Remarks at Tallahassee, Florida

Governor Kirk, Senator Gurney, Congressman Cramer, Judge Carswell, and all of our friends here in Tallahassee, the capital of Florida:

I want you to know first what a very great privilege it is for me to speak for the first time in the capital of Florida. As I speak here, I particularly want to express my appreciation to all of you who came from miles around to this airport rally. I saw the cars parked as Air Force One began to land. I realize how far some of you had to walk. I know some of you have been standing here over an hour. Thank you very much.

I want to thank the musical organizations that have been here. I understand we have the Leon High School Band and the Godby High School Band. At least we brought those two rival bands together.

I am also very happy to be in Seminole country. As some of you may have noted, I am somewhat of a football fan, probably because I sat on the bench for 4 years and learned so much from the coach.

But in any event, I do know the great rivalry here between Florida State and the University of Florida. And I do know, too, that this year, the Seminoles, who have had some really fantastic years in the last 2 or 3, have not been as good as perhaps some had expected, but they won last week so watch out for the rest of the year.

But whatever the situation with regard to that Seminole football team, I found something else: that the Seminole Band is number one. Let's give them a hand.

And also, before I respond to that very generous introduction by the Governor of this State, I want to say something about a man for whom I have very great admiration, he is one of your fellow citizens in this county and in this city.

I thought that Judge Carswell was a big man when President Eisenhower nominated him to the Federal bench. I thought that Judge Carswell was a big man when I nominated him to be on the Supreme Court. But when Judge Carswell was rejected by the Senate by a very small vote, and when Judge Carswell lost that nomination to Bill Cramer and then came back to be a real man and support the winner, he is a great man. Let's give him a hand for what he is.

Because we have to learn that in this life we aren't going to win all the time. We aren't right all the time. And we aren't going to have our way all the time.

The real test of a man is not when he wins but when he loses and when he comes back and says, "I am for the team," and Judge Carswell is that kind of a man. And we thank him for it.

And now, since I am speaking in what at least on the map is a Southern State, and since Claude Kirk is one of the first Governors of this State who bears the Republican label, and because there has been a great deal of discussion with regard to a Southern strategy on the part of the national administration, I think it might be well before this audience--this audience made up of Republicans, Democrats, Floridians, Southerners, yes, Americans--I think it might be well to discuss the Southern strategy, what it is, and why I believe that it is something that all Americans, not just Southerners, should welcome.

First, I will tell you what I believe about it. I happen to believe there are no second class citizens in America. I happen to believe that there are no second class States in America. And I happen to believe there are no second class regions in America.

I went to school in the South. I know the problems of the South, as well as the West and the North and the East. I can say this: I think the time has come for the South not to be taken for granted by the other party, and the time has come to quit kicking the South around. The time has come to recognize this is one country with one standard for the East and the West and the Midwest and the South. That is my attitude about the Southern strategy.

We have, as you know, a very difficult problem with regard to our school system. We believe, all of us, as law-abiding Americans, that we should carry out the law. And this administration is committed to carrying out that law, and we are doing it.

But we are also committed to this proposition: that the law should be carried out not with the idea of penalizing one section of the country, but that the same standard that applies in Florida should apply in North Carolina or should apply in Michigan or New York or any other State.

Let's just stop this hypocrisy that the problem in our schools is only in the South. It is all over the country. Now, men of good will, women of good will, children of good will, teachers, students-we can solve this problem and we can meet it. I want to tell you what I believe.

I have stated it in the North, in the East, in the West, in the South, and in a major statement that all of you have had the opportunity to read in March of this year. I think it is a sound proposition. I see these young people, these children here, I think of their future. I think of their future, whether they are white children or black children. I want them all to have that chance to fulfill their dreams, just as all of us have had a chance, we think, to fulfill our dreams.

Just remember, we cannot fulfill the American dream unless each American has a chance to fulfill his own dream. That is what we believe in. That is why we want quality education, quality education for every child in this country.

I happen to believe that if we are to have quality education, the best kind of education, particularly for our young Children, is in the school that is closest to home rather than the school that's clear across the town.

I believe in that, because if you put children on a bus for an hour, they are going to be fighting. I don't care whether they are black or white. Just you put them on that bus. And it is better, in my opinion, to recognize, of course, there must be some transportation, but that busing for the purpose, sole purpose, of achieving racial balance is not required by the law and, in my view, does not serve the interest of quality education.

