Remarks at the Civic Center in Butte

Mr. Chairman, Senator Mansfield, Mrs. Mansfield, Senator Metcalf, Congressman Olsen, the next Governor of Montana, Roland Renne, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls:

I haven't been here very long, but I don't have to be here very long now to see how the West is going to be won.

It's great to be in Montana again. My grandfather once drove cattle up here from Texas, but he went back home. He said it was too cold for him up here.

Well, there is nothing cold about your welcome here today--and I thank each of you from the bottom of a grateful heart.

I am very proud to be in Maureen Mansfield's home town, and it is nice to see her husband, too.

Mike Mansfield, the pride of Montana and the Nation, was the leader of the Senate during its most productive session in this century. He possesses those two qualities that especially belong to a leader--reason and calm judgment. And I know that you are going to let us have him back in Washington where all the Nation needs him.

It would be such a wonderful thing for you to do, such a kind and deserving thing to do, if you would send Mike Mansfield back to the Senate by the largest majority per capita of any Senator elected this year. That would show that you home folks approve of the leadership of your home boy, and that would be a signal to the rest of the Nation to get behind that leadership.

I have come to Butte today to set the issues of this campaign before the American people. I have come here this morning to talk to you about responsible government.

Four years ago June, the unemployment rate in this area was almost 14 percent. Since John Fitzgerald Kennedy was sworn in as President, that rate has been cut in half. It has been cut because of the economic policies for all the people that have kept this country moving ahead.

And I intend to keep this country moving ahead.

Our fathers and our grandfathers came out here to build the West. They built an empire, but it was an isolated empire, and it faced the hardships of economic isolation.

Today the Westerner is linked to all the world. Our State and national and local governments, working together, have tamed our rivers, have provided cheap barge transportation, and we send the products of the West around the globe. They have built an unmatched highway system, a concrete tie-in between the West and the rest of the Nation. And I call this responsible government.

Your Yellowtail Dam is near completion. Recently, Prime Minister Pearson of Canada and I signed the Columbia River Treaty. Under that treaty we will build the Libby Dam. Those two dams together with two more--Hungry Horse and the Fort Peck Dam--will give this region the water and the power that it needs to create new industries, and that means new jobs for the people.

But we are not satisfied. We don't want 97 percent of Montana's labor force employed. We want all of Montana's men working. We will not be satisfied with just 80 percent of Montana's families living well. We want all of Montana's families living well.

This administration stands ready to meet its responsibilities to the people of Montana and to the people of the Nation. That means creating new jobs. That means providing tax cuts as we did this year, and as we will next year.

The National Government, however, cannot, and it should not, do it all.

Your local governments and your State governments must work together with us, and they will work together with us under the leadership of your next Governor, Roland Renne.

And I want to thank you for sending Congressman Olsen to Washington because he has been a good team player and he has helped us build the Nation. Thank you very much.

It is very unusual for any State, much less a small State, to supply the two Senators that are in the Senate most of the time, but Lee Metcalf presides over the Senate more than I did when I was Vice President. And he is doing a wonderful job and making a fine record.

These men work with each other and love each other, and they don't hate each other and they don't spend any time fighting each other. They are not men of little purpose. They are not men that fear, men that doubt, men that hate. They are men of faith. They are men of hope. They are men that love. And isn't it better to be a nation of lovers than a nation of haters?

You don't know how much better it makes me feel to look into the faces of people that look like they just stuck in their thumb and pulled out a plum, instead of looking at someone that looks like he had a teaspoon full of vinegar.

You know, we have a wonderful group of people in America. We have good Democrats, we have good Republicans, we have good Independents, we have good whatnots, but in this campaign, I found yesterday how to pick a fellow that was really opposing me.

We drove 15 miles from the airport to where I was speaking. The police estimated that we saw between a million and a million and a half people. That is why I ran 2 hours late all day long. But about every mile and a half I would see three or four or five that I knew weren't going to vote for me. And I'll bet you you don't know how I knew they weren't--because they just looked--[the President grimaced].

They were unhappy at home, and you could see it in their countenances. They were unhappy in California, and you could see it written all over their faces.

They were unhappy with their country. You would think they were running against the Presidency instead of for it. They are unhappy with the world, and they are going to be unhappy on November 3.

But I like happy people. I like smiling faces. I like people who love their country and who believe in it, and who look forward to living in the year 2000, when the average income of a family will be $15,000 a year; when we will cross the oceans on top of the water and under the water with our cargo, when we will have a new world opening up to us in the space field.

Oh, it is such a wonderful, hopeful prospect that now I am trying to get the doctors to find out how they can control heart disease, and cancer, and stroke, and all the things that kill men early. I want to be around in the year 2000 to enjoy it, and I know I am going to enjoy it if I am here.

And I sure want to be happy when I enjoy it because it must not be very pleasant to have to take these dyspeptic pills. And you don't take them if you really look and see what America has done during your lifetime and mine.

The world is growing smaller, though. You live out here in the wide open spaces. But spacecraft girdle the globe. And in this nuclear age the fate of all mankind is linked together.

But America is going to meet her responsibilities to mankind. We met them last year with the nuclear test ban treaty, the first glimmer of light at the end of a black tunnel.

President Eisenhower worked for that treaty.

President Kennedy negotiated it and ratified it. And responsible leaders of both political parties approved it in the United States Senate.

