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Home , James Madison Award, Woodrow Wilson

Administration of William J. Clinton, 2000 / Oct. 5 last step we made. But there are still significant And we ought to be investing money in that. questions about how soon the product will be— There are technologies available today off the can go to the refinery and whether we not only shelf that pay out in 2 years or less that would can get fuel but fuel oil out of the refinery permit us to dramatically reduce energy con- and into the supply chain in time to make sure sumption in homes, offices, and factories all over there’s no adverse price impact for the winter. America. We ought to give people a tax break I do think we’re going to have enough supplies to buy them, and we ought to do it now. We to get through the winter. And I’m just going ought to create a market that will move quickly to watch it every day and do what seems indi- to a very different energy future that will actu- cated. ally grow the economy faster. I would just say this, since you raised that So you know where—we differ over—and question—and then I have to let these Members there are some production incentives we could of Congress go, and Mr. Casserly and Secretary adopt now that we agree on. The most signifi- Riley will go out and talk more about the edu- cant difference we have I think is over whether cation report—but what I would hope is that there should be drilling in the Arctic National what we’re going through here would prompt Wildlife Refuge. And that’s an issue that’s being the majority in Congress to work with us on debated in the election; the American people some longer term strategies on which we ought can draw their own conclusions. I think we’re to be able to agree. right. They think they’re right. They can hear We are very close to the development of very the debate. But that should not be an excuse high mileage vehicles with fuel cells, alternative to walk away from the long-term elements of fuels, blended fuels. We are within sight of an energy strategy that I’ve been trying to pass cracking the chemical mystery of the conversion for more than 2 years, that we can do today of biomass to fuels at a ratio that would make at very modest cost and enormous return. it—change the whole future of this issue. Right Thank you very much. now it takes 7 gallons of gasoline to make 8 gallons of ethanol or any other biomass fuel, NOTE: The President spoke at 11:27 a.m. in the but the chemists believe they can get the con- Rose Garden at the White House. In his remarks, version down to one gallon of gasoline for 8 he referred to Michael D. Casserly, executive di- gallons of fuel. When that happens, then all rector, Council of Great City Schools; President of you will drive to work every day with the Slobodan Milosevic of the Federal Republic of equivalent of 500 miles a gallon. And this will ( and Montenegro); Chairman be a very different world. We will be living of the Palestinian Authority; and in a different world when that happens. Prime Minister Ehud Barak of Israel.

Remarks to the Conference on the Progressive Tradition in Princeton, New Jersey October 5, 2000

Thank you very much. Thank you for the I could come here today. I want to thank Pro- wonderful welcome. Thank you, President Sha- fessor Sean Wilentz for putting on this con- piro, for your distinguished leadership here and ference and for his many acts of generosity and the vital work you did during the course of kindness and support for our efforts over the our common Presidencies. It occurred to me last 8 years. that this might be the only place in America I’d like to thank the Congressman from where people thought Woodrow got a Princeton, Representative Rush Holt, for coming demotion when he was elected President of the here. Thank you. I know this is not really a . [Laughter] political event, but I can’t help noting that Rush Thank you, Dean Rothschild. And thank you, Holt is the only bona fide scientist in the Con- Ruth Miller, for putting off your retirement so gress, and Lord knows, we need at least one.

