Southwestern Breeds Future Leaders

SOUTHWESTERN BREEDS FUTURE LEADERS -- (House of Representatives - July 18, 2005)

(Mrs. BLACKBURN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Madam Speaker, this weekend, I had a really wonderful opportunity. The Southwestern Company of Nashville, Tennessee, a company that I worked with through my college years and then as soon as I graduated from college, celebrated their 150th anniversary.

What we did was bring together alums of this great company for a reunion. We had a great time. Our focus was on the principles and the skills that Southwestern teaches that have not only made it a great company, but have also added to this country's free enterprise system.

We talked about how this is a company that builds character in young people. It builds the skills that are necessary to become entrepreneurs: tenacity, perseverance, self-reliance, vision, how to be self-reliant in your business, to be small business people, to build an understanding that hard work pays off, and that you should seek risk and the rewards that go with that risk.

This is all an understanding of free enterprise and how free enterprise works.

Madam Speaker, this Nation has the best, the greatest free enterprise system on the face of the planet. That is why we have seen 146,000 jobs created, we have had 25 consecutive months of economic growth, and unemployment is at near historic lows.

Madam Speaker, I commend the Southwestern Company, and I commend the small business people and entrepreneurs of this great Nation who build this free enterprise system.

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