Remarks on Departure From Columbus, Ohio

I was thinking of Montana. I am going on to Grand Forks, North Dakota, and then on over to Kansas City tonight. Tomorrow we will be in Tennessee and in North Carolina, and Fort Wayne, Indiana.

After the meeting today, at the invitation of Dr. Fawcett,¹ I dropped in at the university. I have been wanting to do this for some time.

As you may recall, I was invited to address the university at the commencement 2 years ago, and the Midway conference came up and I had to fly out there, and Vice President Agnew filled in for me.

This year, since we had about 15 or 20 minutes left for the schedule, Dr. Fawcett invited me to stop off at the campus. It was a brief visit. Some of the pool reporters were there to cover it.

But what was impressive to me was the chance, even though I was surrounded, as you might imagine, with quite a few reporters, but not many Secret Service or security men, because it was a surprise to them, too, but in that brief visit I got to shake hands with and met quite a few students.

I was very impressed by their dedication. I met several students, girls who are going into nursing, some who were going into elementary education, another was going to be a counselor in secondary education and then, also, college after she got her master's degree, and three or four from the law school.

The general impression that I had was a sense of great pride in their school and great dedication to their work.

But the other thing that impressed me was that on this impromptu visit, while I did not see anywhere near the total number or even a substantial part of the total number of this great enrollment at the university, but the overwhelming number of people on this impromptu visit--where there was no chance for demonstrators to plan in advance--were friendly. I don't mean by that to suggest that we polled them to see whether they support all of our policies. But they were friendly, they were glad that I came, they wanted to talk and they also were willing to listen.

That bore out the point that I tried to make in my remarks downtown, that we must not lose faith in young America because we see a few who engage in violence and hurl out four-letter obscenities. They aren't the majority of students, they certainly aren't the majority of America, and are not going to become the majority of students or the majority of America.

I think here at Ohio State, as at Kansas State and other universities, there are, of course, a great number of students who are concerned about many of our problems as I am. They want peace in the world, as I do. They want to clean up the environment, as I do. They want a better chance, as I do, as Bob Taft does and Roger Cloud does.

But the important point is the means. I think they are turned off this year, as they weren't turned off last year before the violence began to get to them. But they are turned off by the disgraceful conduct of the disrupters, those who close down campuses, those who engage in violence, those who shout four-letter obscenities or any other kind of obscenities and those who try to shout down speakers.

Young America wants to talk, but it also wants to listen. And I am very proud of them. And I am glad that my visit to Ohio State, even though it was brief, renewed my faith in young America. I always had it, but it renewed it, recharged it, because every time you get out and see any cross-section of young Americans, they are a very fine and dedicated group. They are concerned not just about themselves, but about their country, about their cities and about the future of the world. That is good. The fact that they don't accept the things, many of the things, that are going on, that is good. We need change and we need young people constantly questioning everything we are doing, but it should be peaceful change in our society. That is what I think the majority of the students at Ohio State think and Ohio State is certainly a representative university among our universities in the country.

Incidentally, I hope to get back to that game, too.

One of the students offered me his student card. He said, "Gentlemen, I want to see the game. But if you will come, I will give you one of these cards that you get into the game with."

I said, "Gentlemen, have you got 30 for the Secret Service?" And he took it back. But we may come back. It will be the only game I will see, though.

Thank you very much. Good luck and see you the next trip.