2037 Oct. 5 / Administration of William J. Clinton, 2000

Another Member of Congress wanted to come the leeway of quoting , who here today, Senator from North said in his speech on the new nationalism, ‘‘I Carolina, a good friend of mine, whose daughter do not speak merely from a historical standpoint. Katherine is in the freshman class. And I prom- It is of little use for us to pay lip service to ised to give his excuses to his daughter and the mighty men of the past, unless we sincerely the rest of you, but they are voting in the Senate endeavor to apply those qualities to the prob- today. And part of the Progressives’ tradition lems of the present.’’ is showing up. [Laughter] And so he’s showing It is in that spirit that I would like to say up down in . a few words today, about the Progressive tradi- And I thank you, Katharine Strong Gilbert, tion, about what it means for today and how for giving me this Whig-Clio Award. it is part, I believe, of a larger ongoing debate You know, is a very important in American about the whole idea of figure to every American and every President America. What does the Nation mean? What who cares, in particular, about the framework does it mean to be an American? and history of the Constitution. But it’s inter- The Progressives thought we could only keep esting to me that he actually participated in faith with the past by keeping faith with the debates here in the 18th century, including one future. Their time had much in common with with Aaron Burr, where Madison was the Whig ours, and therefore, our responsibilities have and Burr was the Clio. It was that debate that much in common with theirs, to preserve what produced a memorable line that is too often is enduring but to adapt our Nation time and attributed to me: The era of Whig Government again to what is new. is over. [Laughter] I must say, when I first saw the program said, ‘‘It behooves us once for this conference, I felt some ambivalence. again to stand face to face with our ideals, to The student in me wanted to come here and renew our enthusiasm, to reckon again our du- stay for the whole thing. But the politician in ties, to take fresh views of our aims, and fresh me wondered what in the living daylights I was courage for their pursuit.’’ These words ring doing here. I’m supposed to lead off a group with relevance for your time. Not simply be- of people whose books I have read, who know cause we stand at the dawn of a new century, more about the subject I’m supposed to address as Wilson and Roosevelt did, but because this than I ever will. time, like theirs, is characterized by swift and I can say that I had some unique experience stunning change. in carrying on the progressive tradition. I always Like the industrial revolution, this information felt that the work we did the last 8 years made revolution is a true seismic shift. It alters forever us the heir of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow the way we work, live, relate to each other and Wilson— and me, our entire administra- those beyond our borders. The consequences tion. And I have a fascination with that period of the digital chip, nano-technology, the Inter- of history. net, and the sequencing of the human genome I own a lot of Theodore Roosevelt’s books will be every bit as profound, if not more pro- in the first edition, including a fascinating ac- found, than those of the telephone, the assembly count of how he organized the Rough Riders. line, and the vast migration of Americans to I’ve also got a wonderful book that Owen Wis- the cities and the opening of America to its ter, the writer of westerns, wrote about his first great wave of immigrants. friendship with Theodore Roosevelt, when, like But these are only the most obvious parallels many of you, they were undergraduates together between the and what I call at Harvard. The other day I acquired Joseph this time, the last time I came to Princeton, Tumulty’s book—he was Woodrow Wilson’s pri- a new progressive era. I also believe in a larger vate secretary—about his relationship with Presi- sense the Progressive Era and this time rep- dent Wilson, both as Governor and as President. resent two of the five pivotal points in American It’s a fascinating account of the time, by some- history, when we have been called upon to reaf- one who was admittedly biased but still had firm and to redefine not just the role of Govern- a unique perspective. ment for new times but the very idea of the So I’ve thought a lot about this period. And American Nation. That debate has gone on from I suppose as a politician, I should give myself the beginning.

