My friend and colleague, Senator McGee, your
distinguished Governor, Governor Hickey, Secretary of State Jack Gage,
your State Chairman, Teno Roncalio, your National Committeeman, Tracy
McCraken and Mrs. McCraken; your next United States Senator, Ray
Whitaker, your next United States Congressman, Hep Armstrong, ladies and
gentlemen: I first of all want to express on behalf of my sister and
myself my great gratitude to all of you for being kind enough to have
this breakfast and make it almost lunch. (Laughter) I understand from
Tracy that some of you have driven nearly three or four hundred miles to
be here this morning. Yesterday morning we were in Iowa, and since that
time we have been in five states, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana,
Colorado, and now Wyoming. We have come, therefore, all of us, great
distances, and I think we have come great distances since the Democratic
Convention at Los Angeles. I know that Wyoming is a small state,
relatively, but it is a fact that Wyoming, which was not talked about as
a key state in the days before the convention, when they were talking
about what California and what Pennsylvania and what New York, and
Illinois would do at the convention, not very many people talked about
what Wyoming would do, and yet, as you know Wyoming did it.
So you can expect in other days, other candidates, will all be coming
here. I don't know whether it is going to be that close in November. I
don't know whether Mr. Nixon and I will be three votes apart, but it is
possible we will be. If so, Wyoming having gotten us this far, we would
like to have you take us the rest of the way on November 8. (Applause)
My debt of gratitude, therefore, to everyone in this room and
everyone at the head table, goes very deep. As Gail said, I have been to
this state five times. My brother, Teddy, has been here ten times, and I
think that the Kennedys have a high regard and affection for the State
of Wyoming
Bobby has been here, I guess, several times. We have been here more
than we have been to New York State. I don't know what the significance
is, but in any case, I am delighted to be back here this morning.
(Applause) I am delighted to be here because this is an important
election, and because Wyoming elects not only a President of the United
States this year, but it elects a United States Senator and a
Congressman. The Electoral College and the organization of the states is
an interesting business. New York has 15 million people, Wyoming has
300,000 people; you have one Congressman, they have many Congressmen –
you have more than that? (Laughter) Odd people? Well, they have a few in
New York, I guess. (Laughter) But in any case, you have two Senators
and New York has two Senators. This causes a great deal of heartburn in
New York but it should be a source of pride and satisfaction to you that
when Wyoming votes, it votes the same number of United States Senators
as the State of New York, and the State of Massachusetts, and the State
of California. All states are equal, and, therefore, the responsibility
on the people of Wyoming is to make sure that they send members to the
United States Senate who speak not only for Wyoming, who serve not only
as ambassadors from this state, but also speak for the United States and
speak for the public interest, and that, I think has been the
contribution which Senator O'Mahoney has made to the United States
Senate and Gail McGee now makes. They speak for this state, they speak
for its interests, they speak for its development, they speak for its
needs, but they also speak for the country. And, therefore, our system
works, and Wyoming and the United States flourish together
I think we have a chance to carry on that tradition. To send as a
successor to Senator O'Mahoney, who grew up in Chelsea, Massachusetts,
and who saw the wisdom and came west, I think we have a chance to carry
on that tradition when you elect Ray Whitaker as United States Senator
next November 8.
Actually, as you know, the Constitution of the Untied States confines
and limits the power of Senators. We are given the right to approve
Presidential nominations, and to ratify treaties. But the House of
Representatives is given the two great powers which are the hallmark of a
self-governing society: One, the power to appropriate money, and the
second is the power to levy taxes. If you don't like the way your taxes
are, if you don't like the way your money is being spent, write to the
House of Representatives, not to the United States Senate, because our
powers and responsibilities are somewhat different. Therefore in sending
a man to fulfill these two functions, we want a man of responsibility
and competence and energy. I therefore am sure that the people of this
state will send to the House of Representatives to share in the great
constitutional powers given to that body, Hep Armstrong, with whom I
served in the Navy and hope to serve in the Government of the United
States next November.
During this campaign, there are many efforts made to divide domestic
and foreign problems and I don't hold that view. I think there is a
great interrelationship between the problems which face us here in the
United States and the problems which face us around the world. I think
if the United States is moving ahead here at home the United States
power and prestige in the world will be strong. If we are standing still
here at home, then we stand still around the world. I think in other
words, as Gail McGee suggested, that the 14 points of Woodrow Wilson
were the logical extension of the New Freedom here in the United States.
