Address at the University of Kentucky Coliseum in Lexington

Mr. Chairman and my Fellow Americans:

Mrs. Eisenhower and I have been deeply touched today by the evidence we have on every hand of Kentucky's famed hospitality.

Our gratitude went first to those thousands who came to the airport, and we were especially touched that your Governor should have found fit to come out and led his people to meet us there.

Along the roads leading into town, along the city streets to the hotel, in the corridors and in the lobby of the hotel--everywhere--we have had only expressions of warm cordiality which have touched my wife, my party and me. I do thank you sincerely.

And may I also say a word about another point that is especially pleasing to me about Kentucky today. There are among you here a certain group who by the wisdom and good sense of the Kentucky Legislature are going to vote one Presidential election before they otherwise could have done so.

I know that those young people will show their appreciation of that priceless privilege coming to them this early, by voting in every single election for whatever office may be at stake, and continuing to vote as long as you have the strength to get to the polls.

Now, my friends, four years ago you gave me a job to do.

The job was to establish for America a new direction.

You--the American people--wanted to turn away from policies of the past that had meant only trouble or torment for our Nation--a drifting war, and racing inflation--bigger federal spending and heavier federal taxation. You were tired of needless governmental controls and recklessly unbalanced budgets-the building up of political power, and the tearing down of political morality, in Washington. And you were thoroughly sick of the perpetual atmosphere of uncertainty, anxiety and crisis.

And so the job was clear. It was to set America firmly on the new road--toward secure peace based on justice--and toward lasting prosperity, widely shared. This is the road of freedom in the life of the individual--and integrity in the life of the government.

This is the road of harmony and balance and progress among all the constructive forces of our land--Federal, State and local government, private enterprise, labor--and, above all, the millions of self-reliant Americans.

We have come a long way in this new direction.

Today there is a lot of work still to be done--which is not surprising. What is surprising, however, is that there still seem to be some who would like to go back to the old road--the zig-zag directionless road of trial and error, the road that was not really a road at all, but an endless series of detours around crises--leading nowhere.

Now, my friends, I must frankly admit one thing. I cannot find the choice--the choice between going forwards or going backwards--a very hard one to make. I have never found it so in all my experience--in whatever part of the world I have tried to serve my country, in whatever office I have held. But it does seem that a lot of politicians--especially at this time of year-regard it as their main business to make simple choices seem extremely hard.

Now I wish tonight to answer three basic questions:

What is the job to be done?

How much of that job has already been done?

How do we get the rest done?

So we begin, really, with this question: What do we want this country to be like as the next four years unfold?

Let me give you some highlights of the picture that I keep constantly before me.

I see an America in which every man can eat his own bread in peace, raise his own family in security, and strengthen his own spirit and mind in dignity.

This will be an America where there are more than 70 million jobs at good wages.

An America where the schoolroom shortage is erased--where ever child can go to a good school, and every young talent can be developed to the full.

An America in which farm surpluses no longer crush down farm prices--and the farmer.

And this--incidentally--means an America where no politician any longer can treat the farmer himself as a product to be bid for in the political market place.

I see an America where intensive medical research has conquered some of our most killing and crippling diseases.

An America where every family can afford and find a decent home.

An America where a mighty network of highways spreads across our country--and where ocean ships sail into the ports of the Great Lakes, bringing a fresh surge of progress and growth.

An America where long and costly strikes will be rare--where older workers will be hired entirely on the basis of ability--and where local unemployment problems will be attacked by special programs of financial and technical aid.

An America where we shall see the benefits of our recent action to conserve our soil and water resources--while abundant new supplies of power will be unleashed for our surging industrial growth.

An America where the greatest possible government efficiency allows the lowest possible government costs--and, hence, lower taxes.

And this--incidentally--will mean an America whose government is not run by politicians who think that the way to lower taxes is to increase expenditures. Our way--to reduce expenditures--is very old-fashioned. But it has one important advantage--it works.

An America where special laws will have improved and protected the competitive position of small business--so vital to our free economy.

