Remarks at the Annual Meeting of the United States Chamber of Commerce: "The Right To Be Confident."

President Shumway and all of the delegates attending this convention of the United States Chamber of Commerce, and your guests:

After that very warm reception and applause, I should not deliver a speech at all. I am most grateful for your reception.

On this occasion, I think it is very appropriate for me to address a subject that I think will be one that is very much in your minds, not only here in Washington as you hear the various problems of government presented to you--the international affairs this morning, and yesterday some matters with regard to domestic problems---but also when you go back to your home communities. What I want to discuss, what I have chosen as a subject, goes to the heart of our system of government, our system of economics, and our place as a great nation in the world. The subject is confidence.

When we hear that word used today, it is usually in relatively narrow terms. If you read your Sunday supplements, particularly the financial supplements, you read a lot about "business confidence." You read about "consumer confidence" as reflected in the strong pickup of retail sales and the surge of the home building industry, with all that means to the total economy. And you read a lot about "investor confidence" as reflected in the strongest 11-month percentage gain in the stock market in more than three decades. I hope some of you took my advice to buy stocks when I said so a year ago.

But consumer confidence and investor confidence both are vitally important; and it is good news for every American that this feeling is in the air today. But there is another kind of confidence, another kind of confidence I want to talk to you about today, that is even more important than these two with which you are so familiar. It is the confidence that comes from knowing that the character of the American people is strong, that the spirit and will of the United States is powerful, and that the free economic system that supports all we can do for ourselves and for others around the world is sound and healthy.

I was just remarking to President Shumway that just a week ago I addressed the Daughters of the American Revolution in this which is their great auditorium. And as I addressed them and as I address you today, I think back--as you must think back--to those early days of this Republic, and think of how that American dream has come into reality.

It was just a little less than 200 years ago that there were only 13 States, three million people, a poor nation, a weak nation, and yet a nation whose founders thought of greatness. Thomas Jefferson saying we act not just "for ourselves alone, but for the whole human race"--what a presumptuous thing to say, speaking from a poor nation and a weak nation. But whether it was poor and weak in terms .of economic power or military strength, it had something else: It was strong in spirit.

It was not our natural resources and not happenstance and not some invisible force of history that turned that nation of just three million people into the leader of the free world--the richest nation, yes; the most powerful nation of the free world, yes.

How did this happen? The one single element that carried us through wars and depression--and we have had both-through dissension and strife, past all the competition, was our faith in our ability-in good times, but in bad times even more importantly--to build a better life for ourselves and for our children.

Faith in the American future has never been misplaced. And I tell you it is not misplaced today. In dealing with the future of this country, if you want to be a realist you have to be an optimist. Two centuries of struggle have earned us a right that is not in our Constitution, but a right that permeates our national life: the right to be confident in our own ability to shape the future, the future of America, and even to affect the future of the world.

Today, as in other periods in our past, that right of confidence--confidence in ourselves, confidence in our country--is under attack. We are told that the American people have grown too weary of bearing their share of responsibility for keeping peace and supporting freedom around the world. We are told that a sense of despair is on the rise and that hope is fading. We are told that the free enterprise system, which has made possible not only our standard of living but our standard of giving should be dismantled and replaced by a system of bureaucratic controls.

This attack on our right to confidence is a real one. It gains credence because there are plenty of things wrong that need to be righted in America. We all know that much remains to be done to bring more quality to our lives, more stability to our prosperity.

But as we look at those things, let's never forget this: We shall never make the changes that are needed by throwing out our principles, throwing away our heritage, or throwing up our hands.

The only way this Nation can succeed is for the men and women who believe in its future, who are confident in themselves and in their country, to stand up and be counted for America.

Now, this is never easy to do. The men who point out what is right about America will be accused of being blind to what is wrong about America. But the confident American knows just as much about what must be changed and improved as does the fearful American. The difference is this: The confident American will go out and do something constructive about it. In that spirit, let me suggest today a few of the things I believe you have, that we have, a right to be confident about.

