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"Window on the World" Lecture Series, Kettering Rotary Club, Dayton, OH, September 23, 1970
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The original documents are located in Box D30, folder "Window on the World" Lecture
Series, Kettering Rotary Club, Dayton, OH, September 23, 1970" 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States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.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.
Distribution : 20 copies to mr. Ford only
moffice Copy
AN ADDRESS BY REP. GERALD R. FORD, R-MICH.
REPUBLICAN LEADER, U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
AT THE OPENING OF THE "WINDOW ON THE WORLD" LECTURE SERIES
SPONSORED BY THE KITTERING ROTARY CLUB
AT DAYTON, OHIO
8 P.M. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1970
FOR RELEASE ON DELIVERY
"NEW DIRECTIONS FOR THE SEVENTIES"
Every decade is a mixture of good and bad, and the Sixties were no
exception.
But for all the good that the Sixties produced, the last ten years brought
us an overabundance of misery and grief.
Many of us look back upon the decade of the Sixties with a tremendous sense
of relief at having put it behind us.
What do we remember most vividly about the decade of the Sixties?
It was, of course, the decade that put Americans on the moon -- but it was
also an Age of Assassination and an Age of Anarchy.
We saw major American cities being put to the torch and witnessed the
outbreak of convulsive violence in the Nation's ghettoes and the beginnings of
the current unrest on our college campuses.
The Sixties also brought the agony of Vietnam, when an America victimized
by violence at home crept uncomprehendingly into the quicksand of a jungle war
halfway 'round the world.
And as we lived through the decade of the Sixties, it became apparent that
the era of the New Deal had come to an end -- as clearly and as finally as though
someone had drawn the curtain on it.
With the demise of the New Deal came the realization that America must
move in New Directions in the Seventies, must cut new paths thorugh the jungle
of problems that clogged the way to a quality life for our people.
This was the condition of America when its people elected a new President
in November 1968.
This was the America that cried out for new leadership when Richard Nixon
entered the White House in January 1969.
I foresaw the advent of an age of reform in America when Richard Nixon took
office.
(more)
Digitized from Box D30 of The Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
-2-
Reform was the path to be followed. Reform was indeed thrusting itself
upon the new President and upon the Nation. And thus it was that reform became
the watchword of the new Administration.
The new Administration took stock and charted a new course. This new
course is a comprehensive strategy for attacking the most critical problems facing
this country.
The major goals of this comprehensive strategy strike directly at the roots
of the underlying crises in our Nation.
The strategy is aimed at five objectives: Ending the war; ending poverty;
making the streets safe again for the American people; reforming and ultimately
ending the draft; and giving the government back to the people.
If the Nixon Administration succeeds in achieving these objectives --- and
draft reform has been partially achieved -- I believe historians will give the
Nixon Administration a high achievement score. And if this Congress responds with
action before the end of its second session, its mark on history will be one of
the finest.
The reforms that President Nixon has proposed are manifold. He has sent
more than 40 messages to the Congress. Those messages are related to the objectives
I have just outlined and to others as well.
The top priority is, of course, to end the war in Vietnam.
Presdient Nixon is moving vigorously to end the American role in Vietnam
and, hopefully, to end the war. He is winding down the war and is doing everything
he reasonably can to achieve a breakthrough at the peace table.
With the peace negotiations stuck on dead center because of enemy
intransigences, "Vietnamization" has become the key to disengaging the United
States from the Vietnam War. Gradually but surely we are turning the war over
to the South Vietnamese, where it belongs. Our plans are to turn the entire
combat role in Vietnam over to the South Vietnamese by next May.
We certainly cannot stay in South Vietnam forever. If the Saigon government
is to stand, it must learn to stand alone.
Under the present Administration we began taking troops out of Vietnam
instead of adding to our numbers there. Recently the President announced
withdrawal of an additional 150,000 men as we move steadily toward the goal of
removing all of our ground combat forces from Vietnam.
