I have often and strongly urged that this condition demands a national health program.  The heart of the program must be a national system of payment for medical care based on well-tried insurance principles.  This great Nation cannot afford to allow its citizens to suffer needlessly from the lack of proper medical care.

Our ultimate aim must be a comprehensive insurance system to protect all our people equally against insecurity and ill health.

Another fundamental aim of our democracy is to provide an adequate education for every person.

Our educational systems face a financial crisis.  It is deplorable that in a Nation as rich as ours there are millions of children who do not have adequate schoolhouses or enough teachers for a good elementary or secondary education.  If there are educational inadequacies in any State, the whole Nation suffers.  The Federal Government has a responsibility for providing financial aid to meet this crisis.

In addition, we must make possible greater equality of opportunity to all our citizens for education.  Only by so doing can we insure that our citizens will be capable of understanding and sharing the responsibilities of democracy.

The Government’s programs for health, education, and security are of such great importance to our democracy that we should now establish an executive department for their administration.

Health and education have their beginning in the home.  No matter what our hospitals or schools are like, the youth of our Nation are handicapped when millions of them live in city slums and country shacks.  Within the next decade, we must see that every American family has a decent home.  As an immediate step we need the long-range housing program which I have recommended on many occasions to this Congress.  This should include financial aids designed to yield more housing at lower prices.  It should provide public housing for low-income families, and vigorous development of new techniques to lower the cost of building.

Until we can overcome the present drastic housing shortage, we must extend and strengthen rent control.

We have had, and shall continue to have, a special interest in the welfare of our veterans.  Over 14 million men and women who served in the armed forces in World War II have now returned to civilian life.  Over 2 million veterans are being helped through school.  Millions have been aided while finding jobs, and have been helped in buying homes, in obtaining medical care, and in adjusting themselves to physical handicaps.

All but a very few veterans have successfully made the transition from military life to their home communities.  The success of our veterans’ program is proved by this fact.  This Nation is proud of the eagerness shown by our veterans to become self-reliant and self-supporting citizens.

Our third goal is to conserve and use our natural resources so that they can contribute most effectively to the welfare of our people.