[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 6 (Wednesday, January 11, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S812-S816]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
1994 MEN OF THE YEAR
Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, recently I received a newspaper insert from
the St. Louis Post-Dispatch concerning the selection of 2 of our former
colleagues as the 1994 St. Louis Men of the Year.
Former Senators Tom Eagleton and John Danforth were selected to
receive this prestigious designation by 19 of their fellow citizens,
each of whom had been chosen in the past for this same award. They are
the 41st and 42d individuals to be so honored by the St. Louis Post-
Dispatch since the award was first established in 1955.
I congratulate the Post-Dispatch on its excellent selections of this
dynamic duo. Both of these men were shining lights when they served
here among us in the Senate, and they have both obviously continued to
shine and inspire in private life.
Jack Danforth was a voice of reason and moderation in the Senate. He
was a credit to his party precisely because he was never a slave to the
party line. Senator Danforth's calm reasoned approach to the issues of
the day, no matter how politically charged gave him enormous
credibility of the type that is so needed in the Senate today. His
presence is sorely missed in the Chamber.
Senator Tom Eagleton is a personal friend, and has been for many
years, in addition to being an individual for whom I have tremendous
respect and admiration. Over the years, Tom Eagleton has stayed in
touch with my office, and he is never too busy to weigh in when the
battle needs his energy and his force of character. Senator Eagleton
brought to this chamber an irrepressible personal and intellectual
honesty which was apparent in his floor statements and in the positions
that he took on the issues of the day. If one wanted to hear the
unvarnished truth, no matter how unpopular it might be to utter, one
could always look to Tom Eagleton to come to the point, and to state
with eloquence and with logic the bottom line. Common sense has been
called genius dressed in its working clothes. Tom Eagleton has an
abundance of that often too-scarce commodity.
I congratulate both Senator Eagleton and Senator Danforth. They have
brought great credit to the Senate by their service in the body and now
as private citizens. St. Louis is much the richer for the Senate's loss
in the case of these two fine former Members.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that an insert from the St.
Louis Post-Dispatch be printed in the Record at this point.
[[Page S813]]
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
[From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch]
The 1994 St. Louis Men of the Year: Thomas F. Eagleton and John C.
Danforth
(By Mary Kimbrough)
For the second time in its history, the St. Louis Man of
the Year Award is given to two men, Thomas Francis Eagleton
and John Claggett Danforth, who have represented Missouri in
the United States Senate, one who left the Senate in 1986;
and one who will officially retire on January 3.
The footsteps of the two honorees, one a Democrat, one a
Republican, have trod parallel paths. Both are graduates of
Country Day School. Both are graduates of eastern
universities, Eagleton of Amherst, Danforth of Princeton, and
of Ivy League law schools, Eagleton of Harvard University,
Danforth of Yale University.
Both became practicing attorneys. Both served as attorney
general of Missouri.
Both carry distinguished St. Louis family names, were
intrigued in boyhood by politics and joined lively
discussions of national and world issues around the dinner
table.
Although they did not know one another well in St. Louis--
Eagleton was ahead of Danforth's class at Country Day--they
became good friends in Washington. Both of them would cross
party lines in their voting records.
``We decided that working together for Missouri was the
right thing to do,'' said Eagleton. That was their common
concern.
When Eagleton retired, Danforth paid tribute. ``When most
candidates are going negative,'' he said in his remarks from
the Senate floor, ``when many candidates are taking cheap
shots, Tom Eagleton is and will remain the standard for what
politics should be--for decency and fairness and principle.''
They will be honored at ceremonies at 10:30 a.m., Friday,
Jan. 6, in the John M. Olin School of Business at Washington
University. A reception will follow.
Eagleton and Danforth were selected by former recipients of
the award, established 40 years ago by the St. Louis Globe-
Democrat to recognize outstanding civic contributions,
leadership and service to the community. When that newspaper
ceased publication, previous honorees joined to maintain the
annual award and carry on the tradition. For the past eight
years, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has served as sponsor of
the annual award.
thomas f. eagleton
Tom Eagleton bounces through life like a sacked Joe Montana
jumping off the turf and brushing off the bruises. A devout
Cardinal fan--the baseball variety--he charges through his
day like Pepper Martin barreling into a hapless catcher. And
he's on the telephone more often than Joe Torre calling the
bullpen.
At 65, Eagleton is many persons. Retired U.S. senator,
political scientist, college professor, TV commentator,
newspaper columnist. He is the sandlot kid grown to senior
status, the urbane civic statesman in shirt sleeves,
sometimes disheveled, his gray hair a bit mussed, turning up
the volume of his voice as he leads the charge.
