Dinner for Newly Elected Members of Congress Remarks at the White House Dinner.

I'm glad you stood up so I could find Bill Bradley. Everybody at my table said, "We don't want your autograph; we want to meet Bill Bradley." [Laughter]

First of all, let me say that we're very delighted, both Rosalynn and me, and Fritz Mondale and his wife, Joan, to have you come to the White House to get acquainted with one another and also to let us get to know some of you.

This is a special night, particularly in the lives of Members of the House of Representatives. It's the last night that you will spend before you begin to run for reelection. [Laughter] And we particularly wanted you to spend it with us.

I know everyone here has different ambitions, different thoughts about what Washington will be in your own life. I never came to Washington, except as a tourist, before I came to be inaugurated as President. And what I wanted to discover was how a southerner could come to Washington and run the Federal Government. And I have learned—sometimes the hard way—it's been very intriguing watching [Senator] Russell Long operate. [Laughter] I thought eventually I could start taking over, but it hasn't happened yet. [Laughter]

All of us have been greatly honored by the finest people on Earth, given a chance to work as Democrats and Republicans, but in harmony when the vital interests of our country are at heart. I know all of us carry in our hearts a great debt of gratitude and commitment to perform well, sometimes under the most difficult circumstances.

Those who have served in the Congress for 5 years or 35 or 38 years almost unanimously have told me that this past year, this year has been the most difficult in the history of the Congress. The issues faced were contentious, sometimes almost irresolvable, required the greatest degree of personal courage and political courage to vote for what the individual Member of the House or Senate knew was best for our Nation.

But that's not a unique circumstance, even though it has been particularly difficult in recent months. I'm sure we'll face similar questions in the future, and I know that all of us are eager to perform in such a way that those who have given us this honor will be pleased.

Our Nation has gone through traumatic experiences in the last decade. Perhaps other than the War Between the States, this has been the most severe trial for our country's government. We had a danger of alienating, perhaps permanently, the people of our country from their own Federal Government. And the interrelationships between the local, State, and Federal levels of government almost threatened to be torn apart and to destroy the system of federalism.

Our country's reputation around the world was damaged severely, and the ideals and principles on which our country was founded were sometimes in doubt.

Again, those are not transient or onetime problems or challenges. We undoubtedly will have similar kinds of threats in the future to world peace, to a better life for Americans, or because of economic problems that might come and might go. One of the things that I and all my predecessors who have lived here-and everyone has lived here except George Washington—have experienced together is that in spite of those things that seem to us to be crises on a daily or weekly or even an annual basis, they tend to disappear in the stretch of history because of the innate greatness and strength of our country.

We're the strongest nation on Earth militarily, and we intend to stay that way. We're the strongest nation on Earth economically; God's blessed us beyond all reasonable expectation, compared to other people on Earth. And, of course, we have the best political system as well. And that blessing that's fallen upon us gives us a great responsibility not only to our own people to maintain a good life, yes, but to maintain the spirit and the ideals and the principles and the compassion and the love, the unselfishness that are the most important components of a person's life. But let our own influence be spread throughout the world in a beneficial way.

We have many difficult problems. Inflation has now become the most important issue in the minds of American people. I think the election results last month indicated that that is true. But we need to meet also the human needs of the American people as we control inflation. Our economic system needs to be strengthened, not permitted to become weaker. And I think the spirit of our government, the reaching out to encompass more and more people in its comprehension and to participate in final decisions that we make finally, is also a very important and difficult challenge for us.

These things are not incompatible. I think they put a greater responsibility on us next year than perhaps in the past in economic affairs. But it requires us to root out fraud, waste, corruption, inefficiency, mismanagement, in order to meet the basic needs of our people without wasting scarce tax funds, which will be more scarce in the future than they have been in the past.

And at the same time we will continue to struggle for peace, not only to maintain the security of our own people, which is the number one priority of our Nation, but also to try to extend a peaceful life to those who have been torn by strife or threatened with even more severe conflict in the future. Not only in the Middle East but in Namibia, Rhodesia, Cyprus, Nicaragua, perhaps even in Iran, the beneficial effect of our government's influence can be a profound resolution of possible catastrophe for others.