So we stand for the neighborhood school in Florida, in California, all over this country. Why? Because we want equality of opportunity for education, and we want better education for all of our children, and that's the way to get it. That is what we are for.

That brings me to your Governor, Claude Kirk. Claude Kirk is a man who stands for these propositions that I have just described. He is a man who has fought hard for these principles. He is a man, some say, who is controversial.

Let me say this: Any man who does anything is going to be controversial. Show me a man that doesn't stand up and fight for what he believes is right, and I will show you a man who isn't getting anything done.

I happen to be a part-time resident of Florida. I am a taxpayer in this State. I have invested in property in this State. I intend to keep that property because I believe in the future of Florida.

But I believe that future will best be served by having in the Governor's office a man with the vision and the courage and the strength of Claude Kirk as the Governor of this State.

It is very easy, my friends, to go back to the old ways. It is very easy to go back to the ways that this State was in before, the ways where the new ideas were simply brushed under the rug, the new ideas that are absolutely essential for this State that is probably going to grow more--do you realize this?--than any State in this Union in the next 25 years.

It is very easy, when you consider a State like this, simply to settle for leadership of the past. But here we have a man who is thinking of the future, who is planning for the future, who is building for the future. And it is for that reason I am investing in Florida.

I am staying in Florida because this man, I think, can give the leadership that Florida wants, he and his whole State ticket.

Now I turn to those who are on the national ticket. I turn to them because that is my primary responsibility as the President of the United States.

I was elected by the people of this country based on certain pledges that I had made. You remember what they were. You remember 2 years ago that we had 550,000 men in Vietnam with no plans to bring them home, that our casualties were at 300 a week, and they were going up. You remember we had no peace plan. There seemed to be no hope to bring the war to an end.

You remember that crime had gone up 158 percent over the last 8 years, and was still going up.

You remember that we had a weak Attorney General. You remember that as far as the decisions that were being made in this Government at that time, that there did not seem to be the urgency to deal with the forces of crime that were destroying our country.

You remember, too, that the inflation in this country was moving up at a rapid pace because our Government had spent $50 billion more in the previous 8 years than it had taken in in taxes. And when your Government in Washington spends more than it takes in in taxes, year after year after year, the inevitable effect is to raise the prices for all the people. That is wrong. It is wrong for people in Washington to spend your money in a way that raises your taxes or your prices, when it isn't necessary to do so. We are going to stop that, but I need some help.

My friends, I have pledged to bring into being in the United States a policy that will not only end the war but bring a peace that will last.

I have pledged to bring peace at home, to stop the rise in crime. I have pledged to adopt those policies that will bring us progress and prosperity without war, which we have not had, and progress and prosperity without inflation, which we have not had. We have made some progress. We are moving along. But we need help.

The President is a very powerful man. It is the most powerful office in the world because this is the strongest nation in the world.

But, you know, the President cannot do what he wants to do for the country, what you want him to do for the country, what you elected him to do, unless he has got help from that Congress.

I need the kind of help that Ed Gurney, your Senator, has been giving us in the United States Senate. I need the kind of help that we have been getting by the Members of the House delegation who are here, and those candidates who are running for the House.

Let me put it quite directly. What is involved in this election campaign on the national level, and I will put it in terms of the Senate race, very simply is your one vote, and your one vote may determine a majority of one in the United States Senate.

Did you realize, looking over the last Congress, that a change of one vote meant the difference as to whether we would have had a missile defense and the President of the United States would negotiate from weakness or strength?

One vote could have made the difference with regard to the approval of a Supreme Court nominee, with regard to whether or not we had fast action on the bills that we had submitted for stopping crime in this country.

One vote could have made the difference as to whether or not we were going to stop the rise in inflation.

Over and over again in this closely divided United States Senate, one vote-sometimes two, sometimes three. But we find over and over again the same pattern. If one vote were to shift, it makes the difference as to whether or not the President of the United States is going to have a Congress that is going to work with him or work against him; whether or not we are going to have the support that we need or whether we are not going to have the support that you want us to have.

Let me get very precise in these terms on the issue in which you are vitally interested. I am concerned, and very deeply concerned, about those problems that all of us are mentioning as we think about the decision we make on November 3d, but particularly about the future of our young people. I want these young people to have what I did not have.

I was born in 1913. I see some others here that have lived that long. Did you know that anybody who was born in 1913 or before has never seen America have a generation of peace?

