 Thank you, Walter, and thank you all very much. It's a pleasure for me to welcome all of you here to the White House You're lucky that I've been told to keep this short and I'm thinking of a story about ancient Rome and maybe if some of you've heard me tell it pretend that you'd haven't Because I'm going to tell it again Seems that on a Saturday afternoon in the Coliseum centuries ago The little group of victims were huddled down there on the floor of the Coliseum and then the lions were turned loose to come in They vowed them and the lions came out roaring and one member of the little group Down there stepped forward and said a few quiet words and the lions laid down Well the crowd was enraged they weren't going to see the show that they had come to see Caesar sent for the man and had him brought before him and asked him What did you say that made the lions act like that? He said I just told him that after they ate there'd be speeches Well My words today will be few but my message is big We're gathered here because of a library. Yes, but because of something more as well This administration has championed the proposition that there's much in American life that has done best when government is not involved When citizens from all walks of life chip in and on their own get the job done The library foundation and your role in it are examples of the truth of that proposition Of course that this belief is ours not a Of ours I should say is not a new idea over a century and a half ago a Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville came to this country to find out what was the secret of our sudden growth and prominence and He wrote in a book when he went back in democracy in America that joining together without waiting for government was one of the most striking features about American life and He wrote in his book about things that had taken place here He said that someone would see a need and he would cross the street and talk to a neighbor and the next thing You know a committee would be formed and he added up with the line and he said and you won't believe it But no time was the bureaucracy ever involved Well, two decades ago Richard Cornell called our attention to this old but by then long overlooked truth in his landmark work Reclaiming the American dream In the last six and a half years We've made private sector initiatives one of our main centerpieces To give you one example not many people are aware of this But our job training partnership is a private sector Initiative and it is also one of the most successful perhaps the only successful National job training program in our history There's a spirit here an American spirit if you ever saw Gary Cooper in Mr. Deeds goes to town You may remember when he said From what I can see there will always be leaders and always be followers It's like the road out in front of my house It's on a steep hill and every day I watch the cars climbing up some gold lickety split up that hill on high Some have to shift into second and some sputter and shake and slip back to the bottom again Same cars same gasoline yet some make it and some don't and then he said and I say the fellas who can make the hill On high should stop once in a while and help those who can't That's all I'm trying to do with this money help the fellas who can't make the hill on high Well, that was Gary Cooper in Mr. Deeds goes to town Helping the other fella. Well, that's the spirit. I'm talking about I Want to tell you one thing along these lines that makes me proud I've talked frequently about how democracy and free enterprise have found new youth and strength around the world during our administration And it's also true maybe even more true of This spirit of helping your neighbor in the past year There have been two conferences in Europe between Americans involved in private sector giving and Europeans Particularly in Britain France and Italy the response has been remarkable in Britain for example, some companies have begun to contribute a percentage of their profits to charity Others have started payroll deduction programs so employees can give to nonprofit causes In France the Christian Dior company celebrated its 40th anniversary by contributing a percentage of its profit to charity And in Italy this year businessmen along with my board of advisors on private sector initiatives Organized a private sector initiatives conference that coincided with my trip to Venice for the economic summit And I was asked to address them after the summit had closed Incidentally, I found out that one of the first things that joint Italian-American committee had done Was raise the money privately to create They're in Venice an Italian-American friendship park But they've gone on from there here in this White House in the very next room at a dinner one night my Dinner mate was a wife of an ambassador of a European country I won't embarrass her by telling which country and at the table the conversation had gotten around to one of our programs Whether it was United Fund or any of the great things that we do privately and She quietly said to me Yes in America, but you must remember you're unique And I said what do you mean? We're unique. She said yes in America Your people do things like that But she said in all our other countries in the rest of the world. We just think those things are to be done by government Well now we've made a we've made a change in that but she caused me to do a lot of thinking Milton Friedman has reminded us the first social responsibility of business is making a profit. Well, that's true It's also true that the best environments for economic growth Are those in which government is the least intrusive and that means there are some burdens that others must be ready to shoulder Americans are leading a worldwide movement of caring for the other guy It's a movement whose motto could be love thy neighbor And it's a movement that has built and run thousands of hospitals schools Refuges for those in need and yes libraries Before I finish up, I thought I'd tell you about something that happened over the summer But I think maybe you most of you have heard about it. I don't think I'm bringing you any news a little town Saragossa, Texas and a tornado ripped through that town killed 30 people and destroyed three-quarters of the buildings many of those left homeless were poor and Mrs. Nativa dad Ramirez and her husband Frank were among them and Mrs. Ramirez has said for a while. We didn't think we'd see a house again. The town was gone But then 500 volunteers most of them members