Proclamation 3834—National Defense Transportation Day and National Transportation Week, 1968

One hundred years ago, an American travelling from San Francisco to New York went by ship to Central America, crossed the Isthmus by mule and wagon, and four weeks later arrived at his destination.

One year later, with the completion of our first transcontinental railroad, he could travel in relative comfort from California to New York in ten days.

This revolution in transportation was one of the principal causes and opportunities for the rapid progress of our Nation—the taming of a vast continent with a rapidity which astounded the countries of Europe and continues to amaze historians.

The history of our country cannot be separated from the story of our transportation—nor can its future. We look today to the leaders of our transportation industry for the imagination and enterprise which, in the past, did so much to make our Nation great.

While the Government of the United States must continue to play a key partnership role in the improvement and expansion of our transportation system, basic decisions on investment and operation are made by private industry. This partnership between Government and industry forms one of the most critical elements of our economic system.

This partnership will be called upon in the future to meet even greater challenges than ever before.

To call public attention to the contributions of this great industry—and to the challenges it faces—the Congress, by a joint resolution approved May 16, 1957 (71 Stat. 30), has requested the President to proclaim annually the third Friday of May of each year as National Defense Transportation Day, and by a joint resolution approved May 14, 1962 (76 Stat. 69), has requested the President to proclaim annually the week of May in which that Friday falls as National Transportation Week, as a tribute to the men and women who, night and day, move our goods and our people throughout the land and around the world.

Now, Therefore, I, Lyndon B. Johnson, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate Friday, May 17, 1968, as National Defense Transportation Day, and the week beginning May 12, 1968, as National Transportation Week.

I urge our people to participate with representatives of the transportation industry, our armed services, and other governmental agencies in the observance of these occasions through appropriate ceremonies.

I also invite the Governors of the States to provide for the observance of National Defense Transportation Day and National Transportation Week in a way that will give the citizens of each community the opportunity to recognize and appreciate fully the vital role our great and modern transportation system plays in their lives and in the defense of the Nation.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this seventh day of March, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and sixty-eight, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and ninety-second.

LYNDON B. JOHNSON