It came as a shock to many Americans, I know, when the President just
10 days after his Vietnam troop withdrawal announcement revealed that he had
(more)
-3-
ordered a sweep of the Communist sanctuaries in Cambodia. To some, this indicated
a wider war and they rose up in frenzied protest. But to others, including me,
the President's action was a brilliant move aimed at assuring the gradual withdrawal
of our combat forces from South Vietnam and perhaps accelerating that withdrawal.
It's true our policy of Vietnamization involved the ability of the North
Vietnamese to frustrate the plan. This is why the United States was forced to
make a sweep of the Communist sanctuaries in Cambodia even while a policy of
winding down the war was being followed in Vietnam itself.
The fighting in South Vietnam now has dropped to a very low level. American
casualties are at the lowest point in 3 1/2 years.
Vietnamization is not just a, word. Those who wanted us to pull out
immediately have been proved wrong even while they continue their calls for "peace
now and never mind the price."
The Cambodian Operation was a tremendous success despite the domestic furor
it caused. The Communists lost vast stores of supplies, a fact which is reflected
in the current low level of fighting in Vietnam. And now the Communists see a
marshalling of South Vietnamese, Cambodian and Thai forces to resist the
reestablishment of Communist sanctuaries in Cambodia while U.S. air power continues
to interdict their supply routes.
Events in Cambodia have not widened the war. It has been an Indochina War
ever since the North Vietnamese violated the neutrality of Laos and Cambodia to
pursue their designs on South Vietnam. What has been widened is the commitment
of the people of Cambodia and Thailand to resist a threat to their own security
which had been tolerated too long.
Now we must place new and fresh emphasis on attempts to gain a negotiated
peace in Vietnam.
Perhaps a cease-fire and stand-down is the best beginning point, as proposed
by a bipartisan group of 14 senators. I would like to see the killing end and the
talking begin
in real earnest. But let us be realistic about any cease-fire
agreement entered into with an enemy whose word means nothing. We have seen what
has happened in the Mideast -- how the Egyptians and Russians took advantage of
the cease-fire with Israel to build more surface-to-air missile sites closer to the
Suez Canal. We must therefore make certain that in any standstill cease-fire in
Vietnam there are adequate guarantees that the cease-fire will not be used to the
(more)
-4-
enemy's advantage. The enemy could use the cease-fire to achieve military gains
unless sufficient supervision is written into the cease-fire agreement. The
cease-fire must be the signal for serious discussions in Paris - not simply a
pause which permits the enemy to strengthen himself for renewed and heavier conflict
in the months ahead.
Despite the stubbornness of the Communists in Vietnam, I am fully convinced
President Nixon will succeed in inaugurating an era of negotiation in place of an
era of confrontation. The President's appointment of Ambassador David K. E.
Bruce as our chief negotiator at Paris may ultimately break the impasse which exists
in the Vietnam talks.
President Nixon has taken many steps toward world peace. He has taken the
United States out of the field of germ warfare and the first use of gases. He has
made the United States a signatory to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. He has
initiated renewed talks in Warsaw with Communist China. He has formulated judicious
policies governing arms support and political constraints in the Middle East and
has achieved a cease-fire there. He has carefully evaluated the expressed intentions
versus demonstrated actions of the Soviet Union in mutual arms reductions agreements.
He has laid the groundwork for possible results in the SALT talks.
We are now in the midst of strategic arms limitation talks with the
Russians, and President Nixon has set forth a new foreign policy. That new foreign
policy is innovative, flexible and adaptable. Basically, it is attuned to the
nationalistic and regional interests of Free World and Communist countries.
President Nixon no longer sees the Communist world as a monolithic enemy
alliance but as a group of nations whose common ideology is transcended by powerful
nationalistic aspirations. In line with that view, the President is adapting
United States policy to those nationalistic interests.
This new concept of U.S. foreign policy also is reflected in the new Nixon
Doctrine for Asia -- the "do-it-yourself policy" which Mr. Nixon has laid down for
the nations of Southeast Asia. This is a policy which declares to Americans and
to all the world that there will be no more Vietnams.
