United States Secretaries Of Commerce

"Her legacy will live on through her many contributions to the world."

"Becky tirelessly fought the good fight for all that she believed in. Her pathbreaking scholarship informed actionable policies for reducing poverty and inequality, for which she fiercely advocated in her various government and nongovernmental roles."

"Recognizing that the university needed to tap new sources of revenue in order to thrive, she envisioned a multifaceted, strategic plan to move us forward. She built a collegial and talented team, was always available to problem solve, react to, or guide the essential work of the university."

"Her desire to elevate Wisconsin touched all facets of the institution."

"Our community has lost a brilliant leader who cared deeply about making this great public research university stronger, more accessible, better connected to the community and the state and better positioned to make a difference in the world."

"Former Chancellor Blank was a tireless leader whose impact on campus is undeniable."

"She made a significant impression on all who knew her."

"Who's Apple? It's America. We want to bring that innovation back and make sure our great companies, and let's be clear, we have them all. There's no other country as the incredible technology companies, pharma companies that we have. Let's bring those companies manufacturing and innovation and have them do that, manufacturing America with American workers. Let's try that."

"I take a very jaundiced view of China. I think they only about themselves and seek to harm us, and so we need to protect ourselves. We need to drive our innovation, and we need to stop helping them."

"So my plan is to only serve the American people. So I will divest, and I will sell all of my interests, all of my business interests, all of my assets, everything. I've worked together with the Office of Government Ethics, and we've reached agreement on how to do that. And I will be divesting within 90 days upon my confirmation. So I should have no business interest, therefore, no conflicts of interest. I've made the decision that I've made enough money in my life. I can take care of myself, I can take care of my family. It is now my chance to serve the American people."

"I think America is in a place to teach the world and to show the world what leadership is like, what a great economy is like, what taking care of its Americans is like. And to be part of that administration, to be part of this historic Trump administration is one of the great honors of my life. So I'm just looking forward to being a part of this administration, to play my part in helping drive our economy's growth and driving the support and dedication to our American people."

"I've worked at Cantor my entire career, 41 years. And rebuilding the company over the past 24 years is my greatest business achievement. After 9/11, we were down to about 1000 employees. Today, the company employs more than 14,000."

"My father was diagnosed with lung cancer. He kept his diagnosis secret from me because he wanted to make sure I left to start college in the fall. He dropped me off at school, and a week later, he went for his first chemotherapy treatment at a local hospital. The nurse accidentally gave him the wrong dose, and he died right then and there. It was September 12, 1979, and I was 18 years old. So we all know losing one parent is heartbreaking, but losing both is something entirely different. It's life shattering."

"Before 9/11, we wanted to do things on our own. And then after 9/11, I just wanted to be partners with everybody. I feel like working with other firms, working with other companies, working with other people just builds a stronger foundation beneath you. And I needed the breadth and scale of that foundation beneath me. So I'm much more attuned to working together with others, to being partners with others, to creating broad coalitions and that's what Cantor Fitzgerald has set out to do. It works really, really well with all sorts of other companies. And that's the key part of what's made us successful."

"I remember right after the attacks on 9/11, the initial reports were on, that was an attack on capitalism. They make it theoretical. And what I really understood that it's personal. These are human beings lives being torn up."

"Well, it used to be that I felt that I had two lives before 9/11 and after, and it would feel sometimes that it was still so raw it felt like yesterday. And this year as I reflect on 20 years, it just doesn't feel like yesterday anymore. I employ the children of people who were killed that day. 20 years is as much time since 9/11 as I was at Cantor Fitzgerald before 9/11. So I think it feels much more separated from my life before."

"So the night of September 11, I didn't really know who was alive and who wasn't alive. So we had a conference call. It was about 10 o'clock at night. And my employees called in. And I said, look, we have two choices. We can shut the firm down and go to our friends' funerals. Remember, that would be 20 funerals a day every day for 35 straight days. And I've got to tell you, I'm not really interested in going to work. All I want to do is climb under the covers and hug my family. But if we are going to go to work, we're going to do it to take care of our friends' families. So what do you want to do? You guys want to shut it down? Or do you want to work harder than you've ever worked before in your life? And that was the moment where the company survived."

