Message to the Congress Transmitting 15th Annual Report of the National Science Foundation.

To the Congress of the United States:

I said in my State of the Union Message this year that, "We must change to master change ."

Failing that, this nation will surely become a casualty to the relentless tide of history. For in assessing our prospects, we must remember that mankind faces not one but many possible futures. Which future our children's children enjoy--or endure-depends in large measure on our ability to adjust to the needs of the times.

But change comes not of itself. Neither the requirement for change nor the desire for change will see us through. In a complex world--growing more complex every year--only knowledge can keep us apace.

We must achieve a better understanding of our environment and our place in that environment.

We must continue to unlock the secrets of the earth below us, the sea around us, and the heavens above us.

And we must intensify our search into the very meaning of life itself.

It is not too much to say that every aspect of our lives will be affected by the success of this effort. The military and economic strength of our nation, and the health, the happiness, and the welfare of our citizens all are profoundly influenced by the limits-and potentialities--of our scientific program.

In the furtherance of this program, no organization, agency or institution has had a more profound or lasting influence than the National Science Foundation. The establishment of this Foundation by the Congress, fifteen years ago, was one of the soundest investments this nation ever made.

In the field of basic research, many of the major scientific breakthroughs of our time would have been impossible--or at the very least, much longer in coming--had it not been for National Science Foundation grants in the basic sciences.

In the field of education, it is enough to say that more than half of all our high school teachers have now received vital refresher training through the Foundation's education program.

In the classrooms, the Foundation has played a major role in modernizing scientific curricula to make them responsive to our age.

And in a more recent activity, the Foundation has launched a program to strengthen the science departments of many of our smaller universities throughout the nation by providing new laboratories, modern equipment, and fellowships to promising graduate students.

It should be emphasized that the role of the National Science Foundation is to aid, not to arbitrate. But through its aid--skillfully administered and intelligently applied-it has brought American science to a new level of excellence.

This, the 15th annual report of the National Science Foundation, reflects another year of scientific growth and progress, and I am pleased to commend it to the attention of the Congress. It mirrors the past and illuminates the future.

It is the story of change--to master change.

LYNDON B. JOHNSON

The White House

January 29, 1966