I HAVE REVIEWED with Secretary Hodges the report and progress you have made in the development of a program to stimulate and assist business leaders and trade association groups in attaining high ethical standards, and I am delighted.
But your statement of principles can only be a beginning. In the last analysis, high ethical standards can be achieved only through voluntary effort. The principles you have outlined will establish guideposts, give direction and help whole industries and companies to initiate codes and standards.
I am confident that American business will respond, but in addition to helping businessmen, your work should assist the general public to achieve a broader understanding of these problems--for ethics is a matter of concern to us all.
The free world watches us closely for leadership in this field, the uncommitted nations seek examples of the free enterprise system in operation, and the Communist nations are looking for vulnerable points of attack. I know that you will bear all this in mind.
It is good to know that this group of distinguished business leaders, educators and clergymen has undertaken this important task. I am looking forward to seeing continued reports of progress by this Council.
Note: The Business Ethics Advisory Council, announced by the Secretary of Commerce on May 16, 1961, was established for the purpose of exploring approaches to the development of ethical guidelines that might be useful to the business community. The Council's first report, entitled "A Statement on Business Ethics and a Call for Action With Some Questions for Businessmen," is printed as a Department of Commerce pamphlet (10 pp.).
John F. Kennedy, Statement by the President at a Meeting of the Business Ethics Advisory Council. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/236197