"Well, decisions I made were they needed to have a boss for the business. If I didn't have a leader, I shut it. And I had a division of 86 people where four people survived. And you can't really build a business back with four people. Basically, we went from being a great company that was making a million dollars a day to a company that was losing a million dollars a day. But they all have mortgages to pay, and they need to put food on their table. So one of the things I did is I would call the leaders of other companies and say, here, this guy's John. He sells this many products. He's incredibly successful. You would've never been able to hire him. He was never going to come work for you."

"Howard has been a dynamic force on Wall Street for more than 30 years. He joined Cantor Fitzgerald in 1983, and rapidly rose through the ranks to become President and CEO at the age of 29. Tragedy struck on September 11, 2001, when terrorists attacked the World Trade Center, and Cantor Fitzgerald lost 658 of its 960 New York-based employees, including Howard's brother and his best friend. He emerged from these events with an indomitable sense of purpose to rebuild the firm to honor those lost, support their families, and become a beacon of hope for those who remained. He was an inspiration to the World - The embodiment of resilience in the face of unspeakable tragedy."

"I imagine that’s how Howard Lutnick woke up on the morning of 9/11: unaware of the tragedy unfolding before him, unaware that his world—and ours—was about to change forever. But leadership is about rising to the occasion. That’s what we saw from Secretary Duffy last week. And it’s what we can expect to see—what his colleagues did see—from Howard Lutnick, who suffered the loss of his own brother and 657 other Cantor Fitzgerald employees on 9/11. Mr. Lutnick knows the kind of pain victims’ families are facing. His life story shows he is prepared to meet the gravest of challenges. And we need him to be. In a time of great power competition, we must, as Mr. Lutnick told us, ‘stay in the lead.’ America must ‘show the world what leadership is like, what a great economy is like."

"You can argue all you want and discuss it, but when the boss says this is what we’re going to do, do you have a problem doing what the boss says they’re going to do? You always have two choices. You can quit or you can execute the plan."

"We would never, ever be associated with a company that has anything to do with jihad. And it disgusts me. Tether will seize any amount of coin in illicit activity."

"Well, I don't know if they were surprised or not, but if you just think for a second of what the people of Cantor Fitzgerald went through, to lose all their friends, their co-workers, all the people they worked together closely with and cared about. I mean, the emotions were very, very high. I don't think there's a single person at Cantor Fitzgerald who could say that they weren't, you know, just completely torn apart by what happened. It was the most difficult of circumstances."

"Our great allies have taken advantage of our good nature, and they like steel in Japan and appliances in Korea. They've just taking advantage of us it's time for them to partner with us and bring that production back home. So I think we're going to work closely with our allies to increase their manufacturing productivity at home and I think your way of thinking about it, saying let's work together to do that and bring it home, I think is really important for us and really important for our workforce."

"As a peace-loving people, and as members of the world community of peoples, we recognize clearly that science has raced ahead of man's readiness to deal with all the complexities of what science has created. With the advent of nuclear weapons, war has ceased to offer a solution for disputes among nations. War has become, not only out-of-date, but senseless."

"Science-writing is a very old-profession. Science probably separated from witchcraft when science-writing began. Just so long as information was passed along by word of mouth only, it was always susceptible to control by a few for their own benefit and to mystify the many. When it began to be written about, science came up out of the atmosphere of the cauldron and the alembic."

"Even "security", that word so fretful to science and to the free exchange of ideas, is no modern innovation. Witness Bacon's elaborate encrypting of his work, Newton's allegedly purposeful distortion of a formula, Da Vinci who kept his long undeciphered notebooks in mirror-writing, and other examples that might be cited where the aim was apparently to prevent harm from ensuing as a result of the unexpert use of knowledge or wrong intent. The Sorcerer's Apprentice, that favorite fable of the laboratory assistant who learns the spell to make the mop carry water but who does not know how to stop the operation once it has begun, suggests the cataclysmic consequence where the sorcerer had not been sufficiently "security-minded" with, his formula. That might be a very, old piece of science-writing."

