Proclamation 6561—Small Business Week, 1993

Over 200 years ago, the Constitutional Convention gave America the foundation of our great civil and human rights, as well as our commercial rights. By freeing commerce from the fetters of mercantilism, our Founding Fathers released the creativity and entrepreneurial spirit of the American people. Small merchants and businessmen provided the simple beginnings of what has become a vast and innovative economy. Since 1789, it has become abundantly clear that for our Nation to flourish, small businesses must continue to succeed and prosper.

Small businesses create two-thirds of all the new jobs in the United States, putting the American Dream within reach of hundreds of thousands of men and women of all backgrounds. Small businesses generate more than 57 percent of all sales and half of the domestic private sector output. Thousands of our Nation's most innovative companies and most nimble competitors come from the ranks of small businesses. And often, whole new industries are created when entrepreneurs found new companies to bring new products and services to market. The drive that is required to begin and run a small business illustrates the determination, hard work, and community involvement that are so essential to our free enterprise system.

We must recognize these contributions and help small business help the country, creating jobs and wealth. Those willing to take risks must be rewarded; government must implement sensible regulations and attack the enormous costs of health care that stifle the growth of so many American companies. America must continue to be a fertile land for industry.

Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim the week of May 9 through May 15, 1993, as the 30th "Small Business Week," and I call on every American to join me in recognizing the importance and contributions of small businesses across the Nation.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this fourteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and seventeenth.

WILLIAM J. CLINTON