2038 Administration of William J. Clinton, 2000 / Oct. 5

First there was the debate which George also elements of those other great hingepoints Washington, Alexander , and John in American history in this time, too. Marshall won over and his You can see it in the fight we had with the friends, about whether we were preeminently Republican Congress that led to the shutdown going to be one Nation or a just a little bit of the Government. You can see it in our efforts stronger confederation of States. I have to say to build one America across all the lines that out of deference to Mr. Jefferson that after he divide us. You can see it in our struggle to became President, I suspect he was glad he end genocide and ethnic cleansing in the Bal- lost the argument, as he sent out Lewis and kans and to build binding ties to Africa, Latin Clark, imposed the infamous embargo, and American and Asian nations with whom we have bought Louisiana, which at the time cost the not been closely aligned in the past. equivalent of one full year’s budget of the Fed- The central lesson of the progressive is that eral Government. you either have to shape change consistent with Can you imagine what would happen if I your values, or you will be shaped by it in ways came to the Congress and said—[laughter]— that make it more difficult for you to live by ‘‘Have I got a deal for you.’’ [Laughter] ‘‘Just your values. To retreat from responsibility is to $1.9 trillion. What difference does it make?’’ invite instability. To embrace the obligation of [Laughter] leadership has consistently under progressive The second great debate we had about the times led to better lives for all Americans. idea of the Nation occurred obviously in the Wilson and Roosevelt made an enemy of out- days leading up to and during and immediately dated orthodoxy, replacing them with what Ted- after the Civil War, when dy’s famous cousin Franklin Roosevelt called saved the Union by moving it closer to the true ‘‘bold, persistent experimentation.’’ As many of ideals of the Declaration of Independence and, the scholars here have argued, and doubtless as Gary Wills has so brilliantly argued, literally will argue with greater clarity than I can, the redefining the Constitution closer toward those progressive legacy is not primarily a set of pro- ideals, in the Gettysburg Address. grams that no longer have great relevance to The third great point was in the Progressive us but a vital set of principles: the idea that Era, when Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roo- new conditions demand a new approach to Gov- sevelt presided over an America fully entering ernment. the industrial revolution. When Teddy Roosevelt became President, Then the fourth time was during the New few Americans looked to him, to his office, or Deal, the Second World War, and its immediate even to their Government to solve their prob- aftermath with the dawn of the cold war, when lems. At the end of the 19th century, the White Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman gave us House was weak; the Congress was at the mercy our first comprehensive social safety net and of special interests. Roosevelt’s genius was to an institutionalized commitment to American redefine the role of Government and the role leadership for and freedom in the world. of the President, to protect the public interest Now, at the dawn of this global information and to act as an accountable agent of change. age, Al Gore and I have been working to adapt This is an ideal as old as Madison, but Roosevelt all of the domestic and foreign policies of the and Wilson gave it new meaning for a new United States to these sweeping changes in era. What is its meaning today? science and technology, in social diversity and When I ran for President in 1992, our Gov- pluralism, and in increasing global interdepend- ernment was discredited. In fact, you could ence. hardly run for President unless you had some- History has taught Americans not to stand thing bad to say about the Government. Indeed, passively in the face of change. What the Pro- part of the political genius of the ascendency gressive Presidents understood so clearly, from of President Reagan and his associates was to Teddy Roosevelt to Wilson to FDR and Truman attain power by discrediting the very idea of to Kennedy and Johnson, is the understanding Government. They basically were able to say that America either will shape change or be things like, ‘‘Government couldn’t run a bake shaped by it. As I’ve already said, I believe sale. The Government would mess up a two- the time in which we live bears the most resem- car parade.’’ And they found huge majorities blance to the Progressive Era. But there are of Americans sort of nodding their heads.

