[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 131 (Monday, September 19, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: September 19, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]


                              {time}  1250
 
                    EARLE B. OTTLEY U.S. POST OFFICE

  Miss COLLINS of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules 
and pass the bill (H.R. 4194) to designate the United States post 
office located in the Tutu Park Mall in St. Thomas, VI, as the ``Earle 
B. Ottley United States Post Office,'' as amended.
  The Clerk read as follows:

                               H.R. 4194

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. DESIGNATION.

       The part of the facility located at 4605 Estata Tutu in 
     Saint Thomas, Virgin Islands, which houses operations of the 
     United States Postal Service shall, for the period of time 
     during which it houses such operations, be known and 
     designated as the ``Earle B. Ottley Post Office''.

     SEC. 2. REFERENCES.

       Any reference in a law, map, regulation, document, paper, 
     or other record of the United States to the part of the 
     facility referred to in section 1 shall, with respect to the 
     period referred to in section 1, be deemed to be a reference 
     to the Earle B. Ottley Post Office.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Montgomery). Pursuant to the rule, the 
gentlewoman from Michigan [Miss Collins] will be recognized for 20 
minutes, and the gentleman from New York [Mr. Gilman] will be 
recognized for 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Michigan [Miss Collins].
  Miss COLLINS of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as 
I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, H.R. 4194, will designate the U.S. post office building 
located at 4605 Estata Tutu, suite 179 in St. Thomas, VI, as the 
``Earle B. Ottley United States Post Office.''
  Mr. Ottley, has been active in political and union progressive 
activities throughout his career. He began his career in politics by 
winning a seat in the 11th Legislative Assembly of the Municipal 
Council of St. Thomas-St. John where he rose to chairman of the 18th 
assembly.
  His commitment to serving his community is further exemplified by his 
works within the Virgin Islands Legislatures.
  I am pleased to join Congressman de Lugo and the citizens of St. 
Thomas, VI, in their desire to name the postal facility located at 4605 
Estata Tutu, suite 179, Saint Thomas, VI, as the ``Earle B. Ottley 
United States Post Office.'' I support the passage of H.R. 4194, and 
urge my colleagues to support the measure.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  (Mr. GILMAN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his 
remarks.)
  Mr. GILMAN, Mr. Speaker, Earle B. Ottley served his native Virgin 
Islands as a legislator, labor leader, journalist, and publisher. Mr. 
Ottley began his political career in 1947 and served in the first 13 
Legislatures of the Virgin Islands rising to chair their committees on 
rules and finance. He published a number of local newspapers and 
magazines including the St. Croix Mirror, the Virgin Islands Post, 
Pride magazine, and founded with his brother the Photo News.
  A fascinating individual, Mr. Ottley in 1949 was instrumental in 
settling a dock strike at the West Indian Co. and won a 10-cent 
increase per hour for its workers who were then making 40-cents per 
hour. Mr. Speaker I can think of no better way for us to honor this 
gentleman, so important to the citizens of the Virgin Islands, than to 
vote today to adopt H.R. 4194 and designate a postal facility in Saint 
Thomas as the ``Earle B. Ottley United States Post Office'' and I 
invite my colleagues to join us in paying tribute to Earle Ottley in 
this fashion and I commend the gentleman from the Virgin Islands, [Mr. 
de Lugo] for introducing this measure.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Miss COLLINS of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may 
consumer to my colleague, the gentleman from the Virgin Islands [Mr. de 
Lugo].
  (Mr. de LUGO) asked and was given permission to revise and extend his 
remarks.)
  Mr. de LUGO. Mr. Speaker, I imagine my colleagues are wondering if we 
are running out of post offices by this time in the Virgin Islands. Let 
me assure them that we have not quite run out of them, and that is a 
tribute to this House. In the 20 years I have been in this House I 
assure Members that a lot of friends on both sides of the aisle, and 
particularly the leadership on the Committee on Post Office and Civil 
Service, both under the leadership of Chairman Ford and under the 
present leadership of Chairman Clay and the subcommittee under the 
leadership of the gentlewoman from Michigan, Miss Collins, have helped 
us to vastly improve the service that we have for these American 
citizens in the territory. During that period we built a lot of post 
offices and the service has improved.
  Today this House is honoring an outstanding individual. The person I 
am going to speak about right now is one of the finest men I have ever 
met in my time, and for me to say this, because he and I were at one 
point bitter political rivals, not rivals, enemies. He was dedicated 
fully to my destruction and I was equally dedicated to his. Today I 
count him as one of my closest, best friends, one of the men that I 
admire most and indeed love.
  He is Senator Earle B. Ottley, and I rise in the strongest support of 
this bill, H.R. 4194, to designate the U.S. post office located in the 
Tutu Park Mall in St. Thomas, VI as the Earle B. Ottley U.S. Post 
Office. In so doing I am in trouble with my friend, Earle Ottley, 
because if there is one person that has fought against any honors or 
anything being dedicated to him, it is Earle Ottley. He is a legend in 
that department, and I am going to be in big trouble here. But I feel 
that this man should receive this honor. He is one of the Virgin 
Islands' most respected and influential public leaders.
  Born in St. Thomas on March 22, 1921, Earle B. Ottley began his 
political career in 1947 by winning a seat in Virgin Islands municipal 
council. He was elected to every assembly afterward.

