Remarks at the Conference Opening the 1962 Savings Bond Campaign.

Mr. Dillon, Mr. Fowler, Secretary, ladies and gentlemen:

I came here this morning to express my thanks to all of you for coming to Washington, for participating in these meetings, and also for the effort that you are making to advance the economic interests of the United States by the work you are doing in promoting our savings bond campaign.

This is an effort that has been going on for a number of years, but I am sure you realize that it is our task to emphasize to the American people how important a contribution they can make to their country and also to their own personal welfare.

In order to make these bonds attractive, we must also make our contribution here in the National Government, in the financial and business community, in the labor community, in the agricultural community, in maintaining the vitality and integrity of these bonds and therefore of the American economy. And it is my opinion that if we each meet our responsibilities in our respective areas, that this can be done.

As one of the contributions to maintaining the stability of the dollar and therefore the value of these bonds, we have presented, as you know, yesterday a budget which is in balance, which will help us maintain here in this country a balance between outflow and inflow. I am hopeful that this effort, which I feel can be reflected beneficially in our international balance of payments, will also be reflected in restraint by labor and management in the coming year.

I said in my State of the Union Address that it was our hope that wage increases would be tied strongly to productivity increases and the stability of the price level. It is my hope that business profits will be substantial and that it will be possible for the business communities to maintain a price level consistent with our national needs.

This is not merely an exhortation, it is a necessity for all of us. We face difficult problems and we carry heavy burdens. It is necessary for this country to be competitive. It is necessary for us to increase our exports overseas. If we can increase our exports overseas by 5 percent, it would mean a billion dollars in addition in our balance of payments problem, and could perhaps almost end it. A 10 percent increase in our exports, if our import level was maintained at its present level, could mean that our balance of payments problem had been defeated. And I do not think this is beyond any of us. If we can maintain, as we have been able to maintain, really, for the last 3 years, a general stability in our price levels--in the last 12 months, as you know, the wholesale price index dropped, consumer prices went up less than 1 percent--it is our belief that if management and labor attack their problems from the public interest, and their own long-range interest, that it will be possible for us to maintain price stability for the coming year; and that if all those in the field of management and government can take every action that it is possible, to stimulate our exports, we can begin to get control of a serious problem that we face in the international flow and ebb of payments.

We spend a large sum of money, three billion dollars a year, in maintaining our defense forces abroad. We have to earn that money through a balance of trade in our favor, and therefore this goes to the heart of our survival.

The British, who have been affected, as you know, by a balance of payments problem, have had to consider withdrawing their troops from vital areas in order to make ends meet.

We do not wish to do that. We wish to maintain our commitments everywhere, so that the matter which we are now discussing, the stability of our price level, restraint by labor and management and the other elements of our community--prudent judgment by our National Government--a vigorous drive in the field of exports--a determination to make ourselves more than competitive--to increase our balance of payments, all represent a contribution which the citizen of this country who is active in these fields can make to the maintenance of freedom around the world.

So this is all related to the work that you are now doing. The savings bonds which you sell help make the very complicated task of the Secretary of the Treasury easier. It provides a method of steering savings by our fellow citizens into these bonds; it eases some of the pressures on the inflationary scale; it represents an investment in the United States--and if we meet our responsibilities in the areas I have described, it will make our investments have increasing value in the years to come.

I want to express my thanks to all of you for the effort that you have made in this regard. A year ago, in taking over the responsibilities of this Office, I emphasized the desirability of contributions which all of us could make to our country. The task of savings bonds has lost the newness of novelty, but nevertheless it is more important, perhaps, than it ever was. And therefore, though it may not be spectacular, it represents the kind of day-to-day work and contribution by you which I think makes a measurable difference to our country.

So on behalf of all of our citizens, I express my thanks to you.