Remarks to a Group of Boy Scouts Following Their Presentation of the Scouts' Annual "Report to the Nation."

I WANT to thank you for coming. This has been a very interesting part of the day for me.

I worked late last night on a message to Congress on young people. It is a message that will offer great hope. When those hopes and dreams are carried out, it will bring great satisfaction to the young people of this country.

Every day I try to stay young by visiting with the young. I am frequently interested in the subjects that challenge your membership.

I was reading the other night a published report from some of the organizations in government which make an annual report. They had just taken a poll of high school graduates. The poll indicated that the first preference of high school graduates, as far as vocations would be concerned, is for government service.

That made me very proud that our young people are that interested in their country and those who lead and direct it.

I spoke to a friend of mine who is a writer of great experience in the government. He had been out lecturing throughout the country, talking to the young people. He told me of a college he had recently visited where a high percentage of those polled indicated that their first choice was public service.

We didn't do much about preparing the way for our free enterprise system. That was handed down to us by our forefathers. We have a great responsibility in this twentieth century to preserve and protect it. It is going to take the very best minds and the very best bodies among us.

I know of no greater organization that contributes more to developing the mind and the body in the way that it should be developed than the Boy Scouts of America.

I have enjoyed visiting with you in your annual meetings and I hope that I may have that chance again. I hope you understand that we are proud of you here at the White House. We are glad that you could come and see us. We wish you every success in your work.

We hope that all the other young people in America, as they come along, will want to emulate you.