Remarks in Pittsburgh to the League of Women Voters

Ladies, I think I should, before I say the few words that I have selected to say this morning, tell you that I was just introduced in the fewest words, the shortest amount of time, by one of the greatest and ablest Secretaries of Labor that this country ever produced.

Now I want to present to you my own Secretary of War, Lady Bird.

[At this point Mrs. Johnson spoke briefly. She expressed her pleasure at being present and said she wanted to let them in on a secret. "Lyndon's own determination to give women a better break in Government, to have them assume more responsibility," she stated, "stems in part from your organization and its work." The President then resumed speaking.]

First, I want to thank Senators Clark and Scott, and the Members of the Pennsylvania delegation in the Congress who have been so helpful to me and the country in putting through the programs that we believe are best for the Nation. I particularly thank Dave McDonald, head of the Steelworkers, and Secretary Wirtz, for bringing me into Pennsylvania today.

President Phillips and President-elect Stewart, I want to deny right now, here in broad, open daylight, before all the press, at an unannounced press conference, that I am here to recruit employees for the federal Government!

I am sure that all of you already understand my very strong conviction, to which Lady Bird has referred, that we must make more use of the talents of women in government if we expect to have better government. Now one lady, Senator Margaret Smith, did misunderstand my feelings about this. I was talking about the echelon below the Presidency. And I never thought that Margaret would think that I was really talking about my job--at least not for the time being.

I was very pleased when Mrs. Phillips asked me to declare an official National Women Voters Week, during which the League of Women Voters would launch an intensive campaign to have more women register and to have more of them vote. I cannot think of a more constructive effort. But first I had to check it out. Lady Bird said I could.

So today, I want to make the announcement here that I have agreed to Mrs. Phillips' request, and I want you to know that I will proclaim the week of September 13th through September 19th as National Women Voters Week in all of the United States.¹

Senator Scott, I want you to know that is for Republicans, too.

For 2 days you have considered ways and means to provide opportunities for education and employment for all citizens. I have heard many favorable comments about my friend Barbara Ward's eloquent statement to you on Wednesday, that our high standard of 'prosperity has brought the good life to an unprecedented percentage of our citizens. President Roosevelt once said that it is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach. I am here to tell you today that we do not intend to allow the tempo of America's unprecedented prosperity to ever muffle the cries of those who are denied a fair share of it.

We have declared unconditional war on poverty. Our objective is total victory. Our soldiers in the cause can be men and women of both parties, without regard to age or race or religion or creed. This war on poverty is important for many reasons.

First, almost half a million underprivileged young Americans, 500,000, will be given the opportunity to develop skills and continue their education, and find useful work.

Socrates said, "If I could get to the highest place in Athens, I would lift up my voice and I would say, 'What mean ye, fellow citizens, that ye turn every stone to scrape wealth together, and take so little care of your children to whom you must one day relinquish all ?'"

I am here to tell you this morning that we are going to take care of our children because one day our children will be taking care of America.

Second, every American community will have the opportunity to develop a comprehensive plan to fight its own poverty in its own way, according to its own judgments, and according to its own will. We will help those communities carry out those plans that they provide. We are asking local communities to lead the way, and we are asking you to return to your communities and provide the leadership.

The men frequently do the talking and the women do the working. We are counting on private initiative and individual responsibility.

Third, dedicated Americans will have the opportunity to enlist as volunteers. I expect the women of America to be the first to enlist in this war on poverty for the benefit of their children, not only for this generation but the children of future generations.

One out of every three Peace Corps volunteers now serving overseas is a woman. At least two of every four volunteers in the war on poverty at home should be women.

Fourth, many farmers will have the opportunity to break through particular barriers which bar their escape from poverty.

Fifth, the entire Nation will have the opportunity for a concerted attack on a domestic enemy which threatens the strength of our land.

I believe this war can be won. I have already seen proof. This morning I visited South Bend, Ind., after leaving Chicago at 6:50. I saw South Bend, which suffered a severe economic blow last December, when its largest industry closed down and 8,700 people were put out of work on Christmas Eve. Today I saw a city that is fighting back. With the combined efforts of State and local and federal governments and private organizations, South Bend is retraining its workers, placing others in jobs, and attracting new industry.

Here in Pittsburgh, steel employment has suffered for 6 long, weary years. By last year, more than 100,000 workers were without jobs, and many families were leaving the area in despair. Dave McDonald was telling me this story last week. But Pittsburgh has set out to diversify its industries, to retrain its workers, and unemployment has dropped from 11.1 percent in January of 1963 to 7.5 percent in March of 1964.

I salute not only Mr. McDonald, Senator Clark, Senator Scott, Miss Genevieve Blatt, but all of your delegation and all of the civic-minded people of Pennsylvania. I want to tell you, as I told Governor Lawrence the other day, that we are mighty proud of that progress, but we are not going to rest until unemployment is out of date in Pittsburgh, and until unemployment is out of date in every city in America. One unemployed worker is one too many in this rich, great society.