2039 Oct. 5 / Administration of William J. Clinton, 2000

Those in the progressive tradition, I believe, up since 1993 by $6,300, after inflation. The had given them some ammunition by clinging poverty rate has fallen to 11.8 percent, the low- to old programs, , and approaches est in 20 years. Senior poverty is below 10 per- that no longer worked. Then the conservatives cent for the first time ever. Child poverty used the failures as an excuse to do nothing dropped by the largest amount since 1966. His- on the domestic front. Some of our leaders lit- panic and African-American poverty are the low- erally made a virtue of their endless capacity est since separate statistics have been kept. to tell the American people how bad the Gov- Since 1993, 7 million Americans have moved ernment was. And then when those who were out of poverty, over 2 million last year alone. reacting against the progressive tradition took Now, a century ago, economic growth was power, they seemed determined to prove it by generated by large industrial organizations, pop- digging us a huge budgetary hole, quadrupling ularly called the then. Today, economic the Nation’s debt in 12 years. So our economy growth is largely generated by big ideas, which sank; our society became considerably more di- is why there are so many young people like vided; and predictably, public confidence in our you making a fortune in dot-com companies. democratic Government collapsed. The antitrust provisions and worker provisions That’s why, when I ran in 1992, I said that that were developed in the Progressive Era to it would be necessary to change our party, make the economy work and to give more peo- change our national leadership, and change our ple a chance to share in it still matters today. Nation. Al Gore and I believed that we had And they have been built on, modified, and to find a new way, something now popularly called around the world, ‘‘a third way,’’ a way changed, but they still matter today. But today back to enduring values, a way beyond a Gov- we need even more focus on boosting ideas ernment profoundly indifferent to people’s prob- and innovation, creating the conditions for pros- lems, a way forward to meet the challenges of perity, and again, giving everybody the tools they today and tomorrow. need to succeed in a very different and, in some We committed to reinvent Government so it ways, much less organized world. could function as it does best in an information You can see our efforts there, just for example society, as a catalyst, a partner to the private in the Telecommunications Act of 1996, where sector in creating opportunity, jobs, and hope the Vice President and I fought for the E-rate and providing our citizens with the tools they so that the poorest schools and hospitals and need to make the most of their own lives. That, libraries could all afford to be hooked into the too, of course, is a principle as old as our Re- Internet and where we fought for a framework public, opportunity for all. that favored competition from new companies And whether we’re talking about the informa- over giving all the business of the new informa- tion age, the industrial age, or the turn from tion economy to existing big enterprises. Again, the 18th to the 19th century, economic growth it’s worked reasonably well. There are hundreds and opportunity have always gone hand in hand. of thousands of new jobs, thousands of new That’s why we set out to build an economic companies out there, and it’s an example of strategy that would work for this time, rooted how we tried to change the laws and the frame- in fiscal discipline, investment in our people and work to meet what was best for opportunity our future, and expanding our economic ties for the largest number of Americans, and to with the rest of the world. Well, lucky for us, give all of our people, especially our young peo- or I wouldn’t be here talking today, it’s worked ple, the tools they need to take advantage of out pretty well. the age in which we live. We’ve gone from record deficits to record So, in that sense, the nature of opportunity, surpluses. Our economy has created 22 million a constant value, is changing. At the time our jobs. We’re in the midst of the longest economic Nation was founded, opportunity most of all expansion in history. But in the progressive tra- meant the freedom to carve a farm and an exist- dition, to use President Kennedy’s words, the ence out of the forest frontier. In the industrial rising economy is lifting all boats. The Census age, the progressives saw that it meant some- Bureau reports that in the last year, typical thing different. It meant a high school edu- household income rose to the highest level ever cation, a vocational training, preserving competi- recorded, breaking $40,000 for the first time— tion, protecting American workers from abuses,

