Remarks in Portland, Maine, on the Steps of the City Hall

Mr. Walsh, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls:

I want to introduce you to my sweetheart--Lady Bird.

[At this point Mrs. Johnson spoke briefly. She commented on the beauty of the fall foliage throughout the New England States, and expressed her pleasure at meeting the people and her appreciation for "this wonderful welcome." The President then resumed speaking.]

Senator and Mrs. Muskie, Governor Reed, Mr. Hathaway, Mr. Curtis, Mr. Dubord, Mrs. Broderick, Miss Mackensen, my fellow Americans:

I want to say this to you tonight: I think this is the most wonderful welcome that May Craig ever received. And I want to tell you something else: She deserves every single bit of it.

When I was sick in 1955 I would wake up in the morning not knowing whether I would wake up that night or not, or whether I would see the sun rise another day. And during that period, Lady Bird was at my bed 24 hours a day.

But every single, solitary day, without exception, May Craig wrote me a letter and made me want to live and get well. I have wanted to come to Portland, Maine, ever since, and here I am, thanks to all of you.

I have come to the forest city of Portland-in the great State of Maine--to talk to you tonight about your future and about the future of your children, and about the future of your grandchildren, and about the future of America.

First, I pledge responsible government. We believe that it is every American's duty to support his Government, but not necessarily in the style to which it has been accustomed. That is why I have cut the budget by almost a billion dollars. And we have many thousand less people on the Federal payroll today than we did 10 months ago.

The people of Maine work hard for their tax dollars. The Johnson administration is going to make sure that you get full value for every dollar your Government spends.

Second, I pledge a government which will meet the challenges of the future without deserting the traditions of the past. We have built the prosperity of the country on a broad, national agreement about the great goals and the great principles of the great land that we call America.

Forward-looking men and women of every party, from Maine to Texas, from every region of America, have shaped the structure of our modern country. Men like your able, fearless, diligent, courageous, Democratic Senator Ed Muskie; and women like your own great Republican Senator, Margaret Chase Smith, have had a part in shaping the policies in Congress that have built a prosperous America. We are not going to turn it over to extreme and reckless people who would not hesitate to shatter all that has been so carefully built.

Third, I pledge a government devoted to equal opportunity for every section of this Nation. The greatness of this Nation rests on the unity of its people. A beloved New England poet, Longfellow, said:

"All your strength is in Union.

All of your danger is in discord."

So I say to you tonight we do not intend to let the voices of discord and division ever pull this country apart.

But unity does not only mean that every section has a responsibility to the Nation. It means that the Nation has a responsibility to every section.

Tonight we are in the midst of the longest and the largest period of prosperity in American history. We cannot be satisfied until that abundance reaches the life of every State and every citizen.

I say to you tonight that New England has given more than its share to the Nation's past. And I say to you, and I pledge you tonight, that New England will get its share of the Nation's future under the Johnson administration.

As my beloved friend Ed Muskie said to me, "It is now New England's turn at bat."

Three times--three times--Portland was almost burned out, once by the Indians in Colonial days, once by the invading British in 1775, once more in a roaring fire less than a century ago. Each time, through hard work and cooperation, your great city of Portland arose a better place than it had ever been before.

Nature has blessed Maine with a beauty that is unmatched in all the world. And you ought to be proud of it. But the good Lord's greatest gift to Maine is not the beauty of its land. The good Lord's greatest gift to Maine is the quality of its people.

The people of Maine have given America tradition of thrift, of industry, of independence, of courage in the face of every adversity. With these qualities as our foundation, we can work together to create a more abundant future for all the people of this State and this region.

The people of Maine have never been afraid of government--or afraid of anything, for that matter. They have never regarded government as an alien power which threatened their liberty.

More than 75 years ago, Governor Joshua Chamberlain, in his message to the Maine Legislature, said:

"A Government has something more to do than govern and levy taxes to pay the Governors .... Government must also encourage good, point out improvements, open roads of prosperity, and infuse life into all the right enterprises."

Well, I tell you tonight that that was the idea of Governor Joshua Chamberlain, and that is the course that Lyndon Johnson plans to follow.

The Johnson administration's program for prosperity will not be giveaways or handouts. No one would dare offer handouts to the people of Maine. But we are working to create new opportunities. We are acting to give people a chance to help themselves, to develop and use their own skills, to provide for their families through their own labor.

I warn you that it is up to you to seize the opportunities that together we help create. Over the past 4 years your Federal Government, working hand in hand with local government and private enterprise, has been creating new opportunity for Maine.

The Area Redevelopment Administration has assisted a new sugar beet industry which will produce 100 million pounds of sugar each year and provide thousands of new jobs. I have instructed the Area Redevelopment Administration to survey other problem areas where plants have shut down through a combination of technological change and competition. I have told them to work with you to get those areas moving again.

