Remarks at the Governors' Conference Dinner.

Governor Kennon, ladies and gentlemen:

It scarcely seems a year since at least a number of you and I were privileged to meet over at the White House. I assure you that I truly appreciate the invitation that Governor Kennon tells me is a return engagement of that party.

Washington is a great city of precedents, and you do something or you don't do something because Abraham Lincoln did it, or McKinley, or Grover Cleveland, or somebody else. I was very anxious to meet the Governors back in 1953 and they looked up the record, and I believe somewhere around 1908 and another time in 1925 all the Governors had been invited in.

Well, I wanted to see them, so I asked them in. The next year it seemed more necessary than ever to ask them back, and they came back. And then I was certainly astonished but still highly honored they should come back again.

I hope we have started a precedent, because there are a number of things wrong with Washington. One of them is, I think, almost everybody here has been too long away from home. But the duties of an official here being what they are, it is very difficult indeed for him to keep in touch with the people who bear comparable responsibilities back home. And so it is probably a very salutary experience for the people in Washington for the Governors to come in; they being so perfectly aware of the affairs in their own States they report what is going on, talk and think over and tell us something of their convictions, their opinions, the facts as they know them, in any State from Maine to California.

Now Governor Kennon said that you people came in to be oriented. As far as I am concerned, that is a very secondary purpose--possibly even less. This meeting is to bring us back closer to the people of your States.

I cannot imagine a body of greater dignity anywhere than the assembled body of Governors. Our forefathers readily understood the need for diffusing power, and they diffused it not only functionally but geographically. And if ever we lose that part of the system they set up, we will lose the United States as we know it.

The assembled body of Governors is, without official power, still one of the most important bodies that I could possibly imagine. And certainly I am honored to meet with them, and I hope that you, like myself, can say "I have profited" by each of your meetings here.

Now, it doesn't particularly bother me whether or not all of you agree with me. In fact, I have heard something more than rumors, I should say, that two or three of you, at least, disagree violently with most of the things in which I believe. And I should say this: they are just as welcome as anybody else, because America is a place of differing convictions, and if anyone wants to sit in an ivory tower and hear only from those people who believe with him, again, America will not be what he would hope it would be.

Honest sharpening of our wits in dealing with honest men, differing with them, and thrashing out of troubles is the best assurance that our country will stay in the pattern that was laid out for us 178 years ago.

And I should say that the only requisite other than that we be honest is that we try to be informed, and that is not always easy. We know the world is complex. We know that our own daily, local lives become more complex in everything from distributing of a vaccine to the handling of problems dealing with Iran or Formosa or China, or anything else.

All along the line, different factors come to bear, the problems become very complex and no clean-cut simple answer is obtainable. But as we do meet with as much energy as each of us can marshal and we meet in all honesty, we are certain that the great composite opinions and convictions of this country, as represented unofficially in a body of Governors, will be a decision that will see America through any crisis.

So that you can understand how proud I am that the Governors have for three straight years met here in executive, off-the-record sessions, doing their best to give us the facts from their own particular areas--their convictions--their opinions.

I am not going to take up any of your time, or burden you this evening with any of the problems now bothering me. This is scarcely an occasion to turn into one of your executive or business sessions. I do want to assure you that I am honored to be your guest. I want to present to you Mrs. Eisenhower's deep regret that she couldn't come, but she does have a doctor who has ordered her to take it easy for a while. She asked me especially to say to all of the ladies of this group that she is deeply sorry that she couldn't be with you. Among you, of course, are many of her old friends as well as mine. She would love to have greeted you.

When I got here I was told I didn't have to talk at all. When I said, well, if I did, what shall I talk about, he said about a minute. I have exceeded my time. Ladies and gentlemen, good night, good luck, and I hope to see you again.