Remarks at New Castle County Airport, Wilmington, Delaware

Senator Williams, Congressman Warburton, Mrs. Martin--my fellow Americans:

This has been a busy day for me, one that was fitted into a schedule we already thought was fairly tight. But there had been rumors that came into Washington that people who joined in the crusade of 1952 felt so sure that their program was going ahead, that they forgot that it was time to bring up some reinforcements, that apathy was creeping over the strength of our old crusaders, and it was time to do something about it.

Moreover, there was another reason for going out. There are in this crowd, I know, a lot of people who served with me in the armed services. Some of them were undoubtedly with me in the European theater. Every time a climax of the fighting or campaign approached, I found it a very useful thing to go out and see how the men were feeling, the people that had to do the slugging, the people that had to be on the firing line.

Now the textbooks used to say that the reason the commander did this was to go out to inspire the troops to fight better. It has always worked differently with me. Every time I came back from those visits, I was inspired to do my own job better.

I have found that out today, my friends. By going out, far from finding the apathy they talked about, far from finding any need on my part to tell people, let's roll up our sleeves and get to work, I feel like I haven't been working hard enough. I have encountered enthusiasm, a belief, a confidence, that I wish you could feel. As a matter of fact, I think you do feel it, because you show it here.

The only regret I have about today's trip into Cleveland, up to Detroit, down to Louisville, is that there is only so much time in a day, and I could go no further. I would have loved to have visited every single State that I could have reached in 3 or 4 days, to go and tell everybody what I have been seeing--that they are on the march, the crusade is still going.

Now I want to tell you one thing about votes. It is this: I think we are frequently apt to underestimate the importance of one vote. It means a lot of things. First, what does it mean to you--you. With your own conscience you have done your duty as an American citizen. You have registered your decision. Whatever it may be, you have done it.

But in a more practical sense, do you realize that three Presidents have been elected by one electoral vote, or in one case where it was referred to a commission, by one vote in that commission? And my friends, even more dramatic than that, in the case where it was done by commission, the one decisive vote was cast by a man who in his District had been elected by a majority of one. One vote made a President of the United States. Five states have been admitted to the United States by one vote in the Congress.

Now this is very important to me because one of the States was that of my birth, and if it hadn't been elected, I wouldn't have been a citizen.

But I want to get over what your one vote can mean, both in terms of your own satisfaction, and in terms of what it can mean in a practical sense, and one other. What does it mean to those around you who watch you and believe in you, have some confidence in you? Joe voted--I'll vote. It is what your example does. Moreover, if I could give you one suggestion, after this meeting--you know, if everybody here in this audience would go home this evening and start calling up, and each would call up 10 voters and ask them to call up 10 voters, and so on, you would cover the State of Delaware with every man, woman, and child in about 2 hours. Think how fast that would multiply. You would reach millions in that time. That is what we want, all the votes out.

Now why do Republicans want all the votes out? Because this crusade was put on the road by a vast majority of the American people. That vast majority of the American people still believes the same way.

If everybody votes, we are in!

Now let's go back to 1952 for just a few minutes. You remember we wanted to clean out the scandals. We wanted clean government. We wanted dignity in high places, and there were a number of other things we wanted. But our real slogan was a very simple and short one. It was peace and prosperity.

Now let me speak about that just a second. The important word in that phrase is the simple little conjunction and. Peace and prosperity.

For 20 years we were gradually absorbing the idea in this country that you could have peace or prosperity. Our crusade was really nothing but substituting and for or in that phrase.

Now to look at it--in 1940 there were still, after years of talk, and a lot of other things, there were more than 8 million unemployed. In 1950, in February, at the peak of unemployment of that year, there were 4,900,000 still unemployed- The average for the year, even though we went to war, you will recall, of July 1950, was 3 million, one.

Now, my friends, is it any wonder that we had come to believe we couldn't have full employment in this country unless we got it by going into the armed services or into war plants? If you wanted prosperity, the belief was growing you had to have a battlefield.

We rejected that in 1952, and said you can have peace and prosperity. Now, in both these things, I am just going to run over the record, just very briefly, to show you that there has been real progress in peace and in prosperity in 21 months.

First, let's take the prosperity angle. Unemployment following upon the end of the war, rose to a peak, last February and March. Ever since, it has been steadily declining. Only this last month--the month we are now in--it has gone down 400,000 more. It reached on my last reports about 5 days ago, 2,741,000. And it is still going down.

I do not mean to say that as long as there is any unemployment in any spot brought about by the aftermath of war and inflation, that we are going to be satisfied. Far from it. Unemployment is not just statistics. Unemployment is heartaches, it is privation, it is discouragement, it is suffering.

And this Government that you have has a heart, as well as a head, and as long as there is any unemployment, this is going to be a major problem of attack for them.

