We today were enjoying the aftermath of the triumph, due in part to what Dewey and his officers and men did on the first day of May, five years ago, and in even greater part to what those men did who in the past fifteen years had prepared for the winning of that triumph. I have very great confidence in the capacity of our average soldier or sailor to turn out well, to do admirably when put to the supreme test. But the best man alive, if untrained, if unfitly armed, may be beaten by a poorer man who has had the training and the arms. There is nothing more foolish, nothing less dignified than to indulge in boastfulness, in self-glorification as to the capacity of our soldiers and sailors while denying them the material which we are in honor bound to give them in order that their splendid natural qualities shall be fitly supplemented. I have seen our people send American volunteers against a European soldiery, that , European soldiery armed with the finest type of modern rifle and ours with an old black-powder weapon, which was about as effective as a medieval cross bow; and those who failed to prepare the proper weapons for our people are not to be thanked, because by making drafts of an extraordinary kind upon the other good qualities of the American soldier, we escaped disaster. It is very easy and worse than foolish, it is wicked, to hold the people who at the moment are obliged to use those weapons responsible when the real responsibility lay with the representatives of our people and our people themselves for failing to make the preparation in advance. The business of finding a scapegoat to send loose into the wilderness is neither honorable nor dignified for a self-respecting people to be engaged in. We commemorated today by a monument a great naval victory. We commemorated thereby the foresight, the prudence of the public men, of the great business men, of the shipwrights, the men who worked physically at the armor, the guns, the engines, the hulls, in getting the fleet ready; and, more than that, we commemorated the men who trained that fleet in readiness. Many an officer who was retired before the Spanish War came is entitled to his full share of the credit for what was done in that war, although he never saw it, because he had done his part in actual sea service in training the men to handle the mighty and delicate weapons of war intrusted to their care.


Five years ago today the Charter of the United Nations came into force. By virtue of that event, October 24, 1945, became a great day in the history of the world. Long before that day, the idea of an association of nations to keep the peace had lived as a dream in the hearts and minds of men. Woodrow Wilson was the author of that idea in our time. The organization that was brought into being on October 24, 1945, represents our greatest advance toward making that dream a reality. The United Nations was born out of an agony of war the most terrible war in history. Those who drew up the charter really had less to do with the creation of the United Nations than the millions who fought and died in that war. We who work to carry out its great principles should always remember that this organization owes its existence to the blood and sacrifice of millions of men and women. It is built out of their hopes for peace and justice. The United Nations represents the idea of a universal morality, superior to the interests of individual nations. Its foundation does not rest upon power or privilege; it rests upon faith. They rest upon the faith of men in human values upon the belief that men in every land hold the same high ideals and strive toward the same goals for peace and justice. This faith is deeply held by the people of the United States of America and, I believe, by the peoples of all other countries. Governments may sometimes falter in their support of the United Nations, but the peoples of the world do not falter. The demand of men and women throughout the world for international order and justice is one of the strongest forces in these troubled times. We have just had a vivid demonstration of that fact in Korea. The invasion of the Republic of Korea was a direct challenge to the principles of the United Nations. That challenge was met by an overwhelming response. The people of almost every member country supported the decision of the Security Council to meet this aggression with force. Few acts in our time have met with such widespread approval. In uniting to crush the aggressors in Korea, these member nations have done no more than the charter calls for. But the important thing is that they have done it, and they have done it successfully. They have given dramatic evidence that the charter works. They have proved that the charter is a living instrument backed by the material and moral strength of members, large and small.

Address in New York City Before the United Nations General Assembly


The men who laid down their lives for the United Nations in Korea will have a place in our memory, and in the memory of the world, forever. They died in order that the United Nations might live. As a result of their sacrifices, the United Nations today is stronger than it ever has been. Today, it is better able than ever before to fulfill the hopes that men have placed in it. I believe the people of the world rely on the United Nations to help them achieve two great purposes. They look to it to help them improve the conditions under which they live. And they rely on it to fulfill their profound longing for peace. Without peace, it is impossible to make lasting progress toward a better life for all. Without progress in human welfare, the foundations of peace will be insecure. That is why we can never afford to neglect one of these purposes at the expense of the other. Throughout the world today, men are seeking a better life. They want to be freed from the bondage and the injustice of the past. They want to work out their own destinies. These aspirations of mankind can be met met without conflict and bloodshed by international cooperation through the United Nations. To us in this assembly hall, the United Nations that we see and hear is made up of speeches, debates, and resolutions. But to millions of people, the United Nations is a source of direct help in their everyday lives. To them it is a case of food or a box of schoolbooks; it is a doctor who vaccinates their children; it is an expert who shows them how to raise more rice, or more wheat, on their land; it is the flag which marks a safe haven to the refugee, or an extra meal a day to a nursing mother. These are not the only ways in which the United Nations helps people to help themselves. It goes beyond these material things, it gives support to the spiritual values of men's lives. The United Nations can and does assist people who want to be free. It helps dependent peoples in their progress toward self-government. And when new nations have achieved independence, it helps them to preserve and develop their freedom. Furthermore, the United Nations is strengthening the concept of the dignity and worth of human beings. The protection of human rights is essential if we are to achieve a better life for people. The efforts of the United Nations to push ahead toward an ever broader realization of these rights is one of its most important tasks.


So far, this work of the United Nations for human advancement is only a beginning of what it can be and what it will be in the future. The United Nations is learning through experience. It is growing in prestige among the peoples of the world. The increasing effectiveness of its efforts to improve the welfare of human beings is opening up a new page in history. The skills and experience of the United Nations in this field will be put to the test now that the fighting in Korea is nearly ended. The reconstruction of Korea as a free, united, and self-supporting nation is an opportunity to show how international cooperation can lead to gains in human freedom and welfare. The work of the United Nations for human advancement, important as it is, can be fully effective only if we can achieve the other great objective of the United Nations, a just and lasting peace. At the present time, the fear of another great international war overshadows all the hopes of mankind. This fear arises from the tensions between nations and from the recent outbreak of open aggression in Korea. We in the United States believe that such a war can be prevented. One of the strongest reasons for this belief is our faith in the United Nations. The United Nations has three great roles to play in preventing wars. it provides a way for negotiation and the settlement of disputes among nations by peaceful means. it provides a way of utilizing the collective strength of member nations, under the charter, to prevent aggression. it provides a way through which, once the danger of aggression is reduced, the nations can be relieved of the burden of armaments. All of us must help the United Nations to be effective in performing these functions. The charter obligates all of us to settle our disputes peacefully. Today is an appropriate occasion for us solemnly to reaffirm our obligations under the charter. Within the spirit and even the letter of the charter we shall go even further. We must attempt to find peaceful adjustments of underlying situations or tensions before they harden into actual disputes. The basic issues in the world today affect the fate of millions of people. Here, in the United Nations, there is an opportunity for the large and the small alike to have their voices heard on these issues. Here the interests of every country can be considered in the settlement of problems which are of common concern. We believe that negotiation is an essential part of this peaceful process. The United States, as one of the members of the United Nations, is prepared now, as always, to enter into negotiations.


We insist only that negotiations be entered into in good faith and be governed throughout by a spirit of willingness to reach proper solutions. While we will continue to take advantage of every opportunity here in the United Nations and elsewhere to settle differences by peaceful means, we have learned from hard experience that we cannot rely upon negotiation alone to preserve the peace. Five years ago, after the bloodshed and destruction of World War II, many of us hoped that all nations would work together to make sure that war could never happen again. We hoped that international cooperation, supported by the strength and moral authority of the United Nations, would be sufficient to prevent aggression. Although many countries promptly disbanded their wartime armies, other countries continued to maintain forces so large that they posed a constant threat of aggression. And this year, the invasion of Korea has shown that there are some who will resort to outright war, contrary to the principles of the charter, if it suits their ends. In these circumstances, the United Nations, if it is to be an effective instrument for keeping the peace, has no choice except to use the collective strength of its members to curb aggression. To do so, the United Nations must be prepared to use force. The United Nations did use force to curb aggression in Korea, and by so doing has greatly strengthened the cause of peace. I am glad that additional steps are being taken at this session to prepare for quick and effective action in any future case of aggression.  To maintain the peace, the United Nations must be able to learn the facts about any threat of aggression. Next, it must be able to call quickly upon the member nations to act if the threat becomes serious. Above all, the peace-loving nations must have the military strength available, when called upon, to act decisively to put down aggression. The peace-loving nations are building that strength. However much they may regret the necessity, they will continue to build up their strength until they have created forces strong enough to preserve the peace under the United Nations. They will do all that is required to provide a defense against aggression. They will do that because, under the conditions which now exist in the world, it is the only way to maintain peace. We intend to build up strength for peace as long as it is necessary. But at the same time, we must continue to strive, through the United Nations, to achieve international control of atomic energy and the reduction of armaments and armed forces. Cooperative and effective disarmament would make the danger of war remote.


