Rare grouping of three items relating to President Ford’s address to the Conference Board at the Sheraton-Park Hotel in Washington, D.C., on January 22, 1975. The group is highlighted by a typed fifth draft of Ford’s speech, eight pages, 8 x 10.5, January 21, 1975, copiously emended and annotated in pencil by the president. Notable edited passages can be found on page three: “However, I did not come here this evening simply to repeat my State of the Union Address. In this forum, I will not discuss the past. It is beyond our control. Instead I will discuss where we are heading”; page seven: “As a starter, I will invite to the White House at their earliest convenience members of the Budget Committee of the Senate and House to confer with me on the problems we all face. To continue doing what we have been doing is wrong. We need a new direction”; and on page eight: “Since 1969, our military manpower has been reduced by over 40 percent. Five years ago personnel costs for the Dept of [Defense] were —% of military expenditures. This fiscal year personnel costs are—% of an— defense.” Ford adds further notes along the bottom of the final page: “This dramatic shift in how we allocate spend our defense dollars has prevented us from doing all we should in R & D & procurement of modern weapons. In many areas as a consequence our military services are faced with bloc obsolescence in equipment.”
The speech is accompanied by an ALS in pencil, signed with his initials, “GRF,” written on a light blue 4.25 x 7.25 sheet of Aboard Air Force One letterhead, in full: “This need lots of work / I have written in some suggestions.” Ford's autograph is very uncommon on any type of presidential stationery, such as this "Aboard Air Force One" example. Also included is a “Clearance Form for Presidential Speech Material,” one page, 8 x 10.5, which bears an ANS in the upper right corner, initialed in red felt tip, “GRF, Change as per Alan Greenspan, p. 12.” The form, directed to the president from Paul A. Theis, lists the following fields: Speechwriter, “Bakshian,” Editors, “Casserly / Theis,” and Basic Research/Speech Material Supplier, “Scheduling Office and Research Office, Economic Policy," with a clearance list at the bottom initialed by several White House personnel members. In overall fine condition.
Hosted by the Conference Board, an independent nonprofit institution for business and economic research, the dinner ceremony at Sheraton-Park Hotel allowed President Ford to explain how he planned to fix the worst recession since World War II. Echoing his first state of the union address of a week earlier, Ford proposed a one-year tax reduction of $16 billion to stimulate economic growth, and then highlighted a call for reform in federal spending, defense policy, and profits and investment. On March 29, 1975, Ford reluctantly signed the Tax Reduction Act of 1975, a $22.8 billion tax-cut package that served as a compromise between his original $16 billion reduction and the Senate’s $32 billion figure. The plan worked steadily, and by July 1976, over 3.8 million Americans were at work than when the bill was first passed. A unique glimpse into Ford’s uphill battle for the American workforce.
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