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DAVID ROE: A long, long, long time friend of working people from the state of Minnesota, former attorney general, United States senator and vice president of the United States. One of the questions that gets asked continually, particularly over the last few weeks, as the national AFL-CIO convention draws near, is, why is the labor movement want to make an early endorsement for the presidency of the United States?

And I think it's very, very simple. We think the labor movement has a right, like any right, any group within the United States. And I think that we have a right to support those who support our goals. And I think when I'm speaking not just for the labor movement but for women, for Blacks, for other minorities, for the young, elderly, the unemployed, poor, and maybe even some of those wealthy folks who aren't really must have a guilty conscience, Mr. Vice President, and support us--

WALTER MONDALE: We're going to get a lot of that.

DAVID ROE: A person who recognizes the free trade union movement in this country as well as wherever it exists, not a president or not a person who gives lip service as an example to solidarity in Poland with one hand and while he's stomping the foot and stomping the workers with respect to Petco with the other. That's not one that we can endorse and one that we want to remove as president of the United States.

[CHEERING]

And one who supports a free trade union movement. As I said yesterday, quality health care, quality education, decent housing, jobs for all who want to work, safety in the workplace, security, and dignity for all those no longer able to work, civil rights, human rights, equal rights. And the person who fits that is the person I'm going to introduce to you at this time, former vice president of the United States, Walter Fritz Mondale.

[CHEERING]

WALTER MONDALE: Thank you. Take me up and down the elevator.

Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, David, for that very, very kind introduction. Dave, as you know, is an old and dear friend. And when he arrives at the national AFL-CIO convention, he's going to cast one vote for somebody for president. Right now, Dave Roe is neutral.

[LAUGHING]

He's thinking it over. He's pondering the question. He's talking to Audrey to get her advice. And just to make certain things come out right, I brought two very expensive items of clothing, all with a union label.

[CHEERING]

This one's the most expensive. So you give that to Audrey.

[LAUGHING]

And here's a cheap one for you, David.

[LAUGHING]

Same general theme. Seriously, I don't have a better friend than Dave Roe and neither do you. Since 1966, he has been a fine estate president of any federation of any state in the union. You know it. And I know it. We're all blessed to have Dave Roe as a friend and a president of the Minnesota State AFL-CIO. Let's give David a special thanks.

[APPLAUSE]

Commissioner [INAUDIBLE] to Lou Freeman, who just gave that superb message from the NAACP, to Gordy Spielman, my old friend from Southern Minnesota, to Danny Gustafsson to Bernie Bremer, all old friends of mine. And if I can say a special word, I understand this is the last time that Dick Radman will be an official delegate at this convention. And we don't have a better friend than Dick Radman either. Let's give Dick a special hand for his help and his assistance.

[APPLAUSE]

Well, here I am again.

[LAUGHING]

For almost 23 years now, as I've often said, every time the speaker you want tears you down, you invite Walter Mondale and see if he's got a different speech. This time, it's a little bit different. In the past, I've come to you seeking the United States Senate. And we've won.

In the past, I've come to you seeking the vice presidency. And we've always carried the state of Minnesota. In the past, on one occasion, I almost came to you seeking the presidency. I said I was 99% of the way there.

Didn't make it to the last 1%. But I was thinking about it. This time, it's different. I'm coming to you as a candidate who's announced for president of the United States. But more than that, I'm coming to you today as the candidate who is going to be nominated and elected president of the United States.

[CHEERING]

I come to ask for your help not for myself but for our country. There's a lot of elections that have been important to us in the past. But 1984 is an election we dare not lose. We've got to get a people's president again who stands up for the people of this country and puts the government of the United States back on the side of all of the citizens of the United States.

[APPLAUSE]

One issue that we face together is the future of the right of people to organize, to bargain, to strike, to have what we've long thought to be a deep and settled part of American life, indeed a part of life sanctioned and supported by the laws of this land by over 60 years. But all of it is now under threat by a president who is radically attacking the right of decent, strong unions to participate as a part of our country.

