Remarks at the Illinois State Fair in Springfield.

GOVERNOR and Mrs. Ogilvie and Julie and I want to express our appreciation to all of you who have welcomed us so warmly--and I am not speaking of the weather but welcomed us so warmly at the Illinois State Fair.

I have sort of been reminiscing a bit of the times I have been to this fair before. The first time, Governor, was in 1952. At that time I was a candidate for Vice President, and I remember speaking in the fairground. But I have never had the chance before to drive through the fairground to see the exhibits. I must say, I saw more people than I saw exhibits, but it was really a great experience.

I understand--and incidentally, I don't know whether I am correct--but they tell me this is the biggest State fair in America. I am going to be in Ohio in a few days. Can I say that there, too?

I would like to just say something particularly, if I could, to the Future Farmers, the 4-H, and all of the young people who are here. You are in the great occupation of farming or agriculture. I am sure that these days you rather wonder whether that is an occupation in America that is here to stay; you rather wonder whether it is one that really matters.

I know that if you have been listening to television and reading newspapers, or even in the classrooms, you hear about the fact that we have less farmers than we have had in previous years, although we produce more, and that maybe agriculture isn't as important now as it once was.

Let me tell you something: I have had a very great privilege in my public life as a Congressman, Senator, Vice President, out of office, and as President. I have traveled over 70 countries. And one of the major areas in which the United States of America is tremendously fortunate is in the productivity of American agriculture. Now, there are some places in some industries where other countries, because they have lower costs than we have, or because maybe they even do better than we have, where they have passed us. But you can be proud of the fact that American agriculture today is the most productive in the world. We produce more food at less cost than any country in the world.

And we can be proud. We are proud of all those, the older people and the younger people, who have made America first in the world, and you are going to keep us first in the world in agriculture. We thank you very much.