For the born-and-bred sports buff with a lifelong love
affair with politics, a perfect world is an exuberant,
scrappy, warm-hearted world of good talk and good friends, of
family and a St. Louis Rams-Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl in
the new stadium, of rousing arguments and politics and the
law and the Democratic party.
But he also knows the imperfect world that can be down and
dirty, a world of war and want, of crime and poverty and
people killing each other on the streets and on the
battlefield. From the windows of his law office on the top
floor of a sleek downtown office building, he can look
through the Arch, symbol of progress, to see poverty and
pain.
Thomas Francis Eagleton deals with both worlds with humor
and energy and grace. And sometimes with righteous outrage.
After his retirement from the Senate, he was invited to a
partnership in the legal firm of Thompson & Mitchell, with a
charge to continue to serve this community. In his eighth
year off the political fast track he may have tempered a
little--but just a little--the jittery lifestyle described by
a Post-Dispatch reporter at the time he left Washington.
``He still bounds around corners talking 90 miles a minute,
whips into a room with 40 things on his mind * * * and
generally vibrates like an oversized sparkplug.''
His lifestyle is much calmer now that he has returned to
his legal career. He and his wife, the former Barbara Smith,
parents of a grown daughter, Christy, and son, Terence, make
their home in Clayton.
Barbara, whom he married in 1956, learned to share his
political activism during his career. When they moved back to
Missouri, she organized the Women's Democratic Forum, now
with some 350 members, who meet regularly to hear
distinguished speakers on current issues.
Neither Christy nor Terence has shown any inclination to
enter politics. Christy is in Washington, engaged to be
married and working with International Sprint. Terence is a
television producer in New York.
``Politics is not for everyone,'' said their father. ``It's
a unique profession and for whatever reason, you have to
immerse yourself in it. When I was in the Senate, I went back
to Missouri nearly every week. That's one of the down sides.
I didn't have time to take my children to baseball games or
school functions. I didn't have enough leisure time with my
children.
``The best politics is back home.''
Now that he is relieved of that pressure, he has found the
time to write, to teach, to lecture and, as an ardent sports
fan, to follow his cherished Cardinals.
``I like the day games,'' he said, with the fervor of a
unabashed fan. ``That's old-fashioned baseball. I'm there
nearly every Sunday afternoon. I will be thrilled when the
Cardinals once again play on grass.''
But this year, he has been concentrating on another sport,
working with the determination of a bulldozer to bring the
National Football League back to St. Louis.
At the request of Congressman Richard Gephardt, Mayor
Freeman Bosley and County Executive Buzz Westfall, he has
headed FANS Inc., a civic committee devoted to persuading the
Los Angeles Rams to move here.
``Politics was all consuming,'' he said. Now football is
all consuming.''
But Eagleton hasn't lost his passion for politics and
history, and his love for America and St. Louis. This passion
and this love are his heritage. To continue this heritage,
the Federal Courthouse now under construction in downtown St.
Louis has been named the ``Thomas F. Eagleton Federal
Courthouse.''
He was born into an Irish Catholic home on Tower Grove
Place in South St. Louis, where politics was polished to a
fine art, and named for his immigrant grandfather. He and his
older brother, Mark Jr., were the sons of Mark D. Eagleton,
prominent figure in city politics and one-time candidate for
mayor, and Zitta Eagleton, Mark's gentle and soft-spoken
wife, who was determined that one boy would be a doctor, the
other a lawyer.
That's just what they would do. Mark Jr., went to medical
school and became a prominent St. Louis radiologist. He died
in 1985. Tom also had a half-brother, Kevin, a St. Louis
lawyer-businessman.
Tom would follow in the career footsteps of his father, a
strong-willed, strong-voiced attorney, whose closing
courtroom arguments are said to have been heard through open
windows up and down Market Street.
A Bull Moose Republican, with the progressive stripe of
Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Eagleton left his party in 1944 when
his hero, Wendell Willkie, was denied re-nomination for a
second run at the White House. He became a Democrat, and
publicly announced his support of Franklin D. Roosevelt for a
fourth term.
Four years earlier, the senior Eagleton had taken his son
to the party convention in Philadelphia where the exuberant
11-year-old met Willkie, Robert Taft, Thomas E. Dewey and
other party leaders.
``I decided I was for Dewey because he was handing out more
buttons and horns and hats.''
