Remarks on the Courthouse Steps in Peoria

Governor Kerner, my friend and your wonderful Governor, Otto Kerner:

Illinois is going to give you the greatest majority come November that any Democratic Governor in this Nation received.

I want to pay tribute to your fighting Senator, the representative of all the people, all the time, Paul Douglas.

I have enjoyed traveling through Illinois this afternoon with Lieutenant Governor Samuel Shapiro, Attorney General William Clark, State Auditor Michael Howlett, your candidate for secretary of state, Paul Powell, your National committeewoman, Dorothy O'Brien, your congressional candidate, Mr. Cole Baker, your State chairman, Jim Ronan.

Now, my fellow Americans, we have come to the end of a long and busy and thrilling and inspiring day. Everywhere we have gone, from the time we left early this morning until late this evening, we have seen young Democrats, middle-aged Democrats, senior Democrats, Independents, Republicans who want to vote for a President in November that will represent all the people.

I think I can tell you that the ticket of Johnson and Humphrey is going to lead this Nation to a great victory come November.

Four weeks from today the American people will have made their choice. I have come here tonight to set that choice before the people.

This is a great day in America's heartland. America today is the richest nation and the most prosperous nation and the most powerful nation on earth, and as long as I am your President I intend to keep it that way.

Illinois is today the powerhouse of America, and Governor Kerner and I intend to keep it that way. Let me be specific:

Today, for the first time in history, over 70 million Americans have jobs. Personal income after taxes has risen by $80 billion in 3 years and corporate profits after taxes have increased over $12 billion. The stock market has reached an all-time high. The value of the stocks on the New York Stock Exchange are worth $100 billion more than they were when I took office last November. Total farm exports have increased 25 percent.

And in this great surge, Illinois has been one of the leading States of the Nation.

Illinois is today one of the top States in the Union, as Governor Kerner said, in exports to foreign nations--both industrial and agricultural exports.

Illinois today has one of the lowest unemployment rates of any industrial State in the Union, and I'll tell you who has been fighting to bring that about--your own great Senator Paul Douglas.

Illinois was the only industrial State that was able to reduce its public aid under Federal programs last year.

Illinois today has more men and women learning more new skills under the Manpower Development and Training Act than any other State in the entire Union.

In 1961 the unemployment rate in Illinois was 6.4 percent. In July of this year that rate had been slashed more than 33 percent. Since August of 1961, more than a dozen labor areas of Illinois have been taken off the list of "areas of substantial unemployment"-including your own great city of Peoria.

I understand that a man who works in the Unemployment Compensation Service is afraid if things keep on going this way, he will be out of a job pretty soon. Yes, you are rebuilding Peoria. You have a positive program. You stand for something. You believe in moving forward. You believe in going ahead. You are not just a bunch of negative "aginers." The excitement of rebirth is everywhere in this city. You can see it. You can feel it. It is in the air. We are moving on. You have new office buildings, you have new civic buildings, you have new highways, you have new motels.

Yes, this is a proud, new city of the future in the 20th century, and you are entitled to 20th century leadership, and you are going to get it November 3d.

One of your great industrial companies expects its first billion-dollar-year this year. All the signs read "Help Wanted," "Men at Work." And we intend to keep it that way. None of this has happened by accident. It has happened because you had the vision to rebuild your city. It happened because your State and National Governments have pursued policies that made progress possible, policies that insured economic growth. Let me give you just one example.

The biggest tax cut in American history, recommended by our late beloved, martyred President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and supported by most of the men in the House of Representatives and in the United States Senate, was enacted by the Congress.

In that tax bill we reduced the tax bill of the average taxpayer by 20 percent. We created 130,000 new jobs in Illinois. We generated an increase in total Illinois income of $2 billion. We boosted State and local tax revenues by $160 million. We cut Illinois withholding tax payments by $500 million.

Four years ago the mighty industrial and agricultural center of Illinois was stalled on dead center.

Today, Illinois is on the move, and we intend to keep Illinois moving forward. There are those who say "no." There are those who say "stand still." There are those who say "hold back." There are those who say "retreat." There are those who say "repeal the bills that have made America great."

We say, "Let us keep moving. Let us continue," and that is the choice before the American people this November.

