Our history has proved that each time we broaden the base of abundance, giving more people the chance to produce and consume, we create new industry,… - Lyndon B. Johnson

No one can live daily, as I must do, with the dark realities of nuclear ruin, without seeking the guidance of God to find the path of peace. We have built this staggering strength that I have told you about not to destroy but to save, not to put an end to civilization but rather to try to put an end to conflict. Thus, in the past 3 years, as our strength rose--and, in large part, as a consequence of that rising strength--we have been able to take more tangible steps toward peace than at any time since the cold war began. We established an Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. We agreed with the Soviet Union on a statement of disarmament principles. We signed a test ban treaty. We established the "hot line." We supported a U.N. resolution prohibiting the orbiting of nuclear weapons. We cut back on nuclear production while the Soviet Union did the same. And we have just completed the negotiation of a new consular agreement. And, as the Geneva conference reconvenes, we have before it a series of proposals that I submitted, designed to freeze strategic nuclear delivery systems, to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, and to prohibit the use of force to solve disputes. And we will welcome any other proposal by any nation which promises realistic progress toward peace.

So long as I am President, I intend to honor the mandate of the Constitution that I am sworn to uphold. I intend to see that this Government, as the servant of this great people, "provides for the general welfare." Welfare is an old and honored work of our system. One of the first acts of the first Congress, under President Washington, was to provide pensions for invalid soldiers. Under John Adams what was to become the Public Health Service was established. President Abraham Lincoln proposed the first assistance for widows and children. President Theodore Roosevelt called the first White House Conference on Care of Dependent Children. It was President William Howard Taft who first established the Children's Bureau. These were works of compassion, triumphs of justice. But there are factions today which condemn social justice as the work of those that were bent on centralizing power in Washington. They forget their history, and they betray their ignorance of the American people.

Science has shown the complexities of nature to be beyond ordinary understanding. World events--the rise and fall of nations--even survival and death--may seem at times beyond ordinary human control. Enormous factories and great cities seem to exist and grow apart from those who run them and live in them. The old, tried values of family and neighborhood and community are imperiled or eroded. Man himself seems to be in danger; trapped between contending forces of science and growth, increasing numbers and movements that he can hardy understand. Yet this is our world. The discoveries are ours. We raised the cities and we reach for the stars. We unveiled the mysteries and wove the intricate patterns of today. It is our central task to make this world serve to enrich the dignity and the value of the human being. We will do this not through riches or position, or power, or comfort. You will find meaning only by sharing in the responsibilities, the dangers, and the passions of your time. A great American told us to ask what we could do for our country. By asking, you will not only help others, you will be ling purpose to your own life.