American Retail Federation Remarks at a White House Breakfast.

Let me say, first of all, how thankful I am that you are here. You are welcome to come to the White House. It's your home as well as it is mine.

As you know, every President since John Adams has lived here, all except Washington. And the historical nature of this home is truly impressive for me personally and, I think, for everyone who comes in here to conduct the business of our country.

It's important for me to be with the American Retail Federation. I doubt that any person in Washington has helped me more, outside Government employees and full-time workers, than has Lloyd Hackler. And I want to thank you personally, Lloyd, for this superb advice and counsel.

There have been several difficult issues that I've had to face since I've been President, and I've never hesitated to call Lloyd on how to deal with an important economic question, an important question involving foreign affairs. And he's been willing to come into the White House, sometimes late at night, quietly, to counsel with me, in a group of two or three or four, about how we ought to address these major problems for the benefit of our country.

You represent an industry which involves about, I think, 35 or 36 percent of our gross national product, encompassing 13 million American jobs. And not only that, but everyone in this room and those whom you represent occupy positions of leadership in your own local communities, through your own civic clubs, your church groups, your involvement in school affairs, public affairs, in the business and professional world. Your voice can have a profound impact on the consciousness of America—what our people believe, what they strive to achieve, how they overcome difficult challenges and problems, how much confidence they have in government, how much confidence they have in our free enterprise system, which is so important a basis on which we all predicate our lives and our future.

I think it's important for me to mention just two or three things. I'll be brief.

We are faced with 10 years of excessive inflation which impacts very heavily on you and on your customers. We've not been successful yet in solving this problem. We are taking strong action to do it.

I want to thank you for your cooperative spirit, sometimes under difficult circumstances, in complying with the voluntary wage and price standards that we have established. And even in very difficult cases involving some highly publicized differences of opinion, I might say that your members have been superb in cooperating with us.

Recently both Sears and Giant Foods, for instance, took action on their own initiative in order to comply with the voluntary wage and price standards, and I want to express my thanks to you.

As onerous as they might be on occasion, we have tried to minimize paperwork; we've minimized the intrusion of government into your own affairs. And I believe that almost all of you would agree they are much superior to mandatory wage and price controls, which I never intend to impose in this country short of a threat to our own national security. I hope you support me in that position.

We are working for a balanced budget. We've made a lot of progress. And I would say that compared to the time when I ran for President, we had about a $66 billion Federal deficit. We have cut down substantially on that deficit. By the time we implement the fiscal year 1980 budget, we will have cut down the deficit perhaps 60 percent or more.

The Congress has joined in that spirit, and I believe you would agree it's a step in the right direction. I'm determined to achieve a balanced budget. That's my goal, and I believe the American people have now joined in this goal. And, of course, the Congress are willing partners in that effort.

You can help a great deal. I might say we have done it in the spirit of my own political party. I know many of you are Republicans; many of you are Democrats. But we've never neglected the effort to put people back to work, to provide jobs, to encourage better education, better transportation, better health care, better attention given to the very poor, to the elderly. We've not neglected those things. Most of the achievements in reducing the deficit have been because of greater efficiency, establishment of proper priorities, zerobased budgeting, and the cooperative spirit both in the special interest groups, mostly highly benevolent, and the Congress working with us.

You've been a part of this.

We've tried to eliminate onerous regulation. We've not yet fully succeeded, of course. But I think we have made tremendous improvements, for instance, in OSHA. I remember one of the happiest days of my Presidency was when we eliminated 1,000 OSHA regulations in 1 day.

I would like to ask you, through Lloyd, if there are specific Government regulations or reports that you consider to be unnecessary and ill-advised, to document them specifically, do a little work on your own, or let Lloyd do it— [laughter] —he'll cooperate in this— [laughter] —see if the regulation or report is required by law or if it's an administrative decision and then let Lloyd bring that information to me.

If it's encompassed in law, I'll work with the Congress to get it changed. If it is an administrative decision, I'll immediately call the Cabinet officer involved and see if we can't remove the onerous part of it.

If it's a report required weekly and you think it could be done better monthly, or monthly and you think it could be done better semiannually, or eliminated altogether or made briefer or combined with another report that went to a separate agency—if you'll do the work to give me a specific example, not just generalities, then I'll do the work as President to try to accommodate your desires, because this is a major cause of inflation—excessive Government regulation.

