[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 133 (Wednesday, September 21, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: September 21, 1994]



                              {time}  1650
                          ASK CONGRESSMAN LONG

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Maryland [Mrs. Bentley] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. BENTLEY. Mr. Speaker, it is with sadness that I report to this 
body the death of my predecessor in the Maryland's 2nd Congressional 
District seat, former Congressman Clarence Long. For 22 years, he 
served the people of Maryland's second district with respect and with 
dignity. When I ran for Doc Long's seat, my first promise was to 
continue the remarkable record of constituent service he had 
established.
  This was not an easy task. After all, this was the man with the 
slogan, ``If anything goes wrong, call Congressman Long.''
  This was the man who promised to ``See anybody who is sober and not 
carrying a gun twice a day, at 11:45 a.m. or 4:45 p.m.'' And 
Congressman Long's office on wheels was a familiar sight in the 
district on Saturdays.
  Even though I have held this seat for 10 years, my Towson office to 
this day receives an occasional call from constituents who remind us 
that Congressman Long helped them with a Social Security problem, or 
fixed a pothole on their street.
  One of my more colorful encounters with a Doc Long constituent 
occurred during a phone call from a gentleman who insisted that my 
office track down the name of a company in Wyoming that sold buffalo 
jerky--beef jerky just wouldn't do--after all he said, when he was 
hunting for special radishes, he called Congressman Long, and the 
Congressman not only ordered the radishes for him, but even came over 
to his house to help him plant them when they came in. With the help 
from the Wyoming Congressman, we found the man's buffalo jerky. 
However, I did not offer to hunt the buffalo.
  Congressman Long was a veteran of World War II, serving as a 
Lieutenant in the Navy. It was at the end of his service that he and 
his wife, Susanna, moved to Baltimore.
  Clarence Long was an economics professor at Johns Hopkins University 
when he first won his seat in the House of Representatives in 1962. It 
was his Ph.D. that earned him the nickname of Doc Long.
  Congressman Long rose to the chairmanship of the Foreign 
Appropriations Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee. He 
was proud of his stance against the Vietnam War and against committing 
American troops to El Salvador.
  He was a man who had a reputation of voting his conscience. 
Questioned by one of his colleagues about whether or not a certain vote 
may hurt him politically, Congressman Long replied, ``If you can't do 
what you believe in, you don't belong in Congress.''
  As one of my fellow Members of the Maryland delegation has commented, 
Doc Long, ``came riding into politics as a white knight riding on his 
Ph.D., challenging the machine.'' He rarely suffered from any delusions 
of grandeur.
  When asked about the stardom that accompanies the office, Clarence 
Long said:

       Take a watch in one hand and dip the other in water. 
     Withdraw your hand from the water and count the number of 
     seconds until the place it occupied disappears. That's how 
     long you will be missed after you leave public office.

  Clarence Long underestimated his service.
  Congressman Long will be remembered by those he represented and I am 
proud to have succeeded him.
  My promise to my constituents in Maryland's second district is that 
their next congressman will have the foundation to continue the 
excellent constituent service that 32 years of a Long-Bentley tradition 
has provided.
  The family will receive visitors at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Towson 
Presbyterian Church with a memorial service following at 7 p.m.

                          ____________________