Weekly Radio Report: Cherry-Blossom Festival & Foreign Aid

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c031_019.mp3

c031_019_tr.txt

Transcription (Scripto)

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Extent (Dublin Core)

6 Minutes, 5 Seconds

File Name (Dublin Core)

c031_019

Title (Dublin Core)

Weekly Radio Report: Cherry-Blossom Festival & Foreign Aid

Description (Dublin Core)

In this weekly broadcast, Congressman Bob Dole discusses the events of the Cherry Blossom Festival week in Washington. He talks about the Kansas Cherry Blossom Princess’ busy schedule, including the Kansas State Society dinner where Senator Frank Carlson was presented an award. He then shifts his attention to foreign aid in Latin America and concerns with gifting foreign aid to Brazil who leans more communist than capitalist.

Date (Dublin Core)

1968

Date Created (Dublin Core)

1968

Congress (Dublin Core)

90th (1967-1969)

Topics (Dublin Core)

See all items with this valueEconomic assistance

See all items with this valueFlower festivals

Policy Area (Curation)

International Affairs

Arts, Culture, Religion

Creator (Dublin Core)

Dole, Robert J., 1923-2021

Record Type (Dublin Core)

radio programs

Names (Dublin Core)

See all items with this valueCarlson, Frank, 1893-1987

Rights (Dublin Core)

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/

Language (Dublin Core)

eng

Collection Finding Aid (Dublin Core)

https://dolearchivecollections.ku.edu/index.php?p=collections/findingaid&id=84&q=

Physical Collection (Dublin Core)

Collection 031, Box 1

Institution (Dublin Core)

Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS

Archival Collection (Dublin Core)

Dole Audio Reels Collection, 1960-1979

Full Text (Extract Text)

This is Congressman Bob Dole with my weekly radio report from Washington. Again, I'd like to thank this station for carrying my weekly report as a public service broadcast.

I thought I might comment very briefly on what has been a most exciting week in Washington — the Cherry Blossom Festival week. I might tell you, too, that we've been very honored here to have Patti Thiele from Scott City, Kansas, as the Kansas Cherry Blossom Princess for 1963. I think I can say in all honesty and all candor that Patti really has been one of the outstanding young ladies in Washington, D.C., this year for this event, and certainly all of us in Kansas are very proud of Patti and pleased that her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Richard Thiele, were able to make the trip from Scott City to spend the week with her. She started off a very rapid schedule on last Saturday, on the 30th day of March, by attending the Kansas State Society dinner, and that dinner was attended by more Kansans than any previous dinner of this society, which indicates to me the great interest Kansans have in one another, and the great interest they had in our Cherry Blossom Princess this year.

At the dinner, for the first time since our Kansas Society was organized, we presented an award to an outstanding Kansan. And the first of what we hope will be an annual award, was presented to Senator Frank Carlson. As you know he's the only — or may know — he's the only Kansan who has ever served in the state Legislature, who has ever served as governor, a Member of Congress, and a Member of the United States Senate, so he has a very enviable record — and certainly, the committee which selected Senator Carlson for this award did an outstanding job. And I might add that this was not a political committee, the committee was composed of Republicans and Democrats, and — without question — the outstanding award was given to a true outstanding Kansan when it was presented to Senator Carlson by Thurman Hill, long active in Democrat politics and a close personal friend of the Senator.

Patti, following this society dinner-dance on last Saturday has been very busy, and she’s had the thrill of her lifetime according to statements she has made to me. It's certainly an honor to her and to Fort Hays Kansas State College in Hays, Kansas, and it was a great honor when President [Morton Christy] Cunningham of Fort Hays Kansas State College flew back to Washington to attend a luncheon in honor of Patti Thiele on Monday, April 1. I might add that this luncheon was attended by 47 people, and about 40 of these persons were alumni of Fort Hays Kansas State College, and I'm certain President Cunningham and also Harold Stones, the alumni director who made the trip with President Cunningham, were very pleased with the attendance — and of course were pleased to be present and to pay honor to our Cherry Blossom Princess.

I thought I might mention too — in addition to my comments on Cherry Blossom Week and the Cherry Blossom Festival — some other things that are happening in and around Washington. I read last week a statement, which I think is most interesting, and it concerns foreign aid. You know we've had the Clay Report suggesting at least a half-billion dollar cut in foreign aid, which I think was a minimum, and then we have this comment which was picked up by the Fort Lauderdale News in Florida, and the article reads as follows:

“It has often been said that the best way any nation can get ready access to the US Treasury is to start playing ball with the Commies. We now have another illustration of the strategy in the announcement that Brazil, a country with 78 Reds in top post, is now going to be given $395.5 million of our money to shore up its economy. Considering that Brazil has long been considered as a veritable hotbed of communism in this hemisphere, our open-handed generosity brings some very acid comments from anti-communist sources in Latin America. Throughout the whole history of our foreign aid program, we've managed to pile up a sorry record of being nicer to our enemies than our friends.”

And I point this out because this is a feeling that many Members of Congress in both parties have had for many, many years, and I think that this year you'll see this feeling rise up, and we'll see an even bigger slice in the foreign aid appropriations — and I think this slice is long past due.

I might point out, too, that we have another example recently of government economy, and this is what happened: the Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Committee was abolished. In 1962, it had 49 employees and, of course, by abolishing this budget — [correcting himself] this committee, we apparently save $550,000, but this isn’t actually what happened. A new committee was organized; it is now called the Bureau of Outdoor Recreation, and by 1964, it will have 223 permanent employees, and will cost $2.5 million. In other words, you're going to have about five times the employees that will cost you about five times as much as a taxpayer. So, this is another example of what happens when we talk about economy in government.

Well in closing, I want to solicit your suggestions, your comments, and your criticisms, and please send them to me: Bob Dole, House Office Building, Washington, D.C. Thank you.