Dwight D. Eisenhower photo

Address at the Republican Precinct Day Rally, Denver, Colorado

October 08, 1954

[Broadcast from the City Auditorium at 7:35 p.m.]

Governor Thornton, Mr. Vice President, distinguished leaders of the Congress, members of this great audience, and my good friends, over all of America:

Tonight, as I speak to my countrymen, I am privileged to address myself especially to my fallow Republican workers, gathered here in Denver and in meetings throughout our land. To each of you--to your families, to your friends, and to your political associates--I send my warmest greetings.

All of us are happy that tonight Mr. Nixon, Speaker Joe Martin, and the other members of our able legislative team are here with us. Under the leadership of these men, the 83d Congress made its record of extraordinary success. They have my respect and admiration for the splendid service they have rendered to the American people.

Tonight, in our meetings over America, we come together as members of the Republican Party. But in spirit we have also. with us the vast army of other Americans who in 1952, and since, have fought alongside us for the great plans and programs for which together we stand.

We assemble here, and all over America, proud of our Party's principles-proud of our Party's record.

Now, what are these principles and that record, and as Republicans, what is our goal?

That goal is not political power for its own sake, but to advance the good of 163 million Americans. To that end, we are dedicated to the maximum of individual freedom, fostered by a government desiring not to dominate but only to serve--a government kept close to the hearthsides of America--a government liberal in dealing with the human concerns of the people, but conservative in spending their money. From Lincoln's day to this, these have been the fundamental aims of our historic Party.

Republicans believe that such government will best preserve liberty and justice, and prosperity and happiness in our land.

Such a government will best promote an enduring peace throughout the world.

These are the convictions that unite us; this is the cause that inspires us--and our friends--to continued and dedicated effort.

Two years ago the people of our country showed their desire for this kind of government.

Remember election day 1952. In the early hours of morning, in thousands of precincts over America, our citizens eagerly lined up to vote long before the polls were open.

Do you remember why Americans crowded to the polls on November 4th, 1952?

Let's think back.

Two years ago Americans wanted an end to the war in Korea. It was a costly war, allowed to become futile, and seemingly without end.

They wanted something done about our veterans, who suddenly found the country so poorly prepared that they themselves had once again to undergo the dangers of battle, while others remained at home who had never served.

Americans wanted a government thrifty and frugal with the public's money.

They wanted a stop to the endless rise in taxes, taking more and more of the family income to support an overgrown Washington bureaucracy.

They wanted something done about inflation--to end the growing discouragement as day by day pensions and savings and the weekly pay check bought less and less at the corner store.

Americans were determined to eliminate penetration by the communist conspiracy in our government and in our whole society. They did not consider this menace a red herring.

They wanted clean, honest government.

They were anxious to get rid of the antagonism between the Congress and the Executive which hamstrung the processes of government.

All this America wanted two years ago, and you--you, and those like you throughout this great nation--did something about it.

You remember the telephone brigades of two years ago. You remember the "Get Out The Vote" campaigns. You remember the drive, the enthusiasm that in November 1952, surged forth from our people.

And what happened? You got results.

The people of America established in Washington the kind of government they wanted.

In just 20 months, we have come far.

First of all, with the help of thousands of citizens from every walk of life and from every, part of America, we devised a comprehensive, progressive program in keeping with the Republican Party's Platform and the pledges made to America during the campaign. Fundamentally, that program has but one purpose--to make America stronger and better, with growing prosperity and happiness for all of our people.

Now that program was made up of many parts affecting every phase of the life of our great nation. Some parts could be accomplished quickly. Others necessarily had to be developed slowly over the months, to assure their fitness and effectiveness. Important sections still remain to be enacted. The program is one, therefore, of continuous and simultaneous study and action. Its completion is essential to the future prosperity, security and peace of the people of America.

So, let's consider this program and what has happened since its inception.

Fourteen months ago, the futile sacrifices in Korea were stopped. We now have clean, honest, decent government in Washington. Government spending has been sharply reduced. Stifling controls have been removed from our nation's economy, amid dire predictions of carping critics that inflation would follow and prices would soar out of sight.

