Corporate Fund for the Performing Arts at Kennedy Center Remarks at a Reception for Members of the Corporate Fund.

First of all, let me thank all of you for coming out this afternoon to what I believe will be a very important and perhaps even historic meeting.

One of the finite aspects of our own system of life, our political structure, our economic structure, and our social structure is a pride that we have in an ability of people to excel and a proper interrelationship between government and our private citizens.

We've always felt that music, art, drama ought to be available to people without regard to their social or economic status, and I think it's only been in recent times that the focal point of our own National Capital has been developed for this purpose.

The Kennedy Center is a place that I personally love very much. We've been there often since I have been President. Rosalynn and I go there every chance we get. We have seen a wide variety of programs and we've seen people enjoying the opera and the other performing arts that in many parts of the country would never have that opportunity.

I remember one time when I was at Carters Warehouse selling fertilizer to farmers, and the New Orleans Symphony Orchestra came to Americus, Georgia, to a very tiny college--no auditorium, no air conditioning--and the dean of liberal arts told all his students that they would get an extra grade on their final report card if their parents came to hear the New Orleans Symphony Orchestra. And you should have seen the farmers struggling to avoid that confrontation.

So, they finally went over to the basketball gymnasium, and there were 3,000 people stacked in there on a day even warmer than this. And for 2 weeks around the circle of symbolic pot-bellied stoves of Carters Warehouse, the topic of conversation among those farmers who had never before heard any sort of classical music was about that experience which was one of the most exhilarating of their lives.

That made a great impression on me, and I hope that as President I can work with you generous people, successful people, blessed with all the pleasures of life, to make this kind of enjoyment available to as many Americans as possible.

It's not proper to raise funds at the White House. We are not raising funds. But I just want to join with you in a commitment to make sure that the Kennedy Center is adequately financed. And, as you well know, the contributions that are made by fortunate and affluent Americans, men and women, are used in the most efficient way to provide enjoyment for many thousands of Americans who would never otherwise have this pleasure.

And we form a partnership, those of us who are influential, relatively wealthy in all the material things, to share this with others that are not quite so fortunate as we.

So, I want to thank Mr. MacNaughton and Mr. Kennedy and particularly Pete Williams in the back, who came and asked me to help out--Pete, thank you. And I think that this will be the kind of project that will make all of us proud, not only because of what we have achieved in our own lives but just proud to be part of a country where this kind of contribution can be coming back to us with such rich personal reward.

Thank you very much.