[As delivered in person before a joint session] Mr. Vice President, my old colleague from Massachusetts and your new Speaker, John McCormack, Members of the 87th Congress, ladies and gentlemen: This week we begin anew our joint and separate efforts to build the American future. But, sadly, we build without a man who linked a long past with the present and looked strongly to the future. "Mister Sam" Rayburn is gone. Neither this House nor the Nation is the same without him. Members of the Congress, the Constitution makes us not rivals for power but partners for progress. We are all trustees for the American people, custodians of the American heritage. It is my task to report the State of the Union--to improve it is the task of us all. In the past year, I have traveled not only across our own land but to other lands-to the North and the South, and across the seas. And I have found--as I am sure you have, in your travels--that people everywhere, in spite of occasional disappointments, look to us--not to our wealth or power, but to the splendor of our ideals. For our Nation is commissioned by history to be either an observer of freedom's failure or the cause of its success. Our overriding obligation in the months ahead is to fulfill the world's hopes by fulfilling our own faith. 1. STRENGTHENING THE ECONOMY That task must begin at home. For if we cannot fulfill our own ideals here, we cannot expect others to accept them. And when the youngest child alive today has grown to the cares of manhood, our position in the world will be determined first of all by what provisions we make today--for his education, his health, and his opportunities for a good home and a good job and a good life. At home, we began the year in the valley of recession--we completed it on the high road of recovery and growth. With the help of new congressionally approved or administratively increased stimulants to our economy, the number of major surplus labor u areas has declined from 101 to 60; nonagricultural employment has increased by more than a million jobs; and the average factory work-week has risen to well over 40 hours. At year's end the economy which Mr. Khrushchev once called a "stumbling horse" was racing to new records in consumer spending, labor income, and industrial production. We are gratified--but we are not satisfied. Too many unemployed are still looking for the blessings of prosperity- As those who leave our schools and farms demand new jobs, automation takes old jobs away. To expand our growth and job opportunities, I urge on the Congress three measures: (1) First, the Manpower Training and Development Act, to stop the waste of able-bodied men and women who want to work, but whose only skill has been replaced by a machine, or moved with a mill, or shut down with a mine; (2) Second, the Youth Employment Opportunities Act, to help train and place not only the one million young Americans who are both out of school and out of work, but the twenty-six million young Americans entering the labor market in this decade; and (3) Third, the 8 percent tax credit for investment in machinery and equipment, which, combined with planned revisions of depreciation allowances, will spur our modernization, our growth, and our ability to compete abroad. Moreover--pleasant as it may be to bask in the warmth of recovery--let us not forget that we have suffered three recessions in the last 7 years. The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining--by filling three basic gaps in our anti-recession protection. We need: (1) First, presidential standby authority, subject to congressional veto, to adjust personal income tax rates downward within a specified range and time, to slow down an economic decline before it has dragged us all down; 
(2) Second, presidential standby authority, upon a given rise in the rate of unemployment, to accelerate Federal and federally-aided capital improvement programs; and (3) Third, a permanent strengthening of our unemployment compensation system--to maintain for our fellow citizens searching for a job who cannot find it, their purchasing power and their living standards without constant resort--as we have seen in recent years by the Congress and the administrations-to temporary supplements. If we enact this six-part program, we can show the whole world that a free economy need not be an unstable economy--that a free system need not leave men unemployed--and that a free society is not only the most productive but the most stable form of organization yet fashioned by man. II. FIGHTING INFLATION But recession is only one enemy of a free economy--inflation is another. Last year, 1961, despite rising production and demand, consumer prices held almost steady--and wholesale prices declined. This is the best record of overall price stability of any comparable period of recovery since the end of World War II. Inflation too often follows in the shadow of growth--while price stability is made easy by stagnation or controls. But we mean to maintain both stability and growth in a climate of freedom. Our first line of defense against inflation is the good sense and public spirit of business and labor--keeping their total increases in wages and profits in step with productivity. There is no single statistical test to guide each company and each union. But I strongly urge them--for their country's interest, and for their own--to apply the test of the public interest to these transactions. Within this same framework of growth and wage-price stability: --This administration has helped keep our economy competitive by widening the access of small business to credit and Government contracts, and by stepping up the drive against monopoly, price-fixing, and racketeering; --We will submit a Federal Pay Reform bill aimed at giving our classified, postal, and other employees new pay scales more comparable to those of private industry; --We are holding the fiscal 1962 budget deficit far below the level incurred after the last recession in 1958; and, finally, --I am submitting for fiscal 1963 a balanced Federal Budget. This is a joint responsibility, requiring Congressional cooperation on appropriations, and on three sources of income in particular: (1) First, an increase in postal rates, to end the postal deficit; (2) Secondly, passage of the tax reforms previously urged, to remove unwarranted tax preferences, and to apply to dividends and to interest the same withholding requirements we have long applied to wages; and (3) Third, extension of the present excise and corporation tax rates, except for those changes--which will be recommended in a message--affecting transportation. III. GETTING AMERICA MOVING But a stronger nation and economy require more than a balanced Budget. They require progress in those programs that spur our growth and fortify our strength. CITIES A strong America depends on its cities-America's glory, and sometimes America's shame. To substitute sunlight for congestion and progress for decay, we have stepped up existing urban renewal and housing programs, and launched new ones--redoubled the attack on water pollution--speeded aid to airports, hospitals, highways, and our declining mass transit systems--and secured new weapons to combat organized crime, racketeering, and youth delinquency, assisted by the coordinated and hard-hitting efforts of our investigative services: the FBI, the Internal Revenue, the Bureau of Narcotics, and many others. We shall need further anti-crime, mass transit, and transportation legislation--and new tools to fight air pollution. And with all this effort under way, both equity and commonsense require that our nation's urban areas--containing three-fourths of our population--sit as equals at the Cabinet table. I urge a new Department of Urban Affairs and Housing. AGRICULTURE AND RESOURCES A strong America also depends on its farms and natural resources. American farmers took heart in 1961--from a billion dollar rise in farm income--and from a hopeful start on reducing the farm surpluses. But we are still operating under a patchwork accumulation of old laws, which cost us $1 billion a year in CCC carrying charges alone, yet fail to halt rural poverty or boost farm earnings. Our task is to master and turn to fully fruitful ends the magnificent productivity of our farms and farmers. The revolution on our own countryside stands in the sharpest contrast to the repeated farm failures of the Communist nations and is a source of pride to us all. Since 1950 our agricultural output per man-hour has actually doubled! Without new, realistic measures, it will someday swamp our farmers and our taxpayers in a national scandal or a farm depression. I will, therefore, submit to the Congress a new comprehensive farm program--tailored to fit the use of our land and the supplies of each crop to the long-range needs of the sixties--and designed to prevent chaos in the sixties with a program of commonsense. We also need for the sixties--if we are to bequeath our full national estate to our heirs--a new long-range conservation and recreation program--expansion of our superb national parks and forests--preservation of our authentic wilderness areas-new starts on water and power projects as our population steadily increases--and expanded REA generation and transmission loans. CIVIL RIGHTS But America stands for progress in human rights as well as economic affairs, and a strong America requires the assurance of full and equal rights to all its citizens, of any race or of any color. This administration has shown as never before how much could be done through the full use of Executive powers--through the enforcement of laws already passed by the Congress-through persuasion, negotiation, and litigation, to secure the constitutional rights of all: the right to vote, the right to travel Without hindrance across State lines, and the right to free public education. I issued last March a comprehensive order to guarantee the right to equal employment opportunity in all Federal agencies and contractors. The Vice President's Committee thus created has done much, including the voluntary "Plans for progress" which, in all sections of the country, are achieving a quiet but striking success in opening up to all races new professional, supervisory, and other job opportunities. But there is much more to be done--by the Executive, by the courts, and by the Congress. Among the bills now pending before you, on which the executive departments will comment in detail, are appropriate methods of strengthening these basic rights which have our full support. The right to vote, for example, should no longer be denied through such arbitrary devices on a local level, sometimes abused, such as literacy tests and poll taxes. As we approach the 100th anniversary, next January, of the Emancipation Proclamation, let the acts of every branch of the Government--and every citizen--portray that "righteousness does exalt a nation." HEALTH AND WELFARE Finally, a strong America cannot neglect the aspirations of its citizens--the welfare of the needy, the health care of the elderly, the education of the young. For we are not developing the Nation's wealth for its own sake. Wealth is the means--and people are the ends. All our material riches will avail us little if we do not use them to expand the opportunities of our people. Last year, we improved the diet of needy people--provided more hot lunches and fresh milk to school children built more college dormitories--and, for the elderly, expanded private housing, nursing homes, heath services, and social security. But we have just begun. To help those least fortunate of all, I am recommending a new public welfare program, stressing services instead of support, rehabilitation instead of relief, and training for useful work instead of prolonged dependency. To relieve the critical shortage of doctors and dentists--and this is a matter which should concern us all--and expand research, I urge action to aid medical and dental colleges and scholarships and to establish new National Institutes of Health. To take advantage of modern vaccination achievements, I am proposing a mass immunization program, aimed at the virtual elimination of such ancient enemies of our children as polio, diphtheria, whooping cough, and tetanus. To protect our consumers from the careless and the unscrupulous, I shall recommend improvements in the Food and Drug laws-strengthening inspection and standards, halting unsafe and worthless products, preventing misleading labels, and cracking down on the illicit sale of habit-forming drugs. But in matters of health, no piece of unfinished business is more important or more urgent than the enactment under the social security system of health insurance for the aged. For our older citizens have longer and more frequent illnesses, higher hospital and medical bills and too little income to pay them. Private health insurance helps very few--for its cost is high and its coverage limited. Public welfare cannot help those too proud to seek relief but hard-pressed to pay their own bills. Nor can their children or grandchildren always sacrifice their own health budgets to meet this constant drain. Social security has long helped to meet the hardships of retirement, death, and disability. I now urge that its coverage be extended without further delay to provide health insurance for the elderly. EDUCATION Equally important to our strength is the quality of our education. Eight million adult Americans are classified as functionally illiterate. This is a disturbing figure--reflected in Selective Service rejection rates-reflected in welfare rolls and crime rates. And I shall recommend plans for a massive attack to end this adult illiteracy. I shall also recommend bills to improve educational quality, to stimulate the arts, and, at the college level, to provide Federal loans for the construction of academic facilities and federally financed scholarships. If this Nation is to grow in wisdom and strength, then every able high school graduate should have the opportunity to develop his talents. Yet nearly half lack either the funds or the facilities to attend college. Enrollments are going to double in our colleges in the short space of 10 years. The annual cost per student is skyrocketing to astronomical levels--now averaging $1,650 a year, although almost half of our families earn less than $5,000. They cannot afford such costs--but this Nation cannot afford to maintain its military power and neglect its brainpower. But excellence in education must begin at the elementary level. I sent to the Congress last year a proposal for Federal aid to public school construction and teachers' salaries. I believe that bill, which passed the Senate and received House Committee approval, offered the minimum amount required by our needs and--in terms of across-the-board aid--the maximum scope permitted by our Constitution. I therefore see no reason to weaken or withdraw that bill: and I urge its passage at this session. "Civilization," said H. G. Wells, "is a race between education and catastrophe." It is up to you in this Congress to determine the winner of that race. These are not unrelated measures addressed to specific gaps or grievances in our national life. They are the pattern of our intentions and the foundation of our hopes. "I believe in democracy," said Woodrow Wilson, "because it releases the energy of every human being." The dynamic of democracy is the power and the purpose of the individual, and the policy of this administration is to give to the individual the opportunity to realize his own highest possibilities. Our program is to open to all the opportunity for steady and productive employment, to remove from all the handicap of arbitrary or irrational exclusion, to offer to all the facilities for education and health and welfare, to make society the servant of the individual and the individual the source of progress, and thus to realize for all the full promise of American life. IV. OUR GOALS ABROAD All of these efforts at home give meaning to our efforts abroad. Since the close of the Second World War, a global civil war has divided and tormented mankind. But it is not our military might, or our higher standard of living, that has most distinguished us from our adversaries. It is our belief that the state is the servant of the citizen and not his master. This basic clash of ideas and wills is but one of the forces reshaping our globe--swept as it is by the tides of hope and fear, by crises in the headlines today that become mere footnotes tomorrow. Both the successes and the setbacks of the past year remain on our agenda of unfinished business. For every apparent blessing contains the seeds of danger--every area of trouble gives out a ray of hope--and the one unchangeable certainty is that nothing is certain or unchangeable. Yet our basic goal remains the same: a peaceful world community of free and independent states--free to choose their own future and their own system, so long as it does not threaten the freedom of others. 
