I WANT to express my appreciation to my old colleague, and friend, former Congressman Aime Forand, and Mr. Adolph Held, for the invitation to come to New York on May 20th to speak at Madison Square Garden in support of this program.
     I believe this program to be vitally important. It involves the interests of seventeen million Americans who have reached retirement age, who are faced with great burdens in the area of medical care. And in addition to that, it concerns millions of other Americans of younger age who have the responsibility of educating their children and at the same time the age-old responsibility of caring for their parents.
     And I know too many cases of people who have been caught, in their thirties and forties, who have been faced with this problem and have had to sacrifice the interests of either their children or their parents in order to make both ends meet.
     I am hopeful, and I believe strongly, that the Congress should pass this legislation this year. It will provide a very effective protection for our older citizens. It will permit them through social security, which has worked so well for so many years, to protect their interests through their working life.
     I am delighted to come here. I understand that you are going to have rallies similar to this in a number of other cities on that same day, and I believe that with this kind of public support, that the Congress of the United States can enact this legislation this year. I believe it is important that it does so, and I think if the people of the United States indicate their strong support for this proposal, the Congress will enact it.
     I'll be there.