Lyndon B. Johnson photo

Remarks at the Unveiling of the "Plant for a More Beautiful America" Postage Stamp.

October 05, 1966

Lady Bird, Larry O'Brien, my friends:

I want to thank each of you for coming here this morning and all of you for letting me participate in the unveiling of this new stamp.

I really have no extended formal speech to make to you, but I overheard this morning that Lady Bird and Larry O'Brien were over here in the East Room playing "Post Office" and I thought I'd better get over here and play with them.

I want the Postmaster General to know that I really have no objection to his departing from custom, as he observed this morning, by giving the first album of this beautiful stamp to the President's wife instead of the President.

That is exactly what I would have done, if he had presented this album to me. And by doing that, Larry just eliminated the middleman.

This is a very proud moment for all of us--and particularly for me. The word "beautification" has, I think, become popular only recently. But Lady Bird and I have been working together on what is now called "beautification" for more than 30 years.

We really began it back when we were with NYA in Texas and we originated the idea of the little highway parks to dot our roadsides. Before the year 1935 was out, we had more than 400 of them from one end of that State to the other.

Mrs. Johnson had as much influence with me then as she does now. I think that you can see the results of that influence every time you ride through Texas and every time you see the National Capital.

I don't think that any spring in my memory has been as beautiful to me as the one that we have just had. You could hardly turn a corner or ride through a pasture in our State, or past a park, or down a thoroughfare or an avenue in this city, without seeing some new flowers, or some new shrubbery, or some new trees that were put in by the dedicated members of the Beautification Committee that Lady Bird worked with here in Washington.

And to Mary Lasker, Lauranee Rockefeller, and the others who have contributed so much to this effort in the Nation's Capital and in every hamlet in this land, I express to you this morning the gratitude of an appreciative people for your leadership, for your dedication, and for your generosity.

I hope, as I believe all of us hope, that as Washington becomes ever more beautiful, that it is going to be a model and an inspiration to every other community in this land.

We have many problems in our country that are going to tax our resources--problems that will take many years for their solution.

We cannot wipe out overnight slums that took us 100 years to deteriorate. But I think anyone can plant a tree. Everyone can put a flower box in his window.

I hope that this beautiful stamp will serve as a constant reminder for all of us to do just that.

Beauty is not a very easy thing to measure. It does not show up in our profit and loss statements. But it is one of the most precious possessions that Americans have.

Ugly surroundings breed warped and shrunken spirits.

I think there should be some time in every day of every life to watch the sunset, or to smell the flowers, or to listen to the birds while they sing.

And that is really what the beautification program is all about. You ought not have to go to Wyoming to do it either, Senator McGee.

I am pleased that efforts are being made in areas where we have populations, where we can all enjoy some of these things with our children.

I am pleased that the design of this stamp, as Larry pointed out, also commemorates Thomas Jefferson, for no one understood it better than he did.

To each of you who have contributed to this maximum beauty for a great Nation, for a great people, I am very thankful and I am especially pleased to have the chance to work with Mrs. Johnson.

Note: The President spoke at 11:20 a.m. in the East Room at the White House. In his opening words he referred to Mrs. Lyndon B. (Lady Bird) Johnson and to Postmaster General Lawrence F. O'Brien. Later he referred to Mrs. Albert D. (Mary) Lasker, general trustee, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Laurance S. Rockefeller, Chairman of the White House Conference on Natural Beauty, and Senator Gale W. McGee of Wyoming.

The "Plant for a More Beautiful America" postage stamp pictures the Jefferson Memorial framed by a bough of Japanese cherry blossoms.

Lyndon B. Johnson, Remarks at the Unveiling of the "Plant for a More Beautiful America" Postage Stamp. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/238351

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