whom differences of opinion, criticism, praise, or political gain never made them forget that they, as Congressmen, were servants of the people, devoted to the preservation of human liberty and happiness. They are gone, and someday, even as you and I, they may be forgotten as individuals; but if we, the living, and those who are to follow after, will devote ourselves as they did to maintaining the Congress of the United States as the greatest of all institutions working to preserve freedom, theirs and our collective handiwork will remain as a shrine, a beacon, a thing to be blessed by all of those who will come here after.

Above this rostrum the challenging words of Daniel Webster are chiseled in stone. They read:

Let us develop the resources of our land, call forth its powers, build up its institutions, promote all its great interests, and see whether we also in our day and generation may not perform something worthy to be remembered.

Our colleagues whom we honor today and who honored us by their lives and work so did.

With that, to them we say farewell, a long and fond farewell.

The Congressional Quartet sang Rock of Ages, by Hastings, accompanied at the piano by Hon. Frances P. Bolton, a Representative from the State of Ohio.

The SPEAKER. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Oklahoma [Mr. Albert].

Hon. CARL ALBERT, a Representative from the State of Oklahoma, delivered the following address:

Mr. Speaker, the Clerk has called the roll of Members who during the past 12 months have answered to a higher call in a far greater forum than this. Here on earth

Our flowers are merely flowers.

And the shadow of thy perfect bliss

Is the sunshine of ours.

-Poe.

Mr. Speaker, I accept the principle of the indestructibility of matter: much more do I believe in the immortality of the human soul.

There is no death.

What seems so is transition;

This life of mortal breath

Is but a suburb of the life elysian.

Whose portals we call death.

-Longfellow.

Life is ever lord of death,

And love can never lose its own.

—Whittier.

Our colleagues are with us in spirit. Their kind and loving deeds live on. We feel their presence in our lives. They give us a sense of real communion with the infinite. They were with us so recently.

It is fitting that the family, friends, and loved ones of our late colleagues should meet in their honor in this Chamber, which they knew so well and loved so dearly. We meet to pay them humble tribute.

Our colleagues have had a total service in the Congress of more than 100 years-weighty, burdensome years. All of them served here during the Korean war. All but one served during World War II and the trying postwar years. Two of them were here through the great depression, and one of them through two World Wars.

There is little doubt but that the strenuous duties of their work here shortened their lives. Only one who has experienced it can comprehend the burdens of congressional service in this age. Yet it has its compensations.

Sometimes the multiplicity of little things we are called upon to do over and above the constitutional duties of our offices seem almost all consuming. It may well be, however, that these little things are the ingredients of great and important service.

Our people have borne heavy burdens during the past 12 years. In World War II they gave of their blood and treas

ure with the high hope if, indeed, not with the expectation of emerging from that war into an era of peace and sanity that might justify the sacrifices they had made. Instead, endless war and endless sacrifice seem to have been their only reward. It may well be then that the little things we are able to do for them may spell the difference between success and failure in the grim responsibilities that lie ahead. Our colleagues kept the faith with their country and their constituents even to the end.

Mr. Speaker, there are many good men in this world. The men we honor today were extraordinary men by any standards.

To their families and loved ones we can give personal testimony to the fidelity of their service. In the hours of sadness, there is the glorious consolation that they lived their lives fully and served their country well.

To me, the lives of our departed friends summarize the magic story of America. Let us call the roll again: BRIEN MCMAHON, brilliant, youthful New England Yankee of whom it was well said by his distinguished successor: Senator MCMAHON was Connecticut's outstanding statesman. ADOLPH SABATH, a lowly immigrant, who at the age of 15 believed the American story. Unable to speak English when he arrived in this country, he lived to become the dean of this body, to which he was elected 24 successive times, an alltime record of legislative public service in America. Those of us who knew this great American, whose service spanned two generations, can only repeat with our distinguished minority whip who said:

There was only one ADOLPH SABATH. When he was born, the mold was broken.

GENE COX, Southern gentleman, in the noblest sense of the term, who in courage, ability, and resolute purpose had no superior, but of whom it was so rightly said by our distinguished majority leader:

I shall remember GENE Cox primarily as a generous-hearted friend.

JOE BRYSON, another lovable son of Dixie, who rose from the textile mills of South Carolina to a place of preeminence among his comrades, and of whom our great minority leader and former Speaker has said:

He typified the Christian gentleman. He practiced what he preached.

BILL STIGLER, from my own State of Oklahoma, in whose veins ran the blood of the original American. He had all those qualities of chivalry, patience, and generosity of the great race that was the first to inhabit this continent.

GARRETT WITHERS, who left his Old Kentucky Home to be with us but a little while, and yet in whom we caught a fleeting glimpse of that loving soul so dearly loved by all who knew him.

There is nothing I can say, Mr. Speaker, about our late beloved friends that has not already been said by tongues more eloquent than mine. This, however, we can all say, that their lives reaffirm the miracle of America. They demonstrate anew that in this country the doors of opportunity are open to all, regardless of race or national origin, regardless of religious belief or occupation, alike to the descendants of the first inhabitants and earliest settlers and to the newest immigrant in our land.

In reviewing the story of America, historians are wont to pause and to linger at the door of a tiny reconstructed cabin amid the tall oaks of Hardin County, Ky., and there to contemplate the life of the mysterious rail splitter who changed the destiny of mankind. The whole world marvels at the amazing consistency of the evidence of the honesty, the integrity, the ability, and the devotion to principle of this lowly man who scaled the mountain peaks. Yet, I sometimes wonder whether the real story in the life of Lincoln is in his inherent qualities, lofty indeed though they were, or rather in the assurance he gave us of what a man, however humble, when blessed with qualities of honesty, integrity, and devotion to ideals, may do for his fellow man under a

"government of the people, by the people, and for the people." Mr. Speaker, in this age of doubt and skepticism, in this day when the very foundations of free government are under attack throughout the world, the lives of those whom we honor now give us new faith in the principles of freedom.

Mr. Speaker, after more than 160 years this is still the best government on earth for financier and farmer, for industrialist and industrial worker. After all this time no man may close the doors of your church against you. No man may sell your private property on the public auction block without due process of law. No man may cross the threshold of your home without a search warrant. No man may cast you in prison without a trial by a jury of your peers.

After all the centuries, Mr. Speaker, history is still on the side of freemen. So

Fear not each sudden sound and shock,

"Tis of the wave and not the rock;

"Tis but the flapping of the sail

And not a rent made by the gale.
-Longfellow.

The government of Cromwell went down with him to his grave. The government of Napoleon changed with his defeat. The government of Kaiser Wilhelm died in the Hall of Mirrors. The government of Hitler was destroyed in the flames that consumed him. Yet, after more than a century and a half, the government of 160 million Americans still stands tall and rugged. It emerged from the War of 1812 strong and secure. It emerged from the Civil War unimpaired. It emerged from World War I grand and glorious. It emerged from the Second World War mighty and colossal. That Government stands today, a palace of your liberty, a castle of your happiness, a tower of your strength. It is your heritage. It has justified your faith.

This country was founded on faith. It was founded by men of deep religious convictions, by men of faith in God.