Many years later, his eyesight failing, Mark Eagleton would
sit in the Senate Gallery to hear his younger son take the
oath of office. He would remember and be glad that he had
given this rookie senator a good start in their robust after-
dinner conversations.
Sometimes Zitta finished her meal alone. Tom and Mark Jr.
would eat as fast as they could to keep up with their dad who
would then escort them into the living room to start the
evening discussion.
``Our three favorite subjects were history, baseball and
politics,'' Tom recalled. ``Of course, politics had a lot of
side issues. Frequently, we argued so much that without
knowing it we switched sides to keep the argument going. That
is where I first became interested in politics.''
All three loved the Cardinals and each year when the boys
were quite young, the whole family went to spring training.
``Mother was dragooned,'' said Eagleton. ``She didn't abhor
baseball but she sure didn't love it the way we did.''
The boys were enrolled in a half-day school in a quonset
hut. Zitta would pick them up at noon and take them to Al
Lang Field, the ballpark.
``We would stay in the Bainbridge Hotel where all the
players stayed and eat in the dining room with them. I
remember especially Pepper Martin, Terry Moore and Howard
Krist, a relief pitcher. Krist was very kind to us.
``Dad was a member of the St. Louis Board of Education and
he used to take me with him to meetings at 911 Locust. That
was between 1937 and 1943. I would sit out in the audience.
``Those were very exciting times. There were great
arguments and debates and I said to myself, `Wouldn't it be
interesting doing something like that?'
``I had begun to focus on the Senate when I was in high
school at Country Day. But there, and in college, I was the
tactician, the pseudo Jim Farley. I didn't run for anything.
I was interested in the strategy.''
After graduating from Country Day, Tom went to Amherst
where he received his bachelor of arts degree before going on
to Harvard University for his law degree.
Then, after graduation and a stint in the Navy at Great
Lakes, he came back to St. Louis, carrying with him that
dream of public office.
Over the next 12 years, he was elected, in turn, St. Louis
circuit attorney, Missouri attorney general and Missouri
lieutenant governor, chalking up aggressive and noteworthy
records in each office.
No longer was he a young Jim Farley. Now he was learning to
plan his own career strategy, sometimes a bit homespun,
sometimes
[[Page S814]] more costly in shoe leather than in
sophisticated political advertising. He talked to the people
face to face. That was, and is, the Eagleton style. His sense
of humor was his trademark.
So in 1968, at the age of 39, according to an informal
biography from his office, ``Tom Eagleton loaded his wife,
two children and the family dog into his station wagon and
headed for Washington.''
He had reached his ultimate career goal. ``I had achieved
that. I didn't lust (to use President Carter's word) for
anything higher.''
Despite that, in one of the low spots of his career, he
almost snagged the brass ring in 1972 when George McGovern,
the Democratic nominee, chose him as his running mate. Three
weeks into the campaign, he pulled out after revealing, with
true Eagleton candor, that he had been undergoing medical
treatment for depression.
``People thought it would get me down,'' he said. ``It did
not overwhelm me. I took it as a facet of life, a difficult
facet of life, but I never viewed it as irreparably
catastrophic.
``I never had any great ambition to be vice president nor
did I ever have any notion I would run for the presidency.''
He would be re-elected to the Senate twice, and in June
1984, he announced he would not seek a fourth term.
Now, after eight years as ``Tom Citizen,'' he looks back on
those days, surrounded in his office by shelves filled with
books on history and politics. In 1974, he added his own to
America's library of public servants' books, ``War and
Presidential Power; A Chronicle of Congressional Surrender.''
On his wall are photographs, many of which picture his
special presidential heroes, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry
S Truman.
Eagleton also brought back to St. Louis many happy memories
of special triumphs and bitter disappointments, but he
carries no nostalgic desire to return to the thick of
government and the partisan warfare in the Congress. In fact,
he has seen both parties ``atrophy.''
``The two-party system is almost deceased. Back then you
were proud to be a member of your party. You supported the
platform.
``The only current need of the two-party system is to
nominate someone for the presidency every four years, but the
strength of the two parties has just withered away.''
Was there a single moment, a single vote by his colleagues,
that made him want to pull out of politics? No, he said, it
was more a build up of disillusionment. The joy in the job
had not dimmed, but the cost of campaigning had grown and the
campaigns had grown ugly and ``everlastingly long.''
``As I raised funds for my last race, in 1980, by
contemporary standards it was cheap. It was $1.2 million
compared to today's standards of $5 million and up.
