Remarks on Arrival at South Bend, Indiana.

Governor Branigin, Senator Hartke, Senator Bayh, Congressmen Brademas, Adair, Bray, Denton, Hamilton, ladies and gentlemen, and my good friends of Indiana:

All of our Nation was stunned and shocked over the weekend by the tragedies which struck so many families and communities in so many of our States.

Today, together with Governor Buford Ellington, Director of the Office of Emergency Planning, I am visiting in three of the States which were stricken and inspecting from the air the damage caused in six States here in our great Midwest.

I am beginning the visit here so that we may go to your neighbor communities of Elkhart and Goshen, where the loss of human life was the highest. Neither our presence nor our programs of assistance can do more than symbolize the sympathy of the Nation for those who have lost their loved ones in these grim disasters. But I know that all Americans, in all their homes across the land, are here with me this morning to extend their sympathy and a helping hand.

Only last week, Governor Ellington reported to me that in the past year of 1964 natural disasters of all kinds touched the lives of more than one out of every seven Americans. This is indeed a very high ratio. I know that we all wish it were possible to do more than we can now do to avoid the death and the destruction of such disasters. We may pray that our technology and science will some day enable us to exercise greater control and prevention toward that end.

Until that day comes, I know it is the will of the American people that whenever their neighbors or friends in any community or in any State suffer such losses at the hands of nature, the Government of this good and generous people should be ready, and will be ready, to assist in every useful way. That is the reason I have come here with this good delegation from Indiana this morning, because we hope that our presence, and we believe that our meetings, with your public officials of the communities in this State, as well as the other States, and the personal visits with those who have borne the brunt of these disasters will enable our Federal assistance to the States and communities to serve more effectively and more promptly and more efficiently in the task of reconstruction and the task of rebuilding that face the citizens of this area.

In an hour and a time like this the Federal Government must not be something cold and far away, but must come and be a warm neighbor and a warm friend.

We hope as a result of our association with you today and what we observe here that we can bring to the people of this area what they need and what they should have in this hour of trial and tribulations.

Thank you very much.