It would be a way of achieving the high purposes of the United Nations without the tremendous expenditures for armaments which conditions in the world today make imperative. Disarmament is the course which the United States would prefer to take. It is the course which most nations would like to adopt. It is the course which the United Nations from its earliest beginnings has been seeking to follow. For nearly 5 years, two commissions of the United Nations have been working on the problem of disarmament. One commission has been concerned with the elimination of atomic weapons and the other with the reduction of other types of armaments and of armed forces. Thus far, these commissions have not been successful in obtaining agreement among all the major powers. Nevertheless, these years of effort have served to bring to the attention of all nations the three basic principles upon which any successful plan of disarmament must rest. First, the plan must include all kinds of weapons. The conflict in Korea bears tragic witness to the fact that aggression, whatever the weapons used, brings frightful destruction. Second, the plan must be based on unanimous agreement. A majority of nations is not enough. No plan of disarmament can work unless it includes every nation having substantial armed forces. One-sided disarmament is a sure invitation to aggression. Disarmament must be based on safeguards which will insure the compliance of all nations. The safeguards must be adequate to give immediate warning of any threatened violation. It must be rounded upon free and open interchange of information across national borders. The task of working out the successive steps would still be a complex one and would take a long time and much effort. But the fact that this process is so complex and so difficult is no reason for us to give up hope of ultimate success. The will of the world for peace is too strong to allow us to give up in this effort. We cannot permit the history of our times to record that we failed by default. We must explore every avenue which offers any chance of bringing success to the activities of the United Nations in this vital area. Much valuable work has already been done by the two disarmament commissions on the different technical problems confronting them. I believe it would be useful to explore ways in which the work of these commissions could now be more closely brought together. One possibility to be considered is whether their work might be revitalized if carried forward in the future through a new and consolidated disarmament commission.


But until an effective system of disarmament is established, let us be clear about the task ahead. The only course the peace-loving nations can take in the present situation is to create the armaments needed to make the world secure against aggression. That is the course to which the United States is now firmly committed. The United States has embarked upon the course of increasing its armed strength only for the purpose of helping to keep the peace. We pledge that strength to uphold the principles of the Charter of the United Nations. We believe that the peace-loving members of the United Nations join us in that pledge. I believe that the United Nations, strengthened by these pledges, will bring us nearer to the peace we seek. We have learned from hard experience that there is no easy road to peace. We have a solemn obligation to the peoples we represent to continue our combined efforts to achieve the strength that will prevent aggression. At the same time, we have an equally solemn obligation to continue our efforts to find solutions to the major problems and issues that divide the nations. The settlement of these differences would make possible a truly dependable and effective system for the reduction and control of armaments. Although the possibility of attaining that goal appears distant today, we must never stop trying. It would free the nations to devote more of their energies to wiping out poverty, hunger, and injustice. If real disarmament were achieved, the nations of the world, acting through the United Nations, could join in a greatly enlarged program of mutual aid. As the cost of maintaining armaments decreased, every nation could greatly increase its contributions to advancing human welfare. All of us could then 'pool even greater resources to support the United Nations in its war against want. In this way, our armaments would be transformed into foods, medicine, tools for use in underdeveloped areas, and into other aids for human advancement. The latest discoveries of science could be made available to men all over the globe. Thus, we could give real meaning to the old promise that swords shall be beaten into plowshares, and that nations shall not learn war any more. Then, man can turn his great inventiveness, his tremendous energies, and the resources with which he has been blessed, to creative efforts. Then we shall be able to realize the kind of world which has been the vision of man for centuries. This is the goal which we must keep before us and the vision in which we must never lose faith.


The urgent needs of the American people require our presence here today. first, to check inflation and the rising cost of living, and second, to help in meeting the acute housing shortage. These are matters which affect every American family. They also affect the entire world, for world peace depends upon the strength of our economy. The Communists, both here and abroad, are counting on our present prosperity turning into a depression. They do not believe that we can--or will--put the brake on high prices. They are counting on economic collapse in this country. If we should bring on another great depression in the United States by failing to control high prices, the world's hope for lasting peace would vanish. A depression in the United States would cut the ground from under the free nations of Europe. Economic collapse in this country would prevent the recovery throughout the world which is essential to lasting peace. We would have only ourselves to blame for the tragedy that would follow. In these tense days, when our strength is being taxed all over the world, it would be reckless folly if we failed to act against inflation. High prices are not taking time off for the election. High prices are not waiting until the next session of Congress. The 81st Congress will not get under way for nearly 6 months. Before the new Congress could take action against high prices, it would have to draft new bills, study them, hold hearings, debate and decide whether to pass them. It would be at least 8 months from now before the new Congress could pass the laws we need. Eight months more of inflation would be much too long. It was 8 months ago--November 1947--that I called a special session of this Congress, and recommended a comprehensive anti-inflation program. If it had been enacted, we would have lower prices today. Since last November, prices have gone even higher. As every housewife knows, food prices rose rapidly throughout 1947. Month after month, the cost of clothing, fuel, and rent keeps on going up. The cost of living is now higher than ever before in our history. You all-most of you--have to live on your salaries. All you need do is just go home and ask your wife how living costs are now, as compared to what they were January 1st, 1947. We cannot risk the danger, or suffer the hardship, of another 8 months of doing nothing about high prices.

Message to the Special Session of the 80th Congress


Prices are already so high that last year more than one-fourth of the families of this country were forced to spend more than they earned. Families of low or moderate income are being priced out of the market for many of the necessities of life. They are not able to buy as much as they could buy 2 years ago, and they are paying a lot more for what they can buy. At the same time, industrial prices, which affect all business and employment, are rising, and rising fast. Large price increases have recently been announced by industries that set the pace for the whole economy. Just within the last few days, the steel industry, for example, increased its prices, on the average, by more than $9 a ton. The rise in industrial prices is just as important, in the long run, as the high cost of living. It is already squeezing the independent businessman. It threatens to destroy a fair balance between industry and agriculture. It can end only in catastrophe if it is allowed to continue. In the face of these facts, it is foolish to point at every feeble straw as a sign that the danger is disappearing. In February, some people said that the break in commodity prices meant that inflation was almost over. There are still some people who repeat the old argument which was used by those who killed price control 2 years ago. They said that if we would only take controls off, production would increase, prices would go down, and there would be more for everybody at lower cost. But even with full employment, full use of available materials, and practically full use of plant capacity--all of which we have today--prices are still climbing much faster than production. It is obvious that we cannot rely solely on more production to curb high prices. Instead, we must attack inflation directly. If we do not stop inflation, production and employment will both fall sharply when the break comes. Positive action by this Government is long over-due. I therefore urge the Congress to take strong, positive action to control inflation. I have reexamined the anti-inflation program I proposed to the Congress 8 months ago. In its essentials that program is as sound now as it was then. It has been revised and strengthened in the light of changing circumstances. First, I recommend that an excess profits tax be reestablished in order to provide a Treasury surplus and to provide a brake on inflation. Second, I recommend that consumer credit controls be restored in order to hold down inflationary credit.


Third, I recommend that the Federal Reserve Board be given greater authority to regulate inflationary bank credit. Fourth, I recommend that authority be granted to regulate speculation on the commodity exchanges. Fifth, I recommend that authority be granted for allocation and inventory control of scarce commodities which basically affect essential industrial production, or the cost of living. Sixth, I recommend that rent controls be strengthened, and that adequate appropriations be provided for enforcement, in order to prevent further unwarranted rent increases. Seventh, I recommend that standby authority be granted to ration those few products in short supply which vitally affect the health and welfare of our people. On the basis of present facts, and unless further shortages occur, this authority might not have to be used. Eighth, I recommend that price control be authorized for scarce commodities which basically affect essential industrial production or the cost of living. I have said before, and I repeat, that many profit margins have been adequate to absorb wage increases without the price increases that have followed. Rising wages and rising standards of living, based on increasing productivity and a fair distribution of income, is the American way. Noninflationary wage increases can and should continue to be made by free collective bargaining. Where the Government imposes a price ceiling, wage adjustments which can be absorbed within the price ceiling should not be interfered with by the Government. The Government should have the authority, however, to limit wage adjustments which would force a break in the price ceiling, except where wage adjustments are essential to remedy hardship, to correct inequities, or to prevent an actual lowering of the living standards. The measures I have recommended make up a balanced program to attack high prices. They are all necessary to check rising prices and safeguard our economy against the danger of depression. If they are made the first order of business by the Congress, as they should be, they can be promptly enacted. Every week of delay will mean additional hardship for the American people. The second reason why I have called the Congress back is that our people need legislation now to help meet the national housing shortage. We desperately need more housing at lower prices--prices which families of moderate income, particularly veterans' families, can afford to pay. We are not getting it. Even more urgently, we need more rental housing--especially low-rent housing. We are not getting it. Most of the housing now being built is for sale, or for rent, at prices far above the reach of the average American family.


