[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 158 (Thursday, October 12, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1933-E1934]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              TULLAHOMA REMEMBERS KENNETH DOUGLAS McKELLAR

                                 ______


                            HON. BOB CLEMENT

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 12, 1995

  Mr. CLEMENT. Mr. Speaker, the late Senator Kenneth McKellar touched 
many lives in Tennessee. Senator McKellar was a strong leader who was 
deeply respected and fondly remembered by Tennesseans across the State. 
Mr. Woodrow R. Davidson, a long-time resident of the city of Tullahoma, 
wanted to share with the American people some of the stories Senator 
McKellar would tell his constituents from Tullahoma.

                        Kenneth Douglas McKellar

       Kenneth Douglas McKellar was born in Richmond, Dallas 
     County, Alabama but moved to Tennessee in 1892. He returned 
     to Alabama for a law degree at the University of Alabama 
     graduating in 1918. Being a young man and hearing so much 
     about the glitter of gold and women in California, he was 
     headed in that direction.
       But California was not to be. His family sent McKellar a 
     ticket for a ride to Memphis, Tennessee. His mother tried to 
     persuade him not to go to California, but to no avail. She 
     made an appointment with a lawyer in Memphis and pushed him 
     into going to see him. This old lawyer had a stand up desk 
     unit in his office with a tilted top for his law books, but 
     he was lying under it with some books under his head when 
     McKellar arrived. Forced to sit on the floor to meet with 
     him, he and the old lawyer talked until he was persuaded to 
     stay and practice law in Memphis.
       A few years and a pot of money later, McKellar traveled to 
     Atlantic City for a vacation. One day he was in the lobby of 
     a hotel when a Memphis man showed up at the register desk and 
     told McKellar he had heard the man running for Congress say 
     that the only person who could beat him was McKellar. 
     McKellar turned around, walked over to the telegraph station 
     and sent a wire to his brother in Memphis, telling him to 
     announce him as a candidate. He was elected, and served three 
     terms before moving up to the U.S. Senate.
       During all his travels over Tennessee he found many 
     companies in Knoxville and Chattanooga loading barges of 
     products only to have them sit in the river near Muscle 
     Shoals, Alabama waiting for a rain so as to allow the boats 
     down river. He made an appointment with President Woodrow 
     Wilson to discuss the possibility of the U.S. becoming 
     involved in war with Germany, and the resulting need for gun 
     powder. The president talked with his advisors and found this 
     to be a fact. McKellar told him he knew just the place for a 
     dam to produce the necessary gun powder. He told the 
     President about Muscle Shoals, Alabama on the Tennessee 
     River. The dam was built, named Wilson Dam, and accomplished 
     both objectives.
       McKellar was so proud of this that he prepared a bill to 
     authorize the construction of other dams along the Tennessee 
     River, which he called the Tennessee Commission. After many 
     years working with Congress he was finally able to pass the 
     Tennessee Valley Commission bill. President Herbert Hoover 
     vetoed the bill. A short time later Governor Franklin 
     Roosevelt of New York was elected President of the United 
     States. Before he took office he called Senator McKellar and 
     invited him to ride down to Wilson Dam with him to make a 
     speech. Senator McKellar accepted the invitation and was 
     given the time and train schedule.
       Senator McKellar boarded the President's car along with 
     some other folks. On the way down the President elect moved 
     over to the opposite side of the car and motioned for 
     McKellar to follow. Roosevelt informed him that he did not 
     like the McKellar bill. McKellar responded by beating on his 
     desk. While he was governor, Roosevelt said, New York had 
     passed a seaport authority bill and he liked the word 
     ``authority.'' Roosevelt suggested that the McKellar bill be 
     renamed the ``Tennessee Valley Authority'' bill, and Senator 
     McKellar agreed.
       Roosevelt then told him that Senator George Norris had been 
     soft on him during the last election and he would like to 
     have Norris in his corner next time. Geaorge Norris was a 
     western Senator, and a Republican. Senator McKellar beat 
     on his desk again, but agreed. It was never known how, but 
     Lester Hill of Alabama got ahold of Senator McKellar's 
     bill and changed one thing--the headquarters would be at 
     Muscle Shoals, Alabama. The bill passed, but for some 
     reason the annual reports, though headlined in Muscle 
     Shoals, were always made up and printed in Knoxville, 
     Tennessee. Senator McKellar became carried away with all 
     this, and though all appropriations bills originate in the 
     House of Representatives, he was repeatedly able to add 
     enough to a bill to start another dam or to finish one he 
     had begun the year before.
       The President sent word to Senator McKellar to come down to 
     the White House for a conference. There he explained the need 
     for the U.S. to start an endeavor to split the atom. He could 
     not send a request to Congress for fear the enemy would 
     somehow obtain information and start research of their own. 
     Roosevelt felt that as Chairman of the Senate Appropriations 
     Committee McKellar might quietly obtain funds for such a 
     purpose. After some discussion he asked Senator McKellar his 
     opinion of the proposal. The Senator thoughtfully inquired 
     into the proposed location of this work. The President 
     replied ``any damn place you want it''. Senator McKellar 
     called the Committee together to explain the need for war 
     money without letting information leak out to warn our enemy, 
     and they went along. That was the start of Oak Ridge, 
     Tennessee.
       When General Hap Arnold flew back to the United States from 
     the war zone in Europe, he reported to President Truman that 
     the war was about to end in our favor, but he felt we would 
     lose the next one. He calmed the President down by explaining 
     that we had captured some of the enemy territory and found 
     that they were experimenting with wind tunnels. The President 
     called Senator McKellar to the White House for a discussion 
     of the Arnold report and said he would like funds to start 
     testing with wind tunnel facilities of our own. The President 
     advised him about the funds necessary for such a test, and 
     asked McKellar his opinion of the idea and the possibility of 
     obtaining funds for this purpose. McKellar thought for a 
     moment and asked the President where he would build such a 
     facility. The reply . . . ``any damn place you want it''. 
     Again McKellar called his committee together and advised them 
     of the need to do some testing and about how much money would 
     be needed. They agreed and passed a bill authorizing and 
     appropriating funds for this purpose. That, of course, was 
     the start of the Arnold 

[[Page E 1934]]
     wind tunnel facility in Tullahoma, Tennessee.

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