Remarks at a Columbus Day Dinner.

Mr. Secretary, all of the distinguished guests at the head table, and all of the distinguished guests on this occasion here in Washington:

I consider it a very great privilege to come in to your dinner right at the dessert course and to participate in it in a way that I think not only honors the man we are going to honor, but honors the office of the President of the United States.

An award is being made tonight, I understand, for the first time by this organization. It is Amerito's Outstanding Citizen Award. All of you know to whom that award is going to be made. He is sitting here at this head table, along with his wife, and so, consequently, it will be no surprise when I read the citation. I will speak briefly about him. He will respond as he receives the award, and then I will have the opportunity to speak to you briefly about the general subject that brings you all here together on this occasion, and annually.

But first about Peter Fosco. You can honor him tonight as one of the great leaders of American labor--500,000 men and women are members of his organization. You can honor him tonight as one of the great civic leaders of this country. He is one who participates in the Knights of Columbus and all of its civic activities, as Mr. McDevitt ¹ will tell you. He is one also who is active in all kinds of youth work--in the Boy Scouts of America, in the Catholic Youth Organization, and I think perhaps even more than this award, he will be proud all of his life that he has done so much for youth that a park for youth has been named for him in Chicago, Fosco Park.

¹ John W. McDevitt was Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus.

Tonight you honor him because he is one of the millions of Americans of Italian background who have succeeded--succeeded here in this country in his chosen profession. Let me say that I could refer to him tonight as an Italian, but taking a cue from the name of this organization, all of you in this room are rightly proud of your Italian background, but all of you in this room are also very proud that you are Americans.

So now I read the words from the award:

"This award is proudly presented to an outstanding American who has brought honor to his Italian heritage, to Peter Fosco, the General President of the Laborers International Union of North America, in recognition ,of his many years of devotion to the interests and advancement of the members of his organization and the working men and women of America.

This plaque is tendered with deep appreciation and gratitude for his many years of silent, unselfish and untiring service.

From Antonio M. Martinelli, the President of Amerito."

[Following the presentation of the award and Mr. Fosco's response, the President resumed speaking.]

Now, ladies and gentlemen, if I may take just a little of your time to pay my own special tribute to the organizations that are represented here, and also to the day that will be celebrated all day tomorrow, Columbus Day. May I speak of what that day means to America. May I speak also of what the Italian heritage means to America.

In speaking to you on this occasion, I, of course, could mention a number of areas in which people of Italian background have contributed to the greatness of this country. For example, in the field of government, the man on my right, Secretary Volpe. There are others. We have honored one of the top labor leaders of America, he, of course, of Italian background.

But whatever area you pick, whether in the area of business or politics or labor, you will find that those of Italian background have made their way to the top, and they are justly honored. It seemed to me quite appropriate that your program last year was at the Kennedy Center and that opera stars from all over the world were brought there, because everyone knows not only of the Italian contribution to America but to the world, in the field of music.

John Volpe suggested that perhaps some of you in this great audience might not know that that band that you have heard tonight is also one that we owe to our Italian background. When Thomas Jefferson was first trying to get an appropriate band for the White House, he found that there were not enough good musicians in the then new Capital of the United States, and so he, who had traveled much in the world, sent people to Italy. They recruited Italians to come to join the Marines, and the Marine Band came from Italy. Now, if any of you think that that story is apocryphal just for this occasion, I can tell you something that I know has been checked historically, as has that story, and that is that over one-half of all of the leaders of this distinguished band, which is called the President's Band--it is the one that always plays in the White House--over one-half of them, over 180 years, have been men of Italian background. So it is the President's Band.

While I will not have the opportunity to hear Connie Francis ² tonight, she has been honored and has honored the White House by singing there.

² Popular recording artist who presented a program of songs later in the evening.

But when we describe professions, the profession of politics, labor leaders, business, music, and the like, we could, of course, describe various groups who have contributed to the greatness of America. Let me indicate to you some other factors that I think more closely touch the subject in which we are all interested tonight, what those of Italian background have contributed to this country over the years.

When we honor Peter Fosco, we see one of those factors very clearly, and that is, putting it quite bluntly, hard work. Italian immigrants came to this country by the hundreds of thousands, and then by the millions. They came here not asking for something, asking only for the opportunity to work. They have worked and they have built.

I think it can truly be said that they, along with many other groups who have come from all over the world to America, have helped to build this country. They are the builders of America, and, consequently, we owe a debt to this group for what they have done in building America, for what they have done in teaching us all that the dignity of work is what made this country what it is and that we must always respect the dignity of work and the dignity of those who lead the workers of America, as does Peter Fosco so well.

