[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 56 (Tuesday, May 10, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: May 10, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
             RETIREMENT OF SENATOR FREDERICK C. MALKUS, JR.

 Mr. SARBANES. Mr. President, for 48 years Frederick C. Malkus, 
Jr. has represented a major part of Maryland's Eastern Shore in the 
State legislature with integrity, vigor, and a concern for his 
constituents that has made him one of the longest-serving state 
legislators in the Nation. Senator Malkus, after 4 years in the House 
of Delegates and a remarkable 44 years in the Maryland State Senate, 
including service as chairman of the judicial proceedings committee and 
as President pro tempore since 1975, is retiring from Annapolis.
  It was my privilege to know and work with Senator Fred Malkus when we 
served together in the general assembly from 1971 through 1975. 
Throughout his distinguished career, which began on his return from 
overseas service in World War II, Fred Malkus has earned the respect of 
his legislative colleagues and become, as the Washington Post called 
him, ``an icon'' in Maryland's legislature. However, he has remained, 
in the words of Maryland Comptroller Louis Goldstein, with whom Fred 
Malkus roomed in law school, ``a man of the soil and water,'' not only 
a lawyer and legislator but also an Eastern Shore hunter, trapper, and 
farmer.
  Mr. President, when an individual serves so long with so much 
distinction in public office, much is said and written about them when 
they retire. Since announcing his decision earlier this year he has 
received many tributes and honors, and will again this Sunday when the 
Dorchester County Democratic State Central Committee holds a tribute in 
his honor. I ask that two articles from newspapers in Cambridge and 
Easton recalling the public service of my friend Senator Frederick 
Malkus be reprinted in the Record at this point.

                 [From the Daily Banner, Apr. 22, 1993

 ``I Have Always Been the Happiest When the Battle Became the Hottest''

                            (By Anne Hughes)