Dave Roe put it right. This administration is for strong unions in Poland and against them in the United States. Every chance they've had, every appointee they've put on the National Labor Relations Board, including the immediate past president of the National to Work Committee, their attempts to destroy and undermine Mr. Lubbers and the general counsel of the NLRB, their weakening of OSHA, their opposition to labor law reform, and the other things essential for a healthy and strong unions in this country, the Secretary of Labor, if you can call him that, that they have put in charge of the Labor Department.

As I've often said, Mr. Reagan is not a conservative. He's a radical under Mr. Eisenhower, under Mr. Nixon. And I find it hard to say good things about Mr. Nixon. As a matter of fact, I'm not going to. We're going to move right on.

[LAUGHING]

[APPLAUSE]

And Mr. Ford. Every one of those presidents had secretaries of labor who would work with organized labor. Every one of those presidents, despite our differences, respected and accepted the fact that organized labor was an important part of our country and had to be respected as that. Every one until this president.

And the signal from this administration is that the heat is on. And unions are no longer a strong or significant part of this country. They have been encouraging a movement that calls for a country that is union free.

We don't need a country that's union free. We need a nation of free unions. And I want to be the president that brings that about.

[APPLAUSE]

This morning, I want to talk to you a little bit differently than I've ever talked to you before. Instead of going over a lot of specific issues that you and I know we agree on, I want to talk a little bit about why I seek the presidency, where I'm coming from, and what I believe. I'm a preacher's kid. I grew up in Southern Minnesota, as you know, three major cities-- Salon, Heron Lake, and Elmore.

[LAUGHING]

I could ride my bike down the street. And I knew every person in that town. Those times weren't easy. When I was a kid, we heated our home with cobs. But we had a wonderful life. And things we were rich that you couldn't measure.

Our life was full of love. It was full of faith. And there was always a sense of belonging. We were never alone. We belonged to each other. We didn't have any money. But I remember every day of my childhood with joy.

And I learned something then from my parents and from my friends that I carry with me all my life. It's what I call my moral compass. I believe in the old fashioned idea that there still is a difference between right and wrong.

To me, this country is special. There is no nation on Earth quite like America when we stand for our values. America means many things. Number one, it means fairness and not favoritism. America means decency, self-reliance, independence, to be sure.

But we all know that problems can overwhelm us, the best of us. And I want an America which reaches out to lighten that burden, to provide a cushion for illness, for unemployment, for aging and the rest. And America means opportunity, a chance for our children and their children to have a good education, a good job, and to give their kids every opportunity possible.

All my life, I've stood for those values. And I've never seen them more under attack than they are today. These last several weeks-- and I wish you could travel with me to see what I go through. I travel hundreds of thousands of miles. I've traveled all over this country.

In the last several weeks, about once a week, I take a little time off. And I go door to door somewhere. And I just sit down and talk to the people in that home and listen to them and try to hear what it is that concern them.

I've been in their homes. I've walked their streets. And I've heard their message. And it's not the message you hear coming from the White House, as you know, because you represent the same people.

In America, you ought to feel secure in your jobs. But instead, you're worried about losing out to a robot or to an import or to an information revolution. In America, you ought to be confident. But instead, I find people asking me whether there'll be Social Security when they retire, whether Medicare will cover their costs when they need it.

In America, there ought to be a bargain. But people think that bargain is being broken. And the bargain is this. When you play by the rules, there ought to be a reward.

When you work hard, when you pay your taxes, when you obey the law, when you raise your children as best you can, when you're a good citizen and a good friend, there ought to be a reward for playing by the rules. But now, it's often the other way. You seem to be punished for doing it the right way.

Americans, for the first time I can recall, are worried about the future of their children. When I grew up and David and I grew up, it was always assumed that each generation in America did better, a little bit better at least, than the predecessor. We always assumed that until now.

What kind of jobs are our kids going to have? What kind of hope is there for them? How are they going to buy a home, raise a family, get to college, and the other things that count? You ought, as an American, to be getting ahead in life and enjoying yourself. But instead you're worried about the utility bill and next week's grocery bill.

Now, no one's talking about an easy life. None of us expected our life to be a rose garden. We expected to have some tough times. We're not children. And there's no escaping the inevitability of change. We've got to roll with the punch, just as the horse and buggy makers had to start building cars. We know that.

