[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 27 (Monday, July 12, 1999)]
[Pages 1289-1293]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks to the Community 
in East St. Louis, Illinois

July 6, 1999

    Thank you. Well, ladies and gentlemen, I used to think that I was 
reasonably astute at public affairs, but I don't have any better sense 
than to get up here and try to speak behind Mayor Powell, Cathy Bessant, 
and Jesse Jackson. I don't know how smart I am today. [Laughter]
    Let me say to all of you, it is wonderful to be here. Madam Mayor, 
thank you for making us feel so welcome and for your sterling 
leadership. I'm delighted to be here with Jackie, your hero, and my 
friend who is all of our heroes. Thank you.
    Thank you, Dave Bernauer, for this wonderful Walgreens store. I'm 
going to go in and shop in a minute--add to the local community. Thank 
you, Mel Farr, for bringing jobs and opportunities and cars, even in 2 
months' installments, to every community in this country. [Laughter] 
Thank you. Thank you, Reverend Jackson, for believing that we could keep 
hope alive in every city and rural area in this country, and it could be 
good business to do so.

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    I want to thank some others who are with us here today--Joe Stroud 
of Jovon Broadcasting; my good friend Al From, the Democratic Leadership 
Council; David Wilhelm, the former Chairman of the Democratic Party from 
Illinois, who is here with me today. I want to thank Senator Durbin and 
Congressman Costello--two of the ablest, finest people in the United 
States Congress.
    I want to tell you that they are joined here today by other Members 
of Congress, including Congressman Jim Clyburn, who came all the way 
from South Carolina; Congressman Paul Kanjorski from the State of 
Pennsylvania; and Congressman Dale Kildee from Michigan--all of whom 
care about this community and communities like it all across America. I 
thank them.
    And I want to thank your neighboring mayor, Clarence Harmon, for 
coming over from St. Louis, and your former mayor, Gordon Bush, for 
being here with me. And I want to thank Secretary Cuomo, Secretary 
Glickman, Secretary Slater, and all the other people from the 
administration.
    We have had a great time these last 2 days, going across America. We 
are going to finish this day, first by shopping at Walgreens, and then 
we're going to get on an airplane and fly to South Dakota, where we will 
begin tomorrow at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.
    So from Appalachia to the Mississippi Delta to East St. Louis to 
Pine Ridge--it has been a wonderful trip. But let me ask you something. 
If you look around this crowd today, I have to make--this is a happy 
day, a happy day. But I want to say one serious thing off of this 
subject today, because of a remark that was made earlier by Cathy, that 
I believe in community development--emphasis community.
    You have been very good to me, to the First Lady, to Vice President 
Gore, and Mrs. Gore. You have supported our initiatives, and especially, 
the Vice President's leadership of all of our community development. But 
what's the first thing that makes it work? Look around this crowd today. 
We have people from all kinds of backgrounds, all different colors, all 
different religions. Everybody--all different ages, working for 
something good.
    So this is the first chance, my first stop in Illinois since the 
tragic string of shootings in Illinois and Indiana these last couple of 
days, that have come to end with the apparent suicide of the alleged 
gunman. Now, I don't want to say a lot, but I think it's important to 
note that while we have to wait for all of the details to come in, the 
early reports indicated that this shooting spree against Jews, Orthodox 
Jews; against the young Asian students; taking the life of a former 
basketball coach at Northwestern, an African-American--all were 
motivated by some blind racial hatred against anybody who didn't happen 
to be white.
    Isn't it ironic that this occurred during the time we celebrated the 
birth of our Nation on the Fourth of July? That action was a rebuke to 
the very ideals that got us started. They're also a stern reminder to us 
that even as we celebrate this, even as we stand up against racial and 
ethnic and religious hatred in Kosovo, in Northern Ireland, and the 
Middle East and Africa, we've still got work to do here at home.
    So I say to you, I want to get back to the celebrating, but I issue 
an appeal here from East St. Louis to every community and every citizen 
in this country: We must search the hearts of our citizens and search 
the strength of our communities, that Congress should pass the hate 
crimes legislation, but we should rid our hearts of hatred immediately.
    Now, I want to tell you what got us going on this. In 1992, when I 
ran for President, I came to East St. Louis, and I said I wanted to 
create a country in the 21st century where there was opportunity for 
every citizen, responsibility from every citizen, and a community of all 
American citizens. I said that we ought to have a new role for 
Government, that Government couldn't solve all the problems, but walking 
away from them did not work very well, either; and that we had to focus 
on creating the conditions and giving people the tools to make the most 
of their own lives and to get together across lines that had divided 
them for too long.
    Goodness knows, in the inner cities and the rural areas of our 
country, lines have divided those who worked hard but had no money and 
those who had plenty of money

