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The original documents are located in Box D16, folder "Commencement Address, Grand
Rapids Junior College, June 14, 1963" of the Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary
and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
Copyright Notice
The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of
photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. The Council donated to the United
States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.
Works prepared by U.S. Government employees as part of their official duties are in the public
domain. The copyrights to materials written by other individuals or organizations are presumed to
remain with them. If you think any of the information displayed in the PDF is subject to a valid
copyright claim, please contact the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
Commencement Rddress
Y.R. J.C
June 14, 1963
Mr. Chairman and Friends:
At the outset, I want you to know that I deem it a unique
privilege to have been invited to meet with you on this significant
occasion. It is always a pleasure to be able to share with others
those special moments which highlight life's journey. You who
are graduating this evening are among the thousands of young
people who have attained a certain educational goal this Spring.
This is neither the beginning nor the end of your education, but it
is an occasion which gives us an opportunity to pause, to reflect,
and to examine our place in the world.
just
Education is notAsomething required by state law, or
commended by commencement speakers, or encouraged by parents or
older brothers or sisters; education is a social necessity and
an individual attainment to be personally achieved, personally
exhibited, and personally enjoyed. It is yours, only yours, to
get, to have, and to hold.
FORD & LIBRARY GERALD
Digitized from Box D16 of the Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
-2-
Because we live in an ever-changing world, educational
goals, as well as subject matter and methods,change. Until about
200 years ago,training for a life of usefulness was relatively
simple. Physical skills were the primary requirement, and these
could be taughtat home, on the farm, or in the shop. The individual
who learned his skill was relatively sure that he could use it
for the rest of his life with little or no need to change.
As the industrial revolution developed, manipulative
skills grew in importance, the training period was extended, and
pressing technological changes made the future of acquired
techniques less eertain. The individual had to adapt himself
more rapidly and more often to a new way of life and to a new way
of working and living. Education took on a new dimension in
order to train the individual so that he could adapt himself
more easily and more effectively to the scientific and technological
changes going en about him.
ERALD ADVUNIT R-TORD
-3-
During the second half of the 20th century we see a
further development: an expanding emphasis on mental skills.
Physical skills are still important; manipulative skills are
essential, but as we look ahead to the 50 or more years which you
may expect to live, the people whose mental skills are most
developed and most adaptable are going to be most useful and happiest
members of society.
It may surprise some of you to know that 80 to 90 percent
of all scientists who ever lived are alive today. Or, to quote
Professor Price of Yale University, "Any young scientist, starting
now and looking back at the end of his career upon a normal life
span, will find that 80 to 90 percent of all scientific work
achieved by the end of the period will have taken place before
precede
to
his very eyes, and that only 10 to 20 percent will antedate his
experience."
If Professor Price is correct, and I have no reason to
doubt the accuracy of his observation, we know that the world of
FORD is LIBRARY 078830
-4-
your lifetime will be a world of drastic change, calling for
tremendous alterations in your way of life, and demanding an
adaptibility on the part of the individual heretofore unknown in
the history of mankind.
Professor Price, in his book, LITTLE SCIENCE, BIG
SCIENCE, demonstrates that the population of the world doubles
every 50 years. The number of universities doubles every 50 years.
But the number of students graduating with a bachelor's degree
doubles every 15 years as does the number of known chemical
compounds. The number of telephones as well as the number of
engineers in the United States doubles every ten years. Likewise,
the speed of transportation doubles every decade. Dr. Price
recognizes that there are limits to possible growth and development
1953-40hm 1963-184 1993-516 2/8/20
in certain areas, But did you notice in the paper recently that
a commercial plane is being built which will carry passengers
from New York to London in 2½ hours?
-5-
I am sure you can see the implications of this for all
of us. To you who have just completed your stay at Junior College,
I can only urge continued learning, greater development of mental
skills, and the growth of a spirit of adaptability so that you can
use and enjoy the years that lie ahead.
With this in mind, I want to analyze with you some
current issues of importance to all of us which bear upon my basic
theme this evening.
