Remarks Opening the Midyear Conference of Governors of the States and Territories.

I AM delighted to welcome you once again to this house.

This morning I want to talk about the primary business of government: public order.

To many people, that phrase means one thing: crime control. That is--to be sure-a major concern and responsibility of every public official. A people blessed by affluence and opportunity--but nevertheless beset by crime and civil disorder--is a troubled people. You and I--together with the Congress, the mayors, and the police departments-have work to do in meeting the challenge of lawlessness in America.

I shall talk more specifically about some of this work a little later. But first, I want to broaden the scope of that term--public order--and give it the larger meaning I believe it entails.

In our democracy, public order does not finally rest on force. It rests on the consent of our people. It rests on their belief that public order is the climate in which they may attain their goals:

--a good job,

--a decent home,

--an education for their children that will truly prepare them for life

--physical well-being for their families,

--freedom from discrimination,

--safety in their homes and on the streets,

--a sense of purpose and participation in their community.

When individuals or groups attack the public order--for whatever reason--they must be stopped. No society can tolerate attacks upon itself.

But it is just as important that the public order be truly public---not the private preserve of a favored few. It is important that every citizen have a personal stake in the preservation of order. People must believe, and believe mightily, that there is always an avenue of opportunity for them--and for their children--in the cities of America.

The responsibility of government is inescapable here, just as in the control of crime. It is a responsibility not just to the poor and disadvantaged--but to every citizen who wants to live in peace, without fear and without hatred.

The National Government--responding to the people's will--has begun to meet that responsibility.

Eight years ago, the Federal budget included $9 1/2 billion in aid to the poor. This year's budget proposes over $27 billion for the same purpose--three times the figure of 1960. This has been, in every sense, a revolution of responsibility--and each of us who helped to bring it about can be proud of it.

But even this vast effort cannot achieve the conditions of public order--unless it engages the determination of a healthy and responsible private industry--and Governors, mayors, State and city governments who recognize and carry out their responsibilities.

Let me give you some examples.

A month ago, I called upon the leaders of American industry to spearhead an unprecedented venture:

--placing 500,000 of America's hard-core unemployed in private industry jobs, and finding work for 200,000 poor youngsters this summer.

They responded--vigorously. Sixty-five of the Nation's top business executives--under the leadership of Mr. Henry Ford--have formed a National Alliance of Businessmen, to lead the drive in our 50 largest cities. They put together a topflight, full-time staff, drawn from industry and Government. They have developed detailed plans and a tight schedule--reflecting the urgency of their mission.

They will move in our 50 largest cities 2 weeks from now.

My question is, whether we in government-State, Federal, and local--will keep up with them.

Can your State employment service-which will implement this program at the local level--find the hard-core unemployed to fill the jobs and help negotiate $350 million worth of contracts in the next 16 months?

Industry is moving to meet its responsibilities. Will we meet ours?

The availability of health care--and the means to obtain it--is another element in maintaining a decent public order.

The cost of our Medicaid program--as no one knows better than you and I--is extremely high. We must find means of improving it, of reducing its costs and estimating them more precisely. We cannot return to the time when to be poor was inevitably to be sick--without medical attention. But we must make the program fair to the taxpayer, as it is responsive to those who need it.

The other day I sent to the Congress a supplemental estimate of $568 million for Medicaid, a 50 percent increase in the original 1968 budget estimate of $1.2 billion.

There are many reasons why that supplemental was necessary. Nevertheless, I think you will all agree that it represents a pretty wide error in budget estimating. It is true that medical costs have risen sharply. But we in the Federal Government have inadequate information on which to predict what the States will do:

--how many persons will be covered,

--what kind of services they will receive, and

--what are the cost implications?

Let us try to arrive at a solution to this together. I propose that we establish a joint Federal-State task force, where a select group of State budget directors and health and welfare officials can work with HEW and our Budget Bureau to bring about improvements in reporting and estimating the cost of Medicaid.

