SENATOR KENNEDY: Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Kennedy. I am here running in Indiana and I just wanted to stop here and ask your help in this campaign. I think that this is a difficult and important election. I think the fight in this state is going to be close and hard fought. I have come here today and asked your help. I don't believe that anyone can live in Indiana and in the United States and feel that the tide is moving in our favor in this state and around the country. The economy now, with over 4 million people out of work, with corn in these fields selling for 95 and 93 or 92 cents, the economy with steel mills down across the country using only 50 per cent of capacity.
I don't believe we need a diagram to know that the economy of this country is not moving to the fullest. I am sure that any merchant in this town would agree with that. We had a recession in 1958 and 1954. You cannot possibly afford in the United States, at this serious time, with all the responsibilities pressing upon us around the world, we can not afford to have our economy moving slowly. This economy of the United States, on it depends our strength and the strength of the free world, and I believe that the fiscal and economic and legislative policies followed by this administration have contributed to this slowdown, on the farm, in the towns, and in the cities. I come here today and ask your help in this campaign. (Applause)
I think there are very real issues in this campaign that divide the parties. Though I know that Indiana has not gone Democratic in any Presidential election, I think, since 1936, I believe that the United States and Indiana will move into the Democratic column in November, and I come here today and ask your help. (Applause)
Source: Papers of John F. Kennedy. Pre-Presidential Papers. Senate Files, Box 912, "Pendleton, Indiana, 5 October 1960." John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.