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With no sacrifice in efficiency, Federal civilian employment since 1953 has been reduced by over a quarter of a million persons. I am deeply gratified that it was under the urging of this Administration that Alaska and Hawaii became our 49th and 50th States.
Aided by this humanitarian program, total agricultural exports have grown from $2.8 billion in 1953 to an average of about $4 billion annually for the past three years. For 1960, exports are estimated at $4.5 billion, the highest volume on record. Under the Food-for-Peace program, the largest wheat transaction in history was consummated with India in 1960.
Since the signing of the Korean Armistice in 1953, Americans have lived in peace in highly troubled times. During the 1956 Suez crisis, the United States government strongly supported United Nations' action resulting in the ending of the hostilities in Egypt. Again in 1958, peace was preserved in the Middle East despite new discord.
In January 1953, the consumer's dollar was worth only 52 cents in terms of the food, clothing, shelter and other items it would buy compared to 1939. Today, the inflationary spiral which had raised the cost of living by 36 percent between 1946 and 1952 has all but ceased and the value of the dollar virtually stabilized.
An historic new approach Urban Renewal now replaces piecemeal thrusts at slum pockets and urban blight. Communities engaged in urban renewal have doubled and renewal projects have more than tripled since 1953. An estimated 68 projects in 50 cities will be completed by the end of the current fiscal year; another 577 projects will be underway, and planning for 310 more will be in process.
We have made long strides these past three years in bringing our Federal finances under control. The deficit for fiscal year 1953 was almost 9-1/2 billion dollars. Larger deficits seemed certain deficits which would have depreciated the value of the dollar and pushed the cost of living still higher. But government waste and extravagance were searched out. Nonessential activities were dropped.
Over 32,000 victims of Communist tyranny in Hungary were brought to our shores, and at this time our country is working to assist refugees from tyranny in Cuba. Since 1953, the waiting period for naturalization applicants has been reduced from 18 months to 45 days.
We have made long strides these past three years in bringing our Federal finances under control. The deficit for fiscal year 1953 was almost 9-1/2 billion dollars. Larger deficits seemed certain deficits which would have depreciated the value of the dollar and pushed the cost of living still higher. But government waste and extravagance were searched out. Nonessential activities were dropped.
At this propitious moment in the evolution of the Faith in your country, at a time when the American, the British, the Indian, the Persian, the Australian, the Canadian and Iráqí national Bahá’í communities are busily engaged in prosecuting specially conceived Plans for the systematic propagation of the Faith within their respective countries and beyond their confines, it is only fitting for a community as old and honoured as yours, which has survived such cruel blows, which occupies so enviable a position in the heart of Europe, the recipient of so great a measure of bounty and loving-kindness from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, to formulate its own Plan, preferably a five year Plan, destined to culminate in 1953, the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Bahá’u’lláh’s Mission in the Síyáh-Chál of Ṭihrán.
In concluding my final message to the Congress, it is fitting to look back to my first to the aims and ideals I set forth on February 2, 1953: To use America's influence in world affairs to advance the cause of peace and justice, to conduct the affairs of the Executive Branch with integrity and efficiency, to encourage creative initiative in our economy, and to work toward the attainment of the well-being and equality of opportunity of all citizens.
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