    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush (1991, Book I)]
    [June 14, 1991]
    [Pages 659-662]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 659]]

    Remarks at the California Institute of Technology Commencement Ceremony
    in Pasadena, California
    June 14, 1991

        Thank you, Pete, for that very generous introduction. I'm delighted
    to see Gayle with you over here. Congressman Moorhead--and to the
    business at hand--your chairman of the board, Dr. Mettler, who I've
    known for years and admired and respected. Dr. Everhart, the president;
    Dr. Jennings; Dr. DuBridge; Dr. Beckman; Dr. Brown; Mr. Avery; Dr.
    Shuster--hello.
        I'd also like to acknowledge this distinguished board of trustees
    that I had the honor to meet with just a while ago. And it's a pleasure
    to be here at CalTech, my first visit. I'm told it's the first visit of
    a seated President since Teddy Roosevelt.
        However, my trip back to Washington, I understand, will be delayed.
    Some of CalTech's finest reassembled Air Force One in the lobby of my
    hotel. [Laughter] Ditch day, perhaps.
        You look restless out there--let me tell you about a Yale
    graduation. I will confess to having gone to Yale. A minister gave the
    graduation speech. ``Y,'' of course, was for youth; that took 40
    minutes. ``A,'' altruism--brushed that one off in 20 minutes. ``L'' was
    for loyalty--45 minutes. ``E'' for enterprise--30 minutes. The speech
    ended and most of the kids had left. There was one guy praying. The
    minister went over and said, ``Oh, son, I'm glad to see a man of faith
    here. What were you praying for?'' He said, ``I was giving thanks that I
    didn't go to the California Institute of Technology.'' [Laughter]
        So, I'll try to be respectful in that regard. But I should say with
    pride that we celebrate today the centennial of CalTech. This
    institution has accomplished astonishing things in 100 years. Your
    students, your professors, and your graduates have peered into the heart
    of the atom, gazed out at stars billions of miles away. They've inspired
    new medicines and biotechnologies, and they've hurled rockets into the
    heavens. And they've helped redefine the sciences upon which modern
    technology and modern life depend. CalTech's mission is outward-looking,
    its quest never-ending, and its path of discovery truly remarkable.
        We now stand on the verge of a new voyage in the American
    experience, charting a fresh course to a world of unseen possibilities
    and promise. This is mild compared to what I normally run into; I feel,
    out of respect for the office, it ought to be greater. [Laughter] But to
    reach it, we will need a strong, swift current of ideas. Thomas Aquinas
    once said that if the highest aim of a captain were to preserve his
    ship, he would stay in safe harbor forever. Now, as our imagination
    mulls over the prospects for the 21st century, the time has come to
    leave port and set sail--to the new world beyond.
        Many Techers have already explored new worlds--worlds of the
    positron and the quark, and the fingerprint of the human gene, and the
    microcosm of the silicon chip. These brilliant men and women understood
    the architecture of a problem, and they knew how to navigate the maze of
    possibilities that stood between them and a solution. Like them, you
    think about the opportunities--not the obstacles--that lie ahead.
        I think of the day I graduated from college. We were impatient, were
    optimistic, bored with the speaker--but we sensed a coming adventure.
    And I suspect it's the same with you. Only this time, you probably
    aren't thinking about becoming farmers, like Barbara and I were. My
    generation built our future with mortar and brick and machinery. And
    yours will propel us toward destiny and innovation, ingenuity, and
    imagination.
        Earlier this century, Henry Luce declared this ``The American
    Century.'' In his time, that future consisted of smelters and
    smokestacks--heavy, productive industries. And now, as this American
    century draws to a close, ours is an age of microchips and MTV. Ours is
    an economy increasingly dependent not upon our natural resources or
    geographic location but upon knowledge. As you well know, knowledge is
    dynamic,

