en for ourselves in a short span
of years. The next man to stand here will look out on a scene different
from our own, because ours is a time of change--rapid and fantastic
change bearing the secrets of nature, multiplying the nations, placing
in uncertain hands new weapons for mastery and destruction, shaking old
values, and uprooting old ways.

Our destiny in the midst of change will rest on the unchanged character
of our people, and on their faith.

THE AMERICAN COVENANT

They came here--the exile and the stranger, brave but frightened--to
find a place where a man could be his own man. They made a covenant with
this land. Conceived in justice, written in liberty, bound in union, it
was meant one day to inspire the hopes of all mankind; and it binds us
still. If we keep its terms, we shall flourish.

JUSTICE AND CHANGE

First, justice was the promise that all who made the journey would share
in the fruits of the land.

In a land of great wealth, families must not live in hopeless poverty.
In a land rich in harvest, children just must not go hungry. In a land
of healing miracles, neighbors must not suffer and die unattended. In a
great land of learning and scholars, young people must be taught to read
and write.

For the more than 30 years that I have served this Nation, I have
believed that this injustice to our people, this waste of our resources,
was our real enemy. For 30 years or more, with the resources I have had,
I have vigilantly fought against it. I have learned, and I know, that it
will not surrender easily.

But change has given us new weapons. Before this generation of Americans
is finished, this enemy will not only retreat--it will be conquered.

Justice requires us to remember that when any citizen denies his
fellow, saying, "His color is not mine," or "His beliefs are strange
and different," in that moment he betrays America, though his forebears
created this Nation.

LIBERTY AND CHANGE

Liberty was the second article of our covenant. It was self-government.
It was our Bill of Rights. But it was more. America would be a place
where each man could be proud to be himself: stretching his talents,
rejoicing in his work, important in the life of his neighbors and his
nation.

This has become more difficult in a world where change and growth seem
to tower beyond the control and even the judgment of men. We must work
to provide the knowledge and the surroundings which can enlarge the
possibili