Proclamation 3900—National Defense Transportation Day and National Transportation Week, 1969

America's transportation network is an example of democracy at work. Through the years the public and private sectors have joined hands and minds to plan, construct, maintain, and operate vast highway, air, water, rail, and pipeline transport systems.

Today, more than one hundred million private vehicles travel on public ways. And tomorrow—probably within the few years remaining in this century—the total system will need to double today's capacity if it is to carry the projected numbers of people and volume of goods.

Transportation makes all other industries possible. It takes grain to the mills, raw materials to the factories, finished products to the market; it must be designed to give our citizens the mobility they need. Our commerce and culture depend on a revitalized transportation industry to end congestion and delay and to prepare for the burgeoning demands of the future.

To give public recognition to this great industry—to focus attention upon its contributions and the challenges it faces—the Congress, by a joint resolution approved May 16, 1957 (71 Stat. 30), has requested the President to proclaim annually the third Friday of May of each year as National Defense Transportation Day, and by a joint resolution approved May 14, 1962 (76 Stat. 69), has requested the President to proclaim annually the week of May in which that Friday falls as National Transportation Week, as a tribute to the men and women, who night and day, move our goods and our people throughout the land and around the world.

Now, Therefore, I, Richard Nixon, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate Friday, May 16, 1969, as National Defense Transportation Day, and the week beginning May 11, 1969, as National Transportation Week.

I urge our people to participate with representatives of the transportation industry, our armed services, and other governmental agencies in the observance of these occasions through appropriate ceremonies.

I also invite the Governors of the States to provide for the observance of National Defense Transportation Day and National Transportation Week in a way that will give the citizens of each community the opportunity to recognize and appreciate fully the vital role our great and modern transportation system plays in their lives and in the defense of the Nation.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this seventeenth day of March, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and sixty-nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and ninety-third.

RICHARD NIXON