``I found fund raising to be increasingly distasteful. Back
in those years you could raise practically all you needed in
Missouri. But as politics was developing during that era, the
fund raising became all the more intense. You had to go
nationwide with a tin cup begging for funds.''
In the early days, it was easier and a lot more fun.
As a member of the Committee on Environment and Public
Works, he led in the enactment of the Clean Air and Clean
Water acts. On the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, he
authored the ``Right to Read'' program. His Older Americans
Act is the basis of federal social services for the aging.
But he is especially proud of one piece of legislation, the
so-called Eagleton amendment to the American involvement in
the war in Southeast Asia.
``We had withdrawn from Vietnam but we were still carpet
bombing in Cambodia. The Eagleton amendment stopped that. For
all practical purposes that ended American participation in
that dreadful war.''
As Charlotte Grimes wrote in the Post-Dispatch at the time
of his retirement, ``It, along with the War Powers Act that
limited presidential authority to send troops into combat,
was a culmination of sorts: Eagleton had campaigned for the
Senate on a platform calling for an end to the war in
Vietnam.''
Even though he is no longer a lawmaker, Eagleton keeps a
close eye on the Congress and, especially, on America's
continuing involvement in foreign affairs.
An astute observer and prognosticator, he predicted before
the November elections that the Democrats ``would take a
pretty good licking.
``We will have gridlock government for two years. It will
be a war of words between the White House and the Congress.''
As for engagements abroad, he continues to be, as he was in
the Senate, a centrist able to cross party lines.
``I was opposed to sending military forces to Haiti but so
far it has worked pretty well. But the problem is how do we
get out of there. We will have to leave some troops and a lot
of money. Haiti can no more be made into a democracy today
than I can fly to the moon.
``Democracy is a very sophisticated form of government. The
Haitians are not sophisticated people. They have an 80
percent illiteracy rate.
``I think the two philosophical extremes are both wrong.
One is that we are the world's policeman, that it is our job
to intervene in all sorts of places, send our army, send our
air force and bring peace and justice to anyone we think
ought to have it.
``Then there is the old, stale position of Robert Taft,
that our only business is between the Atlantic and the
Pacific, maybe Canada and Mexico, but nothing else is any of
our business.
``That is equally wrong. We have some global
responsibilities, for instance, the Middle East. I was never
embarrassed to say that when President Bush went to Kuwait,
the reason was oil because oil is indispensable to Europe and
Japan, and to us, so that is an area where we were obliged to
do something.
``There are finite limits to what we can do and what we can
undertake. There is no magic line to be drawn. You cannot put
in 50 words or less where we should go, how we should go. To
define American foreign policy in 50 words cannot be done.
You have to decide case by case if this is something in the
direct American interest.
Then, turning the telescope around, he focused on problems
closer to home.
``I think we are in a very ugly, negative time,'' he said.
``I have never seen the public so turned off not only by
politicians as such but by the political process. Federal,
state, county, municipal. They want no part of it.''
However, he said, ``I think that 90 percent of the people
in the House and Senate are there, in their own minds, to do
the right thing.
``The work is stimulating, challenging, exciting. Dealing
with situations where you think maybe you are doing the right
thing: that outweighs the shortcomings.
``We are called a participatory democracy. That means that
for its strength and vibrancy people have to participate.
Write your congressman. That's a participatory democracy. But
instead of that, we are sort of a complaining, griping
democracy.
``In time, we will work ourselves out of this mood. I don't
know when; it won't be overnight. But unless the people have
some degree of confidence in the public decisionmaking
process, there will be great agony. There is simply not that
degree of confidence today.''
A man of Tom Eagleton's optimistic nature can't stay grumpy
long. But he is also a realist.
``I really hate to say this, but in all candor I see things
getting worse before they get better. Maybe there has to be a
shared sense of sacrifice. If things are not going well,
we've got to get together and turn this thing around. There
was such a shared sense during the Great Depression. Everyone
had a shared sense of `We've got to get out of this.' We
don't have that now.
``But the economy is pretty darned good. It ought to be
good enough for someone to get re-elected president.''
For St. Louis, he has the same mix of optimism and realism.
``I am generally optimistic about the greater metropolitan
area. I wish I could be more optimistic about the inner city.
When Ray Tucker was mayor, we had 900,000 people. Now it's
down to 380,000. The tax base goes down and the needs for
public services continue or even increase.
``What would I do if I were selling the city of St. Louis?
``Transportation. Railroads. Airlines. MetroLink is a real
plus. Fine universities. Fortune 500 companies. Excellent and
aggressive banks. A skilled workforce.
