I didn't realize until I heard your applause what a wonderful speaker Bill Wirtz was.
My older daughter who came in with us, who is really my "college authority in residence," gave me a good many instructions about what to say to you today. She said, "Now Daddy, don't give them your usual stuff. Don't tell them how well the economy is doing because after this trip to Washington they are all going to be broke, anyway. And don't talk about the beauties of frugality because those of us living on college allowances already know all about frugality."
She did say that I could leave the lights on until it gets dark tonight.
I am sure that you have been told already that this is a nonpolitical meeting. I can't tell you to cast your first vote for the Democrats, and I absolutely refuse to misguide you in any other direction.
I try to be nonpartisan; as evidence of it my Secretary of State is a Democrat, my Secretary of Defense is a Republican, or was, and it may be weighed a little bit, one way or the other. Secretary Wirtz is a Democrat, too.
I want to welcome you warmly to the White House this afternoon.
Our country very much needs the influence of this young generation. I have read the tags often applied to your age group, the "quiet generation," the "apathetic generation," the "cool cookies," the "security chasers, interested only in sports cars, a split-level, and an annuity."
But I am not really impressed by those statements because I just don't believe in labels.
I know too many young people dedicated to goals beyond the pursuit of mere self-interest. I have met hundreds of them throughout the world that are now giving dedicated service in the Peace Corps. Thousands more have written to me since I have been President saying that they intend to volunteer for the war on poverty, or volunteer in dozens of other ways to help our country and our Government, and to help make our communities more humane centers of living.
As a matter of fact, I believe that it would be appropriate to say that yours is the "volunteer generation." You seem ready and eager to take on the tasks which call for a real personal sacrifice.
This country needs those virtues. We need your boundless energy. We need your curiosity--your inquisitive minds about every aspect of our living. We need your belief that the impossible is only a little more difficult to do; your sophistication which tells us to be hardheaded and your generous instincts which tell us that mere sophistication is not enough.
You were born to the hangover of a depression and a World War. If you think your elders did not do so well themselves you certainly have reasons for it. And your time to do something about it is on its way, it's coming.
As you know so well, freedom is never a static doctrine. Freedom is an active, dynamic, rolling credo.
The basic meaning of freedom remains the same but the specific techniques to protect it and to advance it vary with the needs of a changing America and a changing world.
Thoughtful Americans--Republicans and Democrats--years ago came to substantial agreement on the demands of freedom in that day.
We followed their prescription and we built a mighty Nation--it is bursting with opportunity.
History hurried on. We became a highly industrialized, highly urbanized society. Then, that new society was swept into a world that was tossed by revolutionary forces and operating under the awesome fact of nuclear power.
Once again thoughtful men, without regard to any political party, came to substantial agreement on the needs of freedom.
Able leaders, whether the Republican, Theodore Roosevelt, or the Democrat, Woodrow Wilson, pointed to the bedrock fact: In an increasingly complex Nation, greater activity of Government and more social-minded attitudes of all private institutions were needed to protect the genuine freedom of the individual.
In foreign affairs able leaders--whether the Democrats, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry Truman, or John Kennedy--whether the Republicans, Arthur Vandenberg, Wendell Willkie, or Dwight Eisenhower-pointed to a similar bedrock fact: In a nuclear world the security of freedom requires great and infinite patience--patience with the stubborn realities of the pursuit of peace and requires great caution to avoid even the appearance of a foreign policy of bluster.
These changing techniques in American freedom, conceived and executed by so broad a consensus of our national leadership, have been remarkably effective.
At home and abroad we have not only protected freedom, we have steadily expanded it. I genuinely believe that rather than giving up freedom we are acquiring more of it, both in the world and at home.
I believe there is more freedom in the other nations today than there was when I was your age, for the individual citizens of those nations.
I sincerely and genuinely believe that I have more freedom today than I had when I was your age.
A genuinely free society cannot be a spectator society. And this is my real message to you.
Freedom, in its deepest sense, requires participation. It requires full and zestful, knowledgeable participation.
Toward that end, I have today established a new program entitled "The White House Fellows."
