Humphrey for President 1968 Campaign Brochure

‘1968-A Time for Hope The New Democracy’

"The time has come to speak out in behalf of America...Not a nation that has lost its way, but a restless people, but great nations striving to find a better way."

"These are my credentials…

Loving family, teacher, Mayor of my city, Senator from my state, Vice President of my country, grateful husband, proud father, believer in the American dream and the concept of human brotherhood."

Main Street and Prairies

Hubert Horatio Humphrey was born May 27, 1911 and Wallace, South Dakota in a bedroom over his father's frame drug store Main Street. When he was four his family moved to Doland, another small town nestled amidst  the vast prairie farmlands.  There he attended public schools, helped out in the store, absorbed his father's love of people and politics, and watched the great depression engulf his world. 

Pioneers and Parents

The Humpheys are of pioneer stock.  A Humphrey left Wales in 1648 and settled in Massachusetts.  After the Civil War the family moved west and Hubert Humphrey, Sr., was born in Oregon.  He broke with his family farming tradition and became instead of druggist, a small businessman, in South Dakota. There he married Christine Sannes, daughter of a onetime ship's captain, who brought his young family from Norway to farm the rugged prairie in the 1880s. 

Businessman and Phi Beta Kappa

The younger Hubert Humphrey entered the University of Minnesota in 1929, but had a drop out when the depression struck his family full force.  In 1933 he received a degree from Denver College of Pharmacy and for the next four years he worked filling prescriptions alongside his father, who had started anew in nearby Huron. (The family still owns and operates the store today.) In 1936 he married Muriel Buck of Huron.  A year later he was able to return to the University of Minnesota where he earned his B.A. (magna cum laude) in political science in 1939 and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.  The next year he received a master's degree from Louisiana State University.  He held a teaching fellowship for a year at the University of Minnesota and later taught at Macalester College.  Between teaching jobs he worked for two years for the War Production Administration, becoming an expert in problems of manpower and job retraining. 

Public Life

In 1945, when he was 34, Hubert Humphrey was elected Mayor of Minneapolis and won his first national recognition.  In 1947 he was re-elected with the largest majority in the city's history.  In 1948 he was overwhelmingly elected to the U.S. Senate, and re-elected in 1954 and 1960.  He served as Democratic Majority Whip during the Kennedy-Johnson administration from 1961 through 1964.  In 1964 he was elected the 38th Vice President of the United States.

Family

The Humphries have three sons and a daughter and four granddaughters.  A Lakeside house at Waverley, Minnesota, is now the family homestead.

HUMPHREY…the BEST MAN for the Job

In his two decades in Washington, Hubert Humphrey has amassed a public record that is unsurpassed in its range, its diversity of interests, its breadth of vision.  Humphrey has been an innovator, a creator of imaginative programs, a voice for progress.  He has shown vigor and daring in his leadership.  He has helped make many of his dreams for America become a reality.  Consider some highlights of his record:

HUMAN RIGHTS

Hubert Humphrey is no newcomer to the problems of securing and guaranteeing civil rights for all.  He began his efforts as Mayor of Minneapolis.  Then he risked his political career at the 1948 Democratic Convention, spearheading a successful fight for a strong civil rights platform plank.  As a Senator, he was relentless in his drive. The culmination of his 16 years as the chief spokesman for human rights in the Senate came when he was Floor Manager for the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964-the most important rights legislation of this century.  As Vice President he has coordinated all of this government's activities touching upon human rights. 

MEDICARE AND SECURITY FOR SENIOR CITIZENS

In his first bill as Senator in 1949, Humphrey proposed a program of health insurance for the elderly to be financed through Social Security.  Sixteen years later the substance of his pioneering ideas emerged as Medicare.  He has also fought for Senior Citizens by other proposals which are now law: Expanded Social Security coverage; a ban on age discrimination in hiring; creation of an Office of Aging and a National Commission on Aging. 

OPPORTUNITY FOR YOUTH

In 1957 Humphrey first proposed job training for unemployed youths.  Today, this idea embodied in the Job Corps is a key part of the War on poverty.  As Chairman of the President's Council on Youth Opportunity, he has worked intimately with businessmen, local officials, and community leaders to seek and implement new ideas.  Last summer he spearheaded the drive which found nearly one and a half million jobs for unemployed youths.  But Humphrey's interest in the problems being faced by our young people are not limited just to programs labeled "Youth ".  Youth is served in many ways. 

EDUCATION

Federal aid to education has had the support of Humphrey since he entered the Senate.  In his freshman year he introduced a bill authorizing federal help for the building on elementary and secondary schools. In 1952 the co-sponsored a bill to set up a federal scholarship program for college students.  In 1957 he proposed programs for federal scholarships, loans to students and direct grants to colleges.  These proposals later became part of the National Defense Education Act. 

WAR ON POVERTY

As Majority Whip, Humphrey led the drive for the fight against poverty. One of his last acts as a Senator was to clear the way for passage of Head Start, the program to help pre-school children.  As Vice President he has been a prime overseer of the course of the War on Poverty. 

CITIES

Experience as a Mayor has served Humphrey well.  It has led to his role as Senator and Vice President in forging legislation to help cities overcome their deepening crises. He has seen the need for closer contact between the Federal and local governments and now serves as the President's liaison with the nation's 38,000 mayors, city managers and county officials.  Knowing a mayor's problems and adding the perspective of the national interest, Humphrey has worked to help city officials get the full benefits of Federal programs.  Humphrey's experience has taught him that the problems of the city are best solved by local officials, with the financial help and counsel of the Federal government.

