You might say minimum wage is ancient history, but he says the minimum wage has caused more misery and more unemployment than anything since the Grea… - Jimmy Carter

Well, in the first place, as I mentioned briefly in passing, I think we've got a very good farm bill that was passed this year, that will be in effect for the next 5 years. We've had some increase in farm prices since I came into office. Corn prices are up about 38 cents--the last time I checked the market. Wheat prices are up about 60 cents a bushel compared to when I came into office. I certainly don't attribute that to the fact that I'm here. But we have got a Secretary of Agriculture who's a dirt farmer who understands the special problems of farmers. And with the exception of the time I've served in the Federal (and State) 2 Government, all of my income all my life has come from the farm. And I have a sense, too, of what agriculture does need. I think we've had a very good step forward in having grow, in the Department of Agriculture, a special concern about consumers. We don't have enough farm-supported Members of Congress to prevail in a showdown vote. But the more we can let the average American consumer who comes from, perhaps, the urban areas know how valuable a resource we have in our land and in our food and fiber production, the better off we'll be in prevailing and treating the farmers fairly. We've got a very good price support, target prices, that approach the cost of production, at least in the areas where the efficiency is high. I think we've got this Printed in the White House press release. past year, up to the 1st of October, the highest farm export level we've ever had in history--$24 billion worth of American farm products were sold overseas. We've never done that before. We are even emphasizing that effort much more in the future. We'd like to open up permanent sales possibilities in countries that don't presently buy food from us. My first stop on my trip will be Poland. We want to maintain our sales of agricultural products grown in this country to the so-called Eastern European countries, to the Soviet Union, to the People's Republic of China, as well as to our natural allies and friends in this hemisphere and others. In the energy package--we've tried to put it together in such a way that it would not only protect the farmers and the agricultural communities but also open the way for increased use of, as you refer to it, biomass, and also forestry products. I spent about 4 1/2 hours this morning--I got up at about 5 o'clock and came over here early to work on it--and I will be spending 2 1/2 hours immediately after this meeting, in this room, working on the budget for the Department of Energy next year. And I'll be analyzing and making final decisions, pending congressional approval next year, on how much research and development money to put into things like the use of biomass, wood products, forestry products, shale, and other energy supplies. But I think the fact that I do know agriculture, do know farm families' needs, and have an Agriculture Secretary the same way, gives me a sense of judgment that maybe I wouldn't have if I had a different background. So we've got, I think, a good thrust now to resolve some of the longstanding problems. I disagreed very strongly with some of the policies that Secretary Butz had when he was in office. There are not any easy answers. I would say that Bob Bergland has one of the most difficult jobs in Washington. It's a tough proposition.

Friday night when I got home, my wife met me at the door. She said, "I just watched Vernon Jordan on television being interviewed and he said your administration is not doing anything for people who need help." And I read the New York Times yesterday and this morning, and my wife called me again this morning about 7:30. She says, "Vernon doesn't think you are doing as well as I think you are doing, Jimmy." And I hope in the months ahead that I'll be able to work closer with Vernon Jordan at the White House-where I spend a great deal of time working and planning with Members of the Congress. Parren Mitchell, the head of the Black Caucus, was in my office Thursday going over not only the accomplishments but the remaining needs that have been addressed and are being addressed by the Democratic Congress and the Democratic President. We haven't done everything we would like to do, nor have we done everything that we're going to do. I've been in office now 6 months--have no apologies to make--and I was trying to think of a story to illustrate that sometimes an immediate transformation can't be accomplished when problems have been there for years or terms of Presidents or even generations. Griffin Bell, who will speak to you later, has a favorite story about a man who was arrested for getting drunk and setting a bed on fire. When he got before the judge, he said, "Judge, I plead guilty to being drunk, but the bed was on fire when I got in it." Well, to some degree, the bed was on fire when I got in it. The point I want to make is that we're trying as best we can to make progress. I think you'll judge before this convention is over that I don't speak with a lonely voice, that the members of my Cabinet are united with me, and that there is no division between the Urban League and my administration. But we do need to have a closer working relationship because it's obvious that we have a long way to go. And we can get to our destination of having a decent life for all Americans if we work close together in a constructive and cooperative fashion.

We're concerned about young people's health. We propose an $18.9 million program to immunize 5 1/2 million poor children from preventable diseases over the next 30 months, and we'll raise the number of poor children screened for medical purposes from less than 2 million last year to 9.8 million before I go out of office. I said during the campaign that the tax system was a disgrace, that it was most unfair to people with low and average incomes. We've been working now for 6 months on a tax proposal that will be simpler and fairer and will reduce the burden on the average American. But in the meantime, we have already gotten Congress to agree--the bill has been signed, it's been passed into law--to reduce taxes $4 billion with the primary emphasis on the low- and middle-income families, which means that a family that makes about $10,000 a year on a permanent basis would have a 30-percent reduction in their income tax payments. That's already been done. Walter Mondale, my Vice President, worked for years unsuccessfully, 8 years, to try to get a $100-million increase in the Title I programs for a better education for poor people, poor children. We have already proposed, and the Congress has already agreed, to increase the Title I program more than $350 million.