I want to say first how much Pat and I appreciate
your welcoming us, your standing here in this rather brisk weather today
and also how very happy and proud I am to be back in Harrisburg, to have
the opportunity to be on the same platform with the Republican candidates
who have been introduced to you - with Walt Mumma, my friend running for
reelection to the Congress of the United States, and with all the rest.
I say, let's go Republican all the way in this county again, as you have
in year after year in Harrisburg and this area.
Now, the second point that I want to make
is one that already has been referred to by Harv Taylor, who introduced
me. Why is it that a great crowd like this will come out in cold weather
at this hour in the morning to hear a man who is running for President
of the United States? I'll tell you why. Because you realize that this
election and the decision you make on November 8 may be the most important
decision of your life. You know why? It will affect the future of this
country. It will affect the future of every young person here who is thinking,
as you are thinking, of whether he's going to grow up in a world of peace
or a world of war. It also is going to affect, may I say - it's going to
affect the prices of everything you buy in the stores on this square. It's
going to affect your taxes. It's going to affect your jobs. That's what
this election is all about.
Let me spell it out in just a few words. Why
do I say this is an election that is the most important election in your
lifetime? Because today the man who is elected President of the United
States must lead not only this country, but the whole free world.
It is necessary for us, therefore, to look
at the candidates for President and to look at the candidates for Vice
President, in terms not of what they say they want to do, but in terms
of what we know they will do in handling these problems. All that I can
say with regard to Cabot Lodge and me is this: We both know Mr. Khrushchev.
We have sat across the conference table with him. We have not been fooled
by him, and we need nothing less than that kind of experienced leadership
if we are going to keep the peace that President Eisenhower has brought
to us in these last 8 years.
Now, I am sure many of you heard the debate
Senator Kennedy and I had last Friday. I am sure, too, you've had an opportunity
to hear some of the other discussions. I think it's only accurate to point
out this: that in this period you have a choice between one man - two men,
Cabot Lodge and I, who had the opportunity of dealing with these problems,
and another man who, on occasion after occasion, has indicated that when
the chips were down that he would have made the mistake, the mistake that
could have led, in my opinion, either to war or to surrender of territory.
Let me give you just three quick examples.
In 1955, and I was there when the decision was made, President Eisenhower
had to meet the threat of communism in the Pacific, as presented in the
Formosa Straits. He asked for the right to defend that area. Senator Kennedy
was one of those who said then, who said again in 1959, who said again
on our second and third debates, "We're going to cut off a couple of islands
here. We will not defend these because if we do, it may lead to war."
He was wrong. The President was right. I say
let's stick with the President's policies and not turn to his policies
at this point.
The second point, already referred to - the
summit conference in Paris - the President of the United States standing
there, Khrushchev insulting him in the most vulgar language, insulting
him - why? Because the President of the United States had done what was
necessary, getting information to protect this country from surprise attack.
Khrushchev saying, "You apologize, or express
regrets."
The President of the United States saying,
with dignity, in effect, "We will do no such thing."
Senator Kennedy saying, "He could have done
it."
Who was right. Eisenhower, not Kennedy - and
that's the kind of policy--
Point 3: and this most recently, and certainly
one of the greatest mistakes ever made by a presidential candidate in the
history of this country, indicating that he would directly intervene in
Cuba, the Government of the United States moving into that situation. What
would that have done? Lose us all our friends in Latin America, lose us
our influence in the United Nations, because we would have broken every
treaty if we had done what he wanted us to do. It would have invited the
Soviet Union to come into Cuba, something they would need an excuse for,
and this would have been the excuse. The President, of course, has refused
to do that. The Senator recommended it. Who was right? Eisenhower not Kennedy
- and we're sticking with the Eisenhower policy.
My friends, this is what I am saying, Harv
Taylor, my good friend, said a moment ago that my opponent had no experience.
