TEXT OF THE REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT AT THE 73RD ANNUAL MEETING OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80B01676R000900020039-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 18
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 9, 2008
• Sequence Number: 39
• Publication Date: September 26, 1960
• Content Type: TRANS

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FOR RELEASE AT 10:00 A. M. EDT, SEPTEMBER K, 1960
James C. Hagerty, Press Secretary to the President
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THE WHITE HOUSE
TEXT OF THE REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
AT THE 73RD ANNUAL MEETING OF TIE
AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF CERTIFIED PUBLIC
ACCOUNTANTS, AT THE ACADEMY OF MUSIC,
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA
President Seidman, Members of the American Institute of Certified
Public Accountants, and Friends:
I am particularly delighted to be with you this morning. I have never
had the privilege before of talking to a big group of Accountants all in one
spot. I run into them in my daily life, but not in such numbers.
One of the more statistically-minded people in the government told
me not long ago that I had appointed more Certified Public Accountants to
government positions than any prior President. I certainly did not do this
just because they are Accountants. I have been for all these eight years
searching for talent -- people of dedication, of training, of education, o::
capability -- people who have a sense of civic responsibility. So, since I
have appointed so many of this type of person who have been Public
Accountants, I suppose it's a fair conclusion that your profession averages
very high up among those that are so dedicated and so capable.
The Director of the Budget -- Mr. Stans -- is a Public Accountant.
I have heard that he rather divides government officials into two classes --
those who are Certified Public Accountants, and those who are not quite
so able. I make allowances, of course, for his somewhat prejudiced
viewpoint. Nevertheless I do agree that the excellent performance of the
some two thousand of Accountants who are now in the Federal government
is one of satisfaction to me, and I am sure to yourselves.
I shall not try to talk about your profession. Certainly you know
more about it than I do. I assume that one of your great functions in
American industry and in American business life is to make certain that
corporations, companies and others that are conducting businesses do not
go bankrupt because of reckless financial and business practices. If they
show tendencies this way, you are there to point out where the error is and
what they must do if they are going to keep in the black.
My friends, the biggest business in the world is the United State.3
Government. It employs directly five million people, and it spends eaca
year, eighty billion dollars of your money. I cannot conceive of a greater
need anywhere for Certified Accountants than in the Federal government.
I want to talk to you a little while this morning about government
rather than about your profession, and indeed, even your functions within
the government. Since this big government business of ours is owned by
all our people, affects all our people, and depends upon all our people, then
indeed this is something that must be the concern of every serious thinking
person.
I want to make an obsdrvation -- a sort of truism from my old
military life. There was an old adage that went something like this: In
war you can do nothing positive except as you do it from a firm base.
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This means that unless a commander has an area in the rear from which
he can draw his replacements for casualties, his new ammunition supplies
and food -- all the things that an army needs in a campaign -- then in the
long run he cannot win. Most of you know that Hannibal, a great general
of early times, campaigned successfully up and down Italy for some dozen
years trying to win a war, but finally lost it because he had no firm base.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the firm base for the problem of leading the
world toward the achievement of human aspirations -- toward peace with
justice in freedom -- must be the United States. America's moral, spiritual,
and intellectual strength is vitally important, but I do not intend to discuss
these strengths this morning. What I want to discuss today is the need,
within the United States, for a strong, expanding and growing economy'.
Going back to a comparison with business, I said that if a business
is reckless in its spending, if it doesn't know what its accounts are, it is
going to find itself at the end of the year in a very bad spot -- if not
bankrupt, at least in need of reform. I pointed out that the government --
the government of the United States, the biggest business of all -- is rot
exempt from the practice of these basic principles of financial integrity, of
knowledge of what we are doing and where we are going, of efficiency :And
effectiveness in its operations.
The biggest thing, then,about budgeting is to try to pay-as-you-go,
If a business or the government does not pay for its current costs out of
current revenues when the business and the government seem to be in
prosperous times, then when is it ever going to pay its bills? If it doesn't
pay its bills -- if it depends upon deficit spending, upon piling up the debt
which our grandchildren, if anybody, will have to pay -- then I submit
that the Federal government is in a very tough position. Deficit spending
is not only robbing our children of their rightful heritage, but it brings
with it the evils of recklessness in government, of rising costs, indeed,
it is one of the great factors in bringing about the evil of inflation.
