Address by Representative Bob Sikes, of Florida, at Florida Chamber of Commerce Washington Meeting

EXTENSION OF REMARKS

OF

HON. GEORGE A. SMATHERS

OF FLORIDA

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES Thursday, April 30, 1964

Mr. SMATHERS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Appendix of the RECORD the text of a speech delivered last Tuesday night at the annual meeting of the Florida Chamber of Commerce in Washington. The meeting honored Florida's congressional delegation and the ambassadors and ministers of our neighbors to the south.

The dean of the Florida congressional delegation, Representative BOB SIKES, made the principal speech that evening. It was so appropriate and so artistically and eloquently drafted that I asked Representative SIKES to permit me to place it in the RECORD for the edification and pleasure of all.

Appendix

there is a better balance in government in that the Chief Executive has a more intimate knowledge of the place which business and industry occupy in the American economy.

This has generated a new degree of confidence which offers a reassuring look toward the future, and it would be difficult indeed not to envision a strong economy through the months ahead. Across the water things have brightened a little, or possibly they simply have grown more difficult for the Communists. Brazil is the most notable case for encouragement. Victories should be due in Vietnam where vigorous reorganization of government forces has been in progress.

A step has been taken towards disarm

ament. And it appears that much of the Communist world is orienting itself a little more toward the capitalist viewpoint. Towever, all is not sweetness and light. There are irritants which continue to defy solution, particularly Cuba and Laos. And on tomorrow there may be another senseless shooting down of an American plane, or the takeover of another bit of territory by the Communists.

For that reason, I can tell you with satisfaction that we continue to have an effective and positive counterforce to communism. We have the strongest peacetime military organization in our history, and we are not the only ones who know it. The Communist dictators know as much about our military power as we do, and I am certain they respect

There being no objection, the address was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:

STATEMENT BY CONGRESSMAN

BOB SIKES, FLORIDA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE WASHINGTON MEETING, APRIL 28, 1964 Florida parties are among the best. By coming here each year, you make the chamber of commerce party one of the best of the Florida parties. My colleagues and I appreciate your presence. It is like a fresh breeze which blows from the sparkling waters off our coasts, or from the stately groves which grace our State, or the clean, green woodlands which stretch mile after mile between Florida's growing cities. Your presence here is the nearest thing we know to being back home.

Our delegation shares your pride in Florida. We are proud of Florida's people and their dynamic progress. We are proud of our State's magnificent picture of growth and the strong economy which accompanies it. Proud we are the bridge between the hemispheres. We are proud that Florida has not submerged its natural beauty in the quest for material things. And I can say to you truthfully that Florida's representation in Washington has never worked more closely together for the enhancement of our State or with greater success.

There have been significant changes since you were here a year ago. There is a new President at the helm of the Ship of State; a strong President who is wise in the ways of government and wise in the ways of Congress. And from what I hear he is wise in the ways of the chamber of commerce too. Because of these facts, there is a closer cooperation between the Congress and the Chief Executive. There is in part a new look-a new flavor in government. I think

arguments and the pleas, as the case sometimes appears to be, which our diplomats advance at the conference table.

In recent days there has been criticism that military costs outweigh civilian appropriations, and that deemphasis of commercial and cultural pursuits have resulted. I would remind you that never have commercial and cultural pursuits flourished as now, and never have appropriations for these activities been higher. It is difficult to see them as being neglected. I see little choice in the world we live in but to continue to maintain the position of military superiority we now enjoy lest we find ourselves without commercial and cultural advantages as well. It is not the military which is seeking the enactment of police-state bills in Congress, or which is asking that more and more power be delegated to the executive branch of government, or which is usurping the legislative prerogative of Congress through court edicts and decisions. The American people want security in a troubled world. It is like a shotgun behind a farmhouse door. Prowlers respect it. Those who would depend upon logic and the United Nations for our protection are indulging in wishful thinking.

There is an area of international cooperation where the sun nearly always shines brightly, and that is in the relationship between our own country and our neighbors in the Western Hemisphere. There are storm clouds at times, but they are few, and I am convinced they will be temporary. It is more significant to consider that our interests are joint interests, that progress always is being made and that it is progress for the future; progress which will guarantee a continuation of freedom and democracy for that part of the world which always has offered most in opportunity and most in freedom. There will be no "ism" in this hemisphere but Americanism, and our kind of Americanism includes both North Americanism and South Americanism.

