Remarks at a Democratic Party Rally in Newark

Mr. Kervick, Bishop Taylor, Bishop Dougherty, my good friend Warren Wilentz, war hero, public servant, and the next Democratic Senator from New Jersey:

For a Democratic President to come to New Jersey is always a pleasure. It gives me, first of all, an opportunity to call the roll--to call the roll of one of the real, great delegations in the Congress:

A distinguished Senator, a wise counselor, a great friend--Harrison Pete Williams.

The leader and the dean of your delegation, a fighter for immigration reform, a leader in the field of human rights, my supporter--Pete Rodino.

The sponsor of the Arts and Humanities Act, the chairman of the labor subcommittee, and the Democratic study group, that great progressive--Frank Thompson.

The energetic Congressman who gave us the Vocational Rehabilitation Act, and my supporter--Dominick Daniels.

That fearless, courageous battler for foreign aid and the Peace Corps, and all other progressive domestic legislation--Neil Gallagher.

A man who in only three terms has risen to eminence, dedicated appropriations member--Charles Joelson.

The Congressman who supports my program and the Congressman who is fighting to protect our servicemen from loan sharks-Joseph Minish.

A tireless worker in the great education and other progressive battles of the 89th Congress--Ed Patten.

Mayor, public official, educator, Congressman, my friend who always puts New Jersey first--Henry Helstoski.

Tireless and articulate Congressman who has won acclaim from far and wide for his excellent work against water pollution--Jim Howard.

Loyal and faithful supporter of Medicare for our senior citizens, for all good education legislation, a creator of jobs--more jobs for our men, better income for our families--our own Tom McGrath.

A man voted by Capitol Hill Young Democrats as one of the Capitol's ten outstanding freshmen who unfortunately is retiring--Paul Krebs.

These men have earned your confidence. These men deserve your applause, your gratitude, and your support.

At their sides we also need the other able candidates for Congress who will support this administration.

These men are leaders, and this country needs them and this Congress needs them.

These men are leaders and potential leaders for this Nation. Here at home their leadership is matched by the brilliance of one of the greatest Governors of them all, your own Dick Hughes.

And your own great mayor, Hugh Addonizio.

Your own great secretary of state and party chairman, Bob Burkhardt.

Mayor Addonizio, I want to thank you for your great welcome to this city. I want to pay very special tribute to the people in the reserved seats here, the local Democratic chairmen, the leaders of the great State of New Jersey. They are the ones who make it possible for all of these men to serve.

I also want to now present to you one of the greatest fighting Democrats of them all, the Postmaster General, Larry O'Brien, from the State of Massachusetts.

A great man once said: "In the Democratic Party, even the old seem young--but in the Republican Party even the young seem old."

And Woodrow Wilson, a New Jersey Democrat, said, "The trouble with the Republican Party is that it has not had a new idea for 30 years."

And then Wilson added: "I am not speaking as a politician; I am speaking as a historian."

Well, as I am speaking here this afternoon, I am speaking as an ex-schoolteacher who taught in Cotulla, Texas. But I can tell you this: What Woodrow Wilson said in 1915 is just as true today--only 50 more years have passed.

Woodrow Wilson also said: "I love the Democratic Party, but I love America a great deal more."

And that is my philosophy. I am a free man first, an American second, a public servant third, and a Democrat fourth--in that order.

But as I told Bob Burkhardt and Governor Hughes last night after I had planned my trip to speak to the Editorial Writers of the United States, and to see the Secretary General of the United Nations, I thought it just as well to drop in here on New Jersey and see a united people.

There comes a time when a man really needs to examine his party loyalty. And I guess right now is as good a time as any.

This is the season of the year when our Republican friends get a little bit confused. This is the season when, as our beloved late friend Adlai Stevenson used to say, they march to battle under a strange bannera banner which reads, "Throw the rascals in."

This is the season when Republicans start making predictions. You have been reading about them, haven't you? Well, how good are they at making predictions?

