Dwight D. Eisenhower photo

Remarks at the Hansen Ski Jump Area, Berlin, New Hampshire

June 25, 1955

Chairman Halvorson, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen:

I am sure you realize that a loudspeaker system and a position on this platform to speak into the microphone is a poor substitute for what I should really like to do: to go through this throng and to meet each of you, to tell you something of how I feel about this visit to New Hampshire.

I have been traveling through this lovely State for two days. Everywhere I have encountered an obvious hospitality and a cordial welcome that have touched my heart.

I have seen your beautiful skies, your lofty mountains, your great dairy herds, and many of your other industries. It has been, for me, a tour of real education.

I have been accompanied by your State officials, and everywhere local committees have participated in ceremonies and arrangements that have made my trip all the more enjoyable.

Particularly am I indebted to Governor Dwinell and his family, to Senator Bridges, to Senator Cotton, to Congressman Merrow and Congressman Bass and their lovely wives. All of them have been giving of their time to make my visit the more instructive, the more interesting and the more enjoyable.

In fact, they are busy men, you know, and I am quite sure that they are rather glad that this meeting marks the sort of official termination of my visit in New Hampshire; because out of their sense of friendship and loyalty they are staying with me, and possibly they realize their desks are piling high with work back in Washington and back in Concord.

This particular visit this morning has been sort of a climax for all of us. I have accumulated so many gifts that I am moved to remind the chairman there is a very important one he forgot. He should have provided a truck to carry them away. But there seem to be enough cars in this cavalcade that I think we can tuck them in here and there and nothing will be left behind, I assure you.

Now, my friends, I just want to say this: never have I had a more pleasant time than I have had on these two days. It has been a unique experience to come up in these northern sections of your State, to see you people, to learn something of the countryside, and to have the chance to greet some of you face to face.

And I would like, as I leave this State, to transmit a message through you to every citizen that I can reach who has greeted me along the roadside, who has been in one of the crowds that has extended to me such a cordial welcome: I am grateful--deeply grateful.

And I tell you this: I am going to accept that invitation to come back, just as soon as possible--which means certainly as soon as I have another kind of livelihood than I now enjoy.

And I want to warn the Democratic Mayor of Berlin that the next time I come I am not going to be kept out of the city. I am going right down the middle of it; and the only way he can stop it will be to turn out the police force, because at that time I will not be accompanied by so many police of my own.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen--each of you--for coming out this morning, to give me a chance to say to you "thank you," and to greet you in this fashion. It has been a wonderful morning for me.

Thank you again.

NOTE: The President spoke at 10:50 a.m. His opening words "Chairman Halvorson" referred to All Halvorson, Executive Secretary of the Chamber of Commerce of Berlin, N.H. Later in his remarks he referred to Mayor Aime A. Tondreau of Berlin.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, Remarks at the Hansen Ski Jump Area, Berlin, New Hampshire Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/233146

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