Some may choose forms and ways that we would not choose for ourselves--but it is not for us that they are choosing. We can welcome diversity--the Communists cannot. For we offer a world of choice--they offer the world of coercion. And the way of the past shows dearly that freedom, not coercion, is the wave of the future. At times our goal has been obscured by crisis or endangered by conflict--but it draws sustenance from five basic sources of strength: 
--the moral and physical strength of the United States; 
--the united strength of the Atlantic Community; 
--the regional strength of our Hemispheric relations; 
--the creative strength of our efforts in the new and developing nations; and 
--the peace-keeping strength of the United Nations. V. OUR MILITARY STRENGTH Our moral and physical strength begins at home as already discussed. But it includes our military strength as well. So long as fanaticism and fear brood over the affairs of men, we must arm to deter others from aggression. In the past 12 months our military posture has steadily improved. We increased the previous defense budget by 15 percent--not in the expectation of war but for the preservation of peace. We more than doubled our acquisition rate of Polaris submarines--we doubled the production capacity for Minuteman missiles--and increased by 50 percent the number of manned bombers standing ready on a 15 minute alert. This year the combined force levels planned under our new Defense budget--including nearly three hundred additional Polaris and Minuteman missiles--have been precisely calculated to insure the continuing strength of our nuclear deterrent. But our strength may be tested at many levels. We intend to have at all times the capacity to resist non-nuclear or limited attacks--as a complement to our nuclear capacity, not as a substitute. We have rejected any all-or-nothing posture which would leave no choice but inglorious retreat or unlimited retaliation. Thus we have doubled the number of ready combat divisions in the Army's strategic reserve--increased our troops in Europe--built up the Marines--added new sealift and airlift capacity--modernized our weapons and ammunition--expanded our anti-guerrilla forces--and increased the active fleet by more than 70 vessels and our tactical air forces by nearly a dozen wings. Because we needed to reach this higher long-term level of readiness more quickly, 155,000 members of the Reserve and National Guard were activated under the Act of this Congress. Some disruptions and distress were inevitable. But the overwhelming majority bear their burdens--and their Nation's burdens--with admirable and traditional devotion. In the coming year, our reserve programs will be revised--two Army Divisions will, I hope, replace those Guard Divisions on duty--and substantial other increases will boost our Air Force fighter units, the procurement of equipment, and our continental defense and warning efforts. The Nation's first serious civil defense shelter program is under way, identifying, marking, and stocking 50 million spaces; and I urge your approval of Federal incentives for the construction of public fall-out shelters in schools and hospitals and similar centers. VI. THE UNITED NATIONS But arms alone are not enough to keep the peace--it must be kept by men. Our instrument and our hope is the United Nations-and I see little merit in the impatience of those who would abandon this imperfect world instrument because they dislike our imperfect world. For the troubles of a world organization merely reflect the troubles of the world itself. And if the organization is weakened, these troubles can only increase. We may not always agree with every detailed action taken by every officer of the United Nations, or with every voting majority. But as an institution, it should have in the future, as it has had in the past since its inception, no stronger or more faithful member than the United States of America. In 1961 the peace-keeping strength of the United Nations was reinforced. And those who preferred or predicted its demise, envisioning a troika in the seat of Hammarskiold--or Red China inside the Assembly-have seen instead a new vigor, under a new Secretary General and a fully independent Secretariat. In making plans for a new forum and principles on disarmament for peace-keeping in outer space--for a decade of development effort--the UN fulfilled its Charter's lofty aim. Eighteen months ago the tangled and turbulent Congo presented the UN with its gravest challenge. The prospect was one of chaos--or certain big-power confrontation, with all of its hazards and all of its risks, to us and to others. Today the hopes have improved for peaceful conciliation within a united Congo. This is the objective of our policy in this important area. No policeman is universally popular-particularly when he uses his stick to restore law and order on his beat. Those members who are willing to contribute their votes and their views--but very little else--have created a serious deficit by refusing to pay their share of special UN assessments. Yet they do pay their annual assessments to retain their votes--and a new UN Bond issue, financing special operations for the next 18 months, is to be repaid with interest from these regular assessments. This is clearly in our interest. It will not only keep the UN solvent, but require all voting members to pay their fair share of its activities. Our share of special operations has long been much higher than our share of the annual assessment--and the bond issue will in effect reduce our disproportionate obligation, and for these reasons, I am urging Congress to approve our participation. With the approval of this Congress, we have undertaken in the past year a great new effort in outer space. Our aim is not simply to be first on the moon, any more than Charles Lindbergh's real aim was to be the first to Paris. His aim was to develop the techniques of our own country and other countries in the field of air and the atmosphere, and our objective in making this effort, which we hope will place one of our citizens on the moon, is to develop in a new frontier of science, commerce and cooperation, the position of the United States and the Free World. This Nation belongs among the first to explore it, and among the first--if not the first--we shall be. We are offering our know-how and our cooperation to the United Nations. Our satellites will soon be providing other nations with improved weather observations. And I shall soon send to the Congress a measure to govern the financing and operation of an International Communications Satellite system, in a manner consistent with the public interest and our foreign policy. But peace in space will help us naught once peace on earth is gone. World order will be secured only when the whole world has laid down these weapons which seem to offer us present security but threaten the future survival of the human race. That armistice day seems very far away. The vast resources of this planet are being devoted more and more to the means of destroying, instead of enriching, human life. But the world was not meant to be a prison in which man awaits his execution. Nor has mankind survived the tests and trials of thousands of years to surrender everything-including its existence--now. This Nation has the will and the faith to make a supreme effort to break the log jam on disarmament and nuclear tests--and we will persist until we prevail, until the rule of law has replaced the ever dangerous use of force. VII. LATIN AMERICA I turn now to a prospect of great promise: our Hemispheric relations. The Alliance for Progress is being rapidly transformed from proposal to program. Last month in Latin America I saw for myself the quickening of hope, the revival of confidence, the new trust in our country--among workers and farmers as well as diplomats. We have pledged our help in speeding their economic, educational, and social progress. The Latin American Republics have in turn pledged a new and strenuous effort of self-help and self-reform. To support this historic undertaking, I am proposing--under the authority contained in the bills of the last session of the Congress--a special long-term Alliance for Progress fund of $3 billion. Combined with our Food for Peace, Export-Import Bank, and other resources, this will provide more than $1 billion a year in new support for the Alliance. In addition, we have increased twelve-fold our Spanish and Portuguese language broadcasting in Latin America, .and improved Hemispheric trade and defense. And while the blight of communism has been increasingly exposed and isolated in the Americas, liberty has scored a gain. The people of the Dominican Republic, with our firm encouragement and help, and those of our sister Republics of this Hemisphere are safely passing through the treacherous course from dictatorship through disorder towards democracy. VIII. THE NEW AND DEVELOPING NATIONS Our efforts to help other new or developing nations, and to strengthen their stand for freedom, have also made progress. A newly unified Agency for International Development is reorienting our foreign assistance to emphasize long-term development loans instead of grants, more economic aid instead of military, individual plans to meet the individual needs of the nations, and new standards on what they must do to marshal their own resources. A newly conceived Peace Corps is winning friends and helping people in fourteen countries--supplying trained and dedicated young men and women, to give these new nations a hand in building a society, and a glimpse of the best that is in our country. If there is a problem here, it is that we cannot supply the spontaneous and mounting demand. A newly-expanded Food for Peace Pro-. gram is feeding the hungry of many lands with the abundance of our productive farms--providing lunches for children in school, wages for economic development, relief for the victims of flood and famine, and a better diet for millions whose daily bread is their chief concern. These programs help people; and, by helping people, they help freedom. The views of their governments may sometimes be very different from ours--but events in Africa, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe teach us never to write off any nation as lost to the Communists- That is the lesson of our time. We support the independence of those newer or weaker states whose history, geography, economy or lack of power impels them to remain outside "entangling alliances"--as we did for more than a century. For the independence of nations is a bar to the Communists' "grand design"-it is the basis of our own. In the past year, for example, we have urged a neutral and independent Laos-regained there a common policy with our major allies--and insisted that a cease-fire precede negotiations. While a workable formula for supervising its independence is still to be achieved, both the spread of war-which might have involved this country also--and a Communist occupation have thus far been prevented. A satisfactory settlement in Laos would also help to achieve and safeguard the peace in Viet-Nam--where the foe is increasing his tactics of terror--where our own efforts have been stepped up--and where the local government has initiated new programs and reforms to broaden the base of resistance. The systematic aggression now bleeding that country is not a "war of liberation"--for Viet-Nam is already free. It is a war of attempted subjugation--and it will be resisted. IX. THE ATLANTIC COMMUNITY Finally, the united strength of the Atlantic Community has flourished in the last year under severe tests. NATO has increased both the number and the readiness of its air, ground, and naval units--both its nuclear and non-nuclear capabilities. Even greater efforts by all its members are still required. Nevertheless our unity of purpose and will has been, I believe, immeasurably strengthened. The threat to the brave city of Berlin remains. In these last 6 months the Allies have made it unmistakably clear that our presence in Berlin, our free access thereto, and the freedom of two million West Berliners would not be surrendered either to force or through appeasement--and to maintain those rights and obligations, we are prepared to talk, when appropriate, and to fight, if necessary. Every member of NATO stands with us in a common commitment to preserve this symbol of free man's will to remain free. I cannot now predict the course of future negotiations over Berlin. I can only say that we are sparing no honorable effort to find a peaceful and mutually acceptable resolution of this problem. I believe such a resolution can be found, and with it an improvement in our relations with the Soviet Union, if only the leaders in the Kremlin will recognize the basic rights and interests involved, and the interest of all mankind in peace. But the Atlantic Community is no longer concerned with purely military aims. As its common undertakings grow at an ever-increasing pace, we are, and increasingly will be, partners in aid, trade, defense, diplomacy, and monetary affairs. The emergence of the new Europe is being matched by the emergence of new ties across the Atlantic. It is a matter of undramatic daily cooperation in hundreds of workaday tasks: of currencies kept in effective relation, of development loans meshed together, of standardized weapons, and concerted diplomatic positions. The Atlantic Community grows, not like a volcanic mountain, by one mighty explosion, but like a coral reef, from the accumulating activity of all. Thus, we in the free world are moving steadily toward unity and cooperation, in the teeth of that old Bolshevik prophecy, and at the very time when extraordinary rumbles of discord can be heard across the Iron Curtain. It is not free societies which bear within them the seeds of inevitable disunity. X. OUR BALANCE OF PAYMENTS On one special problem, of great concern to our friends, and to us, I am proud to give the Congress an encouraging report. Our efforts to safeguard the dollar are progressing. In the 11 months preceding last February 1, we suffered a net loss of nearly $2 billion in gold. In the 11 months that followed, the loss was just over half a billion dollars. And our deficit in our basic transactions with the rest of the world--trade, defense, foreign aid, and capital, excluding volatile short-term flows--has been reduced from $2 billion for 1960 to about one-third that amount for 1961. Speculative fever against the dollar is ending--and confidence in the dollar has been restored. We did not--and could not--achieve these gains through import restrictions, troop withdrawals, exchange controls, dollar devaluation or choking off domestic recovery. We acted not in panic but in perspective. But the problem is not yet solved. Persistently large deficits would endanger our economic growth and our military and defense commitments abroad. Our goal must be a reasonable equilibrium in our balance of payments. With the cooperation of the Congress, business, labor, and our major allies, that goal can be reached. We shall continue to attract foreign tourists and investments to our shores, to seek increased military purchases here by our allies, to maximize foreign aid procurement from American firms, to urge increased aid from other fortunate nations to the less fortunate, to seek tax laws which do not favor investment in other industrialized nations or tax havens, and to urge coordination of allied fiscal and monetary policies So as to discourage large and disturbing capital movements. TRADE Above all, if we are to pay for our commitments abroad, we must expand our exports. Our businessmen must be export conscious and export competitive. Our tax policies must spur modernization of our plants--our wage and price gains must be consistent with productivity to hold the line on prices--our export credit and promotion campaigns for American industries must continue to expand. But the greatest challenge of all is posed by the growth of the European Common Market. Assuming the accession of the United Kingdom, there will arise across the Atlantic a trading partner behind a single external tariff similar to ours with an economy which nearly equals our own. Will we in this country adapt our thinking to these new prospects and patterns--or will we wait until events have passed us by? This is the year to decide. The Reciprocal Trade Act is expiring. We need a new law--a wholly new approach--a bold new instrument of American trade policy. Our decision could well affect the unity of the West, the course of the Cold War, and the economic growth of our Nation for a generation to come. If we move decisively, our factories and farms can increase their sales to their richest, fastest-growing market. Our exports will increase. Our balance of payments position will improve. And we will have forged across the Atlantic a trading partnership with vast resources for freedom. If, on the other hand, we hang back in deference to local economic pressures, we will find ourselves cut off from our major allies. Industries--and I believe this is most vital--industries will move their plants and jobs and capital inside the walls of the Common Market, and jobs, therefore, will be lost here in the United States if they cannot otherwise compete for its consumers. Our farm surpluses--our balance of trade, as you all know, to Europe, the Common Market, in farm products, is nearly three or four to one in our favor, amounting to one of the best earners of dollars in our balance of payments structure, and without entrance to this Market, without the ability to enter it, our farm surpluses will pile up in the Middle West, tobacco in the South, and other commodities, which have gone through Western Europe for 15 years. Our balance of payments position will worsen. Our consumers, will lack a wider choice of goods at lower prices. And millions of American workers-whose jobs depend on the sale or the transportation or the distribution of exports or imports, or whose jobs will be endangered by the movement of our capital to Europe, or whose jobs can be maintained only in. an expanding economy--these millions of workers in your home States and mine will see their real interests sacrificed. Members of the Congress: The United States did not rise to greatness by waiting for others to lead. This Nation is the world's foremost manufacturer, farmer, banker, consumer, and exporter. The Common Market is moving ahead at an economic growth rate twice ours. The Communist economic offensive is under way. The opportunity is ours--the initiative is up to us--and I believe that 1962 is the time. To seize that initiative, I shall shortly send to the Congress a new five-year Trade Expansion Action, far-reaching in scope but designed with great care to make certain that its benefits to our people far outweigh any risks. The bill will permit the gradual elimination of tariffs here in the United States and in the Common Market on those items in which we together supply 80 percent of the world's trade--mostly items in which our own ability to compete is demonstrated by the fact that we sell abroad, in these items, substantially more than we import. This step will make it possible for our major industries to compete with their counterparts in Western Europe for access to European consumers. On other goods the bill will permit a gradual reduction of duties up to 50 percent-permitting bargaining by major categories-and provide for appropriate and tested forms of assistance to firms and employees adjusting to import competition. We are not neglecting the safeguards provided by peril points, an escape clause, or the National Security Amendment. Nor are we abandoning our non-European friends or our traditional "most-favored nation" principle. On the contrary, the bill will provide new encouragement for their sale of tropical agricultural products, so important to our friends in Latin America, who have long depended upon the European market, who now find themselves faced with new challenges which we must join with them in overcoming. Concessions, in this bargaining, must of course be reciprocal, not unilateral. The Common Market will not fulfill its own high promise unless its outside tariff walls are low. The dangers of restriction or timidity in our own policy have counterparts for our friends in Europe. For together we face a common challenge: to enlarge the prosperity of free men everywhere--to build in partnership a new trading community in which all free nations may gain from the productive energy of free competitive effort. These various elements in our foreign policy lead, as I have said, to a single goal--the goal of a peaceful world of free and independent states. This is our guide for the present and our vision for the future--a free community of nations, independent but interdependent, uniting north and south, east and west, in one great family of man, outgrowing and transcending the hates and fears that rend our age. We will not reach that goal today, or tomorrow. We may not reach it in our own lifetime. But the quest is the greatest adventure of our century. We sometimes chafe at the burden of our obligations, the complexity of our decisions, the agony of our choices. But there is no comfort or security for us in evasion, no solution in abdication, no relief in irresponsibility. A year ago, in assuming the tasks of the Presidency, I said that few generations, in all history, had been granted the role of being the great defender of freedom in its hour of maximum danger. This is our good fortune; and I welcome it now as I did a year ago. For it is the fate of this generation-of you in the Congress and of me as President--to live with a struggle we did not start, in a world we did not make. But the pressures of life are not always distributed by choice. And while no nation has ever faced such a challenge, no nation has ever been so ready to seize the burden and the glory of freedom. And in this high endeavor, may God watch over the United States of America.
