"Wisdom is better than strength, and a wise man is better than a strong man."
These words from the Book of Wisdom are more than two thousand years old but they have special meaning for us today. We face the challenge of unprecedented crises abroad and the challenge of unprecedented growth at home. And what we need more than atomic power, or airpower, or financial, industrial, or even manpower, is brainpower. Our country has surmounted great crises in the past, not because of our wealth, not because of our rhetoric, not because we had longer cars and whiter iceboxes and bigger television screens than anyone else, but because our ideas were more compelling and more penetrating and more wise and enduring.
We need both wisdom and strength to prevail today. Our future course depends upon "the consent of the governed" – and it is essential to us all that "the governed" be as wise as possible. But while we are concentrating our attention on reinforcing every weapon in our arsenal of military strength, we are neglecting one of our more important weapons in our "arsenal" of wisdom: the public library.
This country pioneered in the development of library facilities. But we can no longer rest on our laurels. National Library Week gives us an opportunity to spotlight the unfinished agenda.
Seventy-three million people in the United States have inadequate library service. Twenty-five and a half million have no public library service at all. Six million children have no access to school libraries.
Some 140 years ago young Abe Lincoln devoured all the books he could beg or borrow near Gentryville, Indiana, which had no public library. His life – and the life of our nation – was influenced by his introduction to Aesop, Ben Franklin's autobiography, and Weems' "Life of Washington".
Today, 140 years later, amidst all our modern technology and abundant economy, Abe Lincoln would still have to beg or borrow these books – for Gentryville, like so many other rural communities in this country, still lacks a public library.
If this nation is to be wise as well as strong, if we are to live up to our national promise and live up to our national destiny, then we need more new ideas for more wise men reading more good books in more public libraries.
Source: Papers of John F. Kennedy. Pre-Presidential Papers. Senate Files, Box 902, "National Library Week, Indianapolis, Indiana, 13 April 1959." John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.