[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book I)]
[June 25, 1995]
[Pages 944-947]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at the Dedication Ceremony for the Mahlon Martin Apartments in 
Little Rock, Arkansas
June 25, 1995

    Thank you very much, Mr. Grogan; Mr. Brimberry; my good friend Gary 
Smith; and all those who helped to make this day possible: Governor 
Tucker; Congressman Thornton;

[[Page 945]]

Mayor Dailey; Mayor Hays; Judge Villines; our secretary of state, Sharon 
Priest, and state treasurer, Jimmie Lou Fisher; prosecuting attorney 
Mark Stoler, who drove me in my first campaign 21 years ago; Senator 
Walker; to the fine young AmeriCorps volunteers here who are 
participating in this event.
    Let me say a word to all of you but especially to those who have 
come from Washington with me. This is a hometown event, all right, for 
my friend Mahlon Martin and his wonderful wife, Cheryl. A lot of us have 
come down here for it, the Federal Highway Administrator, Rodney Slater, 
and Mr. Lindsey and others. But this is an event of national 
significance because this is a concrete, specific example of what I have 
been trying to say to the American people now for 2\1/2\ years, which 
is, there is nothing wrong with this country that cannot be solved with 
what is right with this country, that the best thing to do is not to 
have a big argument about whether the Government or the private sector 
ought to solve all our problems, because neither can do it and what we 
need is a partnership.
    I want to thank Mr. Lupberger. I see Mr. Brimberry up here with Mr. 
Smith--all the people who have been involved with all the banks and all 
the corporations who have helped in this endeavor. But before I go back 
to the programs, let me just remind you what this is going to do. These 
facilities are going to do two things. Most importantly, they are going 
to give homes to working people who don't have enough money to get by. 
The real heroes in American society today are the people who get up 
every day, work a full week, raise their kids the best they can, and do 
not have enough money to get by. And they deserve a place to live, 
health care for their kids, decent schools, and safe streets. And if we 
had it, this country would be in better shape.
    Now, that is what this is all about. People are going to be able to 
afford to live in these places who are out there working for somewhere 
between $15,000 and $18,000 a year and doing their best to raise their 
kids, give them a chance to be well-educated and safe and drug-free and 
have a future. And they deserve this kind of chance. And it happened 
because practical people developed partnerships which made it possible. 
And that happens from programs, and it happens from people.
    The second thing I want to say is more personal. As a longtime 
citizen of this city, I used to run by this street almost every day of 
my life, by these two buildings. Every day, when laziness didn't get the 
better of me, I would run by these two buildings, and I would think how 
beautiful they were and what a shame it was that they weren't being used 
in a productive way.
    These buildings will give an example, a sense of pride, a sense of 
hope, a sense of possibility to other people. They will make people more 
proud. They will change the way people think about this neighborhood, 
this downtown area, and this city. And I want all the people who live 
here to make sure you take good care of them and to make people proud of 
them and to prove that this effort was worth doing.
    I thank you for the mention of the low-income housing tax credit. It 
was part of the economic development plan in 1993. The other thing we 
did in 1993 is to cut the income taxes of all the people who will live 
in this building who have children, because we don't believe people who 
work 40 hours a week and have kids in their homes should bring those 
children up in poverty. If you work full-time, your children ought to be 
able to live above the poverty line.
    We've done other things that make this partnership more possible. 
We've continued the community development block grants, and the city put 
about 20 percent of the money into this project because of the community 
development block grants. It's threatened today in Washington. I hope we 
can save it. We can cut a lot of spending back, but we're going to have 
to invest some money back in our people and their future.
    We also tried to improve the Community Reinvestment Act to give 
banks better incentives and better support in reinvesting in the 
community. And we tried to establish a whole national network of 
community development banks like the Elk Horn Bank in Arkadelphia which 
the First Lady and Mahlon and so many others, including the Rockefeller 
Foundation before Mahlon went there, had to do with establishing. We 
thank you for making Arkansas a national model in that, and we're trying 
to do that all around the country. We created over 100 empowerment zones 
and enterprise communities, of which Little Rock is one, to give people 
incentives for these kind of partnerships.