[As delivered in person before a joint session] Mr. Vice President, my old colleague from Massachusetts and your new Speaker, John McCormack, Members of the 87th Congress, ladies and gentlemen: This week we begin anew our joint and separate efforts to build the American future. But, sadly, we build without a man who linked a long past with the present and looked strongly to the future. "Mister Sam" Rayburn is gone. Neither this House nor the Nation is the same without him. Members of the Congress, the Constitution makes us not rivals for power but partners for progress. We are all trustees for the American people, custodians of the American heritage. It is my task to report the State of the Union--to improve it is the task of us all. In the past year, I have traveled not only across our own land but to other lands-to the North and the South, and across the seas. And I have found--as I am sure you have, in your travels--that people everywhere, in spite of occasional disappointments, look to us--not to our wealth or power, but to the splendor of our ideals. For our Nation is commissioned by history to be either an observer of freedom's failure or the because of its success. Our overriding obligation in the months ahead is to fulfill the world's hopes by fulfilling our own faith. 1. STRENGTHENING THE ECONOMY That task must begin at home. For if we cannot fulfill our own ideals here, we cannot expect others to accept them. And when the youngest child alive today has grown to the cares of manhood, our position in the world will be determined first of all by what provisions we make today--for his education, his health, and his opportunities for a good home and a good job and a good life. At home, we began the year in the valley of recession--we completed it on the high road of recovery and growth. With the help of new congressionally approved or administratively increased stimulants to our economy, the number of major surplus labor you areas has declined from 101 to 60; nonagricultural employment has increased by more than a million jobs; and the average factory work-week has risen to well over 40 hours. At year's end the economy which Mr. Khrushchev once called a "stumbling horse" was racing to new records in consumer spending, labor income, and industrial production. We are gratified--but we are not satisfied. Too many unemployed are still looking for the blessings of prosperity- As those who leave our schools and farms demand new jobs, automation takes old jobs away. To expand our growth and job opportunities, I urge on the Congress three measures: (1) First, the Manpower Training and Development Act, to stop the waste of able-bodied men and women who want to work, but whose only skill has been replaced by a machine, or moved with a mill, or shut down with a mine; (2) Second, the Youth Employment Opportunities Act, to help train and place not only the one million young Americans who are both out of school and out of work, but the twenty-six million young Americans entering the labor market in this decade; and (3) Third, the 8 percent tax credit for investment in machinery and equipment, which, combined with planned revisions of depreciation allowances, will spur our modernization, our growth, and our ability to compete abroad. Moreover--pleasant as it may be to bask in the warmth of recovery--let us not forget that we have suffered three recessions in the last 7 years. The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining--by filling three basic gaps in our anti-recession protection. We need: (1) First, presidential standby authority, subject to congressional veto, to adjust personal income tax rates downward within a specified range and time, to slow down an economic decline before it has dragged us all down; (2) Second, presidential standby authority, upon a given rise in the rate of unemployment, to accelerate Federal and federally-aided capital improvement programs; and (3) Third, a permanent strengthening of our unemployment compensation system--to maintain for our fellow citizens searching for a job who cannot find it, their purchasing power and their living standards without constant resort--as we have seen in recent years by the Congress and the administrations-to temporary supplements. If we enact this six-part program, we can show the whole world that a free economy need not be an unstable economy--that a free system need not leave men unemployed--and that a free society is not only the most productive but the most stable form of organization yet fashioned by man. II. FIGHTING INFLATION But recession is only one enemy of a free economy--inflation is another. Last year, 1961, despite rising production and demand, consumer prices held almost steady--and wholesale prices declined. This is the best record of overall price stability of any comparable period of recovery since the end of World War II. Inflation too often follows in the shadow of growth--while price stability is made easy by stagnation or controls. But we mean to maintain both stability and growth in a climate of freedom. Our first line of defense against inflation is the good sense and public spirit of business and labor--keeping their total increases in wages and profits in step with productivity. There is no single statistical test to guide each company and each union. But I strongly urge them--for their country's interest, and for their own--to apply the test of the public interest to these transactions. Within this same framework of growth and wage-price stability: --This administration has helped keep our economy competitive by widening the access of small business to credit and Government contracts, and by stepping up the drive against monopoly, price-fixing, and racketeering; --We will submit a Federal Pay Reform bill aimed at giving our classified, postal, and other employees new pay scales more comparable to those of private industry; --We are holding the fiscal 1962 budget deficit far below the level incurred after the last recession in 1958; and, finally, --I am submitting for fiscal 1963 a balanced Federal Budget. This is a joint responsibility, requiring Congressional cooperation on appropriations, and on three sources of income in particular: (1) First, an increase in postal rates, to end the postal deficit; (2) Secondly, passage of the tax reforms previously urged, to remove unwarranted tax preferences, and to apply to dividends and to interest the same withholding requirements we have long applied to wages; and (3) Third, extension of the present excise and corporation tax rates, except for those changes--which will be recommended in a message--affecting transportation. III. GETTING AMERICA MOVING But a stronger nation and economy require more than a balanced Budget. They require progress in those programs that spur our growth and fortify our strength. CITIES A strong America depends on its cities-America's glory, and sometimes America's shame. To substitute sunlight for congestion and progress for decay, we have stepped up existing urban renewal and housing programs, and launched new ones--redoubled the attack on water pollution--speeded aid to airports, hospitals, highways, and our declining mass transit systems--and secured new weapons to combat organized crime, racketeering, and youth delinquency, assisted by the coordinated and hard-hitting efforts of our investigative services: the FBI, the Internal Revenue, the Bureau of Narcotics, and many others. We shall need further anti-crime, mass transit, and transportation legislation--and new tools to fight air pollution. And with all this effort under way, both equity and commonsense require that our nation's urban areas--containing three-fourths of our population--sit as equals at the Cabinet table. I urge a new Department of Urban Affairs and Housing. AGRICULTURE AND RESOURCES A strong America also depends on its farms and natural resources. American farmers took heart in 1961--from a billion dollar rise in farm income--and from a hopeful start on reducing the farm surpluses. But we are still operating under a patchwork accumulation of old laws, which cost us $1 billion a year in CCC carrying charges alone, yet fail to halt rural poverty or boost farm earnings. Our task is to master and turn to fully fruitful ends the magnificent productivity of our farms and farmers. The revolution on our own countryside stands in the sharpest contrast to the repeated farm failures of the Communist nations and is a source of pride to us all. Since 1950 our agricultural output per man-hour has actually doubled! Without new, realistic measures, it will someday swamp our farmers and our taxpayers in a national scandal or a farm depression. I will, therefore, submit to the Congress a new comprehensive farm program--tailored to fit the use of our land and the supplies of each crop to the long-range needs of the sixties--and designed to prevent chaos in the sixties with a program of commonsense. We also need for the sixties--if we are to bequeath our full national estate to our heirs--a new long-range conservation and recreation program--expansion of our superb national parks and forests--preservation of our authentic wilderness areas-new starts on water and power projects as our population steadily increases--and expanded REA generation and transmission loans. CIVIL RIGHTS But America stands for progress in human rights as well as economic affairs, and a strong America requires the assurance of full and equal rights to all its citizens, of any race or of any color. This administration has shown as never before how much could be done through the full use of Executive powers--through the enforcement of laws already passed by the Congress-through persuasion, negotiation, and litigation, to secure the constitutional rights of all: the right to vote, the right to travel Without hindrance across State lines, and the right to free public education. I issued last March a comprehensive order to guarantee the right to equal employment opportunity in all Federal agencies and contractors. The Vice President's Committee thus created has done much, including the voluntary "Plans for progress" which, in all sections of the country, are achieving a quiet but striking success in opening up to all races new professional, supervisory, and other job opportunities. But there is much more to be done--by the Executive, by the courts, and by the Congress. Among the bills now pending before you, on which the executive departments will comment in detail, are appropriate methods of strengthening these basic rights which have our full support. The right to vote, for example, should no longer be denied through such arbitrary devices on a local level, sometimes abused, such as literacy tests and poll taxes. As we approach the 100th anniversary, next January, of the Emancipation Proclamation, let the acts of every branch of the Government--and every citizen--portray that "righteousness does exalt a nation." HEALTH AND WELFARE Finally, a strong America cannot neglect the aspirations of its citizens--the welfare of the needy, the health care of the elderly, the education of the young. For we are not developing the Nation's wealth for its own sake. Wealth is the means--and people are the ends. All our material riches will avail us little if we do not use them to expand the opportunities of our people. Last year, we improved the diet of needy people--provided more hot lunches and fresh milk to school children built more college dormitories--and, for the elderly, expanded private housing, nursing homes, heath services, and social security. But we have just begun. To help those least fortunate of all, I am recommending a new public welfare program, stressing services instead of support, rehabilitation instead of relief, and training for useful work instead of prolonged dependency. To relieve the critical shortage of doctors and dentists--and this is a matter which should concern us all--and expand research, I urge action to aid medical and dental colleges and scholarships and to establish new National Institutes of Health. To take advantage of modern vaccination achievements, I am proposing a mass immunization program, aimed at the virtual elimination of such ancient enemies of our children as polio, diphtheria, whooping cough, and tetanus. To protect our consumers from the careless and the unscrupulous, I shall recommend improvements in the Food and Drug laws-strengthening inspection and standards, halting unsafe and worthless products, preventing misleading labels, and cracking down on the illicit sale of habit-forming drugs. But in matters of health, no piece of unfinished business is more important or more urgent than the enactment under the social security system of health insurance for the aged. For our older citizens have longer and more frequent illnesses, higher hospital and medical bills and too little income to pay them. Private health insurance helps very few--for its cost is high and its coverage limited. Public welfare cannot help those too proud to seek relief but hard-pressed to pay their own bills. Nor can their children or grandchildren always sacrifice their own health budgets to meet this constant drain. Social security has long helped to meet the hardships of retirement, death, and disability. I now urge that its coverage be extended without further delay to provide health insurance for the elderly. EDUCATION Equally important to our strength is the quality of our education. Eight million adult Americans are classified as functionally illiterate. This is a disturbing figure--reflected in Selective Service rejection rates-reflected in welfare rolls and crime rates. And I shall recommend plans for a massive attack to end this adult illiteracy. I shall also recommend bills to improve educational quality, to stimulate the arts, and, at the college level, to provide Federal loans for the construction of academic facilities and federally financed scholarships. If this Nation is to grow in wisdom and strength, then every able high school graduate should have the opportunity to develop his talents. Yet nearly half lack either the funds or the facilities to attend college. Enrollments are going to double in our colleges in the short space of 10 years. The annual cost per student is skyrocketing to astronomical levels--now averaging $1,650 a year, although almost half of our families earn less than $5,000. They cannot afford such costs--but this Nation cannot afford to maintain its military power and neglect its brainpower. But excellence in education must begin at the elementary level. I sent to the Congress last year a proposal for Federal aid to public school construction and teachers' salaries. I believe that bill, which passed the Senate and received House Committee approval, offered the minimum amount required by our needs and--in terms of across-the-board aid--the maximum scope permitted by our Constitution. I therefore see no reason to weaken or withdraw that bill: and I urge its passage at this session. "Civilization," said H. G. Wells, "is a race between education and catastrophe." It is up to you in this Congress to determine the winner of that race. These are not unrelated measures addressed to specific gaps or grievances in our national life. They are the pattern of our intentions and the foundation of our hopes. "I believe in democracy," said Woodrow Wilson, "because it releases the energy of every human being." The dynamic of democracy is the power and the purpose of the individual, and the policy of this administration is to give to the individual the opportunity to realize his own highest possibilities. Our program is to open to all the opportunity for steady and productive employment, to remove from all the handicap of arbitrary or irrational exclusion, to offer to all the facilities for education and health and welfare, to make society the servant of the individual and the individual the source of progress, and thus to realize for all the full promise of American life. IV. OUR GOALS ABROAD All of these efforts at home give meaning to our efforts abroad. Since the close of the Second World War, a global civil war has divided and tormented mankind. But it is not our military might, or our higher standard of living, that has most distinguished us from our adversaries. It is our belief that the state is the servant of the citizen and not his master. This basic clash of ideas and wills is but one of the forces reshaping our globe--swept as it is by the tides of hope and fear, by crises in the headlines today that become mere footnotes tomorrow. Both the successes and the setbacks of the past year remain on our agenda of unfinished business. For every apparent blessing contains the seeds of danger--every area of trouble gives out a ray of hope--and the one unchangeable certainty is that nothing is certain or unchangeable. Yet our basic goal remains the same: a peaceful world community of free and independent states--free to choose their own future and their own system, so long as it does not threaten the freedom of others. Some may choose forms and ways that we would not choose for ourselves--but it is not for us that they are choosing. We can welcome diversity--the Communists cannot. For we offer a world of choice--they offer the world of coercion. And the way of the past shows dearly that freedom, not coercion, is the wave of the future. At times our goal has been obscured by crisis or endangered by conflict--but it draws sustenance from five basic sources of strength: --the moral and physical strength of the United States; --the united strength of the Atlantic Community; --the regional strength of our Hemispheric relations; --the creative strength of our efforts in the new and developing nations; and --the peace-keeping strength of the United Nations. V. OUR MILITARY STRENGTH Our moral and physical strength begins at home as already discussed. But it includes our military strength as well. So long as fanaticism and fear brood over the affairs of men, we must arm to deter others from aggression. In the past 12 months our military posture has steadily improved. We increased the previous defense budget by 15 percent--not in the expectation of war but for the preservation of peace. We more than doubled our acquisition rate of Polaris submarines--we doubled the production capacity for Minuteman missiles--and increased by 50 percent the number of manned bombers standing ready on a 15 minute alert. This year the combined force levels planned under our new Defense budget--including nearly three hundred additional Polaris and Minuteman missiles--have been precisely calculated to insure the continuing strength of our nuclear deterrent. But our strength may be tested at many levels. We intend to have at all times the capacity to resist non-nuclear or limited attacks--as a complement to our nuclear capacity, not as a substitute. We have rejected any all-or-nothing posture which would leave no choice but inglorious retreat or unlimited retaliation. Thus we have doubled the number of ready combat divisions in the Army's strategic reserve--increased our troops in Europe--built up the Marines--added new sealift and airlift capacity--modernized our weapons and ammunition--expanded our anti-guerrilla forces--and increased the active fleet by more than 70 vessels and our tactical air forces by nearly a dozen wings. Because we needed to reach this higher long-term level of readiness more quickly, 155,000 members of the Reserve and National Guard were activated under the Act of this Congress. Some disruptions and distress