Remarks in St. Petersburg, Florida

Governor Kirk, Senator Gurney, Congressman Cramer, all of the other distinguished platform guests, and to all of you who have given me such a very warm welcome here in St. Petersburg and to this county:

It has been mentioned, and I take notice of this fact, that I can proudly say today that I am the first President ever to visit this city of St. Petersburg.

After a reception like this, I can assure you I will not be the last President to visit St. Petersburg.

I am very happy to be in the Sunshine City of the Sunshine State. I am happy to be here because of my very good memories of the years that I have been here before, the many meetings I have attended, the friends that we have in this area. And I particularly want to thank you for coming out in the middle of the day in such great numbers. I want to thank all of those who took time from their jobs to be here, people who also took time from school.

In the very few days that I have been traveling around the country, I have seen a few bands, but never so many as I see here at St. Petersburg. Now, let's hear them all. The Largo High School Band of Gold, the Dunedin High School Band, the Meadowlawn High School Band, the Dixie Hollins High School Band, and the Gibbs High School Band. And also my deep appreciation to the First United Methodist Chancel Choir for the music that they presented before the meeting.

I do not think that it is any secret as to why I am here in Florida. I am here because of my very great interest in the future of this State, in the future of this Nation, and in your future. I am here because I believe that future is going to depend in great measure on what happens on November 3d in the elections in Florida and across this Nation.

First, let me speak about the State contests. Generally speaking, I do not cover State contests because my problems, my responsibility, are on the national scene. But in Florida I have a special interest. After all, as you know, I have a legal residence in California and a home there. I also have property and a home in Florida. I live in the best public homing in the United States in Washington, D.C. And I can say that as I have noted over the last 2 years that except for Washington, D.C., I spent more time in Florida than any other State in the country.

So you see, I like this State as you like this State, and I know that most Floridians, like most Californians, are people that came here because you wanted to come here. And I want to say that as a taxpayer in this State, as one who has invested in property in this State, as one who intends to keep that property because I consider it is a good investment, I am interested in the future of this State.

And when I speak of the future of this State, I want you to know that I believe that it is vitally important to have leadership in Tallahassee that will not go back to policies of the past, but leadership that has courage, leadership that has vision, leadership that believes in progress, and the man who stands for those things is Governor Claude Kirk. That is why I am for him for Governor of the State of Florida. So, I commend him and the entire State ticket to you today.

Also, on the national level, before I arrived on this platform, I am very happy that the candidates for the House of Representatives have been introduced. I endorse them all. I, particularly, of course, in his home district, endorse your next Congressman, Bill Young, who will make a fine Congressman in the United States Congress.

Now, I come to the Senate race. There is an enormous interest in this Senate race in Florida because Florida is one of those States that is going to determine what I have described across this country as the majority of one in the United States Senate.

By a majority of one, I am not referring simply to party control. This is far more important than whether the Democrats or the Republicans vote one way or another in the Senate or in the House, or in the Nation. But the majority of one will determine whether or not we are going to have an adequate defense for the United States; whether we are going to have a program and backing for the President on a program that will bring lasting peace; whether we are going to have backing for the President on a program which will stop the rise in prices in this country; whether we are going to have backing for a program, with knowledge, on a program that will stop the rise in crime in this country; and a program of progress for all Americans.

Now, listen to the words that I have used: peace abroad, peace at home, progress, stopping inflation, employment, jobs--all of these things we all believe in.

The question is, how are we going to get them? These are not partisan matters. And I ask you for a few moments to think not just of your Republican background, and most of you, of course, here are Republicans, but to think of yourselves as Americans, what is best for America.

Think of the fact, for example, that 2 years ago in the State of Florida, this State gave to the present President of the United States one of his biggest majorities.

Think of the fact that I was elected for the purpose of carrying out certain promises I made to the American people. I promised to work for a just and lasting peace, to work to stop the rise in crime, to work to stop also the rise of prices in this country, and for a program of progress-progress for all Americans, which is what we want, particularly for ourselves and even more so for our young people.

