>From speech delivered at Portsmouth, NH on Dec 7, 1995.

  So in this new age on the economic side we do have fundamental
strengths.  And we are far ahead of the rest of the world.  This of
course leads to, what about America's social problems.  Well again,
I think that what you're going to be seeing arising in the next few
years, you can begin to see it already, and that is a very
traditional strength and characteristic of America.  And that is
the people, when they see problems come together voluntarily to do
something about those problems.  
  Just to give you an example.  We know today that we have a
serious substance abuse problem in America.  Especially among young
people drug abuse has increased dramatically in the last three
years.  But it's not the first time in our history that we've had
these kind of problems.  Go back, for example to the 1820's.  In
the 1820's we had alcohol consumption per person in America four to
five times what it is today.  Everyone took a swig from the jug,
they called it cider then, but it had nothing to do, I hope with
what you buy at the supermarket, and everyone took a swig from the
jug.  Kids did it.  Preachers did it.  Teachers did it. Adults did
it.  
  So that by the late 1820's in America, by noontime much of the
nation was in a kind of a haze.  
 [laughter]
  Now, now, while we chuckle today, it did have, that kind of
drinking, did have a predictable social consequences.  So there
arose a movement in America, that said if you're going to have a
self-governing nation, it must be inhabited by self-governing
individuals.  So the first public health movement in America was
not a government program it was the temperance movement.  Despite
the lack of sophisticated communications, within a generation,
alcohol consumption in America fell by more than half.  
  Moreover the 1830's saw the rise of a series of religious
movements, called the second great awakening.  It also saw the rise
of the abolition movement against slavery.  So we've had these
movements before.  I think we're about to have a series of
movements, the likes of which, the scope of which we haven't had in
America since the turn of the century, which was called the
Progressive Era and epitomized by Teddy Roosevelt.
  You see signs of it already, whether it's church and temple
attendance, even in the New York metropolitan area.  You see it
with the Promise Keepers in the stadiums.  You see it with the
literature of the self-help, self-improvement, getting together to
deal with problems.  You see it in the reaction to violent crime,
people are saying we're not going to tolerate this anymore.  So
even in New York City they have a more pro-active approach, which
has cut the murder rate 40% in two years.