[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 40 (Wednesday, April 1, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E548-E549]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            CENTENARY OF THE BIRTH OF STEPHEN VINCENT BENET

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                            HON. PAUL McHALE

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, April 1, 1998

  Mr. McHALE. Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to speak today 
about a favorite son from my very own hometown. This year marks the 
centenary of the birth of the noted American writer, Stephen Vincent 
Benet.
  One of his friends said of him that he was ``more conscious of being 
American than any man I ever knew.'' And he was certainly very 
American. He did not think America was perfect; He strove always to 
heal its imperfections. But, even with its imperfections, he believed 
it was worth serving, as a Grail Knight served his ideal. He thought 
America was the best hope for the oppressed and downtrodden in the 
history of the world. That was the ideal he served and it is an ideal 
to which we should all serve.
  Benet was born July 22, 1898 in Fountain Hill, Pennsylvania, just a 
few blocks from my own birthplace. He went on to embrace and be 
embraced by all of America.
  His father was a distinguished Army career officer, Colonel James 
Walker Benet; his grandfather was Brigadier General Stephen Vincent 
Benet. Both men made distinguished contributions to Army Ordnance, and 
General Benet was Army Chief of Ordnance for 17 years.
  There is no doubt that the younger Stephen Vincent Benet would have 
followed his father and grandfather into the service if he could have; 
he always called himself an Army man. But poor eyesight and painful, 
progressive arthritis plagued him all of his life, making military 
service out of the question.
  Instead, he turned to writing. When his great Civil War epic ``John 
Brown's Body'' was published in the late 1920's he became a national 
hero and won the Pulitzer Prize. More than 600,000 copies of the book 
were sold in short order.
  And they were read and cherished. During World War II a correspondent 
encountered an American officer who carried ``John Brown's Body'' with 
him everywhere, even into battle.
  Benet's reputation increased among Americans because of the short 
stories he published. You have all heard of ``The Devil and Daniel 
Webster,'' but there were many others. They were carried by many of the 
most popular magazines of the 1920s and 1930s, and were eagerly awaited 
by thousands of avid readers.
  During the 1930s he watched with dismay the steady advances of 
Nazism, Italian fascism and Japanese imperialism. Such stories as 
``Blood of the Martyrs'' and ``Into Egypt'' revealed his ardent 
commitment to individual liberty and his deep sympathy with the 
oppressed.
  When the attack on Pearl Harbor plunged the United States into World 
War II, Benet made a momentous decision: Since he had no other way to 
serve, he would put his talent to work by writing for the American and 
Allied cause. Although he was criticized for his choice, then and 
later, he stuck to his principles.
  In the few years that remained to him, he turned out such powerful 
works as the radio

[[Page E549]]

dramas ``Listen to the People'' and ``They Burned the Books'' as well 
as the so-called propaganda history ``America.'' In this book, which 
was printed in many languages and distributed in thousands of copies 
around the world, he told his country's story with all the honesty and 
truthfulness that was his nature.
  But Benet did not live to see the publication of ``America.'' He died 
March 13, 1948, the victim of a sudden heart attack at just 44 years of 
age. Found among his papers at his death were the following four lines, 
which were perhaps the last he ever wrote:

     Now for my country, that it still may live,
     All that I am, all that I have I'll give.
     It is not much beside the gift of the brave,
     But yet accept it, since 'tis all I have.

  I'd like to close by reading part of a prayer Stephen Vincent Benet 
wrote for President Franklin D. Roosevelt, known as the President's 
Prayer. Surely its sentiments are those which every man and woman of 
good will can still share today.

       Our Earth is but a small star in a great universe. Yet of 
     it we can make, if we choose, a planet unvexed by war, 
     untroubled by hunger or fear, undivided by senseless 
     distinctions of race, color, or theory. Grant us brotherhood, 
     not only for this day but for all our years--a brotherhood 
     not of words but of acts and deeds. We are all of us children 
     of earth--grant us that simple knowledge. If our brothers are 
     oppressed, then we are oppressed. If they hunger, we hunger. 
     If their freedom is taken away, our freedom is not secure. 
     Grant us a common faith that man shall know bread and peace--
     that he shall know justice and righteousness, freedom and 
     security, an equal opportunity and an equal chance to do his 
     best, not only in our own lands but throughout the world. And 
     in that faith, let us march toward the clean world our hands 
     can make.

     

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