Under President Nixon, we have seized the initiative in foreign affairs
even in the face of Communist aggression. We have proclaimed and promoted
doctrines of international law and justice which have given the United States a new
and lofty standing in the court of world opinion.
Domestically, the Nixon Administration has launched a strong crackdown
against organized crime. The New Jersey indictments and recent nationwide drug
raids are only a beginning.
(more)
-5-
The President last year sent Congress legislation which would deal heavier
blows against organized crime and would improve the Nation's court system.
There has been special emphasis on law enforcement in each of the
Administration's anticrime measures. The President wants criminals off the streets.
He knows there is no surer way to get them off the streets than to help build up
law enforcement in this country.
The Nixon Administration has made the fight against crime one of its
central concerns. While some departmental budgets have been cut in a hold-down
on Federal spending, the Justice Department budget has been increased. The level
of law enforcement activity and narcotics control has been stepped up.
The Nixon Administration recognizes, as do all of you, that the first
civil right of every American -- black or white --- is the right to protection from
crime and violence.
I wish more of our Negro leaders throughout America would recognize that.
It is an unfortunate fact that it is primarily the poor blacks who are the victims
of violent crime in our country. All of our Negro leaders might well emulate
Sterling Tucker, vice-chairman of the Washington, D.C., City Council, who has
spoken out in support of vigorous law enforcement and has condemned those who
tacitly condone violations of the law.
It is said there can be no progress without order. I subscribe to that.
I would add that there cannot long be order without progress. I believe
the Nixon Administration is promoting the kind of order and the kind of progress
which will operate together to move this country forward.
We need a responsible common-sense approach to ending poverty in America.
The primary Nixon answer to poverty and the urban crisis is job training.
The accent is on the solid American ethic of working for a living. The President's
approach is based on the idea that a man never stands so tall as when he stands
on his own two feet.
This is why President Nixon has proposed the first major reform of this
country's welfare system since it first was established. This is why the President
urges Workfare instead of Welfare. This is the way of dignity and decency. This
is the American way. A hand up instead of a handout. That's the only way to
bridge the gap between the Haves and Have-Nots in America.
Welfare reform has passed the House. It is now pending in the Senate.
I think President Nixon has managed to bring order to this country. He
has managed to do so because he has brought order to the Presidency. We now find
(more)
-6-
that the days of government by crisis have given way to crisis prevention. The
scatter-gun approach is yielding to an assembling of new priorities.
We have accomplished draft reform by instituting a lottery system and we
are headed toward an end to the draft.
We have achieved postal reform --- the creation of a postal authority to
modernize our postal delivery system and run it efficiently and to remove the
sticky stain of politics from our postal operations.
But these are just two among the great array of reforms proposed by President
Nixon -- reforms which I believe the American people have long wanted.
There are many Administration reforms that cry out for congressional
action: The President's strengthened and broadened anti-crime program; a
consolidation of manpower training programs, to be turned over to the states and
cities as they become equipped to handle them; a reexamination of Federal aid to
schools to achieve quality education; revamping our labor laws for improved handling
of national emergency labor disputes in transportation; the President's 37-point
program directed at air and water pollution and the need to expand recreational
land use; a New Federalism which provides an increasing slice of Federal income
tax revenue to cities and states on a percentage, no-strings-attached basis; a
decentralization of government authority which places greater reliance on local
officials and greater power in the hands of the people.
Decentralization of government authority -- flow of power back to the cities
and states, back to the people. This is a central theme of the Nixon Administration.
Power concentrated in Washington is not always effective power. It is some-
times self-defeating. The Federal bureaucracy is most complex, and it feeds upon
itself. As it grows larger, the Federal Government's ability to help solve local
problems often grows less. That is why we want to expand the city and state role
in problem-solving, apart from philosophical considerations.
That is why the Administration proposes reversing the flow of power -- turning
it back to the cities and states. That is why President Nixon wants to share
Federal income tax revenue with the states and cities. He wants to implement a
basic change which I believe the American people fervently desire.
