Remarks Prior to Meeting With the Governors of the Appalachian States in Louisville, Kentucky.
Ladies and gentlemen:
I want to tell you how very grateful I am for this wonderful reception you have given to me and the members of our Cabinet who are here for this historic meeting.
A word about the meeting: You saw the time that I went down the line and shook hands with the Governors of the 13 States who are members of the Appalachian Regional Council. Now, the President meeting with those Governors is not unusual, and members of the Cabinet meeting with those Governors is not unusual, but what is unusual is to have Washington come to Kentucky rather than Kentucky coming to Washington. We are trying to bring the government to the people.
We are looking forward to having now a meeting here in this great new Federal Building with the Governors of these States. We want to listen to what they have to say, listen to what they say about the problems of their States, how the Federal Government can better develop its programs so that they can get directly to the people and so that less of the funds that are appropriated by the Federal Government get lost somewhere in between in that big layer of bureaucracy which inevitably comes whenever you set up a Federal program.
I also would simply like to say this: I noted a couple of signs to the effect that I was going to the All-Star game over in Cincinnati and I am looking forward to that. But I can tell you, coming through the streets of Louisville today, receiving this wonderful welcome from the people of Kentucky is something that I will never forget. I am very grateful to all of you for standing here in this rather warm sun, a pleasant sun, but a very warm sun, to give us such a welcome. I hope to come back to Kentucky as often as I can. It is a State where we have always received a wonderful welcome and you have added to it here today.
Thank you very much.
Note: The President spoke at 12:58 p.m. at the New Federal Office Building.
Attending the meeting were Governors Albert P. Brewer of Alabama, Lester Maddox of Georgia, Louie B. Nunn of Kentucky, Marvin Mandel of Maryland, John Bell Williams of Mississippi, Robert W. Scott of North Carolina, James A. Rhodes of Ohio, Raymond P. Shafer of Pennsylvania, Robert E. McNair of South Carolina, Buford Ellington of Tennessee, A. Linwood Holton of Virginia, and Arch A. Moore, Jr., of West Virginia. Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller of New York was represented by D. David Brandon, Director, Office of Planning Coordination for New York State.
On the same day, the White House released the transcripts of two news briefings on the President's meeting with the Governors: The first by Dr. Murray L. Weidenbaum, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy, George P. Shultz, Director, Office of Management and Budget, and Dr. Daniel P. Moynihan, Counsellor to the President; the second by Governor Brewer of Alabama and John B. Waters, Jr., Federal Cochairman, Appalachian Regional Commission.
Richard Nixon, Remarks Prior to Meeting With the Governors of the Appalachian States in Louisville, Kentucky. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/240095