Our nation's sciennists have made tremendous advancements
in the physical sciences--in mathematics, chemistry, physics, and
biology. We have made particularly impressive gains in the field
of agronomy in America today. We can produce farmore food than
with fewer + fewer people + at reducal costs.
we
use 1 And yet people go hungry at home and throughout the world.
TIt is often pointed out that the social sciences have not
kept pace with the natural sciences. But what isn't made clear
-6-
is that many of the problems facing the social scientists, and
particularly those with which the politicians have to cope, arise
out of advances made in the physical sciences.
This is particularly
true of two basic areas in our society--agriculture and industry.
A foremost example of our failure to make the most
efficient use of our resources is agriculture. The farm program
has been a major topic before Congress this year,as it has been
for the past two decades. Two of the characteristics of the current
farm program are price supports and restricted acreage allotments.
This program creates problems for everyone; the farmer, the
taxpayer, and the consumer.
The most obvious effect the farm program has on the
farmer is to saddle him with a complex set of government regulations
and prohibitions. Less obvious is the fact that price supports
are hurting many farmers by pricing their products out of the
that which is groun in The us,
market. For example, domesticaliy sold cotton is so expensive
1
that more and more other fibers are being used. American
FORD is LIBRARY GERALD
National average number of bushels
of corn per acre
produced in:
1942
35.1 bushels
1952
41.8 bushels
1962
64.1 bushels
FORD i LIBRARY GERALD
-7-
cotton is losing its foreign market despite a heavy export subsidy
of 8½ cents a pound. The farm program affects the taxpayer because
he pays for the přice supports, and the program is becoming more
and more expensive. The Feeds Grain Bill recently passed by
Congress even authorized payment for not growing feed grains to
farmers who haven't produced any in the past. Price support for
the 1962 crop cost 165 million dollars more than the 1961 crop
as of November 30th of both years.
The current farm program effects the consumer by keeping
food prices high by means of price supports and artificial limita-
tions on the efficient production of agricultural commodities.
The current farm program attempts to limit production rather than
to take advantage of increased productivity made possible by
the biochemists, botanists, and geneticists. The natural scientists
have created a problem that the social scientists have so far been
unable or unwilling to solve. In America today, the top 3 percent
-8-
of all farms produce more than the bottom 78 percent. Yet
most farm legislation helps to keep the less efficient producers
in business; it encourages waste and outmoded methods of production.
What we need is less government control and gradually lessened price
support of agricultural products. This would encourage freer
competition among farmers, would lower food prices for the consumer,
and would lessen the burden on all taxpayers. But the lack of
ability to adapt ourselves to 20th century conditions brings about
this untenable situation. I am certain that had our people
exhibited the degree of adaptability which is possible and necessary,
we could have escaped the major consequences of an inefficient
solution to a pressing problem in American agriculture.
American industry and agriculture have many common problems.
As with agriculture, the social scientists in many industrial areas
have not figured out ways to take adequate advantage of the
advances made by the natural scientists. For example, let us
look at the maritime industry in the United States. Shipbuilding
-9-
for our worldwide trade is highly subsidized and very expensive
to the U. S. Treasury and all taxpayers. yet Science and technology
have shown us many ways to save money on shipbuilding. There is
no doubt that cheaper ships can be built in America's shipyards,
but because of the fear that extensive use of automation would
these new Techniques
cause economic dislocations it has not been used extensively. The
net result is that our shipyerds are rapidly losing business to
the Japanese and others. The hard facts clearly indicate that
bith management + labor
the American shipbuilding industry has priced itself out of the
vest
market and would be in peril if it weren't for government subsidies.
These subsidies are determined by comparing building costs of a
comparable ship in another country and range from 46 percent to
operating The ships, once butt,
52 percent of construction costs. Subsidies for shipping are
determined after involved and undoubtedly costly hearings. During
the past two years our government subsidized the shipbuilding
industry to the tune of $257 million. The shipping industry itself
-10-
received about $412 million from the U. S. Treasury and
taxpayers in the last two years.
