[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 95 (Monday, July 12, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1355-E1356]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF CONGRESS THAT THE PRESIDENT POSTHUMOUSLY AWARD 
         THE PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL OF FREEDOM TO HARRY W. COLMERY

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                        HON. HENRY E. BROWN, JR.

                           of south carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 6, 2004

  Mr. BROWN of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, in my capacity as chairman 
of the Subcommittee on Benefits of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, 
I am honored to speak in strong support of H. Con. Res. 257 considered 
by this body on July 6, expressing the sense of Congress that the 
President posthumously award the Medal of Freedom to Harry W. Colmery.
  President Truman established the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 
1945 to recognize notable service during war. In 1963, President 
Kennedy reinstated the medal to honor the achievement of civilians 
during peacetime. The Medal of Freedom may be awarded to any person who 
has made an especially meritorious contribution to (1) ``the security 
or national interest of the United States, or (2) world peace, or (3) 
other significant public or private endeavors.'' As I share with you 
today the remarkable wisdom and foresight of Mr. Colmery, I believe my 
colleagues will agree he is highly deserving of this prestigious award.
  The book The G.I. Bill and the Making of Modern America, and domestic 
policy experts, economists, business leaders, and educators acknowledge 
Mr. Colmery as the visionary who drafted the far-reaching legislation 
that made the United States the first overwhelmingly middle-class 
nation in the world.
  Mr. Colmery's roots were in Braddock, Pennsylvania, and he worked his 
way through the University of Pittsburgh Law School graduating while 
teaching at Camegie Tech (now Carnegie Mellon University). During World 
War I, he joined the fledgling Army Air Corps as a pilot instructor.
  A lawyer who earlier argued two cases successfully before the U.S. 
Supreme Court, during his term as National Commander of The American 
Legion, Mr. Colmery drafted in long-hand over Christmas and New Year's 
of 1943-44, the legislation that became the Servicemen's Readjustment 
Act of 1944, commonly known as the G.I. Bill of Rights. He drafted this 
comprehensive bill a full six months before D-Day. President Roosevelt 
signed Mr. Colmery's vision into law on June 22, 1944, 16 days after 
the Normandy Invasion. Colmery was already anticipating the needs of 
America's 15 million sons and daughters who would wear the military 
uniform during the war.

  Harry Colmery knew from his own military service that ordinary 
Americans can do extraordinary things. He didn't want World War II 
veterans to stand in the unemployment lines or sell apples on street 
corners, as was often the case after World War I. Indeed he was 
determined not to allow impoverishment to define World War II veterans 
after the cessation of hostilities: ``The burden of war falls on the 
citizen soldier who has gone forth, overnight, to become the armored 
hope of humanity. Never again, do we want to see the honor and glory of 
our nation fade to the extent that her men of arms, with despondent 
heart and palsied limb, totter from door to door, bowing their souls to 
the frozen bosom of reluctant charity.''
  Indeed Colmery, too, likely was familiar with data cited by Keith W. 
Olson, Ph.D., in the book The G.I. Bill, the Veterans, and the Colleges 
(University of Kentucky Press, 1974): ``Within the first year of the 
demobilization process there will exist the likelihood, if not the 
certainty, of a large volume of unemployed, involving as many as 8 or 9 
million [American former servicemen and women].'' Final Report of the 
Conference on Post-War Adjustment of Civilian and Military Personnel, 
June 1943. Undoubtedly these data steeled Colmery's commitment and 
resolve. I would note for the Record, as well, that Dr. Olson later 
recounted the effects of Colmery's policy goals for the bill in The 
Astonishing Story: Veterans Make Good on the Nation's Promise'' in the 
Educational Record, Fall 1994.
  Mr. Colmery drafted legislation that the late author Michael J. 
Bennett observed ``allowed veterans to achieve the American Dream--an 
education, a home, a stable and profitable career, and ownership of 
their own business.''
  Mr. Speaker, I'll cite Mr. Bennett's insights often today because he 
is the recognized authority on how Colmery's wisdom produced an 
enormously successful program that changed America forever.
  Said Mr. Bennett, ``more than any other law, the GI Bill was 
responsible for the post-World War II explosion in college graduates, 
the education of leaders of the civil rights movement, the growth and 
dominance of the suburbs, and the proliferation of interstate highways, 
supermarkets, and franchise stores and restaurants. Quite literally, 
the GI Bill changed the way we live, the way we house ourselves, the 
way we are educated, how we work and at what, even how we eat and 
transport ourselves.''
  Mr. Speaker, at this point I think it very fair to ask how Mr. 
Colmery's unwavering vision would have such a profound and far-reaching 
impact--not only for veterans but for America. Some 7.8 million 
veterans went to college and other types of training on the G.I. Bill. 
Mr. Colmery held the view that World War II veterans wouldn't just pass 
through higher education, but as adult-learners (the average combatant 
was about 26 years) would be anxious to make up for lost time. He also 
probably knew from his own military experience that those who defend 
our free-enterprise system in war would be anxious to equip themselves 
to participate in that system when the mills of war stop grinding.
  Mr. Bennett's 2003 paper titled ``A GI Bill for the 21st Century: 
Continuing an American Way of Life,'' points out that ``in the peak 
year of 1947, veterans accounted for 49 percent of enrollment. Of a 
veteran population of 15.4 million, some 7.8 million received skill 
training, including 2.2 million in college, 3.5 million in other 
schools, 1.4 million in on job training and 690,000 in farm training. 
Millions who would have flooded the labor market instead opted for 
education, which reduced joblessness during the demobilization period. 
When they did enter the labor market, most were better prepared to 
contribute to the support of their families and society.''
  In 1965, the then-Veterans Administration found that due to the 
increased earning power of GI Bill college graduates, federal 
government income tax revenues increased by more than a billion dollars 
annually. It also concluded that in 20 years, the $14 billion cost of 
the G.I. Bill--as conceived by Harry Colmery--had paid for itself.
  Current Secretary of Veterans Affairs and former chairman of the 1997 
bipartisan Congressional Commission on Servicemembers and Veterans 
Transition Assistance, Anthony J. Principi observed, ``they [WWII 
veterans] excelled in the classroom, ran the student governments, 
challenged professors, refused to wear freshman beanie caps, began 
raising families, and some veterans did something that was seen as 
unusual--they went to school year round.''
  Not surprisingly, Colmery's vision applies today, as well. A 2000 
Joint Economic Committee of the Congress study titled ``Investment in 
Education--Public and Private Returns'' found that in 1998 the average 
college graduate made $46,285, while the average high school graduate 
only earned $26,592. Workforce training counts.
  I note for my colleagues that few in our society attended college 
prior to World War II and Colmery's notion of large federal investment 
in same--given our massive war debt--constituted a legitimate argument 
against his largely unproven, macro-ideas. Robert M. Hutchins, 
President of the University of Chicago, argued in December 1944 that 
``colleges and universities will find themselves converted into 
educational hobo jungles. And veterans, unable to get work and equally 
unable to resist putting pressure on the colleges and universities, 
will find themselves educational hobos . . . education is not a device 
for coping with mass employment.''

