Mr. Nixon's white paper is intended, he said,
to present some glaring errors. It does just that. It repeats some of the
most glaring errors Mr. Nixon has made in this campaign. It is an interesting
fact that he is willing to debate with a mimeograph machine that presents
only one side, but is unwilling to make his answers and charges in direct
TV confrontation with 70 million people watching. While I take this opportunity
to set forth the facts on his list, the total record of Nixon misstatements,
slurs, and distortions could not possibly be answered in a single white
paper. But it will be answered by millions of white papers cast on November
8.
1. Kennedy statement: This administration
and this country last year had the lowest rate of economic growth, which
means jobs, of any major industrial society in the world.
Fact: In January 1960 the Joint Economic Committee
reported that from 1953 to 1959 the average annual rate of growth was 2.3
percent.
Fact: In January 1960 the Joint Economic Committee
reported that the average rate of growth of countries of Western Europe
was 4.6 percent.
2. Kennedy statement: I am not satisfied when
we are failing to develop the natural resources of the United States to
the fullest. Here in the United States, which developed the Tennessee Valley
and which built the Grand Coulee and other dams in the Northwest United
States, at the present rate of hydropower production the Soviet Union by
1975 will be producing more power than we are.
Fact: In the May 1960 Journal of the Soviet
Ministry of Power Station Construction, Prof. P.S. Neporozhni places overall
Soviet power production at 1,550 billion kilowatts in 1975. According to
the report to the Senate Interior Committee this year, this is a approximately
the same power production projected for the United States in that year.
3. Kennedy statement: It is untrue that under
my agricultural program food prices would go up 25 percent.
Fact: Senator Johnston, chairman of the Senate
Civil Service Committee, stated following his investigation, Mr. Nixon's
calculations of the effect of the farm program were "a fraud upon the public."
Fact: My farm program will cost taxpayers
$3 billion a year less than Mr. Nixon's program.
Fact: My farm program will have little effect
on food prices, for the farmer receives only a small share of the total
cost of food. For instance, the farmer gets only 2.3 cents for the wheat
in a 20-cent loaf of bread.
4. Kennedy statement: The Republicans in recent
years, not only in the last 25 years but in the last 8 years, have opposed
Federal aid to education.
Fact: In the 83d Congress there was no Federal
aid to education bill.
Fact: In 1956, the Republicans in the House
of Representatives opposed the school bill by a vote of 119 to 75.
Fact: In 1957, the Republicans in the House
of Representatives killed the administration's school bill by a vote of
111 to 77.
Fact: In 1958, every Republican on the House
Education and Labor Committee voted against aid to education and the bill
did not reach the floor.
Fact: In 1959, threatened veto prevented any
vote upon a school bill.
Fact: In 1960, the House Republicans opposed
the school bill by a vote of 92 to 44. And the Senate Republicans opposed
it by a vote of 22 to 9.
5. Kennedy statement: Our forests are vanishing
and our wildlife is vanishing.
Fact: According to the Republican administration's
own Forest Service, reforestation is proceeding at 8½ percent of
need and timber quality is declining.
Fact: During the years of the Republican administration,
an average of 200,000 acres of forests per year have burned while only
22,000 burned acres per year have been reforested.
Fact: President Roosevelt planted almost as
many acres in 1 year as this Republican administration in 7½ years.
6. Kennedy statement: The Congress has provided
more funds in fact than the President recommended for national defense.
Fact: From 1953 to the present, the administration
asked for $232,020 million for defense. In the same period Congress appropriated
$232,280 million - or $260 million more than the President requested.
7. Kennedy statement: Senator Kennedy accused
the Vice President of election year hypocrisy in the health and medical
fields. He complained that the Nation's health problems have been neglected
for 8 years.
Fact: In the past 3 years the Congress has
appropriated $210 million more for hospital construction under the Hill-Burton
Act than the Republicans requested.
Fact: The water pollution control bill passed
by the Democratic Congress was vetoed by the administration.
Fact: The health program for American Indians
consisted primarily of a transfer operation from the Interior Department
to the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare - a transfer opposed
by the Republican Director of the Budget Bureau and the Republican Secretary
of Health, Education, and Welfare.
Fact: 85 percent of the Republican Senators
voted against the Model Rehabilitation Center.
Fact: Democratic Congresses have increased
funds for medical research by $433 million over Republican opposition.