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but didn't believe it could be very well spent in the inner city or in 
rural areas.
    Now, if you look at what happened since, we see in this community 
both poverty and great promise--retail returning, new jobs, new 
residents, new hope, Walgreens putting up 400 stores across America, 
many of them in inner-city areas--but still, there are many unmet needs 
and unmet opportunities.
    You heard what Cathy said about opportunities. Let me tell you, the 
economists talk about something in our inner cities called the 
purchasing power gap. Let me tell you what that means. That means most 
people in East St. Louis, even though the unemployment rate is higher 
than the national average, most people get up and go to work every day. 
And if you take the money that you earn here as against the money you 
are able to spend here because of the jobs that are here and the stores 
that are here, in America as a whole, there is 25 percent more money 
earned than spent in the inner cities. In Los Angeles, it's 35 percent; 
in East St. Louis, it is 40 percent. So you can handle this Walgreens 
and a lot more besides, and we want to see them coming here.
    And we thank Bank of America for the library; and we thank those 
involved in the hotel, the bank, the homes being built near here. We 
also want you to know that we want to do our part. Secretary Cuomo's 
Housing and Urban Development block grants, along with Bank of America 
and many department stores, are helping Jackie build the Jackie Joyner-
Kersee Center near here.
    So this is what Vice President Gore and I have tried to do with our 
empowerment zones and our community banks and our vigorous enforcement 
of the Community Reinvestment Act. It says you're supposed to loan money 
everywhere in America. That law has been on the books for 22 years, but 
over 95 percent of the money loaned under it, billions of dollars, has 
been loaned since the Clinton-Gore administration has been in office. 
And I am proud of that.
    We made East St. Louis an enterprise community in our first round of 
empowerment zones and enterprise communities way back in 1994, and 
because you have done so well, East St. Louis is designated as an 
empowerment zone for our second round, which means more money being 
spent here by the Government, more tax incentives for the private sector 
to put businesses here and to hire the people from East St. Louis and 
give them good jobs.
    Senator Durbin, Congressman Costello, and every Member of the 
Congress here is committed to creating that second round of empowerment 
zones and funding them this year. We need help from Republicans and 
Democrats alike. This is not a party issue. All Americans benefit when 
all Americans work.
    Now, let me tell you why else we came here today. We want to make 
two points which all the previous speakers have made. I just want to be 
very explicit. Starting with what the mayor said about location, 
location, location, accessibility--boy, that was a good rap, wasn't it? 
I like that. That was good. [Laughter] The first point we want to make 
is, when the Walgreens' president comes, or when an executive from Bank 
of America comes, or when Mel Farr comes, and comes to places like this 
or the Mississippi Delta or Appalachia, the other places we're going, 
is, hey, there are business opportunities out here. If you've got people 
who want to go to work and people with money to spend, and they're both 
in the same place, it's a good place to invest.
    The second thing we're doing is promoting what you have heard 
referred to as the new markets initiative. Now, let me just tell you 
what that is. That's a bill we're going to put before the Congress that 
says that if people invest in any high unemployment, high poverty area, 
anywhere in America, inside or outside one of our empowerment 
communities, they can get a tax credit for the money they put up, and 
they can go to the bank and borrow money and have it guaranteed--a 
guaranteed loan by the Federal Government, which will lower the interest 
rates, which will mean it will be much cheaper for people to invest in 
communities like East St. Louis than it otherwise would be.
    Now the Government is not going to do it, nobody is going to put any 
money here if they think they're going to lose it. If you put up $100 
and you invest it and I give you a 25 percent tax credit, if it's a bad 
investment, you still lose $75. But it makes it more

