 Now, have your attention, please. I am Luther H. Hodges, Secretary of Commerce and a North Carolina Democrat for Johnson and everybody on the Democratic ticket, wherever they are. I want to introduce to you, your distinguished Senator, Senator John Sparkman. Thank you, Secretary Hodges, and ladies and gentlemen, of course, you know of necessity to stop here, must be very brief. The very first thing I want to do is to thank you, thank you very much. We want to hear, we want to hear the principal party on this special train speak. And I want to present to you now, very briefly, the first lady of the land who spent much of her childhood and early years in the state of Alabama. She's one of us, Lady Bird Johnson, Mrs. Lyndon Beacon. Friends, when my good friend and your great Senator, John Sparkman, phoned some days ago to talk about my visit to Alabama, he suggested that we make our first stop in Flomerton so we could say, hello, Alabama, the minute we crossed the state line. And I was mighty glad to do so. And I thank you all for coming out to give me this wonderful, warm, cherry, sunny welcome to a state that means a lot to me. The reason it's close to my heart is because my mother and father came from here and because I spent all the summers of my lifetime, from since I was five until I was 21, visiting here, those long sort of southern visits where you go on hay rides and swimming in the creek. And when they get to be so many cousins, you haven't got beds, you put down pallets on the floor. To me and my husband, the South is a respected and valued and beloved part of the country. And we are proud of our relations with it and our ancestors that go back to it and our many friends who come from it. In all my husband's years in Washington, your Senators John Sparkman and Lista Hill have been among his closest and most trusted advisors and so have the members of your great delegation. I know how things are in Alabama, but I know we've got some good friends here. And I just wanted to say thank you. I appreciate what you're doing for us. I appreciate your trust with all my heart. Ten months ago, on a most awful day, my husband became your president. Let him lay the experience of 12 years in the House of Representatives, 12 years in the Senate, three as your vice president. And then in these last 10 months, he has poured all the energy and heart and intellect he has into trying to keep this country on a steady course of prosperity for all of you, the folks he works for, to try to keep this country at peace and to plan in a practical and compassionate way for those Americans still in need. I'm proud of his record and I hope you will want to continue it. And because I'm in the land of cousins and I have a whole lot of them riding on the train with me, I'm going to ask them to come out here and let me introduce them to you. And are they all lined up behind us? I want to thank all of you bands and all of you young folks. And in a minute, I want to introduce Lucy to you. All right then, while my cousins are getting lined up, I want to ask Lucy because I see so many young folks out there in the crowd. And I want to ask Lucy to come up here and say a word to you. Lucy? I'm proud to be here and I'm proud to see so many young people here. Because I think by your being here, we can show that we do care and we do take an active interest in this campaign and in our government and in our world today. Because we realize that not too long from now, probably sooner than we would like to think, we are going to have to take on the reins of government by ourselves. And we realize that if we are to do this, we must learn today. So my hope is for all of us that we can use the kind of reasoning powers that we have achieved in such a great educational institution that we have to reason together so if we may disagree and we have that right to, we cannot be disagreeable. And so that someday we can show our parents and the rest of the world that we do care by choosing wise leaders today so that we will have a firm, a good country to lead tomorrow. Thank you. At this time, I want to present to you Mrs. James Allen, the wife of the Lieutenant Governor of Alabama who has a very pleasant duty to perform. I wish to welcome you back to your home state, salt of home state. We're so proud of your Alabama heritage and I want to extend your official greetings from the state of Alabama, from the Lieutenant Governor Allen and myself. And from Governor and Mrs. Wallace, I present you some roses and welcome home. Thank you. Now, now I think we've got my Ken folks lined up with Judge W. C. Taylor of Mobile, my cousin Judge W. C. Taylor, step up. This is Judge W. C. Taylor of Mobile. And next I've got Mrs. James Thomas of Antmoor and her husband, Judge James Thomas. I didn't know, I thought maybe, and her husband, Dr. Thomas. I didn't know whether he'd get here at the last minute because I thought somebody might take sick, but I'm sure glad he made it. And I especially want you young folks to meet Gene Thomas, the younger generation and somewhere down in the crowd, there's the rest of the Alabama family from Antmoor, John and Julian Thomas. They're allowed to be somewhere down in there. Hi. And then Mrs. F. I. Derby from York, many ways. This is Mrs. Derby. Wonderful occasion. Thank you. And another member of the younger generation of my cousins, Pat C. Derby from York, who has gone with us all the way on the train from Washington. And then from Billingsley, Alabama, where I used to spend the most summers of all visiting, Mrs. E. M. Woodyard and her husband, Yule Woodyard. Where y'all in the Mason? And Jeannie Corey from Prattville. Now, I can't have it. And now, all of you, I want to say thank you for the bands. Thank you for the warm welcome. I'm happy to be here. And God bless you. Before we, before we leave, I want to read a telegram to you from the Senior Senator of Alabama, Senator Hill, who, as you know, has been sick. This is addressed to Dear Lady Bird. I'm in the midst of the recovery period following my recent operation. And under the circumstances, Henrietta and I will not be able to join you in your trip through Alabama. We deeply regret that we will not have the pleasure of being with you. We are honored by your visit and are proud to claim you as one of our own. Henrietta joins me in extending to you a most hearty welcome and our best wishes for an enjoyable visit in Alabama and for a successful whistle stop trip and Democratic victory on November 3rd. Signed, Mr. Hill. Now, now we've got to be in a hurry, but we've got some distinguished people on here that I do want to present to you. First is your mayor, Dr. Purifoy. Here he is. Mr. the Honorable Orris Davis, mayor of Atmore. Come on, come on, come on. Here he is. Curtis Finley, mayor of... Where's Mayor Finley? That's all right. Come on up, Mayor Finley. And while he's coming, Mayor... Oh, here we are. Mayor Finley, former mayor of Atmore, Alabama, Mr. H.H.D. Here somewhere, Brooks Garrett. Where's Brooks? We have Congressman Carl Elliot, from Alabama. Where's Carl? We have Congressman Hale Boggs. Well, let me introduce the others first. Carl Elliot, a former Governor of Tennessee, Buford Ellington. Where is he? And now I'm going to introduce Hale Boggs, who is the Assistant Majority Leader of the House of Representatives. Oh, here is Mayor Ron, who has just stepped up. Mayor, we're glad to have you with us. Are we ready? Here is Congressman Elliot. Here is Congressman Elliot. Here's Hale Boggs of Louisiana. Ladies and gentlemen, let me say to you that Governor Hodges, Secretary Hodges, and I have been aboard this train. We probably start moving in a minute, so don't let that bother you. We've been aboard this train since we left Alexander, Virginia on four days ago. And this lovely lady who loves Alabama and whose mother and father were born and reared here, and who spent so many happy childhood days, has been received all over our beloved Southland, just like she's being received here in Flamington this afternoon. And you know what? We're going to carry Maine and Vermont and New Hampshire and Alabama.