Remarks to Members of the Bakersfield College Choir on the Creative and Performing Arts in America

Congressman Hagen, Mayor Karlen, members of the Bakersfield College Choir:

When I was your age, I think that if I could have ever made it from Monolith and Tehachapi to Bakers field I would have arrived, because at about your age I was out there in California working and Bakersfield was the place that I dreamed some day I would get to go and really upstage myself.

Here at the White House we are all very pleased to have young people and good music. Sometimes it seems to me that when Luci has a party, we have more of the former than the latter.

So we are happy now to have this excellent combination of both here today.

Over the years I have observed that public figures have a very suspicious habit; when they meet young journalists, public officials suddenly recall their own days when they were newspapermen. And if a football team comes to pay their respects, the officeholder suddenly remembers the days when he was a star quarterback.

I am sure this has happened to members of your organization, but in all candor and truth this afternoon, I have a confession. While I yield to no one in my enjoyment of harmony--you can take that any way you like--I do yield to nearly everybody in my ability to carry a tune. It may be refreshing to you to learn that your President was never asked or ever even encouraged to be a member of any choir.

This country can be very proud of you young people. You brought great honor upon yourselves and upon your country by winning the first-prize trophy for mixed choral groups at the recent international competition in Wales. We are extremely proud of you for that. We are also proud of you because you financed your own way and then won the competition over choral groups from 19 countries. This is a rather remarkable and rather splendid achievement.

I wish your example were not so exceptional in some respects. In this country, I regret to say, all too many of our talented individuals and groups are forced to struggle from day to day to survive, to maintain their existence. This includes theater groups, dance and opera companies, symphonies, musical organizations, actors, writers. It also includes the solitary artist who seeks only the time to create his works.

I spent the weekend with a delightful friend who is an artist, and I have one of his pictures in there on my wall--it is pioneers going across the country in a covered wagon. His name is Peter Hurd, and he lives in New Mexico. But that picture that is hanging in the President's office is one he painted when he was on a WPA project. And of course that project permitted him to survive. And now he is painting one of the President of the United States for pay--much more than he got on WPA.

But for too long all the arts have had an uncertain footing in our society. There is, I think, a growing appreciation in America for the arts and a growing understanding and I think there is a growing demand among our people.

This is quite welcome and heartening, but the arts still lack a very sure and solid base on which to stand, and I believe, as they sometimes say in political years, I believe it is time for a change.

All societies that are remembered in history as great have been distinguished by a deep devotion to all the arts. Art is neither an indulgence nor a sanctuary. In more earthy terms, art that expresses the character and the aspirations of the people is really never a luxury or a frill. As a Nobel laureate once put it, art is a means of stirring the greatest number of men by providing them with the privileged image of our common joys and our common woes.

So I believe that in this young and creative and still emerging country of ours, we should realize that the creative and performing arts constitute a real national treasure, and as trustees of that treasure, we of this affluent and creative generation must answer to an especially demanding accounting.

So under times and conditions such as those in which we live, I believe it is imperative that America's arts be encouraged and be supported more actively. I particularly believe that the Federal Government can and should provide both leadership and resources to advance the arts so that the inner spirit and the life of our Nation and heritage may be continuously expressed and defined.

The Johnson administration now has a bill before the Congress to establish the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities. It will offer a realistic response to this opportunity and this challenge that I have been talking about. That legislation, I am very happy to say, has already passed the Senate, and--Congressman Hagen willing--I am hoping that it will soon pass the House of Representatives. I just have 434 more to go.

When this measure is signed, it will be one of the most historic enactments of any Congress in this century. Because in this land of such a highly diversified people the arts are really of the utmost importance. They are important as a unifying moral force. They also contribute to our awareness of who we are and where we are, and what we are and what we want to be as a people. And the arts are important as a celebration of the American experience which encourages and clarifies and points to the next direction in our continuing struggle to achieve the promise of our democracy.

So the campuses of our colleges across the Nation are producing many talents in many fields, and your country needs them all. And I am especially gratified that our colleges-the large ones, the small ones like I attended--are yielding so much talent to this national treasure in the arts.

So you from Bakersfield College are one example. You are a very fine example. I congratulate you, and on behalf of the Nation, I am privileged to commend each of you for your efforts and strivings which have won for you international recognition and honor.

I know Congressman Hagen, I know the other Members of the California delegation, all of them in the House, are very, very proud of you. Senator Kuchel has called and talked to me, to tell me of the pride that he feels and the great desire he had that I have a chance to say a word to you today.

So thank you for coming here to the White House. And if for any reason you should change your mind and extend me an invitation to become a part of your group, I would treasure membership.