[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 109 (Friday, June 30, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S9576]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                     ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN HARDWARE

 Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, my hearty congratulations to the 
Michigan Retail Hardware Association on its 100th anniversary. This 
fine organization has been serving the hardware, home center, and 
lumber industry since July 9, 1895, when it was founded in Detroit. In 
reaching this milepost, they have weathered the years, surviving wars 
and depression, growing to be a robust and vigorous organization.
  The backbone of this association is in the ranks of the hundreds of 
the small business men and women who stand behind those hardware store 
counters each day, ready to serve their customers with a smile and a 
helping hand. Those weekend chores we all face, to fix up or cleanup 
our homesteads, becomes a pleasant endeavor after that cheerful visit 
to the neighborhood hardware store.
  Over the years business leaders in this enterprise have come together 
and prospered, exercising that grand democratic tradition of flexing 
their common interests and gathering strength in numbers. By coming 
together, the members of the Michigan Retail Hardware Association make 
our communities and our economy solid, skills of managers and workers 
are fortified and commraderie and good fellowship grows.
  The trip to the hardware store has become a valued ritual for 
American families labor to make improvements on hearth and home. As we 
build and fix and sand and paint, we look to our hardware centers to 
give them the tools and gadgets we need to make their lives more 
comfortable and bright. For me, the nostalgia of the hardware store is 
that no small town in America really seems complete without a hardware 
store plunked down in the middle of Main Street.
  My best wishes for this business group on the centennial anniversary 
of their founding. My best hopes for many more additional years of 
productivity ahead.


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