Remarks at the Municipal Park, South Gate, California

Mr. Chairman, Governor Brown, Senator Salinger, Congressman Van Petten, Congressman Holifield, and other Members of the California delegation on the platform, my fellow Democrats, my beloved Americans, ladies and gentlemen:

Oh, what a wonderful morning! My what a wonderful day!

Back in my boyhood, we had breakfast at home on Sunday morning, then we went down the road to church, then we had dinner-on-the-ground in front of the Pedernales River.

This morning we had breakfast at home in Texas, we flew out by jet and went to church in Arizona, and now we have come all the way out to the shores of the Pacific to have dinner-on-the-ground. And it is a late dinner, too, I will tell you that.

I am sorry, but when people are good enough and kind enough and friendly enough to leave their homes on the Sabbath Day and come out to wave a welcome to you, you just can't drive by them in a big car and not see them and not shake hands with them and not thank them. And I have been doing that. I know you understand it. I hope you will accept my apology.

When I finished high school back in 1924, I came out to California looking for a job. I am happy to say to you now that I am employed full time right now. I have the best employers in the world, and when my contract is up for renewal I hope you will be satisfied with my performance.

But I didn't ride all the way to California to talk about today. I have come out here to talk to you about the future. Because the future must be the first concern of all Americans in all of our States, just as the future has been your concern in the greatest State and the largest State in the Union, the State of California.

Most of you remember learning long ago that great parable about those who used the talents given to them and were called wise, and those who only hoarded their talents and did not use them were called foolish.

This generation of Americans is talented. As free men and women, enjoying the blessings of peace--and you ought to be thankful that you have peace--enjoying the blessings of prosperity, and there has been a day when we didn't have these prosperous conditions, I believe that each of us bears a deep moral obligation to make use of our talents and to prepare our country for the future and prepare our children for the future.

When the next President of the United States takes the oath of office next January, the year 2000 will be closer to us than the year 1929.

In the years between now and then, our population will have grown by 140 million people.

Americans will be living longer than they ever lived before. I shook hands with a lady in Gary, Ind., the other day who is 116 years old, and she is voting for the first time this year. She is a Negro lady that lived in a State that had not been allowed to vote, but she is voting this year.

Most of the killing diseases that we know now, like cancer, heart condition, and strokes, that have gone on before us, will be unknown. Men and women are going to be living to be 90 or 100 years old, and they will be able to work all those years.

Long before then, America is going to be a land of young people. In only a few short years, half of our population in the United States is going to be under 25.

So if America is to mean for those who come after us what it means to you, you have a lot of work to do.

Now, what do you have to do? You have schools to build; you have teachers to hire; you have cities to improve; you have resources to develop; you have rivers to harness; you have new fields to plow; you have new horizons up there to explore.

Over the next three decades, the next 30 years, one horizon beckoning to us will be the sea around us. To a far greater extent than you realize, the sea, s-e-a, will be a center of most intensive exploration. We shall learn to travel across it at speeds of 100 miles per hour or more. We shall learn to carry larger quantities of goods beneath it in efficient cargo submarines. We shall learn to make much more extensive and profitable use of the products of the sea. We shall learn how to farm the beds of the sea, to feed two mouths around the world where now we feed only one mouth.

We have a moral obligation to begin meeting that now.

Out here in the West, other generations learned the hard lesson of squandering our resources. So we must conserve our resources. We must conserve our wealth. We must conserve our values and our heritage.

We must keep America strong militarily, and we shall. We must keep American momentum strong and keep it going, and we shall.

We shall permit no godless "ism" to bury America by force. And neither shall we permit any system that is alien to individual freedom to overtake us by greater dedication or zeal, or purpose, or extremism.

We must use our heads to guide us in doing the work that our heart tells us has to be done. We must keep our eyes in the stars but keep our feet on the ground.

These works can be done only if we live together, if we work together, if we move forward together as one Nation and as one people. "United we stand, divided we will fall."

The time has come in our national life for us to be together, not apart. It is time to bind our wounds and heal our history and make this Nation one nation, indivisible.