The preservation of our State and National natural resources and the development of those features that will enhance their value and afford better facilities to all our people, is a vital matter that should be considered as time and advancement progress. Our water resources in particular are of such vital importance that all our people are or should be concerned.

As this article from the Farm Bureau declares, in times past water resources were thought of as of importance to our western arid areas rather than to all our country, but now they must and are of such importance as to affect almost every section of our Nation. Water is of such importance in many ways that in the past it has been taken with little thought as to its control. water must be considered in two or more aspects: It must be controlled and so harnessed as to afford its wider use and also to prevent its destructive power.

Now

In times past the rains that came dashing down to inundate wide areas and bring destruction to property and lives, was taken for granted, and like the statement of Mark Twain: "Everybody talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it," the flooded creeks and rivers brought their destructive forces and little could be done to prevent. Only in recent years has someone begun to do something about it. Wide areas, formerly flooded by these streams, were afforded preventative measures to harness the Not waters and bring them under control. only to control them and prevent their destructive power, but to harness them for use and service.

Reservoirs and lakes have been constructed in many places to collect the overflow and to impound the water for the use of our people. Especially has this been to the advantage and use by our farmers in times of drought, as well as to prevent their acres from erosion and harm.

The recent flood stage of the Ohio River and its tributaries that flooded so many areas along their ways and many towns and cities flooded and harm brought to this wide area,

we realized the harm that came from that flood. While many of our river towns were protected by floodwalls, many acres of our lowlands were flooded and people driven from their homes. The 1964 flood on the Ohio River was declared the third highest in its history, reaching within a few inches perhaps to the height of that of 1945, and only a few feet less than that of 1937. Engineers have declared that without the numerous impounding lakes and reservoirs that are now in operation, the 1964 flood would perhaps have been as great as that of 1937.

With the existing lakes and reservoirs and those that will probably be constructed in the future, our people along the Ohio and tributaries can look forward to a day when the dangers of great floods can and will be eliminated. Not only will this great danger be ended, but these lakes can and will be utilized for many and varied purposes. The water thus stored can be utilized by those along their shores to afford water during dry seasons and for recreational purposes. Not only will those lakes afford protection and profit, but they can be utilized to afford all our people a better way of life. The farmers on whose land they may occupy will be given a form of profit that they do not now possess. By all means, we think, should our people become aware of this great improvement that can come by these impounding lakes and reservoirs.

Governor Wallace in Indiana

EXTENSION OF REMARKS

OF

HON. VANCE HARTKE

OF INDIANA

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES Thursday, April 30, 1964

Mr. HARTKE. Mr. President, an article by the noted columnist Marquis Childs, published in the Washington Post on Wednesday, April 29, deals with the upcoming Indiana presidential preference primary and the role of Alabama's Gov. George Wallace.

Under the title, "Wallace Waving New Bloody Shirt," Mr. Childs relates the tactics to which Mr. Wallace resorts in his appeal for support. The doctrine Mr. Wallace is preaching, Mr. Childs points out, is really nullification; and he cites Gov. Matthew Welsh:

What he is saying, in effect, is that we in Alabama would secede if we could afford it. But with all that Federal aid they got down there they can't afford to.

Mr. Childs writes:

The seeds of rebellion are being planted. Government, in Wallace's perverted fairy tale, becomes the dragon to be resisted at all costs.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the column by Mr. Childs be printed in the Appendix to the RECORD.

There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:

WALLACE WAVING NEW BLOODY SHIRT (By Marquis Childs) INDIANAPOLIS.-Having learned the lesson of overconfidence in Wisconsin, no one from Gov. Matthew Welsh on down will speculate about the size of segregationist George Wallace's vote in next week's primary.

Not only were the discontents underestimated but the shrewdness of the Ala

bama Governor's appeal has also been underrated. In the Midwest he never talks about Negroes, except to say he gets along well with them, or about segregation or racial trouble.