    [[Page 660]]

    never standing still as it expands beyond the horizon. So, my challenge
    to you today is to push beyond today's horizons and create new and more
    distant horizons for your future.
        This is the next frontier. In the 21st century, knowledge will shape
    the power of the individual--as well as the power of the Nation.
    Knowledge, defined in our labs and libraries, on bookshelves and
    computer screens. Whether you're in the military, at the market or on
    the mainframe, that knowledge will define opportunity.
        Some call this the Third Wave or the Information Age or the New Age
    of Discovery. With a nod to Henry Luce, I believe this serves as a
    cornerstone for the next American century. If we face this future
    foursquare, if we accept the call to unleash our imaginations, we will
    transform this nation. And I have no doubt American will transform the
    world.
        We begin with the free market, the powerhouse of ingenuity. Free
    markets and free people breathe life into the American dream. Look at
    the good that people can achieve. Charles Richter and George Housner's
    research has saved untold lives through their work on predicting and
    preparing for earthquakes. Harry Gray's research could lead to our
    harvesting energy from sunlight the same way the plants do. And medical
    researcher Pamala Bjorkman's research may someday prevent such diseases
    as arthritis and diabetes.
        Look at all the creative enterpreneurs, the ones transforming basic
    research into new products, the ones with that knack for know-how. This
    is a true story: I got a letter the other day from a company named
    Genstar, founded by four CalTech grads. They'd heard me talk about our
    six national education goals to achieve excellence by the year 2000. I
    once joked that the seventh goal should be that by the turn of the
    century, Americans must be able to get their VCRs to stop flashing
    ``12:00.'' [Laughter]
        I admit that I didn't think it was possible. [Laughter] But this
    team of upstarts, CalTechers, invented a device that solves the VCR
    clock problem easily. [Laughter] They wrote, ``We respond promptly to
    your national call for VCR literacy by the year 2000--in fact, 9 years
    ahead of schedule.'' [Laughter]
        Well, with mentors like these, there may be hope for students like
    me, still struggling with the complexities of this age of technology.
    Their kind of entrepreneurs--their approach to entrepreneurship helped
    make our nation prosperous and great. This kind of can-do spirit, this
    expression of natural American creativity will make our new education
    strategy work. America 2000, as we call it, summons the Nation to create
    a new generation of American schools--schools that break the mold,
    schools where all students reach world-class standards of performance in
    English, science, history, geography, and mathematics. It's time that we
    started measuring success by something other than the Federal dollars
    spent. Let's not ask ourselves: What does it cost? Let's ask: Does it
    work?
        This administration has rewarded programs in which government acts
    intelligently and programs produce results. Head Start, where kids get
    the tools they need to start school ready to learn--it works, and we
    support it. We've expanded Head Start funding by over $700 million in
    the last 2 years.
        We advocate programs that employ free market incentives--like tax
    credits for low-income parents to choose their own child care--because
    they use human nature as a lever, not as an obstacle. We support
    initiatives that create opportunity--like our housing vouchers for
    public housing tenants. Our HOPE initiative gives public housing tenants
    control over their lives and their futures.
        But, you see, home ownership and tenant management--these are the
    waves of progress that can truly reduce hopelessness and despair in our
    great country.
        Whether in schools, in child-care centers, or factories or
    neighborhoods, we must ensure that government is part of the solution,
    not part of the problem.
        I'm not opposed to government per se. I'm not a government-basher.
    But we in government must understand, bigger isn't better; better is
    better.
        One hundred days ago today, I asked the Congress--and Pete referred
    to this--to tackle the urgent problems here at home