We have been successful in working with the Congress, for instance, on airline deregulation. Everyone who flies—and I guess that's most of you who've come here—would agree that rates have dropped tremendously, not only in domestic circles but also in foreign air travel. We've already saved, we believe, about $2.5 billion in reduced fares for American tourists and American business leaders, and we really appreciate your help in getting this legislation passed.

We are now faced with some other very difficult decisions—hospital cost contain. ment, we would like for you to help us.

The Multilateral Trade Negotiations have been worked out substantially with the cooperation and advice of your own people. And this is now facing approval in the Senate. It will greatly enhance the well-being of all of you and also greatly enhance the well-being of the consumers of our country. And I hope that you will exert every effort to work with Bob Strauss and with me to eliminate the obstacles to the ratification or approval of the Multilateral Trade Negotiation.

I'd like to close by saying this: I've only got one life to live on this Earth, as you have—I think the most important single achievement that could possibly take place for our Nation during my lifetime is the ratification of the SALT treaty that we have just negotiated with the Soviet Union. It's fair treaty. I have to say in complete candor that the Soviets have been tough negotiators; so have we. They have been fair negotiators; so have we. It's a kind of treaty where both parties reap tremendous benefits.

It maintains strategic equivalency, which means that our atomic arsenals are roughly balanced. There is no advantage to either country that might precipitate an initial strike without the sure knowledge that a retaliatory strike would kill a hundred million people or more.

I won't go into the details. That's not necessary. The details are available to you, and I know that Lloyd will be forwarding to the key members of this organization, or those of you who volunteer to help with it, exact details to the limit of your desire.

Rejection of this treaty, now that it has been negotiated, would be a devastating blow to the United States of America and to the Soviet Union. It would harm our Nation's security, and it would be a massive destructive blow to world peace.

I won't go into any further detail, but I would like to say this: Ours is a nation that believes in peace. Ours is a nation that values human life. Ours is a nation that has taken the leadership, since the evolution of nuclear power itself, to put constraints on the evolution of nuclear weaponry, not only in our own country and the Soviet Union but among other nations who are not presently nuclear powers.

We are struggling to have the image in the nonaligned countries of a nation that's admirable and which has, as our present policy, the implementation of principles and ideals on which our country was founded in its initial days.

All of those efforts, which have been shared not only by me but by every President since President Eisenhower, would be endangered if we now reject this treaty. We would be looked upon as a warmonger, not as a peace-loving nation by many other people of the world. Our own NATO Allies would be severely shaken in their confidence in us as a nation determined to have detente with the Soviet Union and not to initiate a nuclear conflict whose effect might first fall on Europe and only later, perhaps, cause death and destruction in our own country.

We've been working—I have personally been working among 10 or 12 nations who have complete capability to develop nuclear weapons, but who have so far refrained. We have aired our voice and added our influence to continue their refraining from going into the development of nuclear weapons.

If we show now that we reject this mutually advantageous voluntary constraint on our own nuclear weaponry and initiate the prospect of a massive nuclear arms race, those countries—like Pakistan, India, Taiwan, South Korea, South Africa, and others that I won't name here-would feel that there was no longer any constraint on them—"Why should we listen to the voice of the United States encouraging us not to develop nuclear weapons when they themselves will not approve a treaty designed for the same purpose?"—still leaving the nation with massive and superior nuclear weapons ourselves.

In our own hemisphere, we've been working to have the complete ratification of the Treaty of Tlatelolco, which leaves the southern half of this hemisphere free of nuclear weapon development or deployment.

We are now down to the last two or three countries. We've been working very closely with Argentina and Brazil, two countries who have the capability, scientifically and technologically, to have nuclear explosives, and we are trying to set an example for them. But this example would be wiped out completely if we did not ratify the now negotiated SALT treaty.

I'd like to ask you to take this on as a project for yourselves, collectively and individually, to help me sell to the American people and directly to the U.S. Senate the advantages of ratification and the devastating disadvantage if the treaties are rejected.

The treaty's complicated; some Senators will study every word in it, as have I. Some will listen primarily to the voice of America, as represented by you and those who look to you for leadership. And I have come here this morning to congratulate you on the fine working spirit that we've enjoyed so far, but to ask you from the bottom of my heart, as President of our great country, to help me with this most important issue which will ever address me while I occupy this home.

I think it's the best way to preserve our Nation's security. It's the best way to preserve world peace and give us better lives in the future as citizens of the greatest nation on Earth.

Thank you very much.