I have recommended time and again that the Congress pass a comprehensive housing bill which would help us obtain more housing at lower prices--both for sale and for rent. A good housing bill, Senate Bill 866, known as the Taft-Ellender-Wagner bill, passed the Senate on April 22. This bill would provide aid to cities in clearing slums and in building low-rent housing projects. It would give extensive aid to the private home building industry. It includes provisions for farm housing, and for research to bring down building costs. It contains many other provisions, all aimed at getting more housing at lower prices and at lower rents. We need it now, not a year from now. If this legislation is passed this summer, it will be possible to start immediately the production of more houses of the kind our families need, and at prices they can afford to pay. If it is not passed now, the 81st Congress will have to start all over again with a new housing bill. In that case, we might lose a full year in meeting our national housing need. This Congress can complete action on this comprehensive housing bill in a few days. I have called the Congress back primarily to deal with high prices and with the housing shortage. Delay on either of these items would be most dangerous. In addition, there are other important legislative measures on which delay would injure us at home and impair our world relations. I therefore recommend that the present session, without allowing anything to interfere with its vital work on legislation concerning high prices and housing, take action on certain other important measures. These measures can speedily be enacted now because of the amount of study already given to them by the Congress. First, the Congress should provide Federal assistance to the States in meeting the present crisis in education. The children in our schools, and the men and women who teach there, have been made the victims of inflation. More children are entering school than ever before. But inflation has cut down the purchasing power of the money devoted to educational purposes. Teachers' salaries, for the most part, have lagged far behind the increased cost of living. The overcrowding of our schools is seriously detrimental to the health and the education of our boys and girls. Every month that we delay in meeting this problem will cause damage that can never be repaired. Several million children of school age are unable to attend school, largely because of lack of facilities or teachers.


To meet these vital educational needs, the Congress should complete action on Senate Bill 472, which passed the Senate on April the 1st. All that remains to be done is its passage by the House of Representatives. Prompt action by the Congress is also needed to help another group of our people who are suffering from inflation. These are the workers who depend on the protection of the minimum wage law. The present minimum wage law is pitifully inadequate in the face of today's high prices. Proposals to raise minimum wages have long been before the Congress. I urgently recommend that the minimum wage be raised to at least 75 cents an hour at this session. Senate Bill 2062 and its companion House bills would be suitable measures for this purpose. I also urge that action be taken by the Congress to relieve other victims of inflation. These are the people who depend upon the benefits being paid under the old-age and survivors insurance system. The average old-age retirement benefit for a man and his wife is only $39 a month. For a widow with two children, the average monthly benefit is only $49. I urge that they be increased by at least 50 percent and that the age at which women can receive benefits be lowered from 65 to 60 years. I also hope that the protection of this system will be extended to the millions who are not now covered. In our relations with the rest of the world, action is also needed at once, and can be taken quickly, to afford additional proof that we mean what we say when we talk about freedom, humanity, and international cooperation for peace and prosperity. First, the Displaced Persons Act in its present form discriminates unfairly against some displaced persons because of their religion, land of origin, or occupation. These provisions are contrary to all American ideals. This act should be promptly amended to wipe out these discriminations. Furthermore, the present act permits the entry of only 200,000 persons, and charges them against future immigration quotas. I believe strongly that this act should provide for the entry of 400,000 persons over a 4-year period, and they should be outside the normal immigration quotas. Second, many people in the world must wonder how strongly we support the United Nations when we hesitate to assist the construction of its permanent home in this country. Legislation can and should be passed at once to authorize a loan by the United States Government to the United Nations, for the construction of its headquarters buildings in New York City.


The International Wheat Agreement is another vital measure on which the Congress should act. This agreement is designed to insure stability in the world wheat market in the years ahead when wheat will be more plentiful. It would guarantee American farmers an export market of 185 million bushels of wheat at a fair price during each of the next 5 years. Since the agreement is in the form of a treaty it requires only ratification by the Senate. Although this agreement should have been ratified by July 1st of this year, we have good reason to believe that it can still be made effective if it is now ratified promptly. Also, I wish to call the attention of the Congress to three other problems on which action can and should be taken at this session. The Congress should reconsider its recent actions which cut sharply into our national electric power policy. submitting to the Congress appropriation requests for certain power projects which must be provided right away. These requests include the TVA steamplant at New Johnsonville, Tenn., and certain other projects on which congressional reductions, if allowed to stand, will delay the production of power for a year or more. These appropriations should be promptly enacted, and at the same time certain crippling limitations should be removed from the law. In the final days before adjourning in June, the Congress passed a bill raising the salaries of some Federal employees. However, this bill neglected long overdue reforms in the Federal pay scales and discriminated unfairly against certain groups of employees. The Congress should take this opportunity to enact more equitable and realistic Federal pay legislation. Finally, I again urge upon the Congress the measures I recommended last February to protect and extend basic civil rights of citizenship and human liberty. A number of bills to carry out my recommendations have been introduced in the Congress. Many of them have already received careful consideration by congressional committees. Only one bill, however, has been enacted, a bill relating to the rights of Americans of Japanese origin. I believe that it is necessary to enact the laws I have recommended in order to make the guarantees of the Constitution real and vital. I believe they are necessary to carry out our American ideals of liberty and justice for all. I hope that there is no misunderstanding of the recommendations I have made. I urge the Congress not to be distracted from these central purposes. At the same time, as I have stated, the Congress can and should act on certain other important items of legislation at this special session.


This is a good day for our entire country, and especially for the Northeast corridor and for those in the Middle West who have a real need for consistently good service in rail transportation. Before I begin, let me express my thanks to Senators Cannon and Pell and Kassebaum, Pete Williams, to Representatives Florio, Madigan, and others, who have been so instrumental in passing this historic legislation through the Congress. In the future, with a better Northeast corridor rail transportation, he will be here on time. But he is been instrumental, as you know, in initiating this project, representing the Governors, because when he was chairman of the Conference of Northeast Governors, they made this Northeast corridor project their number one priority. And also, I want to thank Governor Joe Garrahy, who is here, as well as Governor Ella Grasso who could not be with us today, but who currently holds the chairmanship of the Governor's conference on this particular item. Americans sometimes forget that trains are the transportation system of the future, not the past. In a fast-changing world with energy costs, air pollution, deteriorating cities and communities that need to be revived, a need for efficiency, and the changing personal habits of our people, the prospect for rail transportation for people is extremely bright in the years to come. This bill, Senate bill 2253, implements many of my administration's rail priorities. It provides, as many of you know, $750 million over the next 5 years for the Northeast corridor improvement projects to make possible a high-speed transportation corridor between Washington, D.C., and Boston, Massachusetts. It also provides $75 million in well-protected loan guarantees to the trustee of-to the Rock Island Railroad, which will provide an orderly transition for them in making sure that the workers there are protected. I have supported these provisions in the legislation, and I congratulate the Congress for having passed this bill and presented it to me for signing today. My administration has been very concerned about the bankruptcy of the Rock Island Railroad and its adverse effect on crucial rail transportation for the Midwest. The aid for the Rock Island trustee is very important to protect workers who are affected by the bankruptcy of this line, and it will also help in providing an orderly transition for maintaining the essential services in the Midwest. This investment in the Northeast corridor will provide in direct jobs 30,000 person-years of employment.

Remarks on Signing Into Law the Northeast Corridor Appropriations Bill


It will also have a heavy emphasis on minority and small business contractors and will provide, in addition, between forty and fifty thousand additional, indirect jobs associated with the improvements in the Northeast corridor. It will also improve riding conditions for more than 50 percent of all the Amtrak passengers and then, by 1990, we anticipate an increase in rail passengers of 5 3/4 million riders because of this legislation. And I think most importantly of all, it will provide the basis for a revitalization of our Nation's industrial base. It will provide land use and improve the analysis of how land can be used in crucial areas, because it will focus on businesses and workers who will be inclined to locate in the area of these vast improvements. It will also help to revive the central cities of the Northeast which have declined partly because of deteriorating rail service which will now be repaired. In short, the total $2 1/2 billion authorized for the life of this corridor project is the largest public investment ever made in the Northeast part of the United States, and its impact is already profound and beneficial. I am especially pleased at the $140 million allocated for station improvements. This money will be tremendously magnified because of associated developments from the private industry sector near these new and improved railroad stations. For example, improvements in the Newark, New Jersey, station have already coincided with $125 million in nearby development. Newark has long needed an assist to commercial activity in that part of the city, and this appears to be accomplishing that goal. Also, South Station in Boston is becoming a major multimodal transportation center, and it will stimulate over $500 million in expected private development in that area. Other benefits of this project, as I have mentioned very briefly in passing, will be lower operating costs, higher patronage by railroad riders, and less congestion of airports, less congestion on our highways, less use of oil, efficiency in the entire Nation's transportation system, and, of course, reduced air pollution-a lot of benefits from one bill. In short, the $750 million in this authorization is vital not simply to the Northeast rail system but also to our Nation's businesses, our Nation's workers, all the cities of our country, and ultimately, of course, to all the American people.


