Address at the Hollywood Bowl, Beverly Hills, California

Mr. Chairman, Governor Knight, Senator Kuchel, and my fellow Citizens:

This is a political meeting, and I think it is not out of place even for an outsider from your great State, in expressing certain hopes and aspirations about the coming election within your State. I hope, for example, that you will return the entire Republican delegation to the Congress--and add to its number. And I have the earnest hope that Senator Kuchel will come back to the United States Senate.

And I should like to say a special word about my great friend and running mate, Dick Nixon.

There have been many fatuous and foolish and futile attempts to belittle the character of this great American. He is a man who has served his country in war and peace with dedication and with honesty. He is efficient and devoted to his duty. He has performed those duties both here and abroad in exemplary fashion.

I give as my last hope the idea that you--you people who know him best, as I know him well officially--will rally around to see that these futile attempts are scotched just as they should be.

Now, my friends, this is my last stop on this wonderful West Coast, on a journey that, like so many I have made, has carried me across our land. It has been an exciting and an assuring journey. I have seen--on the face of the land and on the faces of the people--a shining thing. It is--in two words--confidence and happiness.

Neither I--nor the hundreds of thousands I have seen--have been the least dismayed by any lingering echoes of a lot of recent, clamorous partisan oratory. And certainly no one any longer is frightened by that dolorous chant of four years ago, "Don't let them take it away." I hope my friends in Los Angeles may excuse my describing this oratory in one word, a word to which a few of you may be sensitive. This word is--"smog."

Tonight, may I begin by dispelling some of this political smog obscuring and confusing important matters before our nation.

Over-ambitious politicians have made some curious statements about your government. They have charged that it is suffering from a "contagion of corruption."

Now, permit me two observations.

First: I offer a simple suggestion to any leader of the opposition. I suggest that--if I were anxious to win the confidence of the American people and remembering the Washington mess of only four years ago--there is one word that is the last that I would take from out the whole dictionary to use in a political argument--and that word is "corruption." When this word is uttered in any political hall of the opposition, it echoes with a most curious ring. I know why, for I recall an old but grim proverb. It comes from the greatest Spanish novel ever written. And it warns: "Never mention rope--in the house of one who has been hanged."

And now, may I add one very sober statement. I scorn this preposterous accusation--I condemn it as false--because it is a baseless insult to the many men and women associated with me in public service, whom I know and trust. They are men and women who--above and beyond all partisan differences--command the respect of the leadership of both parties of the Congress, and of the entire American people. I say nothing of myself. am glad to await--with confidence--your judgment upon such charges next November sixth.

Next: in speaking about our free society, these orators with wild abandon have charged that your government has no care at all for the citizen whom they so patronizingly call the "little man."

My fellow citizens, what kind of twisted talk is this? As I have asked before, what man has earned any right to speak of his neighbor as "the little man"?

We--a free people, cherishing equality for all--have never known, nor will we ever accept, any division of our nation into "little men" and "big men." We do not judge our neighbor, or condemn him, by measuring the frontage of his property, the width of his television screen, or the wheel base of his car. We believe--and we shall go on believing--that man was not created to bear such labels as "big" or "little."

I pledged to you in 1952 that, as President of all the people, my concern would be for all the people.

When we examine seriously how all our citizens have prospered these last years, the facts are clear--the facts are historic. The share of labor in our national income stands at its highest in 20 years. The number of jobs in our economy stands at an all-time high. The average hourly and weekly earnings of our factory workers stand at an all-time high. The number of small businesses today active in our economy stands at an all-time high. And the number of so-called low-income families in our nation-this stands at an all-time low.

Beside this record of remarkable facts there stands an equally remarkable record of governmental action. The problems of the low-income farmer--of our aged--of any unemployed--of those suffering sickness or disability--all these problems have been attacked with the most vigorous and extensive programs in our whole history.

But these politicians achieve new heights either of comedy or of bewilderment when they speak about the shaping--the financing--of America's future.

They promise lower Federal taxes for every citizen, greater Federal spending on virtually every front, and a beautifully balanced Federal budget. I have called this phenomenon what it is: the biggest and most flamboyant three-for-one sale in recent American politics.

Perhaps we should not be too astonished by the politicians who are offering this extraordinary sale. Such sales are the common practice of businesses that expect very soon to go entirely out of business. And, after all, time runs out for these particular men-on November sixth.

II

There is really only one reason why I think it is worth trying to penetrate a little of this political smog this season. It does enable us, finally, to see some of the true differences and conflicts between their kind of leadership and ours.

We differ sharply--to begin with--in our definition of leadership itself. They, I believe, tend to confuse the thumping of a tub with the voice of the future. And--at their most eloquent-they offer phrases, or promises, that please the ear--but disappoint the intelligence.

We believe that leadership is truly tested not by words but by deeds. And we are sure that this kind of leadership calls for a certain balance of qualifications. Boldness alone is not enough-for this is no time in the world's history for action without reflection. Unrealistic theorizing is not enough--for this is surely no time for leaders of elaborate indecision.

Now--these two kinds of leadership--differ even on a matter of the evidence of our own senses--the kind of America that we see before us today. They profess to see an America divided by factions, feeble in purpose, faltering in strength. We see not a sick America, but a healthy America--a nation of strong will and clear purpose--not a fearful people, but a confident people.

These sweeping differences between us are the sum of clear conflicts between us on most critical matters of principle and policy.