Last year funds were requested for research and development
on an experimental, partly automated ship. By making use of
automation on board the ship, shippers could have cut costs
drastically and enabled them to compete with their foreign competitors.
The proposal was turned down by an approprhations subsommittee
the Congress
because of the alleged effect it would have on employment. We
see here again a lack of that necessary quality of adaptability
in people and in institutions which is so essential now and in the
future.
In the coal mining industry we have another example
of the problems created by automation. For many years the coal
& getting wor
mining industry was in bad shape; wages were low, work was sporadic
and there were a great many small, inefficient operators. As
early as 1925, John L. Lewis realized that the industry would
FORD & LIBRARI CERALD
to Apences from The such w it & gas.
have to be reorganized. Gradually wages were raised to a level
which many coal mining companies could not meet without raising
prices drastically and probably pricing their product out of the
dear
for both
or rowny
fuel market. There was then the choice of maintaining wage levels
and allowing automation to be introduced, or of maintaining wage
levels without technological improvements and driving some of the
companies out of business, or of permitting wages to be dropped
to a lower level with an unacoptible stanlard fliring
In 1937, Lewis was instrumental in setting up the
Mechanized Mining Commission in the Appalachian Mountain area.
The Commission inquired into the effects of automation on production
costs and displacement of men by machines. The Commission found
that automation in the mines enabled companies to cut production
costs to such an extent that the companies could afford to maintain
or raise wages.
FORD & LIBRARY GERALD
-12-
By choosing to allow the mines to be mechanized,
Lewis played a part in developing today's highly efficient and
growing coal-mining industry. But the result was unemployment
in an area of our country without any secondary industry oill to absorb
for who many had
1
s
the unemployed workers. What has the federal government done for
unfortand and their families
these men? Tragically the principle solution so far has been extensive
federalwelfare assistance. A similar situation confronts steel
workers today in Pittsburg, which is basically a one-industry
area too..
Welfare assistance for technologically unemployed workers
and subsidies for agriculture and shipbuilding are but two sides
of the same coin. They are both unsatisfactory attempts to meet
the problems created by modern technology and science. In the
case of shipbuilding and agriculture, we are paying price supports
to protect out-moded methods of production, keep inefficient
producers in business, and thus to freeze the economic readjustmenford
GERALD
-12- (a)
would
Time
which /results from the use of automation and other money-saving
technological advances. The other solution, massive welfare
assistance, is in the long run a less desirable solution to the
problems created by scientific advancements.
The answers we seek have strong implications for you,
the graduate, the individual, the citizen. We as citizens and
individuals will play a crucial part in their solution, because
in America, the government does not, and must not mold the individual;
it is the individual which mòlds the government.
In order to insure social and economic progress in
America, the individual must be able to adapt himself to changing
conditions. He must realize that science cannot solve all our
actually sceence may create more problems Than it solves
problems. He must be willing to take the risk, to alter the
nature of his business, to undergo retraining for a new
job, possibly to move away from home tnto strange territory. He
must adopt a new attitude of mind, a new flexibility, not toward
moral principles but toward his role in our economic society,
FORD & LIBRARY
-13-
And our educationalsinstitutions must foster this attitude of
mind. Our education must prepare us to meet demands that are
not yet identified. We cannot become devoted merely to the pursuit
of factual knowledge, because with the development of new techniques
of investigation, facts change. The factual knowledge you have
acquired at Grand Rapids Junior College will be different from
that which your children will be taught. Education must be oriented
toward the process of inquiry rather than the product of inquiry.
Modern education must develop more highly those skils and
diciplines of inquiry which will continue to enlarge the mind
after the individual has ended his formal education. It must
also instill in the individual a continuing intellectual curiosity.
The individual must learn to adjust to a changing environment,
both for his own happiness and for the success of our national
endeavor. Social scientists, economists, historians, political
scientists, and the sociologists and natural scientists--
FORD : LIBRARY GLRALD
-14-
--chemists, physicists, engineers and biologists--will have to
work closely together if they are to come up with workable
soultions to the problems facing us today.