His target is the Federal Government and of the evil its ever-encroaching power. Wallace denounces the civil rights bill as another and more insidious extension of that power.

"They can order you to hire a red-headed Chinese or a Baptist Japanese," he tells Indiana audiences.

Large sums of money are coming from somewhere-the John Birch Society is apparently one source-to help him reach as many people as possible. The Wallace managers are reported to have committed $50,000 for television time in the last 10 days, including three statewide hookups.

"What he is saying, in effect," Governor Welsh remarked after one of these telecasts, "is that we in Alabama would secede if we could afford it. But with all that Federal aid they get down there they cannot afford to."

After a terrible Civil War over secession and 100 years of trying to heal the wounds, that is what Wallace is preaching-nullification. He is exploiting all the discontents of a troubled and uncertain time and focusing them on the effort of the Negro to attain equality of status through action by the Federal Government.

The discontents are abundant here where after a long hassle between Welsh, a Democrat, and the Republican legislature a 2-percent sales tax was adopted. It was the only way out if the schools were to be able to expand to take the rising tide of youngsters out of the postwar boom. But organized labor, the core of Democratic strength, is bitterly opposed to the tax which Welsh supported. The unions are having their own integration problems.

Wallace appeals to second- and third-generation Poles and Czechs working in the steel plants of Gary in Lake County. They are concerned about status and about jobs in an percent. area where the Negro population may be 40 As everywhere it is housing with proposed antidiscrimination ordinances in several cities that is the root of the discontent.

Heading a slate of delegates pledged to President Johnson, Welsh and the Democratic organization are working to hold down the vote for the Wallace slate. But Welsh cannot succeed himself under Indiana's constitution, which seems to have been written shortly after the discovery of the wheel, so his hold is limited. Under the voodoo-doll

theory of State governorship the citizenry will stick pins in the Governor to get even for all the discomforts and dislocations of overgrown urbanism. As for the President, private polls show he would carry the State, which gave Richard Nixon his highest percentage of victory in 1960, by 2 to 1 against any Republican if the election were held today.

In 1961 Welsh, working with the Republican legislature, got through a State civil rights act that in some respects goes beyond the measure now before Congress. Last year it was strengthened with only three dissenting votes. With a strong civil rights commission it has been widely accepted.

Currently, and this may be the saddest commentary on the whole business, the seeds of rebellion are being planted. Government in Wallace's perverted fairy tale becomes the dragon to be resisted at any cost.

Nullification suits perfectly the ends of the John Birchers and others who seem to want either no government at all or a tyranny in which all would conform to their iron dogmas. In 1861 Lincoln resolved not to free the slaves, but to save the Union from nullification and secession. Those, it has been said, who do not learn from history are compelled to live it over again.

Tribute to Kirk Douglas in Recognition of the Services He Rendered the United States as Special Ambassador of Good Will for the USIA

EXTENSION OF REMARKS

OF

HON. JAMES C. CORMAN

OF CALIFORNIA

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Thursday, April 30, 1964

Mr. CORMAN. Mr. Speaker, one of this country's most distinguished actors, Kirk Douglas, earlier this year undertook a 4-week tour of the Far East as special ambassador of good will at the invitation of the U.S. Information Agency.

During this time (Feb. 29 to Mar. 25), he addressed thousands of students and met with government officials and business leaders in India, Thailand, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and Japan.

The extraordinary effect of Mr. Douglas' visits are reflected in the following press comments:

Kirk Douglas, whose rating as a dashing stage and screen actor is exceedingly high, probably made more friends for the United States in Bombay during his two brief public appearances than many millions of dollar aid

*. Kirk Douglas was his natural self and answered questions so deftly as to engender not only admiration for Hollywood but also respect for American democracy, for both of which he must be regarded as a supersalesman.-Bombay Sunday Standard.

At the outset, it's his popularity as a movie star that draws the crowds, but when he starts talking, it's no longer that which holds their attention but the words he says and the way he says them. In fact, one realizes that he could have been of any other profession and not a movie actor of renown and he would still be as effective in this role of ambassador of good will for his country. His eloquence and that which holds his audiences spellbound is a quality compounded of warmth, friendliness, lack of histrionics and pedantry (which is unusual and rather disarming in an actor), humility, sense of humor, and a genuine liking for peoples (and I do mean peoples, meaning regardless of race and color).-Hhe Manila Times.

