Lyndon B. Johnson photo

Remarks to the Delegates to a Conference of State Legislative Leaders.

June 16, 1966

Governor Bryant and distinguished legislators:

I hope all of you have seated yourselves; I think it is asking enough of you to sit out in this sun without asking you to stand and listen to a speech. We would have you in the East Room except for the fact that some of our million-odd visitors happen to be going through there at this time of day and we do not want to cut them off because we might get a resolution in that connection if we did !

I am very grateful to you for coming here to Washington to participate in this conference in the Nation's Capital. The role of a legislator is one that is very familiar to me. I grew up in that tradition. My father was elected to the Texas Legislature 4 years before I discovered America. And he completed his service there in the early twenties. So I had some understanding of the problems of a legislator during my formative years.

Automobiles, at that time, were a novelty in our country. And I remember how my father traveled back and forth to Austin in a horse and buggy. And I think that we could truly say that during that period it was really horse and buggy government.

But we had our problems and our challenges. They were anti-prohibition and anti-Klan and anti-women suffrage and all those things in those days. They have changed some now, and the 20th century and the problems of 1966 are somewhat different.

But having been in the legislative atmosphere in Washington for 35 years, with the background that I have, I think you can understand why I am anxious to have you come here. Because I think we are entering a new era of relations between the State and the Federal Government. I think we are going to prove that federalism, America's unique contribution to political science, will be equal to the challenges that face us in the 20th century.

There are some who say that the State governments have become obsolete, that they have failed to meet their challenge. But if we admit such failure we admit that the American system has failed. And I think that you know and I know that that is not true.

So, if we come here together and reason together, and exchange viewpoints and accept facts, and draw conclusions and make recommendations, we can prove, I think, that Federal, State, and local governments can join together shoulder to shoulder to insure all the social and economic development which our age demands.

Now that is not an easy task. And I realize that the domestic approaches are not always at that moment as enthusiastically received by the States, by the counties, by the cities, by the homefolks, as they are when they are presented.

Yesterday I talked to a group about medical care. And if I had made the observations 20 years ago about medical care that I made yesterday, I would have been driven out of the Capitol. It has taken a good long period of time for our people, all of them, to see and accept that development. So has it taken them a good long time to really see and accept and embrace the Bill of Rights. It took us a good period of time to see them formulated, and to see them guaranteed, and to see them preserved.

As a matter of fact, the court works on them every day to see that they are not chipped away. I do not have time to go into it with you in detail this morning, but I would hope that this Government in this time, in our time, would be remembered for its own particular Bill of Rights. I think that a citizen of America--black or white or brown, Catholic or Jew or Baptist or Protestant, any kind, north or south, east or west, farmer or cab driver--I think that he ought to have the right to be free, and to break it down in some detail, I would say that is the right to vote--unchallenged, unintimidated, unblackmailed, unhandcuffed.

He ought to have that right. He ought to have the right to eat in any public cafe. He ought to have the right to sleep where the public is welcome. He shouldn't have to drive night after night to try to find a bed, because his religion is such or his color is such that he cannot be accepted because of the peculiarities of someone who holds him out--themselves out to serve the public. So I think he ought to have a right to be free.

I think every child born in this country ought to have a right to all the education he can take. Now we are debating whether it should start at 4 years old or 6 years old, or whatever age. That is a detail we can work out. But I do believe that we, in our time, can and have and must do something about the right of every child to get all the education he can take.

I am not interested in the image or the appearance of it. I am interested in the accomplishment and the achievement. I am interested in the results we obtain.

Now, what are we doing in that field? We passed the Elementary School Act. It was pretty difficult getting it passed. I have been around here for 30 years hearing people talk about Federal aid to schools. And it has been generally opposed by very vociferous people.

The Jewish organizations--I went out and made a speech to B'nai B'rith, and the next morning they resolved against my elementary school bill. I was like the lawyer who said he made the greatest speech that he ever made in his lifetime before the jury. He was asked, "What did they do to your client?" And he said, "They hung him."

I thought at one time that I had the Catholics where they would go along with the school bill, only to find that the subcommittee didn't think so at all. And just about the time I had it all put together, one of my Baptist friends called up and said that he wanted me to know that he thought the Pope had taken over Washington and they couldn't go along with that bill, either.

One of my secretaries told him that I couldn't talk then. He said, "Why?" She said, "He is out talking to Dr. Graham--he is swimming with Dr. Graham." He said, "You don't mean he is swimming in the middle of the day--the President?" She said, "Yes, he is out swimming before lunch." He said, "Who did you say he was swimming with?" She said, "Dr. Graham." He said, "Our Billy?" And I think the fact that Dr. Graham was here--"our Billy" was here at that time--kind of helped us to put those factions together.

