Richard Nixon

You would probably have to work; and you would be expected to pay back the loan when you got a good job.

I am proposing new actions to strengthen these efforts to get building now.

Today, as the result of 5 years of inflation, America is not building the housing that is needed to provide adequate shelter for her people.

We must take care, in making those reforms, to treat fundamentals rather than symptoms--essentially to bring the supply and demand of labor, money, and materials into better balance.

The runaway inflation of construction costs must be ended.

Our most urgent need is for homes that middle and lower income Americans can afford.

No more urgent challenge faces our monetary, banking, and financial community than to help the economy get on with the task of achieving lower interest rates.

America's $100 billion construction industry with its 3 million workers does not need harassment, unwarranted interference, or political denunciation.

The cost of construction is basically the cost of money, the cost of material, the cost of labor, the cost of management, and the cost of improved land.

If we are to meet our projected housing needs, we must be producing new housing units at the rate of 2½ million a year by 1975.

It is on more progressive management that we must ultimately depend to supply, efficiently and competitively, the building needs of a growing economy.

This is the first message on population ever submitted to the Congress and passed by the Congress.

First, this message is bipartisan in character as is indicated by the Senators and Congressmen who are standing here today.

And I again congratulate the Members of the House and the Senate for their bipartisan support.

It reaffirms the principle that partisan politics and the mail do not mix--that there is no Republican or Democratic way of delivering the mail; only the right way.

Final enactment of this monumental reform measure will usher in a new, progressive era.

I urge the Congress, for the sake of the American workingman, to reach final action on these measures without further delay.

It is my hope that it will arrive on my desk for signature at the earliest possible time.

America's most valuable asset is its workers.

The Employee Benefits Protection Act further expands my program to protect the American worker as he works, when he is out of work, and after his working career is over.

I hope that the full House and the Senate will move promptly to enact this major piece of reform legislation.

This reorganization plan is of major importance to the functioning of modern government.

The people deserve a more responsive and more effective Government.

Improving the management processes of the President's own office, therefore, is a key element in improving the management of the entire Executive Branch, and in strengthening the authority of its Departments and agencies.

Today, I announce a greatly expanded Federal program to fight this growing problem.