Remarks to the National Association of Television and Radio Farm Directors

WELL, THANK YOU indeed, Mr. Timmons. I am very proud of this, I assure you.

Of course, I am related to the farmers, having a little one of my own, and I guess I am related to telecasters, because I seem to do a lot of talking.

I am very pleased to meet this group of Farm Directors of our television and radio stations in our agricultural belt. I think all of us realize there is no easy solution to all of the problems that beset our agriculture. In fact, I am always amazed when people speak of the agricultural "problem", when we well know there are thousands of them. I think there is nothing that all of us need to know--including farmers--so much as the facts. I believe that the information, the statistical, political, commercial, industrial information that a farmer needs today in order to conduct his business properly, in order to associate himself with his fellows properly, can be gained only by day-by-day access to the best possible information on these subjects that there is obtainable.

That, as I conceive it, is the mission of you people: to bring these facts--not to be an exhorter for any particular plan or idea of anybody's, of any political parties, or of any individual, but to take the ideas and the facts and analyze them--and bring all the necessary information to the people that have to do the work and ultimately form the decisions.

And to extend this just a bit: this necessity is not limited to agriculture. As you carry to all of this great agricultural population of ours facts on the lines that I have just described, you are carrying to them at the same time facts in the international field, our dependency upon foreign markets, our dependency on some of the materials we get from abroad, what friendships with other nations mean to us in terms not only of peace that we all want but of our own prosperity. All of these things come along as auxiliaries to the particular type of information that I assume you are most interested in.

As we do these things, we are going to have a more prosperous agriculture, a more prosperous country, and above all a more peaceful world in which we can all enjoy the fruits of prosperity.

So, as I congratulate you on the work you are doing, I thank you for it. I don't believe any public official has any greater responsibility than to do his best to get out to every segment of our population facts, statistics, the unvarnished truth about the world and about ourselves.

I think you are engaged in one of the greatest efforts for the future benefit of our country that you can possibly be in. I must say, as long as you are in the agricultural interest, you are in something that is closest to my heart, too.

Thank you.