FROM THE OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS

Today, as the 70th Secretary of the Treasury, when I'm in my office I sit across from a large portrait of our first Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, a Columbia graduate and a principal author of the Federalist papers. He and the best minds of his era were intensely involved in the debate about the scope and function of the central government of our new republic. And while they often disagreed on these matters, they did not disagree in their deep respect for democracy and the public institutions which did the work of all the people.

Today, the debate of Hamilton and his peers goes on, but it is dominated by a derogation of government and public service -- the antithesis of the attitudes at the founding of our republic. That debate is changing the way the American people view their government as evidenced by poll data. Polls 25 years ago showed that 75 percent of Americans trusted the federal government. Polls today put that trust at under 25 percent. Distrust of government is well above the danger point.

Commencement speeches often deal with advice to graduates or reflections on the past and present. I would like to use my time today for a most serious purpose -- to discuss the debate about government, because I believe it is of the utmost seriousness to the world in which you will live. And I believe that in your own lives -- no matter what career you choose -- that you should get involved in re-establishing a constructive relationship between our people and our government.

I spent 26 years in investment banking. They were good years: I was captured by the issues, the challenges and the excitement, and I was fortunate financially. But throughout that period of my life, I also had an intense engagement and involvement in public life and the political process. For you, as it did for me, that engagement can contribute a greatly enriching additional dimension to your life, and contribute to your country in an area of critical importance.

I would also urge that as you start out on your career paths, that you consider spending at least part of your career in public service. For me, Washington has provided a deeply rewarding opportunity to use the experience from the private sector to deal with the issues of the nation, and it can be for you too. Unfortunately, in the environment that exists today, appeals to public service are not often heard and often not well received. And the reason is the negative atmosphere that has been created with respect to government.

The oldest argument in the history of our republic is over the appropriate role of government, and the political parties have often traded positions in their advocacy of more versus less. But, as I said earlier, something has changed about the debate today, and it is now dominated by derogation of government and public service.

I am emphatically not saying we should not debate the role of government and how to improve government. Just as there is a wide range of views about government across the country, I'm sure that among the Columbia student body there is a full and wide range of views on these issues. These are legitimate and critical areas of debate, but today the dominant tone is hostility.

Think of the voices we hear: First, the political and intellectual voices who believe the scope of government and its role in society should be very limited; second, the popular voices on talk radio and elsewhere that disparage the government and the people who serve in Washington; and third, the voices of violence. Those are the voices of some in the militias and elsewhere who are actually threatening federal employees way beyond what the public sees.

The Oklahoma City bombing was the most vivid and violent example of domestic terrorism in our country's history, but it is part of a disturbing and growing problem. Last fall I visited Treasury's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms office in St. Paul. They'd just broken up a group suspected of planning to bomb an Internal Revenue Service office. In that same area, they made arrests in a suspected plot to spread lethal toxins in the homes of judicial officers.

I was at an anti-violence event in Maryland a few months ago. A woman told me she'd worked at a school to help convince youngsters not to use guns. She said someone claiming to be from the Michigan Militia threatened her life. Park Rangers and Bureau of Land Management employees are being threatened. For those of you who use the Internet -- and I suspect that's a great many of you here today -- type the word militia under a search area and stand back, then start reading some of this material.

What's completely missing in the public discussion of government is balance, and that has serious consequences for the world you will live in.

In many ways, you are entering an era of great change -- arguably globalization and technology are the most significant economic changes since the Industrial Revolution -- and this era is filled with hope and opportunity.

But it is also an age of anxiety, and large numbers of American families are anxious about wage stagnation, economic dislocation, and social and moral issues. Too many Americans experiencing all these uncertainties also believe that the institutions of government they have historically looked to for solutions to their problems, are broken. And then, they are more likely to turn to those who offer harsher rhetoric and more extreme courses of action. All this feeds extremism in our society, the extremism we see in some of the militias and hate groups in this nation. If this continues, the idea that America is a society where a Constitution and government and people working together can produce progress for all Americans ceases to be.

