[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 64 (Tuesday, May 19, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5143-S5144]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  TRIBUTE TO MARJORY STONEMAN DOUGLAS

 Mr. GRAHAM. Mr. President, I rise today with a heavy heart and 
bearing the sorrow that Floridians and Americans everywhere feel at the 
death of a national treasure--Marjory Stoneman Douglas.
  Marjory Stoneman Douglas is and will always be the ``Mother of the 
Everglades.'' That title was made official in 1993, when President 
Clinton presented here with the Presidential Medal of Freedom--our 
nation's most prestigious civilian honor.
  Over 130 years ago, upon meeting Harriet Beecher Stowe for the first 
time, President Abraham Lincoln greeted the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin 
with this salutation: ``So this is the little woman who started the 
great war.''
  Marjory Stoneman Douglas was equally influential in her own time. She 
was the feisty woman who started the great effort to save the 
Everglades from mankind's abuse and neglect.
  She was born on April 7, 1880 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Perhaps it 
was this connection to ``The Land of Ten Thousand Lakes'' that was 
responsible for her intense passion for environmental preservation. She 
graduated

[[Page S5144]]

from Wellesley College just over two decades later with the prophetic 
title of ``Class Orator.''
  These two characteristics--a love of nature and a powerful 
determination to make her voice heard--would soon come together to the 
benefit of the Florida Everglades. In 1915, Marjory arrived in Miami 
and joined the staff of the Miami Herald. With the exception of a brief 
stint as a Red Cross worker during World War I, she spent the next 
eighty-three years working to save the Everglades from destruction.
  When Marjory Stoneman Douglas arrived in South Florida, many people 
thought of the Everglades as nothing more than another Florida swamp. 
Indeed, Governor Napoleon Bonaparte Broward, who served from 1905 to 
1909, had proposed draining the Everglades to reclaim the land there.
  Marjory did not brook ignorance about the Everglades. Instead, she 
poured time, energy, blood, sweat, and tears into re-educating the 
people of Florida about the crowning jewel in Florida's collection of 
environmental treasures. Long before scientists became alarmed about 
the effects on the natural ecosystems of south Florida, she was taking 
public officials to task for destroying wetlands, eliminating the sheet 
flow of water across the Everglades, and upsetting the natural cycles 
upon which the entire South Florida ecosystem depends.
  Marjory's oratory and hustle produced tangible accomplishments. Her 
crusade to win federal protection for the wetlands scored a major 
victory when President Harry Truman dedicated Everglades National Park 
in 1947.
  That same year, she published the work that would jump-start the 
modern era of Everglades restoration: The Everglades: River of Grass. 
To this day, that tome stands as the definitive descriptive of the 
national treasure she fought so hard to protect.
  Visitors travel thousands of miles to see the Everglades. Scientists 
and naturalists spend entire lifetimes studying the Everglades' diverse 
habitats and unique collection of plants and animal life. Today, public 
officials from every ideological persuasion and geographic location 
line up to support efforts to protect the Everglades. None of this 
would have been possible without Marjory Stoneman Douglas' Herculean 
efforts.
  She supplemented her hard work and determination with a disarming 
candor. Some people will remember that Marjory co-authored a 1920's 
anti-gangster play entitled Storm Warnings. That title was well-suited 
to the personality of its author. She would frequently blow in like a 
Florida summer thunderstorm and give you her thoughts in no uncertain 
terms, leaving you dazed and drained but unmistakably sure of her 
intentions.
  When I was a state legislator in the late 1960's, Marjory came to 
Tallahassee to speak to the Dade County delegation. She conveyed one 
simple, blunt message: we would safeguard the health of the Everglades 
and if we didn't, we would all spend an uncomfortable afterlife in 
hell.
  I took those words to heart. When I was Governor from 1979 to 1987, 
Marjory and I teamed up to launch a campaign to safeguard the Florida 
Everglades. It is an effort that has attracted broad, bipartisan 
support over the years--a testament to Marjory's persuasive powers.
  In 1997, I joined Senator Connie Mack and U.S. Representative Peter 
Deutsch in introducing legislation to name over 1.3 million acres of 
the Everglades after its modern saviour. President Clinton signed that 
legislation in mid-November, and I helped to dedicate the ``Marjory 
Stoneman Douglas Wilderness'' on December 4, 1997--Everglades National 
Park's 50th Birthday. Marjory's ashes will be scattered over that 
wilderness area.
  Marjory Stoneman Douglas was a friend and mentor to me for many 
years. I will miss her greatly. I want to conclude today by reading 
from John Rothchild's introduction to her autobiography. Recalling her 
appearance at a 1973 public meeting in Everglades City, Mr. Rothchild 
offered this apt description:

       Mrs. Douglas was half the size of her fellow speakers and 
     she wore huge dark glasses, which along with the huge floppy 
     hat made her look like Scarlet O'Hara as played by Igor 
     Stravinsky. When she spoke, everybody stopped slapping 
     [mosquitoes] and more or less came to order. She reminded us 
     all of our responsibility to nature. Her voice had the 
     sobering effect of a one-room schoolmarm's. The tone itself 
     seemed to tame the rowdiest of the local stone crabbers, 
     developers, and the lawyers on both sides. I wonder if it 
     didn't also intimidate the mosquitoes.

  Marjory Stoneman Douglas always got your attention--she was the most 
eloquent spokesperson that the Everglades will ever have. The embattled 
wetland lost is ``Mother'' last week, but we must keep her memory and 
legacy alive by continuing our efforts to preserve the Everglades for 
future generations of Floridians and Americans.

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