Remarks at a Civic Ceremony at the Municipal Palace, Mexico City.

Mr. Governor, members of the City Council, Mr. Minister, Ambassador, Senator Mansfield, Ambassador Moscoso, ladies and gentlemen:

I want to first of all express to you, Governor, to the members of the City Council, and through you, to the .people of this city, the very real appreciation which my wife and I felt this morning on having really the warmest welcome that we have ever received any place. So I want you to know how appreciative we were to the people of this city, who were kind enough to line the streets and greet us, and through us, the people of my country.

I am, gentlemen, the grandson of a mayor of my native city of Boston, on one side, and the grandson, on the other, of a member of the City Council; and I am quite aware, having grown up with them, that I have, in a sense, let them and my family down by not holding a similar honor in my own lifetime.

I do want to express also the impression I get--two impressions I get from coming to this city: one is of age and the other is of youth. The city from whence I come, Boston, is regarded as an ancient city, but I am afraid that the wind blew through empty paths when this square was rounded, and long before that there was a civilization even earlier. So when we come to Mexico City, we come to an old people, and an old country, and an old city; and I also get an impression of youth, and that is the extraordinary vitality of this city and your .people. Driving through this city this morning, and again this evening, the force, the vigor, the life of the Mexican people, and particularly the citizens of your city, I regard as one of the most heart-warming indications of the great spirit which exists in this country and which exists in this hemisphere.

The revolutions of the United States and of Mexico were, in their beginning, political revolutions. But in the case of Mexico-and I think this is true of the entire hemisphere-we have come to realize that our obligation in the 1960's really is to. match political independence with economic independence, to indicate that with a system of political freedom can also go a system of economic well-being. That is the assignment which history has placed upon the people of the United States and the people of Mexico. And working through the Alianza para el Progreso, a great communal effort, not that of the United States, not that of Mexico, but of all of the sister republics of our free hemisphere working together, it is our obligation to bring to the people of this hemisphere the same opportunities that you gentlemen are working for the people of Mexico City--housing and jobs and education and a future as well as a past.

And let me say finally, Governor, how much I am impressed by all that I have heard of what you have done in this city and in this area, and the members of the City Council. All that Presidents may do, and you have an extraordinary President--but all that he can do or any of us may be able to do in other countries really, in the final analysis, depends upon the effectiveness of local government, because you are closest to the people and, therefore, they are impressed by their government and by their freedoms as they are expressed by the work that you are able to do with them. When you succeed, the whole country succeeds. Where you fail, the people become disappointed. So in the final analysis, the City Council, the Governor in this city, and in dozens of cities stretching from the north all the way down to the south, the City Councils and the Mayors and Governors working together can make our system of freedom work. And you have done that in this city, and in a whole variety of ways which are familiar to us all.

So I compliment you and it makes me particularly proud to be an honorary citizen and guest of this celebrated city. Viva Mexico!