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    with the same commitment that this country dedicated itself to in
    tackling the crisis in the Persian Gulf. I spelled out a comprehensive
    domestic agenda, but asked Congress, recognizing the complexities, to
    pass just two bills in 100 days--a comprehensive anticrime bill and a
    transportation bill to do something about the infrastructure in our
    country. These bills would work. As a matter of fact, I sent that crime
    bill to the Hill 24 months ago--2 years ago tomorrow. Neither bill has
    reached my desk. And the American people, as they look at our system,
    don't understand why.
        The American people don't understand what's so hard about passing a
    bill in 100 days to fight crime. They don't understand the delay, the
    inaction, the foot-dragging, particularly when they see that Congress
    can pass a funding bill for a ferryboat in Samoa or a study of the
    Hatfield-McCoy feud while threatening to cancel the manned space program
    and the Space Station Freedom.
        Last week, a congressional committee nearly canceled the second
    golden age of space exploration and its possibilities for new knowledge,
    new technology, and whole new industries here on Earth. Thanks to wiser
    heads in Congress, both Democrat and Republican, the space station
    survived--not, as some believe, at the expense of science. Science and
    space must be partners in the budget wars, both vital investments in the
    future.
        We must invest now in a brighter future. That's why our
    administration fully supports high performance computing, and math and
    science education. We're also proposing a 13-percent increase, bringing
    research and development to $76 billion. We want to increase funding for
    the supercollider by more than 100 percent. Government and the free
    market often converge in the field of basic research. Together, they
    help produce a brighter future for all Americans. And that's why my
    commitment to it is so strong.
        Most Americans find beltway bickering mystifying, and they should.
    We ought to think of nobler issues and purposes. We must call upon our
    higher aspirations. We've done it before, first carving out a superpower
    out of the wilderness, and then creating the most prosperous, educated
    society on Earth, and now, thanks to the leadership of many right here
    on this stage, reaching beyond our planet to the glory of space.
        With the telescopes on Mount Palomar, with the Keck telescopes in
    Hawaii, your astronomers are looking farther than mankind has looked
    before. Your JPL labs enable unmanned space missions such as the
    Pioneers and Voyagers to touch the distant boundaries of our solar
    system.
        And here in Pasadena, scientists can now use the world's fastest
    computer. I hear that the computer is so advanced, it can actually
    calculate the number of ``Tommy's Burgers'' that you all eat. [Laughter]
    And I am told--this may be far-fetched--that it can reprogram the
    scoreboard at the Rose Bowl even faster. [Laughter]
        You know, it's great--CalTech is one of the few schools in the
    country where ``PC'' has always stood for ``personal computer.''
        To guarantee that the 21st century becomes the Next American
    Century, we must combine the might of the free market and intelligent
    government with something else: the brilliance of those who make a
    difference in the lives of others, including the ones that I refer to as
    the Points of Light.
        We know what it takes to solve problems in our own neighborhoods.
    Some among us have decided to step to the front lines of the war on
    drugs; others have taken time to teach others to read, or volunteered to
    care for AIDS babies after work and at night.
        Your education here at CalTech enables you to lead, to use your
    talents for the sake of our country and communities and our children.
    Those of you who volunteered to help abused women and children at the
    Hestia House, or taught kids to read in Pasadena, or helped the boys and
    girls at Five Acres--you have accepted the challenge. You understand
    that with your diploma today comes a commitment to reach for the
    horizons of justice and opportunity, freedom and peace.
        In the next American century, all of us will have a responsibility
    to lead. Each part of our communities--the union halls, the police
    clubs, the chambers of commerce,

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    the parents, teachers--everyone can use their power to solve problems.
    Because, if you think about it, there isn't a problem in America that
    isn't being solved somewhere.
        Whether you're drawn to the magic of the marketplace, to the honor
    of public service, or to the ethic of serving others, each of you will
    be building an America whole and good. Your generation will map our
    voyage into the next century. I join you in your quest for faraway
    places and salute your vision of worlds unseen.
        Thank you for your hospitality. And may God bless each and every one
    of you as you graduate from this wonderful institution. Thank you, very
    much.

                        Note: The President spoke at 10:35 a.m. on the
                            California Institute of Technology athletic
                            field. In his opening remarks, he referred to
                            Gov. Pete Wilson of California and his wife,
                            Gayle; Representative Carlos J. Moorhead; Ruben
                            F. Mettler, Thomas E. Everhart, Paul C.
                            Jennings, Lee A. DuBridge, and Arnold O.
                            Beckman, chairman of the board of trustees,
                            president, provost, president emeritus, and
                            chairman emeritus, respectively, of the
                            California Institute of Technology; Harold
                            Brown, chairman of the Foreign Policy Institute
                            at Johns Hopkins University; R. Danton Avery,
                            founder and chairman of Avery International; and
                            Marguerite Shuster, pastor of Knox Presbyterian
                            Church in Pasadena, CA. He also referred to the
                            presence of protesters in the audience.