Workable solutions can be found. Sometimes they come
from unexpected quarters. Many politicians were surprised at the
results of the recent wheat referendum. High grennant officials believed
they could entice our wheat producers to accept strict,
artificial political controls over the wheat economy. But 52
percent of the wheat farmers of the United States said, "No,
we simply want an opportunity to adapt our production to the
demands of the market."
Our wheat farmers are to be congratulated on the
intelligent decision which they made. I# was especially pleased
to note that only 18 percent of the farmers of the Fifth District
wanted to continue the current program.
FORD is LIBRARY GERALD
-150
This decision by our farmers,as the one by John L.
Lewis demonstrates that national leaders as well as the man who
toils in the field can and will make sound and constructive
decisions.
In order to solve the crucial economic and social
problems facing the nation, the government can, and must, create
an atmosphere which fosters economic growth and permits industrial
choices on a wide scale. The social makeseyery
effort to come up with more viable solutions to our problems.
Only in this way can we as a nation take full admantage of our
human and natural resources. The social scientists work with
people; consequently, all of us share in the solution to this
problem. As individuals in the group we determine public policy
and influence governmental action.
The government must help to create an environment which
will encourage private enterprise. Young men and women should
be encouraged to assume risks, for the benefit of the economy
BERALD FORD HBRARY
-16-
with reasonable assurances of success. New industries, operating
in new fields opened up by research and technology, will provide
jobs for the tenhnologically unemployed. If we do not solve the
problems stemming from over-abundance and automation, we will be
facing in other areas the same disturbing problems we face in
shipbritting
agriculture and in the boal industry. We cannot have a healthy
in America
economy when over 4 million workers are unemployed. And we
cannot have a sound economy or a healthy social order without
have
individuals who back the character and training to adjust to new
conditions in a changing world.
Because I believe most sincerely that the educated
person is the adaptable person, I have stressed this element in
your development. Because I have spent over 14 years as a member
of the national legáslature, there is one aspect of educated
adaptability which comes close to home. Some may call this
"compromise;" others speak of the "art of the possible;" it can
-17-
also be designated as "achieving a meeting of the minds." In
any event, it means working out a public policy or solving a
community problem by the "give and take" method. It is the
readblicks
opposite of that rigidity which prevents a person from responsible
cooperation in worthwhile efforts.
Politicians are often severely criticized for compromising.
Yet compromise is the essence of the democratic process and it
no
has been since the days of our forefathers' landing at Jamestown
and Plymouth Rock. In the Mayflower Compact the Pilgrim fathers
agreed that policy would be determined after discussion and a
majority vote, and that all would abide by the wishes of the
majority. In the House of Burgusses established at Jamestown
a year before the Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth, decisions were
to be based on agreeable compromises.
-18-
Politicians are criticized for ignoring "principle"
for
downgrade
and of being devoid of "backbone." New I do not deprecate "principle"
--we need more men and women with the right and proper principles.
However 2 And
a strong, sturdy backbone prevents many aches and pains. But
I am a little disturbed when one's personal principles become his
private dogma, and anyone who dares to doubt is a heretic.
An educated adaptability includes the facility of being
able to see the other fellow's side. It means being able to talk
with him-and J to walk with him in a joint and mutually beneficial
endeavor for the good of all.
for shample We
hear from time to time that there must be no compromise
1)
with the words, phrases, and principles of the U. S. Constitution.
I revere this basic law of our country as much as anyone. Yet we
ammy w Them
all know that the Constitution itself was the product of compromise.
Franklyn Namell
The 39 "Fathers of the Constitution" were strong-willed men re-
presenting sovereign states with a divergence of conflicting interests.
-19
crical
We honor them because they were able/under these circumstances,
to frame a system of government which still endures.
Our Congress today, with equal representation for each
state in the Senate and proportional representation in the House,
is a product of their compromise. The four-year term of the
President, one of the last decisions made at the convention of
1787, was a compromise between those who wanted a very short
term and those who desired an extended tenure. Those Americans
who achieved independence and formed a new government chose the
hard way and adapted themselves to meet new problems intelligently
and effectively.