``But the St. Louis school system isn't what it should be.
Housing in the city is not what it should be. Distribution of
health care is uneven. Well, you say, there are Clayton and
Ladue and other county communities. But if the urban center
atrophies, the area as a whole atrophies.
``Simply because you live in Clayton or Ladue, you cannot
be smugly complacent and say everything is fine. Everything
isn't fine. We are all in this together. If the city of St.
Louis goes down, it will, in time, take the rest of the area
with it.''
But Eagleton, the sports buff, has done more than his share
to lure what he believes would be a real plus for St. Louis--
NFL football.
``It is an indicia of a town's future. Right or wrong, St.
Louis, to be a city of the future, has to have the
identification of major sports teams.''
With his undying enthusiasm and positive outlook, every
time he goes to a Cardinals baseball game, he's thinking home
run.
Now, he's added another word to his wish list.
Touchdown!
John C. Danforth
It was a few days after the November elections. Voters had
swept the majority party out of power like fragile leaves
blown away by the autumn wind. With the Republicans' stunning
victory, Missouri's senior senator, Jack Danforth, could have
known even greater power and influence than he has acquired
in his 18 years on Capitol Hill.
But this is not what he wanted. To serve in the Senate had
been his dream since boyhood. After three terms, however, he
decided against running another time and opted to leave the
promised land on the Potomac to discover ``life after
politics.''
He will find that life in St. Louis. Jack Danforth is
coming home to stay.
On this autumn afternoon, relaxed and comfortable in a red
plaid woodsman's shirt and rough trousers, he sat in his
Clayton office and talked of his political and personal
philosophy, of the career he was leaving behind, and of the
new chapter of his life.
His manner was reflective and deliberate. His deep voice
carried power without a hint of bluster. He often paused to
consider an answer, then spoke with the decisiveness of a
[[Page S815]] man who harbors no doubt about his convictions,
but his conversation was brushed with humor and a grin often
lightened his face.
At 58, though his graying hair has caught up with the
distinctive white forelock, he is young enough to make a
major change in the focus of his life.
``I had always thought I wanted there to be an end to my
political life and a beginning of something after my
political life,'' he said. ``There was just a sense that I
didn't want my self-identity, the way I viewed myself, as a
person who had to be in public office, who had to win the
next election. I wanted there to be life after politics.''
And so, the Lincolnesque figure, nurtured in childhood by a
grandfather who dared him to reach for the best, and loving
parents who helped spur him on his way, has traded the
nation's Congressional halls for the St. Louis law firm of
Bryan Cave and his Washington mailing address for one in
suburban St. Louis.
Thus he is returning to his roots as St. Louis is a part of
him and of his heritage. He was born and reared here,
grandson of the late William H. Danforth, founder of Ralston
Purina, son of the late Donald and Dorothy Clagget Danforth,
brother of Dr. William H. Danforth, retiring chancellor of
Washington University (1977 Man of the Year), business leader
Donald Danforth Jr. and Dorothy Danforth Miller.
He graduated from Country Day School before entering
Princeton University and, later, Yale Law School and Yale
Divinity School. He married the former Sally Dobson, who
lived across the street when they were teen-agers. Their four
daughters and one son, though living their early lives in
Washington, have maintained their ties to St. Louis and three
of them make their home, here.
The Danforths are a close clan, bound not only by family
ties but also by their obvious affection and respect for one
another.
But even with this major change in his life, for John
Claggett Danforth, scion of this distinguished St. Louis
family, reared in comfort and affluence, one essential part
of his life will not be altered or be left behind--his deep
and personal religious faith.
A politician in priestly robes, with a bachelor of divinity
degree and a law degree, Danforth has conscientiously carved
time from his senatorial duties to give early morning
communion to parishioners in St. Alban's Episcopal Church in
the shadow of the Washington Cathedral. In this new chapter
of his life in St. Louis, he will carve time from his legal
duties to continue to serve his church.
But Danforth is no pious recluse from the world. Rather, he
is a quiet-spoken, resourceful activist, a low-key
missionary, translating his faith in God into work for man.
That's why he has founded InterACT, a project for St. Louis
congregations of all faiths, designed to create opportunities
for church members, as organized groups, to give help to boys
and girls of the inner city. This will be a major emphasis of
his life in St. Louis.
``I hope it all works out,'' he said. ``There is a big leap
between a concept and actually doing it. I just want to be
the catalyst.