I think it is imperative for the future of our country, that respect for government and public service be re-established again, whatever the judgment as to the appropriate scope. We as a nation, must begin talking about the critical role that government plays and the important things that government -- and often only government -- can do.

In that spirit, I'd like to make three points.

First, government matters. I will not discuss at length the array of government functions that can be performed in no other way and that matter greatly to Americans, but you know what they are. They begin with a strong military, an impartial system of justice, and rules and laws to protect the dignity of people, particularly the powerless, to preserve the shared environment, and to provide for public education, welfare and health.

These functions are under broad attack. It is unpopular to say, but many of them are making an enormous difference in the lives of the American people. I can tell you that in contrast to the cynics and extremists who say government does not work and doesn't make a difference, it most certainly does.

To offer an example that's just a few miles from here, the South Bronx is making enormous progress in its transformation from an urban wasteland.

Go there. You will see a vast area of attractive new and rehabilitated housing, and the beginnings of businesses returning and jobs being created.

How did it change? Business and communities came together with the help the Community Reinvestment Act, the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, and the Low Income Housing Tax Credit. Government, with the private sector, is the catalyst in addressing what may be our most critical domestic policy issue, the problems of the inner city -- a catalytic function no other institution in our society can or will do.

To change locales, a few years ago I was flying at low altitude over an area where I go fishing, and you could see the undermining effects of massive developmental disregard of one of the nation's most remarkable natural treasures. In the same vein, about 25 years ago, then Mayor Lindsay quipped about not being comfortable breathing air he couldn't see. Today, that national treasure is healing, and New York City's air is appropriately invisible. Government played the critical role in each case and, in the final analysis, only through government -- directly or as a catalyst -- will the environment in which you live your lives and make your homes be adequately protected.

So government matters.

My second point is about the people in government. People ask me what I find most surprising about Washington. I invariably say one of the things that has most struck me is the commitment and quality of so many people with whom I've worked. And that includes many younger people who, like you, have the advantage of an outstanding education and then decided to spend a few years in public service.

Government takes on many of the most difficult issues in our society. The people who I work with have done the legal and financial work on the $20 billion loan guarantee for Mexico. They have fought extraordinarily hard and successfully to keep this country out of default, to protect the President, to help pass an assault weapons ban, to investigate the Oklahoma City bombing, to develop tax and economic policy, to make it possible for millions of Americans to file their taxes by telephone, to seize tons and tons of dangerous drugs at our borders, and the myriad other things that make a difference in the lives of Americans.

These people do this extraordinary work, despite the fact they are called bureaucrats -- and worse -- by talk show hosts and irresponsible public officials, and they never receive the public support or recognition that their hard work deserves.

My third point is that the federal government -- like the business world -- is now deeply involved in improving itself to make government operate more efficiently and effectively, and to be more customer sensitive.

The federal workforce is the smallest in a generation, and as a percentage of the total work force in this nation, at its lowest level in many many decades. Moreover, government is in the process of turning from the kinds of hide-bound institutions many of us imagine to agencies bound and determined to do better jobs that give taxpayers the highest value for their dollars.

I deeply believe that the success of our country -- your country in the years and decades ahead -- requires that faith in our public institutions be restored. And that cannot happen unless there is a far broader -- and yes, far louder -- counterpoint to the voices on talk radio, to the militias, to those who reject the notion of government and the rule of law in this country.

And so, this is your challenge, not simply as Columbia graduates but as Americans coming of age at a cross-roads in our nation's proud history. You must become a part of the process of re-establishing respect for the institution of government and those who work in public service.

Being part of a rational public discourse about where this nation is headed is one of the most important things you can do. And to do that, you must reject the cynicism and derogation that argues that society is incapable of improving itself through the institution of government.

And, you must also take responsibility for making government better without putting it down. You can do this by voting, by volunteering, by supporting candidates you believe in, or by serving in government.

Throughout our history, new generations have met the challenges of the times. Today, our country needs you to meet the challenges we have just discussed. By doing so, you will honor the democratic principles on which this nation was built and take upon yourselves the same task that was performed so ably by my predecessor and your fellow alumnus, Alexander Hamilton.

Thank you and congratulations.