[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 92 (Friday, June 20, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8318-S8319]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   TRIBUTE TO SENATOR RUSSELL B. LONG

  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, Cicero was asked which of Demosthenes' 
speeches he most admired. Cicero's answer was: The longest. By the way, 
Demosthenes committed suicide. He carried some poison in a bracelet and 
he committed suicide. While I admire Demosthenes, I do not hope to 
follow his course in that regard.
  The greatest oration that was ever delivered was the Oration on the 
Crown by Demosthenes. In that oration, he asked the question: Who 
deceives the State? He answered his own question. He who does not speak 
what he thinks.

     God, give us men!
     A time like this demands strong minds,
     great hearts, true faith, and ready hands.
     Men whom the lusts of office do not kill;
     Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy;
     Men who possess opinions and a will;
     Men who have honor; men who will not lie.

     Men who can stand before the demagogue
     And brave his treacherous flatteries without winking.

     Tall men, sun-crowned;
     Who live above the fog,
     In public duty and in private thinking.
     For while the rabble with its thumbworn creeds,
     It's large professions and its little deeds, mingles in 
           selfish strife,

     Lo! Freedom weeps!

     Wrong rules the land and waiting justice sleeps.
     God, give us men.

     Men who serve not for selfish booty;
     But real men, courageous, who flinch not at duty.
     Men of dependable character;
     Men of sterling worth;
     Then wrongs will be redressed, and right will rule the earth.
     God, give us Men!

  Mr. President, those lines by J. G. Holland call my reflections to a 
man who served in the Senate with me a good many years ago. For 38 
years, Russell B. Long was a giant among the giants of the U.S. Senate. 
Although not a large man, his mere presence on the Senate floor was 
overpowering. His accomplishments were enormous, and I am confident in 
saying that his legacy will prove to be long lasting. He was a 
Senator's Senator.
  He sat here in this row of seats where I now stand. Mr. Mansfield sat 
in the chair at the desk just in front of me. The greatest Senator of 
all, in my public career, was another Southerner whose name was Richard 
Brevard Russell, and he sat at the seat which I now have the honor to 
fill. At the desk behind me was Russell B. Long.
  He was a man of powerful intellect. He was a walking history blessed 
with common sense and a sharp, clear mind. He could keep one 
entertained for hours with his down-home stories, his folksy humor, and 
memories of his remarkable and controversial family.
  His father, Huey P. Long, was called the Kingfish in Louisiana. His 
father was the legendary populist Governor and Senator from Louisiana, 
Huey Long. Russell's self-effacing mother, Rose, who Russell Long said 
was the ``nearest thing I knew to an angel''--now that is putting it 
right. ``The nearest thing I knew to an angel.'' That was Russell 
Long's way of referring to his mother.

  His mother served briefly in the U.S. Senate following the 
assassination of her husband. So here you have the husband, the wife, 
and the son all serving in the U.S. Senate at different times, of 
course.
  Born in Shreveport, LA, in 1918, Russell B. Long received his 
undergraduate and law degrees from Louisiana State University. He 
served as a naval officer during World War II and practiced law after 
the war.
  On November 2, 1948, he was elected to the U.S. Senate. I was in the 
West Virginia House of Delegates at that time. So Russell Long was 
elected to the U.S. Senate 1 day before his 30th birthday, making him 
the sixth person to be elected to the Senate under the age of 30. When 
he retired from the Senate in 1986, he had served longer than all but 
three other Senators in history at that time.
  His love for this institution and his respect for this institution's 
traditions were always evident. He opposed television coverage in the 
U.S. Senate. He and I were both together in feeling that way about it 
at that particular time. We both opposed television coverage in the 
Senate at that point.
  He opposed the efforts to limit Senate filibusters. I opposed them 
with him. I joined in filibusters with him. And I today oppose efforts 
to eliminate the filibuster in the U.S. Senate, and I always will 
oppose those efforts.
  He did so, meaning he opposed the elimination of the filibuster and 
any efforts to eliminate it, because he cared so much about preserving 
the unique role of the U.S. Senate in American Government and American 
society.
  During his tenure in the Senate, Russell Long served on a number of 
important committees, including the Commerce, Science, and 
Transportation Committee, the Banking and Currency Committee, and the 
Armed Services Committee.
  In 1965, his Democratic colleagues elected him--and I was here at 
that time to cast my vote for him--to serve as the Senate Democratic 
whip, the post he held until 1969. I was the secretary of the 
Democratic conference at that particular time, and I believe I sat on 
the back row over here.
  It was on January 10, 1966, that another legend was born, and that 
was the day that Senator Long became chairman of the Senate Finance 
Committee, a position he held for 15 years, the longest continuous 
service in the history of that committee. As chairman of this powerful 
Senate committee, Senator Long displayed such a command of the subject 
matter and demonstrated such skillful management abilities that during 
floor debates Senators would line up at his desk seeking his 
encyclopedic memory and knowledge about complicated tax provisions. In 
fact, on most of the landmark tax and trade legislation during that 
time one can see the imprint of this remarkable Senator, Russell Long.
  His was a powerful voice on health care finance and Social Security. 
His genius fathered ESOP, the employee stock ownership plan concept, 
which enabled the workers and management at Weirton Steel in Weirton, 
WV, to keep the plant from closing in 1982. Russell Long went with me, 
and with the late Senator Jennings Randolph, my colleague at the time, 
to Weirton Steel and talked with the employers and employees, the 
people, the citizens, about the ESOP plan. That plan was applied and it 
preserved the jobs of 8,500 employees.
  Russell Long's legislative achievements included the 1972 and 1976 
Federal revenue sharing laws and the 1969 and 1976 tax reform laws. I 
wish he were here today. Indeed, his work on the Nation's tax laws 
continued throughout his years in the Senate. In 1986, his last year in 
this Chamber, he helped to write a major simplification of income tax 
law.
  President Jimmy Carter liked to say that he was elected President and 
came to Washington to run the country but that when he got here, he 
discovered that Russell Long was already running it.
  Senator Long's colleague from Louisiana at that time, Senator Bennett 
Johnson, used to point out that President Carter was probably 
exaggerating but not by much.
  Russell Long's success as a Senator is largely attributable to his 
skills as a debater and speaker, and his skills as a technician and 
craftsman in the writing of tax laws. These are skills which he likely 
inherited from his dynamic father. Those skills included his formidable 
ability as one of the Senate's best negotiators.
  President John F. Kennedy once told him:

       You traded me a biscuit for a barrel of flour and I didn't 
     even get a biscuit.

  Following the Republican landslide of 1980 in which Ronald Reagan was 
elected President and the Republican Party gained the majority in the 
Senate, Senator Howard Baker, who had become the new Senate majority 
leader, telephoned Senator Robert Dole to congratulate Senator Dole on 
his new role as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. The story 
goes that Senator Dole responded:


[[Page S8319]]


       Howard, that is great, but who is going to tell Russell 
     Long?

  I enjoy that story. It demonstrates both the power and the respect 
that Senator Russell Long commanded as a U.S. Senator and as chairman 
of the Senate Finance Committee. No wonder the Wall Street Journal once 
referred to Russell Long as the fourth branch of Government. 
Journalists, as well as Presidents and Senators, revered and enjoyed 
this colorful man, and brilliant Senator. During his 38 years in the 
Senate, Russell B. Long truly became an institution within this 
institution.

  I missed Russell Long when he left the Senate. Erma and I missed his 
lovely wife Carolyn. I called Carolyn a few minutes ago to speak with 
her about her late husband Russell Long. I told her I was going to have 
a few words to say about Russell, and I asked her to listen in if she 
liked.
  I close this short statement about Russell Long with a poem by Thomas 
Moore, that great Irishman. The title of the poem is ``The Light of 
Other Days.''
  I dedicate these words by Thomas Moore to Carolyn, and in so doing, 
of course, I think about my own service in this Chamber with Russell 
Long.

       Oft, in the stilly night,
       Ere slumber's chain as bound me,
       Fond memory brings the light
       Of other days around me;
       The smiles, the tears,
       Of boyhood's years,
       The words of love then spoken;
       The ayes that shone,
       Now dimm'd and gone,
       The cheerful hearts now broken.
       Thus, in the stilly night,
       Ere slumber's chain has bound me,
       Sad memory brings the light
       Of other days around me.
       When I remember all
       The friends, so link'd together,
       I've seen around me fall
       Like leaves in wintry weather.
       I feel like one
       Who treads alone
       Some banquet-hall deserted,
       Whose lights are fled,
       Whose garland's dead,
       And all but he departed.
       Thus, in the stilly night,
       Ere slumber's chain has bound me,
       Sad Memory brings the light
       Of other days around me.

                          ____________________