Remarks on Opening the 1964 Savings Bond Campaign.

WHEN President Roosevelt purchased the first savings bond ever issued he set into motion the greatest thrift program the world has ever known. I am very proud today to buy the first of the new $75 denomination United States savings bonds, a bond which bears the portrait of our late, beloved, and brave President John F. Kennedy. I hope that many of my fellow citizens will follow this example. In doing so, they will be paying a tribute to a most remarkable American and answering in at least a small measure his unforgettable challenge, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."

The purchase of savings bonds is an expression of faith in America's future. Millions of Americans own a record total of $47 billion of these shares in their country. I urge them, and I urge all Americans, to take part in the 1964 savings bond campaign, Operation Security, which opens today. Our responsibility to our country, as President John Kennedy said, "is not discharged by an announcement of virtuous ends." It must include concrete acts of confidence.

Buying bonds for our Nation's security is a sure way to express such confidence and I take pride and pleasure in presenting my check for the first $75 bond to the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Dillon.