  James Conant of Harvard, an advocate of IQ testing for college 
entrance, argued that the bill would benefit ``the least qualified of 
the wartime generation.'' Later Dr. Conant would admit ``the GI's were 
the best students Harvard ever had'' though Harvard Professor Seymour 
E. Harris argued in 1947 that ``the GI Bill carried the principle of 
democratization too far.''

[[Page E1356]]

  In fact, I note for my colleagues that during debate on Colmery's 
bill some in this body opposed Colmery's plan, as evidenced by the view 
of Representative Dewey Short of Missouri, for example:
  ``Have we gone completely crazy? Have we lost all sense of 
proportion? Who will have to pay for this bill? You think you are going 
to bribe the veterans and buy this vote, you who think you can win his 
support by coddling him and being a sob sister with a lot of silly, 
slushy sentimentality are going to have a sad awakening.''
  With all due respect to then-Representative Short, the ``awakening'' 
associated with Colmery's bold, multi-faceted vision emerged in our 
robust post-war economy, which I'll discuss in a moment.
  Colmery's foresight wasn't limited to job training and education. 
Before the GI Bill of Rights, the great majority of Americans were 
renters. Colmery believed those who fought in war should be able to buy 
their own home, so the GI Bill provided access to low interest 
mortgages.
  Author Bennett noted that based on Colmery's wisdom, ``to house these 
veterans and their children born during the post-war baby boom, the 
idea of the affordable house in the suburbs was born. Families moved 
into their new homes by the millions and became proud members of the 
middle class.'' Indeed, the GI Bill largely made the United States the 
first overwhelmingly middle-class nation in the world, but it also is 
credited with starting the suburbs, a word not spoken in the American 
vernacular until after the GI Bill took effect.
  Colmery's vision cascaded beyond the housing industry. Here's author 
Bennett's explanation why: ``The GI Bill produced a social revolution 
even greater than Henry Ford's. Whereas Ford put millions of cars on 
the road and spawned one of the nation's biggest industries, William 
Levitt (creator of pre-fabricated houses) put people in homes and 
spawned an even bigger one, while indirectly spawning ancillary 
industries in furniture and appliance making and sales, supermarketing 
of food, franchising of restaurants for young families, even expansion 
of schools.''

  ``The results were quickly apparent. One year after President Truman 
announced Japan's surrender, 11 million World War II veterans had been 
discharged, leaving less than one million in service. Seventy percent 
of the veterans were employed, the majority in jobs other than those 
they held before the war. Almost one million veterans were in school, 
another one million drawing checks to supplement farm work, 403,000 
employed in on-the-job training, and 318,000 being helped to establish 
businesses or professional practices.''
  As of September 1946, only 13 percent were drawing unemployment 
benefits. During the previous year, 4.9 million had collected 
unemployment, but, of those, 86 percent were on unemployment for less 
than 20 weeks. One percent had exhausted the 52 weeks of benefits they 
were entitled to. Of the remainder, 396,000 were on vacation, taking 
rehabilitation training, or just resting up, and 86,000 were 
hospitalized. These data are cited from ``What GI's Are Doing Now,'' US 
News and World Report, September 20, 1946.
  Mr. Speaker, Colmery's GI Bill investment paid off--and kept paying 
off. Colmery's legacy endures in today's Montgomery GI Bill and ongoing 
VA and Small Business Administration programs for veterans to 
participate in our economic system their service has sustained.
  On June 18, 2004, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Principi cited data 
that I believe speaks volumes as to why the President--on behalf of a 
grateful Nation--should posthumously award Harry W. Colmery the Medal 
of Freedom: ``The GI Bill made home ownership and a college education 
available to millions of Americans. By harnessing the talent and drive 
of America's veterans, it created six decades of opportunity for the 
men and women who serve in uniform. About 21 million veterans, 
servicemembers and family members, have received more than $77 billion 
in GI Bill benefits for education and training since 1944. The GI 
Bill's home loan program has been used by $17.5 million people for 
loans totaling $830 billion.''
  Mr. Speaker, I earnestly encourage my colleagues to support the Medal 
of Freedom for Harry W. Colmery.

                          ____________________