The new act will enable the Environmental Protection Agency to set limits on the amount of noise permitted both from trucks, buses, and railroad trains operating in interstate commerce and from a variety of newly manufactured products such as jackhammers and compressors, automobiles, motorcycles, snowmobiles, motors and engines.

The speedy resolution of America's chronic and worsening traffic jams is far too urgent a matter to be stalled any longer by legislative or bureaucratic logjams, and I will continue my own determined efforts to keep it moving ahead.

Railroad-highway grade crossing safety is not a simple issue.

I have always believed, and today reaffirm my belief, that the Capital area must have the balanced, modern transportation system which they will comprise.

Time and again, as the nation has suffered major disruptions from a transportation shutdown, voices have been raised on all sides declaring emphatically that this must not happen again.

It is essential that our railroads continue to operate.

I said, when I realized we would have a new Transportation Department, that I wanted to look this country over and select the most competent man available for this assignment.

On October 15, I signed the Department of Transportation bill, which established that Department.

Transportation is the biggest industry we have in this country.

Our goal--the goal of both the Congress and the Administration--must continue to be a regional system of rapid rail transit.

Before long, you will be able to span this continent--or the Atlantic Ocean--in 2 hours or less.

By 1965 we had over a million less cars than we had just 40 years ago.

In my transportation message to the Congress, I said, 'America lacks a coordinated transportation system that permits travelers and goods to move conveniently and efficiently' across the country.

I am proclaiming the week of May 15th as the National Transportation Week.

In recognition of these facts, the Congress, by Senate Joint Resolution 22 of May 16, 1957 (71 Stat. 30), has requested the President to proclaim annually the third Friday of May of each year as National Defense Transportation Day.

I urge our people to participate with representatives of the transportation industry, our armed services, and other governmental agencies, in the observance of these occasions through appropriate ceremonies.

I have called for a major effort to beautify our highways and roadsides, and to construct scenic and recreational roads.

All of this traffic in and out of Chicago proves, as it has since the beginning of this country, that Chicago occupies a most important and vital strategic area in the United States, where all the lines of communication cross.