Remarks in Pittsburgh at the Steelworkers Union Hall

The first thing I want to do is to present to you a lady who lost her salary the day that I took the oath of office as President, but one that is not unemployed-Lady Bird.

[At this point Mrs. Johnson spoke briefly. The President then resumed speaking.]

First, I want to say thanks to Mayor Barr, officially, and, through him, unofficially, to all the people. He tells me that the Chief of Police said that the reason we were late was because we had to stop and have the chance to shake hands with a quarter of a million people. That is a good deal more people than in my town of Johnson City, with a population of 541.

I am here today because of the confidence of some of the people of this country, primarily because of the loyalty and the faith that men like Dave Lawrence had in me, and men like Dave McDonald had in me. I guess if I ever had a boy, I would have to name him Dave.

I want so much to be worthy of their faith and their friendship, and I am trying so hard. I have been deeply touched today by seeing all of these people, however many thousands there may have been, the majority of them under 30 years of age, out here to see their leader and talk to their President, and try to help him evolve a program that will drive unemployment from our midst.

This is not a Democratic job or a Republican job. We have the responsibility at the moment of leading the Nation. But we need the cooperation of both. from time to time Senator Scott, who is here on the platform, has a few private observations to make about me, and Jim Fulton over on the House side talks about some mistakes the Democrats make, too.

It reminds me of that judge down in Texas during the depression when they called him up one night, a State Senator did, and said, "Judge, we just abolished your court."

He said, "Why did you abolish my court ?"

He said, "Well, we have to consolidate the courts for economy reasons. Yours was the last one created."

He said, "You didn't do it without a hearing, did you?"

He said, "Yes, we had a hearing."

"Well," he said, "who in the devil would testify my court ought to be abolished?"

They said, "The head of the Bar Association."

He said, "Let me tell you about the head of the Bar Association. He is a shyster lawyer and his daddy ahead of him was."

You haven't said anything like that about me, because I am not a lawyer.

He said, "The mayor of the city came down and testified."

The judge said, "Well, sir, let me tell you about that mayor. He stole his way into office. He padded the ballot boxes. He counted them twice."

He said, "Who else testified?" They said, "The banker."

He said, "He has been charging usury rates like his daddy and his granddaddy ahead of him did ."

"Well," he said, "Judge, I don't think we ought to talk any longer. You're getting your blood pressure up and you're excited and it's late tonight. And I just thought I'd tell you that the legislature is adjourned. Somebody did offer an amendment to abolish your court. We didn't have a hearing. I was just kidding you. Nobody has come down here and testified against you at all. 'But I have fought the amendment and killed it and the bill has gone to the Governor and he signed it. And you are safe. I thought I would call you up and make you feel better."

He said, "I know it, Senator, but why did you make me say those ugly things about three of the dearest friends any man ever had?"

So, don't you folks think we get too angry with each other sometimes? Hugh and Senator Scott frequently say some of the ugliest things about some of the dearest friends they ever had, particularly in an election year.

Now, I want to thank John Graberra, and his lovely family, and Matthew Moore, for coming here and visiting with us. I came here today to Pittsburgh, to Joe Barr's town, Dave Lawrence's town, Dave McDonald's town, because Senator Scott and the other members of the Pennsylvania delegation, and Dave McDonald and Dave Lawrence, had been urging me for many months to come to Pittsburgh and to come to Pennsylvania, to learn something about our problems and try to do something about them.

Well, I am here to fight an enemy. I am here to tell you that I intend not only to start that fight but to keep up that fight until that enemy has been routed and destroyed. That enemy is unemployment. His ally is poverty. You are going to hear a lot more about that in this country and around the world in the next few months to come, because we are going to do something about poverty, too, in every county in this land.

Many people in Pittsburgh know what unemployment means. You have just heard from two of them. The thing that 'stimulated me most about this meeting was not what Dave or Lady Bird said, but the great faith that these two men who are unemployed, that have no way of providing, no job for providing for their little ones, the great faith they have in this system, the great faith they have in this country, the great faith they have in their leaders, and the fact that they come here and want to work with us.

I am not going to cause them to lose that faith. We are going to do something about it just as soon as we can, in every way we can, because it takes a lot of hope and it takes a lot of courage, and it takes a lot of faith, to be out of a job many months, as 60,000 people are in this city today, who know the frustration of bills piling up, and savings going down the drain, who know the sickening loss of dignity that comes from wanting to work, but having no place to work.

I have come to Pittsburgh today to talk about these problems. I have come here to talk with the people who know these problems firsthand. I have come to listen, too. I have come because this administration cares.

