To attack and to overcome growing crime and lawlessness, I think we must have a stepped-up program to help modernize and strengthen our local police forces.
Our people have a right to feel secure in their homes and on their streets--and that right just must be secured.
Nor can we fail to arrest the destruction of life and property on our highways.
I will propose a Highway Safety Act of 1966 to seek an end to this mounting tragedy.
We must also act to prevent the deception of the American consumer--requiring all packages to state clearly and truthfully their contents--all interest and credit charges to be fully revealed--and keeping harmful drugs and cosmetics away from our stores.
It is the genius of our Constitution that under its shelter of enduring institutions and rooted principles there is ample room for the rich fertility of American political invention. We must change to master change.
I propose to take steps to modernize and streamline the executive branch, to modernize the relations between city and State and Nation.
A new Department of Transportation is needed to bring together our transportation activities. The present structure--35 Government agencies, spending $5 billion yearly--makes it almost impossible to serve either the growing demands of this great Nation or the needs of the industry, or the right of the taxpayer to full efficiency and real frugality.
I will propose in addition a program to construct and to flight-test a new supersonic transport airplane that will fly three times the speed of sound--in excess of 2,000 miles per hour.
I propose to examine our Federal system--the relation between city, State, Nation, and the citizens themselves. We need a commission of the most distinguished scholars and men of public affairs to do this job. I will ask them to move on to develop a creative federalism to best use the wonderful diversity of our institutions and our people to solve the problems and to fulfill the dreams of the American people.