 The president remarks at the signing of the ratification of the convention with Mexico for the solution of the problem of the Shazmuzal from the treaty room in the mansion of the White House December 20th, 1963. I know that I speak for all of you when I say how grateful we are to Miss Kennedy for the fine job she's done in redecorating this treaty room where we meet today. I see in front of us the chandelier that once was in the White House during Theodore Roosevelt's administration and the story went that the president before the head air conditioning was troubled by the wind blowing the chandelier pieces together in the tinkling noise so he told him to take it down to the capital and the butler said well what I'd do with it the capital said give it to the vice president he needs something to keep him away After Miss Kennedy had observed me for a while as vice president I guess she decided I no longer needed the chandelier to keep me away and she asked me if I'd bring a chandelier back and by that time Senator Mansfield realized that he didn't want to be charged with giving away Senate property or liquidating the Senate So he very generously agreed to make a loan to the White House So for the information of all of you the chandelier that you're now viewing is on loan to the White House from the Senate We're glad to welcome Secretary Wurz back this morning We're very happy to see the senators who have participated in the ratification this treaty at present with us This is a moment of which we can all be proud We're particularly delighted to have with us the distinguished ambassador from our neighboring country Love the Carriera Flores from Mexico We're taking the final step in bringing to a closure problem Which has been in thorn in the side of our relations with Mexico for almost a century The way in which the thorn has been removed is a real tribute to the goodwill between the people and the leaders of our two countries It indicates that old and distasteful problems can be solved if men of honor seek to understand the other man's viewpoint. I Recall the first visit that I made to president Adolfo Lopez Mateos in Mexico before he took the oath of office as president he raised the shamans all question and we agreed there that we would start to work on it and Through the administration of president Eisenhower and president Kennedy a great progress was made and Resulted in the Senate on the leadership of Senator Fulbright to ratifying his treaty by an overwhelming vote I hope that other problems in our hemisphere and For that matter throughout the world will be solved with similar tolerance and trust. I Think it's always good if we just put ourselves in the other man's position and Try to estimate how we'd feel if he were in our place and we were in his place and Then make our judgments accordingly. That's what we've done in this Situation and we think great benefits will flow not only to Mexico, but the United States and of course most of all the state of Texas Where this land is located so mr. Ambassador we welcome you here for this historic occasion We say thanks to the members of the Senate who made it possible we express gratitude to Secretary Rusk the leadership he's given and We're even delighted to have the television cameras here for this informal press meeting Even distribute pens by seniority here I believe this is the biggest and the best pen of them all and mr. Ambassador I want to give you the pen that put the in and lens it I Wain this is the first time you haven't gotten the first pen Wayne's been author of most of this stuff Well, this is a treaty room. I'd like you to also know this is the room where president Johnson Met with his cabinet for the first time president Andrew Johnson and This is where president Lyndon Johnson signed his first treaty and in order to do it I came in here the other night and look in the door and my daughter Lucy was sitting at the head of the table studying plane geometry So I asked her mother she couldn't arrange to put a desk across the hall for make a study room out of it So that when we needed the cabinet room, it would be available So we picked up plane geometry and Macbeth and a few other things and hauled them across the hall