Mr. RAMSPECк. Mr. Speaker, I join with my colleagues in mourning the passing of our two distinguished fellows who have left us to come no more. They were both able legislators, fine citizens, and men of great ability.

It was recently my privilege to visit the district of my friend and colleague, Mr. STEAGALL, at Napier Field in Dothan, Ala., where I have a son-in-law in the Army Air Forces. I found the people of his district devoted to him, interested in what he was doing, and believing in his ability and faithfulness to his duty here. HENRY STEAGALL was a man of rare ability and adroitness, and he handled the work of his committee in a way few men have been able to equal. We shall certainly miss both these men. The country has suffered a great loss. Mr. STARNES of Alabama. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Alabama [Mr. Sparkman].

Mr. SPARKMAN. Mr. Speaker, I join with those others who have expressed their very high regard for our esteemed colleague, Mr. STEAGALL, who has today answered the call.

On last Thursday I sat in this Chamber along with the rest of you and heard that hour-long impassioned plea of his. Following that speech he came back behind the rail and talked to two or three of us. At that time he said: "I am a sick man. I have a temperature now. I should have stayed home in bed today as my family tried to get me to do." He knew he was sick, but it was that same loyalty and devotion to duty that characterized his whole life, that drove him here on that day in the performance of his duty. I remember some of the things he said in that speech and I shall quote a couple of sentences from his concluding remarks, for they contain thoughts which I think characterize the man and describe him as the country must know him. He said:

I do not believe there is anybody in this House who knows me who thinks there is any sectionalism or bitterness in my soul. I do not believe those who know me credit me with selfish partisan purposes in my views respecting this or any other economic legislation.

Those characteristics were true of the man. He was big in every sense of the word; he was a friend always devoted to his friends, helpful at all times. I came here as a new Member and all along as a new and young and inexperienced Member I was pleased to learn from him. I remember the very fine friendship that existed between him and various other Members of the House, Members who had served as long a period of time as he. Many a time I heard him speak of the closeness that existed between him and some of the other Members of long service. Particularly am I thinking just now of the very fine brotherly relationship that existed between him and our late lamented Speaker Bankhead, of Alabama, two Members who had come here from the same State at about the same time and who had worked diligently together in all the years. I remember the zeal and interest with which he worked in behalf of Speaker Bankhead for the Vice Presidency of the United States; and I remember the tribute he paid him, I remember the nominating speech he made at the Chicago convention; and well do I recall the great grief which was his when Speaker Bankhead fell by the side in the performance of his duties.

HENRY STEAGALL was a great friend, a man who loved his fellow men. He was courageous, absolutely unwavering in his convictions as to what he believed was right. Mention has been made time after time of his fight on behalf of the Federal insurance of small deposits in banks. I remember being in a public meeting with him one time when some citizens of our State were passing on certain views to the Alabama delegation. I remember how when Mr. STEAGALL was called upon for some remarks he answered those people in a friendly manner and yet courageously.

I remember the story that he told them about his fight for the Federal Deposit Insurance Act, how the bankers in his own section had passed resolutions condemning him because of his stand for that legislation, but he believed it

was right, and in the face of the opposition of some of his best friends he fought for the principle. He told how later those same bankers had come around to his view and begged him for mercy sake to pass that legislation quickly. I am glad that he lived to see the views that he held with reference to much of our fiscal affairs justified. I am glad that he lived to see millions of home owners in this country saved in their homes by reason of the Home Owners Loan Corporation that he helped to establish, and millions of others placed in homes and saved from bankruptcy as the result of legislation that he sponsored and that he pushed through on the floor of this House.

He was a great man. We in Alabama are justly proud of him. Alabama and America have sustained a great loss in his passing. Death is not the end, and out there somewhere today, with the same courage and the same unwavering devotion and loyalty that marked him in life, he carries on his work.

Mr. STARNES of Alabama. Mr. Chairman, I yield to the distinguished gentleman from Mississippi [Mr. Rankin).

Mr. RANKIN. Mr. Speaker, someone has said, "When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions."

The Grim Reaper that never tires, and never rests, has been busy at his appointed work. He has knocked upon the doors of two of the ablest and most distinguished Members of this body and called them to "the undiscover'd country from whose bourn no traveler returns.”

Socrates contended that no good man should fear death; for, he said that if death is an endless sleep, as his enemies contended, then it was much to be preferred to a life of pain and toil; but he said that if he was correct in his belief in the immortality of the soul, then death was but a transition from this imperfect to that all-perfect, glorious and celestial realm above, over which the Supreme Ruler of the Universe presides.

Shakespeare quotes Julius Caesar as saying that "Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once."

The two distinguished Members of this august body who passed away within the last 24 hours, HENRY B. STEAGAll, of Alabama, and J. William Ditter, of Pennsylvania, never tasted death but once. They did not fear to go.

In the passing of Mr. Ditter, the news of whose death reached us first, we all received a most painful shock. I probably crossed swords with him, as often as any other man in Congress, for the last few years and in so doing I always experienced

The stern joy which warriors feel

In foemen worth of their steel.

Bill Ditter was a gentleman, a statesman and a patriot, who placed the welfare of his country above all personal and political concern.

In the passing of HENRY B. STEAGALL, I lost one of the best friends I ever had on this earth. The greatest compliment I ever received from any man came from Mr. STEAGALL with reference to a speech I made in this House on November 1, 1939, when I was appealing to the powers that be to pursue a course which I felt might save the world from the dreadful catastrophe through which we are now passing.

men.

I shall not go into the records of these two distinguished They have been ably discussed by other Members who were more closely associated with them in their daily work; but I will say that today America has sustained an irreparable loss in the passing of two of the most worthy, honorable, conscientious and distinguished Members of this august body.

From lives like these, America's greatness springs,
That makes her loved at home, revered abroad:
Princes and lords are but the breath of kings;
"An honest man's the noblest work of God."

They are gone but not forgotten. Their influences will live as their spirits will live on and on.

We are told of a death devoted Greek who was about to offer up his life as a sacrifice to fate, when his beautiful companion turned to him and asked, “Shall we meet again?"

To which he replied: "I have asked that dreadful question of the hills that are eternal, of the clear streams that flow forever, of the stars amidst whose azure depths my raised spirits have walked in glory, yet they are dumb. But when I look into thy living, loving face, I see that which, mantling through its rich beauty, tells me it can never die. We shall meet again."

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

Mr. MANASCO. Mr. Speaker, An All-wise Providence has seen fit to remove from this body one of Alabama's most beloved sons, "Marse" HENRY B. STEAGALL, as he was affectionately known, was serving his fifteenth consecutive term as a Member of this body and as chairman of the Banking and Currency Committee of the House he probably sponsored more progressive legislation and more legislation that affected the lives of every person in the United States than any other Member has sponsored in the long history of this body. He was a recognized authority on banking law. He was the champion of the under dog and it may be truthfully said that he died with his boots on fighting for the common man. No Member was more diligent in his effort to secure fair treatment for the people of his district. The farmers of the Nation recognized "Marse” HENRY as their strong and capable advocate. Alabama has lost an illustrious son, the Nation a great statesman.

Mr. STARNES of Alabama. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Smith].

Mr. SMITH of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I want to join with the other Members of the House in mourning the loss of Mr.