There is a second feature which is represented by this head table tonight. Those of Italian background bring with them a very deep religious faith. We in America have varying religious backgrounds, but the day when America loses its religious faith, this will cease to be a great country. Those of Italian background, with their deep religious faith, have helped to sustain the strength of America, the moral strength, which is more important than all the military strength and the economic strength in the world. For that religious faith which is represented here in so many different ways by the Knights of Columbus and by other organizations--we are, of course, in the debt of those of Italian background as well as other groups who have come to this country.

There is another factor that this evening reminds us of. Those of Italian background have a deep love of family. I think tonight that Peter Fosco, as we honor him, would want us all to honor his wife, Mrs. Fosco. But most important of all is the fact that those of Italian background, along with so many other immigrant groups who have come to this country, are proud of where they came from, where their parents or grandparents came from, but they are prouder still to be Americans.

As we think of that particular fact, I would like to put it in terms of what we really owe to so many groups who have come to America from abroad and have added character and strength and fiber to this country's idealism, to the love of country which sustains us through difficult times and other times as well.

Speaking of American labor, for example, of which Mr. Fosco is proud to be one of the major leaders, I recall a time in 1947 which Ambassador Ortona ³ will recall, and some of the rest of you here may recall. I was a freshman Congressman then. I was visiting Italy immediately after the war, studying, along with other Congressmen, a bipartisan group, what we could do to assist that country to get back on its feet.

³ Egidio Ortona was Italian Ambassador to the United States.

An election was coming up. It was an election in which many felt that the Communist Party in Italy might succeed. But they did not reckon first with the Italian people and their love of freedom and their antagonism toward any kind of government that would impose a dictatorship upon them, but they also did not reckon with another factor.

Naturally, the Government of the United States cannot and did not interfere in an election in another country, but the people of the United States of Italian background wrote letters by the hundreds of thousands to their relatives in Italy, and that may have made the difference in that election.

I should also say that I know what American labor did not only then but in supporting free labor in Europe and Latin America and all over the world. We know of what American labor does in this country. Very few are aware of the fact that throughout the world, members of American labor make it possible for support to be given to free trade union movements in other nations in the world.

They helped in that period immediately after the war in helping to build a free trade union movement in Western Europe, where it could have gone one way or the other except for that influence which was exerted at that time.

And so a tribute should be paid to Peter Fosco, to George Meany,⁴ and the others who represent America's labor, who not only do a job for American workers here at home, but who stand up for America abroad and stand up for a free trade union movement all over the world.

⁴ George Meany was president of the AFLCIO.

I come now to a personal point. Any President of the United States, whatever his party may be, has problems, has crises that he confronts during his term of office. When he faces a difficult problem, he asks for help from the American people, not on a partisan basis, particularly when the problem involved is one involving the foreign policy of this country or its national defense.

Over these past 4 years, I have confronted some problems that have been rather difficult. I have noted that whenever the problem involved the defense of the United States of America, and whenever there needed to be public support for a policy that we determined was in the best interests of the United States so that the United States would have a defense second to none, it was not necessary for me to call the leaders, for example, like Peter Fosco, of American labor. They called me and said, "We give you support."

Also, I recall in May of this year when I had to make a very hard decision, one that I felt was essential, essential to protect American fighting men, essential also to help to bring to an end the long and difficult war in Vietnam in an honorable way, when I had to order the mining of the harbors of Haiphong and order the bombing of military installations in North Vietnam. When I did that, let me say again, that in attempting to enlist support for that very hard decision, it was not necessary for me to call these men. They called and offered their support. For this I am most grateful.

But most of all tonight, on this special occasion, let me leave this thought with this distinguished audience: You come from all over the United States. You represent 12 different organizations. You are proud, justly proud, of your national background, as every American is proud of his national background, whatever it may be.

But you know, as I know, that what America needs and what it will always have when we have men like Peter Fosco, who came here 50 years ago with nothing and worked his way to the top, what we need is a country in which a man or a woman has an equal chance at that starting line and an equal chance to go to the top.

Let me say, as one who came not from an Italian background, but from a not very affluent background, that I always feel very grateful that I was born in America. But also, I always recall that in the term I have been President the moments that perhaps have touched me the most have been those when I have attended citizenship ceremonies--one in Chicago, one in New York, one in Washington-- and new citizens have come by, just getting their American citizenship for the first time. Whether they happened to be from Poland or Italy or Germany or the Orient or wherever they were, more often than not tears would be in their eyes when they said, "I am so proud now to be an American citizen."

Let us be proud to be Americans tonight.