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tions as a second runner-up in the Small Exchange With Reporters Following Business Person of the Year. the Small Business Person Award Carol Rae was hired as a consultant to the Ceremony Magnum Diamond Corporation. But in no time, she was asked to run the company. May 12, 1993 Now, I can tell you, as somebody who has fooled with a lot of consultants, that in itself is an incredible compliment. As president of Serbian Arms Embargo the business, she’s made it a leader in sur- gical tools for eye surgery. The Rapid City, Q. Mr. President, have you changed your South Dakota company has grown from 7 views on the arms embargo at all? employees to 68 in about 4 years. That’s a The President. No. very impressive achievement for Carol Rae, Q. Does the fighting—— our first runner-up. Would you please come The President. I haven’t changed my forward and be recognized? views. I just don’t know if I’ve changed any- Did you hear what she said? ‘‘I’m one of body else’s, but I haven’t changed my views. his customers.’’ [Laughter] Bill Engler, Jr., is the CEO of Kaytee Associate Attorney General Nominee Products, and that makes him the biggest employer in Chilton, Wisconsin. Kaytee is a Q. Do you still back Webb Hubbell’s nom- case study of making change your friend and ination? not your enemy. The business has been in The President. Of course. Why wouldn’t his family since 1866 when it sold feed and I? grain, something I know a little about. Q. What about the Republican calls for [Laughter] But it wasn’t until Bill took over him to resign? 9 years ago that the business began a growth The President. A little inconsistency in explosion. Kaytee now sells only wild bird their position. Look how they voted on a lot and pet food, and it’s gone from 64 employ- of other people. ees to 365 workers. Sales went up from $10.6 Q. Such as who? million to more than $70 million. And for his amazing accomplishments, Bill Engler, Deficit Reduction Jr., has been chosen the Small Business Per- son of the Year. Let’s bring him up with a Q. Mr. President, why do you feel you hand. [Applause] have to make this guarantee on deficit reduc- [At this point, the President presented Mr. tion? The President. Engler with the award.] I just think it will help to reinforce the commitment that we already I want to salute you all. I want to wish have: no taxes without spending cuts; all the you continued success. I want to pledge you taxes go to the deficit. I think that’s what continued access to this administration. I we ought to do. That’s the way we set it up. want to ask you now as you leave here to Now we’ll just put it into the law. It will be give us the benefit of your ideas, your sugges- even better. tions, your constructive criticisms and help Q. What effects do you think it will have us to bring to the White House the kind of on Congress? entrepreneurial spirit that you have brought The President. It’s consistent with what to your businesses and that we must all bring I did as the Governor at home, too. When to the United States. I raised money at home for education, we Thank you very much. put it into education, and it can only be spent on that. Q. Is it a compromise? NOTE: The President spoke at 11:02 a.m. in the The President. Gosh, no. It makes it bet- Rose Garden at the White House. ter. I mean, I don’t know who—com-

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promise—I don’t know if anybody’s against [Laughter] So you had two sets of big feet it. But I think it’s the right thing to do. here from the Presidents. President Wilson said in an address that NOTE: The exchange began at 11:40 a.m. in the Rose Garden at the White House. A tape was not Senator Moynihan quoted: ‘‘I have been available for verification of the content of this ex- dealing with young men most of my life’’— change. he wasn’t so gender-sensitive as he should have been—‘‘and one of the things I have tried most to impress upon them is not to Remarks at Cooper Union for the stay young too long, but to take themselves Advancement of Science and Art in seriously.’’ Now at one level I want us all New York City to stay young forever, but I do think the time May 12, 1993 has come for us to take ourselves and our purposes more seriously. This celebrated in- The President. Thank you very much. It stitution and the community of scholars and always seems to be a good thing for me when activists it embraces is the result, as president I’m introduced in New York by Governor Iselin said, of Peter Cooper’s determination Cuomo. [Laughter] I must confess to having mixed feelings as I sit on this revered stage more than 130 years ago to create an institu- with all these distinguished citizens. And tion intellectually vigorous with free tuition, president Iselin made his eloquent remarks the first nondiscrimination policy in Amer- and then your fine Mayor spoke so forcefully, ican history, and a genuine commitment to and the brilliant chairman of the Senate Fi- social justice. He believed you could do more nance Committee brought us back to Wood- than one thing at a time. [Laughter] row Wilson. And then Governor Cuomo once Here Mr. Lincoln asked our country to again gave me a hard act to follow, and they confront the cost of the spread of slavery, all left the stage. I thought to myself, pray to ask hard questions about the conditions this is not a metaphor for the battle ahead. that had plagued our nation since its begin- This is the second thing I have had in com- ning. Remember it was Thomas Jefferson, mon with President Wilson. I received a fas- not Abraham Lincoln—Thomas Jefferson the cinating letter the other day from Johnston slave owner—who said, ‘‘I tremble when I and Murphy, the shoe manufacturers from think of slavery to consider that God is just.’’ Nashville, Tennessee. They have made shoes There were people who knew in their hearts for every President going back to the 1850’s. the truth but had denied it a long time. So they made a pair of shoes for President Lincoln said that to continue to do that Lincoln. And they send you a little catalog, threatened to tear our country apart. He and you pick the shoes you want. And they knew the Nation would be destroyed if slav- send them to you with your name in them. ery spread and that unless the country’s drift- It says ‘‘Johnston and Murphy—every Presi- ing stopped, the very drift would carry within dent served.’’ And so I ordered these rather it the seeds of our destruction. And so, here simple plain black shoes, and they wrote me at Cooper Union he asked those hard ques- this wonderful letter in which they said, tions and gave strong answers. Soon after he ‘‘We’re from Nashville, Tennessee, and we won the nomination of the fledgling Repub- know what’s in your heart. So here’s an extra pair of shoes.’’ And they sent me a box of lican Party and went on to win the Presidency blue suede shoes. [Laughter] by only 39 percent of the popular vote, re- And then in the letter they recounted the ceiving virtually no votes south of the Mason- choices of all the previous Presidents. And Dixon line. Soon after that the war came, they said that in one way my choice was not and Lincoln’s fight for the Union grew into particularly innovative, that five other Presi- a determination to abolish slavery. dents had chosen the same style I did, In- Several days a week I walk alone into the cluding Harry Truman, which made me very room in the White House where Abraham proud. But they said, you do have the biggest Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclama- feet of any President since Woodrow Wilson. tion and try to remember the purposes of

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