Remarks at a Meeting With the Consumers' Advisory Council.

I WANT to express my very warm appreciation to all of you for being willing to serve. You all have a good many other responsibilities which occupy your attention, and the fact that you are willing to take part in this new public service I think indicates two things: first, your strong feeling that the public interest is very much involved in the work of this council, and secondly, this council will not be ornamental but will be functional.

This is a matter of great concern to the Government and it is a matter where you really feel a vacuum.

In a sense, a good many States have been working on this. This is an entirely new area for the federal Government, at least for the office of the Presidency as part of the Executive.

The work of protecting the consumer is distributed among us all in the federal Government-the Congress, the President, the regulatory interests. We all attempt to protect the public interests, and we attempt in one way or another to protect the consumer. But I feel we can focus more direct attention on the problems of the consumer and I think this is particularly true in the last months where more particular interests are increasingly well protected. I think if we can focus public attention, governmental attention, congressional attention on the problems of the consumer, really in a sense the general public interest, that this country will benefit.

We all believe in the free enterprise system and the competition in the market place, and we believe from that competition comes the advancement of the general interest from the clash of private interests and public interests to serve. But I don't think we can merely sell it, nor have we historically, the idea that competitive factors will protect completely the public interests. If we felt that, we never would have had an Antitrust Division or a federal Trade Commission, or many of the other agencies and there would not be the present need for the action by the Congress and Executive. So we want private enterprise to function effectively, and I think it is our job to assist by making it difficult for those who seek to defraud, those who are less concerned about safety, those who seem to exploit the private enterprise system, in a sense, by being less responsible. In this I think this council is most important.

You have seen the work done by one woman, Dr. Frances Kelsey, of the food and Drug Administration, in regard to saving thousands of babies from crippling deformities by failure to give approval to a suspicious drug. This is only one example. There are many others of the kind of work I hope this council will involve itself in.

Therefore, I would like to have you realize it is very important and I hope that you will meet again as often as you possibly can, and will come forward with as many important decisions and proposals as you can, and bring them to my attention, and Dr. Heller's, and examine the work of the federal Trade Commission, how we can improve it. This is not intended to be a council of window-dressing. This is a council which I hope will go through the life of this administration and other administrations, and will be a definite part of our governmental structure, so we really depend upon you to establish its success.

I would like to hear your thoughts perhaps about how this council may proceed, and how the relationship between my office and this council and also between the council and the other areas of Government may be developed.