Remarks at Fountain Square in Cincinnati

Governor DiSalle, Senator Young, ladies and gentlemen:

I am glad to be back in Cincinnati--these 20 months have not been entirely wasted-[laughter ]--and to come back here on a very good cause.

I do not come to this city and State in October of 1962 as a candidate for office myself. I come to this State because I believe, after 20 months as President of the United States, I believe it's vitally important that the people of Ohio and Kentucky and the people of the United States make a choice for progress in 1962 and not choose to sit still. And that's why we're here in Ohio.

You have in Ohio 23 Congressmen. You have 7 Democrats and the remainder are Republicans. And what this State must decide is: What are the issues facing the United States today? What do you want of your Congressmen? What do you want of your Senators? What do you want of your Governor? What are the problems that this State and country face?

Well, I think we can sum them up very briefly, and that is that the United States, with a population increasing three million a year, with nearly 20,000 new people coming in looking for jobs every week, that the United States has had the lowest rate of economic growth in the last 5 years of any major country in the world--any major country in the world. There are more people out of work in the United States, with the exception of Canada, than any major country in the world. That is the basic domestic issue that the United States faces.

Do you know the United States this year could produce nearly $50 billion more than we are going to produce? The Soviet Union works 48 hours a week, 50 hours a week, every factory going to the maximum. We have 5 V2 percent of our people out of work. We have 2 or 3 percent more that would like to find a job but don't. We have people who work short time. That's the issue in this campaign. And I think in the last 20 months in the Congress of the United States--and this is not a matter of characters or personalities or parties, this is a question of whether your Congressmen and your Senators and your Governor support the kind of program which will make it possible for this very rich country of ours to fulfill its promise--I want to read you the record, and it's here for all to see.

In the last session of the Congress we had a bill up to provide for aid for education for our college students. Three-fourths of the Republicans voted against it.

We had a bill before the Congress for $1.25 minimum wage. A Republican Congressman from Ohio made the motion against it. And 80 percent of the Republican Party in the House of Representatives voted against $ 1 .25 minimum wage.

Ninety-five percent of the Republican Members of the House of Representatives voted against a housing bill last year.

Now, we believe--I believe, and I'm sure you must believe--that those Members of the House and Senate, however splendid they may be in character, the fact that they vote time and again against medical care for the aged and for housing and temporary unemployment compensation and area redevelopment, and all these programs that are so necessary for the welfare of our country, indicates why I'm out here tonight: because I believe this election's important.

We have one hundred thousand people, and thousands in Ohio, who have unemployment compensation and exhaust it, and they can't find a job, so we suggested that unemployment compensation be renewed for them for 6 months. Nine out of 10 Members of the House Ways and Means Committee who are Republicans voted against that. Now you have a chance to decide here in Ohio and in this district whether this is the kind of Congress and country you want--one that sits still, one that lies at anchor, one that drifts, one that says "no." They have made the word "no" a political program.

I believe in the word "yes," and that's why I am hopeful that, of course, you will elect again Senator Lausche, and that you will send to the Congress men and women who can speak for Ohio, and speak for the country, Monica Nolan, and Harry Sand, and Jerry Rasor, and Martin Evers, with whom I went to school long ago, Robert Riley, and John Pritchard from Indiana. These are men and women who I believe support the kind of a program that this country's going to need.

We go back in January to write a new tax bill. Is that tax bill going to be a bill which takes care of a few people, or are we going to write a tax bill which will give this economy sufficient stimulus to move it ahead and not have a recession in 1963? That's why this campaign is important and that's why we're here tonight.

I think the issue is very simple: Those who believe in a strong country must recognize that it's here at home we first must be strong, and this administration has been strong abroad. We have added, and it's easy to make speeches about what America should do abroad, but this administration has added five combat divisions. We've increased our army from 11 to 16 divisions in the last 20 months.

This year in the field of space we will spend three times what we spent last year, and last year we spent more than the previous 8 years combined. These people who talk about a strong country abroad--we need military strength, and we need to be strong in space, and we need to demonstrate a concern for the people of the world. This last administration ignored Latin America for 8 years, and we paid the price. This administration, in the Alliance for Progress and in the OAS, has worked to make it possible for democratic institutions to flourish in Latin America, which is far more important than all the speeches and all the signs. So I come here today and I ask your help for these Members of the House and Senate.

And, finally, I know that this State will reelect Governor DiSalle. Ohio is known as the mother of Presidents. Well, for a brief period I was a son-in-law of Ohio because Governor DiSalle was the first Governor of any State in this Nation who supported my campaign for the Presidency. And while for a period Ohio, my mother-in-law, locked me out, we're back here tonight to ask your help in making it possible for him to be reelected again.

Being Governor of a great State is the most difficult task in the world, but he has shown in his concern for education, in bringing jobs to this State, in taking care of those who are sick and those who are mentally retarded--he has made the same record here as he made in Washington and in his own home State, so I'm proud to come here today and stand on this platform with men and women who are committed to progress, with a distinguished Governor of a great State--of Ohio.

I come here in October 1962 and ask you to help us move this country forward.

Thank you.