[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 138 (Thursday, September 7, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1725]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                       TRIBUTE TO WALTER REUTHER

                                 ______


                          HON. SANDER M. LEVIN

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, September 6, 1995
  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. Speaker, on Friday, September 8 a 25th Commemorative 
Tribute will be held in honor of Walter Reuther. Marking the tragic 
death of Walter and Mae Reuther in 1970, it will honor their lives and 
their service to others.
  In life, Walter Reuther was larger than life, a giant of a figure.
  In death, he left a legacy that has outlived him, and a strong group 
of legatees to carry on his work.
  His legacy includes a number of seeming ironies: Considered by some 
in the business world to be an enemy, time more and more revealed him 
as a key figure in helping to preserve, indeed strengthen American 
capitalism; often in the middle of a number of historic adversarial 
clashes with management, his Union has led the way toward a more 
collaborative relationship between management and labor, and sometimes 
accused of class warfare, Walter Reuther, his brothers Roy and Vic and 
their colleagues helped create in America the largest middle class in 
the world.
  These contrasts were actually a reflection of consistent threads 
running throughout the life of Walter Reuther: a strong dedication to 
democracy and a deep distaste for intolerance; a belief in the dignity 
of work and of the individual who labored. His strength of personality 
reinforced, rather than undermined, his belief in pluralism.
  His love for his Union, the UAW, was so powerful that it only 
motivated him to address its imperfections.
  I saw his influence first-hand initially as a youngster helping to 
earn some money for college working in a factory one summer. Walter 
Reuther's spirit of brotherhood and sisterhood helped create among the 
rank and file in the plant an atmosphere of people working together, 
instead of against each other. The plant--hot and dirty--was hardly a 
haven but it provided a welcome respite from the outside atmosphere in 
a city often torn by social and racial divisions.
  Remembering Walter Reuther is important in part in helping us to 
remember first principles. He was visionary, and that meant that he 
could see far enough ahead to discern when there was a need for change 
in order to be faithful to basic principles, and in order to be 
effective in carrying them out.
  When history has a truly ample period of time to look back fully to 
discern the evolution of democracy in America in the 20th century, I 
have no doubt that Walter Reuther will loom very large. It is only true 
to ourselves, as people who share his faith in democracy, that we take 
some time in 1995 to remember him, whom we grievously lost 25 years ago 
in 1970.


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