In 66 projects across the State, training programs are helping develop new skills for new jobs. We have trained almost a thousand men and more than three-fourths of them are now employed.

We have worked with local officials to establish new industry and services, especially in the fields of conservation and water pollution control and small business loans. And the new Economic Opportunities Act, our poverty program, will give a further boost to the great economy of the great State of Maine.

The first thing I am going to do when I get into Washington tonight is get a good night's sleep and the next thing I am going to do is call up Sargent Shriver and tell him to get in touch with Ed Muskie and the Governor and do something about it right here in Maine.

Our new tax cut will stimulate a $128 million increase in the State of Maine's income, and it will create 9,000 new jobs here in Maine.

President John F. Kennedy loved Maine, and he wanted to do something about it, and he did, during his lifetime. In July 1961 your unemployment rate was 6 percent. This July it was down to 4.1 percent, and that is below the national average. And average weekly earnings in manufacturing have risen 13 percent--up 13 percent.

And we will continue to work until every able-bodied man in the State of Maine who wants a job can find a job. That is our goal; that is our objective. And we will work as hard as we know how in an effort to achieve it.

Every one of these programs, every dollar that we have spent, has one aim and one aim only: to give every American a chance to improve his life through his own work and through his own abilities.

This is in the finest tradition of American Government.

You have heard much through the years about plans to harness the great tides of Passamaquoddy for power. This was a dream 30 years ago of one of our greatest Americans, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. It was the vision and the objective of one of New England's greatest products, John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

And Lyndon Baines Johnson is going to do something about Passamaquoddy, and Hubert Horatio Humphrey is going to help him, and so are these two fine Democratic candidates for Congress, and so is Ed Muskie, and so is Margaret Smith, and so is the Governor of this State. Because we are going to unite and try to get this job done for all you people, whether you are Democrats or Republicans. I will have a report on this project ready for the next session of Congress.

Now my present term runs out on January 20th, but if I am there after the 20th, we will be back here and talk to you again about this proposition. It must meet the standards set by President Kennedy. It must first strengthen the economy of the whole country, and it must enable America to compete better in the markets of the world. I hope and I believe that it will meet that test.

These are some of the fruits of the cooperation of government and people. There are voices which seek to tell us that government is an enemy of the people.

But what is government? Government is the people. Daniel Webster once said, "The people, sir, erected this government." It exists to serve the needs and to advance the dreams of the people.

We used to say down in my country, "As Maine goes, so goes the Nation." Well, when we said that, we were talking about elections.

But in the future, Maine will again be a leader for the Nation, a leader in creating a more abundant America, a leader in building the Great Society, where every man can have a job, where every family can have a roof over their heads, where we will work fewer hours and we will work fewer days, and we will have more recreation for ourselves and our family, where every child will have an adequate schoolroom and will have a competent teacher there to teach him, where the sick can find a hospital bed and have some medical care insurance to help him pay for it, where our countrysides will be improved and we can see the beauty of nature, and we will get rid of all these old cars that are parked out on the sides of the highways.

Yes, Maine will again be a leader, and will serve as a bulwark of freedom and peace in the world. And who knows--I don't guess anybody really knows--who knows; even in the elections, this year, Maine might resume its tradition of leadership.

I must go to New Hampshire now to conclude a speech that I am 2 hours overdue on, and then I will fly back to Washington. But before I leave here, I want to say to each of you just as simply and as personally as I would if you were sitting in front of the fireplace with me in my home: This has been a delightful day. It has been a stimulating experience for us, to get away from the desks and the papers and the reports, and the crises, and the critical decisions that come to your President, and to come out here and meet the people I work for.

I am the 36th President of this country. While we are one of the youngest countries in the world, we have one of the oldest governments. I have great faith in our system of government. I want to do everything that I can within the limits of my ability to make it work.

I must deal with the leaders of 120 other nations, and I cannot operate a government by ultimatum. They don't want to be shoved around any more than we want to be shoved around. Most of them want to live and let live. Most of them want for their children the same things you want for your children, food for their stomachs, clothes for their backs, a roof over their heads, a school for them to attend, a church where they can go and worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience. They don't ask for much.

I have traveled around the world and I have seen men and women of all colors, of all faiths, of all religions. When I looked into their heart and into their face I see just about what I see out there tonight--good human beings wanting for their children something more than they had for themselves, and willing to work their fingernails off to help them get it.

Now I don't know how long we will be able to live in this world together in harmony. In my lifetime we have had two world wars. I saw men leave, never to return, in order that we could freely assemble out here tonight and have this great privilege.

I hope and pray that I will never see another war. As long as I am your President, I am going to use the 30 years of experience that I have obtained in the House and the Senate and as Vice President, doing everything I can to hold my hand out to other countries, and my guard up.

With your help, with your support, with your prayers, somehow, some way, I think we will come through with flying colors.

Thank you and good night.