Remarks on Arrival at Idaho Falls, Idaho.

THANK you very much. I want to tell you how very grateful I am for this wonderful welcome you have given my daughter Julie and me to Idaho Falls.

I think it would be of very great interest to all of you, even though you are from Idaho, for you to have the opportunity to meet some of the distinguished leaders from your State who are here, because I would like to have them stand up here in this beautiful Idaho day, and also to show just what a bipartisan trip this is.

Governor Andrus, step up here for a bow. Glad to see you. Now, I checked all the places-he is from Boise, so treat him real nice.

Senator Frank Church. Boise, also. Here is another Boise man.

And the former Governor and now the Senator, Len Jordan. Boise, also. Len. Now we have a man from Idaho Falls, a Congressman, Orval Hansen.

And the mayor, I know, is from Boise, Eddie Pedersen. Where is he? Oh, I am sorry--Idaho Falls.

MAYOR PEDERSEN. That is really something--that they have to go to Boise to get a mayor. How about that? It proves that you are human.

THE PRESIDENT. That's right. I know what town I am in--I am in Idaho Falls.

MAYOR PEDERSEN. That is right. Thank you, Mr. President.

THE PRESIDENT. And then another very distinguished guest we have today, the Secretary of the Interior. Now actually, he comes from the Eastern Shore of Maryland---which is considered to be East, but people in Maryland consider it kind of South but as far as the Secretary of the Interior is concerned, he really loves the West. Secretary Rogers Morton.

SECRETARY MORTON. We are all delighted that you are here, Mr. President. We had a tremendous welcome here, and I know they have been here waiting for you to talk to them.

THE PRESIDENT. Thank you. You know, I asked the Secretary what he was going to do when he moved the office of the Secretary of the Interior he was moving the Interior Department to Denver. He said he was going to ride a horse. After seeing him, I feel sorry for the horse.

Now I think you would like to perhaps say hello to my daughter Julie Eisenhower. Julie.

We would like a chance to, and we will have a chance to shake hands with some of you after I have made a few brief remarks. But I would like for all of you to know that as I looked down from the airplane and saw those cars parked for miles around, I realized what a chore it had been for you to come to the airport. I realized, too, that some of you must have been standing here quite a while. I am indeed most grateful.

I want to tell you when I was here last time---it was in 1954. I don't think, incidentally, the crowd was near this big. That shows you the difference between being Vice President and President.

This is, let me say, the first visit I have made to Idaho since being President of the United States, and I am proud that I am in Idaho Falls. The time was October in the year 1954, and all of these young people here were not even born then. I remember it was snowing, very heavy snow. Does it still snow in October in this time? [Laughter] No, not at all.

Well, as we flew over today, we saw the snow in the mountains, and we saw this beautiful country below. Let me give you a feel of what America is like on a day like this for someone who has the privilege to ride in the Spirit of '76, that great airplane, and go out and meet the people of this country.

I woke up this morning in New York City after having spoken there last night. I had Governor with the breakfast-boy!--the Governor had me for breakfast. [Laughter] But in any event, we had breakfast there and discussed some of the problems of New York State. And then we got on the airplane and flew to Springfield, Illinois. There we dedicated as a national monument the home of Abraham Lincoln, where he lived for 17 years. And then went to the Illinois State Fair, and 125,000 people were visiting the State fair on that day. So we went through that crowd.

After we left Illinois, we flew from Illinois for 3 hours and 5 minutes, till we got to Idaho Falls. As we came across that great country, we looked down on the biggest corn crop in history. Then after we left the plains we began to get into the prairies and the mountains, and I realized how really beautiful this western part of the United States is.

This is a beautiful country. You are very fortunate to live here, to live in a country where the air is so clean, where the scenery is so beautiful, and also where I hope the crops are good.

But as I looked down on this country, I realized what kind of people it took to come here. It had to be a rugged people; it had to be a strong people to come across those plains, to come up those mountains, and then to find this valley and develop this State--a strong people, a competitive people, a frontier people.

That is the kind of people that made Idaho. That is the kind of people that developed the West, and that is the kind of spirit that America needs today and that you are going to help give America, I am sure.

Particularly to our young people who are here today, and for all of your fathers and mothers, I want to say this: We are working in Washington for something that is a great goal that Americans want, a great goal we think we can achieve. That goal is to bring what we have not had in this century for Americans: a whole generation of peace.

We are ending the war in which we are engaged. I will be going on a journey to Peking, and the purpose of that journey is to look far beyond the next 1, 5 years, but to look beyond to the period 15, 20 years from now, so that the world may be a safer world, and we will have a chance to have a generation of peace.

We also are trying to build in that generation of peace a new kind of prosperity, a prosperity in which we can have jobs, in which we can have a high standard of living, but without war. I think we can do it, but I want to tell you what it is going to take.

It can't be just done by Government. Let us remember: This is a great country and this is a good country, but America became the strongest and the biggest and the richest country in the world not by what Government did for people, but by what people did for themselves and for their country. That is why we came where we are.

So in this period, as the Government, we are taking the actions that we think are necessary to stop the rise in the cost of living, the actions that are necessary to stimulate the creation of new jobs. But if America is going to remain competitive in the world, if America is going to continue to grow and continue to be number one in the world--which we must be economically if we are going to keep the peace in the world--then you, the people of America, all of us together, have got to build this great country.

I can just tell you that a day like this--I would say this and I am sure that anyone who was traveling with me, be he Democrat or Republican, would say it as he travels from New York to Illinois to Idaho---at the finish of a day like this would say: The heart of America is good, the faith of the American people is strong, and this great people, as we enter a new era of competition with other nations of the world, we are going to meet the test. We are going to make America strong. We are going to make it grow. And we are going to meet the responsibilities that will bring peace for ourselves and help to keep peace and freedom for the people of the world.

Thank you very much.