It is a great privilege for me to have this opportunity to address the Democrats of West Virginia who are assembled in Morgantown tonight. I say it is a privilege because of the importance of this occasion – because of the importance of West Virginia in the 1958 elections.
For Democrats across the country are watching West Virginia – watching and hoping that this is the year for a great Democratic victory in the state.
Today, the Democrats control the Senate by one vote. We are going to pick up at least 10 more seats in November – and we are counting on two of those coming from West Virginia.
The importance of increasing our margin in both Houses of Congress is not simply a matter of party pride. It is also a matter of party responsibility. To carry out the platform and program of our party – to take effective measures against a recession – to block undesirable presidential appointments and override arbitrary presidential vetoes – to do all of this and more, we cannot rely upon a margin of one or two votes. Both in committee and on the Floor, some Democrats will of necessity be absent – some will not vote with their party on particular issues. Consequently, we are able to secure passage today of only those measures which can pick up the support of a few Republicans – and those measures must of necessity be watered down to secure that broad base of support. If West Virginia can send us two more Democratic senators – if we can pick up a dozen or more new Senate seats in November and a comparable gain in the House – the Democratic Party will be able to fulfill its role of progressive, effective leadership and its responsibilities to the people who look to us for that leadership.
But the election of two Democratic senators is not only important in the realm of National affairs – it is also, it seems to me, of the utmost importance to you in West Virginia.
I would not attempt to tell the voters of another state their business. But it seems to me that West Virginia – this year in particular – would want to send two Democratic Senators back to Washington.
The primary reason is that West Virginia will want to share in the Democratic sweep of 1958. There can be no doubt about it – victory is in the air – the handwriting is on the wall – this is going to be the greatest Democratic year since 1936.
In short, the Congressional policies that shape the future of this state will be shaped largely in the councils of the Democratic Party. West Virginians, I know, are concerned about what goes on in Washington. You do not want the fate of your mines, your jobs, your mills, and all your other problems to be decided by those unfamiliar with your needs. You want to have a voice in those Democratic councils. That is one reason I am confident that West Virginia will see the wisdom of sending two outstanding Democratic Senators back to Washington.
But there is more to the need for a Democratic victory than this. The citizens of West Virginia know the meaning of economic crisis – and as citizens of the United States, they know the meaning of International crisis. I would remind them – I hope you will remind them – of one great historical truth – that in the most critical periods of our nation’s history, the Democratic Party has come through with competent, courageous, responsible leadership.
I was sharply reminded of this Democratic tradition on another Saturday night earlier this year. I was in New York to see the opening of a play about Franklin Roosevelt called "Sunrise at Campobello."
It is not a play about politics. It is not about the Presidency or the Democratic Party. It is a play about the triumph of one man and his family over disaster – the disaster of physical illness.
But I thought, as I left the theatre, that this play portrays more than this stirring personal triumph. It also brought to mind all the great qualities of leadership in times of crisis for which FDR was famous – not only the personal crisis of his paralysis, but the crisis of a chaotic economy, of a world at war, and all the rest.
We urgently need real leadership again in Washington today. For this nation now enters a period of crisis of greater proportion than any we have ever endured. We are confronted with a deepening crisis in world affairs, in our relations with our allies, in our prestige with the uncommitted nations, in our military, scientific, political, and economic race with the Soviets. The Soviets have out-shown us in scientific achievement. They have outmaneuvered us in trade and aid. They have outstripped us in the race for ultimate weapons and outer space. The Middle East, North Africa, Indonesia, Cyprus, Latin America – every part of the world is in flames or in ferment. The Republicans in 1956 may have cried "Peace, peace" – but there is no peace – no stable peace in the Middle East, in Southeast Asia, in North Africa and elsewhere. And what the Republicans did not tell us was that our position in the world – our security – our very hopes for survival could be drastically diminished without a single shot being fired.
We will only be deceiving ourselves if we attribute all of our troubles around the world to Communist agitators. There are Communists in Latin America, to be sure – but they are successful because they exploit our government’s neglect of our former good neighbors. There are provocateurs in Lebanon and Algeria, to be sure – but their strength results from the massive decline of our prestige in North Africa and the Middle East.
These crises are not new. The fires have been smoldering for years in Latin America, North Africa, the Middle East, and all over the world. They have cried out for action, for decision, for leadership, but there has been no leadership, there has been no decision – only drift and postponement, vacillation and indecision.
I do not pretend to say that these were all easy decisions. They will require some new burdens, some unpopular actions, some breaks with the traditional policies of the past. But I trust that the Democratic Party, when it assumes responsibility will not hesitate to act, whatever the sacrifice required.
Here at home, where they promised prosperity to match their peace, the economic situation also remains stagnant. Some five million workers are unemployed. Millions of others are working only a few days a week. This month, hundreds of thousands of college and high school graduates will be walking the streets looking for work. And yet the cost of living continues to break all records.
Indeed, since the end of World War II, we have never had so deep a recession – we have never had so high an inflation – and we have never had so much recession and so much inflation at the very same time.
We may still prevent continuing in a long period of economic inactivity – but only if we can obtain effective, imaginary, tireless leadership. That kind of leadership is sorely lacking in this Administration.
