    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book II)]
    [December 6, 1996]
    [Pages 2171-2174]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on Presenting the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Awards
    December 6, 1996

        Thank you very much. Secretary Kantor; Mrs. Baldrige; Senator
    Pressler; Congresswoman Slaughter; Congressman Ramstad; my good friend
    Earnie Deavenport; Mary Good--let me thank all of you. And let me say a
    special word of thanks to Arati Prabhakar, the Director of the National
    Institute of Standards and Technology, for the work that she has done in
    this Baldrige process. Thank you, ma'am. And Senator Pressler, as you
    leave the United States Senate after a distinguished career, let me
    thank you especially for the work you did to pass the telecommunications
    law, which will help America immeasurably and create hundreds of
    thousands of these kinds of good jobs in the years ahead. Thank you,
    sir.
        I'd also like to thank the Army Band for doing such a good job here
    today. Thank you very much.
        You know, when they were playing the national anthem, which normally
    I sing out of tune at the top of my lungs, but my voice has been a
    little constrained lately--my approval is at an all-time high when I'm
    hoarse and can't speak. [Laughter] I couldn't help thinking, as I was
    listening to the national anthem, what America was like when Francis
    Scott Key wrote that anthem and what he would think about what we have
    just seen today, how proud it would make the people who fought to start
    this country and who worked to hold it together to see what we have
    become after 200 years. And for all of you, I thank you.
        I was listening to all the speakers here, and I was put in mind of
    the first public speech I ever gave as an elected official. Almost 20
    years ago now, I was elected attorney general of my home State, and I
    was invited to the Rotary Club officers installation banquet in Pine
    Bluff, Arkansas, in January of 1977. The banquet started at 6:30. I was
    introduced to speak at 10 minutes to 10. [Laughter] There were about 500
    people there, and all of them but 3 got to talk, and they went home mad.
    [Laughter] But it was a wonderful night. There was entertainment from
    the local school groups, and you know, everybody got to talk. It was
    like it should have been: It was a community event; a lot of people
    talked. And then this fellow got up to introduce me. And I was nervous
    as a cat--my first speech as an elected official. And the first words
    out of his mouth--just how I feel after hearing them speak--he said,
    ``You know, we could stop here and have had a very nice evening.''
    [Laughter] I know he didn't mean it that way. [Laughter] But we could
    stop right here and have had a wonderful, wonderful ceremony.
        This is the 3d year I've had the privilege of honoring the Baldrige
    Quality Award winners, and every year I feel more strongly that this is
    the way America ought to work. This is the way all of our organizations
    ought to work. This is the way our families should work, the way our
    charities should work, the way our religious institutions should work,
    the way our colleges and universities should work, the way our schools
    should work, and the way our Government should work.
        Recognizing companies that have proved that excellence and good
    citizenship are compatible, that understand that business endeavors,
    like life, are much more a journey than a destination--it's a very, very
    special thing for me. And I hope that my presence here helps to get all
    of you the recognition you deserve around the country, and hope that it
    will inspire more and more business people and more and more people in
    every organized form of human endeavor in our Nation to follow your
    lead.
        This is an especially meaningful day for me today also because I
    used to do this with Secretary Kantor's predecessor, Ron Brown, and last
    March we had a ceremony like this at the White House, which was one of
    the last official duties Ron Brown performed before his untimely death
    on his mission to the Balkans. Let

