Lyndon B. Johnson photo

Remarks at a Meeting of "Scientists and Engineers for Johnson-Humphrey"

October 06, 1964

This house is honored by the presence of such talent and I am deeply grateful for the purpose which brings you here.

In this age, no President can make the vital decisions facing him without utilizing the best of the Nation's scientific and technical advice. Each day I rely more and more on your colleague, Dr. Dona!d Hornig--not only as my Science Adviser but as counselor on many other subjects.

But I am glad that I have come to this office with long and wide acquaintance in the scientific community--including many of you.

Over the years it has been my privilege and good fortune to be closely involved with many of those issues where science and politics have met--atomic energy, space, national defense, medical research, and others.

The political community is not always receptive to new ideas. I have taken the brunt of much abuse at various times for my own support. But I have guided my course by a view I once read from an early American journal. Written back in 1786, those words were:

"It is the part of every patriot philosopher to pursue every hint--to cultivate every enquiry, which may eventually tend to the security and welfare of his fellow citizens, the extension of their commerce and the improvement of those arts which adorn and embellish life."

For myself, I regard it as the mandate of all our experience that we insure the flourishing of science and technology in America--as nowhere else on earth.

Science and technology have served us faithfully in our national defense. But there is a purpose so much larger, and more noble. I believe the American people and people everywhere want human intelligence to be employed for human advancement--to enrich and elevate our way of life.

That is your challenge and mine in these times.

Your Government has given its support to scientific research--and to the education of bright young minds--on a scale without parallel in history. Dollar and cents figures have little meaning because the investment has paid for itself many times over. American science, medicine, and engineering is second to none--and we intend to keep it that way.

For all we have done, I am constantly aware of how much more there is which we have scarcely begun. New horizons beckon to us within our own planet, beneath the sea and out in space. But the most exciting horizons are in the life of man himself-and what we can do to improve it. We can eliminate poverty. We can cure man's ills, extend man's life, and raise man's hopes.

This is the call we must answer.

In all that we do, we must strive to channel science and technology and all of human wisdom towards human betterment and away from human catastrophe.

I hope we may build a Nation which encourages men to learn and honors men of learning.

Science transcends partisanship. Many of you have served both Democratic and Republican administrations--and I hope your talents will be always welcome, always respected.

Science transcends national boundaries-and this, too, must always be so.

America owes an immeasurable debt to scientists, engineers, and scholars from many nations around the world. But we owe a special debt to those who have chosen the United States in search of freedom from persecution for their beliefs.

Our Nation must always respect knowledge and the pursuit of knowledge. For along the road to learning lies our hope for peace among men and nations and that is the goal we seek.

Note: The President spoke at noon in the Cabinet Room at the White House to a group of 38 leading scientists, engineers, and physicians who had called at the White House to pledge support for the Johnson-Humphrey ticket. The delegation, including 10 Nobel Prize winners, 2 university presidents, and several well-known industrial executives, was reported in the press as representing "Scientists and Engineers for Johnson-Humphrey" with a claimed membership of more than 50,000.

As printed, this item follows the prepared text released by the White House.

Lyndon B. Johnson, Remarks at a Meeting of "Scientists and Engineers for Johnson-Humphrey" Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/242508

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