President Nixon has made his reform theme clear. He has said: "The
legislative program of this Administration differs fundamentally from previous
administrations. We do not seek more and more of the same. We were not elected
to pile new resources and manpower on top of old programs. We were elected to
initiate an era of change. If
(more)
-7-
Much change has already come about. We have acted to reorder our priorities.
Defense spending has been reduced in the President's fiscal 1971 budget to 36.7
per cent. At the same time the President has increased human resource outlays to
41 per cent. As the President noted in his budget message, this is the first time
in 20 years -- the first time in two whole decades -- that a Federal budget has
provided more funds for human resources than for defense.
That is why I see America moving in New Directions, moving along paths that
will make the Seventies a decade that will bring new quality to American life.
I see the Seventies as a decade devoted to human betterment.
I see the American people adopting goals more difficult to reach than the
moon: Rebuilding our cities. Cleaning up the Nation's water and air. Retraining
the unskilled so that every American willing and able to master a skill is permitted
to do SO. Building vast mass transit systems. Making our airways safe and equip-
ping our airports to handle the jumbo jets now taking to the skies. Eliminating
poverty by 1980 -- literally erasing it instead of just talking about it. Ending
hunger in America - and soon.
We will be fighting not only the problems of the cities but the problems of
all Americans. It won't be easy. But we will win more battles than we will lose.
We will see the forward march of positive programs aimed at providing jobs,
housing, quality education and first-rate medical care.
The Nation will marshal a concerted attack upon crime -- particularly the
drug and narcotics traffic, organized crime and juvenile deliquency.
I see the fight for clean water swelling into a crusade -- a crusade joined
in by young and older Americans alike. The assault weapon may well be President
Nixon's $10 billion do-it-now, pay-later bonding program. This is a crusade that
will gather great force.
We are generating the commitment and the climate for action now.
Peace is part of that climate. Peace will come. It will come as a product
of the President's do-it-yourself foreign policy. It will come because our course
is unselfishly right.
The Seventies will see breathtaking progress in America and, hopefully, the
changes needed to cleanse our Nation both in body and in soul.
# # #
20 capies to Mr. Ford only
O Office Copy
AN ADDRESS BY REP. GERALD R. FORD, R-MICH.
REPUBLICAN LEADER, U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
AT THE OPENING OF THE "WINDOW ON THE WORLD" LECTURE SERIES
SPONSORED BY THE KITTERING ROTARY CLUB
AT DAYTON, OHIO
8 P.M. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1970
FOR RELEASE ON DELIVERY
"NEW DIRECTIONS FOR THE SEVENTIES"
Every decade is a mixture of good and bad, and the Sixties were no
exception.
But for all the good that the Sixties produced, the last ten years brought
us an overabundance of misery and grief.
Many of us look back upon the decade of the Sixties with a tremendous sense
of relief at having put it behind us.
What do we remember most vividly about the decade of the Sixties?
It was, of course, the decade that put Americans on the moon -- but it was
also an Age of Assassination and an Age of Anarchy.
We saw major American cities being put to the torch and witnessed the
outbreak of convulsive violence in the Nation's ghettoes and the beginnings of
the current unrest on our college campuses.
The Sixties also brought the agony of Vietnam, when an America victimized
by violence at home crept uncomprehendingly into the quicksand of a jungle war
halfway 'round the world.
And as we lived through the decade of the Sixties, it became apparent that
the era of the New Deal had come to an end -- as clearly and as finally as though
someone had drawn the curtain on it.
With the demise of the New Deal came the realization that America must
move in New Directions in the Seventies, must cut new paths thorugh the jungle
of problems that clogged the way to a quality life for our people.
This was the condition of America when its people elected a new President
in November 1968.
This was the America that cried out for new leadership when Richard Nixon
entered the White House in January 1969.
I foresaw the advent of an age of reform in America when Richard Nixon took
office.
