Excerpts from the Remarks of Senator John F. Kennedy, Riverside Drive Rally, Memphis, TN - (Advance Release Text)

The Democratic Party has always looked forward. It looked forward with the TVA which did so much to bring industry to the South. It looked forward with farm programs that have increased cotton and tobacco yield many times over. It looked forward with the New Freedom of Woodrow Wilson and the New Deal of Franklin Roosevelt, and the Fair Deal of Harry Truman. And now we stand at the New Frontier.

There is much to be done.

First we must rebuild an America strong and shining. We must put beyond any question our ability to deter an aggressor and to fight limited wars. For only by achieving undoubted strength can we keep the peace. And only by achieving undoubted strength can we finally bring the Communists to hard negotiatAons on the hard issues that divide us.

Second, as part of our program for a strong America, we must reverse the policy of no new starts in development of our natural resources. Our rivers and our streams, as the TVA experience demonstrates, are a prime source of national strength. They mean cheaper power, more jobs, better business, and richer recreation possibilities. They can provide, as at Oak Ridge and the university medical center, sinews of peace and of health. Not to make maximum use of these outapped resources is to play fast and loose with the destiny of the American people.

Third, as part of our program for a Strong America, the brake of high interest must be removed from the wheels of economic progress. High interest puts a drag on the farmer who has to pay more for his notes. It puts a drag on the small businessman without easy access to the money markets. It puts a drag on homebuilders and homeowners - a key feature of our economy and free enterprise system. And in our struggle against communism we cannot afford any drag on the American people.

Fifth, as part of our program for a stronger America we must assure the future of the small farmer - a mainstay of our social and economic system. There must be no squeeze through shrinkage of cotton allotments. There must be no wrecking of the textile industry through competition for labor paid substandard wages. There must be far more action on the distribution of our products to needy people abroad.