Remarks on Arrival at Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Governor Shafer, Senator Scott, Lieutenant Governor Broderick, all of the distinguished guests, the candidates on the platform, and all of the distinguished members of this audience:

May I first apologize to you for being late. I started this morning in Vermont and I have been in two stops in New Jersey. We are here now in Lancaster. Then we finish tonight in Wisconsin before returning to Washington--a rather light day.

I ought to say that I am so glad to have this wonderful crowd here. I remember my visits here back in 1960. I recall, incidentally, on that occasion that the two bands that played then in 1960 are here today. I am so glad that they are here. Let's give those bands a hand back there.

I recall, too, in 1966, my visit here---not outdoors, but an indoors meeting. I recall on that occasion that Ed Eshleman was sent to Washington as your Congressman. I recall, too, that through the years this has been what we call one of the strong areas for support of the Republican Party, and I would like to put it another way, support for those great principles that we believe in in this country.

Today I am here in behalf of not myself as a candidate, but I am here in behalf of some very great programs that I deeply believe in. I think they are in your interest. I think they are in the interest not just of Republicans but of Democrats, of all Americans.

I would like for you to consider, if you will, in the few minutes that I talk to you, what we stand for, what we believe in, and if you believe that that is what this country needs and what your State needs, then I am going to ask you to go out and work for those candidates that we are here to support.

Now let me begin by saying that this is a particularly appropriate State for me to put this whole campaign in the context of not only the past but of the future.

As you know, due to the efforts of your Governor and of Senator Scott, who is a very persuasive man, whatever his problems involving the State of Pennsylvania or other problems are involved, that the Bicentennial Commission has selected Pennsylvania for the major event in 1976.

In 1976, when that great event, the 200th birthday of America is celebrated, we will look back to the year 1776, and we will look back to this time right now, the year 1970. We will try to evaluate what America was and what it became.

Let's think for just a moment in this beautiful countryside which has so much of the history of America around it and in it and in the hearts of the people who are working, let us think of that year 1976 and what we want America to be.

Let me tell you what I want it to be, and this will indicate the programs that I support, the programs that Ray Broderick will work for as Governor of this State, the programs that Hugh Scott has worked for during all of his life, the man in whom I have confidence, in whom our party has confidence, who has been our leader, and I know will continue to be our leader in the years ahead.

Let me come to these points. What do we want, looking down that road to 1976? Above all else, I find, as I travel this country, the American people want peace. They want peace. They want an end to the war in which we are in, but they want more than that: They want the kind of policies that will give us something we haven't had in this whole century, a whole generation of peace.

I think back to the people in that band over there. I think of those young boys particularly, and I think of their future.

I want to tell you what I feel about that future, and I feel it very deeply. I feel about the future of this young lad here, who is perhaps about 12 or 10 years old.

I remember that in this century we ended World War I; we ended World War II; and we ended the Korean war. And yet, there hasn't been one generation that has had a full generation of peace.

So you see, what we need are policies that will not just end a war; what we need are policies that will end a war and win the peace. That is what we stand for and that is the kind of program that we are for.

I remember at the last stop in New Jersey a very intense young man, as we were walking through a huge crowd of people, waving signs that were very friendly, came up to me. He sort of shook his fist in my face. That didn't bother me. He said, "End the war. End the war in Vietnam."

I said, "Have you been there?" He said, "No." I said, "Those men are fighting out there so you won't have to go."

So you see what we are trying to do is to end this war, and we are doing it in a way that it will discourage this kind of' aggression in the future.

What we are trying to do, and we are doing it--we are bringing American men home, whereas they were going in when we came in. We have reduced the casualties. We have presented a peace plan, a program for a cease-fire, a program for a negotiated peace, a program also for an exchange of prisoners, which goes, I think all objective observers agree--it goes to the point that is fair for both sides.

We believe that it is possible and that we can proceed along this line. Either we are going to get peace through negotiation or we will get it through our program of Vietnamization, in which Americans come back as the South Vietnamese are able to defend themselves.

But, my friends, the important thing is this: Let us end this war in a way that we have not been able to end other wars. Let's end it in a way that the younger brothers and the sons of those who fought in Vietnam will not have to be fighting in some future war in history someplace.

