Remarks to the President's Committee on National Employ the Physically Handicapped Week

Mr. Secretary of Labor, Mr. Chairman, members of the Cabinet, and ladies and gentlemen:

I am glad to welcome you to this sixth annual meeting of the President's Committee on National Employ the Physically Handicapped Week.

As you know, I have been deeply interested in the work of this organization ever since it was established. And it has never been more important than it is today.

Some people may feel that your work is now overshadowed by the important events which are occurring in the struggle for a just and lasting peace. But this is not the case. At a time like this it is essential that our country use all its productive resources. Our national strength is the chief reliance of the free world in its effort to overcome the forces of tyranny and aggression.

For that reason we need the contribution that every citizen is capable of making. This Committee knows that those who have physical handicaps can work as effectively as those who have no handicaps, provided they have jobs fitted to their capabilities. They are needed today in the great productive efforts of our Nation.

I urge this Committee therefore to redouble its efforts to place before all the employers of this Nation and all the groups concerned with employment the very simple message that the physically handicapped can and should be employed. Only in this way can we enable the handicapped to play their full part in strengthening our Nation.

There is another reason why it is important to encourage and increase the employment of the physically handicapped.

Our Nation is strong because it is loved by the citizens. We love our country not as an abstraction or a theory but because it offers us the chance to lead useful lives and to do what we can for those around us. It offers us independence. Those who are physically handicapped are often cut off from making their independent contribution to the welfare of all and are reduced to being dependent on others. In many cases this is entirely unnecessary. They can do as much and earn as much as the physically perfect, if they are guided to the right job and accepted on merit. In this way they can share in the greatest satisfaction of American life--to be independent and self-supporting.

This is the objective of the work you are doing. Your work is not only humanitarian, it is also patriotic, because it strengthens the ties that bind us all together in loyalty to our country.

Every year more groups and more individuals are participating in this great campaign to employ the physically handicapped. I have just signed a proclamation designating the week beginning October 1 as National Employ the Physically Handicapped Week. The observance of that week is vitally important but our campaign is not just a 1-week affair. While our public appeal will be concentrated in that week, the job of securing employment for the handicapped has now become a year-round effort.

I wish particularly to thank the many State Governors who have been of real assistance in this year-round program. I should like the chairmen of the State committees, who represent their Governors here, to take home with them my personal thanks and the thanks of the Federal Government for the work which the States have been carrying on.

I hope that the State committees will enlist the membership and the active support of all the groups represented on this national committee. The people in the State public employment services and the State vocational rehabilitation services have been doing a wonderful job. I know that, for I have inspected some of the work that these people have been doing, myself, personally, But this program cannot be fully successful if they are asked to do all the work. The State committees need the participation of businessmen, industrialists, and labor union representatives, as well as Government experts.

Our Federal, State, and local government agencies must set a good example in the employment of the handicapped. I am happy to report to you that the Federal Government has made real progress in this field since our last meeting. I am glad to learn that this Committee is going to set up a special subcommittee to work on the problem of securing greater employment opportunities for the handicapped in the State and municipal governments.

The problem of the physically handicapped is a tremendous one. We must attack it in two ways.

First, we must do everything we can to prevent disabling accidents and diseases. Through accident prevention and through preventive medicine, we can do a great deal to reduce the number of persons who become disabled each year. And I am devoting just as much time to those things as I am to anything else in Government, for it is just as important.

Second, we must improve our skills and increase our efforts for rehabilitating those who are disabled. This requires us to improve our programs for better medical care, for providing education and training, individual counseling, and specialized job placement. Through these activities we can conserve human resources of our country. Through them we can strengthen and improve our most valuable asset--the lives of our citizens. The expenditures which we make on such programs are returned to us many times over in the productive lives of those who are benefited.

These programs are not luxuries. I have recommended to the Congress specific proposals to expand them. I have recommended, and the Congress has provided, increased appropriations to make the working of this Committee more effective. I have also recommended expansion of the programs for vocational rehabilitation, for the prevention of industrial accidents, and for increasing medical facilities and medical training. These programs represent a profitable investment for our country. More important, they represent the right approach to the problems of our citizens.

I hope that you will have great success this year in your campaign for employment of the physically handicapped. Nothing is more important in the rehabilitation than the final step--the acceptance, by employers and by the public, of the physically handicapped as normal members of a productive society. That is our goal. And it is only through the efforts of individuals and organizations represented on this Committee, and on State and municipal committees, that this goal can be reached.

As you go about your labors, there is one thought in particular that I would like you to keep in mind. The activity in which you are engaged is important to our civilization because it reflects the high value which we place on the individual human lives.

Today, we are confronted by forces which have little or no regard for human life. We are confronted by those who think of human lives only in terms of power. For them the individual is of no consequence. They think of the people only as an instrument for achieving their own lawless ambitions.

In our society, on the other hand, human life is infinitely precious. Human life is something that comes to us from beyond this world, and the purpose of our society is to cherish it and to enable the individual to attain the highest achievement of which he is capable. That is why this Committee exists and that is why so many people, including yourselves, give so generously of their time and effort in aiding their fellow men.

The work which you are doing demonstrates to all the world what we mean when we say that human life is God-given and infinitely valuable. This is a vital service in the cause of freedom. The success of your efforts today is important to the progress of all humanity.