As Al Smith used to say, "Let's look at the record."

You already know--and your daddy and your granddaddy ahead of you knew--their record for promising and their record for performing. Now let's look at their record as prophets.

Two years ago, in 1964, the chairman of the Republican campaign committee declared flatly his party would gain 40 seats in the House of Representatives--40 seats gained in 1964, they prophesied.

They didn't gain any. They lost 38.

And that same year, a new New York lawyer--he originally came from out west in California--came forth and predicted that his party, the Republican Party, would gain five seats in the United States Senate.

They didn't gain any seats in the United States Senate, but they lost two seats in the United States Senate.

I even remember a few of their predictions in 1964 about who was going to be in the White House.

Can you remember those prophets?

But let's go back to 1962, now that we have covered 1964. That was also a year of Republican predictions.

The chairman of the Republican National Committee--I can't even remember his name right now, but they chose him later to run for national office. They chose him because they said, "He drives Lyndon Johnson nuts."

Well, that prophet declared that Americans would repudiate the administration of John F. Kennedy. That prophet predicted Republicans would gain 44 seats in the House in 1962.

They didn't gain 44, they didn't gain 34, they didn't gain 24, they didn't gain 14, and they didn't gain 4. Would you believe it? They predicted a gain of 44 seats and they wound up with a gain of 2.

The New York lawyer was still in California that year. But election time he was always around and he was making predictions. The day after election he predicted, and I quote from the papers the next morning, "This is the last time the press will ever kick me around."

And now it is 1966. And who is kicking who or what around? Well, the Republican predictions are coming in hot and heavy.

The polls are on every corner. The lawyer from New York and California has moderated some in his predictions this year. He now predicts a Republican gain of 40 seats.

The Republican Senator from Pennsylvania says 50 seats. And he claims that if he gets 50 seats, that will be "enough to put the brakes on all the President's social legislation." People's legislation--legislation that helps folks, that gets jobs, that brings income, that gives you education for mind and health for your body, and spirit for your soul.

That is one way to get all progressive legislation brought to a standstill--to elect a do-nothing Republican Congress.

The Republican leader in the Senate, my old and good friend from Illinois, he called them and raised them. He says they will pick up 75 seats.

Well, I want to make a prediction. If these Republicans are as accurate this year as they have been in past years, the Democratic Party will have a net gain when Congress goes back next January.

I don't think, though, the American people care much about Republican predictions. I think what they want is Democratic performance.

Abraham Lincoln was a Republican, but that great President once said, "You can't fool all of the people all of the time." His own party today doesn't really believe that is true.

Fooling the people has become the name of the game for a good many Republicans in Congress. They vote one way on what they call a motion to recommit a bill to the graveyard in a committee and then when they fail to put it in the graveyard on a motion to recommit--that is a highfalutin parliamentary phrase but I want you folks to get on to it. I am going to take the lid off and let a little light come in.

So they know that the motion to recommit a bill is a motion to kill a bill. You can understand that kind of language--a motion to put a dagger in the heart of a bill.

Well, now, I am going to call the roll and look at the record, and I don't want you to forget it. I want you to take it home with you, and I want you to tell your wife, and your children, and your uncles, and your cousins, and your aunts.

Let's look at the record of the 89th Congress.

--We passed a Medicare bill. We have been talking about it for 20 years. President Truman first proposed it--a Medicare for our fathers, and our mothers, and our elder citizens. That bill helped 19 million Americans away from the fear of illness in their old age.

And while the Democrats were working, praying, and passing that Medicare bill, more than nine out of every ten of the Republicans in the House were voting to recommit it and to kill it.

But when they came for a final vote on the bill, where you could see what they were doing, half of the Republicans changed from a vote to recommit and voted for the passage of the bill. But only 50 percent then.
And then they talk to me about credibility.

