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Remarks at the Signing of a Contract To Aid Electrification of Underdeveloped Countries.

November 01, 1962

I AM pleased to witness the signing of the contract between the Agency for International Development and the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, which will enable us to assist underdeveloped countries in realizing the benefits of widespread electrification.

One of the dramatic stories of this Nation's development is the sweeping electrification of our Nation's farms and rural communities undertaken on a national basis in the 1930's. Increased farm productivity and a higher standard of living were the inevitable twin benefits of electric power lines which- moved to our farms, our remote mountain areas, and, in fact, almost literally throughout the entire country. Although much of the credit for this tremendous expansion must go to the statesmen of the thirties, exemplified by George W. Norris, we know that it could not have been achieved without the industry and initiative of those strong individuals of rural America who formed together in cooperatives under the encouragement and guidance of the Rural Electrification Administration.

One of the most significant contributions that we can make to the underdeveloped countries is to pass on to them the techniques which we in this country have developed and used successfully. It seems to me, therefore, that the contract signed today holds special promise for those countries which have realized only a small fraction of their energy potential. I understand that the countries which will participate in this program initially are Latin American nations through the Alliance for Progress, and I know that I express the hope of all that the results of the contract will be an improved standard of living for millions of people.

I congratulate the people of AID and of the NRECA for having developed this agreement.

I think that we take the REA so much for granted that we ignore the extraordinary and really revolutionary increase in the electrification of American farms which occurred in almost a decade. Some of the veterans of that period know the statistics, to go from a handful of electrified farms to having 90 percent of the farms electrified, and do that all in 10 or 15 years indicates the advantage of cooperative action, the National Government working with the individuals who joined together and did it on their own.

What we have done can be done in a great many other countries with this organizational arrangement and with stimulation from both their national governments and their local communities. I don't think there is any program which I think will help the Alliance for Progress, will help the AID agency, more than this association between the REA and the AID agency and the countries that are involved. I'm hopeful that the United States Government and the AID agency will follow this up immediately, and will particularly concentrate their first efforts, as I've said, on Latin America, will concentrate their attention there on several countries to show other countries what can be done. If we in a year or two years can make significant progress in several countries, that example will spread. That really is the experience of REA. When some saw what could be done, then all wanted to do it.

So I think this can be very important, in fact one of the most significant actions taken by the AID agency. I want to express my appreciation to those from the REA, with their long experience. I hope that today's action is only the beginning of a very concentrated cooperative effort.

In other words, we've done a good deal here. While the job isn't finished in the United States, at least it's on its way. I hope that they will, therefore, release some of their natural energies to the electrification of other countries which need it so desperately. So I'm glad to take part in this.

Maybe you can explain how we're going to function on this matter in the next few months.

Fowler Hamilton [Administrator, Agency for International Development]: I will, Mr. President.

What this does, Mr. President, is to set up really a framework of the relationship between the Agency for International Development and the NRECA, focused primarily on the Alliance for Progress. The first countries that these gentlemen are going into are Nicaragua, Colombia, and Northeastern Brazil. They had a request just the other day from Equador. They plan to do just exactly what you said, to get this thing going in some of these countries and then it will spread through the contagion of example, because what these gentlemen and ladies are going to take down to Latin America in their heads is going to be a lot more important than what Government bureaucrats carry in their pockets, in our view, as far as developing these countries is concerned.

THE PRESIDENT. What are the figures on what we did here in the United States since the thirties? I was wondering what was the situation when REA went in.

Clyde T. Ellis [General Manager, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association]: About 10 percent, in 1935.

THE PRESIDENT. Ten percent of our farms. And then how long a period was it before an appreciable change?

Mr. Ellis: Well, most of the work was done after the war. Before we were really started in a big way we were in the war. Most of the work was done from 1946 until 1960--1962; we are still at it. You were right, generally, in your figures a while ago. We electrified most of America's farms in a period of a little more than a decade.

THE PRESIDENT. And what percentage is now electrified? Mr. Ellis: About 97 percent.

THE PRESIDENT. I think that figure, to go from 10 percent to 97 percent, as a result of this cooperative effort by the National Government and the REA, and the local communities, and private industry, should be encouraging to countries which have even less than 10 percent today. It shows it can be done. I think this is going to be very helpful.

Mr. Hamilton: Thank you very much, sir.

THE PRESIDENT. Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 9:30 a.m. in his office at the White House following the signing of the contract by Mr. Fowler, Mr. Ellis, and R. A. Yarbrough, President of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.

John F. Kennedy, Remarks at the Signing of a Contract To Aid Electrification of Underdeveloped Countries. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/236464

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