Remarks Upon Arrival at Greater Cincinnati Airport, Erlanger, Kentucky

Wilson Wyatt; Governor Combs; my old colleague, Congressman Spence; Governor DiSalle:

I want to express my appreciation to all of you for your willingness to come out and permit us to say a word about this election on November 6th.

Beginning with this weekend J shall, on every Friday, leave Washington and travel around the United States in an attempt to secure the election this November of a strong Democratic House and a Democratic Senate. I know that many of you may wonder why a President of the United States, who is not a candidate himself, whose name is not on the ballot, should campaign so hard and so long for the election of Congressmen and Senators. Well, the reason, of course, is very simple, and that is, while any administration and any President can make proposals dealing with matters which affect the welfare of all of our people, in the final analysis it will depend upon the House of Representatives and the Senate to determine whether that legislation shall become law, to determine whether those proposals shall be accepted. And I have spent the last 2 years on issue after issue affecting the welfare of the people of Kentucky and the welfare of the people of this country, and seen us win issue after issue by 3 or 4 or 5 votes, or see us lose issue after issue by 1 or 2 votes in the House or the Senate.

I hold the view in 1962, with all of the great problems that we have here in the United States at home, that it is vitally important that we have an executive branch of the Government and a House and a Senate which is committed to progress.

Let me describe to you some of the issues which I think indicate how clear and how significant this election is. A few days ago in the House of Representatives we lost a bill to provide assistance to higher education. We are going to have twice as many young men and women in the colleges of the United States in 1970 as we did in 1960. We're going to be doubling the number; and some of them are here today. We lost our bill to provide assistance to higher education by 32 votes, and three-fourths of the Republicans voted against it.

Last year 84 percent of the Republicans in the United States Senate voted against nationwide financing of unemployment compensation. Eastern Kentucky, West Virginia, parts of Indiana, southern Illinois, parts of Ohio know what it is to have chronic unemployment. Eighty-four percent of the Republicans in the Senate voted against nationwide standards for unemployment compensation.

Last month 9 out of 10 Republicans in the Ways and Means Committee of the House, which must report the bill to the floor, voted against renewing temporary unemployment compensation for those hundreds of thousands of workers who, every month, exhaust their unemployment compensation and can't find a job and go on relief.

That's why we're out here today. Eighteen percent of the Republicans in the House voted against the area redevelopment bill, legislation which is needed to assist those areas of the country which have chronic unemployment of 10, 15, and 20 percent, and need new companies and new jobs.

Eighty percent of the Republicans in the House voted against a minimum wage of $1.25 an hour. That is $50 a week, in those firms in interstate commerce.

Now, that's the issue in this campaign. These Republicans, and they're all fine men, but they do not agree with our view of the necessity for the passage of this kind of legislation, they are joined by a few Democrats who oppose progress also, and this combination, this coalition, prevents us on issue after issue from securing the passage of important legislation. They have opposed it for 30 years.

I can tell you what we stand for, but I challenge anyone to tell us what the Republican Party stands for in 1962 on a record such as this. That's why we come here today asking your help in electing Frank Chelf as the Congressman from this district to take the place of a distinguished Congressman, Brent Spence, who has been the author of more significant legislation, particularly dealing in the field of housing, than any member who served, nearly, in this century, and we need a United States Senator Wilson Wyatt.

This summer we lost health care for the aged, which affects not only the aged, but their sons and daughters who're about 40 or 45 who must support their fathers or mothers and also must educate their child. A change of one vote in the United States Senate would have secured the passage of this piece of legislation--and I must say, though this is a matter which Kentucky must decide in a time when we have a Democratic administration and President and a Democratic House and Senate, who speaks for Kentucky, with two Republican Senators; and there's a chance this year to change it by sending not only a Democratic Senator, but far more importantly, a distinguished American who can serve not only Kentucky but also the United States of America, so we ask your help for him.

Politics is a profession which interests comparatively few people, but the things that we're talking about are the matters which go to the vitality of the United States in 1962. This country has a great many responsibilities here in the United States, and only if we meet them can we be sure of being strong abroad. Therefore, I come to Kentucky, and I ask a State with a long Democratic tradition, with a distinguished Governor, a State which has occupied a position of leadership in the Congress for years--I come to Kentucky and ask your support in returning Democrats to the House and a Democrat to the United States Senate.

Thank you.