[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 16 (Wednesday, February 23, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: February 23, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
            TRIBUTE TO DON LUIS A.FERRE ON HIS 90TH BIRTHDAY

                                 ______


                          HON. JOSE E. SERRANO

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 23, 1994

  Mr. SERRANO. Mr. Speaker, as chairman of the Congressional Hispanic 
Caucus and as a Member of this body, in the history of which so many 
outstanding men and women have been honored, I rise to pay tribute to a 
great Puerto Rican, don Luis A. Ferre, who celebrated his 90th birthday 
last Thursday.
  Mr. Speaker, words cannot adequately express the depth of my 
admiration for don Luis. And I am certain that once they learn about 
him, all of my colleagues, no matter what their background or political 
persuasion, will share my admiration for this eminent industrialist, 
philanthropist, art collector, musician and ex-governor of Puerto Rico.
  Luis A. Ferre was born in Ponce, on February 17, 1904. The second of 
four sons, he was groomed to help run Ferre Industries, an enterprise 
which his father Antonio began as a small foundry in 1918. After 
attending elementary school in Ponce and high school in Morristown, NJ, 
Luis Ferre studied mechanical and electrical engineering at the 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he earned a B.S. and an 
M.S. in 1924 and 1925, respectively.
  Mr. Speaker, in the course of an address he delivered to the Puerto 
Rico Iron Works Cooperative Association on Three Kings' Day in 1929, 
the 24-year-old engineer touched on two topics which are receiving a 
great deal of attention today: The importance of employee profit-
sharing and the need for comprehensive health insurance. Early in the 
year that would see the dawn of the Great Depression, and more than 4 
years before Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, the young Luis Ferre was 
enunciating principles of social justice and workers' rights which 
were, increasingly, to become crucial to our Nation's workplaces. The 
employees of the Puerto Rico Iron Works soon enjoyed the benefits Luis 
Ferre identified in his speech, as did the employees of Ferre 
Industries.
  Luis Ferre became politically active, and in the mid-1940's he 
successfully promoted the entry of Puerto Rico into the United States 
Social Security System. He was a member of the Constitutional 
Convention of Puerto Rico in 1951, and having been elected in 1952 as a 
member of the Republican Statehood party to the Puerto Rico Legislative 
Assembly, helped preside over the adoption of Puerto Rico's 
constitution. In 1967 he founded the New Progressive Party, and was 
elected Governor the following year with a promise to work for 
subsidization of farm wages, rehabilitation of slums, and control of 
Puerto Rico's burgeoning narcotics problem. His party, meanwhile, won 
half of all seats in the Puerto Rico Senate and House of 
Representatives, and 26 mayoral elections.
  Cofounder with his brothers of the Puerto Rican Cement Co., the first 
Puerto Rican company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange, don 
Luis had become a very wealthy man early in life. His first 
philanthropic venture was the founding of the Ponce Public Library in 
1937. Around the same time he saved the city's only newspaper, El Dia, 
from bankruptcy. He founded the Luis A. Ferre foundation in 1950, and 
the Ponce Museum of Art, now rated the finest in all of Latin America, 
in 1959.
  Mr. Speaker, among don Luis A. Ferre's many awards are the U.S. Medal 
of Freedom from President Bush, the Americas Award from the Americas 
Foundation, an honorary Doctor of Laws from Harvard University, and an 
honorary Doctor of Music from the New England Conservatory of Music, 
where he had studied after earning his engineering degrees. At 90 years 
of age don Luis is still an accomplished piano player, and is still 
active politically.
  Don Luis has described himself as ``revolutionary in my ideas, 
liberal in my objectives, and conservative in my methods.'' In 1969, 
Aspira of America, an agency promoting Puerto Rican youth, honored don 
Luis as a man whose life and commitments exemplify the aspirations of 
Puerto Rico and its people. Mr. Speaker, I know my colleagues will 
agree that for all of his achievements, don Luis A. Ferre is a marvel 
and an inspiration for us all.

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