We have to work together to prepare for the future. What we insist on, however, is that everyone pitches in fairly to build that future. And that's not what's happening today.

[APPLAUSE]

While this is what I'm hearing for Americans, you don't see fur coat sales going down. You don't see the presidents of big utilities lining up for cheese. You don't see big corporations paying taxes.

You don't see big money losing its grip on politics. You don't see the banks offering discount mortgages. You don't see hospitals cutting their costs. You don't see polluters going to jail. This crowd behind Reagan thinks that the way to solve America's problems is to put more money in the pockets of the wealthy and give more power to the already powerful. And in my opinion, that is wrong, wrong, wrong. Wrong morally--

[APPLAUSE]

It is wrong morally. And it's wrong economically. First, I believe Reaganomics is indecent. This philosophy is dividing us into two Americas, one where that thin veneer of the wealthiest are doing better and better and where the rest of America, including everyone in this room, is doing less and less well.

Last year, Mr Reagan got a $91,000 tax cut from his tax laws. All told, wealthy Americans divided among themselves $55 billion in tax relief. And I don't have to tell you who's paying for it.

For them, it was a tax cut. But for most Americans, It was a tax shift. The burden has been shifted to you. That's not true. Some say we'll look at it.

What happened to your payroll tax? It went up. What happened to your telephone tax? It went up. What happened when you go to the gas pump? $0.05 a gallon. What happened in the deductibility of your health costs?

And every state of the union, except one, has gone through what Minnesota has gone through. With the recession and cuts in federal and state aid, every state in the union has had to cut services and raise taxes at the same time. So what happened to state taxes?

What happens to local taxes, real estate taxes, sales taxes, income taxes, user taxes, and lower services? While this is going on in your life, 90,000 profitable corporations this last year didn't pay a penny in taxes. It works out this way. If you're making $200,000 a year, like Dave Roe--

[LAUGHING]

--you get $60,000 in tax relief from Mr. Reagan's taxes. But if you're making $25,000 a year, your taxes overall have gone up about $185. As. Mr Stockman said in his famous interview, when that tax law passed, the hogs were really feeding. I have met-- go ahead anytime you want to pause it.

[APPLAUSE]

The other day, I was speaking to about 300 business leaders. And I said, you and I know that all of us in this room got more tax relief than we needed. And afterwards, two or three of them came up to me and said, you're absolutely right.

I've had wealthy Americans tell me, can you imagine anybody trying to reduce my tax bills? That, you hear in wealthy America, while the average American is wondering how he or she is going to get into the next month. But that's not the end of it.

Now, they're proposing to tax unemployment insurance to, quote, "discourage unemployment." They want to tax health insurance. We're going to give them a little experience with unemployment right after the '84 election. See how they like it.

[APPLAUSE]

They want to put $5 on a barrel of oil, which will add about $5 to your heating bill each month and $0.07 per gallon for a gallon of gas. They want to put a 5% surcharge on your tax. And they want to tax health insurance and unemployment compensation, as I've pointed out.

Finally, they want to deregulate old gas. Do you know what I'm talking about? That will add about $50 billion or $60 billion to America's consumer charges. And the average Minnesotan's utility bill will go up 75% even though the evidence is that it will result in producing less gas, more inflation, and more pain while giving more money to a few in this country.

In my opinion, this policy collides with what America is all about. America isn't built on greed. America is built on fairness. I believe America was never intended to be a jungle where just the richest or the fittest survive. America is supposed to be a community, a family, a nation where we care for one another, where we play by the rules, and where we give everyone a chance for success.

[APPLAUSE]

I talked this morning about morality because I believe it. We were taught all of us by one of the best-- the best, Hubert Humphrey. And he said these words that we've often quoted. "The moral test of government is how it treats those in the dawn of life-- our children-- those in the twilight of life-- the elderly-- and those in the shadows of life-- the sick, the needy, and the unemployed." I remember once when Erik Erikson, the great child psychologist, said, the deadliest of all possible sins is the mutilation of a child's spirit.

And I speak in those terms. Because when you go to Washington, when you hear about the unemployed, it's numbers. When you hear about families trying to take the burden of unemployment or children not being able to succeed, you hear the language of sociology-- all antiseptic, all cold, all feeling. We cannot run this country. We cannot be the nation we need unless we feel it morally and personally and in a human sense again.

