WILLIAM GRADY STIGLER, a Representative from the Second Congressional District of the State of Oklahoma: Born July 7, 1891; attended public schools, graduated from Northeastern State College, Tahlequah, and attended law school at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, and the University of Grenoble in France; First World War Infantry lieutenant at St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne engagements and with Army of Occupation; admitted to bar, 1920, and practiced law in Stigler; city attorney of Stigler, 1920-24; State senator, 1924–32, serving as president pro tempore in 1931; lieutenant colonel, Oklahoma National Guard; Member of the 78th Congress and the four succeeding Congresses; died August 21, 1952.

ADOLPH JOACHIM SABATH, a Representative from the Seventh Congressional District of the State of Illinois: Born April 4, 1866; attended schools of Zabori, Czechoslovakia, and after immigrating to the United States in 1881, graduated from the Chicago College of Law; admitted to the bar and practiced law in Chicago; ward committeeman and district leader in Chicago, 1892-1944; justice of the peace, 1895; police magistrate, 1897-1906; delegate to all the Democratic State conventions since 1890; delegate to all the Democratic National Conventions, 1896-1944; Member of the 60th Congress and the 23 succeeding Congresses; died November 6, 1952.

EDWARD EUGENE Cox, a Representative from the Second Congressional District of the State of Georgia: Born April 3, 1880; attended public schools, the academic department of Mercer University, Macon, and graduated from the law department of Mercer University; admitted to the bar and practiced law in Camilla; mayor of Camilla, 1904-06; delegate to the Democratic National Convention, 1908; judge of the superior court of the Albany circuit, 1912–16; Member of the 69th Congress and the 14 succeeding Congresses; died December 24, 1952.

JOSEPH RALEIGH BRYSON, a Representative from the Fourth Congressional District of the State of South Carolina: Born January 18, 1893; attended public schools and was graduated from Furman University, Greenville, S. C., and from the law department of the University of South Carolina; enlisted in First World War, September 28, 1915, and reenlisted August 3, 1917, and was discharged as a second lieutenant of infantry; admitted to the bar in 1920 and practiced law in Greenville; member South Carolina House of Representatives, 1921-24; member of State senate, 1929-32; elected to the 76th Congress and the seven succeeding Congresses; died March 10, 1953.

GARRETT LEE WITHERS, a Representative from the Second Congressional District of the State of Kentucky: Born June 21, 1884; admitted to the bar in 1908; served as clerk of Webster County Circuit Court, 1910-12; master commissioner of same court, 191317; served on Kentucky Highway Commission, 1932-36; referee in bankruptcy, 1941-45; commissioner, Kentucky department of highways, 1947-49; appointed to the United States Senate January 20, 1949; elected to Kentucky State Legislature, 1951; elected to the 82d Congress, August 2, 1952; reelected to the 83d Congress; died April 30, 1953.

Hon. MARGUERITE STITT CHURCH, a Representative from the State of Illinois, standing in front of the Speaker's rostrum and assisted by Page Daniel B. Havens, placed a memorial rose in a vase as the name of each deceased Member was read by the Clerk.

There followed a period of devotional silence, during which the Members stood.

The SPEAKER. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Corbett].

Hon. ROBERT J. CORBETT, a Representative from the State of Pennsylvania, delivered the following address:

Mr. Speaker, we have gathered here to pay homage to those Members of Congress who died during the year. Without exception these men were best citizens in their own communities. They were loved and respected wherever they were known. Proper religious devotions have been held for them, and proper eulogies have been pronounced by their close friends here in Congress. I could add nothing to the splendid tributes paid to them. I cannot minister in a religious spirit to their loved ones. No one can add to their stature or the respect in which they were held by all of us. But speaking as a contemporary historian, I can spread here on the record one salient thought, one final accolade that they so justly merited and that a grateful Nation should well remember.

Mr. Speaker, it is good that we should set aside 1 day each year to memorialize our departed colleagues. These were not ordinary men who worked and lived with us. They

were truly men of distinction. The very fact of their membership in the Congress of the United States so stamped them for all time.

