Page images
PDF
EPUB

Almighty God, who art Thyself the source of light and love, of life and immortality, we pray for the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that we may be instructed how to worship Thee under the shadow as well as in the sunshine; in the place and incident of death as well as in all the joy and service, the love, affection, and friendship of this present earthly pilgrimage. We praise Thee for our rich heritage of able and self-sacrificing men who have laid their lives upon the altar of the Nation's welfare. May these, Thy servants, who carry on, hear in the memory of their fellow Senators the strongest summons to be good and true. In these anxious hours of our Nation's destiny, may the brevity and uncertainty of life make us all more earnest to render a worthy account of our stewardship. May we more and more realize the necessity of seeking that counsel and that wisdom which cometh down from above and is profitable to direct. Make us willing as a people to make such sacrifices as may seem necessary for the preservation of our land and liberties.

O Lord God, save the people, establish us in righteousness, and give us peace. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Mr. MCCARRAN. Mr. President, I submit a resolution which I send to the desk and ask to have read and considered.

The VICE PRESIDENT.

The resolution will be read.

The resolution (S. Res. 103) was read, as follows:

Resolved, That the Senate has heard with profound sorrow of the death of Hon. KEY PITTMAN, late a Senator from the State of Nevada and President pro tempore of the Senate.

Resolved, That as a mark of respect to the memory of the deceased the business of the Senate be now suspended to enable his associates to pay tribute to his high character and distinguished public service.

Resolved, That the Secretary communicate these resolutions to the House of Representatives and transmit a copy thereof to the family of the deceased.

Resolved, That as a further mark of respect to his memory the Senate at the conclusion of these exercises shall stand adjourned.

Address by Senator McCarran

Of Nevada

Mr. MCCARRAN. Mr. President, the battle-born State has given much to the Nation. Its treasure, taken from its hills, contributed to the national wealth at a time when most needed. It has, besides, given the golden treasure of human ability, depicted by men who have represented Nevada in this Chamber, and it has exemplified the true spirit of the great West in the courage, foresight, and statesmanship of its great Senators who have passed on. But in no instance has it contributed more of human integrity, honesty, foresight, and ability than it did in the record and life of KEY PITTMAN, a Senator from Nevada, commencing his illustrious career here in this Chamber in 1913 and continuing until his death in November 1940.

It was my privilege to know KEY PITTMAN with as much intimacy as he usually permitted to his fellow men. It was my privilege to be a fellow pioneer with him in one of the great gold and silver rushes of western America, when he first took up his residence in the State which he afterward represented so well in the Senate of the United States.

Together, as residents of Tonopah, Nev., we saw the tide of humanity ebb and flow into the mining regions, where gold lured men and women from the ends of the earth. He brought with him into his then adopted State the experience and toughening that come to men who brave the far-flung reaches of the frozen north. KEY PITTMAN had tried his luck and courted fortune within the Arctic Circle. He mushed a dog team into Nome, there to mingle with men where cruel nature cast the weak aside and only the strong could endure and abide.

He was born in Mississippi. He received his law degree at George Washington University. He ventured into the practice of the law in the Northwest. He became one of the famous committee that formed the consent government of the boom town of Nome, Alaska. It was KEY PITTMAN who was a member of the consent committee which brought law and order to that region of the frozen north. He was possessed of a venturesome spirit, and, after having remained in Alaska for some years, he left that region to go into the newly discovered mining camps of southern Nevada. He was alone when he went into Alaska. He left there after having chosen his life's companion, Mimosa Gates, and it was she who was destined to be honored by his brilliant companionship during all the years of his great service in the Senate of the United States. It is she who mourns him most today, notwithstanding the great sorrow that we all bear by reason of his departure from our midst.

Few men there are who ever learned of the rich, scintillating, innermost being of KEY PITTMAN; but those who gained a glimpse of his real being were bound to him by hoops of steel, rejoicing in their acquaintance with him.

He was born in September 1872 in a fine old southern home, where the spirit of the true chivalrous South became a part of his very being. Notwithstanding the refinement that was a part of his nature, and notwithstanding his retiring disposition, he knew the language and the life of the lowly and the humble as well as of the exalted. He entered the miner's cabin with the same grace that was his in entering the mansion of the great.

He went into places of great power, when in 1933, as a representative of his country, he went to Great Britain to a world monetary and economic conference.

He was comparatively only slightly acquainted in Nevada when he was first elected to the Senate, his majority on that occasion being less than 100 votes. He was elected and reelected, and met his last great success at the polls of his State

when he was reelected in November 1940, although at that moment he was on the couch whence he never arose; and, indeed, so serious was his illness that he may never have known the fact that the people of his State had chosen him to succeed himself for the fifth time, and that time by the largest majority he had ever received.

The respect that was his among the people of his State was equally his to enjoy among his companions of the Senate on either side of the aisle.

He was recognized as an authority on matters pertaining to the West. The cause of silver was his abiding thought. His name, during the latter years of his life, was synonymous with monetary silver.

As chairman of a special committee having to do with the study of the cause of silver, he was an incessant worker. He saw his efforts crowned with success when in 1934 his Silver Purchase Act passed through this body and through the House and received the signature of the President.

Early in his senatorial career he became a member of the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate. His successive terms in this body gave him seniority in that committee; and when the present administration came into power on the 4th of March 1933, he was chosen chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee to serve through some of the most important sessions ever held by that great and powerful group of the Senate.

KEY PITTMAN was an unswerving party man. As chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, he carried the banner of the administration regardless of his own convictions. This was his policy in all things political. He stood high in the councils of his party at all times from the occasion when he first entered the Senate of the United States until the day of his passing. He was elected secretary of the Senate's Democratic Caucus, and served in that capacity from 1913 to 1917. The Democratic conference of this body nominated him for President pro tempore of the Senate for the Sixty-sixth,

Sixty-seventh, Sixty-eighth, Sixty-ninth, Seventieth, and Seventy-second Congresses; and finally, when his party came into power again in 1933 he was unanimously elected in this body to be President pro tempore of the Senate.

Thus, KEY PITTMAN, by his own efforts, and representing a State of only 110,000 population, became President pro tempore of the Senate of the United States and chairman of the powerful Committee on Foreign Relations at one and the same time, which high positions he occupied at the day of his death. He not only bore those honors with humility, but he bore them with profound ability, and he reflected the honor which he had won upon the State he represented and upon its people.

The National Democratic Party honored him as few have been honored. He was elected chairman of the platform and resolutions committee at the Democratic National Convention in 1928, and he was elected by that convention to notify Gov. Alfred E. Smith, of New York, of his nomination as a candidate of the Democratic Party for President of the United States.

In all things he undertook in his official life he gave unstintingly of his time and of his ability. He thought less of himself than he did of the cause or the country which he represented. His likes and dislikes for men and plans and policies were keenly marked and vividly evidenced. That trait of character which some men took for abruptness in his manner was in reality a reserve or reservation on his part. He was not quick to form conclusions, but was usually very tenacious when he had arrived at a conclusion.

He was fond of nature, and he loved life. Early in his career in this body he formed and continued to be a member of the Wildlife Committee. He made valuable contributions in the way of legislation for the preservation and protection of the Nation's resources in wildlife. His only mode of diversion from the duties of official life was in the field with his

« ՆախորդըՇարունակել »