We were in World War I and ended it. Remember?

We were in World War II and ended it. We were in Korea, and we ended it.

But, before the generation lived its life out there came another war each time. My friends, the problem with regard to ending a war in Vietnam is not a difficult one. I could end it like that. But the problem is, let's end this war in a way that we will discourage those who would start another war. Let's end this war so that we can win the peace, a generation of peace for Americans in the years ahead.

My friends, that is why a great number of young Americans in a very difficult war, far away from home, have gone to Vietnam. They have fought bravely. Sometimes they have wondered about the backing they had back here at home.

But those men out there are fighting, and some of them are dying, so that these men won't have to go to war, not now or any time in the future.

I see a sign here. It says "Listen to America's Youth." I hear America's youth. I hear them here. I see them as you see them night after night on television. You see them, and you get a distorted opinion of America's youth.

Let me say in that connection I think it is very unfortunate, and I have talked to some older people who express great despair about our young generation. They are wrong, because what they see on television is this: Oh, they see the bombing of a building, the burning of the bank in California a couple of days ago. They see a few trying to shout down the President of the United States, and they think that those are a majority of America's youth and the leaders of the future.

Let me tell you: They are not a majority of America's youth, and they will not be the leaders of the future.

I am proud of young Americans. I want to tell you why: Because they care. They care about peace. They care about the people that don't have the same chance that they have. They want a better America. They are not satisfied with the way things are. That is why I am proud of them.

I am proud of them because they want change, and I am also proud of them because the great majority of them realize that in this country, which provides a method for peaceful change, there is no cause that justifies violence or resort to violence. I am proud of America's young people.

And to our young people, sometimes, as you study about our problems in school, sometimes when you hear on television or read editorials and columns about everything that is wrong about America, could I remind you and your parents about some of those things that might be right.

I have had a very great privilege since I have been President to travel to many countries. And as I traveled to those countries, Communist countries, Romania, Yugoslavia, non-Communist countries, it has been the same kind of a reception every place: hundreds of thousands of people cheering.

What were they cheering? They were cheering not because America is strong, because leaders of other strong countries have come there and not had that kind of reception. And not because America is rich, because leaders of other countries that are rich have come there without that kind of reception. But because they know that the United States, the strongest nation in the world, does not threaten the peace or the freedom of any country in the world.

In other words, America's strength is for peace and for freedom.

There is another reason: They cheer the President of the United States because they know that of all the nations in the world, there is more freedom in America, there is more opportunity in America, there is more progress in America than there has ever been in any country in the history of the world. And they respect us for that. And we should be proud of it and not be ashamed of it, and stand up and speak up for America.

To all of you across this great country of ours, there are many problems that we want to act on. We want to clean up the air and the water so that our children can have the heritage of a beautiful country that we received. We want to move forward with progress in education, in health--a better program for our older people. We want to move forward with programs in the welfare system--a program which will enable people to have a floor of dignity on which to stand.

But, my friends, let us recognize that only in America, because we are a rich country, can we do all those things.

Do you realize you can travel to nation after nation, and all of them would want these things. But because we are fortunate enough to live in America, the President of the United States can, as I have over the past 2 years, advocate the most comprehensive, bold program in terms of the environment, in terms of programs in education, in health, and welfare, in the history of mankind.

That is why I say, as we look at America's faults, let's also consider its virtue. Let us remember this very simple thing.

I have had the great good fortune of visiting every State in this Union, and I can tell you this is a great country. I can tell you we are part of a great people, and together we share a great future.

Now, I want to tell you the answer to those who may not, as you have--most of you--shown the respect to any speaker, whether you agree or disagree with him, by listening.

The answer is not to try to shout them down. The answer is not to answer in kind with violence, if it is violence. But what to do is for the great silent majority of this country to answer in the way that is the most effective over 190 years of our Nation's history. You have a powerful weapon. It is a weapon of peace. It is a weapon of a majority.

On November 3d you can vote, and as you vote, remember--remember that, as you vote, you are going to determine the future of Florida. I hope you vote for Claude Kirk, because I think he is best for the future of Florida. You are going to determine the future of America. I hope you vote for Bill Cramer and our candidates for the House, because I believe they are best for the future of America.

Because, remember, a majority of one may determine whether the President of the United States, in these next 2 years, has the backing that he needs to do what you elected him to do, a majority of one. Bill Cramer is the one who might be that majority. Elect him.