Proclamation 3806—Child Health Day, 1967

Fifty years ago almost a hundred babies in every thousand died in their first year. By 1965 this tragic figure had dropped to twenty-five. The result is that an inconsolable grief has been lifted from the hearts of millions of American families—and more than a third of our population today is under eighteen years of age.

The health of our children is both a national pride and a national concern.

Thanks to the genius of our medical scientists, doctors, and public health officials—who have in recent years received vital support from national funds—many of the diseases which plagued our childhood are no longer a serious threat to our children today.

Vaccines for polio, diphtheria, and whooping cough have cut these diseases to a virtual vanishing point. Measles, so familiar in our youth, can be dealt a final blow this fall if all the children in kindergarten and first and second grades, who are not already protected, are vaccinated. Other infectious diseases of childhood, such as scarlet fever, can be quickly controlled and their after-effects prevented with today's drugs.

It is important to the American future that we assure the health and full development of our youth. For to the degree that we do, we assure the health and development of tomorrow's America.

I urge all Americans to encourage our young people to take full advantage of the many facilities for the promotion and protection of physical, mental, and emotional health.

Because of its concern for the well-being of our children, the Congress, by a joint resolution of May 18, 1928, 45 Stat. 617, as amended (36 U.S.C. 143), requested the President of the United States to issue annually a proclamation setting apart the first Monday in October as Child Health Day.

Child Health Day is also an appropriate time to observe a Universal Children's Day, and to salute the work which the United Nations, through its specialized agencies, and the United Nations Children's Fund are doing to build better health for children around the world.

Now, Therefore, I, Lyndon B. Johnson, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate Monday, October 2, 1967, as Child Health Day; and I invite all persons and all agencies and organizations interested in the health and welfare of children to unite on that day in observances that will bolster our efforts to foster their growth into full participants in our society.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-fifth day of September, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and sixty-seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and ninety-second.

LYNDON B. JOHNSON