Now, let me be specific.

(1) They are fearful and hesitant about the capacity of our free economy to provide jobs for all. This fear impels them to rely essentially upon Government action to turn the wheels and to lift the levers of our productive power. And so they urge lavish government spending that can only lead to these things: new deficits, new inflation--renewed wage and price controls to try to cope with that inflation--all of which can result only in increasing centralization of federal power.

Now, we believe quite differently. We have faith in the ability of free Americans to provide jobs for one another. We have faith in the imagination and ingenuity that have advanced the economic frontier of America far beyond the dreams of any other society man has ever known. And we believe that today a people's prosperity proves that we are right.

(2) They, in spite of their protestations, must have little faith in labor--for they seem to put little trust in the free processes of collective bargaining.

We have the confidence that they lack. Trusting the processes of collective bargaining, we have seen organized labor, these past three and one-half years, win the best contracts--the greatest security for workers--in the history of American labor. We have seen the loss of time--as well as of wages--due to strikes fall sharply, and our whole people has gained from this greater industrial peace. There has been no instance, in this Administration, of trying to take over the steel mills.

(3) They show little practical concern for guarding the stability of the dollar. Their record, their platform, even their oratory--all prove this.

We regard a stabilized dollar and stabilized living costs as vital to both prosperity and justice in our society. Our own history shows that those who most severely suffer from inflation are not great banks or colossal corporations--but all our citizens, especially our older people, who depend upon fixed income, life insurance, pensions or Social Security payments.

(4) They believe, apparently, that the cause of civil rights can be advanced by a formula of much oratory and little performance. We have talked less--but we have acted with patience, human understanding, and with concern for the equal standing of all before the law. We have erased segregation in those areas of national life to which Federal authority clearly extends. So doing in this, my friends, we have neither sought nor claimed partisan credit, and all such actions are nothing more--nothing less than the rendering of justice. And we have always been aware of this great truth: the final battle against intolerance is to be fought-not in the chambers of any legislature--but in the hearts of men.

(5) And finally: they tell us that peace can be guarded--and our nation secured--by a strange new formula. It is this: simultaneously to stop our military draft and to abandon testing of our most advanced military weapons.

Here perhaps, I may be permitted to speak in the first person singular.

I do not believe that any political campaign justifies the declaration of a moratorium on ordinary common sense.

I, both as your President and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States of America, cannot and will not tell you that our quest of peace will be cheap and easy. It may be costly--in time, in effort, in expense, and in sacrifice. And any nation unwilling to meet such demands cannot--and will not--lead the free world down the path of peace.

My fellow citizens, we might afford to be tolerant--in an amused sort of way--of the current effort to sell on the domestic front senseless economic panaceas in a political bargain-basement. We cannot be very tolerant of the suggestion that the peace of the world can be bought on the same terms and at the same counter. And the man who today dismisses our military draft as "an incredible waste" is a man who, while I do not question his sincerity, is speaking from incredible folly, or incredible ignorance of war and the causes of war.

My friends, the strength of America, in this world of 1956, means much more than the pride or the power of one nation. It is the hope--and the need--of free men in all the world.

Now you realize, when I talk of the strength of America, I don't talk merely of the gigantic planes, the tanks, the weapons, the guided missile, the regiments--that is only part of the strength of America. The strength of America is spiritual, intellectual, economic, and the military is merely a symbol of that strength--a part of that strength.

We talk from stout hearts, from keen analysis of all the factors involved, with readiness to give the other fellow credit for being honest, whenever he is ready to prove his honesty.

We cannot risk the safety of our beloved country on the words of those who have--time and time and time again--broken their solemn pledged word to the whole civilized world.

I say to you that no government seeks the peace of the world-the concord of all nations--the friendship of all peoples--more fervently, more steadfastly, than the present government of the United States.

And I say this to you no less solemnly: until the communists are ready to agree to mutual inspection, bringing the necessary assurance to both sides--to each side--that the other is operating in good faith, we shall seek these goals by staying strong and growing stronger. For a weak nation, my friends, cannot bring hope to its friends. It can only beg mercy from its potential enemies.

But this type of strength, as I have said, is but a symbol and a tool of the real strength of America, which is the determination in our hearts that this land of ours and the institutions that have been passed down to us from our fathers, shall be kept safe and secure from any assault from wherever it may come.

III.

Now, in these times, it is natural enough for me--in my position-to look back to the times, the problems, and the words of our nation's first Republican President.

He asked himself, as you may remember, a question that we, a century later, often ask ourselves: "What constitutes the bulwark of our own liberty and our independence?"

And this was Lincoln's memorable answer:

"It is not our frowning battlements, our bristling seacoasts. Our reliance is the love of liberty which God has planted in us. Our defense is in the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere."

Let us not--with all our talk of super bombs, fire power, air power, intercontinental missiles--let us never forget this truth.

It is this truth that binds us all, firmly and forever, in a common cause--the man who grows rice in Burma--or wheat in Iowa; the man who mines coal in the Ruhr--or in West Virginia; the fisherman off the Bay of Naples--or off the shores of California.

And this is the truth which makes a single, and meaningful sacrifice of those lives which have been given in battle by the French soldier at Verdun, the British Tommy at Dunkirk, the GI in Korea.

Living by this truth--and faithful to all that it may demand of us--we can pray--and dare believe--that the hope of free men, for a world of justice and of law, may one day proudly prevail.

Thank you very much, my friends.