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likely that people will do it. It makes it more likely that they will 
take a look. It makes it more likely that you will build the kind of 
relationships which will make people know you and trust you and want to 
build a common future with you. And that is what we're trying to do. It 
is not a handout, but it is darn sure a hand up, and you are entitled to 
it.
    And let me say to all of you, it is something that is good for the 
rest of America. We've had almost 19 million new jobs; the longest 
peacetime expansion in history; the lowest African-American and Hispanic 
unemployment rates ever recorded in this country to date--but the 
unemployment rates are still higher than they are for the rest of the 
country. Incomes are rising, but they're still lower than they are for 
the rest of the country. There is room to grow, room to learn.
    Look, we're all going to have to work hard at this. Nobody's got all 
the answers. There is no magic wand. But we know one thing. People make 
these investments one at a time, just like Mel Farr sells his cars, one 
at a time. You can only build one Walgreens on this spot. And somebody 
had to come up with the money. Somebody had to make the decision. 
Somebody's got to hire all the people that work here. Somebody's got to 
train them. Somebody's got to make all these decisions. But what we can 
do is to create an environment in which more people will want to hold 
hands with you and walk into the 21st century, so that nobody is left 
behind, and we all go forward together.
    You know, in 1960, Look magazine said East St. Louis was an all-
American city. It was because of stockyards and shipping yards. It was 
because of private enterprise. The Government can help, but private 
enterprise will make East St. Louis that all-American city again, if we 
go forward together.
    And I just want to make one last point to everybody else in America 
who's looking at this. I spent a lot of time as your President, now, 
trying to figure out, how can I keep this economic good time going? When 
we started, nobody believed we could have an economic expansion that 
would go on this long. When we started, no conventional economist 
believed you could have unemployment rates under 4\1/2\ percent 
nationwide without having inflation and high interest rates, which would 
wreck everything. When we started, no one thought so.
    But, you know, all of these young, technological geniuses are 
figuring out all this new computer technology, and it's rifling through 
what we all do, and it's making us more productive. And we're doing a 
good job.
    But now I say to myself every day when I get up, now what can I do 
to keep this going? The only way to keep it going--more growth with no 
inflation; more jobs and higher wages without bringing it to a halt--is 
to have new people working and new people buying, new people producing.
    Where are those people? Those are the people you move from welfare 
to work. Those are the people who are disabled--and we're going to let 
them keep their health insurance when they go into the workplace, so 
they can move into the workplace. And most important of all, those are 
the people in the inner cities and the rural areas, on the Native 
American reservations that have been passed by by this recovery.
    America has been blessed by this economic recovery. Now we are 
determined to see that all Americans are blessed by it as we move into 
the 21st century.
    Thank you, and God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 5:27 p.m. outside Walgreens at the State 
Street Shopping Center. In his remarks, he referred to Mayor Debra 
Powell and former Mayor Gordon Bush of East St. Louis; Catherine P. 
Bessant, president, Community Development Banking Group, Bank of 
America; civil rights leader Jesse Jackson; athlete Jackie Joyner-
Kersee, president, Elite International Sports Marketing; David Bernauer, 
president and chief operating officer, Walgreen Co.; Mel Farr, Sr., 
president, Mel Farr Automotive Group; Joseph Stroud, president, Jovon 
Broadcasting, Inc., Mayor Clarence Harmon of St. Louis, MO; and murder 
victim Ricky Byrdsong, former head basketball coach, Northern 
University, and his alleged killer, Benjamin Nathaniel Smith. A portion 
of these remarks could not be verified because the tape was incomplete.

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