  Senator Ottley led the fight to rescue Virgin Islands workers from 
poverty and neglect, and he helped in large part to raise the 
circumstances of the people of the islands and enable them to enter the 
middle class.
  Senator Ottley's St. Thomas Labor Union gave workers a mechanism to 
assert and then to protect their rights. At a time when wages, working 
conditions, and benefits were atrocious, Earle B. Ottley stepped 
forward on workers' behalf. He risked his career and even life and limb 
so that workers would have a voice in who they were and who they would 
be.
  In his capacity as a Virgin Islands senator, Earle B. Ottley was able 
to see that local labor laws were enacted so that a fair day's work 
would be compensated with a fair day's pay and its requisite benefits.
  As a labor leader, Senator Ottley made workers rights an issue that 
could not be ignored by employers who would have continued to take 
advantage of those they hired for a pittance. He made sure that workers 
had the solidarity that enabled them to make gains on their own behalf. 
His leadership kept workers together and, us a result, workers at long 
last could work for an employer and also could work for themselves.
  I think Virgin Islands history would have been written very 
differently were it not for Senator Ottley. Before coming to 
Washington, I served for 10 years as a senator with Senator Ottley in 
the Virgin Islands Legislature. History shows that in the early years, 
he and I were bitter rivals. We each held our own visions of how our 
islands should be and how we would achieve it.
  In later years, as our visions were carried out from dreams into 
reality, we found that our similarities became more than our 
differences. Today, I count Senator Ottley as a personal friend and a 
Virgin Islander whom I admire greatly.
  It is eminently fitting that the postal facility that serves the 
community of Anna's Retreat and Tutu be named in honor of this great 
labor leader and politician, Senator Earle B. Ottley, whose genius made 
possible the working conditions that brought the means to build a 
community that the postal station serves.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge the House to pass H.R. 4194 to recognize the 
accomplishments of Earle B. Ottley by naming the Tutu post office in 
his honor.
  Again I thank the gentlewoman from Michigan [Miss Collins] and my 
good friend, the gentleman from New York [Mr. Gilman], for their 
support of this legislation.

                              {time}  1300

  Miss COLLINS of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for 
time, and I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Fields of Louisiana). The question is on 
the motion offered by the gentlewoman from Michigan [Miss Collins] that 
the House suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 4194, as amended.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds having voted in favor 
thereof) the rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
  The title of the bill was amended so as to read: ``A bill to 
designate the part of the facility located at 4605 Estata Tutu in Saint 
Thomas, Virgin Islands, which houses operations of the United States 
Postal Service as (for the period of time during which it houses such 
operations) the `Earle B. Ottley Post Office'.''.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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