(more)
-2-
Reform was the path to be followed. Reform was indeed thrusting itself
upon the new President and upon the Nation. And thus it was that reform became
the watchword of the new Administration.
The new Administration took stock and charted a new course. This new
course is a comprehensive strategy for attacking the most critical problems facing
this country.
The major goals of this comprehensive strategy strike directly at the roots
of the underlying crises in our Nation.
The strategy is aimed at five objectives: Ending the war; ending poverty;
making the streets safe again for the American people; reforming and ultimately
ending the draft; and giving the government back to the people.
If the Nixon Administration succeeds in achieving these objectives -- and
draft reform has been partially achieved -- I believe historians will give the
Nixon Administration a high achievement score. And if this Congress responds with
action before the end of its second session, its mark on history will be one of
the finest.
The reforms that President Nixon has proposed are manifold. He has sent
more than 40 messages to the Congress. Those messages are related to the objectives
I have just outlined and to others as well.
The top priority is, of course, to end the war in Vietnam.
Presdient Nixon is moving vigorously to end the American role in Vietnam
and, hopefully, to end the war. He is winding down the war and is doing everything
he reasonably can to achieve a breakthrough at the peace table.
With the peace negotiations stuck on dead center because of enemy
intransigences, "Vietnamization" has become the key to disengaging the United
States from the Vietnam War. Gradually but surely we are turning the war over
to the South Vietnamese, where it belongs. Our plans are to turn the entire
combat role in Vietnam over to the South Vietnamese by next May.
We certainly cannot stay in South Vietnam forever. If the Saigon government
is to stand, it must learn to stand alone.
Under the present Administration we began taking troops out of Vietnam
instead of adding to our numbers there. Recently the President announced
withdrawal of an additional 150,000 men as we move steadily toward the goal of
removing all of our ground combat forces from Vietnam.
It came as a shock to many Americans, I know, when the President just
10 days after his Vietnam troop withdrawal announcement revealed that he had
(more)
-3-
ordered a sweep of the Communist sanctuaries in Cambodia. To some, this indicated
a wider war and they rose up in frenzied protest. But to others, including me,
the President's action was a brilliant move aimed at assuring the gradual withdrawal
of our combat forces from South Vietnam and perhaps accelerating that withdrawal.
It's true our policy of Vietnamization involved the ability of the North
Vietnamese to frustrate the plan. This is why the United States was forced to
make a sweep of the Communist sanctuaries in Cambodia even while a policy of
winding down the war was being followed in Vietnam itself.
The fighting in South Vietnam now has dropped to a very low level. American
casualties are at the lowest point in 3 1/2 years.
Vietnamization is not just a word. Those who wanted us to pull out
immediately have been proved wrong even while they continue their calls for "peace
now and never mind the price."
The Cambodian Operation was a tremendous success despite the domestic furor
it caused. The Communists lost vast stores of supplies, a fact which is reflected
in the current low level of fighting in Vietnam. And now the Communists see a
marshalling of South Vietnamese, Cambodian and Thai forces to resist the
reestablishment of Communist sanctuaries in Cambodia while U.S. air power continues
to interdict their supply routes.
Events in Cambodia have not widened the war. It has been an Indochina War
ever since the North Vietnamese violated the neutrality of Laos and Cambodia to
pursue their designs on South Vietnam. What has been widened is the commitment
of the people of Cambodia and Thailand to resist a threat to their own security
which had been tolerated too long.
Now we must place new and fresh emphasis on attempts to gain a negotiated
peace in Vietnam.
Perhaps a cease-fire and stand-down is the best beginning point, as proposed
by a bipartisan group of 14 senators. I would like to see the killing end and the
talking begin
in real earnest. But let us be realistic about any cease-fire
agreement entered into with an enemy whose word means nothing. We have seen what
has happened in the Mideast -- how the Egyptians and Russians took advantage of
the cease-fire with Israel to build more surface-to-air missile sites closer to the
Suez Canal. We must therefore make certain that in any standstill cease-fire in
Vietnam there are adequate guarantees that the cease-fire will not be used to the
(more)
-4-
enemy's advantage. The enemy could use the cease-fire to achieve military gains
unless sufficient supervision is written into the cease-fire agreement. The
cease-fire must be the signal for serious discussions in Paris -- not simply a
pause which permits the enemy to strengthen himself for renewed and heavier conflict
in the months ahead.
