Remarks to the Winners of the 10th Annual Science Talent Search.

IT IS a pleasure to me to welcome you here. I hope you will all go through with what you have started, and wind up just as Mr. Davis has said your predecessors have, because the power and welfare of this country is wrapped up in scientific research.

I just had the Atomic Energy Commission in to see me a few days ago, and it is remarkable what they are doing toward making that splintering of the atom eventually work for the peacetime welfare of the world.

You young ladies and gentlemen can make a great contribution to all those things that are associated with scientific research.

I was over at Aberdeen the other day, looking at tanks and weapons and guided missiles and all the other things which you hear about. And when I got through I didn't then have any feeling of mystery about why the Chinese have not been able to push us out of Korea, because we have better equipment and better weapons.

But the weapons we want are not those for destruction, but weapons for the welfare of the world and the improvement of all mankind so that we won't have to spend tremendous sums for destruction, but use those tremendous sums for the improvement of the welfare of all the races in the world.

If you will turn around there and look at that globe behind you, you will find that there are many, many places that need development and that can be developed to make this world a much better place in which to live.

[At this point the President walked over to the globe which was presented to him by General Eisenhower in 1945 at the Potsdam conference. He then resumed speaking.]

For instance, in the great river systems down here--[indicating the continent of South America]--they have more water than Niagara--a fall that is greater than Niagara. And then there are these lakes up here--[indicating]--whose waters now run out into the Amazon River, and they are going to be diverted for the cultivation of this part of the coast along in here, and give Bolivia a seaport.

And over here, on this plateau, there are 65,000 square miles of blackland, just like Illinois, Iowa, and the lower Missouri, six to eight thousand feet above sea level, that will produce anything that can be raised in a temperate zone, although it is almost directly on the Equator. They can raise enough food on that--they don't have any cattle grazing there--to support 100 million people.

And in this place over here--[ indicating the continent of Africa]--it can support another 100 million people with developments which have not been carried out. If they could be done in this valley--[ indicating]-it will support 25 million people as it did when Babylon and Nineveh were great cities, if irrigation projects were installed.

And all the oil resources of this section here--[indicating]--are greater than any other place in the world. And this country right here--[indicating]--can produce food enough for a hundred million people. Think what that will mean, when the resources up in here--[indicating]--have been developed. Alexander the Great 'was along in this river--[indicating]--and there are traces of him in Afghanistan. And if the resources of that section were properly developed, 300 million people could be supported.

Now, that is part of your job, to see whether we can get that done or not. And that is the reason I am glad to see you, and hope you will remember what I have told you about that globe when you go back to school, and see what kind of contribution you can make to carrying out the peace and welfare of the world. That is what we are after.

Thank you very much.