Remarks to the National Planning Committee of the Machinists Non-Partisan Political League.

Mr. Hayes, my fellow Americans:

I feel at home with you gentlemen and I am glad we are meeting now in this year 1964. It is leap year, you know. There are few groups in this Nation who have fought so valiantly as you have for that which is right for this Nation and that which is good for this country. You have made political action an instrument for the Nation's benefit, because what you have urged and what you have sponsored and what you have allied yourself with have inevitably been both those causes which advance the prosperity and the liberties of this country.

I am cheered to tell you that at this hour, on this day, in this time the state and the heart of this Nation is good, but your indispensable help is needed to push ahead with the programs and plans which will keep this country pushing ahead, too. The most effective way to that is for this group, with all of its skills and all of its purposes, to get out and give support to the Congressmen and Senators who work in yours and the country's cause.

We have done much and we have much undone. This administration is going to be an administration that keeps this country strong. And no single group of people contribute more to the defenses of this Nation in keeping us strong and secure than the Machinists Union.

This Nation is going to be solvent, because this administration believes that you can be frugal and thrifty without being reactionary. And we are going to save where we can, so we can spend where we heed. We are going to have a solvent country.

This administration is going to be a compassionate administration. We believe in the Golden Rule of doing unto others as you would have them do unto you.

We are going to close a few archaic military bases, and we are going to cut down on some unneeded nuclear production, and we are going to withhold some subsidies and save some storage costs of some of our agricultural bills. We are going to trim the fat, wherever we find it, in order to have money to take care of those who need jobs and who need education and who need a helping hand, the lame and the halt and the needy. And in that cause, we expect your help.

We have a tax bill that has been lingering in the Congress for more than 12 months. But thanks to the action of the Senate, we reported that bill, by a vote of 12 to 5 a few days ago, within the first 60 days of this administration. We plan to pass that bill sometime, we hope, within the next week or so-certainly, before Lincoln's Birthday-and have it go to conference and become law at the earliest possible date.

That bill alone will give to the consumers of this Nation $800 million a month that they can put back into the economic bloodstream, by reducing the withholding tax from 18 percent to 14 percent. If you make $200 a week and you reduce your withholding by 4 percent, that is $8 a week and that is something that you can take and use to build the needs of yourself and your family. That measure alone will give to the corporations of this country for investment purposes and for extra capital in the coming year a billion and a half dollars.

So, roughly, you can see the economic stimulus that will come from that measure. We believe that private enterprise, made up of the capitalists, the manager, and the worker, the three participating, all sharing in the fruits of their contributions, that they will make new investments, that they will create new jobs, that they will have the incentive to do so and that we will have a better economic picture.

Of course, if we bet wrong and these results do not flow, we all still know how to ask for programs that the Government can sponsor to put people to work and to meet our needs to our citizens. But we are going to give the private sector a chance to operate. We are going to give them a chance to operate fully, before we make any such recommendations.

Second, we have a civil rights bill that is pending in the House. We expect to have that bill reported and passed by Lincoln's Birthday. If we get the bills passed, the tax bill in the Senate and the civil rights bill in the House, we will have made great strides in our program. We hope to have the medicare bill that has been heard in the House Committee seriously considered and we should like very much to get action on that bill during this session.

So, all of these bills will contribute to a Government that is strong, to an administration that is solvent, to a country that is compassionate. In these goals every nonpartisan machinist, or otherwise, can play an important part. And I want to assure you here and now that my philosophy is that I am proud that I am a free man, first; that I am an American, second; that I am a public servant, third; and, a Democrat, fourth-in that order.

But in that order means this: we welcome to the fold all enlightened, liberty-loving, prosperity-loving, freedom-loving Republicans and Independents. And if any of you in this room meet that qualification, we welcome you with open arms, because there is going to be a place under our tent for all of you next November.

But ask no man whether he is a Democrat or a Republican. Ask him to go and vote Democratic.