Lyndon Johnson

Foreign aid serves our national interest.

The National Endowment for the Arts has made great progress toward realizing the mandate given it by the Congress to improve the quality of American life.

Our determination to resist aggression must be matched by our compassion for its helpless victims.

Throughout Fiscal Year 1967, the National Endowment for the Arts worked closely with private foundations, organizations and individuals, seeking to increase appreciation and support of the arts in the United States.

I transmit with pride this report of the Endowment's first full year of activities and urge the Congress to act promptly to extend the authorization for the National Endowment for the Arts.

I am pleased to transmit the Annual Report of the National Endowment for the Arts for Fiscal Year 1967--the first full year of its existence.

Our two nations are as close as ever.

I recently signed into law a bill to establish a National Commission on Product Safety whose job it will be to identify dangerous household products.

No matter how well they have concealed their activities, we will root them out.

We need to be much more alert to the dangers of accidental poisoning.

The Plan I forward today moves in the direction recommended by two distinguished groups.

Deaths by accidental poisoning among children under five years of age has declined 20 percent.

Each year, half a million Americans—most of them children—accidentally swallow substances that could kill or injure them.

The response of the Federal Government must be unified.

We need to learn more about how to treat it.

Now the time has come to act.

Americans--of all races--want and deserve better law enforcement.

Two familiar substances—medicine and household products—are among the most dangerous causes of accidental poisoning among children.

No matter how well organized they are, we will be better organized.

I now propose that a single Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs be established in the Department of Justice.

Now this year--this year---this Year of our Lord 1968, the forces of law and order must capture the initiative in the battle against crime.

The frontline against crime is the statehouse, and is the city hall, and is the police precinct, and is the home.

By the time the Governors get here, we hope we will have made substantial progress on our safe streets bill.

The closest cooperation between the United States and the European Communities is necessary to ensure that international adjustment takes place under conditions of continued economic growth with financial stability.

We need a modern and efficient instrument of Government to transform our plans into action.