Kirk Douglas comes to Thailand as the Cultural Ambassador from the United States. Both he and Mrs. Douglas were completely

suitable for their mission as ambassadors. With great wit and sense of humor they cremet.-Thailand magazine. ated warmth and friendship among all they

The sentiments expressed in the three publications were repeated time and again wherever Mr. Douglas went.

Upon his return to the United States, Mr. Douglas made a special trip to Washington to give a firsthand report on his trip to representatives of the USIA, the State Department, and the White House, Mr. Douglas spent 21⁄2 hours briefing Carl T. Rowan, Director of USIA; Lucius Battle, Assistant Secretary of State for Cultural and Educational Affairs; Thomas C. Sorenson, Deputy Director of the Office of Policy of USIA; Edward Savage, Deputy Director of the Office of Public Information of USIA; Patricia Newcomb, Motion Picture Industry Coordinator for USIA.

During these sessions, Mr. Douglas volunteered his services to the USIA for similar good will tours whenever his pro

fessional schedule permits. He urged the continuation of the program to send entertainment personalities abroad and offered extensive suggestions for making the program even more effective.

At the conclusion of his report, the group was unanimous in praising Mr. Douglas for the service he had rendered his country and for the sense of highcivic responsibility he demonstrated in making a complete firsthand report to the various officials.

It is therefore, fitting and proper for us as fellow Americans to pay tribute to Kirk Douglas and commend him for his selfless, patriotic contributions, and for his dedication to developing better international understanding.

Efficient Functioning of President

Johnson's Administration

EXTENSION OF REMARKS

OF

HON. EUGENE J. MCCARTHY

OF MINNESOTA

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES Thursday, April 30, 1964

Mr. McCARTHY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Appendix of the RECORD an article and several editorials the general import of which relates not only to the efficient, thorough, comprehensive way in which President Johnson is administering the vital office of the Presidency; but also the fact that on a day-by-day and issue-by-issue basis he is receiving greater recognition and acknowledgement of his awareness of the fullness of the office of the Presidency and of the competence with which he is administering that office.

There being no objection, the article and editorial were ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:

PRESIDENT LOOKS AHEAD: THE TRANSITION IS OVER-JOHNSON TAKES CHARGE

(By Roscoe Drummond) WASHINGTON.-The most significant fact in Washington today is that transitional government is at an end and that Lyndon B. Johnson is completely in charge.

It has been accomplished more competently, more smoothly, more rapidly than anyone would have believed possible.

The Johnson administration is now on its own-making its own decisions, creating its own initiatives and cultivating its own image in its own way.

The one thing which to me stands out above all is this:

Mr. Johnson has not merely acceded to the Presidency; he has seized the Presidency with unequaled energy.

Mr. Johnson is not merely presiding over his administration; he is operating the Presidency as if he had been in the White House at least 5 years.

He is no longer looking back at the tragedy which robbed the Nation of President Kennedy. Mr. Johnson is looking ahead. He is no longer appealing to Congress or to the country to accept his measures as a tribute to the memory of the late President. He is asking that everything be judged on its own.

This is no time even to attempt to judge where Lyndon Johnson will rate as a President. But it is amply evident that he brings

a special combination of qualities rarely present in one man at the same time. He is the most politically resourceful President since

President since Theodore Roosevelt.

He has just addressed both the American Society of Newspaper Editors in Washington and the Associated Press in New York. (Most Presidents address either one or the other.) He has just held three press conferences in the past week, including one big, live televised press conference in the State Department auditorium a la J.F.K. It went well. The Nation's newspaper editors meeting in Washington-mostly Republican-thought

Mr. Johnson would win reelection.

The publishers meeting in New Yorkmostly Republican-thought Mr. Johnson would run even stronger than President Kennedy would have run.

Few politicians or political writers would have held this view before November 22that if the Vice President were compelled to take over he would be as strong, or stronger, politically than his predecessor. This is further evidence of how quickly and completely Mr. Johnson has come to occupy the Presidency.

