[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 12 (Tuesday, February 4, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S922-S923]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            ROBERT MORRIS, PATRIOT WHO STOOD UP FOR AMERICA

  Mr. HELMS. Mr. President, one of the disappointing aspects of serving 
in the Senate is the inescapable and unintended detachment we so often 
unknowingly experience in our efforts to keep up with the joyful things 
happening to our friends back home and elsewhere. But it is downright 
discouraging to discover sometimes long after the fact, that sadness 
has come to our friends and their families.
  For example, the death this past December 29 of a remarkable 
American, Robert J. Morris, who immediately earned my admiration when I 
came to Washington in 1951 as administrative assistant to a fine North 
Carolina Senator.
  I had a note the other day from Bob Morris's widow, Joan, about his 
death. Mr. President, when I arrived in Washington years ago, Bob 
Morris was the very bright and talented chief counsel of the Internal 
Security Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
  The New York Times on January 2 of this year reported Bob Morris's 
death. The headline read: ``Robert J. Morris Is Dead at 82; Crusader 
Against Communism''.
  The opening paragraphs of the obituary read as follows:

       Robert J. Morris, whose ministrations as counsel for a Cold 
     War Senate Subcommittee bent on rooting out Communists marked 
     a long career devoted to conservative causes, died on Sunday 
     at Point Pleasant Hospital in Point Pleasant, N.J. He was 82 
     and lived in Mantoloking, N.J.
       The cause of death was congestive heart failure, said his 
     son Geoffrey, who added that Mr. Morris had been suffering 
     for more than a year from hydrocephalus, a condition that 
     impedes brain function.
       Mr. Morris was chief counsel to the Senate Judiciary 
     Subcommittee on Internal Security from 1951 to 1953, and 
     again from 1956 to 1958, a period when the country was 
     tormented by the specter of Communist infiltration at every 
     level of life.
       A graduate of Fordham Law School, he had served on a New 
     York State Assembly committee in 1940 that investigated New 
     York's schools and colleges for Communist activities. He 
     worked various aspects of the Senate hearings, appearing as a 
     witness now and then and serving as a frequent spokesman and 
     defender of its work.

  After those somewhat objective paragraphs, Mr. President, the New 
York Times launched a full-fledged attack on Bob Morris because of his 
battles against communism.
  I shall omit that part of the New York Times report regarding Bob 
Morris's death and pick up again when the obituary regains objectivity:

       Mr. Morris's interest in politics was part and parcel of 
     his upbringing in Jersey City, where his father was known for 
     organizing opposition to Frank Hague, the entrenched Hudson 
     County boss. That interest sharpened while Mr. Morris served 
     in the Navy during World War II.
       Turned down at first because of his inability to recognize 
     the color red, an anecdote he repeated with delight through 
     the years, he became a commander of counterintelligence and 
     psychological warfare. At one point, his son said, he was in 
     charge of writing the threats, printed in Japanese on what 
     looked like money, that were dropped by the planeload on 
     Japanese cities.
       He also interrogated prisoners, and began believing that 
     Communism was a greater threat to world security than most 
     leaders realized--an opinion that would influence the rest of 
     his life.
       Politics continued to attract him after he left the 
     subcommittee. In 1958, he made a bid for the Republican 
     Senate nomination from New Jersey, running on a conservative 
     platform that stressed his subcommittee work. Like all but 
     one of his attempts to win public office--he was elected a 
     municipal judge in New York City in 1954, and resigned two 
     years later to rejoin the Senate investigations--it was 
     unsuccessful.
       Turning his eye to education, Mr. Morris moved to Texas in 
     1960 to become president of the University of Dallas. He 
     continued speaking out against Communism and on other 
     issues, which became a source of friction at the 
     university, which he left in 1962.
       That summer, he founded the Defenders of American 
     Liberties, a group he described as modeled after the American 
     Civil Liberties Union, ``but with emphasis on different 
     positions.'' The group quickly gained public attention with 
     its defense of former Maj. Gen. Edwin A. Walker, who was 
     accused of inciting unrest at the University of Mississippi 
     at Oxford as James Meredith, its first black student, was 
     attempting to start classes there.
       In 1964, he founded the University of Plano, now defunct, 
     in Plano, Tex., which was intended to teach mildly disabled 
     young people through ``patterning,'' controversial at the 
     time. It involved putting students through a series of 
     physical exercises, including crawling and creeping, to 
     stimulate nonphysical development in the brain.

[[Page S923]]

       Mr. Morris was prompted to do so by the difficulties of one 
     of his children, William, whom he enrolled in the university. 
     He remained at the university until 1977, and it closed a 
     short time later.
       He continued to be a vocal foe of Communism and to speak 
     out against disarmament. While In Texas, he made two runs at 
     the Senate, in 1962 and 1970, positioning himself as a 
     conservative Republican. Both times he was defeated in the 
     primary by George Bush.
       He was the author of five books, all but one dealing with 
     the prospective unraveling of the world order. One, 
     ``Disarmament: Weapon of Conquest,'' became something of a 
     best seller after it appeared in 1963.
       He also wrote a column, ``Around the World,'' which was 
     published from 1960 to the early 1980's in newspapers, among 
     them The Manchester (N.H.) Union Leader and The New York 
     Tribune. Among his interests were the politics of Africa, and 
     he became a chairman of the American Zimbabwean Association.
       In 1984, he made one last bid for the New Jersey Senate 
     nomination, campaigning on the same platform as President 
     Ronald Reagan but losing nonetheless. Until last year, his 
     son said, he remained active, writing and giving lectures to 
     groups in the New York area.
       He is survived by his wife, Joan Byles Morris; a daughter, 
     Joan M. Barry of Jackson, N.J.; six sons, Robert J. Jr., of 
     Kauai, Hawaii, Paul E., of Montclair, N.J., Roger W., of 
     Mantoloking, William E., of Mantoloking, John Henry 2d, of 
     Bay Head, N.J., and Geoffrey J., of Armonk, N.Y.; two 
     sisters, Alice Gougeon of Stone Harbor, N.J., and Kathleen 
     Reinert of Point Pleasant Beach, N.J., and 12 grandchildren.

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