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Purchasing Agents Association of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, March 19, 1968
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4526103
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Purchasing Agents Association of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, March 19, 1968
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Gerald R. Ford Congressional Papers
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1968
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The original documents are located in Box D24, folder "Purchasing Agents Association of
Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, March 19, 1968" of the Ford Congressional Papers: Press
Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
Copyright Notice
The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of
photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. The Council donated to the United
States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.
Works prepared by U.S. Government employees as part of their official duties are in the public
domain. The copyrights to materials written by other individuals or organizations are presumed to
remain with them. If you think any of the information displayed in the PDF is subject to a valid
copyright claim, please contact the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
PURCHASING AGENTS NOTES
I. Subject is "them need for greater rapport between
business and government."
The word
but
A. 1 "Repport" comes from the French we're certainly
not talking about the kind of relationship that exists
between Lyndon Johnson and Charlie DeGaulle.
B. "Rapport" by dictionary definition means "a
relationship marked by harmony, conformity, accord
or affinity."
RALD RD GBRARD
II. What kind of rapport are we talking about when we say
there is greater need of such between bizness and gov't?
2/PURCHASING AGENTS
A. There now is rapport of a kind between President
Johnson and American busine SS leaders.
1. This is surface, "arm-around-the-Ehoulders" kind
of rapport.
2. The President seeks to e stablish this kind of
rapport when he needs busine SS: leader suppprt for
some presidential objective.
3. This is a one-sided rapport...a rapport
which FORD LIBRARY
serves the President's purposes.
4. This is the rapport of "conformity" and consensus,
to use one of Lyndon's favorite words.
Digitized from Box D24 of The Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
3/PURCHASING AGENTS
B. The kind of rapport really needed between busine SS
and gov't is a give-and-take kind of rapport, a rapport
where the role of business in national life is truly
appreciated and not simply made use of to serve
political purposes.
1. This is a rapport built on fairness and
1
impartiality--the kind of rapport which would
have found the Adm'n administering the wage-price
guidelines--now understandably defunct--without fear
or favor.
L/PURCHASING AGENTS
2. This is a rapport that is based on genuine
understanding between the fordes of busine SS and
gov't, not on $1,000 President's Club memberships
which represent $1,000 slices of Washington the influence
pie.
III. Business attempts to establish favorable relations
with federal gov'ty completely natural and understandable.
are
A. Fed'l Gov't is Big Business does a lot that
affects business, does a lot to business.
5/PURCHASING AGENTS
1. Gov't regulates almost every phase of biz. activity.
2. Gov't spending has tremeñdous impact on bizness.
a. Fed'l Gov't has nearly 3 million civil employes
on the payroll--and that BRNNK payroll totals
roughly $22 billion a year. In add'n there are
3,300,000 Americans in uniform, and the annual
military payroll totals another ass $17.5 billion.
That's a combined payroll of 6,300,000 people and
nearly $40 billion.
6/PURCHASING AGENTS
b. Gov't buying is vital to bizness.
(1)
Gov't procurement is bread and butter
for many industrial concerns.
(1) Shifts of government procurement can virtually
or
mean life
death for some communities.
IV. Fed'l Government touches the lives of all Americans,
and particularly busine ssmen, so business need to get
along with gov't and develop best possible rapport.
7/PURCHASING AGENTS
A. There are obstacles to development of best possible
rapport between busine SS and fed'l government.
One
1.
obstacle is that liberals look upon all
business smen as suspect, as guided only by the profit
motive.
2. Another obstacle is that busine ssmen generally have
not accepted the idea that they must exert leadership
in solving America's social problems...in other words,
be
they must
concerned about social problems first and profits
8/PURCHASING AGENTS
seconds if there is to be the best possible bizne SS-
gov't relationship.
a. This does not mean that profits and the solving
of the Nation's social problems cannot go hand in
hand. They can and they revise should. It would be
ridiculously unrealistic to assume otherwise.
b. The pròblem is to sell the people on the
wil ingne SS of busine SS to do the job, and to put
to gether the right M formula of business-gov't
cooperation.
9/PURCHASING AGENTS
V. A public image of business as willing to take the lead
in solving America's problems is necessary to developing the
proper rapport between business and the federal government
A. This image is not exixity cultivated when the
President says businessx must provide X-number of jobs
for ghetto dwellers or gov't will.
FORD
B.. This image is cultivated by business sleaders like
George Champion, the board chairman of Chase Manhattan
Bank, when he points out the tremendously important role
10/PURCHASING AGENTS
that busine ssmen can and should play in solving
America's social problmems.
VI. There is a desperate need today for in gov't for the
kind of creativity that business and industry have brought to
the solution of their own problems.
VII. We need a flow of private capital to solve the
most pressing social problems in this country and the
greatest possible flow of good will, trust and understanding...
rapport, if you will, is needed between gov't and busine SS to
11/PURCHASING AGENTS
stimulate this flow.mfxx
VIII. Total Government solutions for America's major
social problems husxfxilemx have failed.
A. They have failed because the gov't failed to
avail itself of the problem-solving skills of private
enterprise.
FORD
B. They have failed because the proper E kind of
rapport between gov't and business was lacking.
GERAL
LIBRARY
IX. If business takes the lead in public problem-solving,
the problem of gov't-business rapport will take care of itself.
12/PURCHASING AGENTS
X. It is toom much to expect busine SS to assume the
responsibility for solving social problems without some
stimulation by gov't.
XI. That stimulation should take thefwrm forman of
tax incentives--the kind of incentives contemplated by
the many House Republicans who have introduced bills
FORD
providing for tax credits toxat get indutx industry
massively involved in providing jubxtr on-the-job training
for ghetto youths, creating jobs to place them in, Wirkbelling
and
building new plants in the central cities
13/PURCHASING AGENTS
instead of fleeing to the suburbs.
XII. The kind of business activity which would be
stigulated by tax credits for on-the-job training and
construction of plants in the central cities would
generate rapport between gov't an d business, and between
business and the public.
FORD
XIII. From it would flow an era of good feeling which
LIBRARY
would contribute greatly to progress for America.. .not
only material progress but the kind of spiritual progress
14/PURCHASING AGENTS
we must foster if Ha the American people are to be spared
the agony of a new kind of civil
war.
XIV. The kind of rapport wenx need is the rapport best
defined as harmony,xxi and this can only come if busine ssmen
rise to the challenge posed by the social problems of
today's America.
LIBRARY
#####
NOTES
PITTSBURGH, PA.
MAR. 19, 1968
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, U.S.
OFFICE OF THE MINORITY LEADER
Herald R. 3rd
PUBLIC DOCUMENT
M.C.
OFFICIAL BUSINESS
TUESDAY
EVENING
PURCHASING AGENTS Assoc.
OF PITTSBURGH
FORD
/