Remarks at the Dedication of the Rathbun Dam Near Centerville, Iowa.

Governor Ray, Senator Miller, Congressman Kyl, Congressman Smith, all of the distinguished guests on the platform, and all of those who have come to the dedication of Rathbun Dam:

I want you to know that for me this is somewhat of a homecoming. It allows me to ,tell you just a little bit out of my own life, which has already been referred to by Governor Ray in his introduction. As I flew into the Ottumwa Air Base today, or now the Ottumwa Airport, I thought back to 29 years ago. I had just finished my indoctrination at Quonset Point, Rhode Island. Like all others who went through the indoctrination course, I was asked by the personnel officer what duty would I prefer. Well, coming as I did from California, I put as my first choice, "sea duty."

When I got my orders it said, "Naval Air Station, Ottumwa." I asked somebody there, "Where is Ottumwa?" I found out soon enough. So, we came to Ottumwa, and I will never forget my first visit to the Naval Air Station. It was in the middle of a very cold Iowa winter. We drove out to an old farmhouse out in the middle of a great cornfield. The snow was piled high. And believe me, there was no body of water in which you could sail a boat for miles around.

The standing joke among those of us who were assigned to that Naval Air Station in those early days when it was being built was that here we were in the Navy, in the middle of Iowa, but certainly, no bodies of water big enough for boats of any size.

Now, to come back 29 years later, and to fly by helicopter over this magnificent body of water, the largest body of water not only in this State but in all the area around, I can simply say: I did not promise then that that would happen. I was not running for anything then. I was just in the Navy, as many others were. But I am glad that after 29 years I finally found the water I asked for 29 years ago right here in Iowa.

I am so delighted, too, that so many of you have come here on this magnificent day to give me the opportunity to participate with the other distinguished guests on this platform in the dedication of this dam and of this lake.

I saw the cars parked for almost miles around. I know you had to walk quite a way. And I know, too, that we had some competition today insofar as what you might have been doing at this moment. It seems that this weekend has been competition generally for me. Yesterday, for example, I was in Canton, Ohio, for a dinner. There was a big crowd, but the master of ceremonies, Kyle Rote, pointed out that he was surprised that any sports fans were there at all because at that very hour the all-star game was being played in Chicago and was on television.

At this time, as you know, at this very hour, if you were watching on television you could see that fantastic ride in a golf cart on the moon. So, I do appreciate the fact that so many of you came, came out here on this beautiful day to this dam site so that I could have the opportunity to talk a bit about it and so that all of us together can share a moment in history, a moment in history on this earth which means so much to the people of this area and, as I will point out in my remarks, so much to America, all Americans.

The building of this lake is a classic example, it seems to me, of the way American resourcefulness converts problems into opportunities. You all remember the floods. I remember back 29 years ago the situation with regard to the fact that this was generally an area where there were flooding problems.

But today, instead of the river floods, you now have the benefit of this dam, this reservoir, and with all the recreational and economic possibilities that they open up. The Corps of Engineers certainly deserves a great deal of credit, and I am glad that tribute was paid to them in the very eloquent invocation.

May I give you a little advice? I presided over the United States Senate for 8 years. What I say now is not said in derogation of the speeches that are made in that great body. But I often said to the Chaplain of the Senate as he opened the Senate with prayer, I said, "Chaplain, do a good job today. You are probably going to make the best speech of the day." Certainly, as we heard this eloquent invocation, it reminded us of our spiritual background, our religious background, and, of course, told us of who was responsible and those to whom we should give our thanks.

We should, of course, express our thanks to the Members of Congress of both parties who have supported this project through the years, authorized in the Eisenhower Administration in 1954, but money not appropriated until 1964, when John Kyl, the Congressman from this district, worked on the appropriation and when Jack Miller, as a Senator, also worked on it.

But I want to say that, in addition to the Congressmen and the Senators and the others in Washington who can take credit, members of both parties in the Congress, much of the credit, as a matter of fact-let me say, speaking somewhat as an expert as to how these projects finally get built goes to the people out in front of me here in this audience, to ,the people through the years who never gave up hope. You dreamed of this dam and what it could do for southern Iowa. And despite the fact that you went up the Hill and down the Hill, got it authorized and then waited 7 years before a dime was appropriated for it, to you goes the credit, because you had the vision and the energy to plan the project and you had the vision and the energy and the determination to push it through to its completion.

Some of you may have seen an open letter which appeared in the Centerville Iowegian--is that correct?--several weeks ago; I asked John Kyl and he said, "Well, most people don't pronounce it quite that precisely." But the Centerville Iowegian-one of the readers of that paper sent me a copy of this open letter, and the editor sent me one, too, inviting me to come out for the dedication. I am sure that some of you happened to read the letter. Let me tell you what the most persuasive part of it was to me. It had a great deal to do with my coming, in addition, of course, to the invitation extended by people here and by John Kyl, Jack Miller.

