Clinton Cites Economic, Physical Security as Key Goals : Politics: President tells party faithful that these elements are a must for American workers. He linked them to a wide variety of his initiatives.

Sharpening arguments he has made in recent weeks, President Clinton on Friday stressed that increasing the economic and physical security of American workers is a central organizing principle of his far-flung agenda.

“The first thing I think we have to say . . . in clear, explicit terms . . . is that there has to be a level of security accorded to Americans if they’re going to be able to change,” Clinton told several hundred members of the Democratic National Committee gathered for the party’s fall meeting at a Washington hotel.

Clinton linked such security to a wide variety of his initiatives--from providing universal access to health care, to reforming job training, to passing anti-crime legislation, and to his signing of legislation guaranteeing family leave for workers.

The unifying theme, he argued, is that without such personal security Americans will resist the costs of U.S. leadership in foreign affairs, measures to liberalize international trade and new government initiatives aimed at increasing long-term prosperity.

“Unless we can be secure in our work and families, unless we can be secure on our streets, unless we can be secure in our health care,” Clinton said, “I’m not sure the American people will ever be able to recover the personal optimism and courage to open up to the rest of the world . . . (and) to continue to reach out and break down the barriers of trade . . . (or) to make these internal educational and investment changes without which we cannot move toward the 21st Century.”

That veiled reference to eradicating trade barriers was the closest Clinton came in his remarks to mentioning his support for the North American Free Trade Agreement--an issue that has divided him from many Democrats.

Later in the day, appearing at the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, N.J., Clinton toured a trauma center and drew a link between violence and the high cost of American health care.

He said that too many citizens lacked both personal security in an era of rising crime and the security of health insurance in a time of sharply rising costs. He said that many of the problems of the current health care system were related to an epidemic of mayhem on American streets.

“Let us have the courage to admit none of these problems can be fixed until we change our ways as a nation, and let’s start with violence,” Clinton told several hundred doctors, nurses and administrators gathered in the hospital atrium.

Meanwhile, a throng of protesters lining the driveway outside the hospital reminded him that despite his desire to emphasize domestic matters, he still faces grave public disquiet about his decision to dramatically raise the stakes in Somalia.

“President Clinton: Bring Our Troops Home!” read one professionally produced banner. A hand-lettered sign demanded, “Not one more drop of American blood on foreign soil.” Another read, “No Vietnam in Africa.”

A White House aide said he believes that the episode marked the first time the President had seen anyone protesting the Somalia expedition.

During his visit to the hospital, Clinton visited Robert Jones, 22, who had been shot in the groin when he was the victim of a robbery in June, 1992.

According to the hospital, Jones’ medical bills for emergency treatment and subsequent surgery so far total more than $127,000--none of it covered by insurance.

Nationally, firearm injuries cost more than $4 billion a year, according to a study conducted by the Advisory Council on Social Security. The report said that 85% of the cost of the treatment of gunshot victims is borne by the government or shifted to privately insured patients by adding extra charges to their bills.

Dr. Jeffrey Hammond, chief of the trauma unit at the hospital, said that Jones and thousands of other young people were victims of an “uncivil war” on America’s streets. Hammond noted that for black men in America, the risk of death by violence is one in 20, and that intentional violence is the only cause of death in children which has risen over the past 30 years.

In Providence, R.I., meanwhile, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton urged support for health care reform on an hourlong special program broadcast throughout New England.

The program featured citizens from around the region who told about their problems with the current health care system--a small employer whose sons could not play sports because the family lacked health insurance; a woman who could not afford day care for her husband suffering from Alzheimer’s disease; a couple whose 15-month-old daughter has been hospitalized since birth with a defective heart because they cannot afford home care.

Mrs. Clinton assured all of these people that the President’s health care proposal would “take care of all of these problems at the same time.”

By going to Providence at the invitation of Sen. John H. Chafee (R-R.I.), Mrs. Clinton sought to demonstrate her willingness to seek a bipartisan solution to health care reform. Chafee is the author of the leading Republican alternative to Clinton’s health proposal.

Those who heard the First Lady and Chafee praise each other during this visit may have wondered why the Democrats and Republicans are at odds on the details of the plan.

Chafee predicted that health care reform legislation will pass Congress in 1994, and he said Mrs. Clinton would be largely responsible for that achievement. In turn, she called Chafee her “counselor and adviser” and praised him for creating a “climate of cooperation” that would likely produce a good health care reform compromise.

Times staff writer Sara Fritz, in Providence, R.I., contributed to this story.