I am glad that our paths crossed today in Pittsburgh, for you have always been alert to the needs of the weak and the politically mute in our society. Your debates, and your resolutions, and your actions have shown your determination that no Americans shall be forgotten in the time of prosperity.

As a young assistant to a Congressman and a young Congressman 32 years ago in Washington, I remember the League of Women Voters and their resolutions from the capital of Texas coming to my desk. I never saw them partisan; I always saw them patriotic. Your whole program has been geared to the premise that in a Nation with an annual gross national product of $608.5 billion, the richest in the world, no American family should settle for anything less than three warm meals a day, a warm house, a good education for their children, a house of worship where they can go and worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience, and sometimes simply just to plain enjoy life.

But I hope as you meet here in this beautiful hotel, with all these great civic leaders of both parties and all religions, I hope that you will remember that many American families have much less. That is why I am going on this five-State tour today. I want to see those that have less. I want to talk to those who have less. I want to listen to those who have less. And I want to do something about those who have less.

I was an NYA director back in the early days of the Roosevelt administration in 1935 when we were taking kids out of box cars, who were riding the rails. We saw them getting their breakfast by culling grapefruit rinds that had been thrown in the garbage can. I knew a lot of social workers during those days, and I still do.

One of the finest women that I ever knew, a social worker, told me that she had called on a family at mealtime not long ago. She told me the surroundings were meager. During the mealtime she noticed one of the many small children who was not eating. When she asked the child why, the answer was, "It is not my day to eat."

Our society must not tolerate that kind of situation. for the first time in our history, an America without hunger is a practical prospect, and it must, it just simply must, become the urgent business of all men and women of every race and every religion and every region.

The other night, my little teenage daughter came home and said--and I don't think she was being very original--"Daddy, as an outsider, how do you feel about the human race?" The truth is that in this land of wealth, and abundance, and plenty, too many of us are outsiders to the suffering, the want, and the hopes of other human beings.

It has been said that God has made no one absolute; the rich depend on the poor, as well as the poor on the rich. The world is but a magnificent building. All the stones are gradually cemented together. No one really subsists by himself alone.

I believe that, and I believe you do, too. We are working for a stronger America. The goal of my administration is to work for a greater society, and try to unite men of good will in both parties to build a greater society, not just here but throughout the world. I have come here today to ask your help in that work. I don't want you to answer me like the man who slept through the preacher's sermon down in my hill country.

Every Sunday he would come and get on the front row and sleep all during the sermon. finally the preacher got a little irritated, and one Sunday he said, "All the people"--the fellow was snoring on the front row he said in a low voice, "All you people who want to go to Heaven, please rise." Everyone stood up except the man that was asleep. When they sat down, the preacher said in a very loud voice that was calculated to arouse him, "All of you men that want to go to hell, please stand up." The man jumped up. He looked around in back of him, he looked at his wife, and she was sitting down; he looked at his grandmother and she was sitting down, at his children and they were sitting down. He looked at the preacher somewhat frustrated and he said, "Preacher, I don't know what it is we are voting on, but you and I seem to be the only two for it."

Now we have Judge Musmanno who is running for the Senate; we have Genevieve Blatt; we have Senator Scott. All of them are seeking political understanding in the great State of Pennsylvania this year. We have Senator Joe Clark and one of the finest congressional delegations that I have ever known here.

We have men of both parties; we have people of all colors; we have women of all religions, all races, all shapes, all kinds of dresses, all different hairdo's. But if my administration thinks only of yesterday and today, I shall have been a failure. What I want it to think of and what I want it to be remembered for is that every child, whether he is born of poor parents, in a poor neighborhood, will have good opportunities. I hope that we can build this great society so that no child will ever have to say in any territory where that flag flies, "This is not my day to eat."

I appeal to you, if you forget everything else I have said except this, please remember that with our wealth and our production, and our gross national product, and our business profits--they are up 50 percent--our wages up $50 billion, if we cannot drive poverty from our midst, or at least start to drive it from our midst, in an atmosphere like this, then God help us, we never will.

I don't want to be remembered as a "can't do" man.

Thank you very much.

I want to add just one thing: I really wasn't serious when I said I didn't come down here to recruit women for Government service. I have asked your president and your new president, and I want to ask each of you, if you know some exceptional, some outstanding, some great character, I wish that you would take time out and drop us a little note at the White House and tell us about her.

We just got Dr. Bunting to come down from Radcliffe College to be the first woman to ever serve on the Atomic Energy Commission. In all these years, men have been making the bombs and women have been bearing the children that they are dropped upon. So I am mighty glad to have that great woman sitting in those councils to determine how many we make, and how we use them, and what we do about them.

There are a great many more women that have taken high places, but we haven't begun yet.