When people are unemployed, we all ought to worry about it. When kids don't have an education, it ought to bother every one of us. I want us to feel and care again. And I want to be the president that leads our nation in that direction.

[CHEERING]

The second point is that the Reagan crowd doesn't understand economics. Reaganomics is undermining our future. It's an economic time bomb. And this is a point too that we've got to go into for a second year.

America has never been just for the here and now. Every generation of Americans, if they're up to their challenge, has thought about the future and our children and their children. And that's where Reaganomics really is undermining this country.

We've got to think about our future and our children. And we need a policy that does just that. Their whole program is built on so-called supply side economics. But as Stockman pointed out, it's not really supply side. It's really trickle down economics.

We were told that this was supposed to make the economy grow more fully. But that's not what's happening. In fact, Reaganomics is undermining the future of our economic growth. These deficits are jacking up real interest rates, clamping down on housing, choking off small business, throwing our currency out of line, killing exports, pummeling farmers, punishing workers, sucking in imports, and saddling our children with debts they never should have been asked to pay.

Look at the impact on trade. I just talked to Allen Kirsch from the steelworkers. They have 3,000 workers out of 14,000 at work on the Iron Range today. Look what's happening. Everything produced by an American worker carries an invisible tax of 25%. And everything produced by a foreign worker or a foreign farmer carries an invisible subsidy of 25%.

And what's happening is exactly what you'd think had happened. This is the worst trade year in American history. We will import $70 billion more than we sell. And next year will be worse.

Every farmer, every worker, every business in exports or competing with imports in America is now an endangered species. How does that serve the long term future of our country? Reaganomics is voodoo economics. And it must be repealed and replaced by sensible economics.

[APPLAUSE]

Their budget cuts are crippling our schools. They're dulling the edge of science and research. And they're keeping us from rebuilding our bridges, our highways, our cities, and our ports.

These tax shifts are pouring billions and billions of dollars into luxury living, tax havens, wasteful acquisitions, and diverting billions from real investments and real jobs. This Reagan crowd has it all wrong. To get our economy moving again, we should be looking to the millions of children who need better education, the farmers who need new markets, the small businesses who need capital, the workers who need retraining for new jobs, the unemployed young aching to contribute to our country, the women and minorities who we keep from developing their talents.

I think the time has come to restore the competitiveness of basic American industry through a restructuring policy that rebuilds basic industry. I think the time has come to rebuild our highways, our roads, our bridges, our ports, our water systems, the basic plant of this country. To those who say we can't do it, let me say this. This was the country that we rebuilt Western Europe. We're the nation that rebuilt Japan. And the time has come now for us to rebuild the United States of America.

[APPLAUSE]

In short, I believe in percolate up economics.

[LAUGHING]

I want to be the president who builds our future again. I believe the solution to economic problems lies in the hands of millions of hard working, decent Americans who love our country and want to get going again, people like you. And you represent millions across this country. And I want to be the president who's on your side.

What's happening under Reagan goes against everything that we believe in. America is the greatest country on Earth. It belongs to all of us. Lincoln once said, ours is supposed to be a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. What we've got now is a government of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich. And I want to be the president who is on your side again in this great struggle.

[APPLAUSE]

MODERATOR: Is it over? We're reconnecting here.

WALTER MONDALE: I want to get our economy moving again. I'd chop the deficits. And I would insist with a more responsible policy that the Federal Reserve Board accommodate long-term economic growth with reasonable interest rates.

I will strengthen our schools. I will invest in science. I will rebuild industry and rebuild our basic infrastructure. I'll retrain our workers. I'll boost our exports. I'll have a strong new trade policy that serves the interests of the American people. I'll press for growth. And in short, I will have a policy that puts Americans back to work.

I have been with you all my life. I've worked all my life. And I know what happens to a human being when he or she loses a job that they must have. It is the most devastating thing that can happen to an American.

You don't see any signs here asking for welfare. You don't see any signs here asking for someone who works to take care of someone who isn't working. We're here together to have jobs so we can care for ourselves and our family and stand on our two feet and contribute to this country. I intend to put America back to work. And I will do it.