Here is what the letter said. It said by coming to Centerville and, of course, here to Lake Rathbun, I would be able to "see once again the heart of rural America, an area valiantly struggling to stay in the mainstream of our national development."

Think of that as you hear what I now say. To me there is nothing more important than to keep our rural areas and their people right in the American mainstream.

As I have learned a little about the Rathbun area, and I can see what that letter meant, the record of the last 10 years is impressive. You recall that there was a very severe population loss in the 1950's, a population loss which has been felt by the loss of a Congressman by result of redistricting. But Centerville brought the decline almost to a standstill in the 1960's, and now you are ready to start gaining in the years ahead.

How did you do it? Well, you attracted new industry. You moved successfully from a largely agricultural economy in 1960, to one evenly balanced today between agriculture and industry. Now, with the opening of this Lake Rathbun, you are introducing into the economic picture a third very promising. element: recreation.

I saw all the boats down there. I thought of them, the fishing boats, and all of the opportunities that were there, and the thousands of people that will be coming there from all over Iowa and Missouri and the other surrounding country to enjoy these recreation opportunities.

So what we find here is that the communities in this region--Ottumwa, Centerville, all the other cities and towns represented-what you are doing is to resist rural stagnation, and you are moving forward with healthy rural development.

That same story, I can report to you, is being repeated thousands of times over in other parts of rural America. I was down in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a few weeks ago, dedicating another project like this. There it has revitalized the whole area, the building of a dam with the water and all the other resources that result from it.

What is happening is that rural development, which was for so long in the early periods of the history of this country taken for granted, and recently so long ignored, is finally starting to get the attention it deserves. The people of this Nation's farms and the smaller communities have not been receiving their fair share of progress and prosperity and the better things of life. You, you in this audience, you all over Iowa, you through the heartland of America are determined to change that. And I can tell you today, we in Washington are determined to help you to change it.

This does not mean to say that we are setting rural America against urban America, because if you talk to people that live in the great cities of America you will find that they have begun to realize that unbridled, unplanned urban growth and concentration of population are giving rise to some very grave problems.

Just pouring more and more and more people into already overcrowded cities isn't the way to build a better country. The way to build a better country is to discover again the grace and the beauty of this heartland of America so that people, instead of moving out, will move back here and develop it again.

So our goal is balanced growth for America, and the key to that is a program to revitalize the American countryside.

Let me just tell you some of the steps we have taken in that direction during the past 2 1/2 years. We have more than doubled the number of loans and grants for rural housing. We have increased the number of loans and grants to provide rural water and sewer systems by almost 30 percent. We have expanded resources conservation and development, flood prevention, watershed, river basin programs by more than 50 percent. I was very impressed to see on farm after farm the developments there of water and the fact that that has changed the whole ecological development in this area.

We have expanded the Extension Service community development program by 50 percent. We have proposed a new program of special revenue sharing for rural community development. We have provided the removal of strings and limitations under this program so that the people at the State and local level, you, you people here, make your decisions about how best to use your rural development money rather than to have those decisions all made for you by somebody in Washington, D.C.

The $1.1 billion program budgeted for it in the first year represents a 24 percent increase over past spending levels. Special revenue sharing for education, transportation, law enforcement, manpower would also help towns like Centerville and counties like the four around Lake Rathbun; and general revenue sharing--Governor Ray will be interested in this-provides a first year share of more than $74 million for the State of Iowa.

To restore, to develop, to maintain: This is what America owes its countryside. We must restore the farmer to his rightful place of prosperous production and a fair share of America's increasing prosperity.

We must develop the economic potential of our rural areas so that the people who live there can be first-class citizens enjoying a first-class way of life. And we must maintain the precious values which America has traditionally drawn from her open spaces--the moral strength, the self-reliant spirit, the sound character, the natural beauty, the unlimited horizons.

As we work together in these efforts, we will assure not only the Lake Rathbun area but all of our rural areas of a place in which that letter which was sent to me and which brought me here calls "the mainstream of our national development."

Now, if I could relate for this great audience here in the heartland of America what I have said about this project and your area to all of America, let me return again to those three Americans on the moon.

We can think of them now on the moon, two of them on the moon, riding in the golf cart. And they look down on earth, what does it look like? Well, we have had descriptions from other astronauts, and often they have remarked about the fact that from far out there the earth looks like a very peaceful planet.

So, I speak a moment on that subject because I know that here in the heartland of this country you are concerned not just about your rural development, not just about your economic development, but you are concerned about peace for America and peace for the world.

