Education gets more money in this budget than any other items except interest on the public debt, some $12 billion, and the Defense Department, which as you know, exceeds $50 billion.

I must be frank. I had felt that we could start the new GI program, and that we should, by providing special funds for soldiers who served in combat areas. Others could be provided opportunity grants through the Higher Education Act. In that way, I was hopeful that we would not ask for more than we could get, or bite off more than we could chew in educational costs.

The Congress considered these measures, and in their judgment, as I say, passed this by a unanimous vote. They felt that we should go far in excess of what I asked for this year. The bill before me this morning exceeds my budget request by more than $245 million for fiscal year 1967, and by more than $1,800 million over the next 5 years.

Because it is for education, I am going to sign this bill, even though it provides hundreds of millions of dollars more than I thought it advisable to recommend or to ask for this year.

This is the first major measure enacted in this session of Congress, and a President just must not ignore the unanimous vote of both Houses of the Congress, the two Texas chairmen, Yarborough and Teague, and some 5 million men who will be the beneficiaries who have worn the uniform.

I want to call attention, however, and make a most solemn warning about future legislation. Unless we can balance our requests with prudence, and our concern with caution, then we are likely to get our figures back to that $130 billion which came over from the departments. I am going to sign this measure this morning notwithstanding the fact that it goes further than I was willing to ask for this year, because, paraphrasing what Secretary Rusk said the other day in response to a question from Congress, he said, "Well, Senator, could it be that they could perhaps be wrong?" It just could be that the President was wrong when he made his original request.

I supported this legislation when I was a Member of the Senate, and sometimes you look at things a little differently from one end of the Avenue than you do from the other end.

I have tried to take into consideration all of the factors that should be weighed. I have heard the Vice President, the Secretary of Defense, and every Commander-General Walt this week, General Westmoreland a couple of weeks ago tell me about the dedication of our fighting men. I am convinced that these brave Americans who serve us on many fronts today, particularly in Viet-Nam and the Dominican Republic, and others, are the very best men that our country has ever produced. They are great soldiers.

I am going to resolve this doubt in behalf of the Congress, which has spent more hours considering this than I have, and sign this legislation in the hope that when the peace is won, we can provide the means of making great civilians in time of peace out of these great soldiers who served us in time of need.

Thank you very much.

[NOTE. The President spoke at 11:10 a.m. in the East room at the White House.]

NATIONAL COUNCIL ON THE HUMANITIES

The President's Remarks at the Swearing In of Chairman Henry Allen Moe and the 25 Members. March 3, 1966

Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, Dr. Moe, distinguished members of the National Council on the Humanities, ladies and gentlemen:

In 1837, Ralph Waldo Emerson spoke to the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Harvard University and handed this challenge to America's learned men: "The office of the scholar," he said, "is to cheer and to raise and to guide men by showing them facts amidst appearances. He is the world's eye, and he is the world's heart."

Today, as we meet here in this historic East Room, 129 years later, we are very much in need of clear eyes and stout hearts. We need them now more than ever, and we need men of learning, too, more than we have ever needed them before.

We have proven our scientific and our technical genius. Science, as someone has said, has taught us to fly through the air higher and faster than the birds, to swim through the sea deeper and farther than the fish, but we have yet to learn how to walk the earth like men.

Science can give us goods, goods we need, but the humanities-art and literature, poetry and history, law and philosophy-must give us the goals that we have.

I believe that the National Council on the Humanities has a most crucial role to play in American life today, not only in enriching scholarship, but in enriching life for all people.

We believe in America that men of thought and men of action must not be isolated. They must be bound closely together. Congress was acting on that belief when it accepted our recommendations and established this Council in a rather adventuresome spirit and a rather farreaching piece of legislation. As you have come here to do your work, I hope that you will also bear that in mind and act on that belief.

I hope you will use your freedom and your funds to call forth a new American scholar, one who can meet Emerson's challenge "to raise and to guide men." The American scholar will look for facts, and beyond facts he will look for value. He will aspire not only to knowledge, but to wisdom. He will know that learning exists not for its own sake, but, rather, for man's sake.

He will find his destiny in solving man's problems and not just in cataloging them. We spend too much time stating them and too little time finding the solution. He will remember Emerson's admonition that there can be no scholar without the heroic mind.

That, I know, is a rather large order. You are only a few men and women, with very limited time and resources. But every great enterprise starts with one man or, at the most, a few. Every great endeavor depends more on the daring than on the dollar, more on brainpower than on budgets.

I just had my budget busted wide open this morning by my colleagues from Texas, but it was on behalf of soldiers who need education. If it is going to be busted, it couldn't be busted for a better purpose,

I say that to you also. I have great confidence in this endeavor. Almost two centuries ago John Adams had this to say about the advance of learning: "I must study politics and war," he said, "that my sons may have the liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.

"My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, and natural history, naval architecture and navigation, commerce and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting and poetry, music and literature, architecture, tapestry and porcelain." So today, in a world that is very thirsty for genius, we must study all of these things at once if we are to produce a culture which comes anywhere near matching our wealth. We are not just going to talk about producing it, either; we are going to do something about it. And that's a change for America.

We do have the material power to conquer economic want. Now we need the will to attack the poverty of man's spirit. We have looked throughout America and selected you-you members of this Councilto lead the attack on the poverty of man's spirit.