In 20 months, this Administration and the Republican-led Congress cut our government's costs by 11 billion dollars.

And at last, we have a tax cut!

Taxes were cut by 7 billion 400 million dollars--the largest tax cut in the history of this nation. It brings benefits to every family in every American home.

At the same time, we smoked out 211 thousand unnecessary positions on the Federal payrolls.

All during this time, our government has been returning to private citizens activities traditionally belonging to private citizens.

It is stopping the roasting of coffee, the baking of bread, the making of paint and clothes. It has stopped running a hotel. It has stopped running a tug and barge business on our inland waterways. In keeping with the philosophy of our whole program, all of these activities have been returned to private citizens--exactly where they belong.

My friends, I could never mention this subject without adverting to a statement of our first and greatest leader, Lincoln. He said, "The legitimate business of government is to do for a people or a community those things which they cannot do at all for themselves, or cannot so well do in their separate capacities; but in all those things that people can do for themselves, the government ought not to interfere."

I think no better philosophy for a free government has ever yet been stated.

Now, Americans wanted a strong national defense at less cost.

We have today the strongest armed forces of our peacetime history. In building them we have saved vast funds. We have cut red tape and eliminated duplication and waste. And let me make this clear: our military strength does not consist of forcibly recalled veterans who have already served our nation in war.

But, of course, our people also wanted a strong peacetime economy. For this, the Congress took many steps. It passed, for example, a new housing program. It passed an expanded highway program. It passed a new farm program to stop the seven-year decline in farmers' income-a program to promote lasting farm prosperity in an America no longer at war. And that program was designed also to remove the great surpluses that were breaking the back of the program then existing.

The Congress extended old age and survivor's insurance to 10 million, 200 thousand more Americans, and raised their benefits. And at last, my friends, these benefits include farmers who have been indirectly helping to pay the cost of the social security system all these years. The Congress extended coverage of unemployment compensation to 4 million more Americans. It passed tax revisions to encourage small business, and to eliminate inequities in the law.

Due to these and other measures, we have at last an economy whose strength is not sapped by the virus of inflation. It is an economy that doesn't compel the piling up of debts for our children--an economy whose strength is not dependent upon the sacrifices of the battlefield.

Without the economic collapse so widely forecast by professional pessimists, our nation has moved from war to peace.

Nevertheless, I am keenly aware that in some American localities, dislocations and hardships do exist. These are the inescapable aftermath of war and inflation. These problems we are striving constantly to ease. In the localities concerned, as well as in the rest of the country, we are taking concrete action to foster strength in the whole economy.

There was something else, two years ago, that all of us especially wanted. We wanted subversives out of the government service.

This Administration and the Congress are dealing decisively with the communist menace. Supported by eleven new laws, we are backing to the hilt the Department of Justice and the FBI. There is no vacillation nor inaction on the part of this Administration in dealing with those who, by force or violence, would overthrow the government of the United States.

And abroad, we have an honest, forthright foreign policy concerned with deeds, not merely words. Over the globe our friends know our devotion to freedom. They know that America joins with those who help themselves in the effort to preserve liberty and peace.

Two years ago, war was raging in Korea and Indochina. All Asia lay exposed to the steady advance of the Reds. Iran, with 60 percent of the world's known petroleum reserves, was in deadly danger. Suez and Trieste posed constant threats to peace in the West. Europe had foundered on century-old differences, unable to build a position of reliable strength. Even in the Western Hemisphere, communist imperialism had ominously appeared.

You know of the events that have since occurred.

In London, a few days ago, an agreement of momentous significance was signed that can powerfully strengthen the defenses of the West. Just this week, after almost a decade of anxious effort, Yugoslavia and Italy, with the encouragement and help of the Western world, settled their differences over Trieste.

For the first time in twenty years, there is no active battlefield anywhere in the world.

And, at last, we are harnessing the atom to the work of peace.

As for nations which, despite our best efforts, are still unfriendly, they harbor no delusions about the determination and the growing strength of the free world.

Recently, communist imperialism discovered that the entire Association of American Republics means business in defending freedom. First at Caracas, then in ten short, determined days, the communist beachhead in Guatemala was eliminated.

