Kennedy: Governor Battle, Governor Almond, Congressman Jennings, Congressman Downing, Congressman Gary, your distinguished National Committeemen, Congressman Hardy, ladies and gentlemen: As the Democratic standard bearer in 1960, I come to the mother of the Democratic party, Virginia, and ask your help. I am honored by the generous introduction of your distinguished former governor, and I am proud to sit here on this platform with leaders of the Democratic party of Virginia. Virginia, which began under Thomas Jefferson a Democratic party, I can not believe in 1960 that Virginia would vote for a Republican of the likes of Richard Nixon. I come her today to this state, which has nourished the Democratic in good times and bad, which began this party, which gave it growth, which gave it intellectual conviction, and I come her to this state Virginia and the nation join in concerning ourselves with the future of our country. I do not believe that any citizen of the state of Virginia, that bears the proud title of Democrat, could possibly, in 1960, determine that the destinies of this country should be placed in the hands of a candidate, in the hands of a party who have opposed progress for the last 50 years. I don't care how many rescue squad operations are now being organized around the country to save Dick Nixon. I wrote through the streets of New York by myself. I did not require Henry Cabot Lodge, or Nelson Rockefeller, or President Eisenhower to We have one man who runs, one candidate, and the people of Virginia and the people of the United States must decide whether a candidate who runs on a platform of standing up to Khrushchev, who will not come into a studio and have a fifth debate, who needs an escort guard to lead him around the state of New York, whether he can lead the American thick skin, long memory, no vision, and when they move around the circus rink, they grab the tail of the elephant in front of them. Richard Nixon grabbed that tail in 1952 and 1956, but he is the lead elephant now, and the people of the Untied States do not want a candidate who needs are an escort to meet the American people in the last 5 days of the campaign. I come to Virginia and ask your help. This party, which was begun by Thomas Jefferson, this party of the Democrats, is a national party. I run as the presidential candidate, Lyndon Johnson as Vice President. We stand as the united party. North, South, East and West, the strength of the Democratic Party is that it is a national party, that speaks for all the people, to represent all interests, and most of all represent the public interest. I have been reading speeches by Richard Nixon and others that say that we are going to spend this country blind. I can not think of a fiscal year on record, which has been marked by greater imprudence than the record of this fiscal administration in the last 8 years and I am going to prove it. You know in the last 3 months that the United States has lost 1 billion dollars in gold. 1 billion dollars in 3 months has flowed out of this country. In 1952, the United States gold reserves were 11 billion dollars more. Yes, we owed the foreigner. Today our foreign debts are 3 billion dollars more than our gold reserve. A dangerous deterioration in our world position of 15 billion dollars in the last 8 years. In the past month, our estimated tax revenues, because of a decline in our economy, have gone down from 3 to 2 billion dollars in the last 3 or 4 months. In the last few moths our GNP has actually declined by 3 billion dollars. The Soviet Union is moving ahead at 7% a year. Our average growth in the last 8 years, is 2.5%, in the last 9 moths it's minus .3%. In the most difficult and dangerous time in the life of our country, instead of growing, instead of providing opportunity for our people that makes it possible for us to defend our county, we are actually falling behind. In the last few moths the cost of living has reached an all time high. And therefore, I believe we can do much better. I believe that we are going to have to do much better. And I want to make it clear, as the leader of the Democratic party in this campaign, as a member of Congress for 14 years. If I am elected president of the United States, we commit ourselves to a sound monetary and fiscal and responsible monetary policy, that will move this country ahead and meet our obligations. Interest rate policy of this administration has added 3 billion dollars a yea to the tax bill of the American people. I you buy a house today--- $10, 000, 30 year mortgage, you pay $3200 more for that house in interest rates alone than you would have paid in 1952. Who are the spenders? I was chairman of the Senate subcommittee on Governmental reorganization, which steered 30 Hoover committee recommendations through. Mr. Hoover wrote me a letter, praising us for the work we'd done on Government Economy. I do not endeavor to become President of the Unite States in order to liquidate the dollar. I become President of the Untied States because I think that we can do a much better job than the Republican can do. Virginia was Democratic when Massachusetts was Federalist. Virginia was democratic when Massachusetts was Wig. Virginia was Mass. Was Republican. And I do not want it said that Virginia was Republican when Mass. was Democratic. In the presence of this platform, of Governor Battle, Governor Almond, and distinguished members of Congress, I believe, better than anything, their good judgment that Virginia should go Democratic in 1960.