We pledge ourselves to seek a system of higher education where every young American can be educated, not according to his race or his means, but according to his capacity.
     Never in the life of this country has the pursuit of that goal been more important or more urgent. For our universities have become the research and training centers on which American defense and industry and agriculture and the professions depend. Our progress in all these fields depends upon a constant flow of high-caliber and skilled manpower, upon new ideas and creative applications of old ideas, upon the acquisition of skills and the ability to apply those skills. Thus, today, the university is, in the words of Woodrow Wilson, "the root of our intellectual life as a nation."
     And our universities are not only essential to a strong society here at home, they are vital to the cause of freedom throughout the world.
     Our universities are our hope for success in the intense and serious competition for supremacy in ideas, in military technology, in space, in science, and all the rest in which we are now engaged with the Soviet Union. Other nations will look to us for leadership; our prestige will rise only if we are a vital and progressing society. And, today, the basis of vitality and progress is the trained capacity of the human mind.
     Our universities must train men and women who can bring the benefits of modern technology to the developing nations of the world, who can help create the framework of economic advance on which freedom in these lands depends.
     And our universities must serve as centers in which the youth of other lands can acquire the knowledge to run the factories, teach in the schools, and staff the governments of their own countries.
     But American universities are more than a source of strength, here and abroad, they are the great catalyst of the democratic way of life. Through the gateway of a university education young men and women of all backgrounds, of all races and religions, of every economic group, can find opportunity - opportunity to develop their own capacities, and opportunity to find a fruitful and satisfying outlet for their skills and interests.
     And that is why we intend to work until a college education is available to every young man and woman with the talent to pursue it.
     But today the doors of our colleges are closed to some of our most talented youths. It has been estimated that each year 150,000 men and women in the top 10 percent of their class do not go to college simply because they cannot afford it. And, in the sixties, as the cost of running our universities increases, the cost of going to college will also increase. Today it costs approximately $10,000 for 4 years of college, a rise of $4,000 in the past 2 years, but by 1970 it will cost $15,000 for a college education. And this added expense will mean that many more able young men and women will lack the means to attend college.
     And as the burden on the students increases, so will the burden on the universities themselves. Our college population has expanded at a fantastic rate. In 1946, only 22.1 percent of all Americans between 18 and 21 were enrolled in institutions of higher education. Last year 36.2 percent or 3,400,000 young Americans were in college. And by 1970 it is estimated that college enrollment will double to almost 7 million students.
     If they are to meet this vast increase in students, our universities will have to spend $6 to $7 billion a year more than the $4 billion they are now spending. They will have to construct more buildings in the next 10 years than all the college buildings which have been constructed since 1760. They will have to recruit and pay 300,000 more teachers. And they will have to raise the pay of teachers they now have. Today the standard of living of the average college teacher is about the same as it was a generation ago, while the standard of living of the average worker has gone up 75 percent.
     Unless the college teacher is guaranteed a decent way of life, it will be impossible to attract or retain able men to teach our youth.
     Private contributions and the efforts of State and local governments can do much to relieve this increasing burden. But the Federal Government must also do its share. For the problem of higher education is a national problem. Upon its proper solution rests the future strength of the entire Nation. An the harsh fact of the matter is that only the Federal Government has the resources to fill the widening gap between what is needed and what State and private sources can supply. As John Adams said:

     The whole people must take upon themselves the education of the whole people and must be willing to bear the expense of it.