America cannot stand strong at home or in the world if her people struggle against one another on the quicksand of suspicion or cynicism or hate. We must do away with our fears and our doubts, and we must embrace our vision and our hopes. We must be a nation of lovers, not a nation of haters. We must be a nation of builders, not a nation of destroyers. We must be a nation where all men have equal opportunity and none have special privilege.

America cannot stand strong at home, and America cannot stand strong in the world if her people fight each other, if we struggle against each other, because if we are to be the peacemakers, and if we are to lead the world, we must strive to keep the peace of our own lives, of our own people here at borne. We cannot be the peacemakers of the world if business is fighting labor, if labor is fighting the farther, if the Government is fighting all three.

So I have tried, as your President, since that tragic day when our beloved President was taken from us, I have tried as best I could, with the talents that the good Lord gave me. I have done everything I knew how to heal this Nation. I have never preached hate, I have never preached doubt, I have never preached fear, I have never preached division, I have never tried to array class against class, group against group, race against race, or religion against religion, and I never will.

If we are to be the champions of freedom for individual man everywhere or anywhere, we must be champions for freedom at home. We must be champions among the poor and among the rich. We must be just as willing to protect the constitutional rights of a poor man as we are willing to protect the private rights of a rich man.

So among the poor and the rich alike, among the weak and the strong alike, among the silent citizens as well as among those who raise their voices the loudest, I want each and every American of whatever faith, of whatever color, of whatever religion, of whatever party, to know as long as I am carrying on for John Fitzgerald Kennedy, as long as I am President of the United States, I am going to be the President of all the people.

But I want you to know this: that no one person, not even with Lady Bird and Lynda Bird and Luci Baines to help him, can lead this Nation by himself. That night I returned to that empty White House, that room that was vacant because our leader had fallen, I said to the American people on the television that with God's help and with your prayers, I would do my best. I have done my best.

Our beloved President had a program for all the people of America. It included mass transportation, it included reduction of taxes, it included economy in Government, it included a farm bill, it included equal employment, it included poverty, it included civil rights, it included space, it included technology, it included science, it included the heart disease, the cancer program, the libraries, and education of our children.

I counted those bills. President Kennedy, when he was taken from us, had 51 major measures for the people, p-e-e-p-l-e, p-e-e-p-u-l. I mean the great mass of human nature that make up 190 million, and they have one leader. They just have one President. I am the only President you have.

But he had 51 bills there and we picked up on a moment's notice. We couldn't go to the library and look anything up. We couldn't debate and decide whether we wanted to or not. We had to take part in that transition. The world was watching us to see what would happen to this country when it had lost its leader. We had to make decisions and we had to move. And we did move, and we have moved.

Last Friday night, sitting there in the White House about midnight, I looked over that list of 51 major measures. The Congress had come; the Congress had gone. The tax bill had been passed and the citizens had been given back $12 billion. We had more people working than ever before in history--72 million. The businessman made $12 billion more this year after taxes than he made when Mr. Kennedy took over. The laborers, the workingmen, made $60 billion more after taxes than they did when Mr. Kennedy took over. More people were working than ever worked before. We had the greatest prosperity in history.

I looked at those 51 bills, and so help me, we had passed each and every one of the 51 through the United States Senate. They have said some ugly things about us on the way, and they had not given me too good recommendations, some of the members of the other party. But I want to tell you this: I came out here today to thank you people of California for giving me Pat Brown to help me. He has, as your Governor, and I am grateful.

I want to tell you something else: I told you I couldn't do this by myself. And right in a pinch, when we needed him, when we lost one of the best friends I ever had, Clair Engle, he gave me Pierre Salinger, who has been my strong right arm. This is something I want you to put down in your noggin. I want you to put it in your notebook and I don't want you to forget it. If you are going to forget it--some of you are forgetful people, I know that--but if you are going to forget it, don't forget it before November 3d].

I want you to send Pierre Salinger back to the United States Senate, because California, the coming State, the State that is on the move, the modern State, the 20th century State, California needs Pierre Salinger. But the President needs him, too. And you can't do any good just passing them in one House. You have to pass them not only in the Senate but in the House, too, and Van is the man. Come up here, Van. All the way with Van the man.