This is the kind of adaptability that I am pleading
n
0
for: Not the easy conscience, not the crowd follower. I'm not
endorsing the spirit of "everyone's doing it." Far from that.
This is not the educated adaptability which will solve our problems.
FORD is LIBRARY
-20-
Rather, my plea is for the strong, independent spirit, equipped
with the essential mental skills of this era, who knows when and
how to lean with the breeze or bend with the wind, but who remains
deeply rooted in the foundations of our American heritage.
FORD i LIBRARY GERALD
Commencement G.R.J.C.
June 14, 1963
Mr. Chairman and Friends:
At the outset, I want you to know that I deem it a unique
privilege to have been invited to meet with you on this significant
occasion. It is always a pleasure to be able to share with others
these special moments which highlight life's journey. You who
are graduating this evening are amont the thousands of young
people who have attained a certain educational goal this Spring.
This is neither the beginning nor the end of your education but it
is an occasion which gives us an opportunity to pause, to reflect,
and to examine our place in the world.
Education is not something required by state law, or
commended by commencement speakers, or encouraged by parents or
older brothers or sisters; education is a social necessity and
an individual attainment to be persenally achieved, personally
exhibited, and personally enjoyed. It is yours, only yours, to
get, to have, and to hold.
FORD i LIBRARY GERALD
-2-
Because we live in an ever-changing world, educational
goals as well as subject matter and methods change. Until about
200 years ago training for a life of usefulness was relatively
simple. Physical skills were the primary requirement and these
could be taughtat home, on the farm, or in the shop. The invidual
who learned his skill was relatively sure that he could use it
for the rest of his life with little or no need to change.
As the industrial revolution developed, manipulative
skills grew in importance, the training period was extended, and
pressing technological changes made the future of acquired
techniques less sertain. The individual had to adapt himself
more rapidly and more often to a new way of life and to a new way
of working and living, Education took on a new dimension in
order to train the individual so that he could adapt himself
more easily and more effectively to the scientific and technological
changes going an about him.
FORD is LIBRARY GERALD
-3-
During the second half of the 20th century we see a
further development: An expanding emphasis on mental skills.
Physical skills are still important; manipulative skills are
essential, but as we look shead to the 50 or more years which you
may expect to live, the people whose mental skills are most
developed and most adaptable are going to be most useful and happiest
members of society.
It may surprise some of you to know that 80 to 90 percent
of all scientists who ever lived are alive today. Or to quote
Professor Price of Yale University, "Any young scientist, starting
now and looking back at the end of his career upon a normal life
span, will find that 80 to 90 percent of all scientific work
achieved by the end of the period will have taken place before
his very eyes, and that only 10 to 20 percent will antedate his
experience."
If Professor Price is correct, and I have no reason to
doubt the accuracy of his observation, we know that the world of
FORD & LIBRARY QERALD
oko
your lifetime will be a world of drastic change, calling for
tremendous alterations in your way of life, and demanding an
adaptibility on the part of the individual heretofore unknown in
the history of mankind.
Professor Price, in his book, LITTLE SCIENCE, BIG
SCIENCE, demonstrates that the pepulation of the world doubles
every 50 years. The number of universities doubles every 50 years.
But the number of students graduating with a bacheler's degree
doubles every 15 years as does the number of known chemical
compounds. The number of telephones as well as the number of
engineers in the United States doubles every ten years. Likewise,
the speed of transportation doubles every decade. Dr. Price
recognizes that there are limits to possible growth and development
in certain areas. But did you notice in the paper recently that
a commercial plane is being built which will carry passengers
from New York to London in 21 hours?
GERALD FORD LIBRARY
-5-
I an sure you can see the implications of this for all
of us. To you who have just completed your stay at Junior College,
I can only urge continued learning, greater development of mental
skills, and the growth of a spirit of adaptability so that you can
use and enjoy the years that lie shead.
with this in mind, I want to analyse with you some
current issues of importance to all of us which bear upon my basic
theme this evening.