First, you have a right to be confident that this Nation will reject the counsel of the new isolationists. We are ending our involvement in the war in Southeast Asia--ending it in a way that will permit us to stay involved in building a full generation of peace throughout the world.

Just 2 years ago, when I addressed the Chamber of Commerce--not in this hall, but in another room here in this building--you will recall that there were approximately 540,000 Americans in Vietnam. By December 1, we will have reduced our troop levels by 365,000 men. The casualties have been cut until now they are one-fifth of what they were just 2 years ago. We have some way to go. Our goal is a total withdrawal of all American forces in Vietnam in a way that will assure the return of our prisoners of war and will give the South Vietnamese a chance to prevent a Communist takeover. You can be confident that we have a policy that will achieve that goal. And by achieving that goal in that way, we will have a chance to build what we all want: a lasting peace, something we have not enjoyed in this country in this century, a full generation of peace.

Second, you, and everyone else in this world, have a right to be confident that the United States will use its strength only to build peace with freedom, never to destroy it in the world.

Now I know that you hear, as I hear, and you read of what is wrong with American foreign policy--and we do make our mistakes, and we have made them in the past. But I have talked to the leaders of most of the nations of the world, the leaders of over 70 countries. And in that period of time, in talking to leaders of Communist countries as well as non-Communist countries, peoples with different systems of government, peoples with which we had differences, I have found this single significant fact always standing out: There is not a leader in the world today of any country who believes that the United States will ever use its power to destroy freedom; that will ever use its power to break the peace. And why do they believe that? Because looking at this century, in World War I, World War II, in Korea, and in the terribly difficult war in Vietnam, the United States has come to the aid of those who were trying to defend themselves against aggression. And based on that record, the peoples of the world know that we stand for peace, that we stand for freedom. We can be proud that we have that kind of a foreign policy, and we can be proud that peoples throughout the world, at least the leaders of the other nations, are keenly aware of that.

And, third, you can be confident that America's economy will continue its vigorous expansion without bringing on a new round of inflation. I say this because the facts show--and I want to give you the facts--that we are winning the fight against rising prices. It is a hard fight because once the inflationary forces have been allowed to stay in for a number of years, it is harder to get them reduced.

In 1969, inflation was roaring along at a rate higher than 6 percent a year. In 1970, we managed to reverse that trend and prices rose 5 1/2 percent. But in the first quarter of this year, prices rose at the annual rate of 2.7 percent. That is the lowest rise in 4 years. We have cut the rate of inflation in half, but the battle is still there to be fought. The figures ahead, month by month, will have their ups and downs. But the worst of inflation is behind us, and I am determined to see to it, with your help and with the help of others, that it stays behind us.

We are on our way to a period of solid, sustainable expansion, the kind of expansion the Nation needs to provide new jobs for workingmen, new opportunities for businessmen. To keep that expansion from driving up prices we must not slip back into the bad habits of the past. For one thing, government must keep its house in order with a budget that does not exceed full employment revenues. For another, labor and management must keep their houses in order with wage increases based primarily on increases in productivity and price increases kept to the absolute minimum.

We saw what happened in 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969. It seemed that everything was going up, that everybody was doing better. But when productivity increases in that period--and all of those years were abnormally low--prices went up, but the worker got little real benefit from his wage increases. But in the past year, the increase in productivity made a comeback, and this year the increase will be stronger still, based particularly on the very good first quarter figures.

Steadily rising productivity is one of the secrets to the success of the American system, and there is nothing more important for labor and management to do for themselves and for their country than to keep raising productivity.

Because there are times when economic freedom must be protected from its own excesses, I intend to continue to use the power of my office to persuade business and labor to act responsibly in making further progress against inflation, because fighting inflation is not just government's business--it is everybody's business.

And that brings me to a fourth point you can be confident about. You can be sure that the road to full employment with price stability and without war, the new prosperity, the new prosperity that we want, will be the road of free markets, free competition, free bargaining, and free men.

