They guarantee that the canal will be open always for unrestricted use by the ships of the world.  Our ships have the right to go to the head of the line for priority of passage in times of emergency or need.  We retain the permanent right to defend the canal with our own military forces, if necessary, to guarantee its openness and its neutrality.

The treaties are to the clear advantage of ourselves, the Panamanians, and the other users of the canal.  Ratifying the Panama Canal treaties will demonstrate our good faith to the world, discourage the spread of hostile ideologies in this hemisphere, and directly contribute to the economic well-being and the security of the United States.

I have to say that that’s very welcome applause.

There were two moments on my recent journey which, for me, confirmed the final aims of our foreign policy and what it always must be.

One was in a little village in India, where I met a people as passionately attached to their rights and liberties as we are, but whose children have a far smaller chance for good health or food or education or human fulfillment than a child born in this country.

The other moment was in Warsaw, capital of a nation twice devastated by war in this century.  There, people have rebuilt the city which war’s destruction took from them.  But what was new only emphasized clearly what was lost.

What I saw in those two places crystalized for me the purposes of our own Nation’s policy:  to ensure economic justice, to advance human rights, to resolve conflicts without violence, and to proclaim in our great democracy our constant faith in the liberty and dignity of human beings everywhere.

We Americans have a great deal of work to do together.  In the end, how well we do that work will depend on the spirit in which we approach it.  We must seek fresh answers, unhindered by the stale prescriptions of the past.

It has been said that our best years are behind us.  But I say again that America’s best is still ahead.  We have emerged from bitter experiences chastened but proud, confident once again, ready to face challenges once again, and united once again.

We come together tonight at a solemn time.  Last week the Senate lost a good and honest man, Lee Metcalf of Montana.

And today, the flag of the United States flew at half-mast from this Capitol and from American installations and ships all over the world, in mourning for Senator Hubert Humphrey.

Because he exemplified so well the joy and the zest of living, his death reminds us not so much of our own mortality, but of the possibilities offered to us by life.  He always looked to the future with a special American kind of confidence, of hope and enthusiasm.  And the best way that we can honor him is by following his example.

Our task, to use the words of Senator Humphrey, is “reconciliation, rebuilding, and rebirth.”