Remarks at a Dinner of the Eleanor Roosevelt Cancer Foundation in New York City.

Mr. Rosenhaus, Mrs. Roosevelt, General Bradley, Mayor Wagner, Vice President Johnson, Ambassador Stevenson, Mr. Baruch, my colleague Congressman Roosevelt, ladies and gentleman:

I recognize that tonight I bear a heavy responsibility of having kept a distinguished group of Americans who paid $125 for this dinner from that dinner for an hour and 30 minutes. But I will say that, if I may quote an old East Side expression, "that what you have lost on the bananas you are going to make up on the apples." Because this could have been one of the longest dinners in the history of these occasions. Lyndon is good for 45 minutes when he is given a chance. Ambassador Stevenson has been known to go for a very long time. Frank Pace has a long story to tell--and Bob Hope will, if called upon. So this might have gone to 1 or 2 in the morning. But because of my imminent journey to Paris, you will be out--hungry, rather unhappy--but you will be home early tonight.

It is now 1:30 in Paris and I am due there at 10:30, and I do not believe it would be a good start to keep the General waiting. So I shall be brief.

I don't think that it's at all inappropriate that I should come from this meeting to go to see President de Gaulle and Chairman Khrushchev. The figures which disturb our lives in regard to cancer--one out of every four, or two out of every three families-are not American figures. They are the same figures that can be found in the country of General de Gaulle. They are the same statistics which will bring death in the country of Chairman Khrushchev. And therefore I feel it most appropriate to go from this dinner with a group of Americans who have given great effort to conquering this disease--to go from here on my journey across the sea.

Benjamin Franklin once said that every American has two homes--his own country and France. And I am sure that in this visit which I undertake that I bring to France and to President de Gaulle the appreciation, the respect and esteem of all of the people of this country who value his courage over a period of 20 years in which he has served as one of the great Captains of the West.

And I am glad to be at this dinner to pay tribute to a former comrade-in-arms of his-General Bradley--whose conduct throughout all of his life has been governed by the motto of the Corps whose young men we now see with us tonight, "Duty, honor, and country."

This service which he renders in this cause is only the most recent in a long series of causes, a long series of efforts which he has made on behalf of our country and the free countries of the earth. So General, I am proud to be here tonight to honor you.

And also Mrs. Roosevelt. She has lent her name and her efforts and her talents and her generosity to so many causes, and all of us here, individually and collectively, have been the beneficiary of them in one way or another.

So ladies and gentlemen, I want to express my. thanks for your invitation to me tonight.

The great strength of our country is the willingness of people such as yourselves to undertake this kind of work. The Vice President and I are conscious always of the fact that we appropriate in Washington from forty-five to fifty billion dollars a year in the defense of the great Republic. And we spend a fraction of that in the fight for cancer. If in any way it will make it possible for us to make a greater effort on this cause and no longer have to build our strength constantly, then the trip which I am about to make, the trip which the Vice President made a week ago, the trip which Ambassador Stevenson will make next week are all worthwhile.

We go to many countries but we sing the same song. And that is, this country wants peace and this country wants freedom.

Therefore in going tonight across the sea I recognize that all of you, as citizens of the great Republic, come with me.

Thank you.