[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 33 (Tuesday, March 22, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 22, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
               TRIBUTE TO FORMER MEMBER, HON. JED JOHNSON

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Jacobs] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. JACOBS. Madam Speaker, America has lost one of its most 
distinguished, imaginative, and indomitable sons, our former colleague 
Jed Johnson, who has been taken from our midst by a devastating 
cerebral hemorrhage.
  Madam Speaker, while it is true that fools rush in where angels dare 
to tread, it is also true that some angels have the courage to tread 
farther than others.
  Jed Johnson is such an angel. He reminds one of the words of Franklin 
Delano Roosevelt in the early days of World War II when he said, ``Let 
no one say it can't be done. It must be done, and we have undertaken to 
do it.''
  In the early 1970's I was a member of the Committee on the District 
of Columbia, and Jed approached me and said that if I would simply hold 
hearings on the tragedy, not well known, of Junior Village, where 
orphans in the District of Columbia were badly treated, that the 
orphanage would be closed down and replaced by group foster homes in 
the District of Columbia, a program which had been proven viable by the 
minister, Fred Taylor, at the Church of the Savior, where Jed Johnson 
and his wife Sydney and their daughters attended.
  When I pointed out to Jed there was a minor problem with that, I 
chaired no committee or subcommittee at the District of Columbia, he 
said to me without hesitation, ``Not to worry. Just pretend you did. 
Have an ad hoc hearing.''
  We did; it caused a sensation in Washington DC, at the time. Within 
18 months, wind was blowing through the old facility out there and the 
group foster system--which has not been without its flaws--came to be 
in the District of Columbia and orphans served had something closer to 
real families with which to live.
  Junior Village could best be compared with what happens at military 
bases; little children were marched from barrack-like quarters to mess 
halls and so forth. They had no parent figures.
  Jed Johnson cared. I suppose anybody would care, but the difference 
was that he was, as I said, indomitable; nothing seemed impossible to 
him if good people put their minds and their efforts to it.
  Jed took over the former Members' organization. Many of our current 
Members will know about that. He had another idea about having an 
exchange program between legislators in other nations and those of the 
United States.
  ``Couldn't be done, couldn't raise the money to finance it''? Well, 
he did not appreciate the impossibility of it, and therefore I need 
hardly tell you, not knowing it could not be done, he brought it about. 
It was done; it is part of that organization, and it will remain a part 
of that organization for a very long time.

                              {time}  1920

  Jed Johnson was a person of the House, and, when he left the House, 
he did not leave the House. He continued to support this institution, 
to speak well of this institution and to make contributions to make 
this institution always better. All of his former colleagues, and I am 
sure every Member of the House now, extends their heartfelt sympathies 
to his wife, Sydney, and his daughters, Alice Johnson, who is in the 
Chamber this evening, and Sydney Dunlap, his other daughter. Jed's 
wife, Sydney, is the daughter of another former colleague of ours, Syd 
Herlong of Florida, who served from 1948 through 1970, and Jed's father 
was yet another former Member of the House, Jed Johnson, Sr., who 
served from 1926 through 1946.
  Madam Speaker, we have here one of America's most distinguished 
families, and the tragedy happened far, far, far too soon and proves 
once again the adage that the good die young.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Nebraska [Mr. Bereuter].
  Mr. BEREUTER. Madam Speaker, I would like to associate myself with 
the remarks of the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Jacobs]. I did not know 
Jed Johnson as a legislator. Few of us who are in the House now did 
because he served here sometime ago, but his contributions to the 
House, as the gentleman pointed out, continued far after he left, until 
his very last days.
  Madam Speaker, I worked with him very closely during this last year 
as a chairman of the Congressional Study Group on Germany. He was the 
driving force in so many interparliamentary exchanges who benefited 
dramatically the understanding of those legislators with respect to our 
system and vice versa. His contributions because of his work with young 
people and legislators of all ages will go on for a long, long time. We 
are going to miss Jed Johnson. He was an extraordinarily fine human 
being.
  Mr. JACOBS. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Nebraska [Mr. 
Bereuter] for his contributions.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Ms. Eshoo). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Michel] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  (Mr. MICHEL addressed the House. His remarks will appear hereafter in 
the Extension of Remarks.)

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