On the basis of his first 5 months in office, it is clear that Mr. Johnson is not disposed to delay, to postpone, to run away from hard decisions.

He dared to take the railroad negotiations, which plagued both President Eisenhower and President Kennedy, into the White House-and this was no small political risk.

He ventured upon a personal correspondence with Premier Khrushchev which led to the

uranium production cut agreement announced a few days ago.

He listened to conflicting advice within his administration over whether he should give his support to the anti-Goulart military coup in Brazil before one could tell how democratic or undemocratic it was going to prove to be-and Mr. Johnson took the risk of supporting it, rejected the wait-and-see counsel.

I am not suggesting that the record is all rosy. The Panama negotiations were fumbled in the early stages. Our stake in Vietnam needs much more persuasive Presidential exposition to keep public and congressional support for what needs to be done.

What is most visible, as transition government comes to an end, is that a very skilled politician and a massively do-it-now man is filling the Presidency to near bursting.

Those who constantly compare President Johnson with President Kennedy will continue to be disappointed. He will never look and act like Mr. Kennedy. He will always look and act like Lyndon B. Johnson.

[From the New York Post, Apr. 20, 1964] PRESIDENT JOHNSON'S SPEECH TO THE PUBLISHERS

A Presidential address on foreign policy always creates great stir and anticipation. Yet today's speech by President Johnson to the publishers will be listened to with greater attention than usual.

Not since Stalin's death in 1953 has the moment seemed so ripe for a Western initiative. In 1953 Stalin's heirs were in disarray and close to panic. Had there been talks at the summit, as Winston Churchill proposed, the results might have been highly advantageous to the West.

But the Eisenhower administration out of deference to the McCarthy wing of the GOP, which equated negotiation with appeasement, cold-shouldered the Churchill bid. The opportunity was missed.

This may be another such moment. The Sino-Soviet split, the pressures of the East European countries on Moscow for greater

If so, we could not have a tougher, more resourceful bargainer to represent the Western side than Mr. Johnson.

[From the New York Post, Apr. 20, 1964] L.B.J. AND THE DRAFT

There is an admirable emphasis on equity in President Johnson's order to the Defense Department to undertake a comprehensive view of the way the draft is working.

The President might have requested a purely technical study focusing on population trends and military manpower needs. In that way he could have avoided prickly issues. Instead he faced up to the broader issues implicit in the complaints that the draft system is bearing down unevenly on different groups of young people.

He was afraid, the President said, that the original concept of a "fair and just system" based on equal sharing of military service obligations "may have drifted" in practice.

This has, in fact, been the case. Knowledgeable men in the field of manpower problems, like Professor Eli Ginzberg of Columbia, have long been stressing the inequities as well as the inadequacies of the present system.

When the armed services need only two out of every five men of draft age, how should the Government decide who is to be excused and who called up? Today the boy who gets married or who has enough money to go to college is deferred.

The result is a far cry from the "universal" system of military service which Congress thought it was establishing. Deferments on the basis of economic status are repugnant to our democratic ethos and deferment on the basis of marriage is hardly wise social policy since it pushes a great many youngsters into hasty, ill-matched marriages. This has long been felt to be true, at last something is being done.

We like also the President's request that the Defense Department examine alternatives to the present system, including the possibility of meeting our military manpower requirement on a "voluntary" basis.

Perhaps this is the answer; perhaps we should be thinking in terms of a genuinely "universal" system in which all young people will be expected to give a year's service to the country, although not necessarily military.

There are cogent reasons on both sides of this argument. The President's order has set the stage for a useful debate.

[From the New York World-Telegram, Apr. 21, 1964]

THE HOPE FOR PEACE

When you have enough high explosives to blow any potential enemy off the face of the earth, it would seem foolish to keep on producing more.

We take it for granted the United States now is fully stocked with nuclear weapons, or is approaching that stage and that this is the main reason, the only important reason, for further reduction in the manufacture of nuclear materials, as announced yesterday by President Johnson.

The Soviet Union also may be assumed to be well supplied and this explains Khrushchev's announcement that he too is cutting down.

It costs nothing on either side to herald these reductions as a means of reducing international tensions and perhaps they do contribute to that end, however slightly.

