 of a political philosophy in perspective because the fact is that this is a changed town, it's a changed country, and it changed world all for the better. The purpose of this foundation really is to preserve that, not only in the interest of pure preservation, but in the interest of future dialogue among historians, and that to me is most laudable. I must say it appeals to my macabre alien sense of humor to know that this facility is going to be situated in the bowels of Stanford University, which isn't really a bastion of conservative freedom, but in any case that is progressing well and it'll be a magnificent site in that truly magnificent area. We've seen demonstrator in the last several hours what Ronald Reagan's all about. There are some in the press who would say that yesterday he suffered a defeat to now introduce to you the President of the United States. Well Paul, thank you very much. We have been friends for a long time and go back to when we shared a common border there as with us as governors on either sides of that border. I have to apologize for being a little late coming in here today and unable to greet each one of you. I will do that later, but I think you will forgive me for being late because I was with Elizabeth Dole, the Secretary of Transportation, and she was handing me the check for $1,575 million for our sale to the public of the railroad, Conrail. So that will all be applied to the deficit. Well, Senator Blackshawd and Chairman Glen Campbell and all of you, before I go on telling you how grateful I am, Paul interrupted me in a story. Stopped me just short of when I was going to finish. I got to finish the story. Takes place in this room. Just the other night we were entertaining at a state dinner here, the Prime Minister of France, Prime Minister Chirac and Madam Chirac, and I told her the story over there, our table in front of the fireplace, that when their president, President Mitterrand and Mrs. Mitterrand were here, you know, you had always the formulas the same. You're in the East room down at the end of the hall. You have a receiving line. Everyone leaves there and comes down and takes their place around the tables here in this room. And then we come down, finally, when everyone is in place, and Nancy brings the president over to her table here, and I take Madam through the tables over to that table over there. And when it was the Mitterrand's turn, and we had come to the parting of the ways right here, there she stood, calmly and dignified, and the butler ahead was motioning to her to come on through the tables, and I was behind her. And I leaned out and said, no, we went through there, and she said something to me in French, which I didn't understand. And again I did the, and he was motioning, and just then the interpreter caught up with us. He was telling me I was standing on her gown. I knew that I had an appreciative audience for that when I told it to Madam Chirac. I hope that each one of you knows how much I personally appreciate you being here and appreciate the contribution that you're all making. A primary goal of our administration has been in encouraging people to get directly involved in charitable activities and community building projects. And certainly that's what this is all about. In years to come, historians will undoubtedly focus on the economic turnaround of the 1980s, the resurgence of American leadership, and the rebuilding of our military strength. Yet I would hope they don't miss the success we've had in our private sector initiatives program, in mobilizing the humane and loving side of the American character. The amount of contributions to worthy causes is up 61% over these last five years. In a time of low inflation that figure represents something to be proud of. And incidentally speaking of the Chiracs, they have participated in something that just came about recently. And that is, Erging in Paris was held a meeting of representatives from all of our trading partners there in Europe for them to learn how they too can have private initiative and have the thing that we have in this country of the private sector doing so many things that here before they have always left to government. And evidently it is succeeding very well. But being individuals of means, I'm certain you've been approached for a number of worthwhile endeavors. Of course asking for help doesn't suggest you always get it. You probably all know this story of the clergyman who was involved in a charitable campaign in his community and he called on someone who had never given before and remarked about this and suggested he should be willing to do that and the fellow said well you've heard about that but he says if you heard about my destitute brother a drunkard with five children who has never been able to support them and has been unable to help his wife are you aware that my father has been in a convalescent hospital for years due to an injury he received as a young workman leaving my mother to this day with no means of support and he won with a couple of more examples like that and the preacher kind of a bath said well I know I I I hadn't known that what he said I don't give anything to them why should I get something to you. Well there are some and I'd say very few like that but we can be proud that for the most part we live among people with a magnificent sense of generosity it's an aspect of our national personality noted as early as the 1830s when Alexis de Tocqueville a Frenchman toured our young country he came here and he went back and wrote a book about democracy in America Europe was very curious at that time as how we could have progressed so far I'm talking about about 130 years ago and he told that how someone here would see a problem and they didn't call on the government that cross the street and speak to a friend and pretty soon a committee would be formed and the next thing you know the problem would be solved and in his book he says and you won't believe this but bureaucracy would never have any part play any part in what they were doing well you know this strong current among our fellow citizens from every walk of life one person this brings to mind is Andrew Carnegie came to this land young and poor but managed to amass a great fortune building our industrial might as he did so Carnegie deeply believed in the right to make a profit and accumulate wealth but he also preached that a heavy responsibility went with that right surplus wealth he wrote is a sacred trust which possessor is bound to administer in his lifetime for the good of the community well this immigrant from Scotland took advantage of the freedom and downless opportunity found in the United States and did become rich and then he re enriched our country and we all know through his zeal for philanthropy and his love of peace and we all know about his contributions among other things he built free public libraries and cities and towns across the land a gift that I've always thought reflected something special about this truly great American not that I knew him personally mind you I'm seriously though we haven't been able to rely on the largest of Mr. Carnegie but we've benefited from a group of special Americans men and women corporations and foundations with an appreciation for history and the desire to pass on a gift of knowledge and understanding we want future Americans to learn from our state mistakes and build on our successes president John Adams challenged us to tenderly and kindly cherish the means of knowledge let us dare he wrote to read think speak and write we Americans consider our willingness to look truth squarely in the eye is one of our nation's greatest assets and not every country has this attitude there's a joke among the dissidents in the Soviet Union about how frequently information concerning their history seems to change what is a Soviet historian they ask and the answer someone who can accurately predict the past well with your support we're passing on to our children a treasure of information it will be housed in a library with state-of-the-art audio visual technology and computer craft in the end what we're building together will be a preeminent resource for scholarly research it'll be a lasting gift because there's another American president one note once noted ideas are the only thing in this universe that are immortal James Garfield said that and I didn't know him either so today I'd like to thank each of you from my heart for the honor that you do me and for the inheritance you're helping us to leave for those who will follow let us hope with when this administration is over and decades from now young scholars are pouring over the documents of our time they'll think highly of us and know that we had them in mind I want to thank you all again the bottom of my heart and God bless all of you and now because I didn't get to say hello in any but a hurried way to a few of you I'm going to go out through this door through the red room down to the blue room and I'm going to be standing there in front of the fireplace waiting for you to come by so that I can say a hello and a thank you to each one of you again God bless you