From the moment that you take your oath, your job will be to cup your hands about the flame of our Nation's genius, to protect and to nourish that flame, to make a torch which will light the path of a people who are seeking greatness. I cannot forgo the opportunity of saying to this somewhat adventuresome and courageous group of men in the Congress who provided legislative leadership in this field, "You have not only your President's gratitude, but the gratitude of the American people for your leadership."

To those of you who have come here this morning to embark on this new adventure and to take your oath, I say welcome and on behalf of a grateful people express not only my admiration for your endeavors in this field and your leadership and your willingness to work with us, but my gratitude for your coming here to sign up today. Thank you very much.

[NOTE. The President spoke at 12:10 p.m. in the East Room at the White House. [For the list of appointees to the National Council on the Humanities, see 2 Weekly Comp. Pres. Docs., p. 120.]

MANPOWER REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT

The President's Message to the Congress. March 8, 1966

To the Congress of the United States:

Last year also saw the first combined effects of the new manpower, education, and poverty programs.

In 1965:

More than 100,000 persons completed training under the Manpower Development and Training Act. Three out of every four were placed in jobs within ninety days after their course ended.

More than 500,000 young men and women were approved for participation in the Neighborhood Youth Corps. The Corps helps those in school to stay there, and helps dropouts to return to school or begin work.

About 200 area vocational-technical schools were approved for construction. 85,000 full-time students are receiving financial assistance to begin or continue vocational training.

About 115,000 full-time college students in more, than 1,100 colleges participated in work-study programs, which helped them to meet the costs of a college education.

Work experience programs provided jobs, basic education, training and hope and dignity-for 65,000 public welfare recipients with almost 200,000 dependents.

Almost 30,000 young men and women were enrolled in the Job Corps. For many of them, it was their first opportunity for realistic training to help them find and keep jobs.

INVESTMENT IN HUMAN RESOURCES

In a prosperous economy, the root of most problems of unemploy ment and underemployment lies in deficiencies in education. We must repair these deficiencies where we can.

We must prevent their recurrence in the next generation.

Fewer young people now drop out of school. But the number is still too high. If current trends continue, there will be over 8 million school dropouts between 1960 and 1970. The average American worker already has more than a high school education. The dropout will be at an ever-increasing disadvantage.

I am particularly concerned by the large numbers of young men who fail the Armed Forces qualification tests and must be rejected for military service. One-seventh of the young men examined cannot pass the equivalent of an elementary school examination.

Low educational attainment is a product, and in turn a producer, of poverty, unemployment, and discrimination.

This Administration is determined to bring increased education and training opportunities to all Americans in the coming year. We intend to:

Improve vocational rehabilitation training over 200,000 mentally retarded, severely disabled and handicapped individuals. Train or retrain 250,000 persons under manpower development programs.

Have Community Action Programs in 900 areas, urban and rural, throughout the United States.

Fund preschool classes for more than 200,000 children over the full academic year-and for another 500,000 youngsters during the summer. Almost 150,000 teachers, teacher aides, and neighborhood helpers will provide the needed service to these children. Operate 124 Job Corps urban and rural training centers, able to enroll approximately 45,000 men and women at any one time. Provide 125,000 part time jobs during the entire school year and another 165,000 summer jobs in the Neighborhood Youth Corps to help poor young people stay in school. Another 64,000 positions will be available for boys and girls out of school.

Offer services, under the Work Experience Program, to over 100,000 public welfare recipients who support 300,000 depend

ents.

Give basic education to 75,000 adults under grants to States for improving adult literacy.

Conduct 350 different projects involving 4,500 VISTA volunteers to provide educational training and related services to the

poor.

These specific programs are in addition to the enormous expansion in aid to our elementary, secondary and higher education systems. For next year, I have proposed a total federal investment in education of $10.2 billion-more than double the 4.75 billion dollar effort when I became President. This will move us forward toward our goal of providing full education for every citizen to the limits of his capacity to absorb it.

Teaching methods and materials, no matter how excellent, are not enough. They must be kindled by ingenious, flexible and responsive teachers and administrators. I have urged that Congress provide the funds for a new Teacher Corps-to be made up initially of 3,700 men and women. Combined into teams of experienced and intern teachers, they will be sharing their skills and understanding this Fall with the poor children who need them inost.

I am also calling for increased activities which will provide this Nation with more high-quality teachers for the handicapped and to meet the impact of school desegregation.

Manpower demands for professional personnel are also increasing in many other fields. New research and teaching activities must be oriented to meet those demands. Grants, loans and other forms of aid are being made available to States, localities and educational institutions. They include:

A significant increase in National Science Foundation support of basic research and science education, critically important for the advanced training of scientists and engineers.

University grants for research and training of advanced degree students in the space sciences through the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Help through the Health Professions Educational Assistance Act and other legislation to increase, by 1975, the number of medical school graduates by 50% and the number of dental school graduates by 100% over 1960.

Training personnel to deal with the critical problems of water pollution under the Water Pollution Control Administration. Training programs for developing skills of persons who are needed in community development activities.

Continued assistance in the development of high quality personnel for guidance and counseling-from elementary school to university-under the provisions of the National Defense Education Act.

We must provide full and free access to a first-rate education for all our youth, with later opportunities to develop their talents to the fullest measure of their ability.

The commitment of the Administration is to expand education and training opportunities for every citizen.