Remarks at a Meeting With the President' s Committee on Mental Retardation To Receive the Committee's First Report

Mr. Vice President, Secretary Gardner, Dr. Aldrich, and members of the Committee:

First, I am very glad that you could come here and that I could receive you.

I have received several reports in the last week--some of the most encouraging reports that have come to me. All of them that come to the White House are not encouraging. But this seems to have been a very good week.

The Secretary of the Treasury returned with a very glowing report of the success of a monetary conference--probably the best achievement in that field since Bretton Woods 20 years ago.

We had word last week that we had agreed with the Soviet Union to table a nonproliferation treaty. The good that can flow from that agreement just cannot be estimated.

Chancellor Kiesinger was here. We talked about the future of Europe. We had a complete meeting of the minds.

So we have been very pleased with some of the discussions that we have had here. But I was particularly glad to schedule you this morning because there is not a committee that is in existence that I have more interest in or more concern for than the President's Committee on Mental Retardation.

There is not a committee, I think, that is better equipped to produce enduring and everlasting results than this Committee.

I must confess that until I became President I was rather oblivious to what was happening to our mentally retarded people in this country. I didn't know much about it. It did not consume a lot of my time or my interest.

But as so many other things that have happened in my life, women brought this to my attention. They stimulated concern about this problem.

First, I think foremost of all the people in America is Mrs. Joseph P. Kennedy--the mother of our late President. I have talked to her about it. She has written me about it. She has appeared on television about it.

Her daughter, Mrs. Shriver, who honors us with her presence, has had a consuming interest in this field and has spent probably more time on it than she has spent with her family--and very effectively.

Mrs. Humphrey, who charms us with her presence this morning, has talked to me a number of times--and tried to open new doors and awaken new interests here in the White House.

Now, to know that we have a group like this led by these women and a few others present here this morning makes me feel that I want to add just what little I can to giving it an extra push.

Six million people are looking to us for leadership in this country--more people than live in Chicago and Los Angeles.

We pride ourselves on saying that in this country everyone has an equal chance. But I am just not sure that is true--I am not sure that it has ever been true. But I would like to see it come true.

You are doing something about making it come true. What you are doing is not only a good policy--I think it shows the kind of heart we have as a nation.

We have been rather heartless to ignore these conditions all of these years and not do anything about them.

--Besides, it is bad medicine.

--Besides, it is bad economics.

--Besides, it is bad for the future of our country if we are to be the strongest and most powerful nation in the world.

We are no stronger than the weakest among us. The weak must have help; the weak must have direction; and the weak must have training that you are supplying.

So I would say this morning that I am comforted and stimulated by your willingness to serve--by your dedication to the job and by the hope that I entertain that each of you will be a walking messenger to go forth to every State in the Union to try to make other people as aware of our problem-and what good we can do--as you have made me aware, or as these women whom I have talked to have made me aware of it.

So I hope you will take the handcuffs off of your modesty, quit restraining yourselves, and become a walking spokesman for these underprivileged--a walking spokesman for those who need attention, for those who need help, and for those who need direction--a walking spokesman to enlighten the other 200 million people in this country as to what good can flow from efforts in this direction.

So I would hope in the not too distant future we could really honestly say that we are trying to give everyone an equal chance, even if we are not now doing it--regardless of their bank account, or their religion, or their ancestry.

So thank you for coming here. We appreciate very much what you are doing on behalf of all Americans.

I want you to come into my office and visit with me individually.

I don't get to read all the things that come to my desk. Certainly I don't read all of the bad things.

But this is one report I am going to read and that I know is going to challenge me. I will have some ideas about it when I get through reading it.

In the meantime, please know that you have the highest priority in my concerns-that there is no committee, as I said, that will have more enthusiastic support from the White House than yours, and that I think it is really a blue-ribbon outfit.

Thank you, very much.