8. Kennedy statement: The Republican Party
has failed to take one constructive step toward guaranteeing equal opportunities
to all Americans.
Fact: Each advance toward equality of opportunity
for all Americans made during the past 7½ years has been due to
the Democratic initiative.
A. The 1957 civil rights bill emerged from
the Democratic Congress despite the failure by the Republican administration
to recommend any bill when it had control of the Congress.
B. The Republican administration failed to
take the recommendations of their own Civil Rights Commission for legislation
in 1960.
C. The Armed Forces integration, for which
Mr. Nixon takes credit, was accomplished by an Executive order issued by
President Truman.
D. The Republican administration has repeatedly
refused to endorse the school desegregation decision. The District of Columbia
desegregation for which Mr. Nixon claims credit, was accomplished in obedience
to a court order.
E. A Negro Governor of the Virgin Islands
was first appointed by President Truman - not, as Mr. Nixon claims, by
a Republican administration.
F. The number of complaints filed with the
Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, for which Mr. Nixon
claims credit, has resulted in only five discrimination suits annually.
G. Lunch counter desegregation, for which
Mr. Nixon claims credit, was achieved by courageous young students.
9. Kennedy statement: The Republicans in recent
years, not only in the last 25 years but in the last 8 years have opposed
housing programs for the American people.
Fact: All our basic housing programs have
been enacted by the Democratic Congresses working with Democratic Presidents.
Fact: Mr. Nixon opposed and voted against
the Housing Act of 1949 which created the urban renewal program.
Fact: Republicans opposed a $350 million authorization
for urban renewal in 1960.
Fact: Republicans tried to cut back the urban
renewal program by requiring communities to pay one-half instead of one-quarter
of the cost.
Fact: Republicans vetoed two housing bills
in 1959.
Fact: The volume of private home building
is largely due to the FHA and VA programs under which 10 million homes
have been built and 24 million home improvements have been made. This program
was passed under a Democratic administration.
Fact: In 3 years a Democratic administration
built 213,000 housing units of low rent housing - in 7 years the Republicans
have built 132,000.
10. Kennedy statement: The President of the
United States wrote to Senator Green, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, that "Neither you nor any other American need fear the United
States will be involved in military hostilities merely in the defense of
Quemoy and Matsu."
Fact: This letter expressed the administration's
position that -
A. We would defend Quemoy and Matsu if their
defense became necessary or appropriate for the defense of Formosa and
the Pescadores.
B. We would not defend Quemoy and Matsu if
their defense was not necessary to the defense of Formosa and the Pescadores.
C. We would not retreat from Quemoy and Matsu
under fire.
Fact: In the television debates with Mr. Nixon
I stated that:
A. I would defend the islands of Quemoy and
Matsu if their defense was necessary to halt an attack on the island of
Formosa and the Pescadores.
B. I would not defend Quemoy and Matsu unless
their defense was necessary or appropriate to the defense of Formosa and
the Pescadores. I would never retreat from Quemoy or Matsu under fire.
Fact: My position throughout has been consistent
with the position of the administration and with our present treaty obligations.
Fact: Mr. Nixon, immediately after our second
television debate, pledged that he would defend Quemoy and Matsu whether
or not their defense was essential to the defense of Formosa - thus going
beyond the administration position.
Fact: In our third television debate, Mr.
Nixon indicated that he would only defend the islands in the event that
the defense of those islands was necessary or appropriate to the defense
of Formosa.
Fact: Mr. Nixon has now retreated from his
original position, until his position now accords with mine and that of
the administration.
Fact: Mr. Nixon has not only misstated my
position, he has also misstated his own.
11. Kennedy's statement: The Republicans have
consistently opposed minimum wage legislation.
Fact: In 1938, when the first bill was passed,
the Republicans voted against it 48 to 31 in the House and 13 to 2 in the
Senate.
Fact: When the minimum wage was raised from
40 cents to 75 cents an hour, every Republican on the House Labor Committee
opposed it and the Republicans in the House voted 143 to 12 to take away
minimum wage protection from 1 million workers who were covered.
Fact: In 1960, the attempt to raise the minimum
wage to $1.25 an hour was defeated in the House when Republicans voted
119 to 27 against it. In the Senate, the $1.25 minimum wage was opposed
by the Republicans, 18 to 14.
12. Kennedy's statement: The Republican Party
gives only lip-service to programs of care for the aged.
