US Presidency
1953

It has been the desk of many Presidents, and will be the desk of many more. Since I became President, I have been to Europe, Mexico, Canada, Brazil, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands, Wake Island and Hawaii. I have visited almost every State in the Union. I have traveled 135,000 miles by air, 77,000 by rail, and 17,000 by ship. But the mail always followed me, and wherever I happened to be, that's where the office of the President was. The greatest part of the President's job is to make decisions, big ones and small ones, dozens of them almost every day. The papers may circulate around the Government for a while but they finally reach this desk. And then, there's no place else for them to go. The President, whoever he is, has to decide. He can't pass the buck to anybody. No one else can do the deciding for him. That's his job. That's what I've been doing here in this room, for almost 8 years.