a brilliant student. After he left law school he entered the practice of law and he became judge of the city court of Norwalk, and then the great Attorney General of the United States, Homer Cummings, called him to Washington as his assistant, and in a little while he was raised to be Assistant Attorney General in the Department of Justice. Those who served with him say, and the record of time will bear them out, that he was one of the best Assistant Attorneys General that the Nation has ever had. After he had concluded a brilliant service in the Department of Justice and with an interlude of only a little while in the general practice of law, he sought a Senate seat from the State of Connecticut and won it in 1944. He was reelected in 1950. I suppose he is best known and will be long remembered by many people because of his great work as chairman of the Joint Congressional Committee on Atomic Energy.

Those who have served in the Congress know of his wonderful work with that committee, and what great leadership he gave to it.

I am one of those who earnestly believe that one of the real reasons we have been able to preserve some semblance of peace in the world is the fact that we possess the power of atomic energy. BRIEN MCMAHON and those who served with him preserved and developed that power for this Nation. But he was more than a great legislator, he was more than a great lawyer, he was, believe me, a good man. He was industrious; I never knew a man who worked harder at any task he ever undertook, and he had great ability. When you put those talents together you get great results.

He was stricken down in the prime of his life, only in his forty-ninth year, and in the early days of his second term in the United States Senate. It is a great pity and a great tragedy that the Congress has lost him, and it is a greater pity and a greater tragedy that his State and his Nation have lost him, because he had so much to give in the difficult years that lie ahead.

Just a year ago, I remember very well, I visited with him in his home. He was planning and looking ahead to his term in the Senate, not knowing that already, hidden away in his body, was a dread cancer which was to take his life in a few short months.

I sat in the great Democratic National Convention in Chicago and heard his name offered to that great convention as a possibility for the highest office in this land. His name did not go in nomination because we knew then that he was on his deathbed. His family tell us that he heard and saw the generous tribute paid to him by the men and women who attended that convention. In a few days he went beyond to his Maker.

Mr. Speaker, as one who knew him well for many years, I want the RECORD to show that I am paying this tribute as an old friend. I extend my very deep sympathy to his lovely wife, his daughter, his mother, and his brothers and sisters. I yield to the gentleman from Connecticut [Mr. Patterson]. Mr. PATTERSON. Mr. Speaker, it is always an occasion of sadness when a great and good man dies, and this is especially true when he had reached such a high goal in life and American achievements as Senator BRIEN MCMAHON had.

BRIEN will always be remembered by the people of Connecticut as a great statesman, Senator, and outstanding American.

To Mrs. McMahon and their young and lovely daughter, Patricia, I extend my most sincere condolences.

As time passes all Americans will realize that a great Senator has passed on and taken his rightful place in the choir of angels.

Mr. DODD. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Connecticut [Mr. Sadlak].

Mr. SADLAK. Mr. Speaker, I wish to associate myself with the remarks that have been made by our two colleagues, Tom Dodd and Jim Patterson, in regard to BRIEN MCMAHON.

I had known him for a long time, and had the privilege of serving in the same Congresses with him for three terms. We had differed politically but we had great respect and affection for each other.

As has been mentioned, he was under 50 years of age when he was called to his Maker in the prime of life, when his star was in the ascendancy, because he made his mark early in the Senate soon after he commenced his first term in 1945.

I think and am convinced that the great love and esteem and affection that the people of Connecticut had for BRIEN MCMAHON was truly manifested in the overwhelming majority which was tendered to him when he was reelected to his second term, and it was also indicated at the very largely attended funeral, which I also had the honor to attend and to pay my respects to his memory.

BRIEN MCMAHON was taken in early manhood. He prided himself, and rightly so, on being the father and author of the McMahon Act on Atomic Energy. As has been mentioned, only time can record the great contributions that BRIEN MCMAHON has made to this country and to his State by his initiative in bringing forth that great bill.

Mr. Speaker, I join my colleagues in extending my condolences to his family.

Mr. DODD. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. McCormack].

Mr. McCORMACK. Mr. Speaker, I am well aware of the close relationship and friendship that existed between our late friend, BRIEN MCMAHON, and the gentleman from Connecticut [Mr. Dodd]. I know that BRIEN in the Great Beyond is happy as he looks down on us today in the knowledge that his close and valued friend, Tom Dodd, as a Member of this body on the first day of the session when he was sworn in is the one who announced officially to the membership of the House of Representatives of his death.

I first met BRIEN MCMAHON some years ago when he was Assistant Attorney General, serving under another great American, an outstanding son of Connecticut, and in my opinion a man who is one of the greatest of our Attorneys General of all times, the Honorable Homer S. Cummings. From the time I first met BRIEN MCMAHON a close friendship developed between us which continued throughout the years until his death. I was proud of him as Assistant Attorney General because of the outstanding services he rendered to our country in that position. I was proud of him as a Senator of the United States, and particularly proud of the great contributions that he made toward peace and the determined efforts that he constantly made to bring about and achieve that goal which constitutes the hopes and aspirations and desires not only of millions of Americans but of countless of millions of persons living in all lands throughout the world.

BRIEN MCMAHON died at a young age, but he crowded into his life many things that few persons have been able to crowd into a much longer life. He was not only outstanding in his ability but he was an indefatigable worker, a man of charming personality and of fixed determination in accomplishing those things which he considered to be for the best interests of our country. He was chairman of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy. Two of the members of that committee representing the House are on the floor today. We all know of his leadership on that important joint committee, and of the contributions of that joint committee under his leadership. Dying at a comparatively young age, BRIEN MCMAHON has left his imprint on the pages of our history.

To Mrs. McMahon, to his daughter, and to his loved ones, to the Connecticut delegation in both branches of the Congress, and to the people of Connecticut, I extend my profound sympathy in their great loss and sorrow. I have lost a personal friend.

Mr. DURHAM. Mr. Speaker, it is with great sadness that I take the floor this afternoon to participate in the eulogies in behalf of one of the great Americans of this time and this age.

Just about 1 year ago at this time Senator BRIEN MCMAHON, acting as chairman of the joint committee, and I as vice chairman, began reviewing the budget and the requests by the Commission for the work for 1953. I so well remember one item when we came to it. The request was for $5,000,000 for research on cancer. He raised the question immediately, being a well man at that time, if that was enough. Was that enough? There was some question, and we finally arrived at a figure of around $6,000,000, which the Appropriations Committee so kindly gave the American people to fight this dreadful disease. With those funds there have been established in this country at the present time over 100 research projects in medical institutions. That, in itself, is worth a man's lifetime for humanity, in my opinion.

I could point out many, many things that have not been said about BRIEN MCMAHON's work in this particular project. It has been so broad, it has been so big that this body has so kindly and graciously permitted the joint committee to a large extent to run what we believe is a sound program. There is no man in American history, to my mind, who has contributed as much up to the present as BRIEN MCMAHON ON this one project alone. You can go through what was said about him in the medical journals and the scientific journals. I know what we have to handle. When we took over this project in 1945 there was nothing that held it together except just loose appropriations, and it went to pieces. There was no man who did more to bring that together than BRIEN MCMAHON. It was no easy job, because the scientists at that time were not entirely satisfied. You can read the scientific journals, where they each pay tribute to this great American for what he has done for science.