Statement on Concluding Campaign for Reelection.

THIS election eve visit to California is not only the last rally in a long campaign, it is also my last such campaign appearance as a candidate for public office. It is fitting that it should be here, in California. This is my native State, and the State in which I began my political career 26 years ago.

This moment calls forth many memories. But what is most important to me is the fact that this campaign road is ending on a positive note--a note of hope and optimism for America. With election day fast approaching, Americans can stand united in the knowledge that, more than at any time in this century, the hope for a full generation of peace burns bright.

The world is a calmer, more rational place today than it was 4 years ago. After so much sacrifice, patience, and endurance, the American people can finally rejoice in the confidence that a fair and honorable peace in Vietnam can soon be achieved. In the world at large, 1972 has been a year of greater achievement for peace than any since the end of World War II.

I am proud that my Administration was able to make such great progress for peace, and I am determined that just as we have worked resolutely to achieve a peace with honor and without surrender, we will also achieve peace with prosperity.

And that prosperity must be real prosperity--a prosperity free of rampant inflation and ever-higher taxes. To this goal my Administration and I are pledged.

The signs are hopeful. The new economic figures announced this week give us fresh evidence that a strong tide of real prosperity is rising across the Nation. The latest employment statistics reveal that 82,500,000 Americans were at work in the month of October, nearly 300,000 more than a month earlier and more than 5 million more than when this Administration took office.

Jobs are still increasing at the fastest rate since 1956--at a rate twice as fast as the rate of growth of the population. While unemployment remains a serious concern, the strength and thrust of this progress promises to make strong inroads into this problem in the near future.

As for the cost of living, adjusted wholesale prices rose only one-tenth of one percent in October, the lowest increase since March. And our overall rate of inflation is now the lowest of any major industrial nation in the free world.

As citizens of the number one agricultural State of the Union, Californians will also be glad to know that we have some good news for the American farmer this week. Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz has announced that farm exports will reach our $10 billion goal during this fiscal year--a goal once scoffed at by our opponents. This high level of farm sales was made possible, in part, by our improved relations with the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union.

All of these indicators tell us that we have been on the right course, that the support the people have consistently expressed for this Administration's policies to keep inflation, taxes, and prices down, and the American economy growing and expanding, have been right on target.

The political voices of gloom who were so quick to give up, the political prophets of doom who said that American society was falling apart, and the American economy along with it--these misguided pessimists have been proven wrong.

We are a strong country, militarily and economically. The fibers of our social fabric are strong. Our spirit is strong. It is because we are strong that we have been able to work successfully for peace in the world and prosperity at home.

As I conclude the last campaign visit of my last campaign for public office, I see a strong, respected America, and a proud, united American people. None of this could have been achieved merely by government; it was done by the people.

When it comes down to the important things, Americans still stand together-that we are one America in conscience, in purpose, and in inspiration.

This campaign--my last campaign-will be over in a few short days. But the work of building a better America goes on. The work of building an honorable peace and a real prosperity goes on. And much remains to be done. We must continue to move justly and firmly in the second round of SALT disarmament talks, in our efforts to achieve balanced, mutual troop reductions in Europe, in our efforts to keep the peace in the volatile Mideast.

We must continue the transition of the American economy from a wartime to a peacetime footing by effective means such as this Administration's technical mobilization and reemployment program, which has already relocated more than 17,000 displaced aerospace engineers and is part of our overall strategy that has successfully provided workers with 2.3 million real jobs--not government make-work jobs--in the past year alone.

I promise that in the next 4 years I will continue to use every resource at my disposal to keep us building, to keep us leading the way, and to keep America strong, decent, and united.