Herbert Hoover was President when I first came to Washington in 1931.

This house and this Government and this society, of which we are members, really belong to no party, because the partisan spirit is an alien spirit to America.

I selected General Taylor for this most important of our diplomatic assignments with the understanding that I would ask him to serve for a period of a year.

The United States would never undertake the sacrifice these efforts require if its help were not wanted and requested.

But it is a very great cause for special pride and reassurance that seasoned and able Americans like Maxwell Taylor and Henry Cabot Lodge are willing to respond voluntarily and unselfishly to the same call that our young men have responded…

Ambassador Lodge and I have spent many hours together these past few weeks.

Our gratitude goes to Congressman Schmidhauser for introducing this legislation and working so tirelessly for its passage, and the entire Iowa delegation, both House and Senate.

The Congress has passed, and I shall sign today, a bill to establish the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site in West Branch, Iowa, the scene of his birth and the site of his burial.

Public life can be a cruel life and President Hoover experienced that cruelty.

What America is, and all that America will ever be, is built on the willingness of her most able citizens to serve their country in times of need without regard either to their personal comfort or sacrifice.

All Americans are really heirs of travelers who originally came here from far across the seas to cast their lot in this great country of ours.

I thank you and I appreciate what you have done, and what you are willing to do.

It is my own studied and considered judgment, however, that this bill that you are witnessing being signed this morning will be the most historic of all of them: not for what it provides but rather for what it promises, not for what it…

We must act together to solve the immediate crisis that is facing us.

Our net loss this year is going to be nearly $2 billion on tourists abroad—almost $2 billion.

Three of our cities, ships at sea, the oil fields of other lands already depend upon desalting plants.

As rapidly as we develop economic desalting plants, we be prepared to share our technology with other countries where desalting offers the best answer to their local water problems.

America is truly, I think, 'America the Beautiful.'