That is what we are working for. And I want to tell you, as I stand here referring not just to Vietnam but to the other trouble spots in the world, to the Mideast, our negotiations with the Soviet Union in other areas, while they are very difficult, while the dangers are very great, I believe we have the policies; I believe we have the strength; I believe we have the wisdom to accomplish this great objective that I referred to, not just peace for the next election, but peace for the next generation.

I believe, my friends, that we can have that. It is that that we are working for. I believe the chances that we can have a full generation of peace are better today than they have been at any time since the end of World War II.

I ask support for that kind of a program. Hugh Scott has loyally supported that kind of a program, and I know that Ray Broderick will support it just as Ray Shafer has in the Governor's chair in the State of Pennsylvania.

Looking ahead to the year 1976, what else can we have? We want prosperity for America. We want the kind of prosperity, however, in which Americans have jobs and in which we have prosperity without War.

Let it be said that during this administration, over a million men have been let out of defense plants and out of the armed services as we have wound down the war in Vietnam. That has, of course, caused some problems insofar as unemployment is concerned. But this economy is strong. This economy is growing. And all of the people of this country, those who want jobs, should have the opportunity to have them.

I simply say this: I think that Americans-every American wants the kind of policy which will provide prosperity without war for the American people and jobs without war. And that is what we are working for.

Third, we would like to have prosperity without the cost of the ruinous inflation. I see a lot of ladies here, and I imagine you have been doing some shopping today, and you may be doing some tomorrow or later this afternoon. You look at those prices in the grocery store and other places, and you say, "Why do they keep going up?" I will tell you why, because in the previous administration, over a period of years, they spent over $50 billion more than this economy, at full production, would have produced in tax revenues. All that that could possibly do would be to create inflation. We have been fighting against that.

As a result, we have cut the rate of inflation in half. But that is why we need the kind of support in the Senate and in the Congress, the kind of support that we will get from Ed Eshleman, George Goodling, the kind of support that has the courage to say when a huge new spending program comes up that might be popular for some people, that we must vote sometimes against the program that might benefit some people if its effect is going to raise prices and taxes for all people.

That is the program that I think that Americans also want to support.

In 1976 we want to see this country's government reformed in so many areas-the area, for example, of the cost of State government. I know the problems the State of Pennsylvania has had, the problems that you have had, like the other major States, to meet all of the great concerns of your State with inadequate tax revenues.

That is why this administration has recommended an historic new program in which the Federal Government will share tax revenues with the States. This does two things: It relieves the burden of property taxation in the States, which is becoming too heavy for people who own property in the States to bear. And, second, it does something else: For 190 years, from the beginning of this country, and its Constitution, we have seen power flow from the people and from the States to Washington, D.C.

Now we think it is time to turn it around. Power belongs to the people, and we are, therefore, presenting a program, a new federalism, in which, whether it is manpower training, whether it is revenue sharing, whether it is in the field of welfare or education, the power will/low from Washington, D.C., back to the States, back to the counties, back to the people of the State of Pennsylvania and all the States of this Nation.

When we speak of reform, let me talk briefly about another subject that I know is of deep concern to people all over this country. It is our welfare program.

First, let us understand what we are talking about. Every American wants to see to it that anybody in this country who is unable to earn a living for himself does not go hungry, that he has an adequate income, to the extent that this Nation can afford it. And this is a rich country.

We can be thankful that we are rich enough so that any individual in this country can have an adequate income. But, on the other hand, I think all of us recognize that our present welfare program has resulted in very great inequities.

The number on the welfare rolls goes up and up, and people who work hard, people who pay their taxes, have to pay an increasing load for people who are not working, and some of them could work if they would just go out and do so.

So, my friends, I say to you today that any program which makes it more profitable for a man not to work than to work ought to be abolished, and we are going to abolish it.

I say that any program that rewards a man for deserting his family rather than staying with his family and supporting it, needs to be changed, and we are going to change it.

You see, that is why we have presented the historic family assistance program for which Hugh Scott has fought, and for which Ray Broderick will fight as Governor of this State. We need to get it through. We need support. We will have it by the year 1976 and it will mean that every family in America who needs help will have it, but it will mean that those who are able to work will be required to work, and if they have a job offered and they are able to work and won't work, then they shouldn't get welfare. We think that is the fair thing to do.

