Remarks to the National Education Association at Mount Vernon, Virginia.

IT IS a signal event that the representatives of teachers of our whole country should meet at Mount Vernon this day. Because our teachers more than any other group have both the privilege and the duty to guide the steps in each new generation on the road of democracy, to instruct them with understanding and reverence for the spiritual benefits which flow from this history of this great man, and to instill our children with the accomplishments of the men who have made and guided our Nation.

We meet here today in one of the places which physically in itself is enchanting and beautiful in its grounds, buildings, and associations, but it is not these which attract hither the steps or thoughts of millions of Americans. It is the memory and the spirit of the greatest man of our race which pervades these grounds. It is a national shrine, the very name of which swells our hearts with pride and gratitude. It has been preserved and cared for all these many years by the women of America in whose trusteeship the Nation can find no greater assurance of its meaning, its sanctity and reverence.

You have come from every part of our country, from homes, towns, cities, and States unknown to Washington's life, yet each and every one of which received untold blessings from his life and his public service. To you more than anyone else we entrust the translation of Washington to our children, and that is a trusteeship which the Nation can find no greater assurance of its meaning, of its sanctity and reverence.

NOTE The President spoke at 3:30 p.m. from the Mount Vernon portico to an assembly of the association's members. The remarks followed a ceremony during which he placed a wreath on Washington's tomb. National and international radio hookups carried the remarks.