Remarks to Members of the American Revolution Bicentennial Commission.

Dr. Sterling, and members of the Bicentennial Commission:

As all of you know, we are gathered in this historic house for an opportunity that comes to a people once in a century, the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the United States, which will take place in 1976.

We are starting to plan now. We have representatives not only from the Federal Government, but from most of the States of the Nation here to plan that celebration.

I would like to speak to that subject very briefly, to speak to it in perhaps a way that most of you would not have thought of--would not have thought of because traditionally when we think of this kind of celebration, we think of the Nation's past and we glory in that past, as we should. We think of the Nation's present, and we consider the problems that we must deal with.

This celebration, I would hope, would look to America's future, look to the year 1976, and set for ourselves goals for that year 1976 which we can achieve.

In the space of 7 years, we can achieve great goals, so that when 1976 comes we can look back over those 200 years with even greater pride than we did 100 years ago.

And I would only suggest that the pace of change and progress has escalated to the point in America today that we could accomplish as much in the next 7 years in achieving some of the goals that America wants to achieve--goals in the field of housing and transportation, and abolishing hunger and providing opportunity. We could achieve as much progress in achieving our ultimate goal as we did in all the history of the country up to this time.

This is possible. And we have to set for ourselves what not only is possible, but somewhat more than that and reach as high as we can.

Now with regard to what those goals should be, could I refer to the early days of this country, to the time that this Nation was founded and to the words that were spoken by those who, at the time of the Declaration of Independence, thought of the mission of America, what America could mean to the world? And one of them said that we act not just for ourselves, but for all mankind.

You know, we hear that today and we think that was perhaps a very appropriate statement to make because history has justified that kind of optimism.

But look at America 200 years ago--3 million people, 13 Colonies, and then States, a weak country, a poor country. And yet a founder spoke of acting for all mankind, which gives us the lesson, it seems to me, for the bicentennial.

Today we are the richest country in the world; we are the strongest country in the world. And, yet, in thinking of whether we are truly the hope of all mankind, we must recognize that that hope does not exist because of wealth or because of strength. It exists because of a spiritual quality that we have had from the time of our birth.

Somewhere along the line many of us perhaps have forgotten that spiritual quality. Many Americans need to be reminded of it. Perhaps we all have to discover it--why we are here; what we mean to the world.

In setting forth goals, I can tell you that this administration is thinking in terms that are tremendously exciting. In the field of hunger, it will be possible by the year 1976 to abolish hunger in the United States of America. It will be possible in the year 1976 to make enormous progress in the field of housing, in the field of transportation, in all of these areas that are tremendously important to every American family and that are also admired and respected around the world.

Also, as we think of the year 1976 and what America means to the world, let us not discount ourselves too much. We do have enormous problems at home and problems abroad.

But I can tell you from having visited the major capitals of Europe, and from having also had the opportunity of visiting many of the capitals of Asia, that millions of people in the world today respect America, they admire America, and many of them love this country.

That is true even on the other side of the Iron Curtain, where I saw a million people in the streets of Bucharest who had not had an opportunity really to know about America for 35 years and, yet, some way, somehow, they sensed America meant something to them.

Our astronauts are finding it today, not just because they reached the moon, but because they stand for something more than the scientific achievement which enabled them to reach the moon.

What I am really trying to say is this: America in 1976 can be as it is today, the best fed, the best housed, the best clothed people in the world.

And we still will not have achieved our true goal of being the hope of the world in the ultimate sense, because going back to the beginning, when America was poor, when America was weak, when America was ill-housed and ill-clothed, let us never forget we had something then that caught the imagination of the world.

So, to those who come from the States and those here from the Federal Government, let us set for our goal in 1976 not just moving forward in all these material areas, but to move forward in the realm of the American spirit.

I know this sounds perhaps too illusory, too uncertain for us possibly to capture. But it is there. We must put our minds to it, we must put our hearts to it.

That brings me now to those from the States.

This celebration will not just be a national celebration, because Washington, great city that it is, is not America any more than New York is America or Los Angeles is America.

America is 50 States. America is big cities and small cities and small towns. It is all the homes and all the hopes of 200 million people.

That is why we want this celebration to be national. It must go directly to the people and derive its strength from the people.

And we want people all over this land to sense the greatness of this moment, to participate in it, to help us all to discover what that great spirit is.

So, I would charge this Commission, Dr. Sterling, to move forward, move forward, yes, in reaching the great material goals of which we know we are capable-that is the easiest part of the job--but recognizing that the best fed, best clothed, best housed people in the world, that the strongest nation in the world, and the richest nation in the world still will not deserve to be the hope of the world unless it has that splendid spirit, the lift of a driving dream which meant so much to the world in 1776 and for 200 years since that time.

I would conclude simply by saying that by that year 1976, the world will be at peace. By that year 1976, America, we trust, will find the understanding that we perhaps do not have in many quarters today. But above everything else, I would trust in that year 1976 that more Americans can look back with pride and look to the future with hope, hope that the opportunity that everybody in this room has had is something that is a realizable dream that can be achieved for anyone who has the good fortune to be born in this country, for anyone who has the good fortune to come to this country.

Thank you.