ate would be glad to again visit Cambodia, as Senator Mansfield and his group did last year, in an attempt to have a better understanding with that country. We would be very pleased to have Ambassador Harriman visit Cambodia at a date agreeable to Cambodia, and to our Government, and to Mr. Harriman.®

FEDERAL JUDGESHIP IN ILLINOIS

[16.] Q. Mr. President, Senator Douglas is up in arms over a report that Senator Dirksen has been assured that the next Federal judgeship in Illinois will be filled on his recommendation. He threatens, if this is true, to invoke senatorial courtesy when the nomination comes up for confirmation. Could you perhaps clarify the matter by saying whether Senator Dirksen has received such a commitment?

THE PRESIDENT. I am not aware that Senator Douglas is up in arms, number one. Your report is the first information I have had. I am not aware of any commitment that has been made to either Senator in the

matter.

THE VICE-PRESIDENCY IN 1968

[17.] Q. Mr. President, getting back to the question about Mr. Nixon, can you give us an assessment of the role of the Vice President, Mr. Humphrey, and whether, if you are a candidate in 1968, you would like to have him on the ticket with you again?

THE PRESIDENT. I think that all of you know what I know, that the Vice President is a fine and excellent public servant and I would not-I am talking about Vice Presi

*Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield of Montana and U.S. Ambassador at Large W. Averell Harriman.

*Senators Paul H. Douglas and Everett McKinley Dirksen of Illinois.

dent Humphrey-I would not be guided in my view about the performance of Vice. President Humphrey by either the wishes or the desires or the predictions of an exVice President.

NOMINATIONS AND APPOINTMENTS; AMBASSADOR TO SWITZERLAND

[18.] Q. Mr. President, do you have any State Department appointments in the works today?

THE PRESIDENT. Yes. I am sending to the Senate the nomination of John S. Hayes as Ambassador to Switzerland. Mr. Hayes is associated with the Washington Post Company, Post-Newsweek radio-television stations here and in Jacksonville, Florida.

We have just received the agrément on it. And I will sign the nomination papers later today. That is the only one that I have in mind. We have one or two agréments out that have not come in which will complete all the ambassadorial vacancies. And there are fewer there than there have ever been before.

We have a vacancy in the Mann job, which we have tentatively selected a successor for, but they will probably be announced after it is determined when Mr. Johnson a desires to-following his confirmation, after the Senate has acted, and when he desires to go to Tokyo. There will be several announcements there.

We have only one vacancy at the moment. However, there will be three or four-the Mann vacancy and the Johnson vacancy, and other changes below the Secretary of State. When we can set those dates, which, I would suspect would be around in the fall sometime-I don't know when the Senate will act on the Johnson nomination, but it will be,

I would guess, somewhere in the fall-we will make those announcements.8

RISING INTEREST RATES

[19.] Q. Mr. President, is the administration going to do anything about rising interest rates?

THE PRESIDENT. The administration. wants as low interest rates as we possible can have. We have made some recommendations to the Congress. The Senate Banking Committee now has a bill that would direct and give authority to certain Federal agencies to set ceilings on certain. monetary matters. We very strongly favor that bill.

So far as the administration itself telling a banker or a loan man how much he can charge, as you no doubt know, it has no such authority.

Acting upon the advice of a former Presi dent and Secretary of the Treasury, we created the Federal Reserve System and it is an independent board that has charge of

The President, in his news conference of September 21, announced appointments to fill the vacancies in question (see Item 474 [17]).

the discount rate and thereby has some influence on interest rates. But the President, as such, or the administration, as such, cannot mash a button and tell people to charge more or charge less.

We would hope that, as Secretary of the Treasury Fowler has said a number of times, that the bankers would be very discerning in their loan grants and not make loans when we have a greater demand for loans than we have a supply of money to people, unless the loan had a demonstrable public interest and to exercise discretion in those loans.

Now other than that, we have no authority to say that this ceiling shall be 4 percent, or 5 percent, or 6 percent. There is legislation pending that would have some. effect upon it.

If Congress saw fit to give the administration legislation in this field, why we would, of course, carefully review it and try to carry out the terms of the law.

Merriman Smith, United Press International. Thank you, Mr. President.

NOTE: President Johnson's seventieth news conference was held in his office at the White House at 12 noon on Wednesday, August 24, 1966.

Progress, particularly in science and medicine, does require the use of animals for research and this bill does not interfere with that. But science and research do not compel us to tolerate the kind of inhumanity which has been involved in the business of supplying stolen animals to laboratories or which is sometimes involved in the careless and callous handling of animals in some of our laboratories.

a national political campaign is still the largest educational event that can occur in a democratic country. A political campaign brings to focus all the problems facing a nation. It gives the people a chance to hear all the proposed solutions and then they cast their ballots for the candidates who are trying to lead our country in the direction that people want to go.

