Remarks Announcing the Appointment of Alfred E. Kahn as Advisor to the President on Inflation and Chairman of the Council on Wage and Price Stability

Last night, I outlined a government- , and in fact, nationwide program to improve our chances to control inflation. In order to help me coordinate this entire program, I have asked Alfred Kahn, who has been the Chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Board, to be Advisor to the President and Chairman of the Council on Wage and Price Stability.

Obviously this will be a very challenging and important responsibility for him. He will work directly with me, with the Secretary of Treasury, Labor, Commerce, the Special Trade Representative, the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, and others, to make sure that our efforts are given the maximum chance to succeed.

Very few occurrences in the Government this last year have been of more significance to our Nation nor more gratifying to me than Chairman Kahn's proving in the CAB that we could actually have better service with lower costs, higher profits, and a chance to let our free enterprise system show its vigor and its strength and its value to our Nation. This has occurred in the deregulation of the airline industry, and Chairman Kahn has been responsible for that progress.

We will endeavor to ensure that our Nation's response to inflation is effective and is flexible and that we remove the obstacles to decreasing prices, decreasing costs, decreasing wage increases.

One thing I'd like to point out is that this will be a very good opportunity for Government and the private sector of our Nation to work in harmony. We will be making every effort to get mayors, county officials, Governors, Members of Congress, and the executive branch of our Federal Government to work with the private sector to make as much progress as possible.

I believe in our free enterprise system and believe that free competition can bring about a realization of our hopes to control inflation. I'm very proud that Alfred Kahn has agreed to come and help me in this very important position.

I would like to express my deep thanks to Robert Strauss, our Special Trade Representative, who for the last 6 months has used his tremendous enthusiasm and his influence and competence to arouse the Nation's concern about inflation and to bring about this appointment. He came to me several weeks ago, suggested that I go on television, make a major speech to the Nation about the problems of inflation, some of the opportunities for resolving those problems. And he was the first to suggest that I appoint Alfred Kahn to be my assistant, my adviser, in handling the inflationary problem. And I want to express my personal thanks to Bob Strauss, who is our Special Trade Representative, for the good work he has done.

I'd like now to introduce to you Chairman Alfred Kahn, the new Advisor to the President, my new partner in controlling inflation in our country.