It is a well-kept secret -- I did not know this was about me. I particularly want to thank the President and the First Lady for opening up the White House, and for keeping the spirit of volunteerism alive and well. Service to others, he believes and I believe, we all believe -- and I have to be the most biased person in this room, but I think this President and this First Lady have done an extraordinary job in taking this concept forward. I want to thank Ray Chambers and Marian Heard -- where is Marian? Right here. The amount they have done for this cause is just hard to quantify. As much as 2009 also marks 20 years since we started a nationwide movement to mobilize citizens, and all backgrounds and all walks, to help their fellow man, let me thank those who were present at the creation -- from our fearless leader here at the White House in Gregg Petersmeyer, who was singled out a minute ago -- and our founding board members, of course, Ray and Marian Heard. And I see so many others here who have done so very much for this cause. Once we were out of the gate, a number of talented people, including Bob -- is Bob here? There is the man, there he is -- joined the fight and helped keep the fire burning and our cause moving forward and touching more lives. And now, most importantly, we have two capable leaders stepping forward to head the Points of Light hands-on network, and they are, as you have heard -- a distinguished Georgian, Marian -- Michelle Nunn and Neil Bush, my son -- our son. And they have our full faith and confidence, and we are very fortunate they are doing the job and just pushing, putting in all the time in volunteer fashion. Of course, Neil and Michelle and the entire Points of Light team cannot do the important work by themselves. They need the support and inspiration of the corporate and civic leaders in this room. And there are countless more around the country, I might add. And I think they are getting it. But let me thank each and every one of you for adding your leadership and your vision to this nationwide, vital cause. In the final analysis, the same realities, the same truths that led us to set this shared movement in motion 20 years ago remain unchanged. And we still believe in the innate propensity of the American people to reach out beyond themselves to help others. That is what this is really all about.

Remarks Honoring the Points of Light Institute


Nancy and I are delighted to welcome you here tonight. It is a great pleasure to have this chance to meet with you more as friends than as representatives of our countries, more for passing a pleasant evening than transacting business. It is inspiring to look around this room, to think of the many languages, cultures, religions, and traditions that are present here tonight. Some might say this gathering is a microcosm of the problems that the world faces but to me this gathering is a sample of the opportunities we have to communicate on a personal level and to cooperate as representatives of our independent nations. This room is occupied by men and women aware of their responsibilities and respectful of the obligations of others. Those responsibilities and obligations are at times in conflict, but our commitment to civility and the proper discourse between nations should never waiver. So long as he touched the Earth, he could not be defeated, but when he lost touch, he grew frail. As long as our governments stay in touch with the hopes and aspirations of our people, the prospects for world peace will be strong. Beneath our diversity, the peoples of the world have similar goals. They look for dignity, peace, freedom, and a chance to prosper. These common dreams will be the source of our strength. George Santayana, an American traveler and philosopher, once said, A man's feet must be planted in his country, but his eyes should survey the world. Well, this is the vision required of each of us and of every world leader. We must uncompromisingly represent the interests of our countries, yet be ever mindful that by our actions, we are determining the future of mankind. In the conduct of your duties, be diligent; in the search for peace, be bold. The people of the world owe a special debt of gratitude to diplomats and their families, who today must cope not only with the frustrations inherent with the profession, but also with personal danger. In the last 15 years, diplomats from over a hundred countries have been victims of terrorist attacks. Fortunately, most have survived those attacks; a few, tragically, have not. Those who perpetrate these dastardly acts should never doubt that every nation considers an attack on any diplomat as a crime against mankind which will not be tolerated in any land. Reflecting on this, we are grateful to the diplomatic community for your courage and your perseverance. May mankind profit by what we do.

Toast at a White House Dinner Honoring the Chiefs of Diplomatic Missions


It is a great pleasure to be here in Charlotte, and I thank you very much, Jim, for those overly generous words. I can assure you in the months ahead I will do my utmost to live up to those high standards that you have set, and I will give my best efforts to not disappoint you in any way whatsoever. I was looking at the records the other day, and I have been in Charlotte three times in the last 2 years. The last time I was here was in May of 1975. At that time, Jim Martin assembled 105,000 of his closest friends to meet me at the Mecklenburg County Bicentennial celebration. It was a great occasion, and I enjoyed it very, very much. You gave me a very, very warm welcome at that time, and I certainly appreciated that enthusiastic reception. But let me say I am especially pleased to be here and have an opportunity to say a few things that I feel very strongly and very deeply concerning your fine Congressman, Jim Martin. While I am here, I think it appropriate that I say a few words in a salute to some of the other distinguished guests who are here. First, I think it is a very opportune time for me to wish Jim Martin's mother a very happy birthday, which I understand will take place tomorrow. Mom and Pop Martin are well known in Washington because of their very well-known son. Jim is every bit as proud of you, Mrs. Martin, as I am sure you are of him. It would be redundant, but I feel so strongly I want to compliment you on your outstanding Governor, Jim Holshouser. But I likewise would feel it very appropriate for me to compliment you on one of my dearest and finest friends in the Congress, Charlie Jonas and, of course, Annie Elliott. Charlie and I served on the Committee on Appropriations together for a good many years. And I know what a superb job he did, what a hard struggle he made year after year after year to try and get some sense and responsibility in the consideration of the various appropriation bills, but particularly the Labor and HEW appropriation bills. And believe me, that is not an easy job. So, Charlie and Annie Elliott, it is great to see you. Let me also put in a good word for Cornbread Maxwell and Lou Massey1 and the 49'ers of UNC, Charlotte. I wish them the very best.

Remarks in Charlotte at a Reception Honoring Representative James G. Martin of North Carolina.


The Ninth Congressional District of North Carolina has been accustomed to winners, and I can personally vouch for the fact that this district has a great reputation in Washington, D.C., and particularly in the House of Representatives. You do not settle just for a good Congressman, you insist on a great Congressman, and Jim and Charlie represent that. You sent Charlie Jonas to Washington on 10 occasions, and as I said earlier, he did a superb job. You sent Jim Martin to Washington on two occasions, and let me urge you as strongly as I possibly can that you send Jim Martin back for at least a third term. I am proud of Jim because I know that he is one of the very strong people that serves in the House of Representatives. And during my 25-plus years there, I had an opportunity to pass judgment on a good many Members of the House. They sort of would come and go like Greyhound buses, as one of our friends used to say. And so I can speak with some authority when I say that you have great representation in Jim, as you did in Charlie Jonas. Jim, when he first went to the Congress in January of 1973, and from then on, has demonstrated an outstanding capability to deal with issues forcefully, intelligently, and with a great deal of plain old North Carolina common sense. And I think those are great attributes for any person in public office. As the first North Carolinian to serve or to sit on the House Ways and Means Committee since 1950 when Mulie Doughton left, Jim has proven beyond any doubt whatsoever that he is a dedicated, powerful advocate of fiscal responsibility in our Federal Government, and I honestly wish that we had a good many more Jim Martins serving in the House of Representatives. I can assure you that my job would be infinitely easier and the country would be far better off. But, in addition to his duties as a Member of that prestigious Committee on Ways and Means, Jim is also the chairman of a Republican conference committee, or task force, as we call them, on health. And he is seeking through that group to study the problems in the broadest possible sense and to find some answers where we have had difficulties in trying to get the best care and the best arrangement and to stop some of these crazy schemes that are coming from some sources where they want to destroy the doctor-patient relationship.


