Richard Nixon

It is, therefore, very appropriate that this signing ceremony of the rural development special revenue sharing program occur in their presence.

In signing this particular message, we certainly hope that we will have the backing of the agricultural community in getting its passage by the Congress of the United States.

We want to welcome you all to the Roosevelt Room for this signing ceremony.

If the registrant is inducted or if the registrant is found not qualified for induction pursuant to paragraph (b) hereof, the Armed Forces Examining and Entrance Station shall inform the local board which issued the Order to Report for…

This new initiative I consider to be one of the most important.

Any registrant who has been issued an Order to Report for Induction (SSS Form 252) and who is distant from his local board of origin, which issued the Order, must report at the time and place specified therein, unless he voluntarily…

This is an area in which we need to catch up and that is why we are putting more money, a greater portion of money, into rural America than we have previously.

Upon reporting for his scheduled induction as ordered by his local board.

I urge our people during that week to express their appreciation and gratitude for the untiring and selfless work of the Volunteers of America and to continue their support of its activities.

Now, Therefore, I, Richard Nixon, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate the week of March 7, 1971, as Volunteers of America Week.

I ask you to search carefully for strong candidates, and to continue nominating them for participation in 'Education for Public Management' and other long-term training programs administered by the Civil Service Commission.

There is simply no good reason why a Federal official should have to approve in advance a local community's decision about the shape a new building will have or where a new street will run or on what corner it will put a new gas station.

The time has come for us to stop merely giving more money to these programs and to begin giving more thought to them.

The first is the temptation to try to force progress with money.

To choose the revenue sharing mechanism is not to choose any one level of government over another level of government.

Federal assistance has failed to reverse these trends and frequently it has compounded them.

It is a sad and ironic fact that even as America has become a more highly urbanized nation, its cities have become less attractive and their governments less able to deal with their problems.

More money will never compensate for ineffective programs.

I am asking the Congress to authorize a new program of Planning and Management Assistance to States, to area wide agencies and to localities.

This administration would prefer a more balanced growth pattern--and we are taking a number of steps to encourage more development and settlement in the less densely populated areas of our country.

There are two basic problems. First, Federal assistance is excessively fragmented--it is channeled through many separate and independent grant programs. Second, spending under each of these programs is excessively controlled at the Federal…

Unlike General Revenue Sharing, which is new money without project restrictions, Special Revenue Sharing consists of $10 billion now going into present Federal grant programs, plus $1 billion in new funds.

I hereby create a board of three members, to be appointed by me, to investigate these disputes.

I extend my personal support to the vital humanitarian activities of the Red Cross.

In light of all this, Americans' discontent with government is no mystery.