[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 81 (Tuesday, May 16, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1043-E1044]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                   TRIBUTE TO SENATOR JOHN S. STENNIS

                                 ______


                          HON. ROGER F. WICKER

                             of mississippi

                    in the house of representatives

                          Tuesday, May 16, 1995
  Mr. WICKER. Mr. Speaker, it is my honor and pleasure to pay tribute 
to the life and service of Senator John C. Stennis, who passed away 
April 23, 1995.
  Senator Stennis' life is the story of 20th century America. In 1901, 
he was born the son of farmers in the red clay hills of east 
Mississippi. He graduated from Mississippi A&M College, and received a 
law degree from the University of Virginia, earning the honor of Phi 
Betta Kappa.
  He kept the promise of his youth and moved back to his hometown of 
DeKalb, MS, where he began an extraordinary 62-year career in public 
service which was unblemished by scandal, untainted by personal gain, 
and unquestioned in statesmanship. He served as a district attorney, 
State representative, and circuit judge. [[Page E1044]] 
  Then, in 1947, he ran for the U.S. Senate to fill the unexpired term 
of Theodore Bilbo. In today's era of contracts and 100 and 500 day 
timetables, I often think of John Stennis' campaign promise from his 
first Senate campaign. He pledged to ``plow a straight furrow right 
down to the end of my row.'' Senator Stennis kept that simple promise 
with the people of Mississippi and plowed a straight furrow in the U.S. 
Senate for 42 years.
  He served during a time when many politicians grabbed headlines by 
fanning the flames of prejudice and preying on the fears of the 
vulnerable. However, Senator Stennis always took the high road with 
integrity and courage. He was the first Senate Democrat to stand up to 
the fear of McCarthyism and was crucial in bridging our country's 
racial divide in the 1960's.
  He began his service in the Senate by working each day until the 
Senate recessed and then studying at the Library of Congress until it 
closed. He rose to serve as chairman of the Armed Services Committee 
for 12 years, becoming one of the most influential voices in our 
Nation's military affairs during the Vietnam war and for much of the 
cold war. Every weapons system used in the 1991 Desert Storm offensive 
was authorized and appropriated under the leadership of Senator 
Stennis.
  He also served as chairman of the Appropriations Committee as well as 
the first chairman of the Senate's Select Committee on Standards and 
Conduct.
  Widely respected for his integrity, diligence, and judgment he was 
called upon time and again to investigate sensitive political matters. 
It became routine to refer to him as the ``Conscience of the Senate.'' 
To illustrate the bipartisan respect he engendered, President Nixon 
looked to John Stennis' reputation and integrity during the height of 
Watergate. When President Nixon refused to turn over Watergate tapes to 
a special prosecutor, he offered to have Senator Stennis listen to 
their content and verify President Nixon's summary.
  Mississippians knew they had no greater friend in Washington. Senator 
Stennis brought economic development to my home of north Mississippi 
through the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway. In south Mississippi, he 
secured the State's largest employer, Ingall's shipyard, and brought 
about NASA's testing facility for rocket motors, the John C. Stennis 
Space Center.
  Senator Stennis retired from the Senate in 1989, having served eight 
Presidents from President Truman to Reagan in a career in which he 
would rise to President pro tempore of the body he so revered. Upon his 
retirement, President Reagan announced that the Nation's newest nuclear 
powered aircraft carrier would be named the U.S.S. John C. Stennis. The 
U.S.S. John C. Stennis will join the ranks in December of the U.S.S. 
Nimitz, Vinson, Eisenhower, Washington, Roosevelt, and Lincoln.
  After his retirement, Senator Stennis moved to the Mississippi State 
University campus from which he graduated in Starkville, the home of 
the John C. Stennis Institute of Government and the John C. Stennis 
Center of Public Service, created by Congress to train young leaders.
  When asked in the twilight of his career how he would like to be 
remembered, with his characteristic humility he responded, ``I haven't 
thought about that a whole lot. You couldn't give me a finer compliment 
than just to say `He did his best.''' Senator Stennis' unyielding 
devotion to principle, character, and humility produced one of the 
greatest statesman of the 20th century. Senator Stennis did his best 
and for that my State of Mississippi and America will always be 
grateful.


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