were inevitable. But the overwhelming majority bear their burdens--and their Nation's burdens--with admirable and traditional devotion. In the coming year, our reserve programs will be revised--two Army Divisions will, I hope, replace those Guard Divisions on duty--and substantial other increases will boost our Air Force fighter units, the procurement of equipment, and our continental defense and warning efforts. The Nation's first serious civil defense shelter program is under way, identifying, marking, and stocking 50 million spaces; and I urge your approval of Federal incentives for the construction of public fall-out shelters in schools and hospitals and similar centers. VI. THE UNITED NATIONS But arms alone are not enough to keep the peace--it must be kept by men. Our instrument and our hope is the United Nations-and I see little merit in the impatience of those who would abandon this imperfect world instrument because they dislike our imperfect world. For the troubles of a world organization merely reflect the troubles of the world itself. And if the organization is weakened, these troubles can only increase. We may not always agree with every detailed action taken by every officer of the United Nations, or with every voting majority. But as an institution, it should have in the future, as it has had in the past since its inception, no stronger or more faithful member than the United States of America. In 1961 the peace-keeping strength of the United Nations was reinforced. And those who preferred or predicted its demise, envisioning a troika in the seat of Hammarskiold--or Red China inside the Assembly-have seen instead a new vigor, under a new Secretary General and a fully independent Secretariat. In making plans for a new forum and principles on disarmament for peace-keeping in outer space--for a decade of development effort--the UN fulfilled its Charter's lofty aim. Eighteen months ago the tangled and turbulent Congo presented the UN with its gravest challenge. The prospect was one of chaos--or certain big-power confrontation, with all of its hazards and all of its risks, to us and to others. Today the hopes have improved for peaceful conciliation within a united Congo. This is the objective of our policy in this important area. No policeman is universally popular-particularly when he uses his stick to restore law and order on his beat. Those members who are willing to contribute their votes and their views--but very little else--have created a serious deficit by refusing to pay their share of special UN assessments. Yet they do pay their annual assessments to retain their votes--and a new UN Bond issue, financing special operations for the next 18 months, is to be repaid with interest from these regular assessments. This is clearly in our interest. It will not only keep the UN solvent, but require all voting members to pay their fair share of its activities. Our share of special operations has long been much higher than our share of the annual assessment--and the bond issue will in effect reduce our disproportionate obligation, and for these reasons, I am urging Congress to approve our participation. With the approval of this Congress, we have undertaken in the past year a great new effort in outer space. Our aim is not simply to be first on the moon, any more than Charles Lindbergh's real aim was to be the first to Paris. His aim was to develop the techniques of our own country and other countries in the field of air and the atmosphere, and our objective in making this effort, which we hope will place one of our citizens on the moon, is to develop in a new frontier of science, commerce and cooperation, the position of the United States and the Free World. This Nation belongs among the first to explore it, and among the first--if not the first--we shall be. We are offering our know-how and our cooperation to the United Nations. Our satellites will soon be providing other nations with improved weather observations. And I shall soon send to the Congress a measure to govern the financing and operation of an International Communications Satellite system, in a manner consistent with the public interest and our foreign policy. But peace in space will help us naught once peace on earth is gone. World order will be secured only when the whole world has laid down these weapons which seem to offer us present security but threaten the future survival of the human race. That armistice day seems very far away. The vast resources of this planet are being devoted more and more to the means of destroying, instead of enriching, human life. But the world was not meant to be a prison in which man awaits his execution. Nor has mankind survived the tests and trials of thousands of years to surrender everything-including its existence--now. This Nation has the will and the faith to make a supreme effort to break the log jam on disarmament and nuclear tests--and we will persist until we prevail, until the rule of law has replaced the ever dangerous use of force. VII. LATIN AMERICA I turn now to a prospect of great promise: our Hemispheric relations. The Alliance for Progress is being rapidly transformed from proposal to program. Last month in Latin America I saw for myself the quickening of hope, the revival of confidence, the new trust in our country--among workers and farmers as well as diplomats. We have pledged our help in speeding their economic, educational, and social progress. The Latin American Republics have in turn pledged a new and strenuous effort of self-help and self-reform. To support this historic undertaking, I am proposing--under the authority contained in the bills of the last session of the Congress--a special long-term Alliance for Progress fund of $3 billion. Combined with our Food for Peace, Export-Import Bank, and other resources, this will provide more than $1 billion a year in new support for the Alliance. In addition, we have increased twelve-fold our Spanish and Portuguese language broadcasting in Latin America, .and improved Hemispheric trade and defense. And while the blight of communism has been increasingly exposed and isolated in the Americas, liberty has scored a gain. The people of the Dominican Republic, with our firm encouragement and help, and those of our sister Republics of this Hemisphere are safely passing through the treacherous course from dictatorship through disorder towards democracy. VIII. THE NEW AND DEVELOPING NATIONS Our efforts to help other new or developing nations, and to strengthen their stand for freedom, have also made progress. A newly unified Agency for International Development is reorienting our foreign assistance to emphasize long-term development loans instead of grants, more economic aid instead of military, individual plans to meet the individual needs of the nations, and new standards on what they must do to marshal their own resources. A newly conceived Peace Corps is winning friends and helping people in fourteen countries--supplying trained and dedicated young men and women, to give these new nations a hand in building a society, and a glimpse of the best that is in our country. If there is a problem here, it is that we cannot supply the spontaneous and mounting demand. A newly-expanded Food for Peace Pro-. gram is feeding the hungry of many lands with the abundance of our productive farms--providing lunches for children in school, wages for economic development, relief for the victims of flood and famine, and a better diet for millions whose daily bread is their chief concern. These programs help people; and, by helping people, they help freedom. The views of their governments may sometimes be very different from ours--but events in Africa, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe teach us never to write off any nation as lost to the Communists- That is the lesson of our time. We support the independence of those newer or weaker states whose history, geography, economy or lack of power impels them to remain outside "entangling alliances"--as we did for more than a century. For the independence of nations is a bar to the Communists' "grand design"-it is the basis of our own. In the past year, for example, we have urged a neutral and independent Laos-regained there a common policy with our major allies--and insisted that a cease-fire precede negotiations. While a workable formula for supervising its independence is still to be achieved, both the spread of war-which might have involved this country also--and a Communist occupation have thus far been prevented. A satisfactory settlement in Laos would also help to achieve and safeguard the peace in Viet-Nam--where the foe is increasing his tactics of terror--where our own efforts have been stepped up--and where the local government has initiated new programs and reforms to broaden the base of resistance. The systematic aggression now bleeding that country is not a "war of liberation"--for Viet-Nam is already free. It is a war of attempted subjugation--and it will be resisted. IX. THE ATLANTIC COMMUNITY Finally, the united strength of the Atlantic Community has flourished in the last year under severe tests. NATO has increased both the number and the readiness of its air, ground, and naval units--both its nuclear and non-nuclear capabilities. Even greater efforts by all its members are still required. Nevertheless our unity of purpose and will has been, I believe, immeasurably strengthened. The threat to the brave city of Berlin remains. In these last 6 months the Allies have made it unmistakably clear that our presence in Berlin, our free access thereto, and the freedom of two million West Berliners would not be surrendered either to force or through appeasement--and to maintain those rights and obligations, we are prepared to talk, when appropriate, and to fight, if necessary. Every member of NATO stands with us in a common commitment to preserve this symbol of free man's will to remain free. I cannot now predict the course of future negotiations over Berlin. I can only say that we are sparing no honorable effort to find a peaceful and mutually acceptable resolution of this problem. I believe such a resolution can be found, and with it an improvement in our relations with the Soviet Union, if only the leaders in the Kremlin will recognize the basic rights and interests involved, and the interest of all mankind in peace. But the Atlantic Community is no longer concerned with purely military aims. As its common undertakings grow at an ever-increasing pace, we are, and increasingly will be, partners in aid, trade, defense, diplomacy, and monetary affairs. The emergence of the new Europe is being matched by the emergence of new ties across the Atlantic. It is a matter of undramatic daily cooperation in hundreds of workaday tasks: of currencies kept in effective relation, of development loans meshed together, of standardized weapons, and concerted diplomatic positions. The Atlantic Community grows, not like a volcanic mountain, by one mighty explosion, but like a coral reef, from the accumulating activity of all. Thus, we in the free world are moving steadily toward unity and cooperation, in the teeth of that old Bolshevik prophecy, and at the very time when extraordinary rumbles of discord can be heard across the Iron Curtain. It is not free societies which bear within them the seeds of inevitable disunity. X. OUR BALANCE OF PAYMENTS On one special problem, of great concern to our friends, and to us, I am proud to give the Congress an encouraging report. Our efforts to safeguard the dollar are progressing. In the 11 months preceding last February 1, we suffered a net loss of nearly $2 billion in gold. In the 11 months that followed, the loss was just over half a billion dollars. And our deficit in our basic transactions with the rest of the world--trade, defense, foreign aid, and capital, excluding volatile short-term flows--has been reduced from $2 billion for 1960 to about one-third that amount for 1961. Speculative fever against the dollar is ending--and confidence in the dollar has been restored. We did not--and could not--achieve these gains through import restrictions, troop withdrawals, exchange controls, dollar devaluation or choking off domestic recovery. We acted not in panic but in perspective. But the problem is not yet solved. Persistently large deficits would endanger our economic growth and our military and defense commitments abroad. Our goal must be a reasonable equilibrium in our balance of payments. With the cooperation of the Congress, business, labor, and our major allies, that goal can be reached. We shall continue to attract foreign tourists and investments to our shores, to seek increased military purchases here by our allies, to maximize foreign aid procurement from American firms, to urge increased aid from other fortunate nations to the less fortunate, to seek tax laws which do not favor investment in other industrialized nations or tax havens, and to urge coordination of allied fiscal and monetary policies So as to discourage large and disturbing capital movements. TRADE Above all, if we are to pay for our commitments abroad, we must expand our exports. Our businessmen must be export conscious and export competitive. Our tax policies must spur modernization of our plants--our wage and price gains must be consistent with productivity to hold the line on prices--our export credit and promotion campaigns for American industries must continue to expand. But the greatest challenge of all is posed by the growth of the European Common Market. Assuming the accession of the United Kingdom, there will arise across the Atlantic a trading partner behind a single external tariff similar to ours with an economy which nearly equals our own. Will we in this country adapt our thinking to these new prospects and patterns--or will we wait until events have passed us by? This is the year to decide. The Reciprocal Trade Act is expiring. We need a new law--a wholly new approach--a bold new instrument of American trade policy. Our decision could well affect the unity of the West, the course of the Cold War, and the economic growth of our Nation for a generation to come. If we move decisively, our factories and farms can increase their sales to their richest, fastest-growing market. Our exports will increase. Our balance of payments position will improve. And we will have forged across the Atlantic a trading partnership with vast resources for freedom. If, on the other hand, we hang back in deference to local economic pressures, we will find ourselves cut off from our major allies. Industries--and I believe this is most vital--industries will move their plants and jobs and capital inside the walls of the Common Market, and jobs, therefore, will be lost here in the United States if they cannot otherwise compete for its consumers. Our farm surpluses--our balance of trade, as you all know, to Europe, the Common Market, in farm products, is nearly three or four to one in our favor, amounting to one of the best earners of dollars in our balance of payments structure, and without entrance to this Market, without the ability to enter it, our farm surpluses will pile up in the Middle West, tobacco in the South, and other commodities, which have gone through Western Europe for 15 years. Our balance of payments position will worsen. Our consumers, will lack a wider choice of goods at lower prices. And millions of American workers-whose jobs depend on the sale or the transportation or the distribution of exports or imports, or whose jobs will be endangered by the movement of our capital to Europe, or whose jobs can be maintained only in. an expanding economy--these millions of workers in your home States and mine will see their real interests sacrificed. Members of the Congress: The United States did not rise to greatness by waiting for others to lead. This Nation is the world's foremost manufacturer, farmer, banker, consumer, and exporter. The Common Market is moving ahead at an economic growth rate twice ours. The Communist economic offensive is under way. The opportunity is ours--the initiative is up to us--and I believe that 1962 is the time. To seize that initiative, I shall shortly send to the Congress a new five-year Trade Expansion Action, far-reaching in scope but designed with great care to make certain that its benefits to our people far outweigh any risks. The bill will permit the gradual elimination of tariffs here in the United States and in the Common Market on those items in which we together supply 80 percent of the world's trade--mostly items in which our own ability to compete is demonstrated by the fact that we sell abroad, in these items, substantially more than we import. This step will make it possible for our major industries to compete with their counterparts in Western Europe for access to European consumers. On other goods the bill will permit a gradual reduction of duties up to 50 percent-permitting bargaining by major categories-and provide for appropriate and tested forms of assistance to firms and employees adjusting to import competition. We are not neglecting the safeguards provided by peril points, an escape clause, or the National Security Amendment. Nor are we abandoning our non-European friends or our traditional "most-favored nation" principle. On the contrary, the bill will provide new encouragement for their sale of tropical agricultural products, so important to our friends in Latin America, who have long depended upon the European market, who now find themselves faced with new challenges which we must join with them in overcoming. Concessions, in this bargaining, must of course be reciprocal, not unilateral. The Common Market will not fulfill its own high promise unless its outside tariff walls are low. The dangers of restriction or timidity in our own policy have counterparts for our friends in Europe. For together we face a common challenge: to enlarge the prosperity of free men everywhere--to build in partnership a new trading community in which all free nations may gain from the productive energy of free competitive effort. These various elements in our foreign policy lead, as I have said, to a single goal--the goal of a peaceful world of free and independent states. This is our guide for the present and our vision for the future--a free community of nations, independent but interdependent, uniting north and south, east and west, in one great family of man, outgrowing and transcending the hates and fears that rend our age. We will not reach that goal today, or tomorrow. We may not reach it in our own lifetime. But the quest is the greatest adventure of our century. We sometimes chafe at the burden of our obligations, the complexity of our decisions, the agony of our choices. But there is no comfort or security for us in evasion, no solution in abdication, no relief in irresponsibility. A year ago, in assuming the tasks of the Presidency, I said that few generations, in all history, had been granted the role of being the great defender of freedom in its hour of maximum danger. This is our good fortune; and I welcome it now as I did a year ago. For it is the fate of this generation-of you in the Congress and of me as President--to live with a struggle we did not start, in a world we did not make. But the pressures of life are not always distributed by choice. And while no nation has ever faced such a challenge, no nation has ever been so ready to seize the burden and the glory of freedom. And in this high endeavor, may God watch over the United States of America.
