 Mr. President, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, today marks a very proud moment for our plant, an occasion that has been brought about by the hard work of all of our employees, and by the invitation that was extended to you last year. We have come a long way on the road to achieving the recognition we are receiving here today. The road at times has been tough, but we have remained steadfast in our efforts to make this the very best assembly plant in the Ford system, in America, and yes, even in the world. I am proud of that, and I know you people are also. Our tremendous progress here has been accomplished through the efforts and hard work, again of all of our employees. This process has been evident to the many visitors that we have seen through our plant here this past year, and also the distinguished visitors that we have here with us today. At this time, I would like to introduce one of the distinguished visitors. He is a man who is dedicated to making the Ford Motor Company the strongest automotive company in the world. By achieving this through a people approach, it gives me very great pleasure to introduce to you the Chairman of the Board of the Ford Motor Company, Mr. Philip Caldwell. Thank you very much, Paul. Well, Mr. President, there are a number of firsts that we could talk about with you here today. Kansas City was the location of the first U.S. assembly plant built outside the Detroit area many, many years ago. The Kansas City plant was the first Ford assembly plant in the world to use robots. The F-Series pickup truck, which comes off of our assembly line here, is the first among all trucks. In fact, it's the best-selling vehicle, car, or truck sold in the United States. And it's the best-selling pickup sold anywhere in the world by anybody. Quality is first among Ford's objectives. An important reason for the high level of Ford quality today is our successful employee involvement program, which demonstrates that people getting together and talking together, and I want you to know how much all of us appreciate your interest in what we're doing. We're glad to have the opportunity to share with you the pride we feel in what has been achieved here in Kansas City and in many of our other plants throughout the country. At the top of the list are the accomplishments that we have made in quality. We're the best of the domestic manufacturers and equal to or better than almost all of the foreign manufacturers as well, but we won't be satisfied until we are best in the world bar none. I'm sure that anybody who visits this plant, as you are doing here today, and talks to our 4,500 men and women who work here, is bound to go home refreshed and reinvigorated and proud of American enterprise. All of us, including every person in this plant, takes pride and pleasure in what we're doing. This plant, which covers an area equivalent to 50 football fields, is equipped in providing jobs, economic security, and national security. We're glad to have you. We're honored to have you. Ladies and gentlemen of Ford, the President of the United States. Thank you, Phil Caldwell. Mr. Nolan, Governor Bond, Congressman Coleman, you ladies and gentlemen, and thank you all for welcoming me here today and showing me Kansas City's Ford Clay Como plant. I've heard enough since I've been here to know something that Mr. Caldwell was talking about, and that is the relationship, the communication that takes place here. And you know, I've always believed that a lot of the troubles in the world would disappear if we were talking to each other instead of about each other. And communication really means people having something to say and then the manner in which it's done. And a favorite story of mine about communication was told to me by Danny Villanueva, the younger ones won't remember, but he once was the place kicker for the Los Angeles Rams, and then he became a sports announcer. And Danny told me that one night he was over having dinner at the home of one of the ball players with the Dodgers. The young wife was bustling about getting dinner ready. They were talking sports and the baby started to cry. And over her shoulder she said to her husband, change the baby. And he was embarrassed being a young fella in front of Danny and he said, what do you mean change the baby? I'm a ball player. That's not my line of work. She turned around, put her hands on her hips and she communicated. She said, look Buster, you lay the diamond out like a diaper. You put second base on home plate, put the baby's bottom on the pitcher's mound, hook up first and third, slide home underneath. And if it starts to rain, the game ain't called, you start all over again. You communicated, since I've been here, you've shown me an exciting success story and given me a glimpse of America's future and it looks mighty good. In this place, in one of our country's basic industries, we can see where America's headed and what lives in store for all our people. Each of you can rightly take pride in helping make us all that we are and all that we can be. You've also made me remember how far we've come and speaking for myself, that's a long way because when I think back to my first car, I bet it isn't the same as yours, a Model T. Well, as I toured part of your assembly plant just for a short time here and watched how busy the assemblers and the other workers are, I couldn't help but think back to the days when America's economy had sputtered and stalled. Only a few years ago, this industry and all America were in the worst economic mess in decades. It didn't matter who you were or where you came from, double digit inflation was slamming shut the doors of opportunity. And if you dreamed of owning a home or buying a new car, 21.5% interest rates were closing the doors on those dreams, too. And that's what we faced in January of 1981. An industry which burst onto the scene in the early days of the 20th century and became a vital part of our existence, found itself crippled by too much regulation, too much government interference, and too much backseat driving by Washington. In 1980 alone, the Big Three lost $4.2 billion. Plant closing across the country plunged businesses and families into desperate financial straits. Many of those families were uprooted as workers set out across the country looking for jobs. In 1980, I happened for a particular reason to be in a number of cities at that time and a number of them where automobiles were assembled and made. And in city after city, I was told when I arrived that the inflation rate was 20% or I mean inflation, I mean the unemployment rate was 20% or more. It was time for a change. So we charted a new course to rebuild America from the bottom up, and we knew that to do that, government had to get its own house in order. And at the same time, we knew that government needed to get out of the way of the people and the spirit of enterprise that encourages risk-taking and rewards innovation. And we knew it wouldn't be easy. Both the economy and the auto industry were in recession. The culmination of years of overtaxing, overspending and overpromising by those who claimed they could spend your earnings better than you could. We knew that progress would come in inches, not miles. But we knew that if we worked together, progress would come. It hasn't been easy. Times have been rough, and yes, the recession was much deeper and longer than anyone had predicted. But