(Applause) And the Good Neighbor Policy of Franklin Roosevelt had its
counterpart in his domestic policy of the New Deal. And the Marshall
Plan and NATO and the Truman Doctrine carried out in foreign policy
under the administration of Harry Truman and Point IV, all had their
logical extension in the domestic policy of President Truman here in the
United States. I say that because I think that there is a direct
relationship between the efforts that we make here in the Sixties, here
in the West, here in the State of Wyoming, here in the United States,
and what we do around the world.
Two days ago I spent the day in Tennessee. I think that there is a
direct relationship between what was done in the Tennessee Valley by
Franklin Roosevelt and the Democratic Party in the Thirties, and what
other countries in Africa and the Middle East and Asia are attempting to
do to develop their own natural resources. I stand and you stand today
in the middle of the Great Plains of the United States. There are great
plains in Africa, and in my judgment Africa will be one of the keys to
the future. The people of Africa want to develop their resources. They
want to develop their resources of the great plains of Africa and they
look to see what to do here to develop the resources, of the Great
Plains of the United States.
I don't think that there can be any greater disservice to the cause
of the United States and the cause of freedom than for any political
party at this watershed of history to put forward a policy for
developing the resources of the United States of no new starts. I don't
say that we can do everything in the Sixties, but I say we can move and
start and go ahead, and I think it is that spirit which separates our
two parties.
I come from Massachusetts, but it is a source of satisfaction and
pride that the two Americans who did more to develop the resources of
the West both came from New York, Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin
Roosevelt, and they did it because they saw it not as a state problem,
not as a regional problem, but as a national opportunity, and it is in
that spirit that I look to the future of the Great Plains of the United
States in the Sixties.
We are going to have over 300 million people living in this country
in the year 2000. Many of them will live in this state. We are going to
have to make sure that we pass on to our children a country which is
using natural resources given to us by the Lord to the maximum; that
every drop of water that flows to the ocean first serves a useful and
beneficial purpose; that the resources of the land are used, whether it
is agriculture or whether it is oil or minerals; that we move ahead here
in the West and move ahead here in the United States. I think that
there is a direct relationship between the policy of no new starts in
developing our water and power resources, and irrigation and reclamation
and conservation, and the fact that our agricultural income has dropped
so sharply in the United States in recent years, and the fact that we
are using our steel capacity 50 per cent of capacity. Pittsburgh,
Wyoming, Montana, Wisconsin are all tied together. A rising tide lifts
all the boats. If we are moving ahead here in the West, if we are moving
ahead in agriculture, if we are moving ahead in industry, if we have an
administration that looks ahead, then the country prospers. But if one
section of the country is strangled, if one section of the country is
standing still, then sooner or later a dropping tide drops all the
boats, whether the boats are in Boston or whether they are in this
community.
I can assure you that if we are successful that we plan to move ahead
as a national administration, with the support of the Congress, in
using and developing the resources which our country has. This is a
struggle, not only for a better standard of living for our people, but
it is also a showcase. As Edmund Burke said about England in his day,
"We sit on a conspicuous stage", what we do here, what we fail to do,
affects the cause of freedom around the world. Therefore, I can think of
no more sober obligation on the next administration and the next
President and the next Congress than to move ahead in this country,
develop our resources, prevent the blight which is going to stain the
development of the West unless we make sure that everything that we have
here is used usefully for our people.
The Tennessee Valley in Tennessee, the Northwest Power Development,
the resources of Wyoming, all harnessed together, the Missouri River,
the Columbia River, the Mississippi River, the Tennessee River - all of
them harnessed together serve as a great network of strength, a stream
of strength in this country which is going to be tested to its utmost.
So I come here today not saying that the future is easy, but saying that
the future can be bright. I don't take the view that everything that is
being done is being done to the maximum. I think the difference between
the Republicans and the Democrats in 1960 is that we both think it is a
great country, but we think it must be greater. We both think it is a
powerful country, but we think it must be more powerful. We both think
it stands as the sentinel at the gate for freedom, but we think we can
do a better job. I think that has been true of our party ever since the
administration of Theodore Roosevelt, and I think we can do a job in the
Sixties.
I have asked Senator Magnuson, who is the Chairman of our Resources
Advisory Committee, to hold a conference on resources and mineral use
here in the City of Casper in the State of Wyoming during the coming
weeks, because I think we should identify ourselves in the coming weeks
with the kind of programs we are going to carry out in January. If there
is any lesson which history has taught of the administrations of
Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt, it is the essentiality of
previous planning for successful action by a new administration. Unless
we decide now what we are going to do in January, February, March and
April, if we should be successful, we will fail to use the golden time
which the next administration will have. I come here today speaking not
for Wyoming or Massachusetts, but speaking for a national party which
believes in the future of our country, which will devote its energies to
building its strength, and by building our strength here we build the
cause of freedom around the world. Thank you.
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