Remarks at the Hippodrome Arena in St. Paul, Minnesota

Lieutenant Governor, Senator McCarthy, Senator Humphrey, ladies and gentlemen:

It is worth coming 1500 miles from Boston to this city for a bean supper, and I want you to know that I come here not only because of the beans, but also because I want to see this State elect a distinguished Governor, the man who just spoke, whom I'm confident you will elect as Governor of this State. And I'm glad to be here tonight with my old friend and colleague, the Majority Whip of the United States Senate, Hubert Humphrey. Every Tuesday morning we have breakfast in the leadership meeting, and he smiles, and then he just says, "We've got to have a couple of words about Minnesota." So then we hear all about it!

And with Senator McCarthy, who serves this State and the country, and I don't think there's any State in the Union who has Senators who speak more strongly for the best interests of their State and also stand up for our country on the great issues which face us. Woodrow Wilson once said, "What is the use of the success of a political party unless that party is being used by the Nation for a great national purpose?

All of these dinners, all of these meetings, have no significance unless the political parties of our country are committed to those actions which serve us best in the most difficult and dangerous period in the long life of our country.

I know that there are many Americans who constantly are dissatisfied with what our country is doing, but you should realize that for 17 years, since 1945, the United States of America, and in a very real sense only the United States of America, has stood watch and ward for freedom all around the globe. One billion Communists today are contained in their outward drive by the 180 million people of the United States of America.

So I recognize that both political parties, Republicans and Democrats, are both concerned for the welfare of their country. What concerns us in this election, what brings me to this State, is because I believe in 1962 those programs for which we stand serve the best interests of our country and strengthen our country and move it forward, and I'm going to tell you why: This country's strength all around the world, from Berlin, in a great half circle to Viet-Nam, all of that effort to prevent the expansion of communism in the strong belief that the disease of liberty, as Thomas Jefferson called it, will finally catch and sweep the world, all that is contained by the power and drive of the United States of America. Unless we are strong here in this country, unless we are moving ahead, unless our people can find work, unless we're educating our children, unless we're providing the kind of society where every person has an opportunity, regardless of his race or his creed or his color, to develop their resources, this country fails.

Now, the people of this State know very well what the issues are between the two parties. Here in 1962 the people of this country are going to elect an entirely new House of Representatives. They're going to elect one-third of the Senate, they're going to elect Governors, they're going to, in short, make a judgment of whether they want to sit still or whether they want to move this country forward, as it must move, if it's going to maintain its strength and power and prestige. That's the issue of November 1962, and I come to this State of Minnesota, which has seen these battles fought over the years, and ask your help in electing Congressmen who believe in progress, electing a Governor who believes in progress, and committing this State and country not to sit still, not to drift, not to rest on its oars, but to pick itself up and finish the job which so desperately needs to be done.

One of the favorite bromides in the world is that there is no difference between our two political parties. I'm going to show you what the difference is this year. Last year we had a bill to increase the minimum wage for workers in interstate commerce in companies which do an annual business of a million dollars a year or more. It was to increase the minimum wage to $50 a week, $1.25 an hour. Do you know that on this not very drastic piece of legislation 100 percent of the Republican Congressmen from Minnesota voted against it? Do you know on a bill a month ago that was killed, to provide assistance for higher education, by 1970 twice as many boys and girls are going to be applying for admission to our colleges as in 1960--they are our most valuable resource--on a bill to assist higher education in this country, 67 percent of the Republican delegation from the State of Minnesota voted "no." On a bill to provide for assistance to depressed areas, those with long-term, chronic unemployment, and this State in its iron range knows the meaning of those words, in our effort to assist those areas, in a bill which Congressman John Blatnik worked on, 81 percent of the Republican Congressmen in the House of Representatives voted "no."

That's the issue in this campaign. On a bill to provide medical care for our older citizens, and this was a traditional vote, seven-eighths of the Republican Members of the Senate voted "no," just as their fathers before them had voted 90 percent against the social security in the 1930's. That's why this issue is important and that's why this election is important. We have won and lost vote after vote by 1 or 2 or 3 votes in the Senate, and 3, 4, or 5 votes in the House of Representatives, and I don't think we can find jobs for our people, I don't think we can educate our younger people, I don't think we can provide security for our older citizens, when we have a party which votes "no." And that's why this election is important.

And the farmer: Orville Freeman can tell you more about the problems that he's had in trying to put forward a program. I take satisfaction in the fact that in 1961 the average income of the farmers of this State of Minnesota was 23 percent higher than it was in the preceding year of Ezra Taft Benson, 1960, and it will be higher this year. Now we have tried, in 2 years, to put forward a program of assistance to the farmers of this State and country.

I don't know whether you've read and heard of a letter from Martin Sorkin, who was one of Ezra Taft Benson's assistants. He wrote this letter recently: "The Republican National Committee Chairman, Congressman Miller, and Senator Goldwater, and the Chairman of the House Committee on the campaign, Congressman Wilson, and I held a secret meeting. The objective of this meeting was to develop the basis for a continuing attack on the Administration's efforts on the farm front.

"It was agreed that it was not the responsibility of the Republicans to propose solutions, but to criticize the Administration whenever feasible."

That is a letter written by a former assistant of Ezra Taft Benson after attending a meeting of the Republican Party late last year.

