Statement by the President: National First Voters Week.

I HAVE designated the week of October 25, 1964, as National First Voters Week. The purpose is to bring to public attention both the promises and the problems of our youngest generation of voters.

Nearly 10 million new voters are eligible to vote in the forthcoming national elections for the first time. These young citizens form the most energetic, enthusiastic, and forward-looking group of all our people.

Our forefathers won for us--and preserved for us--the precious right to a voice in the selection of those who will guide the destinies of our land. It is heartening that this heritage is being honored by the millions of today's young Americans who are participating so actively, so intelligently, and with so great a sense of responsibility in the campaigns and elections this year.

Our hope for a better America lies today, as always, with the talents, wisdom, and will of young Americans. They embody the ideals and devotion, the strength and courage which we shall need in the years ahead to combat and overcome poverty, disease, ignorance, and division in our own land-and to meet the stern tests of this century's contests between freedom and totalitarianism. By encouraging these young men and women to exercise their precious heritage of the franchise, and especially by encouraging those eligible for the first time to do so, we hope to lay the firmest possible foundation for America's future safety and security.

The strength and character of America's youth have been misjudged in many generations past, but let none miscalculate or misrepresent the fiber of this generation for they are a solid rock on which America's future rests firmly. We pray for them that the course of their Nation will permit their generation to serve freedom only in the battles of peace and never in the battles of war.