    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000, Book I)]
    [April 26, 2000]
    [Pages 779-782]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 779]]

    Remarks to the Community in Whiteville, North Carolina
    April 26, 2000

        Thank you very much. Well, I leaned over to Mayor Jones, and I said, ``Is it really true that no previous President
    has ever been to Whiteville or Columbus County?'' And she said, ``It's
    true.'' And I said, ``They don't know what they were missing.'' I'm glad
    to be here today.
        I want to thank Craig Turner for the
    presentation he made. I want to thank the mayor
    for welcoming me here; your fine Congressman, Mike McIntyre. And I want to thank the other Members of Congress who
    are here: Bob Etheridge, Robin Hayes, and especially Representative Eva Clayton, who is the cochair of the congressional rural caucus. I
    welcome all them.
        I want to say an appreciation for all the business leaders who came
    here and Secretary Rodney Slater and our
    FCC Commissioner, Bill Kennard, and our
    Under Secretary of Agriculture, Jill Long-Thompson, and many others who are here. I'd also like to
    acknowledge that I have a business liaison, Jay Dunn, who's from Wilkes County, North Carolina; I'm glad
    he's here.
        But I want to say a special word on behalf of three people. First, I
    don't think anybody has ever put this together, but I'm not sure that I
    would be President if it weren't for North Carolina, even though I never
    won your electoral votes, for two reasons. One is, 21 years ago, my
    then-colleague as a Governor, Jim Hunt,
    gave me the first position of national leadership I ever had in the
    Democratic Governors' Association. And if it hadn't been for that, I
    might never have gotten started. And secondly, if it hadn't been for
    Erskine Bowles, I probably would not have
    succeeded as President. So I am very grateful to Jim Hunt, who is, I
    agree, the finest Governor in the United States of America today; and to
    my friend Erskine Bowles, who could be
    doing a lot of other things today, who has a touch of gold--everything
    he touches turns to gold. He could be out making money, but instead he'd
    rather be here with you in Whiteville making a better future for the
    children of this county and a better economy for you.
        I want to say in plain language why I am here and why I hope all
    across America people will see you on television tonight and read about
    you tomorrow and think about this. I have been honored to be your
    President for over 7 years. I still marvel at the fact that I was born
    in a little town of 6,000 in Arkansas, and my mother's people came from
    a little community of 150, 8 miles from there. Our kinfolks are still
    there. I keep on my desk in the White House a series of pictures that
    have my family's history, starting with a picture of my grandfather in
    Bodcaw, Arkansas, population 150 in 1906. And there are still about 150
    people there.
        So I think I understand your life. I was amazed, though, I must say,
    to hear one of your businessman tell me today that he was selling
    fertilizer to farmers in Arkansas. Now, when I was Governor, one thing
    we had plenty of was fertilizer, and some people thought I supplied a
    lot of it. [Laughter]
        But I've loved being President, and I've loved working on the
    economy. And I'm proud of the fact that we've got the longest economic
    expansion in history and 21 million new jobs and the lowest unemployment
    in 30 years and the lowest minority unemployment rate ever recorded. I'm
    proud of that.
        But it bothers me that in the face of the longest, strongest
    creative economic growth in our history, there are people and places who
    have been left behind. And mostly they are places that are physically
    isolated. Whether they are small rural towns like Whiteville, remote
    Indian reservations like the ones I have visited in New Mexico and South
    Dakota, or remote inner-city neighborhoods, where people with money and
    investment don't go very much, there are people who are physically
    isolated.
        And I have started in the last 2 years of my Presidency this whole
    effort to convince the rest of America that you're a very good deal, and
    we ought to invest in you and your future.
        If you follow this on the news at night, you know that there's a big
    debate about how much longer this economic expansion can go on. And
    about every week or so, somebody says, ``Oh, it can't go on any longer,
    because there's got to be inflation, and then we'll have high interest
    rates, and the thing will shut down.''