as delivered in person before a joint session vice president my old colleague from massachusetts and your new speaker john mccormack members of the 87th congress ladies and gentlemen this week we begin anew our joint and separate efforts to build the american future but sadly we build without a man who linked a long past with the present and looked strongly to the future mister sam rayburn is gone neither this house nor the nation is the same without him members of the congress the constitution makes us not rivals for power but partners for progress we are all trustees for the american people custodians of the american heritage it is my task to report the state of the union to improve it is the task of us all in the past year i have traveled not only across our own land but to other the north and the south and across the seas and i have found as i am sure you have in your travels that people everywhere in spite of occasional disappointments look to us not to our wealth or power but to the splendor of our ideals for our nation is commissioned by history to be either an observer of freedom failure or the because of its success our overriding obligation in the months ahead is to fulfill the world hopes by fulfilling our own faith 1 strengthening the economy that task must begin at home for if we can not fulfill our own ideals here we can not expect others to accept them and when the youngest child alive today has grown to the cares of manhood our position in the world will be determined first of all by what provisions we make today for his education his health and his opportunities for a good home and a good job and a good life at home we began the year in the valley of recession we completed it on the high road of recovery and growth with the help of new congressionally approved or administratively increased stimulants to our economy the number of major surplus labor you areas has declined from 101 to 60 nonagricultural employment has increased by more than a million jobs and the average factory has risen to well over 40 hours at year end the economy which khrushchev once called a stumbling horse was racing to new records in consumer spending labor income and industrial production we are gratified but we are not satisfied too many unemployed are still looking for the blessings of as those who leave our schools and farms demand new jobs automation takes old jobs away to expand our growth and job opportunities i urge on the congress three measures 1 first the manpower training and development act to stop the waste of men and women who want to work but whose only skill has been replaced by a machine or moved with a mill or shut down with a mine 2 second the youth employment opportunities act to help train and place not only the one million young americans who are both out of school and out of work but the million young americans entering the labor market in this decade and 3 third the 8 percent tax credit for investment in machinery and equipment which combined with planned revisions of depreciation allowances will spur our modernization our growth and our ability to compete abroad moreover pleasant as it may be to bask in the warmth of recovery let us not forget that we have suffered three recessions in the last 7 years the time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining by filling three basic gaps in our protection we need 1 first presidential standby authority subject to congressional veto to adjust personal income tax rates downward within a specified range and time to slow down an economic decline before it has dragged us all down 2 second presidential standby authority upon a given rise in the rate of unemployment to accelerate federal and capital improvement programs and 3 third a permanent strengthening of our unemployment compensation system to maintain for our fellow citizens searching for a job who can not find it their purchasing power and their living standards without constant resort as we have seen in recent years by the congress and the temporary supplements if we enact this program we can show the whole world that a free economy need not be an unstable economy that a free system need not leave men unemployed and that a free society is not only the most productive but the most stable form of organization yet fashioned by man ii fighting inflation but recession is only one enemy of a free economy inflation is another last year 1961 despite rising production and demand consumer prices held almost steady and wholesale prices declined this is the best record of overall price stability of any comparable period of recovery since the end of world war ii inflation too often follows in the shadow of growth while price stability is made easy by stagnation or controls but we mean to maintain both stability and growth in a climate of freedom our first line of defense against inflation is the good sense and public spirit of business and labor keeping their total increases in wages and profits in step with productivity there is no single statistical test to guide each company and each union but i strongly urge them for their country interest and for their own to apply the test of the public interest to these transactions within this same framework of growth and stability this administration has helped keep our economy competitive by widening the access of small business to credit and government contracts and by stepping up the drive against monopoly and racketeering we will submit a federal pay reform bill aimed at giving our classified postal and other employees new pay scales more comparable to those of private industry we are holding the fiscal 1962 budget deficit far below the level incurred after the last recession in 1958 and finally i am submitting for fiscal 1963 a balanced federal budget this is a joint responsibility requiring congressional cooperation on appropriations and on three sources of income in particular 1 first an increase in postal rates to end the postal deficit 2 secondly passage of the tax reforms previously urged to remove unwarranted tax preferences and to apply to dividends and to interest the same withholding requirements we have long applied to wages and 3 third extension of the present excise and corporation tax rates except for those changes which will be recommended in a message affecting transportation iii getting america moving but a stronger nation and economy require more than a balanced budget they require progress in those programs that spur our growth and fortify our strength cities a strong america depends on its glory and sometimes america shame to substitute sunlight for congestion and progress for decay we have stepped up existing urban renewal and housing programs and launched new ones redoubled the attack on water pollution speeded aid to airports hospitals highways and our declining mass transit systems and secured new weapons to combat organized crime racketeering and youth delinquency assisted by the coordinated and efforts of our investigative services the fbi the internal revenue the bureau of narcotics and many others we shall need further mass transit and transportation legislation and new tools to fight air pollution and with all this effort under way both equity and commonsense require that our nation urban areas containing of our population sit as equals at the cabinet table i urge a new department of urban affairs and housing agriculture and resources a strong america also depends on its farms and natural resources american farmers took heart in 1961 from a billion dollar rise in farm income and from a hopeful start on reducing the farm surpluses but we are still operating under a patchwork accumulation of old laws which cost us 1 billion a year in ccc carrying charges alone yet fail to halt rural poverty or boost farm earnings our task is to master and turn to fully fruitful ends the magnificent productivity of our farms and farmers the revolution on our own countryside stands in the sharpest contrast to the repeated farm failures of the communist nations and is a source of pride to us all since 1950 our agricultural output per has actually doubled without new realistic measures it will someday swamp our farmers and our taxpayers in a national scandal or a farm depression i will therefore submit to the congress a new comprehensive farm program tailored to fit the use of our land and the supplies of each crop to the needs of the sixties and designed to prevent chaos in the sixties with a program of commonsense we also need for the sixties if we are to bequeath our full national estate to our heirs a new conservation and recreation program expansion of our superb national parks and forests preservation of our authentic wilderness starts on water and power projects as our population steadily increases and expanded rea generation and transmission loans civil rights but america stands for progress in human rights as well as economic affairs and a strong america requires the assurance of full and equal rights to all its citizens of any race or of any color this administration has shown as never before how much could be done through the full use of executive powers through the enforcement of laws already passed by the persuasion negotiation and litigation to secure the constitutional rights of all the right to vote the right to travel without hindrance across state lines and the right to free public education i issued last march a comprehensive order to guarantee the right to equal employment opportunity in all federal agencies and contractors the vice president committee thus created has done much including the voluntary plans for progress which in all sections of the country are achieving a quiet but striking success in opening up to all races new professional supervisory and other job opportunities but there is much more to be done by the executive by the courts and by the congress among the bills now pending before you on which the executive departments will comment in detail are appropriate methods of strengthening these basic rights which have our full support the right to vote for example should no longer be denied through such arbitrary devices on a local level sometimes abused such as literacy tests and poll taxes as we approach the 100th anniversary next january of the emancipation proclamation let the acts of every branch of the government and every citizen portray that righteousness does exalt a nation health and welfare finally a strong america can not neglect the aspirations of its citizens the welfare of the needy the health care of the elderly the education of the young for we are not developing the nation wealth for its own sake wealth is the means and people are the ends all our material riches will avail us little if we do not use them to expand the opportunities of our people last year we improved the diet of needy people provided more hot lunches and fresh milk to school children built more college dormitories and for the elderly expanded private housing nursing homes heath services and social security but we have just begun to help those least fortunate of all i am recommending a new public welfare program stressing services instead of support rehabilitation instead of relief and training for useful work instead of prolonged dependency to relieve the critical shortage of doctors and dentists and this is a matter which should concern us all and expand research i urge action to aid medical and dental colleges and scholarships and to establish new national institutes of health to take advantage of modern vaccination achievements i am proposing a mass immunization program aimed at the virtual elimination of such ancient enemies of our children as polio diphtheria whooping cough and tetanus to protect our consumers from the careless and the unscrupulous i shall recommend improvements in the food and drug inspection and standards halting unsafe and worthless products preventing misleading labels and cracking down on the illicit sale of drugs but in matters of health no piece of unfinished business is more important or more urgent than the enactment under the social security system of health insurance for the aged for our older citizens have longer and more frequent illnesses higher hospital and medical bills and too little income to pay them private health insurance helps very few for its cost is high and its coverage limited public welfare can not help those too proud to seek relief but to pay their own bills nor can their children or grandchildren always sacrifice their own health budgets to meet this constant drain social security has long helped to meet the hardships of retirement death and disability i now urge that its coverage be extended without further delay to provide health insurance for the elderly education equally important to our strength is the quality of our education eight million adult americans are classified as functionally illiterate this is a disturbing figure reflected in selective service rejection in welfare rolls and crime rates and i shall recommend plans for a massive attack to end this adult illiteracy i shall also recommend bills to improve educational quality to stimulate the arts and at the college level to provide federal loans for the construction of academic facilities and federally financed scholarships if this nation is to grow in wisdom and strength then every able high school graduate should have the opportunity to develop his talents yet nearly half lack either the funds or the facilities to attend college enrollments are going to double in our colleges in the short space of 10 years the annual cost per student is skyrocketing to astronomical levels now averaging a year although almost half of our families earn less than they can not afford such costs but this nation can not afford to maintain its military power and neglect its brainpower but excellence in education must begin at the elementary level i sent to the congress last year a proposal for federal aid to public school construction and teachers salaries i believe that bill which passed the senate and received house committee approval offered the minimum amount required by our needs and in terms of aid the maximum scope permitted by our constitution i therefore see no reason to weaken or withdraw that bill and i urge its passage at this session civilization said wells is a race between education and catastrophe it is up to you in this congress to determine the winner of that race these are not unrelated measures addressed to specific gaps or grievances in our national life they are the pattern of our intentions and the foundation of our hopes i believe in democracy said woodrow wilson because it releases the energy of every human being the dynamic of democracy is the power and the purpose of the individual and the policy of this administration is to give to the individual the opportunity to realize his own highest possibilities our program is to open to all the opportunity for steady and productive employment to remove from all the handicap of arbitrary or irrational exclusion to offer to all the facilities for education and health and welfare to make society the servant of the individual and the individual the source of progress and thus to realize for all the full promise of american life iv our goals abroad all of these efforts at home give meaning to our efforts abroad since the close of the second world war a global civil war has divided and tormented mankind but it is not our military might or our higher standard of living that has most distinguished us from our adversaries it is our belief that the state is the servant of the citizen and not his master this basic clash of ideas and wills is but one of the forces reshaping our globe swept as it is by the tides of hope and fear by crises in the headlines today that become mere footnotes tomorrow both the successes and the setbacks of the past year remain on our agenda of unfinished business for every apparent blessing contains the seeds of danger every area of trouble gives out a ray of hope and the one unchangeable certainty is that nothing is certain or unchangeable yet our basic goal remains the same a peaceful world community of free and independent states free to choose their own future and their own system so long as it does not threaten the freedom of others some may choose forms and ways that we would not choose for ourselves but it is not for us that they are choosing we can welcome diversity the communists can not for we offer a world of choice they offer the world of coercion and the way of the past shows dearly that freedom not coercion is the wave of the future at times our goal has been obscured by crisis or endangered by conflict but it draws sustenance from five basic sources of strength the moral and physical strength of the united states the united strength of the atlantic community the regional strength of our hemispheric relations the creative strength of our efforts in the new and developing nations and the strength of the united nations our military strength our moral and physical strength begins at home as already discussed but it includes our military strength as well so long as fanaticism and fear brood over the affairs of men we must arm to deter others from aggression in the past 12 months our military posture has steadily improved we increased the previous defense budget by 15 percent not in the expectation of war but for the preservation of peace we more than doubled our acquisition rate of polaris submarines we doubled the production capacity for minuteman missiles and increased by 50 percent the number of manned bombers standing ready on a 15 minute alert this year the combined force levels planned under our new defense budget including nearly three hundred additional polaris and minuteman missiles have been precisely calculated to insure the continuing strength of our nuclear deterrent but our strength may be tested at many levels we intend to have at all times the capacity to resist or limited attacks as a complement to our nuclear capacity not as a substitute we have rejected any posture which would leave no choice but inglorious retreat or unlimited retaliation thus we have doubled the number of ready combat divisions in the army strategic reserve increased our troops in europe built up the marines added new sealift and airlift capacity modernized our weapons and ammunition expanded our forces and increased the active fleet by more than 70 vessels and our tactical air forces by nearly a dozen wings because we needed to reach this higher level of readiness more quickly members of the reserve and national guard were activated under the act of this congress some disruptions and distress were inevitable but the overwhelming majority bear their burdens and their nation burdens with admirable and traditional devotion in the coming year our reserve programs will be revised two army divisions will i hope replace those guard divisions on duty and substantial other increases will boost our air force fighter units the procurement of equipment and our continental defense and warning efforts the nation first serious civil defense shelter program is under way identifying marking and stocking 50 million spaces and i urge your approval of federal incentives for the construction of public shelters in schools and hospitals and similar centers vi the united nations but arms alone are not enough to keep the peace it must be kept by men our instrument and our hope is the united i see little merit in the impatience of those who would abandon this imperfect world instrument because they dislike our imperfect world for the troubles of a world organization merely reflect the troubles of the world itself and if the organization is weakened these troubles can only increase we may not always agree with every detailed action taken by every officer of the united nations or with every voting majority but as an institution it should have in the future as it has had in the past since its inception no stronger or more faithful member than the united states of america in 1961 the strength of the united nations was reinforced and those who preferred or predicted its demise envisioning a troika in the seat of hammarskiold or red china inside the seen instead a new vigor under a new secretary general and a fully independent secretariat in making plans for a new forum and principles on disarmament for in outer space for a decade of development effort the un fulfilled its charter lofty aim eighteen months ago the tangled and turbulent congo presented the un with its gravest challenge the prospect was one of chaos or certain confrontation with all of its hazards and all of its risks to us and to others today the hopes have improved for peaceful conciliation within a united congo this is the objective of our policy in this important area no policeman is universally when he uses his stick to restore law and order on his beat those members who are willing to contribute their votes and their views but very little else have created a serious deficit by refusing to pay their share of special un assessments yet they do pay their annual assessments to retain their votes and a new un bond issue financing special operations for the next 18 months is to be repaid with interest from these regular assessments this is clearly in our interest it will not only keep the un solvent but require all voting members to pay their fair share of its activities our share of special operations has long been much higher than our share of the annual assessment and the bond issue will in effect reduce our disproportionate obligation and for these reasons i am urging congress to approve our participation with the approval of this congress we have undertaken in the past year a great new effort in outer space our aim is not simply to be first on the moon any more than charles lindbergh real aim was to be the first to paris his aim was