There are worlds of useful work that this Nation has to do. We have great highway programs to build. We still have hospitals to build, and all of the other things in which Federal and State and county and private enterprise can cooperate. And we need have no unemployment even at this level, and we are not going to have.

Now let's take other things. Money available to all of us, after taxes, is at an all-time peak for spending. By every measure of production--the construction industry this year, this month, is 25 percent higher than it was this month last year, which was the peak year of all time; the workweek is lengthening in hours, wages are at their all-time high. By every index that we have, it is the most prosperous peacetime year of our history. And I was assured by the President of the Retailers Association that he believed this year would exceed in sales even last year. We are prosperous, and getting more prosperous.

This economy is expanding at such a rate, my friends, under wise policies of money management, instilling cooperation in our people instead of domination, that within--certainly within 10 years, we are going to have a $500 billion national product every single year. That will mean an increase of $3,000 per family--of the families in the United States today.

We are going up and up. We are not stopping here. And we are going to need all these people that haven't got jobs this minute.

Now along with this, while this has been going on, how about peace? Well now, in January 1953 the casualty lists were still coming in from Korea, in that war that was seemingly endless and had certainly become futile and useless. There was a war in Indochina. There was a terrible situation existing in Iran, every day we expected the news that that country, with 60 percent of the oil reserves of the world, had fallen to the Communists. In Trieste, there was a trouble spot that threatened to explode. In Suez was another. In Guatemala, international communism was already trying to establish a beachhead.

What has happened to all these spots? Patient work, hard work, intelligent cooperation on a friendly basis with all our partners, has eliminated them. They are no longer threatening our peace. The atmosphere is improved. And along with this, 2 years ago, the situation in Europe was still uneasy and tense. Age-old hatreds and prejudices were threatening to break up every attempt at establishing a coalition that could keep that country secure. It was a very bad situation. Because, my friends, Europe--Western Europe--is not just a country that happens to lie straight across the Atlantic from here, and is of no importance to us except as a place to visit. Did you ever stop to think what would be our situation if the Communists of today, with their great ruthless power, already controlling more than 800 million people, could get Western Europe with its great productive power, more than 22 million skilled workers in great vast industrial plants, all put up in the pattern of the American industrial plan? What would happen, with their great productivity, their nearness to us, their immediate threat to our friends in Britain, and in the African area? We would be under deadly peril, and our expenditures for security would be so great as to dwarf those we are making today.

And that, my friends, is all changed.

Only a few nights ago, the greatest Secretary of State of our time came back and made his report to you, that this danger has been averted. Western Europe is growing together, is getting into a position where they can support their own troops and can make certain that their security is such that we will not have this threat to face.

And in terms of the prospects for peace, this means just this: with these developments around the world, with the new coalition developing in southeast Asia, with Japan leaning our way, with Iran oriented toward us, with this agreement in Western Europe, there is a growing strength that is born of unity--unity in basic spirit and conviction and determination that the Communists dare not attack.

Which means we can pursue peace in confidence, standing up straight and not being afraid, not cringing, standing up and saying, here is what is right and here is what must prevail in this world, and doing it from a position of security.

Ladies and gentlemen, in this postwar world, the prestige and position of the United States in the world today is at its record peak.

I have just one thought to add. In this business of foreign affairs, foreign relations, foreign operations, there must be bipartisanship. Let us not mistake ourselves. No one party has a monopoly on patriotism and dedication to this country. And if we do not have bipartisanship in the main basic threads of our national policy, then with one from year to year, from administration to administration, we would be weakened because of lack of stability of policy in the world.

But I must point this out, that although this administration has pursued this truth, and acted in this truth more firmly than any of its predecessors, has had more meetings in determining what these basic foundations of our policy should be, yet when it comes to the day by day operation, leadership is still necessary.

There is a team, a team made up of congressional leaders and executive leaders that has been responsible for the operation, the carrying out, the execution, of these policies. And so the question is: since this same team has to deal with our policies at home and abroad, do we now, with this great progress achieved, and so much more still to be done, do we want to break it up, do we want to split this team and make part of it one thing and part of it another?

That is what this election is about. Do you want to keep this team together that has brought and is bringing peace and prosperity?

So my friends, let me emphasize: when I ask you to vote, I am not asking you to vote merely so that one party can have the great honor and distinction--responsibility--of representing you in Washington. I am placing these issues before you to show you that your vote means the progress in the peace and prosperity--the continuation of the progress they have so far achieved.

And that is the reason that you must have a Senator Warburton to help Senator Williams--and in the other House, Mrs. Martin to represent you. The executive department must remain Republican during this coming 2 years--by constitution.

When I say Republican, we do not mean that we hope to represent only Republicans, or occupy and fulfill those jobs in any narrow way. We know that it is Republicans, and open-minded independents--and understanding Democrats--that have sent this team of legislative and executive leaders to Washington.

Now you send them back, and this work will go forward. That I promise you.

Good night. God bless you.