Remarks Upon Accepting a Bust of Eleanor Roosevelt for the Roosevelt Library in Hyde Park.

Governor Stevenson, Mr. Chapman, members of the Roosevelt family, ladies and gentlemen :

It is a real pleasure and very great privilege to accept this bust of Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt for presentation to the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Library at Hyde Park. All of us who knew this inspiring lady, all of us who were privileged to live in her time, know that she was one of the great human beings of this century. Her equal will not soon be found again and will not pass this way.

Today, in our own society and in the societies of other peoples all around the globe, it would be very difficult for another Eleanor Roosevelt to appear.

Over these past 30 years the human race has made much progress in accepting to full membership and full participation women of virtually every land. This recognition has come in sensible realization of the great talents, the great abilities, the great wisdom, the great vision which women have to contribute to the building of a better world.

Yet all this progress which has been made in these years might not have come at all, or certainly not so soon, or so broadly, had Eleanor Roosevelt not served among us and led the way. She was not a crusader as such for the rights of women, but by her own living example she left an imprint that will never be erased, because she did always crusade for humanity.

Long before she was taken from us Eleanor Roosevelt had become, as much as any American who has ever lived, a citizen of the world. Her inspiration reached deep into the heart of every continent. Her example lives on in the hearts and souls of all the people of the world. But nowhere does her leadership, example, and influence mean more than it does here in her native land.

So much of what we are doing today was first brought to our attention and first urged upon us, by this great lady.

I remember, and I know none of you can forget, Eleanor Roosevelt's tireless and selfless visits in the 1930's to the decayed areas of our cities, to the blighted areas of our rural regions, and the visits she made to what we now describe as Appalachia.

I remember her coming to my own State of Texas and leaving 2 days later. I almost had to go to the hospital just trying to follow her, and then I was a young man in my twenties.

She was at war on poverty long before this Nation itself could, or did, think of mobilizing our resources for this great effort. She was contesting against injustice and inequality long before this great Nation committed its full heart and soul to the fulfillment of our Constitution's promise.

Of all that may be said about Eleanor Roosevelt, nothing more nearly captures the truth of this great woman than to say that she did not have to do what she did. Born to a life of affluence she was unwilling to spend her days in idleness or aimlessness. She chose to dedicate her God-given abilities to help those whose names history will never record. In so doing, she set an example which has its finest meaning now for America in these times of our broad and our growing national abundance.

If any of us who enjoy a measure of life's successes are ever to be satisfied with our own lives, I think we must--as so many Americans now are doing--give of ourselves much more than we are required to do.

Eleanor Roosevelt once said near the end of her life that anyone who believes that in every human being there is a spark of the divine must believe that to enable him to develop his potentialities to the maximum is the highest purpose that his Government can fulfill.

That is the spirit and the purpose of all that we do here in the White House today. That is the spirit and the purpose of all we do to help all Americans, whatever their birth, or their creed, or their color--to fulfill that spark of divinity which lives within all of us.

This fine sculpture captures the spirit of this great woman. She rose to great position but in her greatness her thoughts were always marked by humility. Her deeds were always marked by compassion. Her efforts and her energies were always expended with fearlessness and with great courage.

All who knew her were privileged to know greatness itself.