Despite the stubbornness of the Communists in Vietnam, I am fully convinced
President Nixon will succeed in inaugurating an era of negotiation in place of an
era of confrontation. The President's appointment of Ambassador David K. E.
Bruce as our chief negotiator at Paris may ultimately break the impasse which exists
in the Vietnam talks.
President Nixon has taken many steps toward world peace. He has taken the
United States out of the field of germ warfare and the first use of gases. He has
made the United States a signatory to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. He has
initiated renewed talks in Warsaw with Communist China. He has formulated judicious
policies governing arms support and political constraints in the Middle East and
has achieved a cease-fire there. He has carefully evaluated the expressed intentions
versus demonstrated actions of the Soviet Union in mutual arms reductions agreements.
He has laid the groundwork for possible results in the SALT talks.
We are now in the midst of strategic arms limitation talks with the
Russians, and President Nixon has set forth a new foreign policy. That new foreign
policy is innovative, flexible and adaptable. Basically, it is attuned to the
nationalistic and regional interests of Free World and Communist countries.
President Nixon no longer sees the Communist world as a monolithic enemy
alliance but as a group of nations whose common ideology is transcended by powerful
nationalistic aspirations. In line with that view, the President is adapting
United States policy to those nationalistic interests.
This new concept of U.S. foreign policy also is reflected in the new Nixon
Doctrine for Asia --- the "do-it-yourself policy" which Mr. Nixon has laid down for
the nations of Southeast Asia. This is a policy which declares to Americans and
to all the world that there will be no more Vietnams.
Under President Nixon, we have seized the initiative in foreign affairs
even in the face of Communist aggression. We have proclaimed and promoted
doctrines of international law and justice which have given the United States a new
and lofty standing in the court of world opinion.
Domestically, the Nixon Administration has launched a strong crackdown
against organized crime. The New Jersey indictments and recent nationwide drug
raids are only a beginning.
(more)
GERALD
-5-
The President last year sent Congress legislation which would deal heavier
blows against organized crime and would improve the Nation's court system.
There has been special emphasis on law enforcement in each of the
Administration's anticrime measures. The President wants criminals off the streets.
He knows there is no surer way to get them off the streets than to help build up
law enforcement in this country.
The Nixon Administration has made the fight against crime one of its
central concerns. While some departmental budgets have been cut in a hold-down
on Federal spending, the Justice Department budget has been increased. The level
of law enforcement activity and narcotics control has been stepped up.
The Nixon Administration recognizes, as do all of you, that the first
civil right of every American --- black or white -- is the right to protection from
crime and violence.
I wish more of our Negro leaders throughout America would recognize that.
It is an unfortunate fact that it is primarily the poor blacks who are the victims
of violent crime in our country. All of our Negro leaders might well emulate
Sterling Tucker, vice-chairman of the Washington, D.C., City Council, who has
spoken out in support of vigorous law enforcement and has condemned those who
tacitly condone violations of the law.
It is said there can be no progress without order. I subscribe to that.
I would add that there cannot long be order without progress. I believe
the Nixon Administration is promoting the kind of order and the kind of progress
which will operate together to move this country forward.
We need a responsible common-sense approach to ending poverty in America.
The primary Nixon answer to poverty and the urban crisis is job training.
The accent is on the solid American ethic of working for a living. The President's
approach is based on the idea that a man never stands so tall as when he stands
on his own two feet.
This is why President Nixon has proposed the first major reform of this
country's welfare system since it first was established. This is why the President
urges Workfare instead of Welfare. This is the way of dignity and decency. This
is the American way. A hand up instead of a handout. That's the only way to
bridge the gap between the Haves and Have-Nots in America.
