During the past two years i found the campaigning can be a lonely business a succession of airports more tells not seeing my family for weeks at a time but the rewards of staying in touch with this country have been more than worth the cost. [applause] when i announced i would seek the presidency, some said i would appeal to only a few. But in the past two years, i have touched many different americans. I have traveled countless thousands of miles to look them in the eye, to know their voices, to learn what no man can ever understand from behind his desk in washington. We only have 5. 5 laid off, actually unemployed. Its really hard. How much, how many . Eggs are . 35 a dozen. If you dont like the work, you can quit or we will move our plant. I want to see the taxes i pay come back to me. I want to see schools and roads and i want to see Social Security increase. The country was disturbed. And people spoke to me openly, not just about frustrations with government, but of their hopes. We are all americans. We are not mexicanamericans, africanamericans, if you are an american, you are an american. Whose words remain with me, like david hunter, a young vietnam veteran from long beach, california. And mariel levine, an engineer from massachusetts. And out in wisconsin, a family farmer named john krebs. Bigger corporations are taking over everything. And at cleveland clinic, a war widow, sadie. And on a baltimore street corner, a steelworker named arch price, who likely others, spoke to me not only of his concern for this country, but of his belief in its future. music that is my freedom out there. That is what that flag stands for. Individual countries drawn together to become the United States. music americans do believe in the country, and their flag. But among some today, it has become popular to deride the symbols of patriotism, to find fault with the many individual ways people celebrate their america. music but perhaps those who ridicule these beliefs have not come from where these have come. music those who think patriotism is overdone and out of style might ask . How did it used to be . The United States has gone to war to keep our country free, and kept us free to do what we want. That is what it has given me. music i give to my children what i didnt have and i feel like i am giving my country if fair share and i expect to get my fair share back from the country. The truth is that men like arch price have given more than their fair share. In the last four years they have borne the real costs of our economic unfairness. 2 million more are jobless today than in 1969. 17,000 were dropped from arts plant alone, and he wonders if he is next, or whether it makes any difference. Seems like every time we get a pay increase, clothing, automobiles, everything goes up in price. I would like to buy a new refrigerator but i cant afford it. The one i wanted a year ago was 100 cheaper than this year. It seems like people today are just working to pay for their food and taxes, and not much of anything else. Art price grew up in a neighborhood built by those who came over in search of a better life, and an opportunity for their children that they had never had for themselves. Success meant a good education, hard work, a decent home. A generation later, that pride is still reflected in their neighborhood. [dog barking] new light arts wife jean was born in this house and she tends it daily like her mother and grandmother before. Art and jean live for their children, their two daughters katie and margie. We are going to see if daddy wants to get up and eat lunch. Art works hard at his job, sometimes putting into our three extra shifts a week in order to make ends meet. But he thinks it is worth it if this children can get a education to end a chance at life that he never had. Like his father before him, he prides himself on being a good father and a good provider. He feels working hard and paying taxes is his duty, but he wonders if his governments shares the same obligation. Are you going to be a good girl today . I dont think the people of america are getting back what they are paying in taxes. Tax money is being wasted every day. The war. Spend it on education and the things that people do need. There are so many loopholes in the tax forms for the millionaires, the nation and they are paying the millionairestaxes for them. A lot of people want to be millionaires under think they want to be millionaires because they dont have to pay taxes. Sometimes the unfairness affects his family in a way that hurts the most, because it touches his childrens future. One thing that is very old, and they probably just think wait and see, and it has been a lot of wait and see with schools in this area. The price familys problem is faced by 80 of families in america, that schools arent better today than four years ago. And though it gets most of their taxes, washington only pays for 7 of the childrens education. They already pay twice they already pay twice the local taxes of the suburbs, and still there schools need money. I come from a family of five children. I got left out of a lot of things because my father couldnt afford it. I cant afford nobody, so i do it myself. Fulltime it my job and working here at the house, sundays i devote for my family because i want them what i didnt have coming up through the world. Today my husband makes double what my father made, and i just cant make it. There is nothing left at the end of the week. It comes down to the nickel. This august they get a raise. I am looking at a paycheck and i said, did you get a raise . And he said, yes, i did get a raise. Yes, they did get a raise, but the paycheck didnt show it. Because the taxes just eat it up. This is 28 in value. We have been deceived, all of us, like this family. The truth is that in the last four years, food prices have risen twice as fast as wages. If it was going to get better, it would get better when the president had the wage freeze and the price freeze and whatever it was that didnt work, because nothing that i can think of as been controlled. I have been to five stores in one week for specials, and when i come back from food shopping, we never have anything that night because i am exhausted. You pay and you pay, and you dont get any place. The basic struggle, just to see things get worse, isnt only unfair. It is the surest sign that somebody, somewhere, has forgotten the real needs of our people. The wage and price control operation under nixon is a lopsided operation which has been fairly effective of holding down the income of working people and freezing the wages, but the price control part of it has been a disastrous failure. You are reminded of that every time you go to a supermarket. If what has happened to the price family is unfair, what has happened to the people like sadie dibello is a tragedy. I get 73. 