We should try new methods of child development and care from the earliest years, before it is too late to correct.

And I will propose these measures to the 90th Congress.

Let us insure that older Americans, and neglected Americans, share in their
Nation’s progress.

We should raise social security payments by an overall average of 20 percent.  That will add $4 billion 100 million to social security payments in the first year.  I will recommend that each of the 23 million Americans now receiving payments get an increase of at least 15 percent.

I will ask that you raise the minimum payments by 59 percent—­from $44 to $70 a month, and to guarantee a minimum benefit of $100 a month for those with a total of 25 years of coverage.  We must raise the limits that retired workers can earn without losing social security income.

We must eliminate by law unjust discrimination in employment because of age.

We should embark upon a major effort to provide self-help assistance to the forgotten in our midst—­the American Indians and the migratory farm workers.  And we should reach with the hand of understanding to help those who live in rural poverty.

And I will propose these measures to the 90th Congress.

So let us keep on improving the quality of life and enlarging the meaning of justice for all of our fellow Americans.

We should transform our decaying slums into places of decency through the landmark Model Cities program.  I intend to seek for this effort, this year, the full amount that you in Congress authorized last year.

We should call upon the genius of private industry and the most advanced technology to help rebuild our great cities.

We should vastly expand the fight for dean air with a total attack on pollution at its sources, and—­because air, like water, does not respect manmade boundaries—­we should set up “regional airsheds” throughout this great land.

We should continue to carry to every corner of the Nation our campaign for a beautiful America—­to dean up our towns, to make them more beautiful, our cities, our countryside, by creating more parks, and more seashores, and more open spaces for our children to play in, and for the generations that come after us to enjoy.

We should continue to seek equality and justice for each citizen—­before a jury, in seeking a job, in exercising his civil rights.  We should find a solution to fair housing, so that every American, regardless of color, has a decent home of his choice.

We should modernize our Selective Service System.  The National Commission on Selective Service will shortly submit its report.  I will send you new recommendations to meet our military manpower needs.  But let us resolve that this is to be the Congress that made our draft laws as fair and as effective as possible.

We should protect what Justice Brandeis called the “right most valued by civilized men”—­the right to privacy.  We should outlaw all wiretapping—­public and private—­wherever and whenever it occurs, except when the security of this Nation itself is at stake—­and only then with the strictest governmental safeguards.  And we should exercise the full reach of our constitutional powers to outlaw electronic “bugging” and “snooping.”