Remarks to the National 4-H Club Campers

Mr. Secretary, and my young friends:

First, of course, it is my privilege on behalf of the administration to welcome you all here to your Nation's Capital. This I do with very real pleasure. Likewise, I hope I can speak for all of you when I welcome to our shores those among you who are from other lands and who will spend some time with us.

Now, sometime ago, I made a vow that I would never meet during the next few months with any group and make public or private statements that did not have some connection with the program that is now before Congress to be enacted into legislation. Having said those words, I will mention only one little phase of it, in which I hope most of you are interested.

One item in that program asked for the vote for people of your age. It seems to be, for the moment, stymied. But I hope that part of it, at least, you will get behind, and work for as hard as you know how. I personally think that your judgments in the destiny of this Nation are about as good as those of some of us who are many years your senior.

Now, I realize that you are interested, first of all, in the basic occupation of our country, the production of foods and fibers and the preservation of our soil and our water, and that kind of thing. And in all of that work, I wish you every kind of success.

By the way, the delegation here from Arkansas, won't you please assure the 4-H Club that gave me the pig, that the pig is doing well-very well.

Now, I was delighted to find that this year this great group had taken as two of the themes to engage its attention, good citizenship and promotion of world understanding.

Indeed, I think these two subjects are identical. I don't believe you can be a good citizen today without helping to promote world understanding. Certainly, we know that no nation in this modern day, however strong, can live alone. Therefore, if we are going to live, we have to do so. in some understanding of the hopes and aspirations, and needs and requirements, and the capacities of the other nations, just as we hope they know something about us.

We want to ship to them our surpluses, particularly our farm surpluses, and we, therefore, must buy in return from them certain things. Now this requires earnest study and understanding on our part, because when we begin to buy things from abroad, there are likely to be parts of our economy temporarily damaged, and maybe people thrown out of work. We have got to think these things through. We have got to think of them not merely from our side, but from the other fellow's side. In this exchange program in which you. are now engaged, I see tremendous possibilities. I particularly congratulate those among you who are this year having the opportunity to engage in that particular work.

If you are going thoroughly, earnestly, to study this problem of world understanding, you are not going to limit yourself, either, merely to economic matters. You are going to study the histories, the cultures of other nations, how they came to where they are, how much they have contributed to our civilization, how much, in turn, we can contribute to theirs. Because I assure you, if there is one thing of which I know to be true, there is no true peace in the world except through the understanding you people are studying. That is the reason I put so much of my faith in the future of the world in you people, because you are approaching it at the right end: to understand before you make your conclusions, before you reach these pontifical and weighty decisions that affect the lives of all of us. You are trying to understand, and I can't tell you how much I believe in it, support you, and believe in you.

So, as you go about this work, may God prosper you, because in the real success of this kind is our future happiness, prosperity, and peace.

I hope that as time goes on, I will get to see some of you more intimately than is afforded by this one chance to stand up in front of you and expose you to some of the things that I so deeply believe. Maybe, one of these days, I will get a chance to meet with each of you and sit down and let you do the talking--which I greatly prefer.

Thank you for the compliment of asking me out here. It has been wonderful to see you.