American Textile Manufacturers Institute Remarks to Members of the Institute.

I've just come back from a tour of the Labor Department and the Commerce Department.

Since the Labor Department was founded over 70 years ago, they've never seen a President over there. And I think it's very good for me to have a close and personal relationship with the very fine public employees that work here in Washington and around the country.

Over half the employees of the Labor Department work out in the different communities around the Nation--about 8,000--and about 6,000 work here in Washington. But the attitudes of people in Government service are mirrored almost instantly in the attitudes of people throughout the country toward Government.

I have got an awful lot to learn. As you know, I've only been here on the job less than 3 weeks. I've got an excellent Cabinet, and I believe that we've already engendered among the members of the Cabinet a new inclination to cooperate with one another.

As Governor, I had a hard time deriving any sort of a comprehensive answer to questions that I faced among Commerce, with the EDA programs, with Labor, with HUD, with HEW. They all gave me a different answer. And I think the reason was that they were trying to repair, in Atlanta and in Dallas and in Minneapolis, the damage that had been done in Washington because the Cabinet Secretaries didn't work closely together.

You are business leaders. You manage your own companies with efficiency and effectiveness. I think you require, through your own leadership and strength, cooperation at the top levels of your own companies, and I hope to do the same thing in Government.

Perhaps for the first time, we now have a very effective and substantive Cabinet meeting every week, where I bring together all the members of the Cabinet. And we have 2, or sometimes 3 hours, no-holds-barred discussion among those leaders about matters that affect our Nation for that particular coming week.

I think it's very helpful to have the Agriculture Department and the Commerce Department and the Labor Department, for instance, sit down with the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense and the energy director and me, to exchange both information and criticisms and ideas.

I think you know from your own knowledge of my Cabinet selections that I've got competent people. Quite a few of them have backgrounds similar to your own.

Mike Blumenthal, the Secretary of the Treasury, is a man who, I think, demonstrates in a personal way the kind of opportunity that our country provides. He is Jewish. His father was in a concentration camp in Germany. They finally scraped up enough money, he and his mother, to let his father out of prison. They went to Hong Kong and spent a number of years almost living in custody. And he came here as a young man and worked himself up to the president of one of the finest and most well-organized business entities in the world, Bendix Corporation. And at a tremendous financial sacrifice to himself, he came to work in Government. His salary is probably one-tenth what it was at Bendix, and he faces tremendous challenges in his Department.

One of his responsibilities will be to deal with your industry, which is so crucial to our country. You are the largest employer in our Nation outside of agriculture itself, which is so generic in its makeup. I think you have about 2 1/2 million employees.

As I campaigned for President for 2 years or more, I tried to visit as many of the textile mills and the shoe manufacturing plants and so forth as I could, where you have such high labor intensity. And I know the tremendous competition that has come to you from unwarranted imports. Obviously, we've got to have some imports so that we can let people have a way to pay for our exports. But I want to be sure that not only do we have the different departments tied together with one another, and not only do I want to have the Cabinet members tied directly to me as President, and not only do I want to have cooperation between the Congress and me, I also want to have cooperation between the business community and myself.

I was fortunate enough to be elected President without having to make any promises in private. I never made a single promise to anyone that wasn't made public. I never promised a single person a job. So, I am free to make decisions as President, based on the merits of the decision as I make an ultimate judgment.

But there are many aspects of business and government and private life with which I'm not familiar. And to the extent that you feel at ease in coming directly to me or to Mike Blumenthal, to any of my White House staff, it makes my job much more assured of being a successful effort. I want to do a good job as President. I don't know all the answers. You have many answers that would help me, and I hope there will be a partnership formed between us.

I do have one thing that need not cause you any concern. Because of the quality of my Cabinet officers and their own independence, I think you might find a reduced need to come directly to the White House for an answer to a question or to relieve a problem that you might face.

So, my suggestion to you is that in matters relating to international trade, to restraints, that you go directly to Mike Blumenthal, directly to the Secretary of State, and then if you can't get your problem addressed, then come to me or the White House. I don't believe in having my own White House staff subordinates try to run the departments of Government. They are not as well qualified to be Secretary of Treasury as is Mike Blumenthal.

So, there will not be another Ehrlichman or Haldeman in the White House whom you have to approach to get an answer to a question that relates to the Treasury Department or to the Commerce Department or the Labor Department or to the State Department. You can go directly to those Cabinet members. They speak for me. They speak with authority. They speak with sound judgment. And they need your help just like I do.

Another point that I want to make is this: The Congress in the past has been very wise, I think, in addressing some of the needs of the labor community, the working people of our Nation. That's where I came from; I'm one of them, also. I think, for instance, in the passage of, say, the OSHA legislation, the concept and the purpose is good. It's sound. But I want to make sure that the administration of that program is no longer so aggravating that it alienates the employers and the employees, both of whom can be well served with a well-administered program.

I had a long meeting this morning about the writing of unnecessary regulations. If I accomplish one thing in my administration, it's going to be to cut down the volume, the complexity of regulations, guidelines, directives, and required reports that afflict the business community of this country. I mean it. And I don't intend to fail in that effort. I think you can count on it.

It's unbelievable--you believe it-[laughter]--what comes out of the Federal Government every year. Just in the final regulations alone, after they are edited down, it takes a 15-foot bookshelf with very fine, legal-type printing to house all the final regulations. And I've told all my Cabinet officers that I want the people that prepare those regulations and do the final editing to put their name on them, and I want the Secretaries of HEW and Labor and so forth to read every regulation in the future before they are issued.