"No matter how voluminous and complete our semi-annual reports may be, we know that the general public does not see them and could not be expected to do so. If they were written for popular consumption, they would be unusable as formal documents. On the other hand, our interim releases to the effect that we have awarded such and such research contracts, released such and such patents, or let a contract for a plant at so and so, -- are, at best, of very local and topical concern. About the best way that the unspecialized public gets any insight into our work is through what you publish and the use made of it by the media of radio and television."

"The President had unequivocally said that we would never use atomic weapons except against an aggressor. None of us like the idea of using them -- not least those of us who are engaged in their production -- but these reservations, which are the result of our moral principles, can be used, and are being used, by our enemies to trap and confound us. We must see the problem in its full perspective. We are not making weapons for conquest or aggression, or to impose our system on other peoples. Our sole purpose in having them is that we may not fall easy prey to others who have no such reservations, -- and who lack them because they lack the moral springs from which they might arise. Our reservations and principles do us proud but we cannot allow them to disarm us. For if ever they did, those principles would disappear from the face of the earth."

"Transmutation of the elements, -- unlimited power, ability to investigate the working of living cells by tracer atoms, the secret of photosynthesis about to be uncovered, -- these and a host of other results all in 15 short years. It is not too much to expect that our children will enjoy in their homes electrical energy too cheap to meter, -- will know of great periodic regional famines in the world only as matters of history, -- will travel effortlessly over the seas and under them and through the air with a minimum of danger and at great speeds, -- and will experience a lifespan far longer than ours, as disease yields and man comes to understand what causes him to age. This is the forecast for an age of peace."

"I am sure we are agreed that the ultimate survival of America is dependent on intellectual vigor and on spiritual deeprooting -- not on specific devices which are always for the moment. It has politics. The future of the scientists' America, and yours and mine, lies fundamentally with education -- that which is taught to the young in our schools -- that which is taught throughout life in the media of general communication by the contemporary writers. Fundamental are respect and zeal for scholarship, a lively regard for moral values, and a love of truth. And of these the last is, of course, the greatest. The atom has no ethics of its own any more than."

"It has been a privilege to have served our country for so many years. I have done the best I knew how to do – to protect and defend the national security even when that was not the recognized, nor easy, nor popular course of action at the time. I leave with the confidence that history will be just."

"Proficiency in the technology of nuclear weapons, and indeed of science and engineering generally, is not so much of an American monopoly as popular misconception once would have had it."

"Nuclear energy -- within the brief span of eleven years, commencing as a secret and remote subject -- has become one of intimate concern to every individual. It has an ever-widening influence on our daily living, our well-being -- perhaps even on our destiny. With each passing day, the energy that is bound up in the invisible nucleus of the atom comes to be a more potent force in our environment. The discovery of nuclear energy, like every invention of man's ingenuity, has brought to us both promises and problems."

"Thus, the words "nuclear energy" have many interpretations. As they bring to mind the terrifying spectre of a war of exploding A-bombs and H-bombs, they are horrible words. Yet those same words, used to describe the many uses of the atom for man's peaceful progress -- in medicine, agriculture, biology, industry and the production of electric power -- bear no relation of association to the uncontrolled fury of the atom as it might be employed in war. And finally, the words "nuclear energy" as they relate to the controlled testing of nuclear weapons so that we may be assured of the means of defending ourselves, ought not to be confused with the unrestrained use of large numbers of such weapons in actual warfare."

"Despite all efforts to the contrary, there is still confusion in the minds of many people as to the differing and even contradictory meanings of the words "nuclear energy". I am sure that all of you have encountered, in your civil defense work, a rather widespread misunderstanding of the significance of such words as "fallout" and "radioactivity." There is a disposition among some persons to think of what might happen in event of a nuclear attack upon us in terms of what does happen when we test nuclear weapons under strictly controlled conditions affording maximum safety. There also is lack of understanding as to the true meaning of such phrases as "permissible dose levels" as applied to peacetime activities in the field of atomic energy. There is a tendency to regard these peacetime safety standards as being the limits for survival in event of actual attack. Sensational and oftentimes irresponsible articles have no doubt contributed to this confusion."

