Remarks at the Signing of a Joint Statement on Fair Employment Practices.

Mr. Vice President, Mr. Secretary, Mr. Meany, friends:

I want to express my warm welcome to you to this historic room, and to express my great appreciation to you for your effort in joining together to commit ourselves once again to the goal of equal opportunities for all.

This is a cause which you understand very well. The labor movement, after all, was originated by those who were being denied their equal opportunity. Whether it was because they were working 12 hours a day, 6 or 7 days a week, whether it was because they were immigrants, whether it was because of one reason or another, the labor movement began as a union of those who were the least privileged in our society.

So it seems to me very natural that those who took into their ranks and, indeed, built their ranks upon the immigrants, upon women who were exploited, upon men who worked too long, upon young people who were put to work under adverse conditions, old people who were dismissed when they were too old to sustain the burdens of long employment, that the labor movement would be, as it has been for the last 30 years, the natural center and core of the effort to provide better opportunity for all of our fellow citizens. Whatever their racial descent, whatever their religion, whatever their color, whatever region of the country they come from, this is a cause to which labor has been associated for 50 years.

So we asked you here together today not to invite you to participate in something new, but to join together with you in attempting to make more realistic, more active, the promises of the National Government, the promises of the labor movement, the promises of the American Constitution, the promises of the whole concept of our country. So I don't think that I need speak to you on this matter at all.

I want to commend the Vice President for his long efforts with all of the people of our country in making this cause more successful, and the labor movement, itself, the Secretary of Labor. This is something you know all about. This is something you're doing. This is something we can all do better on. This is something I know you will do everything you can to improve.

The work of the labor movement isn't done. When the work of the labor movement is done, then all of you might just as well go home and stay in bed. The work of the labor movement goes on. It's wholly unfinished.

There are too many areas of our country where there isn't equal opportunity, where people aren't adequately paid, where they work too long, where their rights are not guaranteed. And as long as that's true, there's a need for the American labor movement.

So that I ask you today to join in an old cause and a new one, and that is to make sure that in the ranks of labor, labor itself practices what it preaches. This is true of labor; it must be true of all of us. It must be true of the National Government. We must make sure that in our employment practices in the National Government, in all grades, that we practice what we preach, that we make it possible not only to permit equal opportunity, but also to encourage it, to not merely treat all those who apply to use equally, but to make sure that we invite and encourage and stimulate equal opportunities. That requires some work.

So I welcome you all here today. I'm glad to know that the labor movement is true to its great ideals. To tell what you are doing is very important to our country, and it's important to the labor movement.

This is a good cause which merits your support. And I know from long experience that you'll be in the front ranks, not only in committing yourselves to it, but, what's more important, implementing your commitments.

We're glad to have you today. Thank you.