Jimmy Carter photo

League of Women Voters of the United States Remarks to Members of the National Council.

May 03, 1979

The first school I went to when I assumed my initial political office was the League of Women Voters. [Laughter] I was interested in being on the education committee and involved in higher education when the South was going through the integration phase of its development back in 1962. And when I arrived in Atlanta as a new legislator, the most knowledgeable and dedicated and courageous people there in this very sensitive area of changing southern life were the members of the League of Women Voters.

I worked closely with them then and have found throughout my own political career that this is a stabilizing influence when stability is important and a dynamic and courageous and innovative influence when change is necessary.

I'm very proud that you've come to Washington to become more thoroughly briefed on some of the issues that face me and face the Congress, face our Nation during the coming months. You received an intense briefing on SALT, and I would hope that this would be escalated to a very high degree of priority in your own hearts and minds and that your influence might be felt strongly as the debate begins in the next few weeks.

I don't know if you've had an opportunity to get my own personal beliefs, but I hope that, Sarah,1 perhaps you can get a copy of the speech that I made to the National Newspaper Publishers convention in New York recently, which encapsulates in a fairly brief form the need for strategic arms limitation, the elimination of nuclear weapons as a threat to our lives in the finest and clearest way that I can express it at this moment.

1 Sarah (C. Weddington, Special Assistant to the President.

We are at the final stages of negotiating the terms of a SALT agreement. And my guess is that following that agreement, I would meet with President Brezhnev and discuss a broad range of issues that are important to all of us, because the future peace and stability of the world might very well depend upon this relationship.

You've been supportive, and I thank you for it. And I believe that one of the basic reasons for the tremendous influence of the League is that Americans have a sure sense that before you take a stand on a controversial issue, that you do your homework. It's not just an emotional, instantaneous, aroused group which can be effective. But I think there's a stability there and a soundness there and a caution there that provides integrity and belief and confidence and trust in you.

I'm also grateful that you've been willing to help with the problem of inflation and also the problem of energy. We have finally come to the point of realizing, I think, to an increasing degree, that we do indeed have an energy crisis, that it's not something that's going to pass away. If anything, it's going to get worse. And unless the American people are prepared for it psychologically, and unless the bureaucracy is prepared to deal with an impending deterioration in the energy part of Americans' life, then whatever eventuality does materialize, it's going to have a much more severe adverse impact on the American family, which is least able to deal with it and most vulnerable to rapid changes in prices or perhaps even shortages.

No matter how well intentioned Americans are, when a crisis does occur, the powerful and the influential always suffer least, and the weak and dependent and the inarticulate always suffer most. And to the extent that we can make careful preparations ahead of time for as many possibilities as possible in the energy field, we can have fairness and justice and equity in dealing with inevitable shortages and inevitable increases in price.

I'm doing the best I can to work with you also in the selection and appointment of women to positions as U.S. attorneys and judges. We are starting from scratch. As you know, I think, when I took over as President, there were, I think, zero U.S. attorneys in the United States, and we are trying now to find and to put them into office.

We've had good luck on circuit judgeships, a little more difficulty in dealing with district judgeships, because, in effect, both the Senator involved and I have to be unanimous in our support. And we've had a problem with getting minorities and women recommended to us by Senators.

I think in this area, you can work with Sarah and with Ruth 2 and with your other leaders to identify those States where we do have a problem and let you help us find and recruit women to serve.

2 Ruth Hinerfeld, national president of the League of Women Voters.

One of the things that I mentioned to the most distinguished group of jurists, I guess, who's ever assembled at the White House this week on Law Day, was that it's not fair to expect people who have been deprived of an opportunity in the past to meet experience standards. If women have consistently been excluded from State judgeships or district judgeships for generations, then you can't have as a criterion that they must have 15 or 20 years experience in State court judgeships before they go on to district courts and so forth.

My remarks were completely extemporaneous that day. I only had about 10 minutes before I even knew I was going. But I think what I said is significant, and I think you can use it as a good argument.

I would like to have as complete a partnership with you as possible. It would be helpful to me and our country, and I have no aversion to your very stringent criticisms when you feel that we don't measure up to the standards which you maintain, which are extremely high.

So, to summarize, I'm grateful to you. I have to depend upon you, as President of the United States, in a nonpartisan way to help with the issues that are important to our country, and I'm very grateful that you would take this time to come meet with me. And if you will pardon perhaps the chauvinistic expression, I love every one of you and what you stand for. [Laughter]

Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 10:05 a.m. in the Rose Garden at the White House.

Jimmy Carter, League of Women Voters of the United States Remarks to Members of the National Council. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/250332

Filed Under

Categories

Location

Washington, DC

Simple Search of Our Archives