Our nation's scienmists have made tremendous advancements
in the physical sciences--in mathematics, chemistry, physics, and
biolegy. We have made particularly impressive gains in the field
of agronomy in America today. We can produce farmmore food than
we use. And yet people go hungry at home and throughout the world.
It is often pointed out that the social sciences have not
kept pace with the natural sciences. But what isn't made clear
FORD is LIBRARY GERALD
-6-
is that many of the problems facing the social scientists, and
particularly those with which the politicians have to cope, arise
out of advances made in the physical sciences. This is particularly
true of two badie areas in our socisty--agriculture and industry.
A feremost example of our failure to make the most
efficient use of our resources is agriculture. The farm program
has been a major topic before Congress this year as it has been
for the past two decades, Two of the characteristics of the current
farm program are price supports and restricted acreage allotments.
This program creates problems for everyone, the farmer, the
taxpayer, and the consumer.
The most obvious effect the farm program has on the
farmer is to saddle him with a complex set of government regulations
and prohibitions. Less obvious is the fact that price supports
are hurting many farmers by pricing their products out of the
market. For example, domestically sold cotton is so expensive
that more and more other fibers are being used. American
GERALD FORD GRAPP
-7-
cotton is losing its foreign market despite a heavy export subsidy
of 8½ cents a pound. The farm program affects the taxpayer because
he pays for the plice supports, and the program is becoming more
and more expensive. The Feeds Grain Bill recently passed by
Congress even authorized payment for not growing feed grains to
farmers who haven't produced any in the past. Price support for
the 1962 crop cost 165 million dollars more than the 1961 crop
as of November 30th of both years.
The current farm program effects the consumer by keeping
food prices high.by means of price supports and artificial limits-
tions on the efficient production of agricultural commodities.
The current farm program attempts to ptait production rather than
to take advantage of increased productivity made possible by
the biochemists, botanists, and geneticists. The natural scientists
have creased a problem that the social scientists have so far been
unable or unwilling to solve. In America today, the top 3 percent
-8-
of all farms produce more than the bottom 78 percent. Yet
most farm legislation helps to keep the less efficient producers
in business; it encourages waste and outmoded methods of production.
What we need is less government control and gradually lessened price
support of agricultural products. This would encourage freer
competition among farmers, would lower food prices for the consumer,
and would lessen the burden on all taxpayers. But the lack of
ability to adapt ourselves to 20th century conditions brings about
this untenable situation. I am certain that had our people
exhibited the degree of adaptability which is possible and necessary,
we could have escaped the major consequences of an inefficient
solution to a pressing problem in American agriculture.
American industry and agriculture have many common problems.
As with agriculture, the social scientists in many industrial areas
have not figured out ways andtnee adequate advantage of the
advances made by the natural scientists. For example, let us
FORD
look at the maritime industry in the United States. Shipbuilding
GERALDO
LIBRARY
-9-
for our worldwide trade is highly subsidized and very expensive
to the U. s. Treasury and all taxpayers. Science and technology
have shown us many ways to save money on shipbuilding. There to
no doubt that cheaper ships can be built in America's shipyards,
but because of the fear that extensive use of automation would
cause economic dislocations it has not been used extensively. The
net result is that our shipyends are rapidly losing business to
the Japanese and others. The hard facts clearly indicate that
the American shipbuilding industry has priced itself out of the
market and would be in peril if it weren't for government subsidies.
These subsidies are determined by comparing building costs of a
comparable ship in another country and range from 46 percent to
52 percent of construction costs. Subsidies for shipping are
determined after involved and undoubtedly costly hearings. During
the past two years our government subsidized the shipbuilding
industry to the tune of $257 million. The shipping industry itself
FORD & LIBRARY GERALD
-10-
received about $412 million from the U. S. Treasury and
taxpayers in the last two years.
Last year funds were requested for research and development
on an experimental, partly automated ship. By making use of
automation on board the ship, shippers could have cut costs
drastically and enabled them to compete with their foreign competitors.