Senator Mike Mansfield and Lee Metcalf are Democrats and they come from Montana. Senator Everett Dirksen is a Republican and he comes from Illinois. But these Senators, these men who put their country first, worked together for all mankind and they got that treaty approved by an overwhelming vote.

Not far from where we are meeting stands a 150-unit Minuteman missile complex that is soon to be expanded, and it is a symbol of our determination to pursue peace through strength. Peace is the most important subject to every man, woman, and child in this hall.

But you will meet your responsibilities to mankind best in the 3 weeks that are remaining between now and November 3d, and in the years ahead, by conducting yourselves as responsible leaders of the world, of the free, that we are.

Because good politics is good government. If you will do what is best for America, you will do what is best for your party and for yourself.

I haven't come out here to reflect on your intelligence with a lot of name-calling or mudslinging, or muckraking. On November 3d you are going to decide between two parties, you are going to decide between two leaders, you are going to decide whether you want our foreign policy, which has been bipartisan since World War II, to continue.

It was Arthur Vandenberg that worked as a Republican with Harry Truman, a Democrat.

It was Lyndon Johnson and Mike Mansfield, as leaders of the Senate, Democrats, that worked with Dwight David Eisenhower, as a Republican.

It was Everett Dirksen that worked with John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

But we, both Democrats and Republicans, have worked together to make America responsible and to make America united.

If I am elected, I shall continue that policy. I will try to unite our people; I will never try to divide them. I will try to bring our people together; I will never separate them. I will try to get our people to love thy neighbor as thyself, instead of hate thy neighbor and distrust everybody.

And I predict if I am elected, that the extreme groups that have infected this country, the spotlight of publicity will be put on them. And the Klan and the Birch Society and those others who preach hate will have their robes pulled open where the American people can see them.

Because a long time ago it was said, "United we stand, divided we fall." That statement was true then and it's truer today.

I have tried to set before the American people the basic issues of this campaign-leadership, responsibility, unity, peace, prosperity. And on November 3d I think that you are going to choose an administration that you believe is responsible.

Do you know, I have been President only 10 months. I had to assume this office on a moment's notice. I didn't have any chance to reflect and retrace my steps, and make additional preparation, and go to the library. I had to act, and act immediately. And I said to you then and I repeat today, with God's help, with your prayers, with the unity of all of our people, I will do the best I can. I have done the best I could for all Americans.

Montana is a peaceful State. Since I was a little boy, I have seen Montana Senators stand up and try to fight to lead the Nation-Tom Walsh, Burt Wheeler, Mike Mansfield, Lee Metcalf.

But a few months ago, I sat in the National Security Council when Mr. Khrushchev had his missiles in Cuba, and I never left home a single morning to attend 37 meetings of that Council that I knew I would ever see my wife and daughters again that night.

I saw strong men sit around the table and debate about what course we should pursue. I heard men say, "Let's move," and we put our bombers in the skies, loaded with their bombs. We put our ships on the sea, and our submarines under the water, and we moved in the directions where we thought they might be needed.

But that order that would take us into war and would destroy and snuff out 300 million lives was not given, because the coolest man in Washington sat at the head of that Cabinet table, and his name was John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

He remembered, and I have not forgotten, that you expected him to be a man of care and caution; that you expected him to be a man of patience who wanted to preserve the world; that you had selected him with his thumb to be in the vicinity of that button; and when he mashed that button, you knew that he would know that there was nothing left to do but do it.

But he never got that thumb on that button because he was calm, because he was patient, because he was reasonable, because he analyzed the other man until the point was reached that these two leaders, as Secretary Rusk said, stood there eyeball to eyeball, until they both realized that there was nothing to gain for anybody by killing 300 million human beings.

So you have 3 weeks now to decide. You will decide which thumb you expect to be in the vicinity of that button. You will decide which voice you want to pick up that "hot line" if Moscow calls. You will decide who you want to lead this Nation in its relations with other nations. You will decide what you want to do about the prosperity and the programs we have now.

I don't know what you will decide. I am not even going to recommend.

But I am going to tell you a story of an old boy that works in a store down in my country where we go to buy our groceries. He said the salesmen come through every day and say, "Are you for Johnson or that other fellow that is running against him?"

He said he finally got so tired of answering so many questions that he went out to the little local bank and bought him 15 Kennedy half dollars, and he put them in his pocket. He said, "Now when the salesman comes in and says, 'How is this country going? Is this Johnson country or what kind of country is it?'" he said, "I don't even answer him. I just rattle those 15 half dollars and say, 'I like it pretty well as it is.'"

So you will decide whether we will move forward, whether we will face up to our responsibilities both at home and abroad, whether we will build a better life for our families and our children, whether we will build a safer world for all human beings, whether we will build a peaceful world for all mankind.

That will be your decision. The American people don't ask much. They ask their leaders to keep their guard up but their hand out. They ask their leaders to be firm, but to be understanding and to be patient, and not to be hotheaded. They ask their leaders to try to make it possible for every child to get the education he can take, every family to have a roof over their heads, everybody to have clothes to cover him and food to sustain him.

And as the great labor leader, Phil Murray, one time said, "The American people don't ask for much--a school for their children, a church for them to worship in according to the dictates of their own conscience, a picture on the wall, and a rug on the floor and a little music in the house."

I believe that this is Democratic country. Am I right?

Well, I have four more appearances in four more States today, and I will be getting on my way. But you have your job to do in the next 3 weeks, so let's get on and get going, and get doing it.