UF00083766_00002.pdf

UF00083766_00002.txt

UF00083766_00002_pdf.txt

Address to Jaycee Awards Dinner January 20. 1966

There is no pleasure. I think. which exceeds that of coming

home. and when to that pleasure is added the honor of participa-

ting in so significant an occasion as this one. among so many

friends. my cup runs over.

1 am going to have the privilege in a little bit of revealing

to you the names of two of your members who are especially to be

honored for their leadership in this community. When you learn

their names. I think you will agree with me that we should have

done it a long time before now. In a way we may find ourselves

in the position of the rancher who had a Chinese cook. He decided
to raise his cooks pay. and broke the good news. but instead of
gratitude and pleasure. he could see only surprise and suspicion
in the cook's eyes. "Why you raise my pay? asked the cook.
Because." said the rancher. you've been such a good cook all
these years." "Ah. so!" said the cook. youve been cheating me

long time."

A.. A.

inferior leadership is no longer compatible with progress, or even

with survival. In a world of four dimensions. where today is

yesterday's tomorrow, and tomorrow has dawned before the sun has

set today. the fourth dimension can be mastered only if out of the

wealth of our youth and the resources of our schools we raise up

for ourselves leadership worthy of the hour. Muscle will not per-

form the task: natural resources are of no sure value: a strategic

advantage can be wiped out by one invention; a stockpile can become

obsolete overnight.

The one sure resource. other than the love of God. upon which

we can rely in times such as these. is the educated mind and the

dedicated purpose of a morally guided leadership. I am proud to be

a part of this occasion when you come together to praise those who

have provided leadership. and by this example encouraged others to

step forward and do their part.

-10-

Be that as it may. we need their leadership badly. and should

count ourselves very fortunate indeed to enjoy it.

Florida needs leadership now more than at any other time in its

history of which I can think. We press forward on so many fronts ~-

economic. soc;aly political. educational -- into new lands as un-

chartered as the space we strive to pierce. In the perspective of

history we move not simply into a new period of growth. but into a

new civilization.

Not new in the sense that rockets will be a common mode of

individual transportation. or plankton from the sea a major source

of food. or hospitals automated -- though these may come to pass;

not new in the sense that the major characteristic of the new

ciVilization will be some exotic thing it produces. or uses. or

develops -- though these also may be true: but new in the rate of

change which will become the common denominator of life. and new in

that the key to productive living will be the ability to comprehend.

perhaps anticipate. and make use of the rapid rate of change.

Einstein. applying this thought to the physical world. could

see that the rate of change within apparently inanimate bodies.

created a fourth dimension. To the static. threeedimensional qualities

of the phySical world. he predicted the addition of a fourth. What

I say to you now is that there is such a rate of change. self-
sustaining and reproductive. in the world today that there has been
added a new dimension to living. a fourth dimension to society. And

in such a society. good leadership is no longer a luxury to be enjoyed.

but a necessity to be without which is disaster.

There are so many signs that this is true.

All of us have heard of the industries. large and diversified.
which nevertheless derive their major income from the production
and sale or products unknown ten years ago. Such examples are so
commonplace as almost to excite no notice.

In Japan there is a company. and there are surely many in this
country. which makes a business. and a profit. not out of producing
at less cost than others. but out of producing things that have never
been produced before. Their only real asset is brains. and their
only sales appeal is change.

A great American industrial company advertises that "progress is

our most important product." Around cape Kennedy. thousands of men

are employed performing tasks that a few years ago did not exist.

Armies are moved around the world in a matter of hours. requiring

reviSions of strategic concepts and logistic plans as great as was

caused by the invention and development of gunpowder -- and requiring

those revisions in a few years rather than in the hundreds of years

spanned by the development of gunpowder.

In Viet Nam. within the last year. new techniques of moving
men and fire power have caused experts to proclaim that for the first
time in history military commanders have overcome the tyranny of
terrain.

Within the lives of most of the people here, an eighth grade
education was the norm. There is still a shocking number of persons
over twenty-five who are functionally illiterate. But today a high
school education has become a practical minimum, a college education
13 no longer a luxury. and a graduate degree in many disciplines is
a sound investment.

