Remarks to a Group of Republican Candidates for Congress.

WELL, it's quite a ceremony we went through in there. I hope that the pictures with each of you won't hurt any of you in your districts.

It is, of course, a very great honor for any man to receive the nomination of a major party for the Congress. So I congratulate you--each of you--for the many steps you have taken to reach this point in your political progress, and I wish you good luck in the election and in the years to come.

There is a coincidence about 1960 that may have escaped the notice of some of you. The last time that all four of the principal candidates on the national ticket came from or had had experience in the Congress was in 1860--and that, I remind you, was a Republican year.

When I was a boy, 99 percent of the electorate voted for their Congressmen when they voted for the President. Now we have gotten to the point that just under 90 percent of the population votes at the same time for their Congressional nominee and for their national nominee.

I think this indicates that each of you has a job not merely of being a member of a team that is promoting a common cause and promoting a common philosophy. You have got to do a lot of walking and wearing out of shoe leather and ringing of door bells and things on your own, not just leaving it to other people. You have got to meet everybody in your district if you can.

Someone pointed out that among the qualifications that a candidate must have is a personality that is outgiving. You cannot, I think, sit inside an office and direct strategy and be remote. People have got to know you, and they have got to like what they know. So I would say four-fifths of our work is knowing what we want to do, promoting the kind of country in which we want to live, and then working.

The other fifth is devoted to a number of other causes and activities. But working and knowing what you are working for would be my prescription.

I can't tell you how much I hope for each of you real success--resounding success. I am convinced that it is through such people as you that we are going to keep this country secure, fiscally sound, and on the straight, tough middle way to future progress. And after all, no man has a right to be in politics unless he is thinking, first of all, of the United States. I am sure that every single one of you does.

Goodbye and good luck.