I am asking Acting Secretary Wilbur Cohen to get this effort underway immediately.

I know that many of you have discussed the amendments in the welfare system Congress adopted last fall. We have had enough experience with the various welfare programs to know that they have many shortcomings. The remedies that have been proposed are many and various. Because welfare involves so many factors--fiscal, economic, social, and moral--I have asked a distinguished group of Americans, including three present and former Governors, to examine alternative income maintenance programs, and to report their findings to me. Their commission is headed by Mr. Ben Heineman, chairman of the Chicago Northwestern Railroad.

By 1975, State and local government employment will grow to 11 million.

Each year, every year, you will have to recruit a quarter of a million new administrators, technicians, and professional employees just to keep your programs going. And this does not include the teachers.

Last year, I asked the Congress to help avert this manpower crisis.

I proposed the Public Service Education Act aimed at increasing the number of good students who choose careers in government.

I proposed the Intergovernmental Manpower Act--to help you train specialists and administrators, and to let us exchange some of our best people--on a temporary basis-so that they might learn to work more effectively together.

These are vital and important proposals-but they are still just proposals, pending before the Congress.

I hope you will urge the Congress to make these measures a reality so we can get on with the job.

Each year billions of dollars pass to the States in the form of Federal grants-in-aid. In fiscal 1969, over $20 billion will be channeled in this way.

We are working with you to assure that these funds flow swiftly and surely, unhindered by red tape. We are doing this by:

--consulting with your auditors and accountants;

--cutting back on paperwork and forms;and

--trying, wherever we can, to combine separate grants into single packages for maximum action.

There is much more room for improvement.

Last year, I asked the Congress--in legislation called the Joint Funding Simplification Act--to ease your work and ours.

That proposal is also before the Congress. I ask your help in urging the Congress to act quickly upon it.

Even if all the actions I have described this morning are taken, much that we will have done will be in vain if lawlessness dominates our cities.

No more important domestic challenge faces the American people than to preserve civil peace and to restore respect for the law.

As elected officials of your States, this is your concern. Law enforcement, as much as any responsibility of government, is primarily a local responsibility.

Wise tradition--which comes from our Founding Fathers--dictates that the work of law enforcement must be local. The war on crime cannot and should not be directed from the Nation's Capital. Yet the fact of crime--and the fear of crime--are national problems because they concern every American.

The sordid symptoms of crime mock our democratic society. They depress the daily lives of our people. Crime is an intolerable extra burden on the poor. It is an agent of suffering in millions of lives--rich and poor.

While it may never be cured completely, I am determined that it will be better controlled.

As President, I will do my part.

I have asked Congress and the Nation to move now--this year--on a 22-point action program I have submitted.

Today, I urge you to exercise the same leadership in a crusade for law enforcement in your State, that I am determined to exercise at the national level. This effort must be nationwide. Every Governor must commit the influence and power of his office to the fight.

Two years ago I asked the Attorney General to work with the Governors to establish statewide commissions on law enforcement and criminal justice. Since then, only half of the States have taken advantage of Federal assistance to set up these commissions.

I urge the remaining 25 States to act now--this year. I ask you to join me in urging the mayors of our large cities to establish their own local crime commissions.

There are pressing and obvious needs in the fight against lawlessness: better trained, better paid, and more effective police forces; fairer and more efficient systems of criminal justice; and--tragically--better means of responding when public order breaks down under the impact of riots. The measures I have sent to Congress will help you meet many of those needs.

I have asked the Attorney General to discuss them with you today.

If you--as the highest elected officials in your States--will add your support, I predict that this year Congress will strengthen the alliance of the Federal Government, States, and local governments in the fight against lawlessness by enacting the proposals that are now before it.

I hope this meeting will help forge the strongest and most effective Federal-State campaign for public order--in every sense of the phrase--that our country has ever witnessed.

If we act as we must, we shall strengthen and extend that order in every American community. That is our duty--and our opportunity.