Remarks to Delegates to the General Conference of the Federation Aeronautique Internationale.

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen:

This is really a distinct honor. Only recently I found that because I was sort of a jack-legged pilot back in my Philippine days, I was entitled to honorary membership in the American Aeronautical Association. I have just received the diploma and the certificate of that membership. And here now I am an international pilot, almost.

It is truly a great privilege to welcome all of you to the Capital City of this country. I think that it would be beside the point for me to try to give to you statistics proving that aviation has come of age or the importance of aviation in 1958. I was struck by one figure that happened to be handed to me the other day. More than one million citizens of this country went abroad in airplanes last year, which seemed a lot of people.

The conference you are going to have in Los Angeles will have a lot of items on its agenda to discuss most seriously. It strikes me a great deal of the value is the mere fact that you are here. All of these meetings over the past fifty-one years must have been valuable. Never could they have been more so than now.

I have tried to talk a great deal in this country about people, and people meeting people. I think governments are far more stupid than are their peoples. If we could get the peoples talking to each other, living with each other, visiting in homes, going to schools together, I am perfectly certain that most of the world's troubles would be over. And, we could use all of the great inventions of science to human betterment and improvement rather than in the attempt to destroy ourselves.

So, just the fact of your being here and visiting with the friends you will make is, to my mind, a very important event.

I understand there are a hundred and fifty or maybe two hundred of you. I wish it were ten thousand or twelve thousand and that these things were annual and that we could have them in different capitals every year--having people meet like this all the time. I am sure it would have a great effect, as I am sure that this meeting this year will have a good one.

To each of you I wish the very best type of time in this country during your visit. I hope that you will find your work not only interesting and instructive but that it is enjoyable--that you really have a lot of fun.

Some of you unquestionably will know friends of mine in your countries. Throughout Europe and other parts of the world I have been fortunate enough in making some very good friends. If you meet any of them, say that you take my personal greetings. I would be very much obliged to each of you if you could do that.

Thank you very much. Goodbye.