In all these ways, then, there has been progress of the most tremendous import to the peace and security of the Western world. Much of this progress is due to the richness of experience, imagination and determination of our distinguished Secretary of State. He and his colleagues in the State Department and the Foreign Service are carrying American prestige to new heights in foreign chancelleries.

Fellow Citizens, I have recited some of the advances made in many fields in a short 20 months. For the most part, they have grown out of a cordial partnership between the Administration and the Congress. This cordiality has been a welcome relief from the bickering and the suspicion that for so long poisoned relations between the Executive and Legislative Branches. In laws passed, and in heightened respect for their government, this harmony has brought immense benefits to the American people.

And now, let's take a quick look at the future.

Many things need to be done.

We must continue to foster the growth of a free economy to provide more jobs and higher living standards.

We must continue our efforts to cut the cost of government, so we can cut taxes still more.

We must continue each year to improve our peacetime farm program.

We must have a vast new highway program.

We must expand our foreign trade and American investment abroad.

We must expand markets for America's farms and factories, if we are to keep prosperity within our own land.

We must write into law a national water resources program.

We must help our people meet their critical health and medical needs, while repudiating socialization of medicine.

We must find ways to encourage communities to provide the school-houses they need, and to improve opportunities for their school teachers.

We must build a new and effective reserve program for our armed forces.

We must begin to unravel the confused relations between the Federal, State and local governments, and make still more improvements in the organization of the Federal government.

We must drive through partisan obstructions to achieve statehood for Hawaii, to lower the voting age in Federal elections, and to make our promised changes in the labor-management laws.

We must continue our historic advances in the vital area of civil rights.

We must vigorously push all constructive measures for promoting world peace, always strong and secure, but always fair and conciliatory.

Now, my friends, a cold war of partisan politics between the Congress and the Executive Branch won't give us these goals.

And this brings up a political fact of life.

You know perfectly well that you just can't have one car with two drivers at the steering wheel and expect to end up anyplace but in the ditch--especially when the drivers are set on going in different directions. By the same token, you cannot have efficient Federal government when the Congress wants to follow one philosophy of government and the Executive Branch another.

In our system of government, progress is made when the leaders of the Executive Branch and the majority of the Congress are members of the same political party. The unsurpassed record of the 83d Congress is shining evidence of this truth. Moreover, in no other way can Americans hold one party and one group of people responsible either for success or lack of success.

History shows that when the Executive and Legislative Branches are politically in conflict, politics in Washington runs riot. In these conditions,. the public good goes begging while politics is played for politics' sake. Meanwhile, in the eyes of the world, we appear divided in council and uncertain in purpose.

These are the reasons--the compelling reasons--why the completion of your great program requires the election of a Republican-led Congress.

In our effort to keep the kind of government we want, you citizens are on the political front lines--the precincts of America. There you are as much a part of government as the sincere, hard-working men and women in Washington today who are trying to give you the kind of government you want.

As leaders and workers in your precincts, you know that the members of our Party cannot carry this battle alone. We must enlist the spirited support of friends and neighbors, regardless of party, who believe in the same principles and objectives. Happily, we have been blessed with millions of such sturdy allies. For the cause in which we believe is bigger than any political party. To this cause, all Americans, regardless of party, can give their enthusiastic support.

And in this struggle, I know you will have the same determination-the same enthusiasm--the same drive--as you had two years ago.

For only through your effort can our program continue to advance.

Only through your effort will we continue to have the kind of America all of us so earnestly desire.

Together, my friends, we shall forge ahead in this great work we have so well begun, determined to keep America strong and secure--determined that this land of freedom, under Almighty God, will not rest until we see in the world a lasting peace with justice. Together we shall forge ahead to build in our America a steadily growing prosperity and happiness that will bring an ever brighter future for our people and for those who, after we are gone, must carry forward the banner of freedom.

That, my fellow Americans, is our kind of America.

Working together with those millions who have made common cause with us in this effort, that is the kind of America we shall have.

Thank you--thank you--and goodnight to all of you.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, Address at the Republican Precinct Day Rally, Denver, Colorado Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/232784

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