--We passed a voting rights bill where you could vote wherever you lived, whatever your color. And 85 percent of those Republicans voted to recommit that bill. Then 82 percent of that 85 percent turned around a full 180 degrees and voted for the bill on final passage. And then they talk about credibility.

--We passed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act--after 20 long years of struggle. That school act helped 20,000 school districts. Sixty-eight percent of the Republicans in the House voted to recommit and kill that bill.

--We fought to continue the war on poverty, and to help the poor people at the very bottom. Ninety percent of the Republican Congressmen voted to recommit and kill that bill.

That is the record. And, as Al Smith used to say, "Let's look at the record."

--We raised the minimum wage, the wages that the poor people earn at the bottom of the ladder, we raised it to bring a decent income to every workingman--only $64 a week at that. And 69 percent of the Republicans, more than two out of every three, voted to recommit that bill that brought 8 million poor women, widows, and workers at the bottom level under the protection of a minimum wage of $64.

Then after they couldn't stick a dagger in its heart and they couldn't recommit it because there were too many Democrats for them to succeed, they did a flip-flop.

You know what a flip-flop is. Sixty-eight percent of them then voted for final passage so they could come home and say, "Look what I did for minimum wages."

--We passed a housing bill. Ninety-seven percent of them voted to recommit it--97 out of every 100 House Republicans.

--We tried to repeal section 14(b) of Taft-Hartley to help the workingman. Eighty-six percent voted to recommit it.

--We passed a food for freedom bill to help starving people in other countries. Eighty-five percent of them opposed your President by voting to recommit it. Well, Abraham Lincoln was right about not fooling all the people all of the time. But the Republicans haven't given up trying.

You don't know how wonderful it is to come out here, away from the Capital, in this good, fresh, green country and see these prosperous, happy, smiling faces. I bet there is not a headache in the crowd.

The men and women who served in the 89th Congress are going to be back here asking your help on the basis of their record.

I've told you what the Republican record was. The Democratic record was just the opposite: They passed the school bill; they passed Medicare; they gave jobs for your men and income for your families; food for your bodies; and education for your mind. That is what they gave you, and all we ask in return is to give them a return ticket to support a Democratic President.

Now I ask all of you to listen carefully to this one statement. Measured by laws that mean something to people--that is p-e-e-p-u-l--that is p--e--e-p-l-e--that is p-e-o-p-l-e. You know what I am talking about. I am talking about folks. I am talking about average fellows. I am talking about the men and women that make up this land, that send their boys to battle to protect that flag and to protect our freedom. I talk about the men, the kind which pioneered this land, that wrote our Declaration of Independence, that wrote our Constitution, that brought our freedom, and have legislated for all the people, regardless of race, religion, or region.

So measured by laws that mean something to the people--jobs, education for their children, health, wages, take-home pay, transportation, conservation, pollution, immigration, cities, poverty--measured by that, this Congress did more than the last Congress, and more than the one before it.

I want to let you in on a secret: This Congress, with these Democratic Congressmen and this Democratic Senator--with another one to help him next year--this Congress did more in the 89th Congress in these fields than all the other 88 put together.

Now that is a big statement. But I am a tall fellow and I am going to stand on it.

I want to illustrate. I want to measure one area of progress. I want to examine our record in education.

When I took the oath in November 1963 as President, there were six education acts on the books, six in more than 160 years. Abraham Lincoln had the first one passed back in the 1860's. Woodrow Wilson got the second one passed during his administration. Harry Truman got the third one passed during his administration. And President Eisenhower passed the other three. That made a total of six bills in more than 160 years to educate your children.

Most of them were vocational education bills, or land-grant college bills--not the elementary school, not the higher education, not the GI.

Most of them had rather limited application.

This Congress didn't pass 6 or 16. This Congress passed 18 education bills--well, I'd say really 15 and 3 that we passed in the session before, in the 88th. And the record isn't finished yet.

