Richard Nixon

I take this opportunity to express my admiration for the men and women whose devotion, courage and creativity have made our aeronautics and space progress a source of national pride.

I am pleased to transmit to Congress this report of our national aeronautics and space activities during 1970.

Now, Therefore, I, Richard Nixon, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim February 4, 1971, as USO Day

We must create an environment in the Government service in which excellence and ingenuity can flourish.

It is to this end that I urge prompt and favorable consideration of this landmark legislation.

We must not use them wastefully.

We need both dedication and high performance from our Federal executives.

The Commission has informed me that reforms are essential, reforms that cannot be made within existing law.

Mere competence is not enough.

Give Thy servant an understanding heart.

The time has come, therefore, to take a critical look at the existing Federal system.

We must also devise efficient solutions to problems that have become more urgent recently, such as those of pollution and adequate health care.

Consumers are already imposing stern discipline in markets where sellers have not begun to adapt their pricing to the new, less-inflationary conditions of the economy.

The key to economic policy in 1971 is orderly expansion.

It is a test of our ability to root out inflation without consigning our free economy to the stagnation of unemployment.

We will pass that test.

This Administration intends to carry out that responsibility fully and fairly.

The restraint of 1969 and the slowdown of 1970 have set in motion strenuous efforts at cost reduction.

Free prices and wages are the heart of our economic system; we should not stop them from working even to cure an inflationary fever.

We have been particularly concerned with increases in the costs of construction.

I do not intend to impose wage and price controls which would substitute new, growing and more vexatious problems for the problems of inflation.

We are tremendously proud of you, and confident in your abilities.

The courage and determination you have displayed in coming back against such great odds to fly again have earned you unanimous admiration at home and abroad.

I wish them Godspeed, as do all Americans, and all of us here on earth.

While those men went under the patronage of individual monarchs, our men go for the American people and, in a larger sense, for all mankind.