Progress, I think, is possible. You have shown that in Pittsburgh. I saw it on your skyline this afternoon. I saw it in the statistics I looked at last night. Unemployment is now at its lowest level in 7 years. It dropped from 12.9 in January of 1963 to 7.5 in March of 1964• Steel employment is up more than 1,200 over last year, and primary metals employment is up 5,200 over last year.

But progress can be deceptive, and leaving in its wake men and women who know nothing of the blessings of plenty. All the statistics in the world cannot tell the heartache of one man that is denied the right of earning a decent day's wages.

Well, we are not asking for much. But Franklin Roosevelt spoke of the one-third that were ill clad and ill housed and ill fed. He did something about it as long as the good Lord let him stay here. For four terms, the people returned him and supported him in that fight, and he and Harry Truman and John Kennedy brought that one-third that were ill clad and ill fed down to one-fifth in a period of 30 years. Now, how long it is going to take us to get rid of that one-fifth, we don't know, but we are beginning, we are moving, we are going, and no one is going to stop us in that fight.

One of the great union leaders of the world, the late great Phil Murray, said the working people don't ask for much. All they want is a decent job with decent wages, with music in the house, with pictures on the wall, and with a rug on the floor. What Phil Murray said decades ago is still true.

We want a decent job at decent wages, and have a little house with a picture on the wall and music in the home and a rug on the floor. We do not intend to let these Americans be forgotten. We do not intend to relax our efforts until every man who wants a job and who is willing to work has the chance to get a decent job.

Two days ago in Washington, free collective bargaining won a victory that is welcomed by every American in this land from little 7-year-old Cathy out in Chicago, who wanted her grandmother to come and be with her at her first Holy Communion, to the biggest railroad president in this country and the greatest brotherhood leader.

We averted a strike that would have led to the loss of 6 million jobs, that would have led to the gross national product going down 13 percent, that would have led to wholesale price increases all over the land almost momentarily. We averted that strike.

But more was at stake than the economy. What was really at stake was whether you would bury collective bargaining for all time, or whether the future of free, collective bargaining in this country would continue to exist. The settlement of the railroad dispute proved the mettle of the free enterprise system.

A lot of people talk about free enterprise, but not many of them do anything about it. We did something about it. The railroad presidents did something about it. The railroad brotherhoods did something about it. The Government did something about it. We said, "Now, come on and put your Bible in your hip pocket and your demands in the other, and come in this room and turn over to prophet Isaiah and come now, let us reason together."

For 5 years they had fought, and for 13 days they reasoned. It preserved the integrity of free, collective bargaining. Now if men from the unions and men from the companies can get together to solve what seemed to be an insoluble solution after 5 years--some writer said that I demeaned the Presidency and I degraded it because I called them together and told them to settle their own business, and if they didn't know more about it than I did, I ought to have been in the railroad business.

It is like Mr. Rayburn said one time when General Marshall asked him to go see a plant making bombs during World War II, and he said, "General, if you don't know more about how to fight the war than I do, we have wasted a hell of a lot of money on West Pointers."

If these men from the unions and these men from the companies can get together to solve what seemed to be an insoluble problem, surely the ingenuity of labor and management, surely the good will of men in and out of government, surely the intelligence and dedication of this Nation can bring an end to unemployment.

The first thing I did when I walked into this hall today was, Dave McDonald went to the phone and tried to get Roger Blough on the phone for me so that we could talk to him about the problems of industry. The week before last they were in my office in Washington, one representing the employer and the stockholder, one representing the men who produce and who turn out those products with the sweat of their brow, and their horny-handed sons of toil, but both of them agreeing on one thing: that we have to have a program to get rid of unemployment. Mr. Blough, unfortunately, was in the East, but we talked to the president of U.S. Steel, Mr. Worthington. I am very proud that Dave worked that out.

But I came here today to pledge you my commitment to pursue the goal of full employment as long and as hard as I know how. Here in Pittsburgh, $2 1/4 million have been made available under the Area Redevelopment Act for public facility loans; $51 million has been made available by your Government under the Public Works Acceleration Act for 125 projects; 51 worker training projects, with almost 3,000 trainees having been approved under the Manpower Development Training Act.

Increases and extensions of the minimum wage have bolstered consumer purchasing power. The new vocational education law and amendments to the training act, which Senator Clark had so much to do with writing, will provide more help for the unskilled.

These things we have already done, but they are just little marks on the stick, little notches. Just as the Federal Government has been a partner in your effort in Pittsburgh, it must be a partner with business and labor groups throughout this land, in the drive for full employment, in the drive for high production, in the drive for economic expansion, which will drive out poverty and end human waste in this land.

I would give everything I have not to be here in the position that I am in here today, but since I have this awesome responsibility, I am going to do the best I can by it. November 22d we had 5 of the 15 appropriations bills that were due to be passed last June out of the way. We had passed them all before Christmas, and they were signed. We passed three education bills that made this the greatest education Congress in history. We passed a far-reaching hospital and library bill which will mean something to all the people of America.