In 1963 Congress provided $2 billion in Federal aid for education. In 1963 it was $2 billion. In 1966 we provided more than $6 billion to educate your children--three times as much in 3 years.

And that is going to show up in their learning, and their learning is going to show up in their pocketbook. And what they have in that pocketbook is going to show up in their taxes. We are going to get a mighty handsome dividend on every dime we invested in educating these children.

Now I think you can be certain that the Republicans will not be talking about education bills this fall. After 67 months of Democratic leadership, they have had to quit education. They have abandoned it. They don't denounce it any more. They joined it. They have come out for mother and flag and education.

But now they talk about inflation. Well, now, you messengers of goodwill-I want you to hear about inflation.

We are not going to dodge that issue; we are going to deal with it.

The Republicans are more expert on inflation than the Democrats. During the last 67 months of the last Republican administration--I want every Congressman, and every Senator and every Democrat to hear this. I even want the Democratic Governor to hear it, and I want the next Democratic Senator to hear it, and then I want you to let it leak out all over New Jersey. I don't know whether we will get it in the papers or not. After I have talked this long usually most of the reporters have gone to sleep on me. But I'm going to repeat it again now, if you will help me wake them up.

The Republicans are more expert on inflation than the Democrats. That is the only thing they are more expert in.

During the final 67 months--that is 5 years, 7 months--of Eisenhower's administration, prices went up 11 percent. That is something that everybody can remember. If you can't, take out your lead pencil and jot it down.

In the 67 months, the 5 years and 7 months, of the John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson administrations, prices went up percent.

In the same period they went up 11 percent in prices we went up 9 percent.

But if they know more about rising prices than we Democrats do, the Democrats know more about rising incomes.

In the final 67 months of the Republican administration, the Eisenhower administration, wages and salaries--the thing you work for, the pay you get--went up 29 percent.

In the same period, 67 months of the Kennedy-Johnson administration, wages and salaries went up not 29 percent but almost twice as much--47 percent.

So their inflation was kind of like "Wrong Way" Corrigan. They had a bigger rise in prices than the Democrats, but a lower rise in wages. And it is pretty important to remember the two.

I worked a long time as a day laborer at a dollar a day. Some people think I ought to go back where I once was.

But there were a good many things you could buy for a dollar a day then.

When your prices rise 11 percent and your wages only 29, it is not nearly as good as when your prices rise only 9 and your wages rise 49 because you can pay the 9 and then have 40 percent left for Mollie and the babies.

Now we've talked about the Republican predictions and the Republican performance. Just before I finish I would like to talk about Republican philosophy.

If I skip a paragraph or two in here, you fellows that went to sleep on me, I hope you will forgive me. I stand by everything I released, though.

The Republican symbol is the elephant. Do you know why he is their symbol? Because he never forgets.

The Republicans remember that they have always been elected by trying to scare the people. Their platform this year is made up of one word--fear.

They have no program to fight inflation. They mention no program to ease racial tensions. They don't know what to do about crime in the streets, except to criticize it.

They don't know how to end the war in Vietnam, except to denounce the Commander in Chief.

But they do know that if they can scare people, they might win some votes.

Our job is to ask our fellow citizens to judge this Nation--not by the terrible exceptions, but by the typical examples.

Our job is to remind the Americans that bad news is news.

I can go over there and fall down in that street right now and get a bigger headline than I can by smiling and waving "hello."

Bad news is news, and good news is no news. Remind them of the newspaper stories and the television newscasts that they never see--the ones about you and your neighbor, and your neighbor's neighbor, who are enjoying busy and productive lives, 77 million of you working, more people in America working than ever worked any time in the history of America, drawing better pay than any people ever drew in the history of America at this very hour.

So our job is to ask all of our fellow Americans: Judge for yourself from your own home and your own experience what sort of a nation you have.

Judge America, and then look all over that globe. Don't ask an extremist, but ask the majority of all Americans--of all races-which nation they would trade ours for.