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    me say that he's probably smiling down at us today.
        And let me also say how very grateful I am to my long-term friend
    Mickey Kantor for his outstanding job as Secretary of Commerce. First he
    was our trade ambassador, where he negotiated over 200 agreements--
    unprecedented record in the history of American trade--everything from
    big agreements like NAFTA and the GATT agreement, over 21 agreements
    with Japan. In each of those areas in the aggregate, our exports to
    Japan have increased 85 percent in those 21 areas. There is no precedent
    for it.
        And I was thinking of, as he was up here talking, too much of what
    Americans hear about public service is negative from time to time. Most
    of the people who work for this Department and most of the people who
    have worked for your Government make America a better place. And Mickey
    Kantor and the people here at the Department of Commerce are shining
    examples of that, and I thank them for it.
        I also want to thank the private sector partners in this endeavor,
    the 28 previous winning companies, the examiners, the Baldrige
    Foundation. For almost 10 years this award has been remarkably
    successful as a public-private partnership. We will have to have more of
    these in the future if America is to meet the challenges of the 21st
    century.
        I'm very pleased that there will be new winners in the categories of
    nonprofit health and education organizations. I can tell you that if you
    look at the percentage of our economy and, more important, the stake in
    our quality of life and our future in health care and education, this is
    coming not a moment too soon.
        Finally, let me say a special word of appreciation to the Vice
    President for the work that he has led in our endeavors to have the
    Federal Government do more of what all of you are doing. Our Government
    has about a quarter of a million fewer people in it than it did the day
    I became President. We've abolished hundreds of programs. We've
    privatized more operations than ever before. And we've been able to
    reduce the deficit by 60 percent and still continue to invest in
    education, in research and technology and environmental protection, the
    things that will keep our country strong in the future.
        I'm proud of the fact that, thanks to you and millions like you, our
    economy is strong and growing stronger every day. Today we learned that
    in November, while there was a small increase in the unemployment rate,
    wage increases continued to come to American workers because of
    increasing productivity. We had 118,000 more jobs, which means in the
    last 3 years and 10 months our economy has produced 11.9 million new
    working opportunities for the American people, something all of you can
    be very, very proud of.
        Now we have to keep this going. I'm very much committed to passing a
    bipartisan balanced budget plan with the Congress which will keep our
    interest rates down, keep our economy growing, and continue to honor our
    commitments to our children, our future, our economy, our parents, and
    the quality of the environment.
        But whatever we do, we know that ultimately American progress will
    rise or fall on the performance of American business and American
    workers. Both large and small, American businesses are the engine that
    will help to carry us into the 21st century. Two decades ago, our
    companies had little competition from abroad. Today, we know we compete
    in the world for jobs and markets. The business community has led the
    way in sensitizing all Americans that we must measure ourselves by high
    standards. We must achieve high global standards. That is what I seek
    for the performance of your Government, for the performance of our
    educational institutions, for every single endeavor in the United
    States.
        ADAC Laboratories' commitment to the customers has resulted in its
    phenomenal turnaround. Just think about tripling your revenues in 3
    years. Now, if we could do that without a tax increase, there would be
    no deficit problem. [Laughter]
        Let me--I applaud Dana Commercial Credit Corporation's commitment to
    its customers, its employees, and its community for the style of
    management that encourages employees to act on their own ideas and for
    your financial support of the Toledo School Board. Now, let me say that
    Mr. Morcott and I have been friends for a long time, and the Dana
    Corporation has a different sort of plant in Arkansas, one of the most
    highly roboticized plants in the United States, making truck
    transmissions. One of the things I liked about that place the first time
    I ever visited it was that there were no parking spaces dedicated to the
    bigwigs. So if the plant manager showed up late, he might have to walk

