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Remarks at the Swearing In of John Wilks as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor for Compliance and Director of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance

August 13, 1969

BEFORE the Secretary handles the swearing-in ceremony, we already have issued a release on this appointment. But I want to at least leave a personal note.

I am very happy that we have come all the way to California to find the man to take on this appointment that I have indicated my support of in a statement on August 8.

The Office of Federal Contract Compliance is one of the major offices that is part of this administration's whole equal opportunity program.

And we, therefore, wanted to find a man with broad experience, broad experience on both the management side and the labor side in all areas, to take over this assignment.

The Secretary of Labor assures me that Mr. Wilks, who happens to be now a Californian, but who has lived in Boston, in New York, in West Virginia, and was born in South Carolina, has the broad national understanding, but also the experience in this field to be the top man in the country to handle this assignment.

He will have my complete support as well as the support of the Secretary of Labor in carrying out his general purpose, the purpose that all of us share, and that is that where Federal funds are used for Federal contracts, that every American should have an equal opportunity to have the employment that those funds may be able to produce.

There may be argument in this country on this whole problem of equality of opportunity, but there can be absolutely no compromise and no argument on that score. And this is the assignment that Mr. Wilks and I have discussed. It is one that he is undertaking.

The Secretary will now swear him in.

[The oath of office was administered by Secretary of Labor George P. Shultz. Mr. Wilks then spoke. ]

Note: The President spoke at 12:50 p.m. at San Clemente, Calif. He referred to a Labor Department news release of August 6, 1969, giving biographical information on John Wilks.

Mr. Wilks' remarks are printed in the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents (vol. 5, p. 1147).

Richard Nixon, Remarks at the Swearing In of John Wilks as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor for Compliance and Director of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/240018

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