My friends, I have been working for those goals. And when you think of the President of the United States, and all of you, particularly you young people, you study about the Presidency, and you think of the man sitting in that great Oval Office in Washington, D.C. You think of all of the world leaders coming to that office.

You recognize that whoever is President of the United States is probably, in terms of power--because he represents a powerful country--the most powerful man in the world.

And yet let me tell you, a President can be for peace, a President can be for progress, a President can be for stopping crime at home, a President can be for stopping inflation, but he can't do it alone. He isn't that strong. He needs help. I need more help in the House; we need it in the Senate. And you can help by giving us the men that we need.

So it really gets down to that. It doesn't get down to personalities. I am not here to campaign against anybody. I am here for the men that I believe in. That is what you want. And I am for these men because I know they are going to be for those programs that are best for Florida, best for America, and best for you.

Let me tick them off. First, I noted here, as I have in other cities that I have visited, numbers of people, particularly young people, who held up their signs, "Peace now." I am for peace. All of us are for peace.

But let me describe it. Let me tell you what we have done about it. We haven't just talked. We have done something. When we came into office, there were 550,000 Americans in Vietnam. Our casualties were at 300 a week and going up. There was no peace plan on the conference table. We came in. I went to work. We are bringing men home by the tens of thousands rather than sending them to Vietnam. We are bringing the war to an end. Because I took and made the difficult decision which I made for the purpose of destroying the enemy sanctuaries in Cambodia, we have cut American casualties. They are the lowest in 4 1/2 years; they are going to continue to go down in Vietnam.

Now we have a peace proposal on the conference table in Paris, a reasonable proposal, dealing with the cease-fire, a negotiated settlement, and exchange of prisoners of war, and a willingness to negotiate without conditions on those matters.

Let me tell you where we are in a nutshell. We are on the road to a just and lasting peace in Vietnam, but we need support. We need support for that kind of responsible policy.

Now let me tell you what the other policy is. There are men who disagree. It is very close in the United States Senate in this respect. Sometimes it is a majority of one. There are men who say, "Peace now" or, at a time certain, a few months from now.

There are people that say that it doesn't make any difference about how we get out, just get out. Let me tell you this: When I came into office, I could have ended the war immediately, but what I want is not just to end this war; I want to end this war in a way that the younger brothers and the sons of those that are fighting in Vietnam aren't going to have to fight in some future war sometime in the future.

And so to you young people, I say to you, I know this is a difficult period. I remember before World War II how I felt. I know how you feel as you look at this very difficult war, far away. I can simply say this: We have ended World War I, we have ended World War II, we ended Korea in this century.

Do you realize if you study your history that there has not been one full generation of peace in this whole century?

The question is not ending a war. The question is ending a war in a way that we can win the peace. And we are going to win the peace this time. We are going to win it for America and the world.

In order to win it we also are going to have to be strong. It is necessary for the President of the United States to negotiate with other nations, and particularly with other major nuclear powers, including the Soviet Union.

We are going to negotiate, if we can, a limitation on nuclear arms so that we can reduce not only the burden of arms but the danger of war. But if you are going to send your President into negotiation, I say let's be sure the President of the United States negotiates from strength and not from weakness in any negotiation that takes place.

Why is that important? Because a strong United States will be respected in the world, and a strong United States will use its strength never to destroy freedom but to defend it; never to break the peace but to defend the peace.

This is why, standing for a strong United States means that you are standing for peace, not just peace for the next election--that is easy--but peace for the next generation. That is what we want and that is what w-e are going to have with the support that you can give us.

I turn to a similar problem at home. If the United States is going to be able to lead the forces that will bring law and order and respect for it abroad, we have to establish respect for law, respect for order, here at home in the United States of America.

I spoke to that subject, you remember, in 1968. I pledged to the American people that the wave of crime would not be the wave of the future.