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    a block and a half to work. [Laughter] However, I rejected that
    suggestion for the State Capitol when I was Governor--[laughter]--which
    just goes to show you, we all have work to do. [Laughter]
        Custom Research Corporation has proved you don't have to be the
    biggest to be the best; 97 percent of a clientele being delighted is
    something that any organization would be delighted to achieve.
        When I heard them reading the measures of how they define their
    success and they talked about the--talking about all their employee
    endeavors, and I saw all of the cheers coming from all of you as well as
    from Trident Precision Manufacturing over there with their banners,
    again I say, think about the idea that every organization we're involved
    in ought to work this way, if we invest in training and education as
    Trident has. And one of the things I want to say about them that I
    especially appreciate that was not mentioned: In this era of downsizing,
    I want to commend you for hiring people who had worked for larger
    companies and who were downsized. A lot of people who have been
    downsized still have outsized contributions to make to the American
    economy and to American society. And small businesses are going to have
    to take up that slack. I thank you for making that a priority.
        Just think: satisfied customers; energized employees who are
    involved; respect and commitment to the communities in which you're
    involved in; investing in technology and the future; still making a
    profit; and at least by the evidence we've seen here, having a good time
    doing it. If every family in every organization of any kind in this
    country worked that way, we wouldn't have very many problems in the
    United States. That's the message I want to go across America today, and
    I thank you for sending it loud and clear every day in your lives.
        Let me finally close by asking one more thing of you. America needs
    more strong companies like this and more organizations like this to be
    prepared for the next century. I believe with all my heart we are
    entering an age of greater human possibility than ever. It means in
    simple terms to me that in a place like America, more children will have
    a chance to grow up and live out their dreams than ever before. It means
    if we do the right thing, we will grow stronger and more prosperous
    while helping more people all around the world to do things that we take
    for granted now but which would fulfill their dreams and their God-given
    potential in a way that has never been possible before.
        But to do it we have to understand that in times when things are
    changing rapidly, we have to be able to open our eyes and open our ears
    and open our hearts; we have to be able to think anew and act anew; we
    have to be dedicated to the idea of community, the idea of partnership,
    the idea that we can each have more personal, individual fulfillment
    when we work together with other people to help them achieve the same
    objectives.
        That's the only way we can move able-bodied people from welfare to
    work. A lot of you are going to have to help with that. We passed a law
    that says that able-bodied people can only draw welfare so long, but
    what are they going to do? Go into the street, or go into the work
    force? Every State ought to be willing to give those welfare checks to
    employers as job subsidies to move more people from welfare to work, and
    every vital company ought to be willing to examine themselves to see
    what they could do, because we don't have the money, and we shouldn't
    have these large-scale job programs funded by the Government with only
    welfare workers in them.
        We want to change a whole culture here and move people into the
    mainstream of American life. And that can best be done by a company
    hiring one or two or three and then another company doing the same
    thing, until we have a ripple effect all across America and we don't
    have a welfare system and an unemployment system anymore, we have a
    system that deals with people when they're temporarily out of the work
    force, organizes those who can move into the work force, and helps those
    who, through no fault of their own, are simply unable to help
    themselves. That is an America that would be worthy of the pride, the
    honor, and the support of every single citizen of this country. We
    cannot do it unless the private sector is a partner.
        We cannot help our schools to meet the highest standards of
    excellence unless those of you who understand the world in which we are
    living and the one toward which we are moving demand that we have, yes,
    a lot of local control and more schools that are committed to kind of
    creative excellence in the way that you are, but we also measure
    performance by national standards of excellence, and we know that the
    measurements are good. Because I believe all

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    children can learn, and I am tired of people hiding behind various
    bureaucratic hedges to avoid measuring up and giving all our children a
    chance to learn. You can lead the way, and we need you to do it.
        We have participated in a celebration of what is best about America.
    You have all thrilled me beyond measure. I loved seeing all the
    different things you did. I had the best seat in the house today. The
    Secretary and Earnie and I, we didn't have to worry about what we were
    going to say. We didn't even have to worry about our constituents the
    way these folks did. They were the political leaders here today.
    [Laughter]
        I got to spend this whole time looking into your faces. Those are
    the looks I want to see on the faces of every American child, and you
    can help us do it.
        Thank you, and God bless you.

    Note: The President spoke at 12:35 p.m. at the Sheraton Washington
    Hotel. In his remarks, he referred to Margaret Baldrige, widow of former
    Secretary of Commerce Malcolm Baldrige; Earnest Deavenport, president,
    Malcolm Baldrige Award Foundation; Mary L. Good, Under Secretary of
    Commerce for Technology; and Southwood (Woody) J. Morcott, chairman and
    chief executive officer, Dana Commercial Credit Corp.