2040 Administration of William J. Clinton, 2000 / Oct. 5 and keeping children out of the workplace when years, by adopting the family and medical leave appropriate. law, which now over 20 million Americans have Today it means mastering new tools and tech- used to take some time off when a baby is nologies, being able to think broadly, adjust born or when a family member is sick without quickly, and being able to keep learning for losing their job. a lifetime. This morning, for example, at the And I just predict to you, all of you young White House, I met with House and Senate people out here, this will be one of the big Democrats to push the Congress again to adopt debates over the next decade, because we’re our educational proposals, because I think they the best country in the world at keeping the are more than ever before at the core of the hassles of starting a business down, providing concept of opportunity and at the core of our capital to start businesses, providing an environ- ability to keep changing and building an ever ment in which people can flourish, but we lag more progressive society. way behind a lot of other nations in the progres- Even though we balanced the budget these sive tradition in simply saying that the most im- last 8 years and run a surplus and we’ve elimi- portant work of any society is raising children nated hundreds of programs, we’ve also doubled and that work will be more productive if people investment in education and training. More than who are working who have kids don’t have to 10 million Americans this year will take advan- worry about the welfare of their children. tage of the HOPE scholarship and lifelong- That’s why we have to do more for child learning tax credit. We reorganized the student care. That’s why we should expand family leave. loan program to save students $8 billion in stu- That’s why we should work more on flexible dent loan repayments since 1993. We raised the leave. When I became President, only 3 million minimum wage, an old tool that I think is still people were making a living primarily in their very important in new times, and I hope we own home. When I ran for reelection, 20 million can raise it again before the Congress goes people were making a living primarily in their home. own home. By the time you vote in November But we took a new tool, the earned-income for the first President of the 21st century, we tax credit, and doubled it so that it’s helping may be up to 30 million people. I don’t have this year alone 15 million families to work their the latest figures, but it’s stunning. way into the middle class. We adopted an em- Part of the reason is technology makes it pos- powerment zone program that the Vice sible; the Internet makes it possible. But part President ran so ably, which has enabled thou- of the reason is we haven’t done as much as sands of jobs to be created in communities that we should have to help people succeed at soci- otherwise would have been totally left behind ety’s enduring work, raising children, and all in this economic recovery because they were the new work we’re doing and the fact that remote or poor, because they didn’t have people more people than ever want to work or have with a lot of skills that were well-suited to the to work and ought to be able to do so. trends of the times. I am very glad that more and more Americans We created community development financial are sharing in our prosperity. But the other institutions to get capital to people who couldn’t thing I want to say is that still a lot of folks go into a normal bank and produce a record have been left behind. Most of them live in that would generate a loan. We also did as much inner cities or small rural towns or on or around as we could to try to help people move from Native American reservations. And one of the welfare to work and to take maximum advantage big challenges now to sort of perfect this pro- of the new economy by investing in education, gressive movement is to figure out how to bring child care, and transportation, recognizing that those people into the circle of opportunity. we live in a place where very often the pool I hope very much that, before I leave office, of available workers is here, usually in a city, the Congress will pass the new markets initiative and the pool of available jobs at their skill level that I worked on with the Speaker of the House is here, usually in the suburbs, usually with no in a bipartisan fashion. I won’t go through all public transport in between. the details, but essentially what it says is we To try to help people balance work and fam- ought to give wealthy Americans with money ily, the United States began to join what most the same incentives to invest in poor areas in other industrial nations have been doing for America we provide to invest in poor areas

2041 Oct. 5 / Administration of William J. Clinton, 2000 around the world, because we believe that we with the values, the vision, and the record of can do this. And we ought to put the infrastruc- the Progressive Era in America. ture there. Theodore Roosevelt said, ‘‘The people have For those of you who have never been on emphatically expressed their desire that our an American Indian reservation, let me tell you, principles be kept substantially unchanged, al- just for example, at the Pine Ridge Reservation though, of course, applied in a progressive spirit in South Dakota, one of the most historic parts to meet changing conditions.’’ That’s what you of American history, the home of the Lakota have to do. Sioux, who were the tribe led by an Indian I just want to make one other point that I chief named Crazy Horse that dispatched Gen- think is of equal importance. I believe that in eral Custer in the late 19th century—the unem- order to preserve a new Progressive Era, we ployment rate is 73 percent. must go much further than we have in our own I was at Shiprock in northern New , national consciousness in understanding that our one of the most beautiful places in our country, continued prosperity, as well as our security, the other day at the Navaho Reservation, where requires us to continue to be involved in the world, to lead in the world, and to cooperate the unemployment rate is over 50 percent; 70 in the world. percent of the people don’t have homes—tele- Almost a century ago, Woodrow Wilson de- phones in their homes. I was introduced by scribed the vision of collective , a young woman who won a contest, an academic global security, the rights of nations against the contest at her school, the prize was a computer, backdrop of the looming threat, and then the and she couldn’t log onto the Internet because fact, of a brutal modern, all-consuming war, a there was not a phone line in her home. In war that is difficult for young people to imagine. our country, at our level of wealth, that is un- In one European battle in , 900,000 conscionable. And this cannot rightly be called people were lost, because they had modern a full Progressive Era until we have addressed technology and they were stuck in old patterns these challenges. of fighting—digging trenches and shooting each We still have to be constantly, restlessly other and moving up, line after line after line, searching for ways to expand the circle of oppor- that might have worked fine if they’d had bows tunity. This, too, is a principle rooted firmly and arrows or even Civil War era rifles and in the Progressive Era but also in our Nation’s cannons but was an absolute disaster when mod- founding. Remember what the Framers said: ern technology was married to old ideas—both They were committed to forming ‘‘a more per- geopolitical ideas, which led to the war, and fect Union.’’ They never said the Union would the ideas of military strategy with which it was be perfect, that we would ever reach complete carried out. You should remember that today harmony in our living with our ideals, but that and try to make sure that the ideas you have we had a constant, endless lifetime obligation are equal to the technology and the realities to perfect the Union. of modern life. And if I could leave any of you with a thought When Woodrow Wilson painted this idealistic that I hope you will have in your mind as you, vision few of his fellow countrymen and women as citizens, go to the polls, and then as you, listened. A lot of people thought he was an as citizens, build your own lives, it is that we idealist who’d passed his prime. And after he get a chance like we’ve got today maybe once was no longer on the scene and the reaction every 50 years, maybe even more seldom, where prevailed, as it always does after periods of pro- we have both prosperity, social , coupled gressivism, Professor Schlesinger has told us in with national self-confidence and the absence his writings on the cycles of history, we had of serious crisis at home or threat abroad, to to learn in a very hard way that America could really imagine the future we would like to build not safely or responsibly withdraw from the and then go about building it. And in my view, world. one of the most important things we have Now we’ve had two cold wars and a long achieved is not any of these specific things peo- and bitter—two World Wars—excuse me—and ple always talk about but just giving you the a long and bitter cold war. We live in a time chance to build the future of your dreams. And when new democracies are emerging around the I hope that decision will be made consistent world. When you walk out of here, if you turn

