My Fellow Americans:
I come before you tonight as a candidate for the Vice Presidency and as a man whose honesty
and integrity have been questioned.
The usual political thing to do when charges are made against you is to either ignore them
or to deny them without giving details.
I believe we've had enough of that in the United States, particularly with the present
Administration in Washington, D.C. To me the office of the Vice Presidency of the United
States is a great office and I feel that the people have got to have confidence in the
integrity of the men who run for that office and who might obtain it.
I have a theory, too, that the best and only answer to a smear or to an honest misunderstanding
of the facts is to tell the truth.
Do you think that when I or any other Senator makes a political speech, has it printed,
should charge the printing of that speech and the mailing of that speech to the taxpayers?
Do you think, for example, when I or any other Senator makes a trip to his home state to
make a purely political speech that the cost of that trip should be charged to the taxpayers?
Do you think when a Senator makes political broadcasts or political television broadcasts,
radio or television, that the expense of those broadcasts should be charged to the taxpayers?
Well, I know what your answer is. It is the same answer that audiences give me whenever
I discuss this particular problem. The answer is, "no." The taxpayers shouldn't be required
to finance items which are not official business but which are primarily political business.
But then the question arises, you say, "Well, how do you pay for these and how can you do
it legally?" And there are several ways that it can be done, incidentally, and that it
is done legally in the United States Senate and in the Congress.
The first way is to be a rich man. I don't happen to be a rich man so I couldn't use
that one.
Another way that is used is to put your wife on the payroll. Let me say, incidentally,
my opponent, my opposite number for the Vice Presidency on the Democratic ticket, does
have his wife on the payroll. And has had her on his payroll for the ten years—the
past ten years.
Now just let me say this. That's his business and I'm not critical of him for doing that.
You will have to pass judgment on that particular point. But I have never done that for this
reason. I have found that there are so many deserving stenographers and secretaries in
Washington that needed the work that I just didn't feel it was right to put my wife on
the payroll.
My wife's sitting over here. She's a wonderful stenographer. She used to teach stenography
and she used to teach shorthand in high school. That was when I met her.
And so now what I am going to do-and incidentally this is unprecedented in the history of American
politics-I am going at this time to give this television and radio audience a complete financial
history; everything I've earned; everything I've spent; everything I owe. And I want you
to know.
First of all I've had my salary as a Congressman and as a Senator. Second, I have received
a total in this past six years of $1600 from estates which were in my law firm the time
that I severed my connection with it.
And, incidentally, as I said before, I have not engaged in any legal practice and have
not accepted any fees from business that came to the firm after I went into politics. I
have made an average of approximately $1500 a year from nonpolitical speaking engagements
and lectures. And then, fortunately, we've inherited a little money. Pat sold her interest
in her father's estate for $3,000 and I inherited $1,500 from my grandfather.
We live rather modestly. For four years we lived in an apartment in Park Fairfax, in
Alexandria, Virginia. The rent was $80 a month. And we saved for the time that we could buy
a house.
Now, that was what we took in. What did we do with this money? What do we have today
to show for it? This will surprise you, Because it is so little, I suppose, as standards generally
go, of people in public life. First of all, we've got a house in Washington which cost
$41,000 and on which we owe $20,000. We have a house in Whittier, California, which cost
$13,000 and on which we owe $3,000. My folks are living there at the present time.
I have just $4,000 in life insurance, plus my G.I. policy which I've never been able
to convert and which will run out in two years. I have no insurance whatever on Pat. I have
no life insurance on our our youngsters, Patricia and Julie. I own a 1950 Oldsmobile car. We
have our furniture. We have no stocks and bonds of any type. We have no interest of
any kind, direct or indirect, in any business.
Now, that's what we have. What do we owe? Well, in addition to the mortgage, the $20,000
mortgage on the house in Washington, the $10,000 one on the house in Whittier, I owe $4,500
to the Riggs Bank in Washington, D.C. with interest 4 1/2 per cent.
I owe $3,500 to my parents and the interest on that loan which I pay regularly, because
it's the part of the savings they made through the years they were working so hard, I pay
regularly 4 per cent interest. And then I have a $500 loan which I have on my life insurance.