The purpose of the program is to give the Fellows first-hand, high-level experience with the workings of the Federal Government and to increase their sense of participation in our national affairs.
The Fellows will be younger men and women, aged 23 to 35, chosen from business and law, journalism, the universities, architecture, and other occupations. Each will have demonstrated high moral character, exceptional ability, marked leadership qualities, and unusual promise of future development.
There will be 15 White House Fellows and they will serve for 15 months. One Fellow will be assigned to the office of the Vice President; one to each Cabinet officer; and four as members of the White House staff. In addition to their daily work, the Fellows will take part in seminars and other activities that are especially planned to advance the purposes of this program.
The Fellows will be named by the President on the recommendation of a distinguished Commission on White House Fellows that will be headed by Mr. David Rockefeller.
Some of the members of the Commission, I am very happy to say, are here with us, and if I could, I would like to take a moment to present them if they have not left:
Mr. James Carey, president of the Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers.
Dr. William Friday, president of the University of North Carolina. He is not only going to do this job for us, but I have a little secret in store for him. We are getting ready to borrow one of his best men for our poverty program.1
Mr. John Gardner, president of the Carnegie Foundation.
Mr. Francis Keppel, United States Commissioner of Education.
Mr. John Macy, Chairman of the United States Civil Service Commission.
Dr. Harry Ransom, chancellor of the University of Texas.
Other eminent Americans who will serve on the Commission but who cannot be present tonight are:
Dr. Ernest C. Arbuckle, dean of the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University.
Judge William Hastie of the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Mr. John Oakes, editor of the New York Times. Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine. Dr. O. Meredith Wilson, president of the University of Minnesota.
The program of the White House Fellows is being financially supported by the Carnegie Foundation headed by Mr. John Gardner.
I hope that I will be seeing some of you again when you come here as White House Fellows. I am not recommending anyone specifically, but I do hope the judges will take judicial notice of my observation.2
The release added that the Fellows selected would participate in an intensive orientation program conducted by the Brookings Institution, and that seminars and discussions with leaders in Government, business, labor, and the professions would allow them to explore in depth the major policy problems and public issues which affect the National Government.
One of the most satisfying jobs of my life was when I was at the age of 27, when President Roosevelt asked me to head the National Youth Administration in Texas. The job was so satisfying because I and the other young people working with me--and the 30,000 young people we were trying to work with and help--knew that we were part of what FDR and his associates were doing in Washington.
A hundred years from now when historians look back on the Johnson administration, I hope very much that they will be able to say: There, once again, was an era when the young men and the young women of America and their Government really belonged to each other--belonged to each other in fact and belonged to each other in spirit.
We are so happy to welcome you here today. We hope this has been an eventful experience for you. We look forward to having you back sometime.
Thank you.
1 On October 22 the White House announced that the President had named Dr. Otis A. Singletary, chancellor of the University of North Carolina, at Greensboro, as Director of the Job Corps in the Office of Economic Opportunity.
2 On November 25 the President announced an intensive, nationwide search for the 15 ablest young men and women with a talent for leadership. The White House release containing the President's announcement stated that more than 3,000 applications under the White House Fellows Program had already been received. The release further stated that the President expected civic, professional, academic, and business leaders would make further nominations, so that the Rockefeller Commission would have before it the names of the most promising young leaders in the Nation.
Note: The President spoke at 6:05 p.m. in the East Room at the White House to some 230 college students from across the country. In his opening remarks he referred to Secretary of Labor W. Willard Wirtz. Later he referred to, among others, David Rockefeller, president of the Chase Manhattan Bank in New York.
During the political campaign a Student Body President's National Advisory Committee was formed to work for the President's election at colleges throughout the Nation. On November I a White House release stated that the President welcomed the support of this group and that he had been particularly pleased with the enthusiasm of young people for his program. The release listed the names of the 91 members of the Committee, some of them "former Republicans," and stated that they had worked to keep the President as well as State and National Democratic Party officials abreast of political sentiment on college campuses throughout the Nation.
Lyndon B. Johnson, Remarks to a Group of College Student Leaders Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/242564