``InterACT is built around three interrelated concepts. The
first is that religious people have a claim on them to live
beyond themselves. It is the love commandment, `Love your
neighbor as yourself,' but the opportunities to do it aren't
always apparent.
``The second premise is that religion, a word that comes
from the same root as ligaments, should hold things together.
Religion should be something that binds society but so often
it is the opposite.
``I think there are a lot of opportunities for religious
people to do things beyond themselves, not as individuals
only but as members of congregations.
``The third is the obvious need of kids in the inner
city.'' Danforth calls them the 20th century ``widow and
orphan'' of Biblical days.
A staunch believer in the separation of church and state,
Danforth does not base his political opinion solely on the
doctrine of his Episcopal denomination. But neither can he
ignore his moral and ethical convictions inculcated in
childhood, honed as a divinity student and solidified as a
minister of the gospel.
While he is a loyal and committed Republican, he has known
the political risk every senator on both sides of the aisle
must face, of voting one's conscience if it conflicts with
the party's position. He also has heard the screams from the
press and voters who disagree with him. But that's nothing
new for an office holder and Danforth has thickened his skin.
``There is a lot of room for humility in working out your
political position because as the Bible says, `My ways are
not your ways and your thoughts are not my thoughts.' You
can't claim that your position on tax legislation or trade
legislation or the crime bill is something that directly is a
pipeline to God. It's more of a question of just trying to do
your best and work things out.''
Still, he has kept his finger on the pulse of his
constituents, even as he views the world around him not as a
narrow, militant partisan but as a moderate, and politics as
the art of compromise.
``People think politicians have lost touch with the voters.
Not true. They are completely in touch. They can fly back and
forth to seek constituents. They can take polls. They can
have focus groups, find out within a margin of error of three
percentage points what people think. They're very much aware
of the next election, maybe too much so.
``However, having said all that, it's also important to be
something more than a weathervane or someone who has his
finger out to see where the currents are blowing. Because
then you stand for nothing and all you want to do is to get
yourself elected.
``What it really comes down to, if there is a conflict, of
course you have to vote your conscience. But you do it with a
lot of agonizing and a lot of listening and a lot of
recognition that on some of the things you vote for you may
be wrong. Particularly, if you view politics as the business
of compromise, there are really few things you view as
absolutely terrific.'' The crime bill, he said, would be an
example.
``It was a mix, with good things and bad things. You do
your best and you listen to the public. But a lot of people
were phoning in saying to vote against it and I voted for it.
All complex legislation is like that.''
He supported former President Carter and voted with many
Democrats on ratification of the Panama Canal Treaty because
he considered it ``the only responsible vote to cast.''
``Some issues are hard. That one was not. It was a very
clear case as far as I was concerned. It would have been such
a mess had we not ratified the treaty, I did not view this as
a party line issue.
``I am very comfortable with the basic Republican concept
that government should be limited and the fundamental
Republican principles that government should operate with a
light touch and not a heavy hand. The one thing that keeps
the Republicans together is economics, trying to keep taxes
low, trying to keep spending low.''
Moving with steady grace, Danforth has risen through his
party's hierarchy, taking on more responsibilities and
gaining power and prestige. At the time of his decision to
leave the Senate, he had attained the rank of 21st in
seniority among the 100 senators.
He was senior member of the Finance Committee, the ranking
Republican member of the Committee on Commerce, Science and
Transportation, which he chaired in 1985-86, the first
Missouri senator to chair a major legislative committee since
World War I.
He was a principal author of legislation to require strict
on-the-job testing for drug and alcohol use by key
transportation workers, to strengthen federal and state laws
against drunken driving, to improve the inspection of safety
equipment on commercial trucks and buses, to establish
national standards for licensing professional drivers, to
increase the safety of passenger vehicles, and to expand and
modernize airports and the air transportation system.
In the 102nd Congress, he was the principal sponsor of the
Cable Television Consumer Protection Act to stimulate
competition in the cable television industry and provide
local authority over rates in markets where service is a
monopoly.
He has also been concerned with health care costs, with
efforts to improve education, to stimulate rural economic
development, to encourage soil conservation, to increase
Federal support for basic scientific research and to reduce
world hunger and malnutrition.
Of all his achievements as a senator, he is most proud of
the Civil Rights Act of 1991, providing for fairness in
hiring, promotion and other employment practices.
Recent Supreme Court decisions, ``had really turned the
clock back on civil rights.
``I don't think you can do that. I wanted to remedy that.''
Also, he wanted his party in the forefront of the fight for
civil rights.
