Lyndon B. Johnson photo

Remarks to the Winners of the Science Talent Search.

March 01, 1965

Dr. Hornig, Senator Bayh, winners of the Science Talent Search, and particularly my good friend Dr. Carmichael, Dr. Seaborg, Dr. Davis, and Mr. McFeatters:

I am very proud to welcome you to the White House this morning. I hope I spend some time with you.

My daughter Luci is very interested in science--not political science either, although she adapts herself where necessary to it. She has just been admitted to Georgetown to enter nursing school there, and she is very attracted by that possibility. When I told her this morning that I was going to meet with you today, she congratulated me. I have forgotten just how she put it but she said something like this: "Daddy, there is just nothing more 'in' than brains." Now, do you all understand what she is talking about?

So we here in the White House do have the highest regard for brains and talent, and especially in science. Dr. Seaborg, one of the most noted scientists in the world, is head of our Atomic Energy Commission. Dr. Hornig, one of the great men in science, is my Science Adviser and one of the most stimulating persons that I have come in contact with.

Back in World War I, a representative of the American Chemical Society called on the Secretary of War and offered the services of the Nation's chemists. The Secretary thanked him and asked him to return the next day. When he did, the Secretary of War expressed appreciation for the offer but that it was unnecessary. He had looked into the matter and he had found that the War Department already had a scientist.

So you can see what has happened from World War I to the present day. I do want you to know though that the White House today already has a chemist. Dr. Hornig is one of the most distinguished. But both he and I--and many others in your Government-are very anxious to produce all the scientists that we possibly can in this country.

The first President to live in the White House was John Adams. His wife used to hang the family washing in the East Room. John Adams once made this observation: "While all other sciences have advanced, that of government is at a standstill: little better understood, little better practiced now, than three or four thousand years ago."

I mention this because I deeply believe it is imperative for political science and physical science to advance together and to grow together, and to have mutual understanding of each other.

The politician who closes his mind to science is a disservice to his people and to his time. The same is true of the scientist who closes his mind to politics.

Some of the most interesting meetings I had during this last campaign, during this last summer, were with some of the most distinguished scientists of this age. So the end of both politics and science must be the same--to serve humanity.

In your careers as scientists, I think you will share in shaping and reshaping our world today into a new world tomorrow. Before you are as old as I am, we shall observe in 1992 the 500th anniversary of the discovery of the Americas. The discoveries in which you will participate, however, will extend the horizons and frontiers of man much more than the discovery that Columbus made, because by 1992 the knowledge of man will have multiplied more than threefold. The test and trial for your generation will be not quantity, but will be the quality of the wisdom with which your knowledge is used.

By 1992, distances on earth will have lost all meaning. Man will be moving purposefully among the planets; man will be farming the beds of the sea. He will be inhabiting the reaches of the Arctic and the Antarctic. He will be tilling the deserts and he will be taming the jungles.

So think about what an exciting age that you are living in and is just around the corner. Think about the promise that is vast and that is bright. Think about your participation in it, and realize that the prospect for you is neither soft nor easy. Your generation will be tried and will be tested more than any other generation to preserve on earth those qualities which make human life worth living.

We must defend freedom not only against enemies without, but against enemies within. An understanding of science alone will be no more adequate training for your tests than would be a knowledge of politics alone.

Some of the great Presidents who have lived in this house have found that misunderstanding in this country and problems that arose in this country, and leadership in this country, caused them really more troubles than leadership in the world. That was true of Woodrow Wilson, that was true of Franklin D. Roosevelt, that was true of Harry S. Truman. That was even true of Dwight D. Eisenhower, although I did all I could to minimize any of the great differences.

Sometimes though we do find that our own people must endure tests and must be tried and must defend freedom, not only against enemies without, but against folks who don't understand within.

So an understanding of science alone will be no more adequate training for your tests than would be this politics that I talked about. If the future demands depth in your knowledge, it will require breadth in your understanding.

I have not the slightest doubt that some of the wars which we have engaged in have been brought about because of a lack of understanding, and not just among other nations but among ourselves, among our own people, and the fact that we conveyed impressions to others which they accepted and acted upon which were not really representative of the views of our country.

The Kaiser may not have thought that sinking the Lusitania would bring us into war immediately. After Munich and Chamberlain's experience and some of our performance in this country, Hitler undoubtedly thought that he could move as he did without interference. The Japanese had questions about what we would do at Pearl Harbor.

So that is why today we are concerning ourselves with the education of all of our people and hoping that they will understand. I watch with the utmost eagerness every indication of understanding of our people or lack of understanding, as measured by various yardsticks.

I believe that every American boy and girl must be able to receive all the education they can absorb. I think that is important-every boy and girl in this country receives all that they can absorb, whatever their birth, wherever they live, whatever the income of their parents, regardless of what side of the tracks they live on.

Tomorrow we hope to indelibly impress upon the minds of everybody in this country, by a vote from the House committee, that education is the first priority of our country and is the first priority of your Capital and is the first priority of your President.

Likewise, peace is our first pursuit. I pray every night and a good many times during the day that when you have reached that year 1992, you will be able to look back over your lives and have no recollections of war--not remember two of them as I do--but that the only memories you will have will be of peace on earth, good will toward men. And that must be our purpose, that must be our objective, and that must be the pledge of my generation and yours.

I think as a result of your experiences and your dedication and your diligence and what is going to come out of the efforts that you make, that that just may be possible; that when you sit in your rocking chair talking about what used to be in 1992, that you can say: "Well, I was at the White House and I talked to the President. He remembered a good many combats, a few offensives that he engaged in, and he remembered two wars. But I have lived my life and I haven't known any."

If I could have my wish this morning, that would be my wish. I think that you young people perhaps hold that within your grasp.

I remember in World War II they told us that these beardless youngsters couldn't equal the task of the 50, 000 planes a year that President Roosevelt had promised. But the scientists and the workmen produced the planes, the beardless youngsters learned how to fly them, and our peace was preserved.

What we pray today is that we won't have to fly those planes--we'll have them, we'll be prepared; we won't have to call those youngsters out of the high schools and the colleges-but rather than yield our liberty, we will; and that finally, in the end of your career, in the twilight, that you can sit there and reminisce and say: "I knew only peace in my time."

Thank you very much.

I would be glad for the members of this group to come into the office and just visit individually with me a little bit if you would like.

Note: The President spoke at 12:57 p.m. in the Cabinet Room at the White House. In his opening words he referred to Dr. Donald F. Hornig, Special Assistant to the President and Director of the Office of Science and Technology, Senator Birch Bayh of Indiana, Dr. Leonard Carmichael, President of Science Service, Dr. Glen T. Seaborg, Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, Dr. Watson Davis, Director of Science Service, and Dale McFeatters, Vice President for Information Services, Westinghouse Electric Corporation.

The group included 40 high school seniors from 21 States who were winners in the Science Talent Search, sponsored by Westinghouse Electric Corporation and Science Service. They were in Washington to attend the Science Talent Institute, held February 24-March 1, and to receive the Westinghouse science scholarships and awards.

Lyndon B. Johnson, Remarks to the Winners of the Science Talent Search. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/238578

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