And an America where our troubled period of adjustment to the practical meaning of equal opportunity, without regard to race, will have largely given way to a new spirit of understanding and harmony.

All of this means, finally, an America fully armed--materially and spiritually--to lead the free nations of the world. For our prosperity and our strength are necessary to serve not only our own comfort and security--but the hopes and needs of free men everywhere.

Now we come to our second key question: how much of this job already has been done?

Now I shall be blunt and very truthful: I am proud of the record to date.

And permit me, please, to explain why I speak of such pride. It is not to make a political boast--or to ask praise for the performance of duty.

I speak of it because our past performance is the evidence that we can and will do the job that remains to be done.

There is one simple proof of this point.

Most of the items I have just listed in our hopes and plans for the years just ahead are already backed up by specific laws enacted, or bills in Congress--based on my last three Messages on the State of the Union.

This, then, is not a set of glittering phrases coined in the frenzied weeks of a political campaign. This is a working plan of action.

Let us look at a few examples.

Before all else--in our hearts and in our deeds--comes our quest of peace. In Korea, long since, the guns have been stilled--and in America, the casualty lists have ended. The road to secure world peace, obviously, merely began with the Korean armistice. But it did begin. And there have been no more Koreas--anywhere in the world.

What about our progress at home?

As to jobs: I have just received the figures for the month of September just since I have arrived in your city. There were more people employed throughout our country than in any other September in our history. The figure is 66 million, 100 thousand.

There were 700 thousand more people employed in August, and I suppose the opposition will try to make something of this point, but the fact is that those 700 thousand were almost entirely made up of young people who gave up their temporary summer employment to return to school.

What is even more encouraging, unemployment for September dropped to a rate lower than in any peacetime September during the twenty-year rule of the opposition party.

So, there's the record! More employment in any September in our history, and less unemployment than any peacetime September during the entire twenty-year rule of the opposition.

Now as to wages: I realize that averages do not mean too much to any one individual. But the fact is that the worker in our factories today is making an average of $12 a week more than he did in August 1952. Most of this is clear gain because taxes have been reduced, while the cost of living has increased less than 3 percent.

As to farm prices: Except for the Korean war years, this will be the first year since 1947 when farm prices have gone up.

As to homes: More homes have been built in the last three years than in any previous three-year period.

As to transportation: The huge, new interstate highway network is already under construction. And so is the St. Lawrence Seaway--after about 30 years of talk and delay.

As to older workers: We have been carrying on a new Federal-state project to help older workers get jobs. We have launched a whole new array of special housing, health, and other programs for retired or aging persons.

As to small business: We created the Small Business Administration. And we have substantially increased the share of defense contracts going to small business.

As to government efficiency: Our Federal civilian payroll in June 1956 was 167,300 less than at the end of the preceding Administration. We have cut taxes by $7.4 billion, with about two-thirds of the cut going directly to individuals.

And, we have balanced the budget.

A great cooperative effort was launched to improve earning opportunities in low-income rural areas. A special campaign is in force to improve the working conditions and regularity of income of migrant farm laborers. The rate of rehabilitating handicapped workers--and finding useful employment for them--has reached an all-time high. And assistance to the aged--in such forms as increased medical aid--has been improved beyond any programs known in the past.

Now, as to social security: We made coverage virtually complete by bringing in 10 million more people--and we put through the biggest real increase in benefits in the program's history.

As to civil rights: Genuine progress has been made in eliminating racial segregation and inequality of opportunity--in all area. of direct federal responsibility. This has applied to the of Columbia--government departments--the armed forces-and government contracts with private industry.

These are a few of the actions taken that clearly mark our direction.

They also give a background of clear fact to enable us to judge some of the political oratory heard these days. This oratory, at its most reckless, has plunged to the wild extremes of charging this Administration with such fabulous failings as not guarding the peace--and not caring for the welfare of any humble citizen or any needy family in our land.

We should not, perhaps, be too much surprised at such talk.

