Lyndon B. Johnson photo

Remarks at the Lulu V. Cline School, South Bend, Indiana.

April 24, 1964

Governor Welsh, Senator Hartke, Senator Bayh, Congressman Brademas, Secretary Hodges and Secretary Celebrezze, Dr. Weaver, my friends of St. Joe County and South Bend:

For a long time I have had a standing invitation to come to South Bend. Congressman Brademas asked me here last year, and Senator Hartke and Senator Bayh have insisted a number of times that I come out here and talk to the good people of this area.

I had some familiarity with your problem, particularly since Studebaker closed down, so this morning we got up early in Chicago to come here and to shake your hand and to look into your faces and to talk to you about the problems that exist in South Bend because South Bend's problems are our problems, and the reason we are here is, we want to see what good work you are doing, in the hope that we can get other people to follow your fine example. The reason we are here is to try to tell you that in a good many places in America there are more jobs open than there are unemployed people, but we don't have the people trained for the jobs that are open.

Now, you are among the Nation's leaders in trying to do something about bringing the right kind of a person to the right kind of a job. We have gone through the school this morning and we have been stimulated and inspired by what we have seen--men and women who I have talked to who have lost their job have not lost their determination. Men and women that I have talked to that have gone off the payroll, have not gone out of existence. They are here working and preparing themselves to do a better job tomorrow than they did yesterday, and I am here to see what the federal Government can do to work with you to help us all improve the lot of our fellow Americans.

We have a poverty program that is now in the Congress. We have a program that is calculated to help relieve unemployment conditions, but statistics don't mean much and records don't mean much and charts don't mean much when they are compared to what you see in the face of people. And it's been a real inspiration to me this morning to come here and see these young people, these middle-aged people, these older people that have not taken discouragement and said "there's nothing we can do about it," but have come in here and rolled up their sleeves and stuck their chin up and their chest up and are doing something about it, and it is going to stimulate us to do more about it in our own work. And when I go back to Washington I am going to say to the leaders of that great Capital, that I wish they could come here to the heartland of America and see what the people are doing for themselves, see what the people want to do for their families, and we are going to try to refuse to take "no" for an answer and get in here and do something ourselves about it.

Thank you for coming out here and giving us this reception.

Note: The President spoke following brief remarks by Mrs. Johnson. His opening words referred to Governor Matthew E. Welsh, Senators Vance Hartke and Birch Bayh, and Representative John Brademas of Indiana, Secretary of Commerce Luther H. Hodges, Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare Anthony J. Celebrezze, and Housing and Home finance Administrator Robert C. Weaver.

Lyndon B. Johnson, Remarks at the Lulu V. Cline School, South Bend, Indiana. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/239155

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