Judge America by the typical family in this year of 1966. Judge that family by this fact: The American family owns its own home--far more homeowners than any time in the history of America.

Judge that Americans will buy 8 million new cars this year. They will buy even 4 million new lawn mowers, much as you fellows hate to use them and push them.

Judge that the typical head of a family is employed as a "skilled" worker. In 1940 he would have been behind a plow--a good many of them were sharecroppers--or he would have been working as a common laborer.

But this typical American now has 3 1/2 weeks paid time off each year and he and his wife, and his kiddos, sometimes take a vacation.

Judge the wife in the family by her education. The typical wife in America today is at least a high school graduate. And that is not true with many people in many parts of this world.

Judge her household helpers. Some of them have washing machines, some of them have vacuum cleaners, some of them have freezers, automatic stoves, and refrigerators. They give her the time to use her education, watch her television, look after her kids. They give her time to work for a salary or for civic groups, in hospitals, and to do her church work. Remember that American women do this--they do these things because our American women are our secret weapon in the war against want in America.

Then I want you folks to look at this typical family. Look at their health and look at their schooling.

Judge the typical child today. He will be a high school graduate, and more than likely he has a chance to go to college.

Judge our Nation's role in the world today.

Judge America by our efforts to maintain peace. Judge your country by what she is doing to help poor people.

I was told by a great nation the other day that 90 million people have eaten in one country this year because we helped them, and if we hadn't, 35 million would have died because of starvation.

So judge your country by its accomplishments, which are great, and by her potential, which is greater.

And please, please, always, in your judgments, remember that we are the most problem-conscious nation in the world. One thing we never hide is our problems. One thing you can be sure of: We don't hide our problems. And another thing we do: We don't hide them, we advertise them, and then we all get together and solve them, don't we?

We solve them after you blame your President for all of them.

But a fellow said to me the other day, "Mr. President, I am sorry that they blame you for the problems that the mayor had over here. I am sorry that they blame you for the problems that we got into out in Southeast Asia. I am sorry that they blame you for all these problems."

I said, "Don't be sorry. What have you got a President for?"

But if you are going to judge us by our problems, also be fair and judge us by our progress.

Aren't you happy that we have more jobs at better pay than we have ever had before? If you are not, you can talk to some of these older fellows around this crowd, like Pete Rodino and Governor Hughes. They can tell you how to get a ticket to a soup kitchen back here somewhere; or how to apply for a WPA job. Because it hasn't been too long in the lives of some of us--we remember when we worked for a dollar a day.

Finally, I want you to judge America politically--by her problems, by her progress, and by her politics.

We here in this park are politicians. We don't deny it. We don't hide it. We proudly admit it, don't we, Dick? And we stand a little taller, we are just a little prouder, and our chests are a little bigger because we are all Democratic politicians. We, like the men who have been Democratic politicians, men like Al Smith, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Adlai Stevenson, and John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

I made a compact with President Kennedy out in Los Angeles in 1960. Everybody didn't agree with it. But he asked me to be his Vice President and run on the Kennedy-Johnson ticket. Everybody in the party didn't agree with him and everybody in the country didn't agree with him. We didn't have any landslide, you know. We won by less than 51 percent of the votes. But we had a program.

He submitted it to the people and right in the middle of the progress he was making in that program, the Good Lord took him away from us. But it didn't take his program away. I stood there and I put it over. I didn't run out on it; I ran in on it.

The people understood and the people will understand. And I think you folks are going to give me the tools I need, the weapons we must have, and the power and the support that you must have in a democratic country.

Remember this: There is more power in the ballot than there is in the bullet, and it lasts a lot longer.

When you listen to these prophets of gloom and doom, and when you get through reading all the recommendations that all the newspapers make for you, then scratch your head and say to mama, "Let's look at the record."

Then get on that bus and get down to that polling place. Reach up there and pull the lever that will do the greatest good for the greatest number and I will abide by your decision.

Thank you and goodby.