Remarks on Arrival at Hanover Park, Illinois.

COULD I have your attention just a moment, please? Our public address system will not work so we are going to use these bullhorns for a moment for we all want to have the opportunity--the members of the Cabinet, the Governors, the others that are here--to express our appreciation to you for giving us such a very warm welcome here today.

And, as coming to Du Page County again--I have been here on many occasions in the past but coming here and getting such a reception is certainly something we deeply appreciate.

I wish that we had more room on this platform to introduce the people that are here. But I do want you to know some of the members of the Cabinet that are here and then the Senators and the Congressmen.

Of course, here is the Secretary of Agriculture, Mr. Hardin; former Governor of Michigan and now the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Governor Romney; the former Governor of Alaska and now the Secretary of the Interior, Secretary Hickel; the former Governor of Massachusetts, and now the Secretary of Transportation, Mr. Volpe; a man who is not a former Governor but one who came from Illinois, the Secretary of Commerce, Mr. Starts.

And now, we have among the Governors, your own Governor, Governor Ogilvie; and from Indiana, Governor Whitcomb; from Wisconsin, Governor Knowles; Governor Milliken [of Michigan] is going to be in our meeting down in Chicago; but he isn't here now; and now your Congressman, Bob McClory.

But now we move up to the Senate. We have the senior Senator from the State of Illinois, Chuck Percy;and the junior Senator from the State of Illinois, Senator Ralph Smith.

If I could just have a word to tell you about this meeting. I know that those here, many of you, have been let out of classes to come here, so you had better get something to write about when you go back to class and when they ask you what was said.

First, this is a historic meeting because what we are trying to do is to bring the Government from Washington to the people rather than bringing the people to Washington, D.C.

Secondly, we are here for a vitally important purpose and that is to work with the Governors of the States and with your own representatives at the local and State government level in seeing to it that you, the younger generation, will have the kind of a country that we inherited and that we want you to have in the future.

It is very interesting that we are going to have our meeting in the Field Museum of Natural History. And as we meet there today, I just want to be sure that when we finish our meetings we will make some decisions--decisions that will make it possible for us to say that in the future, natural history museums will not be our only memories of clean water and clean air, and beautiful parks which Americans, all Americans, ought to enjoy. That is what you want and that is what we are going to try to do.

Since this is a school crowd primarily, I will add one final thought: When I was in school, we used to talk about the three R's. I still think they are important, reading, writing, arithmetic, and so forth. But if you are going to talk about some three R's today, I would put it this way: You are a very fortunate younger generation because you are entering the last third of a century in which the United States is the most powerful, the richest nation in the world, and what you do will determine the future of America and the whole world. It is an enormous responsibility but a great challenge and an exciting one.

But in order to do the job, we have got to do some things about this country and I would like to give you three new 3R's, and here they are: First, this age for your generation must be an age of reform, reform of our governmental institutions, bring them up to date into the 20th century so that we can deal with our problems.

Second, this must be an age of restoration, restoring the natural resources of this country so that the younger generation will not inherit a country in which the air is filled with smog, the water is polluted, and our parks are desolate because we didn't do the right planning; an age of restoration.

Finally, I hope we can make this an age of renewal in which we renew the spirit of the American people.

Let me just say this one thing: I know that many are concerned about our problems abroad, our problems at home, and sometimes we become depressed. But you have got to have faith in this country. You have to remember that when Governors and Senators and Congressmen can get together as we are getting together in Chicago this afternoon and work as we are going to work on the problems of this country, that we can do it.

This part of the country has always been a "can do" part of the country. And I can assure you we are going to take back to Washington the spirit which says, "Yes, there are problems out here, a lake to be cleaned up. Also, there are problems in terms of our schools and our resources, but we have the will, we have the capacity, and all we need is the determination to do it."

Coming out and seeing this wonderful crowd helps give us that determination. Thank you very much.