30 from the veterans. Then i get 89 from Social Security. I cant afford to buy groceries, and i cant afford to get sick. And believe me, i cant afford to die. There are 25 million americans over 65. They are mothers and wives. They are people who wants to people who once belonged to somebody. And now they belong to nobody, not even the nation their husbands and sons died for. No country in the world treats its old as cruelly as america, and there has never been a crueler policy toward old people than in the last four years. They are the victims of a policy of official neglect. 8 00 in the morning and you dont come home until 5 00 at night. And by the time they come in here and take you, you are ready to blow your top. You get so nervous and so sick, and so hungry. My god. When you get through there, you know what is wrong with you, but then the thing of going back and waiting and going back and waiting, you cant do this when you are old. Hello. Can i help you . Yes. I would like my refill. It will be just a minute. All right. Thank you. Old people are not inclined to complain. Sadie has worked hard all her life, and she isnt giving up now. But her struggle has been especially difficult these last four years. Even with the Social Security increases, Older Americans are fighting a losing battle to survive. They spend 300 million a year for medical care not covered by insurance. Old people are dying of malnutrition. They are dying for lack of proper medical care. They have been cast aside by a government that has chosen to protect profits instead of people. In case you get up at a reasonable time, unlike those who rushed to work at an unearthly hour. I have faith in america, but i cant see it sliding. We have been abandoned, most americans, we really have. But we still love our america. We are americans. You someday, somebodys going to write the history of these times. And i think it is going to be a pretty sad chapter when they write the story on the way we have treated our older people. At if there is anything that we would want more than those later years ba the years of confidence and security. Im going to do everything i cant to see older people are treated decently. Out on the midwestern plains in sun prairie, wisconsin, i found another proud chapter in our history being threatened by this administrations neglect, here on the family farm of john krebs. My dad started that farm in 1932. He cleared the farm of brush and trees and i grew up there, worked together, and it was a way of life. The Younger Generation aint going to follow the footsteps of their parents. After my generation gets out of here, i dont know who is going to take their place. It will be more than just one familys misfortune if john krebs cant pass that way of life along. We will all be losing something precious in america. In the last four years, over one million americans like john krebs have been forced off their land forever. My taxes here in the last four years doubled. There is no way i can pay on the land that i own 8,000 every year, no guarantee on my price, but the taxes are guaranteed every year. Every year they go up. That is the only sure thing we got area that we got. We got. In the last four years Small Farmers have been forced to pay up to 40 more for labor and equipment. You, i and john krebs have been left by this administration to pick up an everincreasing to four everything we need to fashion a decent life. Figure out what this is going to cost me with my tradein. If you go with the 273 with the thrower and supersweet pickup, suggested list of 3579. 3579 is the suggested lift price. List price. This is the chemicals and fertilizer. You have the disease of the crops to fight, the only thing keeping us going. His real enemy is not as uncertain as disease or drought. It is the relentless power of bigness. In the last four years, giant corporations have been allowed to drive the small farmer to the wall. John krebs and his forebears have fought hard odds for generations. The tractor cost me 22, 000, just a tractor and plow. 20 years ago, you could buy a tractor then for 800 and 900 probably. But the profit from his fathers labor has not gone up in jeffreys lifetime, and he knows it. Producing more food has meant less money in the years since johnny was born. Like john krebs, i grew up close to the land and i know what we stand to lose if we dont do something about their future and their stake in the promise of this country. We set a goal, and that makes you feel good if you can reach these goals in your life once in a while. I dont know who is going to farm, but i dont think i would want him to take it under the conditions we are farming under now. I think there are more opportunities in town, i will give him an education nt can work is 40 hours a week like the rest of the people. And forget about it. If you dump everybody into the cities, the cities are already overcrowded, overburdened. You have too many people piled up into small a space. So the farm problem is really everybodys problem. My dad broke those sources. I want to help you stay there