Remarks by Telephone to a Dinner Meeting of the Ohio State Democratic Convention in Columbus

Governor DiSalle, Senator Lausche, Senator Young, fellow Democrats:

I take great pleasure in joining you at this great Democratic Convention. We may be undertaking tonight something of a constitutional experiment. This is, I believe, the first time in our history that a President has succeeded to the place of a Vice President. I know how much the Vice President misses being with you in Columbus, and I bring his greetings as well as my own.

You are assembling tonight on the eve of a great political campaign. At stake in this campaign is the prospect of continued progress in our country; progress towards more and better jobs and better houses, and better schools, and better opportunities for our fellow citizens; progress towards giving our children, whatever their parents' position or income or color, a fair start in life; progress towards giving our older people a chance to live out their lives in dignity and security; progress towards keeping America moving forward, ahead, in an age of the greatest peril and the greatest promise in the history of the world.

I think it can be said that we have marched effectively towards these objectives in the last 20 months. No Congress in a generation has done so much for the American people as the Congress whose work is now drawing to a close. This Congress under Democratic leadership has passed, in the last 2 years--or will pass before this session is over--a great housing bill, an increase in the minimum wage, an area redevelopment act for communities in economic distress, a manpower retraining bill, a public works act, a bill providing for an amendment to abolish the poll tax, a bill regulating the distribution of drugs to protect our housewives, a farm bill, a tax bill, and an extraordinary and unprecedented bill for the expansion of our trade.

In carrying through this program the Democratic Party has demonstrated once again that it is a party of progress and of change, that it is the party dedicated to serve the needs of our people and to keep America forever abreast of a forever changing world. But there are still many things still to be done, and this is why it is essential to send more Democrats to Congress this November.

The day before yesterday, we passed in the House of Representatives an agricultural bill which will save this country nearly a half billion dollars, as well as strengthen the economic future of American agriculture-and we passed it by 5 votes. The same day we lost in the House of Representatives a bill for aid to our colleges and universities. We lost it by 28 votes, and three-fourths of the Republicans voted against it. That is why we need a Congress next year which will work with the executive branch in promoting the welfare of the country. In no field do we need such a Congress more urgently than in the provision of medical assistance and care for our older people. And I am proud that the two Senators from the State of Ohio were among those who voted for this measure when it was before the Senate this summer.

The action of the Senate in turning down medical care for the aged this session was a blow struck against the American family. I propose to resume the fight for medical care next January, and I hope we will have your help in making this wise and beneficial measure the law of the land.

I am glad that seven of the Members of your House delegation are Democrats already, and I hope we can count on more after November. As for your Senators, Ohio should be proud of the fact that it has sent to Washington two independent minded representatives to speak for Ohio and the country in the United States Senate. I value their candor and their convictions, and I know that your State values the contributions they have made to the legislative deliberations of the Nation.

I count, of course, on the return of Senator Frank Lausche to Washington in November, and I count, too, on your changing Steve Young's mind about not running in 1964. We need them both. Progress is at stake in the election in this Nation, and the progress is equally at stake in Ohio.

Under the leadership of Governor DiSalle, Ohio has forged ahead in the last 4 years. It has forged ahead economically. It has moved in these years from fifth to second among the industrial States of the Union. It has forged ahead in the field of education and the field of welfare. And I want to pay particular tribute to Mike DiSalle for his work on behalf of the mentally ill and retarded children. And as Governor DiSalle has done these things for the people of Ohio, he has at the same time run a notably honest and incorruptible State administration, and he has worked to put that administration on a sound fiscal basis. Of course he has opposition. Anyone who tries to do something new arouses opposition. I gather that in Columbus, as in Washington, the Republicans continue to regard opposition as a political philosophy, that when your Governor seeks to help the unemployed and their children, the Republicans locally as well as nationally remain the "no" party; but opposition is the price of change, and change is the necessity of survival.

I know that you recognize that your Governor is more than a State figure, that he commands esteem and admiration throughout the entire country. His leadership in the Circle Freeway discussions, his contributions to the Governors' Conferences, his determination to modernize State government, to serve the needs of the space age--all this shows how a State Governor can become a national leader. Progress in the State, progress in the Nation--these are the things which make the strength and leadership in the world.

When the Democratic administration came to office in January of 1961, Khrushchev was on the move in Berlin, the Communist Gizenga was on the move in the Congo, Castro and the Communists had taken over Cuba, the Communists were on the move in Laos and South Viet-Nam. In the months since, that tide has been reversed. We have taken initiatives in many parts of the world from Viet-Nam to Berlin. Castro, reduced to a state of desperation, has invited Soviet help, and thereby sealed his own doom in South America and ultimately in Cuba itself.

This remains a dangerous world, and the only answer to danger is strength.

We have tried to build the strength of our Nation in these 20 months, and we stand ready to use that strength against aggression wherever it may occur. But a nation which is dedicated to progress, which does not try to freeze history in its tracks, which is determined to serve the people and their welfare, and their freedom, which is committed to progress--this is the nation which is most likely to unite the people of the world against aggression and for peace.

Progress, I believe, is the source both of our power and of peace, and progress remains in 1962 the watchword of the Democratic Party.

Thank you very much, and best wishes to you all.