Welfare reform has passed the House. It is now pending in the Senate.
I think President Nixon has managed to bring order to this country. He
has managed to do so because he has brought order to the Presidency. We now find
(more)
-6-
that the days of government by crisis have given way to crisis prevention. The
scatter-gun approach is yielding to an assembling of new priorities.
We have accomplished draft reform by instituting a lottery system and we
are headed toward an end to the draft.
We have achieved postal reform --- the creation of a postal authority to
modernize our postal delivery system and run it efficiently and to remove the
sticky stain of politics from our postal operations.
But these are just two among the great array of reforms proposed by President
Nixon --- reforms which I believe the American people have long wanted.
There are many Administration reforms that cry out for congressional
action: The President's strengthened and broadened anti-crime program; a
consolidation of manpower training programs, to be turned over to the states and
cities as they become equipped to handle them; a reexamination of Federal aid to
schools to achieve quality education; revamping our labor laws for improved handling
of national emergency labor disputes in transportation; the President's 37-point
program directed at air and water pollution and the need to expand recreational
land use; a New Federalism which provides an increasing slice of Federal income
tax revenue to cities and states on a percentage, no-strings-attached basis; a
decentralization of government authority which places greater reliance on local
officials and greater power in the hands of the people.
Decentralization of government authority --- flow of power back to the cities
and states, back to the people. This is a central theme of the Nixon Administration.
Power concentrated in Washington is not always effective power. It is some-
times self-defeating. The Federal bureaucracy is most complex, and it feeds upon
itself. As it grows larger, the Federal Government's ability to help solve local
problems often grows less. That is why we want to expand the city and state role
in problem-solving, apart from philosophical considerations.
That is why the Administration proposes reversing the flow of power -- turning
it back to the cities and states. That is why President Nixon wants to share
Federal income tax revenue with the states and cities. He wants to implement a
basic change which I believe the American people fervently desire.
President Nixon has made his reform theme clear. He has said: "The
legislative program of this Administration differs fundamentally from previous
administrations. We do not seek more and more of the same. We were not elected
to pile new resources and manpower on top of old programs. We were elected to
initiate an era of change."
(more)
-7-
Much change has already come about. We have acted to reorder our priorities.
Defense spending has been reduced in the President's fiscal 1971 budget to 36.7
per cent. At the same time the President has increased human resource outlays to
41 per cent. As the President noted in his budget message, this is the first time
in 20 years -- the first time in two whole decades -- that a Federal budget has
provided more funds for human resources than for defense.
That is why I see America moving in New Directions, moving along paths that
will make the Seventies a decade that will bring new quality to American life.
I see the Seventies as a decade devoted to human betterment.
I see the American people adopting goals more difficult to reach than the
moon: Rebuilding our cities. Cleaning up the Nation's water and air. Retraining
the unskilled so that every American willing and able to master a skill is permitted
to do SO. Building vast mass transit systems. Making our airways safe and equip-
ping our airports to handle the jumbo jets now taking to the skies. Eliminating
poverty by 1980 - literally erasing it instead of just talking about it. Ending
hunger in America -- and soon.
We will be fighting not only the problems of the cities but the problems of
all Americans. It won't be easy. But we will win more battles than we will lose.
We will see the forward march of positive programs aimed at providing jobs,
housing, quality education and first-rate medical care.
The Nation will marshal a concerted attack upon crime -- particularly the
drug and narcotics traffic, organized crime and juvenile deliquency.
I see the fight for clean water swelling into a crusade -- a crusade joined
in by young and older Americans alike. The assault weapon may well be President
Nixon's $10 billion do-it-now, pay-later bonding program. This is a crusade that
will gather great force.
We are generating the commitment and the climate for action now.
Peace is part of that climate. Peace will come. It will come as a product
of the President's do-it-yourself foreign policy. It will come because our course
is unselfishly right.
The Seventies will see breathtaking progress in America and, hopefully, the
changes needed to cleanse our Nation both in body and in soul.
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