Remarks in New York City at the Young Democrats Fundraising Dinner

My good friend Eddy Weisl, Jr., ladies and gentlemen:

This is an inspiring turnout of young people and it is great and good news for the Democratic Party. I want to thank each of you for coming here this evening and helping our party, and helping our party to have a Government for all the people.

Our future rests on your willingness to join us in the most exciting adventure of our century, the high enterprise of building in our land a new and a Great Society.

This is no tiny task and it will not be achieved by men and women of timid hearts.

In the decade ahead, the present wave of teenagers in America is going to turn into a flood of young adults. Just as an illustration, we are going to need 50 percent more jobs just to handle the new job seekers. The number of children that are born between this dinner tonight and the Presidential election of 1972, only 8 years away, will be about the same as the total population of the United States at the time of the inauguration of President Abraham Lincoln, a century ago.

Just as in the past we have pioneered in social security and unemployment compensation, the war on poverty, and civil rights legislation to meet critical needs, so in the future we must offer new programs to solve new problems. And this is why the Democratic Party is the place to be.

The excitement is here. The satisfaction is here. The frontiers are here. From Woodrow Wilson to Franklin Roosevelt, from Harry Truman to our late beloved John F. Kennedy, Democrats have looked on politics and Government as a crusade and not a chore.

I am pleased that you have come here and made this sacrifice to meet with us this evening. Because I have come here tonight to ask you to join that crusade, to thank each of you and to ask each of you to start working tonight for a great victory for the Democratic Party next November.

So thank you so much for coming here. And now give us your heart and your hand-give us your help as we keep trying so hard to keep America moving, and to keep our beloved Nation on the march to better things for people everywhere.

Thank you, and goodnight.