We put a petition on the Speaker's desk and started petitioning out with the help of the United Steelworkers and others the civil rights bill that was before the Rules Committee, and we got 180-odd signatures. They agreed to report the bill because we were in sight of the promised land.

We passed the civil rights bill out of the Rules Committee and through the House of Representatives without any deep hatreds and without any bitter remarks--because most of the people there know that Abraham Lincoln in his wisdom took the chains off the slaves 100 years ago, but he did not free the Negro of his color or the country of bigotry. He signed an Emancipation Proclamation, but until education knows no color and is blind to color, until having a job is unaware of race and it is not a consideration, emancipation may be a proclamation, but it is a mighty empty promise to people who have waited 100 years.

So I have some compassion for these people who, on occasions, act rude, as I thought they did at the New York Fair the other day.¹ But I also have a good deal of understanding. The best way for you to know what is happening in your country is just to imagine yourself in their position, and that your grandfather and your father and you had waited for 100 years for an equal shake and a fair shake that had never come.

Just put yourself in the position of the man who gets up in the morning and walks the street all day looking for a job that can't be found, and he goes home and talks to his wife that night.

You put yourself in that position and apply the Golden Rule and do unto others as you would have them do unto you and we will clear up a lot of these problems that are requiring a long debate in the Congress. No President can be any stronger than the people behind him.

So I have come here to Pennsylvania to a city that has a 7.5 percent unemployment, that has made some progress, with the hope that I could get a better understanding because a man's judgment is no better than the information he has on that question. I am trying to get some information on the question.

But I am going away with a stimulation and with an inspiration that I did not anticipate. This has been a wonderful experience for me, and I want to ask you to help your country, your Government, and help the men of both parties pass a civil rights bill that both parties can take credit for, that we will be proud of, that can say that we truly do have equal rights in this country.

We proved in 1960 that you could elect a man President without regard to his religion. We proved in 1960 you could elect a man Vice President from the South without regard to his region. So let's prove by the act of 1964 that all Americans can be treated equally, and that the guarantees of the Constitution apply to Negroes as well as to whites.

There will be times when you will be frustrated and when you may even be irritated. But the best way in the world to get sobered up from that hangover is just put yourself in that other fellow's position and say, "How would I feel if I had been denied the job because of my religion or my race, or my color? How would I feel if I had been denied the right to buy a cup of coffee because of the color of my skin ?" You ask yourself that question, and you will find the answer in your own heart.

We are going to pass a civil rights bill if it takes us all summer long, and we are going to pass it with the votes of both parties. We don't want any Democratic labels on it. We want it to be an American bill, passed by Americans. We are going to keep this country at peace, if God wills it, and we are doing our best. We are going to ask men of both parties to help us do that.

I said yesterday that I want the Republican nominee to counsel with me and give me his judgments, just as I counseled with General Eisenhower for 8 years when he was President and I was the majority leader of the Senate and the minority leader of the Senate. We tried to find out what 'was good for America and then do it, regardless of which party advocated it. That is what I want to do.

Now I am having a little trouble finding out exactly who to talk to in the Republican Party. One of my friends that drinks Pepsi-Cola went out to Viet-Nam and said we ought to be doing a little more, we ought to be moving forward, and taking in a little more territory, and having a little more war.

We have a great Republican out there, Ambassador Lodge, and we have tried to get our judgments together, and he agrees that we ought to step up our activity in South Viet-Nam. We have a program that he and the Government and all of us have agreed on.

Some of our people want us to pull out altogether. I assume after the convention that we can sit down, whoever the Democratic nominee may be, and the Republican nominee, and try to see what is best for our country and agree on it. Then stop the mudslinging and go out and present our own programs to the people. When we do, I am going to be like the little country boy that didn't get the invitation to the dance. I am going to sit down and write myself one, and come right back here to Pittsburgh.

Thank you.

I can't recall all the names, because I've made several speeches today, but I just want to say that this congressional delegation in the House of Representatives has been among our most loyal supporters. Dr. Morgan here is chairman of the great Committee on Foreign Affairs. You people have sent us some of the best and finest Congressmen that we have.

I want to leave this little story with you. The reason Pennsylvania has such a wonderful delegation, I think, is because you copied Texas. They asked Mr. Rayburn one time why it was that Texas had the chairmanship of several committees--we never did get Foreign Affairs, like Doc Morgan, of Pennsylvania, has--and why they had such power in the Congress.

He said, "A very simple reason," and I want you people to remember this answer, "We pick them young, we pick them honest. We send them there and we keep them there."