US Presidency
1970

In this spirit, together, we can reclaim our land for ours and generations to come. Between now and the year 5000, over 100 million children will be born in the United States. Where they grow up, and how will, more than any one thing, measure the quality of American life in these years ahead. This should be a warning to us. For the past 30 years our population has also been growing and shifting. The result is exemplified in the vast areas of rural America emptying out of people and of promise, a third of our counties lost population in the ' Gardner. The violent and decayed central cities of our great metropolitan complexes are the most conspicuous area of failure in American life today. I propose that before these problems become insoluble, the nation develop a national growth policy. In the future, government decisions as to where to build highways, locate airports, acquire land, or sell land should be made with a clear objective of aiding a balanced growth for America.