good evening the television and radio stations in the united states and their affiliated stations are proud to provide f question is whether the world will exist prop slaves or free whether it will move in the direction of freedom in the direction of the road that we are taking or whether it will move in the direction of slavery i think it will depend in great measure upon what we do here in the united states and the kind of society that we bailed on the kind of strength that we maintain its we discuss tonight domestic issues but i would not want that to be any implication to be given that this does not involve directly our struggle with mr crucial for survival it's just a crude job as a new york and he maintains the communist offensive throughout the world because of the productive power of the soviet union itself it's the chinese communist have always had a large population but they are important and dangerous now because they are mounting a major effort within their own country the kind of country we have here the kind of society we have the kind of strength we build in the united states will be the defense of freedom if we do well here if we meet our obligations if we are moving ahead then i think freedom will be secure on the world if we fail then freedom fail it's therefore i think the question before the american people lives are we doing as much as we can do we as strong as we should be and we as strong as we must be if we're going to maintain our independence and if we're going to maintain and hold out the hand of friendship to those who look to us for assistance to those who look to us for survival it's i should make it very clear that i i do not think we're doing enough so that i am not satisfied as an american with the progress that we make it's this is a great country but i think it could be a great a country and this is a powerful country but i think it could be a more powerful comforts i'm not satisfied to have fifty percent of our steel mill capacity unused it's i'm not satisfied when the united states had large data sets the lowest rate of economic growth of any major industrialized society in the world it's because economic growth means strength and vitality it means we're able to sustain our defenses it means we're able to meet our commitments abroad it's i'm not satisfied when we have over nine billion dollars worth of food some of it rotting food even though there is a hungry world and even though four million americans wait every month for a food package from the governments which averages five cents a day for individual thought cases in west virginia here in the united states where children took home part of their school lunch in order to feed their families because i don't think we're meeting our obligations towards these america it's i'm not satisfied when the soviet union is turning out twice as many scientists and engineers as we off so i'm not satisfied when many of our teachers are inadequately paid on our children go to school part time he f s i think we should have an educational system it's i'm not satisfied when i see men like jimmy hoffa in charge of the largest union in the united states still for a i'm not satisfied when we are failing to develop the natural resources of the united states to the fullest it's here in the united states which developed the tennessee valley and which built the grand coulee and the other dams in the northwest united states at the present rate of hydro power production that is the hallmark of an industrialized every american enjoys his full constitutional rights with a negro baby is born and this is true also of puerto ricans and mexicans in some of our cities he has about one half as much chance to get through high school as a white states he has one third as much chance to get to college as whites do he has about a third as much chance to be a professional man but half as much chance to own a house c has about four times as much chance that he'll be out of work in his life as a white baby i think we can do better i don't want the talents of any american to go to wastes i know that there are those who say that we want to turn everything over to the governments i don't at all i want the individuals to meet their responsibilit and i want the states to make their responsibility but i think there is also a national responsibility the argument has been used against every piece of social legislation in the last twenty five years the people of the united states individually cannot develop the tennessee valley collectively they could have a cotton farmer enjoy your our peanut farm or a dairy farmer in wisconsin and minnesota he cannot protect himself against the forces of supply and demand in the marketplace so working together and effective governmental program he can do stuff seventeen million americans who live over sixty five on an average social security checks of about seventy eight dollars a month say not able to sustain themselves individually but they can sustain themselves through the social security system i don't believe in the governments but i believe in effective governmental action and i think that's the only way that the united states is going to maintain  freedoms the only way that it was going to move ahead i think we can do a better job i we're going to have to do a better job if we are going to meet the responsibilities which time and events have placed upon us so we cannot turn the job over to anyone else if the united states fails then the whole fall is a freedom payoffs and i think it depends a great measure on what we do here in this country it's the reason franklin roosevelt was a good neighbor in latin america was because he was a good neighbor in the united states because they felt that the american society was moving again i want us to recapture that emits i want people in latin america and africa an atheist's to start to look to america see how we're doing things and wonder what the president of the united states is doing it's not to look at who shops a look at the chinese communists that is the obligation upon our generation it's one hundred thirty three franklin roosevelt said in hi i think it's handy and i think in the final analysis of this hand upon what we do here i think it's time america started moving