The proposal was turned down by an appropriations subcommittee
because of the alleged effect it would have on employment. We
see here again a lack of that necessary quality of adaptability
in people and in institutions which is so essential now and in the
future,
In the coal mining industry we have another example
of the problems created by automation. For many years the coal
mining industry was in bad shape; wages were low, work was sporadic
and there were a great many small, inefficient operators. As
early as 1925, John L. Lewis realized that the industry would
BERALO FORD NERABY
=11-
have to be reorganized. Gradually wages were raised to a level
which many coal mining companies could not meet without raising
prices drastically and probably pricing their product out of the
fuel market. There was then the choice of maintaining wage levels
and allowing automation to be introduced, or of maintaining wage
levels without technological improvements and driving some of the
companies out of business or of permitting wages to be dropped
to a lower level.
In 1937, Lewis was instrumental in setting up the
Mechanized Mining Commission in the Appalachian Mountain area.
The Commission inquired into the effects of automation on production
costs and displacement of men by machines. The Commission found
that automation in the mines enabled companies to cut production
costs to such an extent that the companies could afford to maintain
or raise wages.
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By choosing to allow the mines to be mechanized,
Lewis played a part in developing doday's highly efficient and
growing coal-mining industry. But the result was unemployment
in an area of our country without any secondary industry to absorb
the unemployed workers. What has the federal government done for
these men? Tragically the principle solution so far has been extensive
federaluslfare assistance. s smillar situation confronts steel
workers today in Pittsburg, which is basically a one-industry
area too..
Welfare assistance for technologically unemployed workers
and subsidies for agriculture and shipbuilding are but two sides
of the same coin. They are both unsatisfactory attempts to meet
the problems created by modern technology and science. In the
case of shipbuilding and agriculture, we are paying price supports
to protect out-moded methods of production, keep inefficient
producers in business, and thus to freeze the economic readjustment
FORD i LIBRARY GERALD
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which results from the use of automation and other money-saving
technological advances. The other solution, massive welfare
assistance, is in the long run a less desirable solution to the
problems created by scientific advancements.
The answers we seek have strong implications for you,
the graduate, the individual, the citizen. We as citizens and
individuals will play a crucial part in their solution, because
in America, the government does not, and must not mold the individual;
it is the individual which milds the government,
In order to insure social and economic progress in
America, the individual must be able to adapt himself to changing
conditions. He must realize that science cannot solve all our
problems. He must be willing to take the risk, to alter the
nature of his business, to undergo retraining for a new
job, possibly to move away from home Ento strange territory. He
must adopt a new attitude of mind, a new flexibility, not toward
moral principles but toward his role in our economic society.
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And our must foster this attitude of
mind. Our education must prepare us to meet demands that are
not yet identified. We cannot become devoted merely to the pursuit
of factual knowledge, because with the development of new techniques
of investigation, facts change. The factual knowledge you have
acquired at Grand Rapids Junior College will be different from
that which your children will be taught. Education must be oriented
toward the process of inquiry rather than the product of inquiry.
Modern education must develop more highly those skills and
diciplines of inquiry which will continue to enlarge the mind
after the individual has ended his formal education. It must
also instill in the individual a continuing intellectual curiosity,
The individual must learn to adjust to a changing environment,
both for his own happiness and for the success of our national
endeavor. Social scientists, aconomists, histerians, political
scientists, and the sociologists and natural scientists--
GEBALO, FORD IBRARA
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**chemists, physicists, engineers and biologists--will have to
work closely together if they are to come up with workable
soultions to the problems facing us today.
Workable solutions can be found. Sometimes they come
from unexpected quarters. Many politicians were surprised at the
results of the recent whest referendum. High officials believed
they could entice our wheat producers to accept strict,
artificial political controls over the wheat economy. But 52
percent of the wheat farmers of the United States said, "No,
we simply want an apportunity to adapt our production to the
demands of the market."