But, the fact that the B'nai B'rith and the Catholic organizations on welfare and Dr. Graham and the Baptists and others finally agreed on the elementary school bill--it had never been done before--we have over a billion dollars this year going down on the basis of needs to children.

We have a vocational education bill. We have a higher education bill. For the first time in the history of America, a poor child that has the qualifications, who has completed the prescribed course of study--that child can either get a job to go to college, can get a loan to go to college, or can get a scholarship to go to college. Now that has never existed before, so I think we ought to have a right to all the education we can take.

The right to good health in this country, I think is another right that this Government-Democrats and Republicans, independents and progressives, reactionaries and conservatives, and liberals and radicals-all of them ought to join together in the right to good health. And we are trying to do everything we can about it.

We have roughly 18 million people who are going to have hospital treatment available to them, medical treatment available to them, nursing home treatment available to them, medicines available to them. Most of you are not 65. But I imagine most of you have an uncle or an aunt or a grandma who is 65. And you must know what a relief it is for them to have the feeling that without bothering their son-in-law or brother-in-law they can go in, not as a charity patient, or not because some mayor has called up and said, "We will let them occupy a bed down here that the city will pay for." But they can go in with their card and have hospital care and nursing care and medical care.

Now, we have a billion dollars that we are spending on medical research so that the time will come when our life expectancy will not be 70 years, but will be materially increased. I have spent the morning talking to some very exciting people: Ambassador Porter, who is just here from Vietnam (he is the principal deputy to Ambassador Lodge--he is in charge of our civil program out there) and Mr. Robert Komer, who is a top man on my Security Council staff in charge of Vietnam matters.

We have two phases of the war out there. I am going to let you in on a secret. You have heard just about the military phase; this other has been kept under wraps. We do not know much about it, because Captain Carpenter giving an order to come in to bomb his position is much more dramatic than some fellow that is washing up the kids, and treating their wounds, and teaching them to read and write--a Marine who has fought all day, that is working all night to help in these things.

But we are doing a great job there on health. And what we are doing on education, and on health, and on conservation, and on beautification, and on housing, and on slums in this country is contagious. And it is moving to other countries. It is setting an example for other countries.

In Vietnam today the average citizen dies at 35--at the age of 35! Now because of what we have done--all these domestic programs that a lot of people don't approve of when they start, and they got a lot of holes, you can run a wagon through them sometimes, until you get them perfected. So did the veteran's pension. So did the bonus. So did social security. So did agriculture conservation. So did REA. I remember the great weaknesses we had in that program the first year. But who would repeal REA and social security and school lunch and those things now?

So we are trying to put some of those things in--not just in this country but in other countries. We have distributed 11 million schoolbooks to the children of Vietnam, in this nation of 14 million, already. We have doubled their rice production. We are going to materially increase their life expectancy. And when Uncle Sam leaves that country--and it can't be too soon to suit us--we hope that we can provide all the help they need until they are able to take over themselves. Then that we can come back home just as we have on every other effort that we have made in that direction, and let them carry on and develop. But one thing you can be sure of: We are going to make a material contribution to their education, to their production, to their way of life, to their health, to increasing their life expectancy.

So these rights--the right to be free, the right to receive all the education you can take, the right to good health, the right to enjoy the fruits of conservation and scenic beauty, as you are seeing here in the first house of the land, but I would like to see in every city and county and courtyard and city hall and State yard in this Capital--all of those things are making progress in this country and I think are spilling over into other nations.

Why? Because an essential, basic part of our defense of this country is to serve notice on all the people who live in this world with us that gangsterism and aggression and force are not to be rewarded.

Now we were hesitant to do that in World War II when Hitler went through Poland. We thought we could sit that one out. We had a lot of the fathers of that time who said it was not our concern. They carried umbrellas around saying that we had been to Europe to save democracy in World War I, and that we shouldn't get involved in World War II.

But we find that when an aggressor is on the march, when a conqueror is out to subjugate, that he doesn't just eliminate the most desirable. We have what other people want. And if they develop the strength and the power to take it, don't you think they won't! So, in due time, almost too late-when I think of some of the problems I have now, I am rather thankful they are not any more than they are because I remember in August before Pearl Harbor in December, that President Roosevelt had a Congress that voted 203 to 202 to extend the draft--by only one vote. And I think what the consequences would have been if we had sent the Army home!

But we had men in the Senate at that time, that were on the Foreign Relations Committee, who said they had better information than the President. Thank goodness the President had that one-vote margin! And I am not sure that some higher force didn't contribute to it. Because I thought I had been elected to the Senate in July of that year, but they counted down there about a week and I was finally defeated for the Senate 1,311 votes. I had to return to my House seat. And I was there to cast I of those 203 votes that did not send the Army home.

So when you come in here today in this period of time when we are trying to guarantee not only our Bill of Rights but our rights to good health, our rights to education, our rights to be free, our rights to enjoy ourselves and raise our families in good environments, and our rights to liberty and freedom--it means we cannot have those rights unless we try to help other people preserve them, too.

