[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 124 (Friday, October 6, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10046-S10048]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    GIFT TO THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

  Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I rise--and will be joined by my friend and 
colleague from Alaska--to speak about a remarkable gift that was made 
to our wonderful country yesterday.
  Yesterday, it was announced that the Library of Congress--the 
greatest library in the world--would receive the single largest gift in 
its history--$60 million--to promote scholarly excellence. Like a 
university, the center will have endowed chairs in a number of fields.
  The remarkable gift by a remarkable person will also establish a $1 
million annual prize for lifetime achievement in scholarly endeavors.
  The gift has been made by a wonderful man whom I have known for many 
years and for whom I have great admiration, John Kluge. He is also a 
very good friend of the Senator from Alaska.
  John Kluge immigrated to our shores from Germany nearly eight decades 
ago.
  He began his working life selling shoes, clothes, and stationery, and 
moved up from there to become one of our nation's most successful 
businessmen. Like many others whose lives followed a similar path, Mr. 
Kluge has decided to give something back to the country that has given 
him so much over his years of living in this Nation. His remarkable 
gift of $60 million will benefit all Americans by raising standards of 
scholarly excellence, and blazing new paths of knowledge in areas of 
science, the humanities, and the social sciences.
  It will also, in my view, be immensely beneficial to our institutions 
of government. Those of us who serve in those institutions will have 
the benefit of the fresh, bold thinking that men and women of scholarly 
achievement can bring to the most pressing challenges that we face as a 
nation. Hopefully, this gift will contribute to making our nation even 
more prosperous and just in the years to come.
  Perhaps most importantly, however, this gift stands as testimony to 
the unique and ongoing promise of America. Every day, we are reminded 
by events large and small that this is an extraordinary country. Our is 
a country that--despite its problems--offers individuals a level of 
freedom, equality, and dignity unsurpassed anywhere else on the planet, 
or indeed, in the history of the world. That is why people risk their 
lives to come to our shores.
  That is why we are the inspiration for people who in fact yesterday 
rose up against tyranny--the people of Yugoslavia--on the shores of the 
Balkans.
  The extraordinarily generous gift given yesterday by Mr. Kluge to the 
Library of Congress reminds all Americans that ours is a land of 
limitless possibility--a land where even the most humble can go on to 
achieve great success. And it is a gift that reminds each one of us 
that, in our own way, we have an opportunity and an obligation to give 
back to the country that has given us so much. Because more than 
anything else, America is the sum of the acts of selfless patriotism of 
its people. Any time we are reminded of that fact, my colleagues, we 
receive a gift whose value far exceeds its monetary sum.
  John Kluge gave such a gift yesterday, as he has on countless other 
occasions.
  In addition to this remarkable gift which John Kluge gave to the 
Library of Congress, he has helped raise $48 million in private funds 
for the Library on previous occasions to establish an electronic 
enterprise, the National Digital Library, with which my colleague from 
Alaska has been deeply involved. Congress appropriated an additional 
$15 million for that program.
  Over the years, he has given $13 million of his own money to the 
Library, including $5 million to kick start the digital library.
  John Kluge was the major contributor who orchestrated the wonderful 
200th celebration of the Library of Congress.
  He has given millions of dollars to other wonderful causes, 
universities, and other worthwhile enterprises.
  I have known John Kluge for years and years. He was a wonderful 
friend of my parents. I have spent an awful lot of time with him over a 
number of years, particularly in the last number of months. He truly is 
a great American, truly a great patriot, and his wonderful contribution 
is going to make the Library of Congress an even greater institution in 
the years to come than it has been.
  I wanted to take a minute to express the gratitude of all of us, my 
constituents, and all Americans to John Kluge for his remarkable 
contribution to our Nation.
  Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, yesterday, as chairman of the Joint 
Committee on the Library of Congress, it was my privilege to join Vice 
Chairman Bill Thomas and Dr. James Billington out by our Ohio Clock to 
announce the largest gift in the history of our Library in 200 years. 
There has never been a greater gift to the Library of Congress.
  As the Senator from Connecticut has said, John W. Kluge is a 
marvelous individual who is renowned in the international corporate 
community as one of the Library's staunchest supporters and most 
devoted people to the Madison Council. As a matter of fact, he was the 
founder of the Madison Council. He has now given the Library a gift of 
another $60 million.
  Mr. Kluge's leadership in the Madison Council has enabled the Library 
to raise a total of $222 million in private donations for the Library 
over the last 10 years. His contributions alone amount to $73 million.
  Yesterday's gift of $60 million will establish The John W. Kluge 
Center and Prize in the Human Sciences which will endow 5 scholarly 
chairs, and fellows, and will recognize areas of study not currently 
covered by the Noble prize structure. The Center will endow chairs in 
areas such as American law and government, American cultures and 
societies, technology and society, and modern culture. The Librarian 
will make the appointments in consultation with the Library's Scholars 
Council, and the first chairs will be awarded in 2001.
  The Kluge Prize in the Human Sciences will include areas of study not 
covered by the Nobel Prize, including areas such as history, 
anthropology, sociology, literary and artistic criticism. Strangely 
enough, I had been discussing with one of my esteemed friends a similar 
type of approach to cover areas not covered by our Nobel Prize process. 
The prize will be a cash award of $1 million.
  In addition, the award ceremony will recognize a lifetime of 
achievement in the Intellectual Arts, just as the Kennedy Center Honors 
recognize lifetime achievement in the performing arts. As Dr. 
Billington noted, ``the Kluge Center will help bridge the divide 
between the academic and political worlds, between knowledge and 
power.'' He summed up the need for the Center best when he said, ``We 
need broader and deeper exchanges; to make time for greater 
contemplation, what Milton called `wisdom's best nurse'.''
  I speak for all of the Joint Committee members in saying that we are 
deeply grateful for the support the Library has received from Mr. 
Kluge, and the private sector under Dr. Billington's leadership. Over 
this past year, and in celebration of the Library's Bicentennial, the 
private sector has supported hundreds of activities. With Mr. Kluge's 
extraordinary gift of $60 million, the total amount of gifts and 
donations to the Library during its bicentennial year from the private 
sector, particularly the Madison Council, totals $106 million.
  On behalf of the Joint Committee on the Library, I extend Congress' 
deepest thanks to John Kluge, and all of the members of the Madison 
Council. Their generosity has been outstanding. It has helped to make 
possible the digital initiatives at the Library, and has added 
priceless collections over the past 10 years. The nation owes Mr. Kluge 
a debt of gratitude for his generous support. I ask that a copy of the 
remarks

