Letter to Secretary Folsom Concerning the 1960 White House Conference on Children and Youth.

[ Released May 28, 1958. Dated May 27, 1958 ]

Dear Marion:

Every ten years during this century there has been a White House Conference concerned with the Nation's children and youth. The first such conference, called by President Theodore Roosevelt, was held in 1909. These conferences have contributed much to our present recognition of the importance of children and youth and their full development to our national future.

A new decade will soon begin, and I am, therefore, directing that a sixth White House Conference on Children and Youth be held in March 1960. The rapidly changing times in which we live, and the increasingly fast pace of change, make it incumbent upon us to do everything we can to plan ahead and to see that we prepare today's children well for life in tomorrow's world.

I should like the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare to take the lead in the preparatory work for this conference. It is my desire that all private and public groups and organizations concerned with this field have maximum opportunity to participate. The main responsibility for public action in this area must, of course, rest with the States and local governments. Accordingly, at the earliest time, you should invite the Governors to participate actively at all stages, along with local officials from their States.

Selection of the theme of the conference, as well as the responsibility for its direction, will be in the hands of a national advisory committee which I shall appoint soon. I am sure that the agencies of the federal Government, working through the Interdepartmental Committee on Children and Youth of which you are chairman, will do everything they can to make the 1960 conference a fruitful one.

Sincerely,

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER