I AM VERY HAPPY to send greetings to all of you participating in the Third National Boy Scout Jamboree. I should very much like to be with you, for I recall, with real pleasure, my visit three years ago, to Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, where many of you attended the Second National Jamboree on the Fourth of July. It was a memorable experience. I shall never forget the enthusiasm and the spirit of dedication that seemed to fill the camp. I learned there a genuine lesson, in the meaning of brotherhood and the spirit of united helpfulness.
Of course, the Boy Scout Movement continues to make progress. It yearly enriches our nation, and contributes generously to the economic, physical and spiritual resources of the country. So I am particularly glad to send congratulations to all of you responsible for this great achievement.
Among you, at this Jamboree there are, I am told, Boy Scouts, Explorers and Scout Leaders from every State in the Union, as well as from Hawaii, Alaska and Puerto Rico, in addition to some sixteen other countries. Each of you will make new friends, acquire new skills, appreciate new values.
And, in all likelihood, you will gain a new sense of the vastness and complexities of this nation and of the world. But I am confident that, in meeting and talking with your fellow scouts, you will gain a renewed awareness of the need for cooperating-working together--in our country and in the world. Bonds of common purpose and common ideals can unite people, even when they come from the most distant and diverse places.
This is an important lesson, and even if you learn no other, you will leave Irvine Ranch with a new wisdom.
I know that this will be a week filled with great memories for all of you. Good luck to each of you and best wishes for every success!
Note: The message was delivered by transcription to the Jamboree held at the Irvine Ranch, Newport Harbor, Orange County, Calif.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, Message Recorded for the Third National Boy Scout Jamboree. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/231772