nificance for older persons. In the past 2 years, there has been a major expansion and improvement in the Federal-State program for restoring disabled workers to useful employment, with increased services to older people. In the public assistance program for the needy aged, the Department is seeking increased emphasis on services which will help restore more older persons to financial independence. Some of the most significant gains for older persons have been in the field of economic security. This administration proposed and Congress adopted in 1954 a series of far-reaching improvements in the social-security program, including extension of protection to 10 million more workers and an increase in benefits for everyone covered. More flexible provisions were adopted to permit workers to earn more income from employment and still retain social-security benefits. Today, 9 out of 10 American workers can look forward to socialsecurity benefits in their retirement. We realize, of course, that in the broad field of aging, much more remains to be done. The Department is busy now preparing its budget recommendations for the fiscal year 1958. I can assure you that these recommendations will include increasing attention to services which benefit older persons. In acting to meet the challenge of the increasing older population, we must always bear in mind that older persons should be recognized as individual human beings, individuals with differing needs, desires, and capacities, individuals living in varying circumstances. We must avoid efforts which tend to impose uniformity on older people, efforts which apply programs and policies alike to men and women who are not alike. The greatest service for older persons, I believe, is to develop an economic and social framework in which each individual may develop according to his own aspirations and adopt the mode of life best suited to his individual needs. Moreover, our programs should not serve to set older persons aside as a special segment of the population. Our programs should be designed to enable older persons to live as integrated and useful members of family, community, and national life. Few older people want others to assume responsibilities that are rightfully theirs. Activities in the interest of older persons will render the greatest service if they do not foster dependence but instead enlarge opportunities for individual effort and encourage self-reliance, initiative and creative endeavor. In carrying forward activities to accomplish all these objectives no one activity can stand alone. Coordination of many activities and cooperation by many groups will be needed. President Eisenhower established the Federal Council on Aging, not only to coordinate the programs of the various Federal departments and agencies, but also to make the resources of the Federal Government more readily available to all State and local groups. Over the past 3 days of this conference, I am sure that Federal and State officials have become better acquainted as you have exchanged ideas and experiences. The results of this kind of interchange can only be good. On behalf of President Eisenhower, the Cabinet officers and agency heads who are represented on the Federal Council, and all who have worked on this conference at the Federal level, I want to express appreciation to the Governors who sent representatives here to take part in this conference. To you delegates who have contributed so much of your knowledge and experience to this assembly, I offer congratulations and gratitude for a job well done. This conference, of course, is one episode in a long and continuing effort to adjust to the rapid increase in the older population. The goal is clear-a society in which people, regardless of age, may walk with dignity and have the opportunity for a full and satisfying life. In such a society, not only will the lives of older individuals be enriched, but the Nation as a whole will benefit from the experience, wisdom, and moral strength of older citizens. Thank you very much. [Applause.] ADJOURNMENT Governor BLUE. Thank you, sir. Now, I am sure that it has already been made plain, but if some of you have come in late, and it is not plain, the reports of these various groups will be compiled and printed and sent to you at your home so that you will have them in your possession. And I think we also want to make it plain again for those who might dissent from the action of any particular group, that there is no intention to bind any particular group or State to any of the actions taken by the various groups that are here represented. May I close with this little story. A Scottish man had a good friend who was from Ireland, and he invited him up to dinner. And he was giving him instructions on how to get to his apartment. "Now," he said "I live at number so-and-so. You go to the front door, and there you will find a buzzer. You punch that with your elbow and the door will open. Then you go up the stairway directly in front of you and turn to the right and there you will find my apartment. And outside you will find a button, and you punch that with your elbow." And Pat said "Now, wait a minute. What's all of this business of punching these buttons with my elbow?" And Mac looked at him and said "Mon, surely you are not coming empty-handed." [Laughter.] Now, I am sure, ladies and gentlemen, that those of you who have attended this conference are not going to return home either emptyhanded, because of the literature that has been placed in your hands, or emptyheaded, because we have all gotten many, many valuable thoughts. And I think that we should not close without some expression of thanks to the Council of State Governments and to the Federal Council on Aging for the courtesies that we have enjoyed. I am sure there is somebody present who wants to make a motion to that effect. (The motion was moved and duly seconded.) Governor BLUE. All those in favor. (Chorus of "ayes.") Governor BLUE. Opposed. (No response.) Governor BLUE. Let the record so state. And now, ladies and gentlemen, we are adjourned to go back to our homes and do the job that I am sure we all want to do. Thank you so much. (Whereupon, at 5: 15 p. m. the conference was adjourned.) = 3. PROGRAMS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT FOR THE BENEFIT OF OLDER PERSONS A DESCRIPTIVE INVENTORY OF ACTIVITIES IN DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES THE FEDERAL COUNCIL ON AGING THE FEDERAL COUNCIL ON AGING Membership, May 1956 Department of Agriculture Civil Service Commission Department of Health, Education, and Welfare Department of Labor National Science Foundation 82756-56-vol. 1 |