Our wheat farmers are to be congratulated on the
intelligent decision which they made, It was especially pleased
to note that only 18 percent of the farmers of the Fifth District
wanted to continue the current program.
FORD is LIBRARY GERALD
*150
This decision by our farmers as the one by John B.
Lewis demonstrates that national leaders as well as the man who
toils in the field can and will make sound and constructive
decisions.
In order to solve the crucial economic and social
problems facing the nation, the government can, and must, create
an atmosphere which fosters economic growth and permits industrial
choices on a wide scale. The social scients must make every
effort to come up with more viable solutions to our problems.
Only in this way can we as a nation take full admantage of our
human and natural resources. The social scientists work with
people; consequently all of us share in the solution to this
problem. As individuals in the group we determine public policy
and influence governmental action.
The government must help to create an environment which
will encourage private enterprise. Young men and women should
be encouraged to assume risks, for the benefit of the economy
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with reasonable assurances of success, New industries, operating
in new fields opened up by research and technology, will provide
jobs for the tenhnologically unemployed. If we do not solve the
problems stemming from over-abundance and automation, we will be
facing in other areas the same disturbing problems we face in
agriculture and in the coal industry. We cannot have a healthy
economy when over 4 million workers are unemployed. And we
cannot have a sound economy or a healthy social order without
inditiduals who lack the character and training to adjust to new
conditions in e changing world.
Because I believe most sincerely that the educated
person is the adaptable person, I have stressed this element in
your development. Because I have spent over 14 years as a member
of the national legúslature, there is one aspect of educated
adaptability which comes close to home. Some may call this
"compromise;" others speak of the "art of the possible;" it can
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also be designated as "achieving a meeting of the minds." In
any event, it means working out a public policy or solving a
community problem by the "give and take" method. It is the
opposite of that rigidity which prevents a person from responsible
cooperation in worthwhile efforts.
Politicians are often severely criticized for compromising.
Yet compromise is the essense of the democratic process and it
has been since the days of our forefatherss landing at Jamestown
and Plymouth Rock. In the Mayflower Compact the Pilgrim fathers
agreed that policy would be determined after discussion and a
majority vote, and that all would abide by the wishes of the
majority. In the House of Burgueses established at Jamestown
a year before the Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth, decisions were
to be based on agreeable compromises.
Politicians are often severely criticized for compromising.
Yet c
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Politicians are criticized for ignoring "principle"
and of being devoid of "backbone," Now I do not deprecate "principle"
--we need more men and women with the right and proper principles.
And a strong, sturdy backbone prevents many aches and pains. But
I am a little disturbed when one's personal principles become his
private dogma, and anyone who dares to doubt is a heretic.
An educated adaptability includes the facility of being
able to see the other fellow's side. It means being able to talk
with him and to walk with him in a joint and mutually benefitial
endeavor for the good of all.
We hear from time to time that there must be no comprodise
with the words, phrases, and principles of the U. S. Constitution.
I revere this basic law of our country as much as anyone. Yet we
all know that the Constitution itself was the product of compromise.
The 39 "Fathers of the Constitution" were strong-willed men re-
presenting sovereign states with a divergence of conflicting interests.
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We honor them because they were able under these circumstances
to frame a system of government which still endures.
Our Congress today, with equal representation for each
state in the Senate and proportional representation in the House,
is a product of their compromise. The four-year term of the
President, one of the last decisions made at the convention of
1787, was a compromise between those who wanted a very short
term and those who desired an extended tenure. Those Americans
who achieved independence and formed a new government chose the
hard way and adapted themselves to meet new problems intelligently
and effectively.
This is the kind of adaptability that I am pleading
for: Not the easy conscience, not the crowd follower. I'm not
endorsing the spirit of "everyone's doing it." Far from that.
This is not the educated adaptability which will solve our problems.
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Rather, my plea is for the strong, independent spirit, equipped
with the essential mental skills of this era, who knows when and
how to lean with the breeze or bend with the wind, but who remains
deeply rooted in the foundations of our American heritage.
GERALD FORD LIBRARY