I pointed out that over the past 8 years, crime went up 158 percent. I said that one of the reasons for that was that we did not have strong enough law enforcement officials, that we needed stronger judges who would recognize that it was necessary in their decisions, following the Constitution, to strengthen the peace forces as against the criminal forces in this country.

My friends, I pledged to do something about it. I have tried to do. something about it. I have appointed judges. I have appointed a strong Attorney General, John Mitchell, who is doing the job that needed to be done, and that was not done by the previous Attorney General. We have also taken action to ask for legislation.

Now listen to this: Eighteen months ago, a year and a half ago, I presented proposals to the Congress to deal with organized crime, to stop the traffic in narcotics and drugs to the extent that we can under the law, to stop the flow of obscenity and pornography into the homes in this country, and to deal with these problems in a way that would be effective, that would strengthen the peace forces in this country.

Eighteen months have gone by and only a few weeks ago, as we get into election, did these laws finally, some of them, come to my desk for signature. That isn't good enough.

I say that we need men in the House and men in the Senate that will not just talk about the necessity to stop the rise in crime and the enforcement of the law during an election, but who will talk and work and fight for it all year round. And Bill Cramer is that kind of a man.

He is a man, as you know, a skilled lawyer and an able one, a man who is one of the top leaders in the House of Representatives, and has met with me week after week in the Cabinet Room determining the future policies of this country, and one who, in this field, knows what needs to be done.

He comes to the Congress, and particularly will come to the Senate, with 16 years of experience, experience in this field, experience in the field of the environment, experience, for example, in another field that is of enormous interest to the people of this State, one of the coauthors of the historic highway program.

Here is a man, in other words, who can do for Florida what needs to be done, who not only will be for what Floridians want, but will be able to do for them because he knows how to do it. He is a man with the experience that a man ought to have when he goes to the United States Senate. He and Ed Gurney will make a great team. Now send him down there. Let's have him there.

And now we come to another issue of enormous importance to this State, to this Nation. Everybody is aware of the fact that here in Florida, as in California, there are great numbers of retired people. I think of your problems. I remember my own mother and father, how they worked hard, saved a little money, and I remember how the life insurance which they thought would mean so much in later years didn't mean a lot because of what inflation had done to it.

I think the cruelest tax of all is to raise the prices of people. I say that we have got to stop this situation in which, in Washington, D.C., we have runaway spending and have runaway prices at home as a result of it. We can stop it. What we need, though, are Members of the House and Members of the Senate who will have the courage to vote against those spending programs that may have the effect of benefiting some people, but have also the effect of raising prices for all the people.

Let me tell you what has happened. Why do you have inflation today?

In the 8 years before we came into office, this Government spent $50 billion more than it took in in taxes. This year, over the past 2 years, in this Congress, this Congress already has authorized more than $6 billion more than I recommended.

Let me say, all of us want to have those programs that will bring progress for America. But it is the responsibility of the President of the United States to do everything that he can to wage a winning fight against inflation and against the rising cost of living. I need your help. I need Bill Cramer's help. He will help in this. We need him in the United States Senate.

And we need it also, and now particularly to the younger people, we need it because this is a great country with a great future. You recall the programs that I have introduced, that I have asked the Congress to follow, which would bring progress for America--a program for the environment which goes far beyond anything that had ever been proposed before. It is needed.

We have got to see to it that our younger people have the heritage that we received from our fathers, our mothers, our grandfathers--a beautiful country. That is why I have made decisions that any program by the Federal Government, any program that is adopted, before it goes into place, whether it's a barge canal or anything else, will not go into place unless we are given assurance that it is not going to affect the environment of our country in the wrong way.

So, in this field, you have a man again in Bill Cramer who knows the subject, who supports us, who has worked for us.

In the field of progress also, I think of those--and in this State we have great numbers--who are retired, who are on social security. I think of the fact that you have always been behind; the Congress sometimes brings you--catches up with the rise in the cost of living. That is why in the campaign of 1968 I recommended that we adopt a new approach in which there would be an automatic increase in social security benefits to compensate for any increase in the cost of living. That is only fight. That is only fair.

