Remarks at Salisbury Park, Nassau County, Long Island, New York

I want to say thanks to all of you good people who have, I am sure at considerable sacrifice to yourselves, come here this cool evening to welcome me to Nassau County and to hear briefly from those who are seeking your approval at the polls in November.

I want to thank Mr. Nickerson and Mr. English and others who have been helpful in arranging this party. I want to express my appreciation to Senator Kennedy and the Democratic members of the congressional delegation for giving us this warm welcome to the great State of New York.

I would express the hope that all of you would consider our purpose in coming here to meet with you and that purpose is to ask your support for Congressman Tenzer and Congressman Wolff, and to ask your support for the next Congressman Martin Steadman and Congressman Frank Corso.

I think if we are to have any influence or to have any effect on our requests we will have to tell you why we thank you for sending us two good Democratic Congressmen and why we want you to send us two more.

I would also like to make the observation that I think that we can do more for the people, I think we can do more for the country, I think we can do more for America, if we have a Democratic administration in the great State of New York to work with the Democratic administration in Washington.

So I would hope that each of you would bear in mind that you have a great ticket headed by Frank O'Connor; that you have an able young candidate, Howard Samuels, for Lieutenant Governor; that you have a very qualified former mayor and present councilman as your candidate for Attorney General, Frank Sedita; that your Comptroller, Arthur Levitt is well known to you.

I believe that the Democratic delegation in the Congress, the Democratic President in the White House, the Democratic Governor in New York can do a lot to move New York forward by working together. And we will appreciate your supporting these men and helping us move this State forward.

One day in August, about 6 years ago, I joined in a compact in Los Angeles with John Fitzgerald Kennedy to offer the people of this Nation a program of better jobs and more jobs at better wages, better living, better health, better education, a program to fight poverty at home and abroad, a program of conservation and beautification and recreation so we could have better living for our families.

We entered that campaign over the objections of some people in our own party and a good many people in the country. And after a very hectic campaign that carried us into practically every State in the Union, a majority of the people entrusted us with the duty and the responsibility and the commitment to get America moving again.

We stood shoulder to shoulder in that program. When others were divided, we stood together. The effort we began, the pledges we made, we carried out together, as long as God spared John F. Kennedy. And since he was taken from us, I have tried in good faith to carry on. Those pledges have been redeemed.

That trust has been honored. Let no one deceive you--the Johnson-Humphrey platform of 1964, the Democratic program of 1966, builds, improves, carries on, and provides the funds for the Kennedy-Johnson program that was begun in 1960.

And in the time allotted to me to be your President, I am going to carry out that program to the extent of my ability with whatever talents I may possess.

Ten million more people are working in America tonight than were working when we entered that compact in 1960. People are drawing an average of $112 weekly wage, considerably higher than they were drawing 6 years ago.

Our prices tonight are 9 percent higher in the 67 months of the Kennedy-Johnson administration than they were in 1960.

But in the previous 67 months they not only gained 9 percent, they gained 11 percent. But the important thing to remember is that wages and salaries are more than 47 percent higher tonight than they were in 1960.

While disposable income--and that means income after you make allowance for the price increases--increased a little over 2 percent in the last 6 years of the previous administration, disposable income under the Kennedy-Johnson administration in 6 years increased not 2 percent but 20 percent, after allowance for the price increases.

So I just want to make one observation for you. Hadn't you rather pay an increase of 9 percent in prices and have 49 percent more in wages to pay it with than have an increases in prices and only a 2 percent increase in disposable income?

As far as jobs and wages, we haven't done enough. As long as there is anyone poor in this country; as long as there is anyone without work in this country; as long as there are substandard wages in this country there is much yet to do and we are on our way to doing it.

This month I signed a minimum wage bill that gave added production to eight million workers who were brought under the cover of minimum wages in this country. And that meant eight million charwomen, waitresses, and workers at the bottom of the heap who had the protection of the platform that President Kennedy and I agreed upon at Los Angeles.

The Democratic Party has pledged to you better schools and a better educational program.

Since 1789, when the first Congress met--we have had 89 Congresses--we had passed 6 education bills.

The 89th Congress passed 18 education bills.

Since 1789 we have appropriated for education in this country a little over $2 billion-until the 89th Congress came along. The 89th Congress has appropriated not $2 billion but about $6 billion.

So in 3 years we have spent 3 times as much on education as has been spent in all the history of this country put together. And I say we have kept that pledge.

There have been 18 education bills in 3 years compared to 6 education bills in 88 Congresses.

In the health field we have passed 24 health bills. We talked about Medicare for 24 years, but we passed it this year. And we passed 23 more health bills to go with it.

So much for our jobs, so much for wages, so much for education, so much for health.

The first year of TVA we spent $11 million on conservation. This year we passed a $750 million conservation bill. And it hardly went noticed. We are beautifying our countryside. We are getting rid of our dirty air. We are taking measures to control our dirty rivers. We are providing jobs and wages and education and health and trying to control pollution, to have conservation, beautification, and recreation for our children.

Now that is why we need Democratic Congressmen.

We are trying to build a progressive country. We know that we have obstructionists. We know we have dissenters. We know we have difficulties. And we know they want to stop the Congress from doing what it is doing.

If you want to be destructive instead of constructive, you ought to go and vote for the other party in this election. If you want one branch of the Government to go one way and another branch of the Government to go the other way, you ought to go and vote against these Democratic Congressmen.

Speaker Rayburn used to have a favorite saying that there were a lot of donkeys in this country and any donkey could kick a barn down, but it took a good carpenter to build one.

So you are going to hear a lot of people kicking between now and November. But you hear them out. You ask yourself whether or not we have kept the trust, whether we have kept the faith, whether we have got America moving again, whether more people are working at better wages, their children getting more education, people are having better health, we have a better conservation and beautification program than ever before, and then go and vote what is best for you. When you vote for yourself and your family, you will vote for America and the Democratic Party.

Thank you very much.