But overwhelmingly the greatest tension reducer is the U.S. Military Establishment. As Johnson said yesterday, "If the threat of

war has lessened, it is largely because our opponents realize attack would bring destruction." We would eliminate the word "largely" from that sentence.

The President's speech concisely stated the between the only substantial difference United States and the Soviet Union:

"The Communists, using force and intrigue, seek to bring about a Communistdominated world ⚫ *" he said. "This activity and this alone is the cause of the cold war between us for the United States has nothing to fear from peaceful competition."

"Today," he continued, "there are new pressures, new realities, which make it permissible to hope that the pursuit of peace is in the interests of the Soviet Union as it is in ours."

We join in that hope, even though its encouragement to date has consisted mainly of words without any definite acts to prove Soviet change of heart. If such a hope is to materialize, it will be due mainly to the continued peacekeeping effect of the American military.

And so we hope, and trust, these announced U.S. cuts in production of enriched uranium and plutonium actually are due to surplus, rather than to any new-found trust in Soviet good intentions.

As Johnson said, our defense effort has

been costly. But the costs of weakness are far greater than the costs of strength, and the payment far more painful.

[From the Chicago Daily News, Apr. 23, 1964]

PRESIDENT JOHNSON'S FIRST VISIT Chicagoans getting their first look at Lyndon Johnson since he became President just 5 months ago will be interested to note how his style (that well worked-over catchall word) differs not only from his predecessor's, but in some degree from Senator Johnson's and indeed Vice President Johnson's.

Here as reporters have been writing and as the Nation's editors discovered at the White House last week-is a man who savors the Presidency as a connoisseur savors fine wine. Proud of his home, his family, and his job, he beamed upon his visitors like the laird of the manor, and danced the ladies round with a skill matched only by his endurance.

Mr. Johnson, if we may offer a guess, is a man who not only vigorously aspired to the Presidency, but also one who never doubted for an instant that he would be a good one. Sure footed in his assumption of authority, prudently deferential to his predecessor's policies as well as his memory during those first few weeks, he has long since emerged as his own man, and a clear-cut personality at that.

Chicagoans will doubtless see the affable, smiling President accustomed to projecting warmth and confidence to the electorate. But those privileged to gain a closer look may also perceive a tough, at times almost imperious, master politician, looking ahead to August and November, saying those things and doing those things the head of a political party must do to generate momentum for those whose political fortunes are bound up with his own.

There is much on the President's mind just now-situations to be coped with that hold the seeds of disaster even for a political future so seemingly secure as his own. Civil rights, Cuba, inflation, South Vietnam: all of these challenges must be surmounted or an image now lustrous will be tarnished, with prompt and damaging reaction upon public confidence.

We welcome President Johnson, then, with warmth and also with understanding that his Texan's smile may mask a mind not wholly upon the quality of the banquet food or the praises heaped upon him by his Chicago admirers.

No Detours on This "Lane"

EXTENSION OF REMARKS

OF

HON. JAMES A. BURKE

OF MASSACHUSETTS

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Thursday, April 30, 1964

Mr. BURKE. Mr. Speaker, Wednesday, April 8, 1964, at the Surf Ballroom in Nantasket, Mass., the South Shore saluted Percy Lane with a testimonial that was attended by over 1,000 persons. Mr. Lane has been a reporter at the Patriot Ledger of Quincy, Mass., for over 44 years, clerk of committees to Quincy City Councils since 1938, and a publicity agent for many Quincy organizations. He was born on August 13, 1896, eldest of seven children, and still resides a few doors from where he was born on Water Street, Quincy. It has been my privilege to have known Mr. Lane for several years and I know of no other personality who is more deserving of this wonderful tribute. Under leave to extend my remarks, I insert as part of the RECORD an article that appeared in the Patriot Ledger on March 31, 1964, which sums up the contributions that Mr. Lane has made for the community he loves so much:

(By Patricia O'Neill) QUINCY.-Percy N. Lane calls Quincy "the hub of the universe" and spends most of his time at the center of that world.

When Percy walks through Quincy Square his hand is in continual motion as he waves hello with a quick salute to nearly every person he passes.

