Remarks to Delegates to the General Assembly of the Organization of World Touring and Automobile Clubs.

IT IS indeed a pleasure, ladies and gentlemen, to invite you here to the White House grounds and give me an opportunity to say a word to you. If there is one enthusiastic booster for international travel in the world, I would certainly be numbered among those who come close to the top. Having traveled a bit myself, I am quite certain that it is a very, very useful thing, in bringing to each of us an understanding of those things we need to know in the world, if we are going to achieve any progress whatsoever toward this great goal of peace.

In this country, for one reason or another, we have, possibly, been more backward in the building of roads we need than we should have been. We have a plan that is now before our legislative body to develop the kind of roads that will make it most convenient for you people to come over and visit all parts of this great country very easily, and we would hope with a great deal of increased convenience over what you would now experience.

But on top of that, we are interested in getting the entire Pan American Highway completed so that travel north and south is easier. We like to see roads springing up everywhere because we are certain that as you people from all countries come to visit us, and we come to meet you, there is going to be nothing but good come out of it.

Just as people are afraid of the dark, they are afraid of people they don't know--they think they must be strange creatures. But as they get to know each other, we see that they respond to the same kind of impulses, the same kind of needs and admiration, and respect the same kind of values. So that is the sort of thing that must underlie this search for peace.

I think you people are doing not only a useful but an indispensable part of the task in bringing it about. I realize that these representatives here really represent some 20 million people, and I am told there are 31 countries here represented, which makes it a truly significant body, one that is certain to carry back when you go back to your own homes much of value from your associations here together, in the exchange of ideas. For my part I wish you every kind of good luck and success in the work you are doing. I can't tell you how I would really like to walk up and down Pennsylvania Avenue carrying a banner and cheering for you because I think you are on a job that needs to be done, and I know you will do it well. I thank you a lot for letting me have a chance to talk to you.