Proclamation 4041—National Defense Transportation Day and National Transportation Week, 1971

The past growth and prosperity of the United States relied heavily on an interconnected, diversified transportation network which linked its cities and its citizens. Our commerce prospered from the ever-increasing proximity of the markets; our citizens, from the availability and accessibility of the great productive wealth of the Nation.

We are now entering into a new era in transportation—an era in which our national mobility will demand the continued conquest of time and space, yet our national conscience will no longer permit irreparable damage to our land, our environment, or the social fabric of our communities. It is in this light that transportation faces its challenge of the future.

To meet that challenge, we will need a truly balanced transportation system—a system that provides our citizens with the ability to choose the most efficient means of transportation at the least possible cost to themselves and to the environment. I ask for the help of all citizens in achieving this goal.

In recognition of the importance of our transportation system to our economy, our national security and our daily lives, and as a tribute to the men and women who move goods and people throughout our land, the Congress by a joint resolution approved May 16, 1957, requested the President to proclaim annually the third Friday of May each year as National Defense Transportation Day, and by a joint resolution approved May 14, 1962, requested the President to proclaim annually the week of May in which that Friday falls as National Transportation Week.

Now, Therefore, I, Richard Nixon, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate Friday, May 21, 1971, as National Defense Transportation Day, and the week beginning May 16, 1971, as National Transportation Week.

During National Transportation Week, I ask that the people of this Nation join with the Department of Transportation and also with State and local officials in reevaluating our goals and reaffirming our commitment to a balanced transportation system for these United States.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this thirty-first day of March, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred seventy-one, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred ninety-fifth.

RICHARD NIXON