These are the people the 67-year-old Quincy native has come to know in his 44 years as a reporter at the Patriot Ledger, his quarter century as clerk of committees to the city council, and through his membership in many Quincy organizations.

TESTIMONIAL APRIL 8

These are the people who will attend the "South Shore Salutes Percy Lane Dinner" on April 8 at the Surf in Nantasket.

"Percy at the Ledger," Percy, the familiar figure around Quincy, is quick to point out that the dinner does not mean he has plans of retiring or of giving up his hectic 7-day-aweek schedule.

"I've never taken a day off," says the veteran reporter, who doesn't know what a vacation is. "I'm a committed man."

Then he adds one of his favorite sayings"When I rest, I rust."

Percy came to the Ledger in 1920 at the age of 24. "I walked off the street and said I wanted to be a reporter and I was hired," he recalls.

The Quincy boy who had always wanted to be a reporter began his long journalism career in the Ledger sports department and later transferred to the city room, where he is still to be found at various unpredictable hours of the day and night.

His work at the Ledger for many years now has been chiefly reporting on the activities of Quincy's many civic, fraternal, and veterans organizations..

And many a person with the story of his daughter's wedding or a business appointment will ask first for Percy when he calls the Ledger, because Percy is the man he knows.

"I've always liked writing nice things about nice people," he says, remembering with distaste the one time he was called upon to cover court.

COVERED KENNEDY VISITS

Placed high among his many memories are his interview with the late poet, Edwin Markham, and the three times he covered visits of John F. Kennedy to Quincy.

He remembers telling Mr. Markham that he thought he was a genius and the poet replying, "It takes a genius to recognize a genius."

He remembers too predicting at a Quincy Elks Memorial Sunday observance in December 1952, that the speaker, a young Congressman named John F. Kennedy, might be "a future President of the United States."

Kennedy, he says, has become the hero of his maturity that Theodore Roosevelt was of his youth. One of Percy's few trips of any distance away from Quincy was made to New York City especially to visit T. R.'s birthplace.

Percy's schedule brings him into the city room about 10 a.m. every day after a mile walk from his Water Street home if it is a nice day and a shave at Angelo's barbershop. He notes with a tone of regret that barbers do not enjoy shaving customers any more.

BUSY SCHEDULE

Until about noon time, he is busy answering phone calls, opening his mail, and writing. Nearly every day, there is a luncheon appointment-Monday, it is Kiwanis, Tuesday, Rotary, and so on.

Afternoon finds Percy busy again at his desk often until as late as 6 p.m. If there is a dinner or banquet in town, Percy will be there. If not, he may head for one of the Quincy restaurants he frequents.

Nights, he is back on the job either as a Ledger reporter or as clerk of committees to the city council. He boasts that he has never missed a city council or council committee meeting, no matter when it has met.

And then there are social visits to the Elks, the Jewish Community Center, the Masons, and the other organizations where he has been active.

His honorary memberships include the Elks, Taleb Grotto, the Quincy Jewish War Veterans, and the Rotary and Probus Clubs. He is a regular member of Kiwanis, the Norfolk County Sheriff's Association, the Rural Masonic Lodge, and the John Adams Eagles Aerie.

For more than 20 years he has been putting out the weekly newsletters of the Rotary and Kiwanis Clubs and has worked on the bulletins of several other organizations.

AVID READER

A great deal of Percy's spare time is spent reading. He calls himself, "an avid reader," "a knowledge addict," and says he especially enjoys reading about U.S. history.

Well known to Percy's friends and acquaintances are what he calls his "penchant for punning" and his "Percygrams."

Familiar Percy puns include his favorite "I deny the allegation and scorn the alligator."

In his Percygrams, the reporter becomes philosopher-"It is better to make a wealth of friends than a friend of wealth," and "It is better to live by the Golden Rule than the Rule of Gold."

Percy Nathan Lane has plans for the future. He is going to go on being a reporter, civil servant, punster, philosopher, and friend.

A Prayer

EXTENSION OF REMARKS

OF

HON. QUENTIN N. BURDICK

OF NORTH DAKOTA

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES Thursday, April 30, 1964

Mr. BURDICK. Mr. President, none of us will ever forget those tragic days