"I am much impressed with the seriousness of Senator Goldwater and Congressman Miller. They feel with a gigantic effort that the Republicans can gain control of the House of Representatives, and I will do everything possible to help." And then he concludes, "I am leaving this afternoon for a meeting with Governor Rockefeller on agricultural problems."

The result, of course, was that when we brought up our feed grain proposal last year every Republican but four voted against it. And then again this year when we came forward with our proposal, do you know what the program was of the Republican Party? Our feed grain program of last year. That's the program they put forward.

Now, I don't believe that any country can function, and I don't believe that any political party is meeting its responsibilities when it says that what it must do in the most difficult period in our country's history, dealing with a problem which affects the welfare of millions of people who are the most underpaid group in the United States, and which says, as the opposition party, "It is not our responsibility to propose solutions, but to oppose them."

So I come here to this State, and I ask your support in electing Members of the House of Representatives who are committed to solutions. This country has many pieces of unfinished business. Many of the things that we hoped to do are still not done, but we're trying to do them. And we need Members of the House and Senate who are committed as your two Senators are, not merely to voting "aye" and "nay," but participating in the legislative process, which makes it possible for this country to go ahead.

So we come here today, a distinguished list of people, who I think will make great Congressmen, Donald Fraser, who can be the Congressman from this District; and Joe Karth, your present Congressman who has taken a leadership in the field of space.

Do you know that the United States this year in space will make a greater effort, a greater national commitment, than all the 8 years of 1953 to 1960? We came into office second in space. I hope before the end of this decade the United States will be second to none. And it will be due to the efforts of men like Congressman Karth and others who are committed to this kind of effort.

And John Blatnik, who has been the author of three of the most important pieces of legislation for his district and country, the public works bill, the area redevelopment bill, and other programs which will make it possible for people to find a job.

One month ago we tried to pass legislation for the hundred thousand workers who exhaust their unemployment compensation. We were defeated in the House Ways and Means Committee. Every Republican but one voted against us. Yesterday in the Senate, the Senator from this State, Senator McCarthy, offered that amendment in the Senate and it passed by a vote of 4 to 1. And before this Congress goes home I hope they will write it into law. That's the son of thing that can be done by progressive Congressmen. David Graven, Conrad Hammar, and Irving Keldsen, and Alec Olson and Harding Noblitt and the others, these are the men who I think can stand for this State and, most important, stand for this country.

This country is as strong abroad only as it's strong at home. It is the great productive power of the United States of America, combined with the will and determination of the people of this country, that makes it possible for us to fulfill our role in space, around the world. Tonight the United States of America has more troops on guard in West Germany than any other country. It has nearly as many on guard and ready as all the countries of Europe combined. The United States of America has 7,000 Americans scattered over Viet-Nam participating in a guerrilla struggle. All of these men who meet their responsibility do so because we meet ours here at home.

In 1958 the United States moved through a recession, and again in 1960. We have had an economic growth rate about half of the other major industrialized countries of the world. This country must recognize that we have to make our system work in such a way that people will determine that we have a solution to the problems which disturb the world, and if we stand still, and if we say "no," and if we oppose, and if we retreat, and if we say "out" to every proposal that's put forward, then this country will sit still.

And that's why I come here tonight, though I'm not a candidate for office, asking your help on issue after issue, which will make it possible to educate your children, to find jobs for our citizens, to provide security for our older people, and to make this country the greatest country in the world, which it is, and which it must be if this world and country are going to remain free.

A number of years ago a great French soldier was talking to a gardener, and he said, "I'd like to get this tree planted," and the gardener said, "Don't plant it; it takes a hundred years to flower." He said, "In that case, plant it this afternoon!" Well, it's not going to take us a hundred years to flower in this country, but what we have to do we should do tonight, and all the nights until we make a determination in this State and country next November 6th that this country is going to say "yes," and Minnesota is going to be in the lead.

Thank you.

[Supplementary remarks to an overflow crowd in an adjoining room]

This must be the group that did not send Hubert Humphrey a Christmas present! Next year we'll put you all in the other room.

I do want to express my admiration for what I heard was the largest meeting of its kind in the history of this State. And I want you to know how much we all appreciate the effort you've made, the commitment you've made, to the Democratic Party.

We are, as you know, the oldest political party on earth, and I must say that I take the greatest pride and satisfaction in our inheritance from Jefferson, and Cleveland, and Andrew Jackson, and Wilson, and Roosevelt and Truman. I always think that the Democratic slogans of the 20th century--Woodrow Wilson's "New Freedom," Franklin Roosevelt's "New Deal," Harry Truman's "Fair Deal," and our "New Frontier"--seem to me to contrast very favorably to those slogans of Harding, and Hoover, and Dewey, and Nixon, and all those other candidates that they produced which I believe represent, as in 1962, a retreat, a method of sitting still.

So we ask your help in electing a great Governor in this State and Congressmen who can speak, as I said, for Minnesota, but even more importantly on those issues which so affect the welfare of our country--to speak for our country. We are the inheritors and the beneficiaries of all that Franklin Roosevelt, and Truman and Woodrow Wilson did before us. Now it's our responsibility in 1962 to do those things and take those measures which will make it possible for those who come after us in 1970 and '80 to live at peace and live in freedom, and also enjoy a fruitful life. That is our objective, and we want your help in doing it.

Thank you.