The American Legion, much always remains to be done.

To strengthen the Legion for the job ahead, we adopted a new approach to our membership enrollment for 1965 with a two-day workshop conducted at national headquarters in August and attended by some 130 Legionnaires from almost every department.

The workshop was aimed at coordinating a national membership plan for 1965 and succeeding years. Taken into consideration were such vital matters as the chartering of new posts, a general "beefing up" of our membership, and further plans for our never ending effort to improve the image of The American Legion.

In addition to members of the national headquarters staff, a team of management specialists from Indiana University participated in the workshop with a presentation on the theme of "Planning as an Essential Element of Management.” I believe this project will pay dividends to the Legion in 1965 and in the years immediately ahead.

May I emphasize at this point that The American Legion is simply taking appropriate steps, at an appropriate time, to seek new approaches to insure that The American Legion will maintain a strong membership for many years to come.

In closing, I want to acknowledge with sincere thanks and appreciation the many courtesies of American Legionnaires everywhere whose kindness and cooperation has helped to make this a pleasant year for me and a good year for The American Legion.

To those members of our national leadership team who have performed so efficiently and effectively this year: National Vice-Commanders: Dr. Garland Murphy; Earl Franklin; Harry Wright; "Iggy" Iglesias; and Emory Sipple; National Chaplain Reverend John J. Howard, National Historian Armand de Masi, and National Adjutant E. A. "Blackie" Blackmore, and members of the national headquarters staff, and many others, I wish to express my sincere gratitude for your devoted efforts to the cause of The American Legion.

To the national president of the American Legion Auxiliary, Mrs. Luther D. Johnson, our thanks and congratulations for a job well done, and for the fine leadership which you have provided to the many great programs of the Auxiliary and for the support which you have given to The American Legion in furthering our programs.

Many of my public utterances during the past year have received wide publication and I want especially to commend the national director of public relations and his staff for their assistance in this vital area. All directors and staff members have been extremely helpful and cooperative.

To my wife Ellen and our five sons, from whom I have been absent for the greater part of this year, many thanks for your patience, your understanding, your love and your help, without which it would have been impossible for me to discharge the duties of the office of national commander.

Now as we return to the important work of this convention we would ask God's guidance and blessings upon our deliberations and our decisions that our future course of action may always be in the best interests of God and country.

NATIONAL COMMANDER FOLEY: Next to bring this convention greetings is

a fellow Legionnaire and the distinguished senior United States Senator from Texas.

Our guest is chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Veterans Affairs which initiated Senate approval of the Legionbacked H. R. 8009-now Public Law 88-450.

This new public law provides help for sick and aging veterans who have no other place to go when maximum hospital benefits have been achieved, but who still require intermediate care.

I recall that I had the pleasure of speaking to this distinguished guest and Congressional leader on a number of occasions when this most important law was a bill before Congress. I want you to know that he gave this legislation his wholehearted support.

The senator is the author of the Cold War G. I. Bill and valiantly seeks its approval by Congress.

We of The American Legion and the public have come to know him as a dedicated public servant. As a combat veteran himself, he has been most sympathetic to the plight of the needy veteran. He has been a great friend of the veteran. He has been in his corner.

A member of Travis Post 76 in Austin, Texas, the senator served as a lieutenant colonel on the staff of the 97th Infantry Division during the occupation in Japan. His division was the only one which saw service both in Germany and Japan.

He has, as a public official and particularly as a United States senator, also been interested and active in the legislative areas of education and conservation.

Not only did he teach in a one-room school, but he has lectured in law school. He is a former Texas district judge. Indeed, it is an honor to present to you, the Honorable Ralph W. Yarborough of Texas.

GREETINGS

Honorable Ralph W. Yarborough
United States Senator (Texas)

National Commander Foley, Distinguished Officers of the Legion, Fine Ladies of the Auxiliary, my Buddies of the Legion, Fellow Americans: It is a great honor and privilege to come here to this Forty-sixth Annual National Convention of the greatest veterans' organization in the world, in the greatest state in the world, and it has taken us 36 years to get you back here after the San Antonio Convention in 1928. It has taken San Antonio 36 years down there to pay out, so it is a great occasion here.

The people of Dallas, the people of Texas, are proud to have you here, to be host to this group of people who represent much of the best in American ideals and American patriotism.

So I join in the greetings with the other officers of my state, the governor's and the others.

We are all very, very proud that this great annual convention of The American Legion has come back to the Lone Star State where more combat veterans are trained than any other state in the Union, so I know, to many of you, it is like coming back to your old training camps, and I regret that you will find so many of them plowed up, but as the methods of warfare change, of course, the kind of training you receive changes.