The honor of being a Member of the Congress is an honor that cannot be taken away by defeat or death. And it is a distinction that comes to relatively few men and women. Out of all the hundreds of millions of people who have lived in this great land only approximately 10,000 persons have had the privilege of serving in the Halls of Congress.

Membership in the Congress of the United States is seldom easy to achieve or maintain. It should be constantly reemphasized that no citizen can take the oath of office as a Representative in Congress unless he has been selected and elected by the people of his home district by his friends and his neighbors—those who know him best. Likewise, except when appointed to fill an unexpired term, no one can serve in the Senate of the United States unless the people of his own State have voted him that high office. That fact makes the Congress definitely the part of the Government which is uniquely the people's own.

It is that part of the Government to which they can most readily appeal for the redress of wrongs, for changes of policy, for information, for assistance, and for protection. And the Congress is that part of the Government which can most easily be changed when it becomes unresponsive to the will of the people.

The fact that membership in Congress is almost exclusively reserved for those who have been elected obviously makes such membership an honor and distinction that much more to be cherished. Equally obvious, the fact of elected membership makes our Government so distinctly a representative republic-a Government of and by the people. And just so long as our Congress retains its full power in the affairs of state our Government will continue to be a Government for the people-providing and preserving the maximum of freedom for everyone.

The Congress of the United States is often held up for ridicule and harsh criticism by the thoughtless, the frustrated, the indolent, the vicious. Confidence in it is also deliberately diluted by those who know that they cannot destroy free government in the United States until they first destroy public faith in the Congress.

Criticism and ridicule of individual Members of Congress is part of the American political scheme of things. The Member generally takes this in his stride with a shrug or a smile. But when the criticism tends to destroy faith in the institution that is Congress then a menace appears that cannot be regarded lightly. I will tell you why.

In all of our sprawling executive with its approximately 2,500,000 civil employees, only 2, the President and the Vice President, hold their offices by the will of the people. All the rest owe their responsibility to the appointive power of someone superior. It is likewise true that the other great check in our check-and-balance system, the Supreme Court, is an appointed body far removed from popular control. All of this may be good and proper, but it results in a very serious and constant danger.

Should the Congress of the United States, because of the carelessness of the cartoonists, the indolence of the editorial writer, or the commentator, who has no other easy target for the day, the denunciation of the frustrated pressuregroup leader, the profanity of the defeated, or the subversive activity of the totalitarian-should the Congress, because of all these things, be destroyed in the confidence of the people and thus become powerless as a check on the Executive, then free government, as we know it, ends in America.

Thus it has been in every country in the history of civilization where government of the people has given way to dictatorship. The Republic of Rome became the dictatorship of the Caesars when the senate had become an object of scorn and derision. Napoleon reduced the legislative bodies in France to a sounding board of his wishes before he be

came Emperor.

Mussolini became the sovereign power of Italy by supplanting the Chamber of Deputies with the powerless Chamber of Corporations. Hitler became the dictator of Germany by reducing the members of the Reichstag to a chorus of "yas." Throughout history, where and when the power of, and the confidence in the people's representatives could be ended, dictatorships resulted.

Hence, it is true that so long, and just so long, as the Congress of the United States retains the confidence of the people and asserts and preserves its proper place in our governmental scheme of things, that long democracy will flourish in our Nation. Likewise, so long as our republican democracy is maintained, so long will those throughout the world who pray for personal and political freedom have a beacon to inspire them.

Consequently, those who serve, or who have served, in the Congress of the United States have not only been honored through election by their constituents, they have also been honored by being a part—a vital part of the greatest institution in the world, working for the preservation of a free way of life in America and everywhere.

These departed Members who have passed on during this year and all of those former Members they have joined in God's somewhere were part of the great tradition that first sent men and women to these shores in search of liberty, part of the great tradition that has carried us forward from Lexington and Concord through many trying times and finds us now in a position of world leadership, resisting dictatorship and tyranny on the bloody ridges of Korea and building defenses, political, economic, and military, against aggression and slavery everywhere in the world. There has been and cannot be any finer tradition in all history.

It is for us today as we formally and sorrowfully say farewell to our departed colleagues to remember them as men who in their humbleness and sincerity and vigor worked for the best interests of their people and their country; men