Remarks at the Schlesinger Old Folks Home, Beaumont, Texas, Upon Signing Proclamation "Senior Citizens Month, 1968."

Congressman Brooks, Congressman Pickle, Mr. Phillips, Mr. Schlesinger, ladies and gentlemen, and my very dear friends:

Several months ago, at Stanford University in California, a scientific miracle took place: The researchers there demonstrated their ability to create life in a laboratory. Shortly after the Stanford experiments, a South African heart surgeon transplanted a human heart for the first time.

These were great achievements. One day they may change and improve the lives of millions of our people, just as medical research has improved our lives over the past decades from a life expectancy of 54 years in 1920 to a life expectancy of more than 70 years today. Medical science is going to continue slowly and painstakingly to make all of our lives better lives.

Yet, as all of this medical activity is going on, I couldn't help but think that it is not only scientists and medical researchers who make life better for men and women all over the world.

Men in public life can also make life better--and when they are doing their job right, they do make life better for other people.

So I think it is quite important for us to constantly engage in a little introspection and ask ourselves, what are we doing to try to better the lives of others?

When he was 87 years old, a great man in public life, Senator Theodore Francis Green, had this to say about being what is now called a "senior citizen": "Most people say that as you get old you have to give up things. I think you get old because you give up things."

The social miracle that has been happening in our country has allowed tens of millions of older people not to give up things, and not to be afraid of their future. We call that miracle something you never heard of 30 years ago or 50 years ago--we call it "social security."

Medicare is a case in point. It is hard to believe that only 2 1/2 years ago, millions of elderly Americans lived in fear of a sudden medical emergency that could wipe out their savings after a lifetime of hard work.

That was what we called "social insecurity." The enactment of the Medicare bill that we got passed in 1965 eliminated that insecurity and eliminated that fear for more than 19 million proud, elderly Americans--nearly 10 percent of the total population of America. Action by public men, by politicians--an amendment to the law-completely changed life in America, and made it better just as surely as the new scientific advances are going to make life better.

Medicare, like the rest of the social security system, affected the young as well as the old. A man of 40 years of age benefits from Medicare if his dear old father or mother who is 70 years old is covered. Otherwise he might have to pay his father's or mother's hospital bills. Medicare to him may mean that he can afford to send his 18-year-old daughter to college. So, again, life has been changed for the better for all of them.

But perhaps the most important change was the change in attitude between father and son and grandson. Medicare meant the end of a great deal of family friction over dollars. The end of that friction has been a blessing in millions of homes in America.

More dollars--more dignity--will be the result of the new social security amendments that I signed into law in January of this year.

I am here tonight because tomorrow morning, just a few hours from now--all over this great land we love, in all the 50 States of the Union--those dollars will reach home for the first time.

This new law provides the largest, single dollar increase in benefits since social security first started. That means an increase in benefits at an average of 16 percent for 24 million of our elder citizens. It goes up to a new maximum of $234 per month for a retired couple.

Counting the increases of 1965 and including the dollar value of Medicare, that adds up to a 35 percent increase over what it was 30 months ago. Now, that's not enough as far as I am concerned. I asked the Congress and I recommended to the Congress and I urged the Congress to give us an increase averaging 20 percent. And I intend to keep on fighting for that.

Now, let us think, for a moment, what our lives might be like if we didn't have social insurance.

Not long ago, for many Americans, old age was a real calamity. A man might work until he died--or he could work until he became dependent upon his children.

Today, when an elderly man or woman lives with his son or daughter, it is probably because he wants to live there and not because he has to live there. His social security check now is his personal declaration of independence and belongs to him alone.

For a younger man, social security gives protection against long illness or disability. It gives his wife and children protection in the event he dies when he is young. Today, there are 5 1/2 million widows and orphans in this country getting insurance checks-- up to a new monthly maximum under this new law that runs as high as $395 per month. A man earning $8,000 today--with three children aged 2, 4, and 6--knows that if he should die his family would receive some measure of security--about $90,000 in payments over the course of the years to come.

When I discovered America up in my hills almost 60 years ago, we never heard of anything like that. We never dreamed of anything like that. We couldn't envision anything like that. But it is here.

And finally, a young man today knows that he is building up insurance toward his own retirement. A young, able worker, starting out today, knows that he and his wife can get a monthly income of at least $323 a month when he retires.