Let me correct him to this extent. He has had experience, but on every
occasion when the chips were down, if he had been President and made the
decision, it would have been disastrous for the United States, and we can't
take a chance now on that kind of inexperienced leadership. That's the
issue in this campaign.
So, I say we will keep this country strong.
We will keep the economy of this country progressing. We will keep it moving
forward, and we will be firm at the conference table, working for the cause
of peace.
Now, the other point that I make: I said your
taxes are going to be affected, your prices, everything that you buy. Those
of you who heard our debates will remember that on several occasions I
said, "Senator, tell us how you're going to pay for all these promises
you have been making around the country," because, after all, my friends,
when he promises this or that or the other thing, it isn't Jack's money
- he's got a lot - but it's your money that's going to buy all those promises.
And I charge again today that his programs
would add $15 billion to the budget of this country. He says no. But he
refuses to say what he's going to give up. He's got to do one of two things.
He's got to give up his campaign promises that he has been making, or he's
got to take it out of the hides of the people. What does that mean? It
means if you vote that way, it means going back to the policies we left
8 years ago. It means higher taxes or higher prices, or both;
or it means pie in the sky, and that means not delivering on the promises,
because it simply can't be done unless you do it.
I say the American people today want to move
forward. They have been moving forward. They will move forward with us,
but there is a way to move forward without doing what our opponents would
do, and that is raise your taxes, raise your prices. America says "No"
to that, and "Yes" to the leadership that we offer in continuing in the
great traditions of Dwight Eisenhower. And, so, again I say to you: The
choice is clear. America has been moving forward. America can move forward
even more in the years ahead, but, my friends, we won't do it by going
back to the policies of Harry Truman that we left in 1953 - and that's
all that our opponent offers.
So, here's your choice. Your choice is clear.
Between now and election day, you have the responsibility to determine
your lives, the lives of your children.
I say it's time for Americans to wake up.
It's time for them to wake up that there is nothing more important that
you can do in these next 2 weeks, than to get out and work as you have
never worked before in an election. If you want higher prices, if you want
to take a chance on inexperienced leadership in dealing with the greatest
threat to the peace the world has ever seen, then just sit at home. Just
do nothing about it. But, my friends, if you want experienced leadership,
if you want two men who know the men in the Kremlin and know how to deal
with them, if you want to move forward in the traditions that we have been
following and move even more in the years ahead, then I say you have a
choice, and we offer it to you.
And my last point is one that I know all of
you will understand and appreciate. I would not want to come to this great
city which is the capital of Pennsylvania, which just celebrated its centennial,
which has in it also some great traditions and ideals of America - I would
not want to come here without pointing up the fact that my colleague and
I realize that in this great struggle for the world, it isn't just a question
of economics. It isn't just a question of our military strength; but it
is a question of the things we believe in - our faith. And I want you to
know in these next 4 years, if we get the opportunity that we ask for,
we're not going to present America just as a strong country militarily,
as a rich country economically; but we're going to present America as a
country and a people who believe in the right things, who have our faith
in God, faith in our ideals, faith and belief in the rights of all men
to be free, in the rights of all people to live in peace. It's this that
the world needs. It's this that will win the struggle for the world. It's
this that I deeply believe, and it's because I believe these things that
I ask for your support today.
I do not claim that I will make it easy for
all of you. I do not claim that I have all the solutions. I do not claim
certainly that we're not going to have troubles in the world, but, my friends,
I have seen the world. We have visited 55 countries in the last 8 years.
I have seen the men in the Kremlin. I know the enemies that confront us,
and there is nothing that is more important, nothing believe me, than that
America have firm, strong, courageous leadership to deal with this. I think
we can provide it, and with the help of my colleague, Cabot Lodge, we will
lead America to victory without war. We will lead the causes of freedom
to victory without war.
And this is what you want, I am sure, and
if you do, let's go out and work for that victory here in this county and
in this State of Pennsylvania.
Thank you.