[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 36 (Monday, March 22, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2854-S2855]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        GOVERNOR JOHN CARL WEST

  Mr. HOLLINGS. Mr. President, yesterday South Carolina lost a valuable 
public servant and I lost a very dear friend. Some 66 years ago John 
Carl West and I came to the Citadel as freshmen. The attention of the 
freshmen in those days was responding to the howling orders of the 
upperclassmen. But it wasn't long before John came to my attention. We 
both had COL Carl Coleman in political science and Colonel Coleman 
loved those Time magazine articles on public events. He would spring 
them on the class with a test. I would barley know half of the answers, 
but John Carl would get 100 every time. I felt I ought to pay closer 
attention to the smartest in a class of 525. In those days, at 
different heights, we were in different companies and different 
barracks, but we got thrown together on the Roundtable in the 
International Relations Club. I learned quickly that John was not only 
the academician but long on common sense.
  Along with the other members of our class, John and I both left for 
the war shortly after graduation, but we ended up in the same class at 
the University of South Carolina Law School after the war. I got home 
the day after Thanksgiving in 1945 and Dean Friersen allowed that I 
could audit the classes and take the exams in January and if I passed 
them then I could be considered a law school student. Many in the class 
furnished me their notes, most notably John West. By January the 17th I 
was through the first semester and by May already through the first 
year. John and I and others marched on the legislature so that we 
veterans could continue in the summer and by August the

[[Page S2855]]

following year I was through a 3-year course in less than 2 years. But 
I couldn't keep up with John. He was in a bigger rush, passing the bar 
exam before graduation, teaching at the university and forming a law 
partnership.
  I used to kid him that I was catching up when in one election he was 
running for the State Senate and I was running for Lieutenant Governor. 
I carried Kershaw County by 1,200 votes and he became the Kershaw 
County Senator by three. John was more or less my lawyer when I was 
Governor. As a young Governor I needed help. My strong suit was that I 
knew the general assembly intimately, having been the presiding officer 
in both houses, so I had a three-man committee in the house with Floyd 
Spence, Rex Carter and Bob McNair, and a three-man committee on the 
senate side with Billy Goldberg, Marshall Parker and John West. West 
was astute and could immediately point the conflicts in a different way 
to get things done. This house-senate group would, off the record, vet 
all of my initiatives. Working together, most all of them got done and 
not a single veto was overridden in that 4-year period.
  When West ran for Governor, South Carolina faced its toughest and 
most heated political choice. The school discrimination decision had 
hit with full force and so had racial politics. The school busses were 
being overturned. I had already been elected twice to the U.S. Senate 
and so I could give my schoolhood friend some help. South Carolina was 
lucky that John West became the Governor. He didn't mind using his 
political capital to get things done. John moved immediately to set a 
course for racial harmony in South Carolina with the appointment of 
James Clyburn as the head of the Human Relations Committee. The Clyburn 
decisions on the most sensitive situations had the full force and 
support of Governor West. A new day and a new direction for the State 
was set. The same was true with labor. A flood of industry had 
commenced by 1971 and the resistance of national labor was hitting the 
work force and communities of the State. Again, Governor West responded 
with the appointment of Ed McGowan, backing him up 100 percent. In the 
field of mental health, Governor West again set the tone and direction 
of mental illness treatment in South Carolina. Working with his 
brilliant wife, Lois, the cottage system in mental health clinics was 
launched, which today still makes South Carolina a forerunner in mental 
illness treatment.
  But I guess it was John's appointment as Ambassador to Saudi Arabia 
that brought out the unique combination of personality and brilliance. 
I know the Arabs I--invaded Algeria and Tunisia in World War II and the 
tribal way of life was next to impossible. To form national policy and 
protect the United States interests with one of these countries isn't 
easy. The Kingdom felt that not only was John West close to President 
Carter, but he was almost family. He handled the knottiest problems 
with the greatest of ease. I used to kid him on several occasions, as 
he handled difficult problems, that that was the Arab blood in him.
  At the end of all these important political offices John didn't 
retire. He maintained a vital interest in everything effecting the 
State of South Carolina. Like me, many would continue to call on him to 
see what John thought about a situation and he readily gave of his time 
and leadership. He had instituted a Chair in International Studies at 
the Citadel, continued to instruct political science at the University 
of South Carolina and on national problems was always conversant and 
wise. Many at home didn't realize the events of Washington, but John 
was my best read friend as well as my best friend. The truth is, he is 
the best friend that South Carolina ever had.

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