Remarks in San Antonio at the Annual Convention of Milk Producers, Inc.

My dear friends of the Milk Producers, distinguished Members of Congress, ladies and gentlemen:

Last spring when your officials, Mr. Nelson, Mr. Parr, and others asked me to try to be with you when they came to my State this week I told them that I would do everything that I could to be here.

I have been reading and hearing all week about my plans--my convention plans. So late this afternoon I concluded I just better confirm this credibility and go on and attend the convention--and here I am.

The campaign this fall will ask for our people to decide issues that will vitally affect their destiny for decades to come.

A great deal of my own personal efforts this autumn will be devoted to placing the President in the years ahead in the strongest possible position.

I will give all the strength I have to try to heal the divisions that have been created among our people

--by trying to win a just and honorable settlement in Vietnam;

--by trying to bring peace in other parts of the world and prevent another world war;

--by trying to pass on an economy that is sound in order and is vigorous in performance.

No human being can accurately predict the course of peace and unity. But 7½ years of unbroken prosperity do, I think, foretell the course of the American economy. I genuinely believe that our next President will step off with an economy that is healthier and is more productive than ever in our history.

It was in 1857 that America suffered the first recorded depression. The administration of every single President since then-- except the 6-month term of James Garfield-has been marred by an overall economic decline.

That cycle of depression and recession continued right up to the beginning of this decade. But now in the 1960's in which we live we seem to have been able to break away from boom and bust.

From March of 1961 up until this hour, we have been spared the terrible trauma of economic decline. For 7½ years, a vigorous economy has brought abundance to our land and inspiration to the new nations of the world.

The American economy, in less than a decade, has fueled the greatest social advance known to mankind. Almost 10 1/2 million more Americans are working today than were working in 1960.

And the record of our past holds the secret to our future; progress will continue only if it is based on the continuing expansion of the entire American economy.

Agriculture--that great basic industry to which you belong--is at the vital center of all of our economy. In recent years, the farmer has finally begun to share some of the fruits of economic growth.

But many vital, critical problems remain, as your leaders and your association know so well. The most immediate is to close the income gap between the farmer and his counterpart in other industries.

It is ironic, I think, that the crux of our "farm problem" seems to be the problem of plenty. Even as we struggle to solve it, we must keep our agricultural plant healthy and strong.

We must keep alive the farmer's basic charter--the Food and Agriculture Act of 1965. I have pled with the Congress to extend this act. It has already passed both Houses. It is in conference awaiting attention when the Congress returns.

I hope and I believe you hope that it will win final passage just as soon as the Congress resumes its session. But the farmer deserves security even more basic than just price supports.

I want very much to see him ultimately gain a bargaining power--a businessman's voice in setting a price for his goods. Your leaders have paved the way and there is much to learn both by precept and the example that you have set.

The farmer's voice is faint tonight. It is standing alone in a vast industry and his power is fragmented. But you--and progressive leaders and organizations like yours--have already found that your collective voice is mightier than any individual whisper from a rural route.

Where you are leading, I believe others are going to follow. Then the farmer will at long last stand equal with every businessman and laboring man in America.

Tonight, starvation and want are the dark forces behind the despair and the restlessness of people all around the globe. They are the evils of which wars are made. But we in our country are using the bounty of our farms to try to bring peace and stability to our world.

Since 1966, our food for freedom program has rescued millions of people from famine and torment. That lifeline of hope, I believe, will grow longer and stronger, as we learn to solve the problem of plenty. And if your children and your grandchildren live in a world in which no man harbors fear or hate in his heart because his family hungers, then they will know that the American farmer had a hand, as strong as any other's, in building that peaceful world for which we all pray. That is a proud thing to say of America, and to say of Americans.

No nation or people can really say quite as much--or find so much that is so good or so generous or so wise or so strong in themselves.

Pride in ourselves and in our system is not a sin, though some cynics behave today as though it might be.

I believe--and I believe that rural America believes--that pride in our system is America's enduring strength.

I believe it is the answer of rational and confident men to all of those in the world who oppose our system and to some of those at home who mock it.

This is no moment for any American to scorn our institutions and achievements, or to scoff at any man who says something might be good about America while we are all putting our shoulders to the wheel to work to correct what we know is bad about America.

