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7344146
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Remarks of the President and Question and Answer Session, Jackson County-Medford County Airport [Ford Speech or Statement]
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7344146
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document
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Remarks of the President and Question and Answer Session, Jackson County-Medford County Airport [Ford Speech or Statement]
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White House Press Releases (Ford Administration)
Press Releases
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1976-05-22
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1976
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Digitized from Box 26 of the White House Press Releases at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MAY 22, 1976
OFFICE OF THE WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY
(Medford, Oregon)
THE WHITE HOUSE
REMARKS OF THE PRESIDENT
AND
QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSION
JACKSON COUNTY-MEDFORD COUNTY AIRPORT
11:06 A.M. PDT
THE PRESIDENT: It is really great to be in
Oregon. I have been here a good many times. I have
always enjoyed it. I think I have a lot of friends here.
I am out here to make a very direct approach to
this campaign. The theme of my campaign is peace, growing
prosperity and the restoration of trust in the White House.
The record is very clear. We have achieved the peace, we
are maintaining it, and we are going to keep it through
our military capability and our diplomatic skill.
We inherited a very bad economic situation.
Inflation was 12 percent. We were on the brink of high
unemployment, and in the last year we made substantial
progress. We reduced the rate of inflation
to under 3 percent, a 75 percent reduction. We have
added 3,300,000 jobs in the last year, 700,000 more jobs
in the last month.
We are well on the way to the kind of prosperity
that America deserves, and we are going to get it in
the next four years. In addition, I think the restoration
of trust and confidence in the White House is obvious to
everybody. We had a hard time at the beginning, but we
have convinced the American people that we have an open,
candid, forthright, open door policy in the White House,
and I think that is what the American people want.
Yes?
QUESTION: Mr. President, will you support legis-
lation that will allow clear cutting in the national
forests?
THE PRESIDENT: I strongly support the Humphrey
bill which provides for good management practices under
the control and guidance of the Forest Service. I am
vigorously opposed to the Randolph substitute, which I
think would inhibit -- in effect, prohibit -- the kind of
good management practices which are necessary.
MORE
Page 2
QUESTION: Mr. President on Monday the New
York State delegation will meet. Is there some concern
on your part of giving those uncommitted delegates to you
before the Tuesday primaries?
THE PRESIDENT: I am very optimistic that the
New York delegation will be, in the Ford column, but that is
their decision. I have a good many friends in the New
York delegation. I think they will be sympathetic, but
I will let them make the decision.
QUESTION: Have you urged them to meet earlier
than normal? Wouldn't they normally not convene until
close to the convention?
THE PRESIDENT: Not at all. This is their
decision. They, under the leadership of their State
chairman, Dick Rosenbaum, decided that they wanted to
take whatever action they take this weekend.
QUESTION: Mr. Ford, we have a number of safe-
guard initiatives on the ballot here. Would you
encourage Oregonians to vote for that?
THE PRESIDENT: I am a strong believer in safe
and reliable nuclear power. The country today has
about 55 nuclear plants operating. They have a very good
safety record. Their reliability is good. We have to
improve both, but if we don't use and expand nuclear power,
the United States will become more and more dependent on
foreign oil cartels. We cannot afford to let foreigners
establish the cost of energy in the United States. So,
I believe in nuclear power, and I therefore hope there
will be no restrictions or prohibition, artificially and
arbitrarily applied against nuclear developments.
QUESTION: Mr. President, are you moving to the
right on the racial issue with these busing remarks, and
the nuclear reactions in South Africa?
THE PRESIDENT: Not at all. I have strongly
opposed court ordered forced busing to achieve racial
balance. I have consistently all my life lived and
believed and voted for the end of segregation. But I think
the real answer that we are trying to get is quality
education, and court ordered forced busing is not the best
way to achieve quality education.
Therefore, what may transpire by the Attorney
General and he has not yet made his final decision
is an attempt to get a better remedy for quality education
than the remedy that has been applied in several States.
MORE
Page 3
In the case of South Africa, we are trving to
end the radicalism which has developed in South Africa
since the Soviet Union and Cuba took over Angola. The
wav to do that is to convince the independent States in
South Africa that there should be no outside power
controlling that part of that continent.
At the same time, we have to believe, because
it is historically the right thing in this country and
what we have believed in -- of majoritv rule with the
absolute protection of minority right --
OUESTION: Do you mean majority rule in the Union
as well as Rhodesia?
THE PRESIDENT: In the case of South Africa
itself, I have said at the proper time it will undoubtedly
be appropriate for me to meet with the proper Government
officials in South Africa. In the case of Rhodesia, that is
another matter.
THE PRESS: Thank you very much.
END (AT 11:12 A.M. PDT)