[[Page S10047]]

that Mr. Kluge made regarding his gift be included in the Record as 
well as an article that appeared in the New York Times. It is my hope 
that Members will read his remarks. They are significant. I ask 
unanimous consent that a copy of his remarks be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

     John Kluge's Remarks at the Tea Hosted by Senator Ted Stevens

  Thank you, Dr. Billington.
  I have known the Librarian of Congress, Jim Billington, for ten years 
and during that time, my admiration for him and faith in him as the 
head of our national library have multiplied many times over. Dr. 
Billington came to the Library with a great vision of what the Library 
could be and should be in our new global society. He knew that the vast 
knowledge contained in the Library, if made available to all, could 
enrich and enlighten the lives of people everywhere. He knew that the 
Library of Congress is something that every American can be deeply 
proud of--a symbol of our open democratic society; and a visible 
promise from our lawmakers that whatever information is available to 
them is also freely available to everyone. And he knew that visitors to 
the Library would come away inspired by it and proud that the most 
beautiful building in Washington, perhaps in the country, is a library. 
It has been a privilege for all of us on the Madison Council to join 
with the Congress in helping the librarian fulfill his vision.
  We have seen the Library transformed--from a great, but under-used 
and little known federal institution, to an open and universally 
accessible resource for students, scholars and learners everywhere. 
This exciting transformation, and my confidence in the Librarian and 
his talented staff, have led to my decision to endow a center for 
scholarship and a prize in the human sciences which were just 
announced. My deepest wish--as a person who came to this country as a 
child with almost nothing and has enjoyed the freedom to try new 
things, to take risks and at least sometimes to succeed--is to make a 
contribution that helps others have the same kind of opportunity. I 
hope that the scholars who come to this center to grapple with some of 
the most important issues of our time and future times, will have the 
same wish--to use their talents and brains to better the world.
  Thank you Madison Council members for making the Library a priority 
in your lives. Your dedication over the past ten years has paid off 
richly for a great American institution and for the nation.
  Mr. STEVENS. He made those remarks at the time he announced this 
award yesterday in our presence in the Mansfield Room in the Senate.
  I also ask unanimous consent an article from the New York Times 
pertaining to this gift be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                [From the New York Times, Oct. 5, 2000]

            $60 Million Gift Is Made To Library of Congress

                         (By Francis X. Clines)