       In the small brick box of an office on Spring Street in 
     Cambridge, the aging state senator stands before a black and 
     white photo of a handsome young man in Army grey.
       This was Frederick C. Malkus Jr., the soldier who would 
     return from battle in World War II to become one of the most 
     powerful men on the Eastern Shore, who would take his place 
     in the Maryland General Assembly representing his native 
     Dorchester County and other Shore counties and remain there 
     longer than any other member of the state's legislature.
       A graduate of Western Maryland College and the University 
     of Maryland Law School, he would make his living practicing 
     law--but politics would be his passion.
       Politics is as much a part of the man as his pulse--
     something that will remain with him after he completes his 
     final term in the Maryland Senate in April of 1994.
       In his more than 45 years in the General Assembly, Mr. 
     Malkus would hold power in his hands then slowly watch it 
     erode as reapportionment gave legislative seats to the 
     metropolitan areas at the expense of the rural area.
       He would gain the reputation of being a fierce debater who 
     rarely forgot his foes' foibles and wasn't afraid to recall 
     them on the floor of the Senate. Through the years, through 
     the heated debates, Mr. Malkus said he always listened to his 
     constituents--the watermen, the farmers, the residents of the 
     Eastern Shore--and fought vigorously for their rights.
       Politics piqued his interest while he was serving in the 
     U.S. Army in Germany during World War II. ``I was voting for 
     Franklin Delano Roosevelt for the third time. I was close to 
     a small town named Stahlberg, Germany. It was raining, in an 
     apple orchard.
       While voting I thought and decided, ``if I every get out of 
     this mess I'm going home and getting in politics.'' * * * I 
     guess I figured that government caused all this and if 
     government caused all this I'd like to be part of it * * * I 
     got out of the mess and on returning home, I ran for the 
     (Maryland) House of Delegates and won.'' He took office in 
     1947.
       ``Four years later I ran for the Senate and have been in 
     the Senate ever since,'' Mr. Malkus said.
       In 1955, he became the chairman of the senate's Judicial 
     Proceedings Committee.
       ``As chairman of the Judicial Proceedings Committee it was 
     my duty to consider home rule for the towns,'' Mr. Malkus 
     said. In 1960 after home rule was put in effect, Maryland 
     Municipal League named him ``State Official of the Year.''
       ``I have always felt that government closest to the people 
     is the best form of government and if the towns can govern 
     themselves I think they will govern best,'' he said.
       But Mr. Malkus, a conservative, was not so popular among 
     the more liberal members of the committee, and he is said to 
     have often clashed with them over civil rights legislation.
       In 1966, he lost his chairmanship.
       ``I was a country boy and the city boys took over and I was 
     replaced by Sen. Joseph Curran who now is the state's 
     Attorney General,'' he recalled.
       When federal law mandated reapportionment, which allocated 
     the number of representatives based on the population of an 
     area, the rural areas lost control of the legislature.
       ``The major thing that has happened in the legislature 
     since I arrived was the difference between the rural control 
     and now the urban control. In my early days in the 
     legislature, the Senate consisted of 29 members, nine of 
     which were from the Eastern Shore. That gave the Eastern 
     Shore, along with rural Southern Maryland and rural Western 
     Maryland, control of the Maryland Senate. Things changed 
     completely. Now the Eastern Shore only has three members out 
     of 47.
       ``I have always said that when the country boys had control 
     of the legislature, we were much more liberal to the 
     metropolitan areas than the metropolitan areas have been 
     since they have had control.''
       After Mr. Malkus lost his chairmanship, no one from the 
     rural areas was chairman of a major committee until Sen. 
     Walter Baker (of Cecil County) became chairman of the 
     Judicial Proceedings Committee seven years ago.
       Slowly, Mr. Malkus said, the Eastern Shore and other rural 
     areas are regaining some of their power. R. Clayton Mitchell, 
     Speaker of the House, is from the Eastern Shore as is the 
     chairman of the House's Environmental Matters Committee.
       From Judicial Proceedings, Mr. Malkus served on the 
     senate's Economic and Environmental Matters Committee.
       ``When I lost my chairmanship, I made up my mind to fight 
     in spots,'' he said. ``In any Eastern Shore fight, I've 
     always been there.''
       ``On Economic and Environmental Matters, I did my best good 
     by being against,'' Mr. Malkus said of several environmental 
     bills that he argued put an unfair burden on Eastern Shore 
     residents.
       The one victory he said he savors the most was gained after 
     his four-year fight to establish the Department of 
     Agriculture. After the governor and other legislators to 
     agreed establish committees on agriculture, the senator 
     convinced them that a separate department was necessary. In 
     1972 the Department of Agriculture was formed.
       ``During 1993 legislative term, there was an attempt made 
     by the Speaker of the House of Delegates * * * to consolidate 
     the Department of Agriculture with the Department of Natural 
     Resources. The farmers were against that from one end of the 
     state to the other. * * * The bill didn't have a chance with 
     the farmers against it and the Administration against it. So 
     we didn't have a hard fight on it. The bill just went to 
     sleep.''
       But the senator said he's always been drawn to a good 
     debate.
       ``We've had many great verbal battles on the floor of the 
     Senate and for the most part I've been in most of them,'' Mr. 
     Malkus said. ``In verbal fisticuffs I have always been the 
     happiest when the battle became the hottest.'' One of the 
     best qualities a legislator can possess, he said, is a good 
     memory so you can bring to an opponent's attention something 
     he will be embarrassed about, discounting that the tactic may 
     be perceived as ruthless.
       ``In politics, everything is relevant.''
       He has tried unsuccessfully for three years to get the 
     legislature to pass a bill aimed at protecting landowner's 
     rights, a bill that would require the state's attorney 
     general's office to review any legislation that could affect 
     development of property.
       That fight, he said he will continue in his final year in 
     the Senate.
       For 46 years, Mr. Malkus has been ``the esteemed gentleman 
     from the Eastern Shore.'' He doesn't hesitate when asked if 
     he would do it again.
       ``I believe I would have followed the same course. I have 
     several times had the opportunity to be considered for a 
     judgeship and each time I never gave it any serious 
     consideration. It's difficult for me to be present and not to 
     participate,'' he said.
       As Mr. Malkus stares at the photo on his wall of his law 
     office, one gets the feeling he'd like to time to remain some 
     where between the man in the picture and the man who's 
     readying for retirement.
       ``At the present time, if I were not 80 years old, if I was 
     15 to 20 years younger, I would run for reelection,'' he 
     said. ``When am no longer in the Senate, it will be somebody 
     else job and I'm sure not going to interfere with it.''
       Mr. Malkus won't say who he would like to see succeed him. 
     He would like someone who is independent and who knows the 
     area. ``This is very important don't trade your success at 
     the expense of the Eastern Shore. That's a big temptation 
     once you get recognized to forget where you came from * * *. 
     We on the Eastern Shore have to stick together.
       Although he stressed he would not interfere, he acknowledge 
     that he can't just sit back and watch. ``No doubt I will 
     continue to be active in politics. I like the game too much. 
     (This government) is the best in the world. No where can you 
     find it better. I've been part of it.''
                                  ____


            [From the Annapolis Star-Democrat, Feb. 7, 1994]

  After 48 Years in State Senate, Malkus is Slice of Maryland History

                            (By Tom Stuckey)