[APPLAUSE]

I'll close the loopholes and make the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes.

[APPLAUSE]

I'll slam a lid on health care costs and makes sure that hospitals get paid what they deserve and no more.

[APPLAUSE]

I'll clamp down on gas and oil bills and see that no American has to choose between heating and eating.

[APPLAUSE]

I'll press multinational corporations to keep the high-quality jobs right here in the United States of America for us and our children.

[APPLAUSE]

I'll tell our trade competitors that they must open their markets as wide to us as we open ours to them.

[APPLAUSE]

I'll crack down on civil rights violations. I'll get the Equal Rights Amendment passed.

[APPLAUSE]

And I'll make sure that race or sex has nothing to do with pay or success.

[APPLAUSE]

And I know many of you won't like this. But I'm going to fire James Watt.

[LAUGHING, CHEERING]

And I'm going to use that Superfund to clean up toxic waste dumps. I'm going to launch a war on acid rain. And I'm going to enforce the laws against pollution and put the crooks behind bars.

[APPLAUSE]

I'll break the sweetheart deals between the Pentagon and the defense contractors. They may think when they talk to a convention of building trades that we don't know that a $5 hammer shouldn't cost $500. But we know the difference. And it's time that they live up to the rules. And I'll see that they do.

[APPLAUSE]

What I'm saying is this. I believe the way to build this country is to trust you again and the millions of Americans who want to work to get ahead and see our nation once again the strongest on Earth. I have the plan. And I'm ready. By the end of my first term as president, I want to walk into any store in Minneapolis or St. Paul or Duluth or Mankato, pick up the best product of the best quality of the best price, turn it over, and read the label that says, made in the USA.

[CHEERING]

As president, I will ask you and all Americans to give your best. We're ready to move again. We have everything we need in this country-- the people, plans, and the potential. All we lack is a leader. And that's why I'm running for president.

The '84 election may be the most important election of our lifetime because we're about to decide what kind of country we will be in the next century. In the end, it comes down to a choice between two totally different visions of our future. On the one side, there's the radical Reagan philosophy.

It's uncaring and unfair. It takes your job away from you. And the future away from your children. It says to American workers, there's a new era of wealth ahead. But you're not a part of it. You may make it happen. But you won't share in its success.

I hold a completely different philosophy. Every time our country has moved forward, it has been because we bet on Americans like you, on working men and women of average, middle, or moderate income. That's why we've made learning a right and not a privilege.

That's why we support strong unions. That's why we pushed open the doors of opportunity. It's why we care about things that the Dow Jones index can't measure, things like the worth of a job and dignity and families and the worth of every human being.

I'll take those beliefs again to the White House. I believe the presidency is the most powerful office on Earth. I intend to use it. And I intend to use it on your side.

[APPLAUSE]

I can turn our country toward fairness again. I can unite us into a community again. I can feel our pain and move to heal it. I can see our future and move to build it.

We can make America what we've been before-- a caring, confident, optimistic can-do country. And as we do it, let us remember that, in part, we're implementing an old idea and yet the newest of all ideas that we used to hear Hubert Humphrey talk to us about again and again. Whenever we forget where we're going as a country, where we should be and what we believe, go back to those basic founding documents.

And listen again to what they tell us as they speak to us nearly 200 years later. What do they say? It began in the preamble, we the people, not just the rich, not just the men, not just the white, but all of us. It says to establish a more perfect union, not 50 separate governments but one strong United States of America.

It says to establish justice, not just order-- they've got order in the Soviet Union-- but justice, a much higher level of civilization. And then it says to provide for a common defense and to promote the general welfare. It doesn't say to provide for a defense or promote the general welfare. It says both.

And we need a president again who reflects those values that Hubert Humphrey taught us, that Roosevelt taught us, that the great progressive spirit of this country speaks to us again today. We can do it. I can do it. I'm ready. And I'll make it if this good organization will stand behind me, as you have in the past.

We'll win this election. And then you're all invited to the inaugural. And Dave Roe will pay for your trip all the way down and all the way back.

[LAUGHING, CHEERING]

[SIDE CONVERSATIONS]