to develop the techniques of our own country and other countries in the field of air and the atmosphere and our objective in making this effort which we hope will place one of our citizens on the moon is to develop in a new frontier of science commerce and cooperation the position of the united states and the free world this nation belongs among the first to explore it and among the first if not the first we shall be we are offering our and our cooperation to the united nations our satellites will soon be providing other nations with improved weather observations and i shall soon send to the congress a measure to govern the financing and operation of an international communications satellite system in a manner consistent with the public interest and our foreign policy but peace in space will help us naught once peace on earth is gone world order will be secured only when the whole world has laid down these weapons which seem to offer us present security but threaten the future survival of the human race that armistice day seems very far away the vast resources of this planet are being devoted more and more to the means of destroying instead of enriching human life but the world was not meant to be a prison in which man awaits his execution nor has mankind survived the tests and trials of thousands of years to surrender its existence now this nation has the will and the faith to make a supreme effort to break the log jam on disarmament and nuclear tests and we will persist until we prevail until the rule of law has replaced the ever dangerous use of force vii latin america i turn now to a prospect of great promise our hemispheric relations the alliance for progress is being rapidly transformed from proposal to program last month in latin america i saw for myself the quickening of hope the revival of confidence the new trust in our country among workers and farmers as well as diplomats we have pledged our help in speeding their economic educational and social progress the latin american republics have in turn pledged a new and strenuous effort of and to support this historic undertaking i am proposing under the authority contained in the bills of the last session of the congress a special alliance for progress fund of 3 billion combined with our food for peace bank and other resources this will provide more than 1 billion a year in new support for the alliance in addition we have increased our spanish and portuguese language broadcasting in latin america improved hemispheric trade and defense and while the blight of communism has been increasingly exposed and isolated in the americas liberty has scored a gain the people of the dominican republic with our firm encouragement and help and those of our sister republics of this hemisphere are safely passing through the treacherous course from dictatorship through disorder towards democracy viii the new and developing nations our efforts to help other new or developing nations and to strengthen their stand for freedom have also made progress a newly unified agency for international development is reorienting our foreign assistance to emphasize development loans instead of grants more economic aid instead of military individual plans to meet the individual needs of the nations and new standards on what they must do to marshal their own resources a newly conceived peace corps is winning friends and helping people in fourteen countries supplying trained and dedicated young men and women to give these new nations a hand in building a society and a glimpse of the best that is in our country if there is a problem here it is that we can not supply the spontaneous and mounting demand a food for peace gram is feeding the hungry of many lands with the abundance of our productive farms providing lunches for children in school wages for economic development relief for the victims of flood and famine and a better diet for millions whose daily bread is their chief concern these programs help people and by helping people they help freedom the views of their governments may sometimes be very different from ours but events in africa the middle east and eastern europe teach us never to write off any nation as lost to the that is the lesson of our time we support the independence of those newer or weaker states whose history geography economy or lack of power impels them to remain outside entangling alliances as we did for more than a century for the independence of nations is a bar to the communists grand design is the basis of our own in the past year for example we have urged a neutral and independent there a common policy with our major allies and insisted that a precede negotiations while a workable formula for supervising its independence is still to be achieved both the spread of might have involved this country also and a communist occupation have thus far been prevented a satisfactory settlement in laos would also help to achieve and safeguard the peace in where the foe is increasing his tactics of terror where our own efforts have been stepped up and where the local government has initiated new programs and reforms to broaden the base of resistance the systematic aggression now bleeding that country is not a war of liberation for is already free it is a war of attempted subjugation and it will be resisted ix the atlantic community finally the united strength of the atlantic community has flourished in the last year under severe tests nato has increased both the number and the readiness of its air ground and naval units both its nuclear and capabilities even greater efforts by all its members are still required nevertheless our unity of purpose and will has been i believe immeasurably strengthened the threat to the brave city of berlin remains in these last 6 months the allies have made it unmistakably clear that our presence in berlin our free access thereto and the freedom of two million west berliners would not be surrendered either to force or through appeasement and to maintain those rights and obligations we are prepared to talk when appropriate and to fight if necessary every member of nato stands with us in a common commitment to preserve this symbol of free man will to remain free i can not now predict the course of future negotiations over berlin i can only say that we are sparing no honorable effort to find a peaceful and mutually acceptable resolution of this problem i believe such a resolution can be found and with it an improvement in our relations with the soviet union if only the leaders in the kremlin will recognize the basic rights and interests involved and the interest of all mankind in peace but the atlantic community is no longer concerned with purely military aims as its common undertakings grow at an pace we are and increasingly will be partners in aid trade defense diplomacy and monetary affairs the emergence of the new europe is being matched by the emergence of new ties across the atlantic it is a matter of undramatic daily cooperation in hundreds of workaday tasks of currencies kept in effective relation of development loans meshed together of standardized weapons and concerted diplomatic positions the atlantic community grows not like a volcanic mountain by one mighty explosion but like a coral reef from the accumulating activity of all thus we in the free world are moving steadily toward unity and cooperation in the teeth of that old bolshevik prophecy and at the very time when extraordinary rumbles of discord can be heard across the iron curtain it is not free societies which bear within them the seeds of inevitable disunity x our balance of payments on one special problem of great concern to our friends and to us i am proud to give the congress an encouraging report our efforts to safeguard the dollar are progressing in the 11 months preceding last february 1 we suffered a net loss of nearly 2 billion in gold in the 11 months that followed the loss was just over half a billion dollars and our deficit in our basic transactions with the rest of the world trade defense foreign aid and capital excluding volatile flows has been reduced from 2 billion for 1960 to about that amount for 1961 speculative fever against the dollar is ending and confidence in the dollar has been restored we did not and could not achieve these gains through import restrictions troop withdrawals exchange controls dollar devaluation or choking off domestic recovery we acted not in panic but in perspective but the problem is not yet solved persistently large deficits would endanger our economic growth and our military and defense commitments abroad our goal must be a reasonable equilibrium in our balance of payments with the cooperation of the congress business labor and our major allies that goal can be reached we shall continue to attract foreign tourists and investments to our shores to seek increased military purchases here by our allies to maximize foreign aid procurement from american firms to urge increased aid from other fortunate nations to the less fortunate to seek tax laws which do not favor investment in other industrialized nations or tax havens and to urge coordination of allied fiscal and monetary policies so as to discourage large and disturbing capital movements trade above all if we are to pay for our commitments abroad we must expand our exports our businessmen must be export conscious and export competitive our tax policies must spur modernization of our plants our wage and price gains must be consistent with productivity to hold the line on prices our export credit and promotion campaigns for american industries must continue to expand but the greatest challenge of all is posed by the growth of the european common market assuming the accession of the united kingdom there will arise across the atlantic a trading partner behind a single external tariff similar to ours with an economy which nearly equals our own will we in this country adapt our thinking to these new prospects and patterns or will we wait until events have passed us by this is the year to decide the reciprocal trade act is expiring we need a new law a wholly new approach a bold new instrument of american trade policy our decision could well affect the unity of the west the course of the cold war and the economic growth of our nation for a generation to come if we move decisively our factories and farms can increase their sales to their richest market our exports will increase our balance of payments position will improve and we will have forged across the atlantic a trading partnership with vast resources for freedom if on the other hand we hang back in deference to local economic pressures we will find ourselves cut off from our major allies industries and i believe this is most vital industries will move their plants and jobs and capital inside the walls of the common market and jobs therefore will be lost here in the united states if they can not otherwise compete for its consumers our farm surpluses our balance of trade as you all know to europe the common market in farm products is nearly three or four to one in our favor amounting to one of the best earners of dollars in our balance of payments structure and without entrance to this market without the ability to enter it our farm surpluses will pile up in the middle west tobacco in the south and other commodities which have gone through western europe for 15 years our balance of payments position will worsen our consumers will lack a wider choice of goods at lower prices and millions of american jobs depend on the sale or the transportation or the distribution of exports or imports or whose jobs will be endangered by the movement of our capital to europe or whose jobs can be maintained only in an expanding economy these millions of workers in your home states and mine will see their real interests sacrificed members of the congress the united states did not rise to greatness by waiting for others to lead this nation is the world foremost manufacturer farmer banker consumer and exporter the common market is moving ahead at an economic growth rate twice ours the communist economic offensive is under way the opportunity is ours the initiative is up to us and i believe that 1962 is the time to seize that initiative i shall shortly send to the congress a new trade expansion action in scope but designed with great care to make certain that its benefits to our people far outweigh any risks the bill will permit the gradual elimination of tariffs here in the united states and in the common market on those items in which we together supply 80 percent of the world trade mostly items in which our own ability to compete is demonstrated by the fact that we sell abroad in these items substantially more than we import this step will make it possible for our major industries to compete with their counterparts in western europe for access to european consumers on other goods the bill will permit a gradual reduction of duties up to 50 bargaining by major provide for appropriate and tested forms of assistance to firms and employees adjusting to import competition we are not neglecting the safeguards provided by peril points an escape clause or the national security amendment nor are we abandoning our friends or our traditional nation principle on the contrary the bill will provide new encouragement for their sale of tropical agricultural products so important to our friends in latin america who have long depended upon the european market who now find themselves faced with new challenges which we must join with them in overcoming concessions in this bargaining must of course be reciprocal not unilateral the common market will not fulfill its own high promise unless its outside tariff walls are low the dangers of restriction or timidity in our own policy have counterparts for our friends in europe for together we face a common challenge to enlarge the prosperity of free men everywhere to build in partnership a new trading community in which all free nations may gain from the productive energy of free competitive effort these various elements in our foreign policy lead as i have said to a single goal the goal of a peaceful world of free and independent states this is our guide for the present and our vision for the future a free community of nations independent but interdependent uniting north and south east and west in one great family of man outgrowing and transcending the hates and fears that rend our age we will not reach that goal today or tomorrow we may not reach it in our own lifetime but the quest is the greatest adventure of our century we sometimes chafe at the burden of our obligations the complexity of our decisions the agony of our choices but there is no comfort or security for us in evasion no solution in abdication no relief in irresponsibility a year ago in assuming the tasks of the presidency i said that few generations in all history had been granted the role of being the great defender of freedom in its hour of maximum danger this is our good fortune and i welcome it now as i did a year ago for it is the fate of this you in the congress and of me as president to live with a struggle we did not start in a world we did not make but the pressures of life are not always distributed by choice and while no nation has ever faced such a challenge no nation has ever been so ready to seize the burden and the glory of freedom and in this high endeavor may god watch over the united states of america
delivered person joint session vice president old colleague massachusetts new speaker john mccormack members 87th congress ladies gentlemen week begin anew joint separate efforts build american future sadly build without man linked long past present looked strongly future mister sam rayburn gone neither house nation without members congress constitution makes us rivals power partners progress trustees american people custodians american heritage task report state union improve task us past year traveled across land north south across seas found sure travels people everywhere spite occasional disappointments look us wealth power splendor ideals nation commissioned history either observer freedom failure success overriding obligation months ahead fulfill world hopes fulfilling faith 1 strengthening economy task must begin home fulfill ideals expect others accept youngest child alive today grown cares manhood position world determined first provisions make today education health opportunities good home good job good life home began year valley recession completed high road recovery growth help new congressionally approved administratively increased stimulants economy number major surplus labor areas declined 101 60 nonagricultural employment increased million jobs average factory risen well 40 hours year end economy khrushchev called stumbling horse racing new records consumer spending labor income industrial production gratified satisfied many unemployed still looking blessings leave schools farms demand new jobs automation takes old jobs away expand growth job opportunities urge congress three measures 1 first manpower training development act stop waste men women want work whose skill replaced machine moved mill shut mine 2 second youth employment opportunities act help train place one million young americans school work million young americans entering labor market decade 3 third 8 percent tax credit investment machinery equipment combined planned revisions depreciation allowances spur modernization growth ability compete abroad moreover pleasant may bask warmth recovery let us forget suffered three recessions last 7 years time repair roof sun shining filling three basic gaps protection need 1 first presidential standby authority subject congressional veto adjust personal income tax rates downward within specified range time slow economic decline dragged us 2 second presidential standby authority upon given rise rate unemployment accelerate federal capital improvement programs 3 third permanent strengthening unemployment compensation system maintain fellow citizens searching job find purchasing power living standards without constant resort seen recent years congress temporary supplements enact program show whole world free economy need unstable economy free system need leave men unemployed free society productive stable form organization yet fashioned man ii fighting inflation recession one enemy free economy inflation another last year 1961 despite rising production demand consumer prices held almost steady wholesale prices declined best record overall price stability comparable period recovery since end world war ii inflation often follows shadow growth price stability made easy stagnation controls mean maintain stability growth climate freedom first line defense inflation good sense public spirit business labor keeping total increases wages profits step productivity single statistical test guide company union strongly urge country interest apply test public interest transactions within framework growth stability administration helped keep economy competitive widening access small business credit government contracts stepping drive monopoly racketeering submit federal pay reform bill aimed giving classified postal employees new pay scales comparable private industry holding fiscal 1962 budget deficit far level incurred last recession 1958 finally submitting fiscal 1963 balanced federal budget joint responsibility requiring congressional cooperation appropriations three sources income particular 1 first increase postal rates end postal deficit 2 secondly passage tax reforms previously urged remove unwarranted tax preferences apply dividends interest withholding requirements long applied wages 3 third extension present excise corporation tax rates except changes recommended message affecting transportation iii getting america moving stronger nation economy require balanced budget require progress programs spur growth fortify strength cities strong america depends glory sometimes america shame substitute sunlight congestion progress decay stepped existing urban renewal housing programs launched new ones redoubled attack water pollution speeded aid airports hospitals highways declining mass transit systems secured new weapons combat organized crime racketeering youth delinquency assisted coordinated efforts investigative services fbi internal revenue bureau narcotics many others shall need mass transit transportation legislation new tools fight air pollution effort way equity commonsense require nation urban areas containing population sit equals cabinet table urge new department urban affairs housing agriculture resources strong america also depends farms natural resources american farmers took heart 1961 billion dollar rise farm income hopeful start reducing farm surpluses still operating patchwork accumulation old laws cost us 1 billion year ccc carrying charges alone yet fail halt rural poverty boost farm earnings task master turn fully fruitful ends magnificent productivity farms farmers revolution countryside stands sharpest contrast repeated farm failures communist nations source pride us since 1950 agricultural output per actually doubled without new realistic measures someday swamp farmers taxpayers national scandal farm depression therefore submit congress new comprehensive farm program tailored fit use land supplies crop needs sixties designed prevent chaos sixties program commonsense also need sixties bequeath full national estate heirs new conservation recreation program expansion superb national parks forests preservation authentic wilderness starts water power projects population steadily increases expanded rea generation transmission loans civil rights america stands progress human rights well economic affairs strong america requires assurance full equal rights citizens race color administration shown never much could done full use executive powers enforcement