A major disappointment was the 1986 tax act. ``It started
out as a good concept and turned sour. The problem was that
in order to come up with additional revenue to make the
numbers add up in conference, the bill had to scuttle more
and more from the tax code that I felt was important.''
As co-chairman with Senator Bob Kerry of a commission to
study entitlements--Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and
the Federal Retirement System--he has concluded that
entitlement spending will consume in the next couple of
decades all tax revenues ``except for what we pay for
interest on the debt and by about 2030 we won't even be able
to pay interest on the debt.''
What can be done? ``There is a variety of things, all of
them painful. You could means test or adjust the cost of
living formula. It is like a disease. The earlier you deal
with it, the less painful the cure, the longer it goes, the
more painful the cure.''
The commission's findings describe the economic future that
will confront Americans during the first quarter of the 21st
century if the Nation fails to act.
``The picture that they paint is unsettling. The findings
are not, however, a prediction of the future. They are merely
the product of current budget policies if our course is not
changed. A better future for America can be secured if the
country embarks on the course of long-term reform.''
However, he said, ``We have a system of government which is
ingenious and brilliantly devised more than 200 years ago by
people who really put it together right. We have this very
diverse country with all of these people, all of these
different backgrounds and beliefs, and they come here from
all over the world and bring so much.''
The complex issues with which he has dealt in the Senate
could not have occurred to the boy Jack Danforth nearly a
half-century ago as he sat in the Senate gallery to listen
and watch. Certainly, he could not
[[Page S816]] have envisioned himself among those men. But
that trip to Washington changed his life.
``My parents had taken Don and me East partly to attend
Bill's graduation from Princeton. I remember going to the
Senate chamber, sitting in the balcony and thinking, `Gee, I
would like to do that sometime.'''
And so in that hour was born a dream that would not be
denied. Neither of his parents was interested in politics as
a career but it was typical of them, Jack said, that they
supported and encouraged whatever their children chose.
``It was a wonderful childhood. They were both very loving
and supportive of us. They thought of us as different
individuals. They were non-directive. They didn't tell us
what to do. Rather, they encouraged our strengths.
``Donald Danforth was really a wonderful father, a very
kind man and very loving. Every memory I have of my father is
of a loving father, of a man who liked to hug us a lot.
``With my brothers and sister and me, it was never fear
that motivated us. It was a desire to make our parents proud.
That, to me, is the great motivator. Even now that they are
gone, I want to make them proud and make my wife proud, and
our kids proud.
``For our children, it is the same. We are very proud of
them. They are also very different. And they are really good
kids. They have good values and are nice people.''
None has chosen to follow him into politics although two
have followed him into the law. The eldest, Eleanor (Mrs.
Allan IV) Ivie, lives here and keeps busy rearing her three
sons. Mary (Mrs. Thomas) Stillman has her law degree and is
assistant dean at Washington University. She is the mother of
a boy and girl. Dorothy (Mrs. Johannes) Burlin, known to the
family as D.D., also is a lawyer, practicing under the name
of Danforth. Johanna (Mrs. Timothy) Root, known as Jody, is a
hospice nurse in Connecticut. Thomas is a senior at St. Olaf
College in Northfield, Minn.
``In our family, the dinner table was and is important.
That was the time you knew the family would be together. We
weren't going to watch television. We would sit there and
talk.
``At the Senate I frequently got home late but it was still
important for us to be together. I would always ask the
children, `Tell me about your day.' Sally is the same way.
It's important just to find the chance to show interest in
kids and to take pride in them, to find something they can do
well and appreciate that, to let them know you feel they are
terrific. Everyone has something that you can appreciate and
praise.''
Although Jack's desire to go into the ministry did not
blossom until his college days at Princeton when he happened
to have a free hour in his class schedule and a faculty
advisor suggested a religion course in ethics. ``I liked that
course and took another and ended up majoring in religion. I
was really interested and decided between my junior and
senior years that I wanted to go into the seminary so I
entered Yale Divinity School.
``It was soon apparent that this was not for me as a full-
time career. The parish ministry was something I was not
equipped for so I reverted to my original idea to go to law
school and by the time I started unwinding my career path I
was two years into Divinity School.'' So in 1963, he received
both degrees.
But Jack Danforth had a third string to his bow--politics.
In 1968, in his first race for public office, Missouri
attorney general, he achieved the first Republican victory in
a statewide race in more than 20 years and began a period of
reform and two-party politics in Missouri.
He was re-elected in 1972, went to the Senate four years
later and was re-elected in 1982 and 1988.
