| OCR Text |
Show Nation's Progress Will Become Chief Issue, Democrat Predicts By Senator Vance Hartke (D-Ind.) Chairman, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (Editor's Note: Sen. Hartke's Senate Committee assignments are: Finance, Interstate and Foreign For-eign Commerce, Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Communications, District of Columbia; Co-lumbia; Chairman, Subcommittee on Judiciary. He has served as a delegate to Atlantic Congress, NATO Parliamentarians Par-liamentarians Conference, and Canadian-American Parliamentary Parliamen-tary Exchange.) Two years ago, President Kennedy, Ken-nedy, then a senator campaigning for the highest office in the land, told the American people the chief issue was whether America was to begin moving forward again. We have, indeed, begun to move ahead. We are charting bold new courses. Government is showing new leadership to a people starved for leadership. Next November the chief election elec-tion issue will be whether the American people approve of this leadership, these programs and It appears that Republican candidates next fall will fall back upon scare words and labels. In the main, they will criticize, but offer no alternatives. In some cases, the voters will be offered an opportunity to decide de-cide between ideologies. There will be a stand-pat Republican running against a move-forward Democrat. There will be a Birch Society backer versus a middle-of-the-roader. In every state voters will have an opportunity to express their satisfactionor disapproval of appointments made by this Administration. Ad-ministration. Usually these appointments ap-pointments by the Administration Administra-tion come from recommendations of members of the Senate or the House. They are Postmasters, judges, district attorneys, farm program managers and, sometimes, some-times, directors of agencies such as Small Business Administration Administra-tion and Federal Housing Administration. Ad-ministration. Finally, judgment can be passed indirectly on the President Presi-dent and his programs. In many races next fall, opposing candidates candi-dates will line up for and against President Kennedy and his pro- the new forward movement of our nation and our society. By election day Congress will have approved a new welfare program designed to get rid of chiseling and to help people help themselves, some kind of hospitalization hospi-talization plan for our aged, a program to retrain workers whose old skills are no longer needed, a new farm plan designed de-signed to cut down on surpluses, a new tax plan, a trade program and dozens of other worthy projects proj-ects and programs. In concert with the Administration Adminis-tration we will have stepped up our defense and laid out new paths for cooperation with strong allies. Today we find few such alternatives al-ternatives offered by the minority. minor-ity. We find no constructive opposition. grams. President Kennedy's actions in foreign affairs, in defense matters, mat-ters, in fighting unemployment and poverty, in attacking the source of inflation when a steel-price steel-price rise was a fact, in providing provid-ing true leadership all these will be brought into the campaign. cam-paign. Those who remained silent while big business attempted to begin a new inflationary spiral, for instance, may be called to account ac-count for themselves. The voters' decisions will profoundly pro-foundly affect not only the products of the next Congress, but the course of the nation. They will set the stage for the next Presidential election. And, by their choices of people and parties, they will endorse or reject re-ject progress, programs, and propects as well as personalities. |
