand. Yet today in America we find the churches
injecting themselves increasingly into national problems. The churches are
concerned with priorities, just as the national adminini istration is.
And on this matter of priorities, let's make a list of our own. Putting
first things first, about alloting some time for religious contremplation on
Fourth of July weekend ought to be tops on the schedule.
This is your congre ssman, Jerry Ford, reporting to you from the nation's
capital. I'll be talking with you again next week--same time, same station.
#######
ALD RALOR GRD