again it's a now the opening statement by vice president richard  the things that senator kennedy has said it's many of us going to grapes there is no question but that we cannot discuss our internal affairs in the united states without recognizing that they have a tremendous bearing on our international position there is no question but that this nation cannot stand still because we are in a deadly competition it's a competition not only with the man in the kremlin but the man  speaking where his in this competition as senator kennedy i think is implied but when you're in a race the only way to stay ahead is to move ahead and i subscribe completely silly spirit that senator kennedy has expressed tonight despair that the united states should move ahead where then the we disagree i think we disagree on the implication of his remarks tonight and on the statements that he has made on many occasions during his campaign to the effect that the united states has been standing still we heard that later looking then to this problem of how are the united states should move ahead and where the united states is demand ministration of retreat of defeat of stagnation is it true that as far as this country is concerned in the field of electric power and all of the feel that he has much we have not been moving  well we have a comparison that we can make we have the record of the truman administration of seven and a half years and the seven and a half years of the school we have built more schools in these last seven and a half years and we built in the previous seven and a half for that matter in the previous twenty years let's take hydroelectric power we have developed more hydroelectric power in the south and a half years and less developed than any previous administration in history let us take hospital we find that more been built in this administration than in the previous administration the same is true of has been more growth in this administration and its predecessor but let's not put it there let's put it in terms of the average fan what has happened to you we still but good is this record is may i emphasize it isn't enough our record is never something to stand it's something to build and in building on this record i believe that we have the fix for progress we know the way to progress and i think first of all our own record proves that we know the way senator kennedy has suggested that he believes he knows them and i respect the sincerity w might indicate those areas in which his programs are new where they will mean more progress than we have that kind of programs or we feel we are for programs that will expand educational opportunities that will give to all americans very equal chance for education for all of the things which are necessary and dear to the hearts of our people we are for programs in addition which will say that our medical care  aged is are much is much better handled than it is at the present time here again and i indicate that senator kennedy and i are not human as to the aims we both want to help the old people we want to see that they do  or medical care or schools or the development of electric power we have a program which we believe will move america moving forward and build on the wonderful record that we have made over the past seven and a half years now when we look at these programs might i suggest that in evaluating them we often have a tendency to say that the test of a program is how much you're spending i will concede that in all the areas to which i refer senator kennedy would have the best federal government spend more than i would have icons that out the cost of the democratic party it runs a minimum of thirteen  billion dollars a year more than we are presently spending to a maximum of eighteen billion dollars a year more than the rest of the other republican platform will cost more to it will cost a minimum of four billion dollars a year more a maximum of four nine ten billion dollars a year more than your presents and now does this mean that his program is better than ours not at all because it isn't a question of how much the federal government spends it isn't a question of which government does the most it's a question of what you ministration does the right thing and in our case i do believe that our programs will stimulate the creative energies of one hundred eighty million free america i believe the programs that senator kennedy advocates will have a tendency to stifle those creative energy i believe in other words that his programs would lead to the stagnation of the motive power that we need in this country to get past the final point that i would like to make and senator kennedy has suggested in his speeches that we lack compassion for the poor for the old and for others that are on for let us understand throughout this campaign that his motives and mine are sincere i know what it means to be poor i know what it means to see people running for i know senator kennedy feels is deeply about the problems of life but our disagreement is not about the goal for america only about the means to  said that you are naive in a time in the tour you raise the question of leadership on this issue why do you think people should vote for you rather than a vice president vice president and i came to congress together one hundred forty six of those children the labor committee i've been there now fourteen years in the same period of time if you have to know that our experience in government is comparable secondly i think the question is what are the programs that we advocate what is the party record that we lead i came out of the democratic party which in this century has produced woodrow wilson and franklin roosevelt and harry truman and which supported and sustained these programs which i've discussed tonight that connection comes out of the republican party he was nominated by it and it is a fact that through most of these last twenty five years the republican leadership has opposed federal aid regulations medical care for the aged development of the tennessee valley development of our natural resource i think mr nixon is an effective leader of his party i hope he would grant me the same question before us is which point of view and which party do we want to lead united states