So if I should be able to give you one conviction this morning, it
would be this: The government of the United States, in view of the lon ,
term nature of the program facing it, must look carefully to its financial
processes and its fiscal operations, so that rather than ruining its
economy by inflationary practices, it will make up its mind that every
new program must have the revenues in sight that are going to support it.
All this means efficient government because no government car_
afford to ignore the priority needs of its people. Each need of the people,
whether it be in health or in education, or in insurance or anything else,
must be carefully weighed in order that we do not go overboard in
expenditures without knowing where we are going. On the other hand, we
must not ignore any need. This extends, of course, to the needs of our
security. By security I mean not only our own military defenses and
mechanisms, but the help we give those people who with us want to live
in freedom, who are dedicating themselves to the ideals in which we
believe, and whose combined strength will make our position in the world
better, stronger and higher.
So, knowing that all of these functions are not only necessary b.=t
essential to our existence, it is more and more a duty of those who believe
in efficient government to lay out before the American people -- all 18 )
million of them -- the day-by-day record of the government's operations,
so that everyone may know whether or not these things are being done as
the mass of our people want them done.
This brings me to the last point I should like to make. We must
remind ourselves all the time that in our open society only the force of a
public opinion provides the motivation for all that government does.
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Senators and Congressmen and Presidents are sensitive to the force of
public opinion. If that public opinion is well informed of the facts of our
present existence, of the aspirations and hopes we hold out for ourselves
and for those things that make for effectiveness and efficiency, then indeed
we will have representative government -- self-government at its best.
With such principles as these in our minds, we look forward not
backward. It is not that we merely look at "pie in the sky". As somecze
said, "we keep our heads in the clouds but our feet on the earth, " and that
probably is still a good adage.
What I mean is this : In looking at any bright prospect -- any
glittering promise held up before our eyes -- we must see those things
through basic principles of responsibility, of effectiveness and of
efficiency, if we are going to put them in their right focus. Before we
adopt them, we must measure them against those principles. This we
must never forget.
I believe that people who have been trained and educated like
yourselves, people who have spent their time in thinking as you people have
done, have a great responsibility for informing and organizing this public
opinion of which I speak, which is the force that will always keep us going.
You must talk to all people in terms of principles, of soundness,
of progress, of responsibility. If we all do this, we will have a great
country. There is no reason why it cannot be done. In such a problem
and in such a function -- such a duty -- I can think of no greater body than
this one because I am told that there are seventy thousand of you in the
United States.
I want to point out this one feature of this job. If you will do your
part, you have undertaken a lifetime enlistment. There is no short terra.
No election -- no single administration -- can mark the end of the efforts
of such a body. Rather, this must be a dedication of yourselves and yot r
successors and those you train and those that may come after you, righi
on down to the end of time. You and your successors must teach and
believe these principles so that the United States will be ever a stronger
influence in the world -- commanding the respect of others, winning their
adherence to her lofty ideals and principles -- and finally, leading all the
world to that great day when we can believe that we have achieved peace
with justice in freedom.
Thank you very much.
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FOR BACKGROUND US:^ ONLY NOT FOR PUBLICATION
Notes of Secretary Anderson's Remarks
at Cabinet, October 7, 1960
I. The New Economic Environment
A. For first time in 20 years (except for three mild and short-lived
recessions) we are reasonably free from strong inflationar,,
pressures and psychology. This has resulted primarily from:
1. The impressive shift from a $12. 4 billion budget deficia
in fiscal 1959 to a $1. 1 billion surplus in fiscal 1960. In
fact, the shift in the interest rate picture began not in April
or May or June, but immediately following the President's
initial statement describing what we planned for FY 1960.
2. The achievement of adequate productive capacity in basic
industries, both here and abroad, for first time in 20 years.
II. Implications for Current Economic Situation
A. With businessmen confident that they can get goods on almost a
moment's notice, and with no fear of future shortages or pr