On this day I have much to be thankful for. I saw my old friend Chet Holifield. He nominated me for Vice President here in California. I came out here to seek my fortune. I never could find it. I worked out here 2 years, 1924, and I went back to Texas. That was your gain, I guess, and Texas' loss. But anyway, I am coming back here again after November, if you invite me.

If you don't invite me, I am going to be like the little boy down in my country that didn't get the invitation to the ball. I am just going to sit down and write myself one.

On this day, though, let us remember that the happiest days of the week are the Sundays, the days when families can be together, the days when we can be home with our loved ones, the days when we can be out in the park enjoying the rest and recreation, because we are working fewer hours per day and fewer days per week.

The happiest years of our lives that are ahead of us will be those years when we at last are together, together as one Nation, together as one people. We cannot have peace in this world if we are divided. We cannot unite other peoples until we unite ourselves.

Do you know that the Commander in Chief of this country and the leader of the Soviet Union hold the mightiest, the most awesome, the most frightening power at their thumb tips that any person could imagine?

I sat in 37 meetings in the National Security Council with President Kennedy during the Cuban missile crisis. I saw the men come in with the stars and the admirals come in with their braid and I saw them make their recommendations. And I saw a solemn Secretary of State, a wise and good man, and he said, "We are eyeball to eyeball." There were Mr. Khrushchev and his missiles in Cuba, 90 miles away, pointed at us. Our planes were ordered off the ground with their bomb bays loaded. Our whole military force was shifted in this country, moved in one direction. And every morning when I left home I didn't know if I would see my wife again that night.

But I am proud to say to you, because he can't be here to defend himself, that the wisest and the coolest man that sat at that table was the President of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

It adds no luster to a man's statesmanship, and it is no tribute to a man's character, to refuse to give John Fitzgerald Kennedy the credit that he is justly entitled to, when he is not here to claim it for himself.

So I am not trying to improve my character; I am trying to be just and fair and honest, and say to you this: In the 11 months that I have had this awesome responsibility, I have had forces shooting our soldiers in Panama, I have had them cutting off our water in Guantanamo, and some men getting excited and saying, "Send in the Marines." I have seen our men die in Viet-Nam and I have seen our destroyers fired upon in the Tonkin Gulf.

I have been required to make the firm decision that when those destroyers were fired upon for us to destroy them and make appropriate reply. And we did. But the only thing that is really important to you good people in this park today is your families, your future, your prosperity, your job, your loved ones. But all of that goes down the drain, all of that goes poof, up in one blow.

The only thing that counts is peace in the world--peace, peace, peace, and you better work at it, and you better help others work at it, and you better support it.

You are not going to get peace in the world by rattling your rockets. You can't have government by ultimatum. I remember when I was a young fellow and pretty impulsive--I don't like to use that word because some people think I am taking a jab at somebody else, but I am not. Young men, most of them, are impulsive. I said one time when I got in a fight with a head of a power company that wouldn't let me build a little REA line in my country district in Texas, I said, "As far as I am concerned, you can take a running jump and go straight to--" and everybody applauded me, and the board of directors thought I was brave and great. One old man, though, the general counsel, who had been a lawyer a long time, and mighty wise, and had been in a lot of fights, he didn't applaud. He just looked serious. He was an ex-Senator.

I said, "Senator, what did you think of my speech ?" He said, "Come by my office, and I will tell you."

I went by his office and I said, "Senator, what did you think of my speech?" He said, "Young man, you are just in public life, you are just starting. I hope you are in it a long time. I hope you go a long way. I am going to try to help you, but the first thing you have to learn is this: telling a man to go to hell and then making him go are two different propositions."

He said, "First of all, it is hot down there and the average fellow doesn't want to go, and when you tell him he has to go, he just bristles up, and he is a lot less likely to go than if you hadn't told him anything. What you better do is get out the Good Book that your mama used to read to you and go back to the prophet Isaiah and read what he said. He said, 'Come now, let us reason together.'"

I don't know how many old soldiers I am looking at, and I don't know how many boys out there are going to be taken away from their mothers and called into uniform. But so far as I am concerned, I am one President that had rather reason and talk than fight. Fight I will, if fight I must, or if fight I need to, but I just won't do it as a Sunday afternoon exercise just to entertain somebody. We live in a world with 120 nations, and each one of those nations has its own idea about what is best for its own people.

