Remarks to Participants in the 1969 Senate Youth Program.

Ladies and gentlemen:

It is a very great privilege for me to participate in this closing session of the Senate Student Youth Program.

I want to express appreciation to the Hearst Foundation for making possible what I think is one of the most exciting projects in our Government today.

When I think of all of you from all over the country, from high schools, having the opportunity to come to Washington to be exposed to the great institutions of Government that are here, I think that no greater service could be rendered, not just to you--I mean it is a wonderful experience for you--but to the Nation, because you have the opportunity to go back home now and to tell the people there what government is like. And I hope many of you will be inspired to participate in government in one form or the other. I wouldn't be surprised if some of you will end up in the House or Senate or, who knows, you might be here sometime in the future.

I know you have probably been exposed to a number of statements and a lot of advice during your stay here. I was trying to think, as I presided over the Cabinet meeting--and that is the reason I am late, it ran a little late--I was trying to think of what would be appropriate to say to you that you might not have heard before. There is not much, really, that can be added.

I know you have heard from Congressmen and Senators, as well as other Government officials.

But perhaps some thoughts that relate to my own experience and background might be of interest to you. During the last campaign there was a very major effort made by both of the major candidates to communicate with the young people of America. And what was really exciting to me was that the young people of America--and I refer not just to college youth, but to high school students--came out in such great numbers and participated as they did in the campaign.

Now let me give you a little background on that. I began in politics before you were born, everybody in this room, because it was 22 years ago that I first ran for the House of Representatives out in California. Incidentally, I had the support of the Hearst Newspapers at that time in that campaign.

Twenty-two years ago, when I ran for office, there was an interest in politics among young people, particularly at the college age, but not at the high school age.

Then I have seen a change occur--a very exciting change. Each year the age limit seems to go down insofar as the interest and understanding of politics is concerned.

You would be surprised, not only at the high school age but I have found even in the grade schools today, particularly in the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades, you will find a high degree of sophistication, a high degree of understanding, about political campaigns. They participate in mock elections. They study about and know more about the world than certainly we knew many, many years ago.

What I am really trying to say is this: When we hear about what is wrong with American youth today, we have to also put it in perspective by realizing what is right.

I have said publicly before and I say it before this group today: As I look at the new generation of Americans of which you are, of course, outstanding examples or you would not have been selected for this program, it is the best educated new generation we have had--young generation; but more than that, it is the most involved, involved in the sense of being interested, not only in how you can get out and make a living, which was our primary concern in the 1930's when making a living was necessary in order to just keep going, but involved in the problems of your neighborhoods and the problems of your Nation and the problems of the world.

Finally, it is a generation which knows more about the problems of the world and knows more about the problems of this country than has any generation in history.

What this means is, very simply, that you are a political force, even though you do not yet have the right to vote. You will soon have it, of course. I say you will soon have it because you will be 21, or you will soon have it if you are from Kentucky because you will vote when you are 18. Of course, at some time there will be a constitutional amendment.

I have noted that this particular organization, among many others, has indicated its support of that kind of a constitutional amendment.

I want to give you the reason why I believe that 18-year-olds should have the right to vote. Not because, as many say, if you are old enough to fight you are old enough to vote. That is one reason, but not the best reason. The reason that 18-yearolds should have the right to vote is that they are smart enough to vote. They know. They are interested and more involved than were the 21-year-olds of only 20 years ago.

This is a tribute to your teachers. It is a tribute to your parents and it is a tribute to you. I wish that particular message to get home to this group as you complete this particular, very exciting experience that you have had.

Now, a bit of advice--that is what you have to learn to take when you come to these sessions--a bit of advice as to what, if I were your age, I would like to do in terms of preparing for whatever you may go into.

Many of you will, I am sure, go into government. Most of you will end up, probably, in some kind of private activity as lawyers or doctors or businessmen or newspaper men and women, or whatever the case might be. But I would urge that whatever you do, as you go to college, don't specialize too much.

This is an age--those years between 18 and 22 or 17 and 21, as the case might be, or if you go on to graduate school between 17 and 24 and 25--when you will have every opportunity to specialize in the law or in medicine or in some other profession. But this is the time when your minds are young, when they can, without any question, understand more, in which you can learn faster than at any time in your life. This is the time to get all of the broadest possible education that you can.

