Johnson Speaks To New Congress

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30641, 6 January 1965, Page 9

Johnson Speaks To New Congress

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright) WASHINGTON, January 5. President Johnson said yesterday he hoped the new Soviet leaders would visit the United States. “If we are to live together in peace, we must come to know each other better,” he said in the annual state-of-the-union speech to Congress. “I am sure the American people would welcome a chance to listen to the Soviet leaders on our television—as I would like the Soviet people to hear our leaders.” President Johnson said he would visit Latin America and Europe this year. Referring to the war against the Communist Viet Cong in Vietnam, Mr Johnson said that U.S. security was “tied to the peace of Asia.” The President gave an outline of the “great society” for which he pleaded during his election campaign. Among his specific proposals—which he said he would outline in detail later —were changes in the TaftHartley labour law to remove state restrictions on the organisation of union shops and a study of high-speed rail transportation between urban centres. Others were enactment of programmes which died in the last Congress, such as

medical care for the aged under social security, and a redoubling of the administration’s campaign against poverty.

The president also called for a 1500-million-dollar education programme; a department of housing and urban development to spearhead the drive to bring beauty back to America: a national foundation of the arts; and laws to ensure continuity of leadership should the president become disabled or die.