[[Page 946]]

    Now, most voters can never remember the acronym of LISC, and if you 
told them what a local initiative support corporation was they wouldn't 
understand what that is either. But most Americans have enough common 
sense to know that we don't need to get into an ideological debate and 
you don't have to be a genius to understand that if people are working 
for a living and trying to raise their children, they ought to have a 
decent place to live. And the best way to do it is not to have a huge 
ideological debate in Washington about whether the Government ought to 
do it or the private sector ought to do it. The best way to do it is to 
roll up your sleeves, have a practical partnership, and empower people 
at the grassroots level to make the most of their own lives.
    But I also want to say it requires people. And this is the last 
point I will make in this brief address on a hot day. I'm not sure I 
would be President today if it weren't for Mahlon Martin. I remember 
once when I went to Montreal to give a speech to the international 
convention of city managers, a fellow from another State--Michigan, I 
think--came up to me and said, ``You know, Mahlon Martin when he was 
city manager of Little Rock was one of the 10 best city managers in the 
entire United States of America.'' Mahlon Martin once wanted to be a pro 
baseball player. He wound up going to Philander Smith and deferring that 
dream, and instead he spent his life helping the rest of us live out our 
dreams. In a way, I know he misses baseball and I know he was glad when 
the strike was settled, but I think that there are very few baseball 
players which will have helped as many people live out their dreams as 
Mahlon Martin has helped in our State, in this community.
    In 1983, when I persuaded him to become head of the department of 
finance and administration, we took office with the State broke, in an 
illegal financial condition. And the first thing that we had to do to 
make Mahlon and the Governor immensely popular was to cut spending one 
percent across the board, for everything, just to come into compliance 
with the State law. It was a wonderful way to begin an administration. 
[Laughter]
    Then a couple of years later, Governor, in one budget period, Mahlon 
had to cut spending in one of our budget cycles six times during the 
recession of the eighties, six times cutting back on things that we 
desperately wanted to spend more money on, including education.
    I used to tell everybody that when I was Governor, Mahlon Martin was 
the government, and I made the speeches. I never saw a fellow who could 
tell people no and make them like it better than he did. [Laughter] And 
I think it's because they always knew he wanted to say yes and that he 
was trying to preserve the financial integrity of the State and the 
management integrity of the State in ways that would command the 
confidence of the taxpayers of Arkansas and make it possible for us to 
do as much for people in their lives as we possibly could.
    And when he left the administration and went on to run the 
Rockefeller Foundation, I think he was actually doing what he was really 
put on this Earth to do, which was to find new and different and 
innovative ways for ordinary people to live extraordinary lives. And I 
can tell you that I have now served with thousands and thousands of 
remarkable people all across this country. I have had the privilege of 
knowing more exceptional Americans than almost anyone of my time, solely 
because of my position. I have never met a finer American or a more 
gifted public servant than the person we honor today, our friend Mahlon 
Martin.
    This is a plaque presented to Mahlon Martin in grateful appreciation 
for his 2 years of outstanding service and dedication to the Local 
Initiative Support Corporation that provided these opportunities that we 
celebrate today. The most important thing on the plaque is a quote that 
could have been about Mahlon Martin from Margaret Meade: ``Never doubt 
that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the 
world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.''

Note: The President spoke at 10:25 a.m. at the Mahlon Martin Apartments. 
In his remarks, he referred to Paul Grogan, president, Local Initiative 
Support Corp. (LISC); Ron Brimberry, president, Downtown Little Rock 
Community Development Corp.; Gary Smith, executive vice president, 
Boatman's Bank; Gov. Jim Guy Tucker of Arkansas; Mayor Jim Dailey of 
Little Rock, AR; Mayor Patrick Henry Hays of North Little Rock, AR; 
Floyd G. (Buddy) Villines, Pulaski County judge; and Edwin Lupberger, 
chairman and chief executive officer, Entergy.

[[Page 947]]