It is no time, I think, for that kind of weakness--not when the drain of our faith could divide us and might destroy us. And beware of those who preach division.

This is a moment when pride should serve as a spur--and not a crutch, not as an excuse, but as the inspiration for our renewed purpose and resolve to join as one people, all eager for a new age of greatness for all people.

This I deeply believe.

Until every family is sheltered in a decent home, until every table is set with ample food, until every man and woman who wants to work can work in dignity, until every child knows no limit on the education he can attain, until health is the treasure within the reach of us all, until our cities are inspirations to the human spirit and our farms are happy and productive places in which to live, until our streets are secure for the lives and the persons of our loved ones-until this age comes, we of America's parties, all parties, must guard against the spirit of faction in everything we do.

Most important, we must guard against aggressors and aggression, as our noble sons have done throughout American history.

I have not come here tonight as a prophet, for no one can predict the course of peace and unity, as I said before, in the years ahead. I cannot presume to speak for another Commander in Chief, but I can and I do and I will speak for this administration until January 20.

I repeat the promise and the pledge tonight that I made to the people when I last asked their approval in 1964. I said then, we seek no wider war. And I would not ask American boys to do the fighting that Southeast Asian boys ought to do for themselves to protect their homeland, but I would and we would support their efforts and support them with supplies and men until naked aggression was stopped and deterred.

I said then and I repeat tonight, we will always keep our hand out in search for peace and honorable agreement, but we will also keep our guard up at all times against Communist aggression.

We have misled some heads of state in recent years, in my judgment, and they have misinterpreted the workings of democracy. It led us into World War I and World War II and into other troublesome events since then.

But I repeat tonight, let no would-be aggressor misjudge American policy during this administration. I express the hope and the belief that there will be no condoning of aggressors and no appeasement of those who prowl across national boundaries by this or by any other American administration.

Most important, I tell you that it was with a heavy heart that I have closely followed and observed the events in Czechoslovakia over the past several days. It is dear to me that the leaders in Moscow have felt that their interests were threatened by the emergence of even modest degrees of national independence and human liberty in Eastern Europe.

In a tragic move they have applied the full measure of military power in Czechoslovakia where tonight hundreds of tanks surround that capital. There are even rumors late this evening that this action might be repeated elsewhere in the days ahead in Eastern Europe.

So, I say to you tonight and to the world tonight, we cannot and we must not in the year 1968 return to a world of unbridled aggression.

Surely it is too late in history for small nations to be denied their right to national existence. The Charter of the United Nations makes this a fundamental right of all nations, regardless of ideology, alliances, or political distances. There should not be any doubt in the minds of anyone as to where the United States of America stands on a question so fundamental to the peace of the entire world.

There are no questions that I know of that cannot be settled and should not be settled by peaceful means, if the governments will only take the time and the patience to try and find the peaceful answers.

So, let no one unleash the dogs of war. Let no one even in this period of highly charged domestic debate in our country ever doubt what the true views of the American people are on these matters.

So, as we have our blessings, so do we also have our problems--and we have had through all of the years.

For those problems we have the courage and the patience and I hope the vision and the knowledge to try to resolve them as men should resolve them in the 20th century-around a conference table instead of on a battlefield. Such will be my purpose in the remaining days of my public service.

Tonight I ask all Americans to give me your voices and give us your hopes, so that we can present to the world a nation who will always hold out its hand eagerly and earnestly and genuinely to find a reasonable, honorable, peaceful settlement of our differences, but who has the courage and the fortitude to hold up its guard and protect the liberties that our forefathers have died for and our sons tonight are dying for.

We have much to be thankful for and much to protect.

May the Good Lord who watches over all of us guide us in the trying period ahead.

Thank you for this great honor and this great pleasure of being with you this evening. I have conferred many, many hours with your leaders, Mr. Nelson and Mr. Parr and Mr. Crouch, your Congressmen and your Senators. Wilbur Mills really made a two milk family out of my house. He reminded me that my grandson had to have whole milk and in the light of my years I could use skimmed milk.

While grandsons and grandfathers have different types and qualities of food, we all have one love and that is freedom and love of our blessed America.

Thank you.