Proclamation 3411—National Highway Week, 1961

Whereas an adequate highway network is indispensable to traffic safety, to the growth of our economy and to the National defense; and

Whereas some 40,000 of our citizens are killed and 1,400,000 are injured every year in highway accidents; and

Whereas the orderly advancement of our expanded Federal-State highway program promises a sharp reduction in our annual waste of human and economic resources due to outmoded highways; and

Whereas the public should be reminded of the importance of completing the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways on schedule in 1972:

Now, Therefore, I, John F. Kennedy, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the week of May 21-27, 1961, as National Highway Week in recognition of the vital role of highway transportation in our way of life.

I also urge the Governors of the States to issue similar proclamations and ask the appropriate officials of the Federal and State Governments, public and private organizations, and the general public to join in observance of this significant occasion.

During this period I encourage all Americans to judge the value of highway transportation to their own activities and to our National welfare.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States of America to be affixed.

DONE at the City of Washington this twenty-ninth day of April in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and sixty-one, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and eighty-fifth.

JOHN F. KENNEDY

By the President:

DEAN RUSK,

Secretary of State.