Now, I have a telegram here, Commander Foley, from Mike Mansfield. We are in session up there, and I asked permission to be relieved of duties there today so I have a telegram from Mike Mansfield.

It says: "You have my permission to stay in Texas to address the national convention of The American Legion." And then he expresses the hope that I will come back immediately after it is over. It says, "Regards and best wishes to you, and my fellow Legionnaires. (signed) Mike Mansfield, Majority Leader of the Senate."

I am glad to bring that greeting from Mike Mansfield of Montana, a great Legionnaire as well as a very fine, considerate majority leader and honoring his request I will leave immediately after this to go back to Washington and will, therefore, not have the privilege of hearing one of the ablest Secretaries of Defense ever to serve the American people, the Honorable Robert McNamara of Michigan, but I hope there is à fine audience here to hear him when he comes this afternoon.

Now, in greeting this Forty-sixth Annual Convention, I plan to give you a brief report on the work of the Veterans' Subcommittee of the Senate of which I am chairman. Your generous national commander has just about covered that. I am grateful for it. Dan, you have been the most generous national commander I have ever known with your praise and words you have been the easiest to work with, and you will have fine commanders to follow, but I kind of regret to see you go because we found you around in Washington a lot, interested in veterans' legislation. A lot of veterans' legislation has been passed, and is on the way, and a lot of that has been made possible through the help of Commander Foley and your able staff. He has been around with his big, genial hand shake, you know, wanting to find out how the legislation was coming out. He just doesn't phone the staff and say, "Go over there and talk to the committees and talk to the senators and congressmen, but Dan Foley comes in person.

"

He reminds me of Ben Franklin's admonition when wise, old Ben Franklin said, "If you would have business done, go, be not sent." Dan Foley goes.

But I want to report in the past five years that I have been chairman of the Senate's Subcommittee on Veterans' Affairs that we have pushed through approximately 42 veterans' laws, benefiting the veterans, and I believe 22 of those were House bills and 20 Senate bills.

We didn't stop in our committee to consider which made the bill. If it was good for the veterans, we pushed it through, and those bills in that scope covered laws expanding the rights of veterans, their widows and orphans, laws broadening their housing, educational and hospitalization rights and creating new rights including those for disabled veterans and orphans of the Korean War in certain cases and those disabled in the Vietnamese action, or their widows and orphans if they were killed there, and of these 42 bills, I think the best known one perhaps is that one already mentioned by your national com

mander. That is H. R. 8009. Our subcommittee pushed it through the Senate, the Nursing Home Care Bill, and it is now signed into law to open 4,000 beds, nursing care type of beds rather than medical type of service.

The Legion has worked for many, many years on this bill. It has been pushed on to fruition under Dan Foley's leadership and was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson this year and I am proud that our Senate Veterans' Subcommittee held the key on that bill, unlocked it, and we have pushed it through and put it on the President's desk, and thanks to you, Dan Foley, for so generously mentioning that.

Now, in the final passage of the 42 new veterans' laws in the last five years, our Senate Veterans' Subcommittee had the aid and encouragement in this past four years of the late, beloved President John F. Kennedy and our able President, Lyndon B. Johnson, on those bills.

When I return to Washington this afternoon, it will be to continue work on the bill to increase the veterans' pensions and to reopen National Service Life Insurance, to let veterans because of adversity who were caused to let their insurance lapse, have another chance to get life insurance.

Now, the one great unpassed bill which cries out for your support like a trumpet call of old, is the cold war G. I. Bill for education and loans to the five million veterans of the cold war. These five million veterans of the cold war are the forgotten Americans of all times of Americans, veterans and non-veterans, civil and military have had their pay raises several times since I have been there. Government workers have had several pay raises. There have been pay raises for everybody, but the cold war G. I. veterans are the forgotten Americans, and all of the resolutions passed for winning the cold war are as sounding brass and tinkling cymbals unless the people passing them are willing to see justice done for the G. I.s out there in the tropical jungles and the arctic wastes and the desert's oven.

Only 44 per cent of our young men serve now, and the 56 per cent who do not serve get ahead more than two years each in the battle for life. Unless G. I.'s get a chance through training under the G. I. Bill, they are left behind.

This G. I. Bill pays for itself in the increased earnings and taxes paid. It is not a bonus, but an investment.