2042 Administration of William J. Clinton, 2000 / Oct. 5 on CNN, you’ll see the emergence—I hope— tions. You can see it in the breathtaking, and in Serbia, with a lot of young people like you I think horribly shortsighted defeat in the U.S. fighting for the future you take for granted. Senate of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, More people live under free governments of the first major treaty to be defeated since the their own choosing today than ever before. For Senate defeated Woodrow Wilson with the the first time in history, more than half of the Treaty. I must say, for my people on this planet live under governments country’s sake, I certainly hope it doesn’t have of their own choosing, throwing off the yoke a life-risk consequence, and I don’t think it will, of oppression. Many of them, but not all, are if the American people decide that these matters also enjoying newfound prosperity. are important. We are closer than ever to redeeming the We live in a time when people have lots of vision of Woodrow Wilson, of reaching his opinions on lots of things. They’re absolutely dream of a world full of free markets, free elec- flooded with information. So if you took a survey tions, and free peoples working together. But in America and you said, ‘‘Should America pay we’re still not there. And there are a lot of its fair share to the U.N.; should America re- obstacles in the way, not least of which is the sponsibly participate in peacekeeping, because continuing bedrock of reluctance in our own other people share the load; should we have society to pay our fair share and do our fair the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and have part, on the part of some conservatives, and a cooperative approach to reducing the nuclear on the part of some progressives who embrace threats and other threats of weapons of mass the change that is the global economy and shape destruction in the future?’’ you’d get big majori- it, instead of denying it and pretending that ties that would say yes. But most Americans as if we were Luddites that we can make it don’t understand how important this is and what go away. a significant piece it is of building a new era And you have to think about that. What does of progress. So it doesn’t tend to be a voting it mean to you what Wilson said and what Roo- issue. sevelt said. They understood at the start of what And whenever important new things are not has been called the , Franklin voting issues in a free society, then entrenched, Roosevelt and Harry Truman understood when old interests tend to prevail, and we get in trou- they created the U.N. and NATO and the Bret- ble. So I ask you all to think about that. The on Woods institutions, that the United States challenges of this new century are far more di- simply cannot be partly in the world, dipping verse than our predecessors could have foreseen. in when it suits our purpose, hunkering down But all the good things that we have don’t make when it doesn’t—that we can’t relate to our all the bad problems go away. friends in fits and starts; we can’t lead just when Information technology will not resolve all it suits us and then tell people we’re too busy conflicts between nations. Indeed, it creates when it doesn’t. some new challenges. It enables, for example, We have not made that decision yet. You networks of terrorists, narcotraffickers, inter- can see it in the ambivalence the Congress has national criminals to communicate with each felt when they supported me on NAFTA and other with greater speed, clarity, and often with the World Trade Organization and bringing less chance of being caught. China into the WTO and when they wouldn’t New technology allows people to imagine go along with giving me the same trade author- weapons of mass destruction that are made ity that Presidents have had for nearly 30 years smaller, just like computers, encased in small now, to negotiate comprehensive trade agree- plastic containers that don’t show up on airport ments with other countries, and have them metal detectors, that present new threats in the voted up or down. You can see it in the fact ongoing historical battle between the organized that a strong conservative bloc in the Senate forces of destruction and the organized, and and in the House have actually spent 8 years sometimes not so well-organized, forces of civili- demanding—8 years—the most prosperous years zation. in our country’s history, saying that the most So, for all the good things that are happening, important thing to do at the U.N. is to lower we can’t make all the problems go away. There- America’s share of peacekeeping and lower our fore, the expansion of global commerce, the percentage of the total dues of the United Na- growth of democracy, the rise of other centers