I don't mean by that that the books you read in disciplines that are not the ones that are going to be your profession will be something that you will remember later on. But by having that experience now it means that you create a total environmental background that will serve you in good stead in the years ahead.

The second point I would make is that one of the great things about being young is that young people are impatient. You want to go to the top very fast.

I have found, for example, that the young lawyers I interviewed in our office in New York were asking, "When am I going to be a partner--tomorrow, the next day--in the firm?" Of course it takes a little time in a major law firm for that to happen.

But impatience, of course, is a good factor as well. What I am suggesting to you, however, is this: Not everyone in this room is going to be the president of a corporation, is going to be a Congressman or a Senator, is going to be the top leader in the field that you choose, but everyone in this room is going to make a contribution in his particular field that is essential for the success of whoever may be that top leader.

Frank Borman and his colleagues were here in this room just a few days ago. He made a very interesting point. When I made an award to him, he said, "I accept this award on behalf of the 400,000 people who, in one way or another, have contributed to the success of the Apollo program." Then he went on to say that in that Apollo spacecraft there were 2 million parts. Now, if any one of those parts had gone wrong there was the possibility that the flight might not have succeeded.

What does this tell us? It tells us that down the line 400,000 people--there were workmen who will never get into this great State Dining Room at the White House, who will never receive the plaudits of the crowd that Frank Borman is receiving today, but they were essential to the success of that project.

Now, let us always remember that. Let us remember as we become leaders--as most of you will become leaders--that it takes that team and the efforts of everybody doing his very best in whatever his assignment is to make sure that we do have the success that we want.

Then one final point, and I perhaps speak somewhat from experience here, I am often asked about my philosophy about winning and losing insofar as life is concerned generally, and politics, particularly. I am expert in both, incidentally. The thing I want to emphasize to you is this: The important thing for a young person to remember is not whether you win or lose, but whether you play the game. Don't stand aside. Don't be up in the bleachers when you can be down on the field. Remember that the greatness of your life is determined by the extent to which you participate in the great events of your time. You are participating in the great events of your time.

As you go through life you are going to find that when you do get in and participate you are going to win some and you are going to lose some. But what you will miss, if you do not get in, is something that you can never recover. It is far more important to get into a battle and fight hard for what you believe in and lose than not to fight at all. It is that kind of philosophy I hope you take with you when you go back to your hometowns because it is that kind of spirit that America needs, that you, as young Americans, can bring to not only the young community, but also you can inspire the older ones as well.

Then, one final point, that is, the time in which we live, and I hope you will not consider what I say in this respect as being simply Pollyanna-ish talking, I am really somewhat of a realist--you have to be a realist to hold the position I do when you see the tremendous problems that America has at home and abroad--but I want all of you to know that as I look at the history of the world and as I look at the world in which we live, that if I were to pick a nation in which to live and a time in which to live, I would pick the United States of America in the year 1969.

We have tremendous problems abroad--no question about that--a war in Vietnam and threats of war in other areas. We have tremendous problems at home--the crisis of our cities, environmental and others. But on the other hand, look at it in terms as young people should look at the problems--not in terms of the threat, but in terms of the opportunity. Never has this Nation, any nation, had more of an opportunity to do something about its problems, the productivity of our farms, of our factories, and the rest. It is all there if we can only bring it together and get it properly distributed. Also, have this in mind: Have in mind the fact that because you were born in the United States of America and because you live in the United States of America, you in this Nation can play a great role in the affairs of the world--a greater role, actually, than any people in any nation of the world. This is not to downgrade any other great people in the world, because greatness does not come simply from the size of a nation and from the accident of where we happen to be born. But it just does happen that because of the great waves of history that at this time and place the decisions made in the United States of America, as far as the free world is concerned, will determine whether peace and freedom survive in the world.

That is the challenge of young America, looking down to the end of this century. It is an exciting challenge, not a burden to be carried and whimpered about, but one to be accepted with all of the excitement that we have when we meet any kind of new experience, any kind of a challenge.

I can only say as I look at this group, as I realize the intelligence that is here, the dedication that you must have to your education and to your Nation, I have a good feeling about the future of this country. I believe in young America because I know young America. I would say that as you go back to your communities, I trust that each of you, whatever you go into, whatever private occupation you happen to decide on, you will reserve a part of your time for some contribution to public service.

We need you. The Nation needs you. With the help of a young, vigorous American generation we can meet the great challenges that America has to meet in this last third of a century.

Thank you.