Remarks at the Opening of the New York World's fair.

Mr. Deegan, Mr. Mayor, Your Reverend Clergy, Your Excellencies, distinguished guests, Mr. Moses, ladies and gentlemen:

I understand that at the close of this fair a time capsule will be placed in the ground. Every possible precaution has been taken to make sure that it will be opened several thousand years from now. Special metals have been used. Records of its location will be stored around the world. They have only neglected one vital precaution. They do not have an advance commitment from Robert Moses that, when the time finally comes, he will let them dig it up.

When New Amsterdam became New York in 1664, the Governor of Connecticut, John Winthrop--a relative, I believe, of the Lodges--wrote Mr. Stuyvesant telling him not to fear change. The consequence would be, he said, that "all the good people of your nation may enjoy all the happiness tendered and more than you can imagine."

That promise has more than been fulfilled.

For the abundance and the might represented here is far beyond the vision of those early settlers. America has been transformed from an outpost of the edge of wilderness to one of the great nations of the world. The number of people who will visit your fair will be seventy times the entire population of North America when New York was born.

The last time New York had a World's fair, we also tried to predict the future. A daring exhibit proclaimed that in the 1960's it would really be possible to cross the country in less than 24 hours, flying as high as 10,000 feet; that an astounding 38 million cars would cross our highways. There was no mention of outer space, or atomic power, or wonder drugs that could destroy disease.

These were bold prophecies back there in 1939. But, again, the reality has far outstripped the vision.

There were also other predictions that were not made at that fair. No one prophesied that half the world would be devastated by war, or that millions of helpless would be slaughtered. No one foresaw power that was capable of destroying man, or a cold war which could bring conflict to every continent. Our pride in accomplishment must not ignore the fact that our progress has had two faces.

Its final direction--abundance or annihilation--development or desolation--that is in your hands and that is in the hands of the people around the world.

This fair represents the most promising of our hopes. It gathers together, from 80 countries, the achievements of industry, the wealth of nations, the creations of man. This fair shows us what man at his most creative and constructive is capable of doing.

But unless we can achieve the theme of this fair--"peace through understanding"-unless we can use our skill and our wisdom to conquer conflict as we have conquered science--then our hopes of today--these proud achievements--will go under in the devastation of tomorrow.

I prophesy peace is not only possible in our generation, I predict that it is coming much earlier. If I am right, then at the next world's fair, people will see an America as different from today as we are different from 1939.

They will see an America in which no man must be poor.

They will see an America in which no man is handicapped by the color of his skin or the nature of his belief--and no man will be discriminated against because of the church he attends or the country of his ancestors.

They will see an America which is solving the growing problems of crowded cities, inadequate education, deteriorating national resources and decreasing national beauty.

They will see an America concerned with the quality of American life--unwilling to accept public deprivation in the midst of private satisfaction--concerned not only that people have more, but that people shall have the best.

All of these dreams and these hopes and these expectations depend upon a world that is free from the threat of war. If we can achieve this, then I am sure that speakers at the next world fair will look back with amusement at how greatly I underestimated and Governor Rockefeller underestimated and Mayor Wagner underestimated the capacity and the genius of man.

And so I take my leave of what Ogden Nash has called "the promised land of Mr. Moses"--hoping and trusting that in the future it will not take anyone 40 years to reach it.

Thank you very much.