       Washington, Oct. 4.--The Library of Congress has just 
     received the largest single donation in its history, $60 
     million, and Dr. James H. Billington, the librarian, is 
     eagerly preparing to spend it repairing relations between 
     ``the thinkers and the doers,'' between a resident panel of 
     visiting senior scholars he plans for the library and the 
     politicians across the street in the Capitol.
       ``These two worlds just kind of fell apart in the 60's and 
     haven't really come back together again,'' Dr. Billington 
     said as he explained his new program for the ultimate mix in 
     political town and academic gown.
       He plans rotating far-flung scholars to Washington to 
     pursue fresh research and play a ``catalytic'' intellectual 
     role for Congress, the primary user of the national library.
       Beginning next year, the program will endow eight senior 
     chairs plus a dozen fellowships for younger scholars. And 
     most prominently, it will create a $1 million prize for 
     intellectual excellence in the human sciences, a field that 
     Dr. Billington feels is neglected by the Nobel prizes.
       ``We're trying to celebrate and facilitate not just the 
     life of the mind, but also the role of the life of the mind 
     in the life of the republic,'' he said of the new scholar 
     center, which will be named after its benefactor, John W. 
     Kluge.
       A billionaire entrepreneur and philanthropist, Mr. Kluge 
     heads the library's Madison Council, which has been enlisting 
     advisers and donors from the private sector for the past 
     decade. After helping the library raise about $160 million in 
     the last 10 years from others, Mr. Kluge, now 85 and chairman 
     of the Metromedia International telecommunications and 
     entertainment company, has donated $60 million to it himself.
       Based around the great hall in the library's newly 
     refurbished Jefferson building, the center--which will be 
     formally announced on Thursday--is to set aside suites of 
     offices and meeting rooms for the scholars and lawmakers. The 
     hope is they will intermingle for whatever discussions they 
     please about ideas large or small, pressing or serendipitous.
       ``You can't legislate or buy depth but we're making some 
     probes,'' said Dr. Billington, a 71-year-old historian and 
     Russian specialist who diplomatically stressed that he has 
     nothing against the capital city's hedgerows of think tanks 
     and flocks of talking heads all now operating in the name of 
     thoughtfulness.
       Still, he said, ``a deeper immersion'' and interplay 
     between scholarly ideas and political curiosity is needed. 
     ``There is already a great deal of applied intellect in this 
     city, even if a lot of it is in lobbying and advocacy.''
       He vowed to reach out for scholars not usually associated 
     with a Washington intellectual life top-heavy with economists 
     and political scientists.
       The initial senior scholars are to be chosen within the 
     next year, with the first Kluge prize for intellectual 
     excellence likely in 2002. Those under consideration will be 
     vetted from assorted disciplines by Dr. Billington and an 
     advisory council of scholars led by his deputy at the 
     library, Dr. Prosser Gifford.
       Dr. Billington declined to speculate on choices. But he 
     said the standard would ideally be of the sort set by two 
     scholars he had previously coaxed into serving the library 
     briefly--Vyacheslav Ivanov, the linguist and lecturer on 
     semiotics, and the late philosopher Isaiah Berlin.
       The eight specialties to be covered by the senior chairs 
     are broadly defined along the library's separate collections 
     to include the culture and society of the Northern (advanced) 
     and Southern (less developed) Hemispheres; technology's 
     interaction with society, American law and governance; 
     education; international relations; American history and 
     ethics; and modern culture, including the library's 
     formidable collections of music and films.
       ``What we're trying to do is to make sure you get Greece 
     into Rome,'' said Dr. Billington, the 13th librarian of 
     Congress in the two century-history of the institution.
       ``What's fascinating is that the link between learning and 
     lawmaking was here from the beginning,'' he said, describing 
     how the first joint committee was created by the founding 
     Congress to run the library.
       Scholars have at least as much to gain in the untapped 
     resources of the library as in the interaction with 
     lawmakers, Dr. Billington said. He noted, for example, the 
     thousands of unread copyrighted novels in the library's 
     archive of more than 120 million items.
       ``I tell my friends in academia that instead of 
     deconstructing novels that everybody used to enjoy before you 
     started writing about them, how about coming down and 
     discovering the unpublished novels that nobody has read,'' he 
     wryly added.
       ``There is no magic bullet for interacting doers and 
     thinkers,'' he conceded, but he expressed faith in the idea 
     of simply bringing ``some of the scholars scattered all over 
     the country directly into the library'' that members of 
     Congress use--``people who already have a life of scholarly 
     accomplishment but who might be capable of distilling some 
     wisdom in roaming across the rich variety of things at the 
     library.''
       Reviewing the institution's virtues, he cited its several 
     hundred book cataloguers as rich foragers. ``They're my 
     hidden heroes,'' he said.
       ``It's going to be additive, it's going to be catalytic,'' 
     Dr. Billington insisted. ``It's not a little empire, or a 
     university or a new think tank.''
       ``It's going to have an ever changing group of people,'' he 
     added, with most of them staying for a year or so. ``It will 
     work in that way America does things best--not with a giant 
     prefixed plan that you sit around and debate in the abstract, 
     but by working on the human elements and hoping that things 
     will jell.''

  Mr. STEVENS. One of the interesting things about John Kluge's remarks 
was when he referred to himself as a young boy who came to this country 
at the age of 8 as an immigrant and he had one possession. It was a 
small Dresden figurine; it was a horse. That is all he owned when he 
came to this country.
  Today, as Senator Dodd has said, through the process of freedom in 
this country and his basic knowledge as a human being, he is one of the 
richest men in the world. I think to be in the man's presence is an 
honor. He is one of the great people of this country.
  Yesterday, after I attended this ceremony and was going back on the 
subway, one of the operators of the subway noticed I was smiling. That 
is strange around this place, as people know. I said: Yes, I've just 
been to a delightful

[[Page S10048]]

ceremony. I told him that this man came to this country as an immigrant 
boy of 8 with one little possession, that he still has, had amassed 
this great fortune, and he had just given the Library of Congress $60 
million.
  The driver of the subway said: He came here with nothing? I said: 
That is right. And he has just given this great gift to the Library? 
And I said: That is right. And he said: That man is truly blessed.
  That is my feeling about John Kluge. He is a truly blessed man.
  Mr. DODD. I thank my colleague for his wonderful comments about John 
Kluge.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to proceed for 5 minutes in 
morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Frist). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

                          ____________________