In this public life, he has received numerous honors. The
most recent--as co-recipient with Chancellor Danforth--is the
Regional Commerce and Growth Association's Right Arm of St.
Louis award.
In 1988, one of the greatest honors in America--the vice
presidency--might have been his, rather than Dan Quayle's.
James Baker, who was handling George Bush's 1988 campaign,
asked him to submit material as a potential choice for the
office, and although he was far from enthusiastic, he sent
it.
``I was at the convention just one day. I had just returned
home when I got a call from Bush saying he had selected
Quayle as his running mate. ``I said, `I'm happy to hear
that.' Bush said in disbelief, `You are?'''
Even the top office has never tempted him. ``It would be
too pre-emptive of my life. The only reason to run for
president is to win and if you win, that's all you are for
the rest of your life.
``No, once I am out of the Senate, I am not a senator. You
are not a senator for the rest of your life. You close the
book on that even though it was a wonderful chapter.''
Now that John Claggett Danforth has come home again, the
book is opened again for the next chapter.
selection committee
Thomas F. Eagleton and John C. Danforth were selected as
the 1994 St. Louis Men of the Year by 19 citizens, each of
whom had been chosen in the past for the award. They are the
41st and 42nd to be so honored since the award was first
established in 1955.
Listed on the selection committee, and in order of their
receiving the honor, are the Rev. Paul C. Reinert, S.J.,
chancellor emeritus of Saint Louis University; Howard F.
Baer, former president of the A.S. Aloe Co. and retired
chairman, Bank of Ladue; Harold E. Thayer, retired chairman,
Mallinckrodt Inc.; W.L. Hadley Griffin, chairman of the
executive committee, Brown Group Inc.; Lawrence K. Roos,
retired president of the Federal Reserve Board of St. Louis;
Edwin S. Jones, retired chairman and chief executive officer
of First Union Bancorporation and The First National Bank;
Dr. William H. Danforth, chancellor of Washington University;
William H. Webster, former director of the Central
Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation;
Zane E. Barnes, retired chairman and chief executive officer
of Southwestern Bell Corp.; Clarence C. Barksdale, vice
chairman of the board of trustees, Washington University; G.
Duncan Bauman, retired publisher of the St. Louis Globe-
Democrat; Sanford N. McDonnell, chairman emeritus, McDonnell
Douglas Corp., Charles F. Knight, chairman and chief
executive officer, Emerson Electric Co.; Lee M. Liberman,
chairman emeritus, Laclede Gas Co.; August A. Busch III,
chairman of the board and president of Anheuser-Busch Cos.
Inc.; Dr. Peter H. Raven, director of the Missouri Botanical
Garden; William E. Cornelius, retired chairman, Union
Electric Co.; Osborne E. ``Ozzie'' Smith, shortstop for the
St. Louis Cardinals; and H. Edwin Trusheim, chairman, General
American Life Insurance Co.
Twenty-one recipients have died: David R. Calhoun Jr.,
chairman of the board of St. Louis Union Trust Co.; Major
Gen. Leif J. Sverdrup, chairman of the board of Sverdrup &
Parcel Associates Inc.; Ethan A.H. Shepley, chancellor of
Washington University; Stuart Symington, United States
senator from Missouri; Morton D. May, chairman of May
Department Stores Co.; Thomas B. Curtis, United States
congressman from Missouri; August A. Busch Jr., chairman of
Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc.; Edwin M. Clark, president of
Southwestern Bell Telephone Co.; H. Sam Priest, chairman of
the Automobile Club of Missouri; James P. Hickok, chairman of
The First National Bank in St. Louis; Dr. Charles Allen
Thomas, board chairman of Monsanto Co.; James S. McDonnell,
chairman of the board of McDonnell Douglas Corp.; William A.
McDonnell, chairman, The First National Bank in St. Louis; C.
Powell Whitehead, chairman of General Steel Industries;
Frederic M. Peirce, chairman of the board of General American
Life Insurance Co.; Maurice R. Chambers, chairman of the
board, Interco, Inc.; George H. Capps, president of
Volkswagen Mid-America Inc. and Capital Land Co.; Armand C.
Stalnaker, chairman of the board, General American Life
Insurance Co.; Edward J. Schnuck, chairman of the executive
committee, Schnuck Markets Inc.; Robert Hyland, senior vice
president of CBS and general manager of KMOX and KLOU-FM
Radio; and Donald O. Schnuck, chairman of the board, Schnuck
Markets Inc.
Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. LOTT. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. SNOWE). Without objection, it is so
ordered.
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