Remarks of President John F. Kennedy upon arriving in Phoenix, Arizona,
November 17, 1961.
Right.
I want to express my pleasure at coming back again to Arizona. And
particularly coming back on an occasion. Which I think has so much
significance as this does. Arizona, which is a comparatively speaking, a
young state. is represented in the United States Senate by a senator who
has been so intimate a part of the life of this state. So in saluting
Senator Hayden for 50 years of devoted service, we also salute Arizona and
the Southwest and the best of the United States. Thank you for the warm
welcome, and I share your pride and satisfaction in the work of this state
and in the work of a man so intimately identified with it. And thank you
for coming to the airport.
A press conference held by President John F. Kennedy for high school
editors in Phoenix, Arizona, 17th of November 1961.
Senator Hayden, where the, where is the representative of the Carl Hayden
High School? that's where they ought to be. Well, we want to express, uh,
I want to say what a great pleasure it is at coming here to Senator
Hayden's 50th anniversary. I think that uh sometimes uh around the world,
the United States is regarded as a somewhat elderly country, somewhat old.
And uh I think it's a welcome reminder. To come to this occasion. Where
our 48th state, where Arizona became part of the Union, where this was
really part of the American frontier in the life of one of our most
distinguished senators, President Pro Tem of the Senate, and also Chairman
of the Senate Appropriations Committee. This is a great state and a great
part of the United States, and I want to express my great pleasure at
finding the high school editors here today. In the next 1020 or 30 years.
Uh, you will have an opportunity not only to report the news, but I hope
participate in making it. I hope that all of you, and I think that the
fact that you're here today and by your interest, I hope that all of you
will, as either Republicans or possibly even as Democrats, you will uh.
That you will
decide to commit part of your lives to this country, that you will
consider in a whole variety of ways how you can serve it both here and
around the world. That you will use your time in high school and I hope in
college to uh prepare yourself better, to maintain this country, to
maintain it as Senator Hayden has done for 50 years, and in your time do
what he has done, strengthen it, serve it, and remain faithful to it.
Thank you.
Remarks of the president at a dinner held in the honor of Senator Carl
Hayden. November 17, 1961.
We are very happy to come in here under your protection tonight, uh,
Senator. I tell you what a pleasure it is to be here. The, the, uh, vice
president made some reference to uh the oratorical abilities of Senator
Hayden and looking at one of his early speeches before he, uh, Assumed his
present status, he once said in 1914, I know that Congress does not
conduct its business in an efficient manner. If any corporation had a
board of directors as inefficient as Congress, it would become bankrupt in
a year.
Senator Yeah.
You're right, these things are never erased.
Yeah
My first contact with the senator was after I'd been in the Senate about 2
months in 1953 and I got up to take part in the debate as a new member and
after speaking for a few minutes, sat down next to Senator Hayden and said
, Senator, what is the difference between the senator as you know it and
now. And the senator said, uh, new members did not speak in those days, so
uh.
So I uh
I went back to my seat. I am
very proud to be here. I think it is a remarkable fact. That two leading
positions in the United States. Positions of the greatest responsibility
were held by uh Speaker Rayburn as the presiding officer of the Senate and
by the President Pro Tem of the Senate from the neighboring state of
Arizona. When a congressional district or a state sends men back year
after year, Uh, they, uh, may serve themselves, but they may not realize
that the seniority system of the House and the Senate gives those members
a profound influence over the policies of our country at home and abroad.
Congressmen or senators who may serve a district with particular vigor,
who may arrange to have its interests particularly well protected, and may
be rewarded, may someday become the great voice on a committee. which
decides great issues of national security. The size of our force levels,
what our actions will be in space, what our actions will be abroad. So
that the District of Bonham, which year after year,
A which sent back year after year. Senator Hayden made one man the Speaker
of the House in the most difficult and critical period in the life of our
country. And made the other the president pro temp of the Senate, and also
the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which provides the
funds, which makes it possible for all these programs to be carried on. So
while I command the Speaker of the House and Senator Hayden, I also
command the good judgment of the people of Texas and the people of Arizona
in recognizing character and patriotism and courage when they found it and
rewarding it.
Heracles once said that if you want to see his monument look around you,
and I think that's particularly true in Arizona. This state has benefited
year after year by the constant care and attention. which Senator Hayden
has given to the development of Arizona and the Southwest. Very few
sections of our country have required wider and wiser federal programs for
its development than the state of Arizona, this city, Tucson, and the rest.
This city and this state live on water. And from the days when he was
first there in his fight for reclamation and irrigation and all the rest
down to the present time, he has spoken for the country and he has spoken
for Arizona. And I am confident that this state, which has seen the
extraordinary growth which the governor described, from 200,000 who were
here when he went to the Congress, to the 1,300,000 people who are here
today, and the 2,300,000 people who will be here, I'm sure by the turn of
the century, they must know the people of this state. How vitally
important it is that the leadership of Senator Hayden be continued so that
Arizona and the country may continue to move forward.
Every federal program which has contributed to the development of the West
, irrigation, power, reclamation bears his mark, and the great Federal
Highway program, which binds this country together, which permits this
state to be competitive east and west, north and south, this in large
measure is his creation. But as I said at the beginning, his great
contribution has been to our country. When he went to the Congress of the
United States before World War One, our problems were simple. Now the
United States occupies a key position in the arch of freedom all around
the globe. I know that many Americans are often unhappy and concerned
about all the problems that the United States faces abroad, but I think
you should say pride and satisfaction in realizing that only the United
States and our power and strength and commitment. Permits dozens of
countries scattered all over the world to maintain their freedom. And if
we did not bear the heavy burdens we now bear, the United States would be
isolated with only a few of the countries of Western Europe to look to. It
is the United States that carries this great burden, and however
dissatisfied you may be, as you look at a troubled world around you, and
however you may wish for peace and contentment, as we all do, you should
take pride in the fact that under the administrations of both parties,
beginning with the days of the close of World War II, it has been the
United States, first in Western Europe, and now in Latin America, and now
in Africa, and now in the Middle East, and now in Asia, and now in CETO,
and now in CEO and now in NATO, and now in the OAS, it really does the
heavy work that makes it possible for these institutions to survive.
Other countries look to their own interests. Only the United States has
obligations which stretch 10,000 miles across in the Pacific and 3 or 4000
miles across in the Atlantic and thousands of miles to the south. Only the
United States, and we are only 6% of the world's population, bears this
kind of a burden, and as an American, it is a source of satisfaction to me.
Looking back over 50 years of service. That the people of this frontier
state had the good judgment to put their stamp of approval on him, and
year after year have given it to him again. Senator, as a uh one as which
we all are who love our country, it is a source of pride to me that
Arizona and you are so happily matched.