"Exposure to radioactivity, as a vague, unproven danger to generations yet unborn, must be weighed against the more immediate and infinitely greater dangers of defeat and perhaps of obliteration at the hands of an enemy who possesses nuclear weapons of mass destruction and who might have no compunction about using such weapons if he thought we were too weak to defend ourselves and retaliate in kind."

"Until a system of comprehensive disarmament is achieved -- based on something more reliable than dramatic gestures and mere promises made by nations which have repeatedly violated their solemn commitments -- our national survival and the security of our homes requires that we have -- in being .. the means of defending ourselves against sudden nuclear attack. There is no other prudent course. Without the ability to defend ourselves, we could not hope to deter an enemy from making war upon us, or to retaliate effectively and decisively once we were under attack. And without that strength, we would have to speak in a small and deferential voice in our efforts to build the foundations of a durable peace. Only so long as we are strong can we negotiate; the weak can only submit."

"Until others in the world come to their senses, and join with us in banishing the awful spectre of nuclear war, we must be strong; we must have weapons fully as modern and as effective -- if possible more effective -- than the weapons which we know to be in possession of others who would destroy our way of life. At the same time, we must do all in our power to ensure the survival of the largest possible numbers of our population if war should be forced upon us. A major part of this latter effort is, of course, the responsibility of you who are engaged in civil defense."

"Our civil defense efforts, as I mentioned a moment ago, have been faced with many difficult problems. These problems will continue and no doubt increase. As other nations develop and produce nuclear weapons of still greater efficiency and more destructive capabilities, our current planning for civil defense continuously requires revision lest it become outmoded. If we assume that an enemy can deliver an appreciable fraction of the weapons which we believe he can produce, the delivered cost of any one of those weapons may be almost insignificant compared with its potential damage. Also, an enemy is probably in a position to increase his destructive power of attack faster than we can hope to provide new and better civil defense measures to combat that increase. Civil defense, however efficiently organized it may be, simply cannot expect to keep ahead of the enemy's growing stockpile of more destructive, more diversified and presumably more effective nuclear weapons."

"Survival in such an unhappy eventuality would depend largely on what prior precautions had been taken by individuals and families for their own safety, in line with the recommendations of the civil defense authorities. This, I believe, is a point so important that you cannot over-stress it to the American people. I stress "prior precautions" because post=attack measures may be too late."

"The Communists -- in sharp contrast to our policy and our practice -- refuse to divulge any information from their tests which might help other nations in protecting their people against the horrors of nuclear war. If they do this for their satellites, it is a program conducted in secret. Thus, it becomes apparent that the survival of our own people and the civilian populations of the entire free world largely depends, from the civil defense viewpoint, on information which is derived from our own carefully-controlled nuclear tests."

"To remain free, we must have the means of defending ourselves against surprise attack, and we must know how best to protect the lives of our civilians. To do this, we must develop modern weapons which are at least as powerful as those in possession of those who threaten us. Only through our obvious strength can we deter the recklessness of others."

"The survival of our people -- and the work of you who are charged with protecting the lives of our people -- demands such prudence."

"The Commission’s [AEC] program is directed toward encouraging development of the uses of atomic energy in the framework of the American free enterprise system."

"My family and I traveled throughout China. Everywhere we went the Chinese people received us with warmth and friendliness. When we visited my ancestral home, we were mobbed by the local villagers waiting to take pictures with us. It was a deeply moving experience for my children to see where their grandfather and great grandfather were born."

"I joke that it took our family 100 years to travel one mile. But what a journey it has been. Our family story is the story of millions of families whose ancestors came to these shores from all around the world in search of freedom, opportunity, and equality."

"The virus of hate threatens our safety, our institutions, our democracy, our freedoms, and not least, our common humanity. Let us commit ourselves to working together for a more peaceful, just, and loving world."

"The strength of America is our diversity of people, ethnicities, cultures, languages, religions — this is the secret sauce of our dynamism and resilience."

"Commentators have suggested that increasing economic and military competition from China is the beginning of a new Cold War. Others have suggested that high levels of trade and integration with China and today’s global economy means a more cooperative dynamic exists. The current conflict in Ukraine though has added new complexities to ours, foreign relations as Western nations implement unprecedented sanctions against Russia and provide support to Ukraine while avoiding a direct role in the conflict."