Here they want the Federal Government to actually take over the health of this country and run it, as some would propose, as it is being run and not being run very well in some of the countries in Western Europe. Now, Jim has an interest in, as I do, in a subject matter in health where I think we have to do something, and I speak here of catastrophic or prolonged illness. Jim takes a slightly different approach to trying to find an answer to that problem than I do, but we have the same goal. And I appreciate Jim's interest and his involvement in this very critical and very serious matter. Jim knows, as you and I do, that there is no reason people should have to go broke just to get well or to stay well in this great country that we all are proud to be a part of. Jim is also one of the very few just a handful in the House of Representatives or in the Senate who is a scientist in his own right. And, as a result, he recognizes perhaps better than most anybody in the House or in the Senate how serious our energy problem is in this country. Jim had several amendments to the energy legislation which was considered by the House, amendments which were very significantly important to the State of North Carolina, and, as a result of his efforts, at least some progress was made in meeting your unique problems here. And, of course, because of his role as a scientist and a statesman, he has been able to give special emphasis to the role of research and development in trying to develop some of the exotic fuels that are not the answer for tomorrow in the energy field, but can and will be in the decade of the eighties. Jim is also a strong supporter of a program that I think is tremendously important, and I speak now of general revenue sharing. Back in 1972, I helped to lead the fight in the House of Representatives to get the Congress at that time to approve the general revenue sharing piece of legislation and, incidentally, I intend to fight just as hard in 1976 as I did in 1972 for this legislation. As a matter of fact, last year, I think it was in July, I submitted to the Congress a proposal to extend the existing legislation. It is unbelievable that the Congress has been so negligent in acting on this legislation, which currently expires on December 31, 1976.


You have to include, Jim, in your budget, the anticipated funding for your next calendar or fiscal year, and, if Congress does not act before that budget has to be put together, your Governor and 49 other Governors either have to reduce services or add taxes, and every mayor and every local official and there are 39,000 of them are placed in exactly the same position. So, it is vitally important that the Congress move on this legislation. Now, let me cite some specific figures the impact of general revenue sharing. The city of Charlotte has received over $20 million in this program since its inception about 4 1/2 years ago, and Mecklenburg County has received more than $10 million. I recommended a 5 3/4-year extension of the legislation and, under that legislation during the full term of its existence, Charlotte would receive $31,600,000 and Mecklenburg County, $15 million-plus. And the figures for the State of North Carolina would be greater under the program I recommended than they have received under the existing program. This is something that we all know has worked well with the Federal Government collecting the money and sending it back to the States and to the local communities with a minimum amount of redtape and a maximum amount of local decisionmaking by the Governors and by the locally elected officials, the people who honestly know what the problems are. I think we ought to encourage this trend of giving the decisionmaking to the people at the local level, and revenue sharing has been probably the most successful Federal program in that regard. Now, in fighting for general revenue sharing, and in many other legislative efforts, Jim has proven his expertise, his deep commitment to service and his truly outstanding representation here for all of you. Let me summarize by saying Jim is a darned good Member of the Congress, and I hope and trust that you will keep working for him in the years ahead. That brings me to another incidental reason I am in North Carolina today. There is a rumor going around that North Carolina is planning a Presidential primary next Tuesday. I heard about it on the plane coming down here this morning. But let me give you a few reasons or a few pluses concerning the state of the Union, and I will talk about that in the remaining time. Things are really looking up for the United States of America, and we should be very proud of that fact. We should recognize, however, that we have been through some very bad times in America in recent years.


We ought to be frank and honest about it, but there is also no reason whatsoever for us to dwell on it. I think all of us should look to the future, and that future, as I see it, is filled with hope and expectation, promise and fulfillment. And I can say without hesitation or qualification, I am very, very proud to be an American, and I am proud of America. In the last 19 months, as we scan that period of time, really great progress has been made in a number of areas under the most difficult circumstances. Today, America is at peace. Today, there are no Americans committed in combat anyplace throughout the world, and I can assure you that I intend to keep it that way. The best way I know to maintain that is to have what I call peace through strength. And let me say firmly and strongly America's defenses are second to none, and they will continue to be second to none in the next 4 years. In addition to our military strength, America's economic strength is being steadily restored after the worst recession in 40 years. It is easy to get lost in a sea of statistics when we talk about economics. A simple way to look at it is to recall that 19 months ago, everything that was supposed to be going up was going down and vice versa. However, today we are headed in the right direction in every possible economic indicator. Thanks to some commonsense policies and the support of people in the Congress like Jim, at the beginning of this recess, and thanks to the determination and courage and ingenuity of the American people, we are working our way out of this recession, and doing it in the right way. We are on the road to a new prosperity in the United States, and I am not about to take any detours or roadblocks put in the way by a Congress that wants to fool around with our economy in a political and a partisan way. Unemployment is going down, prices are stabilizing, inflation has been cut in half in the last 19 months. In fact, the Labor Department announced just yesterday that consumer prices increased only one-tenth of 1 percent in the month of February, the smallest monthly increase in over 4 years, and that is progress by any standard. On an annual basis, that represents an inflation rate of a little more than 1 percent per year, and that is a whole lot better than the 12 percent that we were experiencing in 1973 and 1974.


I will not try to mislead you and say that the news on the inflation front will always be this good in the months ahead. But this new announcement is powerful evidence that we are really getting inflation under control, and we are not going to let down under any circumstances. The rate of growth in Federal spending has been cut in half in the budget that I submitted for the new fiscal year. Charlie Jonas, as I indicated, served with me on the Committee on Appropriations, and we used to go into the budget in detail. He was on several subcommittees; I was on several others. But, he knows, as I know, that for the last 10 to 15 years the rate of growth in Federal spending has been between 10 and 11 percent, much too high. You cannot possibly sustain it, and it is unjustified otherwise. The budget that I submitted for the next fiscal year calls for a reduction in 50 percent of the rate of growth in Federal spending a rate of 5 to 5 percent. If we can get a handle on that rate of growth in this coming fiscal year and maintain that control in the months and years ahead, we can have a balanced budget, and we can have a tax reduction, a sizable tax reduction in 3 years. And that is what we want, and that is what we have to get. Let me speak of some other good economic news. The last report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicated that our total U.S. employment in the month of February was 86,300,000. It reached the all-time peak. The rate of unemployment was still too high, but we made substantial progress in that regard. But the main point is we have gone from the depths of a recession in March or April of last year, where we lost several million jobs, and we have regained every one of those jobs numerically. Our aim and objective, with sound policies, is to continue that progress, and we will. But one of the most important factors is and you here in this room represent that consumer confidence is up, and for good reason. Industrial production is up, housing starts are up, the gross national product is up, real earnings for the average American are also up. In short, just about everything is looking up for America this year. There is no reason whatsoever that we should change or alter our course, because we have been right.


I want to thank the Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, for joining me, and I also want to thank Deputy Secretary of State Bob Zoellick. He has just briefed me on his trip to Abuja, where he has played a very important role in setting up a peace agreement between the Government of Sudan and a major rebel group in the Darfur region. Last week, we saw the beginnings of hope for the people of Darfur. The Government of Sudan and the largest rebel group signed an agreement and took a step toward peace. Many people worked hard for this achievement. I am particularly grateful for the leadership of President Obasanjo of Nigeria and President Sassou-Nguesso of Congo. Deputy Secretary Zoellick told me of their really fine work, and I had the honor of calling both of them to thank them over the phone the other day. We are still far away from our ultimate goal, which is the return of millions of displaced people to their homes so they can have a life without fear. But we can now see a way forward. Sudan is one of the most diverse nations in Africa and one of the most troubled countries in the world. A 22-year-old civil war between north and south took more than 2 million lives before a peace agreement was made that the United States helped to broker. About the same time, another conflict was raging in the west, and that is in Sudan's vast Darfur region. Darfur rebel groups had attacked Government outposts. To fight that rebellion, Sudan's regime armed and unleashed a horse-mounted militia called the Janjaweed, which targeted not only rebels but the tribes thought to be supporting them. The Janjaweed murdered men, and they raped women, and they beat children to death. They burned homes and farms and poisoned wells. They stole land to graze their own herds. Hundreds of villages were destroyed, leaving a burnt and barren landscape. About 200,000 people have died from conflict, famine, and disease. And more than 2 million were forced into camps inside and outside their country, unable to plant crops or rebuild their villages. I have called this massive violence an act of genocide, because no other word captures the extent of this tragedy. A cease-fire was declared in this conflict in April 2004, but it has been routinely violated by all sides. The Janjaweed continued to attack the camps and rape women who ventured outside the fences for food and firewood.

