The groundwork for this kind of cooperation has already been laid in discussions among NATO countries.  Promptness in following through with legislation will be the best possible evidence of American unity of purpose in cooperating with our friends.

6.  Education and research

Sixth:  In the area of education and research, I recommend a balanced program to improve our resources, involving an investment of about a billion dollars over a four year period.  This involves new activities by the Department of Health, Education and Welfare designed principally to encourage improved teaching quality and student opportunities in the interests of national security.  It also provides a five-fold increase in sums available to the National Science Foundation for its special activities in stimulating and improving science education.

Scrupulous attention has been paid to maintaining local control of educational policy, spurring the maximum amount of local effort, and to avoiding undue stress on the physical sciences at the expense of other branches of learning.

In the field of research, I am asking for substantial increases in basic research funds, including a doubling of the funds available to the National Science Foundation for this purpose.

But Federal action can do only a part of the job.  In both education and research, redoubled exertions will be necessary on the part of all Americans if we are to rise to the demands of our times.  This means hard work on the part of state and local governments, private industry, schools and colleges, private organizations and foundations, teachers, parents, and—­perhaps most important of all—­the student himself, with his bag of books and his homework.

With this kind of all-inclusive campaign, I have no doubt that we can create the intellectual capital we need for the years ahead, invest it in the right places—­and do all this, not as regimented pawns, but as free men and women!

7.  Spending and saving

Seventh:  To provide for this extra effort for security, we must apply stern tests of priority to other expenditures, both military and civilian.  This extra effort involves, most immediately, the need for a supplemental defense appropriation of $1.3 billion for fiscal year 1958.

In the 1959 budget, increased expenditures for missiles, nuclear ships, atomic energy, research and development, science and education, a special contingency fund to deal with possible new technological discoveries, and increases in pay and incentives to obtain and retain competent manpower add up to a total increase over the comparable figures in the 1957 budget of about $4 billion.

I believe that, in spite of these necessary increases, we should strive to finance the 1959 security effort out of expected revenues.  While we now believe that expected revenues and expenditures will roughly balance, our real purpose will be to achieve adequate security, but always with the utmost regard for efficiency and careful management.