Remarks to the President's Committee on Employment of the Physically Handicapped.

Mr. Chairman, Mrs. Lake, Ladies and Gentlemen:

I think that each year I have been able to come to meet with the President's Committee on assistance to the physically handicapped. I know of no group that so inspires me to go back home and go to work without feeling sorry for myself so much as does this one.

Last year, I recall, our outstanding physically handicapped citizen here was a lad in a wheelchair who made radios. I took home that radio and it reminded me--it inspired me--to say to myself no matter how hard a job is, a man's will can do it so long as he is above ground. I know of nothing that I prize more than his gift to me last year of that radio that he had made. This year, and I think for the first time, Mrs. Lake--that we have a lady that has been named the outstanding citizen of those who are handicapped.

I have read her story. I read it in the Deseret News, a paper from Utah. It told not only of the tremendous struggle that she made to rehabilitate herself so that she could do things for herself, but you got a picture of the courage that it took--the persistence--the effort. The thrilling part of it was that as she went through that entire exercise of developing herself to do something, her thought was always for others. She helped them.

She has been one of the representatives, you might say, of the whole effort that is represented by the President's Committee to help the physically handicapped.

This work is going forward throughout the country and is being forwarded by people who are inspired with the same courage--the same readiness to help. The spirit of sacrifice of Mrs. Lake is evidenced by the fact that General Mass has told me that more than three million people who have been classified as physically handicapped and who would therefore, without training, without help--or without self-help-have been merely charges on society, are actually members of that society that are producing the things that they need and that we need. They are helping America grow, get stronger, more prosperous--not only materially but what is more important, spiritually; not to be defeated by anything.

So you can imagine, feeling as I do the pride I feel in being able to hand the awards to the essay winners, the high school students--one of them, I hear, is from one of my favorite towns, Augusta, Georgia--and finally, to present the annual award to Mrs. Lake.

This is one of the most pleasant, most inspiring ceremonies I participate in, and I am sure that every person here has exactly that feeling.

Thank you very much.