Remarks on a Peace Agreement in Sudan


The Government took no effective action to disarm the militias, and the rebels sometimes attacked food convoys and aid workers. An African Union force of about 7,200 from the region has done all it can to keep order, but they are patrolling an area nearly the size of Texas, and they have reached the limits of their capabilities. With the peace agreement signed on Friday, Darfur has a chance to begin anew. Sudan's Government has promised to disarm the Janjaweed by mid-October and punish all those who violate the cease-fire. The main rebel group has agreed to withdraw into specified areas. Its forces will eventually be disarmed as well, and some of its units will be integrated into the national army and police. The African Union will meet a week from today, urge its members to help implement this new agreement. We want civilians to return safely to their villages and rebuild their lives. That work has begun and completing it will require even greater effort by many nations. First, America and other nations must act to prevent a humanitarian emergency and then help rebuild that country. America is the leading provider of humanitarian aid, and this year alone, we account for more than 85 percent of the food distributed by the World Food Programme in Sudan. The World Food Programme has issued an appeal for funds necessary to feed 6 million people over the next several months. The United States has met our commitment, but other major donors have not come through. As a result, this month, the World Food Programme was forced to cut rations by half. So I proposed in the emergency supplemental before Congress to increase food aid to Sudan by another $225 million. I hope Congress will act swiftly on this true emergency. To get food to Darfur quickly, I have directed USAID to ship emergency food stockpiles. I have directed five ships and ordered them to be loaded with food and proceed immediately to Port Sudan. I have ordered the emergency purchase of another 40,000 metric tons of food for rapid shipment to Sudan. These actions will allow the World Food Programme to restore full food rations to the people of Darfur this summer. Americans who wish to contribute money to help deliver relief to the people of Darfur can find information about how to do so by going to the USAID web site at www.usaid.gov and clicking on the section marked Helping the Sudanese People. Moving forward, we cannot keep people healthy and fed without other countries standing up and doing their part as well.

Remarks on a Peace Agreement in Sudan


The European Union and nations like Canada, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Japan have taken leadership on other humanitarian issues, and the people of Darfur urgently need more of their help now. In addition, the Government of Sudan must allow all U.N. agencies to do their work without hindrance. They should remove the visa and travel restrictions that complicate relief efforts. And all sides must cease attacks on relief workers. And finally, the United States will be an active participant in the Dutch-led reconstruction and development conference. It will take place within the next couple of months, to help the people get back on their feet so they can live normal lives in Darfur. Second, America and other nations must work quickly to increase security on the ground in Darfur. In the short term, the African Union forces in Darfur need better capabilities. So America is working with our NATO allies to get those forces immediate assistance in the form of planning, logistics, intelligence support, and other help. And I urge members of the alliance to contribute to this effort. In the longer term, the African Union troops must be the core of a larger military force that is more mobile and more capable, which generates better intelligence and is given a clear mandate to protect the civilians from harm. So I am dispatching Secretary Rice to address the U.N. Security Council tomorrow. She is going to request a resolution that will accelerate the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers into Darfur. We are now working with the U.N. to identify countries that contribute those troops so the peacekeeping effort will be robust. I have called on President-I just called President Bashir of Sudan, both to commend him on his work for this agreement and to urge the Government to express clear support for a U.N. force. The vulnerable people of Darfur deserve more than sympathy; they deserve the active protection that U.N. peacekeepers can provide. In recent weeks, we have seen drastically different responses to the suffering in Darfur. In a recent audio tape, Usama bin Laden attacked American efforts in Sudan and urged his followers to kill international peacekeepers in Darfur. Once again, the terrorists are attempting to exploit the misery of fellow Muslims and encourage more death. Once again, America and other responsible nations are fighting misery and helping a desperate region come back to life. In late 2004 in Darfur, the Janjaweed attacked a village of a woman named Zahara.

Remarks on a Peace Agreement in Sudan


Let me begin by saying that the last conversation I had with David Cameron was before the--well, I guess it was not the last one, but a recent conversation was before the match between the United States and England at the World Cup.  And so I advised him that in America, we drink our beer cold. So he has to put this in the refrigerator before he drinks it, but I think he will find it outstanding. And I am happy to give that a shot, although I will not drink it warm. Now, I want to say that all of us in the United States deeply value the special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom. And we have been very impressed with the leadership that David Cameron has shown thus far. He has, I think, taken a series of steps on some very tough issues and clearly is prepared to make difficult decisions on behalf of his vision for his country. We already, I think, have established a strong working relationship, as have our teams. And we are confident that that special relationship is only going to get stronger in the months and years to come. We had an excellent conversation, building on--off of the conversations that we have had at the G-8 about the world economy and the importance of our two countries focusing both on the issues of growth, but also on the issues of financial consolidation, that we have long-term debts that have to be dealt with and we have to address them. There are going to be differentiated responses between the two countries because of our different positions, but we are aiming at the same direction, which is long-term, sustainable growth that puts people to work. At the same time, we had a extensive discussion about Afghanistan and the alignment between our two countries in recognizing we have a serious threat to our safety and security that has to be addressed in this region; that we recognize the enormous sacrifices that both British troops and U.S. troops have been making for some time now, but we are convinced that we have the right strategy to provide the time and the space for the Afghan Government to build up capacity over the next several months and years. And this period that we are in right now is going to be critical both on the political front and on the military front, and there is going to be extremely close consultation between our two countries so that we can create a situation in which Afghanistan and Pakistan are able to maintain their effective security and those areas are not able to be used as launching pads for attacks against our people.

Remarks Following a Meeting With Prime Minister David Cameron of the United Kingdom in Toronto, Canada


We also discussed Iran, and I thanked David for his stalwart support of the United Nations Security Resolution 1929, the toughest sanctions that have been imposed on the Iranian Government through the United Nations Security Council. We now have to make sure that we follow up in terms of implementation, and that was a major discussion point. And the key conclusion that we take out of this last day of conversations, and I suspect this will continue through the evening and tomorrow, is that on foreign policy issues, the United States and the United Kingdom are not only aligned in theory but aligned in fact; that we see the world in a similar way; we continue to share the same concerns and also see the same strategic possibilities. And so I think this partnership is built on a rock-solid foundation and it is only going to get stronger in the years to come. Well, thank you very much for that, and thank you for what you said about the relationship between our two countries, which I believe is incredibly strong, but as you say, I think can get stronger in the years ahead. We have had some very good conversations at the G-8 and a very good meeting here today. I think particularly on the issue of Afghanistan, which is the number-one foreign policy and security policy priority for my Government, making progress this year, putting everything we have into getting it right this year, is vitally important. And we have had very good conversations on that. And as you said, Barack, on all the issues we discussed over the weekend so far--the Middle East peace process, Iran, how we take those forward, and the key relationships that we have in the Gulf and elsewhere--we have a very close alignment, and I think we can work together, and we want to support the work that is being done. On the economy, you rightly say we have a big deficit problem which we have to address. But of course we want to do it in a way that encourages growth, and that is why we are focusing on spending reductions rather than on big tax increases. And as we go into the G-20, I think we can explain that we are aiming at the same target, which is world growth and stability, but it means those countries that have big deficit problems like ours have to take action in order to keep that level of confidence in the economy, which is absolutely vital to growth, to make sure it is there.


And since I had just discovered that 3 days with pears I was all set for a joke about what should be for dessert and now, Charlie, you have already communicated. You dropped a name here of Margaret Thatcher, so maybe I can substitute something that is even better. In our economic summits, where we all meet around a table, seven trading partner nations, and so forth sometime back when the summit was in England, which meant that Margaret Thatcher was presiding, one of the seven at the table got a little out of line, I thought, and attacked her that she was not being properly democratic in conducting the meeting and so forth. I do not want to embarrass him, but he really sounded off. And when the meeting was over, I fell in step beside her, going down the corridor. And I said, Margaret, he had no right to talk to you like that. He was really out of line. Well, Nancy and I welcome you to the White House. Now that we have finished our luncheon, I'd like to make a few remarks-but do not worry, I will keep it short. I have been trying to follow a joke that I have known for years. It is a story about ancient Rome and how one day, on a weekend afternoon when the little group of prisoners were huddled down in the sand in the Colosseum and the hungry lions were turned loose on them and came charging, roaring at them in front of the crowd, one of them stood up, faced the lions and said a few quiet words. Well, the crowd was infuriated, and Caesar sent for the man; said, What did you say to them that made them act like that? He said, I just told them that after they ate, there'd be speeches. Well, I want to thank all of you Charlie Wick, and the United States Information Agency for initiating this international council. I want to thank each of you for coming here and giving members of our administration the opportunity to speak to you directly. And if I may, I'd like to devote my own time to a brief discussion of economics. This month, October 1987, the American economic expansion that began in the fourth quarter of 1982 enters its 59th consecutive month. Fifty-nine months that makes this the longest peacetime expansion in the postwar era. We have seen the creation of more than 13 1/2 million new jobs.