    [[Page 780]]

        And so I spent a lot of time thinking about how to keep it going,
    because I kind of like that. I like seeing you do well. And I'd like to
    see my Vice President get his fair share of
    credit this year in November. So I think about it.
        But what I want you to understand is this. The rest of America has a
    big stake in your success. Why? Because if the unemployment rate here
    were 3 percent and everybody that wanted a job had one, and you all had
    better jobs with growing businesses, what is that? That's growth for the
    rest of America without inflation--more workers, more business owners,
    and more consumers--everybody in America. And all those places with 2
    percent unemployment, they ought to be pulling for you because you're
    their meal ticket to the future, to keep this economic growth going.
        So what I tried to do is to say to people with money, ``Look, I want
    you to have the same incentives to invest in rural North Carolina, rural
    Arkansas, the inner cities, the Native American reservations--I want you
    to have the same incentives to invest in poor areas in America we give
    you today to invest in poor areas of Latin America or Asia or Africa.
    Look to America and the new markets here.'' That's the first part of
    this.
        The second part is this--and that's what we're here about today. You
    hear all about this digital divide; some of you have a computer, and
    some don't--and even if you do, maybe you use the Internet with your
    telephone line, and maybe you don't. But what I want you to understand
    is that the Internet is the fastest growing means of communication in
    all human history.
        When I became President--listen to this--when I became President 7
    years and 3 months ago, there were 50--5-0--50 sites on the World Wide
    Web. Today, there are 50 million--in 7 years. And one of these places is
    this fertilizer business in rural North Carolina where two Arkansas
    farmers, at least, found their way on the Internet and they said, ``This
    guy will sell me fertilizer cheaper than the guy down the street will. I
    think I'll order it.'' This is unheard of.
        Let me tell you, I have seen things you would not believe. I've been
    in little villages in Africa where people have no maps and no
    schoolbooks, where they can get all the most modern information. I've
    been in little villages in India, where the income every year is $450 a
    year, where women with newborn babies can get the most modern
    information about how to care for their children because of the
    Internet.
        And what we're here to tell you is, number one, we believe, in rural
    North Carolina and in rural America, Internet access ought to be just as
    likely as telephone access. And number two, you ought to be able to use
    it in the fastest possible way. And number three, if you can, it'll mean
    more jobs, more businesses, higher incomes, and more opportunity.
        Why is that? We're standing here in front of the railroad station.
    You know what the railroad brought to the rural South? You know what the
    highways brought to the rural South? You know what electricity brought
    to the rural South? What did they do? They helped to make it possible
    for people to live out here in the country and move back and forth and
    make a living.
        But we never quite caught up in rural America, did we? Why? Because
    no matter how you cut it, no matter how many roads we had or how many
    powerlines we had or how many trains ran through our town, we were still
    a long way away from everybody else, and it took time to get from here
    to there, wherever ``there'' was. Isn't that right?
        So most people who kept on living in rural America did it because
    it's a great place to live. It's a nice way to live. President Johnson
    left Washington, DC, and went home to this little town in Texas where he
    was from, and they said, ``How can you bear to live in this little one-
    horse town after living in Washington, DC, for 25 years?'' And he looked
    at Walter Cronkite, and he said--I'll never forget this for as long as I
    live--he said, ``I can bear to live here because, here, people know when
    you're sick, and they care when you die.'' Now, so we live here. But
    with all these improvements, you never quite caught up.
        Now, here's what I believe, and why I'm spending the last year of my
    term in the White House trying to build support among Republicans and
    Democrats for giving these extra incentives to invest in these areas and
    making sure we close the digital divide and every one of your classrooms
    and every one of your businesses has access to really high-speed service
    on the Internet. Because what does the Internet do that the railroads
    didn't do, that the highways didn't do, that a rural airport didn't do,
    that electricity didn't do? What does the Internet do? It collapses time
    and distance.