So we say to any other would-be conqueror: When and if you attempt by force to subjugate people, you will meet the United States of America.

President Eisenhower and Secretary Dulles presented to the Congress a commitment of that kind and the Congress entered into it 82 to 1.

And we were called upon to perform on that commitment when aggression started. We are now doing our best to provide the maximum amount of deterrence with the minimum amount of loss.

We have lost over 2,000 men who have died in battle in Vietnam this year--2,000. We lost 50,000 on our highways last year. But would that we had not lost any!

But we cannot tell what the days ahead hold for us. We know they are going to be difficult. We know they are going to require sacrifice. Everything we have ever done in our history to preserve freedom has required it. But we are going to continue on, to carry out our military effort to prevent that deterrent--and our civil effort to educate and to improve the health and to give the training and to increase the production on the civil side of the people in that country.

And I am very grateful--I didn't know you had a resolution considered. I get a good many resolutions and it is always heartening when I get one like this. I hear a lot about petitions these days. That is a right that we all enjoy and that we freely exercise.

But I am delighted that as a result of your judgments and your deliberations and your experiences, that you would feel that you would want to pass a resolution such as I had read to me.

Secretary Rusk has just returned from a NATO conference in Brussels. We regret very much that General de Gaulle has felt it necessary to express himself as he has. We have accepted what he has said more in sorrow than in anger. And we, and our other allies in NATO--the 14--have met and have reached judgments which are in the process of being executed.

We hope in due time that events will prove that those judgments are wise. We believe in collective security and we are going to make whatever contribution to it we can. We are doing the same thing in Southeast Asia.

We have met with the Prime Minister of India and with the President of Pakistan. And we think we have made a contribution to trying to bring about better understanding in that part of the world.

We have just completed a year of trial in the Dominican Republic. Under a provisional government, we have said to all the would-be conquerors that you cannot, by force, come in and set up governments and enslave people. We will provide the assistance that is necessary through the Organization of American States in cooperation with our neighbors in this hemisphere to make this hemisphere safe from would-be conquerors, and allow the people, themselves, to select their own type of government. And in a free election, with numerous observers from all factions, by a majority in excess of over 200,000, a President has been chosen, and will be installed.

So the hemisphere is making progress. Two and a half years ago our per capita growth was 1 percent in this hemisphere. It is now in excess of 2 1/2.

I had a group of African diplomats in last week. We are very concerned with their problems. We are doing what we can to help those newly born nations achieve not only the independence that they have so long sought and desired, but during this growing period to help them by more material means establish stability. So when you look at Europe, when you look at Africa, when you look at Asia, we have a great deal to be thankful for.

We are moving ahead. We are making progress. Our Nation can be proud of what it is doing there as well as what it is doing here. In no period of our national history have we made more progress in the field of education and health and conservation than we have made in the sixties. And in all of that effort we welcome your cooperation and we welcome your support--and we think as a result of your meeting here that good things will flow from it.

I propose to submit to the Congress this next session--I have 90 measures I have submitted this time, I have only had 60 of them acted upon by the House committee. I met with their chairman yesterday. So I do not think I will submit much more this session--may have one or two extra things. But, next year I am going to submit to Congress legislation for a management exchange program that will allow Federal officials to work out arrangements with State and local governments and to give State and local officials a chance to work at the Federal level.

We have done some of this by mutual exchange. But I hope to have legislation that will underwrite a program where we can bring all phases of our Government closer together.

I think the States will have to adopt appropriate arrangements, and I hope they will want to. We are considering, and I solicit your suggestion, ways in which the Government can help States and cities in their training programs of junior officials.

I have already asked the Director of the Budget to report to me before the start of the next Congress on how we can lend Federal support to programs for training State and local executives. I find that one of the best sources of the employees for the Federal Government are men who have been trained at the State level. And I thank you for producing those men and for making them available to us in our military and in our civilian effort.

Governor Bryant has a specific injunction and responsibility to not only maintain contact with each of the Governors of the 50 States and the Territories, but also to maintain contact with the legislative leaders of both parties in those States.

We make mistakes, and we know it and we regret them. We wish we could avoid making them. Perhaps if we can hear from you soon enough you can correct them before they develop into very serious matters. So, in the spirit of give and take I want you to know that we are grateful for your coming here.

I need all the help I can get. I am doing my deadlevel best to provide this country and our people with as good a government as I am capable of. I am doing the best I can. But I can do better--if the Governors of the States, if the responsible legislative leaders of that State, will come in and tell me of things that we can do, and emphasize those things more than if they just tell others about things that we should not have done.

No man in public life--and certainly not one who has reached the stage that I am in now--ever ran on a platform of doing what was wrong. We all think that we are doing right. But our problem is not to do what is right. Our problem is to know what is right.

