Remarks at a Cost Reduction Awards Ceremony at the Department of Agriculture

Secretary Freeman, award winners, members of the Department of Agriculture:

I am pleased that a few days ago you asked me to come over here and be with you on this occasion.

I am pleased for several reasons.

I am especially pleased now that I am going to have more time to spend on the farm, that I could have a little closer contact with the people who do so much to try to make life better for our farmers.

This Department is one of my favorite departments in the Government. It is manned by the most dedicated people. For 37 years I have been coming here, talking to you about the problems of forgotten people. In the hurly-burly of the 20th century, I sometimes think that the people who need our help the most really get the least. Those are the farmers of this country.

Things are so unjust for them in many ways--weather, insects, labor, price, inconveniences, remoteness, roads, communications-that most of them are leaving and coming into the cities and creating problems for us. That is also a problem for every Secretary of Agriculture we have. That is a problem for all the people who work here.

I expect, generally speaking, the Secretary of Agriculture has been the most unpopular man in the Cabinet, among the people that he tries to do the most for. That is to be expected sometimes. You will remember Senator Barkley's old story, "What have you done for me lately?"

A lot of people who have had injustice visited upon them--if you haven't done something good lately--they think you are to blame for it.

So the Secretary and the Department-they call them bureaucrats--are to blame for it.

But I believe that this Department is manned by the most patriotic, most selfless, most dedicated people I know in Government. I have watched it very closely.

I know it is headed by one of the greatest public servants I have ever known.

When I came into the Government as President, I was told by some of my accounting and economic experts that there were three outstanding, great administrators in Government who could head any big corporation in this country. They listed those three. I was shocked that Orville Freeman was one of the three. They said he was one of the best administrators in Government.

The other two they named--there was no reflection on anyone else--were Mr. Webb, who had been Director of the Budget and who was running a pretty big operation, and Mr. McNamara, who was Secretary of Defense.

So I watched their budgets, their employees, their efficiencies, and their programs. I came to believe that from what I learned from them myself. I thought it was accurate.

My budget experts through the years have maintained that position.

That is not possible without your help. Secretary Freeman couldn't do these things and couldn't have that reputation. This Department couldn't--that is, except for the people from the highest to the lowest who are working every day for efficiency, for cost effectiveness.

I am pleased to look at the charts over there and see that, since 1965, you have withheld from expenditure over $1 billion that you have saved for the taxpayers of this country. That is a good record. That is one I am very proud of. I hope that each of you are proud of it.

Another thing that I think you know is close to my heart is trying to finance this Government and support our men at the fighting front.

I have, on occasions, asked the people in the Government to try to think over their little budget--it is very small--but see if they couldn't put in it somewhere a savings bond where they could help the Government pay the bills of the war and some of the other expenses we have.

During the other wars, we had thrift stamps, baby bonds, and things of that kind.

In this one, we haven't really twisted many arms or appealed to people too strongly. But this Department has had an outstanding record.

I don't know whether you know it or not, but you have practically doubled a good record by doubling the amount of savings bonds you are already buying. More than sixty-odd thousand employees buy them every month. They take from their check and buy a bond to try to help those boys out there.

I appreciate that because that shows you are on the team and that you want to help.

I know there are a lot of Republicans in the Department of Agriculture. I know that from experience--from talking to them.

I hope there are more Democrats because we always want to stay a little in the majority, if we can.

But the thing I have observed most is: Regardless of your party affiliation, your dedication is to your country and to the industry that you serve. Your genuineness, your faithfulness, your dedication in coming here on time every morning and burning the lights at night to try to help the poor and the people who produce our food and feed the world and take less percentage of our dollar today than any time in our history, is not only a tribute to our Government and to our Secretary, but it is an indication of the kind of people you are.

I am a Hereford breeder. I sell registered calves. I am going to have a lot of time to work on it pretty soon.

But we look at bloodlines. We can look at the bloodline and pretty well tell the kind of calf we are going to get. When I look at the people who serve here, year in and year out, I pretty well know what kind of product we are going to have, and whether it is down at the home demonstration level, the girls showing us how to bottle our cucumbers, or can our peaches, or whether it is the county agent or the soil conservation man helping us with our terraces, or whether it is the county committee where we go to talk about our allotments--in every one of those places you will find good, honest, dedicated people, whatever church they belong to, whatever party.

That is something everybody in this Department can be proud of.

There is one thing I have left out, though I have talked longer than I intended to. I have noticed a good many of you I have come in contact with, have your families in your job, too. I want to thank them for being on the team and helping the American farmer.

We haven't done as good a job as we ought to. If we had, the farmers wouldn't be moving out and going to the cities. We have to find some way to help move them back.

I am going to try to set a good example. I am going back myself.

Thank you very much.