I APPRECIATE this most highly. I sincerely hope that I deserve it. It is quite an honor to receive a citation such as this. It is usually the business of the President to give citations, not to receive them. And I appreciate this more highly, for the simple reason that I will be out of a job after the 20th day of January, and things like this won't come very often.
It certainly is kind and thoughtful of you to come down and bring it to me, and I appreciate it.
Note: The President spoke at 11:08 a.m. in the Rose Garden at the White House.
The association presented to the President its 1952 Founders' Award. The citation read, in part, "To the Honorable Harry S. Truman, President of the United States of America. In recognition of his keen sense of appreciation of the problems involved in the immigration and nationality policy of the United States, his forthrightness in dealing with them, and his affirmative steps to ease the hazards to the nobility and dignity of individuals regardless of race, color, creed or national origin."
Harry S Truman, Remarks to the Association of Immigration and Nationality Lawyers. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/231237
