Remarks on Arrival at the Federal Office Building in Denver, Colorado

Governor and Mrs. Love, Senator Allott, Congressman Brotzman, Mayor McNichols, all the distinguished guests:

I spoke briefly at the airport to the crowd that was there. And I simply want to reiterate what I tried to say there.

I've been to this State many times, the first time as a Congressman 22 years ago. And I've always been tremendously moved by the welcomes we've received. But when I realized that today is a holiday, when I realized that all of you could be going to the mountains and doing other things, all the wonderful things that are available, and for you to be out here, believe me, this is the best welcome we've ever had. We thank you very much.

We are here as part of our program to bring the White House and to bring Washington to the country. And it seems to me very appropriate that the subject that we have chosen for discussion in Denver is the subject of law enforcement, respect for law, justice in this country,. I say that because of the record of the Governor of this State, the record of this city, of this county, in so many areas.

And what we are going to do today-we are going to listen to the law enforcement representatives from some of the larger States, from California, New York, Illinois. We're also going to hear from your own officials because in each State we feel that we can learn things that will enable us to do a better job all over the country.

Let me give you one example to prove how important this job is and how national its ramifications are.

Three days ago when I picked up the Los Angeles paper, I read a very tragic story. A 17-year old boy had committed suicide. I read the story and found out why. He had been on heroin. Understand, he's just 17 years of age. For 2 years he had had to have $75 a day in order to stay on heroin. When he couldn't get the $75 a day, he killed himself. I felt for that boy, I know as all of you do--all of our young people, or other people, who may be hooked, as they say, on narcotics--we have the greatest sympathy for them.

But let me say that I have no sympathy for the pushers and the peddlers and the others in this country who are responsible for that. What we need here is a program which will get after those who make hundreds of millions of dollars a year-hundreds of millions of dollars every year, more than that--selling drugs and narcotics to young people, destroying their lives and ruining them. That is why we're meeting here, one of the reasons, because we have a national program on narcotics.

Now there's something you can do. We need a better law from the Congress of the United States. For 12 months the Congress of the United States has had on its desk a bill that would deal with narcotics and dangerous drugs, and they've done nothing about it.

Now I understand why, in some instances, the Congress will not pass this or that .or the other thing. But this isn't a Democratic problem or a Republican problem. It's an American problem, and it's time for Congressmen and members of both parties to get together and give us the tools so that we can enforce the law of this country and reestablish freedom from fear all over this country--which we can.

And in that connection, I say one final thing--I know you've been standing here; you are warm--I have been very impressed by the program of law enforcement in this State, in this county, and particularly the program of rehabilitation from drugs by your District Attorney, Mr. McKevitt. It is that kind of program that we need all over the country. That's some of the things we are going to talk about in here.

So as you look in this building and wonder, what are they doing for those 2 hours, I can assure you what we're doing, what we will be thinking about, are all of those young people we saw along the roads as we came in. We want them to grow up in a world of peace.

I hear the young people who call for peace now. Let me say we are going to have peace but, my friends, let's have a peace that will not only be now but for the years to come. That's the kind of peace that we want.

I do not want this 10-year-old that I see standing here to pay for the mistakes that our generation makes now. So we're going to bring peace. We are going to bring it in a way that those who would start war are discouraged from starting it.

We're on the road. We're bringing boys home from Vietnam. More will come home. The war will be ended. But most important, we're going to build an order in the world, we trust, that will provide an opportunity for all these young people to grow up in a world of peace. That's what we are trying to do. That's what we ask your support for.

And so finally, again, on this beautiful day, I think you should be interested to know that, as I said at the airport, what proved to me that Colorado must be the place was that I went down the line; I met people from New Jersey, from Wisconsin, from California, from Peoria, Illinois, from Atlanta, Georgia. I had to go down 10 people before I said, "Are you from Colorado?" He said, "Yes."

And so as I introduced all these people to the Governor--of course, I represent them all--I said, "Governor, you better be nice to them because pretty soon they'll be living here, too. They like it here." Thank you very' much.

I want to present the Attorney General of the United States; Senator Allott, who has been of such great assistance in all of these fields; Congressman Don Brotzman; your District Attorney, Mike McKevitt; another one of our participants, Bill Gossard¹; and the District Attorney from Reno, Nevada [William J. Ragrio], who will participate in our meeting.

It takes young, strong men to do the job, and they will do it, believe me.

Thank you.