President Kennedy
at Miami International Airport
NOVEMBER 18, 1963
Remarks Upon Arrival at Miami International Airport
November 18, 1963
Governor Bryant, your distinguished Governor,
your senior Senator, my friend and colleague George Slathers, your Congressmen
Dante Facel and Claude Pepper, who speak for Dade County and Miami and this
section of Florida, and also for the United States, the Congressman from
Tampa, Sam Gibbons, my old friend Mayor High, and the associated mayors who
come with him, ladies and gentlemen:
I have been making nonpartisan speeches
all day and I am glad to come here as a Democrat and express my pleasure
to speak as a Democrat. If there are any Republicans here, this is
a Democratic message that I am about to give. I want to give them fair
warning. Woodrow Wilson once said that a political party is of no use
unless it is serving a great national purpose. I believe that the Democratic
Party in this century has served a great national purpose here in the State
of Florida, here in this country, and here in the United States.
We have been, for the last 3 years,
attempting to build upon a framework and platform built by other distinguished
Democratic Presidents who went before, Harry Truman and Franklin Roosevelt,
who make it possible for us to live in a secure and growing country, in a
world in which our vital interests are now being protected, and I can assure
you will be protected in the future. What is it we want to do?
It is pretty simple. What we want to do is make it possible in this
decade to educate our children so that all children of talent can develop
those talents and make something of themselves and their families.
Therefore, this State in supporting a $75 million bond issue, which you did
2 or 3 weeks ago, to make it possible to provide facilities for your sons
and daughters to go to college, are trying to do in this State what I want
us to do across the Nation; to provide loans for boys and girls who couldn't
go to college, to go to college. Is that socialism? I want to
see us assist colleges to provide dormitories and classrooms, to take care
of the 7 ½ to 8 million boys and girls who are going to try to go
to college in 1970, and will if we make the right decisions now.
And then I want to see this country
provide an economic growth rate to make it possible for all those people,
who want to find a job, to work. The United States today, I am proud
to say, in the last 18 months has had the highest growth rate, nearly, of
any country in the West, a higher growth rate, which we never expected before,
exceeding France and Germany, and every country in Western Europe but two.
And we will, by January of 1964, have seen an income increase of $100 billion
in the last 36 months. That is what we want to do. So we want
to educate our children. We want to provide jobs for our people.
And thirdly, we want to provide security
for them in their older age. Franklin Roosevelt began it in social
security, and we are going to contribute to it in providing assistance for
those who desire medical assistance as they retire after the age of 62 or
65. Those are some of the things that we want to do.
I know there are those who are opposed
to it. They opposed everything Franklin Roosevelt tried to do.
They opposed everything that Harry Truman tried to do. And now in 1963
when we stand as we do for progress, we still have those who say, "No.
Stop. Let's just forget it." I don't think we want to forget
it. I think a majority of the people of the United States are committed
to the movement forward of Florida and this country. Cape Canaveral
and all the rest symbolize a growing Florida and a growing country.
So I am glad to come here today.
I am going to come back next year and make a longer speech. But I want
to express my thanks to all of you. In 1960, which was not so long
ago, we carried this county by 65,000 votes or so. This is a great
Democratic county in a great Democratic area, in a State which I am convinced
is going to be Democratic in 1964 in a Democratic country. Thank you
very much.
NOTE: The President spoke at 5 p.m. at a Democratic rally held upon his arrival
at the International Airport at Miami. In his opening works he referred
to Governor Farris Bryant, Senator George A. Smathers, and Representatives
Dante B. Facel, Claude Pepper, and Sam M. Gibbons, all of Florida, and to
Mayor Robert King High of Miami.
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