Fact: In 1935, when the Social Security Act
was passed, 107 out of 115 Republican Members of the House and Senate voted
against it.
Fact: In 1949, Mr. Nixon and 110 other Republicans
in the House of Representatives voted to eliminate benefits to persons
who became disabled.
Fact: In 1956, the Republican administration
opposed lowering the retirement age for women to 62 and opposed benefits
for persons who became permanently and totally disabled. Thirty-eight of
the forty-four Republicans voted against the disability provisions.
Fact: Until this year during the closing months
of Congress, the Republican administration opposed any action upon health
care. During public hearings of the House Ways and Means Committee in 1959,
and during the executive sessions of that committee in 1960, the only Republican
recommendation called for further study through a national conference on
the aging in 1961.
Fact: The bill supported by Mr. Nixon this
year did not receive a single Republican vote when it was considered by
the Senate Finance Committee.
13. Kennedy's statement: All regular Spanish
language broadcasts of the Voice of America were suspended from 1953 to
1959, with the exception of the 6 months of the Hungarian crisis.
Fact: Regular Spanish language Voice of America
broadcasts to South America were suspended in 1953 and resumed in 1959
with the exception of the 6 months of the Hungarian crisis.
Fact: In 1953, the Republicans canceled Democratic
plans for two powerful radio transmitters which would have enabled us to
reach large parts of the world with direct broadcasts.
Fact: In 1952, we were competing with Moscow
for first place in nationaT broadcasting. We are now running a poor fourth
to Moscow, Peiping, and the United Arab Republic.
In closing, I might suggest that Mr. Nixon
- by raising the standard of truth and accuracy - has exposed his own campaign's
most vulnerable weakness. A real "truth squad," for example, would find
it necessary to ask Mr. Nixon such questions as these:
1. Why do you repeat the statement that real
wages have gone up 15 percent during the present administration compared
with only 2 percent in the previous one, when your own Department of Labor
figures clearly establish that the increase between September 1945 (the
first postwar month) and January 1953 was 18.3 percent while the increase
between January 1953 and August 1960 has been 13.7 percent.
2. Why have you not personally admitted that
you misquoted me when you said that in my Detroit speech on Labor Day I
had said "What the American labor movement wants for America is what I
want for America" when this statement did not appear in either my advance
statement or in the speech as actually delivered?
3. When you insist that Federal aid to teachers
salaries means Federal control over education, are you aware of the fact
that the present program for aid to federally impacted areas has been free
of such control, and that the provision which you killed with your tie-breaking
vote contained explicit language ruling out any Federal "direction, supervision,
or control over the policy determinations, personnel, program of instruction,
or the administration or operation of any school or school system"?
4. How can you claim credit for the present
administration for more new water project starts than any other time in
our history, when the stated Republican position except in campaign election
years has been a no-new-starts policy that the Democratic Congress has
sought to overcome?
5. How can you call the vetoed 1960 Democratic
bill on depressed areas "straight pork barrel" when your own Secretary
of Labor, just 24 hours before the veto was announced, called the bill
"good enough so that any Senator or Congressman from a State with areas
of chronic unemployment would have no alternative but vote for it"?
6. Why do you take credit for the present
levels of operations at the National Institutes of Health, when the Democratic
Congress, ignoring threats of veto, raised the administration request from
$400 million to $560 million for the present year - the sixth consecutive
year that Democrats have raised administration requests?
7. On October 5, in Philadelphia, you talked
about civil rights and said, "My position and that of my running mate has
been clear and straightforward. We have said the same thing in every section
of the country." Do you stand by this statement in light of the varying
statements both you and your running mate have made on question of appointing
a Negro to the cabinet, for example?
8. Why do you repeat the Communist argument
that unemployment was eliminated in the United States only when we have
had a war economy, when the fact is that unemployment during the Truman
administration averaged about a million less than during the administration
even though the level of defense expenditures - including the Korean war
- was lower than it has been during the present administration?
9. Why have you stated that I support a minimum
wage which "official studies show would force unemployment and business
failures" when there are no such studies, just administration assertion
that this might happen - assertions like those made by Republicans every
time an increase in the minimum wage is proposed?
10. Why do you blame the present huge agricultural
surpluses on the policies your party inherited, when the fact is that at
the end of the Truman administration total farm surpluses were valued at
$2.5 billion, while the present value is $8.5 billion?