HENRY B. STEAGALL never in the Committee on Banking and Currency and never in his life ever did a small thing. He was a great man. He was a big man, spiritually and intellectually, and this House is going to mourn his loss, but our sadness is going to be softened somewhat by the appreciation of the fact that he has been called to a greater service. Mr. STARNES of Alabama. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Crawford].

Mr. CRAWFORD. Mr. Speaker, as I have journeyed through life it has been my privilege to intimately associate with men much older than I am. This was true with the distinguished gentleman from Alabama whose death we mourn today. As chairman of our committee, I was extremely close to him and I mean to say by that, that I was closer to Mr. STEAGALL than I am to any other House Member. We found that we had many things in common, not only with respect to legislative matters upon which we agreed or disagreed, but with respect to the social, religious, and economic philosophy in which each of us believed and which plays such a great part in the lives of our people in this free country of the United States. As late as last Friday afternoon I implored him to stay away from this body and to let the other Members of the House finish the debate on the bill that was under consideration and upon which he spoke Thursday afternoon. I had known about his physical failing. Only a few days ago we discussed very intimately some of his future hopes and plans with respect to public life.

In other words, I had confidence in Mr. STEAGALL and he trusted me in connection with matters which came before us. Of course, I shall miss him in the days to come as long as I am a Member of this body and particularly as a member of the committee on which he served as chairman. In the years to come I shall remember his ability, his accomplishments, his constructiveness, his Christian character, and all that he stood for, and in my memory I shall cherish his friendship.

Mr. STARNES of Alabama. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the distinguished chairman of the Committee on Appropriations, the gentleman from Missouri [Mr. Cannon].

Mr. CANNON of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, in the midst of life we are in death. Only yesterday a great leader stood in this forum and proclaimed his tenets with a fervor and sincerity that carried conviction to his listeners. And when he yielded the floor at the close of one of the greatest speeches of his notable career, we did not realize that his work was done, that the imprint of immortality was already on his brow. Standing in dazed groups this morning we can only wonder helplessly why with so many about who would not have been missed he should have been called—why he could not have been spared the one more day to witness the culmination of long years of study and fevered months of strenuous work on one of the great problems of our times.

He fell on his shield; in the hour of triumph; and with his face to the front. With all his kindliness he was a man of rarest courage, a courage which could not be stilled or hushed by flattery or sentimental appeal or intimidation. Few can realize the pressure brought to bear upon him these last harried days in the effort to swerve him from the course he felt was right.

It is to be regretted that it could not have been vouchsafed to him to survive this war, as he survived the last war, and to see again as he saw then the universal acquiescence in his program and its successful and beneficent conclusion. In the trying days of 1932, against the determined opposition of financiers and economists, and in contravention of every canon of political expediency, he drove the Federal depositinsurance bill through the House and through conference to final enactment. Its service to the Nation today is only one of his many contributions to national financial stability. When the history of this war is written, his farsighted sagacity and keenly analytical programs in the drafting and management of measures which stabilized national banking

and laid the foundation for the reservoirs of credit from which we have provided the sinews of war, will be recognized as one of the determining factors contributing to Allied victory.

But here, away from the limelight and among ourselves and all those privileged to be intimately associated with him, he will be remembered best for his capacity for friendship. His friendships were not those of a day but of an enduring character which strengthened and flowered with the years. Such men do not die. They pass on, but memory is eternal. And the memory of the life and services of HENRY STEAGALL lives on, hallowed and cherished by the gratitude and affection of the American people whom he so ably served.

Mr. STARNES of Alabama. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Gifford).

Mr. GIFFORD. Mr. Speaker, death's messenger is unwelcome, but will not be denied. This double reminder comes to me and it comes to you. We will ask ourselves, “Are we quite ready to receive Him?

HENRY STEAGALL was my chairman for many years. It can be said he was a true gentleman; he never inflicted pain. His greatest desire, of course, like ours, was to earn and to hold the respect and love of his colleagues and his fellow men. He was assured that he had it. He does not need to read his tombstone when he is dead. Only recently a gathering was held in his office and unusual honors were heaped upon him. His friends saw to it that his likeness was painted and hung in his committee room, so that we who remain and those who follow us may not forget to do him honor.

This double tragedy bears heavily upon us. I greatly admired my chairman, especially during this last week when he made a courageous stand for what he thought was right, although harassed and worried about his physical condition. He proved as he had often before done that he would stand firmly in his belief and would follow his conscience. I am

reminded of words I saw only yesterday, "When the ermine of official robe fell on him it touched nothing less spotless than itself.”

Mr. STARNES of Alabama. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the distinguished gentleman from Kentucky [Mr. Spence].

Mr. SPENCE. Mr. Speaker, this is indeed a sad day for the Congress of the United States. It has proclaimed to us that in the midst of life we are in death. Two fine upstanding Members have traveled that road which to discover we must travel, too.

HENRY B. STEAGALL, chairman of the Committee on Banking and Currency of the House, was a remarkable man. He had a peculiar knowledge and ability that made him a most useful legislator, who rendered an outstanding service to his country. He had an adroitness and skill in handling the bills of his committee that was seldom matched and never excelled. He was a man of great ability and profound knowledge of the matters that came before the Banking and Currency Committee. He made the best use of his long experience as chairman of that committee and used his wide experience and profound knowledge for the benefit of his constituents and the people of his country. Not only the Fifth District of Alabama, but the State and Nation has sustained a great loss.

After the speech he made on last Thursday he told me he was a sick man and had a fever. He was a casualty of duty performed and of the war. To his devoted family I desire to extend my deepest sympathy.

He fell like the mighty oak falls before the storm in the forest, with apparently many years of useful service before him. Why this should occur we do not know. God moves in a mysterious way.

We only know:

The moving finger writes; and having writ,
Moves on; nor all your piety nor wit

Shall lure it back to cancel half a line,

Nor all your tears wash out a word of it.

Mr. STARNES of Alabama. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Patman].

Mr. PATMAN. Mr. Speaker, we are all greatly moved and affected by the passing of two of our most distinguished Members. I did not have the privilege of knowing so intimately Hon. WILLIAM DITTER, of Pennsylvania, but I did know him to be a good, fair, and able fighter; a good debater, and a fine statesman.

I did have the privilege of knowing and being intimately associated with Hon. HENRY B. STEAGALL, of Alabama, for 7 of the last 15 years. During that time we have differed very little.

I presume that more bills and more constructive acts of legislation bear his name than the name of any other one person in either the House or the Senate today. The many acts are too numerous to name. I shall briefly mention a few. I refer to the banking legislation, especially during the dark days of this Republic in 1933, the numerous Glass-Steagall bills, the different pieces of currency legislation, farm legislation, housing price stabilization, price fixing, and the F. D. I. C. with which his name is connected which has a history that can only now be told. Few people realize the influence he had upon the passage of that legislation, and the persistence and the determination with which he sponsored it. The plain people of this country had a real friend in HENRY STEAGALL, whose every heartbeat and pulse throb was always with them.

As chairman of our Committee on Banking and Currency in the House of Representatives he was always kindly, considerate, and sympathetic, and he was always extremely anxious to do exactly what he believed to be right. HENRY STEAGALL was a great statesman; he was one of the finest and best men I ever knew. He was gentle, kind, affable, courageous, always extremely fair, always under all conditions. This country has suffered a great loss in his passing.

Mr. STARNES of Alabama. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the distinguished majority whip, the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Ramspeck].