HOUSING

As a Senator he helped shape and pass every major housing bill from 1949 to 1964.  It was he who first proposed setting up a Cabinet level agency to deal with Urban problems.  This initiative lead eventually to the new Department of Housing and Urban Development. 

LAW ENFORCEMENT

As Mayor, Humphrey modernized, professionalized and strengthened the Minneapolis Police Department and led a successful attack on organized crime.  As a result of this effort, he received an award from the FBI for effective law enforcement.  As Vice President, he has worked closely with mayors, police chiefs and other local officials to improve methods of crime prevention and control. 

MAKING FOREIGN POLICY

The Vice President, as a member of the Cabinet and the National Security Council, takes part in decisions on foreign affairs.  He is in close touch with every aspect of our global relations and responsibilities. Humphrey's wide and expert knowledge in foreign policy matters is firmly rooted in his many years of study and leadership of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee-especially his chairmanship of such key subcommittees as those on Disarmament, UN affairs, and Near East, South Asia and Africa.  The search for a just and durable peace has been the keystone of Hubert Humphrey's whole record in public life.  Truly it could be said that his slogan is "Make peace, not War!"

NUCLEAR TEST BAN TREATY

In the Senate in 1963, Humphrey sponsored the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, the first major breakthrough in international nuclear disarmament. He led a drive for Senate ratification of the Treaty, which has halted atmospheric testing of nuclear devices.  Over 100 nations have now signed it. 

DISARMAMENT AND ARMS CONTROL

The U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, created in 1961, was first proposed by Humphrey in 1960.  He played a leading role in steering its passage through the Senate.  Earlier his intense interest in these crucial problems had first been manifest in 1955 when he introduced a resolution which led to the setting up of the Senate Disarmament Subcommittee.  In 1958 he went to Geneva as a U.S. delegate to the Nuclear Test Suspension Conference.  It is fair to say that much of the initiative which has led to the new Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty was generated by Hubert Humphrey. 

PEACE CORPS

Hubert Humphrey first proposed the Peace Corps in 1960. Later, as Majority Whip of the Senate, he proudly led the Senate fight to enact the program which President John F. Kennedy proposed. Today he is chairman of the Peace Corps Advisory Council.

FOOD FOR PEACE

The Food for Peace program, adopted in 1959, was another original proposal of Hubert Humphrey. As result of this creative idea, Americans surplus food has been put to work in the cause of peace-by fighting hunger and deprivation around the world-for nearly a decade.

UNITED NATIONS

When a member of the Senate, Humphrey kept a close watch on the United Nations. In 1956 and 1957 he was chosen by President Eisenhower to be a U.S. delegate to the deliberations of the international organization. In 1958 he served as a U.S. delegate to the Paris conference of UNESCO, one of the most successful operational arms of the UN.

FOREIGN PERSPECTIVE

Both as a Senator and as Vice President, Hubert Humphrey has traveled widely abroad. In addition to his membership on U.S. delegations to Paris and Geneva, he visited the Soviet Union 1958 on a fact-finding trip.  While there he had a marathon eight-hour visit with Premier Khrushchev. In its mood, duration and range of subject matter, this was undoubtedly the longest single direct confrontation between the then Kremlin leader and a key American. It was more than a mere protocol visit.  As a result of this visit, Humphrey was able to report what he felt to be the depth of the developing split between Soviet Russia and Red China. As Vice President, Humphrey has undertaken many foreign missions in behalf of the President. As the President's emissary, he has been both of good-will ambassador and a fact-finder.  He has sought to promote trade, economic and social development and peace. He has visited Europe, Russia, Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America.  He has met Russia's current leaders, heads of state, prime ministers and ordinary citizens in every corner of the earth.

HUMPHREY…THE MAN OF VISION

"This I believe-

This nation can finally break across the threshold of what no previous society has ever dared dream or achieve, the building of social order of both freedom and compassion, of both enterprise and peace..

They can finally create a nation where human equality and human opportunity not only exist side by side, but nourish and reinforce each other-a nation where every citizen may participate on equal terms in every aspect of being and doing that which relates to self-respect.

We can make law and order not only compatible with justice and human progress-but their unflinching Guardians.

We can build cities and neighborhoods where all our citizens may walk together in safety and in pride and in a spirit of true community.

We can, and I know we must, maintain the strength needed to protect our own national security and to meet our international commitments….

Free man, through the exercise of their own will, can narrow the dangerous gap between the rich nations and the poor, can end the scourge of hunger, and slow down and halt the dangerous spiraling arms race….

Through our leadership, we can strengthen the United Nations and other international institutions-and make them real everyday forces for peace.

That this strong rich and idealistic nation can help to create a broader world society in which human values may one day rule supreme…A world society of independent and free nation states, where the individual-and not the institution or the party-comes first…A world society where every child's future lies open ahead…where he can be a free man and answer ultimately to no one but to god and his conscience.

A dream, yes; a hope, yes, because America is both a dream and a hope for ourselves and for others. All of this is what I believe our America can achieve if we will only remember who and what we are, and why this country came into being, and what it is we really set out to do.  "

HUMPHREY…THE MAN WHO WILL LEAD AMERICA FORWARD

"I shall base everything I do on one conviction-that this country, we, the people of these United States, working in a spirit of unity, can overcome any obstacle in finally realizing the fullness of freedom, the prize of peace and the happiness of human opportunity both here and in the world."

"THE CHALLENGE IS URGENT; THE TASK IS LARGE; THE TIME IS NOW."