[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 146 (Saturday, October 8, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: October 8, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                      THE LESSONS OF JOHN LINDSAY

                                 ______


                        HON. CAROLYN B. MALONEY

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, October 7, 1994

  Mrs. MALONEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor a former member of this 
body, who was a pioneer in breaking down barriers between whites and 
blacks, between Democrats and Republicans, and between elected 
officials and the people they represent, who too often get separated by 
the buffer zones of power.
  I have one enduring image of former mayor and former Congressman John 
V. Lindsay. During the riots in Los Angeles, Detroit, and Washington, 
DC in the 1960's, I remember him walking through Harlem with his 
sleeves rolled up and no security detail.
  He was traversing a bridge of his own making--a bridge of racial 
unity and civil rights. And he was setting an example of unprecedented 
accessibility for a man of his stature. New Yorkers loved John Lindsay 
then, and they love him still.
  Three weeks ago, I had the good fortune to chat with Mr. Lindsay at 
his law office. I noticed a framed, handwritten letter in his office 
from President Clinton, written on August 22, 1994, when the first 
version of the crime bill was meeting unexpected defeat.
  President Clinton put it perfectly when he wrote:

       Yesterday when we were waiting for the vote in Congress on 
     the Crime Bill, we lamented the absence in Congress of 
     thoughtful members on both sides who would come together and 
     help the country come together. You were mentioned as the 
     most outstanding example of what we have had and need more of 
     today.
       I just wanted to say this and to say I'm thinking of you. 
     Signed, Bill Clinton.

  John told me that he considers the Kerner Commission Report to be an 
important achievement of his career. He served as vice chair of the 
U.S. Commission on Civil Disorders appointed by President Johnson, 
which produced the report.
  The report revealed that there were two Americas, separate and 
unequal, one white, one black. He recalled being in Washington when 
there were sandbags and troops armed with machineguns surrounding the 
Capitol due to civil unrest.
  But the report condemned equipping police departments with the 
weapons of mass destruction. He was a peace-loving man who was inspired 
to go into public service when he served his country in World War II. 
He witnessed the carnage of his fellow men as he earned five battle 
stars as a gunnery officer on the U.S.S. Swanson, narrowly skirting 
death as barrages of Kamikaze planes swooped in and crashed all around 
the Swanson. After living through war, John Lindsay devoted his life to 
peace, both domestic and international.
  A graduate of Yale University and Law School, Mr. Lindsay went to 
work as executive assistant to the Attorney General in Washington from 
1955 through 1957, where he argued three constitutional cases before 
the U.S. Supreme Court. He also represented the Attorney General and 
the United States in Vienna during the Hungarian revolt, and set up 
machinery to admit 30,000 Hungarians into the United States.
  In 1958, he was elected to the U.S. Congress, where he served for 8 
years as a member of the Judiciary Committee. He was also a delegate to 
the NATO Parliamentarians Conference in Paris from 1964 to 1966, and 
served as chair of the political committee of the Conference from 1965 
to 1966.
  John Lindsay was a Republican at the time. His now-famous 
independence and reform-minded spirit emerged as he fought the status 
quo and expanded the Rules Committee. He aspired to serve on the 
Foreign Affairs Committee, but his successful effort to shake up the 
way Congress did business wrought the ire of guardians of the status 
quo. As a result, he never made the Foreign Affairs Committee.
  But all's well that ends well. One day during John's fourth term, 
Senator Jacob Javits pulled him aside and said, ``John, why don't you 
run for Mayor?''
  Mr. Lindsay, who had aspirations for higher political office, 
promptly replied, ``Why don't you run for Mayor?''
  Senator Javits replied, ``Because the job would kill me.''
  ``Thanks a lot,'' John replied.
  So John Lindsay ran. And John Lindsay won. And for the next 8 years, 
he devoted himself to solving urban social problems and expanding civil 
rights for all New Yorkers and all Americans, serving on the Kerner 
Commission and as chair of the Urban Action Committee of the U.S. 
Conference of Mayors.
  For all his work on progressive causes, New York City Republicans 
rewarded Mr. Lindsay by spurning him as their candidate in 1969. John 
Marchi defeated him in the Republican primary.
  Then, John made history. He ran--and won--as an independent. Now and 
forever more, the very word ``independence'' in politics is synonymous 
with John Lindsay.
  During his 8 years in office, Mayor Lindsay confronted enormous 
economic and demographic pressures. As Mayor Lindsay's corporation 
counsel Norman Redlich wrote after Mayor Lindsay left office in 1973,

       John Lindsay was Mayor at a time when three of the most 
     massive population movements in this country's history 
     engulfed the northern cities, particularly New York. There 
     was a movement of the rural poor, primarily black, from the 
     farms to the cities, lured not by the promise of welfare but 
     by the need to survive. At the same time there was the 
     movement of the urban middle and upper classes, spurred by 
     federal housing and transportation policies, out of the 
     cities to the suburbs. Finally, there was the movement of 
     people and business from the Northeast to the Sunbelt.

  This demographic sea change brought New York City's financial health 
under siege. Onerous Federal laws forced New York City to pick up 25 
percent of all welfare payments, a burden not borne by any other city.
  That, and the enormous financial pressures of maintaining the City 
University and the municipal hospitals created a severe fiscal crisis.

       As Norman Redlich wrote, ``Lindsay dealt with the explosive 
     problems of race in the areas of education, police-community 
     relations, housing and jobs. He tried, with enormous 
     political and personal courage, to resolve in this City the 
     moral dilemma that has faced this country from the day the 
     first black person set foot on these shores three and a half 
     centuries ago.

  In short, John Lindsay was a man--and a Mayor--of principle. 
President Clinton's recent letter to him in August is a profound 
statement about the lessons that John taught us.
  After leaving the Mayor's office, John Lindsay went to Europe for a 
sabbatical. While there, he contributed articles to such publications 
as Harper's, Atlantic Monthly and the New York Times Magazine.
  John Lindsay was an accomplished writer both in and out of office, 
authoring three books, including a novel, published in 1975. He was 
also a contributing editor for many years to Channel 13 and ABC News.
  And, John Never really left politics. Following his tenure in City 
Hall, he became President of the Association of Former Members of 
Congress, of which he is still a member.
  He also took an active interest in the arts, serving as chairman of 
the board of the Lincoln Center Theatre and board member of Lincoln 
Center for the Performing Arts.
  His interests are numerous, as evidenced by the organizations on 
which he serves as a board member: the Police Foundation, the 
Association for a Better New York, and former director of the Lincoln 
Savings Bank.
  Mr. Lindsay made his living both before and after serving in office 
as a lawyer, and a fine one. He was a partner for 36 years at Webster 
and Sheffield. Today, he is Of Counsel to Mudge Rose Guthrie Alexander 
& Ferdon.
  The success and influence of your life can be measured in part by how 
many people compare themselves to you. And seemingly all candidates in 
New York politics bills themselves as ``the next John Lindsay.''
  But there will never truly be ``a next John Lindsay,'' for the simple 
reason that John Lindsay is one of a kind.
  Mr. Speaker, I never took a class from John Lindsay, but I consider 
him one of my teachers. And it is a profound honor to call him my 
friend.

                          ____________________