laws already passed persuasion negotiation litigation secure constitutional rights right vote right travel without hindrance across state lines right free public education issued last march comprehensive order guarantee right equal employment opportunity federal agencies contractors vice president committee thus created done much including voluntary plans progress sections country achieving quiet striking success opening races new professional supervisory job opportunities much done executive courts congress among bills pending executive departments comment detail appropriate methods strengthening basic rights full support right vote example longer denied arbitrary devices local level sometimes abused literacy tests poll taxes approach 100th anniversary next january emancipation proclamation let acts every branch government every citizen portray righteousness exalt nation health welfare finally strong america neglect aspirations citizens welfare needy health care elderly education young developing nation wealth sake wealth means people ends material riches avail us little use expand opportunities people last year improved diet needy people provided hot lunches fresh milk school children built college dormitories elderly expanded private housing nursing homes heath services social security begun help least fortunate recommending new public welfare program stressing services instead support rehabilitation instead relief training useful work instead prolonged dependency relieve critical shortage doctors dentists matter concern us expand research urge action aid medical dental colleges scholarships establish new national institutes health take advantage modern vaccination achievements proposing mass immunization program aimed virtual elimination ancient enemies children polio diphtheria whooping cough tetanus protect consumers careless unscrupulous shall recommend improvements food drug inspection standards halting unsafe worthless products preventing misleading labels cracking illicit sale drugs matters health piece unfinished business important urgent enactment social security system health insurance aged older citizens longer frequent illnesses higher hospital medical bills little income pay private health insurance helps cost high coverage limited public welfare help proud seek relief pay bills children grandchildren always sacrifice health budgets meet constant drain social security long helped meet hardships retirement death disability urge coverage extended without delay provide health insurance elderly education equally important strength quality education eight million adult americans classified functionally illiterate disturbing figure reflected selective service rejection welfare rolls crime rates shall recommend plans massive attack end adult illiteracy shall also recommend bills improve educational quality stimulate arts college level provide federal loans construction academic facilities federally financed scholarships nation grow wisdom strength every able high school graduate opportunity develop talents yet nearly half lack either funds facilities attend college enrollments going double colleges short space 10 years annual cost per student skyrocketing astronomical levels averaging year although almost half families earn less afford costs nation afford maintain military power neglect brainpower excellence education must begin elementary level sent congress last year proposal federal aid public school construction teachers salaries believe bill passed senate received house committee approval offered minimum amount required needs terms aid maximum scope permitted constitution therefore see reason weaken withdraw bill urge passage session civilization said wells race education catastrophe congress determine winner race unrelated measures addressed specific gaps grievances national life pattern intentions foundation hopes believe democracy said woodrow wilson releases energy every human dynamic democracy power purpose individual policy administration give individual opportunity realize highest possibilities program open opportunity steady productive employment remove handicap arbitrary irrational exclusion offer facilities education health welfare make society servant individual individual source progress thus realize full promise american life iv goals abroad efforts home give meaning efforts abroad since close second world war global civil war divided tormented mankind military might higher standard living distinguished us adversaries belief state servant citizen master basic clash ideas wills one forces reshaping globe swept tides hope fear crises headlines today become mere footnotes tomorrow successes setbacks past year remain agenda unfinished business every apparent blessing contains seeds danger every area trouble gives ray hope one unchangeable certainty nothing certain unchangeable yet basic goal remains peaceful world community free independent states free choose future system long threaten freedom others may choose forms ways would choose us choosing welcome diversity communists offer world choice offer world coercion way past shows dearly freedom coercion wave future times goal obscured crisis endangered conflict draws sustenance five basic sources strength moral physical strength united states united strength atlantic community regional strength hemispheric relations creative strength efforts new developing nations strength united nations military strength moral physical strength begins home already discussed includes military strength well long fanaticism fear brood affairs men must arm deter others aggression past 12 months military posture steadily improved increased previous defense budget 15 percent expectation war preservation peace doubled acquisition rate polaris submarines doubled production capacity minuteman missiles increased 50 percent number manned bombers standing ready 15 minute alert year combined force levels planned new defense budget including nearly three hundred additional polaris minuteman missiles precisely calculated insure continuing strength nuclear deterrent strength may tested many levels intend times capacity resist limited attacks complement nuclear capacity substitute rejected posture would leave choice inglorious retreat unlimited retaliation thus doubled number ready combat divisions army strategic reserve increased troops europe built marines added new sealift airlift capacity modernized weapons ammunition expanded forces increased active fleet 70 vessels tactical air forces nearly dozen wings needed reach higher level readiness quickly members reserve national guard activated act congress disruptions distress inevitable overwhelming majority bear burdens nation burdens admirable traditional devotion coming year reserve programs revised two army divisions hope replace guard divisions duty substantial increases boost air force fighter units procurement equipment continental defense warning efforts nation first serious civil defense shelter program way identifying marking stocking 50 million spaces urge approval federal incentives construction public shelters schools hospitals similar centers vi united nations arms alone enough keep peace must kept men instrument hope united see little merit impatience would abandon imperfect world instrument dislike imperfect world troubles world organization merely reflect troubles world organization weakened troubles increase may always agree every detailed action taken every officer united nations every voting majority institution future past since inception stronger faithful member united states america 1961 strength united nations reinforced preferred predicted demise envisioning troika seat hammarskiold red china inside seen instead new vigor new secretary general fully independent secretariat making plans new forum principles disarmament outer space decade development effort un fulfilled charter lofty aim eighteen months ago tangled turbulent congo presented un gravest challenge prospect one chaos certain confrontation hazards risks us others today hopes improved peaceful conciliation within united congo objective policy important area policeman universally uses stick restore law order beat members willing contribute votes views little else created serious deficit refusing pay share special un assessments yet pay annual assessments retain votes new un bond issue financing special operations next 18 months repaid interest regular assessments clearly interest keep un solvent require voting members pay fair share activities share special operations long much higher share annual assessment bond issue effect reduce disproportionate obligation reasons urging congress approve participation approval congress undertaken past year great new effort outer space aim simply first moon charles lindbergh real aim first paris aim develop techniques country countries field air atmosphere objective making effort hope place one citizens moon develop new frontier science commerce cooperation position united states free world nation belongs among first explore among first first shall offering cooperation united nations satellites soon providing nations improved weather observations shall soon send congress measure govern financing operation international communications satellite system manner consistent public interest foreign policy peace space help us naught peace earth gone world order secured whole world laid weapons seem offer us present security threaten future survival human race armistice day seems far away vast resources planet devoted means destroying instead enriching human life world meant prison man awaits execution mankind survived tests trials thousands years surrender existence nation faith make supreme effort break log jam disarmament nuclear tests persist prevail rule law replaced ever dangerous use force vii latin america turn prospect great promise hemispheric relations alliance progress rapidly transformed proposal program last month latin america saw quickening hope revival confidence new trust country among workers farmers well diplomats pledged help speeding economic educational social progress latin american republics turn pledged new strenuous effort support historic undertaking proposing authority contained bills last session congress special alliance progress fund 3 billion combined food peace bank resources provide 1 billion year new support alliance addition increased spanish portuguese language broadcasting latin america improved hemispheric trade defense blight communism increasingly exposed isolated americas liberty scored gain people dominican republic firm encouragement help sister republics hemisphere safely passing treacherous course dictatorship disorder towards democracy viii new developing nations efforts help new developing nations strengthen stand freedom also made progress newly unified agency international development reorienting foreign assistance emphasize development loans instead grants economic aid instead military individual plans meet individual needs nations new standards must marshal resources newly conceived peace corps winning friends helping people fourteen countries supplying trained dedicated young men women give new nations hand building society glimpse best country problem supply spontaneous mounting demand food peace gram feeding hungry many lands abundance productive farms providing lunches children school wages economic development relief victims flood famine better diet millions whose daily bread chief concern programs help people helping people help freedom views governments may sometimes different events africa middle east eastern europe teach us never write nation lost lesson time support independence newer weaker states whose history geography economy lack power impels remain outside entangling alliances century independence nations bar communists grand design basis past year example urged neutral independent common policy major allies insisted precede negotiations workable formula supervising independence still achieved spread might involved country also communist occupation thus far prevented satisfactory settlement laos would also help achieve safeguard peace foe increasing tactics terror efforts stepped local government initiated new programs reforms broaden base resistance systematic aggression bleeding country war liberation already free war attempted subjugation resisted ix atlantic community finally united strength atlantic community flourished last year severe tests nato increased number readiness air ground naval units nuclear capabilities even greater efforts members still required nevertheless unity purpose believe immeasurably strengthened threat brave city berlin remains last 6 months allies made unmistakably clear presence berlin free access thereto freedom two million west berliners would surrendered either force appeasement maintain rights obligations prepared talk appropriate fight necessary every member nato stands us common commitment preserve symbol free man remain free predict course future negotiations berlin say sparing honorable effort find peaceful mutually acceptable resolution problem believe resolution found improvement relations soviet union leaders kremlin recognize basic rights interests involved interest mankind peace atlantic community longer concerned purely military aims common undertakings grow pace increasingly partners aid trade defense diplomacy monetary affairs emergence new europe matched emergence new ties across atlantic matter undramatic daily cooperation hundreds workaday tasks currencies kept effective relation development loans meshed together standardized weapons concerted diplomatic positions atlantic community grows like volcanic mountain one mighty explosion like coral reef accumulating activity thus free world moving steadily toward unity cooperation teeth old bolshevik prophecy time extraordinary rumbles discord heard across iron curtain free societies bear within seeds inevitable disunity x balance payments one special problem great concern friends us proud give congress encouraging report efforts safeguard dollar progressing 11 months preceding last february 1 suffered net loss nearly 2 billion gold 11 months followed loss half billion dollars deficit basic transactions rest world trade defense foreign aid capital excluding volatile flows reduced 2 billion 1960 amount 1961 speculative fever dollar ending confidence dollar restored could achieve gains import restrictions troop withdrawals exchange controls dollar devaluation choking domestic recovery acted panic perspective problem yet solved persistently large deficits would endanger economic growth military defense commitments abroad goal must reasonable equilibrium balance payments cooperation congress business labor major allies goal reached shall continue attract foreign tourists investments shores seek increased military purchases allies maximize foreign aid procurement american firms urge increased aid fortunate nations less fortunate seek tax laws favor investment industrialized nations tax havens urge coordination allied fiscal monetary policies discourage large disturbing capital movements trade pay commitments abroad must expand exports businessmen must export conscious export competitive tax policies must spur modernization plants wage price gains must consistent productivity hold line prices export credit promotion campaigns american industries must continue expand greatest challenge posed growth european common market assuming accession united kingdom arise across atlantic trading partner behind single external tariff similar economy nearly equals country adapt thinking new prospects patterns wait events passed us year decide reciprocal trade act expiring need new law wholly new approach bold new instrument american trade policy decision could well affect unity west course cold war economic growth nation generation come move decisively factories farms increase sales richest market exports increase balance payments position improve forged across atlantic trading partnership vast resources freedom hand hang back deference local economic pressures find cut major allies industries believe vital industries move plants jobs capital inside walls common market jobs therefore lost united states otherwise compete consumers farm surpluses balance trade know europe common market farm products nearly three four one favor amounting one best earners dollars balance payments structure without entrance market without ability enter farm surpluses pile middle west tobacco south commodities gone western europe 15 years balance payments position worsen consumers lack wider choice goods lower prices millions american jobs depend sale transportation distribution exports imports whose jobs endangered movement capital europe whose jobs maintained expanding economy millions workers home states mine see real interests sacrificed members congress united states rise greatness waiting others lead nation world foremost manufacturer farmer banker consumer exporter common market moving ahead economic growth rate twice communist economic offensive way opportunity initiative us believe 1962 time seize initiative shall shortly send congress new trade expansion action scope designed great care make certain benefits people far outweigh risks bill permit gradual elimination tariffs united states common market items together supply 80 percent world trade mostly items ability compete demonstrated fact sell abroad items substantially import step make possible major industries compete counterparts western europe access european consumers goods bill permit gradual reduction duties 50 bargaining major provide appropriate tested forms assistance firms employees adjusting import competition neglecting safeguards provided peril points escape clause national security amendment abandoning friends traditional nation principle contrary bill provide new encouragement sale tropical agricultural products important friends latin america long depended upon european market find faced new challenges must join overcoming concessions bargaining must course reciprocal unilateral common market fulfill high promise unless outside tariff walls low dangers restriction timidity policy counterparts friends europe together face common challenge enlarge prosperity free men everywhere build partnership new trading community free nations may gain productive energy free competitive effort various elements foreign policy lead said single goal goal peaceful world free independent states guide present vision future free community nations independent interdependent uniting north south east west one great family man outgrowing transcending hates fears rend age reach goal today tomorrow may reach lifetime quest greatest adventure century sometimes chafe burden obligations complexity decisions agony choices comfort security us evasion solution abdication relief irresponsibility year ago assuming tasks presidency said generations history granted role great defender freedom hour maximum danger good fortune welcome year ago fate congress president live struggle start world make pressures life always distributed choice nation ever faced challenge nation ever ready seize burden glory freedom high endeavor may god watch united states america