of a group called the Texas Baptist men Showed up and with materials provided by the Red Cross. They began rebuilding in a single weekend They put up 20 homes and again. This was all with volunteer labor Well, that's what I'm talking about and that's with spirit that we want to see grow stronger and stronger And that way all Americans will be able to lay claim to the American dream To speak of the library again the presidential libraries If you ever stop to think Yes, I'm personally in a sense going to benefit. I'm certainly going to be greatly honored to have such a thing But they are the one source in this land of actually being able to find out Everything about an administration and the history of our country Can you imagine what it would be like if you had to go to the files of the newspapers to look it up? I'd be impeached in in absentia That were done But it they do serve a purpose and I am so encouraged and I think we're Maybe setting a new style and the fact that now thanks to the generosity of a citizen Ours is not going to be associated with a single institution But it's going to be available for other institutions of higher learning who may want to hold a conference that would be worthwhile and Be a contribution and any of them would be welcome in that library I Don't know that all of the things of the presidency are going to be revealed in there Certainly all the papers and all the correspondence even the personal correspondence will be on file and Some of that's pretty wonderful, but little things like a diplomatic incident here in this very room the state dining room Probably won't be there. If not, I'll put it in a book It was the state dinner for President Francois Mitterrand of France and his wife and Down in the east room at the other end We have the reception line and they then all come down here and there are ten tables not a table like this Ten tables scattered around the room here when we get to the door over there We follow them down when we get to the door everyone's standing in place Nancy takes president Mitterrand over there to a table on that side of the room And that's new too and I thought was a pretty good idea They always used to put the guests of honor and the president and his wife all at one table And we thought we'd scattered around like he did if it was a private party But then I come through the tables with Mrs. Mitterrand to a table over here in front of the fireplace Well, it had gotten that far Nancy had gone with him and Mrs. Mitterrand was just standing and I leaned out and said to her no we go through then the butler was ahead of her motioning her on She said something quietly to me in French, which I didn't understand and Again, I did the motioning and so forth And she just stood and just then the interpreter caught up with us. She was telling me I was standing on her gown But as I say maybe some things like that won't be in the library, but that won't do anything to the national conscience if they aren't But I'm so grateful to all of you What you're doing in Helping in this because it couldn't take place Without can you imagine what would be wrong with it if government did it? You'd have to worry whether you were getting the true story or not No, this is the only way to have it done and done properly and I'm so grateful to you that I just can't say I know I'm talking longer than I'm supposed to here But could I tell you another little story about those early days? just one I Thought after eight years as governor of California that there was an awful lot about this job that wasn't new that I was familiar with But one day a well-known columnist here in town with a farm in Virginia invited Nancy and me to come down to His Virginia farm. So the helicopter landed in the South Lawn We got in and a half an hour later. We're there at his farm and as we're walking into the house He said something surprising to me. He said your fellows have been here all week putting in the phones And I said, what do you mean putting in the phones? I discovered then I can't go any place without they're putting in White House phones And they explained to him that I must be able to contact anyone in the world in instantly So he said that he challenged them on that and they said well name someone and he named his son who was a Marine Guard in an embassy in Africa and Sure enough, they got the guard on the phone and his wife got to talk to her son she hadn't seen for many months and so forth and then He named another one his other son the quartermaster on a destroyer in the sixth fleet in the Mediterranean and they said well No, we can't reach him. Oh, he said you said it. Oh, they said no no the fleet is on maneuvers And when the fleet is on maneuvers only the White House can reach them Well, I heard that we got in the house and the first person I met was the young man's wife She hadn't seen her husband for half a year. He was over there I excused myself and went back out and said is this right that I could get quartermaster kill Patrick on the USS Pratt and they oh, they said yes, sir. I said get him and I went back in and got his wife She got to talk to her husband But I hadn't thought things through very well first I hadn't even thought out that the last part of that call is going to have to go by radio Open to anyone to listen Now a few weeks later. I got a letter from him and in the letter He was thanking me and telling me what it was like and he said and when we're on maneuvers the air is filled with radio track traffic and Admirals talking to other admirals and ships talking to ships Then he said a voice came on and said White House calling and another voice said what code is that and a third voice said Maybe that's no code And he said even the why even Hollywood could not have silenced the air as quickly as it was Then he said they came down to a lowly quartermaster on a tin can and told him that his wife was on the phone to talk to him And he said and I went up and got to talk to my wife and then he added this line which has remained with me forever He said it was as if God had called the Vatican and asked for an altar boy by name He now signs as we correspond. He signs his letters to me your alter boy Well, listen, I've been here too long and violated my promise not to keep you too long But I'm going into the blue room where we started this thing today and while I've had a chance to greet some of you not all of you and You're good to come by and I'm gonna get individually to say hello and a thank you to all of you for what you're doing, but God bless you all