I urge my fellow Legionnaires to add a stirring crusade to your stirring parade, and let that crusade be for him who is manning our defense lines out there around the perimeter of the free world, often thin lines but very stout lines, and that is holding back the Communist hordes on five continents, in the seven seas, in the air and now on the verge of space, and their trumpet call of these cold war G. I.s is next. I beseech you, fellow Legionnaires, to step up and help them. You save, we save ourselves only by saving others. These cold war G. I.s of all the Americans in this land are the ones greatest in need of aid now. Thank you and God bless you all.

NATIONAL COMMANDER FOLEY: The next speaker to bring this convention greetings is a fellow Legionnaire, the junior United States senator from Texas.

Our speaker is still one of the youngest members of that august deliberative body

in Washington. But, when he was sworn into office at 35 on June 15, 1961, he was the youngest senator in the 87th Congress. He was elected that year in a special election to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Lyndon B. Johnson when the latter became Vice-President.

He is the first Republican senator to be elected from Texas since 1870. He also is the only Republican senator to be elected by popular vote from any of the states which comprised the former confederacy. He serves on the Senate Committees on Banking and Currency, and Labor and Public Welfare. He is also a member of the Joint Committee on Defense Production. A former member of the faculty of Midwestern University in Wichita Falls, Texas, the senator is a Navy veteran of World War II. His service was aboard an amphibious gunboat in the Western Pacific. He is a member of Thomas Fowler Post No. 169, Wichita Falls, Texas. I present to you Senator Tower, of Texas.

GREETINGS

Honorable John G. Tower

United States Senator (Texas)

John G.

Commander Foley, my Distinguished Colleague of the Senate, Senator Yarborough, my Fellow Legionnaires, my Fellow Americans: It is a great pleasure to appear before this gathering of one of the most important organizations in the United States.

We welcome you to Texas, and I hope that you won't think that we are a bunch of liars down here just because you see me standing here, and I am only five feet five inches tall.

Actually, I am the exception that proves the rule. I am one foot below the legal minimum size for Texas.

That is primarily why they sent me to Washington. They wanted to get me out of the state before the tourists came down here and saw me.

It is good to have you here in Texas, and I should like to commend the Legion because the Legion has always been in the forefront of advocating Peace Through Strength.

It has been very significant that you have always held that we must have the strongest military posture possible to face the threat of Communist encroachment.

This is a time, I think, that calls for great courage on the part of Americans, but courage is a part of our tradition. We Texans are people who have a very fierce native pride, not just because of the things that we feel we are first in, but because of our background and our tradition.

We wrested our independence from Mexico some years ago, and we feel proud of this tradition because it is a tradition of courage, a tradition that places liberty as the highest value in human life.

There was a time in the late winter of 1836 when a young fellow from South Carolina by the name of William Barrett Travis was commandant of the Alamo in San Antonio. He had under his command about 181 men. He was confronted by a Mexican force of thousands, and knowing what

the military situation was, he gathered his men before him in the Alamo and he took his sword out of his sheath and he drew a line in the dust of the floor of the Alamo and said that "all of you who are willing to stay here and die, cross this line." And ultimately in one of the greatest holding actions in military history, they all perished to a man after sustaining three assaults because they had resolved that they would rather die as free men than live as slaves.

I commend this spirit to you today. I don't have to say anything about courage to you because I am sure most of you men here have faced situations in which you were like I was, scared to death, but there was something in you that caused you to do the job that was necessary.

Today the American people must exhibit a courage that they have never exhibited before. We stand at the crossroads of human history and the decision must ultimately be made whether or not the world will be free or will be enslaved.

I know that Americans have made the right decision and that we are determined that in possessing the greatest military power the world has ever seen, we are willing to use it, if necessary, in the defense of freedom and with that willingness we actually deter the likelihood that there will be a third world war because despots never attack the strong. They only attack the weak.

We are glad to have this great American Legion convention in one of our great Texas cities today. Welcome to Texas, and we hope you enjoy your stay.

NATIONAL COMMANDER FOLEY: Throughout its history, The American Legion has accepted the responsibility of giving all-out support to the schools of our country and it is in keeping with the Legion's program of good citizenship to give schools all possible aid.

American Education Week grew out of the revelation during World War I that an alarming proportion of the American people were illiterate. Representatives of the National Education Association and The American Legion discussed this problem and their talks led to the observance of the first American Education Week back in 1921.

We are pleased to have with us today, Dr. Lois Edinger, president of the National Education Association. Dr. Edinger, assistant professor at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro, became president of the world's largest professional organization in July 1964.