And when you have to look at this problem of 120 nations with their diverse populations and their backgrounds, and their environments and their geography, and their views and their ancient hatreds and their traditions, when you have 50 States--and I can assure you that the people of Maine and the people of Mississippi don't always see everything alike--then you must make the decision (as President Truman said, "The buck stops here") on what is in the national interest, what is the greatest good for the greatest number.

Now Mr. Rayburn used to have a favorite saying that any donkey could kick a barn down, but it took a good carpenter to build one.

Yesterday I met with the doctors. The day before I met with the bankers. Today I am meeting with the legislators. Tomorrow I will meet with the labor people. The next day I will meet with the committee chairmen.

Over the weekend I met with the legislative leaders of both parties who felt the need of more meetings and who commented on our candor. And I told them everything that I knew--all in the hope that we can not only do what is right but we can do what is right by knowing what is right. So please feel that you are honored by your people--to help your country have the best government that it can possibly have at every level. And I am trying to do that without regard to party, without regard to prejudice, and without regard to the passions of the moment.

Men in this Government are selected on the basis of merit. They are given responsibility and they are supported. If they make mistakes, I try to correct them. And we make plenty. But I think that we can do a better job if all of you will come in here and help us "build this barn."

I am trying, with everything I have got, to build the best barn I can--to put in this goldfish bowl that is called America the best example that we can of what is good, and what is fair, and what is just, and what is right, and something that every other nation would like to emulate.

And we are charged with many motivations. I said to a friend of mine the other night in New York--he'd asked me this question why we would be out 10,000 miles fighting for 14 million people so they could be free and have liberty.

And I said: "We are not just fighting for 14 million. We are fighting for almost 3 billion people who also want freedom and liberty. I know another nation that you are interested in has a few hundred thousand population, and they are not going to be able to stand up to conquerors with their little limited forces if we throw in the towel, and move out of the way of the advancing fide, and come running home, or surrender, or pull in our horns, or send up the white flag. We are fighting for a hundred nations' freedom and liberty, and we are going to continue to fight until men are convinced that it is better to talk than to fight."

We have been convinced of that a long time. We are ready to do that any time, anywhere, with any government. And all they have to do to test us is to name the place and the date, and they will find us there. But until the other side sees the same thing you cannot have a unilateral contract.

The strength that you have given your President and your country by your resolution is appreciated. And I would like to tell each of you that personally. If you will get out of that sun and come in the shade, and walk through the office, I will show you where I spend a good many hours every day. Again thank you personally.

Note: The President spoke at 11 :45 a.m. in the Rose Garden at the White House to the delegates to the National Legislative Leaders Conference. His opening words referred to Farris Bryant, Director of the Office of Emergency Planning, former Governor of Florida, and coordinator of the conference.

During his remarks the President referred, among others, to his father, Sam Ealy Johnson, Jr., who served in the Texas State Legislature 1905-1909 and 1917-1925, evangelist William F. (Billy) Graham, William J. Porter, Deputy U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Vietnam, Henry Cabot Lodge, U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Vietnam, Robert W. Komer, Special Assistant to the President for Peaceful Reconstruction in Vietnam, and to Capt. William S. Carpenter, Jr. commander of C Company, Second Battalion, 502d Infantry Regiment in Vietnam, who on June 9 called for U.S. air strikes on his own position to save his men from annihilation by North Vietnamese troops. The President also referred to John Foster Dulles, Secretary of State during the Eisenhower administration, Dean Rusk, Secretary of State, Charles de Gaulle, President of France, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India, Mohammed Ayub Khan, President of Pakistan, and Sam Rayburn, Representative from Texas 1913-1961, who served as Speaker of the House of Representatives 1940-1947, 1949-1953, 1955-1961.

The resolution which the President mentioned in the closing paragraph was read by Mr. Bryant. In it the legislative leaders expressed their gratitude for the United States military forces in Vietnam and their endorsement of the President's effort "to preserve the independence and security of the people of South Vietnam, to defeat the efforts of Communist aggression, and to achieve as speedily as possible a peaceful and honorable settlement."

The National Legislative Leaders Conference met in the Indian Treaty Room, Executive Office Building, June 15-16, 1966. During the conference the legislative leaders met with Cabinet members and other Federal officials. Discussions were held on such topics as "New Health, Education and Welfare Programs," "The States Part in Poverty Programs," "Law Enforcement and the States," "Metropolitan Problems and the States," "The President's Traffic Safety Program," "Resources and Water Pollution," "Financing Public Services Today," and "Federal-State Cooperation in Telecommunications." The final session was entitled "Creative Federalism-Establishing Better Communications Between the Federal Government and the States."

Lyndon B. Johnson, Remarks to the Delegates to a Conference of State Legislative Leaders. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/238723

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