    [[Page 781]]

        We have never been able to do that. That's what I want you to think
    about. You've never been on a computer in your life--I want you to think
    about that when you leave here. It collapses time and distance.
    Therefore, for the first time in my lifetime, we have a chance to move
    more people out of poverty and unemployment and lack of access to
    businesses more quickly in rural America, isolated inner cities, and
    Native American reservations than at any time in the history of this
    country.
        And when people see you on television tonight, I want them to think
    about this town abolishing time and distance because of what Jim
    Hunt, the telephone companies, and others
    have done to provide broad-based Internet service to you through this
    broadband. That's what I want them to think about. I want to thank Bell
    South and Sprint and GTE and the telephone co-ops for working with
    Governor Hunt to do this. I want to thank
    Qualcomm and the other companies that came here today, that show us
    other ways to get you really good Internet service. But if you never
    thought about this in your life, I want you to think about it.
        I don't care if you don't have a college degree. I don't care if you
    never finished high school. You need to figure out how these computers
    work. You need to figure out how to get on the Internet. You need to
    figure out how it will help you, and if you don't have people here who
    can help you, you need to figure out how to get somebody to come into
    this community and run the education programs to teach you how to do
    this, because this is the future of America.
        Now, it's true, it's more expensive in rural areas than in the
    cities now, and it's not hard to figure out why. They've got more
    customers and less space, so it's cheaper. So, Governor Hunt's got a plan to overcome that, and we are trying
    to help. We are making available, through our Rural Utilities Service,
    loans that will allow rural areas to offer high-speed Internet to help
    cut the cost.
        We've got businesses involved that are helping us do all kinds of
    things. Qualcomm, one of the companies that is represented by its
    chairman here today, is going to spend a
    million dollars to provide wireless high-speed services to 8 underserved
    rural communities, including those here in North Carolina--including
    this county--and that's going to make it easier to get; MCI WorldCom, $2
    million to increase wireless Internet access in 3 rural communities in
    the South; AT&T, over a million dollars to develop information and
    technology management training at North Carolina State, North Carolina
    A&T, and other universities; Red Hat Software, in Durham, North
    Carolina, providing free training and certification to use the software
    to employees of 100 hundred different rural small businesses. Every
    small business in this town ought to take advantage of that and get on
    the Internet and find your customers, wherever they are. This is a good
    beginning.
        But you just remember this. You've got to be for this, folks. You've
    got to believe in this. Now, I'm not running for anything; I'm not
    giving you a campaign speech. [Laughter] I'm telling you, I have now
    spent more than 20 years trying to bring jobs and opportunity and hope
    to places like this community. I believe I've learned something about
    it. I have pleaded and begged with people to invest in places like this
    community. I have given tax breaks to people to do it. I have built
    roads, and I have made roads bigger. I have built airports, and I've
    made them bigger. I've done everything known to man to try to get more
    jobs into the rural parts of my State and in America, since I've been
    here.
        I can only think of two more things we can do: give people the same
    incentives to invest in you we give them to invest in poor areas
    overseas; and make sure the Internet is universally available at
    affordable prices.
        But you remember what I'm telling you. In the whole 20th century, we
    never caught up. You can't stop change. We're always going to be losing
    jobs and getting jobs. We all try to save every one we can. But the
    economy changes, and it's going to change faster. But we can catch up
    if, for the first time in our history, we can collapse time and distance
    so that your children have access to every bit of information any
    children in the richest places in the world have; so that your
    businesses have access to every potential customer and supplier anyplace
    in the world; so that you have access to anything you'd ever need to
    know and learn as soon and as well as anyone else does.
        That's what this Internet is. That's why it has gone from 50 to 50
    million webpages in just 7 years. And it can be this community's ticket
    to tomorrow. Every child here is just as smart, just as worthy, just as
    able as every child in

    [[Page 782]]

    the richest community in the United States or anyplace else in the
    world. They deserve that.
        So a long time from today, I want you to remember more than that the
    President finally came to your hometown. [Laughter] I want you to
    remember why we came here: Because of your Governor and Erskine Bowles and
    these other leaders, we have a chance to collapse time and distance and
    to give you your chance to live your dreams.
        Thank you, and God bless you.

     Note:  The President spoke at 3:15 p.m. at the Whiteville train depot.
    In his remarks, he referred to Mayor Ann W. Jones of Whiteville; W.
    Craig Turner, corporate secretary, board of directors, Remote Data
    Systems; Gov. James B. Hunt, Jr., of North Carolina; former White House
    Chief of Staff Erskine B. Bowles; Irwin Jacobs, chairman and chief
    executive officer, Qualcomm, Inc.; and White House Associate Director
    for Business Outreach Jackson Dunn.