She started out teaching in the Piedmont towns of North Carolina and moved on to become a pioneer in television teaching in that state. If there's anything that Dr. Edinger would like to get across during her term in office, it would be this: to stir teachers, and parents, too, into the realization that schools must grapple with the enormous changes taking place in society, turning the upheavals and chaos into constructive forces. I

am proud to present Dr. Lois V. Edinger, president of the National Education Association.

GREETINGS

Miss Lois V. Edinger, President
National Education Association

America's leadership is in her people. There is no more pressing need than for a free people to identify, nuture, and wisely use its own talents. A free society does not draft talent; it allows for freedom of choice. Our society depends upon excellence of achievement at all levels. John Kennedy, in his State of the Union Message, 1963, said: "The future of any country which is dependent on the will and wisdom of its citizens is damaged, and irreparably damaged, whenever any of its children is not educated to the fullest extent of his capacity, from grade school through graduate school. Today, an estimated four out of every 10 students in the fifth grade will not even finish high school- and that is a waste we cannot afford."

Dramatic shifts in industry are taking place. Under the impact of rapid technological change, job opportunities on farms and in factories are shrinking--job areas that typically provided employment opportunities for dropouts. Secretary of Labor Wirtz said in a recent discussion on technology that machines have now been developed which have on the average an ability equivalent to a high school education. Most of the work that has been done by people with less than a high school education can now be done more cheaply by machines.

The major occupational change during the past half century has been away from the unskilled types of jobs toward occupations that require higher levels of skill and, therefore, education and training. The fastest expanding occupational sectors are those which typically require the highest degree of education and training. In looking at job realities for the future, we are told that professional and technical positions which require on the average 16.2 years of education are expected to rise during the next decade, as are positions in the clerical and kindred worker group which require 12.5 years of education on the average. No increase in job opportunities is forecast for those jobs which require less than 12 years of education. In light of facts and figures, we know about the world of work, schools must be concerned with the employment of young people.

Part of the job of education is to train every child as nearly as possible for some useable skill before he leaves school. Students need to learn knowledge, skills, and values to meet occupational needs of an urban-industrial society. As there are changes in industrial techniques, so the educational role must change. Unless the schools prepare children realistically for industrial and social needs, they are a non-economic investment.

Increasingly, this is a world where the high school diploma assumes the function of both a certificate of employability and an entree to those occupations less susceptible to unemployment. Increasingly, too, it is a world where education beyond the high school is becoming more necessary for many of our citizens.

The sheer number of young people expected to pass through school and into the labor market during this decade is unprecedented. If we do not prevent it, some 7.5 million will be school dropouts equipped with few if any job qualifications.

This is of concern to labor, business, government, and education.

The American Legion and the National Education Association have common interests in the improvement of opportunities for school dropouts. During this past summer program. the legislation which your great organization has pushed and which we endorsed, expanded the provisions of social security to permit Junior G.I. Bill of Rights privileges in added school expenses of $175 million to some 275,000 young men and

women.

The American Legion has done much to promote American education. One of the greatest governmental provisions ever made to raise the level of skills and knowledge of a people was promoted by The American Legion and friendly organizations, including the NEA, in the G. I. Bill of Rights. Some $14 billion has been spent by our grateful government partially to make up to the military men and women for their sacrifices in the defense of this country and our way of life.

One of the dividends of that great and farsighted legislation has been the determination of returned servicemen that their children, and the children of their comrades who did not return, shall have high quality continuing education to meet the greater demands that have grown out of the changed world which they helped to shape.

No generation of Americans yet to come will be raised in ignorance and incompetence if the ideals and aspirations of the Legion and the NEA are realized. The American Legion's promotion of American Education Week in which NEA has joined, and the project to teach American defenses in the ideological struggle through our joint project, Guidelines for Teaching About Communism in Junior and Senior High Schools, have all been great landmarks in the rapid advancement of our rapidly improving national education picture.

The American way of life is nowhere better exemplified than in the American public school. We have taken into our school system a greater proportion of our youngsters and we have kept more of them in the system longer than any other nation. The educators of this country with the cooperation of friends of public education such as you, may be credited with heroic achievements in creating a system of universal education.

Joy Elmer Morgan, one of our great leaders, Isaid it so well: "The next time you pass a public school pause a moment to think what that school means to humanity. Recall the long dark centuries when the masses were kept in ignorance when greed and oppression ruled the world with an iron hand. From the very beginning of man's struggle for knowledge, self respect, and the recognition of his inalienable rights, the school has been his greatest ally.

"We refer to the public school as 'common' because it belongs to us all. It is ourselves working together to meet a universal need. But it is a most uncommon institution. It is relatively new. It is our Republic's greatest gift to civilization.

