A plaque remaining from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem.

Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.

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Entry from August 24, 2009
“Government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you have”

U.S. president Gerald Ford told Congress in 1974: “A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.” The saying became a central plank in an anti-big government Republican party; some credited the saying’s origin to 1964 Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater. Representative Gerald Ford had used a similar line as early as 1954: “If your government is big enough to give you everything you want, it is big enough to take away from you everything you have.”
 
This unattributed saying is cited in print from 1952: “If your government is big enough to give you everything you want, it is big enough to take away from you everything you have.”
 
       
Wikiquote: Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford (14 July 1913 – 26 December 2006) was the 38th President of the United States.
(...)
. A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.
. . Presidential address to a joint session of Congress (12 August 1974)
. Ford has also been quoted as having made a similar statement many years earlier, as a representative to the US Congress: “If the government is big enough to give you everything you want, it is big enough to take away everything you have.”
. . “If Elected, I Promise…” : Stories and Gems of Wisdom by and About Politicians (1960) p. 193
   
Google Books
Remember These Things
By Paul Harvey
Chicago, IL: Heritage Foundation
1952
Pg. 57: 
“If your government is big enough to give you everything you want, it is big enough to take away from you everything you have.”
   
7 July 1953, Lubbock (TX) Morning Avalanche, “The Woman’s Angle” by Margaret Turner, pg. 6, col. 1:
MORNING THOUGHT
“If your government is big enough to give you everything you want, it is big enough to take away everything you have.”
   
21 February 1954, Lubbock (TX) Avalanche-Journal, “The Woman’s Angle” by Margaret Turner, sec. IV, pg. 2, col. 3:
MORNING THOUGHT
“IF YOUR government is big enough to give you everything you want, it is big enough to take away from you everything you have.”—Rep. Gerald Ford.
 
22 April 1954, Athens (OH) Messenger, pg. 7, col. 8:
“Ultimate in security is slavery. If the government is big enough and strong enough to give you everything you want, it is big enough and strong enough to take away everything you have.”—Kiwanis Lieut. Gov. Paul E. Watson.
   
2 March 1956, Chicago (IL) Tribune, “Where to Dial Today: Ernie Gay on W-G-N at 7 A.M.” by Larry Walters, sec. `, pg. 12:
And he had this thought for the day: “If your government is big enough to give you everything you want, it is big enough to take away everything you ve got.”
 
26 June 1957, Oil City (PA) Derrick,, pg. 1, col. 1:
If your government is big enough to give you everything you want, it’s big enough to take everything you have.
       
31 July 1957, Hartford (CT) Courant, “Today’s Chuckle,” pg. 1:
Any government that is big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you’ve got.
     
Google Books
AAMVA Bulletin
By American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators
1957
Pg. ?:
A government that is big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take everything you have.
 
28 June 1959, Chicago (IL) Daily Tribune, “Voice of the People: The Cause of High Taxes” by Frederick Heinz, sec. 1, pg. 12:
It must be remembered that a government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything. you ve got. 
   
Google Books
If elected, I promise;
1001 jokes, toasts, stories, and gems of wisdom by and about politicians

By John Francis Parker
Garden City, NY: Doubleday
1960
Pg. 193:
Representative Gerald R. Ford sized it up well when he said: “If the government is big enough to give you everything you want, it is big enough to take away everything you have.”
 
Google News Archive
6 February 1962, Spokane (WA) Daily Chronicle, pg. 7, col. 3:
Communism and the “trend toward socialism” will be the No. 1 campaign issue this fall, Frank Eichelberger Jr., Young Republican Club president, said today.

Eichelberger, Gary Hieber and Robert L. Lewis last week attended a national Young Republican Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C., where campaign planning was discussed.
 
“All major conference speakers,” Eichelberger said, “claimed the greatest threat to this country is internal socialism rather than international communism. Their main point was that a government made big enough to give you everything also is big enough to take everything away.”
   
7 January 1963, Los Angeles (CA) Times, “Benson Unleashes Blast at Government Bigness: Ex-Farm Secretary Tells Right-Wing Rally That Free Enterprise Is Being Weakened,” pg. 10:
Former Agriculture Secretary Ezra Taft Benson told a rightwing rally Sunday that “a government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you’ve got.”
     
Google Books
Title of Liberty
By Ezra Taft Benson
Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book Company
1964
Pg. 204:
Government can give you nothing but what it takes from somebody else. A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you’ve got, including your freedom.
   
Google Books
1964 Presidential Election Guide
By New York Herald Tribune
New York, NY: Whitney Communications Corp.
1964  
Pg. 22:
They (Republicans—ed.) believe that a government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you’ve got.
 
Google News Archive
15 October 1964, Eugene (OR) Register-Guard, pg. 10A, col. 3:
Let’s see what a commonsense American senator says about this: “Any government that is big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you have.”
 
Google Books
Complete Speaker’s and Toastmaster’s Library
By Jacob Morton Braude
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall
1965
Pg. 109:
Any government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take
everything you’ve got
     
Google News Archive
12 October 1968, Milwaukee (WI) Sentinel, pt. 1, pg. 19, col. 1:
Sudden thought: A government that is big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take everything you’ve got

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