Conversation 010-140

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Hello.

Mr. Carlson.

Yes, sir, Mr. President.

Well, they sure did well in the Senate.

By golly.

I think that was superb.

McGregor's done a fantastic job.

Well, he has.

I'll tell you, right down to the wire, that was not all that clear, but boy, that turned beautifully.

We actually had another one in our pocket, Glenn Bell, I talked to this morning, and he said if

If I'm the deciding vote, I'll cast it with the president, but he's got a lot of government, 150,000 government workers over there.

I know.

So it's a great shot in the arm.

It's just, it's part of the...

I'm going to quote from a couple of letters from government workers tonight supporting the wage freeze.

I just put that in a nice needle.

Excellent.

Well, I think a hell of a lot of them do.

They do, sure.

I think they realize that...

I think a lot of this stuff, believe me, is the unions again.

The unions are out of touch.

It's fascinating.

You know, Vic Rizzo called today, and he said, tell the president, don't be taken back by Meany's rhetoric.

He said, Meany is losing his people.

The more he talks, it's the same thing Sindlinger said yesterday, and Vic said, I've talked to...

one after another, international vice presidents who are very, very disturbed that Meany is doing this.

And he said he's losing his own people.

Does Rizal think I am correct in not taking him on?

Absolutely.

He says you should not rise to the bait.

What Meany wants you to do is take him on and escalate him and build him up as the great hero, the working man.

I won't do it.

And I think at this time, well, eventually we may have to calculate it, but it's the kind of thing that...

We should pick our time.

When we do, we'll make a hell of an asset out of it.

That's right.

But at the moment, he's hurting himself.

And to the extent that we can let him hurt himself, it's better than if he gets a break from us.

Great, great, great.

One thing I failed to mention to you yesterday, and I wish I had, I just neglected it.

It was on my list of things.

I've been following the retail sales each week, and, you know, I've been mystified that they haven't picked up.

The week ending September 25th, they rose to 13% above the same week of a year ago.

And we just got those.

We just got them early this week.

They'd been running at 7, 8, and 9, an average of 8.

for a year over a year.

But the very significant part of it, Pastor was just ecstatic.

He said, I just think it's the beginning of a breakthrough.

He said, because department stores were up 19% over a year ago.

Apparel stores up 19%.

So in other words, it isn't just autos.

Right.

And he said, the only one that isn't up is furniture and appliances, and that's going to take off like a... With housing?

With housing, he said, we just know that one's going.

And also, he said, with housing, of course, a lot of people buy directly from the builder, and you don't get that through the retail figures.

But he was ecstatic.

He said, this is such a big jump for one week that it...

it does indicate now automobiles of course are up 37 but he said that it really is a very important upturn if it keeps on for two or three weeks then you've really got something going when does the unemployment figure measure they measured it as of the first week of october did they is that the way they do that no sir um their poll is taken mid-september that's really mid-september it's mid-september it's like we might have done unemployment maybe

and we may have moved up.

I have a feeling some way that's a damn figure or something wrong with it.

Well, I do.

But nevertheless, nevertheless, nevertheless, I'm not concerned about where it is if it just starts creeping down.

Well, that's what we need.

And in a way, we start out with a high base of a projected workforce.

You know, I think they've screwed us for three months running.

yeah or four and but that can benefit us because if the do they have to compensate that won't they just leave it up there they can inflate it and leave it there can't they well they can but but if you don't keep inflating it yeah then your actual your you're gonna gain on it because what about the uh though your point chuck that the states a lot of them really had a different uh deal god damn it i hope you get that across all over the country i've sent it into the uh

sent it into Hudson and said, please explain.

And thus far, he's given me no good answers.

Well, you know, incidentally, speaking on the labor front, while I would much prefer to have had it settled, I think the fact I had to crack them on tap partly, a lot of people applaud, don't you think?

Oh, my golly, absolutely.

Because they think I'm hitting their labor, you know.

Well, I think what's happened, Mr. President, I've been sitting... Oh, I haven't given you the latest terrorist pool trial hits either.

I'll give you those, the...

I've been sitting the last few days trying to figure what it is that's so different right now than it was three months ago.

I've just had a gut feeling we're rising, and the polls all show it.

And I think what it is, it's the activism.

It is the fact that there's a strike, and by God, you invoke Taft-Dartley.

uh you're you're on the side of the people against things that people don't like and very actively so taft hardly is a perfect case in point to making a show out of it yeah well you went out there to the west coast you stepped into it you gave them a chance gave them plenty of chance they got nothing to complain about and then you invoked after the latest harris bowl trial heats you know i gave you the approval and he ran the trial heats

over a different period of time, 19th to the 27th of September.

These will be published in three weeks.

So she has a lead time on that, doesn't she?