Now to another subject. How do we want our country to look in 1976 in terms of what is really basic to a free society, the right, certainly, of everybody to dissent, but also the right of all Americans to be free from fear, free from fear in our cities, in our homes, wherever the case may be.

During the 8 years before this administration came into office in 1968, crime went up 150 percent in America.

During that 8-year period, there was an attitude of permissiveness in high places. There was also a failure to back up our law enforcement officials. There was also a failure to enact the laws that would give our law enforcement officials the tools they needed to deal with those that engage in criminal activities.

That is why one of the first recommendations I sent to the Congress over 18 months ago was a new program to deal with crime in this country, to deal with organized crime, to deal with pornography and filth and obscenity, which is being sent through the mails and that ought to be stopped, and to deal with narcotics and drugs.

What has happened? One of those bills has been passed, the organized crime. The others, of course, have been delayed. We hope they will be passed.

But the important thing is this: What we need are not only the laws but we also need those men and the backing for those men who have the responsibility to enforce the laws.

I simply want to say this: In the case of your Lieutenant Governor Ray Broderick, who will be your Governor, we have a man who has demonstrated his leadership capacity as head of the Constitutional Convention in this State, a man who understands law enforcement and takes a strong, firm line on it.

We have in your Senator Hugh Scott and in the congressional candidates here, men who take a strong, firm stand on this issue, men who will not only pass the laws but will back up our law enforcement officials in that respect.

I want to say to you, my friends, I recognize that on this particular issue that this does not involve partisanship. It isn't a question of whether you are a Democrat or Republican as to whether or not we are going to have the laws and we are going to have the law enforcement with justice that Americans want.

But I do say this: It is time now that the President of the United States gets support from the Congress and support from the country, and that the Governors of the States and the mayors of the cities get support for a program to wage a winning war against the criminal elements in this country. Let's give them that kind of support.

So I look down to that year 1976, and I want to tell you what I see. I see a world that will be at peace, at peace largely because America as the strongest free world power will have played a courageous and responsible role to bring peace.

I see an America in which we will have new programs to clean up our air and our water where that needs to be done, to deal with the problems of an environment.

I see an America in which we will have unprecedented reform, in which every American family will have certainly the opportunity to have a decent living, where all Americans who want to work have an opportunity to have jobs.

Let me tell you why that can happen. You know it can't happen in any other country in the world. Because America is the richest country in the world, we are able to stand for programs that will provide more freedom, more opportunity, a better living than in any country in the world.

That is the picture of America I see. And yet I hear some other voices in this country. I heard them in Vermont today. I hear a few here today. I understand that. I respect the right of anybody to disagree. But let me tell you what some of those voices do and what some of those voices say.

In Vermont some rocks were thrown. That, of course, is happening in other places as well. And in the last place they were shouting obscenities. All over this country we find violence, the bombing and the burning of buildings in this senseless fashion. We find, in addition to that, those who have lost faith in America, those who say that America is on the road to fascism. Let me tell you, don't you believe it. This is a great and a good country.

But that small violent minority, because it is on that television tube night after night, appears to many to be either the majority or about to become the majority.

Well, I have news for you. That small minority is not the majority in this country and it isn't going to become the majority of the people in this country.

But there is only one answer, and that is for the great silent majority to stand up and to speak out and to be counted. I will tell you how. Don't answer them with the same obscenities. You don't need to do that. Don't engage in violence. You don't need to do that.

You have a more effective answer, a more powerful answer than any of those things that those on that side who believe that way resort to. You have that vote.

On November 3d, you can walk into the quiet of that polling booth and you can vote. Then you will determine the future of America. I say that on that day let your votes be for policies that will bring America real peace, a peace we can keep in the generation ahead, that will bring us reform of our institutions and opportunity for every American, regardless of his background, to have an equal chance, an equal opportunity, to go forward, because let us remember we cannot fulfill the American dream unless every American has a chance to fulfill his own dream.

Vote for those kinds of policies that will have respect for law and laws that deserve respect.

My friends, that is what I have been working for since becoming the President of this country. That is the kind of leadership Hugh Scott has been giving in the United States Senate. And that is the kind of leadership you will get from Ray Broderick as the Governor of this State. It is for that reason that I am very proud to stand here with this great team, and I urge you to support them.

Thank you.