Proceedings in the House

MONDAY, June 25, 1945.

A message from the Senate by Mr. Gatling, its enrolling clerk, announced that the Senate had adopted the following resolution (S. Res. 145):

Resolved, That the Senate has heard with profound sorrow and deep regret the announcement of the death of Hon. JAMES G. SCRUGHAM, late a Senator from the State of Nevada.

Resolved, That a committee of five Senators be appointed by the President pro tempore of the Senate to take order for superintending the funeral of the deceased Senator.

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 the memory of the deceased, the Senate do now take a recess until 12 o'clock noon tomorrow.

The message also announced that pursuant to the above resolution the President pro tempore of the Senate appointed Mr. McCarran, Mr. Murdock, Mr. Wherry, Mr. Robertson, and Mr. Taylor, members of the committee on the part of the Senate.

The SPEAKER. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Nevada [Mr. Bunker].

Mr. BUNKER. Mr. Speaker, it is with a heavy heart that I pause today to pay tribute to the memory of United States Senator JAMES GRAVES SCRUGHAM, of Nevada, former Member of the House of Representatives for a decade, who died Saturday, June 23, at naval hospital, in San Diego, Calif.

The last 20 years of his life was unselfishly devoted to the service of his State and Nation-4 years as Nevada State engineer, 4 years as Governor of that Commonwealth, and

then 10 years in Congress. He was elected to the Senate November 3, 1942.

Senator SCRUGHAM served as a major and lieutenant colonel in World War I, and saw active duty for short intervals during the present war as a colonel. He was active in veterans' affairs; was one of the original incorporators of the American Legion in 1919, and served as national vice commander of that organization. From 1927 to 1932 he was editor and publisher of the Nevada State Journal, at Reno.

He was a tireless worker, devoted to the well-being of his State and country always.

Almighty God has summoned him to his reward in his sixty-fifth year. We mourn his passing. His death must be a reminder to us, the living, that our days, also, are numbered. Under the Divine scheme we too have our work to do. Let us, too, do it well.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Vermont [Mr. Plumley].

Mr. PLUMLEY. Mr. Speaker, the many miles "JIM" SCRUGHAM and I have traveled in the air, over seas, across deserts, over mountains, and up ravines together in an effort to, and in the interest of, locating stock piles of strategic metals and materials for our national defense in days gone by, only cemented the bond of friendship between bitter political partisans recognizing the right of the other to differ with respect to economic and partisan policies in the Government interest.

This is a matter of record-"JIM" was a partisan-but always an American. He fought unflinchingly for what he believed to be for the best interest of the country for which he had twice offered to die, if necessary. He would say as much for me.

You can't argue theory with a man like that, who will give all he has for the principles in which he believes, except to suggest as both often did, that there might be two sides to a proposition to be considered.

As an engineer, civil, mining, and military, he always acceded to that suggestion, but frequently told me his way was the shortest and the best, both mathematically, economically, and politically. With no man I have known since early 1934 have I been so closely, intimately, and affectionately associated, as with the former Kentuckian, later Governor of Nevada and later Representative and Senator from that State: this man SCRUGHAM. I abhor and regret his taking off.

His record of achievement as a poor Kentucky boy who made that record and all the grades on ability, should be an incentive to every American boy of today. There was something about him which only those to whom he completely exposed himself and confided his dreams could properly evaluate. The House of Representatives never half recognized nor appreciated the fact of the greatness of this man among them whose memory we honor today, because he was too modest, too self-effacing to make known his capacity or what was in him.

Some few of us were permitted to slip inside the circle of his self-effacement with which he surrounded himself to learn the greatness of the man, who above all else was human, unassuming, and therefore really great.

In his death Nevada has lost a great representative in the Senate although an adopted son.

As a Member of Congress from his adopted State he did for it what no man hereafter can do or theretofore did-for no such opportunity to do for Nevada what he did will again be afforded any man.

I know whereof I speak. The country has lost one of its most modest, most all-out American representatives in the Congress, and in the Senate particularly, where he will be greatly missed measured by need.

Of course, I had hoped that if the day should come when either of us should go along down the trail which leads to the bourne from which no man is heard to speak and never returns, my friend of the years, the late Senator from Nevada

might say a word for me as his companion. It was not so ordered. It is difficult for many folks to know how such friendship as his and mine, between two people so emphatically and partisanly opposite can be established for perpetuity. Partisanship is only a differing of opinion as to how to best accomplish the end for which we both would fight. We might either of us be wrong.

I have lost a friend in whom I had absolute confidence; whose great ability I recognized; whose 100-percent Americanism always intrigued me and who as a genuine friend and magnet of pertinacity drew us so close together that only death has closed the contact. Requiescat in pace.

Mr.BUNKER. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Arizona [Mr. Murdock].

Mr. MURDOCK. Mr. Speaker, the death of Senator JAMES SCRUGHAM strikes me as a great personal loss. He was one of the first men, if not the very first Congressman I met when I came to Congress in 1937. He was then a Member of the House. He was my chief reliance during the years we were in the House together. As a new man, I looked to him for guidance, especially in the field of mining with which he was quite familiar. He gave me good advice and instructions on what was most needed in legislation and the best way to go about getting it.

Well do I remember that Congressman SCRUGHAM pointed out to me, long before this World War began, the need of adequate stock piles of critical and strategic war metals and minerals. We made a small beginning in the Navy appropriations bill passed in 1937. After that time he led the fight to get more adequate appropriations for stock piling materials needed in case of war. When war finally came Congressman SCRUGHAM did everything in his power to enable the United States Bureau of Mines to make inventory of mineral wealth and plan to make it available to our Nation at war in this most unusual war of machines and metals. We must leave it

to the historian to assess his contribution to victory in this phase of our preparation.

As one of the founders of the American Legion, our departed comrade and colleague was ever mindful of the veterans and how best to serve them. It was he who first called my attention to the possibility of putting water from the Colorado River on some land, part of it in Arizona and part in Nevada, a few miles south of the site of the proposed Davis Dam. It was veterans of the First World War he then had in mind, for this plan was announced to me before this present war started. This plan matured in his mind even before the Davis Dam had been authorized. He had a plan to pump water out of the river some 10 miles below the dam site and put it on land for the benefit of veterans. All this he had planned for disabled veterans and the plan was worked out to the smallest detail. It has been changed by circumstances but nothing would be more fitting than for it to materialize as a monument to his care for his former comrades in arms.

Sometimes JIM SCRUGHAM Spoke roughly and even crudely. He was a man of few words but his hearers always knew what he meant. I think his gruff exterior was but a front to hide a great heart. I have heard him describe the men of the mountains and the prospectors on the deserts with genuine emotion and deep admiration together with appreciation. I have seen him confront powerful administrative officials of the Government who seemed about to rule adversely to the interest of his friends in the mountains and on the deserts, and I have seen him back these hard officials into a corner and change their minds for them. No wonder the men of Nevada thought so highly of him.

And did they know him and think well of him? I was amazed one time in crossing Nevada with my colleague that he seemed to know all we met, calling them by name, and they knew him and called him JIM. This happened at every wide place in the road and in remote places among stockmen and among miners. JIM SCRUGHAM may have adopted the