Remarks at a Democratic Rally in Detroit

Governor, Congressmen, ladies and gentlemen:

I wonder if we could have the Congressman from this district, Congressman Diggs, come up here--and the Congressman from a nearby district, Congressman Ryan; Congressman Lesinski and Congressman Dingell and Congressman Nedzi.

I want to express our thanks to all of you for coming here to this rally this morning. I am not a candidate on this occasion. I am not on the ballot. But I do believe that the election of 1962, both in the State of Michigan and in the country, for Members of the House and Senate, are equally important to any election of a President of the United States, because under the Constitution of the United States, especially in matters of domestic affairs, the House of Representatives and the Senate have equal power with the President, and if Member after Member, Congressman after Congressman, Senator after Senator, says "no" to all of our programs, then this country stands still.

So I come here this morning to ask the people of Detroit, the people of this county, the people of the State of Michigan--the people of the United States--to elect Members of the House and Senate who vote for progress, and that is the issue of 1962.

There are those who say that there are not differences between the two parties, but they have a golden chance in 1962 to see the differences. On issue after issue, on minimum wage, and social security, and aid for education, and housing for the elderly, from 70 to 80 to 90 percent of the members of the Republican Party from the State of Michigan voted "no." On vote after vote, on aid to education, higher education--and there is no State in the country which has more young men and women in the next 8 years who will want to be admitted to your colleges and universities than this State--on a bill 1 month ago to assist our colleges and universities, three-fourths of the Republicans voted against it. On a bill to provide a minimum wage of $1.25, $50 a week, $1.25, there is a consistency to their opposition because 90 percent of the Republicans in the 1930's voted against 25 cents an hour, and 90 percent of the Republicans in the 1960's voted against $1.25 an hour, including the overwhelming majority of the Republicans from the State of Michigan.

That's why this election is important. All these issues, education, the food stamps, area redevelopment, minimum wage, aid to higher education, cleaning our rivers, rebuilding our cities, urban renewal, and all the rest--we have met the nearly unanimous opposition of the Republicans joined by a handful of Democrats who have opposed every program since Franklin D. Roosevelt. And therefore we come to Michigan and ask your help in reelecting the Democratic Members of the House from this State--and give us some new Congressmen. Every vote on an important piece of legislation in the Senate and the House either won by 4 or 5 votes or lost. A change of 1 vote in the Senate and we would have medical care for the aged. A change of a few votes would have meant the passage of legislation which benefits our States and our country, and this is not a matter which concerns only the people of Michigan.

You won't sell cars from Detroit unless this country is prosperous. Michigan can't buy these cars. They sell them across the country and across the world. And yet a majority of the Republicans from this State, a majority of the Republican leadership, opposed our bill to make it possible for Detroit to sell cars in Europe on the trade expansion bill. So this is an important issue. This is not merely a political discussion. All these Republican Members we talk about are fine men, they believe in the United States, they believe in its future. But the problem is they will not support the kind of legislation which makes it possible for us to maintain employment, to educate our children, and provide security for our older citizens.

The decision is yours. Every off year in this century, with the exception of once, the party in power has lost votes. And I can tell you after the razor-thin majorities by which we have won or lost, that we need every vote we can get; otherwise this country will stand still. The decision is yours and we ask your help in Michigan by electing some people who believe in progress.

I'm proud to be standing here today next to a Governor who puts on his literature he's a Democrat. One of the most interesting political phenomena of our time is to see Republican candidates in various States who run for office and say, "Elect the man." You can't find the word "Republican" on their literature, and I don't blame them. But we write the word "Democrat" in large letters, because the Democratic Party stands for progress. A Democratic Governor, a Democratic President, a Democratic House and Senate, I think, spells progress.

This State in January 1961, when your Governor became the Governor and I became the President of the United States, had an unemployment rate two and a half times the national average--15 percent. Today Michigan has less unemployed as an average, though it's still too many, less unemployed than the national average, under 5 percent. That is the record that he's made. And I hope that the people of this State, believing in progress, believing that a country and a State must move together, will reelect Governor John Swainson by the overwhelming majority that he deserves.

I just want to close by giving you these figures. Every time you go into a booth, and I hope everybody here is registered, there are places in the United States where churches are burned because somebody tries to get registered, or where three women were shot because they were trying to register people. How can anyone in this State or this city say they're too indifferent to register and vote when people in the United States are fighting for the right to register and vote? I hope nobody in this city by next Tuesday will be unregistered and say that it doesn't matter to them and that they're too indifferent and they're too busy to take 10 minutes to go and vote, which is the best and proudest privilege of a free citizen. Everybody in this city ought to vote, no matter for whom they vote, but they ought to be registered; they ought to be registered. It's too difficult for too many people to be registered for anyone in this city and this State to stay at home. To be registered, to vote, to commit ourselves to a forward movement for this State and country--that is the program for the next month in the State of Michigan, and we ask your help on it.

Area redevelopment, 81 percent of the Republicans voted against it. Minimum wage, 80 percent of the Republicans voted against it. Unemployment compensation, for those workers, and there're nearly 100, 000 of them who exhaust their unemployment compensation--we tried last month to get it out of the Ways and Means Committee of the House. There are 10 Republicans on that committee and 9 out of 10 voted against it.

So those who say that this election doesn't count, that Presidential elections are important but not that of Congressmen and Senators and Governors--you in Michigan know the difference.

I hope on November 6th that this State and this city and this country will say "yes."