Remarks at a White House Luncheon for Members of the Volunteer International Council of the United States Information Agency


Indeed, from the fourth quarter of 1982 through the end of 1986, U.S. gross private domestic investment rose more than 54 percent in real terms. New business incorporations have increased by about one-third. And all around us we see a riot of new technology. Virtually all groups of Americans have benefited from the expansion, but black Americans have made especially striking gains, as black employment has gone up twice as fast as that of whites. the best 5 economic years in black history. Well, now, in a moment I'd like to turn to the connection between this American expansion and the global economy. But first, it is important to understand the causes of America's success. Indeed, it is important to understand what have not been the causes of our success. For example, some have alleged that this expansion has been fueled exclusively by some sort of binge of consumer spending. From the fourth quarter of 1982 through the end of 1986, total outlays on personal consumption in the United States rose only about 19 percent far less than the rise in investment that I just quoted. Perhaps the most widespread misconception holds that American growth has been impelled primarily by the Federal budget deficits. Yes, the deficits are large, and our administration has been working to reduce them. And it now appears that the Federal deficits are on a downward path. The deficit for the fiscal year just ended, as of October 1st, will be 30-percent less than it was in 1986, the previous year. But throughout this expansion indeed, throughout much of the eighties government debt and deficit ratios in the United States have been lower than or equal to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development average. Government debt and deficit ratios have been, and remain, lower than the OECD average. The United States has become a better place to do business. Our administration cut regulations, supported a sound monetary policy, held back the growth of government spending, and, perhaps most important of all, cut tax rates. And as we did so, the return on investment went up. And overall, the American marketplace became freer, more energetic, more open to innovation and to the future itself. Now, for me personally, I suppose the most gratifying aspect of all of this is the effect on our young people. Opportunities summon initiatives Initiatives develop character and a sense of responsibility, a feeling of optimism. The future looks more open and promising to young people than it did before, for the simple reason that it is more open and promising.


Well, moving from the United States to the global economy, we understand that every aspect of the American experience cannot be directly transferred to other nations and regions. Other geographics, other cultures, other patterns of thought all these must be respected. Indeed, all these contribute to a diversity in the world that we Americans believe should be cherished, not undermined. Yet we believe that certain fundamental elements of our experience are valid for the rest of the world the elements of democracy and economic freedom. Indeed, I believe that the world of the future can be just that a world of liberty, a world in which human rights are respected in the political and economic spheres alike. And I would submit that during these past 6 1/2 years of our administration, this world of the future has already begun to take shape. Economic growth along the Pacific rim has been little short of incredible. And more recently, a second victory for democracy in South Korea, where a free-market economy is already established and flourishing. In Latin America, nation after nation has turned to democracy, nine nations in all becoming democracies since 1979. Latin America's extraordinary effort to create a democratic order is the most stunning and moving political fact of recent years. Low-tax, high-growth policies have spread throughout the Third World, with countries from Botswana to Egypt to Thailand cutting their tax rates. Even China is experimenting with the granting of wider economic freedoms. Here in North America, recent developments hold particular hope for the future. This week the Institutional Revolutionary Party in Mexico chose Carlos Salinas, a forward-looking economist, as its next candidate for President. And the United States and Canada took the first important steps toward an historic free trade agreement, an agreement that could make our two nations the largest free trade area in the world as an example for all the globe. As I said, the global economy of increasing freedom and economic growth is already coming, it is already being built. The Communist nations know this as well as we do. They must either join the new world system or they will become obsolete. It is a decision they must make for themselves. For our part, we can only wait and hope. In the meantime, we can keep on building-building, here in the United States upon our historic, 59-month expansion; building, in each of your countries, upon much that you have already accomplished. Freedom freedom, both political and economic, represents the fundamental condition for genuine peace and economic growth.


I know I have come to the end of the remarks that I wanted to give to you here, but you are epitomizing something that has long been a creed of mine. And that is that we are only in trouble when we are talking about each other, instead of talking to each other. And that has come together in this room. It does not happen too many places in the world, or too often. But all of those of you, Charlie, and all of you who've had a part in this, I think, can be very proud of this great accomplishment. I just want to add two more things. When I spoke about us lifting regulations and so forth to help the economy and all I have always believed that there is nothing government can do as well, other than a certain few things like national security, as the private sector can do if government gets out of its way and sets it free to do it. I remember one of my first experiences with government was as an adjutant for an ENTITY Air Corps base in World War II. There was a warehouse filled with files, and the files containing documents and records and so forth but which upon going at them you recognized that they were of no historical value. And they were totally useless, their time had passed them by. So, we started a message in the usual military style of sending a message, endorsing it up to the next in command, asking permission to destroy those papers so we could make use of the files for current documents. And then the next echelon they endorsed it up and up and up, and finally to the top command. And then back down through the channel it came, and the answer was yes. We could destroy those papers providing we made copies of each and every one. The other one is when I was mentioning taxes. I should make this speech to the Congress- about some who just seem to be dying, they think that our deficit and everything is caused by our tax cuts. Just between you and me and I wish they'd find it out ever since we started cutting the taxes in our administration, the tax revenues for the government have gone steadily up. Once you gave people an incentive to earn more money by saying that you were not going to take half or more of it away from them, they went out and earned more money. And, so, we are going to try to make them understand that, and that would be a help in cutting our deficit, too.


It is a little surprising that she got this award because you can tell she is a little shy--and lacks enthusiasm. And yet somehow, she seems to be performing pretty well in the classroom. So for 7 years, I have stood in the White House with America's finest public servants and private-sector innovators and our best advocates and our best athletes and our best artists, and I have to tell you there are few moments that make me prouder than this event when I stand alongside our Nation's best educators. Every year on this day, we say publicly as a country what we should be eager to say every day of the year, and that is, Thank you. That is what this event is about. That is why it is one of my favorites. It is a good day with all of you guys here in Washington to say thank you for the extraordinary work that teachers do all across the country. It is also, I guess, a pretty good day for substitute teachers because we have got a lot of folks--we got a lot of folks playing hooky today. Now, among our country's best educators happens to be our Secretary of Education, Dr. John King, Jr. John is someone who, like Jahana, found refuge in school as a youngster. And he found role models in the classroom at a time when he needed them most. And that experience instilled in him the empathy that makes him such a powerful voice for students and for teachers and for principals and superintendents and educators all across the country. I also want to acknowledge Jahana's Senator from Connecticut, Chris Murphy. He is proud of you too. I want to welcome her fellow Teachers of the Year from all 50 States, DC, and our Territories. And we want to welcome the hundreds of distinguished educators from all across the country that joined us this afternoon. I figured this is the last time I was going to do this, so I wanted to invite as many of you as possible, because you are people who are inspiring at every grade level, who are opening minds to math and music; to basic literacy, but also classic literature; to social studies and science, Spanish and special education. In their daily lives, the men and women who teach our children fulfill the promise of a nation that is always looking forward, that believes each generation has a responsibility to help the next in building this great country of ours and making the world a better place.

Remarks Honoring the 2016 National Teacher of the Year and State Teachers of the Year


President Kennedy said, Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education. Now, the school where Jahana teaches happens to bear President Kennedy's name. And it is fitting then that the perspective, the approach that she brings to the classroom suits the philosophy that he articulated. It does not matter how bright a student is or where they rank in a class or what colleges they have been accepted to if they do nothing with their gift to improve the human condition. And Jahana cares about the example she sets as much as the exams that she scores. You have got to love what you do, and she loves what she does. And what is remarkable about Jahana's natural talent in the classroom is that when she was growing up in Waterbury, Connecticut, being a teacher was the furthest thing from her mind. In fact, there were times where she did not even want to be a student. No one in Jahana's family had gone to college. No one at home particularly encouraged education. She lived in a community full of poverty and violence, high crime and low expectations. And drugs were more accessible than degrees. As a teenager, Jahana became pregnant and wanted to drop out of school. But her teachers saw something. They saw something in her. And they gave her an even greater challenge, and that was to dream bigger and to imagine a better life. And they made her believe she was college material and that she had the special gift to improve not only her own condition, but those around her. And today, Jahana's principal at Kennedy High says she gets through to her students precisely because she remembers what it is like to be one of them. And she does not forget that everyone in her class brings their own different and sometimes difficult circumstances. And she meets them where they are. And she sees a grace in them, and she sees a possibility in them. And because she sees it, they start seeing it. And that is what makes Jahana more than a teacher; she is a counselor and a confidant. That is how a woman who became a teenage mom is now a mentor to high schoolers in the same city where she grew up. And meanwhile, outside of the classroom, Jahana has been a leader in the afterschool theater program. She put together a Teen Idol singing show. She won the school's Dancing With the Stars competition. I wish I had met you before I started tangoing in Argentina.


