I WANT to welcome all of you to the White House and particularly to the State Dining Room.
And I understand that the first order of business after we have just watched two TWA planes--only commercial of the day [laughter]--take off, the first order of business will be the Secretary of Commerce. I understand he has a presentation to make. So we will put him on right now.
Mr. Secretary.
[At this point, Secretary Maurice H. Stans presented to the President a series of reports and recommendations by the Council and Subcouncils. The President then resumed speaking.]
Thank you.
Mr. Secretary and gentlemen, as you know, we have just witnessed outside the White House an example of what industry is doing in cooperation with all of the goals that we have set forth in our environmental message, what industry is doing on the pollution problem.
I learned in talking to Charley Tillinghast of TWA that the cost to TWA to change their whole fleet to the new kind of device which will reduce the amount of pollution caused by the expenditure of jet fuel as the plane takes off from airports will be approximately $2 million.
He also pointed out, incidentally, that the pilot or the captain of the pollution free plane came from Smoke Rise, New Jersey.
Now, I make this point for this reason: I want to speak quite candidly to the industrial leaders of this Nation who have been working, as the Secretary has indicated, so diligently in this cause.
I do not see the problem of cleaning up the environment as being one of the people versus business, of Government versus business. I am not among those who believe that the United States would be just a wonderful place in which to live if we could just get rid of all of this industrial progress that has made us the richest and strongest nation in the world.
I have been to nations that are not developed industrially. They have pollution, too. I have been to the primitive places of the world, and they have problems of the environment. And anyone who suggests that the answer to the fact that we do have pollution--some of it caused by industry, some for other reasons--that the answer to that is to destroy the system or to weaken the system that produced the greatest progress that the world has ever seen; those who suggest that simply are missing the point.
What we have to understand is that in correcting what is wrong about America in all fields we must not destroy what is right. That is why I welcome the opportunity-having sent a pollution message to the Congress of the United States, which has generally received very strong support from all segments of our society, indicating what government will do--it is why I welcome the opportunity to say to the American people through this meeting that American industry is also against pollution, that American industry is bearing a great share of the cost, not only in time and in effort but in money, to wage the battle for clean water, clean air, more open space.
That is the case now. And without your cooperation, all that government can do will not be effective.
I am one who is very appreciative of the fact that over these past few months when this Council has been meeting that on your own, on your own initiative across this country, you are developing programs even in advance of what the Government is doing to deal with the problem of pollution.
I am also aware of the fact--from one who doesn't see much television, but now and then I catch a few of the football contests over the end of the year--I am also aware of the fact that a number of companies are making very effective use in their advertising of what they are doing with regard to the environment.
And this, of course, has an enormously good effect on the country, to see that American industry is not the enemy of the good life. But actually because of what American industry does, because of what it is doing, it not only provides jobs and better incomes and better housing, better clothing for the American people, but also that American industry is concerned, just as concerned as the man in government is, about a better life for our children, a cleaner America, an America in which we can have the clean air, the clean water, and the quality of life that we believe is the American heritage.
And so it is to that commitment that I know we are all gathered today to serve, and for that commitment I express appreciation.
The Government, this Administration, I can assure you, is not here to beat industry over the head. We are not here to make the industrial leaders of this country, the leaders in this room, make you the scapegoats for this problem.
We realize this is a problem we must all work together to solve. We want to work with you. We appreciate your cooperation. And, working together, we are going to do the job.
Thank you.
Note: The President spoke at 11:20 a.m. in the State Dining Room at the White House.
Before the presentation of the reports, the President went to the South Lawn to observe two planes, one equipped with pollution control devices and one without, following their takeoff from nearby National Airport in a demonstration of the effectiveness of the devices.
Secretary Stand' remarks were as follows:
Mr. President, before you are approximately 200 heads of major corporations of the United States. Here is a very large part of the industrial might of the country.
These gentlemen are members of the Council and subcouncils of the National Industrial Pollution Control Council. And they have been working diligently since last June in studying matters of pollution.
There are 30 subcouncils, each representing one industry that has problems of pollution. They have produced a series of reports on a number of individual pollution problems and have made a number of commitments, have completed a number of actions which I want to report to you today.
First is a report of the Council as a whole on its activities, with some recommendations to you and some conclusions as to what might be done in the field of industrial pollution.
Second is a series of 13 individual reports on various subjects involved in pollution: sulfur oxides, acid mine drainage, animal slaughtering, animal wastes, exhaust emissions, glass containers, a number of subjects which represent the work of the subcouncils and their conclusions. And these I am delivering to you as they will be delivered to the public today.
Next is a casebook. This is a report of 150 actions that have been taken voluntarily by business corporations of the country in dealing with problems of pollution in connection with their activities.
Next, Mr. President, is a book entitled "Commitments." This is a report of 160 corporate commitments to proceed to clean up the environment in one essential respect or another.
Mr. President, as I said, these gentlemen have been working very diligently. They have attended more than 100 subcouncil meetings since last June; several meetings of the entire Council.
Bert Cross, as their Chairman, Al Rockwell, as their Vice Chairman, have done a remarkable job of whipping together a process of action that I think is of great credit to the industrial community. What they have done is perfect evidence that business, on its own and largely through voluntary action, can achieve the objectives that you have set out for the cleaning up of the air, the water, and the land from the problems of pollution.
Gentlemen, the President of the United States.
Richard Nixon, Remarks to the National Industrial Pollution Control Council and Subcouncils. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/240609