2043 Oct. 5 / Administration of William J. Clinton, 2000 of economic activity does not diminish our re- gling for the quiet miracle of a normal life, sponsibility to lead. It heightens it, and it re- whether they’re in the Middle East, Northern quires that we do so in a more cooperative , in a small place like East Timor, a fashion. long way from here, in a poor country like As American interests evolve, I believe we or a country plagued by narcotraffickers and civil can stay rooted to the principles of Woodrow war like Colombia, and especially in the Balkans, Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt. I think we stay where the First World War began. There espe- true to those principles when we change. For cially, the fight for freedom should still be our example, I think we’re being true to the prin- own. ciples of the Progressive Era when we provide Freedom has made steady advances in Bosnia debt relief to the world’s poorest countries. It’s and Croatia and Romania and and, unconscionable that these countries are making today, as I said earlier, in Serbia, where a dec- interest payments that are often half or more ade ago the forces of destruction began their of their annual Government budget, instead of march across the Balkans. Now the march of spending the money on education and health freedom is gaining new ground. Yesterday, the care and the development of their nation. And Serbian police went into the coal mines and they can’t pay the money back to us anyway. refused to fire on the coal miners. Today, in Why are we doing this? It doesn’t make any the Parliament building, there are, as I said, sense. thousands of young people, like you, and not So we have a new idea. Don’t just give un- so young people, like me, standing up there, critical debt relief. Give debt relief to countries saying they want their country back. They want that can demonstrate they’re not putting the to be free. They voted, and they want their money in Swiss bank accounts or building mili- vote respected. tary or other instruments of oppression but only The people of Serbia have spoken with their putting the money into education, health care, ballot; they have spoken on the street. I hope and responsible development. That is, in my the hour is near when their voices will be heard judgment, a critical component of and we can welcome them to democracy, to in a global age, just as I think it’s important Europe, to the world’s communities. When they to fight maladies like AIDS, TB, and malaria. do, we will move as quickly as possible to lift Those three things claim one fourth of the lives the sanctions and build the kind of responsible that are lost in the world every year today. One partnership that the people there deserve. quarter of all the people who will die in the We have made the world, I believe, more year 2000 will die of AIDS, TB, or malaria. safe against force and selfish aggression. But And we have it within our power to do some- we know, like Roosevelt and Wilson before us, thing about it and also to lead the world toward that no peace is lasting unless it is backed by the development of an AIDS vaccine and to the consistent, dedicated leadership of nations make the drugs more widely available and to that have the wealth, size, and power to do do more about TB and malaria. We ought to the right thing. Here in America and in more do that. and more nations around the world, progressive In an interdependent world, we’ll be better parties are in power. Every now and then, we off if people who are plagued have their plagues all get together and have dinner and try to help alleviated. We ought to do more, in my judg- each other. And we try to figure out how to ment, to support poor villagers in remote coun- keep this going, how to keep up the fight for tries by giving them loans so they can start busi- reform, for justice, for opportunity for all, for nesses and build a self-sustaining life, to rein- freedom. force democracy, and to build from the grass- I believe that the continuation of this legacy roots up, countries that can be good partners in our time depends as much as anything else with us in the future. We ought to do more on whether we actually believe in our common to insist that a more open economy also be humanity and the primary importance of acting a more fair one or, in the common parlance, on our increasing interdependence. to put a human face on the global economy. There’s a fascinating book that’s been pub- We also stay true to the vision of Wilson lished sometime in the last year, I think, by and Roosevelt when we do our part to keep Robert Wright, called ‘‘Non Zero.’’ Some of you the peace and to support brave people strug- have perhaps read it. The title refers to game