I told them it might take all their weekend, that's all right. But I believe after three or four weekends, when they've spent all the time reading unnecessary regulations, they will start trying to go down to the department and say, "Now, is this really necessary? Can it not be written clearer or briefer?" And you can help with that.

I'm also going to do the best I can so that when you fill out reports that the same data need not be given separately to the Commerce Department, the Labor Department, HEW, and so forth.

I think one comprehensive report, if prepared for you to fill out with multiple departments, might be divided once it gets to Washington so that you might minimize greatly the amount of time that you spend filling out sometimes necessary data on which I have to base ultimate decisions and on which the Congress has to base its decisions. Some of those reports are necessary to assure compliance with the law and for us to derive data bases on which to make decisions. But the unnecessary reports--we're going to cut them down.

We will announce the director of the OSHA program in about a week. And at that time, we are scheduling regional hearings, or I might say forums--they are not official hearings--where you might come and register your complaints and your suggestions for better administration of the program. We will bring in the OSHA representatives in your area. We will bring in representatives of labor. And I hope that you will start preparing yourselves to present your own ideas--I hope in a constructive but critical way--of when those open forums are conducted.

We want to make the program work. And I want you to have an input into the changes that are necessary.

A couple of other points and then I'll have to leave.

By April 20, Dr. James Schlesinger and I and almost every member of the Cabinet will be working to evolve a comprehensive, long-range energy policy for our country. This is crucial. We are the only developed nation in the world that doesn't have such a policy established. And the Government and industry and others are floundering now, because there is no predictable way to meet emergencies when they arise, extended cold weather periods when they arise, drought when it arises. And we have seen our energy shortage compounded by inappropriate administration of the Government itself.

The last 2 months, we imported over half the oil that we used in this country, more than 10 million barrels a day. We presently waste more energy than we import. I'm not talking about engineering waste that's theoretically impossible to stop. I'm talking about waste that can be corrected.

And this needs to be changed. I couldn't have chosen a better person than Dr. James Schlesinger to head it up. He's a man of superb intellect and strong will and a good background. He's been the Director of the Budget Bureau. He's been the Secretary of Defense. He's been the Director of the CIA. He's been the head of the Atomic Energy Commission. And he could very well have served as Secretary of Defense or Secretary of State or any other position in Government. But I thought that the energy administrator was the most important single appointment that I had to make.

And his decision, mine, the Congress and yours, will have a profound effect on the future of the textile industry and the life of our country. You ought to be thinking in your own area how you can minimize waste and make more efficient use of the energy available to you.

Just as a result of our emergency natural gas legislation, for instance, we've just allotted 2½ million cubic feet of natural gas to Dalton, Georgia. We've had several thousand textile employees out of work for a number of weeks now because we couldn't get enough natural gas in there to carry out the normal processes. And I hope that this won't happen in the future.

It's too late to have that many people out of work and then have to pass legislation in 8 days--which is almost unprecedented-and then start allotting natural gas where it belongs. But because of the complexity of the regulatory agencies' rules and the complexities of the laws on the regulation of natural gas, the artificial division between intrastate and interstate natural gas, it was almost impossible to meet the needs where they existed, even though the natural gas was available in other parts of the country.

So, I want to be sure that you have an input into this process as well.

The last point that I might mention to you very quickly is this: On the Multifiber Trade Agreement, 3 or 4 months ago, I was approached by a group representing you that asked my endorsement for an extension of the existing agreement.

My reply was that if that was the will of the textile industry, that you had my promise of support. It's a very complex subject, and I hope that you will work very closely with the Special Trade Representative when that person is selected-and we are approaching that point now-and with Mike Blumenthal to let your views be known.

If there are amendments to the present Multifiber Trade Agreement, I need to know what your positions are on those amendments. Once you open up the agreement to amendments and debates, it creates additional complexity.

But I'm not trying to force my will on yours. What I would like to do is to understand what your position is and then make a judgment accordingly. But you have my promise, which I will maintain, that if it is your decision just too extend the present agreement, I will certainly back that agreement. If you propose changes, then, of course, I'll have to assess the changes one by one. But you know more about your industry than I do. And within the bounds of realization that you have to have both imports and exports to carry on trade that is beneficial to us all, I'll do the best I can to protect your industry.

I want to say this: I wish I had time to stay here for you, a half hour or an hour. I don't have the time to do it. But I did want to come by and speak to you briefly, because your industry is so important to Georgia and to South Carolina and North Carolina and Tennessee, particularly-where I've lived and grown up, but it's important to the whole country as well.

And I hope that you will feel free to let me have your ideas and your suggestions, your advice, and also your criticisms. I'm going to make mistakes. I am going to have to make decisions on taxation and on energy and on welfare programs with which you might not be in complete agreement. I recognize that. But I'll try to make my decisions only after I have assessed your position.

I've got a lot to learn. I don't claim to know all the answers. And we, you and I, are kind of partners in making sure that our Government does perform properly and that there is a constant, mutually supportive relationship that exists between the business community on one hand and the Government of our Nation on the other.

I'll try to do the best I can to be a good President, and I thank you for having me come over and to give me this chance to express a few thoughts to you.

Thank you very much.