Statement by the President Urging Congressional Support of the Reorganization Plan for the District of Columbia.

THE GOVERNMENT of our Nation's Capital must be reorganized. It is high time to move it out of horse-and-buggy days and into the 20th century.

Washington is America's fastest growing metropolitan area. Yet its people are burdened and its progress imperiled by the drag of antiquated government. Today our Capital stumbles along, hobbled by wasteful and inefficient practices installed as a temporary solution 93 years ago--just after the Civil War.

This is shameful. It must stop. The people of the District must be allowed to take their proper place in a progressive America. The reorganization plan I sent to Congress offers that bright promise.

--Divided authority will give way to a single, strong executive.

--Tangled and confused lines of responsibility will be straightened and cleared.

--With stronger leadership and broader representation, crime can be controlled, the streets can be safer, the people can have better housing and better health.

I urge the Congress to support and approve this sensible and timely plan. I ask the people of the District to waken to their grave responsibilities-and the great opportunity now before them.

Here in our hands is the long-awaited chance to replace a jerry-built government of the 1870's with a new government for the new problems of the 1970's.

Time and opportunity will not wait. We dare not lose the chance they give us now.