deliver person joint session vice president old colleague massachusetts new speaker john mccormack member 87th congress lady gentleman week begin anew joint separate effort build american future sadly build without man link long past present look strongly future mister sam rayburn go neither house nation without member congress constitution make u rival power partner progress trustee american people custodian american heritage task report state union improve task u past year travel across land north south across sea find sure travel people everywhere spite occasional disappointment look u wealth power splendor ideal nation commission history either observer freedom failure success override obligation month ahead fulfill world hop fulfil faith 1 strengthen economy task must begin home fulfill ideal expect others accept young child alive today grown care manhood position world determine first provision make today education health opportunity good home good job good life home begin year valley recession complete high road recovery growth help new congressionally approve administratively increased stimulant economy number major surplus labor area decline 101 60 nonagricultural employment increase million job average factory rise well 40 hour year end economy khrushchev call stumbling horse race new record consumer spending labor income industrial production gratify satisfied many unemployed still look blessing leave school farm demand new job automation take old job away expand growth job opportunity urge congress three measure 1 first manpower training development act stop waste men woman want work whose skill replace machine move mill shut mine 2 second youth employment opportunity act help train place one million young american school work million young american enter labor market decade 3 third 8 percent tax credit investment machinery equipment combine plan revision depreciation allowance spur modernization growth ability compete abroad moreover pleasant may bask warmth recovery let u forget suffer three recession last 7 year time repair roof sun shin filling three basic gap protection need 1 first presidential standby authority subject congressional veto adjust personal income tax rate downward within specify range time slow economic decline drag u 2 second presidential standby authority upon give rise rate unemployment accelerate federal capital improvement program 3 third permanent strengthen unemployment compensation system maintain fellow citizen search job find purchase power living standard without constant resort see recent year congress temporary supplement enact program show whole world free economy need unstable economy free system need leave men unemployed free society productive stable form organization yet fashion man ii fight inflation recession one enemy free economy inflation another last year 1961 despite rise production demand consumer price hold almost steady wholesale price decline best record overall price stability comparable period recovery since end world war ii inflation often follow shadow growth price stability make easy stagnation control mean maintain stability growth climate freedom first line defense inflation good sense public spirit business labor keep total increase wag profit step productivity single statistical test guide company union strongly urge country interest apply test public interest transaction within framework growth stability administration help keep economy competitive widening access small business credit government contract step drive monopoly racketeer submit federal pay reform bill aim give classified postal employee new pay scale comparable private industry hold fiscal 1962 budget deficit far level incur last recession 1958 finally submit fiscal 1963 balanced federal budget joint responsibility require congressional cooperation appropriation three source income particular 1 first increase postal rate end postal deficit 2 secondly passage tax reform previously urge remove unwarranted tax preference apply dividend interest withholding requirement long apply wage 3 third extension present excise corporation tax rate except change recommend message affect transportation iii get america move strong nation economy require balanced budget require progress program spur growth fortify strength city strong america depend glory sometimes america shame substitute sunlight congestion progress decay step exist urban renewal housing program launch new one redouble attack water pollution speed aid airport hospital highway decline mass transit system secure new weapon combat organize crime racketeering youth delinquency assist coordinated effort investigative service fbi internal revenue bureau narcotic many others shall need mass transit transportation legislation new tool fight air pollution effort way equity commonsense require nation urban area contain population sit equal cabinet table urge new department urban affair housing agriculture resource strong america also depend farm natural resource american farmer take heart 1961 billion dollar rise farm income hopeful start reduce farm surplus still operate patchwork accumulation old law cost u 1 billion year ccc carrying charge alone yet fail halt rural poverty boost farm earnings task master turn fully fruitful end magnificent productivity farm farmer revolution countryside stand sharp contrast repeat farm failure communist nation source pride u since 1950 agricultural output per actually double without new realistic measure someday swamp farmer taxpayer national scandal farm depression therefore submit congress new comprehensive farm program tailor fit use land supply crop need sixty design prevent chaos sixty program commonsense also need sixty bequeath full national estate heirs new conservation recreation program expansion superb national park forest preservation authentic wilderness start water power project population steadily increase expand rea generation transmission loan civil right america stand progress human right well economic affair strong america require assurance full equal right citizen race color administration show never much could do full use executive power enforcement law already pass persuasion negotiation litigation secure constitutional right right vote right travel without hindrance across state line right free public education issue last march comprehensive order guarantee right equal employment opportunity federal agency contractor vice president committee thus create do much include voluntary plan progress section country achieve quiet striking success open race new professional supervisory job opportunity much do executive court congress among bill pending executive department comment detail appropriate method strengthen basic right full support right vote example longer deny arbitrary device local level sometimes abused literacy test poll tax approach 100th anniversary next january emancipation proclamation let act every branch government every citizen portray righteousness exalt nation health welfare finally strong america neglect aspiration citizen welfare needy health care elderly education young develop nation wealth sake wealth mean people end material rich avail u little use expand opportunity people last year improve diet needy people provide hot lunch fresh milk school child build college dormitory elderly expand private housing nursing home heath service social security begin help least fortunate recommend new public welfare program stressing service instead support rehabilitation instead relief train useful work instead prolong dependency relieve critical shortage doctor dentists matter concern u expand research urge action aid medical dental college scholarships establish new national institute health take advantage modern vaccination achievement propose mass immunization program aim virtual elimination ancient enemies child polio diphtheria whooping cough tetanus protect consumer careless unscrupulous shall recommend improvement food drug inspection standard halt unsafe worthless product prevent misleading label crack illicit sale drug matter health piece unfinished business important urgent enactment social security system health insurance age old citizen longer frequent illness higher hospital medical bill little income pay private health insurance help cost high coverage limit public welfare help proud seek relief pay bill child grandchild always sacrifice health budget meet constant drain social security long help meet hardships retirement death disability urge coverage extend without delay provide health insurance elderly education equally important strength quality education eight million adult american classify functionally illiterate disturbing figure reflect selective service rejection welfare roll crime rate shall recommend plan massive attack end adult illiteracy shall also recommend bill improve educational quality stimulate art college level provide federal loan construction academic facility federally finance scholarship nation grow wisdom strength every able high school graduate opportunity develop talent yet nearly half lack either fund facility attend college enrollment go double college short space 10 year annual cost per student skyrocket astronomical level average year although almost half family earn less afford cost nation afford maintain military power neglect brainpower excellence education must begin elementary level send congress last year proposal federal aid public school construction teacher salary believe bill pass senate receive house committee approval offer minimum amount require need term aid maximum scope permit constitution therefore see reason weaken withdraw bill urge passage session civilization say well race education catastrophe congress determine winner race unrelated measure address specific gap grievance national life pattern intention foundation hope believe democracy say woodrow wilson release energy every human dynamic democracy power purpose individual policy administration give individual opportunity realize high possibility program open opportunity steady productive employment remove handicap arbitrary irrational exclusion offer facility education health welfare make society servant individual individual source progress thus realize full promise american life iv goal abroad effort home give meaning effort abroad since close second world war global civil war divide torment mankind military might higher standard living distinguish u adversary belief state servant citizen master basic clash idea will one force reshape globe sweep tide hope fear crisis headline today become mere footnote tomorrow successes setback past year remain agenda unfinished business every apparent blessing contain seed danger every area trouble give ray hope one unchangeable certainty nothing certain unchangeable yet basic goal remain peaceful world community free independent state free choose future system long threaten freedom others may choose form way would choose u choose welcome diversity communist offer world choice offer world coercion way past show dearly freedom coercion wave future time goal obscure crisis endanger conflict draw sustenance five basic source strength moral physical strength united state united strength atlantic community regional strength hemispheric relation creative strength effort new develop nation strength united nation military strength moral physical strength begin home already discuss include military strength well long fanaticism fear brood affair men must arm deter others aggression past 12 month military posture steadily improve increase previous defense budget 15 percent expectation war preservation peace double acquisition rate polaris submarine double production capacity minuteman missile increase 50 percent number man bomber stand ready 15 minute alert year combine force level plan new defense budget include nearly three hundred additional polaris minuteman missiles precisely calculated insure continue strength nuclear deterrent strength may test many level intend time capacity resist limit attack complement nuclear capacity substitute reject posture would leave choice inglorious retreat unlimited retaliation thus double number ready combat division army strategic reserve increase troop europe build marine add new sealift airlift capacity modernize weapon ammunition expand force increase active fleet 70 vessel tactical air force nearly dozen wing need reach high level readiness quickly member reserve national guard activate act congress disruption distress inevitable overwhelming majority bear burden nation burden admirable traditional devotion come year reserve program revise two army division hope replace guard division duty substantial increase boost air force fighter unit procurement equipment continental defense warn effort nation first serious civil defense shelter program way identify mark stock 50 million space urge approval federal incentive construction public shelter school hospital similar center vi united nation arm alone enough keep peace must keep men instrument hope unite see little merit impatience would abandon imperfect world instrument dislike imperfect world trouble world organization merely reflect trouble world organization weaken trouble increase may always agree every detailed action take every officer united nation every voting majority institution future past since inception stronger faithful member united state america 1961 strength united nation reinforce preferred predict demise envision troika seat hammarskiold red china inside see instead new vigor new secretary general fully independent secretariat make plan new forum principle disarmament outer space decade development effort un fulfil charter lofty aim eighteen month ago tangle turbulent congo present un grave challenge prospect one chaos certain confrontation hazard risk u others today hop improve peaceful conciliation within united congo objective policy important area policeman universally use stick restore law order beat member willing contribute vote view little else create serious deficit refuse pay share special un assessment yet pay annual assessment retain vote new un bond issue finance special operation next 18 month repay interest regular assessment clearly interest keep un solvent require vote member pay fair share activity share special operation long much high share annual assessment bond issue effect reduce disproportionate obligation reason urge congress approve participation approval congress undertaken past year great new effort outer space aim simply first moon charles lindbergh real aim first paris aim develop technique country country field air atmosphere objective make effort hope place one citizens moon develop new frontier science commerce cooperation position unite state free world nation belongs among first explore among first first shall offer cooperation united nation satellite soon provide nation improve weather observation shall soon send congress measure govern financing operation international communication satellite system manner consistent public interest foreign policy peace space help u naught peace earth go world order secure whole world laid weapon seem offer u present security threaten future survival human race armistice day seem far away vast resource planet devote mean destroy instead enrich human life world mean prison man await execution mankind survive test trial thousand year surrender existence nation faith make supreme effort break log jam disarmament nuclear test persist prevail rule law replace ever dangerous use force vii latin america turn prospect great promise hemispheric relation alliance progress rapidly transform proposal program last month latin america saw quicken hope revival confidence new trust country among worker farmer well diplomat pledge help speed economic educational social progress latin american republic turn pledge new strenuous effort support historic undertaking propose authority contain bill last session congress special alliance progress fund 3 billion combine food peace bank resource provide 1 billion year new support alliance addition increase spanish portuguese language broadcast latin america improve hemispheric trade defense blight communism increasingly expose isolated america liberty score gain people dominican republic firm encouragement help sister republic hemisphere safely pass treacherous course dictatorship disorder towards democracy viii new develop nation effort help new develop nation strengthen stand freedom also make progress newly unify agency international development reorient foreign assistance emphasize development loan instead grant economic aid instead military individual plan meet individual need nation new standard must marshal resource newly conceive peace corp win friend help people fourteen country supply train dedicate young men woman give new nation hand build society glimpse best country problem supply spontaneous mount demand food peace gram feed hungry many land abundance productive farm provide lunch child school wage economic development relief victim flood famine good diet million whose daily bread chief concern program help people help people help freedom view government may sometimes different event africa middle east eastern europe teach u never write nation lose lesson time support independence new weak state whose history geography economy lack power impels remain outside entangle alliances century independence nation bar communist grand design basis past year example urge neutral independent common policy major ally insist precede negotiation workable formula supervise independence still achieve spread might involve country also communist occupation thus far prevented satisfactory settlement lao would also help achieve safeguard peace foe increase tactic terror effort step local government initiate new program reform broaden base resistance systematic aggression bleed country war liberation already free war attempt subjugation resist ix atlantic community finally united strength atlantic community flourish last year severe test nato increase number readiness air ground naval unit nuclear capability even great effort member still required nevertheless unity purpose believe immeasurably strengthen threat brave city berlin remain last 6 month ally make unmistakably clear presence berlin free access thereto freedom two million west berliner would surrender either force appeasement maintain right obligation prepare talk appropriate fight necessary every member nato stand u common commitment preserve symbol free man remain free predict course future negotiation berlin say spar honorable effort find peaceful mutually acceptable resolution problem believe resolution find improvement relation soviet union leader kremlin recognize basic right interest involve interest mankind peace atlantic community longer concern purely military aim common undertaking grow pace increasingly partner aid trade defense diplomacy monetary affair emergence new europe match emergence new tie across atlantic matter undramatic daily cooperation hundred workaday task currency keep effective relation development loan mesh together standardized weapon concert diplomatic position atlantic community grows like volcanic mountain one mighty explosion like coral reef accumulate activity thus free world move steadily toward unity cooperation teeth old bolshevik prophecy time extraordinary rumble discord hear across iron curtain free society bear within seed inevitable disunity x balance payment one special problem great concern friends u proud give congress encourage report effort safeguard dollar progress 11 month precede last february 1 suffered net loss nearly 2 billion gold 11 month follow loss half billion dollar deficit basic transaction rest world trade defense foreign aid capital exclude volatile flow reduce 2 billion 1960 amount 1961 speculative fever dollar end confidence dollar restore could achieve gain import restriction troop withdrawal exchange control dollar devaluation choke domestic recovery act panic perspective problem yet solve persistently large deficit would endanger economic growth military defense commitment abroad goal must reasonable equilibrium balance payment cooperation congress business labor major ally goal reach shall continue attract foreign tourist investment shore seek increase military purchase ally maximize foreign aid procurement american firm urge increase aid fortunate nation less fortunate seek tax law favor investment industrialize nation tax haven urge coordination ally fiscal monetary policy discourage large disturb capital movement trade pay commitment abroad must expand export businessmen must export conscious export competitive tax policy must spur modernization plant wage price gain must consistent productivity hold line price export credit promotion campaign american industry must continue expand great challenge pose growth european common market assume accession united kingdom arise across atlantic trading partner behind single external tariff similar economy nearly equals country adapt think new prospect pattern wait event pass u year decide reciprocal trade act expire need new law wholly new approach bold new instrument american trade policy decision could well affect unity west course cold war economic growth nation generation come move decisively factories farm increase sale richest market export increase balance payment position improve forge across atlantic trading partnership vast resource freedom hand hang back deference local economic pressure find cut major ally industry believe vital industry move plant job capital inside wall common market job therefore lose united state otherwise compete consumer farm surplus balance trade know europe common market farm product nearly three four one favor amount one best earner dollar balance payment structure without entrance market without ability enter farm surplus pile middle west tobacco south commodity go western europe 15 year balance payment position worsen consumer lack wide choice good low price million american job depend sale transportation distribution export import whose job endanger movement capital europe whose job maintain expand economy million worker home state mine see real interest sacrifice member congress united state rise greatness wait others lead nation world foremost manufacturer farmer banker consumer exporter common market move ahead economic growth rate twice communist economic offensive way opportunity initiative u believe 1962 time seize initiative shall shortly send congress new trade expansion action scope design great care make certain benefit people far outweigh risk bill permit gradual elimination tariff united state common market item together supply 80 percent world trade mostly item ability compete demonstrate fact sell abroad item substantially import step make possible major industry compete counterpart western europe access european consumer good bill permit gradual reduction duty 50 bargaining major provide appropriate test form assistance firm employee adjust import competition neglect safeguard provide peril point escape clause national security amendment abandon friend traditional nation principle contrary bill provide new encouragement sale tropical agricultural product important friend latin america long depend upon european market find faced new challenge must join overcome concession bargain must course reciprocal unilateral common market fulfill high promise unless outside tariff wall low danger restriction timidity policy counterparts friend europe together face common challenge enlarge prosperity free men everywhere build partnership new trading community free nation may gain productive energy free competitive effort various element foreign policy lead say single goal goal peaceful world free independent state guide present vision future free community nation independent interdependent uniting north south east west one great family man outgrow transcend hate fear rend age reach goal today tomorrow may reach lifetime quest great adventure century sometimes chafe burden obligation complexity decision agony choice comfort security u evasion solution abdication relief irresponsibility year ago assume task presidency say generation history grant role great defender freedom hour maximum danger good fortune welcome year ago fate congress president live struggle start world make pressure life always distribute choice nation ever face challenge nation ever ready seize burden glory freedom high endeavor may god watch united state america