I can tell you that at this time I believe the prospects for America--and particularly the young children that I see here in such great numbers--to enjoy a full generation of peace are better than they have been at any time since the close of World War II.

I can tell you first that we are ending the longest and most difficult war in which America has been engaged, and we are ending it in a way that will contribute to a lasting peace.

Also, as you have heard, I am planning a journey to Mainland China. The purpose of that journey involves not just peace for my generation, but even more, it affects peace for generations to come, because looking far to the future we cannot have a peaceful world if 800 million of the most creative, able people in the world, one-fourth of all the people in the world, are isolated from the rest of the world.

So that is why I believe the President of the United States should take the first step to establish a new communication with that one-fourth of the world's people who live in Mainland China, so that we can have a better chance for peace in the generations to come.

Getting peace is not easy; keeping the peace is not easy. But I can assure you that we are dedicated to that proposition. It is a goal that I think we have a very good chance to achieve.

But as we get the peace and we keep the peace the question then comes: What do we do with it? I think all of us in America must recognize that as the world becomes more peaceful, it will become far more competitive. That is what we are learning today.

We are learning that Western Europe, the Soviet Union, the potential of Mainland China, Japan, not to mention the other great areas of the world, more and more are developing the ability to compete with the United States of America.

Let me put it in its clearest context: Today America is the strongest nation in the world. Today America is the richest nation in the world. But in order to remain number one, the first nation in the world in strength and the first nation in the world in wealth, America is going to have to develop all of its resources.

No part of the country, like this part of the country, can be left out of that development. No group of Americans can be left out of that development. Every American must have a chance to make his contribution to the development of America's greatness.

In addition to that, if we are going to maintain our position, it is essential that this Nation have the drive and the purpose and the dedication to do so. I am sometimes asked, what difference does it make? Why do we care whether America is number one economically in the world? Let me tell you why it makes a great deal of difference: not because we want to be ahead of somebody else so that they can be number two, but for two very fundamental reasons.

First, because in the last part of this century, whether we have peace will depend primarily upon the United States of America. And that is a good thing for the world because whatever you may have heard and whatever the criticisms of American foreign policy have been, we can be proud of the fact that in four wars in this century Americans have fought, Americans have died, not for an acre of territory, not to dominate any other country, but for the freedom of other people. And it is that kind of leadership that the world needs so that peace can be safe in the world. That is why America should maintain that strength--so a strong and vigorous America will contribute to peace.

But then there is another reason. I know that many of the young people here are students of history, as I once was so many years ago. As you study the history of great nations, you will find that unless a people seek great goals they lose their greatness.

Once a people decide that it doesn't matter whether they excel, once they resign themselves to be second best, then they find that they lose in every other way. That is the beginning of the end of great civilizations.

I say to you today: We cannot let that happen to America. Let us see to it that we recognize that this country has become great because people have dedicated themselves to making it the country that it is.

We have worked hard. We have had great purpose. We have had great loyalty. We have been willing to make great sacrifices, and as a result we have reached the position where today we can proudly say to our young people: In no country in the world today can you be born and have the opportunity of having more freedom, more opportunity, better jobs, higher wages, than in America. Let's keep it that way, and the way to keep it that way is to continue to work for a better America.

That brings me now back again to this wonderful audience that I see in front of me, the people that I found here 29 years ago and the people I see today.

My wife and I left Ottumwa but we did not leave behind people who were not our friends. Those friends we have kept through the years, and we also took away with us a memory, a memory of people that were deeply religious, deeply patriotic, people who were self-reliant, people who had the courage and the character that has made this country great.

America today needs that kind of contribution from its heartland. We need the development of, the maintenance of our American rural heartland and its strength.

I can simply say to you that here today, at this historic moment when we dedicate this beautiful lake, this project which is the realization of the dreams of hundreds, perhaps thousands, in this audience, let us remember: It will help this area of the country but it will also help America.

It will help America by revitalizing our rural countryside, by allowing people to stay here with gainful opportunities in employment, with a better life than would otherwise be the case.

And let us also be thankful on this particular occasion that we live in a beautiful country. I know you hear quite often, and we all hear those things that are wrong about America, and there are things wrong; but there are some who go to the conclusion that because we have problems in our cities, because we have problems in crime, because we have problems sometimes with young people, and the rest, that, first, these things are new, but second, that this makes America an ugly country.

Don't you believe it. If you fly over this country as we did today and look down on the beauty of this land, if you look at a great audience of Americans of both political parties, see them sitting here as you are, listening to the President of the United States so attentively as you have, then you would say, as I say: This is a beautiful country, and we have the great privilege of having the opportunity to make it even more beautiful for the generations to come.