these problems had been building up for 20 years, and we were determined to find a real economic cure, not just resort as they had so often in the past to another political quick fix. There have been eight recessions since World War II, and seven of those was the political quick fix. There's no compassion in snake oil cures. We weathered the storm together, and now the sun shining on a strong economy and an American automobile industry that's moving forward again. Inflation, once out of control, has plummeted by nearly two-thirds for two years. It's been under 4 percent. Right now it's in the neighborhood of 4 percent or a little above, probably because of some weather conditions that changed food prices and so forth. The prime rate is down by nearly half from when we came to office, and a few weeks ago we learned that last quarter's gross national product grew at a healthy 7.2 percent. At the same time, and this is the greatest figure of all, 5.1 million more Americans have jobs today than had jobs just 16 months ago. We've had the steepest drop in unemployment in over 30 years. Factory orders, housing starts, and retail sales are up, and listen closely to this when auto sales are up dramatically. More than 100,000 of you auto workers went back to work in 1983 with more expected back this year, and right now there are 85,000 more people working in the automobile industry in general than were working there in 1980 in that period I was telling you about. The unemployment rate we know in America across the country, the average is 7.7 percent. I think you'd be happy to know that in the automobile industry the unemployment rate is down to 5.5 percent, and I hope it's going down lower than that. Here at Ford, because of your determination, dedication, and hard work, you sold more cars last year than any time since 1979. All of us, working together and ignoring the gloomcriers and the pundits who said it couldn't be done, all of us have hung tough, and today as we see the auto industry and the economy humming with activity, aren't we glad we did. There was a time when Placomo nearly had to shut down, but today almost 5,000 people, 4500 or more, are working two 10-hour shifts, producing 86 cars and trucks an hour, 1,600 a day. You're continuing a Ford tradition that began here in Kansas City as German Caldwell told you in 1906, with nearly 7 million cars built in all. Whatever you may have heard about my age, I wasn't here at that time. But you're not getting older, you're getting better. Your industry and many others have begun to shape up. You're getting lean and mean and ready to face the challenge of the future. By the end of this year, some $50 billion would have been invested in the 1980s by American automobile companies to modernize plants and design and produce attractive fuel-efficient cars. At this plant, Ford has invested almost $200 million to modernize and refurbish for the future. And best of all, the quality of American automobiles has never been better, reflecting the pride and determination of employees at every level. Your success story is so widespread that industry leaders from Europe, China and yes, even Japan have come halfway around the world to see for themselves. Everyone can see these Tempo Topaz cars rolling off the line and that sticker on the front window jointly dedicated to quality built with Missouri pride. And we all know that government, management, and labor had a role to play on the industry's problems that developed during the 70s, and all three have played a role in its resurgence. I think government did its part by reducing regulations and getting the economy rolling again. Shortly after we came to office, our administration discussed the auto industry's problems with the Japanese. They offered to voluntarily restrain auto exports to the United States. And this gave the domestic auto industry the breathing room it needed to build new plants and products, improve quality, increase productivity, and participate in the economic recovery. Now some advocate fire harsher methods. They believe we should run up the flag in defense of our markets, embrace protectionism, and insulate ourselves from world competition. But we'll never meet the challenge of the 80s with that kind of defeatist mentality. In their having lunch, I told just a few of you, my own experience when I entered the job market back in the early 30s of the very depths of the Great Depression, 26% unemployment, the government putting radio ads on, don't leave home looking for work, there is none. And a great deal of that was due to what somebody thought might be an answer to our depression problems. A smooth, hauly tariff bill which literally destroyed free trade worldwide and perpetuated the depression at that time, which incidentally was only cured then by World War II. I believe if Americans work together to improve quality, become more productive, hold down costs, and invest in tomorrow's technology, then we can outcompete, outperform, and outsell the pants of anybody. And echoing Mr. Caldwell, I believe in America being first because America is best. Now if the dream of America is to be preserved, we mustn't waste the genius of one mind, the strength of one body, or the spirit of one soul. We need all our people, men and women, young and old, individuals of every race, to be healthy, happy, and whole. This is our goal, and we won't rest until all Americans can reach as high as their vision and God-given talents take them. I thank you again for inviting me, and God bless all of you. But one of the things that I enjoy most in this job is the opportunity to get out of Washington and to meet people from every walk of life and from every corner of the world. But I have to tell you that no matter where I go, there are no more finer people than those men and women who raise our food and patrol our streets and man our minds and factories and teach our children, keep our homes and heal us when we're sick. These people are everyday Americans, but they're heroes in their own right. They are the unsung heroes of America. And today I'd like to honor one such hero, Barney Maxson. Could you and your wife, Jewel, I thought your daughter Carol was with you. Carol, come on up here. Oh, today I'd like to honor one of those heroes I was talking about. Barney Maxson. Barney's someone who's always been there, given above and beyond what was required of him. Barney, Chairman Caldwell and I would like to present you with a plaque in honor of the 50 years of loyal and dedicated service you've given to the Ford Motor Company. Congratulations, Barney. Thank you again. Well, again, God bless you. Thank you all. Good to be here. Thank you, Mr. President and Mr. Caldwell. And it's been kind of a tradition here in this plant. In the Midwest, we like caps. And we have a successful launch, again, of our two-shift truck where we put over 800 people back to work. We did it in record time and really did an outstanding job with the cooperation of the entire plant, both hourly, salary, management team, all, everyone. And we celebrated with a red, white, and blue with a super cab truck that's only built here in the world, built here in the Kansas City plant. And we would like, as you as the commander in chief of our country and Mr. Caldwell as the commander in chief of our company, to wear these caps. This concludes our ceremony. Let's give a warm farewell to the President and to Mr. Caldwell.