[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 101 (Thursday, July 28, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: July 28, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                        IN TRIBUTE TO HUGH SCOTT

  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, the U.S. Senate is a unique fellowship in 
which but a handful of men and women throughout the history of our 
country have been privileged to serve.
  Mr. President, in my thinking, even retirement or electoral defeat do 
not sever the gossamer strand that ties a man or a woman to this 
incomparable assembly, and death itself cannot erase the indelible 
prints that membership in this body leaves on the Senate or on the 
memories and reputations left by those who have been addressed with the 
more than honorific title of ``Senator.''
  These truths were again underlined these past few days when former 
U.S. Senator, Hugh Scott of Pennsylvania, passed away, full of years 
and memorialized in the hearts of those who admired and remembered him.
  In every sense--bearing, intellect, manner, speech, political acumen, 
and instinct--Hugh Scott was a U.S. Senator.
  Hugh Scott and I were both elected in 1958 to the U.S. Senate, and 
we, therefore, entered the Senate in the same class. Similarly, neither 
of us was a native of his adopted State--Senator Scott having been born 
in Virginia, and I having been born in North Carolina. Likewise, both 
Hugh Scott and I served simultaneously in the Senate leadership, he as 
the Minority Leader at the same time that I served as Majority Whip.
  But Hugh Scott did not enjoy the electoral security that some 
Senators enjoy, with solid partisan majorities to back them through 
election after election.

       Men's evil manners live in brass.
       Their virtues we write in water.

  (Mrs. BOXER assumed the chair.)
  Some observers have asserted that Pennsylvania is, in truth, two 
States, with interests as varied, east to west, as Philadelphia and 
Pittsburgh are, one from the other.
  Nevertheless, through three elections, Hugh Scott succeeded in 
straddling the Appalachian divide that carves Pennsylvania into two 
regional constituencies, adroitly compromising as successfully as have 
few politicians in the annals of American political history confronted 
by such divergencies.
  Legislation is the art of the possible. Legislation is the art of 
compromise. When circumstances demanded it, Hugh Scott could be a 
politician's politician, staking out a common terrain between opposing 
positions, where others less perceptive might locate no terrain at all.
  A committed ideologue might find little to praise in such a course, 
but, Mr. President, if politics is indeed ``the art of the possible,'' 
then Hugh Scott was a master of possibility, for throughout his long 
and distinguished career in the Senate, again and again, he helped to 
create resolution in the face of seemingly overwhelming political odds.
  Indeed, Senator Scott did not serve in a placid era in American 
history.
  Review with me but a few of the political crags of that tenure: the 
assassination of President Kennedy; the Vietnam War; the 1964 election 
campaign; the civil rights struggle; the assassinations of Robert 
Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr.; the Watergate crisis; and the 
resignation of President Nixon, to pinpoint but a few dramas that beset 
our country during Hugh Scott's term in office.
  That America survived that era is attributable to the wisdom of many 
people.
  But I contend that Senator Hugh Scott contributed immeasurably, 
through his statesmanship and patriotism, to untangling the mesh and 
gridlock of that era, to lowering the wrangling voices, and to drawing 
citizens back to their central allegiance to the well-being of our 
country as a whole.
  Madam President, I know that I speak for all of my colleagues, and 
especially all of my colleagues who knew him, and for our wives, for 
Erma, in extending condolences to the family and friends of Senator 
Hugh Scott on the occasion of their loss, and in again commending the 
people of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for their wisdom in lending 
the late Hugh Scott to America during a turbulent period in our 
national history.

     Around the corner I have a friend,
     In this great city that has no end;
     Yet days go by, and weeks rush on,
     And before I know it, a year is gone,
     And I never see my old friend's face,
     For life is a swift and terrible race.
     He knows that I like him just as well
     As in the days when I rang his bell
     And he rang mine.
     We were younger then,
     But now we are busy, tired men,
     Tired with playing a foolish game,
     Tired with trying to make a name.
     ``To-morrow,'' I say, ``I will call on Jim,
     Just to show that I'm thinking of him.''
     But to-morrow comes--to-morrow goes,
     And the distance between us grows and grows.
     Around the corner!--yet miles away . . .
     ``Here is a telegram, sir, Jim died to-day.''
     And that's what we get, and deserve in the end:
     Around the corner, a vanished friend.

  Madam President, I yield the floor.
  Mr. KERRY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. KERRY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that I be 
permitted to proceed for such time as I might consume in morning 
business.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, reserving the right to object. Would my 
friend and colleague indicate how much time he is going to use? We have 
tried, in accordance with the majority leader's instructions, to set 
times to accommodate Senators. I would be glad to have a reasonable 
period.
  Mr. KERRY. I think no more than about 15 minutes in total.
  Obviously, if my colleague wants to proceed on the bill, I do not 
want to slow that up.
  Does he have somebody with an amendment ready to go?
  Mr. KENNEDY. Why do we not just try 10 minutes?
  Mr. KERRY. Sure.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, the Senator is recognized 
for 10 minutes.

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