I will always be amazed at those who cry repression of freedom at the drop of a hat, but who in the next breath advocate total repression of the economic freedom of businessmen and workingmen. I have been to countries whose leaders thought they could legislate economic growth. They drew up their plans, they passed the laws, they pushed the button, and nothing happened. They discovered in time that no law that they passed could repeal the law of supply and demand, and no social motive, no matter how high-sounding, could replace the impetus of the profit motive.

Everyone in this audience today has heard some young person, perhaps even his own son, say something like this: "I don't want to go into business. That 9-to-5 rat race is not for me. I want to do something to help people."

Let's look at America over the past 2 years. The Congress of the United States, acting on the recommendations of this Administration, was able to enact legislation to deal with the problem of poverty in this country, and the number of people receiving help through food stamps was raised from three million to nine million.

Look at what we have done abroad. When Mrs. Nixon went to Peru, a country that had been antagonistic to us in its foreign policy, when they had a terrible, devastating earthquake, she was able not only to present to them a check from the Government in terms of millions of dollars, but checks from private donors also in terms of millions of dollars to help these people in distress, because even though we disagreed with their government, we shared the compassion and concern for people in distress. And then in Romania, a Communist country with which we have very significant differences in foreign policy--a devastating flood. The Government of the United States sent millions of dollars to help those who were suffering from the flood.

"I want to do something to help people."

Let's look at the facts. Here is the simple truth: There is no government agency and no philanthropy, no foundation, no voluntary organization that has done as much to help people as the private enterprise system of the United States of America.

Now it doesn't get the credit, of course. There is no message stamped on every. welfare check that reads, "This comes to you from the taxes raised from the private enterprise system." Because a government is the distributor of wealth, many recipients make the mistake of thinking that government is the producer of wealth, and nothing could be further from the truth.

What we need today is to take a lot more pride in the system that makes it possible for us to be the most generous and the most compassionate nation, not only to our own people but to other people on the face of the world.

The system that has delivered more self-respect to more human beings than any other system devised by man deserves to be treated with more respect itself. And that is why I have throughout my public life--and I shall continue to do all that I can in my present office to preserve the economic freedom that built this Nation, because that economic freedom enables us to do good things. That is what we must remember.

And finally today, I want to tell this great organization and all of your millions of members out across, through the main streets of America, you can be confident of this: The dignity of work, which is so much a part of the character of the American people, is not about to be replaced by the indignity of welfare in the United States.

As I told President Shumway before we came in, I realize some differences of opinion have been expressed by the Chamber with regard to the welfare reform proposal that I have submitted to the Congress. But just so you understand what the principles are that underlie that proposal, what I am trying to accomplish through its adoption, let me set forth those principles, what I believe we should try to achieve in our government programs.

First, I believe that human welfare is too important to be left to the Welfare Staters. This is a nation with a conscience--I believe that; you all believe it--and that conscience demands that we see to it that the handicapped, the dependent, those in need, those who cannot help themselves, are given what they need as generously as possible to lead lives of decency and self-respect.

Because I believe in human dignity, I am fighting for a total overhaul of the demeaning welfare system, to provide a floor of income under every dependent family with children in the United States.

And for that very same reason--because I believe in human dignity--I am against a guaranteed annual wage. I am against any scheme that makes it more profitable for an able-bodied person not to work than to work.

You do no favor to a person when you help him when he could help himself, because you deny him the opportunity to develop the capacity to help himself. When you make it possible for able-bodied men and women to get welfare, you make it impossible for those people to get ahead in life. If we were to underwrite everybody's income, we would be undermining everybody's character.

Of course, a guaranteed annual income for everybody, regardless of whether an individual works or is willing to work or not--that sounds like Utopia. But look around the world. In those societies where they say everything is free, there is no freedom.

The goal of the American system is not to guarantee everybody a living; it is to guarantee everybody an opportunity, a fair chance, to be rewarded for his work.