Jahana inspires her students to give back. I think she understands that actually sometimes the less you have, the more valuable it is to see yourself giving, because that shows you the power and the influence that you can bring to bear on the world around you. One year, she had been assigned to a group that seemed unmotivated, so she found out what was distracting them. Seven students in one class had recently lost a parent to cancer. So she organized a Relay for Life team through the American Cancer Society, and it became an annual event. Last year, when Jahana went online to register her team, she noticed not 1, not 2, but 14 teams led by former students had already signed up. She organized her students to walk for autism, to feed the homeless, to donate clothes, to clean neighborhoods, and even to register voters. And so it takes a unique leader to get students who do not have a lot to give of themselves. But because Jahana understood those kids, she knew not to set low expectations, but to set high ones and to say to them, you can make a difference. And that is the kind of leader our Teacher of the Year is. She knows that if students learn their worth, then the class rank and the college acceptances and the exam scores will follow. Now, if there is one thing Jahana wishes she had in school, it was more teachers who looked like her, as she already mentioned. And so she wrote and won a State grant to inspire more students to become teachers, but especially to recruit more Black and Latino teachers in her district. And not one of the teachers standing behind me or in front of our children's classrooms chose this profession because they were promised a big payday or a short workday. That I believe. But the main reason teachers do what they do is because they love kids. They love our kids. And yes, we should pay teachers more because what they do is invaluable and essential. And the teachers here, though, will tell you that what would be most helpful, in addition to a little financial relief, would be people understanding how important the work you do is and to appreciate it and not take it for granted.


And so part of the reason this event is so important is for us to be able to send a message to future generations of teachers, to talented young people all across the country to understand this is a dream job; that this is an area where you will have more influence potentially than any other profession that you go into. This is a profession where you have the potential to make more of a difference than just about anything you can go into. So, over the past 7 years, we have looked at every element of our education system with an eye towards boosting the teaching profession. And thanks to our educators and the opinions you have voiced and the leadership that you have shown, we have come a long way since we came into office. One of the first things we did, in the middle of the worst economic crisis in generations, when States and cities were slashing budgets, was to keep more than 300,000 educators in our kids' classrooms. That was part of the Recovery Act. We have taken the first steps towards making sure every young person in America gets the best start possible. And keep in mind that in 2009, when I started here, only 38 States had their own preschool programs. Today, all but four have. We have expanded Head Start programs for tens of thousands of kids who need it. We made turning around America's low-performing schools a national priority. The year before I took office, a quarter of our high school students did not graduate on time. More than a million did not finish high school at all. We are transforming hundreds of America's lowest performing schools. We are also bringing new technology and digital tools to our classrooms to modernize and personalize learning. Three years ago, less than a third of all school districts could access high-speed Internet, and a lot of low-income communities were left behind. Today, 20 million more students and most of our school districts have fast broadband and wireless in the classroom. 99 percent of our students will have high-speed Internet. We are making remarkable progress towards my pledge to train 100,000 STEM teachers by 2021 thanks to the great work of 100K in 10, which, with new commitments to prepare 70,000 more teachers, I want to just announce today, this is a goal that we are going to achieve on time. We are on our way. And we unleashed a Race to the Top, convincing every State to raise its standards so students are prepared for success in college and for future careers.


And we listened to parents who wanted subjects like computer science taught in our schools. And we listened to teachers who have shown why cookie-cutter solutions do not always work. We are empowering States and communities to set their own standards for progress with accountability. And because nobody thinks our students need to spend more time filling in bubbles on standardized tests, we are starting to give educators like those behind me the flexibility to spend more time teaching creatively than they are spending teaching to a test. You'd know it better than I do. In too many States, we are underfunding public education. And it is the job of State legislators and of Governors to recognize that the well-being of their State and their communities and their families and their kids requires them to step up. In too many school districts, we still have schools that, despite great efforts by a lot of great teachers, are still not getting our kids prepared the way they need to be prepared. And we have got to be willing to be honest when something is not working and say, all right, let us try something different. But the reason I think-I want to bring this up. This was not in my prepared remarks--but I think it is important. You have got some folks who say resources and money do not make a difference, and the problem is all the teachers' unions. And they want to break up the schools, and they think vouchers are all the answer, or some other approach. And then, on the other side, you have got folks who just know that argument is wrong, but too often it sounds like it is just a defense of the status quo. And the fact of the matter is, is that we do have to do better in too many of our schools. We need more teachers like this in all of you. We do have to have accountability in the classroom. That does not mean forcing you to teach to the test, but we have got to come up with measures that are meaningful so that if somebody does not have the skills that Jahana or these other teachers have, that they can start developing it and we know what to look for. We have got to make sure that we are setting our sights high. And although I am very proud of the work that we have done, I know we are not there yet.


And we may have replaced No Child Left Behind, which was a relief for a lot of folks, but the absence of something that was not working as well as it should is not the presence of the kind of work that remains to be done. So, in our country, it is a little harder than in some other countries, because we have got diverse populations, and we have got folks coming from different backgrounds and starting off in tougher circumstances. But our Teacher of the Year here stands as proof that you cannot set expectations high enough for our kids. We just have to find it. We have to unleash it. We have to nurture it. We have to support it. We have to love them. And then, we have to tell them precisely because we love you, you are going to work harder--and you are going to do better. And we are going to stay on you. That is what we have to do. And we cannot just leave it to the teachers, because if our notion is we drop off our kids and then the teacher is doing everything, and then our job is done, it is not going to work. So this is why my administration launched Teach To Lead, to give teachers a greater voice in the policies that affect them every day. And I am going to close by just talking about a letter I received at the beginning of this school year from a teacher in Central Virginia named Danny Abell There is a reason why he got a good spot--because he knew I was going to talk about him. So Danny asked his students if any of them wanted to be a teacher when they grew up. And no one raised their hands. And that worried him. So he wrote me to ask what I'd say if one of my daughters told me she wanted to become a teacher. And I mean this-this is the God's honest truth-if Sasha or Malia wanted to be teachers, I will tell them, I could not be prouder of what you have done. And I'd tell them to be the kind of teachers who do not just show her students how to get the correct answer, but how to be curious about the world and how to care for the people around her and how to analyze facts and evidence and how to tell stories, and how to believe in their ability to shape their own destiny.


Well, I cannot tell you how highly pleased I am to see this turnout at this time of day. You know, I am an early riser myself, but a lot of people are not . I have been up since a quarter to six, looking over this trail that the Union Pacific follows up here, and I have been highly intrigued at what I saw. Coming up that valley, I saw a mare mothering a mule colt. And I saw sheep on one side and a herd of cattle on the other, and I can remember the day when they could not get that close together. You see, my grandfather on one side was strong on cattle and the grandfather on the other side was strong on sheep, and they did not get along very well; but through my mother and father, and diplomacy of the third generation, we see that they can live together very creditably. I also saw this mountain scenery which we do not have in Missouri. We have some hills down in the south part of the State which they call mountains, which is supposed to be the oldest formation in the United States, but when you get down there, there are not any mountains. There are hills up one side and down the other, although the elevation goes up as high as 3,000 feet. I think you are a little higher here than that. I have been looking over a report that the Interior Department has sent to me sent it to the train just as I was about to leave. It is really a sample of the reports that the President is supposed to read and study all the time. You know, I fool them I get up early in the morning and I read them! I think you would be interested in seeing that report. And I have a report like that on the Central Valley of California, on the Colorado River, on the Missouri River, and on the Ohio River, and on all the coast around the United States. And I am supposed to know all about them. Well, I try and get as familiar with them as I possibly can, and I fool them sometimes by being acquainted with things that they think I do not take time to read. This is a map of Idaho and the Snake River Basin, in which it shows the projects that are already in effect and those that ought to be in effect, and those that are partly in effect. Now, from my viewpoint, I have always tried to use as much of the budget as could be distributed for that purpose, for the development of these reclamation and power projects.

Rear Platform Remarks in Idaho


But we have some people in these United States who follow the lead of Daniel Webster who did not think the West was any good, who did not think we should do anything with it. We also have some people in the United States who would like to restore the Insull era, when they put the welfare of the few promoters above the welfare of the people. We are faced with it in this Congress. At the last meeting of this Congress they cut the budget for the development of these reclamation and power projects. They are trying to do the same thing right now, and I hope that we may be able to save some of the funds that are necessary for the developments set out in this Columbia River Basin Report. Had we had some of those projects which have been pending for several years, we might to some extent have alleviated the flood in the Columbia River which caused so much damage. I am going to go out to look that situation over. I have looked over the Missouri River Basin. In fact, I am familiar with it from its source to its mouth. And I am somewhat familiar with this situation. I have been to the Columbia River almost from its mouth to the borderline of British Columbia. I was out here when they were building plants which are dependent on the Grand Coulee Dam and the Bonneville Dam. Had we not had that power source, it would have been almost impossible to win this war. I want to see this development out here and in every other section of the country carried out for the welfare of the people as a whole, and not for a few who want to exploit the people. I am coming out here so you can look at me and hear what I have to say, and then make up your own mind as to whether you believe some of the things that have been said about your President. I have been in politics a long time, and it makes no difference what they say about you, if it is not so. If they can prove it on you, you are in a bad fix indeed. They have never been able to prove it on me.

Rear Platform Remarks in Idaho