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    "label": "Remarks to the Members of the Cabinet and White House Staff [Ford Speech or Statement]",
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    "title": "Remarks to the Members of the Cabinet and White House Staff [Ford Speech or Statement]",
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        {
            "day": 9,
            "logicalDate": "1974-08-09",
            "month": 8,
            "year": 1974
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    "ocrText": "Digitized from Box 1 of the White House Press Releases at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library\nFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE\nAUGUST 9, 1974\nOFFICE OF THE WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY\nTHE WHITE HOUSE\nREMARKS OF THE PRESIDENT\nTO THE\nMEMBERS OF THE CABINET\nAND\nWHITE HOUSE STAFF\nTHE EAST ROOM\n9:36 A.M. EDT\nMembers of the Cabinet, Members of the White\nHouse staff, all of our friends here:\nI think the record should show that this is one\nof those spontaneous things that we always arrange whenever\nthe President comes in to speak, and it will be so reported\nin the press, and we don't mind because they have to call\nit as they see it.\nBut on our part, believe me, it is spontaneous.\nYou are here to say goodbye to us, and we don't\nhave a good word for it in English. The best is au revoir.\nWe will see you again.\nI just met with the members of the White House staff,\nyou know, those who serve here in the White House day in\nand day out, and I asked them to do what I ask all of you to\ndo to the extent that you can and, of course, are requested\nto do so: To serve our next President as you have served\nme and previous Presidents -- because many of you have been\nhere for many years -- with devotion and dedication, because\nthis office, great as it is, can only be as great as the men\nand women who work for and with the President.\nThis house, for example, I was thinking of it as\nwe walked down this hall, and I was comparing it to some of\nthe great houses of the world that I have been in. This isn't\nthe biggest house. Many, and most, in even smaller countries\nare much bigger. This isn't the finest house. Many in Europe,\nparticularly, and in China, Asia, have paintings of great, great\nvalue, things that we just don't have here, and probably will\nnever have until we are 1000 years old, or older.\nBut this is the best house. It is the best house\nbecause it has something far more important than numbers of\npeople who serve, far more important than numbers of rooms or\nhow big it is, far more important than numbers of magnificent\npieces of art.\nMORE\nFORD & GERALD LIBRARY\nPage 2\nThis house has a great heart, and that heart\ncomes from those who serve. I was rather sorry they\ndidn't come down. We said goodbye to them upstairs. But\nthey are really great. And I recall after so many times\nI have made speeches, and there have been some of them pretty\ntough, yet, when I always come back, or after a hard day --\nand my days usually have run rather long -- I would always\nget a lift from them because I might be a little down,\nbut they always smiled.\nAnd so it is with you. I look around here\nand I see so many on this staff that, you know, I should\nhave been by your offices and shaken hands, and I would\nloved to have talked to you and found out how to run the\nworld -- everybody wants to tell the President what to do,\nand boy he needs to be told many times -- but I just\nhaven't had the time. But I want you to know that each\nand every one of you, I know, is indispensable to this\nGovernment.\nI am proud of this Cabinet. I am proud of all the\nmembers who have served in our Cabinet. I am proud of our\nsub-Cabinet. I am proud of our White House staff. As\nI pointed out last night, sure we have done some things\nwrong in this Administration, and the top man always takes\nthe responsibility, and I have never ducked it. But I\nwant to say one thing: We can be proud of it -- 5-1/2\nyears -- no man or no woman came into this Administration\nand left it with more of this world's goods than when he\ncame in. No man or no woman ever profited at the public\nexpense or the public till. That tells something about you.\nMistakes, yes. But for personal gain, never.\nYou did what you believed in. Sometimes right, sometimes\nwrong. And I only wish that I were a wealthy man --\nat the present time I have got to find a way to pay\nmy taxes (Laughter) -- and if I were, I would like to recompense\nyou for the sacrifices all of you have made to serve in\nGovernment.\nBut you are getting something in Government --\nand I want you to tell this to your children, and I\nhope the Nation's children will hear it, too -- something\nin Government service that is far more important than\nmoney. It is a cause bigger than yourself. It is the\ncause of making this the greatest Nation in the world, the\nleader of the world, because without our leadership the\nworld will know nothing but war, possibly starvation, or\nworse, in the years ahead. With our leadership it will\nknow peace, it will know plenty.