The American people will not be denied that goal by those who could work or who could take training, but who prefer to take it easy. This is wrong. It is bad for them, bad for the country, and it is especially bad for those who really do need help. The able-bodied people who think they can take a free ride are just going to have to get out and push with the rest of us.

No job is a menial job if it opens the door to a lifetime of work and the development of self-reliance. In fact, the most menial job I can think of is the one held by the able-bodied person who makes a career out of living off of the hard-earned dollars of his neighbors.

So I say you can be confident that certain American values are not going to change. One of those values is compassion, compassion for the dependent, for those who cannot care for themselves. Another of those values is the dignity of work. The person who takes pride in working, no matter what work he or she may be doing, is one of the people who make America a proud nation. No government can give character to its people, but people can give a government its character.

There are many visitors in Washington in this spring season, and particularly from the high schools and colleges of the Nation. And in my capacity as President, I welcome many of them when they come on tours of the White House.

I particularly recall one group, a group that I referred to when I addressed the Governors Conference last week. It was a group from a high school from what was described by Senator John Tower of Texas as the poorest county in Texas-Rio Grande High School.

I recall these 30 students standing in the Rose Garden of the White House, and I found how they got there. This county was poor in property, but its people were not poor in spirit, because a year ago, two--one a boy and one a girl--members of the junior class decided they wanted to go to Washington. They didn't go around and ask the merchants to pony up the money to send them to Washington. They didn't ask a foundation to do it. They didn't ask the school board to provide it, but they decided to work for it. And they did any kind of a job--they washed cars, they mowed lawns, they did babysitting. As a matter of fact, they had a little free enterprise. They made tamales, those little Texas tamales, and sold them for 75 cents a dozen. I don't know how much they made in profit, but that is pretty good.

But in the end there they stood, most of them Mexican-Americans from the poorest county in Texas. But as they stood there in that Rose Garden they had earned their way, and the pride and the dignity of those young people gave me a lot of faith in America. This is a good and great and strong country when you have young people like that in America.

As I address this 59th Conference of the Chamber of Commerce, we naturally conclude in thinking of the perspective of history, where we are, where we have been. And we all recognize that America today, not because we sought it and not because we want it--because I think most Americans would prefer not to play this kind of role in the world--that America is now not only the richest but the strongest nation in the free world. Also, even though we would like to turn away from that responsibility, we know deep down that what we do in this country, either by example or by our leadership in the world, will determine not only the future of America but the future of peace and freedom in the last quarter of this century.

So, the question comes to each of us that we must answer: Is America going to be able to meet this challenge; are we going to be the great country, the great people, that we must be if we are to meet this challenge that is presented to us, if we are to accept this burden that history has placed upon us?

These are my thoughts on that subject: A people become great and a nation remains great when it seeks to do great things. When we think of America, when we think of all the criticisms of our system, of our foreign policy, let's look at what America does in terms of seeking great things.

To build a generation of peace--that is our goal and we are working on it not only in the way that we are ending the war in Vietnam but in our other foreign policy initiatives. To build a generation of peace--that is a great thing.

To lift the yoke of poverty and drudgery from human beings is a great thing, and we are doing that in America.

To preserve freedom, including the economic freedom that we tend to take for granted--that is a great thing.

And to explore the unknown no matter where it may lead, that, too, is a great thing, because, remember, whenever a people turn away from the challenge of exploring the unknown, that people will soon cease to be great.

We do not do these great things because we want to remain a great nation. We remain a great nation because we want to do these great things. We will succeed only if we cherish our right to be confident in our ability to shape the future.

And that is where each of you comes in. Greatness is not a size; it is a quality. The greatness of a nation can only reflect the quality of conscience and the quality of confidence in the people of that nation.

Let us never lose the quality of greatness that has made us today better than we were yesterday, and let us always hold fast to the quality of confidence that will help us to make tomorrow better than today.