Mr. Chairman, Mr. Vice President, Mrs. Johnson, ladies
and gentlemen:
My wife and I are very proud
to come to this meeting. This organization has done a good deal for this
State and for our country, and I am particularly glad that it emphasizes
not only the opportunity for all Americans a chance to develop their talents,
education for boys and girls, so that they can pursue those talents to
the very end of their ability, but also because you remind Americans of
the very important links that we have with our sister Republics in this
hemisphere.
One of the things which I have
taken the greatest interest in has been attempting to pursue an example
which was long neglected. And that was the one set by President Franklin
Roosevelt to emphasize that the United States is not only good neighbors,
which we were in the thirties, but also friends and associates in a great
effort to build in this hemisphere an Alliance for Progress, an effort
to prove that in this hemisphere, from top to bottom, in all of the countries
whether they be Latin or North American, that there is a common commitment
to freedom, to equality of opportunity, to a chance for all to prove that
prosperity can be the handmaiden of freedom, and to show to the world a
very bright star here in this country and, indeed, in the entire hemisphere.
So I am glad to be here today.
In order that my words will
be even clearer, I am going to ask my wife to say a few words to you also.