Democracy means free choice, but there is no free choice unless the voters hear all the alternatives. I believe that where this money comes from is also important to us. So I have asked the national committee time and time again to launch a program of this type, a dollars for Democrats program, because I believe that politics should not be merely a spectator sport.

I believe everyone should be as active in his party as is possible. I believe that even for members of the opposition party. I would really like to see every Republican participate in his party's activities and participate in his party's treasury. I think it would be good for the party and for the Government.

I believe everyone who can should take a part in his party, work for his party, contribute to his party. But because Democratic prosperity seems to create a good many rich Republicans, we have to work a little harder to raise our funds. We Democrats are trying to represent all the people in this country.

We are trying to help the underprivileged, while at the same time respecting the rights. of the prosperous. We should take the same attitude toward money. We appreciate a $1,000 contribution or any large contributor's desire to help. But those large contributions will not, can not, and should not support the Democratic Party.

The real strength of the Democratic Party has always been the small contributor. The 1964 campaign cost over $200 million. That

is for all the parties. More than 70 million Americans voted in that election, but only 12 million gave to some party committee or any candidate, and that is only 17 percent of the total number that voted.

It isn't good enough. We need more contributors and we need many, many more of them. So it will be your job in the months ahead to bring in those small contributions. A dollar for Democrats may not go as far as a larger contribution, but you don't have to look so far to find the man who can afford a dollar.

When you get the dollar or the $10, you are getting a personal commitment to our party and to our party's program. In the long run, that commitment is as important as the money itself.

So my message to you today is this: You take the program of our party and the record of our Congress and you take it home with you. You try to talk to the voters about it and you try to get others to talk to the voters about it. Get them to help us broadcast the record of the last 2 years, broadcast it loud and understandable and clear.

Convince them that one way is to give the party the resources it needs to operate. We have a record, I think, to be proud of.

Two years ago our platform said that older Americans should have more decent health care. Today they have Medicare.

Two years ago the platform said that every American boy and girl was entitled to eduIcation in the richest nation in history. Today they have the Elementary, the Secondary, and the Higher Education Acts of 1965.

Two years ago the Democratic platform said the rights of all of our citizens should be protected. Today 20 million of our Negro fellow citizens have the power of the United States Government behind their right to vote in the first voters rights bills in his

tory, and they are now voting in record numbers.

Two years ago the platform called for a decent home for Americans. Today rent supplements to the needy promise to take us closer to that goal than ever before.

The Senate just this week passed the demonstration cities bill by a vote of more than two to one. That is a measure that will inaugurate a program for the cities of America unlike any program we have ever dreamed of before.

Two years ago the Democratic platform called for restoration of those areas of America which had been bypassed by the march of progress. Today the greatest redevelopment program of all time is underway in Appalachia.

Two years ago the Democratic platform pledged to attack the filth in our rivers, the pollution in our streams, the pollution in our air. Today we have more water, more air pollution legislation than has ever been passed by all the other Congresses put together and we are going to clean up our water and we are going to clean up our air.

Two years ago the platform promised a fair deal for the men and women who grow our food. Today the 1965 food and agricultural act is putting more income into the farmers' pocket than ever before, is reducing farm surpluses to the lowest level in modern. history, and we are saving $200 million in storage charges alone this year.

Two years ago the platform promised to erase the blot of the disgrace of the discrimination of our immigration laws. Today we have an immigration law that no longer asks a man, "Where do you come from?” but asks him, "What can you do?"

Two years ago the Democratic platform called for more Government participation and assistance in health and medical research. Today we are in the midst of a

Government-sponsored, nationwide research program to conquer once and for all the Nation's three leading destroyers of life: heart disease, cancer, and stroke. So you take that message home with you. Find us the money to tell that story, to tell it to all Americans, and I don't think that then we will have to worry about what the voters will do in November.

I said to the ladies and gentlemen of the press a few moments ago, when they were talking to us about all of our concern with developments in our economy (and that is something that every American must be concerned with every day of the year), I have been here 35 years and our economy— our bread, our meat, what we eat, what we earn-is a thing that is always uppermost in our minds.

pay

When I came here, the average take-home of the average factory worker was $18 a week. In terms of present-day dollars, it was about $30 a week. Today it is $112 a week.

When I came here, the average per capita farm income was about $300 a year. In present-day dollars that is about $800 a year. This year it is $5,400.

Now when farmers' income goes up, when our workers'-who make our products and who process our commodities-income goes up, and when our profits go up, our prices go up. We would like for things to remain stable, the same year after year, if we can, in relation to each other. But that is a difficult thing to do in a competitive system where every man has a free choice.

He can work or not work. He can add a 10-percent profit or a 5-percent profit. He can charge 10 percent interest or 6 percent interest. So we have to try, as best we can, to call on people to exercise restraint, selfdiscipline, and keep these things reasonably well in line.