In the fiscal year ending June 1965. the last for which I was

responsible. the State of Florida spent a sum in excess or 14% of its

State revenue on institutions of higher learning alone -- a sum
greater than the entire amount spent by the state on all forms of

education Just ten years before. yet even such growth was not fast

enough.

Medical libraries are being adapted for electronic data storage
and retrieval. So rapid is the growth of medical knowledge that
even the most narrow specialist cannot keep up with the developments
in his specialty.

Concentrated research is being undertaken in the field of
patents. because the rate of invention is so great and the range so
broad that old methods and categories are totally inadequate to keep
up with the explosion in patentable knowledge.

Research. which once was the business of a few absent-minded
professors. with an occasional trial-and-error genius of the Edison
type. is now one of the principal businesses for which the
government spends its money.

Any private producer of goods who cannot engage in or have

access to extensive research in his field will soon be out of the

field.

A rise in living standards. advances in medical science and

public health administration. with control of infectious diseases,

have caused spectacular rises in longevity. One hundred years ago.

one-fourth of the newborn died before reaching five. Today they

reach forty-five before one-fourth die. One-fourth can expect to

live to be eighty-three. But our economic practices and social

laws have not adapted to this change. and as of today. no satisfac-

tory provision has been made for the beneficial use of this bonus

of years, either by the individual or society. The conquest of all

communicable diseases is a foreseeable prospect. and that combined

with the development of new weapons for overcoming the degenerative

diseases will cause. is causing. change of staggering potential at

an accelerating rate.

The multiplication of population. particularly in Florida. has

assumed such proportions as to defy comprehension. The rights of

individuals. which seemed properly absolute in a day when the popu-

lation of Florida had a density of one per square mile, or ten per

square mile. must be viewed inthe light of the combined rights of

others when the population becomes, as it has. one hundred per square

mile. The right to dig a well. to hunt game. to allow cows to roam

at will. to build a home. or to dump refuse in the river. could be

unrestricted when their exercise had no discernible effect on others.

Today these rights, and all others. can only be exercised with regard

for the combined rights of the rest of the population. This State

had a leisurely one hundred and thirty years in which to accommodate

to the growth of the first one hundred people per square mile. We

have less than twenty years to prepare for the next one hundred

people per square mile. The rate of change is six times as great.

and will undoubtedly increase.

Progress begets progress. growth does not satisfy -- it increases

demand. Expanding knowledge increases demand for consumption. in-

creases skills in production. a by-product of which is increased

knowledge and increased capacity to consume.

But there are some things which never change.

There is still no substitute for honesty.

All the cleverness in the world cannot take its place. All of

the power in the world. without honesty, will not suffice.

when the influence peddlers of this nation rob the people and
cloud the name of our great legislative body. a clever, sham inves-
tigation does not make it right. Nor does the power of the persons
who might be affected make it right.

There is still no substitute for justice.

The roar of the mob cannot take its place. The ends still do
not Justify the means. There is no moral quality to a concensus.

Injustice there has always been. but no age has witnessed

such a mea3ure of injustice as ours. Mankind has passed through
epochs of cruelty. but not yet an epoch like this. when wrong is
done in the name of right. indeed. when wrong has become systematic.
when the reversal of the very prinCiple of justice has become the
order of the day and the system of the State. There have at all

times been men of power who have called right wrong and wrong right.
but it was reserved to our time to turn that perversion into a

political principle. a standard of public order. But a perversion

of such a kind does not resolve the need for justice -- it merely

aggravates it.

Freedom is still not free. It must be earned every day it is

enjoyed or it will die. It cannot be given from one person to

another. An old hymn expresses it perfectly: "Make me a slave.

Lord. and 1 shall be free. Freedom requires a slavery to ideals.

a commitment to responsibility. which can come only from within.

In a world of three dimensions. with this leisurely and com-

fortable evolution from one stage to the next. there was time to

gather around the pot-bellied stove to discuss a few changes that

the next several years would bring. time to debate the pros and

cons of different courses of action. time to adjust to changes in

life in the way one adjusted to an occasional new pair of shoes

which were basically the same as the old pair. Good leadership was

important. but if it happened to be of an inferior quality. there

was time for adjustments to be made. new leadership to be sought.

and the relatively few mistakes that had been made under the leisurely

pace of such an order of things corrected. But in this day of which

the intercontinental missile is but a symbol. in which the great

antagonist is changing conditions for which we are not prepared,