Well, he does only because he's got a backlog of other columns, and they're all good for us.

The two next week are sensational, right?

You don't care about that.

I read you the lead on one last night.

I didn't read you the lead on the other one.

I should have, because it's even more bullish.

Find the damn thing, though.

After six weeks of the Nixon administration's new economic policies, there are definite signs that the confidence of the American consumer is on the rise.

By a substantial 53 to 23 percent, a majority of the American people now feel that the Nixon economic policies are doing more good than harm.

Back in March, by 37 to 34 percent, the public felt the administration's economic measures were doing more harm than good.

That's for next Thursday.

So that's a hell of a bullish one.

What is Teddy?

What about on the Teddy thing where you've got a good campaign to get that crawling thing way out?

Oh, that's been going every day.

We had the CDs... And mail to people and, you know... A very significant mailing went out that took the Humphrey statement, the Kennedy statement, and the VFW and a few others, and that's gone to editors.

Not by us, but...

Bill sent it to some editors, which he could very probably do.

Incidentally, on this speech tonight, we had to put something in on profits.

I tried to keep it out, but they all agreed they had to because of the Congress.

They'd piss on it.

But I described it as windfall profits and said only a few.

So if the market people squeal about it, they'll squeal about it.

That's the way I feel about it.

Well, I think we can get it explained properly, Mr. President.

We've been having...

Groups parading through here.

Excellent idea.

How do they like hearing about it?

Well, of course, they love the consultation being brought in.

We will have had about 250 movers and shooters.

Who's doing them?

Stein, Weber, Schultz.

They're all good.

And they are.

And really, this is, if you've got to have controls, a damn good one.

We really looked it over carefully.

Well, I've read the material, and it is.

It isn't as tough as...

It might have been, thank goodness.

I mean, there's enough leeway where you really have to rely.

You've got to have the leeway because basically there's got to be some ways for flexibility or the labor people will blow it.

Well, not only that, but you'd get locked into too rigid a system, which I think would depress you.

And you'd never get rid of it.

Another thing, one thing I have in here, when we no longer need it, we're going to get rid of it.

Well, that's excellent.

I'm putting in that straight statement.

Harris made the point this morning, in addition to this gradualism, he said you want to be sure that the public knows that the commitment

to beat inflation remains just as tough as it was during phase one.

He said, that's what has you up in the polls.

And he said that the people, as he put it, the people are just so much behind the president now.

The attitudes polling, when you look through all the comments, you know, you ask people their comments.

uh they're all comments like well we're supporting the president we're behind the president or we agree with the president instead of a long negative series of comments that they got before and well i've i've got something in this speech uh which i just i added just an hour ago which i mean usually it's only uh speech will be only 14 minutes long which i think is an awfully good line yes uh

I quote from people all over the country, you know.

I have four excellent letters, a paragraph from each, which is good.

These are all people that had wage increases and had to give them up.

And it's great to quote them, you know.

And to give credit to the people.

Oh, yes.

Oh, I just say that.

Yeah.

Well, for example, here's what it is.

After I read the letters, I said there, this is sort of about five minutes into the talk, I said, I want to thank the thousands of people who have written similar letters.

I know how much it means to me to hear that most Americans have put their country's interest above their personal interest in fighting the battle against inflation.

Now let's look at the future.

In planning ahead, I've consulted with leaders of labor and so on.

They have been virtually unanimous in their belief that the fight must be here and not made, fought here and not.

They are together in their determination to win the battle.

Consequently, and this is the key line, I am announcing tonight that when the 90-day freeze is over on November 13th, we shall continue our program of wage and price restraint.

We began this battle against inflation for the purpose of winning it.

We are going to stay in it until we do win it.

Excellent.

That's about it.

That's precisely the point that Harris said today.

He said, is that...

point that is causing all this public support.

He thinks it's dramatic, and now we've had two good pollsters honestly confirm this.

I have, by the way, gotten the message through Deutchapen up to Gallup that we've seen a number of polls that show greatly increasing strength.

It's bound to make him...

He's going to have to hedge his bet a little if he's going to try to screw us on Kennedy.

Well, you know, when you look at these figures, Mr. President, when they're published, as Lou will do, all together, you're running on, well, 10 points, 12 points ahead of any Democrat today.

About 8 above Kennedy.

Yeah, right.

But that is... Quite a change.

That is...

A hell of a change from last summer when it was nip and tuck.

With Muskie.

With Muskie and never able to catch up with him really.

It was always two points one way or the other.

I think the... And also the other thing too is in the Harris...

thing, frankly, and these things go up and down, but to go over 50%, even if it's only 51, 48 or something like that, and approval isn't bad.

It's tremendous.

Well, I've got to go over and brief the press, I mean the Congress.

Good luck tonight, sir.

Thank you, Mr. President.