Statement by the President: Labor Day.

ON THIS DAY all Americans once again give thanks that we live in a country which upholds the high belief that every citizen should have the right to seek freely the work he wants to do. To all the world we have shown the incredible results which can be accomplished in a land where every man can choose the job he wants--any job for which his ability fits him; prepare himself for it; and join freely with his fellow-workers in common effort. A slave state may force its masses to brutish, endless toil. But it can never produce that deep and tremendous surge of might which comes to a nation when each man knows that he is driving a wedge or plowing a furrow or operating a lathe purely because he is a free man, and that to this endeavor he freely sets his hand. In this principle lies a true and joyous strength. May we recognize it today with a new conviction.

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER