[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 35 (Friday, March 22, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2317-S2318]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        SENATOR HERMAN TALMADGE

  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I take a few moments today to recall the 
days of yesteryear.
  I came to this body in January of 1959, after having served in the 
other body, the House of Representatives, for 6 years. When I came to 
the Senate, I came into the midst of a chamber that was made up of men 
and one woman, Margaret Chase Smith of Maine. These men were ``tall 
men, sun crowned, who live(d) above the fog in public duty and in 
private thinking,'' men like Richard B. Russell of Georgia. Senator 
Richard Russell had never married, but he had a bride. His bride was 
the Senate. There was none other like him.
  In my service in the Senate, this man from Georgia, Richard Brevard 
Russell, was the uncrowned leader, as far as I am concerned, of the 
Senate. There were men like Lyndon Johnson, Everett Dirksen, Lister 
Hill of Alabama, John McClellan, William Fulbright, Norris Cotton, and 
I could go on; John Pastore of Rhode Island, Senator O'Mahoney of 
Wyoming. They are all gone now.
  I look about me today and I see the desks and the chairs. They were 
here then. Then one after another, as I look about me, I can see those 
Senators, Wayne Morse, Wallace Bennett, Jacob Javits, and Herman 
Talmadge.
  I stand alone in this Chamber as in a great banquet hall where men 
have come and gone, fallen like winter's withered leaves. There is only 
one other Senator today who was here when I came here: Strom Thurmond.
  The Senate is a far different place, far different from what it was 
when the Senator who is presiding over this Senate today, Senator 
Christopher Dodd, was a page boy; a different Senate. Yes, it is a 
different time. But the memories of those men and that woman who gave 
her ``Declaration of Conscience,'' Margaret Chase Smith of Maine, are 
still in my heart.

  I begin now to make a few remarks about one of those Senators whose 
names I have mentioned, the late Senator Herman Talmadge. We heard the 
distinguished Senator from the State of Georgia yesterday, Mr. Zel 
Miller, speak of the passing of Herman Talmadge. As a colleague of the 
late Herman Talmadge, I say these few words in memory of him.
  Mr. President, there was once a saying in the state of Georgia that 
``if you were not a Talmadge man, you were a communist.''
  That saying spoke so well of the high regard, the esteem, and the 
respect that the people of that proud southern State, which was one of 
the original 13 States, possessed for the Talmadge family and why the 
Talmadges were such a politically prominent family for so many years.
  The Talmadge dynasty began in 1926--I was a little boy in a 2-room 
school house in southern West Virginia that year--when Eugene Talmadge 
was elected Commissioner of Agriculture. He was later elected Governor 
of Georgia to an unprecedented four terms.
  It continued with his son, Herman Eugene Talmadge whose death we 
mourn today. Herman Eugene Talmadge served the State of Georgia first 
as Governor, 1948-1955, and then as a United States Senator, 1957-1980.
  He had been in this body 2 years when I came and when the father of 
the Presiding Officer today, the late Thomas Dodd, came to the Senate 
with me. We came together from the House where we had previously served 
together.
  During the Talmadge tenure, other powerful political leaders emerged 
in that great state, and obtained state and national offices. These 
included Senator Richard Russell, who sleeps peacefully today under a 
southern sky in a lonely cemetery in Georgia. I stood in that cemetery, 
at the grave of the late Senator Richard Russell.

  Then there was President Jimmy Carter. I served as majority leader in 
this body during the years of his Presidency. Then there was Senator 
Sam Nunn, whom we all know, remember, and respect, and for whom we have 
an enormously high regard.
  But the Talmadges were always there!
  Some maintain that the Talmadge reign ended in 1980 when Senator 
Herman Talmadge lost his bid for reelection. But I can't help but 
believe that it did not end until this past Wednesday night when this 
sharp-witted man of simple values, who spent so much of his life in 
public service and who did so much to make his State and our Nation 
better, passed away. His passing should serve to remind all of us how 
much we need people who are dedicated to public service.
  Herman Eugene Talmadge's public service began during World War II. 
Now listen to this: he was serving in the Navy when Pearl Harbor was 
attacked. He immediately requested combat duty, and participated in a 
number of important naval engagements during the war, including the 
invasion of Guadalcanal and the Battle of Okinawa. He was present at 
the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay.
  Upon the death of his father, Herman Talmadge became Governor of 
Georgia, and his administration is regarded as one of the most 
progressive administrations in the history of that great state of 
Georgia.
  In 1957, he took a seat in the Senate. I can see him standing over 
there, a man of few words. He was like John Pastore. Those two men were 
among the sharpest witted Senators with whom I have ever served.
  In 1957, Herman Talmadge began an extraordinary career, which 
included serving as chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, 
Nutrition and Forestry, where he became known as the ``champion of 
American agriculture'' because of the imprint he left on almost all 
farm legislation that was passed during his tenure as chairman. He 
authored legislation to expand and improve the School Lunch Program. He 
helped to develop the Food Stamp Program. As chairman of the 
Agriculture Committee and a crusader for rural development, Senator 
Talmadge established a rural development subcommittee and led the 
enactment of the Rural Development Act of 1972.
  He was a member of the Senate Finance Committee--there was a sharp 
brain on a great committee, the Senate Finance Committee. I have never 
seen men or women in this Senate whose brains were more sharp than that 
of Herman Talmadge.
  He was also very active on welfare legislation long before it became 
a popular issue to promote, and he authored a provision giving tax 
credits to private businesses to provide job training. There was a 
pioneer!
  Talmadge was always a powerful proponent of programs calculated to 
get people on their feet, and to give them the means with which to 
secure their future and the future of their children. He was just as 
adamantly opposed to programs he felt perpetuated cycles of dependency, 
``You gotta have more people pulling the wagon than riding,'' he was 
fond of saying. He could say it crisply, succinctly, right to the 
point.
  Senator Talmadge came to national attention in 1973, when he was 
appointed to serve on the Watergate Committee. According to an article 
on him in the Georgia Historical Quarterly, Senator Talmadge:

       . . . thought the Watergate investigation was one of the 
     most important events in the history of the United States 
     [because] it demonstrated how a republican form of government 
     [This is not a democracy, it is a republic; it is a 
     republican form of Government] could correct the conduct of 
     public officials and alert others not to make the same 
     mistake.

  It was during the Watergate hearings that the American people were 
able to observe for themselves the penetrating, get-to-the-heart-of-
the-matter style of Senator Talmadge, and I am sure they were 
impressed.
  Despite Senator Talmadge's productive and historic achievements in 
the Senate, his life was not without adversity. While serving in this 
Chamber,

[[Page S2318]]

Senator Talmadge suffered the tragic death of one of his sons, and 
endured other personal and professional misfortunes.
  Nevertheless, in his memoirs (Talmadge, A Political Legacy, A 
Politician's Life: A Memoir), he wrote:

       In looking back over my life, I suppose I have the normal 
     share of regrets. But if I had it all to do over again, I 
     wouldn't hesitate to enter politics. The rewards far outweigh 
     the price one has to pay. When I speak to a civic club or 
     just walk down the street, I invariably run into someone who 
     has benefited in some way from my three-and-a-half decades in 
     public life. Yes, it was a good life.

  Mr. President, Herman Eugene Talmadge served his country and he 
served it well, in war and in peace. He served his State and the people 
of America very well with his extraordinary career in the Senate. His 
was indeed a ``good life'' and one for which all of us can be grateful. 
So:

     Let Fate do her worst, there are relics of joy,
     Bright dreams of the past, that she cannot destroy;
     Which come, in the night-time of sorrow and care,
     And bring back the features that joy used to wear.
     Long, long be my heart with such memories filled!
     Like the vase in which roses have once been distilled,
     You may break, you may shatter the vase, if you will,
     But the scent of the roses will hang round it still.

  Mr. President, I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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