And of course, we have tried to raise high the banner of basic human rights, which we all espouse, sometimes forget, take them for granted because we enjoy them, then fail to realize how much they are missed and desired by others throughout the world not so fortunate as we.

So, the greatness of our country is a sustaining factor in our lives, even though we have a difficult problem in making decisions here in Washington.

I think all of you will soon learn, those who haven't had experience in Washington, that in times of the greatest difficulty, partisan labels tend to disappear, and there is a unique partnership among us when those final decisions are made for the benefit of our Nation. Honest differences of opinion can still exist. But I've been extremely pleased, even pleasantly surprised at the extremely high quality and the integrity and the competence and the experience of the Members of the Congress and also the staff members who serve and will serve you.

I think one of the most important things for us all to remember is how the American people feel, what their concerns are, their doubts, their fears, their hopes, their aspirations, their ideals. And we have tried to choose a program tonight that would bring to you a reminder of our origins and of the fact that the Americans' voices are the ones we should listen to in the final analysis.

I don't think anyone better expressed the unfulfilled ambitions of deprived Americans better than Woody Guthrie. His songs have inspired us for many years. I first knew about Woody Guthrie through Bob Dylan's recordings. And we have a man tonight, Tom Taylor, who has studied Woody Guthrie's life. He has analyzed the impact of both that life and those songs on the American people. He's been performing for 3 years 'now, more than 3 years, in countries throughout the world. And he is here tonight—I won't take over his program—to give us a picture, not only of the past life of Woody Guthrie but the present and future impact of his songs, which genuinely come from the hearts and minds of American people.

And before Tom Taylor comes to entertain us, I would like to introduce to you Mrs. Woody Guthrie, who is here tonight. Would she please stand.

And now I'd like to introduce to you Tom Taylor. Is Tom here? [Laughter] [At this point, the entertainment began. Following its conclusion, the President resumed speaking as follows.]

I don't know how many of you have ever heard Bob Dylan sing—how many of you have heard Bob Dylan sing "Song to Woody"? Tell the truth. How many of you saw "Bound for Glory"? Well, you are very fortunate tonight in having Tom Taylor let you feel for this few minutes what Woody Guthrie was and what his music is.

He was a man of poverty. I think he was born in Oklahoma, was he not? His family was divided, and he was a working man. He traveled in what some of we consider low circles. His friends were sometimes worse off than he was. But he had a sense that every person, no matter how poor they were, how illiterate they were, how quiet they were, how inarticulate they were, that their lives were meaningful.

And slowly, as people started turning to Guthrie because of his guitar and because of his ability to write words that meant something, he became a natural leader. And he saw the inequality of opportunity in our country for the Native Americans, for the blacks, for the white working class, for those who couldn't speak English well, and began to fight for them. And he would write a song that would tell about the anguish of a downtrodden spirit and sing it on the radio.

And he became persecuted by many of the powerful people in our country. Joe McCarthy tried to still his voice by calling him a Communist. But eventually Woody Guthrie's songs started reaching people's hearts in places of importance, and he became kind of a living legend in our time.

And I think it's good for me as President of our country and you as Members of Congress, future Members, to realize that those cries of anguish, although not quite as prevalent, still exist and that people whom we may not see from the perspective of the White House or the House Office Building or the Senate Office Building still exist. And we might not even meet many of them on a campaign trail, but they look to us together to alleviate their pain and to let their hopes and dreams be realized.

It may be that none of us in this room will ever mean quite as much to America as Woody Guthrie; all he had was not much of an education and an old, beat-up guitar, with a heart full of love for his fellow Americans and also for our great country. I think it's a good story for us to remember, whether you live in the Redwood Forest or the New York Islands or the Gulfstream Waters. And all over the country Woody Guthrie's songs have meant a lot to just common, ordinary, good Americans, who are the strength of our Nation, who are the future of our Nation, and who have trusted us enough to give us a high honor.

Thank you very much.