We all know that there are people who suffer from living in a world of words and phrases for so long that they can no longer recognize action when they see it.

And--when it comes to a really critical matter like political leadership--we recall a fact that all of us have seen in our daily lives: the longest lectures almost always come from those with the least experience.

Our third and final question is: How do we get on with the rest of the job?

The first thing to do is clear. It is for the people to elect a Republican Administration and to send to Washington men like John Sherman Cooper and Thruston Morton. Here are two men who have proved themselves not merely by what they have said, but by what they have done. Here are two men who deeply believe in the principles and ideals of the new direction of our Nation.

We need again John Robsion and Eugene Siler in the House of Representatives, and I hope you will send there also Mr. All-American "Wa-Wa" Jones, and along with him Scott Craft, Jule Appel, R. B. Blankenship and Basil Preston.

With the help of such men, we can then begin by going to work on some unfinished business in our program which has been blocked by the opposition in Congress.

One or two examples.

Most urgent of all is the problem of our schools.

Here let us get a few simple facts straight.

Our serious schoolroom shortage has actually been somewhat reduced in these last years--with the building of more classrooms in these four years than in the preceding twelve. This local and state action, however, has not been enough. I therefore called upon the last Congress to enact a two billion dollar program of Federal grants and other aids for school construction over a five-year period.

I insisted that Federal aid be distributed to States on the basis of need. Moreover, I insisted that this aid be over and above what the States are now doing--and that the States themselves match the Federal funds. These requirements are essential if we are realistically to take up the critical lag already existing-rather than merely to keep step with new and growing needs.

As for the opposition: not one of its proposals met these simple, vital requirements. Now--within the last week--we see the strange spectacle of an apparently confused candidate of the opposition supporting the principles of the bills that we proposed--and that his party defeated.

There was only one clear vote, my friends, on my call for action. In the House, the opposition voted against it by 215 to 9--while three-fourths of the Republicans voted for it. In the Senate, the opposition never allowed it to get to a vote.

As a result, we have now lost one out of five precious years. To meet this, I see only one answer--to stick to our determination to get the schools we need--on schedule.

I shall accordingly call upon the next session of Congress to enact legislation that will do the job--not in five years--but in four.

There is other unfinished business to which I shall return.

I shall call--again--for financial and technical aid to areas suffering chronic local unemployment.

I shall call--again--for extension of the federal minimum wage law to great numbers of working men and women who today do not have its protection.

I shall--again--call for grants to states to expand and strengthen their programs for occupational safety. I called for this action by the last session of Congress. And the opposition Congress refused even to hold a hearing.

And I shall call for further help to small business with some dozen specific recommendations for action.

These are just a few examples of the specific tasks ahead.

But most important of all--in getting on with the job--is our understanding of one general principle: the need always to encourage the full and free energies of labor and industry, of private organizations and individual citizens. These are the energies that make America prosper and grow.

My friends, to turn back now to the unsound, inflationary, antibusiness, heavy-tax, heavy-spending, government-interference, centralized-control policies--from which this country has so recently been rescued--could reverse all the progress we have made. Surely this is a risk that it would be foolish to run.

Let me, at the same time, make one thing absolutely clear: where the job before us, or any part of it, is one that only the Federal Government can do effectively--this government must and will act promptly.

When I spoke to you from San Francisco, I said there was within our reach a new world of good life, good will, and good hope. We have made real progress toward such a world. For we have found--and are following--the new direction of our Nation.

We still have a distance to go. It can be an exciting journey, a satisfying journey, a confident journey--for we know where we are going. And we know how to get there.

Four years ago, my friends, we set out to do a job together.

When I think of the America that we would like to see by 1960, I say: let us get on with the rest of the job.

Thank you very much.

[After an ovation the President added--]

May I say just one word, my friends. I want to leave with all of you my special word of thanks to Dr. Peterson and the officers, trustees and faculty, and the student body of the University, for making this magnificent hall available to us at this meeting tonight.

Thank you very much.