We need something more in the way of leadership than those who talk blithely of a "breather" in the economy … or those who say everything will get better if we wait until the end of the year … or those who say reassuringly with Vice President Nixon: "There is nothing wrong with the economy that a good dose of confidence won’t cure," and "It’s time to quit running America down." Well, my friends – we of the Democratic Party say it’s time to start building America up.
Contrast, for example, Franklin Roosevelt’s vigorous attack on the depression in 1933 with the current Republican response to the slump. In 1933, the same kind of contrast was offered between the hesitant, moribund, outgoing Republican Administration and the new dynamic drive of the New Deal.
And as the Republicans packed to move out, Robert E. Sherwood contrasted the old and new administrations in a brief, sardonic poem:
"Plodding feet
Tramp – tramp
The Grand Old Party’s
Breaking Camp.
Blare of bugles
Din – din
The New Deal is moving in."
What we need in America today is not so much confidence in the economy, but confidence in our leadership.
We were told when the recession increased in January to wait for the upturn in March. We waited – March arrived – and our confidence was diminished further. We see no new ideas, no bold action, no "blare of bugles." We see only "plodding feet … tramp, tramp" – and "the Grand Old Party … breaking camp."
When an Administration lets fall the reins of leadership, they must be firmly held by the Congress – today a Democratic Congress. We must exercise that leadership.
We must pass measures effectively assisting our unemployed workers and our labor surplus areas.
We must restore the vitality of our anti-recession weapons – minimum wages, social security, jobless insurance.
We must restore the purchasing power of our consumers, and our small businessmen.
We must build the public works our nation needs – schools, homes, hospitals, urban renewal projects.
We must raise the nation’s standard of living instead of the cost of living – for the aged and the handicapped, for the unorganized and the underpaid and the underprivileged.
And above all, in the words of Justice Holmes, whether we sail with the wind or against the wind, let us set sail – and not drift or lie at anchor.
Your state and mine – West Virginia and Massachusetts – are particularly affected by this drift and lack of leadership. Our old manufacturing plants, our one-industry cities, our small businessmen and farmers and our textile and your coal mining industry – all of these need extra attention and vigorous effort today.
We had believed this Administration was going to do something for textile industry – you had believed they were going to do something for coal. We both believed they were going to do something for our distressed areas of labor surplus.
But the harsh facts in the matters are that they have done nothing – no aid, no relief, no contracts – not even any legislation – until the Senate Democrats took the initiative to put through a Depressed Areas Bill that House Republicans stalled in the last Congress.
I realize that many of these economic problems are chronic, complex, and difficult to solve. I realize that the solutions may not always be easy, or in keeping with traditional patterns. But I know that independent, forthright, and courageous action is not an unknown quality in West Virginia. I am thinking now of not only those two beloved fighting Democrats with whom I served in the Senate – Matt Neely and Harley Kilgore. I am also, would you believe it, thinking of West Virginia’s very first Senator – a man whom many considered to be a Republican although he considered himself a Unionist, and whom the Republicans ostracized from their ranks – a man whom I was proud to include in my book as a real "Profile in Courage" Peter Van Winkle of West Virginia.
On May 16, 1868, when Peter Van Winkle’s name was called in the roll call to convict President Andrew Johnson under impeachment proceedings, only he, alone, stood in the way of his party’s seizure of complete power in the Executive as well as the Legislative branch. Senator Van Winkle was not an admirer of Andrew Johnson. His party, his state, the newspapers and voters back home all wanted him to vote for conviction, whether Johnson was guilty or not. He knew that to resist all of these pressures would insure the end of his political career. But Peter Godwin Van Winkle followed the dictates of his conscience and his responsibility to do impartial justice – and he rose on that Senate floor and saved the President and the Constitution with two firm words: "Not Guilty."
It is that kind of courage and vision which we need in the nation today – and I am convinced that we can best find it today in the Democratic Party.
I do not pretend to say that the future will always be easy under a Democratic administration. There will be crises, there will be problems. But I say it is the Democratic Party that has the enthusiasm and the determination and the new ideas necessary to meet those problems.
We can build the schools and the hospitals and the homes and the dams that our nation needs. We can wage unrelenting war against drought and poverty and illiteracy and illness and economic insecurity.
We can build, through strength and justice and realistic leadership, a lasting peace.
The hard, tough question is whether a free society – with its freedom of choice – its breadth of opportunity – its range of alternatives – can meet the single-minded advance of the Communists.
Can a nation organized and governed such as ours endure? That is the real question. Have we the nerve and the will? Can we carry through in an age where – as never before – our very survival is at stake – where we and the Russians have the power to destroy one-quarter of the earth’s population – a feat not accomplished since Cain slew Abel? Can we carry through in an age where we will witness not only new breakthroughs in weapons of destruction – but also a race for mastery of the sky and the rain, the ocean and the tides, the inside of the earth and the inside of men’s minds?
We travel today along a knife-edged path which requires leadership better equipped than any since Lincoln’s Day to make clear to our people the vast spectrum of our challenges.
In the words of Woodrow Wilson: "We must neither run with the crowd nor deride it – but seek sober counsel for it – and ourselves."
—Candles
—Fellow Democrats of West Virginia as we face a dark and uncertain future, we ask that you, too, bring candles to help illuminate our way.
Source: Papers of John F. Kennedy. Pre-Presidential Papers. Senate Files, Box 901, "Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner, Morgantown, West Virginia, 11 June 1958." John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.