You have a clear, unmistakable choice between continuing those policies that have brought us to a peak of prosperity, or turning to policies that will wreck our progress.

Let me give you one example: The social security system has made it possible for 19,700,000, almost 20 million Americans--one out of every 10 persons in this country--to live under that social security system and they are permitted to live their later years in dignity, with security.

Now there are those in this land who believe that our social security system should be changed. They say it ought to be voluntary. Even members of their own party say a voluntary plan would wreck social security, it would bankrupt the system.

Let me make this clear this afternoon, here in Peoria: This is one of the most important issues in this campaign. Americans are not going to gamble on social security. They are not going to risk destroying a program that has proved the bedrock of security for our older citizens.

And the position of Johnson and Humphrey is clear: We are going to fight for and strengthen and defend and protect social security, and we are going to extend it when the Congress meets again! The Illinois AFL-CIO State convention meeting here in Peoria has fought for social security. Reuben Soderstrom and his colleagues have worked to make America a stronger Nation, they have worked to make it a better place to live.

So has another great American, Paul Douglas. He was one of the architects of the Social Security Act of 1935, and through the years he has been its staunchest friend.

This is the choice the American people have to make in November: Do you want to go back to the 1930's when all the doors were closed, when all the signs read "No help wanted"? Or do you want to move forward to the wide open vistas of the 1960's?

For 30 years, under 5 different Presidents, we have followed a course to a stable, prosperous, and good society, where child labor is outlawed, where minimum wages are guaranteed, where the elderly receive social security and the young find opportunity; where labor and industry bargain freely; where our Nation is safe with a defense system stronger than those of all the other nations on earth combined.

We are not about to give any of those rights up. Working together, Republicans and Independents and Democrats alike, we shall go forward to the greatest goal: Peace on earth, good will toward men.

The road to peace is not an easy one. It is fraught with many perils. It has many side turns. There are no short cuts. But we move along it and we must move calmly. We must move patiently. We must move confidently. We must move with resolution, and above all, as good Americans, we must move carefully and responsibly at all times.

President Woodrow Wilson, one of our great Presidents, traveling through the United States, once said in the great city of St. Louis: "Things get very lonely in Washington sometimes. The real voice of the great people of America sometimes sounds faint, and sometimes sounds distant."

Well, we have to get away from Washington once in a while to come out and see the young Democrats and the great citizens of this land. And I think if Woodrow Wilson were here in Peoria this afternoon, he would not think that your voices sounded faint or distant, because he would know that we are here in the heartland of America, and that you are going to lead us to victory in November.

Yes, all day I have seen your smiling faces. All day I have looked into your happy countenances. All day I have seen the family life, the mothers and the children of America here in the heartland of the great State of Illinois. And those voices sound powerful to me. They sound clear. They sound free.

And when I return to the White House, and the policemen turn the keys on those locks on those big black gates, and I get to those few acres that are back of our house, it is going to be folks like you that sustain me in my labors and in my thoughts. It is going to be prayers like yours that give us inspiration and hope and leadership and make it possible for us some way, somehow, to achieve peace on earth.

And I want each of you to know that you have a part to play in American history, that you have a responsibility as citizens of the most powerful nation in the world, that you have an obligation as Americans-whether you are Democrats or whether you are Republicans, or whether you are Independents-and that obligation is to go out and work and fight and give the best talents you have to make democracy live.

Ten months ago, in a tragic moment, I was called upon to assume the awesome responsibilities of President of this country. And I told you that afternoon, after I took the oath of office in Air Force One, that I wanted you to give me your help and give me your hand, and give me your prayers; that all I could tell you was I would do the best I could.

We had a difficult transition period because all the world was looking at us. Our great, young leader had fallen. And our own people and the other peoples of the world were watching what course America would take. You sustained me with your strength. You helped me with your prayers.

America united--the businessman, the labor man, the farmer, the Congress--all put their shoulders to the wheel, and America became a united nation instead of a divided nation. America became a nation of lovers instead of a nation of haters. America became a nation of people who have faith instead of people who have doubt.

As I leave you this afternoon, I want you to know that I have faith in you, I trust you, I know what you are going to do: You are going to do what is best for your country. You are going to do what is best for America. You are going to the polls on November 3d and give us the greatest victory that any party ever had.