There are men of different colors, men of different languages, men of different religions. Some of them are short men, some are tall men, some are fat men, some are slender men. I am trying to learn how to live with them without putting my finger on a button that would destroy humanity.

Do you know what the might that came out of Oak Ridge is? Do you know what that is? Do you know that in a matter of moments we can destroy the lives of 300 million people? Do you know in a matter of hours 100 million people, more than half of the United States, would be wiped out?

Do you know that yesterday was the first anniversary of the test ban treaty that President Kennedy got 108 nations to sign?

I am going to talk about that treaty next Thursday night. I want every one of you to listen, because it is pretty important to you mothers, because the danger that you faced of your unborn children has passed on. The danger you faced with your children drinking that milk has been lessened. The danger in the air you breathe and the food you eat, the radioactive particles in the atmosphere have been lessened, because of the wisdom and the patience of John Fitzgerald Kennedy and the other men who supported him.

We are the strongest, the mightiest Nation in all the world, and we are going to continue to be. We seek no large war, we over no one's land. We seek only freedom in the world. We remind you that of all he new nations that have been born, of all he countries that have thrown off colonialism, of all the nations that have their new independence--and they add up into the dozens--not a single one of these new ones has embraced communism.

I would remind you of something else when you want to feel sorry for yourself and get to be a martyr and think about how bad America is. Ask yourself what other country you think is better. I just tell you. I don't know what plane you want to take or what continent you want to go to, but I will tell you this: I have been to all of them, and wherever your plane lands when you leave here, you can fill it up with local folks on a return flight if they can get into America. The last nation to embrace communism was Cuba in 1959.

We have a bipartisan foreign policy and it has been working reasonably well for 20 years and we want to improve it and strengthen it. We want men of good will of both parties to help with it.

We have a prosperous community, we have a prosperous Nation, more people working, better jobs, more pay. We have a frugal, economical Government. I cut a billion dollars this year under last year's budget, and I took the Kennedy budget that I inherited and I cut it $1 billion 100 million before I wrote my own budget and cut it. We have 25,000 less people working for the Federal Government on the Federal payroll today, this July, than we had last July a year ago. We have cut our taxes $12 billion and returned it to our taxpayers.

We are taking our poverty program, because of installations that were obsolete, that we didn't need, that we closed up, and we took the money for poverty and we are going to make taxpayers out of these young men that have been taxeaters on our daddy's relief rolls.

We have the finest, the mightiest, the happiest nation in all the world, and we ought to be ashamed of ourselves when we hear these crybabies coming around talking about what is wrong.

You have a water problem that we have to solve. You have some other problems-to get jobs for people in California, because every day that that calendar ticks, you have to find thousands of more jobs for your increasing population. The first thing you know you are going to be twice as large as you are. In the year 2000 the average family income in the State of California is going to be $15,000 a year.

I remember the first President I ever saw, and the greatest President I ever knew. I saw him stand up one day in his braces, with pain in his legs, and anguish in his face, but vision in his head and hope in his eyes. I saw him talk to almost this many people, maybe more. It was a rainy, cold day in March 1933. The banks were popping in the country just like popcorn, just like firecrackers going off at Christmastime. They were closing.

The railroad men had come running down to Washington and the insurance companies and all these captains of finance, all these smart conservatives, and the roof had cared in. People were burning their corn. Cotton was selling for 5 cents. You couldn't find a job and relief lines were longer than from here to that airport I landed at, and that is 15 miles away.

But this man stood up in that time when things weren't near as good as they are today, with the braces on his legs, out of his wheelchair, and he grabbed that microphone, and he stuck his chin up, and his jaw out, and he said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself," and he electrified a nation, and he saved a republic.

I say to you today, in the presence of his wonderful son Jimmy Roosevelt, who sits on this platform, that we must cast away the shadows of doubt and these harassing fears that frustrate some of our citizens. We must ask them to take them back down to the basement and we will put them on sale next month when business is not so good.

The only thing that America has to fear is fear itself. And if I know anything about America, and I have traveled in 33 States, Americans are unafraid.

Goodby, goodby. God bless all of you.