It hasn't been passed by the Congress yet. It ought to be passed. You get a man like Bill Cramer down there, he is going to work to pass it because he has been for it all the years. But we need him. We need that kind of support for that kind of program.

Now, finally, my friends, I never want an opportunity to pass, before an audience like this, such a cross-section of America, a cross-section geographically. I can imagine that many of you came from the Midwest. My mother was from Indiana, my father from Ohio. Many of you came from other parts of the country.

But, above all, you are thinking of America and its future and the future of this State. And also at this time, you must have concern about the future of America because of what you may recently have seen over recent months on your television screens. I think it is a distorted picture of America you've seen.

I am not blaming those who put it on television. I am simply suggesting that because it is more news and bigger news when something is wrong, that usually gets on, and we don't hear enough about what is right about the United States of America.

Some of you may have heard the program from Miami last night where there were a rather considerable number of people trying to shout down the President of the United States.

The television showed the very good judgment, incidentally, to blip out some of the four-letter words, and I hope they will continue to.

But just let me say this: The impression that those who try to shout down speakers, the impression that those who engage in violence, the impression that those who engage in lawlessness, that attempt to close down schools, the impression that those that bombed a bank near the University of California campus at Irvine just 2 days ago, 10 miles from my home, the impression that those young people are a majority of Americans, or that they are the future leaders of America, is wrong. They are not a majority, and they are not going to be the future leaders of America.

I will tell you who the future leaders of America are. They are young people--young people who are not satisfied with the way things are. Young people should never be satisfied. They should always want progress and change--young people who want the world to be better, young people who are concerned about war and concerned about inequities, young people who are concerned about inequality, young people who want a better chance for everybody.

For example, I noted that a little Korean girl, a young Korean girl, sang "The Impossible Dream." I think of the fact that I grew up in a little town in California, and I consider the fact, as I was working in a grocery store, what an impossible dream it was that I would ever be standing here today in the position that I hold.

And Bill Cramer, I am sure, thinks in those lines. He worked far apart and a few years different, here in this area, in a grocery store, as a poor boy. And here he is, running for the United States Senate.

But let me say this: What is an impossible dream in most countries is possible in America.

Let me say this: Never forget the fact that if we are to realize the American dream, we have got to make it possible for every individual to have a chance to realize his own dream. That is what our young people want. That is what I want. That is what we stand for.

But let us never forget, you hear about what is wrong about America, you see our policies criticized at home and abroad. Let us be proud of the fact that when the President of the United States goes abroad people come out, whether in a Communist country or a non-Communist country, they cheer.

Why? Because they know that the United States of America, even though it is the strongest nation in the world, stands for peace. They know there is more freedom, more opportunity, more progress in America than in any country in the world.

Let me say, did you know that the program that I have offered to the American people, which would provide for every family in America that needs it, a decent income, a minimum income, that the floor for that income that we would provide in America, which we consider a floor of poverty, would be a ceiling that three-fourths of the people in this world never will have a chance to reach.

Let's be proud of being American. Let's be proud of what we have accomplished.

In your time, because of what happens in America, we are going to have, in my opinion, peace in the United States, and we hope peace for a generation for the whole world. Because of what happens in America, we shall raise the standards of our people in a way that most people never dreamed was possible even 25 years ago.

Because of what we have in America, we must recognize that our young people not only will have a chance to have a better life materially, but because the burden of toil will be lifted from their backs, they will have a chance to develop the quality of life such as it has never been developed before.

As we think of what is wrong with America, I repeat: It is time now to recognize what is right. As we think of what is right, one of the things that is most right is that on election day you can answer all of those, that minority, the radical minority, that strike out against things that they think are wrong about America--you can answer in the polling booth. That is the time for the great silent majority to stand up and be counted. Vote on election day and vote for Bill Cramer, our candidate for the United States Senate.