Remarks at Opening Session of the White House Conference on Aging.

Mr. Secretary and delegates to this White House Conference:

This is the last time I shall have the privilege of bidding welcome to a group of Americans assembled here in the Capital City to confer among themselves about problems interesting to a particular group or indeed to the whole Nation.

This one, of course, is about the problems of the aged--or the aging, because I don't want to get too definite about this aged business!

It is one, of course, in which many views are held. Some of these, I notice in the press, have been so earnestly stated that they think there shouldn't even be any conference, because their views don't agree with those of some of the others attending.

Now I thought that was the purpose of conferences, to get opposing or opposite views, to see whether there's ground or a program or a platform that can satisfy the sound sense of logic of people of goodwill.

So I applaud the conference, and I think the Congress did a good thing in passing a Joint Resolution asking the President to call this conference. Indeed, I think the Governors in responding so promptly to the request for nominations did also a real service. So I welcome you here, not merely as the head of our Nation hoping that you will have an enjoyable time, but that out of your labors will develop something interesting and profitable for the United States.

Now, as to substantive subjects, there is no reason for me to express my views. I think they are well known, and besides I am not a delegate. But all of us certainly do recognize that in a world changing as rapidly as is ours, when we have gone from a pioneer civilization to a highly industrialized and complicated civilization in a matter of less than a century, there are new problems emerging all the time and that affect often with peculiar force people in special groups, and in this case what we call our senior citizens.

So I feel very privileged to express to you my hope that this will be a profitable conference where every conceivable opinion, no matter how bitterly opposed it may be to some other opinion, will be fully aired, and out of your deliberations will come some kind of guidance that the Congress can use as it proceeds in its own deliberations later.

So, to each of you--welcome. My very best wishes for a good conference, prosperity in the coming year, and indeed in America's labors for maintaining peace and justice, and for raising the standards of our own people in all forms--spiritual, intellectual, and economic.

Thank you. Goodbye.