2044 Administration of William J. Clinton, 2000 / Oct. 5 theory. A zero-sum game is one that in order condition of true independence, in the old-fash- for me to win, you have to lose. A game like ioned American way in this very new age, is the Presidential election. A non-zero-sum game having some humility and compassion and un- is one where in order for me to win, you have derstanding of our interdependence, which is to win, too. And Wright attempts to make a founded on an acknowledgement, an acceptance, historical argument through all the tragedies, a celebration of our common humanity. travesties, brutalities of human history, including That, after all, is what led to the Declaration the gross abuses of science and medicine under of Independence and the Constitution. It’s what the Nazis and the gross abuses of organization led Abraham Lincoln to lay down his life to under totalitarian regimes of the 20th century— hold the country together. And it’s what gave attempts to prove Martin Luther King’s moral us the Progressive Era, the sense that we all assertion that the arc of history is long, but matter, that we were all connected, and that it bends towards justice, by arguing that, we we were all entitled, each in our own way, to are consistently growing more interdependent; have a chance to play a part in the endless and that the more interdependent we become, effort to create ‘‘a more perfect Union.’’ the more we are forced to look for solutions The progressives have been important to in which in order for me to win, you have to America. They have redefined the idea of a na- win, too—non-zero-sum solutions. tion in ways that were sorely needed. But you The whole idea of the Progressive Era was are in the middle of what could be the longest that everybody should be treated with dignity; and most significant Progressive Era in Amer- everybody deserves certain minimal things in ican history. I ask you to study the one that life; that the power of government should be happened before but to fully live the one that arrayed against private power, so that individual is unfolding before your eyes. people who are equal under the law, all had Thank you very much. at least a fair chance at life. In this era, I often say, in my sort of way, that everybody counts; everybody ought to have a chance; and NOTE: The President spoke at 3:23 p.m. in we all do better when we work together. That’s Richardson Auditorium at . what I believe. In his remarks, he referred to Harold Shapiro, That, I think, is an enduring truth of the president, Princeton University; Michael American dream, going back to the Founders, Rothschild, dean, and Ruth Miller, assistant dean, going back to all the voluntary societies that Woodrow Wilson School; Sean Wilentz, director, de Toqueville chronicled so eloquently, almost Program in American Studies, and Katharine 200 years ago. In this time, we can have a Strong Gilbert, president, American Whig- progressive era that outlasts the one you came Cliosophic Society, who presented the President here to study, if we are faithful to its values, with the James Madison Award for Distinguished if we understand we have to change even more Public Service; and historian Arthur Schlesinger. rapidly and perhaps even more profoundly than The conference was entitled ‘‘The Progressive they did, and if we acknowledge that a pre- Tradition: , Culture, and History.’’

Statement Urging Congressional Action On Tobacco October 5, 2000

Today the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, funds. Tobacco companies are spending 10 the American Cancer Society, the American times more to market their product than all Heart Association, and the American Lung Asso- 50 States combined are spending on tobacco ciation issued a report showing that while some prevention and cessation. I encourage all States States have devoted a substantial portion of their to commit a significant part of their settlement tobacco settlement to reduce youth smoking, to address the harm that tobacco companies most have committed only modest or minimal

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