""Throughout the world, among upward struggling peoples, wherever parents share in the aspirations of their children, the American public school is being copied. Let us keep our public schools strong and free."

Thank you for your kind invitation to be with you and for your cooperation in the past. We solicit your continued support as together we work to keep our public schools strong and free.

NATIONAL COMMANDER FOLEY: For a word of greeting I recognize a Legionnaire from Post 28, who served with the Third Marine Division in the Pacific Theater during World War II, the Honorable Jack Campbell, Governor of the state of New Mexico.

HONORABLE JACK M. CAMPBELL

Governor of New Mexico

Thank you very much, Commander Foley. My fellow Legionnaires, it is a distinct honor for me to have this opportunity to express to you briefly greetings and best wishes from the state of New Mexico, and I think it would not be out of line for me to say to you also that perhaps I can speak for the other Governors when I tell you that not only are you contributing a great deal to our national security, but your Legion departments and posts, and the individuals in them are making a tremendous contribution to your communities and to your states and for this express our sincere appreciation.

we

This afternoon, Past National Commander Seaborn Collins and other officials of our New Mexico Department and I are appearing before your Site Selection Committee to invite your great national convention to Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1970. I hope that we will have the opportunity to see you there then in New Mexico, the land of enchantment. Thank you very much.

NATIONAL COMMANDER FOLEY: Bringing greetings to this convention is a native son of Dallas and one of its outstanding industrialists and civic leaders.

Lester T. Potter is appearing as the representative of the Boy Scouts of America and as chairman of its National Committee on Relationships with business and industry.

Mr. Potter is president of the Lone Star Gas Company and two of its subsidiary companies. He started working for his public utility firm the next day after his graduation from Texas A. and M. College in 1928 as a mechanical engineer.

Our speaker has served scouting at the local, regional and national levels. He has received Scouting's highest awards-the Silver Antelope only last April and the Silver Beaver two years ago.

Not only is he active on the boards of several outstanding civic organizations and his church, but Mr. Potter is a past president of the Dallas Chamber of Commerce and the Dallas County United Fund.

It is my pleasure to present a good Scout, Mr. Lester T. Potter, of Dallas.

GREETINGS

Lester T. Potter,

Boy Scouts of America

National Commander Foley, Distinguished Guests, Members of The American Legion: I am honored, indeed, to express to this great assemblage the cordial greetings of Boy Scouts of America, its national president, Thomas J. Wat

son, Jr., and its National Council. Boy Scouts greet you, applaud you, and wish you well in this great meeting, and always, in all that you do.

It is particularly fitting that Boy Scouts of America should greet The American Legion. Boy Scouts, as an organization, is grateful indeed for the magnificent support given to it by The American Legion in so many ways, for so long a time. But there is an even better reason why this greeting is an appropriate one. Boy Scouts of America and The American Legion, two organizations who are not ashamed to use the word Patriotism. Here are use two organizations who

the word Patriotism, who know what they mean when they say the word, Patriotism, who live up to and give a high meaning to the word, Patriotism. Here are two organizations who are inspired in what they do by their proper allegiance to God and Country, who proclaim that what they do grows out of what they owe to God and Country. So, you see, it is fitting for the Boy Scouts of America to greet The American Legion and to express an earnest good wish that you will continue to serve, and thereby deserve and receive the best of everything. Thank you so very much.

Thank you so very much for what you are and what you do.

NATIONAL COMMANDER FOLEY: My fellow delegates to this great Legion Convention, this is one of the highlights of this first session to present to you a lady who has given unselfishly of her time and talents as national president this past year to promote the work of the American Legion Auxiliary.

Delegates to this National American Legion Convention: It is my great pleasure this morning to introduce to you, Mrs. Luther D. Johnson, who has given unselfishly of her time and talents as national president this past year to promote the work of the American Legion Auxiliary.

No task has been too small or too large for her to undertake and complete to the utmost satisfaction of everyone concerned. I have found her to be a very astute businesswoman, a very dedicated person, and one that is easy to work with.

For 38 years she had held continuous membership in the American Legion Auxiliary. Her complete devotion to the Auxiliary's programs and her capacity to create, have brought exciting new dimensions to her job as national president.

Her graciousness, her charm, and her dignity, have endeared her to those with whom she has come in contact.

She has presented the causes of the American Legion Auxiliary in an admirable fashion and I am most pleased that she is with us today. I present to you, Mrs. Luther D. Johnson from the state of Nebraska to bring greetings to this convention.