That is what this new law provides. That is what the young men know they can work toward. That is what the older people know is in store.

Social security was first started, after I had gone to Washington, by a great American--a man who said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." That man's name was Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

As we meet here tonight, we see, a third of a century after Franklin Roosevelt started it--33 years ago--that what social security really buys is freedom from fear--not just for older Americans, but for younger Americans, too.

This is a proud day for me. It has been a long trip to get here---one that began 33 years ago under Franklin Delano Roosevelt. And we are not through yet.
We are continuing to move forward.
The one thing that I want to see as much as I want to see anything else in the world, except peace among all men, is to see in this land that I lead during the time allotted me the most modern miracles that we can produce placed into a good home for elder citizens.

I want it to have the best floors and the best roof. I want it to have the most attractive walls and the best windows. I want it to be the place that can be kept clean--where the water is always hot when you want it and always cold if you need it.

I want it where an elder person can get in his bath without fear of slipping or can get out of his bed without fear of breaking his hip. I want it where his food can be good, and he can have a good bed to sleep on, a good room to eat in, and a good place to spend his last days.

I am trying so hard to have a group produce a model home.

Now, I have looked at what you have here. I am proud of what you have here. It is so much better than the old flophouses or the old places that we had in my day.

There is not a person in this room who was born into a place like this. All of you came from an age when we didn't have the modern conveniences. We read by kerosene lamps. We didn't have the benefits of electricity. We didn't have the tile on the floor. We didn't have the modern plumbing facilities that you have here.

But we don't have near enough--not even here. I am going to continue to work until the day comes when we can put in every community in this land a place where we can enjoy the twilight of our careers. Not just our mothers and fathers now, but my grandsons and my granddaughters can know that they don't have to pay attention to any son-in-law or any brother-in-law; that they have earned it on their own. They will get their own social security check and they can go to a home that is clean and decent, and get a good bed and get good food and get good care.

Their country can do that for them if it does care. And this country, under my leadership, does care or else I wouldn't be here tonight.

I am issuing a proclamation here tonight. This is the first Presidential proclamation that is issued in a home like this. But it says: "Senior Citizens Month, 1968." And [reading excerpts from the proclamation] the respect that we show for older Americans is not an act of charity. It comes from the recognition that this generation owes all it possesses to those who have borne responsibility in years past.

We have not always recognized the debt that we owe them.

It was three decades ago that we first passed social security. But we are honoring our fathers and mothers whose days will be long on this earth.

But perhaps the greatest need of age is the need to know that one's contributions are valued. In a society where youth is so highly prized, older men and women need to know that their wisdom and their experience and the example that they have set in their lives are still important to us and to all their fellow citizens. Their contributions are one of our Nation's most valuable assets--a resource that should be celebrated by every generation.

Therefore, I, Lyndon B. Johnson, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate the entire month of May 1968, as Senior Citizens Month in honor of them.

I call upon every Federal, State, and local government in partnership with private and voluntary organizations to join in community efforts to give meaning to the theme of this special month--meeting the challenge of the later years.

Let special emphasis this year be placed on making known the contributions that older Americans have made to our welfare. Let us demonstrate the greatness of our society by bringing new meaning and new vigor to the lives of our elders who built the framework of our present prosperity and our greatness.

So I invite all the Governors of the States, the Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Commissioner of the District of Columbia, and appropriate officials in other areas subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, to join in the observation of Senior Citizens Month.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this, the first day of March, at Beaumont, Texas, in the year of our Lord, 1968, and of the Independence of the United States of America, the 192d year.

So that proclamation is now in force and the month of May will be set aside to honor our elder citizens and our fathers and our mothers.

I have now the first checks of the millions that will go out under this new law. It is not all we wanted. It is the best, though, I could get and it is more than what we had. I am thankful for that.

The first one goes to Miss Helen Hayes McFarland who was born in Fannin, Texas, on July 26, 1883. She is 84 years young.
The next is Mr. Luther Napoleon Smith.
Mr. Romaldo Perez Torrez was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, February 7, 1887, age 82.
Muchas gracias, amigos, Adios.

Now, I am going to run along. I have enjoyed being with you so much. I hope everything goes well for you.

I thank you and the people of Beaumont in Jefferson County for all of the good work you do--particularly sending me a good Congressman like Jack Brooks who works for the people.