\nWe have been generous and we will be more generous\nin the future as we are able to. But most important, we\nmust be strong here, strong in our hearts, strong in\nour souls, strong in our belief, and strong in our willing-\nness to sacrifice, as you have been willing to sacrifice,\nin a pecuniary way, to serve in Government.\nMORE\nFORD & LIBRARY\nPage 3\nThere is something else I would like for you to\ntell your young people. You know, people often come in and\nsay, 'What will I tell my kids?\" They look at Government\nand say it is sort of a rugged life and they see the mistakes\nthat are made. They get the impression that everybody is\nhere for the purpose of feathering his nest. That is why\nI made this earlier point -- not in this Administration, not\none single man or woman.\nAnd I say to them, \"There are many careers. This\ncountry needs good farmers, good businessmen, good plumbers,\ngood carpenters.\"\nI remember my old man. I think that they would have\ncalled him sort of a little man, common man. He didn't\nconsider himself that way. You know what he was? He was\na streetcar motorman first, and then he was a farmer, and\nthen he had a lemon ranch. It was the poorest lemon ranch\nin California, I can assure you. He sold it before they\nfound oil on it. (Laughter)\nAnd then he was a grocer. But he was a great\nman because he did his job and every job counts up to the\nhilt, regardless of what happens.\nNobody will ever write a book, probably, about\nmy mother. Well, I guess all of you would say this about\nyour mother -- my mother was a saint. And I think of her,\ntwo boys dying of tuberculosis, nursing four others in\norder that she could take care of my older brother for\nthree years in Arizona, and seeing each of them die, and\nwhen they died, it was like one of her own.\nYes, she will have no books written about her.\nBut she was a saint.\nNow, however, we look to the future. I had\na little quote in the speech last night from T.R. As you\nknow, I kind of like to read books. I am not educated,\nbut I do read books, (Laughter) and the T.R. quote was a pretty\ngood one.\nHere is another one I found as I was reading,\nmy last night in the White House, and this quote is\nabout a young man. He was a young lawyer in New York.\nHe had married a beautiful girl and they had a lovely\ndaughter, and then suddenly she died, and this is what\nhe wrote. This was in his diary.\nMORE\nFORD LIBRARY i GERALD\nPage 4\nHe said: \"She was beautiful in face and form\nand lovlier still in spirit. As a flower she grew and as\na fair young flower she died. Her life had been always in\nthe sunshine. There had never come to her a single great\nsorrow. None ever knew her who did not love and revere\nher for her bright and sunny temper and her saintly\nunselfishness. Fair, pure and joyous as a maiden, loving,\ntender and happy as a young wife. When she had just become\na mother, when her life seemed to be just begun and when\nthe years seemed so bright before her, then by a strange\nand terrible fate death came to her. And when my heart's\ndearest died, the light went from my life forever.\"\nThat was T.R. in his 20's. He thought the light\nhad gone from his life forever -- but he went on. And he\nnot only became President, but as an ex-President, he served\nhis country always in the arena, tempetuous, strong, sometimes\nwrong, sometimes right, but he was a man.\nAnd as I leave, let me say that is an example\nI think all of us should remember. We think sometimes\nwhen things happen that don't go the right way; we think\nthat when you don't pass the bar exam. the first time --\nI happened to, but I was just lucky; I mean my writing\nwas so poor the bar examiner said, \"We have just got to\nlet the guy through.\" (Laughter) We think that when someone\ndear to us dies, we think that when we lose an election,\nwe think that when we suffer a defeat, that all is ended.\nWe think, as T.R. said, that the light had left his\nlife forever.\nMORE\nFORD & LIBRARY GERALD\nPage 5\nNot true. It is only a beginning always. The\nyoung must know it; the old must know it. It must always\nsustain us because the greatness comes not when things go\nalways good for you, but the greatness comes when you are\nreally tested, when you take some knocks, some disappoint-\nments, when sadness comes, because only if you have been\nin the deepest valley can you ever know how magnificent it\nis to be on the highest mountain.\nAnd so I say to you on this occasion, as we leave,\nwe leave proud of the people who have stood by us and\nworked for us and served this country.\nWe want you to be proud of what you have done.\nWe want you to continue to serve in Government, if that is\nyour wish. Always give your best, never get discouraged,\nnever be petty; always remember others may hate you, but\nthose who hate you don't win unless you hate them, and\nthen you destroy yourself.\nAnd so, we leave with high hopes, in good spirit\nand with deep humility, and with very much gratefulness\nin our hearts. And I can only say to each and every one\nof you, we come from many faiths, we pray perhaps to\ndifferent gods, but really the same God in a sense, but\nI want to say to each and every one of you, not only will\nwe always remember you, not only will we always be grateful\nto you, but always you will be in our hearts and you will be\nin our prayers.\nThank you very much.\nEND\n(AT 9:55 A.M. EDT)\nGERALD LEBRARY FORD"
}