Lyndon B. Johnson photo

Statement by the President Following a Meeting With Officers of the National Alliance of Businessmen.

February 24, 1968

A MONTH ago, I called on American business to join in a new and unprecedented venture--to place 500,000 citizens, the hard-core unemployed, in private industry jobs.

This morning I met with Mr. Henry Ford II, Mr. Paul Austin, and Mr. Leo Beebe, the leaders of the National Alliance of Businessmen, whose mission it is to guide this program to success.

I can report to the Nation that:

--Over 60 of America's top business executives have agreed to participate in the Alliance. They will spearhead its drive in our 50 largest cities.

--Detailed plans have been laid. A strategy has been shaped. A tight schedule has been worked out.

Now the test is to turn these plans into action--into good private industry jobs for the thousands of men and women in this country who want to work. These are the people who need special help and training to overcome the poverty of opportunity that has dimmed their hope and their courage.

In this task--as in other crucial efforts to rebuild our cities, to lift men from poverty, to clean our air and water--business has responded to the Nation's call. When industry joins America's most urgent work, it strengthens the Nation in which it grows and prospers.

So today, we are heartened as the JOBS program gets underway. We look to it with the highest hopes for success.

America is well served by Henry Ford, Paul Austin, Leo Beebe, and all the other business leaders who are engaged in this vital work.

Note: The National Alliance of Businessmen was proposed by the President in his January 23 message to the Congress on manpower and occupational health and safety programs (see Item 24). Following the meeting, two announcements were issued by the White House. The first summarized the discussions and listed the executive board members and metropolitan chairmen of the Alliance, and the second gave the text of a concluding statement by Alliance Chairman Henry Ford II. Both announcements are printed in the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents (vol. 4, pp. 358-360).
The statement was released at Austin, Texas.

Lyndon B. Johnson, Statement by the President Following a Meeting With Officers of the National Alliance of Businessmen. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/239058

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