[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.
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