ADDRESS, UNITED DEMOCRATIC WOMEN'S CLUBS
BALTIMORE

November 3, 1960

We are rapidly approaching the end of what history may well record
as one of the really significant political campaigns in the annals of
our nation. We Democrats have every reason to feel encouraged by the
prospects, but even at this late hour we must avoid complacency and
over-optimism and carry this fight to the finish. Too much is at stake
for our country and for the free world for us to risk defeat at the
polls next Tuesday.

We hear much discussion nowadays about whether one should vote
for the party or vote for the man in a presidential election, but the
question has little significance this year for the reason that we know
we need both the Democratic Party and its nominees for president
and vice president this year. We often hear people say that there is
little difference between the two great parties—that both have liberal
and conservative elements, that there are good men and bad men in
both parties. As reasonable people, we know there is a measure of
truth in this argument, and yet, in fact, there is a vast—a vital-
difference between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party.
It is a difference of attitude, of approach, of vitality, of organization.

The Republican Party always has been the haven of the stand-
patter, the reactionary. Traditionally, it is the party the American
people turn to when times are easy, when problems are muted, when
the people are exhausted from some great effort and want—subcon-
sciously perhaps—a government of inaction. It was this attitude that
gave us Harding, and Coolidge, and Hoover and the present admin-
istration.

But we now find ourselves in a time of crisis—perhaps as great a
crisis as this Republic ever has faced, and such a time demands a
government of action—an alert, imaginative, resourceful government—
a government capable of inspiring the people with a sense of purpose.
Always in critical times such as this, the people have called upon
the Democratic Party for leadership.

The crisis of a world war brought us Woodrow Wilson. The crisis
of the Great Depression brought us Franklin D. Roosevelt. Today's
crisis once again will bring the Democrats back into office under a
great new American leader, Senator John F. Kennedy.

Now, what about the man Kennedy? Let me quote from an editorial

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