       Annapolis.--When Frederick Malkus started his legislative 
     career, Harry Truman was president, Jackie Robinson broke the 
     color barrier in baseball and the General Assembly was all 
     white and almost all male.
       In 48 years as a delegate and senator, the Dorchester 
     County Democrat watched the state budget grow from $60.4 
     million to $12.5 billion. He observed, and sometimes fought, 
     the end of officially sanctioned segregation in Maryland.
       And he battled every inch of the way in a losing effort to 
     prevent urban counties from seizing control of a legislature 
     that had been dominated by rural lawmakers for two centuries.
       Through all that turmoil and change, Malkus was a constant: 
     a conservative old-style Democrat with a disdain for big 
     cities and big government.
       ``It's very seldom that anybody in public office rises to 
     the level of an institution,'' said Sen. Howard Denis, R-
     Montgomery, who watched Malkus through most of his political 
     career.
       ``He's a slice of Maryland history and will be missed when 
     he is gone,'' he said.
       Nobody now in office has served in a state legislature 
     longer than Malkus. Three legislators in South Carolina, 
     Washington and New Hampshire match his 48 years of 
     legislative service, said Brenda Erickson of the National 
     Conference of State Legislatures.
       Malkus said he thinks his constituents would send him back 
     for four more years if he sought another term. But at age 80, 
     he has decided it is time to step down.
       ``Needless to say, I'm not as alert as I was 50 years ago. 
     I think it's a good time to retire,'' he said.
       Malkus was fresh from serving in World War II when he was 
     elected to the House of Delegates in 1946. Four years later, 
     he was elected to the Senate, beating a former senator in the 
     Democratic primary and knocking off an incumbent Republican 
     in the general election.
       The General Assembly was a far different creature in 1947 
     than in 1994.
       Legislators had no staff. They had to share cramped offices 
     tucked away in rooms scattered around the State House and 
     Court of Appeals building.
       There were no calendars showing bills to be taken up each 
     day in the House and Senate. ``We never knew what was going 
     on'' Malkus said.
       Even when he became chairman of the powerful Senate 
     Judicial Proceedings Committee in 1955, Malkus said his 
     committee staff consisted of only one secretary.
       ``If I wanted an amendment, I had to write it myself,'' he 
     said. Today, eager ranks of young lawyers are available to 
     dash off amendments on a moment's notice.
       Malkus does not want to go back to the past, but he 
     questioned the need for all the lawyers, analysts, aides and 
     secretaries who fill three office buildings in Annapolis 
     today. ``The staff do most of the work and in some cases a 
     lot of the thinking.''
       He regrets a loss of independence in the Senate, whose 
     members he thinks are more likely than in the past to do the 
     bidding of Senate leaders or the governor. And he preferred 
     the old days when lobbyists were almost unknown in Annapolis.
       Rural lawmakers dominated the legislature when he arrived 
     in Annapolis, and it took Malkus only nine years to become 
     one of the most powerful leaders in the legislature as 
     chairman of the Judicial Proceedings Committee.
       Critics at the time described him as a dictatorial and 
     autocratic leader. He demurs. ``I ran a tight committee, a 
     successful committee.''
       The Supreme Court's one-man, one-vote rule brought an end 
     to rural domination of the legislature and cost Malkus his 
     leadership job.
       Sen. Julian Lapides, D-Baltimore, was part of a group of 
     liberal urban lawmakers who insisted that Malkus be replaced 
     as committee chairman in 1967 by Baltimore Democrat J. Joseph 
     Curran, now state attorney general.
       ``For years our relationship was strained, but in later 
     years, I began to like him a great deal,'' Lapides said.
       ``He's old school. He's opinionated. He's showman. But I 
     think he has great personal integrity.'' he said.
       Since losing his leadership position, Malkus' main goal has 
     been to protect the Eastern Shore from the ``beltway 
     bullies'' who come from the urban sprawl of Washington and 
     Baltimore.
       In the 1960s, he fought against civil rights laws that he 
     believed infringed on the right of his Dorchester County 
     constituents to make their own laws. Later, he opposed mass 
     transit projects such as the Baltimore subway that he said 
     would siphon money away from rural roads and bridges.
       And he fought against environmental bills that he thought 
     took rights away from Eastern Shore property owners but left 
     landowners in urban areas free to pollute at will.
       Malkus scorns critics who he said question his commitment 
     to the environment while allowing environmental degradation 
     to continue in the metropolitan counties.
       ``I call them hypocrites. They vote for somebody else to 
     save nature, but they don't want to do it themselves,'' he 
     said.
       Lapides, an urban environmentalist, said Malkus is a true 
     environmentalist despite his opposition to major 
     environmental legislation to protect wetlands and critical 
     areas and limit development.
       ``He's deeply committed to the land,'' Lapides said.
       There are critics who charge Malkus is a political 
     dinosaur, supporting policies that no longer work and denying 
     the problems of the 1990s.
       But Denis said that is not the case.
       ``A lot of his attitudes were formed at a time when a lot 
     of people in the Senate weren't even born,'' Denis said.
       ``But he does not allow himself to slip into the past. He's 
     very much of the present,'' he said.
       ``His enthusiasm has never waned. He hasn't lost a 
     step.''

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